Back On-line

Guess what?  I am connected.  The lovely guys from Cytanet showed up at my house on Thursday and got me connected.  Can you believe it?  I am so H A P P Y!

So, what was the first thing you think I did?  Well, actually the 3rd thing I did?  I went shopping.  I ordered some really great stuff from Close To  My Heart. A few things coming in my order are:

Olivia Level 2 paper packet...love this paper.  The clolors.  The patterns.  So pretty. 

Hooligans.  Is this just not so stinkin' cute.  I mean come on.  I had to have the Hooligans Level 2 Assortment of adhesive-back felt monsters to go with.  You know what I am sayin'. 

And the thing that is really getting me excited is the new How-To book Magic.  The Magic book will show me (us) how to bring inter-active elements into your layouts.  How cool!

All that gorgeous paper from the new Idea Book.  I can't wait to get my hands on it.  After I ordered my goodies, I uploaded all 587 pictures I have taken in the past month.  That took a few hours.

I also wanted to share a few photos from our first day out here in Cyprus.  We headed down to the coast and stopped in Limossal before touring an old Knights Templar castle (that was a winery) and then some Roman ruins.  Enjoy!

On the board walk in Limossal.  

Kolossi Castle.  Built by the Knights Templar a forbidding fortress that exemplifies medieval building skills.  Built to withistand attacks the walls are about 3 feet thick.  The Knights also made wine here. 

Okay the walls are more like 5 feet thick.  This is a window seat.  The windows were strategically set small to keep out heat, cold and arrows.

The view from the top of the castle looking inland north of Limossal.  Love that little chapel in the foreground.

We are now in Kourion.  The boys are sitting in an Roman amphitheater. Amazing!  This amphitheater is still used today for concerts, theater, jazz and classical events. And check out that view of the Mediterranean Sea.  Those Romans certainly knew the value in location, location, location.

I threw this pic in cause he's cute.  ;)

Also thought you could get a better view of the theater seating.  This amphitheater can seat 3,500.  Back in the day you would have watched gladiators go head to head with wild beasts or watched a Roman production of some farce or drama.  Cool!

This, to me, is awesome (okay, I am a geek - History major), we are looking at the tile mosaic from a Roman home.  I know the color is kind of blown out (sorry), but again, the view is stunning looking over the sea and farm lands.

I'm Here

Hello Everyone,

Can you believe that it is already the middle of September?  Crazy!

We of the McDonald Clan are slowly getting settled in our new home.  Well, I am the only one who is slow about the settling.  My husband is working and not much in his daily life has changed, except his commute - all of a half a mile now.  My kiddos are in school and loving it.  This week is swimming for PE.  Yes, there is a pool on campus.  The kids are making new friends and really enjoying this new environment.


Me, let's just say that I am not totally digging it right now.  To be fair that is mainly do to the fact that I am house bound.  I have no car.  I have no internet.  I can only go to the places I can get to on foot.  Which doesn't sound that bad, but walking here is not so easy.  Public transport is unreliable where it exsists.  Luckily, I can walk to my hubbies work and use his computer.  Of course this only works when he is in the building. Last week he was in a ton of meetings at other buildings so I could not get on-line at all.  That bugs me because I have an on-line life in addition to my real life.  Additionally, right now the only way I can communicate with my friends is via the net. So when You can't get on-line it is a real bummer.


Whoo, I feel better now.  I was hoping to get some pictures up for y'all to see. We'll see if this works. I have to do some fancey computer work here, as I don't want to save these pictures to this computer.  So fingers crossed.....Success!

When we left the states we took a weeks holiday in Germany to visit some great friends and to do a little sightseeing.  We flew into Munich and spent the first day of our visit walking around.   This is the Glockenspiel in Munich city center.  So lovely. 

From Munich we took the train to Garmish.  What an amazingly beautiful place.  It is simply breath taking.
This picture is at the top of the Zugspitz, the top of Germany.  We took a cog-train to the first tower and then a gondola to the top.  We were able to walk across a bridge to the Austrian side of the Zuggy and had lunch.

See that cable tower.  That is how we got down from the Zugspitz.  A gondola straight down and then a cog-train back to Garmish.  We got off the train in Garmish and walked around the town for a bit.  Lovely.  Then we decided we would walk back to our hotel.  We were having a nice relaxing stroll when we saw the clouds begin to darken.  So we picked up the pace a little.  Then it drizzled.  Well, we were to far from town to turn back, so we carried on.  Over half way to the hotel it poured rain, like a lot of rain.  We were totally soaked.  And guess who was wearing white cotton capris?  Fun.  Anyway, it was fun. We got back to the hotel.  Took hot showers, opened a bottle of wine and sat on the terrace watching the clouds roll off of the Zugspitz.  Cei'la Vie.

Had to share this picture of the typical Bavarian houses in and around Garmish.  Too, lovely. Yeah, I took this picture on our stroll back, see the clouds,  it wasn't raining yet.

When you are in Bavaria you can not not go to the Neuschawnstein castle.  It is a must do. It's a hike to get to this picture spot, but I think the picture was worth every huff and puff I made to get here.