Made it back to the Island. . . . barely. Gotta love the weather around here, moderate turbulence most of the trip, plus a few microbursts on the approach (nothing like the feeling of dropping a few hundred feet or so in a flash or an eye). Got back just in time for the snow! Would be great except I have to shovel and the office never closes (including nuclear explosions).

Spent two hours yesterday shovelling snow out of my driveway. There are advantages to living in an apartment. . . . After that, out to get groceries. As I was going down the aisles, I was thinking to myself, "for the next few weeks I'll be living like a poor University student again. . . ." Putting it into greater perspective: I have a house, two cars, 5 computers, appliances, and furnature. . . . something's not right here. I hate debt.

I see Chantal has found one of the more unsaviory parts of Asia. I know I mentioned it before, but Chinese (along with most other people in that region) will eat anything. . . . and I mean ANYTHING that's eatable. I often complain about people around here having a really limited palette. I'm not condoning the ingestion of dogs and cats, I'm just saying: if you can eat it and it doesn't harm you, what's wrong with that? The environment where it is taking place is rather scary, but have you been to a butcher shop or meat processing plant in North America? That's not a particularly pleasant sight either.