that year in review all the cool kids are doing in shiny things

I started to not even bother since I've done shockingly little journal-writing this past year... but I hate to break my tradition. Of making a New Year's entry out of the beginning bit of each month's first entry from the previous year. I was actually a little surprised that I have one entry for each month. And of course the last half is entirely England Trip entries because it took me six months to write them. Oh, and since I'm Queen Of Wordiness, I use the whole first paragraph instead of the more traditional first sentence. But, who cares! It's an entry, and I am vowing to write more this year. As in, to write, period. So. Here goes.

January 2013

just when you think the weather can't get weirder
.... it gets WAY weirder. Last week was horrible -- the temperature dropped down into the teens on Monday night and stayed there till... Saturday I think. Complete with howling winds. That went on all week and we couldn't even make it to work Friday. The forecast was for an "icing event" to begin around noon, so we planned to go in and then head for home as soon as the "event" started.... then it started pouring snow before we even left for work. Pouring snow and pouring ice and pouring sleet. So we said forget it and stayed home. Over the weekend it was slightly better - like all the way up to 35 maybe. Ick.

February

pictorial representation of recent alarming days

Since actually writing a real entry seems to be beyond me. I had one entry for January. Surely that's an all-time low. I'm too lethargic to actually check, though.

March

the arctic is no respecter of fashion

Oh, look, I am ....making an entry. OMG! Out of boredom, but whatever it takes. Boredom isn't something I often experience, but I am at work and what I am doing - and have been doing for what seems like fifteen years but in reality is probably two weeks -- is driving me round the bend. Seniors. Graduation. Clearing them. And really it is NOT that bad, and using our shiny new audit program makes it both easier and less tedious, but.... I have a very low threshold for doing the same thing over and over and over. And over and over. And Mr. Organized is off on a cruise in the Caribbean and Miss Artsy seems to just be fiddling around because she's gotten VERY few clearances done all week and Aggravation Receptionist is definitely doing nothing but playing online, which is pretty much all she ever does and since she selected the most enormous desk in the entire universe and it's plonked right in front of my door where I basically have to crawl over it every time I go out, I have a clear view of all the work she isn't doing all day long.

April

An entry?? By edna???!!!!

We'll call it an entry, even though it's really a survey. Because I am (shockingly) bored at work. And I want to write something but of course have no idea what. Obviously it's Random Survey Time. I am actually enjoying being bored at work. That hasn't happened in ages, and I dare say it won't last. I can tell you now that I'll be cutting out questions - it has, like, fifty. You're welcome.

May

edna?? edna who??!!??
I'm going to do a currents entry because evidently that's the only way I'll ever make another entry ever again. I want to write, I say I will write, then.... I don't. My excuse is that we are ridiculously busy at work, and apparently I'm ridiculously busy at home too but I'm not sure what exactly I'm busy with at home, as nothing seems to be getting done. Lots of stuff getting done at work, though, at least. Except today, when I am officially sick to death of barely stopping to take a breath. And we have at least reached the happy point where nothing is quite so urgent so I can play a bit.

June

eeeekkkkkkk..........

Worst OD Friend Ever pops in for a second to say she's about to be an even worse friend, if that's at all possible... because, duuuuddee...... (refresh if necessary...)

July

back from Lovely England; back to Reality

And oooOOooo, I am not so crazy about reality. Our Big England Trip was wonderful, and I am very sad that it's over. Till next time. Because there will be a next time. Probably not soon given the astronomical cost of international travel... but we'll do it again.

August

England 4: The rest of Tuesday in London....
...with less drama. We were saving up our energy for the drama to come! We continued to play tourist, and after touring Tower of London we went on to the Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is right beside Tower of London. Apparently I am deeply in love with Tower Bridge, as I took something like fifty quadrillion pictures of it. Baker B suggested I might perhaps need to edit a bit, since nobody really needs that many pictures of Tower Bridge.

September

England 7: Thursday in London; Kensington
SO, my last post left poor Baker B rattled by nearly being mugged by a creepy possible-drug-dealer in teeny Devizes, and considering an escape from the town. Our landlady (I feel odd calling her a "host" or a "landlady" -- after staying with her twice and being Facebook buddies I feel like she's a friend now, so I will just start calling her S. As that is her first initial) S said it would be fine for Baker B to come stay with us in London for the last few days if he wanted - and she'd give us the other room and a price break (the other room actually did get rented twice while we were there although just for a night at a time, oddly). "Country people!!!" she said. "They can be VERY strange!!"

October

England 10: Saturday in London; visit to Greenwich
But first, in an exciting story related to my very last entry about the zoo, the London Zoo's first tiger cub in 17 years was born a few weeks ago! They just announced it, and didn't even tell the public that the tiger was expecting until well after the cub was born. You can read about it and actually see it being born (with lightening speed) - and wobbling adorably around its mother here. Either the mother, Melati, or the father, Jae Jae, is the owner of the cute tickle-inducing paws in my previous entry. And the other is sleeping on the fence. Awwwwww!!! They are rare Sumatran tigers, and one of the things that impressed me about the zoo was the work they are doing to preserve Sumatran tigers.

November

England 14 - hanging out at the Barge
Since I have approximately 789,124 pictures of our trip, and we didn't really range very far once we were in Wiltshire (well, except that one day), I'm going to do these entries more by place than by day. We spent a lot of time in Marlborough of course, since we were staying about two miles outside town. And we went to The Barge nearly every day, as well as to Avebury. Due to, ummmmm, unforeseen circumstances , we didn't do nearly all the sightseeing we intended to do. We wanted to go to Glastonbury, but would have had to go Monday since the Glastonbury Festival started later in the week, and it attracts millions and millions of music fans. (In looking to see how many people were there, I've just seen that tickets for 2014 went on sale October 6... and sold completely out in an hour an a half. That's what a big deal the festival is. Back when I was young and resilient and didn't mind crowds and mud and outdoor toilets, I'd have loved to go. Radiohead has performed there. Along with every other UK band, I think, just for starters. ) I don't see attendance numbers for 2013, but 2011 had 135,000 people. There wasn't one in 2012, oddly. ANYHOW, we decided it was Monday or not at all, and ended up not going at all. Kim and I went last trip and walked up to the Tor but didn't seen the town itself and I really wanted to. Next time. SIGH.

December

England 19; hanging around lovely Avebury
We hung around Avebury just about every day that we were in Wiltshire, so I'm giving Avebury its own entry. It's both a town and the site of a Neolithic henge monument. It's the largest stone circle in Europe. On the First Trip in 2010, Kim and I went to Stonehenge and to Avebury, and although Stonehenge is, of course, incredible and amazing... Avebury is the one that made the biggest impression on me. For one thing, you can wander amongst the huge mysterious stones at Avebury. Stonehenge is much more touristy, with tickets and a visitor center and ropes around the perimeter of the stones to keep visitors at a distance, and busy roads on two sides of it. However, they are actually in the process of moving the visitor center a mile and a half away, and closing one of the roads. And you can go up to the stones during each solstice and each equinox. Baker B was in Devizes at the Summer Solstice and got to go with his landlord, and wander around the stones with the druids and the hippies at sunrise.