UMTravels

I had the most amazing flight this morning. The flight attendants were HAPPY. They were joking, they were enjoying their jobs, they were making EVERYONE feel welcome. I have not had this on a flight for YEARS. Congratulations to the flight crew of UA958 on the Seattle to Chicago run — when I get home I’m going to have to send in one of those KUDOS certificates they send me as a frequent flier. That’s how good they ALL were.

Now I’d like to apologize to the crew of the Chicago to Kansas City flight — you were good, but those gals were GREAT. Yes, I’m gushing.

And now for the photo of the day.

Well — I was going to have a photo of the day, but the card is being cranky — guess I should check the camera. Well, it was the computer needing rebooting. Try this:

Tulips from my garden. How cool is that.

Had dinner tonight at Aixois down in the Brookside Neighborhood of Kansas City where Paul and Gail used to live before moving downtown. Paul had shrimp and pasta, I went for the half dozen east coast oysters (good, but a little larger than I like) and the duck confit with spinach salad (I though confit was off the bone — but I basically got a duck leg). Maybe I should look up the definition….

Confit of goose (confit d’oie) and duck (confit de canard) are usually prepared from the legs of the bird. The meat is salted with herbs, and slowly cooked submerged in its own rendered fat, in which it is then preserved by allowing it to cool and storing it in the fat. Turkey and pork may be treated similarly. Meat confits are a specialty of the southwest of France (Toulouse, Dordogne, etc.) and are used in dishes such as cassoulet. Although confits are now considered luxurious, these preparations originated as a means of preserving meats without refrigeration.

Damn, you learn something new each day — thanks to wikipedia for that definition.

Thinking of a repeat visit to the Arabia Steamboat Museum tomorrow since it’s about one block over. Maybe I can get some good pictures. Basically it is a musuem built around a steamboat that was plying the Missouri river is 1856 and is filled with all the “stuff” that was on board, which was enough to stock a general store. It sunk, the river changed course and was buried in sand and muck for a hundred years, then was dug up.

[clueless — was too asleep to remember to weigh]