UA 1983 BOS 0900 1036 IAD 2A 733 N343UA I think
ATC communications: yes; power ports: no.

UE 7426 IAD 1120 1155 BWI 4C J31 N470UE
Aircraft: no.

Flight out of Boston was uneventful except for that
I began to feel [w]retched just before takeoff -
might have been the unattractive snacks or the OJ at
the Red Carpet Club, I don't know. The FA started the
bagel or banana-nut-muffin service, so before my seatmate
pulled down his tray I asked to get up to go to the
head: got up, and the FA rather sternly asked me to get
back into my seat (we were at 26 climbing very gently
to 31). Luckily there was an aisle seat on the other
side of the aircraft for me to sneak into (FC was 7/8,
row 1 taken up by a family of businessman, retired FA,
and two kids, aged noisy and noisy). The seat-belt
light went out mercifully in about a minute, and I spent
the rest of this smooth flight either in the bathroom or
snoozing fitfully: one of the longest hours I've spent
in the air, and it was not the airline's fault, and it
wasn't the weather. Arrived a few minutes early, but
the jetway wasn't working properly, so it was several
minutes before they got that squared away. I went on
to the UE terminal, and the flight read ON TIME. Yeah!
The plane was sitting there all cute and dolled up
on the tarmac, and everything looked fine. Well. So.

- - -

It gets to be 11, and they announce that due to
"minor" maintenance, the flight is on an 11:15
decision; 30 seconds later it's on 11:30. I'm
being picked up at noon at BWI. Some maintenance
guys drive up in their little truck and make their
way into the interior of the plane; shortly they
leave; then some other guy drives up in another
little truck and dumps a green bag on the ground
behind the plane; then the first crew drives
up again and takes the bag inside the plane. And
then leave again. (This is all visible; it appears
incomprehensible; it is possible that someone has
been inside working on the plane the whole time,
but I doubt it.) So at 11:30 they say that the
aircraft is on a 12:00 decision, and they will
put people on a taxi: and they're only two of us
anyway, the third is a nonrev. So the other
passenger, Dr. Castrale (booked into this flight
by the wise people at the government) and myself
(booked for Mileage Plus greed), get a Washington
Flyer taxicab voucher. We ask if we can't take
the nonrev with us (cabs after all tend to have at
least 3 passenger seats). No: against regulations,
the nonrev has to sit there, the paperwork is all
in. But UE isn't paying for another cab - this is
just one cab. Nothing doing. A second gate agent
comes up and asks me if I even know what a nonrev
is; the first one shows her my boarding pass and
mouths to her "one kay," so #2 says, you never
know, and #1 says, oh, they know better than we
do, and I have to interject some inane comment
like "not all the time" (while filing the face
of #1 in the file of "good gate agents" and #2 in
the file of "bad gate agents." My seatmate (now
here's something: two revenue passengers on a
19-seater, and they assign us to 4B and 4C, figure
that out) and I hot-foot it to the cab stand; an
uneventful ride follows, during which we see
Laurel (his destination) and Columbia (mine)
go past; but our rides are at BWI, so that's
where we end up.

Eventually, ual.com tells us, they did put the
other plane in the air; but we beat it in.
- - -

Two meals with friends Dale and Gail.

Kauffmann's Roadhouse, Gambrills Rd., Gambrills MD.
Good standard prime rib, pretty nice draft beer,
great steamed shrimp. What people go for is the
crabs, which range from $39/doz for jumbos to
$14/doz for females (which run small-to-medium).
Impeccably fresh, steamed with Old Bay, served
on butcher paper with a wooden crab hammer and
a plastic knife to use as a pick. We had an order
of females and a small order of larges (all male).
The larges were very meaty and easy to eat. The
females were sweeter and of better flavor but were
quite a chore to pick. In addition, I split a
large prime rib rare (it came erring a little on
the medium rare side but was tasty and generous)
with Dale, and Gail had a pound of steamed shrimp.
We munched steadily for two hours and a half.

Haandi, Rte. 7, West Falls Church. Regarded as
one of the best Indian places around, this
restaurant - http://www.haandi.com - never
disappoints. My sister joined us. The mixed
appie was enough for four - two big fat potato
croquettes, a couple of lamb sausages, some
tandoori chicken, an onion ring and a squash
ring in chickpea batter. A spicy tamarind sauce
and a suave coriander yogurt accompanied.
Chicken with spinach was excellent if a bit
overcreamy; coriander chicken (done in a
tandoor but with a green herb coating rather
than the lemony red tandoori stuff) was a
generous serving of big chunks of white meat,
moist and tasty and just spicy enough;
chicken in garlic and ginger with onions was
pretty nice as well, the spices quite subtle
compared to what one might expect, the sauce
smooth and suave. I had my usual baingan
bharta, a very good but overcreamy and somewhat
red version (quite different from what I've
been led to expect here or elsewhere). Not
enough rice, which was remedied by a simple
request. Naan bread was nice, and pappadums
for Dale and Gail were crunchy and salty and
spicy as expected. The bill was an agreeable
$50; but we hadn't drunk anything and didn't
have coffee or dessert.