Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there, but especially to mine. Because I could not have asked for a better one!

Pictures

I've got new posts up for each item from The List on 1000 Places to See, and all the photos are up (with some duplicated...Flickr was being finicky) on Flickr.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get new posts up here with some of the funnier (and for us the most memorable) moments of the trip.

Home

I got home late last night, early this morning. After missing our original, non-stop flight by minutes, we had to rearrange and nearly missed the next (and last flight of the day) out of Baltimore. But we made it home safe and sound, exhausted, with piles of dirty laundry, tons of photos, lots of great memories (Hall of Presidents, Is there something wrong with it?, and CROAKER NORGE!), and tons of photos which will hopefully be posted soon.

It was a great trip, and I'm already thinking about going back. I didn't see nearly all of what I wanted!

FYI

Just for your information, I am writing this from a hotel lobby in Virginia. The great vacation (Round 1) of 2008 has begun, and apparently, the Pope will be in town tomorrow.

I however, will be driving through Shenandoah National Park and visiting Monticello.

See you next week!

Semi-serious

You Are a Semi-Colon

You are elegant, understated, and subtle in your communication. You're very smart (and you know it), but you don't often showcase your brilliance. Instead, you carefully construct your arguments, ideas, and theories – until they are bulletproof. You see your words as an expression of yourself, and you are careful not to waste them. You friends see you as enlightened, logical, and shrewd. (But what you're saying often goes right over their heads.) You excel in: The Arts You get along best with: The Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Back East

We leave next week for the big trip. It's a completely packed itinerary that will leave me needing a vacation, a vacation that I will take when I go to Alaska in May.

People keep asking where I'm going and I've taken to saying "back East". It started out as DC, but then I kept adding places in different states, and further and further away. I actually wish that I was staying at least twice as long so I could add more, and stay longer at some places. (One day in New York?! Not nearly sufficient!)

This trip will take me through 6 states and to 13 places on The List. I'm simultaneously excited and disappointed. So excited to go and see all these places and all this history, and disappointed because I won't get to see or do everything I want.

I take comfort in the fact that I'll have to revisit at least New York because I cannot live without having seen The Met.

Quote of the Day

"Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because whenever he works a particularly clever bit of mischief, God uses it to serve his own righteous purposes."

"So God uses wicked people as his tools."

"God gives us the freedom to do great evil, if we choose. Then he uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what he chooses."

"So in the long run, God always wins."

"Yes."

"In the short run, though, it can be uncomfortable."

--Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow