Episode 247: Return of the Ping

That's right, kiddos, I'm back. They seemed like the shortest two and a half weeks ever, but I went, I saw, I photographed, and I made it back in one piece. I can't exactly say I'm glad to be home because it was fantastic and I wasn't really ready to return, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

I can't even tell you how much catching up I have to do: family, friends, mail, e-mail, blogs, TV on TiVo, laundry, you name it. The upside is that I still have another 5 1/2 weeks left off from work in which to do it! Woo-hoo! (I can see those dirty looks you're giving the screen right now, you know...)

Until I get back into the swing of things I don't know how frequent updates here will be, but if you peer over there to the right -- or, at least, that's where it should be if your browser is set up like mine -- you'll see a rotating gallery of some of the over one thousand pictures I took on my trip. It says "du jour" but I make no promises.

Many thanks to all of you who left comments over the last few weeks. Internet connection turned out to be more elusive than I expected, which I'll probably explain at some point. As a matter of fact, I never managed to connect once with my own laptop and if it weren't for The Best Brother in the Whole Wide World, I wouldn't have managed to post or read at all while I was gone.

Even with the ability to do it, though, I don't know how much more I would have logged on -- it just wasn't a priority while I was out there. The fact that any of you are still coming by tells me that I had my priorities in order, though. Sometimes it really is best to stoppo and smell the pine trees.