Snow, Saori, Subscriptions

Woke today to find a blanket of snow over St.Louis. It snowed all day and its only now letting up, although the wind is still gusting something fierce. It really makes me appreciate the huge living room window to lay back on the couch and watch the wind whip up swirls of snow.

Something about the snow made me want to cook, so I baked some gingerbread cookies (ok, from a mix, but still). Not terrible.

Saori sent me an email letting me know she was coming in today and not tomorrow, so I spent most of the morning sweeping and mopping. I used a bleach solution for the kitchen and bathroom since I had some concerns about the growth of mold since we've been having so much flooding in those rooms.

I'm excited and nervous to see Saori again- yes, we saw each other over the summer, but I'm always a little afraid it will be strange to see her again, since we're not used to each other's company. It doesn't even seem real that I'm going to go pick her up in person.

On my flight over to the UK, I was looking for a magazine to read on the plane. Popular Science is nothing but glowing gadget reviews now, and Wired is also going that route, as well as struggling to capture the experience of the internet in a magazine format. Ends up being really frenetic. Even the architecture and design mags are half advertisements for contemporary plumbing fixtures, office furniture, tile, and carpeting. I'm not looking for something as involved as Foreign Affairs, but I want something that will last me more than half an hour to read. So I picked up a National Geographic. You know what? It's a really good magazine. I know I sound like a grandfather, but they've got well-written, in-depth articles, got good spread layouts and graphics, and the photography is superb. I just got a year long subscription. $15.

We'll see if I actually read them, but I think that it would be something nice to peruse before bed, or drinking tea in the morning. Worth a shot.