Tag! Some of you are It!

On Monday the first, I was nominated by SarahJayne at Lass of the Lord for a blogger questionnaire-thingy. Therefore, and hence, this post. It's a bit of a longer one, so bear with me.

First, the rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog. Thank you SarahJayne (link above)!
2. Answer his/her 11 questions.
3. Add to these 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Come up with your own 11 questions.
5. Tag (up to) 11 other blogs (with under 200 followers) to answer your queries and follow the previous 4 steps.

The questions are as follows, and answered respectively:

1. If you had tomorrow cleared of any previous commitments, what would you do with it? Read and/or play frisbee/soccer/sports in general.

2. What is your favorite book? :) Yah, good one. I think I'd have to echo your sentiments here, SarahJayne. There isn't just "one" favorite, as I like different books for the different themes portrayed in each. Here are a couple that I do like: I Serve, The Three Edwards, and Hebrews, in no specific order.

3. What is the coolest place you've ever visited? Without a doubt, that'd be Corbridge Roman Site. 

4. Who is your favorite author? I've not read many authors widely. I would say that C S Lewis and R M Ballantyne are in the Tops, though.

5. If you could learn another instrument, what would it be? Possibly, it would be piano or classical guitar.

6. What is your favorite sport? {and you don't have to be good at it... :p} My favorite sport is soccer. I played that good game for many years. I tally it at six, and spanning from Recreational soccer to Select, and from outdoor to indoor. 

7. Favorite soundtrack? I'm not one of those musical people who enjoys listening to soundtracks very much. However, some of my favorites do include "Master and Commander" and "How to Train Your Dragon".

8. Best movie adaptation of a book? I believe one of my favorite movie adaptions is the 2005 "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." The next two movies in the series gradually strayed from the book (some of those "good-as-movies/not-so-good-as-book-adaption" cases), but this one, in my opinion, is very good.

9. Favorite chore? I'm sure this is a misprint...once I've begun a chore, I don't usually mind it. The biggest detriment is just simply starting.

10. Most thought-provoking concept you've come across in the last week? Concept of agape-love. Basically, this is the love that you show toward your enemies. Consequently, it's the same love that God showed toward us. We are to be willing to die, or to live in "persecution" for, those who seek us harm. This is also the basis, really, of Christianity, summed up in two laws by Jesus Himself (see Mark 12:30-31 and I Corinthians 13).

11. Favorite type of tea? Despite being surrounded by tea addicts, both inside and outside my family, I've not found the same enjoyment in that beverage. Not to say I don't mind tea, I just don't have the same sense of appreciation for it. However, I did once receive a lose leaf tea that had cinnamon, cocoa, and other homey spices in it, and that was rather good. But I forget the name of it.

Now, for the 11 facts about myself...which seems kinda vain, but oh well.

1. I will begin my junior year of high school with taking classes at Clark Community College.
2. I've been playing the bagpipes for a little over a year now.
3. I've been involved in 4-H sheep raising since 2008...sadly, however, it's not been that entirely successful.
4. I've traveled the Chunnel (which is a train that goes beneath the English Channel, from France to, well, England). 
5. I've held a "conversation" with an elderly lady in French...but in Dublin, not France.
6. Part of #2 has involved me playing the bagpipes in a CEO's 9th story office in downtown Vancouver during business hours.
7. I'm currently reading a book that claims that the Chinese discovered America between 1421-1423. Quite fascinating.
8. I love the smell of old books. You'll know what I mean if you do too.
9. I enjoy the making and eating of pizza.
10. When it comes to sports, I'm all in. Golf is not considered in this grouping, as I'd agree with Mark Twain when he said "Golf is a good walk spoiled." 
11. I want to write a book. Problem is, I don't know what about, or how. But the desire is there, nonetheless.

Here are those whom I will nominate to continue the fun. Just look at the beginning of the post for the rules to follow:

Benjamin at White Knuckles.
Jonathon at Haiku Gardener.
Nathan at Adventures in Imagination.
Rachel at Windows through my Life.

And here are my questions to be answered:
1. What is your favorite board game?
2. A favorite quote of yours (humorous or thought provoking)?
3. A book/series that disappointed you?
4. Furthest place you've traveled from home, and why?
5. Your favorite non-board-game activity (sports, reading, card games, eating, etc...)?
6. A favorite character from a book/movie, and why?
7. If you could have any car, which one would it be?
8. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
9. How many states have you been in (driving through, staying at, but not flying over)?
10. What is your favorite type of pizza?
11. What's the story behind your favorite (or most infamous) nickname?

Until next time!

A Ponder

Not so large, and broken down,

A sign of might and glory past,

A tale of kingdoms, warring oft,

Over which a shadow cast.

In its midst, I stare in thought

Spellbound by its ancient age,

Caught in history and time so long,

Weathering all nature's rage.

On the Road, I look around,

And see with thought the busy street.

I hear the silent, ancient noise,

And feel the tramp of many feet.

I ponder for a moment's time,

And muse that where I stand,

Was where a soldier readied stood,

In a fort by hundreds manned.

But if it was, it is no more,

For as I sweep my gaze around,

The fort had given its face to age,

And no more gave its lively sound.

It once the fringe of kingdoms was,

And kept the Celts at large at bay.

It held the lives of many a man,

But that was in an ancient day.

But oh, the tales it has inside,

Though crumbled down and old,

Of all the men who in it lived,

But who by now are buried, cold.

All pictures are of Corbridge Roman Site

Crecy - Part II

To see part one, go here...

England's plight was great indeed
'Twas four to one in France's favour.
With chivalry renowned and famed,
Phillip would this battle savour.

But Edward planned with skill unbound,
And, confident his men would fight,
Did place his son to lead a troop,
Against King Phillip's battle might

The second Prince of Wales did have,
From Wales, a thousand men with knives,
And horseless knights and men-at-arms,
Who together were eight hundred lives.

But the French stood not a chance that day,
Against the bowmen under Edward's care.
For twice a thousand yeoman could,
Reign death and mayhem from the air.

And so was each division made,
Left and right and reserve, all.
Bravery of France was tried that day,
Against the mighty English wall.

At three o'clock that afternoon,
Did France arrive upon the field,
Having trekked some eighteen miles,
To face the waiting shield.

Enraged at England's banner flown,
King Phillip ordered his to fight,
But oh, if only he had waited,
To assemble all his might!

More coming...

Pizza Night!

Though I don't do it often, I sometimes enjoy baking/cooking in the kitchen. I figure that if I can make such things as pizza, Top Ramen, oatmeal, and cookies, I'll be set for life. This evening, I tried my hand at pizza (the first time in almost a year), with Madsie as a helper. We used a recipe that's been in my family ever since it began...25 years ago!

The first step was to put 2 tablespoons of yeast into 3/2 cups of warm water, and let it rise.

Next step, we mixed in 2 dashes of salt, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and 4 cups of flour. If you can't tell, we were doubling the recipe...and we had to repeat the above steps, for a total of making 4 times the recipe (you kinda have to make a lot to feed twelve people).

Next, we (actually, I) rolled out the dough. However, we didn't roll out all the dough right away, but I'll explain that later. Madsie then did the honor of spreading the sauce, cheese and pepperoni on two of the four pizzas.

We left some crust off the edge of the pan, and folded it over
after the goodies were spread. This created a nice, thick crust
with cheese in the middle of it

Thus went the first two of four pizzas. The other two were destined for the grill. A while back, we were introduced to the concept of grilled pizza, which quickly became a favourite. As I am more of a traditionalist (and enjoy a thick crust, baked, pepperoni pizza), I took charge of baking the pizzas, whilst SarahJayne and Mom took charge of the grill.

Working the first crust off the grill

Grilled pizza definitely cooks faster. You roll out the dough, grill one side, bring it back in to dress it up (on the side that was just grilled), then bring it back out to grill the raw side and melt the goodies together.

Displaying the effects of the first grilling

I did get a before...

The first two are grilled pizzas, and the further
 ones are baked.

...and after dinner picture.

Same as above caption...leastwise, the leftovers.

Needless to say, Madsie and I were quite satisfied with our success...we hope the rest of the family was as well!

Crecy

Please know that this is the first part of a draft poem that I am writing. Again, if you see something in meter or phrasing, please let me know!

A tired, footsore, weary troop,

Did England have upon that night,

Who set their banner on the hill,

The one with Crécy-town in sight.

Th'English army had been chased

Across the land of France that day.

But now the time had come to turn,

To turn, and fight, in France to stay.

King Edward knew, from scouts abroad,

The French at Abbeville were stayed,

Who in the morn would move to fight,

So plans the king of England made.

The Valois king of France had been

Lacking plans for what to do.

"Attack" and "stay" the orders came,

But then reversed the whole night through.

The morn did dawn at Crécy-town

On English men awake and set, 

Who saw the sky of clouds so full,

Which forbode the battle to be wet.

Then came king and Prince of Wales,

Edward three with Edward four.

And though the lad was sixteen years,

He was here to fight this war.

For from France his mother came,

The kings her brothers were.

But they had died, and heiress all,

So who should reign, had right but her?

But England could not rule France,

And she to Edward had been wed,

And so the lords her cousin crowned,

Phillip Valois in her stead.

Now contested, Edward came

To claim the crown, twas his by right.

Back and forth the tide did turn,

And now to this, a desperate fight...

Valois - val-wah

Crécy - creh-say

Our Last Day - Dublin

It came all too quickly. We knew that once the plane rides started, our trip was soon to be over. Thus it was that when Ben and I got up Monday morning (a crazy idea) to catch our plane ride to Dublin, it was to be over in two short days. Dublin was, therefore, the place that I remembered our entire trip. We didn't plan to see much in Dublin (as compared to our first day in London), so it was easy to realize that this was indeed our last stop in Europe. Thankfully, these thoughts did not make me sad, but grateful for the time I was able to spend with Ben and in Europe.
Enough said. Here are some pics of where we went.

Inside Dublin Castle's walls.

Add caption

Throne made for King George IV in 1822.

It's hard to see in this picture (it was hard to see in person also), but this chandelier is made of roses (symbolising England), thistles (symbolising Scotland), and shamrocks (symbolising Ireland).

St. Patrick's Hall

A cool story about this room. This room is called St Patrick's Hall, as it was built to be used by the Order of St Patrick (an attempt by the English king to unite the Irish nobles under England's name). After the Irish War for Independence (1918-1922), the Irish wanted to do was at with all things that tied them to the UK. In the early 1930s, the debate for the absolute demolition of this gorgeous room came to the floor. The president of the time was completely adamant...that it could NOT be destroyed. His argument was that Ireland needed to learn to turn the pages of history, not rip them out. If Ireland forgot why it had taken its independence (by the removal of such memorials), then their work was in vain. As it was, he won the debate, and St Patrick's Hall remains the inauguration site of Ireland's presidents and a banquet/reception hall for foreign dignitaries (including Queen Elizabeth in 2011). There, that's probably more history than you wanted to know...so let's move on.

Ben and I have a strange obsession with colleges...this one is Trinity College.

This is the Long Room (at Trinity College), which houses 200,000 of the college library's oldest books. It has had multiple expansions since it's creation in 1732.

St Patrick's Cathedral. Over to the right is a pool where it is believed St Patrick baptised Irish converts.

Inside St Patty's.

These banners are those of the knights of the Order of St Patrick.

St Patrick's (again) from the outside.

A beautiful sunset

This picture is not so much in Ireland...in fact, it's about 6,000 miles away. This is fifteen minutes or so outside of landing back home in Portland. The flight home was interesting. We left Dublin at about 12:10 pm, and arrived home at 9:30 pm the same day...but about 17 hours later. A nice, long flight followed by a good night's rest ended our European journey.

I had loads of fun on this trip with Ben. Though there were some times that we had different ideas on what a day was to look like, it was overall a very pleasant trip. 

Saturday in Edinburgh

Our first stop Saturday morning was going to be Edinburgh Castle, which opened to clueless tourists at 9. Wanting to beat the crowds, we decided to leave early, and got there at 10, albeit a little later than we first planned...we were delayed by breakfast, overall a good thing to be delayed at. Here's some of what we saw (not pictured are the Scottish Crown Jewels, called the Honours, and the Scottish War Memorial).

Okay, okay, this isn't the castle. This is Edinburgh from the castle, with the Firth of Forth and the land of Fife beyond it.

The emblem above the second of several massive gateways.

Watch out! Ben's shooting...at least it's just a picture, not an Englishman.

In the great hall - all the weapons are antique, and date back to the era of James V.

So, is this thing sharp?

Meet "Mons Meg," a Middle Age weapon capable of hurling a 300 pound stone approximately 2 miles...it was a gift front the court of France to King James V, to use against their common enemy. It was used instead to fight James' rebellious nobles.

You remember in my last post I had a picture of Edinburgh Castle from the Sir Walter Scott Memorial. I simply reversed the from and of portions.

This is the HMS Sir George. It was never an actual ship, just a model. But way back in the day, two French POWs had nothing but time on their hands...and apparently some materials. That was in the late 18th century.

My ever studious brother...(this is at the John Knox house...as is the next one, a warning at the start if the house)

On our way home, we got to hear a guy plays the Saws, an amazing instrument requiring only a bow (violin, cello, or custom-made) and a saw or two. Stick the handle betwixt your legs, and bend the blade to one side. If you rub the bow across the NON-sharp edge, you'll get a very unique sound, but be careful! If you move the bow horizontally, you will get a different note, and if you bend the blade more (or less), you will also reach a different note. Again, I'm having difficulty uploading videos on my iPod. I shall say, though, that he played the Saws quite well.

A weird thought is this, that Ben and I will leave for home in just over 3.5 days. It's been a great time, and it seems over too quickly.