I have still been recovering all week from the big party last weekend. Aside from finishing Half-Blood Prince already Monday night and getting my party photos posted, I’ve done some cleaning, mostly gooey things like dishes and potion bottles, but I’ve been trying to let myself relax a bit as well. Unfortunately my cat hasn’t been as cooperative at letting me sleep through the night as she usually is – maybe it’s too hot for her as well? I have no air conditioning but I have a 2-story place, which is usually only a problem over here for a few days each summer, but this week has been a doozy. It’s hard to get motivated to do things when it’s so hot! Good think I live alone and my cat doesn’t care, since I don’t mind having a huge decoration mess around for awhile. I am leaving the stone walls and black ceiling up through Halloween to save myself time for that party (plus I like the effect!), so it’s a matter of taking the Hogwarts-specific stuff down and putting it away safely…plus I have to reorganize since I have two new HBP boxes now, so I’d like to put decor in those for storage vs. the boring normal boxes I had before. 2 OotP boxes, 2 HBP boxes…woohoo! 
In other news, we now have all our lodging settled for the hiking in Scotland + week in London trip are taking in September – hooray! Two hotels in Edinburgh and London, a lodge in Torridon, the Macdonald Hotel in Kinlochleven near Glencoe, and the Snooty Fox Country Inn near Carlisle/Lake Country. Gotta love staying at a place called “The Snooty Fox!” Since he has a spiffy digital SLR camera he bought last year before our choir tour, he’d like more practice taking landscape photos, and he’d never been to Yosemite, we had discussed a couple months ago to try taking a day to go after the Glacier Point road was open but before our trip. We finally had the chance this weekend, so we did. Ironically I realized that even though I have been to Yosemite in 1996, 1998, 2003 & earlier this year, this is the first time I’ve been to Yosemite with an American since 1993! 
Yosemite in July Gallery Album
and at Glacier Point
We took some cheese & cracker party leftovers and a fresh fruit salad for a picnic and drove the Briata (of course!), leaving Cupertino about 8:30am. We made it to the Big Oak Flat entrance around noon, to Tunnel View around 1:30, and up to Glacier Point for our picnic lunch about 2:30. It was hot, and I’d never been to Yosemite on a weekend, let alone in the summer, so it was much more packed with people than I had even seen! We still had fun, though. We left the valley after sunset about 9ish, making it to Oakdale by 11ish where we ate at Denny’s, then back to my place about 1:30am. Around 455 miles, with all but the first 80 miles with the top down! A very exhausting day, but a lot of fun and beautiful scenery. Today is hot again so I’m having difficulty wanting to move at all, let alone leave the spot on my couch where my fan is blowing on me, so I figured I might as well settle the Yosemite photos and update my blog… Maybe after it cools down I can do some more party cleaning…
Hope you all had a good weekend!
P.S. The iPhoto to Gallery plugin is SWEET! 
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