Sevilla was fabulous. Dirty, but fabulous. I didn't think anyplace had more graffiti than some of the neighborhoods in the US, but I stand corrected.
While the cathedral in Sevilla is really amazing, the Alcazar was definitely the highlight of the whole visit. It's been cold and a bit rainy although we still enjoyed the gardens. We left on Saturday morning.
Saturday started too early at 7:15, when the drunk twenty-somethigs were just staggering their way home from the bars. Think St Jean Baptiste day in Quebec. Think Ash Wednesday in New Orleans.
We caught a cab to the train station to pick up our rental car. No problems there. Getting out of Sevilla-- piece of cake. Getting to El Torcal de Antequera national park- easy. It was raining the whole time, but we were determined to go hiking.
So, we found the park and took a narrow, windy mountain road up, complete with blind switchbacks, sheer cliffs, and two-way traffic (although the lane is 1.5 cars wide).When we got to the trailhead it was really really really cool looking. The mountains are made of this crazy bare limestone that has eroded to look like massive piles of pancakes stacked up. We hiked the medium-length trail, about 3K, and it took about 2 hours. Yes, you read that right. It was muddy, rocky, hand-over-foot going most of the trail. And places where you had to pass through rock caves about 1 foot wide. It was pretty neat. We got filthy.
So, OK, everything so far was great. Then we got to Granada. I've been to many places and had to find my way around, and ask anybody-- I'm pretty good at naviguessing in an unfamiliar city. But I've never been anywhere that was even close to the level of difficulty of navigating this Gorforsaken town. We looked for the hotel. For. Three. Hours. Driving. The. Whole. Time. I nearly got into a fistfight with a bum at one point (mom still can't understand why, even though he had (in my perception) OPENED THE CAR DOOR TO ACCOST HER while I went to ask for directions at the train station. She swears she opened the door herself, but my already-on-the-edge self was ready for battle). I had to break 3 traffic laws to finally arrive get us to our destination. And the lady who owns the hotel had The Nerve to go on & on about how she had to turn away SOOOOO MUUUUCH BUSINESSSS because we were late and she wasn't sure whether we were coming and she could have gotten twice the price for our room and we should be so grateful to her for not giving away our room whaa whaaa whaaa.
Don't worry, I didn't kill her. But she won't be using that arm for awhile. Dad, if you're reading, I'm just kidding. It was nothing like the old lady that Fuzzy and I ganged up on in Quebec. She obviously had it coming.
So we're here. It is actually a really awesome looking place. Our hotel is smack between the Alhambra and the Cathedral. We have our own bathroom. We have a balcony over the little street. We have a parking place in a garage (the value of which should not be underestimated). We were able to shower and wash all our muddy clothes and use up all of the grouchy old lady's hot water. So that kind of makes up for the misery of driving around for 3 hours looking for the street the damn hotel is on.
We went to dinner last night at a place that was SUPER smoky and now our jackets, sweaters, scarves, ... smell like smoke. The meal wasn't very good. I tell you, these people didn't learn much about cooking from their northern neighbors. Or, maybe they did, but they listened to the wrong northern neighbors. No offense, Dave. ;-) I can't wait to head north and have a real meal!!
But all joking aside, I really can't complain-- Spanish people are SO laid back, which is really nice. If you screw up at a restaurant and use the wrong utensil or something, nobody gives you a scolding and everything is cheap. Clothes, food, drinks, even local transportation. So while SNG and I may have to get a summer place in Paris, we're doing all our shopping in Spain.
We've seen more American college students in Granada and in Sevilla than just about anything else. Mom keeps trying to figure out how she can pass for a Spanish abuelita, but I'm trying to tell her there's no way. She's too thin, too stylish, she doesn't apply makeup with a trowel, and her hair doesn't look like a football helmet. She looks a little bit like a French grandmere, perhaps, but she will never look like la abuelita española.
I realize that this entry has sounded more like a rant than a travel log of goodness, so I really need to make it clear that we're having a FABULOUS time. It's just that it's kind of fun to rant about the crazy stuff, and probably not as interesting to read about "we visited xyz museum today, and saw the following beautiful churches: a, b, c..."
And Fuzzy, for the record, my hotel karma so far (knock wood) has held up. But there's still Barcelona to see about...
Tomorrow we will spend the entire day at the Alhambra, which is the one thing I've anticipated the most about visiting Spain. I'll take lots of pictures and tell you if it lives up to its reputation.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Two Posts In Two Days?!
Yeah, when I'm home, I'm lucky to write more than one a post a week. But since all of Spain closes from 2-5 pm every day, and since I miss SNG like crazy, it looks like I'll be at an internet cafe most days at least once. And Spanish keyboards are much closer to English ones than the French keyboards. And of course, I can always change the language and touch-type, which works out nicely.
Today we learned where the post office is, and we are here during the annual SALE season. It's funny how mom and I manage to COINCIDENTALLY travel to European countries during SALE season. It is different than in the US where stores put stuff on sale whenever they feel like it. Here, they can only put stuff on super-clearance a couple times a year, to clear space for the next 1/2 year's stuff. So anyway, I think tomorrow we will learn how to mail packages internationally.
And speaking of taking things to other countries, if you're wanting to go to Europe with illegal goods, I recommend you use Madrid as your port of entry. The customs agent asked no questions, and no one ever looked at my bags. Or anyone else's bags. Nada. Rien. Nothing. Quite a contrast from US customs where they are absolutely certain to find not only the illegal meat products you're smuggling in, but also the live animals, fruits and vegetables, and automatic weapons. And they just get so darn grouchy about it!
\:-) *smirk*
I slept 10 hours last night, ate a good breakfast, had some fantastic cafe con leche, and I think now is a good time to tell you about all the people in Spain who are lucky to be alive today, after crossing my jet-lagged-low-blood-sugared path yesterday:
* the man on metro #8 who whistled an annoying tune
* the old lady on metro train #10 who played a "beep-bip-beep-beep" video game on her phone
* the other old lady (Metro #1) who cooed and cooed AND COOED and DROOLED and SLOBBERED all over the baby sitting across from her
* the man on the train to Seville with the "HELLO-MOTO" phone who did not understand "inside voice" versus "outside voice." While I tried to sleep. He is perhaps the luckiest of all. SNG knows the wrath of waking me up from a sound sleep.
* the guy who grunted "eeeh!" "hssss!" "eeeeeeh!" "uuuuuuunh!" at us outside the Alcazar to get us to take a ride in his horse-drawn carriage. No, he didn't speak in real words of any of the 4 languages mom and/or I can understand. Just caveman noises. Like that is going to make us want to go on a ride in his carriage. Honestly. I looked him straight in the eye, and he saw his impending doom on my face because he turned tail and petitioned someone else to ride in his carriage.
I can laugh about it today since I didn't have my automatic weapons with me.
But I know better for next time... /:-)
Yeah, when I'm home, I'm lucky to write more than one a post a week. But since all of Spain closes from 2-5 pm every day, and since I miss SNG like crazy, it looks like I'll be at an internet cafe most days at least once. And Spanish keyboards are much closer to English ones than the French keyboards. And of course, I can always change the language and touch-type, which works out nicely.
Today we learned where the post office is, and we are here during the annual SALE season. It's funny how mom and I manage to COINCIDENTALLY travel to European countries during SALE season. It is different than in the US where stores put stuff on sale whenever they feel like it. Here, they can only put stuff on super-clearance a couple times a year, to clear space for the next 1/2 year's stuff. So anyway, I think tomorrow we will learn how to mail packages internationally.
And speaking of taking things to other countries, if you're wanting to go to Europe with illegal goods, I recommend you use Madrid as your port of entry. The customs agent asked no questions, and no one ever looked at my bags. Or anyone else's bags. Nada. Rien. Nothing. Quite a contrast from US customs where they are absolutely certain to find not only the illegal meat products you're smuggling in, but also the live animals, fruits and vegetables, and automatic weapons. And they just get so darn grouchy about it!
\:-) *smirk*
I slept 10 hours last night, ate a good breakfast, had some fantastic cafe con leche, and I think now is a good time to tell you about all the people in Spain who are lucky to be alive today, after crossing my jet-lagged-low-blood-sugared path yesterday:
* the man on metro #8 who whistled an annoying tune
* the old lady on metro train #10 who played a "beep-bip-beep-beep" video game on her phone
* the other old lady (Metro #1) who cooed and cooed AND COOED and DROOLED and SLOBBERED all over the baby sitting across from her
* the man on the train to Seville with the "HELLO-MOTO" phone who did not understand "inside voice" versus "outside voice." While I tried to sleep. He is perhaps the luckiest of all. SNG knows the wrath of waking me up from a sound sleep.
* the guy who grunted "eeeh!" "hssss!" "eeeeeeh!" "uuuuuuunh!" at us outside the Alcazar to get us to take a ride in his horse-drawn carriage. No, he didn't speak in real words of any of the 4 languages mom and/or I can understand. Just caveman noises. Like that is going to make us want to go on a ride in his carriage. Honestly. I looked him straight in the eye, and he saw his impending doom on my face because he turned tail and petitioned someone else to ride in his carriage.
I can laugh about it today since I didn't have my automatic weapons with me.
But I know better for next time... /:-)
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
HOLA DE SEVILLA!!
We made it with minimal impediments. I slept about 3 hours off&on on the plane, and about 45 minutes on the train, so I'm a little tired but for the most part, doing OK. Mom watched both of the movies and hardly slept at all! You'd never know it, though, as it's only I who have tried to snap anyone's neck as we've been out and about in Spain. Darn jet lag.
Once we got our bags (no easy feat in Madrid, mind you), we found our way to the train station via 562 metro changes, boarded our high-speed train and relaxed as we watched the orange groves roll by. Oh my gosh it's so beautiful. When we arrived in Seville, there was a bit of a false start trying to walk to the hotel but again, we eventually found our way. It's just like on TV-- it's an old city with orange trees, filled with fruit, all over the place.
Our hotel is run by a very friendly couple (English, I think) and it's a funky Bohemian-feeling place. But really clean.
We cleaned up after we got checked in, had a little tapas for dinner, and came here to find some Correo Electronico. :-) OH!! And, we saw GENUINE soccer hooligans! Shaking a car and everything! They didn't flip it over, so eventually the people in the car just drove away.
Dinner was calamari and a salad of indeterminate origin. People here seem livelier than the French, although just as swarthy. If not moreso.
Anyway, we're having a wonderful time so far, and I can't wait to sleep for a long time tonight.
We made it with minimal impediments. I slept about 3 hours off&on on the plane, and about 45 minutes on the train, so I'm a little tired but for the most part, doing OK. Mom watched both of the movies and hardly slept at all! You'd never know it, though, as it's only I who have tried to snap anyone's neck as we've been out and about in Spain. Darn jet lag.
Once we got our bags (no easy feat in Madrid, mind you), we found our way to the train station via 562 metro changes, boarded our high-speed train and relaxed as we watched the orange groves roll by. Oh my gosh it's so beautiful. When we arrived in Seville, there was a bit of a false start trying to walk to the hotel but again, we eventually found our way. It's just like on TV-- it's an old city with orange trees, filled with fruit, all over the place.
Our hotel is run by a very friendly couple (English, I think) and it's a funky Bohemian-feeling place. But really clean.
We cleaned up after we got checked in, had a little tapas for dinner, and came here to find some Correo Electronico. :-) OH!! And, we saw GENUINE soccer hooligans! Shaking a car and everything! They didn't flip it over, so eventually the people in the car just drove away.
Dinner was calamari and a salad of indeterminate origin. People here seem livelier than the French, although just as swarthy. If not moreso.
Anyway, we're having a wonderful time so far, and I can't wait to sleep for a long time tonight.
Monday, February 13, 2006
This past weekend was full of ups and downs. The down part was the funeral on Saturday of the husband of a coworker (who is also a friend). It was very well attended and the eulogies were beautiful. Still, I can't begin to imagine the sorrow of unexpectedly losing your spouse.
SNG has been informed that he is strictly forbidden to leave this world before I do.
And on to happier subjects. Tomorrow is Departure Date! After having Valentine's lunch with my best guy, I'll jump on a 2:33 flight to Miami, find mom at the gate, and we'll fly through the night to Madrid. Fish mentioned paella earlier in an email and now it's all I can think about.
In the meantime, it looks like SNG might get to spend the weekend with kiltman, who is coming to town on Thursday. I'm so bummed I'll have to miss him. If you don't know kiltman, this is one of our friends who went on the Quebec trip and was a biking buddy here in town until he moved to Pittsburgh last December. I also suspect that he is a long-lost distant cousin. Someday, if I have the time and resources for it, we're going to have to do some investigation into that. It would just explain so much.
I'm going to TRY (no promises!) to keep a travel blog going while on this trip. It depends on finding an internet cafe with a QWERTY keyboard every few days, and having the inclination to write something. But I find that logging what we do on a trip helps in remembering what all the pictures show later. It's also good for remembering those funny anecdotes, like that king Charles VIII or somebody (I can't keep numbered royalty straight very well) knocked his own block off by riding his horse through a low doorway in Amboise chateau, making a widow of Anne de Bretagne, who then married his cousin. I still think that is a funny story. "Ride a tall horse through a low doorway." It's kind of like "take a long walk on a short pier."
Anyway, maybe take a peek here every few days and leave me a note to say hello.
And if I don't get a chance to blog about before then, everybody send all your happy thoughts and warm wishes eastward on March 3, which is J&K's wedding day. Congratulations, you crazy lovebirds!
SNG has been informed that he is strictly forbidden to leave this world before I do.
And on to happier subjects. Tomorrow is Departure Date! After having Valentine's lunch with my best guy, I'll jump on a 2:33 flight to Miami, find mom at the gate, and we'll fly through the night to Madrid. Fish mentioned paella earlier in an email and now it's all I can think about.
In the meantime, it looks like SNG might get to spend the weekend with kiltman, who is coming to town on Thursday. I'm so bummed I'll have to miss him. If you don't know kiltman, this is one of our friends who went on the Quebec trip and was a biking buddy here in town until he moved to Pittsburgh last December. I also suspect that he is a long-lost distant cousin. Someday, if I have the time and resources for it, we're going to have to do some investigation into that. It would just explain so much.
I'm going to TRY (no promises!) to keep a travel blog going while on this trip. It depends on finding an internet cafe with a QWERTY keyboard every few days, and having the inclination to write something. But I find that logging what we do on a trip helps in remembering what all the pictures show later. It's also good for remembering those funny anecdotes, like that king Charles VIII or somebody (I can't keep numbered royalty straight very well) knocked his own block off by riding his horse through a low doorway in Amboise chateau, making a widow of Anne de Bretagne, who then married his cousin. I still think that is a funny story. "Ride a tall horse through a low doorway." It's kind of like "take a long walk on a short pier."
Anyway, maybe take a peek here every few days and leave me a note to say hello.
And if I don't get a chance to blog about before then, everybody send all your happy thoughts and warm wishes eastward on March 3, which is J&K's wedding day. Congratulations, you crazy lovebirds!
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Right now we've got Peavce, Fuzzy and Dianaverse over and we're watching the Puppy Bowl and the Bissell Kitty Half Time Show. Well, actually, there are 2 TVs in the living room for the occasion, and one of them is showing some football game. The guys are watching the football game. And at halftime they're playing Nintendo. Anyway, whoever thought of Puppy Bowl was a genius. Don't laugh-- I'm DVR'ing it so I can turn it on when things get too serious around here.
I don't actually have much new to say... 9 days until vacation...
I don't actually have much new to say... 9 days until vacation...
Monday, January 30, 2006
"ACHOOOOO!!! (hack-hack-hack) BRAAAAAP! *hic!* UGGGGH",
or,
"The sound of sleeping next to Cat."
I'm sick! It's so un-fun. What I thought last Thursday was a cold, mixed with maybe a little disagreement with something I ate, is turning out to behave more like a flu. I haven't barfed, but I feel like I'm going to most of the time. And the sneezing is the most violent sneezing I've ever experienced! I swear I'm going to squeeze some brain out my ears one of these sneezes.
Believe it or not, there's a good side to this story. I was supposed to go teach in New Jersey this week, but the client moved the class to May (which will make 14 teaching engagements in 14 weeks starting as soon as we get home from Europe, oh joy) and while I was NOT pleased about it at the time, in retrospect it was a positive karmic turn for my health. We've discussed how much fun it is to fly when sick, and I've had to teach while running to the restroom to wretch and hurl. Lemme tell you- no fun at all. So I don't have any travel until Feb 14 when mom and I meet up in Miami and sleep all the way to Madrid.
Oh, and the title? Tell me if I'm not the only one who gets this way, please! Whenever I'm sick, I burp a lot. What the-- why? Do I suck in a lot of belly air when I sneeze? And I get the hiccups more than normal, too. Or maybe I just notice it more, because when your ears are full of gloop and you hiccup, the pressure differential is really painful.
So today I'm going to the health care center. They will tell me I have a cold or a flu, that there's not much they can give me that I can't go get at Eckerd's myself but here is a prescription that will makes your visit to Eckerd's at least 30 minutes longer, thanks for dropping in. But I want to go so I have some excuse to work from home this week. Because I'm sure my colleagues, whose travel schedules are a bit busier than mine right now, surely don't want this bug.
What a fun post! Maybe to increase the entertainment value, I should give you very detailed descriptions of my symptoms! Oh wait, I already did that. No need to thank me, just leave a little something in the comments. Like a box of tissue.
or,
"The sound of sleeping next to Cat."
I'm sick! It's so un-fun. What I thought last Thursday was a cold, mixed with maybe a little disagreement with something I ate, is turning out to behave more like a flu. I haven't barfed, but I feel like I'm going to most of the time. And the sneezing is the most violent sneezing I've ever experienced! I swear I'm going to squeeze some brain out my ears one of these sneezes.
Believe it or not, there's a good side to this story. I was supposed to go teach in New Jersey this week, but the client moved the class to May (which will make 14 teaching engagements in 14 weeks starting as soon as we get home from Europe, oh joy) and while I was NOT pleased about it at the time, in retrospect it was a positive karmic turn for my health. We've discussed how much fun it is to fly when sick, and I've had to teach while running to the restroom to wretch and hurl. Lemme tell you- no fun at all. So I don't have any travel until Feb 14 when mom and I meet up in Miami and sleep all the way to Madrid.
Oh, and the title? Tell me if I'm not the only one who gets this way, please! Whenever I'm sick, I burp a lot. What the-- why? Do I suck in a lot of belly air when I sneeze? And I get the hiccups more than normal, too. Or maybe I just notice it more, because when your ears are full of gloop and you hiccup, the pressure differential is really painful.
So today I'm going to the health care center. They will tell me I have a cold or a flu, that there's not much they can give me that I can't go get at Eckerd's myself but here is a prescription that will makes your visit to Eckerd's at least 30 minutes longer, thanks for dropping in. But I want to go so I have some excuse to work from home this week. Because I'm sure my colleagues, whose travel schedules are a bit busier than mine right now, surely don't want this bug.
What a fun post! Maybe to increase the entertainment value, I should give you very detailed descriptions of my symptoms! Oh wait, I already did that. No need to thank me, just leave a little something in the comments. Like a box of tissue.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Three weeks and counting...
(Warning-- more vacation and Spanish class musings. No, I can't think about anything else. Yes, I am useless at work)
I think it's kind of funny that we're taking Spanish class to get ready for this trip, when Spanish is the language I will need to know the least-- since mom is a native speaker and all. But hey, I should've done this about 20 years ago anyway...
Monday we started our 2nd semester of Spanish class. Most of the students were in our class last semester, although we have a new teacher. She's an adorable petite woman from Peru who speaks very little English, so nearly the whole class will be conducted en espanol. Naturally, there were a few people who were jolted by this change of pace and threatened not to come back, including our beloved SNG, but I think she's fantastico. I told her I'd have to miss 3 classes for vacation and didn't want to get too far behind, and she offered to write up assignments I could take with me, and to schedule a make-up day with me after the trip is over. She really seems to be willing to go beyond the call of duty to help students.
I just re-read that and realized what a geek I sound like. If you're reading this, then you know me, and you know I love love love classes. I love the classroom discussions, I love the feeling of learning something new, and while I don't love tests, I love the thrill of making a perfect score on a test. But it's like a sugar high-- it never lasts for long and leaves you wanting more. The rumor is that our new teacher gives tests...
I have to admit that one of the things I most look forward to on this (or any other international) trip is getting to communicate in another language. I don't speak a lick of German, but I have a CD that promises to teach me fluent German in 7 one-hour sessions. Heck, if I can get one of these for Mandarin, Japanese, Russion, Italian and Portuguese, I can be like the Pope by the end of the year! Woohoo! And I thought Spanish would require 5 semesters! Ha.
I very much doubt that my CD will actually deliver on its promise, but I am hopeful that I'll pick up enough of the patterns and grammar to be able to read signs, menus, etc. reasonably well. Or, at least to get from the train station to the airport to the rent car to the hotel on the 1st day we're there. After that, we'll be among German-English speaking friends. *whew!*
If you've made it this far without navigating to some other page, here is your biker-yoga pose for today.
(Warning-- more vacation and Spanish class musings. No, I can't think about anything else. Yes, I am useless at work)
I think it's kind of funny that we're taking Spanish class to get ready for this trip, when Spanish is the language I will need to know the least-- since mom is a native speaker and all. But hey, I should've done this about 20 years ago anyway...
Monday we started our 2nd semester of Spanish class. Most of the students were in our class last semester, although we have a new teacher. She's an adorable petite woman from Peru who speaks very little English, so nearly the whole class will be conducted en espanol. Naturally, there were a few people who were jolted by this change of pace and threatened not to come back, including our beloved SNG, but I think she's fantastico. I told her I'd have to miss 3 classes for vacation and didn't want to get too far behind, and she offered to write up assignments I could take with me, and to schedule a make-up day with me after the trip is over. She really seems to be willing to go beyond the call of duty to help students.
I just re-read that and realized what a geek I sound like. If you're reading this, then you know me, and you know I love love love classes. I love the classroom discussions, I love the feeling of learning something new, and while I don't love tests, I love the thrill of making a perfect score on a test. But it's like a sugar high-- it never lasts for long and leaves you wanting more. The rumor is that our new teacher gives tests...
I have to admit that one of the things I most look forward to on this (or any other international) trip is getting to communicate in another language. I don't speak a lick of German, but I have a CD that promises to teach me fluent German in 7 one-hour sessions. Heck, if I can get one of these for Mandarin, Japanese, Russion, Italian and Portuguese, I can be like the Pope by the end of the year! Woohoo! And I thought Spanish would require 5 semesters! Ha.
I very much doubt that my CD will actually deliver on its promise, but I am hopeful that I'll pick up enough of the patterns and grammar to be able to read signs, menus, etc. reasonably well. Or, at least to get from the train station to the airport to the rent car to the hotel on the 1st day we're there. After that, we'll be among German-English speaking friends. *whew!*
If you've made it this far without navigating to some other page, here is your biker-yoga pose for today.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Birdwatching and Nature Documentaries
I've been jogging to/from work most days since fall started because biking in the cold? Not so nice and running in the cold? warm & toasty. Anyway, I might have mentioned this before, but we have a lot of predator birds in this area, particularly red-tailed hawks. And apparently, from a distance and through the trees, a medium-length light-brown ponytail bouncing-bouncing-bouncing through the woods looks just like a squirrel if you're a predator bird, and it's only once the bird is almost on top of her prey that WHOA CRAP THAT'S BIGGER THAN A SQUIRREL, it's.... me. I see more red-tailed hawks at close range than is normal, and I can only explain it as a case of mistaken identity. One of these days I'll get scalped. In the meantime, it's kind of neat.
Since the sun goes down around 5:20 these days, and I run from about 4:45-6:15 in the evenings, there are always deer browsing in the underbrush. I KNOW I've said this before, but those deer are big. HUGE! Tyrranasaurus doe! They tend to congregate in groups of 3-5 and at dusk you can't see them until they move. I've had a deer leap away as I approached it at about 10 feet and startle the heck out of me because I had no idea it was there. If they'd just hold real still, I'd never know they were there.
I've been jogging to/from work most days since fall started because biking in the cold? Not so nice and running in the cold? warm & toasty. Anyway, I might have mentioned this before, but we have a lot of predator birds in this area, particularly red-tailed hawks. And apparently, from a distance and through the trees, a medium-length light-brown ponytail bouncing-bouncing-bouncing through the woods looks just like a squirrel if you're a predator bird, and it's only once the bird is almost on top of her prey that WHOA CRAP THAT'S BIGGER THAN A SQUIRREL, it's.... me. I see more red-tailed hawks at close range than is normal, and I can only explain it as a case of mistaken identity. One of these days I'll get scalped. In the meantime, it's kind of neat.
Since the sun goes down around 5:20 these days, and I run from about 4:45-6:15 in the evenings, there are always deer browsing in the underbrush. I KNOW I've said this before, but those deer are big. HUGE! Tyrranasaurus doe! They tend to congregate in groups of 3-5 and at dusk you can't see them until they move. I've had a deer leap away as I approached it at about 10 feet and startle the heck out of me because I had no idea it was there. If they'd just hold real still, I'd never know they were there.
Monday, January 16, 2006
In Case You Were Wondering,
Credit goes to Dianaverse for finding this site, which is "the premier online repository for pictures of dogs in bee costumes." Who knew there was such fierce competition for the title?
Credit goes to Dianaverse for finding this site, which is "the premier online repository for pictures of dogs in bee costumes." Who knew there was such fierce competition for the title?
Saturday, January 14, 2006
It's 4 weeks and 3 days until mom & I leave for Spain! And it's 6 weeks and 3 days until SNG leaves for Germany! Yay! I've packed and re-packed my bag several times, each time weighing the items carefully to figure out what will take up the least space and weigh the least.
I got a new backpack for the trip-- an Eagle Creek women's Continental Journey. It fits so nicely that even with 20 pounds of stuff in it, it hardly feels like I have anything on my back at all. So I guess I should be more concerned with how much space stuff takes up than with how much things weigh (to 1/8 oz precision). But I have learned a very important thing: cashmere weighs less, takes up less space, and is just as warm as polarfleece. Vive le cashmere!
SNG will bring me additional clothes and shoes when he comes, including something nice to wear to J and K's wedding, so the backpack has to hold enough for 14 days. The 14-day wardrobe will consist of:
3 cashmere sweaters (blue, aqua, and grey)
3 silk + 1 wool long-sleeve undershirts
4 sets of quick-drying undergarments & socks
1 pair chocolate brown casual lounging pants
2 pairs black cotton twill trousers
1 pair black Simple sneakers (they look like bowling shoes- SO cute)
1 pair back Maryjane walking shoes (I might change my mind on those...)
multi-colored fluffy scarf that my beloved Tia Panchita knitted for me, because it looks fab with EVERYTHING
black leather gloves
black chenille stocking cap
nightshirt
gym shorts (for late-night tiptoeing to a shared bathroom in a hotel)
2 pairs tights
black knee-length down parka (DKNY, tres chic)
The rest of the pack will be filled with electronic equipment, spare batteries for said equipment, chargers for said batteries, and adaptor plugs for said chargers. Too bad they don't make electronics in cashmere.
I can't wait to go. It's so much fun traveling with mom, because we can live out our bohemian dreams. We like to travel in the style of college students on summer holiday. Who knows, maybe we'll try hitchhiking and staying in hostels, too.
Although we will have a rent car part of the time, and our Eurail passes are first-class. But that's only because we aren't allowed to buy 2nd class tickets past the age of 26. So we will suffer through the first-class seats. And we'll curse "the man" for making us travel in luxury.
10 days ago I told my nutritionist that I wanted to lose between 5-10 pounds before I leave, and she said No problem! Just avoid sugar and white flour (and rice, and potatoes, presumably) until then. So this is the end of the first week without white flour or sugar, and I still want chocolate-chip muffins as much as ever. Oh, well. It's a small price to pay to be able to bring pants that are 2 oz lighter because they're smaller.
So far I've lost... nothing. DAMN YOU, ATKINS!
*sigh*
On a completely unrelated subject, BIRTHDAY GREETINGS!!!! to one of my favorite co-conspirators in mayhem, my cousin PartnerInCrime, who turns the THIRTY tomorrow! Welcome to the club, chickie! You'll class up the "thirtysomethings," since most of us wander around with no makeup on most of the time. Have a great birthday!
I got a new backpack for the trip-- an Eagle Creek women's Continental Journey. It fits so nicely that even with 20 pounds of stuff in it, it hardly feels like I have anything on my back at all. So I guess I should be more concerned with how much space stuff takes up than with how much things weigh (to 1/8 oz precision). But I have learned a very important thing: cashmere weighs less, takes up less space, and is just as warm as polarfleece. Vive le cashmere!
SNG will bring me additional clothes and shoes when he comes, including something nice to wear to J and K's wedding, so the backpack has to hold enough for 14 days. The 14-day wardrobe will consist of:
3 cashmere sweaters (blue, aqua, and grey)
3 silk + 1 wool long-sleeve undershirts
4 sets of quick-drying undergarments & socks
1 pair chocolate brown casual lounging pants
2 pairs black cotton twill trousers
1 pair black Simple sneakers (they look like bowling shoes- SO cute)
1 pair back Maryjane walking shoes (I might change my mind on those...)
multi-colored fluffy scarf that my beloved Tia Panchita knitted for me, because it looks fab with EVERYTHING
black leather gloves
black chenille stocking cap
nightshirt
gym shorts (for late-night tiptoeing to a shared bathroom in a hotel)
2 pairs tights
black knee-length down parka (DKNY, tres chic)
The rest of the pack will be filled with electronic equipment, spare batteries for said equipment, chargers for said batteries, and adaptor plugs for said chargers. Too bad they don't make electronics in cashmere.
I can't wait to go. It's so much fun traveling with mom, because we can live out our bohemian dreams. We like to travel in the style of college students on summer holiday. Who knows, maybe we'll try hitchhiking and staying in hostels, too.
Although we will have a rent car part of the time, and our Eurail passes are first-class. But that's only because we aren't allowed to buy 2nd class tickets past the age of 26. So we will suffer through the first-class seats. And we'll curse "the man" for making us travel in luxury.
10 days ago I told my nutritionist that I wanted to lose between 5-10 pounds before I leave, and she said No problem! Just avoid sugar and white flour (and rice, and potatoes, presumably) until then. So this is the end of the first week without white flour or sugar, and I still want chocolate-chip muffins as much as ever. Oh, well. It's a small price to pay to be able to bring pants that are 2 oz lighter because they're smaller.
So far I've lost... nothing. DAMN YOU, ATKINS!
*sigh*
On a completely unrelated subject, BIRTHDAY GREETINGS!!!! to one of my favorite co-conspirators in mayhem, my cousin PartnerInCrime, who turns the THIRTY tomorrow! Welcome to the club, chickie! You'll class up the "thirtysomethings," since most of us wander around with no makeup on most of the time. Have a great birthday!
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Hey! Merry Christmas a little bit late... SNG and I are off work this week-- my company closes between Christmas and New Year's and SNG has vacation he'll lose if he doesn't use it. Actually, he'll end up losing some anyway, but I'm sure his reward will be great someday for all the extra hard work he puts in (smirk).
So this week, we're all alone at home without, as my mom put it, a chaperone. No one to stop us from eating Christmas candy for breakfast, no one to make us pick up dirty socks & underwear off the floor, general mayhem all around. Just last night we had chocolate-covered pretzels for dinner over at Peace & Fuzzy's house. And I'm still in my pajamas even though it's almost 1pm. Hee.
Oh! I updated 2 things on our homepage. First, I re-linked J&K's blog address so now the Blog of Fun gets you to the Blog of Fun. I also linked a Christmas card on the homepage. It's a bit slow to load-- sorry. Consider yourself jollified.
So this week, we're all alone at home without, as my mom put it, a chaperone. No one to stop us from eating Christmas candy for breakfast, no one to make us pick up dirty socks & underwear off the floor, general mayhem all around. Just last night we had chocolate-covered pretzels for dinner over at Peace & Fuzzy's house. And I'm still in my pajamas even though it's almost 1pm. Hee.
Oh! I updated 2 things on our homepage. First, I re-linked J&K's blog address so now the Blog of Fun gets you to the Blog of Fun. I also linked a Christmas card on the homepage. It's a bit slow to load-- sorry. Consider yourself jollified.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Graduation Day!
Last night was the last meeting of Spanish class for the semester. Only about half of the class turned out, so we went over the homework, told a few jokes, and headed out, caravan-styley, for a local Mexican restaurant. Well, yes, it was NC-Mex (which isn't quite Tex-Mex) but the food was tasty and the waitstaff good-naturedly entertained our pathetic attempts to engage in all transactions in Engspish (which isn't quite Spanglish). Almost everyone who went to dinner is also planning to take the 2nd semester class starting in January, and we worked on the profesor to sign up to teach the Monday evening section if possible. He is a good teacher and we like the people who are taking the class. We've signed up, of course.
One cool thing about taking a class through the continuing ed program at the community college is that there are no grades, so everybody passed. But I think SNG and I will be doing a lot of studying over the holidays to ensure that we meet the prerequisites for the next class. :-)
Today I'm off for NYC. SNG will be flying out tomorrow, and while I'm teaching all day, he'll be walking around museums, Macy's, and the Empire State Building, and standing in line for cheap Broadway tickets.
If anyone has earned 3 days on the town, it's SNG. Bless his heart, he made the mistake of tracking his overtime in the same spreadsheet as his vacation. So far this year, he's taken about 145 hours of vacation. He has worked about 185 hours of overtime. You can do the math. It comes as no surprise when he starts to get all Jake Morgendorffer at the dishwasher, or the garbage collectors, or the TV, .... Yeah, he deserves a little down-time.
It's still 28 degrees outside, but I've procrastinated long enough. Gotta get running.
Last night was the last meeting of Spanish class for the semester. Only about half of the class turned out, so we went over the homework, told a few jokes, and headed out, caravan-styley, for a local Mexican restaurant. Well, yes, it was NC-Mex (which isn't quite Tex-Mex) but the food was tasty and the waitstaff good-naturedly entertained our pathetic attempts to engage in all transactions in Engspish (which isn't quite Spanglish). Almost everyone who went to dinner is also planning to take the 2nd semester class starting in January, and we worked on the profesor to sign up to teach the Monday evening section if possible. He is a good teacher and we like the people who are taking the class. We've signed up, of course.
One cool thing about taking a class through the continuing ed program at the community college is that there are no grades, so everybody passed. But I think SNG and I will be doing a lot of studying over the holidays to ensure that we meet the prerequisites for the next class. :-)
Today I'm off for NYC. SNG will be flying out tomorrow, and while I'm teaching all day, he'll be walking around museums, Macy's, and the Empire State Building, and standing in line for cheap Broadway tickets.
If anyone has earned 3 days on the town, it's SNG. Bless his heart, he made the mistake of tracking his overtime in the same spreadsheet as his vacation. So far this year, he's taken about 145 hours of vacation. He has worked about 185 hours of overtime. You can do the math. It comes as no surprise when he starts to get all Jake Morgendorffer at the dishwasher, or the garbage collectors, or the TV, .... Yeah, he deserves a little down-time.
It's still 28 degrees outside, but I've procrastinated long enough. Gotta get running.
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Home at last!
I've been mostly disconnected since Thanksgiving break started, with little fits of communication access, and then darkness again.
But first, a clarification about the hat my Canadian colleague so generously donated to me in my time of need in arctic Nova Scotia. My dad, a born-and-raised southern Louisiana boy, informed me that the hat is called a Toque. How he would know this, as he's never lived for more than 1 year anywhere colder than Texas, I can't underatand, except to fall back on the usual explanation that my dad actually knows everything.
So, through brilliant deduction, I have determined that my hat is in fact Provencal, and not Canadian as I had previously reported. The way I figure, if the hat is a toque, then surely it was named for Alexis de Tocqueville, which would make perfect sense as the Canadians, like Americans, are fans of democracy. And what a fine homage, indeed! And if a toque a hat, then I can only conclude that de Tocqueville translates to from Hat Town. Well, if there's a Hat Town in France, then it must be Avignon, where the critically acclaimed Chapeauneuf-des-Papes comes from. So de Tocqueville's ancestors must have come from Avignon, and the Toque, while it may have been dreamed up by Canadians, clearly has Provencal roots. And now you know!
By the way, the hat has saved my toque-us on 2 more trips since then, and it has special status as my 3rd-favorite-winter-hat now.
The Austin trip was terrific! We got to spend lots of time with my mom and dad, my brother and my sister-in-close-enough-to-law, which alone would make the trip worth going, but we also got to spend some time with my niece, who is the coolest little chickie I know. She's not very tall for her age, so even better, she isn't taller then I am yet. By about 10-12 years old, all my little cousins have passed me in height. What do they feed these kids in the public schools??? I know that within another 2 years or so, my neice will be doing the thing where she rests an elbow on my shoulder, all causally, so that it's even more obvious that she's as tall as an amazon. I'm resigned to my destiny of bolstering the self-esteem of the pre-teens in my family. Everybody's got their something. *sigh.
We did some pilates with mom, went ice skating with my neice, saw T&E and their little dude (a.k.a. Big Al). SNG went home on Tuesday, and I flew from AUS to Ann Arbor on Wednesday to teach at UofM. It was a good time, but Ann Arbor is SERIOUSLY cold. It snowed and I didn't have a car, so I walked everywhere. But I had my fabulous new knee-length down-filled coat, so it wasn't all that bad.
And there's only 1 trip left for the year! Yay! Week after next SNG and I will go up to NYC (I've got a 3-day class, SNG's got a lot of sightseeing to do) and hopefully will be able to see my cousin Cosmopolitan (who thinks her name refers to her social drinking habits, but it really refers to the fact that she's lived in some major urban-hip places, so she's the most cosmopolitan person in our family). We'll also grab dinner with a friend from work and his partner while we're there, and we always like seeing them. In the meantime, though, it's overtime in the woods for me! I missed most of the fall colors, but I'll be darned if I miss the last of the not-too-cold-to-hike weather.
I've been mostly disconnected since Thanksgiving break started, with little fits of communication access, and then darkness again.
But first, a clarification about the hat my Canadian colleague so generously donated to me in my time of need in arctic Nova Scotia. My dad, a born-and-raised southern Louisiana boy, informed me that the hat is called a Toque. How he would know this, as he's never lived for more than 1 year anywhere colder than Texas, I can't underatand, except to fall back on the usual explanation that my dad actually knows everything.
So, through brilliant deduction, I have determined that my hat is in fact Provencal, and not Canadian as I had previously reported. The way I figure, if the hat is a toque, then surely it was named for Alexis de Tocqueville, which would make perfect sense as the Canadians, like Americans, are fans of democracy. And what a fine homage, indeed! And if a toque a hat, then I can only conclude that de Tocqueville translates to from Hat Town. Well, if there's a Hat Town in France, then it must be Avignon, where the critically acclaimed Chapeauneuf-des-Papes comes from. So de Tocqueville's ancestors must have come from Avignon, and the Toque, while it may have been dreamed up by Canadians, clearly has Provencal roots. And now you know!
By the way, the hat has saved my toque-us on 2 more trips since then, and it has special status as my 3rd-favorite-winter-hat now.
The Austin trip was terrific! We got to spend lots of time with my mom and dad, my brother and my sister-in-close-enough-to-law, which alone would make the trip worth going, but we also got to spend some time with my niece, who is the coolest little chickie I know. She's not very tall for her age, so even better, she isn't taller then I am yet. By about 10-12 years old, all my little cousins have passed me in height. What do they feed these kids in the public schools??? I know that within another 2 years or so, my neice will be doing the thing where she rests an elbow on my shoulder, all causally, so that it's even more obvious that she's as tall as an amazon. I'm resigned to my destiny of bolstering the self-esteem of the pre-teens in my family. Everybody's got their something. *sigh.
We did some pilates with mom, went ice skating with my neice, saw T&E and their little dude (a.k.a. Big Al). SNG went home on Tuesday, and I flew from AUS to Ann Arbor on Wednesday to teach at UofM. It was a good time, but Ann Arbor is SERIOUSLY cold. It snowed and I didn't have a car, so I walked everywhere. But I had my fabulous new knee-length down-filled coat, so it wasn't all that bad.
And there's only 1 trip left for the year! Yay! Week after next SNG and I will go up to NYC (I've got a 3-day class, SNG's got a lot of sightseeing to do) and hopefully will be able to see my cousin Cosmopolitan (who thinks her name refers to her social drinking habits, but it really refers to the fact that she's lived in some major urban-hip places, so she's the most cosmopolitan person in our family). We'll also grab dinner with a friend from work and his partner while we're there, and we always like seeing them. In the meantime, though, it's overtime in the woods for me! I missed most of the fall colors, but I'll be darned if I miss the last of the not-too-cold-to-hike weather.
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