Good Morning, 2012

I'm in a hotel - a residence type with a full kitchen - where the coffee cups are so small I pour two at a time so I only have to get up half as often for a refill. Which is to say, among other things, we found accommodations  over the last weekend of the year after spontaneously, and without any thought for planning or consequences, flew to Palm Springs just because we could.

We also found flights home which is good, I keep reminding myself. We flew down here using frequent flier miles and it cost fewer said mile to book two one-way tickets rather than round trip. With that logic, we purchased one-way tickets to Ontario, California, rented a car, and drove to Palm Springs and figured we could work out the rest of the details after we got here.

The details were this: all hotels were fully booked for New Years Eve and there were no available seats on any return flights.

Both aforementioned details have been resolved although it will take us three separate flights to get all four of us home. Our pilot friend goes home Monday on a commercial flight arranged by his employer. (He comes back on the 9th to retrieve the jet he flew down here and for a short while we considered just staying here.) He leaves last and flies direct so he'll be our ground transportation on this end. His wife flies out first with a layover in Portland. We fly out about an hour later but have a two-hour layover in Sacramento. We land in Seattle about the same time as the pilot. His wife will get home first so she'll take care of ground transportation on that end.

So far, the trip has been free. Other than food, that is. We used frequent flier miles to fly, and the pilot had points with a hotel chain reimbursable for the rooms. It's an interesting combination of austere extravagance.

So here we are, on the first day of 2012, drinking coffee from tiny cups and, now, watching football. I think there will be a nap by the pool in my very near future. Forecast is sunny and 77 degrees. I hope it remains that way for the rest of the year,