OutdoorType

Happy Thanksgiving! After the parts where Sam talks about exploring space, this might be my next favourite dialogue (Condensed a bit… Had to remove the also funny exchange between CJ and Toby about the Jamestown Mayflower Daughters of the American Revolution Preservation Soceity):

SAM
Well over three and a half centuries ago, strengthened by faith and bound by a common desire for liberty, a small band of pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs… and solve crimes.

TOBY
Sam…

SAM
It’d be good.

TOBY
Read the thing.

SAM
By day, they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs and by night, they solve crimes.

TOBY
Read the thing.

SAM
Pilgrim detectives.

TOBY
Do you see me laughing?

SAM
I think you’re laughing on the inside.

TOBY
Okay.

SAM
With the big hats.

TOBY
We are writing a very important Thanksgiving proclamation.

SAM
And possibly a new action-adventure series.

This scene sets up a later, rather more poignant scene, between the President and Charlie…

MRS. LANDINGHAM
How’d it go?

CHARLIE
I think I’ve got it this time.

MRS. LANDINGHAM
Well I wouldn’t get your hopes up, dear.

CHARLIE
Nope, this is a very good knife.

MRS. LANDINGHAM
He’s very particular.

CHARLIE
That’s one word for it.

MRS. LANDINGHAM
I heard that!

Charlie enters THE OVAL OFFICE.

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You kinda need the visual for this one and the ability to believe that though a highly educated woman and the White House Press Secretary CJ has never, ever seen a news piece about the President and his turkey pardons…

C.J.
Well, I’m gonna see what’s next for me in this week of unendurable Thanksgiving nonsense.

JOSH
Okay.

CAROL
Hey C.J.

C.J.
Hey Carol.

C.J. walks into her OFFICE, not noticing the turkey on her couch and the turkey on her desk. She’s looking over some papers and starts taking her coat off when she notices the birds.

CAROL
Oh yeah, the turkeys came.

Donna runs up from down the hall.

DONNA
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait… I’m coming! [enters] I didn’t know you were here yet.

C.J.
I am.

DONNA
The turkeys came.

C.J.
So Carol said.

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Leading up to the Big Day on Thursday I bring to you some of my favourite scenes from pretty much my favourite TV show, West Wing. Here’s a great bit between President Bartlet and his personal aid:

BARTLET
This time of the year there should be a hotline you can call with questions about cooking turkey. A special 800 number where the phones are staffed by experts.

CHARLIE
There is.

BARTLET
What do you mean?

CHARLIE
The Butterball hotline.

BARTLET
[pause, takes off his glasses and stares at Charlie]

Butterball has a hotline?

CHARLIE
Yeah. It’s an 800 number, the phones are staffed by experts.

BARTLET
Are you kidding me?

CHARLIE
No.

BARTLET
God, I’m sorry, I love my country.

My Twitter feed is locked (mostly – you can always see the latest in blog’s sidebar), so here’s a recap of this morning’s micro-live blogging of my early morning voting experience (in chronological order – times as of 5:15pm or so):

• Going to bed now (so I can get up at 5am, head to my polling place, and vote for Obama)   about 19 hours ago from MoodBlast  
• In line to vote, Burke, Va. First people arrived 4:55am. Guessing ~250+ ahead of me. Bailout time = 7:15, then I have to hit the road.   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator 
• http://piurl.com/iec : current location   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator
• http://twitpic.com/juyv – Guessing at least 100 people behind me in line.   about 11 hours ago from TwitPic  
• Polls are open! W00t!   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator 
• Temp=56deg (not too bad really). Parking lot & backup lot full, though 1st voters starting to leave.   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator  
• Still too dark to read out here, grabbed my headlamp but forgot it in the car. Three cheers for iPhone!   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator 
• New blog post: Part of the line to vote. http://tinyurl.com/5b3kcg    about 11 hours ago from Twitter Tools 
• In the building!   about 11 hours ago from Twittelator 
• New blog post: I voted http://tinyurl.com/69c9al    about 11 hours ago from Twitter Tools 
• Done! I was #147 E-K.   about 10 hours ago from Twittelator 
• New blog post: I voted http://tinyurl.com/5bno7t    about 10 hours ago from Twitter Tools 
• Bunch of McCain supporters in crystal city directly across from PNT. Shocker.   about 9 hours ago from Twittelator 
• Watching @BarackObama vote (for himself) on @CNN    about 9 hours ago from web  
• Got to pause the election fun and do work stuff at work now.   about 7 hours ago from web  

February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900) for the Gregorian calendar, which is most widely used in the world today. These are called leap years, and February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of that year. February 29 is also known as bissextile day or Leap Day.

There are only a few hours left in the day, so any ladies out there hankering to become betrothed (to me) need to act fast on the tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. Best as I can tell you really have nothing to lose… tradition states that “if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency (1 British pound = 1.9847 U.S. dollars), and a pair of gloves.”

p.s. I totally stole the “Happy Leap Day” idea from Katy…

Happy new year!, originally uploaded by outdoor_type.

No f’in way, originally uploaded by outdoor_type.

A few thoughts while I wait at the gate from today’s travels…

Airport Efficiency

This is the busiest travel day of the year, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting Washington Dulles International Airport.

I’ve flown out of here three times in the past 6 weeks or so and by far Veterans Day was the worst in terms of traffic, full lots, and long, long, lines at security.

Thanksgiving? Cakewalk. Today? Ditto. There was no line at the ticket counter, no live for the various security check points. In fact, this kind of caused a problem because unless you’ve got your act totally together and have nothing in your pockets before even entering the line you end up having to stop at the x-ray machine and stuff your bag full of your pocket’s contents. Normally you’ve got plenty of time to do this while shuffling along with hundreds of your newest, closest friends, kick pushing your carry-ons across the floor. Anyways, I’m not complaining. I just could have waited someplace else instead of here at the Z10 gate which is lacking in its amenities is all I’m saying. There, I guess I am complaining, but only a little. Things are too good is my problem.

Designed for Small Compartments

A US Air guy just walked up and put this ticket on my camera bag. No way am I checking it, even at the gate. Update: this is becoming a fun game… I took off the original tag. 20 minutes later he walked by and attached another tag! (which I promptly removed. again)

The bag is designed for small planes:

Airport Antidote
Legal carry on backpack fits all international carry on requirements, and fits into the overhead of very small planes.

After the jump, The Carry-On Conclusion, A One Wheeled Landing, and… Detained by TSA!

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Where You’re Going*

*unless you’re off to someplace much, much colder where snow is measured in cm.

Where I’m Going

Yes, there is some rain. And some cloudiness.  And it is all subject to change, but ~20 degrees warmer in December is not too bad. Oh and tomorrow, on the shortest daylight day of the year?… 33 minutes more daylight at Hilton Head!

Wow. Traffic sucks, originally uploaded by outdoor_type.

Even though I sacrificed and did my part for commuting-kind by staying off the roads until late morning (and um, sleeping in a little extra), traffic was still a big huge mess!

You know things are bad when you’ve been driving for about four minutes only to come to a complete stop well before any of the normal places that you might come to a complete stop.

Immediately after snapping this pic with my cameraphone I managed to sneak across a couple lanes to an exit. From there I worked my way through a series of back roads and managed to both avoid all major traffic arteries and not slide off the road (though there was one close call). I can report that the sign stating “Bridge Freezes Before Road” is very much true.

My commute took the same 40 minutes as it normal and I got to drive through some really pretty stretches of countryside. It’ so easy to think of the suburbs as tract housing interrupted by strip malls, but less than 10 minutes from my house are wide open spaces with horses. With the first layer of fallen snow it looked quite pretty and while I am already sick to death of all the many horrible commercials and bad x-mas displays, I do love the music and have to admit that more than one Christmas carol popped into my head as I drove through the woods and over streams and the dry snow blew about as if shaken in a small glass globe.