Smoke to Stiletto

Smokeland Airport's security line has a new poster. It is called "What an Officer Sees" when they put you in the new x-ray box. It's impossible to see anything -- except what appears to be an underwear line through a stick-figure haze. In other words, all your privates remain private, and if you're carrying a large round bomb with a fuse on it, as long as it is in your hands with the fuse lit, they are likely to catch you. Plottie feels so much safer now.

He's heading down to Stiletto for a quick trip, there is no problem that he knows of, but Southwest announced a one day sale a month ago so he got two tickets for out-Tuesday back-Wednesday. Then Ducknik got stuck-nik on Jury Duty and she can't go. It hurt to cancel a $90 roundtrip, but...

So Plottie is going this one alone. Maybe he'll talk his mom into getting a new computer which is Skype-capable. Maybe he'll sit on the sofa for two days. Somewhere in between, most likely.

Famed children's book author Nguyen Ghenghiz Cohen Gomez came over for dinner last night, after returning from her trip to Guatemala, Chiapas and Oaxaca. She is probably the only one the Plotniks know, other than themselves, who have such a throbbing travel gene. Plus, she had a little heartache to get over and it seems to have worked. All is well. She will turn her new novel into her agent at the end of March.

Ah, Stiletto. Plane arrived. Hasta la vista!