We had a fun, although busy time in Baltimore. We made a trip to Va to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins; we visited Cousin Pat and Aunt Doris; we rewired half the lights in Grandmom’s basement to put them on switches instead of pull chains; we went to the National Aquarium; and we ate seafood. (Of course.)

The visits with family were very nice. My cousins are always a lot of fun, and it made up for the extra short visit we had the week before.

I was surprised by the aquarium though. Despite the fact that we’re in Baltimore several times a year, I haven’t been to the National Aquarium since it opened. I have to admit that I think I like the Newport Aquarium better. I think newport does a better job making the big tanks look like a natural environment instead of a cement tank. But the rainforest section was nice, and we would have stayed there longer if it weren’t for the screaming school kids. Amusingly enough, while we were looking at the poison dart frogs, several groups of kids ran up said “Oh, frogs. Big deal,” and ran on. They’re POISONOUS frogs! Frogs in amazing technicolor!

They didn’t know what they were missing.

We also quite liked the dolphin show. Dolphins are amazing creatures. Seeing them, and knowing how intelligent they are, I wonder how they get caught, and what they think about being held in captivity. They seemed to have plenty of trainers though, and the program talked about all the training they dolphins do, and a good deal about ocean conservation, and, interestingly enough, they had two videos screen that showed bits about training, but also showed two brief video clips of people in boats being bitten by wild dophins, which seemed a very wise thing to do, all things considered.

We also walked around the inner harbor a bit–we spent about 5 hours downtown all told–and I was surpirsed by a couple of things. First was at how clean the area around the harbor was. Of course this is March, and wasn’t nice weather for spending a lot of time outside by the water, but they seemed pretty aggressive about keeping the place clean, which impressed me.

The other thing that surprised me was the number of happy people we saw. We had lunch at Legal Seafood, and got a seat by the window, where I watched people walking by, and for the most part, the people walking by were in groups, chatting with each other. I guess I expected on Monday at lunch time to see people rushing from one place to another, hardly paying attention to one another, but that wasn’t what I saw.

Mind you, I still have no interest in living in a city that large, but it wasn’t nearly as grim as I would have expected.

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip, and we had a very good time. And now I plan to spend the rest of my time off from work reading, as I managed to add more books to my collection.

New books: A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson, Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita, Favorite African Folktales edited by Nelson Mandela, Lucious Lemon Desserts, and three mysteries by Michael Jecks that I left in Baltimore for Grandmom to read.

Finally:

I finally got decent pictures of my favorite section of I 68: Lane Ends

Pictures of the aquarium and stuff we did to Grandmom’s house and some random pictures.

Bit and pictures from the trip to Baltimore coming eventually.

You know what? I like having a car that’s under warranty.

Heard a strange, high pitched, whining noise, only a speeds over 60 (which is why it had gone without notice, since we mostly drive in town) that grew louder when accelerating. I didn’t think it was the engine, and hypothesized it might be the transmission. Dropped by the dealer yesterday, they said to come by today at 10, and they’d have a service person ride with me. Came in, had to wait a few mintues in the waiting room, while the service guy took it out on his own, then he came and got me. He heard the noise, said he hadn’t heard that before, and thought it might be the wheel bearings on the front driver’s side, but wanted to look at it, to make certain. Back into the waiting room (I of course brought a book with me), and before I was even 50 pages into the book, they called me in to say that it was the transmission (HA!) they’d replace the transmission with a new one, and could I please follow go with this gentleman to pick up the rental I’d have until my car was fixed.

All I had to do for the rental was walk in, show ID and a credit card, sign some paper work, and leave. The whole thing took less than an hour and a half, which included the drive with the mechanic.

And it’s all covered by Toyota.

And I got a free doughnut in the waiting room.

Not only do I have the coming week off from school, it’s also a slow time at work.

Thusly, I’m taking the whole week off! (happy dance)

I’ll be doing some work on the house (perhaps repainting three of the bedroom walls, maybe staining anf polyurethaning our entertainment center), a good deal of reading, and will be visiting my grandmother for a few days. Not only will we be spending time with her, but we’ll also be rewiring the lights in her basement (like that use of “we” there?), and of course eating well. Definitely G&Ms and a trip to Attman’s. Not sure where else, but when in Baltimore… eat seafood! We’re also going to the Aquarium (after which Michael will definitely want to eat seafood) and I’m going to find a book store. I think there’s a huge Barnes & Nobel at the Inner Harbor near the aquarium. Woo Hoo!

What’s the point of all this? The point is that I’m going to try to relax, so I’ll be attempting to stay away from the computer. Attempting anyway. So if you’re looking to be entertained, try some of the sites on my sidebar.

They’ll playing all my favorites!

eclectic \ih-KLEK-tik\ adjective
1 : selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles
2 : composed of elements drawn from various sources; also : heterogeneous

Commonly confused words.
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Dear Spammers,

I do not have a paypal account.
I do not have an e-bay account.
I do not bank at Washington Mutual.

Thus, I am not going to believe that any of those accounts are about to be cancelled and fall for your not so devious ploys.

Math’s Eagle Honor Court was very nice. The ceremony was great, and I had a great time after, talking with people. It’s always good to spend time with my grandmother, and to be honest, my family is a lot of fun, although they always make me feel rather boring in comparison. And I got to talk with Ben a bit more, which was nice, although I wish our visit could have been a little longer.

I also discovered that Math is definitely taller than me. By a lot. Which means that the only people I’m taller than now are Grandmom (who has lost height as she’s gotten older) and Liz (who is not yet 15). I’m pretty sure that I’m going to end up the shortest person in the family, which doesn’t seem quite fair.

Guess I got more than my fair share of my great-grandmother’s genes. Despite being the shortest person in my class throughout elementary school (and Jr High for that matter), I was taller than my great-grandmother by fourth grade.

So I get to look forward to always being the shortest person in a family of small giants. Oddly enough, my brother, clocking in a 6’5″, is the tallest in the group, which means that unless Liz has stopped growing, we would bookend the family if we were to line up by height.

The only bad part of the whole trip was spending an extended period of time in the car with my mother. Let’s just say that it’s amazing how things can regresss a decade or two when you’re not paying attention.

Assuming the weather stays clear, will be travelling to Baltimore/VA for Math’s Eagle Court of Honor today. He’s the alst Eagle Scout the family will have for awhile, as after him, only Liz will be left in high school, and for obvious reasons, she won’t become an Eagle Scout.

Michael forgot to request off pager duty, so he has to remain home and study.

Still working on the site. I’ve pretty much finished the “Books” section.

Obvious the main page is Movable Type, but all the categories (listed on the right side of the main page) I’ve redone. Nothing exciting as far as design goes, but I did get the text formatting exactly how I wanted it, with only a minimum of hair loss.

I’ve also updated some of the more geeky pages.

ADDENDUM the First: The book page really needs an image or something, doesn’t it?
ADDENDUM the Second: Morgantown Things that Are No More has been modified as has the rest of the Misc stuff
ADDENDUM the Third: I admit it. I’m rather pleased with the bullet for the Townies page.

I seem to have come down with a cold. (Not a surprise, considering where I work.)

I’m going home soon to curl up on the sofa with hot tea and a good book. So don’t be expecting anything profound until my head clears.

In my on-going effort to learn more about CSS, I’ve redesigned the main page of my site.

I’ll probably be redesigning other pages in the site over the next several weeks, but you have to start somewhere.

…All the Other Rats are Doing It

Quiz Time!

Interesting that I’m as likely to become Republican as I am Nazi.
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Happy Birthday Erin!