Mom came in to work today and told me Jack, grandma's English husband, died yesterday..awww, so sad! :( He was such a nice guy and had a long full life (he was 99 when he passed). During World War 2 he designed airplanes! He will definitely be missed. I think mom and Aunt Cindy will try to go to his funeral, unless covid makes it virtual only. I feel like getting grandma back to the US will be a big job. I'll miss going to England to visit them, but maybe I can see grandma more often when she gets back to the US. Goodbye, Jack, I hope you're in a nice place where you can see and hear again!

Yesterday I saw that mom had commented on my autism video on Facebook, which surprised (and pleased!) me, because she doesn't go on Facebook much, but she said Jo told her about it and she decided to check it out. I also TRIED to say that I posted it on the Facebook autism group too, and yikes my words failed me so badly! I cringed so hard when trying to say "posted," and the rest of the sentence felt so mixed up! I said "ugh, I hate that word!" and when mom said "which one?" I said "po-po-post!!" Mom was like "WTF why are you stuttering??" *dies of embarrassment* I told her it was Donald's fault LOL. That happened like three hours ago and I'm still cringing (yeahh that's why I try not to say that word!). I have a feeling I'm not going to live that down haha. I hate when my brain dies like that though, ugh!

( sept. 7-8 )

Today's trivia: The name "jaguar" comes from the Native American word "yajuar," meaning "he who kills with one leap"

Oh man, I'm so glad I wasn't at either of Scott's games this weekend..it wasn't an epic battle, Hawaii absolutely PULVERIZED them. They did pretty well during the first set, but after that they just..fell apart. Hawaii is a VERY good team, and they were on fire. During the second game, they lost the first set 13-25! Ouch! I've never seen them play THAT badly..it was hard to watch! (Mom hooked her computer up to the TV and watched the game that way..way better than on a little screen! My parents were cringing too lol.) Hopefully they'll recover and do better next weekend! Mom and I moved the California trip to April (hoping that'll give time for dad to get better), so I hope they do better then too lol

Dad had a VERY good day yesterday, probably the best he's had since the anxiety thing started..it was awesome seeing him active and joking around like his old self! He took two walks and a bike ride, and mom was like "wow, he IS having a good day!" I don't think he took any Ativan all day! Unfortunately after days like that he crashes the next day, so today he isn't as good as yesterday. His doctor wants him to start on Prozac..it's been amazing for me, so I hope it works for him too! Hopefully he'll start having more and more good days..it always gives us hope when he has a good day..he can do it!

After Denise's cat died, she gave me the treats she had left over, which are Greenies, catnip flavored, and oh my Abby is completely addicted to them haha. I have a tradition now of giving them to her when I come home, and I keep them in a drawer (otherwise she'll try to get into the bag lol), and now she goes over to that spot and DEMANDS I give her some haha..right away when I got home today she walked over to the spot, and wasn't pleased when I went to the bathroom BEFORE giving her the treats LOL, and her meow of "what took you so long?!?" was very amusing. :P Denise is amused too when I tell her how much Abby loves them lol..she was like "oops, I made your cat an addict" haha. At least they're good for her teeth :P

Yesterday was Jack's (grandma's husband, in England) 97th birthday!! Mom FaceTimed him and grandma, which I'm sure they appreciated lol. As long as he's still healthy, I hope he makes it to 100!

( Day 61-62 )

1. What’s the scariest movie you’ve seen? Cabin Fever. Flesh eating bacteria? NOPE
2. What most recently startled you? A loud bang at a restaurant I was at
3. What’s something in your residence that’s frightening? The oven scares me LOL..I'm always afraid I'll burn myself :P
4. What kinds of social settings cause you anxiety? Umm, all of them?? I may seem fine on the outside, but inwardly I'm freaking out haha
5. What’s something you are no longer afraid of? As a kid I was scared of the pool cleaner we had (I must not have liked the noise it made), and dad would always have to unhook it if I wanted to go swimming (which was a lot lol), which I'm sure got annoying after awhile. Then one day I just..went into the pool and wasn't afraid of it anymore, just like that (I remember writing about it in my journal haha). I think the noise it made is one I'll always remember..

Mom's flying back to England with Aunt Cindy for a couple weeks to help grandma and Jack move out of their house and other various things that need to be done (I told her she wasn't allowed to go to Wheathampstead without me :P). They've decided to stay at the retirement home..mom said she hasn't heard grandma be so happy in a really, realllly long time. Grandma said she's excited for the craft room they're going to make her, and mom said she's NEVER heard her say she's excited about something. It'll be sad to lose the house since it's so close to the train station and an easy journey to London, and since Jack has lived there for so long, but the retirement home is the best thing for them right now. I'll worry about them less, since they don't have to climb stairs and stuff. I'm just glad they're so happy there! (Liz better not accuse us ever again of not helping them lol)

( April 6 - Were you a student athlete? )

I'm totally freaking out..I think someone hacked my Photobucket account, because many pictures from different albums have been deleted, including pics from this trip. If I wasn't convinced to abandon Photobucket and use just Flickr, I am now..it seems to function better anyway (for some reason Photobucket puts the pics out of order, even with its filters, which is EXTREMELY annoying to me). I doubt I'll be able to get the pictures back (but I asked anyway :P), so I'll have to upload them all over again (luckily Flickr is very fast at uploading lots of pics at once). Ugh. Maybe I'll do a little each day, so I don't get overwhelmed. Stupid hackers!! *glares*

Anyway, mom and I made it to Cambridge just fine yesterday (beware, I'm going to freak out a lot in this entry LOL)..we had to take the train to London, the Underground to King's Cross (I indeed saw Platform 9 3/4, but the line to get a pic was too long..the Harry Potter shop next to it was cool though!), the train to Cambridge, then to a bus stop near SPRI. Like Wheathampstead, I had butterflies first seeing Cambridge. If I thought the past few days were cold, it was NOTHING compared to Cambridge..I sure felt like Scott of the Antarctic as we walked to SPRI..cold wind was COLD!!! I squeed when I finally saw SPRI..another dream come true! I couldn't believe I was there! Their museum was kind of small, but OMG the treasures it had..artifacts from many different expeditions (Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen, etc), but of course my favorites were from Scott's expedition. They had a sledge, some of Scott's and Birdie's last letters, food tins, and..and..THINGS CHERRY HAD USED ON THE EXPEDITION, ESPECIALLY ONES TO CAPE CROZIER!!!!! I was completely freaking out haha! That was insanely awesome!!! I told the people at the front desk how happy I was to finally be there, and told them Cherry was my hero..both of them were like "heck yeah, we love Cherry!" and the guy said "The Worst Journey in the World is the best book ever right?" Ummm, YES lol. The lady said she was TEACHING A CLASS ABOUT CHERRY AND THE WORST JOURNEY!! OMG I didn't even know such a class existed!! I bet I'd get an A++. :P I told them I wondered if there was anyone still alive who knew Cherry, and the lady said some of her colleagues had, and one of them might be there today, and would I like to talk to him on the phone? Umm YES PLEASE haha! The guy was a past archivist or something like that..he said he might have seen Cherry once before he died, but he knew his widow Angela very well! He said she was very nice. Wow, that was an incredible treat! I was starstruck and so honored he took time out to talk to me! Everyone there told me Cherry was very shy and felt so bad about not being able to save Scott, which I knew (I'm always afraid to ask that..I'm worried someone would say he was mean or something like that, which is ridiculous..he didn't have a mean bone in his body!). The lady also mentioned twirlynoodle, who is making a Terra Nova graphic novel! I was like "yeah, I know her!!" Awesome. :P I'd love to go to their archive room where they keep the letters and diaries and stuff, but you have to make an appointment..someday hopefully! I was jealous of the school having a field trip there lol..awesome. :P Their gift shop was awesome and dangerous LOL..they had so many awesome looking books, including an edition of The Worst Journey I didn't have (I couldn't justify buying it though, my suitcase is only so big and I had bought a lot of books already LOL), and all FOUR books of the South Polar Times!! Wow, what an amazing place, an amazing experience, and a great end to my Cherry Pilgrimage. :D This trip was amazing!

Today is the last day of our vacation..we're still not sure if the flights will be messed up because of the weather though. We'll just have to see what it's like tomorrow. I'm very happy to stay home out of the cold today though :P

Today is also Jack's 96th birthday!! Wow, impressive lol. Mom's going to get him a yummy cake later :D

( pics from spri! )

Hello from England! That is such a long trip from Alaska, wow..first we went to Seattle, then Chicago, then the 7 or so hours to England after flying all night. It wasn't too bad though. On the flights direct from Seattle you skirt around the Alaska Range and follow the Richardson Highway till we get to Delta Junction (which I saw..that's the only town of that size in that area). I always love seeing Hayes, Hess, Deborah, and Denali in the far distance. On the flights I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, half of Despicable Me (I'll have to watch the rest on the trip back home), Up and Toy Story 3..about time I saw those movies lol. There were tons of empty seats on the flight to England..mom and I had a whole row to ourselves! I wanted to see Greenland so bad (it was 50 miles from us on the left), but it was too cloudy. :( The ocean was icy though, cool! The same cab driver that grandma knows picked us up again, and then scared the heck out of us by driving on the "wrong" side LOL. It was nice finally getting to grandma and Jack's house and going to sleep lol (I was so confused on what day it was haha)

This morning Jack had his twice a week appointment to treat the ulcers on his feet/legs..poor guy is basically blind (he has macular degeneration), can't hear too well even with hearing aids, and has been dealing with ulcers for years. It's so sad, because his memory is perfect, and he was a great artist when he could see. His ulcers looked quite painful, though grandma said they looked better than the other day. Mom and I quickly went to the store across the street, and then went back to the house and had lunch with the lady that drives them around. I saw a fox in their backyard, awww! So cute hehe. Now we're just relaxing :)

Check out this pic I took flying into Chicago!

Wow, you don't see anything like that in Alaska! That's a lot of electricity LOL

( feb. 21 and 22 )

Yesterday Jack (grandma's husband) commented me on Facebook saying

Grandma and I want to know when you are marrying Brian Cox -by the way who is he ? Do you have to meet on glaciers to keep your hot passion cooled down?

Then he commented on mom's Facebook saying

Mom and I are getting worried that your daughter is having passionate meetings on the top of a glacier. This will cause the glacier to melt and and flood Faibanks!!

Haha he's so funny :P

Huh..there was a 5.4 earthquake today at 4:06 AM (centered near Cantwell but apparently was felt in Fairbanks). Too bad I was sleeping so I didn't feel anything :P

( Day 25- What I would find in your bag )