Waiting for the bus I heard a voice calling violist. It
was colpuck, off on some outlandish mileage run or other. We
chatted about the CO/UA debacle and wished each other luck.

The Doubletree PHX is a pleasant but rather dated facility,
probably what my father would have considered the height of
luxury when he was traveling. It has bunches of Chihulylike
glass things in the lobby and in general looks pretty '60s.

Checkin was very smily and pleasant, and I scored in
addition to whatever perks I normally get a not bad amenity
- a bag of water bottles and unhealthy snacks plus a couple
drink coupons.

I was assigned a pretty nice suite in the ancient style: no
complaints there, as I am older than this hotel probably is.

TransworldOne came by to take me to jan_AZ's, half an hour
west (it's a big metro area). When we got there, the party
was in full swing, DJ making lots of noise out near the
pool, good smells in the air. I was directed by Dave to a
nearly virgin bottle of Maker's 46; by the time I left it
was no longer nearly virgin. The stuff goes down pretty
smooth but is a vanilla-oak-brown sugar bomb. It went
excellently with these appetizers of weenies wrapped in
bacon (a redneck version of scallops in bacon and as far
as I can tell just as good) that had been broiled with
brown sugar. Various wines and beers were available, but
aside from an Ommegang dubbel not too interesting to me.

The other representative of the frequent-flyer community
was gfowler-ord-1k, the rest of the guests drawing from
jan_AZ's wide circle of real-life (!) friends and colleagues
and neighbors.

The chatting, eating, and drinking went on until around
midnight, when every suddenly realized that they had to do
something in the morning or something.

After the party we decided to settle our stomachs with an
order from In'n'Out (I had a two by meat animal style).

Got to the hotel before midnight; the bed turned out to be
quite comfy, and I got a very good sleep.