Subj : journey 1
To   : ALL
From : MICHAEL LOO
Date : Sat Jun 17 2000 01:20 am

I set my alarm for 4, figuring I'd get some work done, read the
Times, and do my e-mail before heading to the airport. Got to bed
by 10, figuring that that would be enough to keep me going.
Unfortunately I got this unavoidable urge to get up, and it was
but 1 AM, so I pretty much cleared my desk, did my chores, and
got out of there in time for flight 181, which shall go in history
as one of the great flights. It was a fairly full flight - as of
the next day (today) United is to replace the 757 on this flight
with a much bigger 767, so someone knew what he she or it was
doing by scheduling so many transcons out of Boston.

I arrived rather late at my seat (sat around at the gate doing
e-mail until late), and I discovered that 1st class was full and
that I was sitting with pretty Teri (#2), a computer consultant
from Stratus whose main clients include the Chicago Board of
Options and, of all people, the airline we were flying on. So
we traded funny United stories until breakfast, which was
frittata or waffles. I'd had the frittata before and it was
definitely time for something new. The waffles were mighty odd -
more like Danish pastry batter coated with granulated sugar and
cooked in waffle tins, with Knotts Berry Farm artificial maple
syrup, butter, AND about an ounce of honey butter. The usual
pale imitation sausage was the accompaniment, but also a surprise:
a little 2-oz filet mignon sauteed in garlic, done medium: better
than supermarket meat, treated almost as well as you'd expect
from a restaurant, but next to a waffle with syrup? A nice fruit
cup rounded out the meal: great strawberries, good pineapple and
honeydew, okay red grapes and cantaloupe. An attendant came by
with onion bagels, cranberry muffins, or croissants. The croissant
was terrible - greasy and tough and looking like someone had sat
on it. I read through the Wall St. Journal (one of the best, if
most reactionary newspapers around) and took a 3-hr nap while
Teri worked. Woke up to the clatter of silverware and discovered
that they had cart service: I asked for smoked salmon (good),
shrimp (4 jumbos, good), and a couple rolls (stale). They offered
a deli platter - cheeses, roast beef, turkey, ham - as well, but
I figured enough was enough. With my seafood I had a pleasant
Chardonnay that might have been the Guenoc North County 1997.
Chatted amiably until deplaning time, which was about 5 min early.

My friend Peter was there at the gate, and we dropped my luggage
off at the apartment and went off, for reasons that are long and
complicated, 50 miles north to Rohnert Park to pick up his
colleague Teri (#3) and her son Ty to go to a safety fair - a
fair where you watch the rescue squad and the fire department and
people like that show you what they do and how to avoid being
sliced and diced and roasted and toasted. It was pretty boring,
the only thing I came away with was a reminder to use my seat belt
(they had this rotating cab that simulated a 30-mph rollover
accident, with the crash dummy alternately buckled in or not), a
couple samples of sun block from the American Cancer Society, and
a blue sno-cone, which I got to see what it tasted like (nada).
Most of the booths (not too many, thank goodness) were new-agey
things - a magnetotherapy demonstration, a sample of purifying and
balancing tea, a solicitation to be in India for the great
cosmic celebration in January 2000 (where these gurus who live in
caves come out and speak for the first time in 144 years), a
little exhibit on the benefits of vegetarianism and a high-fiber
diet. I got bored pretty quick, and Ty got bored pretty quick,
so we went to Skandia, an arcade and mini-golf place, where over
18 holes I shot about a 100 (par was like 40). Took Teri and Ty
home, and it was time to head on over to dinner, at Angkor Wat
on Geary between 6th and 7th. When we got there (having waited
10 min at the wrong restaurant next door), Teri (#1)'s daughter
Courtney and her delightful roommate Fiona were there waiting for
us. Peter's Meera was supposed to join us, but she didn't show up,
so we ordered a feast: little spring rolls and mushrooms stuffed
with chicken, both essentially Chinese-style dim-summish things,
chicken curry served in a young coconut, grilled beef pieces in
lemon grass, eggplant topped with ground pork and shrimp in fish
sauce, and shrimp asparagus with soy. All were excellent. I ordered
a bottle of Stelzner Chardonnay, but they were out, so we settled
with a Russian River Chard that I'd not heard of, Porter or Potter
or Pratt Creek or Lake or Pond ... it wasn't as good as the
Stelzner would have been, but was lightish and fruity and attractive
with a whopping 13.4 percent alcohol. We went through that quick
enough, and the waiter, expecting that Peter and I must be trying to
get the lovely young ladies drunk, said that the second bottle was
on its way. I cancelled that second bottle. Meera did show up
eventually around dessert time, her 6:30 meeting having stretched
and evolved to a 7-to-9 one, so we ordered jackfruit custard, which
was delicate and good, although western in style, mango sticky rice,
which was okay but not nearly so nice as my own, and banana flambe,
which was robust and good, although western in style. With that we
had the Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, slightly more amabile than
their Blanc de Blancs; although Fiona found it sharp (her previous
experience with bubbly being confined to Asti spumante), everyone
else liked it fine (good fruit, crisp, nice bubbles, medium long
tapering finish). And then as I'd been up for 24 hr straight, except
for my nap on the plane, it was time to roll up the streets of
San Francisco.
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