First, let me apologize in advance because I feel this might end up too long...I feel like I haven't been online or posted in a looooong time and I'm not sure when I'll get another chance, so I'm making the most of it!

Now, if there were any way I could let you all know what all your birthday wishes have meant to me, I could only say it with a hug. I really, really was quite humbled by the b'day wish link. I read what everyone wrote, I enjoyed all the emails I received, and I read the b'day wishes over at FF too! It was so nice to read all the wonderful comments, and it really made my day. I guess there will always be a few hurtful people out there that really don't think that people on t.v. should be treated like real people, so it's such an honor and pleasure to see so many of you express such wonderful affections and thoughts. I really do my very best to reach out because I feel it's important, after all, you guys have been inviting me into your houses every week for the last few years. Why wouldn't we have a little something in common? It has been an exhausting last few months, and the emotions have run quite high and quite low, but I do my best to always look at the positive in a situation and always try and look at positives in people. Without doing much more gushing, I really want you all to know just how important it is to me that we have this place to come to. My feelings for everyone have always been expressed in the most genuine way that I know how, whether in person or online, and it is quite touching to know you guys appreciate it. Okay, enough with the gushing...on to some stories.

London- Fantastic. Amazing. Such a blast! So many cool people and lots of great time to spend bringing "closure," as Jason put it, to the last three years. Lots of smiles, lots of hugs, lots of pictures, and lots of memories. I would love for it all to happen again, and if the opportunity arises, and if my schedule and all else is copasetic, you will see me out there again! Sean is a lot of fun to work with and everything other previous guests told me about him were definitely spot-on. I also thought it serendipitous that I was out there during that specific time, for several reasons, and it was nice to be around a lot of people who were so wonderful. The gifts and comments were all so wonderful and enough to float on air for a lifetime. I really hope to be back.

Windsor- I went and visited the small, epically-beautiful town that my father lived in for so many years. It brought back a lot of memories, and it reminded me of how fast that my life has been going by. I have got to discover a way to slow down time, damnit.

Germany-Amazing. I hadn't realized how much I missed it until I was there again. I had great food, great beers, and I went on a pilgrimage to Freising, the town my mother was born in, and I walked the streets and visited the houses that my family lived in. It was amazing and quite hard to imagine my family being torn apart by Hitler, my Opa (my mom's dad) being sent to a camp in Siberia, my Omi (my mom's mom) having to keep an eye on three young boys and not knowing if she'd ever see my Opa again, living in that town, hiding out, making plans to move to America to start a new life, giving birth to my mom in a small house in that town, getting away, and hoping that their kids and grandkids could make a better life for themselves in America. It makes me proud to feel like I have honored their lives and their deaths by trying to be a good person, pursuing life and dreams with every ounce of strength and focus I have, and wishing for my kids and grandkids an even better life than my own. It was a wonderful thing to go honor my mother and uncles and grandparents by spending a day in that town. I'll never forget it.

Rome- Great meeting new faces, and also a couple familiar faces from the London get-together. Even with the language barrier, it was a treat for me and Jaime to have breakfast on that terrace overlooking the Coloseum and getting to meet some very dedicated fans, and wonderful people! So many thanks to Sammy for putting that together! While I was there I saw so much of the city in a week and did of lots of walking, lots of eating Italian food, and I have pictures that will help remind me of just how beautiful the people and the city are.

Paris- So much fun. It was great to get back there after 10 years. I really had an amazing time, and it was extra-special being able to meet up with a fun crowd at Cafe George V one morning. Big thanks to Caro for organizing that one! I had a blast there, and the view from my hotel room was dominated by the Eiffel Tower, and I made of point of taking in that sight every night before I went to sleep. What a great city!

Lyon- That city was it's own kind of fun, and it was great being there because it was the least "touristy" of all the places we'd been so we felt less "embarrassed" to be Americans touring a European city.

Finally, London- Staying on Piccadilly next to Hyde Park with a view from our windows of Big Ben and the London Eye was spectacular. I had a wonderful time visiting places I had been years earlier with my father. I got to meet some old London friends out for dinners. I was also beginning to miss home by then and was glad I would be returning to L.A. soon.

I discovered a new candy that I am in love with. Also, I am on a temporary break from chocolate...I had a chocolate overload and was about two chocolate bars away from needing a saline-drip administered via IV at a nearby hospital. As auspicious occasions and irony (and poetic justice) would have it, I was given a gift from Stef, a little something called "Hobbits." Best. Cookies. Ever. The name is perfect, too! Maybe one day all of you Hobbits and I can be hanging out while eating Hobbits while discussing my latest show that is rocking the nation!! Sounds good, eh?

I returned to Los Angeles to receive an offer to star in a thriller-movie with Michael Madsen, Stacey Keach, Nicholas Brendon(Xander from Buffy), among others. I read the script and felt that if it were shot the right way, this thing could be a lot of fun to watch, so I accepted the offer and I finish up wardrobe fittings tomorrow and I begin shooting the following morning. It's so strange that I had to fly all the way to London to finally meet Stacey Keach, and on our last night together we left the Chinese restaurant where we ate dinner, we stood outside, exchanged emails, and commented on the fact that Hollywood is small, maybe one day we'd work together. Little did we know it'd only be weeks later! He and I have had a good laugh over that one.

So, amidst all the other stuff out there, it's nice to see this place hasn't changed much since I last posted, and I encourage everyone out there to keep showing up here with your stories and pictures and comments. I still read every post and every comment that is posted here. I'll keep you posted about my latest movies and there might (emphasis on "might") be the possibility of some t.v. stuff to report soon. We'll have to just wait and see.

Thanks again for everyone being who they are. It means a lot. And I promise you all this, I only hope to treat people like I would like to be treated, so make sure you all do the very best to be that way, too. It actually makes for a more compassionate world. With all the schmutzig in the news and in the media, we need a little bright spot here and there to get us by. Spread the good, avoid the bad.

I'll leave you with some irrelevant quotes that have amused me as of late...

"You can please some of the people all the of time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." Abe Lincoln (might be slightly misquoted)

"There are two eternities, the universe, and stupidity. And I'm not too sure about the universe." Einstein (again, might be off a bit)

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad." Abe Lincoln

"With so many divas out there, I've got a newsflash: If you are not overweight and don't sing in an operatic voice, you're not a diva, you're just a bitch." Bill Maher

And on that note, I'm sorry this was so long, I'm sorry I don't know how to compact it to a link, and I promise not to ramble on like this next time.

Many hugs to all my Hobbits.

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p.s. If anyone is so inclined to respond to this post and add one or two of their favorite quotes, I'd love to read them!

Michael Muhney