UA 171 BOS SFO 0600 0931 752 1A Ch9^ Empower^

There were TSA guys with their portable table waiting to
pounce on the unsuspecting, and I was surprised not to be
one for the second straight time. My friend Joanne was
working the gate, and we had a little chat before boarding,
which I wanted to do early because my row 2 seat had
miraculously been changed to a row 1 seat, and I had two
pieces of carryon. I got my stuff above row 2, but some guy
rearranged it, squushing my soft-sided computer bag (no
damage was done).

Breakfast - artichoke and spinach omelet with sausage or
the fruit plate (pineapple, orange, watermelon, grapes)
with fruit yogurt. A decent cuppa and a Courvoisier.

A nice snooze; woke up about Yosemite time, but we must have
been south of it, as I didn't get that terrific view of Half
Dome that I got last time.

==

work2fly came by and drove me to Joy Luck Palace in San
Mateo, as we had both expressed a hankering for dim sum.

A quite good and abundant meal. We fell willingly right into
the trap of ordering everything in sight when we sat down.
So here's a list of what we had, and I might have missed a
couple things: turnip ("carrot") cake; chive dumplings;
crystal shrimp dumplings; shrimp and scallop shumai; bean
curd sheet with pork and shrimp and celery; rice sheet with
roast pork; shrimp balls; roast duck; Hong Kong egg tarts.
It was a vast amount of food. One oddity - the help were
not forthcoming with the sauces, and what came was stripped
down - just soy, la jiang, and duck sauce.

w2f dropped me off at Millbrae, and I went downtown to visit
my old haunts. The wine bar at the Ferry Building was closed
for renovations, which was a disappointment. I wandered
around a bit and went to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on
Market, which is known for its pastries and free wi-fi. I
had a killer chocolate cake, which went well with a big mug
of English breakfast.

1800. Henry's Hunan on Natoma with Magic111, squeakr, Mr.
squeakr. Started with the obligatory Diana's meat pie,
which was to my eyes and palate even bigger and flakier
than usual, though less spicy. Eggplant in spicy garlic
sauce; spicy pork noodles (off the lunch menu); curry beef
extra spicy; kung pao chicken extra spicy. Quite pleasant,
though only the pork noodles were up to snuff in the heat
department. I ate all the hot peppers at the table but two.
I thought everything was less salty and greasy than usual
as well. Around 1900 or 1930 a huge knot of people came in
and essentially took the place over: turned out to be a
Java or something conference. I was surprised that the
kitchen could handle such a vast influx, but apparently it
did. At length I excused myself for the KX bus, which was
almost like a private limo; I was at the airport in 30.

Security was negligible, but the ID checker insisted that
I go into the red carpet lane, which I duly did only to
find that the other end was roped off with no TSA guy there.
So I trekked back and got in the regular lane. 5 min tops.

UA 158 SFO ORD 2315 0512 777 5E was 1J Ch9^ Empower^

As this was a positioning flight for some of my clothes, I
decided to give up the good but storage-challenged seat for
a decent seat in the center section. On a previous flight I
had discovered that the center section had better legroom
than the edges. On this flight I discovered that this is
not true of all aircraft. No worries. Domestic first pitch
is fine for me, and I slept all the way to Chicago.
Usually I stay up long enough for a Courvoisier and to look
at whatever tasty treat is being offered, but not tonight.

UA 602 ORD DCA 0659 0945 752 2A Ch9^ Empower

I spent some time at the Incomparable club and hustled down
to the gate to see a giant knot of people at the gate. The
red lane worked fine, and I was lucky enough to get overhead
space. Flight was between full and very full (I don't know
what either of these means in airplanese). Breakfast - no
choice: fruit plate as on 171, not as good or as big. Raisin
bran muffin instead of yogurt. Worst tea I've ever tasted.

Flight was fine, and we took the river approach, which
thrilled the kids in row 1.

Channel 9 was on for the first hour; then as we approached
DCA it was replaced by the weird music, and the FAs started
sending restroomers to the back.

Did a little work at the RCC (I was still logged in in
Chicago, though, and had to call T-Mobile to get me logged
off from there) and then off to lunch with my b-i-l.

We eschewed the Capital City Brewing Co. for its noise and
chose the place at the Marriott instead. I ordered my
comfort food from the late 1950s - a Mighty Mo and onion
rings. Back then, the whole ensemble with a Coke was like
60c. Times have changed. The Mighty Mo is not on the menu
at any Marriott I've seen except the Atlanta Marquis; but
you can ask for one, and many places will make it for you.
The waitress sort of lit up when I asked (she was maybe a
decade younger than me but probably still old enough to
remember the originals); shortly she returned from the
kitchen with the sad news that they were out of the right
size bun! and recommended the sliders instead, with a side
of Mighty Mo sauce. This was agreeable enough, though the
sliders came with an abundance of pickle and no lettuce or
tomato, and the Mighty Mo sauce was made with sour relish
rather than sweet (not too bad, actually). The onion
strings came gratis. Sam Adams instead of the Coke of
yesteryear.