Truth be known, I didn't give two pence for the royals till 2001. Took the wife to Toronto for a vacation. We were wandering around town, when a nice young canadian army officer asked us to stop. He explained that they were about to fire the howitzers that were in the park, and we needed to stand clear. We waited around, watched them fire, and just thought it was something those crazy canadians did every day. Well, when we finally got through the park, and to the other side of the government building in the middle of the park, there was another Canadian solider who asked us to get in this line. We did, and suddenly we were being given Cake. Amused, we ate the cake and continued on our stroll. When we finished the cake, we discovered that the cake and the gunfire was for the Queen Mum. (This important fact was discovered by reading the engraved inscription on the napkin the cake rested on.) It was her 100th birthday or something. The next year, again without thinking, we were in London on her 101st birthday. We were auctually leaving that day, and I remember when we arrived she was in the hospital getting a blood transfusion or something. Anyway, she's the only royal I've cared about. And to show how much, I think she's dead, but not sure. My fasination has always been with the structures of England and Europe. Oh, and the Middle East. I mean here in America, we don't have that kind of history. I remember walking down the royal mile in Edinburgh (cause I'm not stupid enough to walk UP the royal mile). There were buildings along that walk, in fact the MAJORITY of the buildings of that walk, with corner stones proclaiming they had been built in the 14, 15 and 16 hundreds. Wow. Two hundred years makes a building old in America. I mean, imagine Canterbury! The Cathederal was first Christinized in 598. My god, over 1400 years ago. And the building that was first used, and who's foundation still makes up part of the Cathederal, dates back even farther, to Roman occupation! Nearly two thousand years of history right there. Amazing. Okay, I'm done. I'm getting off the soapbox. Sorry to babble!