Text 35406, 104 rader
Skriven 2010-03-03 16:24:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip to SJC 866
=======================
As the registration desk at my convention was (I discovered
on reading the book) to close at 1530, and my plane got in
at 1630, and I needed a ticket for the evening concert, I
decided to try for an earlier flight combo; on a big jet I
am pretty sure to clear the list for first class out of BOS.

UA   339 BOS DEN 0737 1024 752 4B
was  785 BOS DEN 1008 1255 752 2A

And so it was. After a brief visit to my friends at the Club
I presented myself at the gate at 6 something and was cheerfully
handed a new BP by an agent who didn't know me from Adam (i.e.,
my rapport with the local old-timers wasn't a factor).

A bunch of disruptions at the gate - handled expertly by Joanne,
one of my oldest friends here, so that nobody knew anything was
amiss. Also a couple seat duplications, including mine. I'd
switched here so that if my Lasix was troublesome I'd have an
easy time getting to the rest room. Apparently someone else had
his boarding pass issued at the same time for the same seat -
the problem was resolved by giving the other passenger 6D at
the back of the first-class cabin

Breakfast was the usual fruit plate with yogurt or some
unusual/new-cost-cutting eggs, about which the announcing
attendant knew little except they looked scrambled. The eggs
turned out to be hard scrambled with cheese, with a greasy
side of taco meat mixed with home fries (tasted okay, but
pretty disgusting to look at). Breads: a croissant (looked
okay, if a little brown-and-serve) or a smashed-in blueberry
muffin (at best mediocre).

Tried and failed for: UA 245 DEN SJC 1147 1330 752

They were looking for volunteers when I got there. It turns
out that they'd filled every seat.

I sighed heavily and went to the President's Club a subway
ride away at concourse A, where the desk guy cheerfully
admitted me and treated me to an obviously oft-given spiel
about the merits of his club, especially the free booze part.
Which I took as an invitation to the bar.

Most wines are extra. Fancy cocktails are $9. Top-shelf
booze is $6, but in addition to your ho-hum top shelf stuff
Glenlivet 15 happens to be there. Various rotguts are free.
Also cheap beer on tap (it's Dos Equis lager - pretty good
for cheap beer). I got a couple shots of Kahlua to put in my
coffee and then a double Glenlivet 15.

The news kept harping on some irritating guy who took his
Cessna into a building in Austin. I looked it up on my handy
dandy mapping program and breathed a little relief that the
incident was nowhere near where I was to be next week.

I still had a ton of time, so the bartender suggested I ask
the front desk about lunch places; the guy recommended some
place with a name that sounded like The Great Denver Red
Meat Coma that was selling top sirloin for $3/oz or else
his favorite Chef Jimmy's, which serves a skirt steak that's
supposed to be pretty good for half that. I sat at the bar,
where there was immediate seating, and in a fit of sudden
perversity didn't order a steak or a burger but rather mac
and cheese with shrimp, which was fine, the cheese being
wimpier than what I'd use, but a quarter pound of 40 count
shrimp for $3 extra isn't a bad deal, especially as the
things were thrown on top just a few minutes during final
warming, so they were juicy and tender. A Sam seemed to be
the best choice to go with.

Moseyed to gate B 50-something for my flight; the trip
took maybe 10 minutes counting the subway.

UA5974 DEN SJC 1506 1643 CR7 2A

A semi-genial, slightly hyper FA.

The snack box:

Kettle Classics potato chips - the usual - industrial but
very crunchy;

Oloves tasty Mediterranean pitted green olives with basil
and garlic - mild but surprisingly good-tasting, not too
salty;

Torino grissini (good);

Pepperidge Farm butter crackers (ok);

Rondele peppercorn Parmesan pasteurized cheese spread (ok
if you want to be reminded of the United breakfast omelet);

Chocobilly's chocolate chunk cookies from the Immaculate
Baking Co., which clearly was not the Immaculate Packaging
and Storage Co., as there was a bit of a stale taste to
the hard little things.

No Courvoisier, so I passed and took a substance-unassisted
little nap.

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