Our hotel room smells like Play-Doh

And no, I'm not kidding. I have no idea what this room scent is supposed to be... vanilla? At any rate, it smells exactly like Play-Doh, which is not necessarily unpleasant.

We didn't get out on the road until after 3:00pm... there was just so much still to do before we could head out and, even more importantly, Snoqualmie Pass was bad enough that they were requiring chains this morning. By the time we reached the pass it was bare and wet... not bad at all, but there was definitely a LOT of snow in the mountains (a far cry from last winter? The winter before that? Where they had no ski season at all).

We were just heading down toward Yakima when my mom called to let us know that ODOT was closing I-84 not far from LaGrande due to extreme ice on the roads, which meant our goal for the night (getting as far as Pendleton) went right out the window. We're staying the night on the Washington side of the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities, essentially dodging winter storms... trying to dash through between them. On the major plus side, the hotel gets Northwest Cable News!!! It's the one thing I miss about not having cable (since it's not carried on any of the satellite networks).

( Oh! While on the way out of town, we had one of those moments that pushes the limits of probability! )

After we got checked in to the hotel, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local Olive Garden and then drove to a nearby theater to catch a showing of "Eragon."

( Brief and not terribly spoilery review under the cut )

Which Science Fiction author am I?

Gakked from klytaimnestra.

Pleased and not terribly surprised:

I am: Robert A. Heinlein Beginning with technological action stories and progressing to epics with religious overtones, this take-no-prisoners writer racked up some huge sales numbers.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Movie trailers!!

I forgot to mention the best part of last night's movie-going experience: the trailers! In particular, one for a movie I'd heard rumors about but hadn't known was actually getting filmed and the other for a movie I'd had no clue was being made.

The first is "Live Free or Die Hard" -- I absolutely love the Die Hard movies... in fact, the first one is in my top ten favorite Christmas movies. The new one looks like they're taking everything bigger and badder and I'm really hoping they're not going to overdo it, but I can't help being excited about it!

The second one was quite a surprise... shortly after the trailer started, I had a niggle in the back of my brain telling me there was something familiar about it. And then it hit me... they've made a movie based on the classic SF story "Mimsy Were the Borogroves"!!!!!! Squee!!!!! It's one of my all-time favorites (written by classic SF&F writers (and husband and wife) Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore under the name Lewis Padgett) and, yeah, it looks like they're changing some things (they'd almost have to, since the original short story was just that... short), but the bits in the trailer looked REALLY good. I'm guessing there's some sort of copyright issue involved with the word "Mimsy" though, since the movie title is "The Last Mimzy" (click on the link to see the trailer).

You know, I'm actually a bit surprised no one has ever made Moore's Jirel of Joiry into a movie... they'd absolutely massacre it (because, unlike "Mimsy Were the Borogroves," there's a lot more room to screw it up), but it seems like exactly the sort of thing certain filmmakers would drool over.