So...

It feels like forever since I last posted here. No particular reason for the absence, really. Maybe just too lazy. Heh heh.

Thanks to Peter, Kevin and Dan, I had a lovely birthday weekend bash in Boston, playing Wii until all hours of the night (Yay for Raving Rabbids!), visiting witchy old Salem and eating too much amazing food. They took me to Blue Ginger in Wellesley for my birthday, and while I never was that tempted watching chef Ming Tsai cook on PBS, his restaurant is incredible.

Plus, because Kevin and Dan's friends Al and Doug joined us, I got to spend my birthday with five handsome men.

What more could a girl ask for? Well, Clive Owen wasn't there, but I understand. He's busy.

Then, right after I got back from Boston, Ms. Schnakenberg graced me with a visit, all the way from Bangkok. Well, really she was just coming from Baltimore, where she visited before MB as part of her Month in the US Tour.

We shopped, or rather she shopped, we ate, we watched movies, we talked and talked and talked and plotted me going to Bangkok, maybe next year.

And this Saturday, I'm catching an early flight up to D.C. to spend five days. The first three will be all sightseeing, and the last two, I'm covering our city's lobbying trip as officials try to nab some of the new federal stimulus money.

Kevin's coming down from Boston to meet me for Sunday and Monday, and because he has never been to D.C. before, we're going to try and squeeze in as much museum time as possible. At least two Smithsonians -- Natural History and Air and Space, I think -- the Spy Museum, Ford's Theater, all on the list.

My friend Mike, who works for a California congressman, is hooking us up with a VIP tour of the monuments on Monday, with our very own park ranger who will drive us from place to place so we don't have to try and run the National Mall, and even take us up the top of the Washington Monument. He said the tour includes Arlington Cemetery, which is always moving, and maybe more so now because of the Iraq War graves.

If there's a way to fit in the White House, I'm gonna try. But it seems doubtful. There's just too much else to see, and we won't have time to wait in line. That's the other thing about the VIP tour -- no waiting. Because we are VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE, dammit.

I'll bring my laptop because I'll have to file stories from DC, so I'll try and download some pictures, too.

It'll be fun to go back there. I haven't been since I left in 88, and I haven't seen the FDR memorial yet. But I'm packing long underwear, because it's going to be frozen tundra up there.

Speaking of which, we have an 80 percent chance of SNOW in Myrtle Beach tomorrow. 80-freakin--percent. Snow.

And they say there's nothing to this climate-change thing. Huh.

Anyhow, Happy New Year. Buon Anno.