Category: LiveJournal

So, that happened…

Photo of kitten and older cat sitting on a chair. Kitten is looking off to the side while cat is looking more at the camera.
Reesie welcomes a new kitten to our clowder.

I have been pretty lucky with my cat adoptions. Leo I got thanks to one of mom’s co-workers. Linus & Lucy were thanks to my cousin, Brandi. Reesie was from one of my co-workers. And guess what? I have a new little furball in my life. I had intended to adopt one in the summer when I could spend more time with the kitty, but this one happened now, so now is when we adopt!

No name yet, though I have some ideas, so for now I’m calling it Tiny or Little B (B for Bae or Baby.) I adopted Tiny today thanks to another of my mom’s co-workers (both she and mum now retired). Her cousin lives on a farm not far from here and they’re always having cats dropped off at the end of their lane. Though they’ve caught most and had them fixed, this particular mama cat has eluded them thus far – I think they said she’s had 3 litters now.

So the rest of this post is just for photos of the new little one. Hoping to get it to the vet this week to make sure it’s doing well (it looks just fine & dandy) and schedule its spaying/neutering. Reesie seems fine with the tiny one for the most part, though she’s been watching it from afar as it naps of late. We had a lovely time all cuddled together in the comfy chair, so I’m hoping Tiny is feeling love from our new clowder.

Tiny kitten (white, orange/yellow with black stripes, little paw sticking out and showing its toe beans).
Tiny Kitten and toe beans
Same kitten, now asleep with paw up and toe beans are on display.
Moar Toe Beans!
Tiny Kitten in a tiger-striped cat cabana with a white tiger Beanie Baby that's almost as bit as the kitten. Kitten is looking into the camera.
Tiny Kitten has found the cat cabana & Tiger Beanie Baby.
Tiny kitten still in cabana but now sleeping with head pressed against the Beanie Baby.
Tiny Kitten asleep with the Beanie Baby.

Happy New Year!

Considering that my last LJ post was in the summer, I think I’m going to have to admit that how I “journal” my life has changed. It used to be paper. Then it was LiveJournal. Now I do “microjournaling” via Twitter and Instagram (username pagefillers). And even there I’m not as thorough as I once was. But they’re quick, and that often fits my lifestyle more.

I know a number of “old time” LJers who are jumping ship due to the Russians or somesuch. Haven’t decided if I will or not. But I do want to get a good backup of this journal and soon – my last backup was a few years back. And then maybe I’ll decide what to do.

My own website (pagefillers.com) is still very barebones since it was hacked at some point. Perhaps I’ll get my old LJ stuff onto there. At least my trip stories would be good there. Perhaps 2017 will be my year to get that sorted out. 🙂

I’m currently sitting in my library with Linus on my lap and Lucy sitting on the back of the comfy chair. We’ve got soft Christmas music playing in the background and, when I’m not writing this, I’m working on my eBooks’ meta data (like you do). I had a wonderful birthday today (46 years – sheesh!) Although Amy was back in MSP, the folks and I had a nice time. I cooked pork & kraut & mashed taters and then they came around for lunch. They brought cake & presents!

Since I’m 6, er 46, the gifts were toys & games. 😉 Amy, OTOH, got me an IKEA gift card – to help me get a display case to, um, hold my LEGO… OK, so I *am* 6!

Amy was here for Christmas – she arrived Christmas Eve and left on the 30th. We had a great time and, as per usual, we won at Christmas. And according to WW, I only gained 4.8lbs. Heh.

In 2016, I hit my lowest weight (in December) at WW which is over 40lb lost since I started the program, and probably closer to 50lb lost since I started trying. Yeah, it’s taking years, but I’m working on lifestyle changes, not looking for quick fixes. I’m wondering if, in 2017, I finally get under 180lb. We’ll see!

I managed to reach my book-reading goal for 2016 (read 75 books – I got 76 read – whee!) and I’m going to see if I can read 80 in 2017. You can keep tabs on me through goodreads.

OK, enough rambling from me. Linus has changed his position so that now when I type, I’m having to move him with me. He’s too zonked to care, but I think I should let him rest without being wiggled around.

I hope that 2017 is a good year for you all. I know there’s a lot of uncertainty right now and it has the potential to be truly horrible, but I hope that this isn’t the case. Love to you all!

Summer!

I know, I know, summer’s more than halfway over and I’ve not posted a thing since February 29. Trina from the future’s gonna be ticked off at Trina from the past for neglecting her LJ. Well, Trina from the future, deal with it! 😉

Further to my last post, I did wind up getting the Samsung Galaxy S7 phone (gold colored). I had intended to buy it from AT&T despite the fact that they were selling it for more than all of the other phone companies. But they wouldn’t sell it to someone without a contract. I use a Pay-As-You-Go card and stuff $100 on it once a year. I don’t have any contracts. So I wound up buying it from Amazon. Got an international version (better innards, apparently) in the process. Love it. 🙂

This has been an interesting summer. In June, I attended a 3-week workshop on teaching physics using a modeling method. This, I hope, will completely change the way I teach physics this year (and every year after) to a more effective way. It’s exciting and daunting all at once. So I’d like to apologize (a) to all of my physics students in the past for not being very efficient at teaching you physics and (b) to this year’s physics students who will have to deal with me learning how to teach physics in this new way. (By “new” I mean new to me – physics modeling has been around for decades, I’ve only just recently been trained in it.)

In order to continue having fun during this 3-week workshop, I visited several of the Metro Parks in the Columbus area. One was just north of the hotel where I was staying. The other 3 were between the school where the training was and my hotel. So each afternoon after class, I’d go wander for over an hour in the woods (or gardens in the case of Inniswood). It was lovely. I also tried out different restaurants in the area. But I packed my breakfast for each day, and the lunches at the modeling workshop were usually fairly nutritious. So I managed to keep my weight pretty stable during the training.

This was finally going to be my big Upgrade Summer for my PC. I discovered when I started researching parts that I was way out of the loop these days. So I went to CyberPowerPC to see what parts would make a good build. When I sourced them from newegg.com, I found there was maybe only a difference of $150 from what CyberPower would charge versus newegg. I decided it was worth the extra to have someone else build it for a change (and get Winders 10 working on it). It all worked out well, except for two hitches.

The first hitch was how CyberPowerPC ships their PCs. They used UPS, but wouldn’t allow the recipient to make any delivery changes, not even with MyUPS. It was scheduled to arrive on a Tuesday when I was in Columbus. And I couldn’t get them to change the date till Friday. Thankfully I was able to get UPS to hold the PC at their shipment location in Piqua (thanks to Justin S. from CyberPower!) and thus picked it up on my way home from Columbus. Yay, I had a new PC!

I had also bought a second SSD hard drive from Amazon (sorry, newegg, they had it cheaper) in order to install Ubuntu on it. Only I discovered that I had no SATA cables. Of course nobody local sells SATA cables. Thankfully, a former student of mine works at the local Staples and he gave me a spare that he had (one of many) in the back. Ubuntu and I fought for quite a bit, but I finally got it to play nicely in my new machine. Files were transferred, a new backup drive was fitted and LuckyBackup software was run. Things were perfect! (Well, OK, turns out I managed to pick the ONE sound card that doesn’t and will never have Linux drivers. Gee thanks Creative! Thank goodness for (a) motherboard sound cards and (b) y-cables which allow me to have 2 sound cards connected to the same speakers.)

And then the second hitch hit… Before having the machine a week, I started seeing some weird flickering on the screen. At first it was just a little and only in Windows. Then World of Warcraft became completely unusable. Then I started seeing the glitches in Ubuntu. I did as much troubleshooting as I could (even tried to install the new card into my Old PC only to discover it didn’t have enough power cables to connect it) and then e-mailed CyberPower. They had me try something else, but when it failed, they sent me an RMA and had me mail the dud card back. The replacement arrived on Tuesday and I’ve not yet seen any glitching!

Now, between sending my bad card out and getting the replacement, I spent a weekend with and in Downers Grove. Of course, being the interesting summer that it is, it wasn’t as straightforward as that. The night before my flight to Chicago, I got a text from Judi telling me that she had a detached retina and needed to have emergency surgery the next day. “Do you still want to come?” My question was did *she* want me to come. She said she could use the help, so I kept my plan to go.

Only apparently Southwest wasn’t all that up on my plan to go. I was scheduled to fly out on Wednesday at 8:20pm, but Southwest’s servers were all wacky. I had no idea it was happening – the day before I’d checked in with no issues. The folks and I went out for dinner before we headed to the airport. I got to the counter and they told me the flight was cancelled and here’s an 800 number to call. By the time I got a hold of someone, my folks had picked me back up and were taking me home. I got another night with my kitties and resolved to call first thing in the morning.

Well, after 4+ hours on hold the next day (over 3 phone calls), I finally was able to schedule a new departure for that evening. The flight was delayed, of course, but we had some live music at the gate to entertain us. (Sadly, when the saxophonist was done entertaining us, we could once again hear the RNC on the telly.) Mum kept me company via text messaging, and eventually we got to take off. (Thursday’s issue wasn’t the servers anymore, but a really big ass storm over Chicago. Part of which Elsa had to drive through on her way to pick me up. Eep!)

Despite everything, I got to Judi’s new place. I helped her where I could (mostly in unpacking her remaining boxes and helping her to organize stuff). I explored the neighborhood during my morning walks with Patty. We tried out a restaurant that serves Dim Sum (which was very good) and her local sushi joint (also good). Elsa and I checked out the farmer’s market. And Judi got to keep her head down and sleep on her belly to help her retina reattach. Joy joy.

So August will start on Monday, whether we’re ready for it or not. I get one more trip before school starts whereupon I shall invade my sister for a long weekend. Here’s hoping there’s no emergency surgeries or downed servers or big ass storms. I’d like to get there & back again with little fuss. I intend to start working on getting my lessons ready starting this Monday (since I have decided to take July completely off, heh.) With our current bouts out hellishly hot days, I have all this time during the day when I don’t want to be outside (I do my walks in the morning), so working on lesson plans etc will be a good use of my time.

My final thing for this post will be to post the video that I made earlier today. I wanted to see how well my new PC can handle video editing. (Even *that* wasn’t straightforward! The video playback was so choppy. It took some research, but I found out that it was an AUDIO problem… Once I had the right settings in Premiere Pro, it worked a charm.) The video clips are from my various walks at the Metro Parks plus from Memorial Day weekend (with Elsa & Judi at the Lake) and some Lucy & Linus, of course.

Leap Day!

I couldn’t pass up the chance to post on February 29. So here I am typing on my newish Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 tablet. (I bought it earlier in the month ‘cuz my old Nexus was running out of space. Love the new one!)

Things are going well for me ATM. (Asynchronous transfer mode? Automated teller machine? At the moment? Prolly that last one…) I’ve been below 200lb most of 2016 (compared to 1 day in 2015 & none days in the previous X years). The new way WeightWatchers determines their points is probably much of the reason for my weight loss.

I am the co-director of the high school play this year. A former student of mine is the other co. She’s been in the play more recently than I, so I defer to her most of the time. It’s fun, but I’m not used to working this late any more! Heh heh.

Got my taxes done & I did well – only getting a little back. (Don’t wanna owe, but don’t want them holding my money interest free either! I could get a whole penny in interest!) Decided the refund will help with my next big tech purchase – a new phone. Eying the Samsung Galaxy S7. (The S III was a great phone. Actually is still doing well 4 years on. But the shiny compels me to upgrade!)

The kitties be good. Linus is at the foot of the bed wondering why I’m not under the covers & I think he has a point! So good night all & I hope March is god to you!

2015 – a BS Reading Year!

And by BS I don’t mean bulls*** but instead Bernice Summerfield.

So the past week or so I’ve been updating my Goodreads book database with the dates of books I’d read since June of 2001. Why? Um, because I can, I guess. I’ve been keeping a paper record (which I then transpose to a spreadsheet) of the date I finished reading books since June of 2001. The original idea was to NOT buy any new books till I’d read 10 books I already owned. I’m pretty sure I was in a deficit before June was over. Heh.

Anyhoo, last January I decided to try the Goodreads reading challenge and publicly pledged to read 75 books during the year. (I succeeded by the skin of my teeth!) Which meant I had to keep track of the dates I finished books in Goodreads. It got to the point where I was doing a better job of keeping track with the online database than my paper booklet. And I kept thinking that some day I’d enter in the earlier dates. Well, I just finished updating 2014’s books and that has me caught up. And it looks like I now have about 500 read books with dates (out of nearly 1300 read books). Not too shabby.

While updating the database I discovered a number of things that I hadn’t really noticed before. Such as getting into Lois McMaster Bujold so damned late. 2008? Really? I knew I was a latecomer, but I hadn’t realized it was that late. I noticed that some years I read a LOT of library books (most electronic, but a few paper). And it wasn’t till 2010 that I got back into library books (when I was working on my Masters degree). Last year wasn’t as heavy with library books, but I did have a couple. This prompted me to create two exclusive groupings for Goodreads – owned and borrowed. (I also have reference, which is for books that I own but don’t expect to read from cover to cover.)

I noticed that once I discover an author that I enjoy, I tend to binge-read. 2014 is when I discovered David Weber’s Honor Harrington novels and I zipped through them so fast that I couldn’t tell you which plot goes with which book title. But I remember pretty well what all happened overall. I shall enjoy rereading the series. (I don’t keep track of rereads – I know I’ve reread the Bujold Vorkosigan novels, but cannot tell you which year it was.)

My main focus this year, as hinted at by my title and its explanation, was to finally get some Bernice Summerfield novels read. I read all of the Virgin books when they all first came out (long before I kept records on when I finished books). But I had quite a few Big Finish Benny books which I’d not yet read. This was prompted by a sale that Big Finish had in May. I ordered Bernice Summerfield – The Inside Story and the last of the books which I didn’t yet own (and that were still in print). I started reading the big coffee table book after our Britain trip, and decided to relisten to the audios and then read about them in the book. And then I dusted off my BS books and started reading them for the first time. (I also managed to, ahem, “borrow” a couple that are currently out of print. I’m still looking for them IRL though and hope to get them someday. Even the juvenile (as in written for horny 13-year old boys) Squire’s Crystal. It’s more than made up for by The Glass Prison, IMO.

Though I’ve long since relistened to all the Benny audios, I’ve still got quite a few books to get through. I’m “currently reading” Collected Works. (The quotes because I haven’t actually started it, but I will soon!) I’ve got 5 currently in my “Currently Reading” list at Goodreads. There’s also a Murder, She Wrote (last one read in 2010!), an eBook (The Goblin Emperor), and a couple of books on my tablet I’m slowly working through. (My tablet is great for comic books. It’s the main reason I bought it.)

Let’s see, what are some other 2015 noteworthy reads. Well, I will say that HumbleBundle is both a joy and evil. So is StoryBundle. I wind up buying whole collections of books from them, then forget to add them to my databases (yes, I also have a LibraryThing account – it’s my official one with Goodreads being my social one) till I finally finish one of the books from the set. HumbleBundle had the Berkley Breathed collection for sale this year which I snapped up and then read through. And then he started doing his Facebook-only 2015 (and now 2016) cartoon which has been a hoot.

Thanks to these bundling agencies, I’ve discovered some great authors and book series. Heck, I bought dad a set of Make: books for Christmas, then went ahead and bought the set for myself too! I’m pretty sure I haven’t yet added them to my databases. The Order of the Air series by Melissa Scott & Jo Graham is probably the best example. I read Lost Things which came with one of the bundles and fell in love with the characters. And in looking up a link for the series, I discovered that book 5 of the series was just released in December. Damn… Another book to buy!

And that, my dear friends, has been the story of my life with books. I read a recommendation in Twitter or elsewhere, check out a book, discover another, etc. And wind up buying a shitload of books. Rosemary Kirstein – wish I could remember who first recommended her to me (might have been one of the webcomic authors I follow) – was a major discovery this year. I read The Steerswoman and loved it. I’ve since inhaled the series and am awaiting the next two books. My twitter feed was all abuzz about Elizabeth Bear’s Karen Memory just before it came out, so I decided I’d buy it the day of. And inhaled that book too.

Just last night I was working on my database and wondered if Jasper Fforde had published a sequel to Shades of Grey (nothing to do with 50 Shades) and discovered another series of his. With, supposedly, a kickass female protagonist (why not – he’s good at ’em). And wound up buying the series (The Chronicles of Kazam), plus several other books. After all, Kobo was having double and triple bonus points for their frequent buyer program. I wound up getting 11 books for $90. And the books all have protagonists who aren’t straight white males! (I did debate buying The Martian last night, too, but decided to stick to my guns. Might borrow it from the library). And this just days after I bought The Goblin Emperor and a few other books. And then Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Bujold’s latest. *sigh* So many books! And I’m writing this up instead of reading!

Both cats are now with me (Lucy’s been here the whole time I’ve been typing this, but Linus has now decided he should be sleeping on my arms while I type this). So I suppose I should finish up and get a bit of reading done. I suspect my goal of 75 books read in 2016 will be another success – I certainly have enough new books to get me started!

Buh Bye, 2015!

Welp, here it is, 2016 already! I’m now 45 years old (doesn’t feel any different from 44. Or 43. Or any of those other post-40 years.) Was thinking of posting an end of 2015 entry, then saw ‘s meme on 2015. So I’ve decided to use it as my guide. Here goes!

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?

Visited Scotland & Wales! Travelled abroad with my mother & sister!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t do resolutions. Probably should, but I don’t.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Heh heh – not for 2015. But just yesterday, my cousin Deanna had a little boy.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Sadly, two of my former students died this past year. One of suicide, the other in a car/bike accident (he was on the bike). That doesn’t need to happen anymore.

5. What countries did you visit?

England, Wales, and Scotland. Whee!

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?

It’s the opposite – I want to have less procrastination than I had in 2015. I seem to be getting better & better at procrastination!

7. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I’m horrible about actual dates – ask my history teachers. But the summer of 2015 when mom, Amy, and I went to Great Britain will remain with me forever. 🙂

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I finally got under 200lbs! OK, so it was only for a day, but this year, by golly, it’s going to become more often!

9. What was your biggest failure?

I’m fortunate in that my failures, as far as I could tell, are minor. Not keeping up to date with the “family spreadsheet” that mom, Amy, and I keep for weight loss. Procrastinating on grading. Spending a wee bit more than I probably should (though I am independently wealthy… Heh.)

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not really. Here’s hoping 2016 is illness & injury free too!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Heh – the “new” cell phone for mom for Christmas. She’s really been enjoying it. I’m also pleased that I subscribed to Big Finish’s 2020 subscription when it first came out. (I think they’re offering it again for a short while). So I’m good for Doc5, 6 & 7 stories till 2020. Here’s hoping the boys are able to continue to make the audios!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The Supreme Court when they put the “gay marriage” issue to rest – and in the right way!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The GOP. My grandfather would turn over in his grave if (a) he knew and (b) the supernatural existed.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Stuff for Trina, my trip to Britain, mortgage.

15. What are you really, really, really excited about?

Hmm, good question. I may get back to you on this.

16. What song will always remind you of 2015?

Another good question. I don’t actually think that songs make me think of times as much as places.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder

Probably the same, maybe on the happier side of it.

b) Bigger or smaller?

Slightly smaller with plans to go even smaller than that!

c) richer or poorer?

Moneywise: Poorer, but only because I’m not quite recovered from the Britain trip. Will be soon, however! Then I’ll be richer.
Everythingelsewise: Richer. 🙂

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Reading & being creative. Writing, coloring, building robots, etc. If I did resolutions, that would probably be one.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Procrastinate. (Hmm, I sense a theme here!)

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

Guess this meme originated before the Christmas season. I spent it with mom, dad, and Amy. Was a blast, as always. Amy got home safe und sound.

21. What was your favourite month of 2015?

December and June. December for Christmas et al and June for Britain.

22. Did you fall in love in 2015?

Yeah, fell in love with Cardiff. 🙂

23. What was your favourite TV program?

Doctor Who. Capaldi is just kicking ass right, left, and center! 🙂

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is such a strong term. Probably hate those who stir up hate in others (I’m looking at you, Trump!)

25. What was the best book you read?

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein because it got me hooked into the series. There were quite a few others, and I hope to post a 2015 reads list before too long.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Hmm, that will take a bit of thinking. Maybe 2Cellos. I also want to do a 2015 music list as well.

27. What did you want and get?

I wanted lots & got most of it. That’s the “trouble” with being independently wealthy – I want, I get. Heh.

28. What did you want and not get?

Nothing important.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?

I didn’t really watch a lot of movies in 2015. I can’t even say The Force Awakens, because we watched it yesterday, in 2016. Maybe Song of the Sea.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Lordy, that was over a year ago now! 😉 On the first day of 2015, I turned 44. My sister was home and we had pork & kraut and they got me nifty gifts (including a question-mark handeled umbrella from Amy). Then we took Amy to the airport. Just a few days ago, I turned 45. My sister was home and we had pork & kraut and they got me nifty gifts. Then we took Amy to the airport. (Deja vu!)

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

In that one couldn’t even measure it? Less procrastination by me.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?

Frumpy & comfortable.

33. What kept you sane?

Family, friends, a great job, fun co-workers, nifty students, kitties, and all the fun toys & shit that I have.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

As always, Sylvester McCoy.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

That gay marriage is now legal on my country. Woohoo! It’s a small step in progressiveness, but an important one!

36. Who did you miss?

I haven’t seen and enough. I always miss Amy, especially after we part again. When I’m oot & aboot, I miss my kitties.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Haven’t met too many new folks. Guess I could say my new co-workers are wonderful folks, and the people I meet at FreethoughtDayton.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015.

It’s the same lesson I learn every year, but in light of the deaths of my former students: enjoy having one more day above the roses.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

“And I said to myself, what a wonderful world!”

Merry Christmas 2015!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas this year (or fabulous Friday, or both!) It’s been great for me this year (as it is every year – whee!) Amy arrived safely at the airport today. Her luggage, not so much. Eep!

Still, the Shorts are not put out by such things. We made lunch (hamloaf, roasted taters, sauteed Brussel sprouts, and beer bread), which we then ate and enjoyed immensely. Then we rested up, then had dessert (cookies, pumpkin roll, cheesecake cupcakes) and coffee (for those who drink coffee). Mom and I took a short walk. Then we decided to unwrap presents till we got down to where Amy’s gifts to us were needed. (They are in her luggage, which is supposedly on its way here.)

Once again, we won at Christmas. We’ve gotten really good at it. 🙂 Adult coloring books were a popular item. Everyone got some sort of books or other. I got mom a “new” phone (Samsung Galaxy S5) to work with and dad a drone+camera to play with. I got Amy the Star Wars trilogy & some sketch books/pencils/pencil case/etc. They gave me all sorts of good stuff (games to play, books to read, a new toaster) and I’ve still not seen the “encyclopedia set” that Amy has apparently gotten for me. 🙂 (She claims her bag weighs as if it contains the Encyclopedia Britannica, but with the bag not here yet, we can only assume she’s telling the truth.)

The weather is… hella warm for this time of year. We have been fortunate NOT to be inundated with tornadoes like some areas of the country. (Those poor folks!) Though two days ago I was sitting in my basement waiting for the all clear on a tornado warning. Warmest December on record apparently. Bleh.

I’ve been doing all sorts of things since I last posted in June. The trip to Britain, as you probably saw, was a blast. School has been good. I might actually be caught up on grading for once (thanks to taking much of this last Monday getting caught up). We have Amy till next Friday (whee!) and all of the family gatherings are already over or aren’t scheduled till January. So it’s just the 4 of us to have a great week together and I’m looking forward to it.

So Happy Holidays to everyone out there! If I don’t post again till 2016, HAPPY NEW YEAR! (And even if I do post before then, I still hope you have a happy new year. Heh.)

Oh! Update – Amy just got a call from the luggage deliverer – she should be here in half an hour. Christmas unwrapping can continue! (Once Amy wraps the gifts up, of course).

Great Britain Expedition, 2015, part eleven

I am typing this in the coach while we head from Alnwick (pronounced ann-ick) toward York with a stop at Hadrian’s Wall.

So, yesterday we got an extra half-hour of sleep again. And then we had Alan, a local expert, guide us around Edinburgh. First in the coach, and then around the castle. It was a chilly day, but lots of sun throughout the day. Once he was done with the tour we had the rest of the day to ourselves.

Heh heh, since I last wrote, I’ve had lunch in Heddon on the Wall, stood on Hadrian’s Wall, and gotten wet while taking photos of the Angel of the North. Anyhoo, back to yesterday.

So, mom, Amy, and I started out by going to the Scotch Whisky Experience. Amy bought us tickets and we managed to get on the next tour. We took a “barrel ride” to see how scotch is made. Then our guide told us how to tell scotches apart by region. Then we each got a dram to try. Mom picked a Lowlands scotch, Amy a peaty Islay, and I got a Speyside scotch. I liked mine best and Amy’s was so smokey it tended to overwhelm all other tastes. We ended the tour by viewing the largest scotch collection in the world. It was damned impressive.

Next we wandered down the Royal Mile, popping into shops and looking for lunch. I spotted a kebab, fish, and chips shop (the Clam Shell) and convinced the girls to get donner kebabs. We also got 2 orders of chips with salt & vinegar. The chips orders were HUGE! And the kebabs were as well. And very tasty, too. I was pleased since I’d been talking them up since before our trip. (To me, pork pies and kebabs are Britain.)

After a few more shops, we left the Royal Mile and wound up at the park. Although the wind was brisk, the sun was out and we spent some time just sitting & enjoying the first day of summer.

Next we popped into Jenner’s department store since it is the Harrod’s of Edinburgh. It’s bigger than expected from the outside. But we returned to Old Town to continue our “Edinburgh Death March” that Amy was in charge of. In fact, she had forgotten she was supposed to be guiding our Death March and to make up for it, she added some stair climbing to the mix.

As it neared the time for meeting up with the coach, we popped into the woolen mill by the castle and got to see the giant looms they use. We got there after the workers were gone, but the shops were still open. Amy found a nice tweed bag that she got for 10% off due to a small stain on it.

We ended our time in Old Town at the Hub. I had a hot chocolate while the girls had coffee. The coach arrived and we were returned to the hotel.

After a short rest, the three of us put on our bathing suits and went to the spa in the hotel. First we sat in the hot tub & chatted with a local who is a member of the club in the hotel. She reminded me a little of Patricia Hayes in appearance. Next was time spent in the sauna, followed by a rest surrounded by small eucalyptus trees. Very relaxing!

For supper that night, we went to the hotel bar. I ordered a scotch-based drink which the waitress rightly topped off with lots of ice. We split baked Camembert & toast as starter. I then had a sandwich of mature cheddar with apple chutney. And I refrained from ordering dessert. I figured tonight’s fairwell dinner will finish with a dessert.

Our evening finished with me working on homework after the girls got to bed. There’s more to do, but it’s not due till Wednesday.

Great Britain Expedition, 2015, part ten

I’m once again writing this while the coach is on the road. We’ve just left St Andrews where Alf, our substitute driver (Carl has 2 days off) drove us onto the golf course to get a closer look.

So this morning we had an extra half hour to sleep in – yay! After breakfast we got on the coach and stopped about 5 minutes later to see a stone circle in a housing development. James took a group shot of us in the circle.

Next we headed for Blair Castle near Pitlochry. This was another optional excursion that we had picked. Alf dropped most of us off there before taking the others into town.

The castle was medieval but updated in the Georgian times and again for Victoria’s visit. We toured the inside, then got an early lunch in the café. I picked up a ploughman’s sandwich (cheese, branston pickle, white bread, lettuce & tomato), hot chocolate, and a custard cream pastry. Definitely a lovely lunch. I’d like another custard cream please!

We made it back to the bus in time and were headed back to Pitlochry to pick up the others when we saw two “Harry coos” in a field. James asked Alf to pull over and several of us got out to take photos of the hairy cows. We had time – in the choice between more time in Pitlochry and hairy cows, we picked the cows. Heh.

Once we gathered the others, it was off to St Andrews. We had 2 hours to kill there, so we started at the abbey for photos and walkies. At one point mom went a different way than Amy, so I stuck with mom once I found where Amy was heading. We eventually found each other and went in search of a place for continued lunch (mom & Amy had eaten only half their sandwiches). Eventually we entered the Greyfriars pub. I ordered a half pint of Strongbow cider, while Amy had a Twisted & Bitter and mom G&T. Mom wanted soup to go with her sammich and Amy wanted to try their haggis fritters. The fritters were very good and mom liked her Cullen skink soup (sort of a fish chowder).

We bugged out with 10 minutes to get back to the bus & at one point almost turned down the wrong road. Then when we were nearly there, we had a gauntlet of OAPs with canes & zimmers to dodge around. But we made it with time to spare. Go us!

Now we’re heading for our hotel (another resort outside of town) and this evening we doing our last optional excursion. Edinburgh, here we come!

I’m writing this later in the hotel. Dang, it’s a nice place! And the spa is open till 10. Though we didn’t get to it tonight, but maybe tomorrow night.

James is a big fan of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and when we crossed over the Firth of Forth, he had Alf drive us through narrow streets in Queens Ferry to get to an ideal vantage point in order to take photos of the “first Forth bridge over the Firth of Forth towards Fife” (which he can say very quickly AND with a nifty London accent). This is a cantilever bridge that Brunel built in the 19th century and it still used for the rail line over the Firth of Forth. It was interesting on one of the narrow streets when one person in a car encountered us going the other way and she wound up having to get onto the sidewalk to get around (helped by a lady from a shop moving her sandwich sign off of the sidewalk). These coaches are HUGE and the streets are NARROW. 🙂

Our dinner tonight was in a private club that underlooked Edinburgh Castle (after all, no building can OVERLOOK the castle, it’s the tallest thing in the city). I had lentil soup for starters, lamb, potatoes, and vegetables for main course, and a chocolate torte for dessert.

We’re back in the hotel thinking that maybe we shouldn’t ever eat again. But we know that tomorrow we shall be hungry and there are many things to try in Edinburgh. 🙂

Great Britain Expedition, 2015, part nine

So that I can have more time to do course work this evening, I’ve decided to start typing up today’s activities. We’re still on the coach returning from Skye, but now we’re closer to the resort than before.

This morning I decided to have porridge for breakfast. I added cream & honey to it and it was delightful. I supplemented it with bacon, fruit, tea, and toast with marmalade.

We left at 8am as usual, though it was lovely not needing our bags out for once. The theme for today was scenery (whereas yesterday was probably history). We stopped for pictures along the way, but our priority was the Isle of Skye.

One stop was at Loch Ness. I bought a gift and a mini Nessie thing while mom got me a hot chocolate & coffees for her & Amy. We took photos and were back on the coach in time.

We took the bridge across to the Isle of Skye and continued on to the Clan Donald center for more scenery and lunch. The lunch line was big at the start so we took a walk in the gardens. For all three of us, this was the highlight of the day. Beautiful, peaceful, moss, birdsong, wild onion scent – bliss. Our only regret is not having more time to enjoy it. When we returned for lunch, I ordered a mature cheddar toasty which I had with crisps, elderflower soda, and a brownie. Yummy!

Our group stayed 10 minutes more than the other two tour groups there (whom we’d been racing since the Nessie stop) and still got to the ferry on time. Well played, James! Well played.

Since then we’ve been on the road with a quick stop to view the Bonnie Prince Charlie memorial and the viaduct from the Harry Potter movies. Amy and I took the path up to the viewing area for photos.

The nicest thing about today is that the rain only really happens when we’re in the coach. Amy tempted fate today at breakfast by mentioning our great weather for this trip, but figured we were more than half way through, so it didn’t matter if the weather changes for the worst.

Tonight we’re having supper at the resort again. I’ve ordered the goat cheese starter, the chicken entrée, and the mango mousse for dessert. Should be tasty!

[Time passes and I’m now in bed for the night.] Once we got to the hotel, mom and I did another Tescos run. She needed a shower poof (hers went asplody the other morning) and I wanted more sugar. So I bought 2 packages of jelly babies, another box of Tunnick’s tea cakes, and a package of dark chocolate digestive biscuits. I will likely go into sugar overload if customs lets me take this all out! 🙂

As I suspected, dinner was great. Before we went into the dining area, mom bought us drinks with money that dad had given her. I once again had a gin & tonic. The meal was superb, as usual. And the conversation was fun – we’ve managed to eat with different people each day which makes for interesting conversations. After dinner, we reitred to our room whereupon we packed for the next day and Amy posted more Facebook pictures. And now I’m going to try and get a lesson done before I sleep.