As I write this, I am laying on the water bed in the basement of my Uncle’s house in Milton, Washington. Uncle Mike has a dial up internet connection in his house, but I have decided not to ask if I can use it for the rest of the weekend. I spent far too much time playing with my boss’ wireless internet connection on his lap top in the last two days. The rest of this trip needs to be an actual vacation, not sitting around on a computer and chatting with people online. I’m actually starting to wonder if I don’t spend too much time online in general. Have I become one of those statistics? Do I spend so much time surfing the web that I am losing my grip on reality?

I spent the last few hours hanging out with Uncle Mike and Aunt Maureen. We sat on their porch and talked over Diet Cokes for a few hours, then we traveled over to Des Moines for drinks, chips and salsa. After sitting there for a while, we took a walk up the pier. I”m amazed at how clear the water is here. All along the pier, you could look down into the a water and see straight through to the bottom. That is practically unheard of in the Tampa Bay area. I remember hearing the “old timers” say that the water used to be that clear, but never in my lifetime.

I will be meeting Talulabelle from the Bad Girl Swirl tomorrow. I’ll try and get some pictures of the two of us together. I really don’t know much about her, so it should be an interesting meeting. She has a considerable number of posts on the swirl, but I don’t remember that many direct exchanges between the two of us. I’m still excited about it, though. We’ve talked a bit over the last week and she sounds like a really neat person. I’m not exactly sure what we are going to do, mind you, but she still sounds like fun. Uncle Mike said it was cool to invite her to the cookout he is planning for tomorrow night, and I just may do that.