I told my mom about bacon salt. Since she's fretting about dad's cholesterol, that could be good (he had below normal readings until very recently, which is alarming.) Now she's shoving beans and oatmeal at him faster than he can appreciate (and there was NO CHEESE in the house, which I found alarming!) If he shopped for himself, he could complain or circumvent, but he doesn't. So he's in for a cheeseless existance.

Cashmere, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad your sister is there to look after your dad.

...

Yoga is hard! There's nothing odd about feeling sore after doing it! My part that's most likely to hurt after a really hard class is my abs. Freakin' multiple boat poses.

Wait, so I am going to have to remove my lipstick from my purse and put it in the quart ziplock bag? Oh, how dumb.

Lipstick is fine. A pot of lipgloss should be in the bag. Apparently.

I carry Vaseline lip balm – a deadly gel.

I'm pretty sure everything has to be in original labeled bottles.

Ohgodpleaseno. Because certain things, like my sunblock, don't come in sample or travel sizes.

No, I don’t think this is the case. If so, just buy a sample size of whatever at the drugstore for .99 and dump it out. The TSA doesn’t know the difference between CVS lotion and Chanel.

the conference website says it's pretty much equidistant from Dulles or Joey Ramone Memorial. The distance may be the same, but I thought I should check whether one airport is markedly nicer (or wretcheder) than the other, or whether one will be an easier drive to Falls Church. Recs?

I’ve never even heard of Joey Ramone Memorial. I’d definitely go with Dulles.

In my opinion, National is a much easier airport to deal with. It's smaller, and you can walk from one end to the other in a few minutes. Dulles has this crazy transport system which is kind of cool, but an enormous pain to deal with. I don't know about driving, but public transport is simple from National, and a pain from Dulles.

Dulles is MUCH closer to Falls Church, and your boss will not have the same traffic issues. yes, he will have to rent a car, but a cab from National can cost as much as a day’s rental.

So I met friends at B&N tonight before dinner. The 2 cool things about this were

1) I got The Psychology of Joss Whedon as a gift from my friend Shaun and
2) I saw Vampire People on their special features table!

JZ rocks!

Oh Cashmere, I'm so sorry for you and yours!

I'm back from the Catskills and if this headache would let up, I'd be up and raring to go. Must work on this. Surprising to me, I slept pretty well while on the couch at my aunt's.

May be going to Old Sturbridge Village today, which would rock. Even if it's cold and somewhat rainy, because that keeps down the tourists -- all the fun stuff is in the houses, anyway. Must go and see if houseguest (old college roommate) is feeling up for it....

Yay for timely arrival, Tom! It was fun to watch the plane on its way, but I went to sleep while you were over Wisconsin.

I’ve never even heard of Joey Ramone Memorial.

It's what a handful of people (long-ago Buffistas? Table Talkers? I no longer remember) adopted as National's real name once the name of the air traffic controller strikebreaker got attached to it. He deserves no airport memorials at all, while Joey Ramone deserves memorials of all sorts and has none.

Boss will have a rental car, so the drive out to Falls Church will be all him. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the area, so I'd rather go with whichever airport will have an easier/less confusing drive out.

Boss will have a rental car, so the drive out to Falls Church will be all him. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the area, so I'd rather go with whichever airport will have an easier/less confusing drive out.

I'd still opt for Joey Ramone Memorial. (I like that name!) It's way closer to Falls Church than Dulles is. Either drive can be confusing for the uninitiated.

I have no idea about the actual geography, so I just think it's hilarious that Vortex said National is closer and Bobbi said Dulles is.