Print media to the rescue

Good news: The Wisconsin Badgers made the NCAA men's basketball tournament. And they're the only school to have played in both a bowl game and the tournament for the last nine seasons.
Bad news: I was in Denver for a couple days and was flying home to D.C. during the game.
Good news: My flight had a TV screen showing live television.
Bad news: The game was televised on something called truTV, a network that isn't part of the airline's TV package.
Good news: The in-flight TV had the other NCAA tournament networks, meaning that I could at least watch basketball even if it wasn't the Wisconsin game. I decided to watch the game at home on my DVR when I landed.
Bad news: The games feature out-of-town scores at the top of the screen, meaning I couldn't help but see the Wisconsin score.
Good news: I used a ripped magazine page to cover up the top of the screen, thus protecting me from any spoiler alerts. Very resourceful, if I do say so myself.

Mountain viewing

DENVER — It's not that I don't appreciate my office view of the Church of the Epiphany and the Laughing Man Tavern in D.C., but I could really get used to this mountain view from my company's office here in Denver.

Free Internet

AUSTIN, Texas — It's nice of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to have free Internet kiosks. I sat in the gate area for an hour and didn't see a single person use one of them, though.

I know those words

AUSTIN, Texas — Super major sponsors finally have a place to get help. And thank goodness for that.

Solar-powered cell phones

AUSTIN, Texas -- It looks like a gas pump, but it's actually a solar-powered cell phone charging station. Oh and those benches are made of recycled cell phones. Probably old ones. You know, the kind that could hold a charge for more than an hour at a time.

All the way with LBJ

AUSTIN, Texas -- President Eisenhower gets credit for paving much of our country by way of the national highway system, but President Lyndon Johnson clearly liked cement too. Why else would his presidential library be engulfed in so much concrete? (By the way, someone once told me that concrete and cement are different, but I can't remember how and lazily continue to use them interchangeably.)

Meanwhile, the coffee table in the Oval Office during LBJ's term had a remote control shelving unit. We've come a long way in electronics since the LBJ days, but somehow we lost out on remote control shelving units, which is disappointing.

極度

GUILDFORD, England – Marnie and I tried Walkers Pickled Onion Monster Munch, having watched the locals snarf it down. We weren't crazy about it, so we decided on another local pasttime: shopping at Super Dry.

Help from Woody

GUILDFORD, England – Look who edits my blog!

Low snow

SPLÜGEN, Switzerland – When we arrived in town, we heard that people have been disappointed with the lack of snowfall this winter. They said we might have trouble with some of the winter sports we were hoping to enjoy. It's true that the town itself did not have much snow, but we had no complaints about the snow level at the top of the majestic Piz Tambo mountain.

Beer sauce

SPLÜGEN, Switzerland – We did not hike the Via Spluga (Splügen Pass), a 2,000-year-old trail through the Alps built by the Romans. Instead we stopped for dinner at the Weiss Kreuz, which has been around since 1300. Marnie ordered her meal with "preiselbeersauce," which it turns out is cranberry sauce. Now we know.

High tea

LONDON – Before heading to the Swiss Alps, we stopped for high tea at the venerable Fortnum & Mason. I could get very used to this lifestyle. Thank you, Treble 7s, for making this happen.