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I wanted to post some of the photos from my snowy Sunday with my parents. Here are some random shots from their backyard, more colorful birds, Sparky eyeing a feathery morsel, and some steaming mussels for good measure. (My mother made a really nice mussel dish, which started with steamed mussels that were then baked in their shells with garlic, bacon, herbs, and breadcrumbs….YUM!)

Honestly, I toyed with a number of titles for this entry. My flight home from Dulles was quite uneventful. And all the annoying stories I could tell you about Dulles Airport (don’t get me started), were washed away by my upgrade to First Class–FINALLY. Sooooo, I had to amuse myself somehow. Here were my working titles:

• “Fudge and whipped cream…”, which were the words of my very nice flight attendant as she offered me toppings on my ice cream dessert.

• “Grey crab cakes…”, which wasn’t quite the color I was expecting United to serve me…also considering that I had scrumptuous crab cakes at Clyde’s in Virginia this week.

• “Red wine and Baileys…”, neither of which the flight attendant allowed to let drop below half-glass the whole flight.

• “First class ass…”, for the clueless prick who boarded at the last minute with an enormous bag, ignored the attendants guidance that the overhead bins were full, and proceeded to open all of the bins in first class and acted shocked when they WERE ALL FULL.

Or my favorite subject: “I’m sure you could kill a man with a plastic knife…” And if not, then you do get real forks on airplanes…aren’t those good at poking? We could try them on the guy with the huge suitcase!

Can you tell I was bored? (Hey, they show the same crappy movie in First Class 🙂

Whatever…I am home again.

While the rest of the mid-Atlantic sits paralyzed awaiting the storm of the century, my folks and I ventured out to buy a new mouse for their computer and supplies to make one of my favorite dinners–fried chicken. My Dad makes an awesome fried chicken. While we were at the store, I saw a snack food I had never heard of: Red Velvet Bingles. Honest. Well, it WAS Food Lion!

This morning, I did take a more interesting picture of a Carolina Chickadee at the feeder. My folks have a dozen feeders of different shapes and sizes around their back yard. The one at the window makes for some cool close encounters.

Well, I was in McLean all week for a training class. I’m posting today only because I don’t want people to think I am dead.

Frankly, there is nothing to report. The class was excellent, but certainly not a subject for here (systems engineering certification, anyone?) My hotel stay was fine, but uneventful. I did get to have dinner with my dear friends Curt and Gretchen, but we didn’t exactly solve world hunger over margaritas.

So, instead, I’m reporting on what must be the deal of the century. As I was falling asleep this week, I saw an ad on several late night TV shows that burned into my subconscious. Not one, but TWO, quality Doggy Steps for $39. The doggies looked happy to me.

I’m sorry. That’s all I could come up with. I can’t even come up with a good rant like Curt 🙂

Today, I’m waiting for the Big Snow Storm. Uh huh.

Remember my mantra: keep it positive. This will be a challenge. On a full Airbus A319, Seat 24C is one of those lucky seats which actually has negative personal space. It is in the last row, on the aisle. So then, what are the positives?

Well, I’m facing my claustrophobia. On one side, a heavyset Russian man sitting in the middle seat next to me, his arm clearly over that narrow armrest. In front of me, a fully reclined seat not seven inches from my nose. Behind me, preventing me from reclining AT ALL? That’s right…the lavatory. And to the right…the never ending LINE for the lavatory.

The continuous lavatory line DID give me the chance to meet nearly every passenger, albeit at crotch level. Charming. For fun, I should have kept a list of who went #1 and who went #2.

…think positive…

Well, the constant B.O. from the two men next to me was whimsically covered every 5 minutes or so by a random scent each time the lavatory door was opened.

Another positive is that without any space in front of me, I couldn’t be tempted to open my laptop and do email or anything. So, I did get to listen to my iPod the entire way…oh, and an inflight episode of The Office, which was really good.

See? I can keep it positive.