I’m not a big fan of top 10 or top 25 lists, but this one made me laugh out loud so I felt the need to share it: Traveler comments that make you say “Duh!”

Sadly, I’m sure these are all real. I especially like these two:

• Where is the best spot to watch the fireworks in London on the Fourth of July? (Come on, Yank. Just think about this for a nanosecond.)
• I am a vegetarian. Do they have vegetables in Kenya? (It is a strange thing in Africa, countries with two vowels in their names are vegetableless. It is just like some dry counties here in the United States.)

Several months ago I mentioned that my current hairstylist (who I loved) was going to have a baby this May… well, she’s been on maternity for four months and the salon can’t tell me if she’s ever coming back.

(crying.)

In her place, I was seeing another girl at the same place, but she just didn’t “get” my hair and although she was very chatty and nice, I left wanting for a better haircut.

Fast forward to the past two weeks where I have been quizzing everyone I know about who cuts their hair. It took me three attempts to find someone I really liked when we moved here three years ago, so I was not looking forward to starting all over again on my quest for the perfect stylist.

I had an appointment this morning at an Aveda Salon with a girl that cuts my friend’s hair and I did not like her. I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, as she seemed offended when I tried to explain what I was looking for, but I was worried because this woman had hair nothing like my own.

Short version: she barely spoke to me (even when prompted), she painfully razored my dry hair (ooh, does that hurt? hell yeah it hurts!), she finished in under 30 minutes, including shampoo (where am I, a fast food place?), then tried to hard sell me highlights and products.

And, of course, she cost more than my old stylist.

My hair looks pretty chopped up, flippy, and generally weird at the moment, but hopefully, I can salvage the cut and begin looking again for another option.

day-after-washing-hair update: it looks fine, not sure how it’s going to grow out, but acceptable. still not going back though.

Oddly enough, we didn’t put the rope on her – she flipped it onto her back and walked around like this for a few minutes…

On our flight back from Montana, we had a layover in Atlanta (thank you Delta). We both remarked that we hadn’t been to this airport in ages. I don’t think I’d been there since we moved away from Georgia in 2004.

Strangely, our one-hour flight into Raleigh left from the international terminal. Eric was a little grumpy about passing gates for flights to Gatwick/London, Tel Aviv, and Buenos Aries while we were only flying home to North Carolina. Hmm, I think they would probably notice if we tried to sneak onto a more exotic flight.

Last night I went out with a bunch of friends to Panzanella, a restaurant attached to a local co-op market that we have been members of since we arrived in NC. They had a few special additions to their regular menu from Eco Farms in Chapel Hill.

The place was packed for a Tuesday night and our server was very slow in getting to us (the automatic 18% gratuity on parties of six or larger making me extra grumpy), but once we had our order in, things went more smoothly.

With my local brew in hand (an Amber Ale from the Carolina Brewery just down the road), I eyed the local pork bratwurst. I’m from the midwest and I simply cannot turn down bratwurst. Ever. It came on a bed of soft polenta smothered with peppers and onions. Delicious.

I finished the meal off with a simple cup of black coffee because I was trying to be “good” and not indulge in the local goat cheese cake with black currant compote. It hurts to write that, I bet it was tasty. :)

Ok! I am done with the second and third book and about 150 pages into the fourth novel. I’ve already noticed a large change in tone from the first three… this one seems quite a bit older, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I am enjoying these books immensely and a friend of mine has given me permission to borrow the rest of her books when I need them.

I was planning on bringing the Goblet of Fire with me on vacation (before I knew how thick it was), so I went to the local branch of my library to check it out. Of course, all the copies were gone.

At the front desk I asked to be added to the waiting list and made light conversation about wanting to read it on my upcoming trip. The lady told me to hang on while she checked the back. A minute later she appeared with the book and told me I couldn’t officially check it out but I was welcome to borrow it and return it when I was finished. Apparently they had an extra copy lying around as an unclaimed raffle prize. My library might be small, but the people are mighty nice.

Photos from our second trip of the year “out west” are up on Flickr. We had a wonderful time, and Leandra came back a year older. :)

Our hosts, Archie and Sue, provided a varied menu for us most nights (filet mignon, chicken fried steak, bbq ribs)… ok maybe not that varied. :) But a few times, we headed into town to try our luck at some of the local restaurants. As you know, we always research a few eateries before we travel but I got a little lazy this trip because we would have six more opinions to contend with than just our own.

Wheat Montana Deli—This place made it on our list solely because it had free wi-fi, but the sandwiches were delicious, so that was an added bonus. I had the reuben and Eric had the club, both were packed full of meat. The only downside was that this place had no cookies. The huge cinnamon rolls looked divine, though.

Woody’s Country Store—The best sandwiches in town! Woody’s is located on the corner of 35 and 206, east of Kalispell. We picked up a number of deli sandwiches and breakfast sandwiches for our two day trips to Glacier. Huge, cheap, and good.

Mooses Saloon—Your typical noisy bar with sports on the TV, peanut shells on the floor, and endless pitchers of Moose Drool (a great dark beer). The pizza was surprisingly passable (we are pizza snobs after all) and they just celebrated their 50 year anniversary.

Capers—Our favorite ‘fancy’ place to go in town used to be Cafe Max, and this new restaurant is now in that location. We had to do a little convincing to get folks here as our host had a bad experience right when the place opened, but we prevailed once my dad saw the wine list!

The setting is small and can be somewhat noisy on crowded nights, but the food was tasty and very well presented. All three appetizers were delicious: smoked trout, vegetable samosas, tomato basil soup, and goat cheese ravioli. Three of us got the Montana Bison filet which was melt-in-your-mouth wonderful. My brothers elk and fennel lasagna was more of a seasoned meat log with gratuitous pasta on top (still good though and we were in Montana, after all) and Eric’s applewood-smoked pork chop was completely missing at the end of the meal.

My sister mentioned that we were going to pass on dessert because of birthday cake waiting for us at home and the waitress declared that I was entitled to a free dessert (the first of two!) because it was the week of my birthday. Excellent!

Jagz—The garlic restaurant of the state! Maybe not, but they had us convinced. I was tempted by the trout special but because I don’t like to order fish on Mondays, I went with the smallest portion of prime rib available (and I am now officially off beef for at least a month). My dinner was fine, but Eric had the most garlicky caesar salad in history and our waitress was pretty distracted by a larger table seated just before us. Satisfactory, overall, but I won’t be requesting to go back on our next visit.

Our one year anniversary of Riesling’s rescue was on August 12, while we were on vacation. A whole year. She’s such a huge part of our life now and at the moment is curled up next to me seeking protection from the faint thunder in the distance.

Eric and I had discussed getting a dog for years, but we figured we traveled too much and never followed through with the plan. When we moved to NC, I found a local schnauzer rescue and since that was one of the top hypoallergenic breeds on our list (I am, unfortunately, allergic to cats and dogs), I downloaded an application.

The extensive application sat on my computer desktop for several weeks and finally I took an hour and filled everything out.

The approval process took a few weeks because they called all three of our references and conducted a home visit. The volunteers who run the rescue spend much of their time (and money) to rescue these dogs, so they want to make sure they are placing them in an appropriate home from the beginning!

Once we were approved, I scanned Petfinder.com daily to see what new dogs came in and after only a week or so, “Tinkerbell” showed up…

She was only 13.5 lbs and scruffy as heck when the rescue picked her up. She lived with a 90-year-old smoker whose family put him in a nursing home and turned pup in because no one wanted her. She had just turned 5 years old.

She was at the upper range of the age we wanted but honestly? Her ears sold me. :) Both Eric and I emailed each other about her at nearly the same time, so we set up an appointment to meet her the following week.

She was just about the friendliest schnauzer I’d ever met and we fell in love with her instantly. Her foster mom, Kathleen, wanted to give her a little more time to recover from her spaying and hernia surgery, so we waited a few days to come back and get her the day after my birthday.

Having a pet when you are a kid and then having one as an adult (when you have to do everything) is very different. I’ll admit, it was tough at first. We had to develop a schedule and teach her the rules, but even though we only had her for a week before we had to take a sudden trip to Chicago, I missed her while we were gone.

Today, Riesling is a healthy and quite active 18.5 lbs. We are convinced that she is solar powered, as she rises with the morning sun and doesn’t slow down until the sun sets. Thank you, Ries, for making a wonderful addition to our family. (Even if you drive me crazy barking at squirrels, postal trucks, etc.)

For those that don’t know, Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is editable by nearly anyone on the internet. It is a great resource – but, as with any information source, some skepticism must be applied.

A good reason for skepticism was published today via an AP story about wikiscan, a website that tracks the IP addresses for revisions to Wikipedia entries. Basically, the site makes it easier to find cases where a company, government agency, etc., may have edited a story in their own interest. Wired has a good list of some of the best finds – for example, one unusual edit of the Israel entry was made by a computer on Al-Jazeera’s network. Because Wikipedia is so popular these sorts of edits aren’t going to stop (people could just make changes via coffee shops or other networks for example) but it does make people aware that they can view the history of a page, especially if they are suspicious. Hopefully this will make it even less likely for these edits to remain hidden and improve the truthiness of the site.