My good friend Kelly got married on Saturday to Brett Isselhardt. They’ll be living in northern CA. Brett, I believe, will be going to Berkeley for a grad degree in physics and Kelly will be the bread-winner.
My good friend Katchen just gave birth to their first child, a boy, Israel Michael Weaver on Sunday. He was 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 inches; all is well with mom, dad and baby as far as I know!
Last night we went to Kay and Andrew’s for dinner (which was great, by the way). We walked home at about 2AM and I was just wearing short sleeves! Currently, and 11AM on Saturday, it’s 68 degrees, 68% humidity, and the sun is shining. It’s amazing. Now if we could just get all these tourists out of the way…
I stumbled across this site which gives helpful advice for postgrads teaching their first tutorial to undergrads. I really liked what she had to say (at the end of the page) about teaching being a moral act whereby the teacher gives up the self for the benefit of the other (student); that is, what the teacher wants to lecture on isn’t primary, but instead the act of teaching is an act of humility. That’s cool. Check it out here.
On another note which is completely trivial (I won’t start a new post because I already have 2 today), what’s your favourite type of tea? Or, if you don’t like tea what’s your favourite beverage in general? I could always go for a good cup of Earl Grey; generally I like strong black tea, especially the Russian blends they used to have at my old work–of which I have some still lying around. 
I’m also partial to Coke and a Root Beer float sounds good now (they don’t have root beer in Scotland!). What do you like to drink?
On Lori’s cue, here’s a recent poem of mine (not great, but a good picture anyway; it’s haiku-esque):
Summer at Holyrood
Flicking spiders creeping
onto my island blanket
Haar crowns Arthur’s Seat
Ruined abbeys and monasteries
fuse with crag, mist, palace.
Tourists contradicting
silence, mist, history,
exclaim
“Oh! A broken tower!”
Sun melting clouds
and frustration
Reading
We took the train up to the Crockett’s Wednesday morning and hopped in the car to drive to Bonar Bridge, an hour north of Inverness. After a drive through the beautiful Cairngorm mountains, we made it through tiny, one-lane roads in about 4 hours. We stayed in a caravan outside of a little cottage (where the Crocketts stayed). We had hotdogs over a grill outside, complete with biting gnat-like midges that want to get in your eyes.
Thursday we drove to the west coast (about 50 miles away but about 1.5 hours to get there) to Lochinvor and Achmelvick. There were amazing lochs and odd-shaped mountains on our drive and hills that were green right into the blue water. We enjoyed a day at the silvery white sanded beach complete with turquoise waters and some sheep to boot! It was warm and mostly sunny and we wore shorts, exciting. We also purchased some wonderful little pies for desert; rhubarb and apple, peach and apricot, banoffee (yum yum).
Friday we stayed a bit closer to Bonar Bridge, though the kids really wanted to go to the beach. We went to the Falls of Shin to see the salmon jumping; it was great! We also went to the Black Isle, a peninsula south of Bonar Bridge, and got to go on a two-car ferry. It was great, especially when they flipped the cars around on their lazy susan, so you drive on and off forward in both cases. We went to the little village of Cromarty and saw Hugh Miller’s house, an 18th century geologist, writer, mason, and lead part of the 1843 Disruption (which formed the Free Church of Scotland out of the Church of Scotland). We also sat down for a bit for a cuppa (cup of tea that is). We tried some Black Isle beer, but it wasn’t any of our favourites.
Saturday we packed up and cleaned up and then went to Landmark, the only sort of amusement park Scotland has, for the kids to play. It actually was lots of fun: they have a maze, giant waterslide, walks through the woods, a mini-obstacle course, and microworld (a place where you learn about disgusting bugs that you can’t see that are everywhere). We came back in time to unpack and get ready to teach Sunday School the next morning. Thankfully the Court boys didn’t hassle us, well they didn’t hassle me, maybe they hassled Bryce a bit.
Besides that, Edinburgh is inundated with slow-moving loud tourists. It’s all we can do to avoid them, their maps, their cameras, and their glaringly white tennis shoes as we traverse the Royal Mile and Princes Street. We’re back to working: Bryce on his Christian education course and I on some things for my supervisor’s section in the upcoming Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature; I’ll also be working on fixing up my dissertation after we meet to discuss it tomorrow. Pictures will be up soon!