August 28
[Taken April 21, 2007 | Iris | Dayton, OH]
I got back from London Saturday afternoon. (More about London later...)
While I was gone, the neighbor across the street gave John an extra hummingbird feeder that she had (how the heck do you end up with an extra hummingbird feeder anyway?) that John hung up on the front porch, near the windchime.
While he was talking to the neighbor about the feeder, he apparently said something about never having seen any hummingbirds in the area. Right after he said that, he told me that several hummingbirds zoomed up to the neighbor's feeder, buzzed around, and then headed back across the street to the bushes and trees in front of our house. So, not only are their a lot of hummingburds in the area, apparently a good number of them live in our yard. John thinks there must be nests in our trees or something.
So I now have gone from seeing 0 hummingbirds, to seeing them everywhere and all of the time... probably because I know that they are there now.
August 14
[Taken August 6, 2007 | Colin in the rapier champions tourney | Pennsic XXXVI]
John and I got back from Pennsic very, very late on Friday night… technically very very early Saturday morning.
The weather could have been a bit better – it alternated between raining a lot and being crushingly hot and humid. After a bit you could tell when another thunderstorm was going to start, because the humidity would drop to a reasonable level and the air would cool off. Despite this, it was still a lot of fun. Fencing, classes, parties, general hanging out in camp… in between (and sometimes during) the rain.
What is a camping vacation without a little bit of rain?
I brought a couple of cameras, my little point-and-shoot as well as my bigger digital SLR, but really didn't get to take a lot of photos. Not as many as I would have liked to take, anyway. It was just too wet most of the time for me to feel comfortable with carrying them around.
We are already making plans for next year's Pennsic. We want to have a slat bed, to raise our mattress off of the ground and give us some storage space. We want to pack more stuff in plastic totes, both because they are more waterproof then duffels and to take advantage of the as-yet hypothetical under the bed storage space. We want rugs for the tent. I want an umbrella.
At one of the parties we went to, we ran into some fencers we knew who were sharing sips of some of their home-made cordials, and were happy to share home brewing advice. So John and I picked up a copy of the recommended cookbook ("Cordials from your Kitchen") and are going to start experimenting.
And despite the fact that I just got back from vacation a few days ago, just finished moving into a new cubicle at work, and just started to get back into the swing of work after a week off… tomorrow I leave for yet another business trip to London.
I have not yet begun to pack... heck, I haven't finished unpacking from Pennsic yet!
August 3
[Taken July 15, 2007 | The Houses of Parliment by night | London, UK]
Between my two projects at work, I am easily putting in more then 100% time according to the charge-back calculations to the different project codes. Don't ask me how this works, because I don't know... I just know that it works.
I am packing for a (pointless) relocation from my current cubicle to another just like it on another floor... except that the area where I am moving to is a much less desirable location - on a main walkthrough area, much more cramped/crowded, noisy, and no natural light. Ugh. I really hate it and almost dread having to work there...
I really need this vacation. A week with no cellphone, no computer, and no email sounds mighty fine to me.
Pennsic here we come.