In Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport, there is a Chinese food stand that appears to be staffed entirely by attractive young Chinese women wearing silk dresses. Also, they have ducks hanging -- the dead, plucked kind. Neither of these are very common to airports. While I was eating soup purchased from a different food stand, I had a choice between looking at the Chinese food stand's employees and the ducks, or looking at a woman who was sitting at a table reading a book with her shoes off and her bare feet resting on a chair at another table. (The third option, moving elsewhere, was eliminated when I took the lid off the soup and the cap off the bottle of Anchor Steam I had also purchased -- there was no way I could have carried a tray that way without spilling.)

Actually, I also had a San Francisco Chronicle to keep me occupied, and I'm glad I did, because here are the first two paragraphs of their review of the movie "Doogal":

Here's all you need to know about the parental torture that is "Doogal." It's a movie that scrounges so desperately for laughs, it features both a flatulent moose and a flatulent train.

Said locomotive is voiced, appropriately, by Chevy Chase. You can just imagine the conversation with his agent. "Sorry, Chevy, no one's interested in any more 'Vacation' films. But I've got a farting cartoon train for you...."

You know, I've been on some Amtrak trains that seemed to be a little flatulent.

I have a working TiVo once again. There is no need to panic.

I didn't see any advertisements announcing such a thing during the Super Bowl last night, so I guess Pepsi won't be giving away iTunes downloads this year. Maybe it's for the best, since I don't really need to be buying lots of soda while I'm unemployed, but now what am I going to write about here for the next two months?

None of the Super Bowl ads made much of an impression on me, except for the one with the wrinkly monsters emitting guttural noises and dancing around -- oh, wait, that was the Rolling Stones in the halftime show.

Sunday, January 28, 2001: I see TiVo in action for the first time, successfully changing the channels on a Motorola digital cable box.

Monday, January 29, 2001: I go to Best Buy and purchase a TiVo of my own.

At some point in here: TiVo comes out with their Series 2 models, and for a brief period of time, allows owners of older TiVos to purchase a new Series 2 and transfer their lifetime subscription. I do so, and sell my first TiVo on eBay.

At some point in here: I switch from cable to DirecTV, and with it, an integrated TiVo/DirecTV receiver (which DirecTV soon decides to rename "DirecTV DVR with TiVo Service"). I sell my second TiVo to my father.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006: Either to commemorate my five years with TiVo or to save itself from having to possibly record the State of the Union address, my DirecTV DVR with TiVo Service completely ceases to function.

Don't worry, I have a new, or possibly refurbished, DirecTV DVR with TiVo Service on order from DirecTV right now. (They're having a clearing-out-the-inventory sale.)