To the SFO Mega-Do by degrees
 

Security at BWI was slow and unpleasant, for a change. I can
see why people who take rush-hour flights complain. It's not
that there was a glut of passengers, it's just that the TSA
people were slow and grumpy. I regretted yet again the
closure of both the United and US Airways clubs.

US 80 BWI LAS 0630 0833 320 2F

I find US Air, both East and West, to be less horrible than
others claim it is, at least from the service standpoint.
On the other hand, it fails on almost all other counts.
The equipment leaves much to be desired, the pricing is
astonishing, and the frequent flyer program has gone from
quite acceptable to horrendous in a relatively short time.

Another attentive crew, led by a quite dishy tall blonde
with unfortunately the most adenoidal voice I've heard in
a long time. The West plane was unattractive, with legroom
worse than Economy Plus, not-nice seats with headrests
whose wings collapsed immediately, poor lighting. There
was, for a change, audio on this flight, but the facility
at my seat was defective: too bad, as the Classical offering
on US Air is much better than that on United (but of course
United has Channel 9).

Breakfast: yogurt and granola (presented together in a
bowl) or a cheese omelet with little ham cubes strewn over,
herb-roast potatoes on the side. The omelet was not as
good as United's, but the presentation was more attractive.
A fruit appetizer of the standard sort was pretty good.

We landed in the A gates, and the next flight was in the
B gates. It's an easy transition, but I discovered to my
chagrin that the McCarran wi-fi doesn't extend into the
B gates.

Question. At most airports, there is a peer-to-peer
connection called "free public wifi" that occasionally
tries to highjack the signal. What's that all about?

US 351 LAS PHX 0945 1100 320 2A

A quite different kind of West seat, slightly superior I
think, but the difference between C- and D+ is fugitive.

Beringer Stone Cellars Cabernet is this overripe plummy
slightly sweet, not very Cabernetty experience. A pleasant
FA kept my glass full. My seatmate was an attractive woman
of about my age whose husband, apparently a silver, had
just been upgraded but who gave up his seat in the most
chivalrous manner. They are antiques dealers in the
unlikely setting of Morgantown, West Virginia, but they're
on vac, having been in Vegas and going to see relatives in
Phoenix. She mentioned something about how the wine smelled
good (she was ODing on water) and that her husband would
have liked some, so we got to talking. There was an empty
at 3D, so I asked the FA if something could be done. No,
in-flight upgrading is verboten. We came to the compromise
that the guy, banished to the wilds of row 7, would be
sent some Cranberry Nut Mix and a glass of wine. And so it
happened, but he had changed seats to accommodate a couple,
so it was more easily said than done. It is a sad day when
we are elated by slightly stale Cranberry Nut Mix, which as
one may recall replaced the cashews and was in turn replaced
by the cheaper and less nice Fiesta Snack Mix.

The flight landed way early, and US2790 wasn't for three
hours, and 621 was running way late, so I camped out at the
Phoenix A club while the agents tried to get me on the
delayed flight.

Meantime, the club is running a whiskey special - 2 bucks
for drinks made with Old GrandDad. Good deal for us lushes.
I had two just to take advantage of the bargain.

Good munchies here; not only the boring Sun Chips, but also
Cheetos, Boulder Canyon Totally Natural potato chips (pretty
good and quite fresh), fresh fruit, and good cookies, of
which I had a chocolaty chocolate chocolate chip.

Jay Jay at the desk got me on the delayed earlier flight,
and then, when some guy in 7 got upgraded, got me his seat,
working in tandem with the pleasant gent at the gate.

not there yet
 

US 621 PHX OAK 1240 1415 319 7D was 16E
was
US2790 PHX OAK 1333 1533 CR9 7A

The mainline flight was supposed to leave at 10 something,
but an O-ring in the engine had to be replaced, which the
pilot got on the horn and explained to us. I had a brief
conversation with a cute young woman in 7F (there were just
a couple empties, and 7E was one of them) and then drifted
off for the duration of the flight.

We landed at quarter past, and I hot-footed it to the
AirBART, which now costs $3. Between this and the train
itself, it took me almost exactly 2 hours to get to SFO.

I still had nearly 3 hours, so I had a burger and fries
at Lori's, because Fung Lim was charging something like
12 bucks for a rice plate. Mistake. Lori's burgers are
very poor. The fries, though, are refried, which, despite
being a cost-and/or-labor-saving device, makes an
enticingly crispy if greasy product. I ate most of the
fries and left part of the burger.

The Westin Renewal Lounge.

Cute idea; less than great execution. It's supposed to be
this refuge from the madding crowd, but as it's right next
to the bar's TV lounge, there's this distraction built in.
There should be a door, perhaps sliding, or at least a
white noise machine, isolating the room.

The TV claims to offer views of nature at its own pace,
with very few edits. Well, the video is spectacular, but
the very few edits come every minute or so and are jarring -
one might suggest using the rather basic dissolve technique
instead of jumping from one view to the next?

Every few minutes a burst of aromatherapy stuff from the
corner.

I did the whole 20-minute light bed regimen, and I did feel
somewhat better at the end, though a third of an hour of
horizontalness might have been part of it.

The only other users were a family of furriners, I believe
New Zealanders from their accent: FF daddy, put-upon mommy,
overenergetic but reasonably well-behaved 2-year-old.

Last time I visited, the signature orange-ginger-green tea
tonic beverage was hideous; this time it was okay, tasting
mostly of fresh-squeezed juice.

UA 479 SFO SEA 1915 2119 733 1D Ch9^^

An attentive crew, including a cutish FA who kept my glass
full and mildly flirted with me. Courvoisier, which she
served me in with an outer glass of warm water, sort of
cool. Furiant Malbec. Snooze. There was a cheese plate on
offer. I refused it.

The guy next to me, a late upgrader, was grumpy and stayed
on the phone until 10 seconds into the takeoff roll. I guess
from his demeanor that he's a nervous flyer, either that or
he's a butt, or both. On the other hand, he did move his
legs to let me go to the head, which was important because
of the Courvoisier issue. We landed 15 early. As the RCC
closes at 7, I perched on a recharging cart and used the
wireless anyway, noting that the Mariners upset the Angels
with 3 runs in the 8th.

Went out to the street and got picked up by my friend Hap.

===

Next day. A couple hours' work at Commencement Bay coffee
(I had 3 pints of decaf, which probably means I had about
as much caf as a cup of the real). This worked up a
powerful hunger, so we found Uncle Thurm's Ribs and
Chicken in a somewhat diverse neighborhood in Tacoma.
Good smells and a jolly host. It's a joint for sure, but
some of the best food comes out of joints.

I got the soul food sampler, which comes in two sizes. I
asked the owner guy if he thought I could handle the large,
and after sizing me up he said that I looked as though I
could eat with the best of them. When the large came out,
it was large, but not overwhelming: wings, catfish, ribs,
kale, red beans and rice, cornbread, candied yams. All
respectable, nothing astonishing, good value. We liked
the greens and beans and rice (much pork in both); the
yams were can-died and rather mushy. The other things
tasted good but were quite heavy on the salt.

On to the ballpark, where Hap had to report to work so
steered me to the Pyramid Alehouse, where some beer was had.

I sat in Hap's section and watched history being made, as
the Mariners became the first $100M payrolled team to lose
100 games. They'd been ahead 5-2, and life looked rosy
enough, but they waited way too long to take Felix Hernandez
out (he wasn't getting his pitches down in the zone), and so
kaboom. By the time the last out was recorded, I'd be
surprised if there were more than a few hundred in the stands.
People don't have faith that the Ms can erase a 6-5 deficit
in the bottom of the ninth. Heads must roll in the offseason.

As Hap had to clear everyone out of the section, I had to
leave from the security gate, which was interesting as it
gave a glimpse of behind the scenes after the game.

getting there slowly
 

Next up: Lunch at the Manila Center Diner, which is none of
the above but serves good homestyle Philippine food. We
started with fried lumpia, which were filled with something
that smelled and tasted like corned beef hash mixed with a
little vinegar. Better than it sounds. This came with a
sweet dipping sauce. For mains, Hap had the bistik, which is
thin beef strips marinated in soy and lemon and cooked almost
black. Pretty good. I had deep-fried lechon, pig side meat
with skin and fat, a generous serving. A shake or two of
chile vinegar made the dish sing.

The plan had been to go to the park and see the Mariners
boot another, but it was deemed preferable to spend the
evening with Hap's wife Anne, as I'd not spent any time with
her this visit. So we hung around until she came back from
teaching and then debated where to go for dinner. Ended up
going to Porter's, the home restaurant of the guy who does
the BBQ concession down at Safeco Field. Apparently Porter
had a rib joint that made him such a name that he started
catering, and he was so successful at catering that he
closed the restaurant up. But after a while he missed
restauranting and opened up a new place by La Quinta in
Tacoma.

It doesn't look or smell like a Q place. But good Q does
come out. Annie had a brisket sandwich that looked like
enough for 3 meals. Hap had a rib plate that looked like
enough for 2 meals. I had the Dixie again, a hot link
smothered in brisket smothered in sauce, on a sub roll.
I'd had it at the ballpark once, and it was okay. This one
cost less and was at least 3 times as big, Anticipating the
puny thing I'd had at the park, I asked for sides of fried
okra and stewed collards. Hap chimed in with an order of
hushpuppies. Let's see. The fried okra and hushpuppies came
out first - though we'd ordered $2 sides, $5 appetizer
baskets came out - about a quart of each, just enormous.
Both were quite good, the pups small and round and oniony,
the okra slices from many different size pods and varying
from crunchy throughout to crunchy and snotty to crunchy and
a little fibrous. Hap's ribs were pretty good, though in the
soft presauced style that I disprefer. My brisket was a tad
better than the norm, though a little dry. The hot link was
this flabby thing not much better than what I'd had at the
ballpark some years ago. A Black Butte porter went quite
nicely with the food.

We took home as much food in to-go boxes as we did in our
stomachs.

==

I'd had a heck of a time with the wireless at Commencement
Bay, so I wanted to check if my machine were okay (it's been
acting up in other ways), so I got to the airport really
early to take a gander at what was what. The RCC wi-fi
worked perfectly, so Commencement Bay, check your router!
Unfortunately, the computer's power jack seems to be wearing
out, so for want of a $5 part and the knowhow to install it,
I'll be getting a new laptop.

UA5797 SEA PDX 0850 0938 EM2 9B

The flight took off and landed five late. It was fine,
though the EM2 made really weird noises throughout the
flight, at least the part where I was awake (takeoff
and landing). A pleasant Chinese flight attendant. I'd
noticed a guy edging toward the red carpet quite early
and thought, hey, meet 9C. I was right.

We landed a tad late, so I hot-footed it to gate 2, where
my next flight was loading up.

UA 75 PDX SFO 1024 1208 752 3D Ch9 :td: Empower ^

The purser was having a difficult time reading the welcome
announcements from the crib book, so he got someone else to
give the long ones and did the shorter, easier ones himself.

No "Flight attendants prepare for takeoff" announcement!
Which might have had weird results if one of the FAs hadn't
noticed that we were entering the runway, so they all
scattered fast. Ours was a very pretty young black woman
who I wouldn't have minded landing in my lap, but still,
an event of this nature wouldn't have been very good for
United's reputation.

Decent service. Courvoisier.

I asked for Ch9, got a refusal, but the pretty FA did
apologize. A mostly smooth and uneventful flight. I took a
snooze and was wakened by the crunch of landing.

Off to the RCC to do e-mail. Logged onto FT; saw a message
from Benny8444 to the effect that he was in the Renewal
Lounge. Scoped it out, but by the time I got there, he must
have gone to lunch.

I enjoyed your report.

It seems like US Air's meal service (breakfast at least) is acceptable. Do you have status with US?

Nice report and it sounds like you don't really like US.

Thanks for enjoying ... will continue when I'm back on one of my own computers
(repair person coming tomorrow).

It's interesting how people can focus on differing aspects of my US Air experience:
in fact, as with most airlines, it has its pluses and minuses, which I try to convey.
It's just a means of transport, after all. But still, I enjoy flying even on US.

Oh ... I'm just barely Gold on US and 1KMM on UA.

Friday, September 26:
 

* Tour of the redacted facilities at SFO at 2PM.
We will also be meeting at 12:30PM in the north
international terminal food court (landside) for
lunch, for those that might be interested.

After a glass of the sunrise elixir it was time to meet
everyone at the food court: a quite diverse and interesting
mix, as FT is. Pre-event socialization, followed by a
circuitous journey down to the bus stop and trip on the
employee bus (the few employees traveling in the middle of
the day seemed quite bemused by this large bunch of folks).

We were disgorged a block from the shiny redacted
catering facility (Dobbs House in my early flying days).
Upstairs to sign in and receive visitor badges.

We started with a presentation by Don, the head of HR - our
contact had come down with a virus - which was enjoyable and
informative. One advantage of having the HR guy do the tour
is that he can honestly answer "I don't know" to sticky
questions such as how much it costs to produce a meal vs.
the revenue generated.

And then ... an airplane meal.

I thought it was a transcon 2-class UA F dinner, but the
consensus was that it was too good for that and was for
international C.

Mixed green salad with Asian sesame dressing: this was just
like what I've gotten on the plane, down to the little extra
that one sometimes gets in better times: dried apple rings
and pignoli.

The main courses were chicken with barbecue sauce, potatoes,
and vegetable medley prominently featuring zucchini; or
mahi-mahi with an orange-turmeric sauce, rice, and timbale
of shredded baby bok choy. As I've actually turned down the
former on the plane, I went for the fish (usually a bad
choice in the air), which was moist, not overcooked, and
quite palatable. The sauce was tart with a hint of sweet,
vaguely citrusy and Indian-spicy. The sides were acceptable.
A good job, I thought, but I also wondered how this dish
might change with freezing, reheating, and finally service
at 500 mph.

Dessert was an Eli-like chocolate cheesecake.

After which, a behind-the-scenes look at the production and
staging facilities: a very interesting hour. Back on the bus
(I sat between totmode and a cutish FA on her way to work
UA 926 SFO-FRA that evening) and to the terminal, where
we went our ways pledging to see each other for dinner.

* Head to hotels and maybe have pre-dinner drinks somewhere

Got a ride to the Hilton with kalkat and assorted Fters:
stored my bags with ShopAround (my accommos were with old
friends whom I haven't seen in a while who live on the
Oakland-Berkeley border) and chilled out before dinner.

* Dinner at Buca di Beppo at 7PM.

Walked ShopAround to the restaurant, which was easy to find,
despite neither of us' having had the clevertude to remember
the address. Walked in and were hailed by work2fly, totmode,
and JeepGuyDE at the bar. Guess what? work2fly is training
for a new career, that of dad and husband. Congratulations!

Upstairs to the festive and eardrum-shattering dining room,
where we were but one of maybe ten sizable parties all
chattering away. Effectively, one could hear the person at
either side and maybe the three directly across the table.
I sat between VPescado and MsEverywhere, with totmode,
work2fly, and I believe jmd001, sorry, I forget, the cheap
Chianti was flowing.

The food: tossed salad with peperoncini - the usual, with
a standard herbed vinaigrette;

pizza Margherita - a shattering thin crust, decent sauce,
not quite enough basil, very mild cheese;

spaghetti marinara - the usual, the pasta surprisingly
retaining some texture despite not being in its al dente
youth any more;

lemon chicken - pretty good, though there wasn't that much
of it: if I'd been at the end of the table near the waiters,
I'd have asked for more;

more pizza Margherita to make up for the paucity of the
lemon chicken (at our end of the table);

and some rather sinfully sweet cheesecake to finish, which
definitively put to rest any stomachic emptiness.

In what I think is a digression from the normal custom
work2fly paid for a giant fiasco of Chianti for us to toast
his connubial bliss with. I tried to pay for the wine, but
he gave me some kind of story of my paying for something at
a previous gathering.

* InterContinental minibar party and/or bar crawl after
dinner (for those interested)

I had to go back to Oakland so begged off this. As the place
I was staying is pretty near Rockridge station, I had an
easy time getting back. The whole family except for John was
up: had a good chat with K., and their daughter proudly
served me a slice of her banana cream pie, which was good
but perhaps not quite what the doctor ordered after a day
of caloric indulgence.

Saturday, September 27:

Breakfasted with totmode at the Ferry Building farmers'
market: I found a portable rotisserie stall called Roli,
where I had a Schweinshaxe: this was good but rather
saltily seasoned and cooked hastily (I'm used to the slow
long cooking such as they do in Europe), so the outside
was crisp almost to hardness while the meat near the bone
was barely done, with the gristle quite tough (I don't
really mind, but this isn't my preference). totmode went
to another stand and got scrambled eggs: chacun a son gout.
Had a good wander about with her, poking around the shops
inside and the stalls outside. I picked up a Kiona Chenin
Blanc/Riesling ice wine as a hostess gift as well as some
more immediate-quaffing red stuff from Australia for the
party.

* kalkat has once again graciously offered to host a deck
party at her house. This is an amazing event, trust me!
We'll be getting to Larkspur using the Golden Gate Ferry,
departing from the SF Ferry Building at 12:40PM, getting
into Larkspur at 1:30PM, and returning on the 5:30PM ferry,
getting into the Ferry Building at 7PM, just in time for
dinner. As soon as registration opens, this event will be
available on a first come first serve basis to those that
are confirmed.

Soon it was time to board the Larkspur Ferry, one of the
prettier mass transit options available in these States.
As kalkat had surmised, FTers made up a very large
proportion of the riders on this trip. It was a gorgeous
for an hour's steam up the bay.

At the terminal, we were met by kalkat with a bouquet of
balloons in FT yellow, who led us to the caravan to her
beautiful home. Thank you, and especially to the good-
humored Ken for opening it to us.

The spread was amazing. I didn't eat much, having had a
whole pig knuckle for breakfast, but rather foolishly
confined my attentions to the wine that I'd brought, a
rather ordinaire $13 Aussie Shiraz. What I do recall,
though, in the food department, was a lovely platter of
grilled vegetables with a lemony aioli. I love eggplant.

At length it was time to make the return trip, which ferry
ride was as pretty as the ride over.

* Benny8444 is hosting a college football party at 11AM
at Zeke's Sports Bar and Grill. For more information and
to register see this thread.

One can't be at two places at once. Just as well I wasn't
here, as my school was not exactly a football powerhouse,
and I'm not currently associated with or interested in one.
I admit slugging down beers is as much part of my life as
sipping Shiraz, but choices must be made.

* Dinner at Restaurant LuLu at 7:30PM in the Bis Room (no,
that doesn't stand for Butt-in-seat, sorry). The cost is $68.

A bit less than a mile to the restaurant, covered by the
rowdy FTers in no time flat; at least the conversation made
it feel like no time flat.

We were ushered into a big room to the right of the
restaurant, where groups were separated by a shoji-like
partition. The deck party crowd arrived early, so I got
myself a seat by the wall, so I could concentrate my
conversation on one person. It was a noisy room, much like
the night before, so it seemed sometimes like I was
concentrating my conversation on no person: at times the
lovely Elizabethh, who found herself sitting next to me,
would say something and I'd apparently respond to something
else. I swear, that was all it was, not the wine. I still
want to hear more about climbing Half Dome on her birthday.

Trapiche Broquel 05 Malbec was a decent mass-market red,
with blackberries, dark spice, and some plumminess. Easy
drinking, not too sweet though, well enough balanced for my
palate, which wasn't at its best. I didn't try the Diogenes
06 Sauvignon Blanc, as I don't care for feline urine.

The meal was similar to the previous one: ravioli, roast
chicken with salad (better than at Buca, I thought). I
didn't pay much attention to the food or deal with bread or
dessert, having had a whole pig knuckle for breakfast.

A quick quick walk to the

* InterContinental minibar party and/or bar crawl after
dinner (for those interested);

I went along, at the suggestion (urging is too strong a
word) of some of my friends, and when we got there conked
out almost immediately, without tasting any of the fruits
of reflected Royal Ambassadorship, victim of overheating,
sleep deprivation, and a bit too much wine. I was wakened,
thank you, lucky and other concerned citizens, in time to
get transportation back to Rockridge (how I regretted
agreeing to stay with my East Bay Fisher friends).

Sunday, September 28:

* Dim Sum at Yank Sing on Stevenson Streen at 10AM. If
you're interested just show up, we're not taking counts
on this event.

Though I'd been eager to go, I missed this one, because my
old buddy JT the UA FA wanted me to visit, so I headed down
Peninsulaward; she and her husband Brian picked up me at the
BART, and off it was to a UA FA Do at a park in Redwood
Shores. I got to meet quite a number of SFO-based and other
employees, including some of the union brass. I didn't let
on that I was a 1KMM but did note that one FA, an Asian
woman whose aircraft I've been on a couple times, kept
scowling at me, just as she has done during the flights.
Learned some interesting stuff just being a fly on the wall
- nothing earthshaking, though. Suffice it to say that the
employees are as fed up with the cutbacks as we are, and it
is a strain on them to keep up the good face, so many of
them do not. I commiserated with one quite senior FA who
works HNL flights, who told me how embarrassing it is to
provide a level of service and catering that isn't half of
what it used to be. I mean, 2 FAs for the back of a 757? She
described being ashamed to have to admit to a four-star F
flyer that there was no longer any Champagne ... then that
there were no longer Mai Tais ... and so on down the line.

After hot dogs and beer at the expense of the AFA, we went
back down to San Jose (not a moment too soon, I'm afraid,
as I have a limited amount of appetite for employee gossip)
to see my friends' son JF in a group called the Mumlers,
which has achieved a bit of local celebrity. It's not my
kind of music (well, they did St. James Infirmary, which
borders on what I like), but whatever they did they did
pretty well.

One set was enough for us oldsters, and on to Kazoo Sushi,
which may have been the first time I've ever had boat sushi.
Problem with this stuff is that it's premade and not always
at the optimal level of texture, though the ingredients,
aside from one piece of two of slightly yesterday's maguro,
were fine. JT and Brian ordered us some stuff made fresh,
and that was better.

Back to Oakland by degrees.

dining in Berkeley
 

Next day the laptop died. Actually, what happens is that
it overheats immediately, at the point of the power jack,
with the result that the plug droops with the melting
plastic and I lose the power connection. Panic. I went
to the Best Buy, where my friends' son works, and he sold
me a TravelMate, only it's not in stock and won't come
until Thursday. So his girlfriend lent me a fan pad, which
works reasonably well, so I can do the important stuff,
like an index or two and the FT mail. I can still work only
an hour or so before the smell warns me to stop for a while.

Anyhow, to honor the new year, the 777-point Dow plunge, and
my sudden loss of 1300 bucks, I decided to take my buds to
dinner at Lalime's in Berkeley, which my friend Donna had
introduced me to many years ago.

J. will wear nothing but a dirty t-shirt and jeans and a
DAV cap; K. and I were somewhat more appropriately clad.
The waiter looked at us with a measure of dismay. As we
ordered and ate, I think his dubiety took a slight turn for
the better; not sure.

The bread on the table is a whole-wheat crusty peasant loaf;
the butter is quite nice, with olive oil available on
request.

K. had a glass of some sparkly thing, Schramsberg or
something, to start, which she seemed to enjoy. J., who
can't drink else he become nuts, enjoyed his tap water
with relatively good humor. I had a glass of the house
Chard, which was quite nice, a little spicy, reasonably
oaky, ripe, lemony, the whole thing. Carried this over to
the first course.

J. had the cheese plate, which at this joint is served
as a starter: it was three cheeses that I had no interest
in trying, though I will report that the Champagne grape
and raw round almond accompaniments were first-rate.

K. had a Poblano stuffed with creme fraiche, which but
for its $10 price tag was quite agreeable.

I had the mussels in Riesling and garlic, which tasted more
like Chenin Blanc and onions. Very good, though, the mussels
as plump and tasty as I can imagine. The beards had not been
removed, not good. A generous serving of a couple dozen.

My intermediate course: crispy sweetbreads in gribiche:
this didn't come out as I expected, but the dish wasn't bad.
I find my own sweetbread dishes better. And the gribiche
was odd - it came with big chunks of egg white, instead of
the tiny dice that should be there, and it was balanced way
over toward the sweet, containing not only bits of sweet
pickle but also sweet marinated red pepper. The sweetbreads
were not cleaned to my satisfaction and were not crispy.
Tasted pretty good I guess, all in all, though the dish was
1. flawed and 2. worse than I'd make.

K. got the Australian sirloin medium, which, wonder of
wonders, came rare, and which, wonder of wonders, she loved.
J. had the rack of lamb, which is a bit of a misnomer, as
it was two very big chops, "two-tooth hogget" perhaps,
rather gamy and urinary, but not bad for that. It came with
"cordero al chilendron," a stew of lamb and red peppers with
wine. He ordered the lamb medium-to-medium-well, and it came
medium-rare. He loved it.

I had a third appetizer instead of a main: the Kobe
miniburger topped with foie gras. I ordered the burger rare
and the foie gras extra rare. What came: a 2-oz burger,
medium-to-medium-well, with a slice of essentially raw -
still cold in the middle - foie gras de canard. A little bun
with a sweet mustard spread on the bottom and a tart ketchup
spread on the top. Interesting combo. I almost sent the
burger back but found it fine eaten with the foie gras.

A glass of the house Pinot Noir (the house wines are made by
Au Bon Climat) went nicely. Bright cherry, plum, a touch of
leather, a touch herbal, quite attractive though light.

For afters, various coffees and for me a glass of Lustau's
Emilin Moscato, very much the figgy-raisiny experience,
extremely sweet but not at all cloying.

Verdict: talent in the kitchen. Untrained minimum-wagers
doing the prep. Fairly professional waitstaff. Cute hostess.
Nice physical plant. Clientele mixed between loud and
obnoxious and "trying to have a quiet or romantic dinner."
In line with the area pricewise but still fairly costly.

end
 

US 273 OAK PHX 0910 1106 733 7A

Got to the airport and discovered that I hadn't been put
on the upgrade list by the computer. The friendly agent
typed and typed and finally got me on, giving the welcome
news that I was #1 on all three waiting lists. She wished
me best of luck and a good day and called me "sweetie."

Well.

Flight 1 didn't clear, as a CP checked in and glommed my
#1 spot. And this West 733 had only 8F, as opposed to the
East ones, which have 12. Not a great tragedy. The middle
stayed open (one of two opens on the flight), and I was
content enough to watch from there, marveling at the Kettles
(wrong seats, oversize carryons, the whole nine yards) and
then take my nap. I did note that the FAs were singularly
impatient, perhaps nasty is a better word, with the
infrequent flyers.

We docked near the upstairs A club, which I discovered has
been closed until the fall for "severe storm damage." So
trucked back to the little A club, where the agent gleefully
told me that I was now second on the list with a CP ahead,
but "several" people hadn't checked in, so I should be fine.

Cheetos and chocolate-chip cookies, luncheon of champions.

The $2 Old Grand-Dad special is still there.

US1546 PHX CLT 1345 2040 321 10A

Back to the gate, where I discovered that F had checked in
full. Okay, 10A is a great seat, especially when B remains
open. It didn't. Further, row 11 was taken up by a family
of 4: toddler behind me, gabbling away, clicking the cover
of the EmPower port, and fussing with the tray table when
not kicking my seat; Daddy in the middle, and Mommy
at the aisle, having traded her F seat (perhaps my F
seat) for it. These two took turns with a leather-lunged
squalling infant, who was (barely) tolerable until s/he
screamed directly into my right ear. Humbug to all this.
A quite dishy leggy blonde FA and several considerably less
dishy (and rather less agreeable) ones, including a brunette
version of Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS.

A very brisk business with buy-on-board food and bev - and
even with the BoA Signature Visa applications, which the
small blonde purser hawked mercilessly. And the seatbelt
light was on the entire time, despite the trip being mostly
butter-smooth. Later: both infant and toddler screaming in
tandem. One can perhaps partially excuse this because during
the ascent, the plasticky interior made screaming noises of
its own, as if the material were being twisted. Humbug to
all this, too. At least the dishy FA smiled a lot.

US1132 CLT BWI 2225 2349 734 1C

Checked at the club, where the agent informed me that I
would surely clear at the gate. After a snack and an e-mail
(why can't the regular Charlotte wi-fi work in the club?)
it was gate dance time. The display said "first class full,"
but I was bolstered by the words of the concierge and waited
for the first couple zones to board. No word. Heaved a sigh
and made my way forward. The machine rejected my pass.
"What's wrong with his boarding pass?," one of the agents
asked the other, handing it to him. He typed a bit and said
"your seat assignment is 1C." "Thank you, sir," I said.
"Thank you," he replied.

Rewarded myself for my day of relative abstemiousness with a
couple Glenlivets. The FA checked to make sure I'd finished
the first before giving me a second. We rode a tail wind
back, so I got back to cruel reality before SuperShuttle was
ready for me.