Spring has arrived. Soon, the plants my sister and brother are sending me for my birthday will start arriving and I'll be able to put the compost to good use. They are sending me 3 butterfly bushes, 3 red latham raspberry bushes, and 6 oriental poppies. I'm very excited about gardening this year.

I haven't done any gardening since I rented the house in Columbia, Missouri and grew carrots out back. It was a very small house with a small yard, but it was a house with a yard and it was $185/month. Wow, that price seems great now, I couldn't rent a room for that around here these days. It's a different season here, in more ways than just not being winter anymore.

This has been a wonderful and merry Christmas so far. purpleglitter got me wonderful gifts, including a new birding camera — the same model as the broken one, so that it will work with my telephoto lens.

My parents gave me a brass clock once owned by my great-grandfather. It's an old electric clock and wasn't made with the ability to start up on its own. A knob in the back must be spun just right so that it "catches", then the electric power will take over. The neat thing about the clock is that it will run backwards if the knob is spun backwards. I used to always set it running backward when I was a kid, and it is running backwards in my livingroom now.

Poll #1092771
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

For Thanksgiving, you will be...

Yeti, my parent's dog, died today. She was 15 years old. I remember her as a playful and scrappy young dog, but she hasn't been that way in a long time. She had a good doggie life and was well loved.

Good journey, Yeti.

I love google news. I didn't know anything was going on with OJ Simpson until my mom asked me what I thought about it yesterday. You see, I have the entertainment section turned off and all I get is real news.

I went down to New England Photo this afternoon and learned that zarthon's assessment of how much my camera will cost to repair was much more accurate than mine, and unfortunately the cost of getting my camera fixed is well over what I can afford to spend. On faith that it will be fixed, I bought the new lens cap I've been needing.

I'm going to see if I can repair the problem myself without taking the camera apart. There is at least a chance that I might be able to get it working and the risk of breaking the camera further is relatively low as long as I don't actually pry it open. Christian suggested swabbing the prongs in the battery case with alcohol. If that doesn't work, I'm going to attempt ti gently but firmly reposition the prongs. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, but if none of that works I'll have to reassess my options.

While I was in Virginia, I tried seafood twice. Once in Christian's shrimp quiche. The shrimp had an odd flavor that seemed inherent to them that I either did not like or simply wasn't used to. Either way, I could only eat three of the shrimps before I gave up trying to like them.

Saturday, I tried some of the fish from Maddie's fish and chips at Hunter's Head in Upperville, and I liked it that time. So, at this point I'm not sure if I should go back to being vegetarian or try eating more seafaring, non-cephalopod exotherms.


Poll #1049487 Seafaring, non-cephalopod exotherms
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Should I try eating more seafaring, non-cephalopod, exotherms?

I'm back in Boston. I had a great deal of fun with My sister, niece, brother-in-law, and mom. Maddie is a little ball of energy. Well, not little, she's quite big for a 7 year old. Smart and creative, but I just can't keep up with her.

The day I arrived, Thursday, we pretty much stayed around the house and relaxed. My mom had already been there for several days and was already settled in.

Friday, Christian stayed home while Maddie, Bridgette, my mom, and I went down to Georgetown. We hit Lush and Godiva and went to Dean & Deluca for lunch. While I've seen central meter machines in parking lots, I'd never seen a central machine for street parking before. I guess it is more efficient than having a separate parking meter for each spot, I'm just not used to it. The biggest disadvantage I see with the central machine system is that if it breaks down it disrupts the use of a number of parking spots at once.

Saturday we drove into Virginia through wine country and went to Linden Vineyards (nothing to do with Second Live). That was my favorite part of the trip down. Relaxing doesn't even begin to describe the place. Surrounded by rows of grapes and vine watching the clouds shadow-dance on the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cigar Christian gave me to smoke at the vineyard not only went perfectly with the cheese and wine, but also with the surrounding tranquility.

Sunday, I got up later than I had planned, but not so late that it caused any hassle in catching my flight. Upon leaving, Christian gave me some cigars, along with a 15-pack of Rocky Patel vintage 1992s, one of my favorites. My mom gave me a wonderful dragon cane when I arrived at the house and I was a bit worried about getting on the flight with 2 canes, but I didn't have any hassle and the return trip from Reagan National to Logan went smoothly.

I had hoped to get some good bird pictures, but unfortunately my birding camera is not working. I noticed it my first day there. It seems to be a connection problem with the battery prongs, which should be repairable. But, I was glad to see that Maddie loved birds and birdwatching despite her father's hatred of them.

I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow (well, actually Arlington, Virginia) to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. My mom is already there and are visits have been planned to overlap. As some of you might know, I've been vegetarian for 14 years but have been considering eating seafood for some time. There is a good chance that on this trip I will actually take the plunge. The prospect of ending 14 years of vegetarianism is a bit daunting, and I would be limiting my meat intake to sea-fairing non-cephalopod exotherms. I've gone over it again and again for years in my head, working out the logistics of my personal moral code, and I think I'm okay with it.

Haven't given much of an update lately on what I've been up to.

The weekend before last my sister, Madeline, and Christian came up to visit. I met them downtown on Saturday and my sister took me to get my first ever professional manicure. I had a lot of fun and Maddie is a joy. She is so huge, though! I'd swear she was 10 or 11 if I didn't know she was 7.

Last weekend, invalid_userid came down for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. purpleglitter, invalid_userid waited in the long line in Harvard Square. Usually waiting in lines is boring, but with the crowd I had a great time. There were a couple profiteers who got in the front of the line and walked down it trying to sell their books for $50. I didn't see anyone buying, but I'm sure they found someone when they got near the end (which rumor had it was somewhere in Watertown). I was very excited to get merryperseis's register when I finally got my books, I had thought the odds of that rather slim.

zarthon took purpleglitter, invalid_userid and me out to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the next day. Inevitably a lot of the book was left out, but I think enough critical stuff was missing that someone who hadn't read the books probably wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

Sunday, we all went to the Museum of Science. The exhibits there have enough range to appeal to any level of scientific knowledge. We saw a demonstration of the still very functional original Van de Graaff generator built by Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1933, but my favorite part of the Museum of Science visit was the butterfly exhibit, where a large owl butterfly landed on my shoulder and sat there for a very long time just looking at me and occasionally stretching its wings. Looking into the butterfly's eyes made me regret all the nasty rhetoric I've spouted about exotherms.

Next weekend, our new landlord is coming to visit from California. She has not seen the building in over a year. I'm excited to meet her, she sounds awesome over the phone. She's trying to rent the unit next door, so if anyone is interested in a two-bedroom in Arlington, let me know.

At the end of next month, I will be heading down to see my sister in the Washington, D.C. area. My mom will be visiting there at the same time, so it should be a great trip.

This afternoon, I received my first package at my new residence. A housewarming gift from my sister. I hope I can keep good care of it, I've never had much of a green thumb.

The weekend before last, I lost the cane that Christian had given me. I left it in the shopping cart at the Super 88 and it was gone.

This past weekend, my serpent staff broke. The cane I can brush off as being spacy when I got in purpleglitter's car, but when something happens to the serpent staff it is generally means I've strayed off course. It broke in an entirely new place than it did before - after I repair it, it will have three different sections. I lost my spiritual path of late, life has overwhelmed me.

Life has overwhelmed me because I've let it overwhelm me. I've become frustrated and impatient with things that don't matter, and have been neglecting things that do. I need to be more mindful of my thoughts, actions, and intents. I need to right my path and fix my staff.

ravenways came up to visit yesterday. We had planned to take some photographs, but never got around to it. Instead we made candles, chatted, and tooled around Arlington. I've noticed lately that I tend to have plenty of fun with people even when we don't end up doing whatever we planned on as long as we keep a good attitude. Getting together with friends and family shouldn't be about the activity, it should be about the friends and family. The activity happening or not is insignificant compared to the time spent together.

My sister (ellynx), brother-in-law, and niece are in town this weekend and I got to spend quite a bit of time with them yesterday. When I got to their hotel room, Madeline gave me a star sticker decorate my cane with. It glitters with sticker glittery fabulousness.

We went to Chau Chow City for lunch and planned to go to the Boston Aquarium and this chocolate buffet, but the lines to get in were far too long at the aquarium and we got the time wrong for the chocolate buffet and missed it. However, I ended up walking around downtown Boston popping in and out of shops for most of the afternoon with my sister, which was definitely not a disappointment.

In the evening, my sister and I joined back with Christian and Maddie and met up with Christian's parents for dinner at Umbria. I didn't get to talk much with Christian's parents last time I met them, because the environment was very noisy. After dinner, Bridgette and I had some more time together and as always evening conversations with my family are filled with surprises.

I went out on a coffee house crawl with Heather this evening. Saint Charles has changed a lot. It's got a much more vibrant artistic community than it had when I lived in the area. I was impressed by the variety and quality of the local artists.

One of the coffee houses was in the New Town at Saint Charles development. It is a planned sustainable community with mixed income levels and a focus on pedestrianism and environment. Narrow streets laid out on a grid and shops and residences within easy walking distance from each other, it's a great alternative to suburban sprawl. Even though it is still very much being built, it already has a warmth and a personality. If I were planning to move back to this area, New Town would be at the top of my list.

The phone and DSL are back up and the ice is melting a bit. However, we're supposed to get a few more waves of ice later today and early tomorrow. After my voice post this morning, I went outside to take some photos and in the few minutes I was out there I heard a tree collapse in the woods nearby. My brother tells me he could hear several large branches or whole trees falling every this morning near him.

-----

I ordered my bus tickets online last night, but ended up with the wrong time for my departure from London. The confirmation has me leaving at 3:50AM, but there is no way I can get a ride to London at that hour. I was planning for my departure time to be 8:00PM. Talking to a Greyhound Canada representative on the phone, I was told that I could use the tickets for any departure time as long as they are for the same day and the same person. I should be fine

*knocks on wood*