Journal Entries
UK Trip Update
Posted Feb 22, 2017
This is a bit overdue, but the "N" and "B" keys stopped working on my laptop, and typing here on my phone is annoying. 'Tis easy to word things to avoid the letter B, but Ns are a bit harder... Then my laptop quit being useful entirely 9the hard drive's fine, as far as I can tell--it's just that nothing except the alphanumeric keys (well, most of them) would work--no cursor, no F keys, no funny symbol keys, and no working usb ports once I found the spare keyboard! So I could power up, unlock the laptop, and shut it down improperly with the power button. This is being typed on a nice refurbished laptop, and I'll be able to get the stuff off my old hard drive once I can get some stuck screws undone and put the drive in the enclosure that arrived today.
Anyway, my passport arrived at the beginning of this month! And I've been working feverishly on planning the London portion of my trip, before I realized less than an hour ago that I was going to be in London for 2 full days longer than I was thinking, so a day trip out to Hever Castle is totally doable...
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Feb 22, 2017
Loose end tying
Posted Dec 10, 2016
As Dmitri pointed out, I had 3 themes woven throughout this year's NaJoPoMo: travel, fudge, and PaperKid's basketball games.
While I have paid my airfare (the biggest single expense for the trip), I do have some other fairly large chunks of cash to lay out. However, those can't be paid for until 90 days before use, those ends will have to stay loose for a bit longer. I should probably get around to getting my passport application in pretty soon, though.
The Holiday Fair was last weekend. I didn't get as much fudge made in the end as I'd planned on, but it turned out to be just as well. The Fair was spread out over roughly 3 times the hours that a day at the Farmer's Market covered. We brought in around twice the money of an average day at the Farmer's Market... My fudge fridge is stuffed full.
PaperKid's basketball team came out of the regular season undefeated! Though the last game was a real nailbiter--final score was 20-19, with the opposing team's last basket being made close enough to the end of the game that there would've been time for one last basket by either team, but not time for another. The Jaycees tournament began this afternoon, with PaperKid's team scheduled to play the first game vs. a team that they'd not played before. We still haven't played them--they are from a town 2 hours away, and forfeited due to nonarrival (though the other out-of-town teams showed up from farther away). Coach R and Coach K stayed to watch the next game, as we will be playing the winner tomorrow. The Paper Clan stayed, as well. Tomorrow's first game should be a good one, going by what we saw tonight. The winner of tomorrow's first game (first for PaperKid's team, not of the day--our game isn't until 11:30, while gameplay starts 2 hours earlier) will go on to the championship game at 8pm, while the loser will play for 3rd place at 5:30pm.
In and around the games, we've been invited to breakfast and the 4H Christmas party. Depending on how the morning game goes, we'll either be late for the party or have to leave early--the option of simply not going hasn't even been mentioned
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Dec 10, 2016
November 2016
Posted Nov 2, 2016
I'm NaJoPoMoing again this year--journals will be attached to A87879848
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Nov 2, 2016
In The Post
Posted Sep 19, 2016
I'm in 
3 times this week! http://h2g2.com/entry/thepost
(For future reference, see A87877570 , A87877589 and A87877660
)
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Sep 19, 2016
Trip planning
Posted Jul 16, 2016
Not next year's big UK trip (though I did pick up passport applications yesterday, and I'm thinking we'd likely do it after the county fair, which is the first weekend following the first Thing in August, since the girls both want to do 4H again next year). No, we're doing a big family trip this year--a roadtrip to Yellowstone! We're going to be going up to see my relatives for a couple of days (staying with my aunt), then taking 3 days to drive across eastern Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, tent camping each night (while we do have access to an RV, we're not sure that it could make the trip, and, even if we were sure, fuel costs would make it impossible to go, anyway. Granted, the most expensive gas is likely going to be just from here to the Oregon border, but still). On the way, we'll be visiting the Craters of the Moon National Monument. We've reserved a camping spot outside Yellowstone for 4 nights--it's a good thing I called when I did, because there was exactly 1 space left in my 3rd choice park for that many nights--if we'd just wanted one night, we would've been able to be 10 miles closer... We've got a reservation in a motel for the night after we leave Yellowstone--real beds! Showers! A ceiling taller than me! And that's as far as the accommodation planning has gotten. Partly because we needed to make sure we had somewhere to stay while exploring Yellowstone, and partly because, an hour and a half out from the town the motel is in (Evanston, Wyoming) is Salt Lake City, Utah, where I will finally get to meet Marv and GDZ! That will be August 17. We'll likely start planning the stops on the way home in the next few days, though we do have friends that have moved to an area we'll be going through the last day or so of the trip home (PaperKid's old 
coach--for some reason, she doesn't want to commute 3 and a half hours each way 3 times a week to coach. Several people have already complained about how unreasonable she's being 
)
I've done some looking into temperatures at Yellowstone during early to mid August (daytime like a warm day here, night requiring long underwear inside the sleeping bags!) and should probably look into temperatures along the rest of our route--though if we're prepared for the night temps at Yellowstone, we should be fine everywhere else, at night. I've also discovered how to search for free science fiction and fantasy books to read with the Kindle app on my phone... I've still got about 5GB of storage left, so there should be plenty of room for pictures (especially if I cull pics I no longer need, like price reference pics and such). We've even already arranged for petsitting for the 2 weeks we're going to be gone--the dogs are going to stay here, because Penny won't eat when she's not home, and Abby would be barking at every. Little. Noise. All. Night. Every. Night. Besides, a lot more will be open to us without the dogs, and we can't just leave them in the car while we're out and about. The chickens are pretty self-sufficient, but there is no way that the feeder and waterer will hold 2 weeks' worth of supplies.
We are most definitely looking forward to this!
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Jul 16, 2016
Amy Pawloski, aka 'paper lady'--'Mufflewhump'?!? click here to find out... (ACE)
Researcher U180656
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."