As far as I can tell this avacado pit is just rotting. It certainly isn't growing any roots. Where did I go wrong? Submersion level? Air temperature? Amount of sunlight? Does this make me a bad person?

Wi-Fi at Penn Station. Let me tell you something, Washington National Airport. Penn Station is a dump! When they have Wi-Fi and you don't it's time to take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself, "Am I really trying hard enough to be the best transportation hub I possibly can be?" I think the answer is NO!

I wear a tie in New Jersey. Unexpected. Jersey rocks!

I forgot to bring Crytonomicon to the coffee shop this morning (in NYC, where I was served yet another cafe au lait with frothed milk), so I picked up this bio book on AC/DC (which was on the bookshelf at said cafe-au-lait-butchering coffee shop). I now have a much better understanding of the group's unwavering faith to their working class heritage and the extent to which this is reflected in the authenticity of their sound; their musical integrity as expressed in their relentless refusal to bend to passing musical fads; their massive influence on the 80s metal scene; and their general uber-bad-ass-ness.

First time I've seen this. Instead of a 'No Smoking' sign that stays lit 24/7, this jet (forget which model) has an indicator that tells you when it's OK to use your 'electronic devices.' Kinda handy because they often don't tell you when it's cool to turn your stuff on so I'm always worried about popping open my laptop prematurely. Plus, they must save a ton on lightbulbs since they don't have to keep that (totally useless) no smoking sign lit up all the time.

WiFi at the airport in Portland. Take that, Washington National!

I wear a tie in Atlanta. I am on a panel about email deliverability at the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference today. It is really, really too bad that you won't be here to see it. I'll let you know when the DVD comes out.

You may recognize this as the Windows screen that informs you that no wireless networks are available. I am in the US Airways terminal at Washington National airport. It's no O'Hare, but it's not a small airport. I'm guessing that like 5 billion business travelers come through here a day. How can there be no wifi?! True, I could go to the Verizon payphone bank over there and pay like three bucks a minute for 56k dialup. But surfing on my Treo is faster. If airports don't get their shit together and start blanketing terminals in wifi (I'll even pay to use it), then I am just going to stop flying. Take that, you bankrupt mofos!

This madness must stop. I had to specifically ask for this cafe au lait to be made "dry," i.e. without frothy steamed milk, at a coffee place in Portland which I will not name because it doesn't matter, because 99 percent of coffe shops in the country make it with froth. A cafe au lait IS NOT MADE WITH FROTH. Can someone please disseminate this information to every god damn coffee shop in the US? Thank you.

This post is for my wife Mariya and my brother Paco. It's a continuation of the recent rash of posts regarding my desk at work. Anyway, I thought they would like to know that out-dated photos of them occupy a coveted spot on my desk right next to the external hard drive that stores my MP3s.

Look at how clean my desk is. I rule! if your desk is less clean than this you are totally incompetent and should be fired.

Still no roots. This better not take like a week or something. I'm a busy guy. I've got shit to do.

This is my desk at work. There is absolutely no excuse for this level of overwhelming disorganization. I promise to clean it soon. I hope it doesn't make you think less of me as a person. I know that if your desk looked like this I would consider you a total loser.

I wear a tie in NYC. I know I said the next tie-wearing event would occur in Atlanta, but I was wrong. What a great surprise for you, the reader!

Reason #342 NYC rules.

Still no roots. And it's been like 24 hous! What a rip-off.

Freakiest squash EVAH!!!!

Mariya says roots will grow out of the bottom of this avocado pit if I leave it in this glass of water. Stay tuned to see if it happens. I know you're dying to find out.

I break about one of these damn things a week. I am not a drunk.

NYC2123 t-shirt number two.

This a somewhat cool public art installation in a park in Portland. It is a levee-like wall of sandbags, each with a left-leaning two or three word phrase stenciled on it. Put together by local art students as a kind of monument to Katrina/Rita victims, the sandbags will be made into messanger bags and sold to raise money for relief efforts when the work is removed from the park.

Why is it so foggy here? It has been like this 24 hrs a day for 4 days. Last night the fog was so thick that water was condensing on the leaves of trees, pooling there, and then raining down. So if you stood under a tree you were effectively in a fairly heavy rain.

Totally kick-ass spiderweb on my balcony on Maine.

I wear a tie in Portland, Maine. Coming soon, I wear a tie in Atlanta.

Uhhhh... These guys are all up in my shit everywhere! Even at the stupid local bank.

More bad door signage. This door at Kinkos is locked... so naturally it should have a picture of an UNLOCKED padlock on it...

I've started to notice that Portland has horrible door signage. This is the entrance to my bank. What door should I use??? (It's a little hard to see in my sucky photo, but the sign says "Please use other door." And then the ridiculous arrows pointing in both directions...)

When one of these big cruise ships comes to Portland,ME it is totally the biggest building in town. I don't think you can really see the scale here, but trust me, it's huuuuuge.

Mutant carrot from our garden in Maine.