"Fly me to the moon/Let me play among the stars"--Sinatra

I see that look in your eyes and I gotta tell you it hurts a little.

I hate to disappoint you.

Oh, I know. You're looking to me for some righteous indignation. And, usually, I'm brimming with it. Or at least some incredulity at the lunacy that is all around me.

But it's hard to come off vacation and muster up indignation. Mostly, I'm mellow and grateful. I've been lying on a beautiful beach and other people have been fetching me drinks. How much can I really complain?? Add to that that it was a paid holiday. To have money deposited into your account for weeks of paid slackassery, while you are enjoying said slackassery, is truly the best.

Alas, it's over. And I am facing hundreds of work emails and dozens of meeting requests and close to 300 posts in my Google Reader... *sigh*.

And, now, you're giving me that look.

Okay, fine. Here's something I found mildly amusing. Your mileage blahblahblah.

We flew Continental from DC to Houston and from Houston to Puerto Vallarta and did the same gig in reverse when we came home. So we had four Continental flights. They were really everything you'd want in a flight: safe, timely, smooth, comfortable.

That said, every flight began with DVD screens flipping down and a message from the Grand Poobah of Continental, Larry Kellner, saying how great it was that we were flying Continental and how proud he was of Continental's outstanding record and who knows what else he said because everybody was busy craning around trying to determine if the stews were going to serve a snack.

Here's the good part, on the last two flights we took, the DVD screens would flip down and Larry would appear and start his spiel, and there'd be one screen that just wouldn't stay down. It would come down and go back up and come down and go back up, like it was on a cheap knockoff of Viagra, and this must have happened 20 times on the first leg back. Meanwhile, old Lar, is talking about technical excellence.

When it happened on the final flight, on a different plane from the last, I ignored the admonition that all electronic devices must be in the off position because the desire to capture the moment was overwhelming. The screen had been flipping about a dozen times by the time I got my camera going, and, alas, you only see the very end of the flippery but, heaven knows, I tried.

For you.

So let's see a little more gratitude and a little less disappointment, hmm?