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Our last day in Europe was spent in Strasbourg, which I would recommend to anyone visiting that area. It was just a really terrific place. The cathedral is breathtaking on the outside, and inside is some of the nicest stained glass I've seen anywhere. There's also an astronomical clock dating back to the late 1500s, which was a first for me.

The whole trip was unforgettable, and I've got about 700 pictures to fill in the blanks. And I'm waiting for Fish and J&K's pictures as well, so between all of us, we should have every waking hour well-documented. Three countries in three weeks, with 3 different sets of traveling companions, you'd think there was a lot of room for something to go wrong... but it didn't! I've always said that my mom is "pocket-portable"-- you would be hard-pressed to find an easier travel buddy. Val and Jerome are so much fun to stay with that I didn't want to leave when it was over, although I imagine they were glad to have their place back to themselves. Even traveling by myself was no problem and kind of an exciting adventure. Traveling with Fish and Jen was as much fun as I had imagined it would be- they're easy-going and really fun to be around, and everyone seemed to be interested in the same stuff, so it was just perfect. I'd have liked to not have that little bout of carsickness, but if that's the worst thing that happens, who can complain? Oh, that and puking in a public square in Spain, but whatever. This was the Vacation of Nausea! Yay!

We flew home all day yesterday, Frankfurt to Chicago, 3 hours layover in Chicago, and then Chicago to Raleigh. We slept through the layover in the Admiral's Club, slept for the whole flight from Chicago to Raleigh, and Peace was nice enough to pick us up at the airport so we wouldn't sleep and drive. Then we slept for the whole night until the alarm went off at 6am to go to work. Which is where I am now. 928 unread email messages, 2.5 hours to wade through them, and soon we're off to lunch because almost everyone's in the office this week. It's hardly like I was gone at all! ;-)

I Love My Job So Much (how much?) that when I was driving onto campus this morning through the tall trees and the hills, I had a big smile because I couldn't wait to tell everyone about this fun trip, and go through all the email and find out what was going on while I was gone, and get back into the swing of things. I know, what a dork, but it's a really cool place to work.