Maybe, baby...

Kerri flies off to Washington tomorrow, and, if I can find an airfare cheap enough, I'll join her. This is a big IF, but I'll be beating down the doors at Flight Centre in a few hours to see what they can do for me.

Assuming I go, I'll be spending a week at leisure while Kerri sits in at a couple of conferences. I'd be looking at seeing as many of the "big ticket" attractions as I can. The Smithsonian, White House, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington Monuments. Arlington Cemetery. A week should be enough to whizz around the highlights.

Quite possibly there's a book in it.

If it comes off, I'll have to pack in a hurry, register a bunch of books, see what I can do about bringing my laptop into some sort of synchronisation. resqgeek tells me that it's a cold old hole at the moment and not looking terribly promising for a while. Have to pack my heavy leather jacket, get a coat of dubbin on my boots.

Kerri's flying over the North Pole via Seoul and it looks like her flights are full. United can get me there earlier, like Friday evening Washington time, and what with taxes and insurance, I wouldn't be looking at much change from $2000. Way past time to book via the web - I need someone who can print tickets on the spot.

More later.

I can't believe it!

I'm going to wake up and pinch myself soon, but the facts show that I've bought my tickets to Washington, leaving tomorrow, and I'll be there for a week in the bitter cold. I arrive late in the evening of the 21st - have to find my way from Dulles to the YHA for a night before Kerri arrives the following day. Sunday night is dinner with one of Kerri's old workmates and apart from that I'm free until Friday 28th. Saturday morning I fly out to Los Angeles, where I spend ten hours before getting on my flight home. Probably go for a wander through Santa Monica or something.

I have flights to and from Canberra, and window seats for three of the four big flights, including the two over the US.

I'll do a bit of Bookcrossing in Washington, and maybe see a Bookcrosser or two.

I've got a Washington guidebook, which I will study on the way over, hoping to make some sort of list for things to do and write about.

Lifted from wirigerie

Post this list of Blender's 50 Worst Songs of All Time in your journal and bold the songs that you actually like.

1. We Built This City ... Starship
2. Achy Breaky Heart ... Billy Ray Cyrus
3. Everybody Have Fun Tonight ... Wang Chung
4. Rollin' ... Limp Bizkit
5. Ice Ice Baby ... Vanilla Ice
6. The Heart of Rock & Roll ... Huey Lewis and the News
7. Don't Worry, Be Happy ... Bobby McFerrin
8. Party All the Time ... Eddie Murphy
9. American Life ... Madonna
10. Ebony and Ivory ... Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
11. Invisible ... Clay Aiken
12. Kokomo ... The Beach Boys
13. Illegal Alien ... Genesis
14. From a Distance ... Bette Midler
15. I'll Be There for You ... The Rembrandts
16. What's Up? ... 4 Non Blondes
17. Pumps and a Bump ... Hammer
18. You're the Inspiration ... Chicago
19. Broken Wings ... Mr. Mister
20. Dancing on the Ceiling ... Lionel Richie
21. Two Princes ... Spin Doctors
22. Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) ... Toby Keith
23. Sunglasses at Night ... Corey Hart
24. Superman ... Five for Fighting
25. I'll Be Missing You ... Puff Daddy featuring Faith Evans and 112
26. The End ... The Doors
27. The Final Countdown ... Europe
28. Your Body Is a Wonderland ... John Mayer
29. Breakfast at Tiffany's ... Deep Blue Something
30. Greatest Love of All ... Whitney Houston
31. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm ... Crash Test Dummies
32. Will 2K ... Will Smith
33. Barbie Girl ... Aqua (Come on Barbie, let's go party!)
34. Longer ... Dan Fogelberg
35. Shiny Happy People ... R.E.M.
36. Make Em Say Uhh! ... Master P featuring Silkk, Fiend, Mia-X and Mystikal
37. Rico Suave ... Gerardo
38. Cotton Eyed Joe ... Rednex
39. She Bangs ... Ricky Martin
40. I Wanna Sex You Up ... Color Me Badd
41. We Didn't Start the Fire ... Billy Joel
42. The Sounds of Silence ... Simon & Garfunkel
43. Follow Me ... Uncle Kracker
44. I'll Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) ... Meat Loaf
45. Mesmerize ... Ja Rule featuring Ashanti
46. Hangin' Tough ... New Kids on the Block
47. The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You ... Bryan Adams
48. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da ... The Beatles
49. I'm Too Sexy ... Right Said Fred
50. My Heart Will Go On ... Celine Dion


What does this actually say about me?

It says that I could do a better job of picking 50 of the worst songs.

It's bloody hailing here in Canberra. The carport is flooded again, and it's going to look awful for two weeks because I won't have time to clear it up before I go.

Timetables

OK. First up I'm keeping a journal of my Washington adventure. I'm going to try to get people I meet along the way to write in it, and I'll use facing pages for ticket stubs and such.

My ticket and packing and reservation process has gone smoothly. Expensive, but smoothly.

Kerri dam' near had a heart attack a couple of hours back. She looked at her e-ticket confirmation and realised that somehowinstead of the Korean Air flight over the pole she thought she was taking, she was somehow booked on Qantas for about $6000 extra. Money that hadn't been approved and if spent would cripple her section budget for the rest of the year. She was beginning to panic, thinking that maybe she wouldn't go at all, and I was starting to think that I might be going by myself and staying in a hostel bunk bed for a week.

Eventually she found someone to ring up and managed to get it all sorted out. She's still flying Qantas, but economy rather than business - a considerable saving. On the way out she's taking the same flights as I am, but a day later, and on the way back we'll actually be on the same plane across the Pacific. With any luck we'll be able to sit together.

So until that was sorted out, I couldn't book my first night's accomodation. I had been planning to stay at a hotel near the airport and meet her on arrival at 1000 the next day, but as now she isn't getting in until 2036, then I shall stay at the youth hostel - cheap and cheerful, just the way I like, and migrate over to the hotel about lunchtime Saturday to wait for her to turn up later that evening. We have four nights at the Marriott before heading over to Arlington Hyatt. I think Kerri gets the Sunday off, but she might need it to recover after the flight. Usually she pulls up OK after a long haul flight in business class, but DD indicated a wooden kitchen chair by way of illustrating the comfort levels in economy.

OK. We're all sorted now. I've got my bag packed, my backpack is reasonably complete, and I just need to finish registering these books. And to sort out what's going on the computer.