Europe the Fourth

Here we have Edinburgh (ED-in-burr-oh). God help you if you pronouce it with a "g".

Me, in front of the Princes St. Gardens. Lovely....

How'd the National Monument get in there?

Purdy streets, everywhere you look. Notice the "Kilt Sale."

The Edinburgh Castle. We didn't go in, cause we were poor. But we got a REAL good look at it from outside!

Me, with headphones, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This is where Mary, Queen of Scots lived before she allegedly plotted to have Elizabeth I (the Protestant WHORE!!!) murdered. I got to see the blood stain on the floor where Rizzio was killed!

Look at them Scottish bluffs! I can hear the pipers now...

Scotch. I like that you can see James in the reflection, drooling no doubt.

He he he he hee......

Ah, Edinburgh... Ya did me good.

Next up: Cannes!

Europe the Third

Inverness!!!! Ay, laddies and lassies. Tis Scotland. And the highlands, no less....

(yeah, they're out of order, don't worry about it.)

This is Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness. Its old.

This is me in front of Loch Ness in my Scotland coat and scarf.

The boat on Loch Ness. It doesn't look like it, but MAANNNN..... its stormy out there.
This is a pretty place we found on our walk up the River Ness. God DAMN that place is beautiful!!!

Awww...........

Me, on the bridge where, one night before, Ray (the helpful old Scot) helped us find our hotel.

Our hotel, from the River Ness. She's quite quiant, eh? Notice the stairs that lead to NOWHERE.

The River Ness, on the bridge next to our hotel. This leads to Nessie.....

Me, in front of our hotel. It was SO nice to stay in a big, nice, comfy hotel room after our shithole in London.

This was from our hotel doorstep. That's right, peeps. We were staying directly across the river from a REAL FUCKIN' CASTLE!!!!! Awesome...

Next is Edinburgh. Stay tunes, chickadees.

Introducing........ DEXTER!!!

Minerva has a baby brother now. He's veeeeerrrry sweet. And he's such a bear cub!

Europe the Second

LONDON, continued.....

Here is James being a dork in front of Buckingham Palace.

Here is the Tower Bridge, snapped from our Big Bus Tour.

The Eye! Beware the Eye! Its watching you....

This is in Kensington Gardens, near our hotel. There was a bum sleeping a few feet behind me when I took this picture.

Me, and my cute new hair.

Ye olde Big Ben. And yes, I'm aware that Big Ben is actually the name of the clock. Asshole.

Me, in my cute red beanie (that I LOST on the train to Scotland DAMNIT!!!!). If I look happy its cause I'm in my new favorite place in the world, St. James Park.

This nutbar woman was placing her hands on this tree in St. James Park. I think she was praying or trying to heal it, or feeling its awesome energy or something. We felt it appropriate to capture a total stranger during a very intimate moment.

Me, in the park again. Holding the camera that would prove absolutely freaking useless.

The view of the Eye from St. James Park.

This bird was HUUUUUUGE. And 3 feet from us.

Aww........

Horse Guards.

How very London.

I had other pictures on here but the wonderful Blogger decided in its infinite wisdom to delete them from my post. I hate Blogger.

But, that should be good enough for London! Right? Next will be Inverness....

Europe the first

Ok, so I've been looking through my lame selection of Europe pictures (or should I say "the first day in London pictures where we didn't really do anything earth-shattering and were so tired we could barely point the camera at stuff" pictures) and I've decided to post a couple. Later, when I get my grubby mitts on James' pictures, there will be better ones, I promise.

Warning: I'm not very good at arranging the pictures on this thing, so if it ends up all cock-eyed, well... I'm a retard. But you all knew that anyway.

This is just some typical London street corner. I like the tree.

This is James in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Of course, we didn't go INTO the National Gallery, but there it is.... Notice the shirt.

Here we have another London-y street.



















Here is our street. Idn't she purdy?































This is Trafalgar Square, named after some dude with a weird name.

So, that's that everyone. Expect better pictures in more exciting contexts in the near future.

Look, this one has a picture! Not of Europe, but still...

Something in my back is spasm-ing. Stupid back muscle.

Well, I've just spent 2 jobless, school-less, boyfriendless nights at my dad's house. That's just about the time it takes to realize how unbelievably happy I am to not being living at home. I mean, I love my dad, but come on... Kids just aren't supposed to like living with their parents after a certain age. And now I know I can never move back home again, for fear of going insane.

In other news, the apartment is decorated. I put up some "spider webs", a few strands of orange blinky pumpkin lights, a couple fall leaf-y garlands and 2 foam skulls. The fake fall leaves are like crack to Minerva. She simply cannot control herself when they are around, especially if they're inside a plastic bag. Mercy me. We don't even wanna go there....

I got tickets for the Nutcracker! I got the December 22nd show, so I should be good and in the mood by then. James and I went last year. It's not that I particularly LIKE the show.... It's just Christmas-y. And I like Christmas. And Halloween. OOH! Halloween is coming!!! Yay!!!!

Sorry for that. See, this is Ashley without a purpose in life. I have nothing to talk about except for Halloween decorations and back spasms. You know you're fascinated anyways.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?

Here is a little update on crap-fest that my life has become in the last couple days.

So last night, due to water damage, James and I sleep on the couch. Needless to say, ouch. In the late morning we have one of the construction dudes come in and look at the big pool of water that has built up in the plastic tarp on our bedroom ceiling. The guy tells us that "it should have been fixed" and the problem might be much much worse than they thought. So we speak to management about our options. We find out we might have to move. Again.

Later, we toured a one bedroom right down the street. Its basically the same as ours, but I like our view better and its on the bottom floor and... you know..... I don't want to fucking move. I'm sick. I'm jet lagged. I'm unemployed and soon-to-be broke. (Plus James will be gone Mon-Wed next week and we cant move til after that. That's like 8 nights of not being in my own bed after not being in it for 3 weeks. )

So the deal is, they fix the leak in the next couple of days, thus fixing the rest of the ceiling and whatnot completely by next week or we just need to move. (Silver lining here is they THINK they found the problem again and expect to be done next week. We'll see about that. Even so, we'll be relatively homeless for the next week).

Later, I decide to get to work on update my blog with all my wonderful pictures (all 1200 of them to choose from!). I use Kodak's software like I have a million times before and when all is said and done I look at what should be a very large file and there are only 25 pictures...
I groan, give up and decide to try again later.

I try again later. It stops loading midway through the process. I look: no pictures. I try it again. It wont even load this time! I try just looking at the pictures on the camera. While turning it on, I'm greeted with a blue screen telling me that my memory card needs to be formatted. If I format my memory card I lose all data. I say no. It says memory card cannot be read. I die inside.

So there it is, kiddos. My dad is going to see what he can do with it later tonight, but as far as he can tell over the phone I'm most likely FUCKED.

Did I do something wrong?!?!? What the hell??? I know I'm complaining a lot and this blog has been kind of a downer, but come on.

I'll let you guys know when I know more. Wish me luck, a soft bed, Vitamin C, and refound pictures.

Ah, jet lag..... we meet again.

As you can see, it is 3 something AM and I am awake. This comes after arriving in Portland at about 1 PM, getting home at about 1:30 PM, finding extensive water damage in my bedroom that will take YET ANOTHER FUCKING WEEK OF CONSTRUCTION TO FIX at about 2 PM, having a hick supervisor and 2 Mexican dudes come into my apartment to pop the GIGANTIC bubble in the paint above the window and then ShopVac the water thats covering my bedroom at 2:30 PM, falling asleep at 5 PM and staying more or less asleep until about 1 AM, then finally giving up on the whole sleep thing half an hour ago. Mind you, we had to deal with getting kicked out of our own expensive apartment for 4 WEEKS before we left and were consoled only by the fact that when we came home, there would be peace and we could enjoy our jet lag and exhaustion in peace. Now they're coming back in tomorrow and probably the rest of this week. Add that to the fact that I am so very, very ill. I picked up a cold on my last day in Paris. Its the souvenir that just keeps on giving.

On the plus side, Minerva is SO HAPPY we're home. She wont leave me alone. She is the cutest, snugglinest, smoochinest kitten I've ever seen. And she's helping me write this post right now.

Well, enough of the complaining, I DID just come from a 3 week vacation after all. I promise that in a day or two I will have a shiny, happy update complete with pictures and whatnot. Good night...... and good luck. (That phrase really makes you feel cool. I can see why that dude used it as his signing-off thingy. Signing-off thingy?? My brain is sore)