Theo, I left the hotel at 515, my flight was at 630.

Our flight is pretty damn early tomorrow, though not as early as yours. We need to leave the house by 6:15 at the latest.

Wait, what is the conventional wisdom on how early to arrive for a domestic flight? I've been assuming 2 hours (which is something I picked up post-September 11). Is that too much? I haven't flown in years, so have things gotten a little less crazy? Is 1 hour okay? 90 minutes?

I wouldn't stuff a whole hunk in my mouth

Oh, god, I would, and do. I regularly give thanks to whatever brave soul figured out that stuff was edible and delicious.

Lamb is the meat my mom is most likely to sample if I order it when we eat out together - she's generally pescatarian, never really liked beef and doesn't miss chicken, but lamb she's glad to get a bite of on occasion.

Speaking of cheeses, I have been meaning to ask the hivemind: what cheese goes best with bacon? I am on a big mini-quiche for breakfast kick and am kicking around some "standard" combinations of flavors to stock up my freezer with. Sausage and cheddar with a half coffee custard. Canadian bacon and hollandaise for quiche benedict. Bacon and blue cheese and a half bloody mary mix custard. But I want a more basic bacon and coffee quiche and I want cheese in it, but what kind?

Wait, what is the conventional wisdom on how early to arrive for a domestic flight? I've been assuming 2 hours (which is something I picked up post-September 11). Is that too much? I haven't flown in years, so have things gotten a little less crazy? Is 1 hour okay? 90 minutes?

I think it actually depends on the airport/airline, but I never plan for much more than an hour. (Like, the worst-case regular traffic scenario would get me there an hour ahead.)

I generally plan 1 hour normally, 90 minutes for extra big or pain in the ass airports (O'Hare, LaGuardia, cities with super-awful traffic), and 2 hours for dealing with customs or super-complicated baggage.

Swiss is good, also blue or Gorgonzola.

Bacon and Cheddar! A restaurant here regularly puts sharp shredded Cheddar on their BLTs and it's so good! I think you'd want something strong, to stand up to the bacony-ness. Pecorino might be good, too.

I second the hour for the flight. And yay, San Francisco and the party pad for you!! FUN.

Airlines ask for two hours (and shuttle companies give even more), but even with the lines at LAX, I've had as much as an hour free, but usually appreciated not running.

I love these Star Trek nu/old face blends: [link] -- everyone looks hotter, pretty much, than either of the originals.

Swiss is good, also blue or Gorgonzola.

Strong cheese (mmmm stilton), red wine, and crusty french bread and I am a happy woman.

It is unlikely that I will ever eat lamb or goat, although I do like goat cheese.

Catching up here has resulted in hunger.

I love lamb. It's easily my favourite meat. It's far more readily available here than it is in the US, leaner cuts too. (The lamb section at the supermarket is about the same size as the beef section.)

I still remember the first time I had rack of lamb. I was 13 at the time, it was a dinner at the Australian Academy of Science (this rather distinctive building: [link] ), where they were giving out some high school mathematics awards. One of the best meals I've ever had, and it was made possible... with science!

I generally plan 1 hour normally, 90 minutes for extra big or pain in the ass airports (O'Hare, LaGuardia, cities with super-awful traffic), and 2 hours for dealing with customs or super-complicated baggage.

Hmmm. Our flight leaves at 9:15. The Delta terminal is big and "easy," as far as hub airline terminals in a big airport go. So maybe arrive at the terminal at 8:00?

We need to leave the car in long-term parking, so I figure we should allot 20 minutes for parking/unloading/shuttle bus. So a safe cushion would be to get to long-term parking at 7:30.

Best-case traffic gets us to the airport in 20-ish minutes. Normal traffic might be 30 minutes. But since it's during morning rush hour, I'm going to assume delays, although we are going against the flow of morning rush hour (most people will be coming north into downtown Cincy, rather than going south into Kentucky [after all, we are the city where the airport is in another state]).

So, flight at 9:15 means get to terminal at 8:00, means get to long-term parking at 7:30, means leave the house ideally by 6:30 but probably safe if we leave by 6:45. Sound okay?

(That still means we have to get up at 5 or 5:30, because last-minute shenanigans when we try to travel are unfuckingbelievable. I would say "There's always something," but it's more like "There's always a crisis, followed by a trauma, followed by something that was totally forgotten, followed by a last-minute project that MUST be done." It's pretty horrific, and why we almost never fly anywhere. Because flights have times that must be adhered to, or you don't get where you're going. At least when we drive, when we're 6 hours late getting out the door, we aren't missing a flight or anything. We're just late. As usual.)

(God almighty, if we make tomorrow's flight on time, it will be a genuine call-the-Vatican miracle.)