Today I will mostly be...

...watching crap TV and doing as little as possible.

This is actually quite hard as I've a suitcase full of junk and the living room is a right old mess 'cos of the repairs to the massive hole that was made in the ceiling due to the shower leaking.

I've been playing with BT (naughty I know) and now have caught up on BSG (bit of a weird disconnect there from the last episode I watched, but nice to see Lucy Lawless in something else and also nice to see she'll have to come back again). Just waiting for SG1, Atlantis and Lost to catch up on.

M just called to say she was safe in Frankfurt but that Lufthansa business class had sucked. The seat was comfortable but not a bed and the choice of 4 (count them!) movies was awful, especially as 1 of those was a German language cut. BA Business Class rocks, it really does.

I was going to go shopping but I have concluded that (a) I'm tired and (b) the freezer will provide (as I remembered to stock it full of instant meal options before I left) - so in a minute I am going to drag myself all the way to the garage for a Sunday Paper, some Diet Caffine and maybe a delicious but certainly un-nutrious snack.

Other Stuff...

Readings:

Karen Travis: City of Pearl and Crossing the Line - good first contact stuff, well written, page turners. Looking forward to the next. I moderated a panel with her at Interaction and thought the story sounded good. It was. Recommended.

Eoin Collier: The Opal Deception - I actually think I prefer the Artemis Fowl stories to Harry Potter. Much tighter writing and a better handle on emotion. Hardly classics but a great airplane book.

Jon Courtney Grimwood: Lucifer's Dragon - was actually a little disappointed with this one. I think it is an earlier one and it just doesn't flow quite as well as the others I've ready.

Watchings:
Finally saw the Hitchhiker movie. Not as bad as I expected, not as good either. Not sure that a movie was ever the right medium.

House of Wax: Watched this on the plane. Actually quite good fun. The best teen horror/slasher movie I've watched in a good long while. Only real gripe, Paris Hilton's death was just too easy.

Man of the House: Generic comedy, good beer and pizza movie.

Poker
M gave me a Poker set for my birthday and we had an inter-company poker night in Seattle. Came 3rd, really the cards were not running for me - I went all in with two pairs (9s and 4s) into what I was pretty sure was a no better hand. Sadly it was, although it was a close run thing (9s and 8s). Good fun though. Might have a Poker night at Chez O'Neill some time.

Instructions that make me go Hmmm?

On the side of frozen food... cooking from chilled - 40 minutes. Cooking from Frozen: Defrost completely then cook for 40 minutes.

Ummm... surely it would be more logical to say, do not cook from frozen?

Bloody VISA! Bloody Natwest...

So I checked my account online today and noticed that one of my Credit Cards had vanished. I called them and they said they had suspended the account because of "suspicious" acitivity. What was that you ask?

Oh, easy... they bounced my Worldcon Membership and didn't tell me.

Now I have to tell them, and sort out a bunch of stuff.

This is why the card is virtually never used regardless of the insane limit they have given me. I travel a lot and basically the Visa fraud management system is bloody awful if you do anything that isn't in an easily established pattern. American Express handle it much better. If they have a problem they move heaven and Earth to get hold of you and double check, but I've never had the card suspended while somewhere "odd".

On the subject of "odd" - it's 90% certain my next US trip is the week after next. Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle - this will be a real whistlestop, so I can't say if I'll be around to catch up with people.