Well, if you're wondering what happened to all the rest of the Dear Diary guest blog entries from Quebec (and I just know you were on the edge of your seat wondering), there are 2 explanations. First, I've been out of town a lot and haven't had time to do much blogging. Second, blogger's picture-adding-widget seems to be broken. So I can't get the pictures uploaded easily.

Perhaps I should just make a picture album and link to it here, and let the reader sort through them and try to figure out which pics go with which blog entries. But that's just lazy.

I will get them posted eventually...

In the meantime, the latest news. I was in San Francisco last week teaching, which was great, but the REAL fun started Friday when I flew down to San Diego to visit my BFF Lizard Breath. Since my wedding in 1995 (where she was my maid of honor), I've seen her a grand total of... one time. That was 5 years ago. She's been out-of-pocket doing exotic and brave Navy-things for most of the last 12 years, and sometime in there she got married to a guy who I had only met once. So I was really looking forward to the trip.

Whenever you see an old friend that you haven't kept up very well with, there's always that nervous anticipation of whether they'll still be the same friend you knew before or whether they've changed a lot. Lizard is still the same awesome, fun, energetic, slightly obsessive, super-smart girl I knew, only she seems to have a lot more confidence now. I blame that on 2 things-- the great guy she's married to (he's a real gem. They're perfect for each other and he worships her) and the fact that she has cut off all contact with a very toxic person in her life (who, for a few years, seemed to be draining away her confidence and energy). She's so successful, and she knows that she can do whatever she wants to do (at least, she should know!).

We didn't do a lot of San Diego stuff, mostly sat around and talked. It was perfect. And we went to the best bookstore EVAH. It was a 3-story used bookstore! It wasn't as cheap as used bookstores usually are, but it also had so many nice books and there were very few romance novels. I'd tell you the name of it to go visit, but I can't remember. Drat.

I flew home all day Sunday and didn't get to watch the end of the Tour (de France, of course!) until last night. Kiltman came over and we all sat around eating big salads and watching the individual time trial. What a perfect way to retire!

On another note, Spain is my latest obsession. Mom and I are planning the 2nd Annual Mother-Daughter Europe trip for next February, and we've got 10 days to backpack around Spain with our Eurail passes. We can't decide exactly where to go, but we've narrowed down to a few places: Sevilla, Valencia, Maillorca (Balearic Islands), and Barcelona. Only Barcelona is definite. I think we should pick 3 places, no more, and spend 2-3 days in each. Considering it will be winter, some places may be less pretty than others, and it might be cold.

If you've visited Spain in the winter, perhaps you can drop a comment on where we should go?