Howdy from Michigan!

Alana and I had a wonderful day yesterday just hanging around together, without needing to be anywhere at any place. Unfortunately our weekend was cut short because I had to fly off to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Actually I'm training in Plainwell, Michigan, but I'm staying in Kalamazoo.

Here's a warning: never use Sears Auto Center! At least never use the Sears Auto Center in Monroe, LA. Alana asked them if they knew how to reset the maintenance light on the Corolla before she had the oil changed. They said they did... and then it turned out they didn't. When she got home she found that the car is leaking oil. They did this twice before on the Tracker. The first time they apparently forgot a gasket. The second time they had to replace the plug. The plug was stripped that time, but it was unclear if it was something they did or something that was wrong with the 5 year old Tracker. The Corolla is a new car so there should be no problem with the plug. Idiots. Alana is going after them this week. I would hate to be on the receiving end!

While we're talking about incompetence, just before Alana told me online about the car I got a warning message about a trojan trying to access the laptop. It must be on the hotel's network. There's no excuse for this sort of thing. I mean, the laptop's virus scanner caught it! There's no way a server should have missed something that the laptop caught!

Just as an aside, I ate supper at an Outback in the airport in Cincinnati. They served their meals with metal cutlery. They've apparently only been doing this for a week. After 9/11 they had to give people plastic cutlery. Considering how hard it was for me to cut through my steak (it wasn't tough, but Outback insists on small, thick, sinewy steaks; I actually ate there hoping for lamb) I can't imagine using plastic knives and forks.

One thing did go right today. None of my flights were delayed and the flights were actually pretty pleasant... or as pleasant as they can be for someone who is not a major fan of flying.