We returned home last night from our Christmas trip to Maryland. 

Our trip out was not delayed (as we expected it might be) but our luggage was.  We left Dublin with two bags and arrived in D.C. with one.  Damn Heathrow!  We went the whole week with the baggage system saying "we have no new information on your bag".  By the end of the week I was sure the bag had been stolen and we'd never see the stuff again (which sucked, Paula had a coat in that bag she really likes). 

When we arrived in Dublin we decided to check with the counter there... lo and behold! Our bag would be arriving tomorrow.  Even better... it arrived tonight!  As a bonus, the cheese and salmon we had packed in the bag as Christmas gifts hadn't leaked (which would have sucked big-time... Paula's pillow was in the bag too).

Ahh... vacation is over, we can relax now. :D

So, having tired of chain e-mail, the net has now switched to chain blog posts.

So, the game is apparently quite simple, give 5 things that few people know about you, then tag 5 friends to have them follow suit.  Omar has dragged me into this... So here goes:

1. I wanted to be an actor, a stuntman, a race driver and/or design cars... and no, that wasn't when I was in 6th grade, it was when I was in college.  I chose UCSD because it was close to Hollywood (well, closer than Toledo, Ohio was) and had a good engineering program (which I thought would be good for designing race cars).  Partway through school I decided I didn't want to be an engineer, I wanted to be a Psychologist.  Suffice it to say, I didn't do any of those things.  I do, however, still want to be Paul Newman.
2. I'm related to Orson Welles, distantly. We have the same great-great-great grandfather... I'm not sure what that makes us.  Family lore also has it that James Hadfield is a distant relative, but that's unsubstantiated (and probably nothing to brag about).
3. My feet are a wonder of nature.  I'm 5'9" and my feet are size 13.  They are also on upside-down: the bottom of them are baby-soft and the tops of my toes have calluses.  Between the size and the extra hair you'd think I was an over-grown Hobbit.
4. I'm obsessed with solitaire on my cell phone.  It's how I relax (and give myself carpal tunnel in my thumb).  The result is I've learned interesting things like:
   1. If you hold the joystick up it will automatically put cards up into the Ace piles.
   2. If you win a game and watch the cards bounce around, you'll see there's a bug, the cards count down from King down to Ace... then the King shows up again.
   3. While the end of game cards are bouncing around pressing "draw" will start stacking them back into the pile.
5. I hate dry wood in my mouth.  Chopsticks, popsicle sticks, anything.  Gives me the willies big time.  If you're ever at a Chinese (Japanese, Thai, etc.) restaurant with me you'll see the first thing I do is dump my chopsticks into my water glass and leave them there until I'm satisfied they're good an soaked.

There you go, 5 things.  I figure that at some point down the road someone will have to start up a game of "Five more things people don't know about me"... but until then I'll have to pass the baton.  

• I started at ResNova to replace Rob (can you believe it's been 12 years?), I'm sure he has a tale to tell. 
• Jason has taken on the awesome responsibility of caring for our good friend Leslie.  There was no application process so I'd like to learn more.
• For a long time Tami has been my blog "pen pal".  Let's hear five things from her (or her cat).
• Not everyone on the net lives in America... so let's hear from Casper, a fellow Dublin resident.
• An last, but not least, to Steve Davis, because I'm sure he has something funny to say (or at least, frightening).

We're heading to visit my sister's house for Christmas.  Since our flights are heading through Heathrow that means we're either spending Christmas in Maryland, or London. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

I'm betting that you, like me, have been to plenty of cool places where your eyes could adjust to a dark space but getting a picture in the poorly-lit space was nigh-on-impossible.  A flash in many cases will create a harsh effect and (if you shouldn't be taking pictures) may draw unwanted attention (shhh!).  If, however, you carry one of the new, powerful flashlights you can get some great shots.

When Paula and I were in Salzburg we visited the catacombs at St. Peter's and came across this wonderful altar in a cave that dates back to medieval times.  The room was quite dark with a bit of lighting behind the items of interest.  Fortunately we now carry a great flashlight given to us by Phillip, Paula was able to light the center of the altar while I snapped a couple pictures.

The flashlight was also helpful for examining the faded paintings on the walls (and before you get on us about deteriorating the paintings... Paula has a masters in archival studies, we were sure to not do any damage. ).  While traveling we've used the handy light to look into shadowy nooks, light up hidden signs and generally find our way in the dark.  At first Paula made fun of me for my geeky obsession with carrying the new toy, but she soon came to appreciate the added light-on-demand.

There are a whole mess of HI (high intensity) flashlights out there, but I'm quite smitten with the unit Phillip gave us, the SureFire G2.  It's carry-on friendly (no complaints from security yet) and despite being very small and light it packs quite a punch - the thing puts out so much power that you can burn yourself if you leave it on too long!