This past weekend we flew up to Washington to visit Jennifer’s sister and her husband and daughter. It was an enjoyable time; I like my sister-in-law and her family, and my niece F (not her real name) is a blast to hang out with.

A few highlights:

• During the flight up, one of the passengers in first class proposed to a flight attendant over the in-flight loudspeaker. To make it sound less weird, the attendant was off-duty and flying up to Seattle on her own business in economy, and not one of the attendants who was working the flight. I also got the impression that the passenger and the flight attendant had actually been dating for awhile, so this wasn’t a random proposal.
• Saturday was a relatively laid back day. After watching F in her diving class (she’s quite skilled for her age), we had lunch at Claim Jumper, then went to Borders to pick over the remains of their stock. I picked up How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont, and Peter & Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham (the creator of the Fables graphic novel series, and an all around nice guy).
• Sunday we went to the Pacific Science Museum to see their special exhibit on fear. It was there that I learned about the Amygdala and its role in the fear response to danger. I decided then and there that the amygdala is my favorite brain structure. For most of my life, it was Broca’s area, but this exhibit changed my mind.
• There was nothing exciting about the flight back, except that I started reading How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and Jennifer read the entirety of The Hunger Games on my Kindle. The whole thing. Yes, she reads that fast.

And that’s about it, really. That’s two weekends in a row that we went out of town for some fun. At this point, we don’t have any trips planned until February, so our weekends promise to be dull until then.

(On another note: This weekend is Dragon*Con. Those of you who are attending, please have a wretched, awful time. This will make me less jealous of you.)