So yesterday a friend asked me to think of a superhero identity. And I woke up with my dream state working overtime.

So the person that I came up with is a mostly human polymorph. (like Odo from Star Trek DS9 or Terminator 3)

The backstory is that a rogue alien polymorph, fleeing into a hospital recovers an abandoned premature or post-birth abortion baby that weighs less than 3 pounds and becomes more understanding of the human shape she/he/it has assumed while raising the baby.

The baby boy grows up initially breast fed from an alien poly morph and so incorporates alien matter directly into it self.

There's a lot of cool stuff that a full polymorph can do and the modified human has less problems than the alien with actually fitting in to human culture.

So they are mainly tourist attractions now (or at least that's where they get the income neeed for much of thier maintenance it seems) but I actually attended some services in England.

EvenSong at St Pauls Cathedral in London

Reading of the hours at Salisbury Cathedral

Holy Mass at Methodist Central Hall Westminster
(John Wesley was short.)

I decided against Westminster Cathedral since its sort of buried and Westminster Abbey was having a Battle of Britian memorial.

I've rode a wack of trains in the past week and mostly liked the experiences - until I actually needed to be somewhere on time.

Of these I recommend highly any dutch train. Moderately cheap and they do what you need them to do. 7 Euro to downtown from the airport and back. Subsequent trains about NL and Belgium all performed as expected and ran on time etc.

The chunnel train was a non-starter since they were still cleaning up from fire the week before. Air travel from brussels to london is uneventful, cheap and convenient.

Yesterday, I was following a guide and that always makes things easier for a trip out to Salisbury/Stonehenge and back. (note that english train stations are busier and have pricier trains than NL but they still run on time)

The london underground is not cheap as public transit goes and has all the problems of buses in making people late for airline travel. Victoria to Paddington in 75 minutes I think. (There may be better alternatives once one knows the system well and/or gets the special passes to make it half price or less) I recommend biking or walking rather than the underground for getting about London.

London's Heathrow express train is overrated it seems in that it isn't much faster than the stopping train Heathrow connect (especially for terminal 4 connection) and costs twice as much. Talking to other riders who travel more than me it just about the most expensive of airport to city center trains there is.

I finally got a picture of a NL duck this morning. They have black feet, feathers and a white head. I've still been too slow in getting out and turning on the camera to capture the other ubiquitous species of bikers. There are so many and they wear normal clothes and skirts and business suits. No helmets but they have special bike routes everywhere.

There is a cute store at the airport/train station call Sissy-Boy NL. They have orange sweaters on sale. I need to find cool stuff for my god-child and the god-child to-be.

Walking in downtown AMS at night was interesting smelling a certain aroma and seeing the signs for Sex Shop a long block away. As I told my boss on IM after almost being run over crossing at a yellow light - I'm avoiding the red lights entirely.

With pretty great trains and bicycle friendly flatness the cars that are moving - move fast.

Landing (or on the train) I noticed that there are lots of modern windmills about but then I remembered that Holland has been doing the windpower thing for centuries.

Next Friday I'm going to be taking a train through the chunnel. I'm pretty excited.

I'm also going to fly over Greenland twice.

A friend of mine whose prayer and discernment I trust, suggested last week that I should possibly date someone that she knows.

Uh-huh.

Interestingly enough, we share a last name and her birthday is my half-birthday.

Now if we only live in the same state this might be more convenient.

Also, I'm going to be in Amsterdam and probably London in a week.

As my sister points out, I mostly write about food here.

On monday I drove past shilshole not to go sailing which is why I would go there last year but to eat which seems to be the passion for this year.

Here's some pictures from the vagabond at the beach.



The southern shrimp boil.


My plate. (the first round)


Just after sunset at Golden Gardens.

 Today for breakfast I had peach cobbler which isn't especially odd for breakfast, but first I had a biscuit with a peach/truffle jam and seared duck foie gras.  Now that was yummy.

(Also, apparently ducks raised to have big breasts and livers in New York are some of the most humanely raised animals in the US not that raising animals more humanely than we raise chicken or most beef is a very high bar.)

http://www.hudsonvalleyfoiegras.com/abouthvfg.html

So Saturday night I got home and my newly married housemates were watching the latest Die Hard movie.  I was thinking that it was interesting how some groups in christian circles can watch different movies.  Some aren't concerned about violence so much but are very concerned about sex and others the opposite.

Of course, my sister remembers walking in on a conversation between seminary proffessors and being asked which she preferred sex or violence in movies and that many of the other people in the conversation liked both in their movies.  (For the record I believe Jen chose sex.)

So I was thinking about this the other day.

At church this week in Faces we talked about blogging as an outlet for talking about God in some ways.  Lately, I've been thinking about whether I trust God with my happiness or if God wants me to be happy.  Intellectually, it could be looked at in many ways I suppose.  And much of it may come down to not asking God for enough of what I might want or need.  And then trusting that such is possible.  And discerning how much of me needs to change.  Not that I want to change or am sure that that is what is needed.  Maybe the willingness alone is need to get to an allowable state of acceptance.

 Things.

Yesterday my roommate got married.  It's a pretty cool story of repentance and belief and that the gospel is true.  There's a reason that we were taking pictures of the couple with the cross and background and centered in between them.

Next Monday the 30th I'm joining microsoft where I've always been a vendor or a contractor.  But I'm with a great group of people that mostly like coming to work every day and that's something that I'd like to be a part of.

My sister is also returning to full-time work in August, she's going to teach history at the U of HI laboratory school.  The place where teachers try out new ways to teach students by actually teaching students.  She may also get to be co-editor of the textbook being revised for her 9th grade state history class.