Perspective

Kaycee, I hope I’m never called on to show half as much courage as you and your mom have been, but if I am, I’ll be better prepared from seeing how you’ve faced up to the situation.

Off to Hong Kong

This posting is coming from the United First Class lounge at SFO, while I wait for my flight to Hong Kong in an hour or so. I decided to splurge and use miles to upgrade all the way; the plane is supposed to operate with their new sleeper seats, but I when I checked in, they told me there’d been an equipment change and I’ll have to put up with “regular” First Class seats. I hadn’t planned to sleep in this direction anyway (when I fly west, I try to stay up until bedtime at my destination; that’s usually the way home, which makes it a bit easier because I have all sorts of real life cues that aren’t there when I’m away), so I’m not too disappointed — but I hope they’ve got the sleeper seat on the way home.

The First Class lounge is head and shoulders above the regular Red Carpet Clubs; for one thing, it’s quiet and uncrowded. And there’s food (noshes, not full meals; I don’t think I’m likely to starve on the flight anyway). And the bar is open and free, though that’s not of much interest to me at the moment. I probably could get used to travelling like this.

Catching up on the weekend's play-by-play

We started Saturday as usual, with Torah Study at temple; then I was the lay leader for the minyan service. I think it went fairly well, if you ignore my forgetting to put my kippah on until the Haftorah was being read (and I think I’m the only one who noticed, anyway). Next time, though, I’ll practice the part of the Torah Service that only the leader says; it’s hard to read those lines of Hebrew while juggling the siddur and the Torah!

After services, we had a long lunch with some of our friends from temple at Max’s Cafe in Saratoga; we didn’t plan for it to be a long lunch, but the service was a bit on the leisurely side. Then we paid a long visit to Barnes & Noble. And I can’t remember what we did after that — it was, I’m sure, inconsequential.

On Sunday, both Diane and I went to the Y and worked out while Jeffrey was in Religious School; then we helped Diane Reese celebrate her birthday. She didn’t know we were going to help her celebrate — she thought going to lunch with her husband was celebration enough. But by the time they returned, her house had been invaded by many of her friends, waiting to surprise her. And we did; when she walked in, she saw Jeffrey playing quietly with her sons — I couldn’t see her, but I heard her say “Hi” to him in a very puzzled voice, trying to figure out what was going on. So the rest of us popped out and said “Surprise!”, then settled down to demolish a wonderful chocolate cake (thanks, Brad) and icecream (thanks, Eric). Later on, Diane introduced us to PsychoBabble (so far, I haven’t gotten any votes while playing, though I have been able to pick out the winning sentence fairly often). And towards evening, many of us took advantage of the wonderful weather to enjoy the hot tub. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, even if I didn’t get anything accomplished.

Today, it was back to work and school; volume 21 of the original Star Trek series showed up in today’s mail (though its release date is tomorrow), so we watched The Trouble With Tribbles after dinner. Then Jeffrey and I watched the last half of The Weakest Link — I still haven’t decided whether I like the show or not, but it is definitely interesting.

Tomorrow, I pack for Hong Kong.