Blogger Notes

8 comments:

"AG" said...

These pictures are amazing! I love the moody skies. I can also sense how quiet it must be there. The marshmallow field is wonderful. It all seems so removed and peaceful, but tell me, is there a McDonald's behind you while you took these?

September 17, 2008 4:49 AM

Sylvana said...

Most of these pictures were taken away from the city and although we did see a few American restaurants (Pizza Hut and KFC - actually there might have been a KFC behind me while taking the silo picture) I don't recall ever seeing a McDonald's. They are VERY fussy about things, so if they did have a McDonald's I'd bet it would be the best you ever had.

September 17, 2008 8:03 AM

lindsaylobe said...

wonderful slide show -many thanks !

September 24, 2008 12:55 AM

Sylvana said...

Lindsay, my pleasure!

September 24, 2008 10:27 PM

FLUBBERWINKLE said...

Beautiful shots. Can't wait for the other countries.

October 02, 2008 3:33 PM

sideshow bob said...

Mmmmmm...Icelandic bottled water!!!

October 25, 2008 2:25 PM

Kari said...

Hey!! I haven't checked your blog in so long!! :D

I love the pictures of Iceland, absolutely gorgeous!!

Lol, I also wanted to ask you if the Icelandic women are really as beautiful as I have heard them to be.

October 30, 2008 11:23 PM

Sylvana said...

Flubberwinkle, I have to break Scotland down into chunks since I have SO MANY pictures from that country.

SSB, I knew you'd like Iceland!

Kari, glad to see you still checking in! And yes, they are beautiful.

November 14, 2008 10:28 PM

We got back from our trip last week Tuesday. I have been so busy trying to get back on track at work and my business that I haven't had time for much else. And my computer was still in dire need of attention as it had quit working again. I decided that it was a power cord issue, which it was, and now my computer is happy and functional again.
Yay!

But I still have to go through the 5,027 pictures and video of our trip!
We would have far more, but we were trying to conserve our card space.

Our trip was fabulous! We spent 5 days in Iceland, 13 days in Scotland, 4 days in Ireland, 1 day in Wales, and 2 days in England. Really like 4 vacations in 1. We even got to meet a fellow blogger in Scotland, Lyvvie, and her family. We had a fantastic time. She is every bit as fun and interesting as she is on her blog.

Although I could have stayed another week or so, I am glad to be back to be able to finally share my adventures with all my friends. Instead of trying to tackle the trip all in one post, I am going to break it down into a few different posts. So get ready for the Sylvana Slide Show Series!

4 comments:

"AG" said...

Looking forward to the Sy Show!

August 31, 2008 7:46 AM

Lyvvie said...

Yay!! Can't wait. And thank your for the pictures you sent, they're great! (Although can you tel Hubs and I are normally camera dodgers?) HUGS to you all!!

August 31, 2008 9:06 AM

Shannon said...

I was afraid they'd put you on the "No fly" list and you'd never return. Can't wait for the pictures!!!

August 31, 2008 11:41 AM

Michael Manning said...

Did you get a chance to fly on Ryan Air? Sounds like a glorious trip.

September 07, 2008 12:13 PM

Always call your credit card companies before you make uncharacteristic purchases, like booking things overseas.

We did notify our company. Three weeks in advance. And they STILL blocked our card after the first overseas booking. The $3400.00 in airfare that we put on it earlier this year didn't concern them, though. Even though we NEVER go ANYWHERE!! Nor did the purchase of those tickets through ICELAND AIR give them an indication that we might be traveling to Iceland and therefore require lodging in that country.

I understand their concern, but they really could have called us first. Or maybe noted on our account when we called them three weeks prior to the purchase.

And then there was our other card, our business card, which we use only a couple times a year and almost exclusively at Menards. Last year they didn't do anything when I wrote out a huge check to pay for the new roofing. This year, I made a $300 purchase at Menards for flooring -- they blocked my card citing suspicious purchase. I wasn't buying flooring in ICELAND!! It was 8 miles away for crying out loud!

Well, we finally have everything worked out after a lot of sitting around on hold and more swearing than I hear at family gatherings.

Also, don't forget, if you are going to be away from your home for a while, like we are -- get rid of all your produce! ESPECIALLY POTATOES!! There really is no worse way to end a trip than to come home to rotten potato smell soaked into every last porous object. Disgusting!

4 comments:

Michael Manning said...

All good suggestions, Sylvana. Here in Arizona just as we passed the tomato scare, there is a Pepper scare from the imported variety.

Have a nice weekend! :D

August 02, 2008 12:45 PM

Lyvvie said...

Did you all get home Okay?? How did the rest of your trip go? Got soggy near the end, huh. Come now...Update!!

HUGS!!

August 22, 2008 7:48 AM

Elizabeth said...

Hi, long time no read your blog, but it's brilliant as always. My advice is that Visa is way better than Master Card at those things. I lived in Central Asia for five years and you know what? My card got blocked approximately once every six months when I bought anything. It was pretty amazing. Amazingly retarded, that is.

I hope you had a good trip otherwise.

August 24, 2008 8:40 PM

Sylvana said...

MichaelManning, I'm actually creating a bigger vegetable garden just because I'd like to know where my food is coming from.

Lyvvie! OMG! What a trip! We thought of you a lot. I have some vacation suggestions for you and your family that you could do in a weekend.
Funny about the rain -- it would rain while we were on the train, ferry or bus, but as soon as we got off and wanted to do something -- it stopped and would even often go the step further to actual sunny. Weird. We're usually not that lucky.

Elizabeth, nice to see you around again. And thanks! I have not been updating regularly anyway due to my computer being ill and being off gallivanting across several island countries recently. We are back now, and my computer has completed some software therapy and parts transplants -- so hopefully I will be able to update more often.

August 28, 2008 9:26 PM

SSB graduated from the computer network program this spring, with honors!

Outstanding performance, honey!

So, this weekend we celebrated by having a few friends over for some yummy food and assorted beverages. Most of our friends don't really know each other, so it was interesting to see how they co-mingled. Surprising well! It was much better than my graduation party where you could scoop tension out of the air, and we considered it a success because there was no police involvement (a lot of my family and friends DO NOT co-mingle well -- mostly because of my family). It was refreshing to feel that I could knock a few back and not worry about keeping people entertained or reffing disputes.

SSB said that it must have looked like a bad-ass party with two old-school Harleys sitting out in front of our house and the crazy dogs barking every time someone arrived. No one got bit or peed on thankfully!

And the weather was beautiful! They had forcasted T-storms, but they came Friday night instead. Saturday was sunny T-shirt and jeans weather with an ever so slight breeze.

SSB is a lucky, and deserving, man!

4 comments:

"AG" said...

COngratulations!

July 15, 2008 5:47 PM

Shannon said...

Hoorah for SSB!

July 16, 2008 8:50 AM

lindsaylobe said...

Congratulations!

There have been so many milestones in your lives and careers over the past few years its simply amazing !

best wishes

July 18, 2008 7:46 AM

Shamus O'Drunkahan said...

Now get to work fixing that Cisco router.

Just kidding, I'm sure it's fine. Congrats on the degree.

July 23, 2008 8:29 PM

We will be leaving 3 Saturdays from today. Yikes!

Yesterday we finished the remainder of our major pre-trip purchases: flip-flops (for the hostel showers and any beach trips), water repellent shoe treatment (it gets wet over there!), decent backpacks (as we will not be taking anything with us that we can't carry), and 2 camera cards (8GB 133x cards for all the photos and video). I hope that it is enough. I take a lot of pictures. On my last trip to Scotland I came home with over 3500 pictures and video clips. And this trip there are two other people that will want to take pictures!

It is such a nice day today that we have to take advantage of it. We are heading to the state park to enjoy some out-doorsy activities; and see how far we can carry our fully-packed packs!

0 comments:

I'm an independent voter that tends to vote Democrat. Although I have not had a real preference between the two Democratic presidential hopefuls(Hilary and Barack), in the last few week before the end of the primaries, I had been leaning toward Barack.

Now I have always liked Hillary. I truly feel that she was a partner president during Bill's terms -- if not actually running the whole show! And I really feel like the country was well run during the Clinton Era. I personally experienced plentiful, good paying jobs with great benefits at a time in which I had little work experience. I felt that the country was actually the most responsible that it has ever been in my life, and I really appreciated that. I feel that we need to wake up to the fact that the world isn't as big as it used to be, and we need to keep good relations with our neighbors even if we don't see eye-to-eye. We all need the resources of the earth, and future generations do too, so we should be looking at the big picture, not just the here-and-now. And I felt that both of these were being addressed in the 90s. (Yay for us!)

Then came the Eight Years of Devastation. Although I really feel that Hilary has a resume full of getting-things-donedness, I felt, in the end, that she might be a hard sell. She's not always easy to understand, she has made a few big mistakes in her career that make me uneasy (voting for the Patriot Act and voting to go to war in Iraq), and , frankly, she can come off as insincere. But probably her hardest obstacle to overcome is really the big downfall of the Democratic Party in general-- they tell you how honestly crappy things are but don't really make you feel that something can be done about it, so what is the point? Of course, people like me know that even the answers they give to the problems can be depressing, but with a little perseverance by everyone, those answers will get us where we need to be. To most other people, it just sounds like someone pissing on their personal feel-good parade.

Barack, however, has a great way of letting people know that things need to change while remaining positive. He has a special skill that allows him to reach people with the truth in a gentle way that doesn't send them running to their bunkers or shouting "Nay-sayer! You just hate America!" He has a comforting way about him that makes you feel that he has control over the situation and everything will be all right. He has an easy sense of humor that isn't high or low brow. And although he is very articulate speaker that doesn't dumb things down, you can actually understand what the hell he's saying!

Although I do think that Barack does make a more reasonable candidate for the Democrats, I actually would have been satisfied with either one; because having either one of them as the Democratic presidential candidate shows that at least a lot of this country is ready for change. Change that I wasn't sure that I would see in my lifetime. This primary has got to be one of the largest leaps in abolishing inequality in this country. And that is a win for everyone.

3 comments:

Myjetstream said...

well, my personal liking is for hillary.

July 05, 2008 5:40 AM

Shamus O'Drunkahan said...

We're in quite a hole - I hope whoever gets elected can actually make changes.

July 05, 2008 7:13 AM

Sylvana said...

myjetstream, as long as we don't have to deal with G.W. or his like!

Shamus, it was nice to see you come out of hibernation!
We are in a depressively massive hole. But I have hope.

July 05, 2008 10:37 AM