the weekend, or so

I took off of work on Thursday afternoon, since it was Cyn's only day home (she had off for the holiday, but I didn't). I still didn't get home until after 2:00. We went into town for a wine tasting. Cyn got a buzz off of five dollars of tastes. Of course we ended up tasting double what they'd advertized. We were interested because they'd just gotten in a whole lot of Spanish wines.

Friday Cyn left before noon to go to her mom's. Didn't come back until today. She got off early, since my mom volunteered to watch Marge for the night. So I decided I'd better get busy around the house. I've been pretty damn lazy lately.

I went out to change the oil on my lawn tractor. I was vaguely aware that I'd need my wrenches and some other supplies, but it took me a few minutes to realize I'd actually need oil. And an oil filter. So I rummaged around in the garage and found a filter but no oil. I went back to my office to find the owner's manual, to find out what kind of oil I'd need, and decided I'd better check the spark plug too. So I'd buy one of those when I got the oil. And the filter I had was probably good. And I ought to get a new air filter, but probably wouldn't. So I went back out to the tractor, to disassemble it a little, to get at the plug. I couldn't get the cover off. There went that plan. Then I thought that since I'd never checked the plug, or replaced it, and never changed the air filter, as far as I recall, I really should just take it in for service. So I just put it back in the shed. It's Monday now, and I haven't called to make an appointment.

While i was rummaging around in the garage, I decided I'd clean the shelves. One of them was a mess, in addition to the grass seed husks that a mouse had scattered all over it. So I did that. And found a bunch of garden tools that had no home. So I reworked a board with some hooks and put it up on the wall, and hung the tools... After cleaning them and oiling them, since they still had dirt on them from last year or whenever that was.

But working on the tractor, and working in the garage were done kind of at the same time. I'd go to the basement for the shop vac to clean the garage, and get my wrenches instead, and go out to the tractor. *shrug*

So Saturday, I intended to get a little something done around the house in the morning, but I didn't. I went to Summerfest in the afternoon, and saw a bunch of bands. That was all right. And I intended to get a little something done around the house in the evening, but I was pretty tired after the fest. Dehydrated, I guess.

Sunday, I intended to get a little something done around the house in the morning, but I didn't. I mowed the lawn, but only barely got it done in time to shower and hit the road for gaming. Since Cyn was coming home around suppertime tonight, I had to get the dishes done. But I got home late from gaming, so I didn't get to bed until 1:00. But my six hours of sleep were interrupted by a bad sump pump, that I had to investigate... but I must have dreamed the problem, since everything was fine, once I got down there.

Today the weather was in the mid eighties and sunny. Perfect! I took a a long lunch and came home, changed my clothes and sat in the shade in the breeze in the back yard, and ate my lunch and read the paper. I wasn't out there for long when the truck showed up to pump our septic tanks. Noisy and smelly. Perfect timing! So I had to come inside for a while.

Tonight Cyn came home, so we sat for a while, then I ran for some groceries.

And there you have it.

Supreme Court changes its mind a little bit

It says that all corporations can refuse to cover ANY contraceptives via their insurance plans, not just the abortifacient ones.

It also says that corporations no longer have to file the paperwork to get out of it.



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/court-conservatives-add-insult-injury-contraception

Glasgow, day 12?

After the Falkirk Wheel, we drove to Glasgow. My dad wanted to see some Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and we expected to have some time for whisky.



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last day, going home

After dinner in Glasgow, we went to our B&B, somewhere in the vicinity of Edinburgh's airport. The recommended place to eat in the little town was not much of a recommendation (admitted by the B&B proprietor), but we didn't have too much choice. We were out of cash, at this point, and the bar's credit card machine refused to function, so I had to get cash from the ATM outside. I get twenty pounds, and the fee for that was ten pounds, so the bar food (for both our meals) cost about $45.

Our flight was very early, so the B&B arranged a breakfast for us, in the room. We left when the sky was just turning light.



We had enough time there to sample some whisky at the duty free shop. It was a Balvenie I'd never had before, and it was surprisingly un-good. Unfortunately, the saleslady was one of the less friendly I'd run across. She asked why I wasn't interested in buying it. I told her because my luggage was already full of whisky, but I'd already told her I didn't much care for it. In retrospect, I wouldn't have been able to take it with me, since I'd already checked my luggage, and couldn't carry it onto the plane with me at the next airport.

At the official booth at Heathrow, in the midst of the duty free mall, I was able to get reimbursed for the VAT tax, on what I was taking home. I answered the guy's questions honestly, admitting that one of the bottles was gone, but he gave it to me anyway. But it evened out, because I had another bottle, which I wasn't claiming the refund for.

After about three hours in the airport lounge, we got word on our flight's gate, and hopped a bus for the terminal. It was kind of odd, since they just drove us through the places that people aren't allowed to go.






Not the kind of thing you really want to see...


And here was our boarding gate lounge, which didn't even hold everyone who was supposed to be on our plane.

At the first security checkpoint of the day, my bag prompted a manual check. I guess it was because I had a bottle of hand sanitizer in it, that I didn't bring to anybody's attention. Apparently that put a mark on my documents, because I was singled out for some sort of many security check at every possible checkpoint for the rest of the trip, including the one inside this waiting area. When going through customs, we were even sent through different lines than most people. It would have annoyed me, but it didn't really cost us anything. We still always made it to where we needed to go on time.

Our flight attendant wanted to seat a couple together so asked for a volunteer to switch places. I volunteered to move. This got me an aisle seat, and I didn't really feel the need to spend another six hours with my dad, after the previous two weeks. The attendant was very grateful, and promised us goodie bags and whatever we wanted. We got liquor. The flight attendant felt a little bad at separating us, when my dad told her I was his son. :-)

We had four planes, Chicago to London, London to Edinburgh, then back. They were all British Airway, except the last - American. Not horrible, but definitely not as pleasant. And then we had to wait an hour for our shuttle back home from O'Hare.