0107 UA 135 BOS IAD 1145 1332 319 6A

Saw my angel Joanne at the gate and clogged things up
chatting with her, but it was a half-empty flight, so
nobody complained (I didn't get to the gate until zone
3 had been called, so the great washed were not forced
to wait); she's going back to school, which is an evil
harbinger for United Airlines in Boston. Got to my
favorite seat, the row 6 shady side window (when the
adjacent is unoccupied); the rest of the row was empty.
Put my shades on; heard some kids commenting enviously
at the E+ area; and snoozed - much comfort. Vaguely
smelled food, which meant that perhaps I should have
upgraded, but what the heck. Woke up as we got to
around Sugarloaf Mountain; noticed that some guy had
upgraded himself to 6F and that the pair of kids had
taken row 7 (a perfectly respectable row). Thought
about the Flyertalk discussions about the integrity of
Economy Plus, shrugged, put my eyeshades back on, and
slept until we were at the gate, around 1:15.

Decided to try the Metrobus route home instead of a
$50 taxi ride. Got on the mobile lounge 16 minutes
before the 5A was supposed to leave; the sign said
that it was leaving in 00:21, so I figured I was
golden. I wasn't. It didn't leave for another five,
and I got to the bus stop at 1:35 on the button -
no bus. Waited until 2:05, still no bus. I guess that
the 5A had left early. Being stubborn and wanting to
save $47, I took the 2:30, which, with transfers onto
the 38B, 34, and T2, got me to my father's house shortly
after 5. As my time wasn't billable, and as I really am
not eager to sit and watch football on television with
my father, I didn't sweat it.

Did some paperwork and took my father and brother out
to La Miche, which is easy to get to and which holds
some modest good memories. As Jonathan was driving and
my father drinks little, I just had a few glasses of
the mediocre house Chardonnay. My father and I had
mussels in the style of escargot (broiled in garlic
butter), pretty good; my brother had the onion soup,
which I tasted and found okay, but which he said tasted
like chlorine. We determined that it was the cheese,
which he thought had been bleached (his perceptions are
often unique) and I thought was slightly but not notably
moldy. Nonetheless, he ate the whole thing, then had the
gall to complain to the waitress (our regular waitress,
who by the look and sound of her is Thai-Chinese). She
of course offered a replacement (for the empty bowl!),
and I vetoed that.

For mains, Jonathan had the cassoulet, easily a quart of
slightly liquidy beans with a vast amount of fatty pork
and duck - he pronounced it excellent and proceeded to
down it all, quite a feat of appetite I thought. My
crab cakes were two large blobs of broiled crab Imperial
over steamed vegetables; pretty decent, a lot of crab,
not much filler, a pleasant green-pepper-scented mayo
binding it all together. My father had ordered the
boeuf bourguignonne (I asked if he was sure he wanted it,
as he isn't really a beef stew person, and he rather
angrily said yes) ... what came was much better, I thought,
rockfish in crabmeat sauce. Oh, it was pretty dark in the
corner they put us in, but not that dark. My father tucked
in with appetite and said, "this isn't beef bourguignonne";
after we determined that it was rockfish in crabmeat sauce,
I asked if he wanted to keep it. No, I ordered the beef, he
said, continuing to eat. I signalled to the waitress to
take it away (as he kept eating); and soon a plate of the
stew came out. It was okay, not nearly so good as the fish,
made with rather acidy and rather poor wine, and he ate
only a little of it before deciding he wasn't hungry. Turns
out he got bourguignonne mixed up with Wellington.

Dessert comes on the $35 prix fixe (a bargain in Bethesda),
and I had a nice and very big creme brulee with raspberries;
my family decided they were too full for dessert. The check
was rather modest, rather bistrolike.

=

Next day we had a few people over for my father's birthday;
went to Timpano, a chain "concept restaurant" on Rockville
Pike that - despite the inexperience of the staff and its
tendency to oversell everything. Present: the next-door
neighbors, uncle Sy (really a second cousin or something),
the three aforementioned, my b-i-l, and my sweetie.

The poor college student newhire waiter was a little out of
his depth and was not too convincing in his upselling ...
nonetheless, we got a lot of grossly overpriced spinach
salads and a couple of the grossly overpriced mozzarella
and tomato salads. I told him I wanted a draft beer, and he
said that they didn't have any draft beers, and I sort of
went off on him, saying that that was a really stupid
business decision, as a glass of draft costs pennies, and
you can sell it for five bucks. After unhinging him
slightly by this, I took him completely aback by saying
that in that case I wanted a glass of Jim Beam Black for
my appetizer. At least I got my Beam (which I like better
than most of the competition, including Daniel's).

For my main course I should have had more whiskey, but
intrigued by the "double-bone Kobe pork chop" I ordered
that medium-rare. It came blood rare, which was kind of
interesting; I decided to give it a try and discovered
that raw "Kobe" pork has a very pleasant crunchiness to
the texture and a nice fresh taste - supermarket pork
would be flabby and taste of fish meal. The stuff appeared
to be quite lean and not particularly "Kobe"like. Maybe it
is "Kobe Bryant" pork. The outside was sugar-crusted but
not cooked long enough to completely caramelize the crust;
hence it was kind of sweet. On the side: asparagus (not as
goodas the last time I was here, rather fibrous, but what
can you expect for the middle of the winter) covered with
a surprising amount of decent Parmesan. I gave much of the
cheese to Carol, who loves the stuff.

My father had veal piccata, a good-size serving of decent
tender meat rather overfloured and in a thick but tasty
sauce of wine, lemon, broth, capers, and artichokes.

Carol's shrimp with goat cheese on pasta was pretty good
but not nearly so nice as the Bolognese she had had last
time.

I'm not sure what the others had, but they seemed pretty
well fed on sizable portions of reasonably semiauthentic
Italianate food, and a number of doggy bags (only one
destined for an actual dog) left with us.

We had a couple bottles of the Penfolds Koonunga Hills
Shiraz-Cab 02, plummy and quite soft, good with food
although a bit on the sweet side. It is possible our
server had never used a corkscrew before.

We were too full for dessert. If you aren't familiar with
the schtick, the waiter comes by with these little tiny
desserts - puddingy things in shot glasses at about $3
and cheesecake lollipops presented on a silver tree for
about $2. Very silly, and we (bad us) sort of hooted at
them, which confused our unfortunate server even more.
I gave the poor soul $15 on top of the 18% included
service, with which I hope he bought a couple drinks
after work (I like the French "pourboire" idea).

0111
UA 373 BWI ORD 0827 0933 320 1D
was UA 253 BWI ORD 0925 1035 752 2A

Got to the counter just before 8, and after a bunch
of typing, the agent said that they had a seat for me,
please run, which was odd for a 9:25 flight. Turns out
I'd been proactively rescheduled to the 7:40, and they
were holding it. Security was negligible (at this station
it's either negligible or horrendous), and just after 8
I presented myself at the gate. More typing, and I was
given 1D - meaning that some unfortunate had gotten
downgraded because of my 1K clout (hope that s/he got
some modest compensation). Turns out there were about 50
people they were holding the plane for; it didn't push
until it was chockablock. Took off around 8:30, landed
9:30ish. Not a notable flight. Turns out the guy next to
me was going to SIN via HKG; judicious questioning
indicated that he was not a DOer but rather a Hopkins
professor gone to speak before that school's outpost
in Singapore.

Two drink coupons willingly given at the ORD C RCC:
unfortunately nobody was at the bar to take them or
to dispense booze.

UA 881 ORD NRT 1200 1620+1 744 22A

Tried to get my preassigned seat changed, but, alas,
the few seats I prefer were taken. The only window
upstairs that was available was in row 18; didn't
inquire about 25 and 26 middle, figuring 22 was just
fine, just so I didn't get SARS from the draft. Turns
out the exit was - unlike others in my experience -
pretty well sealed.

As I was getting settled in my seat, I overheard
snippets of my seatmate's phone conversation, which
included words such as Bird Park and Night Safari. So I
very obviously signed the Voices page on both of the
Hemispheres in the pocket - no rcognition, though. Turns
out my seatmate was new (1 post) Flyertalker GVD-IAD, who
is unfamiliar with the UA forum custom. We had a pleasant
chat about miles and points and Singapore and what to
expect at the Do. A pleasant young lad (although [whisper]
a lawyer.

Was asked early ("as you are my favorite passengers,"
said the FA) for meal choice; GVD said Bento for the
first choice, but anything was okay; I said that I
didn't care, whereupon she replied, "you really are
my favorite passenger."

The options were the Bento, short ribs, or crispy
halibut. I trust someone will post the details on
the appropriate thread over on UA; if not, I'll type
the menu descriptions out later.

Ch. La Boutignane Corbieres 03 was slightly corked,
rather light and cherrylike; didn't care for it; the
pleasant FA asked if I wanted to try the other red;
affirmative. So I had the Pedroncelli Three Vineyards
Cabernet 03 - heavy oak, quite smooth, also slightly
corked (worse, the second bottle was slightly corked -
if I keep being hypersensitive to TCA like this, I'll
have to quit drinking wine, on planes at least.

The FA came back and said, "I bet you like fish." I didn't
- what came was like a fish stick on steroids, about 8x
as big and 8x as tough, with the same freezerburned
taste I've come to know from my father's fridge. The
sauce, which came on the side and was an onion-sriracha
concoction, was very spicy and rather palatable. Rice
was nicely done, in the slightly sticky Asian style; I
ate it all. Sugar snaps and carrots, though overcooked,
were tender, not mushy, sweet, and decent tasting.

For dessert I had some very soft rubbery but not bad
tasting Cheddar, a few nice grapes, and a glass of
Sandeman's Founder's Reserve.

Good snacks - chips, snack mix, cheese and crackers,
Chinese noodles, shortbreads, Twix, Jelly Bellys,
fresh fruit, deli sandwiches (small), plus leftovers
from the dessert service.

Took a rejuvenating nap, and when I woke, it was almost
time for the second meal service. Despite the bread basket
smelling fairly appetizing, I decided to pass, not needing
the calories.

Flight landed a few minutes early, so the connection
was made a tad easier. I even had time to duck in to
the RCC and upload this report.

Service was matronly (as the FAs were mostly female
and in their 40s to 60s) but unobtrusively excellent.