Got back into Austin last night, around 10 PM or so. The flight was fine, but super-crowded (a full house).

I was a bit worried that the dear TSA would open my bag, since I found and bought a bunch of Ortega taco sauce in Chicago (harder to find the big bottles in Austin). I had six large bottles and carefully wrapped them. Sure enough, the TSA went looking for sauce. LOL. I don’t know what it is, but batteries and sauce will make them open your bags.

When I saw they opened the bag, I was expecting to see six bottles of broken sauce and a giant mess. So, I cracked it open and saw that they put the sauce package at the top (I had it between clothes, as a buffer). Ugh! So much for my packing. They opened the paper bag, the sealed FedEx padded bag, and then the newspaper covered bottles. It must have been quite a disappointment when all they found was SIX DEADLY BOTTLES OF ORTEGA SAUCE.

On the bright side, they re-wrapped the FedEx bag with their TSA tape, and then put that all back into the paper and plastic bags. It was really pretty well taped together, probably better than I had left it. Thank goodness. The last thing I needed was a sauce-filled suitcase. So, they had scattered shit about a bit, and didn’t repack the bag properly, but at least the sauce was safe. Don’t you all feel so much safer flying?

(As an aside, my co-worker Dan received a spare sock in his bag. Has had his batteries stolen more than once, the last time he had his charger stolen–but it was replaced with a travel iron. How thoughtful! This is why you never put anything important in your checked luggage.)

This morning we got a later start, heading out to the Maker Faire at around noon or so. Looked like a really good turnout, probably more visitors than last year. However, it seemed like a smaller group of makers. Whole categories were missing. A bunch of the fab-at-home people weren’t there. MIT wasn’t there. In general, the business side of things was a lot more sparse. A sign of the times, I guess.

The craft people were pretty well represented, along with the artists. Evelyn picked up a cool steel bat cut out of a 55 gallon drum. I picked up some neat scenery photo art (hard to explain, I’ll post a photo). Also got some electronics kits from the Maker Shed.

More to come. I’ve got to get some beer and start making dinner.