I made it to Miami with a minimum of trouble last night. My standard answer to "How was your flight?" has become, "Uneventful," which generally conveys the message that most flights are not particularly "good," but a lack of eventfulness is objectively good (mile-high club induction notwithstanding). I did have long distances to cover in short amounts of time at both the Detroit and Atlanta airports, and I was pleased that I was able to cover that ground without wearing myself out. Thanks, treadmills!

I also have to give a shout-out to the fine folks running the food service at Delta. Unlike all the other airlines I've flown on recently, they haven't given in to the peanut-allergy mob and started serving the lowest form of snack food, the pretzel. Delta provided both peanuts and Lance's Grilled Cheese Captain's Wafers. Add a Diet Sprite, and now you've got sustanence for travelling at 35,000 feet.

Jeff and Tom are at work today, so I've got the day in South Beach on my own. I spent much of it up until now just walking around. Two seconds after stepping outside I realize finding a pair of cheap, non-ridiculous sunglasses should be my first order of business. After a lot longer than expected, I found the type of low-end touristy store (as opposed to the 3 Sunglasses Huts I passed) I needed, and left with shades that were merely "more than I wanted to pay" rather than "ourageous," and merely "very ridiculous" as opposed to "amazingly ridiculous." I wisely remembered too that since I was in the subtropics for the first time since September, I should be able to get my first decent smoothie since September.

Beyond just good smoothies, South Beach reminds me of L.A. in a lot of other ways as well. Demographically it's very reminiscent of West Hollywood: disproportionate numbers of (in no particular order) tourists, gay men, Hispanics, Hispanic gay men, and old Jewish couples. Oh yeah, and more art deco accents than you've ever seen in your life. I also expect it'll be more fun than last year, because Jeff's here now and because the weather is much better. In fact, I'm already working on my starter burn!