I don't know...I read in a book once that if you dream about somebody, their astral body visited you. But you looked good, though.

I suppose the place that ought to be my hometown is where I lived from ages 5 to 18. But, aside from the actual house where I grew up, it doesn't feel like "home." The city that feels most like "home" is, in fact, where I was born, but I've never really lived there -- lived 5-20 miles away from birth until age 18.

And with 5 days of no baby and no wife, you'd think he'd have gotten some work done.

I don't know, I'm seeing more of a Risky-Business sort of week.

Empress, did the box arrive?

t /doesn't trust USPS

My hometown is Canberra, which does indeed make me happy. The latest happy-making was showing the Wallybee around and her getting it. (In June, which is a real achievement.)

Canberra is the place that feels most comfortable to me. The first sight of the Black Mountain Tower. Cresting a rise on Hindmarsh Drive to look over Woden Valley. When Captain Cook Fountain is sending spray over the COmmonwealth Bridge. And, of course, visiting the Canberra Aviary and the Australian Reptile Centre. These are a few of my favourite things. So yeah, I'm comfortable there, and I get the place, and I also love it and will defend it fiercely.

None of this detracts from Melbourne, of course. Melbourne rocks, it's one of the easiest places in the world to pursue a real quality of life. So it's all good.

Dublin is so very much my hometown, and my home, and the place I'll always go back to. I travelled a lot when I was a kid, and lived abroad, but even that hasn't made Dublin any less 'it' for me. I wouldn't even know where to start describing what it is about it that I love so much.

The fact that you're never more than twenty minutes from the sea, or from the countryside, I suppose; the way everyone has a story and doesn't mind telling it; the way it's small enough that you can know every venue, but big enough that there's always something you want to see; the way it's been steeped in culture so that it sometimes seems as though every building has a plaque; the way someone's always going for a pint if you're bored; that even though it's a capital city people take their time; that we all take the piss at the surveys that say we have the highest quality of life in the world; the Georgian architecture and the Viking archaeology; the throngs of tourists fascinated by things I take for granted. It has its problems - God, does it have its problems, but I love it all the more for it, because God knows Dubliners like to complain, and we'd just get pissed off if there was nothing to complain about.

Anyway, yes, Dublin.

lovely Dublin tribute, Jars.

I have just made arrangements to attend a wedding in August for a family friend. This means, of course, that my family will be there. My folks plus my sister and her fam. As with everything having to do with my family, I am both apprehensive (about my folks) and looking forward to it. (about seeing the kids). But it will be good to see the non-family peeps, for sure.

I don't know that I have a home town, either. I was born in Alpena, MI and lived there until I was 15. So the lake-centered nature of the place seems natural to me. Towns and cities without a shoreline seem unfocused to me, which probably means they're just organized around a principle that I don't instinctively grasp. But I wouldn't move back to Alpena. Hundreds of people, including just about everyone I knew, moved out in the mid-80s due to economic forces. I visited once a few years ago. It was like putting on someone else's coat. Sure, it's less shabby than I remember, but it doesn't fit and I'm not comfortable rooting around in the pockets. I can't think of a reason to go back. So while I'm looking for bits of Alpena in the places I live, I don't see myself ever going back again.

I've lived in various parts of NC since '83. I really like some of them, but I wouldn't consider any of them home towns.

My home town was very much my home. I'm still more at home there, than in this town (where we've lived for 9 years, now), even though I grew up near this town. When I got to the other town (to get my haircut, or take the kids to the doctor, etc.) I'm always so surprised at how I feel when my feet hit the pavement. Driving is no different, but when I'm on foot, on the streets of my home town, there's a strong feeling that I'm home.

Now, my mother sold the house I lived in from birth, until I was 27 (minus the college years), and that street really feels like home (even in the car). I don't know that I've been on foot on that street since the house sold. I don't know that I could not walk into my house, even though other people labor under the delusion (supported by the mortage they're paying) that it's now their house. It's not. It is mine.

YES! The box arrived, Amy.

And how funny is this? The stripey Osh Kosh sweater? We have now had one that fits her from 6 months on!!

BWAH!