going to Scottsdale, Arizona
16:30 (EDT) I'm at Reagan National Airport (DC) waiting for my flight to Phoenix. I took the Metro (bus and rail) from home, and my only wait was for the first bus. Orange-line train rolled in as I got to the platform in Ballston, and the Blue-line train rolled in as I got to it in Rosslyn. No wait for check-in or baggage check. Inspecting my carry-on got their attention, because I was carrying my little chain-maille travel kit - 3 small pairs of pliers (5-inch, under the TSA's 7-inch limit) and lots of metal rings. I guess most people don't have 2 laptops either, but work no longer allows VPN access from non-corporate-owned computers, so I'll have to drag along their laptop to get to email and my desktop workstation (assuming I can get the VPN to work on it), even though I do everything else on my iBook, which runs Unix (and is what they hired me to do).
Most of us feel the reasons behind this trip are pretty stupid. Someone has committed us to doing something, and someone else added some criteria that we think are absurd. And there's a time deadline. The better and cheaper way to do this task can't be done by the deadline, so we're doing something much less suitable, much more expensive, and pretty inconvenient. We've got one team scheduled to be out there 2 days to set things up (coming back Friday), and a 2nd team going out next week to do a first round of testing and documentation. There will be future tests, probably not more than twice a year because of the cost and inconvenience/disruption. No one at the implementation level is happy with the vendor that was picked, and all the feedback we got from their other clients was negative too. But apparently we can't say this was an injudicious committment, and shift it 3 months. (Yeah, I think we could have done this the right way in just a few more months.)
The rest of the group is flying out of Dulles. One person lives in Falls Church, but he didn't realize in time that he could have requested National instead.
17:52 (EDT): In the air. Saw Dulles go by a little bit ago. Those video displays seemed like a good idea when they were introduced, but USAir has been using them to shove commercials at us. It's not enough to have that catalog in the back of every seat; they've got to hawk the catalog, and their mileage program, and their not-terribly-appealing $7 salad or sandwich or $5 snack box. anniemal heated up a couple of lean pockets for me before I left. I pulled out a pair of earplugs. They didn't really block out the commercials, but they seem like a good idea anyway, considering the level of background noise. (They'll make napping easier.)
3 hr time difference to Phoenix. (AZ doesn't use DST.)
In-flight movie: The Forbidden Kingdom. Jackie Chan, Jet Li; martial arts.
16:52 MST: The movie was pretty good, if you like kung-fu movies. It had the requisite comedic elements (pratfalls, slapstick, funny lines), good triumphed over evil (the Jade Warlord was killed, the Monkey King was freed, and the Jade Emperor set all things right), and a mystic ending. I was disappointed that my window seat is right over the wing, but I ended up having a very good view of the nearest screen. From my angle, people walking up and down the aisle don't block my view at all. The seating configuration here in coach is 3+3, and the middle seat on my side is empty. Earplugs and headphones seems to be a good combination. I need to turn the sound up louder, but that means I've got more signal over the background noise.
Most of the flight has been over clouds, and a good bit was in clouds. They are breaking up as we get farther west, and it will probably be clear in Phoenix anyway.
22:45 MST: Arrived in Phoenix, picked up my checked bag, found my way to Terminal 2 to meet the rest of the party, checked in at the Marriott Spring Hill Suites in Scottsdale, and stuffed with ravioli from Carrabba's. Maybe got a few good photos around sunset as we landed. (They will be here, eventually.) Just about to try using the WiFi.... Seems to be OK, maybe slow.