7-20-17

This is how tiny Teensie is.

I decided to name her Lady Tiffany Gray, AKA Teensie. She loves to snuggle under my chin, but I worry that may become a bad habit.

7-19-17

I was gone most of the day helping with a teacher workshop. I worried about Teensie missing me! It's like I have a little baby. But she is doing great and bonding with her new daddy too. 

7-18-17

Today I got to bring Teensie home with me. The foster dad had to bring her to the Humane Society and I had to fill out paperwork and pay $$ before I could bring her to her forever home. See how little she is? She weighs 1 lb. 12 oz.

7-16-17

Met Teensie, my new future kitten. She is sweet and affectionate and I don't want to put her down. My friend is fostering her from the Humane Society. She was abandoned there at only 4 weeks old. I'm going to adopt her in a couple days.

7-15-17

Today we left Nashville after dropping Jes off at the airport. It took forever to get home. There was rain that had us stalled for quite a while. 

7-14-17

This morning we got up and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. There I saw THE blue suede shoes. Also some handwritten lyrics by John Prine. I am not a country music fan, but I love me some John Prine and Johnny Cash.

Lyrics to Angel from Montgomery by John Prine

Nashville is indeed music city. You walk down the street and there are musicians everywhere in every restaurant playing and trying to get discovered.

This is our little apartment which still does not have a working lock.

It is decorated in antiques.

7-13-17

 Jes and I showed up at the conference for a full day of sessions, including our own again. The first one was a dud. We looked at each other after an hour and decided to make an excuse and leave.
The one I was really looking forward to didn't happen-- the presenter didn't show. Finally we got to re-present our workshop and we had 12 participants who were highly engaged and really seemed to love it.

The campus of this place was absolutely amazing-- it looked like a miniature UVA.

When it was over we tried to get into The Bluebird Cafe but didn't. So we went to a BBQ restaurant for dinner then to Whole Foods to pick up some frozen dessert.

Came back from the BBQ restaurant and Whole Foods with our frozen almond milk dark chocolate mocha ice cream on a stick things, smelling like BBQ smoke, and our key to the apartment didn't work. Actually, Jes tried so hard to get the door open she actually broke the key into TWO!!

The owner came out and called a locksmith while we sat out back under the gazebo eating up the ice cream bars. Finally the locksmith drilled a hole in the lock and got us inside. The owner gave us a gift certificate for dinner to make up for the inconvenience. We were outside for about an hour.

7-12-17

We did it! We presented a workshop to ~20 teachers (all seats were taken) and it went so well, we were asked to repeat our session tomorrow. I LOVE presenting with my daughter. We make such a great team. 

7-11-17

Met with my geekie colleague this morning for coffee to talk work/shop and she hooked me up to this brain mapping thing. It was cool to see my brainwaves on her computer.

 Then I picked the first figs of the year and we ate them up.
Then we drove to Nashville and picked up Jes from the airport.

 We are staying at this posh airB&B that is decorate in all antiques like old English with a snazzy twist.

7-9-17

I blocked this today and then went to give it to my student who is 8 months pregnant with a baby girl. I'm proud of this baby blanket made of alpaca... and she loved it.

7-8-17

We were invited to a special party at our friends' house. B & M have created a botanical garden on their property, and B gave us a tour. There were about 50 people at this party and we knew a lot of them. It was so much fun! B gave me a plant to take home. I hope it lives.

7-6-17

Sakura and Fossie LOVE plum cake! Nana make this one just for them. I had a slice and it was gooood.

7-5-17

Me and my sisters!

Happy 31st birthday today to my oldest daughter Jes!

7-4-17

We had a party at Mom's today. Here Kels is helping Nana in the kitchen. This is not a great picture and they don't look too happy, but they were. It was a great party. Lots of folks.

There were a lot of mommies and babies at the party and they were so so so cute!

7-3-17

Happy 4th! We went on the 3rd to Opelika to see the fireworks with our friends. We brought Sakura and Sta and Kels and Fossy.

7-2-17

I played piano at church again. This is getting to be a weekly thing and I'm getting better.

7-1-17

I framed this for Aza today, as she got a JOB full time as a hygienist at a really good practice! I'm so happy for her. This crosstitch she did will be hung in her new operatory.

6-28-17

The doctor was great. He has me trying two new meds I've never heard of, and he drew a bunch of blood for tests of all sorts. He also wants me to get a nerve conduction study back home.

On the way home we stopped at REI to look at outdoor stuff, then had dinner at this fancy French restaurant because we looked at the lunch menu and the prices were decent. Woah. Oh well, it was a good break and a nice, well deserved break from all our traveling.

6-27-17

On the road again. We drove to NC today for my doctor's appointment tomorrow at Duke.

I hope he has some insight into my facial neuralgia.

6-25-17

Sorry for the extended absence from blogging. My life got SO busy after returning from Scotland, I've been running like a headless chicken.

This is a scarf I started in Scotland and finished today. It will be a gift for someone. 

Today I joined a band and went to the first practice session. I like all the people in band, and like the music. Old timey stuff. It will be fun!

6-22-17

I was in a fog all day, not productive except for watering my plants. We slept until 9am to try and get on a regular schedule, but my mid afternoon I was a zombie and slept for a few hours. Dinner at Mom's house. Watched Better Call Saul and fell asleep at the end. In bed again at 10pm. It was a nothing day of semi-unpacking and laundry and staring off into space in my quiet house, trying to re-adjust my brain.

6-21-17 AKA the 30 hour day

Today we flew home, or started to at least. This is our last view... We flew from Glasgow to Dublin and had a decent layover with lunch at a neat cafe - I had a mozzarella panini. We boarded our 7 hour flight to Boston and knew that we had a 3 hour layover in Boston and would be getting home really late. However, upon landing in Boston around 6pm Eastern time (Midnight back in Scotland...) we discovered that our flight had been delayed, and instead of leaving at 9pm would be leaving at midnight.

Ok, so if feels like midnight and you find out you have to wait six hours in an airport before your next flight, which has a 2 hour drive afterwards.

I ended up putting my head on my knees and sleeping a while when the fatigue just overwhelmed me. Midnight came and we boarded the plane. I hardly remember it; I slept almost the whole way. We arrived in ATL at 2:40am and arrived HOME in our beds at 4:20am central time on 6-22.

Dan stayed awake the whole time. I was like a drunken drugged person and would not have made it without him. My Star app worked on my phone and you can see we were chasing the sun as we flew west on our 30 hour day.

6-20-17

 Today we said goodbye to Ullapool and started the drive back to Glasgow. I was very sad. It just felt like a sad heaviness to leave. We decided to stop at a castle on Loch Ness along the way, and discovered it had once been owned by the Grant Clan, my Scottish genetic claim. What a serendipitous event to stumble upon it.

We found our hotel in the outskirts of Glasgow, went to dinner, and slept our last sleep in Scotland.

6-19-17

Today we drove north to the ferry to Handa Island. It's a privately owned island managed by the Scottish National Trust (like a national park, but not really). We did a four mile walk around the island and saw thousands of birds nesting in the cliffs and in the grasses.

In the US there would have been an ugly railing here to keep people from falling off, but no-- not here. Just watch your step.

6-18-17

This is Loch Broom, which leads to the sea. Our room looks out onto this body of water. Doesn't this look like it's fake, it's so beautiful?

Today we did three things, and Dan did four.

He climbed a mountain while I drank coffee and tried to wake up.

Then we drove over to the end of some land and hiked out to a lighthouse. 

Then we hiked down to a gorge... see below, and crossed it on a swinging bridge.

Then we went out to dinner at The Arch and had another amazing dinner (last night's was wonderful too.)

Tomorrow will be our last day touring Scotland. Dan has some plans for us to go to some island by ferry. I wanted to go shopping at some art galleries. Hmmmm.... maybe I'll find a way to do both.

6-17-17

I gave my second paper this morning and it went over really well. Everyone in the room wanted a copy of my presentation and my paper. Someone from Switzerland and someone else from Scotland said they wanted to collaborate with me and bring me to their universities. I was really happy to have the conference end on that high note.

We hit the road around noon.

This is Ruthven, the ruins of a fortification built on top of where a castle once stood. We came upon Ruthven on our way from Stirling to Ullapool because I wanted to see where my great great grandmother Janet Kennedy and her 11 siblings and parents were from. We first went to the town of Kingussie, had lunch there, and were told that the town used to be over by the ruins.

So, I read that the town moved when the waters kept flooding it. I imagine this is where the old town was. The town moved across the river to higher ground. There is an old kirk (church) in town, and I think I can access records online and get more information about the family. It was REALLY cool to see a town I'd only read about.

Then we drove to Ullapool and checked into our B&B.