bumpity bump bump

claudia and i were booked on an american airlines nonstop from seattle to boston due to leave at 1:45pm. we were supposed to be in seats 30A and 30C. for some reason (probably related to the fuckage from the blackout), they changed the plane to a different model and rebooked us to 17A and 17B (note that this now gave claudia the coveted "middle seat", although i still had my window seat). we were not pleased, but the flight was totally full so there was no reshuffling of seats available.

it turned out that the flight was seriously overbooked, so AA was offering $300 flight coupons and "select seats" on an alaska airlines nonstop to boston leaving at 1040pm. we looked at each other, decided that if "select" meant "first class" we were up for it, and i headed up to chat up the desk agent. indeed, "select" meant first class. and so we rebooked, got our flight coupons, went directly to the alaska airlines desk and got our boarding passes to make sure the rebook had worked correctly and to get seats next to each other, and then called kathrynt and llagchin to invite them to dinner. i rented a car (since it was easier and faster than dealing with supershuttle in each direction), and we headed up and hung out for a few hours and then had sushi at hana, the place in downtown bothell.

i ran into an old coworker at the airport on my way back in to the terminal, which was nice, and then we settled down and snoozed our way home in first class. we even managed to find our checked baggage at the AA baggage claim area. (well, "we" as in "claudia")

all in all, a pretty cool end to a pretty excellent vacation.

now we're home at my place and i'm petting the kitties.

more vacation details

i had a blast hanging out with the bothell folks (lyricae, tinlail, kathrynt, llachglin, spazzcat) and assorted other folks (solarbird, mamishka, poodlgrl, smeehrrr, firni, juanal, various ex-coworkers, kathrynt's mom, my ex-bf, and anyone else who i've forgotten to list.) happy as i am to be living in the boston area again, i do miss seattle. i think a lot of my private pondering this trip was spent thinking about what-ifs, and missing the things i enjoyed most about living out there.

in house-stuff, i managed to replace the deck planks most in need of replacing (at some point - in a year or two - i may need to have some other parts of the deck replaced -- in particular, it looks like it needs more cross bracing), but i'll probably need to have the wooden trim re-painted or re-stained around that time too.

many excellent cats - i was in danger of cuteness overdose from l&t's adorable kitten, jasper. such a cute kitty. not to mention t&j's herd of cats, and the intelligent ash and loyal thor. and many excellent dogs, including the most excellent pair of sweet old huskies claudia and i met near bothell landing.