I'm writing this prior to leaving for Ireland, so I can't tell you about it yet.

What I would like to share with you, however, has to do with taking care of your back as you use the computer. The following is an excerpt from Bottom Line's Daily Health News, June 7, 2004.

"According to Jerome F. McAndrews, DC, a chiropractor in Claremore, Oklahoma, and a spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association, there are many simple steps you can take to protect your back from everyday wear and tear...

Many of us spend countless hours hunched over our computers and, not surprisingly, this is another common source of back pain. Dr. McAndrews offers the following tips for back protection at the computer...

• Don't slouch. Sit up straight, with knees bent and feet flat on the floor in front of you.
  
  
• Place a cushion behind your lower back to encourage a slight forward bend. If you lose this natural bend through poor posture, you compress the disks in your spine. Dr. McAndrews notes that lumbar support also is a good idea in the car, in airplanes or just sitting on the couch in your living room.
• Position your monitor so you are looking slightly down at it.
  
  
• Position your keyboard so your wrists and elbows are at a 90-degree angle to the upper part of your arms. For the best wrist protection, invest in a wrist rest at your local computer store.
  
  
• Take breaks. Periodically get up, walk around and stretch. This loosens joints, stretches muscles and relieves the pressure on disks.
  
  
• Consider using an exercise ball in place of a conventional desk chair. This encourages flexibility and muscle tone, says Dr. McAndrews. (To read more about exercise balls as chairs in the June 3, 2004, issue of Daily Health News.)
  
  
• When the phone rings at your desk, don't cradle it between your head and shoulder. A better alternative is to use a hands-free head set."

The monitor position is very important because tilting one's head upward puts a strain on the vertebras in the neck and that results in headaches and shoulder pain.

I've never tried sitting on an exercise ball, but I always found myself slumping when I had one of the "Z shaped" computer chairs for a while; and I like the idea of the hands-free head set, just be careful about hanging yourself when you get up to leave the computer. Is there a cordless telephone head set? I know there are speakerphones where the person speaking usually sounds like he or she is in a barrel.