Computer woes lead to virtual vacation--join me!

My work computer is  over 6 years old and barely functional. It takes me two or three times as long as it should to do even simple tasks, and you can forget fancy stuff like, say reading pdf files. I talked the powers that be into ordering me a new one because--who knew??--professors nowadays need computers that work. Computer was ordered and arrived on campus in late April. Since then it's been sitting in our OIT, waiting to be set up. Gathering dust. Late last Friday I received an email informing me that they'd finally got the computer ready. Yay, right? Except they still haven't installed it or transferred the files from my old one. Today I emailed them to ask when???? And I received an email back, informing me that my work order status has been upgraded to "high." Wow--after only 3 1/2 months.

So instead of being bitter, I'm going to pretend I'm vacationing. You can pretend too. Here are some photos to help.

 This is the town of Hum, in Istria (Croatia). It claims to be the world's smallest town. It's famous for Glagolitic script. Hum is adorable, and it's over 900 years old.

 This is the view from a lovely cafe in Motovun, also in Istria. If you watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, he was at this cafe this year. I was there first. *g* Istria was long a part of Italy and still looks and feels pretty Italian. In the forest you see in the valley, locals truffle hunt with dogs.

 Motovun is also adorable. It looks like a tiny bit of Venice plucked from Italy and plonked onto the top of a hill. You can walk around the city wall for views like this. The house in the foreground is where Mario Andretti grew up.

 This star is from the Croatian walk of fame in Opatija (hint: in Croatian, the j is pronounced like a y). Opatijia is on the Adriatic, and it was used as a resort town for Austrian nobility during the 19th century. It's still a nice resort town, although with fewer Habsburgs nowadays.

 This is in Opatija. The umbrellas are a bargain, too--less than $4. The machine was sold out, which was unfortunate because it started pouring while we were there.

 But we could still find a covered cafe (cafes are very important to Croatian life), where we could watch this little drama. The Mercedes is illegally parked and the city bus full of people can't make the turn. You can see the bus driver stomping angrily back to his bus. A cop arrived, took pictures, and went away. Finally, maybe 10 minutes later, the car owner showed up to move his car. Nobody on the bus rioted.