The front left tire on my car makes a funny screaching noise when I make left turns. I had forgotten about that. I had also forgotten about about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ baby. And the fact that it’s not normal for men to wear capri pants.

It’s good to be back home in America, sort of. We arrived in sunny Newark yesterday afternoon after about 12 hours of traversing across the Atlantic. I’m wide awake now (it’s 6 am) but Jamie is still sleeping. Jet lag does weird things to her. She may just sleep until Thursday.

So in all, we visited eight countries on the trip — nine if you count our two hour stopover in the Netherlands. Jamie says that doesn’t count. I say it does, but with an asterisk. Heck, I walked through customs and they stamped my passport and said something to me in Dutch (I think it translated to “Welcome to the Netherlands. Go home and tell your friends that you’ve been here.”). That’s good enough for me. That brings my grand total of visited countries to 11 (including US and Canada). Sadly (for me) Jamie has also been to Austrailia, so she is proud to say she has been to 12. That’s OK. I just need to get to Mexico when she’s not looking. Then we’re tied.

So what will I do now that I’m back home in the US? Well, I have some contract web development work lined up with NJ.com, a company I worked for back in 1999. So that’ll keep me busy for a few weeks — and help to pay some bills. But not busy enough that I won’t have time to learn to play the banjo. That’s my goal for this fall: To acquire and start learning how to play this beautiful instrument. Why banjo? Well, I’ve seen a bit of the world and I’ve come to the conclusion that it needs more banjo. Sure, you know someone who plays the guitar, but how many banjo players do you know? Exactly. I’m just doing my part, here.