Text 21349, 105 rader
Skriven 2007-10-14 21:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: start o trip 285
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US3706 BWI PHL 0905 0948 CRJ 9D
was 3305 BWI PHL 1150 1240 E70 2A

Phyllis at the club deemed it wise for me to get onto the
earlier flight, as Philly was fogged up, and I ought to get
as far on my journey as possible as early as possible. She
called to the gate just before 9, and when I trotted there,
the plane was mostly loaded up, but my boarding pass was
waiting for me. The plane was full except for the last two
rows and the exit row, so I slid into the exit row and sort
of snoozed. We took off half an hour late and landed half an
hour late. No biggie for me, as I had a 4 hour cushion now.

I'd had just a pint of Silk for dinner the night before, so
the hunger pangs sent me to the food court, where among the
uninspired offerings of a hot dog place, a Chick-Fil-A, a
Sbarro, and a sandwich shop, I found the equally uninspired
Asian Chao, which at least had stuff I could tolerate: had
the $7 special of lo mein (tasted okay but the noodles were
really pasty), bbq chicken (too sweet, too dry, too tough,
even though made out of thighs), and spicy Szechuan-style
pork (not spicy at all; this dish usually has abundant fatty
pork, which I like; the current version had a tiny amount of
lean pork and a large percentage of onions and various
colors of bell peppers, hotted up with a shake of black
pepper only). Did the trick, but I'm not sure I'd do it
again, especially as it doesn't serve beer. And as I found
the Independence Brew Pub just down the way, which has daily
early bird specials, viz. Yuengling for $3 a pint, Bloodys
for $4, and a hot dog and chips for $1.50. On this occasion
I settled for a mild but reasonably well hopped IPA at $3.50
a pint.

Checked at the concierge desk: not a chance on the upgrade,
so I was relegated to the wayback on a fairly long flight;
sigh, builds character, and I owe the universe one, having
recently beaten a Chairman's Preferred out of his upgrade
for no apparent reason.

US 965 PHL SFO 1405 1706 321 7A

Took off pretty late, completely full plane, and my Benadryl
didn't kick in, and the full 321 wasn't about to make time
against the headwind, so I got the full coach experience.

The minicabin carved out of the lost first-class seats is
pretty cramped: 4 rows in the space of 3, one TV monitor. I
find it more objectionable than the similar cabin on the 757
(having been in each once). I managed to get a little
shuteye and watch part of a particularly inane movie, about
which I remember nothing.

The person behind me grabbed my seat and pulled often,
despite my having reclined two inches at most. Landed an
hour late, and with the BART its irregular self, I got to
Rockridge a bit after dinnertime. My host and hostess had
had something to tide them over but offered an assortment of
the sorts of snacks you'd expect former flower children to
have, sourced from places like Trader Joe's and World Market
and Whole Foods - Sobe beverages, hummus, that kind of
stuff. This is what I had:

Sobe Liz Blizz pina colada flavor with echinacea - way sweet,
artificial coconut flavor, little pineapple, but thankfully hardly
any echinacea flavor, so if you have your little heart set on
beating back a cold herbally, this may be the ticket. It did grep
me something awful, so I looked at the label - the first 3
ingredients are filtered water, HFCS, and effin' SKIM MILK. Pina
coladas don't have HFCS and skim milk, and hanging by their thumbs
is too good for the South Beach Beverage Co., which is of course
based in Norwalk, CT. Here's the buzz from the bottle: "A tropical
brew that celebrates snowboarding and the lizards who carve the
mountain, refreshing as fresh powder, it contains vitamins and
minerals to help keep you going strong." The vitamins and minerals
(per bottle) are 250% of your vitamin C and 25% of your zinc, and
that's it. There are also 80g of sugar per bottle.

Sprecher root beer - pretty good flavor, a bit sweet with
real honey sweetness but also HFCS as a main ingredient. Not
worth spending the extra for.

Gordon Biersch blonde bock - a light-bodied, fairly floral, malty,
moderately well hopped beer. I'd say marginally less nice than
Genesee Cream Ale, i.e., not worth spending the extra for, and
it's $1.50 a bottle vs. 45c a bottle.

Kjalii Foods native fire-roasted guacamole salsa - I took a
big bite of this, because it had a nice aroma, and nearly
spewed it: the flavor is, in this order, burned something, lemon,
avocado, and cucumber. Cucumber? Yik.

Sabra roasted red pepper hummus - surprisingly, I couldn't
get enough of this stuff - good balance of flavors and
tastes, great texture (owing to modified corn starch). It
was as though it had crack in it, as they say.

Trader Joe's citron honey with yuzu fruit - I don't know how the
place gets to call this this: it's a marmalade-like substance
with various sugars and cornsyrups and a little honey in it; not
unpleasant, with an unidentified citrus bite, but nothing
special and with a rather shall we say fugitive honey presence.

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