Quite the Storm

I've got half of a post written about what I've been doing to keep busy this summer, but I'm just too tired from everything that was going on today to finish it before midnight. So I'll finish it tomorrow.

But I can still post something short while it's still June, since I've actually got something else to talk about. ;)

How about that rain? It was certainly quite the storm! The lightning woke me up at 05:30 this morning, and we had a bit of trouble traveling the roads in the afternoon (but with a little extra care, we got everywhere safely). The little "creek" in our backyard flooded all the way up to our garden and completely covered it. Apparently, that's the first time that's happened since we've been in this house... over 17 years.

I heard that the football field at McDowell High School, where my family just watched a DCI competition last night, was almost completely flooded today as well.

All in all, we got 4.6 inches (117 mm) of rain today at our house in Girard. I guess after the widespread flooding in Pittsburgh on 17 June, today was Erie's turn.

Any area readers with other impressive (or not-so-impressive) rain totals for Tuesday?

Reading

According to Google Reader, I have a lot of reading to do. Some of my closer friends also write for their own blogs (of course, some don't). Regardless, it seems I haven't read a single post on any of their blogs since 28 April. In under half an hour's time, that will have been a full month ago.

Of course, part of this is due to the China trip, but it doesn't help that everyone's been so gosh-darn prolific in May. One friend who had two posts in the first four months of the year has already had three in May.

So, I have some catching up to do. And I will be doing it.

And then I'll be getting more pictures up from China. 'Cause it's been a while for that, too.

HCC in China: Day 15

Well, I'm still as jet-lagged as ever (getting over it a bit, but I've got a ways to go). Anyway, it's been four days at home now, so it's about time I write about our final day. Of course, I'm multitasking at the moment, watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with my mother on TV, but that's beside the point. Anyway, let's get on with it.

Day 15 – Tuesday 12 May 2009
日15：2009年5月12日（星期二）

You wouldn't ordinarily expect a day of long flights to be all that eventful, and for the most part, it wasn't. But the day wasn't without hiccups.

After a quick final breakfast at the hotel, we packed up and said goodbye to our local tour guide, Yvonne.

We bade farewell to Hong Kong, lined up to check in, and made our way to the plane for our departure.

Unfortunately, there were some issues with the airline staff over the serving of peanuts on our flight… something I'm amazed wasn't taken care of beforehand by the touring agency. Nevertheless, it prevented one of our number from flying with us. Because of her severe peanut allergy, our friend was waylaid in Hong Kong a while longer.

A few stayed behind for support and to help sort things out, including Mr. Goldsmith and his wife, and eventually everyone got back, even if it was a day later than expected. And now, the truly weary travelers have returned to the States, many stories in tow, ready to share their experiences with their families, their friends, and the rest of the world.

A very few pictures from Day 15 can be found here. But honestly, how interesting is a long flight?

Coming up: Pictures galore! Give me some time to get them all online, but they'll be there, and you'll be soon to know… stay tuned!

Random side-note: This is my 200th post on this blog! More celebration! Hooray!

Four Years

And now, for something completely different...

No, this post has nothing to do with China or my recent excursions there. Yes, I do plan on posting the happenings of our final day (and trust me, it was eventful).

There is something else that needs to be mentioned first, and that would be the fourth birthday of this very blog! That's right, it has been four full years since my extremely lame first post on "Randomness," which was really supposed to just be a temporary name for the blog... I still haven't come up with anything better.

Now, tradition states that I must bake a digital cake for dear old "Bloggy," and so I did, but not without some hangups. You see, I don't have Photoshop on my laptop. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but the family computer at home has been having its own issues. To make a long story short, the OS was just reinstalled onto a newly wiped hard drive. So the really old version of Photoshop we had at home is no more.

So this evening, I quickly downloaded GIMP, installed it, and figured out enough about how to use it to cook up this yummy cake. All in about an hour. Pretty good, if you ask me!

Last year, I'd been lamenting having not written much. But this year, between a half-victorious BEDA and my trip to China, I've been blogging a lot. So leave some comments in celebration, and here's hoping that (within reason, of course) it continues!

I will be writing about our final day in China shortly, but to pass the time you can read my posts on past birthdays: 3, 2, and 1.