pipers piping

It was amazing to see hundreds of pipers competing in Glasgow, of all ages and many levels. I think it inspired us to practice more, and I think seeing and hearing the music actually made me understand it a bit more, which has in turn made practicing a bit easier. I bought Boyfriend a set of electric bagpipes for his upcoming birthday, so that he can practice with headphones when I'm home.

fringe

We saw something like sixteen performances while we were in Edinburgh, most of which were good, and some of which were excellent. It was really cool seeing such a variety of shows, sometimes up to four in one day. When they were great, it was great, and when they weren't, we weren't so disappointed, because we had plans to go to a lot more. I feel like in normal life, I go see performances so infrequently that it's a big production to go, and so I have much higher expectations, more potential for disappointment, and less room for whimsy. Loved it.

office space

Apparently, working in an open plan office, elbow to elbow with your neighbors, changes your expectations a lot. I just moved offices, and the three-person office I'm in now seems ridiculously spacious and eerily quiet.

catching up

June was killing my reading productivity (but totally worth it for I/O). I didn't read as much as I thought I would for most of our vacation, because we were so busy doing things, but I started regaining ground the last day or two, and have been making up for lost time since getting back. Currently reading books 98, 99, and 100, and hoping to be back on track for 150 by next week.

encounters

You wouldn't think a trip to Scotland and Iceland would be a trip for meeting up with friends, but we got to see a couple friends from Switzerland (and their baby) right before leaving San Francisco for our trip, two friends in Edinburgh (one in from London and one in from New York), and then met up with a friend and her husband for dinner in the Denver airport on the way home.

queue

I have something of a fascination with respect to music from Iceland, so it was really cool when Boyfriend said he had researched some music shops in Reykjavik. We spent a couple hours at one, listening to a bunch of CDs (they let you open and listen to anything they have). I bought some and made note of a bunch of others to look into later. Then on the fight from Reykjavik to Denver, I realized that Icelandair has tons of music you can pick from, so I even found some more music on the flight. Leave it to Iceland's airline to have surprisingly awesome music on board.

overload

So many frabjous things happened over the last few weeks (many relating to our two week vacation to Scotland and Iceland), that I kind of froze up and was too overwhelmed to pick particular things to post about. That's a pretty great reason not to post, but I will think about it and start posting some in retrospect, now that the frabjousness is less overwhelming.

bargain

I went to buy new jeans last weekend because the ones I usually wear were wearing out. I found two pairs that cost 99 dollars each and I couldn't make up my mind. Then I realized that most jeans cost two or three times as much a pair, so I bought both. Bargain.

just in time

The cover for my new (free) Nexus 7 arrived today, just in time for my trip.

t-1

All packed and ready to go, and everything fit into carry-on! Spending the evening catching up with friends in town from Switzerland. Yay, vacation!