Unintentional MR

The bracketing flights weren't unintentional: I'd wanted to
take advantage of the great transcon fare to spend the
weekend with some friends in the Pac NW, but something came
up with both sets of people, so I bought a nested trip to
Boston instead, cutting the CPM value a bit but precluding
my staying in a city I didn't need to stay in.

UA 575 BWI ORD 1134 1245 752 2A Ch9 Y Empower covered

Two FAs doing first: the age-appropriate Anglo FA was far
more attentive than the young Asian one, who refused to
make eye contact with me (am I so clearly newly single, or
is she so recently off the boat?). Service was fine, though.

Hot towels, warm nuts, seconds offered on the nuts.

Astica Cabernet was a cherry bomb - not very nice to drink
at all, worse than the Malbec that should have been loaded.
Almost no varietal character, but a bit of tannin at the
finish bespoke the fact that this wasn't some nasty Gamay or
something, just nasty.

The lunch choices were a chicken fajita wrap or a shrimp
Cobb. I let my meal be "chef's choice": I got the Cobb,
which incongruously came with two tubs of Asian sesame
ginger dressing. I ate the four rather nice shrimp (cooked
in a boil that had a bit of garlic in it), the olives, the
eggs, and the bacon; tossed the Swiss cheese (plastic); then
put the dressing on the greens, some of which were wilted.

There was a fairly palatable multi-grain roll with flax
seeds as well.

I wondered if the wine would be improved by matching with
chocolate-chip cookie; no - the combination showed the
plonk as its shallow self.

Channel 9 was on, but the quality of the sound was horrid.

We landed early. I noted with approval that the continuing
flight was scheduled to depart next door. Did some work and
spent an hour in three goes on the T-Mobile free terminals
at the C17 RCC (you are "kindly requested" to leave after
20 minutes) doing FT and the e-mail. At about boarding time
I checked the monitor to make sure and discovered that the
flight had been moved from the end of C to the end of B.

UA 575 ORD SEA 1515 1743 752 2A Ch9 N Empower Y

Totally full flight, as the next flight was delayed ad
nauseam. Chaos at the gate, with the red carpet line
spilling out into the hallway - with 24F and God knows how
many 1Ks flying out of Chicago, that's no big surprise.

A most genial crew, with a fairly chatty Capt. Hardy,
but no Channel 9.

Warm nuts.

Wente Bernal Estates Chardonnay 05 (Central Coast), an
off-dry Thompson bomb: made box wine look good. The cheery
FA kept trying to top me up; I refused, eventually
requesting a Heineken.

The lunch choices were a chicken fajita wrap or a shrimp
Cobb. I let my meal be "chef's choice," joking with the
FA that I didn't care just so long as I got my cookie, to
which my seatmate said, "he can have my cookie, too": I
got the fajita wrap this time. It wasn't bad at all, the
chicken tender, the tri-color peppers and red onions
(almost raw) tasting like vegetables. A huge mound of
herbed potatoes looked like mush but actually tasted okay.
And I got two chocolate-chip cookies on my plate, much to
the hilarity of both my seatmate and myself. The FA grinned.

Hot towel service.

My seatmate kept straining to look past me - I remarked to
him that he must love the Cascades. He affirmed that, saying
that there was not a more beautiful sight, and he never
tired of looking at them. Turned out he's lived in the
PacNW for all of his eighty-odd years. I reclined all the
way so he could see past me, to the discomfiture of the
poor soul behind me.

Landed right on time.

The plan was to head out for supper, but two sizable and
not wholly unpalatable lunches sort of discouraged that.
But the fact that the RCC closes at 7 re-encouraged me,
and, eventually I did decide to give Sharps Roaster another
try: sat at the bar, where cute redhead Michelle did her
miracles with the shakers and the drunks.

The pork loin sounded good - it's one big chop, brined
before being smoked and then roasted; comes with mashed
potatoes (which I requested to be left off the plate) and
vegetables, which today were buttered green beens and red
cabbage. Everything was quite good, the meat flavorful and
as tender as advertised, the beans not overdone, and the
cabbage sweet and tender (though in deference to my
future seatmate I didn't eat much of it).

Old Number 8 Ale is more a barley wine than anything else,
at 8% alcohol, low-carbonated, rather sweet. I wasn't fond
of it so went for a Snoqualmie IPA, which is true to the
style, a little off dry, very highly hopped, with a slightly
plasticky aftertaste. I enjoyed it, but not enough to keep
from jumping ship to something else, which turns out to have
been the Olympus IPA (subtitled Immortal or Eternal or
something) - rather pale by comparison, lighter in both body
and hopping, it appeared to me.

By the time I got back, the N gate security was closed, but
the main security took just a couple minutes. Vino Volo
looked open, but I decided to save a few pennies and a few
brain cells and head straight to the gate.

UA 262 SEA IAD 2305 0648 320 2D Ch9 very weak Empower Y

The inbound was quite delayed, so we didn't take off until
nearly an hour late. The plane was originally scheduled as
a 319 but was actually a 320; it got filled completely.
There was a cheese plate on offer, but only two people had
it. My double Courvoisier was ample to ensure 3 good hours
of shuteye. We came in maybe 30 late.

UA 860 IAD BOS 0845 1015 320 1D Ch9 Y Empower covered

I had requested this leg be upgraded just to take advantage
of the point-to-point rule, but the segments cleared
separately, so so much for that. Plus I ended up in a seat
that I'd not have chosen for myself, but Sharon at the RCC
seemed so pleased to have gotten it for me that I didn't
downgrade myself. As I am not overtall, it's not such a big
deal - I've sat here 5 times (all but one on shorthauls),
and it's a tiny bit cramped, and my original seat, 6F, is
better. Sometimes you get a pit in your cherry. The guy in
1C was quite leggy, though and looked rather uncomfortable.
I slept through the flight.

UA 171 BOS SFO 0610 0950 752 2D Ch9 N Empower covered

All the elites were lining up in the Crew Only line, so I
followed suit; the crew were shooting down the exit, and I
heard one of them complain to the TSA checker, who shrugged
and said that people had just lined up there, and he didn't
have anything to do with it. A quick visit with Annie and
Lynne at the RCC (a bowl of Ghirardelli 60% at the desk),
and then off to the chaos reigning at the gate. Saw a 1P guy
get yanked from the red line; he just moved over to the
front of the regular line. The flight was pretty full.

This was my first flight of the year with neither Channel 9
nor Empower.

The usual breakfast choice - omelet (this time with red
sauce) with sausage and potatoes or the famed fruit plate.

I had just a croissant and a Courvoisier and slept for 4
hours or so.

The crew consisted of a gorgeous model-shaped Hispanic
purser, a cute though zaftig brunette, a moderately
pretty blonde in Coach, and a little fat guy. Guess
which one winked at me. I gave a small wan smile back.

My seatmate was an attractive older blonde who, alas,
sported a giant rock.

Many bumps on this flight, and because of various reroutes
it landed 20 late, which made me have to hustle for the next
flight.

UA 322 SFO SEA 1040 1243 733 1C Ch9 Y Empower covered

I'd requested this upgrade too for the through vs. point-to-
point rule. I hadn't heard anything, and as general boarding
had started, I just blended in with the polloi of zone 3
only to have my boarding pass rejected. The agent looked
puzzled, whereupon her colleague said, "he's been upgraded."
She looked at my scruff mileagerunnerness and replied, "no,
impossible," but the guy reiterated that I'd been upgraded.
She shrugged and tore up the pass and gave me another one.
Oh, well, my parsimony was frustrated again. Rather dazed,
I sat in 1B (a less good seat) but was quickly kicked out.
A perfectly nice flight, but we landed a bit late.

Took the 574 bus to Tacoma to have lunch with my friends
Hap and Anne: we decided that it would be fun to go out and
look at the stormy weather over the water, so we ended up
at the Ram, which is known for its big burgers. They had
various kinds of big burger, which looked good, but as we
were looking at the bay, I figured I'd have cod and chips,
substituting Ram chips (house-made crisps) for the regular.
The chips were fried dry and hard crunchy; the fish, beer
battered, had soaked up a bit of grease and definitely was
not the healthiest of choices. A pale ale went nicely.

After a good visit, during which we had some salmon candy
from Metropolitan Market and the Point Reyes Cabernet 97
(quite mellow, rather grapy, some flowers (rose?), plums,
blackberries, artificial cherry finish), I took the bus
back to the airport. Got there really early, as the snow
had held off, and the bus zipped right along. I took
advantage of the "restricted" security line and had time
for a snack at Anthony's: a plate of oysters and a
Leavenworth Pilsener. The oysters were half Snow Creek and
half Bay Point (?) Sweets; I couldn't tell the difference
aside from some of them being tiny and round and some of
them being smallish and oblong. They were all fresh, very
briny, not exceptionally marine, but thankfully they didn't
taste of cucumbers the way so many Pacific oysters do.
After downing this almost noncaloric meal, I was still
peckish and asked the waiter which of the appetizers I
could get in twenty minutes: he sort of rolled his eyes,
gestured at the rather laid-back and rather underage kitchen
staff, and said essentially, no way Jose. So I nursed my
beer and eventually moseyed to gate A2, where there were
about 3 other people.

Around 10, tumbling to the fact that maybe there had been
a gate change, I looked at the monitor; got to A4 just at
the start of boarding.

US1548 SEA CLT 2230 0609 321 2F

This has to be the most cramped F section in the air. It
sure doesn't seem like the official 38" pitch, and I felt
squashed throughout. My seatmate was a 70-year-old retiree
who was doing a run for Chairman's - he wanted to get it
done by the end of February so he could coast for two years.
Bragged about making Chairman's a couple years back for
$1800 - I thought I'd found a live one, but he denied any
knowledge of FT. He ordered a coffee, and I told the very
agreeable FA that I was approaching the flight in the exact
opposite way and asked for a Glenlivet. Whereupon my
seatmate changed his order to wine, and a couple of the
others within earshot did likewise.

The snack basket was the usual; I complained about the lack
of Rugers, which got a sympathetic cluck from the FA;
swilled down my double; fell asleep for 3 hours.

US1678 CLT BWI 0945 1116 734 3A

The nice agents at the front desk of the big US club
encouraged me to get on the 8:00, but I wanted to relax and
do my e-mail and turned them down politely. Guzzled a bunch
of grapefruit juice, tapped on the laptop a bit, and made a
feeble attempt to do some work. How quickly 3 hours pass.

Boarded up a bit tardily, but it was a quick trip, and we
landed a touch early; I'd snoozed pretty much all through
the flight.