It was Sunday, the last day of our backpacking tour of the country, and incidentally All Hallows Eve. We'd elected to bus around as much of the perimeter as we could - see it all, even if only through a bus window. This brought us to Sokcho, on the far northeast coast. The plan was to spend the morning walking around Seoraksan National Park, and ( Read more... )

( Cut for excessive length of day )

Darthscout has befriended a tailor from a shop downtown, a kindly Korean gent in his late 50s, who has practically taken up S as a surrogate son. He took us out to dinner Monday night, because what is more fun than matchmaking?

Epic story follows.

Mr Tailor met us at his shop at closing time. He got us a taxi to the beach, presented us with ( Read more... )

I DID find a bookstore, by asking the PC nook clerk to load up google maps - so I could see which direction to search, even if I couldn't read a thing on the page. Seoul is about as bi-lingual as a US border town, even tho it isn't. The subways repeat information in English, most traffic and shop signs have English in finer print, and most people ( Read more... )

Hey!  I made it to Seoul. I am sitting in a tiny basement internet nook, which at 11am on a Thursday is nearly deserted. This city is nice ( Read more... )

I leave in less than a week! The words "Korea, for a month" result in lots of blinking for most people I talk to, but at this point for ME it means being giddy, and then packing ( Read more... )

Office Fairy Godmother:  Here Boss, want some cantaloupe ( Read more... )

Back on Mother's Day, I decided to lead my family on a hike. An exploratory expedition, if you will, with a destination of a forgotten tower, overlooking the coastal bluffs of Cape Cod.

We never did reach that tower.

Granted, we didn't get there mostly because we we were offered a private tour of the Highland Lighthouse, but the impenetrable thicket ( Read more... )

rustle
drip
whoosh
splish
rumble
splatter
clatter
flash
splash
grumble
shiver
swoop
flish-a-boom
crack-a-cow
growl
patter
pitter
slumber

*Uncultured Swine need not comment. The Berenstain Bears and I don't love you either!

Codger has decided that I am THE go-to computer resource. I got my first warning of this the day after I switched back to first shift. "Thanks, I've been wondering about that. There really hasn't been anyone around to ask since you've been gone."  *forebodinganddread*  Furthermore, each time he calls me over to his desk, he begins with "Gabe, ( Read more... )