I had a super-busy day yesterday. You’d think that working at home would make it easier, but the fact is that I was busier than I am most days at the office. I didn’t even get a chance to properly eat my lunch. I inhaled it at my desk before kicking off yet another demo.

I actually found it easier doing demos at home, since I have an office there and a cubicle here at work. Closing the door and having the room to myself helped me focus on what I wanted to say, rather than fighting to hear myself in my noisy cubicle.

Couple my success yesterday with the maddening problem at the office with unstable internet connections and it’s clear I’m better off working from home. I hope to do it more often.

I hear from my coworker Greg that the bird feeder I put outside my cubicle window has finally gotten attention from the birds. It’s only been there two months now. About time! It almost makes it worth a drive to go see it in action. Almost, but not quite.

I saw a couple birds stop by my (empty) home feeder this morning, so I refilled it. Now it’s crowded with birds anxious to get a meal before the winter weather keeps them nest-bound.

It’s snowing now. Heavily. I’ve got three demos to do today. Right now, I’m leaning towards staying at home, since I can do them here.

Hard to believe that at the end of the week, I’ll be in sunny Orlando.

Here’s a cause that’s near and dear to my heart: editorial cartooning. Chris Lamb writes in the Editor and Publisher magazine about how editorial cartoonists are being killed by meek newspaper editors.

Editorial cartooning is an art form. I have long admired how a stroke of a pen can cut through columns of newsprint to the essense of an issue. That little box can pack quite a wallop. Its strength comes from expressing an opinion: something that is verboten in the rest of journalism.

My high school heroes were Jeff MacNelly, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, and Mike Peters. Once I stalked MacNelly around the store where I worked until I got the nerve to get his autograph (he graciously complied). In an alternate universe, I still draw cartoons. So it makes me mad to read how cartoonists are left with no choice but to quit over the silly concessions they are asked to make.

Maybe I will dust off my drawing skills, before the great drawings that made people care about the news are only a distant memory.

We’ve got a few mice who’ve decided to move in with us. Over the past few months, we’ve heard them scratching around in the attic. One woke us up this morning, having parked himself on the ceiling right above our bedroom.

I was poking around the garage the other night when I saw a mouse-sized hole chewed in a bag of sunflower seeds. Apparently, I found their pantry. I think they got in the garage and found a hole from there into the crawlspace.

The same night I discovered the sunflower seed thief, I discovered an even larger varmit. A fat opossum got startled when I walked from the garage to the shed. It may have been hanging around our garbage can, since our motion light was on, though the lid was still firmly attached. I thought for a moment of chasing it but then figured there were a million other things I’d rather do than get rabies shots. Fortunately, he made an escape some time afterward and hasn’t been seen since.

Some of my day off today will be spent plugging those gaps in the house and setting varmit traps in the crawlspace. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to start charging rent.

I detected a hint of summer during this morning’s walk to get the paper. Don’t know where that came from, since my feet were cold when I got back inside. Must be all the moisture in the air today. And my wanting to get out of these winter blahs.

The forecast calls for snow tonight, with possibly 4 to 6 inches accumulation. I’ve got the day off Monday, but Tuesday is going to be my busiest yet of the quarter: three demos.

We’re heading out for a walk to the park while we still can. Why are you still reading this? You should be out, too!

Helen Thomas is up to her old tricks again: keeping the heat on politicians. Check out the the grilling she gave White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan this morning.

I wish we had more journalists like Helen. She doesn’t let anyone off the hook!

Great article about Burt Rutan, the aviation (and soon to be space) pioneer. Man, I’d love to be doing what he’s doing.

A new test can tell when you’ve been drinking by the chemicals in your hair:

Scientists have developed a range of hair, blood and urine tests which can show how much someone has drunk over the past days, weeks or even months.

Alcohol disappears from the body within hours, but drinking produces chemicals which stay in the body much longer.

…used together, researchers say the new tests could give a complete picture of a person’s drinking habits, showing when someone had last been drinking and whether they are heavy or light drinkers.

This is another solution looking for a problem. Do we really need twelve different ways to tell if someone’s drunk?

And what about personal benefits? Will I grow more hair if I drink more?