1 Speaking for the lurkers: "I couldn't be more proud." I will be disappointed, however, if you never run for Senate.

2 It shows that you have too much talent to waste your life as a lawyer. Instead, you should entertain us.

3 Frankly, I don't care what she does, just as long as she occasionally IM's me to straighten me out.

4 Say it ain't so! When you have a child - you never plan for them to go first! I remember her first blog and her first poem on www.soulparking.com - and now I am seeing it all just disappear! No way! Greetings from Hong Kong!

5 Bronco Bomber seems a veiled reference to OJ and terrorism, an attempt to link Obama with the perils of jihadists, the farce of celebrity justice, and something racial too, which is always makes voters go "ooooh". She's a crafty hatchet lady for the GOP! this beats the willie horton ad by a mile

6 Hey Straw, those yoga lessons sure paid off!

7 Annika, this might be a strange read, but I have just GOT to tell you that you were in a very long and weird dream I had this morning. We were high school classmates. We were two members of a four-member team. Our assignment was to compete with other teams to be the first to complete a maze made up of paths through a large woods. At one point we were on a path that ran alongside a small lake -- about the size of a baseball field. There was a large boulder sticking out of the lake about 100 feet from us, and rising about 20 feet of the lake's surface. The boulder was covered with snow on the half that was to our right. Above the half-snow-covered rock -- from a tree branch above -- hung a wooden box that was about the size of a large microwave oven. You lit a cigarette and I told you, "There's no smoking in the woods." You said, "Oh," and flicked the cigarette out over the lake and it hit the snowy side of the boulder. The snow burst into flames and the box above was burnt in a flash and a large pterydactl-like bird fell out of the box and into the water. The bird was just below the surface, face-up, and trying to get it's head out of water and it's body upright. You pointed and shouted, "It's warring! It's Warring!", which I immediately understood to mean that it was on a personal jihad against drowning. The bird did manage to get upright and essentially walk along the surface of the lake to the shore to our left. We and the the rest of our team went on to complete the maze and arrive back at school. That's all I want to tell you because the dream got really weird after that. Dang, I'm gonna miss you.

8 Spork, thanks for sharing that with us. Clearly, you've found out about Sally D. Better lay off; it's worse than LSD.

9 Well, Shelly, I have no idea who or what Sally D is. Alls I know is that is a bright light that shall be sorely missed. But, she'll be back. I can dream can't I?

10 Whoops. That should have read: Alls I know is that Annika is a bright light that shall be sorely missed. Damn that Sally D.

11 Spork, when you say "the dream got really weird after that," are you implying the first part isn't? I do understand your angst though, I too shall miss this wonderful Journal and...can I really say this?....I may have found an attorney I like.

12 Thanks for the kind words everybody. Hey Sporky, I had the exact same dream last night! How weird is that? Only it looked more like this.

13 Sally D. or, more correctly, Salvia divinorum - is the current drug de jour of the idiot set. The laws have not yet made it illegal, so they smoke it. It is a hallogen and much more dangerous than even LSD. Make sure that your kids are not trying it. It is seriously dangerous.

14 I was hoping Annika's dream would have looked more like this.