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What’s your favourite book? (or just one you keep coming back to…) And, why do you like it?

If you were to write a book (or write a song, or whatever) what would it be about?

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

If jobs (etc) weren’t a consideration, would you live in the city, suburb, or country, and why?

Do you think having favourites (of anything, books, colours, food, etc) are important?

I expect some good comments by the time we return to Edinburgh.

All of you who are mourning over Bryce’s recent loss of hair (or exulting over it) can check it out in a larger format here.

P.S. I’ve uploaded a picture of Bryce’s photo from London we framed here.

Hey, I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything. In response to Tor’s questions, here we go…

Monday night we had dinner at my Greek Prof’s house, and it was really great. I didn’t really know what to expect, thinking it had the potential to be really awkward, but it wasn’t. Ash and I decided afterwards that we really need to work on our small-talk skills. We had lasagna and salad and I ate tons of strawberry shortcake for dessert, because my prof basically kept egging me on. Not that I was really too upset about it though. We also met 4 of his 6 kids! Dang. And they’re all girls except for one. I think that’s about it for that. It was fun and we had a good time. It was really good and interesting to see a professor in a family setting.

On Tuesday it was our two year anniversary. We had to do a few things in the morning and I cleaned up the flat before my parent’s arrival, and then we left a little after 2:00 to go the the Film House, which, as the name implies, is a film house. They show some older and more artsy-type films, and we saw Chinatown, a 1974 detective movie by Roman Polanski, starring a very young Jack Nicholson. It was a lot of fun and I hope we go back to the theatre often cuz it was fun and cheap!

After the movie we went to dinner at a Thai place that we just hoped was good, and it was. We had some really great food (our most expensive dinner in the last year!) and then took a short walk and then went back to our flat to wait for my parents to arrive.

All in all it was a great anniversary. Oh, for a sort of anniversary present to each other we got one of my pictures from London blown up and framed and it will hang over our mantel, when I finish building it.

I’m off tomorrow afternoon for the conference in London, which should be good. Ash is making french onion soup tonight! Woohoo!

Although slightly chilly, it’s sunny today. The two days the Hales spent with us in Edinburgh it rained constantly both days and now that they’ve left this morning, it’s cleared up. All our plans of hiking and walking around the city obviously didn’t materialise. But we had tea, biscuits, lots of laughs, good conversation and Bryce and I learned to play bridge (man, there’s a lot to remember in that game!). We also went to the National Museum of Scotland and learned about Scotland from the early Roman settlements up through till Scotland passed the Act of Union in 1707 with England. It was fascinating and I look forward to going back and learning more about more contemporary issues (we only had time for about 2 floors; plus, it’s free!). We also saw the Millenium Clock at the Royal Museum which looked like something out of a Tim Burton film, very odd. Anyway it was great to be with Bryce’s folks and to take a two-day break from work.

Now we have a few days together until Bryce leaves for London. I’m trying to get some work done for Holyrood before I leave on Tuesday for the Crocketts. I plan on bringing some books to read for my dissertation up to the Crocketts, but it’ll be half-stufy, half-fun. Hopefully the weather will clear up for the Hales to play golf and for us all to enjoy Ireland out of doors.

We don’t have to cook or do dishes for a few days! I made chicken enchiladas tonight and a yummy chocolate cake (my great-grandma’s recipe) because usually we don’t eat big proper meals most days and, because we don’t have to cook dinner the next few days, I figured tonight we’d have a proper meal.

Tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll munch more on the chocolate cake then we’re going over to the Stubbs’ for lunch. They’re Australian and appreciate a good BBQ. They now have 4 little kids and have invited us over for a BBQ; I don’t know how they do it.

Monday, I’m meeting a girl I met from the Dublin conference for lunch, as she’s in Edinburgh for a few days. Then that evening Bryce and I have been invited to one of his prof’s houses for dinner (his Greek professor); we’ll catch a train to Livingstone (about 30 minutes away) forsome Scottish cuisine.

Then Tuesday is our 2nd anniversary! I have to get a few things done in the morning and then I am being whisked away to do something to celebrate (Bryce won’t tell me!), and this includes dinner out. Bryce’s parents will probably get into Edinburgh that day–yippee!

Wednesday the Hales are taking us out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary again! It’s funny cuz last year on our anniversary we were both in Palm Springs (they were visiting friends and we went for the weekend)–so it’s getting to be that we spend our anniversaries with Bryce’s parents. They’ll be here until Friday morning. We plan to hike Arthur’s Seat, make a trip to IKEA, drive to North Berwick (a coastal town about 40 minutes from Edinburgh) and maybe take in climbing to the top of the Scott monument or some galleries/museums if it’s miserably rainy.

Bryce and I get the weekend together and then he’s off to London for a conference on Sunday night (27th) until Friday. I leave on Tuesday to spend a few days up at the Crocketts (as I didn’t want to be home by myself all week!). The following Friday (2 July) we all fly out to Ireland for a few days. We’ll get home to Edinburgh on the 7th and then the next day we’re heading down to Cambridge for my friend’s wedding! So after the end of this month, it may be a while till we blog. But we’ll be sure to tell you all about our adventures and post our pictures.

I’ve written my first (very rough) draft (6500 out of 15,000 words) of my dissertation and will be reading it at a works-in-progress session tomorrow. Whew, huge sigh of relief! Of course I’m sure I’ll still have to read a few more books and incorporate them into this draft, but it’s mostly completed in skeleton form. I am excited I can go back to reading and taking notes instead of staring at my computer trying to eek out another 1000 words that day.

In other news, my dad has really joined the tech-savvy world and begun a blog. I don’t know if my mom’s up for that yet. Check it out here.

Last night we had two women from my MSc program to dinner. I really enjoy dinner parties–first, because I like good food and I rarely cook big meals for just the two of us. Second, I like getting to know people better around a meal and having people in our house. We had Greek food last night; I figured Bryce and I had had a sufficient break from it so it was time for more. Bryce ran lots of errands for me (what a great guy!) and picked up some specialty olives at Valvona and Crolla. We had a great big Greek salad and pork gyros, complete with pita, vegies, and tzatziki sauce (a yogurt, cucumber, garlic sauce). Sarah and Lise brought some wine. It was dee-lish. We then had vanilla yogurt and berries for dessert. We tried not to talk about our dissertations and work, but it’s hard when that is the context we have most in common.

Anyway, it was great fun, and I think that hospitality is becoming increasingly important to our life together. A very fundamental way in which we can live out the gospel is by inviting people over and serving them a good meal and sharing our lives across the table. I wonder why the sacrament of communion does not always seem to have this same effect for the community of believers?

I woke up this morning to a crash; a cat had crawled in to our living room window and knocked over our lamp. Besides being awoken by a noise and a strange animal in our flat, another surprise was that I didn’t have to turn on any lights to see very clearly. It was 4:30 in the morning and the sun was up! (And the sun sets at 10 PM, so it’s light still an hour later–this is crazy; I haven’t decided if it makes up for the sun setting at 3:40 in the winter though…)

Go ahead, read a book with us! It’s not like a class and quite low-key. We’ll just be emailing and chatting online about what we learn through literature. We’re starting a new book in August, but sign up now so you can check out recommendations (and make your own) for the book club, peruse links, and respond to polls! Just enter your email below.

QOTD (question of the day) for all you smarty pants (or trousers depending on where you’re from): What is tic-tac-toe called over here in Britain?

This is a bit of what I was talking about on my post on Friday.

From an article at byFaith:
“That said, chains are, at the very least, predictable. The sojourning Israelites grumbled continually for a return to Egypt hoping that it would provide the consistency and predictability they had become accustomed too. For some, three square meals of bread and water behind bars are better than not knowing if tomorrow will bring feast or famine. The unforeseeable journey from slavery to the Promised Land, for some, means that a life of obsessive control has to be forfeited, and that?s not easy. We love control so much. It is an addiction and an idol far more subtle than substances or images. And, it has the power to confuse us, making it seem as if our disciplined, consistent and controlled lives are exactly what God intended. We can see why so many choose Egypt over the unpredictable way of faith.

But faith is a striving after something we can?t control, and it requires a kind of reckless abandon that seems too dangerous for an ordinary and domesticated 21st century Christian. In my 25 years as a Christian, I?ve more often heard pastors call me to self-control, to discipline, and to consistency than to the outrageously adventurous journey of faith. I?m not sure why, but it seems to me that life in the box of our if only?s, too often our chosen life of slavery, is just more safe. Somehow, we?ve been duped in to believing the Christian life is about safety rather than faith, predictability rather than boldness, manageability instead of dependence. In the end, so many people I talk to experience a terribly unsatisfying [non]relationship with a God, they believe, is after their safety and not their sanctification. ”

Read the rest of the article, here and then, discuss amongst ya’selves.