Home Sweet Home

So, here's the house in it's ugly state still. People have been asking so I complied. That coffee table grace got for eight bucks. Rather great eh? The table in the corner needs some major help with a table cloth or something...needed a place to put it. The rest of the furniture comes with the place. You can tell by all the clutter we're still trying to get pictures up and find homes for things. Especially in the Kitchen, organization is proving interesting. We've got enough space it's just, well think about having four different people with their different food and ways of cooking.

But I'm loving having an apartment instead of a dorm room. Don't know if I can totally explain why but it's just more like having a home to go to away from the school. Not cramped in a 4x4 trying to eat, sleep, and study. I have a couch!!! Waking up in the morning to three other people cooking in the kitchen is much nicer then plodding to the local cafeteria and slapping food on your to-go tray. Takes a lot more time tho. Everything over here takes a lot more time. Like the fact that it takes me 15 minutes to get to class (if I'm walking). There's no point in driving and riding my bike is still a little hot. I'm enjoying the walking tho. Nice time to slow down and get some exercise.

Anyway, there it is... Hope the video works for you. Never tried this before.

twas the night before school

Twas the night before school would begin, and all through the house
Not a student was excited, not even the pet mouse.
The books were stacked, on their desks with great care,
In hopes that they would never have to move from there.

The students were each tossing, and turning in their beds,
With nightmares of papers and projects dancing through their heads.
Glaring professors who stood over 12 feet tall,
Yelled, "multiple choice, short answer,and essay, please answer, yes answer, these questions, 900 in all!"

Straight up in their beds they sprang with a clatter,
As into their heads, sank in the seriousness of the matter.
Tomorrow they'd lose their freedom for sure
But their parents had said education was the best thing money could procure.
And so they rolled back into bed with a sigh
Knowing that the first day of school, would soon be drawing nigh.

Thank you, thank you very much. I wrote it myself. Just practicing for tomorrow i guess. Can I just say, I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL!!!! aaaaand I'm done. gonna go watch a movie and enjoy my last night of freedom.

roasting

So I came back from work to find my housemates happily living in a sauna. You know, you expect to feel some difference from the outdoors, and alright, I guess there was, it's pretty nasty outside. However, even after letting myself acclimate to my surroundings, it just wasn't getting better. So I meandered over to the AC unit and found that it was set at 77.

Maybe I'm just an odd breed but I happen to like my house just a bit cooler. Especially when I'm sleeping. What's the point of covers if it's too hot to use them? I ask them if they're hot and they look at me very unsympathetically and tell me they aren't even close. So much for sending Tanya to an overheated island, and grace... well she's always liked her room at a nice toasty 85.

If I die of heat stroke, I loved you all.

Vacation to Pennsylvania Day 1

Tuesday night we arrived in Gettysburg PA and found some rather good Watermelon Sherbet

Wednesday morning we went in to the battle field and took a double decker bus tour.
See how close we got to the stoplights?!

The place was totally littered with memorials. This is the biggest one. Can you guess which state it's for? Ok I'll tell you... Pennsylvania.

Up at the top.

This was on the Virginia memorial. It's Lee and his horse Traveler. They say this is the best representation of both of them in the world. They over look the field of Pickett's Charge.

Which is this field right here!

And the rocky area is little round top with the woods to the right being big round top.

Mom climbing the rocks at Devil's Den

The view from Little Round Top. Have you ever seen the movie "Gettysburg?" it was shot on sight which made visiting it after the movie seem a lot more real cause I could see sort of what it actually looked like.

Thurs, Fri, Sat: Lancaster Amish Country

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent in Lancaster PA which if you didn't know is Amish Country. Thursday we visited and Amish house and watched a few movies on them and explored what their town consists of.

A kitchen. Notice they do have some "modern" appliances. Which makes no sense to me. They can't have zippers because they are too modern but they can use refrigerators because it was run by gas not electricity. They can also have decorative china because it serves a purpose but... um I guess zippers are still to shiny and don't serve a good enough purpose? If you didn't know, the reason they don't use electricity is because power lines connect them to the world. I have heard it rumored that they will run power lines to a barn on occasion. I guess animals are allowed to be worldly. I'm really not trying to be mean I just don't get it.

They have church in each other's houses every other Sunday. They other one is strictly for visiting.

In an Amish carriage.

We also went to "Sight and Sound Theater" which does different biblical productions. We went to see Abraham and Sarah. It was REALLY good. but sorry, we couldn't take pictures.

Friday morning we took a train through Amish Country. Can you find me and mom?

Tickets?

Basically what they all look like... They are huge farms.

The engine goes to the back to take us the other way.

There we go!

An Amish man working with his three mule power.

Here's another one that stumps me. They can use these diesel powered wringer washers. Notice she's also using regular laundry detergent. This lady gets paid $10 an hour to wash her laundry in front of everybody.

But even more interesting to me is that they can only have an 8th grade education which means no degrees so if they need things such as a doctor, they have to go into the world to get assistance... hmmm.

We finished off Friday at Kitchen Kettle Village which is just a cute little town with great shops and baked goods and homemade ice cream.

It happens to be found in a town called "intercourse" originally called Entercourse as in the entrance to a race course back in the day. but it's been changed to an I and the locals have a lot of fun with it.

Saturday, Mom and Dad in a garden at one of the Churches we went to.

That evening we drove up to this overlook.

Sunday: Rennaissance Faire

Shakespear talking to people as they stand in line for tickets. They did quite a few of his plays. Even had a globe theater.

Singing at the front gate

Walking down one of the streets with all of the shops and eateries.

This pope smokes apparently... I don't think he was actually one of the paid actors. A lot of the people that came were dressed up in their own costumes.

Here comes the Queen! There were a handful of actors and actresses that you followed throughout the day. Different shows or plays told the story. They also had things like "Her Majesty's Falcons," Singing Madrigals, Shakespear plays, Acrobats, etc.
Juggling fire on two levels with three people.

This was an archery demonstration. Here he's shooting at a moving target.

And he got it. The guy was really quite good.

Probably the best part of the day was the jousting competitions. The Czar of Russia competes with the English Knights for one of the English Women. The crowd is separated into two sides and they get you to cheer and boo for your side. It was a lot of fun.

Some of the competitions

The actual jousting.

Falling off.

Turns into a sword fight... In the end the guy in black which is the Czar wins.

So they have a human chess match to between two girls to see who will be his bride. Which turns into an even bigger mess because apparently the head knight "sir lucas" has secretly married the woman the Czar ends up wanting. So they have another joust...

Everybody assembled.

The horses were very well trained. This one would kneel like that so his rider could get on.

This joust turns out in all out war with Sir Lucas shot and the woman about to be roasted at the stake. But wait, Sir Lucas turns out not to be dead and saves Mary from the stake.

Here they come charging out of the flames.

Last Day

Our last day there started off in Hershey PA.

Whoever thought up this place was brilliant. Who doesn't want to go to Chocolate World?

Hershey holds the largest chocolate factory in the world. They've made it into quite the tourist spot. There's even a theme park.

Today's production...at that moment. If you ever wanted to know, Reese's are the highest selling candy.

This trolley takes you on a tour of the town, the school (where Mr. Hershey set up a trust so underprivileged kids can go completely free.), The Hershey house, farms, the garden, etc. It takes 50,000 cows worth of milk per day to keep the factory running.

It was quite an interesting trip. The guy on the right kept jumping out and going to the back of the trolley to a dressing area and coming back as somebody different to tell different parts of the Hershey story.

See?

Even the street lights are hershey kisses!

We also stopped and Harper's Ferry on the way home. This is where the Potomac and The Shenandoah join I think.