Tanks mooch

Y'know, I never got around to posting 'bout my Ireland trip. Where did I leave off? Ahh, yes... dictionaries. Later that day I took a bus waaaay out to London Stansted airport, where I flew on RyanAir to the Shannon airport in Ireland. Why do I mention this? I'd like to give my anti-recommendation for RyanAir. Yuck. Pay for baggage, pay if baggage is over a certain very low weight, pay if you look at them funny. Plus, Stansted is in the middle of nowhere. I disliked it sufficiently that I purchased a new ticket back from Dublin to London Heathrow, on Aer Lingus.

But that's not important. Ireland is. What did I do? What did I see? Well, I took a bus to Limerick, where I met a tour group for my two-day West Coast tour. I wrote some limericks... while I was in Galway, not Limerick. They are:

This tour thing has helped me to see
I can't take the Irish seriously
Too much Father Ted
Corrupted my head
Now their accent is comic to me

and...

My heart for Celt music does long
But I have a secret so wrong
Ironic to think
That I do not drink
Yet oh how I love a good pub song!

Hmm... other interesting things...

I learned that left-handed people are considered "blessed by the faeries," and thus are exceptionally smart. Absolutely!!

I met a cute Spanish guy. He was on the two-day tour. Too bad his English wasn't better!

More... and pictures... later!

The most important thing you'll learn today

I'm about to tell you something that will change your life. Be prepared--this is earth-shaking. And sad... Get the kleenex. Ready? Deep breath. Here it is:

People born on February 29th will never have a golden birthday.

Okay, now that your life is altered, on to business: more trip reports! After visiting Keighley and Haworth I returned to London, where I was supposed to see a screening of the Peter Serafinowicz Show. Sadly, it was canceled. Instead, I saw Lord of the Rings, The Musical. It was pretty good... they had to cut many essential elements to make it fit within a 3-hour window. No Rohan whatsoever, no Faramir, no Helm's Deep, etc., etc. They did make a reference to Tom Bombadil. The hobbits were amusing.

Today you will learn why I typically travel alone. I suspect it has to do with some of the sites I like to see. The second day in London I visited a museum that... well... let's just say it had to do with my unique literary tastes. I happen to like dictionaries. I visited the former home of Samuel Johnson -- his primary residence while compiling the first modern English dictionary. I even bought an abridged version of the dictionary (c'mon, I already admitted that I like dictionaries. So stop laughing).

Example definitions from this 1755 dictionary:

heart-breaker: A cant name for a woman's curls, supposed to break the heart of all her lovers.

paraphernalia: Goods in the wife's disposal.

And if you have never been able to understand how the Interweb works, here is the definition of network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

All clear now, right?

doppler effect... or not

Reading my blog? Wow, you must be bored. Or boring. That's great, we have something in common!

And I can bore you further. More about my trip to the UK and Ireland!! Lucky you!

After I left Alnmouth I went to a town called Keighley (pronounced "keith-lee"), where I caught an authentic steam train -- the Keighley-Worth Valley Railway. Here's a video I took of the train:



I left the train at a small town called Haworth, which is where the Bronte sisters lived. After wandering all over the place with my luggage I finally found their family home:


If you turn your head (or monitor), you can read about the Bronte Parsonage Museum:

These are what we call "flowers":

The church next to the museum:

Next time I need a doctor, I will definitely go for one at the "Kilmeny Surgery." Many? How many?

Prior Incantato

I suppose it's time to post some pictures from my trip! I flew into Heathrow, then immediately went to London, to King's Cross Station. And where does one travel from King's Cross Station? To Hogwarts, of course -- and that's exactly where I went! Well, I didn't find Platform 9 ¾, but the train from Platform 2 started me on the way to my destination of the day -- Alnwick Castle, a film site for the Harry Potter movies. After my visit to the castle (which is definitely worth a visit!) I went to Alnmouth for the night.

And for those of you who want to study at Hogwarts, check out the St. Cloud State University site...

Pictures...

A statue of Harry Hotspur:
A view of Alnwick Castle:

Another view of Alnwick Castle:

Nearby the castle:

A rainy morning in Alnmouth:

Boats generally require water:

Some of the many, many, many birds of Alnmouth:

Blocks on the beach:

Spiderwebs in the rain:

L33t Street

At some point I'll have time to go on and on about my recent vacation to the UK and Ireland. For now, here is an amuse-bouche for my travel writeup. And it is all about l33tness.

A camera + a bus near Newcastle Upon Tyne + some fabulous timing resulted in this priceless picture:


That's right, kids. The moral of today's story: B1337.

Study at Hogwarts!

Greetings from jolly ol' London! I'm currently on vacation. I'll post more when I return, but I just wanted to inform all of you about one interesting fact I learned. This will be especially useful for those of you trying to decide where to attend college. On Saturday I visited Alnwick Castle, where they filmed Harry Potter. You can actually attend school there--Minnesota's St. Cloud University offers a study abroad program there!

Obscure...

Map Everything!

I just realized that Google Maps now allows you to embed maps in pages! Hooray! Is this new, or am I slow in finding these things? I guess they got tired of having people copy their imagery and post it to their blogs, etc.

For your entertainment, a demonstration, using the Jello Museum in Le Roy, New York as an example:


View Larger Map

How to use it: Find what you want to include in your map. Then click "Link to this page" (toward the top right of the page). Copy the link and/or HTML, and paste it into your blog, e-mail, or whatever. Note that it keeps your query terms in the link (q=blah blah blah).

While we're talking about Google Maps, check it out -- you can view imagery of Mars!
http://www.google.com/mars/

Map away!

Because privacy is overrated

As soon as I saw this, it reminded me of a certain little apartment in Iasi (that's pronounced "Yash"), Romania:

http://www.voltier.com/hot/

Melissa knows what I'm talkin' about. :)

A good reason to be crabby

Imagine you're sitting on the beach, or maybe in the water, enjoying a nice chicken meal. Suddenly someone swoops down, throws you into some uncomfortable container, and drags you into the kitchen to become their dinner. Kind of a morbid thought, eh? Well, that's precisely what we did to a dozen or so Maryland blue crabs this weekend.

I spent the weekend in Maryland with assorted family members. We were on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake, staying in a house designed by (and formerly inhabited by) famous architect Arthur Cotton Moore. Hmmm... why do I always want to add "Sir" before his name? Anyway, he is known for his "industrial baroque" style. He was the brains behind renovations of such Washington D.C. buildings as the Old Post Office Building and the Library of Congress. His house, described in 2005 by the Washington Post as a "stainless steel mansion," is a very distinctive waterfront property. Here are some pictures:

It's supposed to be hurricane-proof due to the shape of the roof. It is not, however, flood-proof.
This is the view from inside the main house:

I stayed in this building, which used to be the studio. Think of it as something more like the "servants' quarters" now.

Lots of wildlife in the area. Good sunset views as well. Examples:

Yes, deer.


Duck, duck, goose.

Very patriotic.

Check out those eyes.

Column of geese.

Just before the sun sets.

Just after the sun sets.

And then there was the blue crab experience. Maryland blue crabs like to eat chicken necks. Ultra fresh blue crabs taste great. Here is the complete traumatizing experience:












All she wanted to do was smash the crabs with her mallet:

Lesson learned: despite the fact that it made for a good meal, I still prefer living in a world of denial, in which I eat meat that doesn't look like the animal it came from...

In other news, I bought an orchid at the farmers market in St. Michaels. I keep wanting to refer to it as a fern. Hmm... perhaps I should name my orchid Fern to reduce future confusion. Do people name their plants? Whatever. This is Fern, the Orchid:

Vegemite. Or vegemite not.

Five pictorial reasons Australia is worth the long flights down under:

Reason #5: The landscape

Is it a forest fire? No, it's an amazing sunset!


Misty scene from a moving car. Grr, stupid power lines through the picture! Can you believe we drove from Canberra to Sydney?!


The man-made landscape isn't bad either!


Reason #4: The jumping marsupials

Kangaroos are delicious.


Reason #3: The opportunity to visit my niece and nephew on the way

Aren't they cute?

Plus I got this interesting picture just before the plane landed in LA:


Reason #2: The food

I do all my breakfast cereal shopping in Australia now. You can buy Weet-Bix in the US, but not Fruity Weet-Bix.


Australian snack foods are better than American snack foods. Hooray for hazelnuts and blackcurrants! Um, not necessarily together... Though I must say, I don't know why Australians have such strong opinions on Starburst candies!


Australian candies are very different than Swedish candies, which tell you what ISN'T inside. For instance, this is apparently not chocolate.


Reason #1: The birds

This kookaburra seemed totally uninterested in us.


I love sulphur-crested cockatoos.


Have I mentioned that I like sulphur-crested cockatoos?


Sulphur-crested cockatoos... they have such personality. I'd get one if they weren't so darn loud!


This is not an ugly duckling.