But what if I could use my rewards points for...yeah, it sounds really stupid outside of my head.

I definitely understand the dilemma. How much does an economy ticket cost in cash?

I'm in the school that a Business/First ticket is very much worth it, especially on a longer flight.

Fucking hell. Orbitz is telling me over a grand. I haven't done any comparison shopping yet, but that's probably the basic arena. Wow! A decision just got made. I need to get my official PTO dates on Monday, and business class it is.

I remember the Shuttles vividly. But I had vested interests both times (family friend was an early shuttle engineer, so Shuttles were The Shit growing up.)

I totally geeked out with an engineer working on the MSL Curiosity while Lori was in a meeting. OK, we exchanged geekery. I still will be amazed if it pulls it off, because...wow, that's a complicated landing. But, still! And my budget eeked by another hurdle.

Clearly, I am home. Devi left the house ... fragrant with one of her episodic stomach upsets. Sorry Neighbor/catsitter! But she handled it with aplomb, I hope?

I entertained a 7 year old on the 3.5 hour flight with TMBG, Katy Perry and a Hubble app on my iTouch. Her poor mom was wiped, and it made the flight pass quickly. I really need to load more recent Hubble apps to my thing. Excellent PR as well as stranger-tainment.

Loki and Pumpkin are Really Very Seriously Interested in the borrowed bag. I'm guessing they smell the Pug, the garage cat.

ita. considering the timeframes and your triggers, I'd splurge. I'll admit I'm a cheapass traveler of the nth degree. But I've come around to avoiding redeyes, certain airports, extra stops and goddamn early flights for an extra cost. And for cross country, I buy SW's earlybirds just so I can get an aisle seat near the front (most of my flights are SW in country.)

Whew. Shit, I'm AWAKE. And have a 7 am wakeup.

I just made vegetarian gluten-free gravy for leftovers, and it tastes like gravy should. I feel like I made fire with 2 sticks. Seriously, I feel like a total badass.

Please share the badassery! I would love the recipe.

There is a brand of bouillon cube that is both vegan and gluten-free, called Not Chik'n, made by Edward & Sons. I got it at the regular grocery store, in the "Natural Foods" section (which is where all the gluten-free and vegetarian stuff lives). They come in a small flat box of 8 cubes; each cube makes 2 cups of broth: [link]

All I did was make the broth and then put it in a saucepan. Then I took tapioca flour (but you could also use cornstarch or probably rice flour or a GF flour blend), mixed the flour with a tiny bit of water to make a paste, and mixed that into the broth. I think I used a ratio of 2 tablespoons flour for every 1 cup of broth, but obviously you can tinker with that ratio, up or down.

Then I just added pepper and thyme and possibly sage, to taste, and heated the gravy on low heat until it was the thickness I wanted it.

Super tasty. Those faux chicken bouillon cubes are creepy in their verisimilitude. They really taste like chicken. I suspect dark majicks were used to achieve that.

(You can also use canned chicken broth if you don't need a vegetarian option; I use the Not Chik'n because Tim is a vegetarian. However, be aware that a LOT of commercial chicken broth has gluten, which is bullshit. I think Pacific Foods chicken broth does not have gluten in it, though. The Not Chik'n works perfectly for me because it hits the vegetarian and the GF needs in one tiny cube. It's also way more economical than buying cans or cartons of broth -- if you plan to cook with broth on a semi-regular basis.)

Thanks Teppy. Our coop has a brand of vegan not-chicken broth that tastes awful. I'll try this one. I have to cook for vegetarians and vegans on occasion and have given up using broth - just use salt. But there is a lot of stuff where something that tastes like chicken soup would be very handy.

Typo, I bet you can find it in a larger grocery store, and I know Whole Foods carries it. It's spooky how similar it tastes.

I've also found that a lot of recipes that call for chicken broth can be replaced with veggie broth. Obviously if you're going for a chicken taste, that won't work, but in a lot of recipes, the swap is easy (pot pie, for one).

I was checking for butter dishes (I really like butter dishes--I don't know what's up with that) on bedbathandbeyond.com, and I see that Fiesta Ware butter dishes are over $20. What's the deal with Fiesta Ware?

I'm watching Iron Man. I am so psyched for The Avengers, and not for the crazy reasons Dana is. OMG, Agent Coulson. OMG, alla y'all. Bring it on.

What's the deal with Fiesta Ware?

It's collectible. It's pretty, and useable, and the vintage folks like it because they made it in the 50s from the 30s to the 70s, and then stopped making it, and now it's come round again.

I've got a bunch of modern Fiesta ware that an online friend gave me, and I'd love to add to it, but yeah, it's not cheap, even the modern stuff. Love the colors, though.