One of the things I've noticed in my two weeks sans internet is how unimportant the internet really is. The sheer inconvenience of having to get in a car and drive 20 miles to a crummy fast food joint just to leech off their free WiFi changed the priority of email checking and web browsing for me. Add to that the grim realization that when I made the trek I discovered I had only five minutes of battery left (sneaky kids) and I pretty much gave up on surfing the interweb.

Being web-free for such a long time has allowed me to focus on the more important things - which in France are family, baguettes, non-pasteurized cheese and copious amounts of wine.

That said, it's nice to be able to actually connect and see what's going on in the world. I didn't see a shred of the Olympics. I had no idea Obama chose a career politician as his sidekick for his agenda of change. I didn't know Russia was being thuggy again. And I didn't realize planes were crashing, which prompted us to drive 1100km across Europe even though statistically we were being ridiculous.

I also missed seeing my interview in Vanity Fair.