UA 619 BOS IAH 1355 1703 739 21F

I didn't get an upggrade on either flight, not a surprise
as those are getting to be even tougher than ever before.
Luckily I get free booze and a snack owing to my exalted
status.

My seatmates were also 1Ks, the wife in the middle seat
the first coattail 1K I've met (he flies enough and spends
enough, as an aerospace engineering type, and as a perk he
gets to get her all the benefits for free). This couple
inspired me to look into getting status for Lilli, so later
I called United and after half an hour, there she was, 1K,
not having a single foot on United all year.

Glenfarclas on the rocks, a stroopwafel, and a can of
Pringles, my usual, cheerfully offered.

The flight was uneventful, and we landed a hair early, so
I hustled down to the Centurion, where weirdness happened,
not of a bad sort, just peculiar, as in an unsettling dream.

Two things. First, the agent at the desk greeted me by name
without looking at my credential and noted Mr. Loo, we haven't
seen you in a while. My eyesight not being great, I squinted
and couldn't recognize her, but it is true that I hadn't been
there for some months. This is the place where I came in a few
months ago with Lilli on my arm, and they looked confused, as
previously I'd been there with Bonnie. Talking it over with
Lilli afterward, she put forth the hypothesis that along the
long blank corridor leading to the place there are cameras
feeding to some advanced facial recognition system. Plausible.
The spookiest thing was when I was groping myopically at the
buffet, avoiding the disgusting yogurt turmeric white meat
chicken and various healthy greens, some Hispanic runner came
up to me and said, oh, the eggplant, he is over here, and led
me to it. That data collection system must be mighty
sophisticated, and maybe it reads Fido.

The eggplant was mostly lentils done in a style similar to
that McDougall recipe Dale posted not long ago with maybe a
shred or two of the fruit. I had a big bowl of it and went
back to the chafing dish to take a squint at the label, and
it distinctly said eggplant with lentils, not the other way
around. For afters, panna cotta along with Remy, a decent
but not revelatory combination.

Off to my gate in the next terminal, where (this being
Houston) the preboard line was a dozen or more and Group 1
most of the rest of the passengers on this very full flight.

UA 1916 IAH SAN 1830 1948 739 21F

I try to preboard when I have a window seat, but when I got
there, someone was already camping out in the aisle seat, so
much for preboarding. Eventually the middle was taken by a
retired employee who had just managed to get on, with his wife
in the middle seat on the other side. Be was jolly enough, and
we spent a couple hours telling stupid United stories. When the
drink cart came by, I offered to get him a drink.

I ordered two Glenfarclases on the rocks and offered to pay for
one with a coupon, but the attendant said that it was on her.
I asked Robert if he wanted a snack, and he said he knew better.
When the snack cart came by, I asked for the cheeseburger (a mess
of pottage not having sufficed for supper) and was offered a
snack in addition (I'm entitled to one booze and one sandwich,
snack box, or snack per flight, but maybe they're being nice to
1Ks in coach these days, as upgrades are few and far between).
I refused the snack. The cheeseburger was of course a preformed
foodservice patty with - ugh - a blue cheese blend on top, not
unlike what I got at, I think it was, McDonald's the last time I
was there some years ago.

The flight was more or less on time, but Lilli was late. We'd
decided that instead of picking me up at the crowded United curb,
I'd wait at the nearly deserted Delta area. I waited near a cop
car, from which people seemed to be shying, for visibility's
sake, as she would have to spot me rather than the other way
round. Eventually she showed up, after I'd been pacing back and
forth for awhile between the Delta nd United areas. She asked if
I needed food, which wasn't necessary. For some reason, food has
been on her mind lately, even though she doesn't actually eat
much of it. So back home by midnight, 9 local.
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