The good news: Despite the fact that there were at least a dozen kids and babies on the first flight, there was no wailing or weeping. Not even from the grownups.

The bad news: They made me gate-check my bag after all, saying it was a little too tall to fit into the overhead compartment. That’ll teach me to over-pack an “expandable” suiter.

I’m in Houston for a four-hour layover, preparatory to a nine-hour flight. I had a swell plate of barbecue (beef and pork — why limit myself?) on the theory that a big meal should come in the middle of the day rather than right before I get on the plane.

They will feed us for free on the Houston-to-Heathrow flight, but it won’t be a huge meal. I pre-ordered the kosher meal on the theory that it won’t be overly heavy or greasy. Or what mystery author Sue Grafton memorably described as a “fist of chicken, covered with rubber cement.”

Up at 4 a.m., on the corner by 5 a.m. to catch the bus downtown. No one on the bus looked happy. About one-half of them didn’t even look awake.

I wasn’t all that sharp myself, which is why I got off at a stop two blocks past the light-rail station. Just missed a train but it didn’t matter; starting at 6 a.m. they run about every eight minutes.

The flight is overbooked — surprise! — but for obvious reasons I’m not giving up my seat.

Two new airline wrinkles:

• If I agreed to have my carry-on (and only luggage) checked here at the gate, I could get on the plane early. But…It would not be a true gate check, i.e., in Houston I’d have to go to baggage claim and then back through security. Thanks, but no thanks.
• They’re flogging their new in-flight DirecTV service. If I chose, I could watch sitcoms for four hours, instead of napping or reading. It would cost only $6! Um, no.

I watched a guy order and consume a Frosty at 7 a.m. Ack. And I thought I was depraved for wanting a Diet Coke.

A couple of little kids are already crying, even though we haven’t started boarding yet. I know how they feel.

Jiva126 is the winner of the two movie tickets and two large fountain drinks, good at any AMC movie theater.

Wanna see a picture of the truculent little guy she’ll be leaving home? Check her site, My Money and My Sanity.

Thanks to all who entered. This giveaway proved so popular that it will be repeated later this spring. Those of you who are good at delayed gratification will save them until the summer blockbusters come out.

Those who aren’t? Well, blow it immediately on a grade-B comedy and see if I care.

That’s “bubbles” as in soft drinks, not champagne. Or one of those little bottles of soapy water with wands in them.

This week’s winner will receive two tickets to any AMC movie theater and two coupons good for free fountain drinks at the snack bar.

The job you trained for may not be around forever. As a former print journalist, I know that. (So do a lot of about-to-be-former print journalists.) Yet you may not have the time or the money for job re-training.

Maybe you do, if you could study on your own schedule and not have to pay for it.

That’s the topic of my current personal finance column at MSN Money. “Internet U: Learn new job skills, free” tells some real-life stories of people who wanted to get a job — or create a job — and had to help themselves along with a little autodidacticism.

From new college grads to a woman in her mid-70s, they share self-improvement sources: tutorials, online universities, open course ware, webinars, peer-to-peer websites. You can learn everything from furniture-making to HTML to a foreign language for free, or for as little as $20.