Part B: biggest impression. Papua New Guinea sort of blew my mind. It's said to be a country of 850 languages, and many people still paint their faces, wear feathers and otherwise express their tribal lives. We went to scuba dive, but the people were far more fascinating than the fish life (which was also excellent). I also saw my first WWII Japanese caves and a spewing volcano over the town of Rabaul, which had recently been all but obliterated by an eruption. The airport was abandoned after being covered by 12 feet of ash. The volcano was still spewing ash a couple of times every day, so there was a lot of sweeping. I'd go back in a minute. Fiji stands out too, in part because I went as a solo traveler so met a lot of people. Some very nice Fijians helped me navigate the overland transportation system, and my two favorite legs were taking a local transport truck with a one-eyed market farmer named Mary, and accepting a ride from a truck driver who pointed out all of his family landmarks, including his graveyard of generations My favorite spot was perhaps the island of Ovalau with its town of Levuka, once the country's capital, now a bit of a backwater with the oldest hotel in the country (in which I stayed for about $15 a night--this was about 4 years ago). It was also a couple of weeks before a coup, so there was lots of excitement in the air. And it was incredibly beautiful. Speaking of excitement. Greece was a long time ago, and a great trip. We were in our 20s. On the way back, we wondered why there were so many men with guns in the airports, and why they were checking our passports over and over again--it turns out the plane before ours was hijacked in one of the more notorious hijackings of the 1980s. We always wondered if it would have been us had the terrorists stopped for coffee. Bali was amazing too, and we chartered a (cheap) boat to take us around the Komodo islands for a few days of scuba diving. We slept on deck, and I've never seen so many stars. I'm sort of hot to see more of Indonesia, even though it's largely one of those places where, as a woman, the men won't talk to you if they don't have to (Bali is the exception). Stateside, I have a thing for New Orleans, but I can understand anyone's love for California or any of the other coastal places. Maybe too much information...but you asked!

Gary, One thing to keep in mind with orchids at the big boxes is many are, for the money, a better deal than buying cut flowers because they last so much longer. I do that, knowing that I know very little about keeping it alive or getting it to rebloom after it finally peters out. I just stick them in the boot of the palm tree out back and once in a blue moon fertilize them. And several have died out there, but one rebloomed for me recently. I felt like I doubled my money on that little very common purple and white dendrobium. I do the same thing with the little broms with the spectacular flowers (or whatever brom's non-flower flowers are called.) After several weeks, the flowers die and I plant them in the ground. I've had several of those rebloom too, and I'm even bringing pups and big divisions to the swap. They're not fancy, but for the $8 I paid, I got a lovely flower in the kitchen window for weeks, and if I get more, wow, yippee! I also think the orchids make much nicer hostess gifts than showing up with a bunch of cut flowers. If the hostess can't keep it alive to rebloom, he or she will at least get to enjoy the nice spray of flowers for much longer than cut flowers will last. (so when you see me at HD, don't bother to counsel me on my brom and orchid buys... just all the other stuff I might buy and potentially kill or hate!) As for the in-store kills, I saw a massacre in the making yesterday. Someone should go to the K-Mart in Miami Shores and convince the manager to sell them all the broms and orchids for cheap. They lost the shade covering in Fay and everything there is burned looking and won't last much longer. I thought about talking to him or her, but I don't know enough about orchids to think that even if they were heavily discounted, I could keep enough of them alive and get them to rebloom to make it worth it. susannah

When I was born and came home from the hospital, I was introduced to my first SMALL HOUSE. 900 and something sf 3 bedroom 1 bath in a tract neighborhood. This was home to my mother, father and 3 siblings. I lived there until I moved out and into a SMALL rental HOUSE. From there, a banker friend I worked with and I decided to build a new SMALL HOUSE. 3/2, 1,400 sf, nice, new, loved it. He started dating, then married one of my former girlfriends so he bought me out and I moved on. I bought an older SMALL HOUSE, 2/1, large lot, haunted. Yes, haunted. Sounds unbelieveable and I am not prone to things that go bump in the night but if you spent any time in this house you would be a believer. Sold that. Bought a lot and designed then built a 2/2 about 1,100 sf. This was a perfect SMALL HOUSE for me. The local economy took a turn for the worse (1988/1989) I was working on commission and had to sell the house and move back in with my parents temporarily. Unable to find a job in Florida, I packed my car and moved to South Carolina. I rented a SMALL apartment, met my wife and she moved in. From there to a slightly larger SMALL apartment, then we bought our marital home, 3/2 1,500 sf. Although it was just a run of the mill, older 3/2 with a one car carport, it was great neighborhood and I loved living there. My two sons were raised there. It had a den and a formal living room. We rarely used the living room, in fact, most of the time, it never even had furniture in it so in reality, we actually lived in about 1,300 sf of that SMALL space. Divorce took me to another SMALL apartment and from there to my current SMALL home. 3/1, 1024 sf. Oh, I too had a lover in AR. "Had" means she made other choices too and that still hurts. Sorry if I strayed off topic, but it was a SMALL indescretion. :) Scott

I can't tell that I have been to the race in person- but I have 2 friends who are experienced in one way or another with the race. First person is a friend- she was my surgery partner. She is a dog lover- takes correct care of her animals. Her brother was either the boyfriend or was engaged to the winner of several years ago-4 times- Susan Butcher. My friend was up there several times, and was amazed at the absolute devotion and care that Susan gave her animals. The second friend is also a fellow nurse- she and her husband raced dogs here in Wyoming- then moved to Anchorage because she and her husband wanted to race more intensely. I knew exactly how this friend and husband took care of their dogs- they were good friends, and were did alot together with the dogs. After they moved to Alaska, they told me how dedicated almost all of the mushers are- thier dogs come first. There will always be a bad apple in any group. Do you believe that the Olympics are bad? There have been horses lost in the Olympics- the compitition is extremely strenuous, and sometimes injuries happen or a cardiac abnormalty will cause death that the very well taken care of horses had that the Team was not aware of. I do agree that maybe the Olympic course could be less strenuous. PETA is not a group that makes much sense. They don't think that ANY animal should be a pet- they don't even think that a dog or cat should be on a leash, be owned by a human- NOTHING. I guess they would rather have dogs and cats run wild, getting hit by cars, starving, reproducing at will. They are overboard. I agree with not using animals for testing if possible- especially for cosmetic makeup. Anyway- from what I have learned from both of my friends, the race is well monitored- there are mandatory rests, vet checks, and a van that follows them to take a dog out of the race if it appears too tired or ill to race. If mushers treat thier dogs badly at home, that is a reflection of the owner/musher- not the ideals of the race. Did you know that the Iditerod is the only race that having the dogs wear leather booties is mandatory? Being in the atmoshere of the race, and being able to follow the race would be great. If you are dressed right, you are warm. I just went through 2 weeks of temps down to -19 below, and was never cold, as we are dressed for it. Either place you choose to go will be a wonderful adventure- why can you go to the get-together in Italy this year and go to Alaska next year? I would not want to miss either.