shapes, or, opposites attract

or, how to entertain yourselves on the métro...

SQUARE

ROUND!!

S is for SOLDES

SOLDES :: sale!!

the state sponsors two sale periods a year in france, one in january and the other in july (though this year there has been an increase, thanks to wall street's complete disregard for reality). we picked up a black suit for knox at a pretty decent price, and i got a new skirt for 15 euros! not a great score, actually, but it's still cute. by the time they do third markdowns, you can get all kinds of stuff for 70% off, but by that point, it's mostly the dregs. and never in my size.

R is for en retard

en retard :: late

travel plans this holiday season took us through chicago's o'hare, which has now replaced atlanta's hartsfield jackson in our book as the #1 most obnoxious airport in the country. it is to be avoided at all costs, particularly when flying in from europe during winter. sadly, we knew this already thanks to a christmas travel nightmare a few years ago that saw ol' LB break down in tears in the security line... but we'd forgotten, the vivid memory of atlanta's shockingly stupid design and uber-irritating security practices still dominating our "hated airports" top ten.

anyway, o'hare is back on top for now, thanks to the ONE dude working passport control, the only food option - chili's - which nearly put us both into sodium-induced shock, the hours we waited for a flight to philly after ours was cancelled - in vain - and the inane 24-hour news cycles that run non-stop in airports, that have been gloriously absent from our lives for the last year and a half, and which fill me with nasty, violent, humanity-loathing thoughts within minutes.

it wasn't actually ALL o'hare's fault. that genius on the 12/25 detroit flight made us 3 hours late getting out of paris... and then there was the snow, for which, technically, chicago is not to blame. but i still hate that place.

landing in chicago and pulling into the gate. ice on the wing already.

knox has gold status and could have gotten on this plane, but his low-priority, economy-class wife dragged him down the stand-by list. (you can see in the background that they're de-icing another plane - always an unnerving experience for a couple of texans!)

instead of going on to philly, we spent a night in an airport hotel, as did all these other poor saps. the shuttle scene was a total disaster, with people clawing and scratching to get on the one 15-seater that turned up once every 30 minutes or so. watching this unfold was almost as depressing as CNN.