A trip to the surreal

So we drove all the way to San Jose, CA to see Roger Waters perform The Wall. It was the fastest trip possible, except for the driving parts. One day driving there, one day in San Jose, drive back the next day. The concert was surreal , except for the drunk Indian lady who kept shrieking during most of the concert, and picking fights with her boyfriend or whoever was with her. She even tried to pick a fight with us when we asked her to please quiet down.





In the afternoon before the concert we went to The Winchester Mystery House. If you've never heard of it, it is a huge 160-room house built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of one of the Winchester rifle heirs. After the untimely death of her husband and child, she visited a spiritualist who told her the souls of people who died from being shot by her family's guns were haunting her and the only way to appease them was to continually build a house -- nonstop construction, 24/7, for thirty-some-odd years until she died. She held seances to get building plans every night.

A day with the big spenders

The BYU Athletic department often brings new recruits by to Special Collections for private tours, and they said thank you for my tour-giving with free seats in the loges and wristbands to the hospitality tent. It was a gorgeous day for a football game, and from higher up you could see all the fall foliage really well. I haven't gone to a BYU game since I was a freshman -- I think they've changed things in the stadium around a bit.

The hospitality tent is for people who buy "Legacy Seats" to all the football games. They cost enough for the university to give them a catered lunch before the game and snacks during halftime -- $1300 for a season ticket. This is Don acting like he fits in while we're eating. Since we didn't have major BYU Cougar gear it was probably pretty obvious we weren't supposed to be there normally.

My heart's in the highlands

We're back from our UK trip. My research at the British Library didn't go as planned -- but after some retooling I think I'll be able to write a paper on the manuscript I was looking at. While in London we went to the Tower of London, the new Supreme Court buildings, a concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, and to the British Museum.

We spent most of our time in Scotland, seeing the Highlands, Loch Ness, and Edinburgh. The National Library of Scotland and National Museum of Scotland were both amazing and highly recommended. We also took a tour of the underground vaults which was not really scary.

We only spent a day in Dublin but that was long enough to see the Book of Kells and a cathedral and walk around the city. The place we stayed at was near the waterfront so we walked down to the ocean after dark.

We already want to go back!

Inaugurating our awesome new fire pit

Our friends Jed and Karen and their four kids came over for dinner and helped us test out the fire pit with s'mores last weekend. Now we need to have a full-on cookout.

Deep thoughts

A friend sent this to me -- made me a bit nostalgic for Texas. All the Protestant churches have message boards like this.

4 reasons to like Boston

1. Seafood. With Benadryl, in Donny's case. The best seafood we've had is at the Barking Crab in Boston. A close second was the Portland Lobster Company in Portland, Maine.
2. Walking. Even in the humidity, it's easy to walk to all the sites you'd ever want to see. Although getting to Cambridge and Harvard is definitely a bit far -- take the subway.
3. Weekend getaways. From Boston, it was an easy drive to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Our other stops besides Boston were Salem (home of the movie monster museum), Portland, ME, Sharon VT, the Ben and Jerry's factory, the Dartmouth campus, and Concord, NH.
4. History. We walked the Freedom Trail on our last visit, so this time we went to the John Adams/John Quincy Adams historic site and the church where they are buried (by the way, the correct pronunciation is "Quin-zee"), Lexington, and Concord.

Happy birthday Don!

Tomorrow is Don's birthday and once again we're traveling on his big day. We're off on another trip back East: 4 days in New England, 3 days in Philadelphia (library conference) and 2 days in Washington DC (library conference again).

Tonight I'm making him cupcakes. I'm trying to decide if I should decorate them like baseballs, soccer balls (lately he's glued to the World Cup), or zombie heads.

The best $15 Don ever spent?

My husband has a slight addiction.

Welcome Kashton!

Our new nephew made his appearance yesterday afternoon. Congrats to Megan, Matt, and Wyatt on their new family member! Here is baby Kashton with aunt Maggie. And again with Uncle Donny (it's obvious what kind of uncle he is, too).

More pictures from the yard

I hurried and took pictures the other day because I was afraid the storm this week would ruin the blossoms everywhere. This is the crabapple tree and the front of the house.



This tree is in the back yard. It wasn't blooming when we left on Friday so it was a nice surprise when we got back on Sunday from Anaheim.

Yankees 7, Angels 1

We went to Anaheim this last weekend to take in a Yankees game. Perfect weather, great game, as you can see by the score (it was the only one of the games the Yankees won all weekend). My family went to Angels games back in the day when we lived in Southern California -- the last time I was there was probably in 1994. It was interesting to come back and root for a different team. There were tons of other Yankee fans there. I think Don needs to buy me some fan gear if we make this an annual event.



Some additional stats. Don: Sun 2, Knees 0. He's the only person I know who hates sunscreen.

Pictures from our yard

I'm having lots of fun discovering plants in our yard. Sometimes I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking at, though.

These remind me of Texas bluebonnets:


Popcorn popping on the apricot tree:

My favorite are the violets growing next to the patio:

Easter egg hunt

Can you spot it? Look high!

We're homeowners!

We've been moved in for just over a week. Here are a few pictures of the new digs!

The front yard:The huge back yard:

Brrr, Boston in January

Last weekend we were in Boston for yet another library conference. When I wasn't in meetings, we walked the Boston Freedom Trail, which passes by historic places like the Old North Church and the Bunker Hill monument. We were fascinated by the old churches and burial grounds, and liked how compact and walkable Boston was.

We stayed an extra day on Monday and rented a car to explore New England. New England is kind of a novelty since, unlike the West, you can drive through multiple states in the course of a day. We drove up the Connecticut coast, then through Rhode Island, where we drove through Newport and stared at all the 19th-century "summer cottages" -- huge mansions built by rich industrialists like the Vanderbilts -- and up to Plymouth. Most everything was closed because it's off-season, but we were able to see Plymouth Rock and stand on the edge of the cold windy bay.

After Plymouth Don wanted to go eat real Maine lobster in Maine. So we drove another couple of hours to Portland in the dark. We found a nice seaside restaurant with the help of Aaron and his internet connection (thanks Aaron!), and this is the result: one happy diner and a bunch of steamed sea creatures (the lobster's name was Joleen). All this and we made it home by 11 p.m.

Don is now trying to talk me into getting a job back East. So please tell all your stockbroker and investment banking friends to help Harvard and Yale recoup their financial losses so they will start hiring again :).