I'm still alive

I know all two of you who might still be checking this are relieved to hear that. Between the computer being broken and having work and visitors and other stuff, I haven't really been able to lavish these pages with the attention they deserve. Sorry. Give it a couple more weeks and maybe my machine will be fixed by then.

My parents came into town last week; I took the week off from work to take them around the area. We went to the Amalfi Coast, Pompei, and the opera here in Napoli, among other things. They seem to be having a great time so far. I sent them off to Rome on the train this morning. Hopefully they'll survive for me to pick them up at the train station tomorrow. I have lots of great pictures (oh, my mother turns insane when you put a camera in her hands, by the way; we have more than enough close-ups of plants, walls, roads, whatever you want), but they'll have to wait until I have an opportunity to actually put them on a working computer.