HAPPY BDAY CLARE!!!

I am very bad w/ sending gifts but don't worry its coming in the mail soon. Hint: one item involves time travel AND Jane Austen...I just couldn't pass that up!
In other news I had my first phone interview w/ Voluntarios de Esperanza, an orphanage in Chile. Hopefully I will be volunteering there for a few months this year or next. I find out at the end of the week so fingers crossed.
Mexican feast tonight for my cousin Jenny B's bday wish you were all here for margaritas and homemade salsa (I'm making your favorite beans Jules).
Hasta luego!

What European City do you belong in?

This thorough 6 question quiz decided I should live in Dublin: "Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town." http://www.blogthings.com/whateuropeancitydoyoubelonginquiz

"Tell me more and more and then some"

My new counter shows me that people are coming to this page. Yet no one except Bjork, Julie, Duncan and Daniel (who I have never even met) leave comments! For shame! In the words of Nina Simone "tell me more and more and then some" and I will satisfy your need to know the minute and boring details of my daily life. Promise! Well, maybe.

Its Wednesday night and I spent it shredding mail because after I didn't respond to the first 15 Mileage Plus Visa card they must have thought, "oh man maybe she still wants one." NO! I wonder how many trees are needlessly killed to fill my mailbox with junk mail? You hear that Capital One? I don't want you!

So as promised I will give more details of my trip to the UK. After getting my award (and my money) I hung out with my friends Lizzie and JP in Edinburgh for a few days. I love Scotland but I think its hilarious that 5 inches of snow was enough to close all the trains running north of Edinburgh and shut down roads and other public transport. Everyone would be living in CA if they couldnt clear 5 inches of snow. I spent another week or so in St. Andrews catching up with old friends, visiting my old haunts, and getting drunk with Duncan, Bjork and Eamonn.

I took the train down to Darlington from St. Andrews to see my friend Clare. I was knitting on the train and getting weird looks from the alpine yodeler clone sitting across from me. Clare would text periodically and predicted where I was exactly. She took that train way too often. The next day, Clare whisked me off to Whitby, a cute seaside town reputed to be the final resting place of Dracula and also possessing a very fine wool shop. We had lunch in Robin Hood's Bay (no men in green tights...quite a disappointment) and then stopped in Scarborough. Picture the tacky English equivalent of Atlantic City. The cultural highlight was Anne Bronte's grave...dead like the rest of this poor city. Clare was continually warning me to avoid eye contact with all the crackheads and fourteen year old mothers. When we asked one shopkeeper where the wool shop was she replied "wall shop? never heard of it." The Lake District more than made up for the disappointment that was Scarborough. No wandering poets but plenty of picturesque hills covered in snow and sheep.

Now that I have recovered from my CSI addiction (yes I finished all 5 seasons + I shred my mail= big loser w/ no life), I can look forward to Jules' visit!! Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Disneyland, Hearst's Castle, Monterey Bay Aquarium, San Diego (Sarah!) and In N Out are just a few of the exciting attractions on the itinerary. And maybe even shredding mail! I know that is making all you who have not yet visited me jealous enough to immediately go to orbitz and buy a ticket. I know you read this blog Stuart, Eamonn, Olley, Jon, Tryste, Natalie......!!!

And now to be completely unoriginal and post the events, births, and deaths that occurred on my birthday (thanks Duncan and Julie):

Feb. 15th

Neat facts: 1965- A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada. (and this did nothing to obscure the fact that it is the 51st state of the U.S.) Thats pretty much the only "exciting" event of Feb. 15th.

Births:
1564 Galileo Galilei, el era un cientifico y vivio en Italia
1820 Susan B. Anthony, ella era una feminista y vivio en Los Estados Unidos
1964 Chris Farley, "yo soy un motivational speaker. yo vivo en un van cerca del rio"

Deaths (I guess the 15th is a cursed day for the musically inclined):
1965 Nat King Cole, American singer and musician
1621 Michael Praetorius, German composer
1857 Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer
1974 Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer
1981 Mike Bloomfield, American musician
Karl Richter, German conductor
1984 Ethel Merman, American singer and actress
1999 Big L, American rapper

Karma

Chris came for a quick visit this past Sunday. I picked him up from the airport, drove him around, had dinner with my fam and hung out. Early the next morning I had to take him to his astronomy workshop so there wasn't much time for sightseeing (which is ok since Chris believes museums to be a "waste of time") nor was there time for a quick stop at the Indian casino for some poker (though Chris hoped there might be a bus service to the casino nearby his hotel). But remember how Chris was always whinging about how he HAD to go on all expenses paid trips to beautiful Hawaii while really he just meant to rub in our noses (we forgive you of course Chris =P). Well good ol' CA gave him a rather damp welcome....yup its been cold (well not Scotland cold) and raining. Karma baby. Anyway I hope all you guys out there in the wide world come for a visit too and soon! I've become addicted to my mom's CSI dvds and it has really put a damper on my social life. Save me!