Squirrel and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening in Milton Keynes which, despite being only 40 miles from London, is much more reminiscent of a Midwestern American or Scandinavian city. We could have been in Tulsa or Trondheim. It was deliberately built this way by town planners in 1966, with modern office block buildings, wide streets, a huge ( Read more... )

My mom and dad are arriving later this morning. They will be spending five days with us. My mother was here just last year (in November), but my father has not been here since 2004. It'll be interesting for him to see how things have changed a bit around here since then.

Including my face.

I will probably stop at the barber shop up the hill later ( Read more... )

Bad election results.  The worst, in fact, that I could imagine.  What a nightmare. Four more years of pushing that national debt higher and higher and higher, every day. Another 1,460 days of preparing the huge bill to saddle future generations with.  But never mind, it's all hope and change, is it not?

I also had a little something yesterday. It's ( Read more... )

If there's anything I'll remember probably the most vividly from Squirrel's and my recent trip to the North African city of Tunis, it would be hanging around at Gate 57 at Tunis-Carthage Airport for far longer than I would have bargained. The plane was late getting in, and the person responsible for docking the plane with the passenger ramp was an ( Read more... )

Been a while since I updated ... yes.  Not a lot has gone on around here.  I did discover, however, that I needed to go back on the antidepressant I'd previously been taking.  After a year-and-a-half of being off the medication, I fell into a depression that I recognized instantly as a chemical imbalance.  So, back on the meds.  I've been on them ( Read more... )

Today, Squirrel and I participated in a PETA protest march against the use of real black bear fur for the tall caps the Royal Fusiliers wear. We started at Westminster Bridge and walked past the Houses of Parliament, went up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, then on to Piccadilly Circus, through Mayfair and ended at Marble Arch: 3.1 miles (5K) in all.

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Well, well, I'm sorry for all the time I've spent away from this here LJ. My bad.

I wanted to share a recent commission from the talented Hunter Bahamut:


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Further proof-if any were honestly needed-that people really are as dumb as a motherf*cker.

I'm bemused that "dragon" made the top 10 in the SplashData survey of most stolen passwords. I can proudly report that I've never used it, despite my undying love of (and lust for) those noble creatures. Can there really be so many people out there who used " ( Read more... )

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It's not just the fact that my birthday was this past Sunday evening, but November represents a period of relative rest for me.

It was a very active-way too active-month-and-a-half for me.  In September, the chores I had on my list seemed endless.  The housework was more demanding than normal as I prepared to fly to Boston, via Ireland, to attend my ( Read more... )