Text 23026, 96 rader
Skriven 2009-04-06 16:18:08 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: higher than a kite 445
==============================
UA 427 BOS IAD 0719 0901 319 6F

Shady-side bulkhead, my favorite seat, including first class,
provided the middle stays empty. I slept through this flight,
took SuperShuttle to Bethesda, did some paperwork, and then
out of there.

UA  822 IAD BOS 1656 1833 752 13F
was 898         2210 2338 752 9A

I finished my errands way early and wanted to get out of town,
so I got SuperShuttle to pick me up 6 hours early. Put myself
on standby and became #1, but people kept mysteriously clearing
ahead of me. Ah, well, I got the hated row 13 seat with no
window, which was fine, as all I wanted to do was drink and
sleep. Had a Courvoisier in plastic. Snoozed.

-

Heard Tavi Ungerleider play a Beethoven sonata, then the
first Britten suite, then the Suite Italienne. He did a
fantastic job, and he's only 16. Someone rather tactlessly
asked Marcus Thompson and me whether we were that good
at that age. I answered in the negative. Marcus didn't
deign to give a direct response, only mentioning that in
the orchestra he was in in high school, Perlman was in the
back of the first violin section, and Zukerman was in the
second violin section. This kid (and his twin brother Oren)
will go far unless he wants to become a doctor or something.

Next day.

US1839 PVD CLT 1655 1909 E90 2F

Check-in took 30 seconds and security 5 minutes. A chatty TSA
person. I ended up with hours to kill, so I went to Johnny
Rocket's for a decent burger (in the In-n-Out/Five Guys well-
done thin patty way); as you can't get a beer here, I took
the burger to Wolfgang Puck's bar, where they let me chow
down provided I buy a beer, which I did. The combo is killer,
and it's a pity one has to do shenanigans to enjoy it. Turns
out Puck has a burger, too, at twice the price, though the
waiter allowed as mine smelled pretty darn good.

Boarded early; pushed back (all pax apparently accounted
for) 12 early; took off a few early. Full front cabin on
the Embraer E190, which is an okay aircraft except for the
tiny A-side overheads. Some guy in 1D took up not only
the row 1 bin but also almost all of the row 2 bin (I
squeezed my laptop bag up there but had to manhandle my
rollaboard under the seatback in front of me.

A glass o' red was not what I expected it to be. It had
plums and lots of pineapple, a touch of Sonoma-ish beeswax.
Turned out to be Carta d'Imbarco Barbera. I hate to say
this, as this is a quintessentially mediocre wine, and US
Air has become a quintessentially mediocre airline, but this
stuff is better than what United serves. Through some odd
alchemy it makes Biscoff cinnamon cookiess (the standard US
first class snack) taste as though they have eggs in them,
which they don't.

Snoozed some more. We were in clouds pretty much throughout
the flight, so there was nothing to look at.

Landed a little early, and I had time to stuff my face at
Bojangles, where the chicken, though fresh, was inadequately
seasoned, and the dirty rice was made with pork sausage.

US 311 CLT PHX 2010 2157 320 11C was 5A

My upgrade didn't clear. Though my boarding pass was
rejected with a chime, the agent smoothly processed me
through, so much for those hopes. The guy in B tried to
move me to a middle seat to sweeten a seat trade so he
could sit with his wife. I told him that I didn't want
to sleep in the middle seat, as I would likely flop over
and have to annoy one of my seatmates, whereas if I flopped
into the aisle, that wouldn't be quite so bad. He came back
with the offer that he would switch out with an attractive
young woman, and I could flop over on her, but I demurred.

Exit row is kind of nice and would be my first choice
except not on a full full flight as this one was.

The flight was ovenlike - I'd say at least 90F, with the
vents blowing scirocco at us. Apparently, when they tried
to adjust the climate, the front and rear of the plane
became polar, while we in the equatorial regions remained
tropical. I actually drank water on this flight, that's how
bad it was. Got a couple hours' sleep only.

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Get your COOKING fix here! - nsbbs.info (1:18/200)