You know you've been spending too much time at home alone with your kitty, when his regular meowing starts to sound more and more like a human word.

"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!"

Poor little Oscar, being neglected on this here blog due to the thousands of holiday photos that I'm still yet to get up and running. Well, my darling kitters is just fine here at home - growing bigger by the day. He has an alarming foot fetish which has resulted in my poor toes being covered in scratches, but the next second he's loving curled up resting on your arm, so it's impossible to stay cranky with him.

"You didn't need that eyebrow, did you?"

Oscar has also recently had his er, big boy operation, and is now ball-less. Only, he still has balls. Huh? I thought that cat neutering simply chopped them off? Apparently not. He may be a trifle less manly, but he's still strutting his stuff, frolicking around the flat showing off his nicely shaved hiney.

"Who, me?" [Innocent face.]

Jase has been out of town for a while now, and I'm going slowly crazy without him here. I miss him loads, and it has literally been months since we were in our normal routine. Hopefully he gets to come home soon. Oscar is not impressed that he's stuck with just me... and I'd like to keep my toes attached to my feet where they belong. The boy better come home soon, is all I'm saying.

"TOES, GIMME TOES TO NOM, I WANTS THEM NOW!!"

So, either you all think my Grand Canyon pictures are awful - OR my feed reader is apparently broken and nobody has actually seen this post the good old-fashioned blog visiting way. I'm going to tame my shattered ego and hope for the latter; because my Bloglines has an awful [!] next to loads of my favourite blogs right now, and apparently hates them all.

Anyway . . .

Onwards to the pictures we go!

6. Monument Valley, Utah.

I'd read about this part of the trip from day one, but I really didn't expect it to be as amazing as it was. From the Grand Canyon, the roads stayed really flat - and then we crossed over on to Navajo land, and the landscape changed completely. The rock formations literally came up out of nowhere, and looked amazing from a distance, but even more unbelievable up close. The soil was so, so red. When we got into Monument Valley, we took a tour in an old converted school bus, and got up close and personal to the formations. These are some of my favourite photos from the entire trip.

7. Durango, Colorado.

Again, with the landscape. We left Monument Valley and drove all afternoon to the bottom of Colorado. We stayed in Cortez overnight (hello, giant Walmart!) and then made our way to Durango - which was quite possibly the coolest little town of the trip. At lunch, I had a hoagie (hee hee), and also had a taste of the most amazing homemade chicken pot pie, which I talked about for the entire rest of the trip. WHY DIDN'T I ORDER THE PIE? Yes, one pie was just that good.

Anywho, here we had the option to choose what we did for the day; white water rafting or jeeping through the mountains. I'd already done rafting in New Zealand, so opted for the off road jeeping. We got the coolest driver and a really cute blue Jeep Wrangler, and spent the day in the sun. I heart Colorado. Unfortunately, some of the infamous Monument Valley red dust had smeared my camera lens, which I didn't notice until I got back, so most of my Colorado shots are blurry. Sad.

The epic saga continues...

4. Las Vegas

I've been to Sin City once before when I was younger; but even still was still mindboggled by it. The drive into Vegas, with the billboards popping up, and the casino signs everywhere - and then the strip basically popping up out of nowhere; there's nothing else quite like it. We stayed in a dodgy, dodgy hotel here with giant cockroaches and a weird shower, but on the plus side, it had air conditioning that worked. Thank goodness for that, because phew, it was hot. I went on the Manhattan rollercoaster in New York, New York, and I think I actually burned off the top layer of skin on my face just climbing the first rise. HOT.

5. Arizona - Grand Canyon

We stayed in the little town of Williams, on Route 66, a small drive from the Canyon. Before we got to experience the canyon itself, we were driven first to the Imax theatre to watch a film about it, and second to a small air field not far away. Here, I panicked slightly (!) while we were all weighed in and distributed between helicopters for our scenic flight. Luckily I was able to fly with some friends, and we had the most amazing ride - I've never been in anything quite like it. The canyon is quite honestly mindblowing; I would have loved to walk around on the inside and just look UP. Wow. I took about 150 pictures of it, alone.

Now, I promised pictures - and by joe, I will deliver them! (Never mind the fact that I've been back in the country for the past oh, almost three weeks now? Not the point!)

As much as I love nearly all of my pictures from the trip, if I posted them all I think I'd end up using my entire bandwidth for the rest of the year, and possibly cause the internet to spontaneously burst into flames, so I'm going to have to be choosy and just post my favourites. Sounds easy, but it's hard when you have approximately 900 favourites. I'll do my best!

If you've got a good half hour to spare, you can check out the rest here.

1. San Francisco

The first step on my journey, way back at the beginning of August. It was stunning weather, not too hot, not too chilly, and blue skies all round. Our 'close to the city' hotel ended up being a good hour's walk away, but it was right along the bay and past some amazing houses and streets, so it wasn't too terrible. Sadly Alcatraz was booked out in advance which was disappointing, but I loved the rest of the city just the same.

2. Los Angeles

The hostel was right on Venice Beach, as in overlooking the boardwalk. Pretty impressive, even if the boardwalk itself is full of crazies twenty four hours a day. While in Los Angeles, I managed to cram in quite a bit of sightseeing - from Santa Monica pier, to Hollywood Boulevard, to Universal Studios and driving around Beverley Hills. No celebrities though, at least that I could spy.

3. Anaheim

Ah yes, the land of Disney! We stayed here a good few days before beginning the Grand Southern Contiki tour - plenty of time to explore. At Angels Stadium, I caught a baseball game against the Yankees, which was an experience! And my dear Kirby-face flew into the USA, and thus the giggles and self-portrait shots commenced. This was my third (!) time to Disneyland, and I still loved it just as much as my first.

And there we have part one, the West Coast. Stay tuned!

So, apparently when one proclaims their 'Grand Return', it's customary to actually come back and post more information. Er, oops? I'm a wee bit out of the blogging loop - and wow, coming home reminds me how much it feels like I never left.  I have so many amazing pictures to show you, some of which you would have already skimmed through on Flickr or Facebook, but I still want to put up some of my favourites and the stories that go along with them. Again with the procrastinating . . . because I'll get on that soon. I promise.

I've survived a full week back at work, where I've come back to a newly designed office, a really messy desk and a whole stack of emails. Plus, there was a whole new database installed over the holidays which I've had to get to speed with and start using independently, which I think I'm getting on with alright - with the exception of the odd tantrum and stomping fits of frustration. I suppose that's to be expected.

Jason and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary last Sunday, which was pretty incredible. We orderedin Thai food and had a good night in watching videos AND I got to spoil him with all his pressies from the USA. Nice and low key, just like us. He's had to jet off to Australia for a little while, so it's just me and kitty at the moment. Not that I can call him a kitty now, really. He's a full growned cat; in all terms of the word. Oscar needs to pay a visit to the vet in the next couple of weeks. ;-)

Not much else happening; just the same old, same old. Going to work, cooking dinner at home, having my face smothered at night by the clingy cat, watching Buffy re-runs and enjoying the crisp London weather. It's currently my favourite time of year here, where it's sunny (usually) but cool. I love walking around in this weather, especially before it's too cold and the coats and crazy heating devices come out everywhere.

I haven't managed to even get through a chunk of my blogs yet, so if I haven't stopped in and caught up, bear with me! Anyone got any crazy exciting news to tell me? Please fill in the procrastinator! And like I said, next post? Highlights and a couple of pictures to get started. Stay tuned!

Aloha, blogging world. I'm back!

Getting home was quite a long ordeal, for such a small amount of time spent on a plane. After spending the last few days in New York surprisingly on our own, Kirby and I had to endure the scariest shuttle bus ride to the airport imaginable. One would think that by avoiding the cabbies, you could avoid the crazies? Er, no. Apparently the shuttle drivers are twice as bad. We narrowly avoided death no less than fifteen times, because apparently our guy doesn't believe in stopping. Ever.

Upon arrival at JFK airport, the flight boarded smoothly enough - however I waited on the runway in a take-off queue for 2 hours. What's one thing that can make that kind of a wait worse? When your plane decides to lose power completely aka turning its engines (and more importantly, it's air conditioning!) on and off the entire time. My backside was numb by the time the plane took off the ground.

The flight itself was uneventful - if you count being sandwiched between a dude's reclining chair and another dude's rather protruding belly for seven hours. I made my way through Heathrow's customs in London, looking forward to another nice and easy shuttle ride to my door. Er, no. Again. Due to the shuttle company picking up seven other passengers and dropping me off dead last, it took 2.5 hours to get home.

Ah, home. I have missed it.

Oscar is home now too, and boy has he grown. All of him has grown, if you know what I mean. Even his meow has gotten rather manly. He's currently going between the 'I hate you because you abandoned me and I'm going to run away now' phase and the 'Momma, I'm going to stick to you like glue so you never leave me again, ever' phase, but all in all, he's my same adorable baby who tends to bite toes.

All I'm missing is Jase, who gets back in a few days time, so I can give him his pressies! Shopping for him was one of the best things about the USA! I've spent today trying to upload as many pictures of mine as I can, but I still have a long way to go yet. I'll blog (with photos) as I get around to it, but if you can't wait in the meantime, feel free to take a peep at my Flickr. It's so good to be back!

Who would have thought that in just a few short weeks, I would be sitting completely across the country from where I started? After a lot of crazy travel days, I'm currently sitting in St Augustine, Florida - about to head to our next stop in Savannah, Georgia.

I've had some absolutely amazing experiences so far. I've helicoptered across the Grand Canyon. I've gone jeeping in Durango, Colorado. I've gone hot air ballooning overlooking Alberquerque, New Mexico. I've gone on an air boat swamp cruise in New Orleans, Louisiana. I've been to Gracelands, people. Gracelands!

The last two days have been exhausting. We out-drove Hurricane Gustav and seeing the deserted New Orleans streets on TV after the mandatory evacuation was frightening. The fact that we had been standing on the packed Bourbon Street two days before that was downright eerie. Heading towards Georgia, we're now keeping an eye on Hurricane Hanna, though I'm sure we'll be absolutely fine. Hoping everyone near those areas is safe and well. It's scary being in the middle of it, that's for sure.

I've got no pictures up yet - but I'll definitely make sure I do once I get home. Not long now - can you believe it is September already?

Dude . . . it's freaking hot. That's about all I've got, right now.

Second day of Disney land, I'm slightly brown (or just plain burned, depending on which way you look at it) and I'm exhausted. We managed to score VIP seating tickets for a laser show tonight at 10:30pm, so we're having a breather across the road before we go back for more. It should be amazing!

Can't believe the whirlwind tour is going to be starting up so soon. It's going so fast. Next stop is Las Vegas, where you know I'll be dying of heat exhaustion. Seriously, I don't think I'll be sharing any pictures from this trip, because I look like death. And I'm shiny. Very, very shiny.

Our hotel here is a good 20 minute walk from Disney, and is very, very budget. It does however have a working air conditioner, and for that I am grateful. If only it had a pool out front, instead of a fish pond. Seriously.

Highlights of Disney? Dragging Kirby on the scary rides . . . sometimes even twice. I'm a proud best friend, oh yes.

It's basically been a week since I left, and I feel like it's been months! I'm missing my boys like crazy - this time zone is kicking my arse; I haven't talked to Jason once.

We ended up keeping our rental car (and Carmen!) for the last four days, and ended up seeing so much of the LA area. We did our local bits, so Venice Beach and Santa Monica, our own sight seeing tour, going to all the 'famous' spots, and spent a full day (and night!) in Universal Studios yesterday. Today we're gathering all of our bits and pieces, driving to the airport and dropping off the car - and then yoinking Kirby from the plane and into a shuttle, to head to Anaheim. Oh yes, Disney awaits!

I'm so exhausted. We were so busy that we weren't eating much, so we've been trying to be more careful and eat more, because I think that's why we had no energy! Felt much better yesterday, the walking around under fans was nice, as it's really warm. I wonder how I'll be in Texas, or Vegas, if I can't even bear this 'nice' summer heat. Yeep.

I haven't even really gotten sunburned yet. Just slightly toasted, and that's with sunscreen. I intend to keep it that way. They don't call it pale for nothing!

(I can't upload pictures as yet, because we're not on actual PCs, more like big robotic metal 'things' which take forever to load and make my typing sound like I'm banging on the keyboard with a stick. Hopefully we'll eventually find a computer that's more user friendly. Maybe.)

Hi, guys - from sunny California!

My flight from Heathrow to San Francisco was possibly the worst journey EVER taken by plane. I was squished right at the back of the plane, quite literally surrounded by screaming children. Nightmare! All of that aside, once I arrived in San Francisco and caught a shuttle out to the hotel, I was feeling a lot better. It was a little windy, but a gorgeous day - however the sight of twisty, bendy stairs first thing in the morning is NOT fun when dragging a suitcase along behind you. Blech!

Our hotel was supposedly a 'short walk from Fisherman's Wharf' and surrounds, so my friend Mel and I set off to explore that day. Er, right. Our 'short walk' was actually an hour and ten minutes. JUST to get to the wharf area! Not impressed. We wandered up to Pier 33, as we wanted to book our Alcatraz tour - only to find out that there wasn't a single tour available to purchase, until next week. I was completely bummed about this, as that's one of the main reasons we decided to start this trip in San Francisco. We did some window shopping, then took our leisurely stroll back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next day, we were trying to figure out what to do in place of Alcatraz, so ended up doing a city tour instead. It was quite good, 3.5 hours of good ol' fashioned tourist sightseeing (complete with oldies coach!) and it took us everywhere, even over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island, back around the northern heights and to an awesome Golden Gate viewing point.

Mel and I walked back to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where we were going to meet the lovely Lara - however she sadly wasn't able to make it, so we just walked on back. I'm telling you, the thighs? They are killing me!

This morning saw us bid farewell to foggy San Fran (seriously, all my Golden Gate bridge pictures look grey and gloomy) and fly on down to Los Angeles. Mel drove (bravely) while I sat in the passenger side being an awfully unhelpful backseat driver, but thanks to our lovely Carmen-the-Garmen GPS system, we made it to our next stop for the next 4 nights. We are, quite literally, situated on Venice Beach, home of crazies everywhere! Our window has a sea view - and despite a strange picture of a naked lady on the wall, it has a great bathroom and seems pretty good.

Tonight Mel is being brave and driving us down to Anaheim, where we are going to watch the Angels vs the Yankees game. Should be a good'un! Other than that, we're being LA tourists for the next few days - and catching up with Kirby soon after. It's going so fast already!

Keeping this one short, as I am typing on quite possibly the loudest keyboard in the world. (No, seriously. Loud.) Hoorah! More from me, later.