Sitting in the den in our cottage in Maidenhead, getting over jet lag as my overnight flight from Orlando to London got in this morning at 6:30 am.
There are fireworks going off in the green nearby. Hmmm, are there other Americans in the neighborhood?

Speaking of fireworks, I was happy that my flight yesterday afternoon managed to take off from Orlando in a brief quiet period between some very active thunderstorms.

Sitting in front of my laptop wishing I didn't have to go to the grocery store as it is so hot here in Vacaville! Wish I was in cooler and breezy Benicia right now!

To mcnyc, I saw your comment on MXP and getting into Milan. There is a shuttle bus from the Milpensa airport (think it runs every 30 minutes or so) that will take you to the Central Train station in Milan. Is that what you were thinking of? That is the easiest way to get into Milan IMO. Have a fun time in Italy.

And crefloors, you have a fun time with your brother in SF and Sonoma! Wish I could have some of those cherries, they sound wonderful. A neighbor gave me some peaches from a friend's tree the other day. So much better than the supermarket ones.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

I am having breakfast in front of my computer in rainy Perth, Western Australia - Australia !!

At home in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

My *kid* brother (aet. 47), his wife and 2 daughters -- up for the weekend from Washington DC -- have just left after an earlyish dinner served on the deck in humid heat. They head to DC, I to eastern Canada tomorrow.

My trip: Prince Edward Island for a four day business trip, after which I leave for 2 weeks at our wonderful, nowhere-like-it cottage up the Ottawa Valley near Eganville....

No European travel in view until the autumn, as NOTHING would make me leave Canada in the summer.

LoveItaly, just hang out in the frozen food section when you go to the store. That's what I do when it's really hot. The cooler where they keep the cold drinks is always good too. I know, it gets horribly hot in Vacaville and those brown hills makes it seem even hotter. You'll put new meaning to the words: "chill out" (:

I just came back from the fireworks at Annapolis, MD, 6 miles down the river. Right now everything is dwindling down but I look across the Severn River and I see different communities with their fireworks. Very hometown America. I wonder what my son is doing right now in West Kirby, England.

Loveitaly, I used to have an Aunt who lived in Vacaville, she would ask "when are you coming up to Cow Town?"

Right now I am sitting on my veranda sipping wine and watching the neighborhood go up in fireworks. It looks like a war zone and smells of gun powder and sulphur. I have Nick and Jessica Spec. on the tv and I have my laptop on the table and I'm still trying to find decent airfare for the Fall. I think I will just buy one and forget about the budget.

Hi crefloors, your post made me laugh as I did get to the supermarket and dear one when I reached in the frozen food cabinet to get some orange juice I almost climbed in it, LOL! And although I did not need anything else in that aisle I must have pushed the cart back and forth a half of dozen times, LOL!! And then when I walked outside, oh sigh, it was sooo hot again. But tonight it suddenly cooled down and so neighbors/friends and I watch the fireworks and it was a lovely evening. Maybe signs we will have lower temps tomorrow? I say with fingers crossed. I envy you going to SF and Sonoma.

And SeaUrchin, first of all hello!! Gunpowder and sulpher, sounds like my neighborhood tonight which is usually very peaceful. Think someone called the PD because about 5 minutes ago peace reigns again.

SearUrchin, I will tell you a funny story about Vacaville. Its nick is "CowTown" however the reason it is named VacaVille is due to the fact that a Manuel Vaca had a Spanish homestead here. He donated one square mile to start a town if the town was named VacaVille after him. Done deal, and thus the city's name.

Now, a quick story you might enjoy. Think you know my daughter & SIL went to Rome the first part of June due to serious medical emergencies regarding my SIL's father and mother in Rome. Not a fun month for them but of course at the worse of times there is always sweet times. A cousin of my SIL gave my dauther a present right before they were flying back to SFO. It is a big fat heavy ceramic cow, white with black dots with the silliest looking face you have ever seen. The cousin explained that first of all she had seen the "Happy California Cow" commercial on some program in Italy. And since my daughter and SIL live in Vacaville which meant "cowtown" when she saw this ceramic cow in some gift shop in Rome she purchased it for them. Silliest cow you ever saw, but it is so precious.

About airfare and budget, I have come to the same conclusion too SeaUrchin. I never seem to get a "bargain" as so many others do and I am tired of driving myself crazy about it. I am at the point that the best flight for my schedule, what is convenient for me etc. is paramount. BTW, what part of Italy are you going to in fall? Did I read somewhere you will be in N Italy, or am I wrong? Take care.

Swithering whether to go to Starbucks as I sit at my cube in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

LoveItaly, so you're in Vacaville? Someone I know told me they moved there a few years ago and I was never really sure if it was a real place (with a name like that)or if they were kidding. But you have convinced me.

I'm in my 200 year old stone cottage on the north Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, with views out over a very angry sea and misty headlands.....and it's pouring with rain too! Wouldn't think that you'd need a sweater in July!

I'm in my study in beautiful Sydney. It is the middle of winter here, but hey guess what? As per usual the weather is fab, high teens (in centigrade), we haven't really had a winter yet, English Pippin, you should come on down! Leave your sweater behind.

Sitting at my desk in Dublin Ireland, trying to inspire myself to come up with a 'dynamic and fun' design for the web site I'm working on. But all the time looking out the window at the reason why "Ireland is so green"!!!! For after 3 days of warm, pleasant weather, the heavens have opened and the rain is pounding off the flat metal roof over head. Just three hours to go until I head home out of Dublin to beautiful County Kildare, where (if I pick up the theme of the very first few posts on this thread), I'll find that with all the rain we've had today, that the weeds at the end of the garden are surely now banging on the patio door to get in!!!

Enjoy where ever you all are!

Pasty

EnglishPippin
I was in West Wales (Tregaron) this time last year and had to borrow sweaters and anoraks because the weather was so cold and misty. Good to hear some things never change. We managed to include Llandewi Brefi on our itinerary.

Hi Gertie - the sun has just come out as we speak, and it makes me realise all over again why I chose to live in this beautiful place (I've just been brave and discarded said sweater!) Glad you enjoyed the 'wild west' of Wales!

It's so interesting to read what Fodorites all over the world are doing!

Loveitaly, thanks for the info on Vacaville. I always thought it was named for the cow citizens of the area. My aunt sold her home there in the 1960's, bought a little strawberry ranch right in Napa Valley and when she passed, her relatives sold it to a major winery for mucho dinero as you can imagine. Vacaville and other little towns in No. Cal. hold special places in my heart, but they are like convection ovens in the summer!

Glad your daughter and husband had a little brightness in that trying time too.

I am in my office in Tampa, Florida. I am about 20 stories up and I am looking out on blue sky and the blue waves on the bay. A cruise ship is just now leaving port bound for the Caribbean..But I have photos of my trip to South Africa on the wall and photos of standing on top of the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix. Ever so much more exciting and I am mulling over a trip to Florence or Venice next year.

Hi SeaUrchin, oh yes, I can imagine that your aunts relatives sold your aunt's property for a lot of money, Napa has changed so much.

And SeaUrchin, you will probably be shocked but Vacaville now has almost a population of 100,000 residents. When your aunt lived here it was such a small community. Remember the onion factory and the odors, LOL. Take care.

San Francisco... went to lunch at 1 pm hoping to sit on a bench and read. Came back to warm up 10 minutes later! It's freezing here! Somebody please tell me it's July not January!

So now I am at my desk, looking at the Swiss pictures, daydreaming :)

I'm sitting at my desk in WEHO and eating oreos which are giving me a headache but I keep noshing.

We just met an actor who is trying to revive his career by kissing up to my boss. It is a cloudy and morose day.

I am sitting at my computer in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, enjoying myself reading the discussions carried out by fodorites all over the world, but feeling guilty because I should be finishing a paper which should be done for publication ages ago! I am new to this site, but already becoming hooked.

Well, until the heavens opened up a few minutes ago, I was sitting on our deck on Peas Porridge Pond in the Mount Washington Valley in NH, after having returned from a kayak ride to see the nesting loons. Pinching myself and thinking that I could be living those old ads of the guy (now it would be me, a woman) sitting on the deck working with a computer on his (her) lap; and turning to someone off camera (think DH) and saying, "While you're up, could you get me a Dewars?" I skip the Dewars, but love the image, and I love living it while keeping up my new Fodors' addiction.

Here in Seattle regaling in the fact that I am FINALLY in the double didgit(99, not that I am counting,LOL), number of days left until my first of, hopefuly many, trips to Italy!!!

Now I must go to bed, seeing how they have once again have put me on the dreaded "graveyard" shift!!

Tom

Hi there... well I am sitting at my desk in Adelaide, South Australia. Adelaide is a small very pretty city, about 1 million people. Great place to visit, many tourists tell us when they shop here.
I am surrounded by paperwork for the end of our financial year.. this is the best time for me as I just love bookwork and balancing everything out. I work in an Opal and South Sea Pearl Jewellery store so many beautiful things are in my sight each day, needless to say I am tempted every so often!
It is early winter here, cool for us about 16 degrees C today, fine and little wind. We very very rarely get any snow.. only just a sprinkling in the hills maybe once a year which quickly melts.
I love to sit and read through other posters while I have my morning coffee and start to plan another overseas trip in my mind... We have been on a few great trips using the wonderful advise from fellow travellers on Fodors.
OK coffee finished, back to work... enjoy your day!

I'm at work (it's my lunch hour) and as such i am sitting in my office, surrounded by some rather over excited fellow Londoners celebrating London getting the olympics (we watched the result on the telly about half an hour ago).

I'm rather more pleased that the wonderful Tottenham Hotspur have just got a brand new stadium for nothing (stick that in your pipe and smoke it Arsenal!)

Another bonus is it will miff the French - and that's NEVER a bad thing.

From my office window I can see the south side of Southwark Cathedral about 50 yards away (Southwark's not one of London's greatest cathedrals - or even it's greatest churches - but it's nice enough to look at.)

Oh well....back to work....

I am in my home which is in Ohope and about 50 meters from the most beautiful beaches in New Zealand. Everyday, when I am at home I look out my windows and take in the ever changing views of the ocean. Today it was wild, frothing, with huge waves, there was a sea spray billowing from the waves and rolling onto the land and up into our beautiful pohutukawa trees which cover the hills behind. I walked on the beach and came in with salt on my face and through my hair, Wonderful!! I too work from home and although I love to travel I never tire of comming back to this most beautiful place.

Sitting at my Pier 1 desk (not nearly as cool as a 19th century drafting table)in my sunroom in Charleston, SC and it is around 7:45 p.m. on Sunday. I'm looking out onto my backyard with a nectarine tree, pear tree and a few pines and entertained by the squirrels running along the fence. In the background, I'm monitoring the progress of hurricane Dennis as he makes is way inland. Here's hoping all in his path are safe.

Just back from Alaska yesterday, sitting at the computer terminal in our library, surrounded by the books and photos collected over the 25 years of marriage to DH. A globe at my left hand, lesson plans spread out all over the room, planning next year's 8th grade for my homeschooled youngest child who is away in N.C. at summer camp. Ignoring the five still-packed suitcases in our bedroom, hoping they will somehow empty themselves in the few weeks before we're off to Seattle again. (Faina, it was freezing there, too, just yesterday---at least to us.) DH is on the computer in his study, trying to avoid getting out in this messy Dennis-y weather to go see War of the Worlds in our tiny little town's historic movie theater.

Sitting at a cluttered, cherry coloured, corner desk in our small "den". It's about 7am and I ought to be getting ready for work. I live in Kamloops, BC, Canada. Kinda got lost surfing through the threads looking for replies to what I posted yesterday. ;-)

I'm in Santa Monica, overlooking the sunset on the Pacific, with my cat determined to edit this post, thinking that I have a great life, but nevertheless missing my beloved Paris where I'm from, thinking of my friends enjoying the French Summer recess and festivals, wishing I could email myself back and forth...

I like this idea alot. There is something melancholy about the replies. I think we may all share the desire to be someplace other than where we are.
I am sitting in a closet/computer room in N. California. It will be 103 tomorrow so we will escape to our house at Lake Tahoe. I will finish the 12 half finished paintings that I started in France(during the month I just spent there)
I noticed that when this thread started a couple of years ago lots of people mentioned gardens that needed weeding. After 2 years mine still isn't weeded!

Right now I'm in my basement office (in a former life it was the office of Civil Defense) of our local municipal building, located in a small city between Syracuse and Utica, NY. It's 95 degrees out, no breeze, humidity at 90%. Behind me is the elevator sump pit, to the side is the a/c units. I listen to the lovely sounds of the sump pump, a/c hum, elevator hydrolic pump and toilets flushing down the hall. Ahhh, this is living! I, too, have pictures of my travels- on a mule in Bryce Canyon, UT,; waterfalls on the Salmon River, NY and Yellowstone River; Zion NP canyon; Sedona, AZ. There's an empty spot for the next trip to Budapest.

Interesting timing - an on-line study came out late last week that states the average worker "wastes" 2 hours per day on the job - much of it surfing the web. Well, since I'm in northern CA and it's lunch time, I hope my company's computer police will cut me some slack...
I also work from my home (Sonoma County, CA), I have a view of redwoods and vineyards from my window. I'm at my desk, and have pictures of my recent trips (Isola Pescatore, IT; Munich, Piedmonte vineyards, IT) as well as my family on my desk. Life is good... planning my next trip in four weeks.
It's heating up (over 100 expected today), my tomatos will be happy, now time for a sandwich and back to the stuff that pays for the trips...

Wonderful idea. I am sitting in my living room in my apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan surrounded by photos of the places my husband and I have visited and of the people we love. I am playing on my computer while my 1 year old daughter naps in her room. I am daydreaming about the trip my husband and I are planning for this winter - we have yet to decide if our little girl will be coming with us or staying with her grandparents and getting spoiled while we get some time to ourselves. That decision will determine what we actually do.

I'm sitting in my home office looking past my front garden and out onto my street. Behind me a stack of papers have grown across my desk like fungi.
Once I finish this cup of tea, I'll file the papers and tidy up my office. It won't be difficult once the papers are filed (at least that what I'm telling myself now.) I'll make a couple of quick calls, call it a day and go water the garden.
It's a lovely day here in San Diego, as always.

Sitting in my study in Surbiton (South London) feeling sad that one of the victims of the bombings was from my neighbourhood.

Its hot 33C.

in HOT and HUMID new york city.. eating a slice of pizza.. :)

Just came back home after wandering around my city with a friend trying to do a bit of shopping. We finally gave up as found nothing we wanted. And the stores were so hot and stuffy.

But we are excited, the temp. today was only 104 degrees, LOL. Someday, somehow, this heat spell will break. But at least we don't have real high humidity.

Just back from eight weeks in Europe, and in my study in Ocean Grove, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Ocean Grove is situated at the Melbourne end of the Great Ocean Road. It's winter, but today was a mild, sunny day, just right for a walk up the beach which at Ocean Grove is about 8k in length. The surf was very regular, and I had a coffee at a cafe with a splendid sea view. I think I'll stay here for a while.

Right now I am sitting in my apartment in Minneapolis Minnesota planning my next trip. At the moment I have a plane ticket and a rough idea where I will be going. I will be arriving in Prague September 13th and departing from Athens on October 18th. Now I will spend the next few months working all I can and nailing down what I will be doing between Prague and Athens.