Will Think of Title Later

I haven't written in a while. I haven't actually done whole heck of a lot but I seem to be keeping quite busy. I've been doing some work with my dad on his railcar wood shipping business. He keeps dragging me into town to check on the railcars. They have to be loaded a certain way and if they aren't he gets fined. At lest it gets me out of the house.

I was sick all day yesterday but I feel fine today. I went into town today with my dad. We checked the railcars and stopped at the mall. I wanted to get a little white sweater to wear over my dresses. I looked in all four clothing stores and couldn't find one. Or at least a cheap one. I wasn't gonna pay thirty bucks for a cardigan. (Good thing too because my mom bought one for me at target.) We met with my mom and had lunch at the country kitchen. The food was good. I told them how in the U.K. they had this thing about no leftovers. If you couldn't eat it they had to throw it out. They whined about liberalism run amuck.

I got to watch a new episode of Leverage on TNT tonight. It was pretty good. The mastermind gave a guy a nosebleed with the power of his mind. I feel bad I can't remember anyone's name in the show but I like it regardless. New Burn Notice tomorrow, Yay!! I should get to bed though because I have to get up at six to go on a four hour drive with my dad to the cities because he has an appointment at the VA. Maybe I'll get a new battery charger for the camera while I'm down there. The one I have is a U.K. one. I bet my one follower misses the pictures.

Six Foot Waves and New Specks

Today I went with J.F., her other friend, and her brother and his fiance to the Wave Pool. Jill told me last night we would be leaving around ten but we didn't get going till around one. Once we made it to the pool it was cloudy and rainy. It did stop raining when we got in the water but it was still cloudy and windy. It wasn't too cold though, which was a plus. The only thing was that when J. said there would be big waves, she didn't say that they would be six feet tall. I was totally unprepared for the waves. She said we would go to the deep end but that we would still be able to touch the bottom, but I'm a foot and a half shorter than her.

The result of all this was that I thought I was going to die and got tossed around like a drowning rat escaping a shipwreck. It was terrifying and horrible. I tried to swim out to the shallows and get out and wound up getting run over by someone in a double wide inner tube. They went right up my back and pushed me under face first. I scraped my knee pretty good on the bottom of the pool and when I came up I lost my glasses. This wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have such bad eyesight. I couldn't see a thing more than a foot away from my face. I spent a few minutes trying not to freak out and thanking God that I was still alive. Then I managed to find the chairs we had out stuff on and sat in the warm reading a book. It was wonderfull. Much more fun than those idiodic killer waves.

I was actually dry by the time J. was ready to leave. I called home and got the number for the eye place back home and we stopped at a lens crafters on the way back to the house. We got there fifteen minutes before the store was due to close. I had my prescription faxed over and luckily they had it in stock so it only took fifteen minutes for them to put the lenses in new frames for me. I had to get children's frames because my face is so narrow. I was so happy to be able to see again. I didn't even mind when we stopped for dinner at this place called the Crazy Buffet, which was sort of like a new China buffet, and the fried rice was really lame.

The rest of the evening back at the house was pretty uneventful. We went for a walk with her "dogs". I don't really consider anything that tiny and smushed up and useless a dog but I guess the AKC recognizes pugs and chiwawas. After that I burned her a copy of the Peatbog Fairies' CDs that I had on my iTunes. They were the band that we listened to in the mountains on the Isle of Skye. I showed some of the pictures from my trip and now I think I'll hit the hay. I've got a lot of driving to do tomorrow. Thank the Lord I'll be able to see. But first I think I'll finish watching the Adventures of Robin Hood. J.'s dad put in a video. It's an old version with erol flynn, I think. The witty comebacks are absolutly wonderful.

Hmmmmmn (bored half yawn sigh)

So, yesterday I went into town and saw my friend K.R. We did a little catching up. Then I did some shopping at the mall. I got two new DVD racks for my movies, which kept falling down for some reason, only to find out that I'm still one rack short. I never realized I had so many movies. I looked at clothes at Herbegers. There was a sale and I tried some stuff on that I decided I liked better on the hanger than on me. After that I went to Blockbuster and got four movies for twenty bucks. I have yet to watch them so I don't know if they'll be any good but at least they were cheap. I got in touch with J.F. We are going to meet in Superior tomorrow at noon and I'll be staying at her place for the weekened. She's going to the Wave Pool for her birthday on Saturday. I don't know what the wave pool is but it sounds fun.

Today I went into town with my dad to check on his rail car shipping buisiness. Apparently the city is doing some construction on the one way road that the truckers use to get to the rail road tracks and it will be closed next week and they forgot to let my dad know. We found out by accident when dad spotted a guy taking measurements and asked him what he was doing. We went straight to city hall and talked to some guys to get it straightened out. The trucks will have to use a temporarry turnaround. After that we came home. We stopped at grandma and grandpa's on the way back. I got to play with grandpa's new seven week old golden retreiver puppy. After getting home I went over to K.R.'s house and helped stick pins in my costume for the renasiance fair. We exchanged souvinere gifts. I got a little die cast big ben statue that's also a pencil sharpener. Yay! Now I'm back home with nothing better to do I think I'll make some lunch and watch one of those movies I bought.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

I'm home, Finally! I spent nearly a total of twenty four hours on a plane, or running around in and to airports on friday. It was exhausting. I was so motion sick, even thoug I did take pills for it before hand. I must have looked really bad because when I switched airports in New York from JFK to Leguardia the check in attendant asked me if I needed a wheelchair to get to the plane.

My folks and my cousin N. picked me up at the airport in Minneapolis. I got to sleep in a nice soft hotel bed with cushy blankets and fluffy pillows. The next day I had to go to my cousin A.'s wedding. The ceremony was lovely. Catholics sure do a lot of jumping up and down though. The singing was nice. The steak at dinner was delicous. That's one thing I missed on my trip, a good beef steak. The dance after started out nice too, until they started playing rap and everyone began having seazures. Not that I don't like dancing, it's just that twitching like maybe someone put something in the water isn't what I would call dancing.

I had a four hour car ride home this morning. We did stop for a nice breakfast. I got eggs and hashbrowns and bacon. Finaly a real breakfast. The school only gave us cold cereal and juice and the occasional banana. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very exciting or filling.

Once home I spent the afternoon trying to clean up my room. I threw out a whole pile of papers, some of which turned out to be homework from elementary school. I tossed some trash and put together a pile of clothes to get rid of as well. My rule was if I hadn't worn it in at least a year or if I had but can remember getting and wearing it for the first time in elementary school, it was time to get rid of it.

While I was cleaning out my dresser I found a couple of rather interesting poems I must have written a few years ago. They can be read at White Foxx: Silver Crow and at fifteen minutes of fiction.

Last Night in Scotland

After a horribly exhausting and tedious day of deep cleaning, and a bag lunch, I took a nap. Then I went into Edinburgh one last time before the cocktail going away party. I saw an australian street performer in the middle of the cobbles on the Royal Mile who looked like that corwin? guy from animal planet, you know, the one that got zapped by a sting ray. Anyway, he was doing tricks with a couple of bull wips. He had a girl from the audience hold some dried spaghetti noodles in her outstreched hand and then he cracked his whip and cut them up into little peices untill there was nothing left. Don't worry though, he did let her wear one of those big padded gloves you see goalies in hockey wear. He took a bit of a break after that to natter on about how he only works for donations and to crack a couple of lame jokes. After that he got two guys from the audience to stand wth their arms crossed facing each other. He then got a runnign start and climbed up on them so that each guy was holding one of his feet and he was standing. I found out his name was Bruce when he made the girl who was volunteering do a goofy yes brucy bit and hand him three machetti knives, which he then proceeded to juggle from his rather precarious perch. Everyone was clapping. By the time I realized that I should be taking a picture it was over and he had jumped down and started collecting money in his hat. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that it was awesome. By that time though I barely had thirty minutes to visit a few shops before I had to rush back for the party.

The party was nice. There were lots of little snacks to munch on, crisps, crackers, cheese, bruschetta, deviled eggs, meatballs, etc. I circulated the food tables for a while untill the slideshow presentation. Now that I've seen the photos taken by the kids in the photography class I feel like my photos weren't as good. I did find out there was a facebook group though and I joined that so now I can steal everyone's pictures. After the party I went with a group down to Mayson's bar for quz night. Our team got 7/10 right in the first round. We eneded the night with 25. It was fun, especially when I knew the answers to the questions. I felt kind of bad for waiting until my last night here to go though. Everyone kept talking about the bartender Gavin. All the girls thought he was good looking and everyone kept saying how cool and nice he was but he was gone tonight for vacation in Italy (which was the answer to one of the quiz questions by the way). By the time I finished my WKD blue I was ready to head back. I was a wee bit dissapointed Mayson's didn't have the Iron Brew flavor WKD. Oh well, what can you do?

Drama Day

Today I presented my drama project, a one act three person play called "Deus Ex Machina" that I found online. It went pretty well, except for the bit where I was supposed to be playing dead and I couldn't stop cracking up (that cardboard lightning bolt was just so funny). I expect to get an A on it.

I also found out that I got a B+ in the Scottish Globalization class. The proffesor said that in my paper my view of globalization as a good thing was too rosey. I think he was just dissapointed that when he told us we had to pick one side of the fence or the other he was expecting everyone to pick his side and say globalization sucks because it creates wall mart and cheep exploited labor. I was only trying to be optimistic.

This afternoon a group of us went and saw the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie. It was pretty good. It's been so long since I read the book that I couldn't really say if it was accurate or not but K.H. said that they actually included more than she thought they would. As far as a film goes I thought it was pretty good.

I should probably be doing my laundry tonight so I won't have to worry about it tommorrow but I'm awfully tired. I think I'll just go to bed instead.

Magic Loop

After breakfast I praticed to play a playwright in a play with B. The costume closet yeilded nothing useful. Afterwards I watched a few Doctor Who episodes. Then I went outside and sat at a picknick table with a few of the other girls for a while. One of them brought out some portable speakers so we listened to my iPod for a while. They were all very fond of Gaelic Storm's 'the Night I Punched Russel Crowe' song. After that I went to Blacksmith's Forge restaraunt for dinner. I had the bacon carbonara pasta. It was pretty good but some of the noodles were a little dry.

When I got back to the house I watched an anime movie with K.H. and typed up my final paper. It only had to be 500 words so I basically wound up writing 800 and not actuallly saying anything. There was a kniting party going on in Willie's Cafe. I wandered in and was reminded how to do some basic kniting. Then I learned how to knit the magic loop on circular kniting needles. Now when I get home I can make my own knit gauntlets like they sell in the shops in Edinburgh and they will probably be way cheaper. I had to give the needles and yarn back to J. at the end of the evening though so if I really want to knit anything I'll have to buy some when I get back. Unless someone has some I can borrow....

Better Late than Never

So I finally got around to writing that poem about taking the London Underground during rush hour. It turned out quite well I think. It can be read at White Foxx: Silver Crow and also on my page at fifteen minutes of fiction. Enjoy. I really have a craving for sardines and crackers and buttermilk right now. Also, my poem "Come With Me in the Night" (the one that heads up the page at White Foxx: Silver Crow) is now in the featured gallery at fifteen minutes of fiction. I only posted it there on a lark but I guess they really liked it. One guy called it haunting.

Also, just to liven things up, here are a few more pictures of my summer so far.

Dalkieth Park

Alenwick

Skye

Ireland
London

Even More Resting

The only thing I did yesterday was go into town with K.H. We went to see the movie Public Enemies. It was pretty good. There was something wrong with the projector and it cut our halfway and we had to wait a while for them to fix it. After the movie got out everyone was given a coupon for a free movie ticket to make up for it, which is more than I can say for the time I went and saw Defiance back home and had to watch the whole first half of the movie with everyone's head cut off. Why don't they give compensation at Minnesota movie theatres?

I spent most of today sleeping. It was nice. This was the first really truly free weekend I've had all summer. No trips, no tours, no homework, nothing at all to do but rest. It was heavenly. I did take the time to read a Doctor Who book I got for halfprice at the WH Smith. It was called the Slitheen Excursion and it was pretty good. B. said that the Doctor Who books were poorly written and that they weren't worth buying. I disagree. Of course, they are in the young reader's section so that might explain her opinion. Regardless, I thought it was good.

Rest Day

I slept till around eleven thirty today or, at least, I stayed in bed that long. I did a little straightening around my room and tossed some rubbish. I wandered into Dalkeith and decided to get on a bus. I got off in Edinburgh and wandered around High Street and the Royal mile. I walked over by Princes street and went into the Royal Scottish gallery and looked at all the pretty paintings. They had this one called quarrel of Titiana and Oberon. Apparently it has no less than one hundred and sixty five fairies. I also found a store with those sock knife things you wear with a kilt. I don't know how to spell it but it's pronounced skeen doo. There was a guy in the middle of the street in nothing but his underwear hiding behing a "free sex" sign. I think he was a performer. I saw him before he was naked squirting folks with a water gun.

After that I caught another bus and headed back to Dalkeith. I had some pizza a couple cans of diet Irn Bru. Then I put some laundry in the wash and settled in to watch the finale of Torchwood. It was awesome! The ending was so sad. So far in the course of a week Captian Jack has been shot and killed, blown up, buried in concrete, dropped off a cliff, had his family held hostage, his B.F. Ianto killed, and he was forced to kill his own grandson to save the planet. (You have to realize of course that Jack can't die. He's like immortal.) I just felt like crying at the end. What a way to end the evening. I didn't take any pictures today. The nearly naked guy was ugly so you should be thanking me for leaving my camera in my room.

Torchwood, Facebook, and Faeries

I forgot to post yesterday due to some distraction. I joined facebook and found out that K.R. was online the same time as me and we had a huge long talk. It was pretty fun. Other than that I did a little reading for class and then watched Torchwood on BBC. It was Awsome! I can hardly wait to see how the series ends tonight. I also discovered a new band called Peatbog Faeries. One of the instructors had a couple albums and let me borrow them. They were the band that our highland guide played while we were driving through the mountains to the Isle of Skye. If I knew how to post music on a blog I would.

Dalkeith Dungeon

Today I went on a more in depth tour of the house and the grounds. They opened up some of the locked sections of the house, including the dungeon in the basement. And you thought I was just making that bit up. It was really creepy though. I jumped a couple of times and I could swear there were windy moaning noises.

We also did a tour of some of the grounds like the ice house, the stables, and the grounds keeper's fields. We saw a couple horses, some hairy coos, some goats, some piglets, and some baby pheasants.

B. gave me Doctor Who specials. She has the third and fourth series as well but they take up to much space to fit on a jump drive. Maybe I can find them online. That's how her hacker friend got them for her.

Meloncholy

I just finished reading three very depressing plays for drama class. In the first, a woman leaves her husband. In the Second, a woman hangs herself. In the third, a woman mourns the death of her son. And those are aside from the fact that we had to watch Macbeth last night. At least the version of Macbeth we saw had Scottish accents, celtic clothing, celtic music, and it was filmed in Scotland. All of wich helped to detract from the depressing nature of Shakespeare's tragedy. In the meantime, here are those pictures I promised. Enjoy.

I'm also quite happy to report that the new series of Torchwood has started and since I'm in the U.K. I get to watch it as it comes out on the BBC instead of having to wait six months to a year like usual. And B. said I could get all the recent Docotor Who specials off her computer. I'm just going to have to remember to ask tomorrow.

Back from London

I'm back from London. It was very interesting. We had to take a night bus to get there and it wasn't at all like Harry Potter. Once in London we took the UnderGround everywhere. I only ran into trouble on the last day when the Piccadilly line was shut down because someone threw themselves under the train. Apparently it happens quite a bit.

Along with Westminster Abby, the Tower of Big Ben, the rosy red cheeks of the little children (sorry, I've had that song stuck in my head all week. It's England Swings by Rodger Miller if you want to look it up), I also saw the musical Wicked, did a walking tour of the city and saw the changing of the guard, visited Reagent's park, went to the globe theatre (tickets were all sold out), wandered around the British museum, went to the biggest outdoor used book sale ever (at least that I've ever been to), found a big blue police box just like in Doctor Who (which was the highlight of my trip), and found that I can never quote the Purple Cow rhyme again (as it no longer applies to me).

I will post more pictures tomorrow. Don't worry, I have proof about the purple cow. And a gratuitious naked museum man.

Arugala?

I just had a strange thought. It went something like this: "Holy Arugala Batman!" And that's about it.

Yesterday was spent procrastinating while I read a book called "The Dolphins of Pern". I actually think I own all the other dragons of pern books including this one, but this is the one I happened to find in the Library. The story sure does seem familiar. It's actually pretty good but there are a lot of backstory references you wouldn't get if you hadn't read the other books like I did.

I will be going to London for three days with some of the others from the group. It should be fun, we all have tickets to go and see Wicked. As before, I will not be bringing my computer so my loan follower (kudos to you and I hope you feel better soon) will have to wait a few days to find out what happened. Oh, I did remember to finish my paper so don't worry, I may procrastinate but I do get things done.