Change of Seattle plans, slightly.

Eric and I were supposed to be on a plane for Seattle at 6:00 PM tonight, but the flight was overbooked. If we had left tonight we would have arrived in Seattle at around 8:00 PM, picked up the car, driven to the hotel, and then maybe we would have gone over to my sisters, but perhaps not.

We opted, instead, to volunteer to be bumped from tonight's flight. This means that we have to catch a plane at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. However, the airline is giving us two free round-trip tickets to anywhere they fly -- we once used similar vouchers from this airline to go to Ixtapa, Mexico -- and tomorrow's flight has been upgraded to first class. The front cabin isn't such a big deal on a short flight, but it's still nice.

Back in the early nineties, when airlines were less competitive and before the proliferation of points programs and the common use of frequent flyer miles for upgrades, Eric was a master of first class upgrades.

He used to go up to the women at the gate, smile, and very politely ask if we could moved into the "front cabin". He would never say "first class". He said that was the kiss of death.

I thought Eric was soooo cool. And I was right. And he still is.

So... it's Oakland tonight and Seattle tomorrow... my nephew's college graduation and it's all good. That's it!