oreo, no milk

Normally, when little hairy monsters run around my house and poop on my carpet, I get a little upset. But this particular fellow was just too cute to get mad at:

Susan's aunt let us borrow Oreo, a Cavalier Spaniel puppy, for a two-day experiment on how we'd handle another living thing. I'm proud to say that the thing was still alive and happy when we gave it back - but, then again, I don't think Oreo has had any unhappy moments. Ever.

life lessons

This weekend, I've learned that packing a pillow, a bottle of vodka, a set of poker chips, and a bag of Goldfish crackers is not enough to sustain you on an overnight camping trip. I've also learned that sleeping in your car while being completely drenched as the temperature drops below 50F is mighty uncomfortable. Who knew.

On the bright side, hiking through the cranberry bogs at the Myles Standish State Forest was awesome.

a surprise run-in

After some deliberation, I figured that there is no way I can cover our vacation in a blog post. For one, I've been working non-stop ever since I came back, and all my vacation memories have been replaced with worries about deadlines and visions of horrible UIs. At the same time, the amount of cities and sights that we visited ended up a little overwhelming. I found Barcelona very interesting, but Susan was not as much of a fan. In France, we were smitten by the hospitality of Susan's uncle and his family. Tuscany was unbelievably scenic, while Assisi and Perugia each had their own unique feel to them. Finally, Rome... sort of the best and the worst of the Western civilization mixed with a healthy helping of traffic and dirt.

The pictures are on Facebook, and Susan will love me for highlighting just one:

By pure accident, we caught the running of the Mille Miglia in Siena. When I saw this car, I just gulped "what the heck" and snapped the picture. Only later did I realize what it was. You're looking at a Merecedes SLR Stirling Moss, a $1mil car that's only available to previous SLR owners... and, apparently, McLaren F1 drivers like Mika Hakkinen (behind the wheel). Wow.