No-fly list update

A great big thank you to the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) for taking us off the no-fly list. Loyalty apparently counts in a big way with you people. However, you forgot to pass the tidings of our newfound political legitimacy on to the security checkpoint, who frisked my wife and 11-month old son extensively. (Why, you ask? I'll give you a hint: it has to do with a certain metal part on a piece of clothing not normally seen in public.) Please make sure the patriotic guardians of our way of life with the blue rubber gloves get this message.

We are home safe from Seattle! We enjoyed ourselves immensely; Alex is apparently prone to the giggles in the pressurized cabin of a Southwest 737. Is it the peanuts? The weird blue decor? Anyway, he laughed and laughed for about an hour, then slept. Yet again people complimented us on having such a good baby. They're lucky it wasn't a longer flight. Sarah and I are pretty tuckered out from a long travel day, but happy to be home.

As a cap to the trip, I stole several books from my parents, including Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and theoretical neurophysiologist William Calvin's How Brains Think.

Next time: becoming rich and famous by learning how brains think.