Yay! I get to go home. Or at least, back to the UK. Really, Rome is a beautiful place - but the constant protests and demonstrations the entire time I've been here... Besides, I miss my pups, and Ray and stuff. Since we've moved, I've been away more than I've been home.

I am actually writing a blog now cause, well, I am awake. Its after 0130, and I can't get to sleep. I had a nasty headache earlier, so I took headache stuff and laid down, hoping it would go away. It did, but now I can't sleep. Oh, well.

I just realized that I don't have a lot to say at the moment. There's a ton of stuff going through my head, but it's a bit disorganized up there, and more than I want to share. :-)

So, here I am... Still in Rome. I am waiting for stuff to finish, and can't actually do ANYTHING until then...

I was asked to stay another week. It was cheaper for me to stay here over the weekend, in the hotel, getting my per diem, and having my laundry done (~£300 all together) rather than flying back, which would require me to take a taxi back to Heathrow on Monday morning (>£500). Plus – Even if I was somewhere with nothing to see or do, I would rather stay through the weekend because travelling back is more stress than it's worth. I would lose half a day Friday afternoon to leave and catch my plane, and half a day Monday morning, because of travelling in. Plus, to catch that Monday morning plane, I have to be book a taxi at 0430, which means I have to be up at like 0300 so I can do all of the normal morning activities required for me to get ready for work. My crit sit manager thought it odd that I shouldn't want to come home to see Ray for the weekend. But, really, it's far less relaxing and far more stressful for me to travel back. So, no.

But, it was sort of a valid point, so I checked and it was only like £250 to fly Ray out here. So, I did. Now, I still got to spend the weekend with Ray, Emma got to spend the weekend with dachsies at the pet sitter's house and I got to not be stressed out. It worked out for the best.

Among other things, we saw the Coliseum and the Palatine with Augustus' house. It was really neat. I have a ton of pictures. In fact, I filled up mu 4GB card with them. As usual – I will upload them eventually. Which so far has meant "never"... But, seriously, I really will this time.

It was a bit crap earlier in the week... I've been fighting something off for the last month or so. I get better, I get worse. I take sudafed and tylenol and get a little better. A couple of days later, I get a bit worse. Hopefully, I am actually over it now.

Last night was an absolute mess, though. It rained and poured like I've only seen back home. Warm rain, in buckets. Like we get from tropical storms. I got hit by a wave of water, which soaked through my jeans. I was wearing a rain coat, but I was still drenched to the bone. But its gorgeous and sunny today, so yay. Even though, I don't really get to enjoy it.

Anyway, I think we will go off to lunch while waiting for this stuff to finish doing what its doing...

OK – So, here I am in Rome. The little I've seen is really really neat. I found out today that the customer expects us to be gone at 1800 and was feeling rather put-upon because I spent an extra 15 minutes getting some data to send back. Since I didn't know this before, I didn't finish up what I was doing in time. And, of course, I still had emails to send and status updates, etc… So, I have to pay for internet in this hotel, and I do NOT get reimbursed for it… Yeah – I am just a bit grumpy about that. Oh well.

I am hoping tomorrow that 1) I feel a bit better and 2) I will have planned better so that I can go see some stuff tomorrow night.

I was just thinking that it's funny because you see these paintings EVERYWHERE in the US of some small street, and you can never tell what country its in, because everywhere I've been thus far on the continent - France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and here in Italy - they have those same narrow, picturesque streets, winding up a hill, with colorful buildings that have flower boxes hanging out windows.

Also, I want to say: We have no idea what a latte is. Yummmmm… I usually get a latte wherever I am. I got one here. It was just a shot of espresso with a dollop of milk. Put a lot of sugar in, and omigod it is tasty.

Last: I went to a grocery to get some Pespi Max and a bottle of water. 1) No Pepsi Max just a couple of bottles of Diet Pepsi, a couple of bottles of regular Pepsi. This is a Coca-Cola nation. 2) When I walked in, Plush by STP was playing. And some Italian guy was singing. Badly. With a heavy Italian accent. It was really funny.

Ok – Gotta go. I am kinda tired and just need to crash.

I didn't have a chance to write a blog since I got back from home...

So, Emma is doing ok. Her damned bandage keeps falling off, though. The vet says that its not really a good thing to put an actual full cast on dogs since they can't give input about if the cast is pinching or anything like that. So, Emma has a bandage with a hard bit in there to keep it stabilized. The problem is that she won't hold still. So she runs in circles until the whole thing falls off. I took her by to get it re-wrapped last Friday, and it was £35 just to have it changed and it came off within 10 minutes of getting home. So, we have just been re-doing her bandage ourselves.

Ray and I both had fun with Drew and Ashley and actually getting to see Mike and Norma and stuff. We spent time with them in Colonial Williamsburg. Also, we saw some fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls (though the really very coolest part of it was the page of the Gutenberg Bible). And, happily, we got to eat at El Dorado. Yay!

Next week I am going to Rome. I am kind of excited about it. A bit stressed, but it should be ok.

Anyway, I need to run. It's late enough and I have to get stuff done tomorrow.

Isn't vacation supposed to be relaxing?

It seems as though nothing is going right, though that's obviously not true. We made it here, AND both the flight from LHR to Detroit and the one from Detroit to RDU were EARLY!! The first one left 20 minutes early and got in the air and added another 40 minutes, so that we actually landed an entire hour early. Amazing! Ok, so it meant we wandered around the airport being bored for a longer period of time, but we weren't rushed or stressed or anything about "will we make the next flight?!" And I got Caribou Coffee as soon as we got there. And then, even the flight to RDU was early, but Dad still made it to pick us up, and was waiting. Our cab even got us to Heathrow quickly and cheaply (£70 from out past Dartford!), and checked in with no real delays. So, all that went really well – obviously that worked out.

However, Sunday morning EST/ noon-ish BST, we got a call from the pet sitters… Apparently, we were completely wrong about Dingo. She's been attacking Emma all this time. Every time something happened, there was another reasonable explanation. We think that maybe even the people we boarded with last year, when Emma's foot got broken, maybe they were right – maybe it was Dingo who attacked Emma. (But they didn't handle it well, so I am still unhappy with them.) Anyway, Liz from Animals At Home gave us a call, and Ray spoke with her. Emma's back foot is broken in at least 3 places, she had a bite on the front leg, and there was blood all over the house. Dingo attacked Emma. There is no other explanation. So, I am so stressed and worried about our poor Corgi, and feeling guilty because I should have known that Dingo is a bully, and wondering where we will get the money to pay for all of this. We would have tried to change the flight, to go back sooner but 1) because we got such cheap tickets, it would be stupid expensive to do so and 2) we are here to see Mike, Norma, Drew and Ashley. We are now in Colonial Williamsburg with them. It really sucks because I want to enjoy it and have fun with them – I never get to see my brother and sister-in-law and their kids… But I keep thinking about poor Emma.

At least the Animals at Home people are competent. They knew immediately what was wrong and took her to the vet's office. Of course, being Sunday, they couldn't go to our vet, but she is at a 24 hour place in Sidcup. They knew where to take her, what to do for her. They kept us apprised of the situation. I am happy with THEM even if I am upset about the situation. I've asked them to separate out Abbie and Dingo – to leave Ding in the kitchen and let Abbie roam the house. I forgot to ask how Abbie and her poor eye are doing. In all the fuss over Emma (well, Emma is far worse off than Abbie at this point), I forgot to see how her eye is doing. Well, I've sent an email now, and they will respond when they can. And we went with these folks because we had a pet sitter in Coulsdon from the same company - her name was Pearl. And even Dingo loved Pearl! So, I absolutely need to say: if you are in the UK, looking for a pet sitter, just google something like "Animals at Home" and your town or borough.

On top of all this crap, I am sick. My ears are killing me, my sinuses are all screwy, and because they are draining, my throat hurts and I have no voice. And I can't sleep. I've been awake since 3AM. Partly because stupid BT thought it a good idea to text me with some stupid sales message. So, I am kind of zombie-fied… Tired, sick, just kind of out of it.

On a positive note though, I've discovered that my niece and nephew are pretty cool kids. We discussed zombie movies and Slipknot with Drew and Ashley is a bit devious, but really smart and happy. They are cool kids.