I am sharing housesitting duties with Julia, a student from Britain working on the World Space Congress here. Its been tons of fun -- I feel the need for a roommate again, its nice just vegging out and chatting and having someone to share a bottle of wine with so you don't feel guilty letting it go to waste.

So, Jen is back from backpacking and posting her stories a day at a time on her web page. Speaking of Europe, I now have a knew obsession, which is reading travel-to-Scotland web pages while my simulations are running.

And for other travelers (MOM, in specific) who have a sense of adventure: Spirit Airlines (www.spiritair.com) based in Ft. Lauderdale (http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/08/07/spirit.free.flights/index.html) is offering entirely FREE flights the day of September 11. I say that you should book now (they have 13,000 seats available) and go spend the day somewhere randomly for free -- fly out first thing in the morning and back at night.