Text 5539, 90 rader
Skriven 2006-09-16 08:35:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 2 254
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UA 317 DEN SEA 1705 1848 752 2D Ch 9 Y Empower N

Engrossed in my e-mail, I didn't leave the club until
almost 5, so I was one of the very last to board. I sort of
mechanically walked to the gate printed on the boarding pass
and asked the first flight attendant I came to, a young
Japanese fellow, if this was the Seattle flight. He made a
funny face and said, uh, I'm not so sure ... I must have had
the appropriate look on my face, because he burst into a big
grin and said, ha ha, just kidding. There were two empties
on this flight; I don't know if there were any standbys. Oh,
yes ... at least one, a flight attendant in uniform, who
took 1C even as I typed. She had two big carryons plus
lunch, which she kept at her feet. She also reclined her
seat into my seatmate's tray table. Both of the bozos in
front of us did: the guy in 1D did a full recline as soon as
we took off, which I can't really fault him for, and I could
accommodate to that, but then when I got comfy with my
computer, he rocked back and forth and somehow got another
inch of recline and really jammed my computer into my tummy.

We'd stood by for a good half hour while the baggage people
tried to figure out how to load a scooter for paraplegics
on board without it falling down the belt. At last they
decided to have a ramper ride it up the belt, which was
comical to watch.

An attentive and attractive set of flight attendants in
front: a pretty Chinese purser and an absolutely gorgeous
blonde. Can you tell it's been too long since I've seen
my sweetie?

Once we dodged the Denver thunderstorms, the flight was
smooth, and the scenery was beautiful. I usually take an
A seat; this time I had a D, with a different view - to
the north it's not so spectacular but still intriguing,
especially if one is into fractals.

The meal choice was the Thai chicken salad or Italian
sausage sandwich again. I opted for just the cookie and
a Courvoisier. Warmed nuts and hot towels, too.

My seatmate asked for the salad; the sandwich came. He
made a polite demurral, and lo and behold, next thing he
knew, there was a salad in front of him. He reported that
it wasn't so nasty as what Carol had had ten days ago.

Something weird about both of these flights: No volume
control, so the audio was always at maximum.

We landed at about 7, and Hap and Annie picked me up - we
went in search of dinner. Tried to find this Hawaiian place
that Hap knew about but hadn't been in a while (someone had
mentioned kalua pork), but it appears to have gone away.
So we went south to Tacoma, where they knew of a New Orleans
type place with a very original name, something like Cajun
Cafe. It was pretty quiet, so we placed our order (a fried
oyster platter for Hap, lemon-garlic chicken for Annie, and
boudin and a side of red beans and rice for me) and sort of
expected some food to come out at some point. This was
around 8:15, 8:30 ... another party came in ... we got our
drinks (they didn't have any decent beer - out of everything
but Corona, something-light, or Widmer Hefeweizen, so we had
lemonade instead) ... the other party got their fairly
large order ... Hap and Annie got their side orders
(cole slaw and potato salad, both nasty) ... just before
9 the waitress said that the kitchen had just informed her
that they were out of boudin, and what would I like instead?
I said "nothing," which nonplussed her and made her giggle
nervously. I said that I'd like to walk, but Hap said that
he was hungry. It was fully 9 plus and no further food was
forthcoming, so he decided that the best thing to do was in
fact to walk, so we did. The guys out back were fairly
apologetic, but what good was that? I could have gone to
the supermarket, come back, and cooked our order in this
amount of time. Probably including making boudin.

Back at chez Newsom, there just happened to be a batch of
chicken larb, so we made a meal of that (it was quite nice,
despite being made with fully cooked chicken), except it was
too spicy for Annie, so she just had a bit of cheese
instead. With this came something Annie had brought back
from Ashland, Oregon: Standing Stone oatmeal stout, a rich-
tasting brew redolent of coffee and caramel. Hap thought it
a bit on the hoppy side; to me it was just moderately so.

I was tired and sort of collapsed after the brewski.
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