So, I woke up this morning with a bloody nose. I'm pretty sure it's because of the heater being on constantly for the past week or so, but I seriously hope it's not a portent of how the month will go. Of course, last month I woke up on the first in Toronto, which is of course unusual in the grand scheme of things, and it heralded my weirdest NaNoWriMo yet. So I'm a little jumpy.

Or is the bloody nose balanced out by the cute penguins on the page-a-day calendar (I think I want to move to Tasmania, now, if they have penguins that cute) and getting to change the normal calendar away from last month's depressing picture of Wallace eating celery?

( Holidailies Stuff Behind Cut. )

To absolutely no one's surprise, this month was the wettest month ever recorded in Seattle.

I think I ought just grow gills ...

So, it took 3.5 hours to get home yesterday. (On a normal day? Half an hour.)

But I dragged myself into work, because they have not seen fit to give me a laptop.

No-one else is here assigning me anything to do.

More time to write!

Downtown is totally and completely overrun with Packers fans.

Uh, Alex, call your minions back to your part of the country. Your mother doesn't need to be sending advance men quite this early.

There's a Lush going in at Westlake!

I've only waited, oh, ten years for them to put one somewhere that doesn't take all day to get there and back ...

I survived the flight. More details later.

It's snooooooooooowing!

(That's the sound my teeth make against the paneer that snug into my saag aloo at lunch.)

In other news, we're off for the Great Frozen North this evening.

During my merry chase around downtown, I ran into a couple teams from a corporate Amazing Race knock-off. There wasn't a snowball's chance that these were the real thing -- bright yellow vests, the clues didn't look right, and most importantly, there's absolutely nothing at 3rd and Pike of interest.

But that got me thinking. The chances of TAR 11 coming through Seattle are pretty much nil, but rumor has it they start filming SOON, like a day or two from now. And they often leave on Saturdays or Sundays. And TAR hasn't started or ended in Boston yet, have they? And we have a bit of a layover at Logan. We head out earlier than they usually arrive at the airport, but depending on flights ... you never know. I intend to keep my eyes peeled.

Poor J. Between looking for the kinetic sculptures and hunting for TAR 11 racers at the other terminals, he's going to drop dead of exhaustion when we finally get on the plane ...

Carrot: Can you hear me now?
J: What?
Carrot: I SAID, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
J: (pause) Apparently not.

Hey, Massport, would it kill ya to put terminal maps on your website?

All morning, Ive needed to sneeze.

But I can't!

It is very, very frustrating.

Apparently the rule of thumb regarding knitting needles and the TSA is "bamboo gets through". It's unfortunate, then, that bamboo needles drive me bonkers.

I think I need a travel icon.

Is today the International Sound Of Music day or something? Because it seems half my friends-list is quoting a song from it today, and I'm pretty sure it's people who don't all know each other.

More shoe updates. Put the heel cups in and wore them to Frys. So far, so good.

Went to Walgreen's after dinner and got some gel heel cups. They seem to work okay. Well enough that I probably won't need the new icon, which is fine, since I'm not in love with it anyway. I had in mind an animated one, but I don't have any animation software here.

The saga of the shoes continues. I think what I need is something that raises my foot a little in the heel area -- and, no, I don't just say this to be taller, if I wanted to be taller would I have only ever owned one pair of heels in my life?

At any rate, I think raising my foot even just a quarter inch would help.

Off to Fred Meyer after work, I guess.

(I wonder if I could use a "villainy brown shoes" icon.)

I don't <heart> my new shoes so much any more. They made my feet bleed. I still think they're cute, but the whole blood thing is Not Acceptable. I doubt they want them back with blood on them, though, so I'll either have to toughen up or pad the shoes.

Such is the excitement of my life.

I didn't get off at Pacific Iron, but I got the maple macchiato (sp?) anyway. Yummy!

They have "Peppermint Batty" candies at Bartell's! I just about squeaked!