Tikkabik

I'm in my usual pre-trade show mode of making sure everything's in order before I hit the road.

Two things I do to minimize stress while I'm away: A) Stock the house with easy-to-prepare food so Bonnie doesn't have to do a lot of cooking while I'm gone. Prepared foods are important. Meals-in-a-box and heavily processed frozen things that aren't very healthy, but are easy to make, rule the day.

B) Get the car serviced. For a while -- a stretch of about two years -- every time I'd go on a trip Bonnie would call to let me know that something bad happened to the car. An accident once, a breakdown another time, and so on. So now, I always make sure to have anything obvious fixed before I leave, so I don't have to worry about it. This time around, I discovered a slow leak sapping air from one of the rear tires, so I had them replaced today.

I also dropped off my olde PowerBook G3 at the shop today -- it's a short walk from the mechanic's. The thing hasn't been booting lately and I can't figure out why, so they're taking a look. I don't actually need it; it's largely relegated to use by Bonnie when she wants a quick game of solitaire while watching TV, so it's no priority. But it gives me a good chance to check out Mac/PC Sales & Service's tech department.

Tomorrow I take the train down to NYC. Whee.