violetismycolor

Wale-ing away...

We arrived safely in Wales, with no floodwaters in sight.  Yay.

We first went to Caerphilly Castle, which is a HUGE castle from the 1200's, and enjoyed it immensely.  Luckily for us, the sun had come out and the day was glorious.  We then headed for Castell Coch, a 19th century castle built for the Bill Gates of his day, Lord Bute...designed to be a model medieval castle, but is actually a fantasy of a medieval castle with turrets and towers and magnificently-painted interiors.  I loved it but John prefers the more 'real' look of Caerphilly Castle (read big, cold, gray.

We wandered up to the Brecon Beacons (so-called 'mountains} and went to our B&B, The Canal Bank Bed and Breakfast, with a driveway so scary that John let the inn owner do the parking.  He was afraid that he and the car would end up in the canal.  The accomodation was lovely.  We wandered down the canal for dinner and found a pub that served a wonderful Steak and Ale Pie, and excellent Sticky Toffee Pudding.  The beer we drank was called 'Brains', for  some unexplained reason.

We did meet a couple at our B/B this morning that had driven to Wales (from Suffolk) on Friday.  Apparently, all the freeways were closed, due to flooding, and it took them 16 hours to get there.  They said that it should have been a 5-hour drive.  They had to sleep in their car!  They said that the roads were littered with abandoned cars.  It felt a little like the War of the Worlds.

Today, we went to the Mountain Center of the Brecon Beacons National Park, in the driving wind and rain, only to be actively discouraged by the park ranger from going hiking.  It didn't take much to convince me.  So, more castles for us.

We went to a couple of them. The good news was that rain had stopped and the sun came out.

John drove the SCARY roads to Pembrokeshire and our current accomodation in Newport.  We literally almost got hit head-on by a blue Mercedes who thought a lane built for almost-two cars belonged exclusively to him.  He swerved at the last possible second and scared the HELL out of us.

rested and on the correct time zone...

We spent our first four days in hot, hot, hot Park City, Utah.  It was about 100 degrees, every day, and our fancy-schmancy hotel didn't have any air conditioning! 

My favorite events were:

The Olympic Ski Jumpers, who did there slalom-ing and spectacular jumps and air-spins into a swimming pool.  Really fabulous athletes, they were.  I can't imagine how strong your abs have to be to do that!

The Utah Symphony Pops Concert, under the stars, with guest star, Jewel.  She is quite an entertaining storyteller, as well as having a fabulous voice.  Which was all that much better when backed up by an orchestra. 

We flew to London Sunday and arrived Monday morning.  We got a good nap at John's niece, Katie's home, where we also stayed the night.  We went out for dinner with all three of John's English nieces:  Lisa, Claire, and Katie (all 30'ish 'Mums' and delightful women).  We went out to the Alsford Arms Pub, where the food would compete with some of the best restaurants in Portland.  Delish!

Today, we are headed to Wales, but are somewhat worried about the roads, as there has been massive flooding in Gloucester, the county that is the English border with Wales.  Even the M4 motorway was closed last Friday due to flooding...and they expect the Severn River there to flood its' banks again today. 

Wish us luck.

P.S.  Apparently, Cookie is behaving decently for Adam and Ross, who are home babysitting her.  Fingers crossed there.

off we go...

Off we go into the wild blue yonder.  I've been packing, etc., all day.  We head out to Park City, Utah, in the morning for John's annual Stanford B. School, Class of '68, reunion.  I will try to post from there.

doggies at church...

Today was our annual "Blessing of the animals" service at church.  It was mostly dogs...maybe about 30/more of them, and a couple of cats, and I think I saw a gecko.  Pretty cool, though. 

I took Cookie on a good walk before the service, just to get all her heeby-jeebies out of her system.  I wasn't sure she was going to do very well, what with all the people (who would be STANDING part of the time, for goodness sake...and Cookie hates it when people are 'towering' over her) and all the other dogs around.  But she was the very picture of good behavior.  She mostly sat under our pew (safer there) and was so confused by the mass of people/dogs walking around and greeting each other during the passing of the Peace that she let people pet her!!! 

She got a blessing after the service and did a lot of mingling (read:  sniffing other dogs), and was much too excited to even nibble on all the doggie treats thereabouts.  A real Red Letter Day for our Cookie, I'd say.

Note:  The last remark made me wonder where the term, red letter day, came from.  Here is the answer, via Wikipedia: 

A red letter day (sometimes hyphenated as red-letter day) is any day of special significance.

The term originates from Medieval church calendars. Illuminated manuscripts often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as rubrics. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed the saint's days, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.

Many current calendars have special dates and holidays such as Sundays, Christmas Day and Midsummer Day rendered in red colour instead of black.

On red letter days, judges of the English High Court (Queen's Bench Division) wear, at sittings of the Court of Law, their scarlet robes (See court dress). Also in the United Kingdom, other civil dates have been added to the original religious dates. These include anniversaries of the Monarch's birthday, official birthday, accession and coronation.

 

harry who?

I'm jealous.  Adam and Bonnie are both seeing the new Harry Potter movie tonight at midnight.  Well, Bonnie's midnight is 3 hours before Adam's, so she is the first one in the family to get to see it.  But I won't get to see it till at least the weekend. 

Btw, my mom's pacemaker went in without a hitch...

Happy birthday to Adam!!!

Yes, this is the day, 23 years ago (also a Sunday!), that I woke John up at 6 a.m. to report that my water had broken and we had to head to the hospital. 

John:  Can't I just sleep for another hour?

Me:  NO, we have to go NOW.

We managed to get to the hospital (George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, a mere 15 minute drive from our house in old-town Alexandria, Virginia) with me sitting on a pair of towels so that I wouldn't ruin the upholstery in our car.

When they wheeled me down the hall, away from the admissions desk, a trail of amnio fluid followed me...now THAT was embarrassing!

I had known that our baby was breech, and we had been planning to have the doctor turn him before my due date.  But that due date was July 29th and Adam was 3 weeks early.  When they did an ultra-sound at the hospital, he had turned all right.  To a worse position:  Transverse, which means his head and feet were pointed at my hip bones, sort of like this:  ---.

Not good...cue the new medical students to come in and LOOK AT THIS!  You're not going to see one of these very often.  Look at the funny pregnant lady, quick before we have to wheel her into surgery and cut her open!

Luckily for me, Adam turned a bit on his own to an oblique breech, which meant that his feet were pointed at my right hipbone and his head was pointed at my left breast....something like this:  \.

Now, I have to warn you, having the new medical students around, the ones that JUST started work on July 1st...well, that can be a BAD thing.  They don't know anything, and they use YOU as thier practice dummy.  I got one such student who "tried" to give me an epidural.  He stuck me numerous times without much luck.  The nurses finally called the Big Gun in...the head of Anesthesiology for the hospital...and he was done in a few seconds without any trouble at all.

John happily stood next to me in the operating room while they did my C-section, commenting like this:  "Wow, there's so much blood!"  and "How many layers do you have to cut through?" 

I politely asked him to refrain from comment as I was right there and it was NOT helping!

Finally, Adam's presence was announced at 11:43 a.m.   I didn't really get a look at him then, as they whisked him away to make sure he was okay, his being 3 weeks early and everything.  In any event, he was 7 lbs., 13 oz. and 21 inches long.

When they finally got me back to my room and handed me my baby to hold, I took one look at him and felt the feeling of falling in love...I didn't know that happened when you had a baby.  I loved, loved, loved him immediately.  And it has been happily ever after, ever since.

Adam is a wonderful son, who I have grown to love even more (is that possible?) and I have grown to respect in all ways.  What a gift he has been to me and to his family. 

Happy Birthday, honey...and many more!

stress...

I am not sure why I am so exhausted and stressed out today. 

It might be:

1.  Due to the fact that I couldn't help myself when my sister exclaimed yesterday that, "Muslims hate Americas."

Me:  "NOT all Muslims hate America."

Her:  "There are a million Muslim terrorists ready to kill us and 10 million more Muslims who support them."

I should have just said, "Don't even get me started..."

I didn't say that though, and family hoo-ha ensued.

2.   Due to the fact that I had my boobs manhandled (make that womanhandled) every which way by a technician who began by exclaiming that my mammogram would be easier than ever since they now used digital x-rays.  Guess what...it was (inconceivably) worse than in previous years.

3.  Due to the fact that my mom is having her pacemaker installed tomorrow and I am going to spend the day at the hospital.

on jury duty and pacemakers...

Number 1:  On the way to doing a day of jury duty, Adam got hijacked by the system.  Not that he is complaining much.  He came home and announced that he had been put on a Grand Jury and would be required to do 4 weeks of jury duty, 8:30 - 5, Monday through Friday.  And he is being put on what he called Grand Jury Number One:  considering cases of murder, sexual assault, child abuse, and drug cases. 

Yikes.  Adam is going to get a crash course in the absolute worst of humanity. 

In addition, it means that he cannot pursue his cool summer Neuroscience job.  He is torn between being happy to do his duty as a citizen and being upset that his opportunity to work in a real Neuroscience Lab is being cut short.  He's only been working for two weeks and they finally just gave him his badge!

Number 2:  My mom fainted on Friday and went to the hospital.  They put a heart monitor on her and sent her home.  She had to return it to the hospital on Saturday afternoon, because it collected data for 24 hours.  They didn't actually look at it till Monday morning.  (NEVER get sick on a weekend!) Her cardiologist's office didn't call till 5 pm, and then they told her that she'd probably be getting a pacemaker.  Possibly today.

When I asked her if they told her to do anything to prep for the surgery, her response was, "Surgery?"

I told her, yes, it required surgery to insert this into her chest and she told me she thought that you wore a pacemaker like a watch.  No, mom, it goes IN YOUR CHEST...

She seems totally unconcerned anyway...

Hmmm...

Saturday evening wedding...

On our way to a wedding yesterday, we stopped at Multnomah Falls for ice cream.  Hey, we were early and hungry and it just seemed logical. 

The wedding was held nearby, at a place (in the Columbia Gorge), called "Bridal Veil Lakes".  It is set up for weddings, though their brochure says they are available for all occasions.  Said brochure ONLY has wedding photos, however.  I would certainly think this would be a wonderful place for a family reunion, too.  There are canoes that one can use on the lake, too, though none of us took advantage of that.  We should have, though.

The wedding was for one of our neighbor's kids...Adam Cohen.  He and our Adam grew up together and were pretty good friends.  It was weird for Adam to think of one of his friends getting married, though.  He's not even close to being there.

The groom's parents, Jaimie and Sherry Cohen, are pictured here, with their son.  They are the best sort of neighbors, fun, interesting, involved in the neighborhood, and they keep their house and garden looking just beautiful.

The bride and groom seemed totally besotted with each other...pretty good for having been together for almost 4 years already.  Everyone who knew them both testified to the fact that they were totally devoted to each other's happiness.  One of the relatives said, "To find one's soulmate so early in life is a blessing indeed."  And everyone seemed to agree with that, too.

As we were driving home last night, the sky was perfect and one of the planets was so big and bright in front of us.  Then, we saw the moon, as big and as yellow as I have seen it.  Life seemed pretty perfect then.  I enjoyed witnessing such a happy event and then being able to drive through a perfect night, with some of the people I loved the most sitting with me.  Blessings to all...