Rain, Rain... When I biked to work yesterday morning, it was moderately sunny. It started raining mid-afternoon and didn't stop until well into this morning. I faced a dilemma at about 6:00 p.m. last evening. I wanted to attend a launch party hosted by one of Softimage's competitors. Should I grab a cab and arrive looking as fresh as I did that morning? Should I take my bike and arrive looking like a drowned rat? I chose the latter. It pelted. Non-stop. My leather coat saved me from getting soaked to the skin, and my scarf protected about a third of my hair. But I was still very, very wet. When I arrived at the registration desk, I dripped all over the receptionist and all over the sign-in sheet I was asked to fill out. Once safely (and covertly) past the registration desk, I hightailed it to the women's washroom and used their supply of brown paper towels to dry my hair. I ate their sandwiches. I drank their cheap red wine. I dried off. I took copious notes about their new product line-up. I got even wetter riding home, but that was fine as I could peel off my wet clothes, turn up the heat, and pile four warm purring cat bodies onto my own. After about fifteen minutes, the kitties tired of catering to me and wanted to go outside. I tried to explain that it was raining "cats and dogs", but the metaphor was lost on them. As I switched on the back patio light and opened the door for my furry little buddies, I was shocked to see that every single leaf from my two massive maple trees had decided to fall off. Last weekend, I was wondering when I was going to have to start raking, as few leaves had actually fallen. It only took one downpour to shake every crimson, gold, and brown leaf off the tree and scatter them everywhere. Sigh.