I have been very lucky. The sun has been out most of the time. It is on the cool side but that is much easier to take when the sun is out. I have been using this trip to do some checking on things for the trip this summer. I will be going to London several times this coming week. The kids have a lot of things going on and I thought it would be easier. I will get three or four days in a row of going to different exhibits. Up and to the train, then on the Tube, then on to a different exhibit each day. (Consecutive day tickets are cheaper.)

I am only hoping that the exchange rate stays low….. It has already made a big difference in the couple of things that I have bought. It is about $1.45 USDollars to get $1.00 GBPound. The other times that I have been here it has been $2.00+ USD to the Pound. And that made everything expensive. Right now it is not near as expensive!! (Makes you just want to go out and buy stuff......Not!)

Merry ol' England

Hello to all from Merry ol' England. The sun was out today and it was in the 50's....better than if it was raining....then it would be Soggy London town. I will take the sunny days any time.

(This is the kind of help I get when I am getting ready to leave.)

Kids here are doing fine and have a lot of activities going on with the SCA. They are both working on education (master's and PhD) and they have more than enough other things that they are busy with. The grand dogs are growing into fine young ladies....(well, at least Ellie is....Lilly is still a little excitable!)
I had my routine changed a little this time as I left the states on a Monday and fly back on a Tuesday. I usually fly out on Tuesday and back on Thursday and that gives me a full two weeks. I will be shorting myself a day or two this time. I will have to get my plans together as to when to go to London and what to see around here. I have a number of places that I want to go and there are a couple of exhibitions that I want to see in London at the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Tate. I will have to set aside days for that as it will be a train ride in to London and back. I always feel like I have plenty of time at the begining of my time here and then I feel really rushed on the other end. I still tend to get a lot done and see much of what I want. Sometimes it just doesn't feel like it until I stop and look at all that I have done.

The more I see on my list.......the longer the list gets!

Dead light bulbs?

Between yesterday and today we have replaced one light (in the kitchen) and 6 different bulbs. It must be a cycle, because I have noticed that periodically bunches of bulbs go out all at once. The bulbs in the yard light usually go out in twos. Not always the same two. Or we just don't notice until two are out because it is definitely darker. Two bulbs were out at the bottom of the stairs and that was definitely dark. One outside on the deck....could not see what the weather was doing! And two florescent tube bulbs in the kitchen. It turns out that one of the bulbs was good and worked in the other side of the fixture. The other bulb was just bad. We could not get any bulbs to work in the one side and thought that we could just replace the ballast or starter. Unfortunately, we could not fix the fixture and had to replace the whole thing. Of course, that involved taking down the old one and starting all over. New toggles, new wires to connect and then bulbs back. The instructions say that it takes about 90 minutes.....it took that long to get to where we were ready to put the new one up. It is not fun working over you head with your arms up and balancing on a ladder.....but after a relatively smooth take down and put up....minor adjustments to some clips....we are back in business and seeing much better. If things go true to form....we should have a couple more go out in the next few days. We will have to be on the lookout for that blinding flash of light and then startling darkness that signifies a blown bulb.

We were predicted to have between 1 – 3 inches of snow on the last day of February. Well, it turned out to be much more than that. More like 12+ inches. It was a light fine snow and there was some wind. That gave it a push so that it could drift into more than 2 feet of snow in spots at our house.

One of the great things about living in Missouri is that in between all the cold and wet of winter are some really great days. We are going from 12+ inches of snow on Saturday to 70 degrees on Thursday. We had great sunshine and bright blue skies all day Sunday. That makes it a little easier to take when you are out removing a ton of snow from the walk and the cars. Once the snow was off…the pavement cleared right up. If you ignored the cold, it was a beautiful day. Shelby and I went for a quick walk up the street this morning. He was ready to go a lot farther with his close to the ground, sure footed tracking device (four paw drive : ). I, on the other hand(or should that be on the other foot), kept to the frozen tire treads on the street and in slow speed (two foot drive) as it was still very slick.

Now the storm has moved on and is going to dump on the east coast. At least they are more used to dealing with the amount of snow. But I am not sure that even they are ready for 14+ inches that are predicted to fall overnight.