and, when i came home, the heater was on! hahahahahaha!! oh, man, THAT'S funny right there, i don't care who you are!

this morning i turned on the television so the local weatherman could tell me whether i needed to wear a jacket and learned that it was a bit overcast but a nice day, really... in LONDON. where the freaking ROYAL WEDDING was taking place. JEEZ people, can't you confine these things to a weddings channel or something? and what's with the adoration - didn't we throw some tea in the river over the thought of having to kowtow to the suzerain?

okay, okay. the royal family generates like $800 million a year for britain in tourist dollars alone. i know, right? unbefreakinlievable. the group who tracks this stuff (who are called, in typically british unimaginative fashion, 'visit britain') said, in typically british understated fashion, the benefit of a royal wedding year is likely to outstrip that. ya think? yeah, well, the point is that the royals are no longer traipsing around the hinterlands roughing up the serfs for sport. they're actually a large business enterprise. as a comparison, i found this about the walt disney company in the first fiscal quarter of 2010 - Disney said after the markets closed that it earned $844 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $845 million or 45 cents a share in the year-earlier period. that's not just the theme parks, that's the entire disney enterprise. extrapolate that to a year and you get $3376 million. or, is that $3 billion? i don't know how that works. anyway, the POINT here is that the royals generate nearly 1/4 of what the entire disney empire does in one year.

but, all the hooplah aside and all the money aside, the two kids getting married today appeared to be just that - two kids, getting married. lots of smiles, whispers, winks, and kisses, and all their family and friends around to share the love on a balmy british day. quite right, that, eh?

this is one of my favorite pictures from the day. william's whispering something to kate and harry's looking over at his new sister-in-law... i don't know... something about it looks like they're just a bunch of kids heading into life full of hope.



what? you think i am being sentimental and soft hearted? well, why'nt you come over here say that to my FACE!!