Oh here's a nifty little trick for all you webmasters out there: If you want to get a general idea of how many other sites out there are linking to you, go to Yahoo and type in: link:http://www.yourURL.com in the search box. It's kind of nice to see where your site is being linked. You might find some nifty stuff while you're at it. Rick did that with beerme.com and found this site that lists aerial photos of your house/place of business/school or whatever. It's called the Terraserver and is pretty neat. Here's an aerial of where I used to live in California:

I had such a good time, so did my daughter. I want to thank Kat and Paul for putting up with us and letting me make flummery for them. You guys were wonderful hosts! And Kat makes the best cornbread stuffing this side of the Mason-Dixon line ;) *holds up her wristwatch and says hello to Matthew, and buys Jamie a yellow gameboy* :) Give Sarah and the boys a squeeze for me.

Chicago is a beautiful city which surprised me. When you think of gorgeous cities in the world, Chicago doesn't immediately spring into mind, but the skyline is cool, the architecture is interesting and apart from a gazillion people trying to hand you flyers as you walk down the street that end up flying around, it seemed pretty clean. I don't know if I'd recommend going into the city on the day after Thanksgiving though. The crowds were mad! Of course that could just be the girl from the sticks amazed to see so many people at once talking, but if you have to queue up to get into a toy store, you know it's crowded.

And here is where I'm going to sound like a total rube but I'd never been to a Japanese steakhouse before and the Kat and the Rat took us to Benihana's and it was just wonderful! The food was excellent (even if there was shrimp ;) ), the chef was fun, the onion volcanoes were cool and I can now eat properly with chopsticks. Definitely want to do that again.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to Rick and Paris for inviting us up to see them. I know they don't read the blog but that's ok. The sentiment is the same :) The kid had loads of fun playing with all the kitties (as did I - they're pretty awesome) and ohhhhh a huge thanks for the use of the hot tub. Sooooo good.

And after all my worrying, my car was a dream to drive (thank goodness for cruise control!). No problems whatsoever so a big *PHEW* there. Got lost a bit leaving Rick's *cough* like a block away from his house I had to pull over and call *cough*. And later on down the road after I'd entered Iowa I get another call from Rick asking how I'm doing and we discover I'm on the wrong highway. The Internet to the rescue (well, at least Microsoft's map program). He check his maps on the comp and guides me safely to Davenport where I pick up I-80 :) I love technology. When it works.