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D-8 and counting.

Me Padre(MP) is having a significant natal celebration this weekend, so I'm back at the family homestead for the holiday weekend. A little down time and Battlestar Galactica will do me good.

Flying the day before Thanksgiving is never terribly smart, but given the other significant travel in my immediate future, I was not inclined to extend this trip. I don't know what it is with me and interesting trips through Seatac, but this one had its moments.

MP has a particular affection for the salmon pate from the grocery store formerly known as Larry's. Luckily, I have access to the one remaining location. I packed 2 4 ounce containers of the salmon around a pint of frozen Marionberry jam, and zipped them up with the bell from hell. Yes, I decided to buy MP a very large, very heavy windchime for his birthday. This sucker weighs at least twenty pounds and I was not looking foward to carrying it, but putting it in my luggage was guaranteed to throw my bag over the weight limit. Plus I wanted it to arrive in one piece.

Traffic was fine, and my preferred parking lot still had space. Amazingly enough, curbside and ticket lines were short. TSA has done one smart thing, they've put an officer out in front of the security line to answer questions about the 'liquids and gels' limitations. Which, it turns out, also applies to food. So I was left with the choice of tossing the salmon, or checking it. Of course, my checked back was long gone by this point. So I had to check the bell and the salmon in the large tapestry shoulder bag I was hauling them in. The curb guy was very helpful and put it in a large plastic bag, so I crossed my fingers that it would make it through in one piece and waved it off into the dubious care of the baggage handling system.

Let me point out the irony that once I was behind the security check point, I could go buy a small fortune's worth of Body Shop products and carry them right onto the plane, along with a sealed bubble tea cup of Kathy Casey's Pomegranate Lemonade. Go figure. Mmmmm, love Dish D'Lish. Mmmmmmm.

Oh, where were we? Oh yes. The state of modern airport Security *rant warning* All of this fun and excitement because of a plot that turns out to have been COMPLETELY OVERBLOWN and not technologically possible. *sigh*

At least this was a proof of concept that I can still carry my personal version of the Roaming Gnome, an EB waterbottle, as long as it's empty.

Of course, in the end the tapestry bag was fine. I wish I could say the same for my large rolling duffel. I clearly had a more eventful trip than I did, as it arrived on the baggage conveyer sans a significant section of structural strapping on the top. A week before the cruise. And when I toddled over to the luggage claims desk to report this, all I got was a 'We aren't liable'. Lovely. Thanks.

Luckly Costco came to my rescue and I have a new replacement with even more fun compartments.

Time to see if the howling of the windstorm will put me to sleep.

Tomorrow: Hopefully surprising MP with one of his b-day gifts.