Photo of the Week--6/13/11

Now that's what I call a castle--hewn into the very living rock of the Welsh countryside. Caerphilly is the largest castle in Wales and the second largest in Britain (after Windsor Castle, the queen is number one in everything). It was built in the 13th century and has everything you look for in a castle: a huge moat, tall towers, and a little bit of ruins to give it character. I'd certainly rather be defending it than assaulting it, that's for sure.

I'm glad ...

... there haven't been any complaints about my lack of blog posts lately. I have been busy, and complaining might make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm so angry I'm blind with rage:

Photo of the Week--6/6/11

Madrid is a city that knows how to light its landmarks. Ironically enough, this is the Fuente del Sol ("Fountain of the Sun," but it sure looks great at night!

Photo of the Week--5/30/11

Now that's what I call an airport with a view. It's a very small airport on Gibraltar, but I bet it's easy enough for pilots to find, being at the very southernmost tip of Europe with a giant rock at the end of the runway. Spending four years overseas and taking advantage of to travel, we certainly saw a lot of different airports, and this was one of our favorites.

Photo of the Week--5/23/11

Shiny! Those Europeans, they sure know how to gilt it up. During a lovely New Year's trip to Vienna, we stopped at the Natural History Museum, which opened in 1889. It has a great collection of dinosaur skeletons, among other cool things, and is housed in this lovely building erected specifically to hold the vast collection of the Hapsburgs. Of course, being Europe and being the late 19th century, you had to have the awesome gilt ceilings! We stopped for a snack and I looked up and snapped this photo. I'm not sure how high up the ceilings are—high enough that I wouldn't have wanted to do the artwork!

I'm a lying liar who lies...

That's right. Last month I promised I wouldn't neglect this blog so much. After all, I was close to finishing a deadline, the next deadline wasn't until July, and I'd managed to finish my portfolio for my taekwondo black belt testing (that involved scrapbooking three years of photos and events, no minor feat). Then I looked at the calendar. That deadline in July means I have three weeks each to complete four chapters, each of which involves around 5000 words of writing and reading a few more books for research. My TKD testing is in the beginning of June, and I haven't finished making the costumes for my skit. It's spring, and I had to plant 200 annuals in my garden. (Well, I didn't have to, but it would have been a waste of the four flats of flowers I bought from the annual marching band sale if I hadn't.) So although I have watched another Austen-inspired movie,  read three "sequels," and have a growing stack of college brochures to mock, I have not managed to find the time to blog about any of them. And I probably won't, until I make it through my testing in two weeks. So June, I promise, I'll be more faithful.

Assuming I'm not lying again. :p

Photo of the Week--5/16/11

Nighttime, lights, water, reflections: all things I love when I'm taking a photo. This one was during our trip to Budapest, Hungary, back in fall of 2001. The Chain Bridge is a major landmark of the city, bridging the two parts split by the Danube, and at night I couldn't resist the lovely sight of it glowing over the river.