Walking the dog this morning, I literally felt an ill-wind blow. It was a cool and cloudy morning, perfect November weather - and then in an instant a hot wind from inland blew in our faces. Blink looked up and started sniffing the air, and the temperature instantly shot up about ten degrees. Santa Anna winds - it's going to be a hot day.

Leaving for work this morning, a police cordon was thrown around ...well, basically my house. The cop explained they found a "suspicious package" in the alley and the bomb squad was on the way. The whole neighborhood was cordoned off, but it started right at my house. He would have pulled out and removed the barrier to let me leave, but my concern is, and I'm sure this won't happen - but what if it did? - some device went off and a fire started. Blink, Dummy and Lolita would be stuck in the house, to say nothing of our belongings. So I'm staying until they give the all-clear.

I do give the craziest reasons to work from home - first stingray poison, now a bomb scare. But I promise, this actually happened!