Fiber, packing, and bad weather advice

As the countdown to Spain ticks away, I'm following some familiar pre-vacation traditions.

On my way home from work today, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a a four pack of Maximum Muffins. (Yes, that's really their name.) Each weighs in at an impressive 380 calories, an ideal caloric content for sharing. Did I mention that each has 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber? Who hasn't been on a vacation that would be improved with a little extra fiber...

We started the muffin tradition many vacations ago, and it works out well. For our first night in Europe, we sleep a minimum of 12 hours, usually closer to 14. After 14 hours of sleep, the idea of waiting even a half hour to shower and dress and go find food is exhausting. It's much better to roll over, gulp down the contents of the closest water bottle, gobble up your fiber-rich breakfast, and then figure out the confusing European plumbing.

Another tradition, packing much earlier than is necessary, is complete. I mostly stuck to my packing list, though I decided to sneak in a couple of extra (small) items toward the end.

Now I am obsessively checking the weather forecast for Spain. It changes from pouring rain to sun, from warm to cold, from unbearable to pleasant on a near hourly basis. Perhaps it's unreasonable to expect accuracy from a 10-day forecast, but if that is the case, why is the 10-day forecast published...?

Another weird weather thing--weather.com seems to think that I am getting married and keeps delivering wedding-related advice with its forecast, such as "Better change from heels to sneakers if your wedding is this day!" This little gem tops the list of clueless wedding advice. Anyone who has ever been married knows that you can't just swap out your shoes willy-nilly because of the weather. Your dress is hemmed according to the shoes that you wear, and switching from heels to sneaks means that the hem would drag on the ground, which is exactly what you don't want to happen when it's raining and the ground is muddy.

If I had become a meteorologist as I originally planned--before I realized that calculus and physics, while having fun symbols that were fun to doodle in margins, were not my best subjects--you can bet that I'd offer better weather-related wedding advice.