Today we are packing our suitcases, taking the cats over to my sister's house, and disconnecting the computers. Which means no blog updates until the week of the 5th.
Note the lack of a concrete blog-update-date? Let's just say I'd rather not accidentally lie to you.
The next few weeks will be split between Switzerland, Grapevine, and San Jose.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah (which I believe starts tonight? Or last night?)
Went to a party Friday night for the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition..or the "Nobel Experiment" as some haughty-taughty people called it. It was at the Sister's house and it was a rollicking good time. There are lots of photos, but I'm just going to share this one:
That's right. Brother-in-Law made a speakeasy door. You even had to know a password to get in and pass a breathalizer to get out. They were certainly on top of it.
Then I was roused waaay too early on Saturday by loud people arriving a good 2 hours early for the Christmas parade. So I made myself some hot chocolate and in between scanning and archiving old family photos (note: if you decide to take on this project, have your head examined first. It's too late for me - now that I've started I MUST finish...but you, there's still hope for you) I watched the parade.
There were of course a zillion marching bands all playing Christmas carols, which I shamelessly sang along to. Loud. (Perk of Husband being across the country: I can sing as loud as I like. I do anyway when he's here, but I always feel a little guilty for putting his ears in danger like that.)
And there are photos - through my dirty window from a block away with my "crappy" camera.
I get a definite Stay-Puft vibe off of this guy.
I'm not sure what these guys were doing. They're in Edwardian dress riding those early bicycles...it was cool.
This is the view down Main Street looking West. I have a friend in the first building to the left and Neimans is just beyond that. There's yummy restaurants down there. All of which I will miss.
What's a Christmas Parade without some Storm Trooper action?
This float is the Hot Chocolate float - they're all dressed like the waiters on Polar Express and that song was playing on a loop. It, of course, got stuck in my head.
A My Little Pony. Having a resurgence in popularity. If only I still had mine!
Rudolph, coming in for a landing. In the new pool...maybe he's thirsty?
And the Big Guy himself. I almost missed him because I got distracted by needing to watch Polar Express to get that song out of my head. It didn't work, btw.
I am Scottish. Well, one-quarter Scottish. It would be one-eighth, but due to genetics and math, it's one-quarter.
And not just ANY Scottish. I, of course, have more information than the average person needs/cares about so I'll keep this short.
My maternal great-grandmother was a Gregory. A particular Gregory who came from the Clan Gregor. Complete with Castle:
And a tartan:
which I own (completely coincidentally)
I plan on doing some DNA research, but not until after we're moved and settled and there's no chance that my spit will be packed up and lost.
I've been giggling every time I think about it since I discovered it yesterday. Because in order for that to be my castle, roughly 4 bajillion people (some of whom I love dearly) would have to die. But Avril's words still ring a little true. And justify my haggy/superior behavior a little more. Well...in my able-to-rationalize-anything mind it does. wink. And no WONDER I have such expensive tastes. For realz. It also explains my affinity for her:
I don't know if it's ironic or not...I think this actually does fall under that definition, but finding out when and where my ancestors came from when they immigrated to America (in some cases before it was America) makes me feel more patriotic than almost anything else I've done.
And now...for the last word on Being Scottish...Ewan McGregor, speaking the words of Irvine Welsh/John Hodge as directed by Danny Boyle (Who REALLY blows my skirt up)
It was awesome. We do a lot of lying around and reading when we're there. We went for a couple of walks and had lunch on the bay at Crystal River -- where there was crazy manatee activity.
Then I flew home and we had Steve's Going Away Party:
Funny story: some people (one of whom was IN THE MILITARY) thought that my screen saver was counting down until when Steve leaves. It's actually just on Military Time. But when it hit 0:00 we needed to take a photo. Of course.
I put my paltry Christmas decorations up on the embrita blog. (link at right)
Oh, and I made some headway on the genealogy research. If I'm not mistaken, there's a Scottish line that leads from me way way waaay back.
