I just want beer vending machines

The good people of Minneapolis were, indeed, able to keep their airport running smoothly, so I arrived in Portland with little trouble. And I kinda figured if you had to pick an airport to go through right after a blizzard, it'd probably be MSP.

This picture didn't turn out as good as I hoped it would, but I guess that's what you sacrifice when you make your phone your primary camera. It's the first time I've seen an iPod vending machine, so maybe I'll try to get a better shot when I go through MSP again Tuesday.

The machine accepts only credit cards, and you can buy iPods as well as accessories. One row of Nanos was sold out, so I guess they do a pretty decent business. (Or at least they make it appear as though they do good business.) I saw two of these vending machines, and that was on just one concourse. If I remember to, I'll look to see how much they actually charge for an iPod.

As far as I can tell, these are not owned by Apple, but the natural thing, to me, would be to install an iTunes kiosk right next to the vending machine. So, Steve Jobs, feel free to send me a commission check.

As I predicted ...

At 1:12 a.m. EST, here is what the FAA's flight delays page lists for the Minneapolis airport:

General Arrival Delays: Due to WX:SNOW/ICE, arrival traffic is experiencing airborne delay between 16 minutes and 30 minutes and increasing.

I have just over six hours until my flight to Portland, via Minneapolis, so I may, indeed, be spending my Sunday in an airport lounge in a futile attempt to fly across the country.

My one glimmer of hope is my faith in Minnesotans' ability to remove large amounts of snow. So don't let me down, folks.

Wish me luck

I generally have pretty good luck when it comes to flying. I've only been stranded for a ridiculous amount of time a couple of times, and since I usually travel alone, I've had more than my share of good luck.

(And, yes, I've bored many of you with these stories before, so let me get them out there on the Internets and be forever done with them.)

Case #1: I was flying from Central New York to Philadelphia, and at the time there were no direct flights to Philly from my hometown on Sundays. So, when I got to the ticket counter and the agent noticed I was booked to Philadelphia via Pittsburgh -- just about tripling the usual travel time -- she took pity on me and rebooked me in first class.

Case #2: I was flying home to New York from Portland when I was in college, and my connection was at O'Hare. Upon check-in, passengers were told the Midwest was getting hammered by a blizzard and the flight probably would be delayed for many hours, if not canceled. This led most people to go home or try a different route. Having nowhere to go, I went to the gate.

About 15 minutes before the originally scheduled departure time, an agent came to the gate and said, "There's a break in the weather. We're leaving right now." So the seven of us who had had nothing better to do than wait at an aiport gate for an indeterminate amount of time got on a flight that not only departed early, but also provided us personal flight attendants. (For the record, we still weren't allowed to sit in first class.)

Case #3: I was headed to my high school reunion a couple of years ago, and thanks to some nasty weather somewhere in the country, planes were having difficulty getting to the Delta hub in Cincinnati. This, in turn, scuttled many departures out of Cincinnati. With my flight to Syracuse canceled and no room on flights to nearby airports, it looked more and more like I'd be spending the night at the airport.

I put my name on the standby list for the last flight of the night to Syracuse, but was told there were a dozen people ahead of me. When it came time for standbys to get their seats, we were told there was one seat left. But I, being the lone solo traveler on the standby list, got the seat. The lesson here: There are a lot of people out there who are nicer than me and wouldn't ditch their travel companions to make a flight.

Disclaimer: This isn't to say I haven't had bad flying experiences before. The one that springs to mind immediately is a trip to Pennsylvania last winter in which it took me eight hours to cover the approximately 65 minutes of flying time from Connecticut to Philadelphia, then Philly to central Pennsylvania.

The point: This is just a really roundabout way of saying that although I'm not seeing any potential weather problems for my flight to Portland this weekend -- which, if you'll recall, is solely for the purpose of attending an Oscar party -- I have visions in my head of watching the broadcast from a very depressing lounge at the Minneapolis airport.

That might, however, make for some interesting live-blogging material.

Best Picture? Your guess is as good as mine

Not only am I going to my first Oscar party this month ...

Not only am I going to be going cross-country for said party ...

But I have seen exactly zero of the movies nominated in the major categories.

Until I moved back East, I actually had been seeing movies -- in theaters, even -- on a regular basis. We had a nice little Movie Day group and everything. But then about three-quarters of the group got fed up with our employer and got the heck out of town.

Anyway, this party I'm going to is being hosted by the TV Goddess, who managed to sucker persuade me to go to her party with a lovely invitation.

(A couple of notes: 1. I should apologize on behalf of my cohorts for ditching the TV Goddess' Movie Day group. 2. Hey, TV Goddess, why am I going to an Oscar party at your place and not an Emmy party? Huh? Huh!?!)

So it looks like I have some work to do in the next nine days or so. Either that, or I could see none of them and then have a nice chuckle when I win the Oscar pool.

Let the payback begin

We're expecting our first significant storm of the winter in my neck of the woods tonight. It looks like it won't be too bad here; the latest forecast is predicting less than a foot of snow by the time all is said and done. Oswego County, this won't be.

But I broke down and had my snow tires put on today. As usual, I'm pretty confident in my ability to handle snowy roads; it's all the other morons out there who have me concerned. But the greatest thing? For the first time in all my years living in the Northeast, I don't have to worry about snow removal!

Last winter, my lease required me to shovel my own driveway -- and I didn't have covered parking, so that added to the hassle. So when I moved in the spring, I made sure to find a place that had covered parking AND snow removal. (Bonus: I don't have to pay for heat at this place, either.)

My bigger concern was finding my boots, which I mounted an unsuccessful search for a couple of weeks ago when we had a very minor storm. I resumed the quest last night and this morning, tearing through a couple of boxes and closets. I finally remembered that the probably were in my car's trunk, where I had stashed them with a couple of other last-minute items from my last move.

(Yes, that was in May. And yes, that's how infrequently I have a need to go into my trunk. I usually put the groceries in the back seat.)

Urf

I've always wanted to have a dog, but for various reasons -- small apartments, house with no yard, odd working hours -- have never been able to bring myself to go and get one.

Anyway, it's Westminster Dog Show time again, which means it's time for everyone to trot out their dog-related features. And, actually, there have been some good ones this year:

* Why we love dogs. [Slate]

* The case of the missing show dog, with a really fun animated package. [ESPN]

* An inside look at Westminster. [Deadspin]

* There's also a good story from a couple of weeks ago on designer dogs. But it's not free. [The New York Times]

But my favorite thing about Westminster (that is, other than immature giggling at hearing "bitch" used frequently on the telecast)? I can watch it in HD.

Career advice

You might recall that I recently broke my car with an amazing feat of strength.

Well, I got it fixed yesterday, and received further evidence that while having doctors, lawyers, etc. in your family sounds impressive, it's much more useful to have plumbers, carpenters and car mechanics.

Case in point: The part that needed to be replaced cost $24. Labor to install said part? $90.

I shouldn't have discarded those brochures I received from mechanic schools when I was applying to colleges.

Pardon me while I scream

My PC's hard drive died this morning. It was just over 3 years old. Those who knew the hard drive said it had been dying a slow death over the past year, and that it probably was happy to be out of its misery.

I had managed to pull most of the important files off the hard drive before today, but there's still some stuff on the drive that I would like to have. Before I beat the PC with a heavy object, I may try to fire it up again, but I'm not optimistic.

Fortunately, my new laptop arrived this afternoon, so I've been spending the past few hours getting it up and running. Also, it's been many, many years since I've used a Mac regularly (the last one had a whopping 40 MB hard drive), so any tips and/or suggestions are welcome.

Hope you're not hungry

Seeing as nothing interesting happens here -- well, we did get actual snow last night, though it wasn't much -- I figured I'd keep posting about my trip until I ran out of material.

Anyway, the biggest letdown upon returning was definitely coming back to the lackluster dining options around here. Pretty much every meal I had in Taiwan was excellent, and it's kind of ironic that the most expensive dinner I had also was the least satisfying. (Though it wasn't bad ... just not nearly as good as I had hoped.)

I had some amazing meals in, of all places, the gigantic food court in the basement of a vast medical complex. People in Taipei fill most of their leisure time with eating (or shopping), so there were plenty of choices. I have pictures a couple of meals, because in most cases I immediately stated eating when I got the food.

Also, the "fast food" meals are cheap. And I don't mean "inexpensive" or "reasonable" like travel guides might declare. I mean cheap. The pictured meals each cost less than $3 U.S.

As you can see, it's not high cuisine, but it's pretty damn good home-style cooking. And during my trip, that's pretty much what I was looking for.

There's also some pretty amazing stuff to be had from street vendors, but I didn't get shots of any of that stuff, either. Sorry, I'm a lousy travel blogger.

(If you're wondering, the first dish is noodle soup with lamb, and the second dish is beef and rice.)