I am honestly defeated by the idea of spending $1200 at the very cheapest every time I want my family to visit my relatives (who all live in the same city.) But it's a 19 hour drive. What the hell are we supposed to do?

I will say that although most flights I have been on these last 6 years have been cramped, and I often end up shoulder to shoulder with a stranger (I always get broad-shouldered men - I don't sit next to mr. flea because we usually are 2 and 2, one each with a kid.) But surprisingly I almost always get very friendly people, and when it's men, they are almost always parents of small children themselves, so are extra solicitous about helping with drinks and snacks and potty trips. For all that airlines suck, the world has some really nice people in it. Or possibly I sacrificed a goat to the elder gods of air travel.

I had no idea American Airlines was doing that. I've had airlines try and convince me to spend more money for more legroom upon checkin, but that's not really a problem I have.

And I admit it seems weird to pay to keep someone else out of my seat area.

Seems I have whinged enough to get a coworker from across the building to bring me Thai candy to my desk whenever he comes over this way. I was really just teasing him about it. But it is good candy. And where he sits is the boonies now that we've moved seats.

Data integrity issues make no sense. I was hoping to be able to reverse engineer what she did to give me the data I got, but for the life of me I cannot make head or tails of it.

So I lapse into quoting TV shows at myself and enhancing my doodles. Brain melty.

Skiing looks like fun. I'm not sure how I'd do at it, though -- I've only tried it once, when I was about ten.

I hate flying. I don't mind the actual flying, but I hate the airport, the getting to the airport, the delays, the stress, blah, blah, blah. Most places I need to go are within a 10 hour drive, so I just drive. Frankly, it doesn't take any longer with the driving to the airport, going through security, etc.

Once, when I was a kid, I went to the Lake Placid toboggan run. It's the ski jump ramp from the 1932 Olympics, and you slide down it on a toboggan and then shoot out across the frozen lake. That was a ton of fun, and much easier than skiing.

Now I want to go to Lake Placid to go on the toboggan again.

I have a Grey's question from a couple of season's ago because I stopped watching and now I'm catching up on Lifetime.

Was Izzy seeing Denny because she had brain cancer and it was the cancer that was causing the hallucinations?

Nevermind. She just told me herself.

Yes, Aims. Also, he was there to tell her she was dying. Or some crap like that. Not Shonda's finest moment.

Yeah. That's why I stopped watching. But then I got season 1 and 2 for Christmas and I got the love back, so I'm trying to catch up and get all the love back. But it's kind of hard because it seems that these strong, awesome women that I loved have turned into ... well, big old girls. Except maybe Lexie cause she just broke Sloan's dingdong.

I have been able to love Cristina the whole way through, so I kept watching. Bailey--they wobbled with her a bit, but she's been in fine form this season, so that's great. Callie's pretty decent, too. Of the men, I only really like Owen and one of the new guys whose name I can't remember. Oh, and I go in and out on Alex.

I need to return all these duplicate DVD gifts and buy the rest of the seasons, don't I?