I've seen Rosalind Chao around too--at the mall near my house. Now Scrappy and I are connected...

Was the HBO series Real Sex scandalous at the time? Bits of if feel horribly awkward, but really, they don't hold back on much.

Woo, flea, and Kat and Noah!

I am a confirmed flatlander, I will concede that my fondness for stickshift might not survive a lot of hilly driving.

Today has been quite a Monday, but I did manage to get to the gym and try running on a treadmill. Do not like - I think it was harder on my feet and knees than running outside, is that possible? Certainly less to look at and no little rewards of getting to landmarks along the way. I suppose having the option might come in handy if the weather gets really bad, though.

19 of 53 spindle tops primed. I've got about 90 minutes in me a night before I start getting that antsy feeling where I won't stop until done and not looking at pulling an all-nighter.

When I lived in Colorado, I had a '77 Subaru wagon and then later an '84 Toyota Tercel wagon. Both were manual, with selectable 2wd/4wd. I got decent gas mileage most of the year, and could trade that for decent performance in the winter. Manual transmission gave me more torque control options for both starting (you can't start out in 2nd with an automatic) and stopping (more effective engine braking).

My '94 Saturn was light and nimble and a lot of fun to take out on the twisty hilly backroads of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The manual transmission played a big part in that fun.

Currently I have an '05 Kia. It is fairly big and heavy, with an automatic transmission. It is more powerful than the Saturn was, certainly quicker off the mark and faster overall, but I can't call it nimble. It is a much better car for in-city traffic and interstate cruising than the Saturn was, and I enjoy taking it out over those same twisty country roads, but it is not as much fun as that old Saturn.

I am in South Africa (!!!) waiting for my next flight. Am so tired I might fall over.

Oh, but Dana, I did want to say, I was involved with a youth organization that had a lot of assemblies, and we were strictly forbidden from ever abbreviating it in any way...

Whoa! Jesse, say hello to the lions. (Of course they have lions in the airport, right?)

Seriously, I would have said the Johannesburg airport looked like a parody if it weren't real. Half the stores are called things like Out of Africa, there are "African proverbs" on the walls, the song I heard playing was about Nelson Mandela, there are statues of giraffes and I'm sure also elephants, etc.

Shit, I really just want to lie in bed now, but what I should do is shower and go to the office.

What time is it there? You must be at least 6 hours ahead of here, right? If you lie in bed just a little longer, it will be quitting time, right?

Yep -- 6 hours ahead, so it's just lunch time! I said I'd go by the office at 3. If nothing else, it might help me coordinate some dinner!