Friday 29 July 2011

The road, the road... :))

Day six

Another one of those really nice days on the road. We've almost made it up to Alta and have about a day and a half to get to the top. Alta sounds pretty close. It means the high one in Latin...
      Today there were no dreadful incidents and the speed limit was lifted for about 10pm/h, thus almost 100. It makes a difference, believe me, and we also took a ferry to cross a narrow otherwise impossible to circumnavigate by land. It wasn't expensive at all, somewhere around 15 euro for the lot, and quite pleasant. I am growing very fond of things that are cold, bright and smell of the sea. The sun certainly makes sense of a lot of things. 
      We stopped in a small, almost empty camp and decided to erect a tent just by the sea. We would have built a campfire, too, we gathered the drifted, but we were too sleepy and it was too windy. It is now around half past ten and the sun is still up. I made pasta over a gas stove, finally, and washed the dishes in the sea. People come here, like one lady with a large lazy dog, to fish their dinner - quite literally. The boys are asleep by now, after an hour of watching Broadski storyline on Bones. 
        We are getting a lot better at pitching the tent and making dinner there's slot less fuss. In the morning I make everyone brush their teeth or even shower and break up the camp and head on... This being our honeymoon, the General and I have occasional quickies when we send out the kid to play at the shore or something... He keeps insisting on trying to swim in the sea, failing to comprehend this is the Arctic ocean and he would probably end up looking like the squirrel from Ice Age. People who come to fish, come in their parkas.
       I am still reading them Gosta Berling in the car, but on my own I am reading about Norse history and lore. I think, if we decide to return via Finland, I will arrange a route to take us through the Moomindol. :D

I can't sleep yet, so I'm going to poke small shiny stones that have algae growing out of them... Perhaps I would try to keep one in a jar, but then again, I doubt I would find sufficient replacement for Barky in something that get all the pleasure out of something wet, cold and salty :p

Day seven...

Jup, certainly the least comfortable night EVER. We are SO fucking spoiled, the city brats, haha. Ow,boohoo, we slept on a hard ground without blow-up mattresses, ow, boohoo, it was nippy outside and the seagulls were SO noisy! For the love of all that's pancake-like, and we call ourselves adventurers! If Snufkin should hear me now, he would throw me off a fjord! :)))) but yeah, it was ridiculously difficult to sleep. It doesn't get dark at all anymore and the seagulls are real pests. It's rock hard ground on the shore and it was damn cold. And yet it's over now, the sun is shining, it's warmth for my old bones, I took a nice shower and will make a nice brunch. And the new day on the road will begin :D

Intermezzo: hihi, there now exists a short movie documenting how General took a dip in the Arctic sea :D if I manage, I will post it ASAP... :D

...
Easiest thing in the world to see is how Tolkien got his inspiration for Hobbiton in Norway - all you have to do is drive around for two days and small, heavenly peaceful villages with houses practically in the grounds and tress and grass over the roofs are a-plenty. And also why the Vikings would deems and fear these parts like they would fear the Gods: on a pretty day, this is a wonderful land to drive through, but on a difficult winters day, elements rule supreme.

We are starting to run out of the map....

Evening
So... In this land, where the summer sun shines eternal (if at all), we have almost, almost reached the end of earth. Over hills and valleys, tundra and taiga, through swamps and elk herds, around lots, and by that I mean LOTS of fjords, we are finally at the gates of Nordkapp... If it were a mountain, this would be the base camp. Best way to describe it would be, hm, well, foggy, and JesusFuckMaryJosefandJohnonastick cold. We drove though regions today showing 25 degrees of Celsius, too hot for shorts and sandals even and then we arrived here through some very intestine tunnels and it just... dived. The democracy once again voted for the accommodations to surrender to cabins, warm and cushy, so we can watch movies, write postcards and draft blog entries like people and less like souls condemned :p

Thursday 28 July 2011

Sorry the text is never fully edited... I don't yet know all the tricks of this crazy little toy :p

Rolling on. In the deep : p

I was right, in my odd, wrong way: today was a good day. We drove for a little bit longer than innitially schemed, but it was an easy ride. The weather remains Norse, raining every time I mentioned making pancake at a stop for lunch. We passed Trondheim, making a short movie about it so mum can see it, and Lillehammer, where we at first planned to go see the museums and the Olympic ski jump thingie, but, ahain, it was way too drizzly for creaturencomforts. Instead, I began reaing Gosta Berling to the boys,teaching myself how not to be sick if reading in the car. (Looks like it's working.) They liked it so much - even if it is neither of their's cup of tea - that they wanted me to read another chapter or two even after they retired to their bunks. I am very fond of that book, because it uses that perfect sort of fantastic realism that I favor above all other genres, and the boys like it becausenit's naughty. The kid likesnthe idea of Devil dropping in on drinking feasts, whereas General, spending way too much time with my father, has learned to read sex between the lines. That being said, I am horny as hell. Alas, no go in these circumastances.
       We woke up today in quite a hurry, hearing rain over our tent. Tonight, we chose not to risk it and found a neat cottage in a small camp - all camps seem to be full, which I find to be kind of wonderful, as I like people noise a lot - and these cottages are so super cute. This one is even nicer than the first one - it is more spatious, it has a tiny dining corner, a tiny kitchen corner, some cuttlery and lots of reading lamps. I finally managed to make pancakes and just to make sure I finally poo after four days, Idrank lots of milk on top of it. Boy, did I poo.   o.O.  : p
     Keeping General in check is a full-time job. If I allowed him to drink Red Bull and drive all the time, he would probably get sick in a week's time. I have to pace him with all my might, even if he is cranky for it. He would say 'I can drive for at least five hours more!', until I would yell at him: Well, I can' t! and make him pancakes, which he would have to be forcefed, and force-drank the water, and five minutes later, he would pass out. Afterwards, I can switch off and just write or read or play a game... The sun here doesn't set until around eleven, which can be tricky. If I look outside the hut window, campers and their kids are playing with their dogs as if it's seven.
      Tomorow we have to get up fresh and try to make it to Narvik, though above all else, we have to try and shower. It's remarcable how hungry one gets for not doing anything, and how tired for just sitting in a cushy car, and din't even get me started on how smelly. 
It would be pointless to explain what wondrous sights we've seen, as zou would have to know how to dream about tundra and love vast boggy plains, but it will be easier, much, when I just show you the pickies ;)

Day five

Not the best day for Steampunk. Although I came up with a cute plot for its story, and the ride was lovely, we did get a flat tire (got to give it to the car: it never even swayed when it happened) and in a tunel later on, hit a pair of torn electrical cables hanging off.. Nothing too terrible a damage (General is not the type to panic when the going gets tough, but we do kind of worry we drove 4000 km to the most expensive country in Europe just to purchase a new wheel).. We crossed some of the coolest terrains. I don't just mean that metaphorically - we literally breached the Arctic circle (got the gift shop souvenirs to prove it, too... :p ). There are tundra regions, tajga, birch forests, broken birches forests, toonhigh for trees moss and lichen areas and coastlines, most of which are wormholled by ugly, ugly tunels. Just for the tunels General is considering driving home by another route. Personally I am closer to the devil I know. 
    Two, three more days? There may be a bit of a glitch in our plan, as I failed to notice there's a gap in the road that we fear is a ferry (and there are no alternative routes...) so we may not be able to entirely avoid unecessery costs. The itinerary also miscalculated the path by about a 1000 miles, so we have to see what we can do about that. 
      Tonight we slept in another camp cottage, amidst mosquitos (that spray thingie actually works!!) and seaguls. We are in a gulf and in the morning we picked seashells and took photos of fish skeletons. I know it doesn't sound like a high of any trip, but for some reason the sea is soothing and there is something homely about it. There are high mountains behind us, with caps of heavy, deep gray clouds, but before us is the ocean and it's crisp and bright.  And the tiny villages here are so scarce, you really don't ignore an offer for a free internet :p

Monday 25 July 2011

Day three

Sliding seamlessly through Sweden... We are just near the Norway border and are about to find out... what now... I'll let you know in a minute.

Neup, no hassle there either. The traffic did slow down for a bit, but nobody stopped or suspected us of anything sinister. The crossing out of the country is more strict, though. The line is a few miles long.
We got to Oslo without a problem, even sooner than we anticipated, but that's where things began to go south. General hates driving through urban areas, oddly enough, eh?, so the other man drove and it sucked. Admittedly, I was more impatient than usual, but he just brings that out in me, as he is always so commanding to his own wife - who is always so obedient and nice... So it didn't go well. I had planned to park and see at least one museum and parts of the city and I know everyone else did that, too, but General, frustrated with not being able to find a parking, simply said: I take all blame, I rather have it you are cross with me than having to stay here - and he just drove us out of the city again. The rains returned in their drizzly manner, and I couldn't but cry for an hour. I simply felt like I have been driving such a long distance for such a long and strainous time, only to be shown a glimpse of something I've been looking forward for the past two years - and taken away again. When we stopped so he would try and cheer me and give me some water, I just started to walk away. A part of me reasoned with it all, but the primitive part just wanted out of this nightmare. I have never seen the General so frustrated, never seen him cry so hard and tremble and be at a total loss of what to do. So far the trip has been terrible, nothing nice has happened to us yet and we just kept arguing all the time. The thing is, nobody ever listens to my plans - I conjured a good plan for the trip, and everybody agreed, but nobody followed it, so naturally it was getting more and more stressful. I never want to see my man so strained ever again.
.... So, me being me, I pushed all this mess over the cliff and the other couple traveling with us literally just asked to be driven to the airport. The only thing I was praying for was that they find a soon enough flight. Claiming not to behold any grudges, just tired, they thanked The General and asked me for one last assistance, although I must have seemed and walked like a zombie, finding the tickets. Oddly enough, the flightout of Oslo (to Pula) for two today coated exactly 132 €. The next time I wanna go someplace I'll just pack and go to the airport, from desk to desk, until I find a cushy destination.

So, now we are alone. Just the three of us. already atheist skies has been clearing. Still a bit troubled by all these strange and ugly turns of events (I blame myself, but then again it did take me three days of a bad road to get here...), I am finally starting to feel good about this whole gig... We put up a tent by a neat lake, made supper, had a bit of a walk... It was nice, and simple, finally....

Day two

Day two, around two... 
Not sure what I've missed, asleep for the past three hours, but I imagine it was someting like getting lost, stuck and then un-lost in Hamburg, lots and lots of driving in the rain and about and hour wasted in a jam on a repaired-being highway.  We seem to be very close to the Dane border, though, as a smart debate woke me whether or not the customs have been re-instated. We will probably find out soon enough. 
    In a few hours we will reach the great bridges, what I am looking forward to. I hink among mega structures bridges are my favorite and these parts of the world certainly do agree. There's lots of cows and suchlike, not so much along the lines of people. Could it be - have we already reached remote parts of Europe? It is what I have once oped Ireland would be like, but it was littered with villages, farms and towns... Quaint ones, but littered noneheles... Here, in this strange light rain and comfortable grayness and chill, I yearn for the lenghtily remote country roads...

Laters..
There is somehing so very comforting in this strange weather... We asked a clerk lady if this is considered bad or ordinary and she was gladly shocked - as if - no, no, this is not considered normal weather. In the camps, these people have come here to enjoy the summer... Then again this is the Baltic ocean. Good luck with that.

Because of all the traffic jams and road construction, we only made it as far as Molle - a peninsula to the west just as you enter Sweden... Crossing borders with all the fuss was an anticlimax: were it not for a blue board with stars in the middle of the bridge, we would not even have realized we have left (or entered for that matter...) Denmark... Our cottage, in the camp, near a village that looks like a set for Hansel and Gretel, is super minute. It fits four adults and a tolerant child and every single one seems to host cute, happy people, just slightly fed up. Perhaps I have forgotten that this is what camps are supposed to be like, but it's obvious only in sunny daylight. So far I have taken very many phots of driving in a car, down a long dull highway in the rain and with modern windmills in the background. 


Day three

Our first Scandinavian camp was both nice and dull. Could be the weather or general atmosphere of the fact there is someone who farts more than me in their sleep (such strange things I get jealous about) or perhaps just dampness and lack of color. It's rather lovely that everything is foggy and they have owls in their birches, but perhaps these are the back sound effect of some remote, solitary place, not a trying-desperately-to-be-perky campsite. 
I wonder if, if I was here alone, I would have sought more acquaintances? Maybe. Though the likelier scenario is that I would just pursue opportunities to photograph people naked and steal their lunch :p

Saturday 23 July 2011

On the road...

This is me, going straight into the eye of the storm. Oslo a has been bombed the evening before we set sail for Norway and situation has not improved now, that we are en route to the lands of the midnight sun. As far as I can tell, the circumstances have gotten just the right amount of  difficult for my liking - the borders have been raised from the Schengen pact -though then again of course if they piss me off worst enough, I'll turn this Howl's Moving Castle around and take us down all the way down the Adriatic. Can't believe some retard actually killed almost a hundret people. That's not even insane anymore, that's just plain.... Fucked up.

So far, seven hours in, we are right on course and having a jolly good time or at least as much as five people with 300 pounds of luggage in afamily car can. We stop every three hours to stretch our fins and pee (some of us whether they like it or not :p) and I am getting used to (b)logging whilst in the co-drivers' seat. Thus far no luck with finding free WiFi, but we did manage to plug the pad into the car charge and I can now doodle all I want and power the battery at the same time. I am becoming a lewd offspring of cable-works. 

This NoteTaker shit is proving to be magnificent, but of course I have to see if a) I'll manage to actually publish any of this (guess it worked) and b) manage to bring home a novel and edit it in my good old stationary PC... (no offense). 
.....
Tired, and having donethe 1k of road scheduled, we've cotted ourselves into a small hotel in Hannover - a quaint city as cute as any, though of course we have no time/wit/energy to give it the sightseeing tour it deserves. We're just here to sleep, plan and shower and then move on, towards the Norway border. Tomorrow we should sleep on the south-western swedish shore, in a camp, and then early on Monday see what we can see regarding the original route. As free WiFi is proving to be a hundredfold the bother it was in Africa and Asia, I'm learning to take notes and questions down in advance and then just web browse for answers when I can, in a hurry. Am kind of looking forward to the day when internet is everywhere, without hassle. But for now I am grateful for the little cute stuff going on - that will surface from tge moody waters as soon as my shoulder stops to ache and I,ve had a decent sleep :p

Catch ya laters, hotties. Noises from the street remind meof home and I miss my dog, but I got a date with Snufkin and I plan to steal his hat until he chases me across the Lapland :P Also, check out an article in July I think National Geographic, about a seed Noah's Ark thingie - I wanna check that ou, too...

Friday 22 July 2011

OMG WTF OSLO FFS

sERIOUSLY, pEOPLE?! sERIOUSLY?? Today?? After two years of dreaming, half a year of planning, fourteen hours of packing and an interesting forty minutes of making sandwiches, you go and blow up Oslo today??! And Norway, of ALL the countries on this planet...What's NORWAY ever done to anyone, save maybe salmons? Like, the cutest country on our list and we're leaving at THREE AM tomorrow, and now some creep blows up the pretty Oslo and some retard that gives the rest of us gunnies a stinking bad name, goes and shoots civilians. Two ridiculous blows in one afternoon. Jesus fuck.
            I don't get it. Is this like a hint? Should we just go to a pretty Mediterranean island and sunbathe instead? If so, it's pretty extreme. (I mean, the car IS packed so that we can virtually drive ANYWHERE on what we're packing right now.) ......

......I miss my dog. Everything is so much simpler if I can blame shit on my dog :(

Thursday 21 July 2011

The nightmare of having 3o bucks....
Let's see... What costs EXACTLY 30 bucks?.. An iPad sleeve, which I really need... But then again I can make that myself...
A really cool travel blouse and a reaaaaaly cute summer hat... But I don't really need those. I got too many clothes already and it's my own damn fault if I fail to fit into them...
A WiFi rooter for my room. But fuck that, I'll get it eventually when I get home. I need to calibrate my psychodrama onto cyber cafes for a while and I'll do shiney.
My phone bill.
Ten kebabs.
Dog food.
A travel insurance.

And lots and lots and LOTS of pretty pretty apps :D     ....big frikky guess which I'll be getting. 8)
and just so you know, this is posted from an actual working cyber cafe. While downloading The Intelligent Life magazine. Over coffee. Across the street. I can see my room from here. This is so summer grand :D
... And.... >Send<....
Hee haa :D

Wednesday 20 July 2011

I just love planning and packing for cool trips. Don't you?

The days have been going by, detached from reality. In the morning I make myself go out with Drey, walking our wolverines (no matter how lazy, sleepy, moody or preoccupied I am). Then I either sew new trip baggies for my junk (okay, that sounds a bit off), a quaint sleeve for the iPad (with wooden buttons and suchlike) and ... suchlike. I also browse way too much Apple Apps and am practically brain-dead from staring at the screen. The deal was I can waste about ten bucks per month for the applications, so they have to be chosen supremely carefully. So far I got a Koi Pond, Plants Vs. Zombies, Tic tac Toe - all the essential things one must always have when going on a road. (Also maps, GPS and EverNote, but that's like, serious stuff and may only come handy in certain circumstances.)
          In the afternoon, General and I are usually cruising the town for things we may still need. We got several of the stuff planned, some we didn't plan and some we didn't get - yet. We got a schmekky tent and plenty plastic crates for sorting food neatly, or dirty dishes (if we fail to have a water source close by...), a car-powered electricity outlet for about a dozen chargers we will likely be taking along, several insurances and some of our old camping gear that has been loyal and useful for a while now. What we still need is a cooker and food.
           In the meanwhile, I am trying to study the itinerary (Gods help us), and purchase small and helpful things, such as leisure books, movies and anti-mosquito spray. Then we sleep, and then all this starts all over again. :)

Monday 18 July 2011

Ema








An Alma Karlin moment: too ugly to be raped

An interesting negative experience last night...
          Walking home two blocks (around midnight), a car zig zagged towards me down the empty street. It turned onto the sidewalk in front of me to cut me off - the windows were down and it was full of about four or five guys, relatively young and very drunk. One of them reached for me and yelled: "You're dressed up so nicely! But you're still too fat..." and one inside said: "Get on with it..." and the first guy replied: "No, didn't you hear what I said, she's too fat. Just drive on."
           The funny thing is, I was actually walking away so fast and with my head so low, ready to run (I'd probably have to ditch my beloved flip-flops) while dialing my phone, I didn't even dare turn to look at their driver's licence.My survival instinct was iron-clad. Just carry on, don't give them any reason to notice you again. Just walk. 
            Impressive, as I had never felt threatened in this town before, especially at night, where I love to walk when the air is cool - but at this point, it kept going through my head - what if I was ten years younger and twenty pounds thinner... Would they have tried to drag me into the car? Cause that would have ruined my whole day. I hate screaming and I would have REALLY hated losing my shoes in the fuss...

The *sunny day* in 'Sunday' :)

Just got home from the movies - I went to see the last HP and it was evening well spent. I should probably read the last two books, because I didn't understand half a bit of it (Severus, Lilly who what when? was he or wasn't he Harry's dad? And Dumbledore (Albus, not the other one) good or evil or what? Greedy? Incompetent? Blindsided with power? Just don't know. And if he knew such an elaborate plot to kill Riddle will have to ensue, with so many innocent people dieing, why didn't he kill the kid on day one?) Anyways, it was a good movie (I could live without some speeches, but then again it's always tricky to put two high peaks into one plot, so there may as well be a valley between them...  If I wrote the Neville storyline, I'd have him kill the snake as soon as he pulled out the sword from the hat, but I suppose that'd make it for too grand a sacrifice.. Also, when you negotiate for an item you may still need, do it saying 'when this is over, you can have it' in the contract...) Other than that, it was an excellent movie, considering it's the eight' in the franchise. 


But that's not the most fun we've had today. Nay. In the morning, I packed for the first road trip we've had in ages... Towels, sandals, sandwiches, dog, Flirt cocktail in a cooling bottle, the whole catalogue. And then Drej, her mate, their mutt, General, Starbarky and myself drove up the river stream to get to the point where it's still clear. We found a neat, only slightly littered spot, bit of a shore and to me it was perfect. Some wouldn't go into the water, because it was *you-gotta-be-friggin-joking?!* cold (ej, it's glacier spring, isn't it?), so hoped for more shade and some (mostly doggies) wished they could roam around more freely, alas, a buy road was near, so leashes stayed on... But to me, it was perfect. I swam more than the lot combined, explored, fooled around, even kissed a great deal and there was lots and lots of sitting, embraced, in the shallow waters, looking at one another with lovey eyes... I told General good life is made of small kisses in perfect circumstances and these were an example. He was in a jolly mood indeed. Even built a shade shelter for Lyra, when she was napping in her carrier box.I am really looking forward to our trip. He deserves to be in the fundamental nature. It's in his spirit. :)
           (I love it even more, I just need to have my toys with me all the time, to fully enjoy it ;) )

 See, this is Barky coming out of the river: it needs to be shaken: left ear, right ear and finally, the tail...

           
 Sofi, Drej, /there's actually a person under the soil, signalling Martians), Vani and the General, erecting the shade for Lyr, who's in the box.
 The three of us :)

 Sofi, as it turns out, the most avid of all swimming dogs :D



What is it about boys being nasty to girls and wanting to make them screech? :P

General and Illyria Starbark, overlooking probably where I have swam off again.

Sunday 17 July 2011

Steampunk

I have come across a curious concept.... I mean, I have dealt with the concept before, being a mega fan of Miyazaki and having written 'Hearsay' myself, but it just never occurred to me it's a sub-culture. I love the Internet. I love waking up and finding out I'm not the only one - far from it,in fact. feels cushy :D


One main reason why I love it (and much prefer it to cyberpunk), is that unlike cyberpunk it is not dystopian. Whereas in lore such as The Matrix machinery is awesome and humans are failing, in movies such as Sherlock Holmes, inventions are still steam-powered, but have beating hearts for inspiration, and humans are adventurous, brave and optimistic.
            If this thrill of finding out a new word persist, I may write our travel story in a similar manner... (I haven't decided yet how I want to write the trip. Somehow not featuring any Salanders.)

Saturday 16 July 2011

Another lovely tummy shoot :D



Friday 15 July 2011

I haven't been using my camera much lately - in fact I was asked today, quite out of the blue, how come I don't have it on me - when we were walking our dogs and playing in the river. More over, I haven't even been spending all that much time behind a computer!.. Predictably, I've been scouting for cool travel stuff and chatting with friends. Our trip seems to be on track and gaining intensely, so I'm slowly and surely allowing myself to become overwhelmed.
           Two days ago, I filled for my papers and General being the General, minus a wisdom tooth and some jaw bone, got them within the work day - I now have a brand new, crisp and virgin passport - hopefully my last for the next ten years, for a change. I also purchased - unbelievably! - a few items of clothing. The day was supposed to be spent looking for the top of my bathing suit, but it was instead spent looking for a tent. This is what we ultimately settled for:



          The Poseidon 5 tent, recommended to us by the sales-lady and kind of just what I was going for: I wanted three separate compartments - two for two pairs and one that could either be a dining/leisure area in rain, or a smaller room for the kids and dogs and whatnot. The thing looks excellent, sturdy and cushy, and shouldn't be too hard to put up... Dunno. We'll have a test run one of these days. I'll let the General do his magic while I videotape the baptism of fire:))))
           While shopping on on my own, I had coffee with a man (I've known him from before.) who wanted to ask how I feel about him killing himself. I offered two answers - namely having a decent reason and then deciding on the method, mess or, considering he has kids, suicide by a noble deed. Thorough the entire conversation I had the feeling he was asking me to execute him with a shotgun and I think I managed to avoid that one nicely, as General would probably beat me if he knew what sort of people I have coffees with. But it serves me right. Just a day before I was asking what the toxin effect of a tranquilizer dart would have on a hostile subject if shot through the eye.... Evidently, too severe on the brain. And quite runny on the eye.
            Anyhoo, then Drey called joined and the five bitches had a lovely stroll, though we didn't get to see the latest (and last, finally) HP movie. We had a talk outside-on-a-fine-summer-night dinner, during which we compared loads on our professions in a creative sense.People talk of making me a web site, but i doubt much will come of it.
            By the time I got home, General was already in bed with a mosquito, snoring gently. His pain is getting slightly better. He has one week to get back into saddle. I want him happy and sprite as soon as we start out new adventure. :) I was hoping to watch the second The Walking Dead episode, but it's too morbid for him. (Cause 'I survived Brazil hostage kidnapping' or Rambo III isn't.) I suppose I'm just that sort of a person, that if he happened to get bitten by a zombie, trying to rescue me, I would never give him the mercy shot or anything stupid like that. Nah, I'd get myself bitten by him and we'd live happily ever after as zombies together. You never know. Who's to say we wouldn't have a blast :P

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Little Ema, the unexprected discovery :)


Tuesday 12 July 2011

The stairway photoshoot

... And some front stage shots. There are many, but it's too hot to stay by the comp. And there's JC kicking butt on TV, so...

Thanks to Lara, Sanela, Mojca and Alenka for their patience, and their radiance :)