Highland Flings

Saturday, October 15, 2005 -- see new photos I didn’t get but about 6 hours of sleep last night so I am exhausted and off to bed soon. I hosted a breakfast for some of my cousins and we had a good visit. Then we went to the Scottish Highland Festival at Stone Mountain. Alesia had never been, of course. I’ve been many times. I think she was impressed by the excellent music – not just bagpipes, but drums and pipes. The tartans are quite impressive, too. The traditional female Scottish dress is a plaid skirt and white shirt, and it flatters nobody. I got Alesia a commemorative tee shirt, which she liked. She looked quite puzzled when the Scottish saleslady said in a very thick accent “Ye’ll be wanting’ a wee bag for that, eh?” It was a genuine accent. Alesia looked puzzled. I said “Yes!” – quickly. I found Mother a beautiful woolen shawl, of a lovely blue and purple tartain, which the saleslady assured me was a sort of “universal” tartan that didn’t belong to any one clan. When the weather turns nippy Mother can wear the shawl without help putting it on. She says it looks like a cape; I say a shawl. There’s a lot of fine wool in it. We couldn’t stay too long, as we had errands to run this afternoon. We had a lot of photo ops, visited the clans I belonged to [their booths], watched the piping bands, shopped, and headed out. We got the main grocery shopping done last night at Kroger, but the errands never end. Today we went to Borders for books, and Hastings for gardening supplies. We bought many tulips and bulbs of other plants and will probably plant them next weekend, I hope. When we got back, Alesia’s little friend Elena came over, and they had a good time together. We gave them spaghetti for dinner. We also had fruit salad left over from the breakfast this morning that was very good. I was happy no bugs detracted from entertaining our breakfast or dinner guests. We’ve seen an influx of some nasty black bug. I killed one on the sink just before breakfast. I’ve killed 4 in my bathroom. We are calling a pest control company Monday. I’ve sprayed but nothing helps. I got winded walking around the park today. I was also appalled at the digital photos one of my Embry cousins e-mailed this afternoon. I have to figure out a new diet strategy and stick to it.