quick trip to see squeakr's play
 

UA 591 BOS DEN 1104 1323 752 9A

I was on the US codeshare versions of these flights,
so the upgrade situation was unfavorable (in fact,
when despite my dual status on UA and US I was assigned
row 26 - I didn't know this aircraft even had a row
26 - on this flight I realized that the everything
was unfavorable; luckily, live agents fixed that up
pretty well).

Got up really early and thought of dragging my butt to
the airport for the 8:00, but instead I did a bunch of
work before heading out. Figured my chances for an
upgrade on the 757 would be decent, as it was during
the day. I hadn't counted on the Graduation Factor, as
the aircraft was full of old people who had flown out
to celebrate with their children or grandchildren. Full
as in no empty seats anywhere. I waited around until
the end of boarding to see if there would be a no-show
in F; it became apparent there wouldn't be one. I was
among the last to board and was glad to have my usual.
Asked the FA to find me a place for my laptop, as the
bins were jam crammed (gave the excuse that I'd been
in the club until late); it ended up above the row 7
galley. Got settled, and agent Joann came bouncing up
to the aircraft. "How did you get THAT seat? That's
reserved for people who fly a lot." I was hoping that
she'd pull me from there and put me up front, but of
course that didn't happen. The FA overheard and said,
in a voice of some consternation, "He said he'd been
in the club!" Joann explained that she was just giving
me a hard time: "He LIVES in that seat," said she.

No channel 9. Almost as interesting was the gent in 9B
who had flown in from sunny warm Denver to see his
grandson graduate from UVM and been greeted by
torrential rains and 40-degree (F) temperatures,
which was good for a few laughs, and then we went on to
the Good Old Days of flying, which was good for a few
more. A nice nap rounded out the flight, so I cannot
report on the BOB offerings, much less the F lunch.
The movie, apparently, was Sideways.

BOB must have not been good to the passengers: every
so often I was jolted awake - by people congregating
in front of my seat in the lav queue, which seemed
constant and long.

UA 765 DEN OAK 1432 1605 735 4F

There was just time for e-mail and stuff at the RCC.
After a quick lunch of cheddar and Sun Chips, I was
ready to trek to the gate (other end of the terminal),
where I was in time to hear the dread words "please
stay in the gate area for an important announcement."
Well, it turned out that they had determined that
overhead space would be at a premium, and they offered
an inducement to those who would gate-check their
carry-on bag - these people would be allowed to board
the plane first, before first class. And that was the
important announcement. But then I heard the dread
words "first class has checked in full." I waited
around a few minutes in the hope that first class had
checked in almost full, but there were no covert
beckonings up to the podium, so I took my assigned
seat, next to a young gentleman who was having a
most interesting conversation with his cell phone:
"She call me up at 3 in the mornin'. Yeah. I her
pimp, man. She call me up at 3:30 AM in the mornin'."
Well, he shut up and put his phone away before
takeoff, so I have no major complaints otherwise.
Well, maybe one. Seat 2D was empty, and they dragged
in some guy from row 17 to fill it. He looked really
delighted - more delighted than I would have been if
I'd been given the seat I'd sort of been hoping for.
A busted seat, perhaps? Who knows. I didn't fuss.

Snoozed for an hour and then looked at the scenery for
the rest of the flight. Turned down blandishments of
nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages. We landed a bit
early, early enough so that if I caught AirBart and
had good connections I could actually get to the FTer
rendezvous in time for a bite of supper.

So I caught AirBart and the subway and was down at
Mission and 16th to catch the #22 to the restaurant,
which I did; and as soon as I did, it went out of
service. We sat there for several minutes before
the driver announced that we wouldn't be going
anywhere. Filed off the bus (a couple dozen people)
and noticed that the cables powering the trolley
had not only come undone but had actually snapped.
So onto the next, already crowded, bus 10 or 15 more
minutes later, and we crawled half speed along the
route, stopping at every possible and some impossible
stops. Straggled in to the Asqew Grill at around 6.
Despite not having eaten much so far, I also hadn't
done much, so wasn't really hungry and was going to
just have a beer and go on. Those assembled (KathyWdrf,
Dogmom, and Magic and Jerrie) prevailed on me to try
what's supposed to be some of the best grilled food in
San Fran, so I ordered a couple of scallop skewers,
which were very nicely done indeed, although they were
Pacific, probably Chinese, scallops and not nearly as
tasty as North Atlantic ones. In deference to the
guidance of TransWorldOne, I passed up the Fat Tire
for a very pleasant Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Five minutes to Fort Mason and the Magic Theater,
where squeakr was pretty calm, considering it was
her premiere. Bob, relatively unshakeable I think,
probably helped. Others who came for the performance
were Jet2k and his wife Liz and son (Alec?), and VPescado
and Travelkhatt. There was a considerable quantity of
the cheap but acceptable Deer Something Chardonnay and
Cabernet as well as munchies: available at no additional
cost before the show as well as at intermission.

Play Dirt is a powerful and rather disturbing work,
chronicling the factors leading to the breakdown of
a supremely talented but immature baseball star. It
has potential to really take off, I think. The actors
played their parts with commitment, and all told it
was a very moving experience. The audience, though
modest in size, was quite enthusiastic.

Afterwards, we headed to Cozmo's Corner Cafe, where
miraculously, food was still being served.

Most of us had dessert - and both the creme brulee
and the chocolate mousse looked appropriately
decadent. Magic had some kind of banana cake, which
met with good reviews.

Bucking the trend, I had tuna tartare with pita
crisps: the crisps, drizzled with wasabi cream and
strewn with scallions, were excellent; the fish, which
was on the whole decent but with a bit of a "cut fresh
at the beginning of the day" aspect was a bit
overseasoned with wasabi, soy, and sesame.

In addition to the mousse, squeakr and Bob had a
pizza of some kind, also reported good.

I had a sniff of squeakr's Gary Farrell Chard -
very suave, somehow different from what I'd
tasted last fall, though.

I ordered the Acacia Pinot Noir to go with my tartare;
pleasant, smooth, nice berries and oak, a touch of
smoke; it was beaten up a bit by the spiciness of the
dish, though, and I would have done well to have gone
with the Farrell Chardonnay as well.

We had a good old time and spent not too too much
money, but all things must pass, and we parted with
hugs and promises of more west coast dos.

KathyWdrf very kindly offered me her spare room for
the night; the bed was comfy, and I snoozed until dawn.

= =

In the a.m. we roused ourselves and I took Kathy to
the promised breakfast. It was an okay one: Mel's,
where she had a fairly normal-looking bacon, eggs,
pancakes type of thing. I don't like breakfast food,
so I tried to get them to make me a pot roast sandwich
(no go), then asked after the short ribs (not until 11
a.m.); ended up with the famous chili burger, which
was fine and a lot of food. Kathy dropped me off at
Powell just before 9 I think, and I promptly got a
Pittsburg train; looking at the schedules, it appeared
I'd do best transferring to a Richmond-Fremont train,
which I did with one glorious minute to spare, instead
of waiting downtown for the right train. An AirBart was
right there at Coliseum ready to go - only the driver
kept delaying to accommodate more people running,
toddling, limping, or hobbling to the bus; he gave
directions, made change, did all of those above and
beyond things that you love when you benefit and that
you hate when you are trying to get on the DM list.
Still, I got to the desk at 9:35. No line at security;
by 9:45 I was plugged in starting this report.

UA 558 OAK DEN 1100 1424 733 1C

10:30 - very harried agent - 8 wheelchairs, 2 dogs,
and on and on. She kept her cool even when she found
that some guy had a flagged boarding pass and had not
been ravisssshed; so very politely she sent the guy
(one of the 8 wheelchairs!, but he'd actually managed
to reach the gate without one) back (in a chair) and
assured him that there would still be a seat for him
when here turned. Plus she gave me my choice of 2B or
1C. I took 1C, as my legs aren't really superlong.
Good choice: my seatmate was a rather pretty young
woman who sort of chortled mirthlessly as I groused
about the odd boarding procedures (which involved
deboarding some passengers until the wheelchair folks
could be accommodated and the 2 oxygen passengers
could be seated in the nonemergency supplemental
oxygen seats). Belatedly I told her I hoped she
didn't work for UA, which she didn't.

As I'd had a giant breakfast, it was almost inevitable
that this flight turn out to be a meal flight. They
offered chicken salad or salmon salad. I said either
would be fine. I got the salmon, a nice 6-oz piece,
slightly overcooked, slightly overmirined, over
decent greens with a few shreds of snow pea and some
Mandarin orange segments. Also two (2) slivers of
almond. The whole mess was actually okay, even with
the Sesame Oriental dressing, which was utterly too
sweet and gooey (came from a company called EFT 1000
or something). Fruit appetizer was the usual. Dessert
was Old Colony Diamond walnut cookies, which were
sort of Pecan Sandiesish, only not quite so good. The
chicken salad looked similar to the salmon, only there
was only about 3.5-4 oz of chicken, and the salad was
dead plain. I had a few Heinekens followed by my usual.

Actually, the cabin service was good-humored and
reasonably attentive, and they got everything done
that they needed to do, even with another full flight.

We got in pretty early, so I had a good stint in the
RCC, where I checked on my upgrade (didn't look good,
according to the agent. What he actually said, without
a sneer, "you may have to sit in back: you're #3 of 3
on the list."), did some e-mail, and so on. Overheard
an amusing conversation (loud) in the club, relating
to someone's having to buy 50000 bags of popcorn.

UA 354 DEN BOS 1550 2147 319 6F

Scheduled as a 319, but when I went to the gate, there
was a 319 there and a notice to go to some other gate.
I sort of hoped they'd switched out for a 320, in which
case my upgrade would have been hunky-dory. No such luck.

Big old mess at B15 - they did this first-1K-UGS,
Premier, window, middle, aisle procedure that confused
people no end, especially as the folks had started to
queue up at the door even as they were unloading the
inbound, which was close to half an hour late.

No joy on this one, either: the plane was crammed;
UA had proactively rebooked a load of people who'd
been on the 1820, which threatened not to go because
of another line of thunderstorms. The guy who slid
into 6E informed me that every seat was taken, "even
the middles." 6F is nothing to sneer at. Best legroom
on the plane, but no supper. But of course I didn't
either really need nor really want supper.

An intermittently quite bumpy flight, with numerous
negotiations between pilots and ATC regarding new and
improved routings, with deviations to avoid clouds
and other turbulent areas. We landed half an hour late.

Four full flights - good for UA. One full play -
good for squeakr. Three interesting if slightly
unorthodox meals. Lots of first timers doing first-
timerish things - probably good for UA. One upgrade
out of four - bad for me.