Man, what the heck is the deal with so many of the holier than thou right wing blogs? As if none of them has ever written an angry tirade and dropped a couple of f-bombs? What-everrr! People who live in glass houses, etc… I have to admit that the overuse of expletives in a blog post can detract from the message the writer is trying to convey by turning the reader off so that they don’t finish reading your rant. Still, there is a certain level of outrageous disgust at the things the wingnuts do that may prompt the level of language that matches the anger you’re feeling. Well, anyway, I’m pretty sure I won’t be hired by any presidential campaign to blog on their site, so I’m not too worried. 
Anyway, back to travelling again after almost a month off. I had to head up to New York for work this week, in part to be reminded what winter was really like. While the wind was whipping on the streets of Manhattan and the thermometer was stuck at 15 degrees, it was sunny and warm in Austin, with the high in the 70s. I was at a career fair at NYU, and happened to be in the front room, fairly close to the door. It was pretty blustery inside the building most of the day. The good part of the trip was being right on Mulberry Street, and heading into Little Italy, or what’s left of it, for dinner after the career fair. Luna, one of the restaurants on Mulberry St. that Nhut and I went to a few times, was closed for good, but I found another one, and enjoyed the Calamari Marinara. Oh, and I’m sure the cannoli I had for dessert was low fat. 
Heading into the security checkpoint at American’s terminal 9 at JFK they have two lines, one for main cabin, and one for First Class, and elite level mileage awards customers. I guess the assumption is that the First Class/elite line will have less people in it and take less time to go through. Well, you know what happens when you assume. That line is also for crew, and vendors making deliveries, and special needs customers in wheelchairs, and… well, no time saved.
I did actually get to spend one night at home this week before heading back out again, this time on a short vacation. We’re headed up to Mont Tremblant, Canada for a couple days of snowboarding with our buddies from Toronto. This was a FF award trip, and for some reason when I made the reservation, there were no seats available that didn’t include one of us sitting in a middle seat between Austin and Chicago. Nhut was getting all grumpy with me about it, but hey, the miles were coming from my account, and I wasn’t gonna be sitting in the middle, !snap! Anyway, by the time they closed the door, nobody was sitting next to us, and we got to spread out a bit. phew! Don’t need to be dealing with an angry Nhut on a cold snowboarding weekend! 
We have a really short connection in Chicago, and we’re hoping our bags make it to Montreal with us. There’s not really going to be time for us to grab any food in Chicago, and they don’t feed you in coach on AA unless you want to buy a snack box, so we picked up some sandwiches from Schlotsky’s in Austin. Low blood sugar is bad, mkay? Especially for two.
I actually packed three snowboards this trip, two of mine, and one of Nhut’s and I will spend some time giving a lesson to one of the guys who will use my old board. I had some cold weather wax, and applied a coat to all three boards with the hot iron last night before we left. My snowboard bag is big enough to fit all three boards, two pair of boots and my hot wax iron and tools, although I did have to leave one set of bindings off the old board, and will assemble once we arrive.
