The Plentiful Vintage

Luxury suites are a very nice way to watch a ball game, especially when it's cold and rainy. Pity the A's didn't win.

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I have to reiterate what everyone said about debg going above and beyond the call of duty this weekend. She is one fabulous host and great cook.

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After dinner at Chez Deb, six of us piled into Deb's Camry for the trip back to the hotel. ( Gropemobile 2 - Eclectic Boogaloo!  )
 

Am in San Francisco. Wicked long security line at PVD. I admit to being spoiled. The line there usually takes about five minutes. This time it was a half hour. Since I'd assumed a five minute line, I wound up with no time to grab a coffee at the airport Dunkies before I had to board. Bother.

Then there was some worry at the outset because one of the engine oil gauges on the 737 refused to give a reading until they fired up the engine (according to the pilot). Fortunately, that got straightened out, and we were only a little late getting into the air. Mostly smooth flights, some light chop here and there, but nothing terrorizing. There was the cutest little ~4 year-old girl in the seat in front of me who would occasionally look over the back of her seat and wave at me.

Plane geek that I am, I tuned the in-flight audio to United Channel 9 so I could listen to the ATC chatter. The funniest moments were listening to controlled chaos of the crews negotiating with the O'Hare tower as to which runway they could land on.

Some crew: "We'd like 27R."
Tower: "No."
Tower: "Gimme a few, we'll figure something out.
Tower: "How about 22R?"
Crew: "We'd really prefer one of the 27's."

On approach to SFO:
Tower: "Advise when you have either the airport or the bridges in sight."
Me (thinking back to the scene in Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo where a B-25 flies under the Bay Bridge): ("The bridges?")
Crew: "I have the airport. Hey, I have the bridges, too."
Me (thinking): ("Okay then...")

ATC is also probably the one venue in the US where you will still routinely hear the phrase "Good day" used as a greeting, as in this handoff from one set of controllers to the next.

Salt Lake Center: "United 131, contact Oakland Center on 195.2."
United 131: "Contact Oakland Center on nineteen fifty-two, United 131, good day.
United 131 (after switching frequency): "Oakland Center, United 131 is with you at flight level 360, good day."

The one annoyance to the flight from O'Hare to SFO, from a plane geek point of view, was that I was seated directly over the center of the wing. Normally, this is not too much of a problem for someone who loves the window seat, but the plane I was on, a 777, has a frelling enormous wing, with an extreme dihedral (the vertical angle at which the wings are attached). On a 777, the wingtips are actually higher than the top of the cabin. It was like staring out the window at a wall. I could only see a little to the front, and a little more to the back. Feh.

DebG picked me, along with sophiap and amaliedageek at SFO, and took us on a little tour of San Francisco. Some of it paralleled the tour Nutty and I took two years ago (wound up by the same beach by the Cliff House).

Spent much of the afternoon chatting with folks, then I went back to my room and crashed hard, falling asleep about 8:30. (I'd had trouble staying completely awake on the plane, too. Four hours of sleep will do that to ya.)

Okay, just spent 40 minutes in the hotel fitness center. Shower now.

Back home in the land of cool weather. I actually turned my furnace back on today.

( The rest of the weekend... )

In the end, much fun was had. The weather, although hot, wasn't nearly as bad as expected, which was nice. Some pictures are here.

So, I made my reservations for the Buffista F2F in New Orleans this morning. Now I'm amazed at myself for how far ahead of the game I am compared to previous years. I usually wait until late to do stuff like this. Of course, part of it was that in previous years I always waited until the hotel was arranged, which usually wasn't until April or so. It's really nice having the hotel all lined up and stuff already. Plus, it turns out I had more than enough frequent flyer miles to take care of the plane ticket. Woo frelling hoo! I feel totally like an adult now.

Now to spend the next few months daydreaming about fresh beignets...