The price of gasoline sure ain’t getting any cheaper. Here in the Bay area, gas is over $3 per gallon. Crazy expensive. Thanks to the high fuels costs, all the airlines have now implemented new weight restrictions for economy class passengers. For United, Air China, and a host of others, international economy passengers are now limited to two 23-kg bags. Yeah, apparently weight limits don’t apply to first class, and those bastards get three bags per person.

For us po’ folk, 23 kg is down from 34 kg (~75 lbs) two years ago. I know, 34 kg is a lot of shit, and 23 kg still isn’t too skimpy. But come on, we’re US born and raised. No matter how we try to minimize, we’re still overconsuming asses, even if most of our weight goes to the books (well that and John’s clothes). Yeah, we’re nerds, especially John. We’ve been schlepping his computer books and Bukowski crap back and forth. Me? I OD’d on books a long time ago (this may explain my gradual intellectual decline post grad school…). At present, I just “read” picture books. That and dog care books.

Anyway, the good news is that I made it to California ok. United sucked: the flight was completely booked, and service was the usual bullshit. The ride was also unusually bumpy and turbulent. But hey, on the bright side, the flight was only 11 hours, and at least we weren’t flying to DC (that would require another 5-6 hours). Poor Remy and Martin though. I think Remy stayed pretty calm. Her bed was dry. Martin, I think, freaked a little, as he dribbled some in his bed.

Oddly enough, when we went in for landing, just as the wheels were about to hit pavement, the pilot cranked the gear up a notch and suddenly, we were angled upwards again. Within minutes, we were above the clouds. Wtf! I started getting a little nervous. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the co-pilot got on the mic and explained that another jet hadn’t cleared the runway. We needed to circle and re-attempt landing 15 minutes later. Whew!

We touched ground around 8:45 AM. Since I had checked in super early (3 hours ahead) with the dogs, my bags were among the last ones out. The dogs took forever to appear too. On two Smartcarts, I had two big-ass crates plus two maxed-out suitcases. It was a lot to handle, but I’m tough and those trips to the gym paid off. Arrrrr! (I’m doing my Hulk flex now). Yeah, surprise surprise: no one offered to help me (god forbid the TSA peeps break up their chit chat circle in baggage claim), so I had to leapfrog the carts every 50 meters. Took a damn eternity getting to the airport exit. And customs confiscated my large ziplock bag of dog food. Oh well, after surviving like 15 hours in a crate on a really rocky ride, I’m sure runny shits (when dogs switch diet too quickly) is the least of their worries. Anyway, my babies are living the good life now: not even two days in and they’ve visited the dog park and gotten plenty of Greenies.