I made it in to the city with no problems and met up with the fabulous Emily DeCola, designer of the monkeys I’ll be working on. We caught up on the project, had dinner and then went back to the studio to unload the supplies I brought.

Imagine my surprise to discover that my suitcase was full of sawdust. After I took the photo, I pulled the belt sander out and put it in a plastic bag. The FTA pulled it out of the bag to look at it, and didn’t put it back in the bag. The bag is in the suitcase. The sander is in the suitcase. And sawdust is in the suitcase. Everywhere. Lovely.

Fortunately, my interview clothing is in a separate pocket. Oh…did I mention I have a job interview in the morning? I’ll tell you about it when I’m not quite so jetlagged.

Man. Am I tired. Slept on the plane. Not enough.

The TV here speaks of Astronauts, Love, Triangles and Diapers.

We are boarding now.

I now understand why there are always lines in the morning for early flights.

• America West’s staff does not go on duty until 3:45.
• The airport screening does not open until 4:15.
• Coffee People does not open until 4:45.

So if you get here early, you have to wait for people to show up. If you wait until later, you have to wait in the lines that built up while other people waited. Neither is pleasant.

Plus Gate C17 at PDX is right in front of the children’s play area. It shows the Cartoon Network twenty four hours a day. Apparently the four o’clock hour is devoted to the Smurfs.

Oh, the day is off to a very smurfy start.

I’m looking at my suitcase and wondering what security will think of it. For the monkey build, I’m taking my DeWalt radial sander, belt sander, three boxes of industrial hot glue and two shafts of nylon for milling parts. My other checked bag contains 8 bottles of Frameworks Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and a roll of 1/2 inch reticulated foam.

My clothes are in my carry-on bag.

For those keeping track, I leave Portland at 5:30am and arrive at JFK at 4:45 tonight. A car service will take me into the City to the studio to drop off the tools.