If you visit New Orleans be warned - when one light turns red, the other direction turns green immediately. I mean, IMMEDIATELY. So don't be running those red lights.

Yellow lights in Chicago last three seconds. Until that fully registered, I accidentally ran a fair number of reds.

DC used to have periodic crackdowns on jaywalking; now all traffic is pretty much free-form (I do with they'd get the pedicabs off the sidewalks). Years ago they'd announced an enforcement campaign, with ticketing, and I was walking somewhere with my boss. We got to the corner, the don't walk sign came on and I stopped. He charged across the street and, yes, got a ticket. I waited for the light to change, crossed, then waited for him to get his ticket. Schadenfreude, anyone?

There's a puppy on his back!

This weekend I will be sewing the women's clothes for the show I am working on. I hope. I also have a rash, so if it is too itchy I may not be able to.

Atlanta tickets for jaywalking, mostly downtown. There have been various campaigns to try to make Atlanta a more walkable place. Most point out at some point that Atlanta's most famous author died after being hit in a crosswalk.

Man, I would love to have you out here for the big cosplay con. It's ridiculous fun. Plus, you as Fun-Ghoul would be amazing.

When is it? My brother's in Seattle and has been pestering me to visit.

At Chez Zmayhem we're watching Justice League Unlimited (Batman just sang "Am I Blue"), while Matilda also explores an exciting Dinosaur game on the Sesame Street site. (She's really getting into it and it's got real scientific background. It goes on for quite a bit with many different fossils as she digs up the bones and they are assembled and she learns about them.)

Just made smoothies and now cornbread. Cheap food for the win!

It's gorgeous outside but I'm having a hard time getting Emmett into direct sunlight.

(Batman just sang "Am I Blue")

Is that the episode where Circe sings "Lulu's Back in Town"?

When I visited New York, I loved the fact that it was so non-tourist friendly. Sure, there were tourist maps and tourist buses, but if you were out on your own, you were on your own. I was walking up 5th Avenue and quietly gloating "It's real! It's all real!" and I looked over my shoulder and saw Rockefeller Center. No signs, you found it or you didn't. I did see some glares of "This is my lunchtime deli, noob, get your butt out of my way," but I didn't personally witness any active displeasure. I was assumed to be a local on the subway, though, because I pointed some lost tourists in the right direction. When I said, "No, this is my first time in the city, I just read the signs," they looked both pleased and disappointed. Possibly because that was one less lost tourist to gloat over.

I've never found NY to be not friendly to tourists. But then, I'm not sure what the baseline is. Is DC tourist friendly? London? LA?

Aside from Nassau, which was going out and grabbing tourists and forcing them to be happy, or Mombasa where they were apparently shooting them, I haven't really assessed many places as markedly cold or friendly.

I'm out of the office for a day and a half next week, and I'm predicting here and now that nothing will get done on any of my projects in my absence. I've sent out the emails, I've had the conversations and it's the same "please stop talking to me" blank looks and assurances before I've finished saying what I'm asking for.

This is so frustrating, and I can't work out how to shake it all loose.

I think New York is more impatient with tourists when they block the sidewalk and take too long to order in the delis. New York knows there are wonderful things to see there and is glad to show off.