Going to the US again!

[baratron]

THURSDAY 03 SEP 09 -  United Airlines. Flight: UA0929

DEPART	London Heathrow airport (LHR) Terminal: 1	07:45	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	Chicago O'Hare Int'l (ORD)    Terminal: 5	10:28	08HRS 43MINS
DEPART	Chicago O'Hare Int'l (ORD)    Terminal: 1	12:03	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	Seattle-Tacoma Int'l (SEA)    Terminal: ?	14:33	04HRS 30MINS

TUESDAY 08 SEP 09  -  United Airlines. Flight: UA0204
         

DEPART	Seattle-Tacoma Int'l (SEA)  Terminal: ?	15:13	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	San Francisco Int'l Airport (SFO)  Terminal: 3	17:21	02HRS 08MINS

FRIDAY 11 SEP 09 - United Airlines. Flight: UA0930

DEPART	San Francisco Int'l Airport (SFO) Terminal: 1	19:17	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	London Heathrow airport (LHR)  Terminal: 1	13:35 12 SEP 09	10HRS 18MINS

Does anyone know why the code for Chicago O'Hare airport is ORD? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I keep expecting it to be Orlando. Sorry I'm not going to be there for long enough to be social with you, polyfrog :( But I was figuring you wouldn't exactly be free in the middle of a workday anyway.

So yes, I shall be in Seattle from lunchtime on Thursday 3rd September until lunchtime on Tuesday 8th September. I'll be staying with jinian and hattifattener. Most of the weekend will be taken up with the Freezepop concerts, and I'm not exactly sure about Friday or Monday - but we can make tentative plans. Not sure where can accommodate a gluten-free elynne and a vegan baratron at the same time, but I want to see you if at all possible so we'll have to find somewhere!

I'll be somewhere in the Bay Area from the early evening of Tuesday 8th September until the early evening of Friday 11th September. I don't know where I'm staying and I'm not even sure who I'm seeing, apart from kshandra. So many of you live out there that I'm not certain who does! So please comment below if you'd like to meet up and I'll see what I can do. This trip, I'm either going to get a pay-as-you-go American SIM card for my phone or take along a separate American phone, so you'll be able to call me without incurring international call charges. (Why do I always forget about that as an option?).

* baratron is scared of her credit card balance.

Comments

[geminigirl]

Orlando International Airport is actually MCO for McCoy Air Force Base.

Safe Travels.

[annaoj.livejournal.com]

I believe the airport used to be called Orchard Field, and thus you get ORD.

[erik]

This is correct.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see you while you're out here! If you're doing something in SF on Tuesday or Thursday after work, I could join that. Wednesday and Friday I'll be working from home down in Mountain View (South Bay).

I'm not really going to be capable of doing any organizing in advance here, but if someone else organizes a thing I will be happy to join it!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I'm not sure that I'm capable of organising anything, considering that the last time I was in San Francisco was 30 years ago so I don't know the geography at all! I think the best thing would be to try to round up people in their various poly family and friendship groups - so I could see you, Andres, Brooks & Suzi together if you were all wanting to. I'm pretty sure there are enough introverts around the place that having a giant meal somewhere with everyone wouldn't be a great idea.

So if we say Thursday, is that convenient for all of your people?

[brooksmoses]

*waves*

Would very much like to see you. Not entirely sure about schedules, though, but evenings seem at least workable.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I think the best thing would be to try to round up people in their various poly family/friendship groups, rather than having a huge party somewhere with everyone and scaring off the introverts. I am free at the following times:

Tues evening
Wed lunchtime
Wed evening
Thurs lunchtime
Thurs evening
Fri lunchtime

which makes 6 possible opportunities (as well as late-afternoon coffee meetings for people on flexible schedules). I suggested Thurs evening to tiger_spot, does that work for you too?

[brooksmoses]

I believe so, yes.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Aha, yay, further planning. For everybody but me, further down the Peninsula towards Mountain View will be more convenient than SF. (It's convenient for me, too, it just means I'll be later because of travel time from work.) What kind of food/activity would you be interested in?

[hattifattener]

Airport Codes: A History and Explanation

[firecat]

It would be great to see you. I am within driving distance of kshandra and I am theoretically free the days you'll be here, parent-care duties and energy levels permitting.

I don't know if you want to see the OH (he doesn't read LJ) but he works during the day and he's not free 9/9. I don't know about his availability the other days you're here.

One option that would work for me (but not the OH) might be to hang out the afternoon of 9/11, because I'm pretty close to SFO and could drop you off there.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I've decided it would be better to try to round up people in their various poly family/friendship groups, rather than having a huge party somewhere with everyone and scaring off the introverts. I'd like to see the OH, but if he's too busy it doesn't matter - it's not like this is his last ever opportunity to meet me! I'm sure there'll be another alt.polycon that we can both get to soon enough.

Fri afternoon/evening sounds good to me. I'll need to be checking in about 5pm, and I'll need to find somewhere to have a lightish meal of some sort, because 10 hours on an aeroplane is a long time even if I manage to sleep for some of it. I am vegan because of food intolerances but can eat just about anything that is vegan (apparently all of my food intolerances are to animal products), so that should be fairly easy.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Vegan and GF, not cheap but good: Cafe Flora (http://www.cafeflora.com/).

Wim is off work on Thursdays so can probably pick you up, and my schedule is flexible.

Do you already have tickets for all your shows? I want to come to the Sunday one.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Wow, that place has serious too-many-adjectives syndrome! "WILD MUSHROOM & SWEET CORN LINGUINI: Sauteed wild mushrooms, oven roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes & roasted poblano peppers in a corn tequila sauce." So that's fried mushrooms, roast cherry tomatoes and roast peppers in a sweetcorn sauce with tequila? The dessert menu looks very friendly, however :) Will you prod elynne and see if she wants to be social, or should I?

Do Pizza Pi and Mighty O's still exist? I have been looking forward to them!

I don't have any tickets yet, so I'll have to get them. I may run into difficulties owing to not having a US bank account/billing address. I'll let you know.

It would be very handy if you could pick me up a pay-as-you-go cellphone SIM card with $20 of credit on. The phone I have is quad-band, so it can do US-range GSM (1900 MHz) and 3G as well. I don't know which network has the best coverage in Seattle and in the Bay Area as well.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yep, Mighty O is very successful and I'm pretty sure Pizza Pi is still around.

PAX is seriously sold out (http://www.paxsite.com/), so hopefully you can find a way to Freezepop that doesn't involve having an Expo pass. Not sure what that would be, though. I'll buy us both tickets for El Corazon on Sunday, so don't worry about that.

I'll look into the phone thing. Shouldn't be a problem.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Am reading the PAX forums in the hope of paying stupid money for a ticket (I honestly had no idea that it was that big an event, nor that there are only 4000 concert wristbands for 75,000 attendees!). Apparently there is an AT&T in Pacific Place that will give you a SIM and not charge you for anything more than the money you put on your phone to use it. It is located on the lower ground floor and opens at around 9:30am. They are next door to a GameStop Store.

Don't know if AT&T is the best company to use but thought I'd pass that on.

VERY URGENT!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Are you still on a no chocolate diet for your migraines?

Re: VERY URGENT!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yes, says the stupid girl who ate a chocolate cookie today and now has a headache. :(

Where did this AT&T info come from? They merged with another company a few years ago and aren't called that, but if the info's pretty current I will chalk it up to retro naming and give it a try. (Tried to get one last night but phone guy was a dumb jerk; still expect to succeed before you arrive.)

Good luck with the PAX thing. El Corazon is in the bag, but I know you want to do both. *hug*

Re: VERY URGENT!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The AT&T info came from some sort of guide to idiot foreigners (http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=83524) that's on the Penny Arcade forum. Yup.

Need sleep.

Re: VERY URGENT!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Guide for, maybe? :) I'll look into it, thanks. It sounds like a much better deal than the jerk guy offered last night.

Good news -- brother-out-law says many PAX passes including concerts are being offered around Amazon, where he's interning, and he will forward to me. Will let you know if I find anything ASAP.

Re: VERY URGENT!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I think I have the PAX pass situation in hand now. Have offered $75 plus British chocolate to a girly in Seattle. *May* have an even better offer.

[moo58.livejournal.com]

My favorite is Fresno Air Terminal.....FAT

W00T!

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

Most excellent news!

Just fyi, I live 10-15 minutes from SFO. If we can arrange things enough in advance, I can give you a ride from there to kshandra & gridlore's place (or wherever it is that you are staying). Plus, I'd gt to hang out with you.

Lemme know?

Re: W00T!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm staying with kshandra because she doesn't have space right now, but I'll try to be somewhere nearby. Where I'm staying is actually a thing I need to figure out soon. It would be very helpful to get a ride from the airport on Tuesday night, thank you! I expect 5.30 pm is a really unfortunate time to be arriving in terms of traffic :/ I'll have checked baggage as well, so you wouldn't need to get there right away.

Re: W00T!

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

No worries WRT traffic. And it is actually a really convenient time for me, as I get off work @ 4pm so can easily be at the airport, in short term parking, to pick you up.
I've put it in my calendar - but if you want/need to make other arrangements, just let me know.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

You mentioned wanting to get together. I am happy to drive to San Jose where kshandra lives. I'm not sure what my schedule will be like then. And we met at APC7 in Seattle. :)