The long long long walk

It is now confirmed...Janna wants to kill me. She came very close recently. It all started with our normal routine of going for a weekend walk. But this was the walk that never ended. By the time we had explored the chain of places she wanted to see we were seven miles from our flat. Now a seven mile loop isn't too bad. But this time seven miles was the halfway point. For about four dollars we could have jumped on a bus, but being a man, I was determined to get back on our own (but not without a lot of complaining). OK my manhood had nothing to do with it. I am just a tight ass, and Janna bribed me with a nice juicy prize. It was an amazing prize that I had gone without for a long while..............


Shortly after the walk started we had a delay. When I see a crane I have to stop. The cool thing was that this crane was putting another crane on top of a building. OK so most of you would be bored by this, but I was fascinated for a good long time. While I stared at the crane Janna looked at some of the shops. You know you aren't in Montana anymore when the shops are selling skirts for guys.



The main part of the walk was was along a canal that starts way out of town and concludes near the city center. It was dug about 200 years ago by prisoners and was used to transfer goods into the city until the 1960's. Now it is just used for recreation.



Parts of the canal seemed rather counter intuitive.



After following the canal for a few miles we changed course and walk through the park following the Water of Leith. A long time ago much of the park was some lords backyard and there are leftovers such as little stone buildings and open areas. The Water of Leith is the "river" that runs through Edinburgh. We would call it a creek, but it is their country. At one time there where many flour mills and other factories that got their power from the river. There was even a little museum dedicated to the "River". This old Scottish guy with a thick accent named Jack (he seemed surprised someone came into the museum) decided we needed a personal tour. So a 1/2 hour stop turned into about 2 hours of us saying, "could you repeat that".



At the end of the Water of Leith park we began the return trip towards my prize.... It was a rather hurried trip as I was very anxious to the grab buns of my prize, but we did stop for a few pictures.

And finally as darkness fell Janna and I looked deeply into each other's eyes and I softly whispered, "would you pass the ketchup". We achieved our goal and I got my long awaited prize...........a Big Mac and fries (chips). America Rocks.

In a Groove

Not a whole lot going on around here. We have somewhat fallen into a groove. I get up every morning and plug away on the computer. Janna gets up shortly after (usually) and attends class or studies. When I finish work or need a break we go for a walk. Often to the grocery store (can hardly fit a case of beer in our little frig so grocery trips are frequent), but usually it is just to anywhere we haven't been before. We then cook dinner and relax before starting all over again.

We are somewhat busy planning outings for our parents. My folks are coming for Christmas and Janna's are coming sometime in June. We are going to take my folks to Germany for Christmas. Germany has big Christmas markets in most every town so I though we would check them out.

Not much news, so here are a couple of picture Janna took lately.

Drop Kick Murphy's

This weekend we went to dinner at one of Janna's classmate's flat. She is a Canadian who is dating a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Apparently the RAF train in some remote bases in Canada and the guys often get Canadian girlfriends. Nonetheless they are a great couple and the food was amazing. After dinner we went to an underground pub called Drop Kick Murphy's. Edinburgh is a unique city in the sense that it is built up to reach the castle. Basically there is a massive ramp about a mile long that leads to the castle (which was built on top of a big volcanic rock). The ramp isn't solid earth, but a series of stacked archways and vaults. These vaults have a very gruesome past and are supposedly haunted, but I'll get into that another time. Now most of these vaults are closed off, but some house things like pubs. Drop Kick Murphy's is a long room with an arched ceiling made of stone. The shape reminded me of standing in dad's miracle span shed. It was a really amazing place that was only ruined by the band trying to play American music. I shouldn't be too hard on them as their renditions of "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Brown Eyed Girl" where rather good and we enjoyed hearing a little piece of home. But then they attempted "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers. Oh My. They have ruined that song for me for life. I almost had to leave, but RAF guy bought me some Scotch so I endured. Though the Scotch went down fast. I am still having nightmares.....ya gotta know when ta hold em.....ahhhhh......ya gotta know when ta fold em......mercy please mercy..........ya gotta know when to walk away............will it ever end...............

Almost forgot. I have to tell a funny story (maybe only funny to me). The RAF guy and I had a redneck experience. They bought a couch from some guy and I was asked to help pick it up. Since no one has a truck around here thay had to rent a van. When he picked it up he found the shortest van man has ever made. When we stuffed in the couch it hung out about halfway. Now in Montana this would be no big deal, but in the UK this is a big no no. But it was late and no other vans were available so what the hell. After strapping on the only bungee he had away we went. The worst part was the van had a wall behind the seats so we couldn't see the couch. Now I almost wish the couch had fallen out as that would make a great story. But as a consolation I offer you the only guy in Edinburgh who wears a baseball cap (me) getting out at stop lights to check our cargo. I almost felt at home.

Royal Botanic Garden

We are about a week behind around here. Last weekend we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. It is 31 acres of wonderful plants and open spaces. After being surrounded by tall buildings for a month, it almost felt like we were back in a Montans forest again. The garden has plants from all over the world. You know is it old, because they even have giant Sequoias from California. It was a perfect place for a picnic as it even had the squirrels trying to steal your food. Speaking of the squirrels. Apparently most of the squirrels around here are grey squirrels that somehow got here from America. The locals are upset because the grey squirrels have forced out the local red squirrels. I just think it is one more way that Americans kick ass.

National food of the UK

We have found the most popular food in the UK is Indian Curry. I guess the traditional English foods like kidney pie just haven't caught on with the latest generation. Today we made a curry called Tikka Masala. What we eat usually isn't worth a blog entry, but I really liked the dish and have finished most of a bottle of wine so what the hell. Hopefully we won't regret this meal as we recently saw a card that said, "You don't really buy a curry, you only rent it for a few hours". (It had a picture of a guy on the toilet). Sorry for the disturbing image. I promise a better post next.

To conclude I would like to thank Janette for the amazing snicker doodle cookies. They were the perfect desert to a great meal. But not as good as the meal they cooked last night as it came with entertainment called Lilly & Zoey.

Climbed a mountain......urr.......hill

There is a huge park on he edge of Edinburgh called Holyrood. In the middle is a mountain (actually a hill) called Aurther's Seat. We climbed to the top recently and took in the amazing views. We continued our journy to a village on the other side, Duddingston, and had a pint at the Sheep Heid pub. This pub is somewhat renown as it claims to be the oldest pub in the Scotland. Supposedly it was started in 1360. All I know is that after a 3 mile hike that Beer tasted damn good.You can see the castle in the middle of the picture.

Go Burns Go

Those who know me know I love politics and am a self professed right-wing-wacko. Therefore this blog may get political from time to time. I apologize to my liberal family members, but hopefully we can learn you something;). Today we received our absentee ballots and I realized the elections are right around the corner. This spurred me to do what I can to help our fledgling Senator. Sadly Montana quite possibly will end up with two Democratic Senators. What is this world coming to? But I don’t intend on letting that happen without a fight. Below is a Letter to the Editor I am working on:

I want to talk to the average middle-of-the-road hardworking Montanans who are considering voting for John Tester. For all we know Tester is the greatest guy in the world, but honestly that doesn’t matter. This election is bigger than John Tester or Conrad Burns. It is about who controls the most powerful legislative body in our government. If Tester wins, there is a good chance that Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer would gain control of the Senate. What would this mean for Montana? Retreat and defeat in the war on terror, which would dishonor our troops and likely allow terrorists to overrun the only two Middle Eastern democracies. It would become harder to intercept terrorist communications and finances, which has prevented the Brooklyn Bridge and London airline bombings. Bringing Al Qaeda terrorist into our justice system and give them constitutional right. Huge tax increases and allowing the Bush tax cuts to sunset to Clinton levels in 2010. Bowing to radical environmentalist by locking up our vast natural resource and halting energy exploration (you think gas prices are bad now). No more constitutionalist Supreme Court justices like Sam Alito and John Roberts. Canceling the border fence which congress recently passed. The list goes on, but it is fair to say any good Tester might do for Montana would be far outweighed by the policies of his radical left-wing party. I will proudly vote for Conrad Burns and not just because I fear liberal policies. At a recent charity event I was surprised to sitting next to Senator Burns. He didn’t wear a fancy suit, he didn’t drive an expensive car, and he proudly talked more about his new granddaughter than politics. Don’t believe the political hatch job, the real Conrad Burns is a kindhearted sincere Montanan.

Let me know what you all think?