Hi!Well. First off, am sorry for checking in late, again. This time it was maybe 10% my fault 90% this BlogSpot's fault. I'd updated the editing function for this little thing and next thing I know the photos won't go where I want them or even move anywhere. So after 5 hours of research and troubleshooting and I still couldn't fix it, I thought that was enough time devoted to it. So have gone back to the old settings and we'll see 
how we go. Bloody modern technology. Bah!
So yes, Sunday evening. Same birds twittering in the same trees, to the same setting sun...... Ahhhhhh only this evening there's a lovely cool breeze with a hint of rain up in those clouds, thankfully summer hasn't set it's fangs in just yet. Enjoy it while I can!
how we go. Bloody modern technology. Bah!So yes, Sunday evening. Same birds twittering in the same trees, to the same setting sun...... Ahhhhhh only this evening there's a lovely cool breeze with a hint of rain up in those clouds, thankfully summer hasn't set it's fangs in just yet. Enjoy it while I can!
So work. Yeah, not much happening on that front, in the traditional sense of the term that is. Tho I will say, the bank is telling me I should probably call a couple employment agencies and see if they can't scramble up a half-decent part-time gig, thus leaving the other part-time
available for me to work on my brand new teeny little business - Walkabout Business Solutions! I officially registered my little business doing "virtual office support and desktop publishing". And it takes a fair bit of time setting up a little business - so much to research and write! But it is very exciting and motivating. Once I have more concrete stuff to promote (like business cards and a website), will post it! But for now, if anyone has any general documents, presentations, reports, etc that need help with formatting, layout, editing, prettifying - pass 'em on!!!And then the weekend. Went out Friday evening in honor of one of the Gals' 21st birthday (gasp!) at a groovy little lounge bar in the 'hood of West End called the Lychee Lounge. It was really pretty cool. And was good to see everyone and catch up (and get out of the house!). A good time was had by all I do believe!
And then Saturday. Was nice and very relaxing. I took the day off from business planning and researching, in fact didn't turn the computer on at all, and just sat and read Steinbeck's 
"Grapes of Wrath", never read it, never had to read it in school, I got the British writers. It's goooooooood. I've also been reading, and reallyreally liking, his travelogue "Travels with Charley" (his dog) of when they went on a road trip across the US from Maine to California. It's fantastic - highly recommend it. He's one of my new top 5 favorite writers. "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday" were always my top fave books, but now wait there's more! But in amongst the books there was time for Kim to stop by and say hello as she was in town to do a bit of overtime at work. Very nice to have her drop in! And then after she headed home it was time for a nap, of course. What a little old lady I am.
And then today. Quietly productive. Cleaned my little desk right down to the wood (is that its original color!?). Gets to a point I can't think with all this clutter. And at work, when I had an At Work, I was sometimes accused of
never doing any real work because my desk was always so clean. Yeah, it's called organization - filing and working on one thing at a time! Too much crap and I can't see to think. So, in preparation for my new role as Director of Walkabout Business Solutions, I thought I'd get my 'new' desk ready! Kinda dorky, yes, but I'll tell you what, it's working! And that took most of the day actually. Found an oldish brand new cell phone my phone company had bribed me with to get me to stay with them when they pissed me off for the 2nd time (the first time they did and they sent me a cordless phone, which am still using! Suckas.). So I hauled that out and charged it up, eh, for a new company phone, it'll do, just gotta get a phone number for it now! Coooool . Cleaning is fun!
Which leads me nicely over to the 3rd installment of The Big Trip!
Week #3 - Sept. 14th - 20th
"Grapes of Wrath", never read it, never had to read it in school, I got the British writers. It's goooooooood. I've also been reading, and reallyreally liking, his travelogue "Travels with Charley" (his dog) of when they went on a road trip across the US from Maine to California. It's fantastic - highly recommend it. He's one of my new top 5 favorite writers. "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday" were always my top fave books, but now wait there's more! But in amongst the books there was time for Kim to stop by and say hello as she was in town to do a bit of overtime at work. Very nice to have her drop in! And then after she headed home it was time for a nap, of course. What a little old lady I am.And then today. Quietly productive. Cleaned my little desk right down to the wood (is that its original color!?). Gets to a point I can't think with all this clutter. And at work, when I had an At Work, I was sometimes accused of
never doing any real work because my desk was always so clean. Yeah, it's called organization - filing and working on one thing at a time! Too much crap and I can't see to think. So, in preparation for my new role as Director of Walkabout Business Solutions, I thought I'd get my 'new' desk ready! Kinda dorky, yes, but I'll tell you what, it's working! And that took most of the day actually. Found an oldish brand new cell phone my phone company had bribed me with to get me to stay with them when they pissed me off for the 2nd time (the first time they did and they sent me a cordless phone, which am still using! Suckas.). So I hauled that out and charged it up, eh, for a new company phone, it'll do, just gotta get a phone number for it now! Coooool . Cleaning is fun!Which leads me nicely over to the 3rd installment of The Big Trip!
Week #3 - Sept. 14th - 20th
14th - Today we were up bright and early to pick up our rental car and continue on our Big Trip with Road Trip #3 bound for the Grand Canyon! I know we'd just driven from San Francisco to San Diego along Highway 5, and we'd just driven from San Diego to Tucson along Highway 8 (both horribly boring runs), but this was gonna be good because 
Arizona, south to north, is such a diverse state. You can go from bone dry desert in the south to, well, the Grand Canyon in the north - surrounded by beautiful mountains (with top class ski resorts) and pines and green and deer! It's a lovely, fairly quick drive considering. We arrived there around noon and wandered and looked and 
oooohed and aahhhhhhed to our hearts and cameras content. Unless you've been there, photos, no matter how fabulous this modern technology thinks it is, still doesn't compare, you just have to be there to take it all in, and even then you kinda can't cos it's so damn, well, Grand. Happily photographed, we continued on to Williams and our hotel for the evening.
15th - Today we were again up early to beat the 2 bus loads of German tourists to the check-out c
ounter so we could continue our road trip along Route 66. We picked it up in Seligman and aimed the car for Las Vegas, Nevada! Man, it's a shame that Route 66 isn't used anymore. I understand why and the need for superhighways and all that, but nothing beats the scenic route and teeny little weird towns. So lunchtime saw us in Vegas! Holy cow has it changed since I was there yeeeeeeeeeears ago. It's very big and crowded and tall and 
crowded. Neeeeeato. So we dropped the car off, checked into our hotel - Paris (oooohlala!) - and began the sightseeing! And, really, how could you not, sights to be seen everywhere! But you also forget that The Strip is long, really long, and crowded, and just because you made it to one end of it, well, you gotta walk back, because it's a huge waste of money takin g a cab or a bus because the streets are so congested that it really is quicker to walk, heat and sore feet and all. So I'd shake it up by walking through one casino to the next, because most of them are connected anyways. What a surreal world the whole casino thing is. Sad. And for all our guff of "no smoking indoors", bless 'em, you can still smoke anywhere inside the hotels and casinos. Gag.
16th - Today saw more sightseeing and lots more walking. I have to say, after exploring our end of The Strip and all those h otels and casinos, my favorite had to be the Bellagio, so classy and slick, complete with the water fountains and the little show they put on - fantastic. Paris hotel tho, tres chic, tres interessante! So elaborate these 
themed places that you can wander around in it all day and still not see everything. It reminded me of Disneyland with it's false fronts and sets and costumed staff. And my 3rd favorite had to be Caesar's Palace with it's history, Greek god statues, and new, multi-million dollar face-lift, plus it's cavernous malls and shops and restaurants inside, really all pretty cool.
17th - Guess what we did? Why yes! More sightseeing! More shopping! More walking! Only
today I really shook things up by needing to go to a real bank with real counters with real pens on chains and real people, something which, unsurprisingly, you can't find on The Strip, you have to go out into the 'burbs. So I hailed a cab and headed for the nearest real live bank. Once I told the driver where I was headed, he kinda sighed and shook his head (in sympathy) and asked 
good-humoredly if I was needing more gambling money. I laughed and said no, as a matter of fact am off to make a deposit! He kinda looked at me in his mirror for a second then sighed and shook his head and just said "Oh wow. Congratulations." Then I kinda had a brief moment of panic that he might drive me into the desert and take my purse with all its "winnings" and leave me. Poor guy. All I needed to do was to transfer money from my Australian bank account to my US one, and the easiest, cheapest way to do it is to take a handful out of the atm and walk inside and make a deposit. Hee hee.
18th - Today we were up and
out bright and early headed to the airport for our flight to a last-minute addition to our Tour - Washington DC! Forgetting also, because it's been years since I've done it, how long the flight really is. Man it's a big country. In fact, our flight was delayed for 
ages because "....the number one engine is giving false readings to the flight deck." Well fellas, if that's the case, take all the time you need. Never mind our tight connecting flight in Baltimore..... I'd rather the number one engine stay number one. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Which, really, was fine. Then we were off! I think we were delayed by at least an hour, however long it was the pilot made up for it. Holy cow we even made our connecting flight with just enough time to catch our breath from the run from one terminal to the next. I wonder if they have speed limits... are there Air Speed Cops? Hmmm. So we made it to DC safe and sound, all engines intact!
19th - Today was sightseeing! We got ourselves tickets on a really pretty handy hop-on hop-off tour bus which we rode around for half the day getting our bearings and taking notes of where we all wanted to go and then off we went! I was really disappointed that you can't just rock up to wait in line and tour the White House, like I did yeeeeears ago. Nowadays you have to write to your local congressman at least 6 months in advance asking for permission 
and listing the who what where of who wants the tickets. Gotta keep the Feds in gainful employment by doing all those unnecessary background checks I suppose. Shame. I really wanted to check it out. For as many days we were there, it was amazing how I just ran out of time in every day to see everything I wanted to. Such a big place! So much walking! So much to be seen! But I did manage to see the new Native American Museum and the National Archives where the Magna Carta, Constitution, Bill of Rights, just basically anything that helped to form our country in writing why it's all there. So coooool.
20th - Today was our last day in DC so we had to make the most of so many monuments and museums in so little time. I started off at the International Spy Museum. How cooooool was this place?!
And comprehensive! I don't know what I expected, but whatever I did it was only a teeny percentage of what the place actually comprises. I was in there for like 4 hours and didn't realize the time until I got hungry. Man. It was really interesting and highly informative, if you're interested in international espionage and all that. So so interesting. I just loved it. Afterward I continued on to visit the hauntingly beautiful Korean War Memorial (my absolute favorite of all the memorials), then to the 
new WWII Memorial (so amazing, even at night - my Grandad, who's honored there, would quite like it I think) and finally as the sun was setting, to the Lincoln Memorial (always humbling). Now dark, tired and starving, I walked allllll the way back toward the hotel, stopping first in a lovely, very busy buzzy Spanish restaurant for dinner, then back to the hotel for our last evening before catching a shuttle bus to
New York City! Whew!!!!!
So there you have it! Whew! Stayed tuned for next week's installment: Week #4, where The Big Trip sees us wandering around New York City! Hooray! Hope you're all well up there and are enjoying my brief accounts of The Trip thus far! Drop a line!
BYE!
J!
Arizona, south to north, is such a diverse state. You can go from bone dry desert in the south to, well, the Grand Canyon in the north - surrounded by beautiful mountains (with top class ski resorts) and pines and green and deer! It's a lovely, fairly quick drive considering. We arrived there around noon and wandered and looked and 
oooohed and aahhhhhhed to our hearts and cameras content. Unless you've been there, photos, no matter how fabulous this modern technology thinks it is, still doesn't compare, you just have to be there to take it all in, and even then you kinda can't cos it's so damn, well, Grand. Happily photographed, we continued on to Williams and our hotel for the evening.15th - Today we were again up early to beat the 2 bus loads of German tourists to the check-out c
ounter so we could continue our road trip along Route 66. We picked it up in Seligman and aimed the car for Las Vegas, Nevada! Man, it's a shame that Route 66 isn't used anymore. I understand why and the need for superhighways and all that, but nothing beats the scenic route and teeny little weird towns. So lunchtime saw us in Vegas! Holy cow has it changed since I was there yeeeeeeeeeears ago. It's very big and crowded and tall and 
crowded. Neeeeeato. So we dropped the car off, checked into our hotel - Paris (oooohlala!) - and began the sightseeing! And, really, how could you not, sights to be seen everywhere! But you also forget that The Strip is long, really long, and crowded, and just because you made it to one end of it, well, you gotta walk back, because it's a huge waste of money takin g a cab or a bus because the streets are so congested that it really is quicker to walk, heat and sore feet and all. So I'd shake it up by walking through one casino to the next, because most of them are connected anyways. What a surreal world the whole casino thing is. Sad. And for all our guff of "no smoking indoors", bless 'em, you can still smoke anywhere inside the hotels and casinos. Gag. 
16th - Today saw more sightseeing and lots more walking. I have to say, after exploring our end of The Strip and all those h otels and casinos, my favorite had to be the Bellagio, so classy and slick, complete with the water fountains and the little show they put on - fantastic. Paris hotel tho, tres chic, tres interessante! So elaborate these 
themed places that you can wander around in it all day and still not see everything. It reminded me of Disneyland with it's false fronts and sets and costumed staff. And my 3rd favorite had to be Caesar's Palace with it's history, Greek god statues, and new, multi-million dollar face-lift, plus it's cavernous malls and shops and restaurants inside, really all pretty cool.17th - Guess what we did? Why yes! More sightseeing! More shopping! More walking! Only
today I really shook things up by needing to go to a real bank with real counters with real pens on chains and real people, something which, unsurprisingly, you can't find on The Strip, you have to go out into the 'burbs. So I hailed a cab and headed for the nearest real live bank. Once I told the driver where I was headed, he kinda sighed and shook his head (in sympathy) and asked 
18th - Today we were up and
out bright and early headed to the airport for our flight to a last-minute addition to our Tour - Washington DC! Forgetting also, because it's been years since I've done it, how long the flight really is. Man it's a big country. In fact, our flight was delayed for 
ages because "....the number one engine is giving false readings to the flight deck." Well fellas, if that's the case, take all the time you need. Never mind our tight connecting flight in Baltimore..... I'd rather the number one engine stay number one. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Which, really, was fine. Then we were off! I think we were delayed by at least an hour, however long it was the pilot made up for it. Holy cow we even made our connecting flight with just enough time to catch our breath from the run from one terminal to the next. I wonder if they have speed limits... are there Air Speed Cops? Hmmm. So we made it to DC safe and sound, all engines intact!
19th - Today was sightseeing! We got ourselves tickets on a really pretty handy hop-on hop-off tour bus which we rode around for half the day getting our bearings and taking notes of where we all wanted to go and then off we went! I was really disappointed that you can't just rock up to wait in line and tour the White House, like I did yeeeeears ago. Nowadays you have to write to your local congressman at least 6 months in advance asking for permission 
and listing the who what where of who wants the tickets. Gotta keep the Feds in gainful employment by doing all those unnecessary background checks I suppose. Shame. I really wanted to check it out. For as many days we were there, it was amazing how I just ran out of time in every day to see everything I wanted to. Such a big place! So much walking! So much to be seen! But I did manage to see the new Native American Museum and the National Archives where the Magna Carta, Constitution, Bill of Rights, just basically anything that helped to form our country in writing why it's all there. So coooool.
20th - Today was our last day in DC so we had to make the most of so many monuments and museums in so little time. I started off at the International Spy Museum. How cooooool was this place?!
And comprehensive! I don't know what I expected, but whatever I did it was only a teeny percentage of what the place actually comprises. I was in there for like 4 hours and didn't realize the time until I got hungry. Man. It was really interesting and highly informative, if you're interested in international espionage and all that. So so interesting. I just loved it. Afterward I continued on to visit the hauntingly beautiful Korean War Memorial (my absolute favorite of all the memorials), then to the 
new WWII Memorial (so amazing, even at night - my Grandad, who's honored there, would quite like it I think) and finally as the sun was setting, to the Lincoln Memorial (always humbling). Now dark, tired and starving, I walked allllll the way back toward the hotel, stopping first in a lovely, very busy buzzy Spanish restaurant for dinner, then back to the hotel for our last evening before catching a shuttle bus to
New York City! Whew!!!!!So there you have it! Whew! Stayed tuned for next week's installment: Week #4, where The Big Trip sees us wandering around New York City! Hooray! Hope you're all well up there and are enjoying my brief accounts of The Trip thus far! Drop a line!
BYE!
J!
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