Just a typical Wednesday night in Cardiff includes a hypothetical telling of Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter

The game that would end my two year Cardiff Rummikub winning streak The next morning I found the following email in my inbox. Subject: Acquire Hello, Aaron Your record high 78,500 in Acquire dollars fell today.  I am the new record holder, 82,700!  You've gotta come back to challenge me, unless you can figure out a way for us to play on Skype!  Your dad had $52,200 and Paul had $38,100, with three safe chains. By the way, your record held for over 3 1/2 years, from November 17, 2007! Love you, Mom I must be losing my edge.

... the hike must go on. My in-laws are avid walkers and being of good British disposition not adverse to a little inclement weather. That's why a few days after our arrival in Cardiff on a windy and drizzly day we found ourselves driving into the Welsh countryside. As rain pelted the windshield my mother-in-law pointed out places in the overcast skies where she thought it was lightening up. Fair-weatherer that I am I had trouble finding any differentiation in the roiling gray mat that spanned from horizon to horizon. A half hour out of Cardiff we pulled down the narrow drive to the park. The road wove into a valley surrounded by lush green hills flecked with sheep. At the end of the drive we found a largely empty car park. A light rain fell and the clouds remained quite implacable. We began to get our gear together. Accessorizing for hiking in Britain is markedly different then for say, central Texas. Gearing up The first and most important item is the rain jacket. You may

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, "as pretty as an airport."                                                  - The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul   Jean and I are currently on a layover in the Helsinki airport on our way from the UK to Australia. We came through here going in the opposite direction almost three weeks ago. In that time my email and this blog was hijacked. I apologize for any spam sent your way. I've regained control and adopted some hardier passwords that will hopefully stave off any more cyber attacks for a while. This is where we left you three weeks ago. I'm still holding to my one small backpack policy The Helsinki airport. My internal clock tells me it's ten o'clock at night. The most comfortable seating I've ever found in an airport. I want to do all my layovers in Helsinki. I had forgotten how green the UK is. These two anonymous characters followed us around m