I can see where my post could be considered critical of Semper. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. I was just trying to say that we sometimes need a vacation from our vacation because we stuff so much into such a little time. It would take me a month to do what Semper did in a week and then I would be annoyed if I hadn't been able to locate some local expert to discuss details. My kids called our visit to Williamsburg the trip to H*** because first,Mom tracked down the farmhand who took care of the livestock, then the man who was burning in the design on the leather wall paper at the Governor's home, then the farrier and blacksmith, then the potter who showed us the original clay deposit and the glass blowers who showed us the sand that was used and some other guy who told us about the settlers traveling two days to find the right kind of salt deposits so they could preserve their food. They were grateful I missed the sheriff so they didn't get chained up in the jail and I couldn't find an archeologist so we couldn't get down in the hole they were excavating where the original church was built. I turned what was a three hour tour into what threatened to become a way of life and none of that stuff was in the brochures anyway. Not everyone takes tours the way I do but I come by it honestly. My Mom talked her way past the Swiss guards in the Vatican to get into the Pope's changing room so she could sit and rest for a while. Sandy

OOPS!!! Sorry I didn't know that about Jan. 1 being "everybody's" birthday, if a specific date isn't given. Oh well, Happy Birthday, whenever it is. :>) Mwoods, your statement about each year bringing "joy, laughter, and some tears" is so true. None of us ever knows what's ahead for us. But, as my DH says, "It's been a trip, but I wouldn't change any of it!"

Kartwheel, yoohoo!!!are you here? Are you stuck somewhere in that game? Linda

Thanks for the birthday wishes! This is the 5-0 birthday for me and it's just hard for me to believe it! After yesterday though, I'm FEELING it! LOL The house my boys lived in when they were in college is going on the market today so I was over there painting the kitchen cabinets and staging the bathrooms (cleaned them spic-n-span first). Oh my, I have soreness in places I didn't even know I had places! It probably didn't help that I came home and practically guzzled a bottle of wine while in the hot tub! So I guess 49 went out with a bang and 50 is coming in with a whimper. :-)