#pie-burgers-and-wifi

[helianthus21]

This thing got around again and i got inspired:

Your The Worst Part 2: Assholes on a Roadtrip

(AO3, ~1,6k)

Dean arranges the bottles of water and beer in the cooler before loading the whole thing into the backseat of his car. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Sam stands with his arms crossed over his chest, looking down to his brother like the very picture of disapproval, signalling to him that no, this is definitely not a good idea, before Dean can even answer. “I mean, you guys basically just fight all the time,” he goes on. “Imagine that on an eight hour car ride where neither of you can escape when things get rough.” “We’re doing this, Sammy.” Rolling his eyes, Dean heaves the second duffel bag into the trunk, grunts dramatically at the unexpected weight. “The hell did you pack, whole ass bricks?” Castiel marches out of the house with a bag of snacks in his arms. Probably all rabbit food, Dean wagers gloomily. Good that he thought to hide his stash of beef jerky and M&Ms in his Baby long before Cas appeared with his own luggage, his own very wrong idea of a good time. “Just the essentials,” answers Cas crisply. Stretching his back, Dean eyes him, one brow raised to the line of his hair. “Uh-huh.” He moves, and the zipper of Cas’ duffel is opened before Cas can so much as let out a warning shout. “Cas,” he scolds, staring down at the infernal device that poses as Cas’ laptop. “We said no work on vacation.”

“It’s not for work,” lies the liar. “It’s for, uh, ‘watching Netflix’ in the evening.” He’s actually using finger quotes, the dweeb, as if there’s so much as a chance his idea of Netflix and chill is anything other than painfully literal. “Nice try,” Dean says. “This thing’s not coming with.” And he pulls the laptop out of the bag by thumb and forefinger, as if the merest touch could infect him with workaholic-itis and transform him into a bore just like Cas. “No, you don’t hold it like – give me the–” Cas dives forward to catch his dearest possession before Dean can accidentally let it slip through his fingers. Cas cradles the thing in his arms like a fragile baby.

The plan where the laptop dies a tragic, unexpected death foiled, Dean narrows his eyes at him. “The thing’s not coming,” he repeats with finality.

“Your thing is coming. I demand equality,” argues Cas, angling his body to shield the laptop from Dean’s contemptuous gaze.

“Yeah but my thing is the car that brings us places,” Dean reminds him, and he likes to think this line of argumentation gains him the upperhand.

“Your thing is a gas-eating deathtrap on four wheels.”

Dean narrows his eyes at him. “I’m gonna drive us places with shit to no WiFi,” he decides and nods, satisfied with his retribution. “You–” Cas begins, vitriol in his voice. But Sam interrupts his impending torrent of curses. “See, that’s what I mean.” He gestures between the two of them as if presenting the key piece of evidence in court. “I’m giving you guys two hours,” he decides. “By then I’ll probably be scraping one of your’s remains off some street in the middle of nowhere.”

Sam doesn’t get the relationship he has with Cas. He’d been totally dumbstruck when Dean told him that his asshole hospital roommate was now also his asshole romantic partner. He’d been seconds away from suggesting his head be scanned in case his leg wasn’t the only thing damaged in the car accident.

They’re like sprinkling oil into a kitchen fire, Sam says.

He doesn’t get that that’s exactly what excites Dean about Cas. Cas keeps him on his toes, keeps the flame between them alight, and Dean craves the way that makes him feel alive. With Cas, the grocery store becomes a war zone. Movie night a court case.

It’s fun.

It’s passionate.

And beyond all that is the way they understand each other. How Cas lets Dean take care of him in the gruff, understated way of his, and how Cas thanks him with his stupid snide remarks that do little to hide the softness around his edges. Sam knows nothing of the times Cas tries to cook meals for him that end up tasting like rubberband when Dean’s back aches too much from work to get back up from the couch. Or the times Cas nuzzles his neck like a touch-starved kitten as they huddle close in the afterglow.

Sam doesn’t get all that because Cas, for him, is stored in his memory as the rude as fuck patient everyone in the corridor was trying to avoid.

He’s mostly wrong, of course.

But he might’ve been onto something with the road trip thing being a bad idea.

***

They’re at each other’s throats by hour two-and-a-half. Dean knows because he checked the clock just so he can rub it into Sam’s face later that he was off by about half an hour.

The first mistake was for Cas to reach for the tape deck to forward to the next song or, god forbid, eject the whole cassette. Naturally, Dean has to slap his hand away before Cas can follow through with his evil plan. “Ow!” Cas complains dramatically.  Baby, Dean thinks. The hit wasn’t even that hard.

“Driver picks the music, Cas, them’s the rules!” Dean reminds him firmly.

“And the rules are laid down by whom again?” “By the driver, of course.” Cas shifts in his seat, impatient. “I can drive.” Dean scoffs. “Over my dead body.”

He feels Cas’ glare on him, hot and vengeful. “I can drive,” he repeats, and his tone allows no argument.

But he’s barking up the wrong tree. Baby is Dean’s territory, and he’ll defend it against anyone, even the one who gets him laid spectacularly on a regular basis.

“Babe, you can boss me around anywhere else. But here, I’m the authority.” He pats Baby’s leather gently to accentuate his point.

Cas narrows his eyes at him in a way that promises nothing good, but then his attention shifts, and he snatches something out of his veggie snack bag. His gaze turns to the scenery that flies by them outside, and Dean’s almost lulled into the false sense of security Cas set up if not for the smell.

“The fuck is that,” Dean demands, holding a hand before his nose.

“Tuna salad sandwich,” Cas replies with angelic innocence. “Organic.”

“A crime against nature, that’s what it is.” Dean fake-gags a couple times in the hopes of spoiling Cas’ appetite.

But Cas just turns a cool look on him. “With both my hands on the wheel, I wouldn’t be able to eat this,” he points out like the evil genius he is.

One miscalculation though – Dean’s been on hundreds of roadtrips like this with Sam’s burrito-digesting ass. So he just rolls down the window and, to Cas’ immense displeasure, endures.

***

It all escalates on hour five, when Cas points out, “We’re lost.”

Irritated, Dean shakes his head. “Nah, we’re not. I know exactly where we are.”

Cas is raising a brow at him, Dean knows that as a fact without even dragging his eyes away from the road. “Do you.” The dryness of his voice makes it clear how absolutely moronic Cas thinks he is.

His hand clenches tightly on the steering wheel as he grits out, “Yes.” Doubting his driving skills and sense of direction is the fastest way to drive him up the wall, and Cas knows it.

Like a highly disappointed wife, Cas draws out his sigh. “We should ask someone for the way.”

Dean steers Baby to the side and jams on the brakes so hard, they’re both catapulted forwards before the seat belt throws them back into the seat. Behind them, someone yells obscenities and a car honks angrily as it passes them.

Turning his head slowly, Dean says, voice dangerously low, “You did not just suggest that.”

“I did, in fact,” Cas says back, calm as anything, as if his heart isn’t beating like a jackrabbit against his ribcage from the unexpected halt. “And since you pulled up already,” he continues on this perilous path, unbuckles his seat belt. “We can now find someone to give us the directions.”

“If you step out of this car, Novak, I swear I’ll leave you in this godforsaken town and you can walk the rest of the way.”

Looking straight at him like a cat pushing a glass off the desk, Cas steps out of the car.

Dean takes a moment to gape at Cas, digesting the betrayal. “Okay, that’s it,” he says as soon as he recovers, and restarts the car. He doesn’t stay to watch Cas approach a helpful looking lady with a map.

***

Half an hour later, he pulls up at the small town’s only diner.

Cas is sitting inside. His booth’s purpusoley facing the door but his gaze is equally purposely focussed on his plate.

Dean slides onto the seat opposite him without a word. The waitress comes over and he orders a bacon cheese burger with chilli fries and a coke and waits for his food to arrive.

Only when the burger is placed in front of him and he’s taken a sip from his glass does he break the silence. “So, you know where to go now?”

Face unreadable, Cas meets his gaze. “We have to go back and take the second exit on the highway,” he offers.

“Good,” Dean says, taking another bite of his burger. “Good. I knew that.”

A small smile slips onto Cas’ face, there and gone again, but not unseen. “Of course.”

Cas orders apple pie to-go and hands it to Dean. Dean hands him the car keys in return. As they leave the diner, Cas hooks an arm under Dean’s and rests his head on his shoulder briefly.

They listen to Zeppelin as Cas leads them back onto the highway.

[webcricket]

The Word [...Of Castiel.] : Pumpkins

The Word […of Castiel.] Drabble Game

Word: Pumpkins

Characters: CastielXReader ft. Jack Kline and Dean Winchester

Dean meanders the hall toward the kitchen humming the guitar solo to Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker. Vocal chords vibrating low to reach the final riff, fingers drumming the air and thudding the threshold, he hops down the two steps and into the midst of Halloween-induced sickly sweet scented messy mayhem.

Mood dashed by the site of the once spotless kitchen draped in layers of soggy newspaper, seed stuff, various serrated utensils, and discarded bits and bobs of mutilated pumpkin, freckled features alight with a gape-mouthed scowl not unlike the emptied and etched collection of gourds placed on the countertop with glowing candlelit miens covering the full gamut from gory to goofy, his indignant glower passes first over you, then Jack, and settles on Castiel. The angel currently stands elbow deep with a brow bowed in intense concentration as he assuages the innards out of an extra tall oval pumpkin.

The sticky sound of seed being torn from moist flesh borders on obscene. Dean smirks, snorting, “Hey Cas, you buy that pumpkin dinner before you shoved your hand up its-”

“Dean!” you shout, shooting him a scolding glare; the shift of your eyes sideways toward Jack reminds the hunter there are innocents present.

Cas simply squints.

Not much gets past Jack; after all, he doesn’t sleep - much - and the bunker offers unlimited and unsupervised WiFi use and a fair amount of alone time. He peers up at you from where he yanks the stem and attached shell from his latest squashy victim, gaze narrowed, noting, “I’m not a child.”

“No, but Dean is.” You smile and gently squeeze his shoulder. You’re certainly not explaining any more of Dean’s vulgarities to the boy, although it’s always entertaining to watch Cas try to do so when he himself often fails to fully understand them.

The boy accepts the redirection. Corner of his mouth quirking into a minute grin, his regard softens and turns to Dean, asking in hopeful tone, “Are you and Sam going to eviscerate pumpkins with us?”

Dean grimaces and shakes his head. Crossing to the fridge to grab a cold beer and the other half of the three day old cheeseburger he only just remembered is stowed in there for safekeeping, he peeks out from behind the shining stainless steel door to answer, “The only pumpkin I’m interested in gutting is the kind you find in a pie crust.” Picking up the soggy bun, he sniffs the forsaken burger, shrugs, and takes a bite.

Cas peels out a final pile of stringy pith and slogs it on the table, correcting matter-of-factly and looking to you for confirmation, “I believe the colloquial term is carving pumpkins.”

You nod.

Jack’s forehead knots as he files away the knowledge for future reference, though he’s not keen to let go a rather apt analogy. “Carve, of course … after we disembowel them,” he insists, cheeks broadening in a smile as he eagerly plunges his open palm into the uncapped gourd before him to tear out a fistful of slippery goo. “I like this part,” he happily murmurs, diving deeper into the belly of the orange beast with a fervor of energy.

Eyes locking on Castiel’s blues, you inquire, “How much nougat did you let him eat?”

Avoiding your direct regard, Cas wields his angel blade to begin incising a smile into his pumpkin’s surface. A decidedly guilty gravel inflection afflicts his voice when he admits, “A dozen or so-”

“Pieces?!” You whisper shout in disapproval.

“Bags,” he mumbles, ever the honest angel.

[subterraneanhq]

The first weekend of Coachella is just around the corner! This is not a mandatory event, but if you do plan on being in attendance you’ll be expected to arrive to the campgrounds between Thursday, April 11 and  Friday, April 12, 2019 (the official start date of the first weekend) in order to claim your spot! Not sure how you’re going to get from the Palm Springs airport to the grounds? Well don’t worry, Subterranean’s hooked you up with transportation to and from the airport. We posted the festival lineup here, but details about the overall festival experience can be found under the cut:

Accommodations:

As previously stated, Subterranean’s partnered up with Coachella and will be fitting the bill for your entire stay! This means premium on-site lodging in the form of modern, fully furnished yurts, otherwise known as The Resort. Resort area access includes 3 day Artist passes that grant you access to the Coachella artist compound with exclusive gourmet catering included, yurt wristbands for exclusive access to the Safari compound and the Safari Lounge in addition to the Resort areas, full access to all VIP amenities, spa treatments and massages at the La Quinta Resort & Club, and a 2019 Coachella merchandise pack! 

Activities: 

(In addition to the musical lineup, Coachella is host to numerous on-site activities)

Absolut Planet: Spend your festival weekend with Planet Earth’s Favorite Vodka, Absolut! Cool off and turn up in our sustainable oasis! Toast to Mother Nature with delicious cocktails made with our zero sugar* Absolut Grapefruit, while fire DJs drop even hotter beats on the desert’s favorite dance floor.

Activities Tent: Games, giveaways and good times! Located at the Camping Center, activities include Ping Pong, Twister, Giant Jenga & more

Camping Eats & Drinks:  Food Trucks & vendors of nearly every type (vegetarian/vegan items) will be on hand to feed all your on site camping hunger needs. Head to the hill in Lot 8 to get your grub on!  PLUS, Beer to go, Bloody Mary’s & more!

Camp Lounge:  Come relax and get some work done or update your social media. The Camp Lounge has space for all of the above! Next to the Activities Tent where you can check-out a computer at the desk, or use your own devices and connect to our complimentary wifi!

Coachella Art Studios:  Wander into this D.I.Y. zone and let your creativity flow! Coachella art studios is a euphoric craft world where we supply the materials for you to enhance your Coachella experience.

The Dome:  Get your late night groove on. The Dome Dance party starts at 10pm nightly. The music rages on, yet silently, starting at 1am. Stop by early on Thursday for the Vintage Merch Sale Thursday 4pm-6pm .  And be sure to check out the Posted Studio Speaker Series Thursday 4pm-6pm.

Farmers Market: This market features all your produce needs with local, pesticide free and organic produce, juices, farm fresh smoothies, baked goods, local coffee roasters, snacks and omelets. Stock up your campsite or enjoy the picnic area.Fri–Sun 7am–2pm.

Ferris Wheel: Catch all the feels at the top of the Ferris Wheel while taking in the epic desert views of the entire Coachella Valley.

Field of Dreams: Take part in our Spring Olympics by competing in a variety of recreational fun & games. Achieve eternal glory, WIN prizes, bragging rights & bad suntans. All the fun is FREE and open to everyone. Schedule changes daily, so pay attention!

Flow Space Yoga & Pilates: Come stretch it out in the Field at the Flow Structure located in Lot 8. Various classes all morning long, find some time to relax and take care of yourself before dancing the day away.

The Get Up: Moonwalk over and unleash your inner ‘Crazy Legs’ at our all-styles dance session/workshop located in the Art Studios Tent 10am-2pm, hosted by: Francesca Harding 

Giant Foosball & Snookball: You ARE the game for the life size Foosball. Plus use your leg as the stick in Snooker aka soccer billiards. Found in the Field Of Dreams, Lot 8.

Heineken House: Experience the Heineken House Evolution! Heineken is turning up the heat in the desert with an incredible lineup, new location, and new structure featuring a first-of-its-kind beer garden that allows you to catch the music up close while enjoying a cold brew!

Hivemind: An exclusive all-night rager hosted by Subterranean Entertainment! Think glow sticks, blacklights, curated DJ sets, giant animal costumes and a pulsing bass-line. If you’re looking to free your inhibitions and make a few more connections within the company family then the Hivemind tent’s the place to be on Sunday, April 14 at 11pm

#MYCALVINS House: Be our guest; discover an immersive, multi-sensory experience inspired by the Spring campaign. #CKCOACHELLA

Nyx Professional Make-up - Glitter Trip: Discover the ultimate glitter playground! Visit the air conditioned interactive beauty bar, touch-up your look and discover our Insta-worthy tent full of surprises! Snag Your Festival Essentials.

Pantene Styling Lounge: Be at the top of your content game & get your hair styled with glittery gold accessories. Already glammed out? Come find us to enjoy free wi-fi, air conditioning, & artsy photo moments.

Recharge with Peet’s: Energize each morning with free Cold Brew samples, phone charging stations, and fun at vintage Bus and Trikes. Plus, visit Peet’s Cold Brew Tap Room for a one-of-a-kind beverage experience from a custom draft bar.

Records & Record Store Day: Dig into over 30,000 pieces of new and vintage vinyl and more. Stop in on April 13th for Record Store Day exclusive.

The Turn Down: Downtempo Grooves for your Soul. Cheers turn into pillow talk at your own ambient oasis.  Kick up those feet, and let the late night grooves recharge your cells. located in the Art Studios Tent, lot 8

Vintage Market: Comb through this curated retail experience filled with a wide variety of vintage, upcycle/recycled and handmade retro items, handcrafted clothing, jewelry and more.

Wellness Spa: Feeling tense over the long weekend? Come work out those knots & kinks by getting a chair massage from one of our licensed massage therapists.

Eat & Drink:

Indio Central Market:  Enjoy Coachella’s food lovers haven featuring more than 15 carefully-curated restaurants from across the country under one large tent with plenty of shaded seating.

Outstanding in The Field: For the sixth year, Outstanding In The Field is setting a long table in the tranquil hideaway of our VIP Rose Garden. The intimate area allows you to take refuge (and a seat!) at the festival while you mingle with other guests over a full-service, four-course family style meal, a cocktail and ample regional wine. Dinner will be served just as the sun starts to hang low.

Pop-Up Restaurant: Enjoy full-service sit-down meal atGwen by Brothers Chef Curtis and Luke Stone, offering an escape from the festival into their Hollywood hotspot for an unforgettable dining experience. From butcher-inspired smoked brisket to a vegan chilled garden gazpacho, the VIP pop-up has something for everyone on your band’s tour rider. Located in VIP near the white peaked tents.

Featured Restaurants: Coachella’s food program features top restaurants from across the country. Offering a wide variety of cuisine that will please any festival-goer, vendors range from chef-driven concepts to artisanal ice cream shops and crave worthy street food. Vegan and gluten-free options are available throughout the site.

We All Scream 4 Ice Cream: Beat the heat with something sweet! Enjoy a cooldown treat from the variety of ice cream vendors on the field, with options ranging from specialty artisanal flavors to innovative vegan offerings in scoops, cones and even ice cream floats. There is – no doubt – something for everyone to scream for under the sun.

Kogitown: Celebrate 10 years of Chef Roy Choi feeding Coachella with our first-ever KogiTown! Located near the Food Court, with an area set to impress serving the greatest hits from both Kogi and Chego, LA’s most beloved Asian fusion cuisine. Expect to indulge in Ooey Gooey and Kimchi Fries, Short Rib, Chicken or Tofu Tacos and Burritos, and Chego’s famed Chubby Pork Belly Bowl, Sour Cream Hen House, or the Leafy T.

Pizza & Burgers: Munchies solved! We’ve got your favorite pizza & burger choices sprinkled all over the fields. With everything from smash burgers to plant-based patties, and traditional Neapolitan style pizza, vegan and gluten-free options, or Spicy Pie by the slice. No doubt, there will be plenty of: PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA & BURGER BURGER BURGER.

Drinks: Curated specialty cocktails along with a large Craft Beer selection. Returning this year are The Cabin, Beer Belly’s Rare Beer Bar, Broken Shaker, the secret PDTiki, plus some new and exciting spots, serving craft on draft, mixed cocktails and a large selection of non-alcoholic beverages from our returning KombuchaBar and crafted “cocktails” from Block Party.

Festival Experience:

Every one: Let’s co-create a festival and culture that is safe, inclusive and fun for all. We are pushing ourselves and our guests to do better and to be better. We are taking deliberate steps to develop a festival culture that is safe and inclusive for everyone. Persons of any gender identity or expression, sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, age or ability are welcome at Coachella. Along with the Code of Conduct, Coachella will NOT tolerate any form of assault or harassment, be it sexual, physical or verbal. Anyone found to be in violation of this policy is subject to immediate removal from the festival site and law enforcement may be notified. The offender’s Festival Wristband may be revoked and no refund will be issued.

Note: This is an optional event, meaning your characters are not required to attend.  If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop us a line!

[moondust667]

My thoughts on the Kroger company

The guy who hired me was late to MY interview TWICE, but the training was super easy and friendly. The only complaint I had on that was, the guy who hired me took me into his office after training, and threatened to have me fired. Me and 2 others were turned around talking while our training videos were loading on the computer (he walked in at the wrong time). I tried explaining to him that the computers were slow, and we were just conversing to pass them time, but because we got so little of our training work done (because wifi was bad and lagging), he automatically thought we were slacking off and decided to yell and threaten while telling us the other workers upstairs got all their videos done (because they had better wifi connection). I had to go in the next day to finish UPSTAIRS, where I got done within 2 hours because the wifi was 100% better. I was certified within a week of starting when it should have taken 3 months according to the workbook I received (which was forgotten as soon as I was certified). I was not guided on where I could place my personal belongings, and instead had to HIDE THEM IN THE BREAK ROOM and hoped nobody took my stuff (all the lockers were taken). My first day, I went in with no knowledge on where I was supposed to go, and I didn't have my apron or shoe guards that were supposed to be given to me prior to starting (I had to ask a different manager what I was supposed to do and where to go). The baristas I worked with were nice, but I had NO knowledge I was supposed to be the new closer. That was never mentioned during the hiring process.The current closer "trained" me on what to do (I put quotations because she didn't show me anything), and I was thrown in the next night with NOBODY to help me, and no knowledge on if anything was supposed to be put away (I ended up leaving everything out and got yelled at the next day). I was also thrown into my first happy hour ALONE which was stressful and chaotic. A customer went over to customer service to demand someone come over and help me because I had no idea what I was doing. They NEVER properly trained me on how to make the drinks, so I was pretty much self taught, and that was hard because my head barista ALWAYS told me "study your drink cards" when she was supposed to be teaching me how to make the drinks like IN THE WORKBOOK THEY GAVE ME THAT THEY DIDN'T USE. My head barista also didn't care for me. She always told me I was putting the kiosk at risk because I apparently wasn't doing anything right when it came to closing. I stayed 2 hours over my shift JUST to clean, I didn't know how to properly scan anything so I asked someone who used to work in the kiosk, and they didn't catch on until after 2 months of me apparently doing it completely wrong. I was brought into the office twice and was accused of closing the kiosk 10 minuets early, when all I did was shut off the overhead lights 2 minuets before closing so I wouldn't forget, one barista DID NOT like me and watched me struggle instead of helping me because she didn't like working bar, I was snapped at a lot by the older baristas because I constantly asked questions (even though they asked me to ask questions), and I had a breakdown IN FRONT of my head barista and other coworkers, BEGGING her to get me more help with closing (only 4 people work at this starbucks) because it was so hard and stressful. I asked all the managers and they DENIED me help. I constantly thought about quitting, but I had nowhere to go if I did. I needed the money. October 16th, 2018 RIGHT AFTER my anniversary, I clocked into work looking forward to my 8 hour shift and was called into the office. I was terminated right then and there because "I wasn't improving". Within the 3 months of working as a barista I successfully memorized all the drinks on the menu PLUS limited edition ones, customers always came back for MY COFFEE because I made it the best (and it was complimented in front of my head barista), and was constantly asked to be tipped but I couldn't accept them or I'd be fired. I did everything to clean and put away items and dishes within the kiosk (always staying 2 hours over my shift), and they just didn't want to keep me anymore. What a complete joke. I dealt with all that + abuse from rude customers JUST to be fired for "not improving"? I was DEVASTATED!!!! Left work crying and had nowhere to go because all my rides were at work and it was 10am, so I just walked over to burger king and bought a Hershey pie and a slushie. I do not recommend the Kroger company. They are a complete joke and their management is so rude and disrespectful towards those struggling.

[jessaadventures-blog]

Week Four: Friends, Family, and Food

The Capullana caves arch.

**Sorry for the late post, wifi access was minimal this weekend! I wrote most of this on Friday, so just pretend it’s Friday instead of Monday :) **

A month has flown by!! It was fun to see my mom this week and show her around Lobitos. The EcoSwell team made a number of new friends this week, including a couple of new volunteers. We are also now generating clean and drinkable distilled water! It’s been a busy week and there is lots to tell :)

The EcoHouse

Our homemade vegan fruit crumble!! It was delicious :)

We have a couple of new people in the EcoHouse!! Jenny arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and she seems great! She is going into her final year at Humboldt State in energy resources engineering (a major I almost did too) and is from the bay area. It’s been really fun to have another girl in the house; she’s very outgoing and fun to talk to! Jenny is helping Joris and I with the solar distiller, so we’re hopefully going to make a lot of progress in the next few weeks!

Jack arrived yesterday (Thursday). He’s from London and just finished his first year at uni studying geography (with a Spanish component). I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to him yet, but he seems really friendly and eager to help out. He’s here for NGO management, so he’ll be able to help me out with social media (yay!). With Jack we have seven volunteers and we only have room in the house for six, so he’s staying at Nacho’s hostel until Isa leaves next Friday.

Other than our newbies, we’ve had a crazy good food week. During this week’s Talara trip, the guys that went bought a lot less food than normal, which I think has upped our creativity and thus upped the awesomeness of our home-cooked meals. We had Taco Tuesday (as always), but we didn’t have tortillas, so we whipped up some homemade tortillas that were pretty amazing!! Wednesday was veggie burger night again and we cooked up some amazing veggie burgers using our now tried and trusted recipe (minimalist baker’s sweet potato black bean burgers). We also made a strawberry, nectarine, and papaya crumble that hit the spot for dessert! Thursday night we went out to Tranqui’s because Jack had just arrived and Jenny hadn’t been there yet, but he was out of his yummy plantains and french fries :( Luckily, though, Isa and Jenny and I had made two AMAZING vegan carrot cakes earlier in the day (we had a bunch of carrots we needed to get rid of) and everybody chowed down on them both Thursday night and this morning. And tonight we have a vegan pot pie in the oven that looks delicious and I can’t wait to eat!!

We also watched a couple of cool movies this week, one was called Rushmore, a Wes Anderson film about a guy who wants to stay at his prep school forever, and Ex Machina, which I hadn’t seen before and was a little crazy but pretty well done, I thought.

There also was a pisco party one evening, and four of our new friends (two pairs of van-life couples staying at La Casona from Germany and Austria) joined us and learned about what we do at EcoSwell (they were very into it)!

Work

Joris, Jenny, and I with our working distiller!

The distiller is officially up and running! It still needs quite a few improvements, but it can produce very pure distilled water. Right now we’re getting about three liters a day, but we think we can increase that quite a bit by making it more air-tight and making some other changes. We have spent quite a bit of time filtering seawater to get macro organisms out of the water (you don’t want stuff dying in the distiller and stinking up the water) and the distiller can take about 50 liters at a time, which it distills over about five days (right now). We’re on the way to making a really effective and sustainable source of clean drinking water for Lobitos!

Planting day was really fun this week, we had both of our new van life couples come help out, so we got a lot done pretty fast Wednesday morning! I helped germinate some oregano and cilantro and then mixed and poured dirt for the veggie garden/orchard. We also planted a bunch of vetiver (bug and odor repellant grass) on the path to the dry toilet. We took some group pictures and gave the van lifers EcoSwell shirts as thanks for their help! Then we made our classic big planting day breakfast and got working on the projects again.

On Friday, a few of us went in to Talara to look for materials for our projects (Jenny and I got some items that will improve the distiller), and I got to experience ProMart (the weirdly similar Peruvian version of Home Depot) and Plazavea, the grocery store. We went to lunch at Black Pepe, a local restaurant run out of a man’s living room, and had a delicious salad (I also tried a bite of a yummy classic seafood dish called mariscos) before heading home with our new materials.

Adventures

Mom and I at the Capullana caves!

This weekend was really fun because my mom was here from Friday to Tuesday and we got to go on some adventures and I got to show her around Lobitos! She arrived early Friday morning and knocked on the door just as I was leaving for a run. If you want to hear her wild travel story check out her facebook! Anyway, she made it after an exhausting night and crashed in my bed while she waited for the hostel to open. She moved into her room at lunch time and after work I went up to La Casona (the hostel up the hill where she stayed) and had a nice happy hour with her on the deck as we watched the sun set. She had already made friends with one of the van life couples (from Germany) and was talking up a storm in classic mom fashion. After sunset we decided to walk the beach down to a restaurant she had been recommended by some surfers, El Cuartel. It had amazing veggie burgers and sweet potato fries, along with quinoa and potato salads! After dinner we headed home and decided to watch The Martian with everyone, which ended up going until midnight and Mom found out that she had been locked out of her hostel. So, she came and slept in my twin-size bottom bunk bed with me and kept me up half the night with her snoring (haha..).

On Saturday we decided to head to Mancora (a touristy party town an hour and a half north) for the day as a little mother-daughter adventure. While we were waiting for the combie to take us to Talara from Lobitos, we met the other van-life couple (from Austria) and talked to them for a while as we all looked for a combie that would fit us. (We happened to meet both van-life couples at different times than the EcoSwell directors, but they both became friends with all of us! Funny how we all ran into each other one way or another.) Anyway, Mom and I successfully made it to Talara and then into a van going to Mancora, and as soon as we got to Mancora we walked the beach and wandered the vendor stalls (super touristy) and then had a yummy lunch at the Black Sheep, which had amazing vegan burgers and juices. We spent the next few hours hanging out on the beach reading, napping, and watching horses give people rides and rented ATVs zooming down the beach. After we had enjoyed the atmosphere for a while we went and had happy hour at one of the nearby restaurants, and I tried a Bolivian drink that mom had in Ecuador and mom tried a maracuya (passionfruit) sour. We wandered our way to the bus station and hopped on the Expo bus back to Talara with a French surfer dude we met in the bus station who was also headed to Lobitos. We made it into Talara after dark and barely caught the last Lobitos combie of the night, which we packed with sixteen people, a spare tire, a few bags of groceries, and a surfboard. It was a wild ride! We cooked up some pasta back at the EcoHouse, and that was the same night of the pisco party with the van-lifers that we’d met! Mom made it back before the hostel locked up, so I got my bed to myself again :)

Sunday morning I attempted to do laundry and mostly flooded the kitchen, but after a few hours my clothes were clean and the kitchen was once again dry. Mom and I went to the rocks at La Punta and tanned, read, and watched the surfers ride the big waves. We headed to lunch at Cora, a restaurant I’d heard a lot about but hadn’t yet been to, and had a yummy veggie stir fry while mom tried the fresh fish. That evening, Henry (our local surfer friend) offered to take us all to the Capullana caves up the coast a bit. A bunch of us hopped in his and his brother’s mototaxis with Henry’s two dogs and drove the dirt road to scramble around some cliffs and caves and watch the sunset. It was really beautiful, and climbing down and up the ropes was exciting! We saw little red crabs everywhere and a bunch of blue-footed boobies (famous birds that Darwin studied) that mom hadn’t even seen in the Galapagos. The caves were an incredible adventure, and I’m really glad mom was there to experience them too! We got home after dark and headed to Tranqui’s for our classic Sunday dinner.

On Monday after work, I went up to La Casona for happy hour and sunset with mom again, and the EcoTeam joined us a bit later! Mom challenged Andres, one of the directors, to a game of digital backgammon on her phone (he won but she was in the lead for most of the game) and we all headed to 420 for dinner after, where we had some yummy pizza and pasta and piña coladas for mom’s last night :)

Mom stopped by for lunch on Tuesday before she left for the airport, and I said goodbye and wished her good luck with the rest of her travels (from what I’ve heard it sounds like they’ve been going well!) and sent her off to the Talara airport with Julio, our neighbor. 

There weren’t many adventures the rest of the week, but on Thursday night at Tranqui’s we made friends with a drunk British guy who was cycling South America, and he called us EcoWarriors, so that was fun! 

One of the fishing boats (still in use!) on the beach.

This was a great week; it was really fun to see mom and hear her stories of her travels alone in Latin America, which I’m really impressed with (especially because she doesn’t speak any Spanish) and I’m glad I got out to see more of this area of Peru! The cooking this week was really fun, I definitely want to eat in and cook more. I can’t believe I’ve been here a month already; only five more weeks until I head south to Patagonia! Stay tuned for more fun stories and adventures (I had a bit of a wild weekend, details will be included in the next post)!

[heynells-blog1]

May Money Diaries // Recommitting to Low Waste Food Shopping

For the month of May, I’ll be recording my weekly expenses and sharing them as my “May Money Diaries”. Inspired by the “Money Diary” series on Refinery 29 and The Luxe Strategist, I thought it would be interesting to see how I hold up against my budget and long-term financial goals. I think I’m quite disciplined with my spending, but I ocassionally have slip-ups - these usually occur around food (eating out with friends) and coffee shops.

Photo 1 of many vegan low-waste | zero waste food hauls to come! 

Monday was my usual full day of babysitting, and I ended the day with a kickboxing class in Greenwich Village. 

During my lunch break, I bought 1 pack of vegan cheese and 1 pack of tempeh at Trader Joe’s - I amost bought a bar of 90% dark chocolate, but I returned it because I had 3/4 remaining from last week’s dark chocolate bar. 

Last week, I forgot to include the $20 online donation I made to my friend’s AIDS Walk New York fundraising page - so I added it to Monday’s expenses. 

I feel like a queen whenever I record a $0 day. I went about my usual babysitting and work from home schedule, and I made and ate meals at home. 

Since I meal prep at least 60% of my food during the weekend, I only spend 5-10 minutes prepping each meal and enjoying it within my alloted 30 minute meal time. I made vegan meals using groceries from last weekend. I tend to buy enough to last for 1.5 weeks because I want to get rid of any temptation to “eat out” just because I’m feeling “kind of tired”. 

It was a smooth morning going from baby sitting in Jersey City to my work meeting in Williamsburg. I was pleased at not paying for subway fare - kudos to my boss for providing me with prepaid student fare tickets. 

I wanted to have another $0 day. But after my work meeting, I needed a coffee shop for WiFi and to shelter me from the rain. I didn’t have a lot of options in finding a coffee shop near my afternoon babysitting gig that wasn’t crammed with people. I settled for the coffee shop closest to my kids’ pick-up location, though it had an expensive menu. In my opinion, $3.50 for an iced green tea is overpriced, but that day it was so humid and my throat was begging for a cold drink. I also didn’t want to take away time from working. 

$0 Day #2! Babysat in the morning, went back home to work and eat lunch, then left to head into NYC for a work meeting - subway paid for [again] with my student fare cards. 

My meeting ended early and I considered walking from Union Square to Chinatown; but I decided to use the 1 hour till babysitting to sit and work in the cafe. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do any work the next day, so I did as much as I could before my afternoon babysitting gig. 

I got hungry waiting for my kids and from using lots of brainpower during the meeting, so I helped myself to a few snacks from my kids’ pantry. I’m grateful that their mom is transitioning to being vegan, so the kitchen is well-stocked with vegan snacks. 

And because I was determined to have a $0 day, I made and ate dinner at home.

Hail Friday! I woke up a little anxious because I was going to meet my partner’s parents for the first time AND I also needed to stop by Whole Foods’ bulk bin section and Union Square Greenmarket before 1:30pm. I had a lot to do before and after my 9:30AM babysitting gig. 

In the past few weeks, I’ve been disgusted at the amount of plastic I’ve been using because I used to be committed to making less trash at least 70% of the time. I began losing track of my habits last winter, right after I finished my compost apprenticeship with Earth Matter NY. I got caught up in the stress of my dual work schedule that I started shopping out of convenience versus considering the long-term environmental consequences of my actions. I used and bought a ton of items that came in plastic. After realizing how far I’d fallen from my progress on making less trash and being plastic-free, I decided to recommit to baby steps on living a low-waste | zero-waste lifestyle. 

Whole Foods’ Bulk Bins

I rushed to get to Whole Foods by 8AM because I wanted to have enough time to peruse their bulk bins and determine my food choices - before babysitting at 9:30AM. After 5 minutes of careful deliberation, I got roasted and unsalted peanuts, roasted and unsalted almonds, and black beans; those are some of my common vegan food staples and those were also some of the cheaper options. 

I wish I knew how many pounds I got of each item, as I just filled my small cotton produce bags halfway or to the top. Since I was rushing, I didn’t look for a scale. I wasn’t worried about getting too much because I knew I would consume those items daily. In particular, I got A LOT of peanuts because I decided that I would no longer buy peanut butter from a jar since most store jars are made out of plastic. Instead, I’ll just add 1/4 or 1/3 cup of peanuts to my oatmeal every morning. I probably got enough peanuts to last me for 2-3 months. 

Because I love vegan cheese and I don’t have time to make it, I bought 1 packet of Daiya vegan cheddar. I don’t feel bad because I actually need it and it’s a manageabe food splurge. I died a little bit inside knowing that the bag was made of plastic, but I reminded myself that the point of being low waste | zero waste is doing what one can, within their money and time, to make sustainable choices. Also, it’s challenging to avoid plastic because it’s used almost everywhere. Instead of being hard on myself, I’d rather focus on taking this in as a learning experience and figure out a solution for future cheese cravings - this is how I’m practicing conscious decision-making. 

The total amount I spent at Whole Foods was $26.87. It’s a lot for 4 items, but I predict the amount of peanuts, almonds, and black beans will last me for at least 2-3 months and will save me some time for grocery shopping (since I won’t have to go back weekly to refill my cloth bags). The vegan cheese will probably be consumed within 1 month. 

Union Square Greenmarket 

After babysitting my Upper West Side child, I took the subway down to Union Square Greenmarket to buy fresh produce for me and homemade vegan dessert for my partner’s parents. 

For $11.75 I bought 5 apples, portobello mushrooms, spinach, and parsley to last me for 1 week. I didn’t buy a lot of fresh produce because I still have leftovers from last week’s food haul, and I didn’t want any produce to go to waste.  

I spent $16.50 on a vegan apple pie, vegan sweet potato and pumpkin pie, and a vegan sunflower double chocolate cookie from Body & Soul Bakeshop. I love Body & Soul because they make everything by hand and use local ingredients, and I think the prices for all their baked goods are fair and reasonable. The two vegan pies were for my partner’s parents, while the [huge] cookie was for me and my partner to share. I felt good after paying for everything because I spent less than my $20 budget and the cookie was so chewy, delicious, and moist with dark chocolate. 

For the Rest of Friday ...

I spent the afternoon with my partner’s parents. After eating with them, my partner and me went to the movies to watch Deadpool 2. My partner paid for my ticket because he had an offer that only required him to pay $4 for the ticket. Since the movie ended late and we got stuck in traffic heading back to Jersey City, we didn’t have time to get dinner together. 

It was a $0 day because I ate 2 meals at home (using food from last week’s food haul), and my parents paid for lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in Jersey City. My parents always pay for meals on the weekend because it’s the only time they get to see and actually talk to me. 

On Sundays, I rarely spend any money because I either eat my meals at home or I cook food / eat out with my partner. I’m not spending ay money today because I’m eating whatever food I have in the fridge and in my pantry. 

Considering that I spent more this week compared to last week, I’m relatively calm because I know $26.87 of that was on food expected to last me for 2-3 months. 

My mom surprised me with unexpected food purchases for this week - 1 pack of vegan Italian sausage, 1 pack of vegan burgers, avocados, raspberries, and strawberries. I felt a little bad that she bought the vegan saursages and burgers because I wonder if she did that because she knows I’m getting tired of eating beans and chickpeas. With my mom’s purchases, I know I have enough sources of protein and oatmeal toppings. I predict that next week’s farmers market haul will consist mainly of vegetables. 

[gamehayapkmod]

Hungry cat: physics puzzle game

Hungry cat: physics puzzle game

Game Hungry cat: physics puzzle game là dòng game Puzzle

Giới thiệu Hungry cat: physics puzzle game

HUNGRY CAT is a simple but very addictive puzzle game about "eat and travel" cats' adventure. The goal is to feed the cute hungry cat with a tasty food by travelling around the world and solving interesting physics puzzles. HUNGRY CAT puzzle is a funny game for all cat lovers! Everybody likes cute cats and physics puzzles and this game is both! HUNGRY CAT puzzle highlights: - Solve addictive puzzles, earn stars, open new levels - Enjoy original, clear and catchy game mechanics - Travel around the world - Discover new countries and interesting places - Feed the most charming Hungry Cat around the world! - NO WIFI? NO PROBLEM! You can play offline in anytime. HUNGRY CAT puzzle instructions: Use your logical thinking to solve addictive puzzles by breaking ice and sand blocks, trigger springs to help the Hungry Cat get his tasty burger, pie, shrimp or sushi. Always think a step ahead and watch your time to earn more stars and open new exciting levels and worlds. Feed the Hungry Cat with a tasty snack and you will get the cutest grateful "meow"! HUNGRY CAT logical puzzle game will provide you with hours of fun. Each of the addictive levels requires logic, skill, and patience. Will you be able to solve all the challenging puzzles? Download the game and check it right now! HUNGRY CAT puzzle game is sure to become your favorite! ALMA Games is committed to updating HUNGRY CAT puzzle game on a regular basis with new challenging levels and features. ALMA Games will be thankful for your positive feedback and 5 stars mark in Android store. Please note! HUNGRY CAT puzzle game is free to download and play but some game items may be purchased for real money. If you like logic puzzles and cool math games such the Hungry cat puzzle, try other attractive physics-based puzzles from ALMA Games - Snoring: Elephant game, Monsterland: Junior vs Senior, Monsterland: Fairy Tails, Alarmy. Wake up Alien and other. Want to know more, get tips and the latest news from ALMA Games? Follow us => https://facebook.com/almagames For any issue or feedback please write us to the following address: contact@alma-games.com Get this FREE android puzzle game today! Feed Hungry Cat, travel around the world and have much fun! Meow! It was open to question, how much fits into this cute Hungry Cat! :) Thanks so much for your reviews! In this version we fixed some bugs and improved game performance.

Download APK

Tải APK ([app_filesize]) #gamehayapk #gameandroid #gameapk #gameupdate

[nicholade]

Happy 26th birthday Jade!

February 5th marked the day Miss Patterson having spent 26 years on this earth. So, today we celebrated!

Our first destination would be Saucisse Boutique Deli. With Saucisse translating directly to sausage in French, it might seem that this would be the last place Jade would want to be on her birthday, however, they hold a green Monday so this was an exception. Coffee, Muesli and a big vegan breakfast, with free wifi for Jade to catch up with the fam, was the perfect way to start the day.

Next we were off to Dolće bakery for brunch. This place has a big vegan following and is known for its instagrammable treats. On arrival we discovered that all customers receive a free treat on their birthday, had jade planned this 🤔 Jade ordered the apple crumble, and I ordered the peanut butter pie and a cashew nut cream cheese bagel and it was all delicious!

Back to Megan's to say a sad goodbye to rocky before heading to Aziz's air BnB. The next Airbnb was located in central Cape Town and was described as a Batchelor pad and this is exactly what it was.

Time to find some lunch. Ended up at Lekker vegan burgers. This place is described a vegan fast food joint. Massive, super tasty, burgers!

The afternoon was spent laying in the sun at Clifton's 4th beach, we gave swimming another go but it was still so cold it hurts!

We then made it back to aziz's with just enough time to get dressed and head out to dinner. I had reserved a table at Addis in Cape Ethiopian restaurant, this would be the highlight of the day for me. Fun fact: Ethiopian Orthodox people are accustomed to a minimum of 180 fasting days a year, during this time they adopt a vegan diet!

We ordered the set menu which included a starter and a main course of 8 different vegetarian dishes followed by dessert and coffee or tea. The main course was served on teff injera which is pretty much a massive pancake, you eat with your fingers and it was all amazing! I ate until I could ate no more, then it was time for desert and coffee. Desert was accompanied by the waiters singing Jade happy birthday, someone must have tipped them off 😆 you can't have a birthday without being sung to!

We were then provided with a coffee ceremony, this included Ethiopian coffee being brought to us in a traditional coffee pot called a Jabena, Frankincense being burnt at the table, and receiving small serving of popcorn, once again it was all amazing. I recommend Addis in Cape to you all!

Lastly we had a quick stop off at the gin bar on the way home for a tasty nightcap.

I hope you had an amazing birthday Jadie gurl. I love you!!

[nic-and-annie-in-france]

October Break: Hiking in UK and Ireland

Since we had kind of reached our fill of big cities, museums, and palaces last year, the trip I planned for our first vacation this year mostly focused on hiking and sightseeing in nature. Did you know that the British usually say “walking” when Americans would say “hiking”? I think they’re just being modest.

It was nice to be around our fellow English-speakers for a change. However, in Scotland and Ireland, I sometimes had more difficulty understanding English spoken with the regional accents than I would have understanding French!

This was our itinerary:

Day 1: Traveling Aix-les-Bains > Chambéry > Geneva > London Luton Airport > Oxford

Day 2: The Cotswolds AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)

Day 3: Sightseeing in Oxford, traveling Oxford > Manchester

Day 4: The Peak District

Day 5: Traveling Manchester > Kendal, Sightseeing in the Lake District

Day 6: The Lake District

Day 7: Traveling Kendal > Glasgow, lunch with K+A, relaxing (I had planned for us to visit Loch Lomond but a combination of lack of planning, gloomy weather, and fatigue made us nix it)

Day 8: Scottish Highlands

Day 9: Sightseeing in Edinburgh, traveling Glasgow > Belfast (via ferry)

Day 10: Giant’s Causeway

Day 11: Traveling Belfast > Dublin > Galway, sightseeing in Galway

Day 12: Connemara National Park

Day 13: Cliffs of Moher, traveling Galway > Cork

Day 14: Killarney National Park

Day 15: Traveling Cork > London Heathrow > Geneva > Culoz > Aix-les-Bains

And here are our miles walked over that time:

The weather/the season. The extended forecast for the UK and Ireland before we left showed rain every single day. However, we only got rained on less than half the time! I knew it was too much to ask for a repeat of the miraculously sunny vacation we had in Paris/Normandy in February, but I was still happy with the amount of dry weather we had. We also had the good fortune of being there to see the fall colors at their very best. Even our rainy and foggy days were enjoyable because of the cozy autumn ambiance.

Going car-less. I was worried that we would have trouble getting out to the trailheads if we relied solely on public buses and trains, but it mostly turned out to be fine. Let’s just say that in our experience, the British transport systems are much more punctual than the Irish ones! Riding instead of driving gave us both the opportunity to relax and enjoy the scenery as we traveled from place to place. Buses and trains in the area almost always had wifi or USB charging onboard (or both), which was an extra bonus because it alleviated my anxieties about missing our stop (we could follow the bus on Google Maps) and/or about my phone dying.

Walkers’ rights and public rights of way. In planning for the trip, I learned that in England, walkers/hikers have organized into formal clubs and won the legal right to have public footpaths and “rights of way” all over the country. I’m still kind of unclear on how this works legally (I googled “Can you just walk anywhere in England,” it didn’t help much), but we took full advantage of these walkers’ rights during our time in the region. We took paths that went through practically infinite sheep pastures, climbing over stiles or letting ourselves through cattle gates as necessary. I think it’s so nice that the country allows people to access the natural beauty of the countryside in a way that really doesn’t harm people’s private property much at all. The sheep never seemed to mind us, after all. It was great to have access to all these places, but even better was the way the English culture has helped to facilitate and accommodate walkers on their journeys. On several different websites I was able to find not only maps of hiking routes, but detailed turn-by-turn instructions for the routes which kept me, a navigationally challenged person, on the right path every time.

No buses in the Cotswolds. Blackberries. Our first hiking day was a Sunday, and no public buses run in the Cotswolds AONB on Sundays. We therefore had to rely on trains alone to reach a trailhead, so our options for starting and ending points were limited. We found a suitable out-and-back trail running from a village called Moreton-in-Marsh to another one called Stow-on-the-Wold. The map and instructions I found for it listed everything in kilometers instead of miles, so when I saw the distance involved, I assumed it wouldn’t be that much in miles without ever actually bothering to do the calculation. By the time we got back to our Airbnb in the evening, we had walked about 17 miles. Oops. Fortunately, our route that day had us pass by lots of hedgerows, and lots of those hedgerows had blackberries growing in them. At first we were hesitant to eat any of them, but as we walked further and further, and our stomachs got hungrier and hungrier, we were eating them by the handful. I’m still not sure whether to feel guilty about this; the blackberries didn’t belong to us, but the sheep in the adjacent pasture could never have reached them, and it seemed pretty unlikely that anyone was growing them on purpose. All I know is that these possibly-sinful blackberries sustained us on our accidentally super long trek that day, and we were both very thankful for them.

The bus at the Lake District. Bus tickets in the Lake District were not sold per ride, but per day, and they were pretty expensive. I was sad we had to pay so much just to get from one town to the next. They turned out to be one of the best value parts of our whole trip! First of all, a ride that is only 25 miles as the crow flies takes an hour and a half. Make it round trip and that makes three whole hours of your day. This sounds like the ride would be tedious and boring, but with the jaw-dropping scenery to look at the whole time, it was so much fun. I listened to The Prisoner of Azkaban on audiobook the whole time and tried to take pictures out the dirty bus window, nudging Nicolas every 30 seconds to show him another beautiful mountainside or lake. The icing on the cake was that the bus driver on the second day gave us a discount for our tickets!

Lunch with K+A. K and I usually check in with each other at the beginning of each school break to see what the other one’s plans are. On our second night, K texted me saying they were in Ireland and planned to go to Scotland later in the week. I told her it sounded like we were doing the same trip, just traveling in opposite directions. Sure enough, we realized that we would all be in Glasgow at the same time, so we planned to have lunch together. K suggested a restaurant where we could eat a three-course meal for £10 apiece, so we went there and caught up on our school years so far and compared notes on our travel itineraries. They had to catch a train soon after their meal, so we didn’t get to hang out for long, but it was nice to see some friendly faces in an unexpected place.

The ferry. We opted to take a ferry instead of a plane from Glasgow to Belfast. I expected that we would have to stand out in the dark and cold for two hours as we waited to arrive in Northern Ireland. The ferry turned out to be more like a cruise ship than the little Valley View ferry I’m used to. We sat in a huge lounge with lots of comfy armchairs and took a nap as we waited to reach the other side of the sea. There were at least two restaurants on board, and there was one room with a large TV where we were warned not to sit because the ferry was expecting four hundred soccer hooligans to come watch a game there. I also saw a sign for a Swedish spa on a different deck. It was a really cool way to travel—I wished the ride had been a bit longer!

Molly the pub dog and George the hostel cat. One of the things we miss most about home is the availability of our friends’ and families’ pets to play with and snuggle. It’s rare that we feel comfortable enough to interact with a stranger’s cat or dog over here. But after another hike in poor weather in Ireland, we stopped in a pub that happened to have a border collie named Molly curled up in front of the fire. As we sipped our coffee, Molly periodically got up from her spot by the fire and visited the tables of the people in the pub. We showered her with so much affection that she laid down under our table and let us rub her belly (excuse the poor quality picture). One of the hostels we stayed at had a permanent resident in George, the ginger cat who was usually found curled up on a window seat in the hallway. Whenever we came across him we gave him a quick pat too.

Traditional foods. Since Great Britain and Ireland are typically colder and rainier than France, their food is typically cozier and heartier. We had bangers and mash, scotch pie, haggis, fish and chips, English breakfasts, Irish stew, black pudding, and steak and ale pie. Yum on all counts.

Non-traditional foods. We were walking to our Airbnb in Manchester when a poster for Taco Bell caught our eye. Although McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King are commonplace in Europe, we’ve never seen a Taco Bell. We immediately made plans to locate the TB and give it a try, and our dinner there the next evening didn’t disappoint. Although we had to pay about twice as much for it as we do at home, it was worth it to taste our favorite American comfort food so far from home. We also ate an entire Domino’s pizza in a public bus station. I felt like a criminal the whole time, but it was tasty.

Irish music. I love traditional Irish music. In grad school, I had a Spotify playlist of jigs and reels that was perfect for studying to because it was upbeat enough to keep me awake but instrumental enough that the lyrics wouldn’t distract me. We spent the last night of the trip in an Irish bar in Cork where musicians had gathered to play trad music. Music in a cheery pub was a nice complement to a day spent on a cold, rainy walk, as well as a perfect conclusion to our whole vacation. 

[anime-butterfly]

John and Karkat watch fireworks on a roof

This is just something I had typed up in two and half hours when my wifi was acting up. It’s for a Homestuck AU called Real Men Wear Tights. I hope I did a good job and hope everyone like this.

It's seven in the evening, meaning that soon it'll be dark enough for the fireworks to be seen. It's July fourth which means it's one of the few night that I don't have patrol till later in the night. So I took advantage of it to enjoy my evening on the roof. I lean back slightly and let the warm evening breeze blow past me. On the wind I could smell many grills going, cooking up burgers, hot dogs and the like. Down below on the street, I could hears kids laughing and having fun with their family and friends. Every now and then a snap or a pop would go off, evident to them playing with snappers or chasing after parachutes. I smile and shut my eyes and lay down as I listen more to the sounds of today, waiting for it to get dark. "John why the fuck are you on your roof?" I smile sitting up and look over the edge to see Karkat glaring up at me from the ground. "Hi Karkat." I waved at him. "Why are you on the roof?" He crosses his arms. "To watch the fireworks when they go off above the trees." "How did you get up there?" I laughed a bit. "How do you think I got up here? I climbed." It wasn't a complete lie, but I wasn't going to tell him I climbed from my bedroom window. "Ask dad to get out the ladder again so that you can join me up here." He rolls his eyes and makes his way to the door grumbling. Most likely about me being the roof. I sit up again and kind of people watch as I wait for Karkat to join me. I see a family of four that consisted of the parents and two boys about maybe late middle school and grade school ages. They were all wearing t-shirts, shorts, and tennis shoe, except for the mother who had flip flops on. They're seemed to be going on a walk around the neighborhood. I see a girl, my age maybe younger, in a green tie-dye shirt and jeans riding a bike down the road watching everyone set up to shoot off firework. Her long brown hair was tied back with hat over it, to keep her cool. She hits something causing her and her bike to fall over, but she gets up quickly and gets back on. Next I see a young couple with their daughter walking around. The little girl was sitting in a wagon with some firework in it. She was wearing a sundress well her parents were wearing t-shirts and jeans. Then I see what might be three siblings or three friends walking and joking, and each of them dressed in dark clothes. The oldest and only guy had a black shirt and trip pants, the middle a black top and with purple lace on the back and a black skirt, and the youngest had a black shirt as well and plain jeans. the oldest girl had a white umbrella with purple lace on it. "Does that girl like purple or something?" I turned to see Karkat next to me.  "Here, your dad told me to bring this up to you." He hands me a container with a fork and a slice of pie. "Thanks, so why are you here today. I had thought you would of been at work or hanging out with some of your other friends." I took a bite out of my pie. "Already worked today, and they had other plans. So now I stuck with you on your damn roof for the evening." "You know Karkat, we don't have to be on the roof. We can hang out in my room, the tv room, or go somewhere." "And leave behind good pie? Hell no." He grumble again as he eat a bit of his slice. I chuckles a bit at the scene. "The hell are you laughing at?" "Nothing." The rest of the time as we wait, We talked about how our summer was going and watch was kids run around the street with sparklers in hand. At one point dad came up to give us a couple bottles of water before having to go back inside. Apparently a few of his co-workers showed up and wanted to talk. Though Karkat think they just came to have some dessert, since according to him, dad and I can make the best damn pies out there. Once it was dark enough, people started shooting off fireworks, lighting up the sky it beautiful colors and displays. I lay back once again and watch the shows for several hours till things started settling down for the night. We both got up and made our way to the ladder to climb down. When back on the ground, I grabbed the trash can and walk over to the street to help with cleanup. I feel Karkat's eyes on me as he watches me. "I like help clean up, makes it easier on everyone." I answered his unasked question. "And clean up goes quicker with everyone helping." I continue cleaning, and see him helping as well. When all the big stuff was cleaned up, and any leftover embers were put out, we all bid each other night. I watch as Karkat leaves to head home and when he is out of sight, I make my way inside to get ready for patrol. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I find Hemogoblin leaning on the railing to a building, seemingly waiting for me. I land behind him. He chuckles and turns to me with a smirk on his face. "Took you long enough." "Sorry, had to wait till the celebrations subsided before I could take flight." "What scared of getting hit?" "Nope, but I'm not much of a fan of being burned." I smile at him. "Anyways, let's get started, shall we." I hold my hand out to him. He smiles and takes my hand. "Yes, let's."

[jalisanwhitley]

West Coast Just Might Be The Best Coast: My San Francisco Trip

I got the chance to pack a bag and spend a few days working and playing in San Francisco (h/t to the digital nomad life). Even though it was colder than I expected (like seriously bring a sweater even if it is August), I really enjoyed my time in San Francisco. One of my friends moved out here for a job at Facebook so it was a great chance to catch up and also do a bit of exploring on my own. Recap below!

I had a last-minute client deadline and Southwest wifi wouldn’t let me be great, so I spent most of my first night doing work. I did stay at the Intercontinental my first night which was BEAUTIFUL and really central. I got the chance to get out of the hotel for dinner and went to Gracias Madre, a good vegan Mexican spot (shout out to Melissa for some great restaurant recommendations). 

The next day I did a free San Francisco in one-day walking tour with Free Tours by Foot. It was a good opportunity to get a lay of city, but was definitely a bit too long. In retrospect I would’ve done one of the shorter 2-hour tours. The hills in San Francisco are no joke, so the added bonus of the tour was I now have buns of steel and got a free workout.

The highlight was riding the trolley because I’m a shameless tourist. 

After we visited Grace Cathedral (which is beautiful and worth the trip if you’re into architecture and stained glass windows) I ditched the tour for lunch at the Plant Cafe which was REALLY good.

After more work (it truly never ends and is the side no one sees about working for yourself. The work hours are whenever required until whenever it gets done) I met up with my friend Corey for Off the Grid. 

Off the Grid is a food truck festival with live music. There were lots of really good vendors (shout out Johnny’s Doughnuts for literally the best doughnut I’ve had in my life, Revenge Pies for the best apple pie in the world - fight me, hot or cold it was heavenly - and Senior Sisig for making me a believer in fries on my burrito). 

Later we walked around Little Italy and the waterfront and I got to try In-N-Out Burger *for the culture*

The next day we went into full blown team too much mode and visited Muir Woods (which is breathtaking...and even that feels like an understatement), went on a wine tour in Napa and Sonoma and then Colours party back in San Francisco.  

After spending the early part of the morning at Muir woods with Extranomical Tours (highly recommend this tour) they then took us on to three wineries in Napa and Sonoma. 

I’ll be the first to say I’m not classy enough to tell you anything about wines. But I liked that we went from a small boutique winery, to a bit more interactive one where we see the grapes up close and get a good view, to a really large winery. Can’t say that I discovered any new wines that I love hashtag #BasicPalette but it was a fun way to spend the day. As a part of our add-on package we even got to have a really great lunch in Napa. 

On my final day in town I went to Yosemite. It’s about a 4-hour ride from San Francisco, but I’d definitely recommend that if you have the time to set aside a day for a visit. I always appreciate the time to take solo time away to get reconnected with nature. It always gives me perspective and a chance to realign myself my higher purpose. 

After visiting, I’m really considered doing a couple month stint on the West Coast (probably somewhere a bit warmer than San Francisco though). The overall vibe and the amount of natural attractions definitely are pulling me towards spending a lot more time there. We’ll see what 2018 brings...

[foodreviewonline-blog]

THE HOMEMADE CAFÉ - FOOD REVIEW ONLINE (FRO) . LOCATION: Shop 4, Kaveri Building 41, Near Oshiwara Police Station, Oshiwara Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri West. CUISINE: CONTINENTAL, ITALIAN AVERAGE COST: 1200 for two people (approx.) WORKING HOURS:12 PM – 12 MIDNIGHT DISABLED FRIENDLY: YES OUTDOOR SEATING: YES VALET PARKING: NO CREDIT CARD PAYMENT: YES TAKEAWAY: YES FREE WIFI: NO KIDS FRIENDLY: YES VEGETARIAN ONLY: NO . What we love here: Chef Special Salad, Bannoffee Pie, Burgers, Hot Chocolate, Pink Sauce Pasta, Garlic Bread, Risotto. . Why Visit: This place is owned by television celebrities, so do expect TV celebs to drop by casually for their daily cuppa. . Location: 4.5 Taste: 5 Quantity: 5 Presentation: 5 Ambience: 5 Hygiene: 4.5 Service: 4.5 Cost: 4 . Our Review: 4.5 / 5 This Cafe is where you will get to experience the Euro Trip Fantasies. On first look, it’s easy to fall in love with this cafe, decked up with bougainville as blooming on bright blue exteriors, just like Covent Garden on a sunny London afternoon. The cafe has a very European vibe – think open-air quaint French cafes. Cozy and snug, the cafe’s walls are adorned with quirky posters and photos. Inside the café you will get to see beautiful paintings, wood shelves where you can see a photoframe, books, clock kept on it giving the place a homely feeling. The breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays are really inviting. Having classic eggs Benedict, pancakes, french toast and smoothies would be an awesome way to start your day. Try their quinoa salad and chicken Caesar salad, and the vegetarian lasagna as well. The unique thing about this cafe is the menu and bill is served in books i.e. They will serve the bill in our favorite classics novels such as To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher In The Rye. The service of this place is good. Overall this place is a perfect spot for chilling with your friends. . Don’t forget to follow our handle @foodreviewonline and for more such detailed restaurant reviews visit us on www.foodreviewonline.com. . #foodreviewonline#kailashshahaniofficial #instafood#vegan #food #healthy #yummy#vegetarian #likes #espresso #salad#vegetables #goodvibes #goodfood

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Tagged by: @a-vampire-wannabe

Favorite movie?             The Hobbit The Desolation of Smaug. Sunny day or Thunderstorm?            Thunderstorm. Biggest fear?            Loneliness. Favorite character(s)?            Harry Potter, Katsuki Yuuri, Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle, Hannibal Lecter(NBC), (BBC)Sherlock Holmes, Kurt Hummel... many more. Ice cream or Smoothie?            Ice Cream. Choco Chip Cookie Dough! One thing you can’t go anywhere without it?             Used to be my purse*which had everythign I need in it.) Now I carry my tablet and read downloaded fics when there’s no Wifi. Celebrity crush?         Lilly Singh. SHE COUNTS! Favorite place to go?         Red Robin because of Mt. High Mudd Pie and the Bleu Ribbon Burger. I have no life. Person you look up to?      Lilly Singh! Are you or morning person or a night owl?           Night Owl! It’s 4 am right now and I haven’t gone to bed yet!

[too-many-cats-in-one-trench-coat]

I was tagged by the lovely and amazing @angelsanarchy​ !!

Rules: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and then tag as many people as there are questions.

Coke or Pepsi? Honestly, I’m more of a Sprite person, but I would rather drink a glass of fish oil than Pepsi, so....Coke.

Disney or Dreamworks? Both.

Coffee or tea? Coffee, mostly because I get caffeine headaches if I go more than a day without it.

Books or movies? Both, but I watch more TV these days...

Windows or Mac? I like my Mac, but I resent the vertical integration the company implements with the passion of a thousand flaming suns which is why I feel the need to rant about it in simple questionnaire.  

DC or Marvel? Both.  Specifically Captain America: The Winter Soldier & Nolan’s Batman.

Xbox or Playstation? That jumping dinosaur game that pops up when there’s no wifi or the version of Pinball that came pre-loaded on old computers.

Night owl or early riser? HAHAHHAHAHAAA.  Night owl.

Cards or Chess? Cards (especially if they happen to be part of a Cards Against Humanity box set) 

Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate all day every day

Vans or Converse? Converse

Star Wars or Star Trek? You can’t make me choose between my space families.

One episode per week or marathoning? Marathoning

Gandalf or Obi-Wan? Whichever one of them drops their robe more dramatically.

Heroes or Villains? Heroes.

John Williams or Hans Zimmer? Hans Zimmer, but I’m always a sucker for some Thomas Newman and Ilan Eshekeri can be soooo much fun.

Disneyland/Disney World or Six Flags?  Roller Coaster Tycoon

Forest or sea? Sea.

Flying or reading minds? FLYING! My brain is loud enough and I’m already far too preoccupied with what other people *might* be thinking--knowing would drive me insane.

Twin Peaks or Northern Exposure? Twin Peaks!

Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings? Harry Potter!!!!

Cake or Pie? Cake with wayyyyyyy too much icing.  Like 1:1 ratio of cake to icing.

You are banished to a desert island, which Benedict Cumberbatch character would you choose to take with you? Whichever one has possession of a boat and/or a means to get off the island.  Otherwise, no thank you.

Train or Cruise ship? Train. Being on a cruise ship is effectively stranding yourself on a tiny island should something go wrong in the middle of the ocean.

Brian Cox or Neil deGrasse-Tyson? Neil deGrasse-Tyson.

Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland? Wizard of Oz.

Fanfiction or fanart? Fanfiction.

The Hunger Games - Books or movies? The film “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”

Be able to see the future or travel into the past? That depends. By being able to see into the future, would I be able to affect/alter its outcome?  Would traveling to the past have the potential to change the present?  A lot of variables to consider, and a lot of things i could potentially fuck up.

Han Solo or Luke Skywalker? Han Solo--I am forever a sucker for the sarcastic, grumpy one. 

Lilacs or sunflowers? Sunflowers.

Spring or autumn? Autumn.

Campfire or fireplace? Campfire.

French fries or onion rings? French fries.

Truth or dare? Slowly backing away from the table while chuckling nervously before turning around and breaking into a dead sprint and shrieking. YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!!!!

Winter or Summer? Winter.

Vampires or Werewolves? Werewolves.

Red or blue? Blue.

Eyes or Lips? Eyes.

Burgers or Sandwiches? I mean technically a burger is a sandwich, so sandwich.

Friends-to-lovers or Enemies-to-lovers trope? Friends-to-lovers, but my biggest weakness is Kind of Annoying Acquaintances-to-Friends-to-Lovers.

KFC or McDonald’s? In-N-Out

Steak with mashed potatoes or french fries? French fries. No steak, just a giant pile of fries.

Rain or Snow? Rain.

Scary Movies or Action-Adventure?  Action-Adventure.

Leather Jackets or Letterman Jackets? Leather Jackets.

Fantasy or Science Fiction? Oh man, both.

Beach Vacation or Winter Wonderland? BEACH.

My question:  Otters holding hands or baby sloth yawning?

Pretty much everyone I know has been tagged, so i’m going to see if @dennys is bored.

[mittensmorgul]

I can’t believe Dean and Cas are STILL making out...

Inspired by @elizabethrobertajones‘, uh, inspired fic entitled I can’t believe Dean and Cas made out, wherein I was asked to imagine a completely different scenario to fit that single sentence prompt. *Dean voice: I think I delivered it.*

(updated for the weekend crowd, and because it just reached 666 hits on ao3 and that seemed ominous, you can now read the whole fic on tumblr. I waffled about putting this many words under a read more, but it’s friday so I went nuts)

4.8k, AO3

Dean walked into the coffee shop where they’d arranged to meet up after having spent most of the morning running down multiple leads all over town. They’d started looking into the case when local fly fishermen going out for a leisurely afternoon at the riverfront stopped coming home. After the second disappearance in as many days, a curious hiker had discovered the first of two trashed campsites littered with abandoned gear.

Cas had suggested it might be a Mari-Morgan, and Sam countered with the assertion that it could just as easily be a naiad. Just to be contrary, Dean had laid even odds on it being a witch. Hey, if you went in expecting the worst you’d be less likely to be disappointed. And in Dean’s mind, there was nothing more disappointing than having to deal with a witch.

Both fishermen had been presumed dead, their equipment and campsites stained in blood, with not a trace of what had attacked either man left behind. No footprints, animal tracks, or any signs of a struggle outside the blood splattered heavily around each site. Everything that had been collected at the two scenes had been brought to the morgue for further examination, to determine if the blood belonged to the missing men, or if it constituted enough blood lost for the coroner to declare them officially dead. It was a grim case, witches or no.

They’d Rochambeau’ed that morning to divvy up assignments, and Sam had thrown rock like Dean expected he would; which is why Sam got to spend the morning interviewing the two missing men’s wives, while Dean had trudged through the woods with a grizzled old Park Ranger named Duke. It hadn’t been all that bad, Dean thought, despite the damp and the mud and the bugs. The ranger guy sort of reminded him of Bobby, right down to wearing a tattered old trucker cap instead of the usual Smokey the Bear hat with his ranger uniform.

After swearing to Dean that he wouldn’t sniff any dead guys (well technically Cas hadn’t sworn it, but he’d rolled his eyes at Dean’s admonition, which was good as swearing on it in Dean’s book), Cas spent the morning at the morgue examining (but not sniffing!) the recovered fishing gear. If that lead didn’t pan out, Cas was going to head to the local history center to check their archives for any similar disappearances along that stretch of the river.

Dean wasn’t surprised that he was the first to arrive back at their rendezvous point. His job had been the roughest and dirtiest of the three, but if Sam ventured into the local library after finishing up his interviews and Cas got caught up searching through dusty old archives at the history center, Dean could potentially have a long wait on his hands.

They’d picked the coffee shop because it was the only place in town other than the library with free wifi, and unlike the library they served a fantastic cheeseburger and a half-decent slice of pie. It’s not like taking an hour or two waiting for Sam and Cas to catch up was gonna be a huge burden on Dean. He glanced around the cafe just to make sure he hadn’t somehow missed his gargantuan brother hunched over his laptop at one of the booths in the back of the small seating area. The coast was clear, so he sauntered up to the counter to order. A young man in a black apron and a deep purple polo shirt grinned at him as he approached.

“Welcome to Wired, what can I get you today?”

Dean quickly scanned the menu board bolted to the wall above the cashier's head. “Yeah, I’ll have a cheeseburger, medium rare, with onion and Swiss, and a side of fries.”

“Anything to drink with that?” the man asked, his fingers hovering over the cash register buttons.

“Yeah, um,” Dean paused, noticing an entire section of the menu devoted to the kind of froufy specialty coffee drinks that Sammy ordered just to annoy him, and thought fuck it. He’d been hiking along a muddy river, battling his way through the underbrush, and triumphing over the wilderness all morning. It wouldn’t kill him to have a girly drink to balance out all that manliness. He composed his face as best he could and muttered out his order. “A large salted caramel frozen mochaccino.”

The dude behind the counter grinned at him, but typed in his order without comment. “Your food’ll be up in about ten minutes,” he said a minute later, handing over Dean’s drink. “Have a seat anywhere you like, and someone will bring it to your table.”

Dean picked up the tall paper cup, a little relieved that the barista hadn’t labeled it something like pansy-ass coffee. If Sam showed up before he finished it, he wouldn’t even have to make an excuse about what he was drinking. For all Sam would know, it could’ve been a nice, perfectly manly cup of Coke.

The seating area was nearly empty. It was too late for the lunch rush, having just passed two o’clock. The town was small enough that Dean had a hard time imagining any sort of rush in the little cafe. He instinctively wove his way between the few empty tables to a booth in the far corner so he could sit with his back to the wall and have an unobstructed view of the entire place.

In the next booth over sat two girls, the only other patrons hanging around in the otherwise deserted cafe. Dean guessed they were probably high school students judging by the mess of textbooks scattered across their table. They both ignored their books (and Dean) entirely in favor of taking advantage of the free wifi and messing with some sort of social media app on their phones. It was a good thing, too.

Dean nearly did a double-take when he got a good look the first girl. At first glance, she bore a striking resemblance to a very young Cassie Robinson. He restrained himself from blurting out her name, but the fluttery feeling came right back when he nearly mistook her friend for a much younger Lisa Braeden. He’d gritted his teeth together and shook off the creeping feeling of deja vu times two and got his breathing under control. These girls were complete strangers. Any similarity to women from his distant past was purely coincidental. He couldn’t help wondering if the universe was trying to personally torment him anyway, but he did his best to let it go.

Dean sipped at his salty, caramel-y drink for a minute or two, passively listening in to their frequent outbursts over whatever their friends were saying online. It helped him move past the his stunned initial reaction to both girls, reminding him that they were just two ordinary local teenagers and not specters from his failed romantic history. For the most part, he was just enjoying sitting on his ass for a few minutes, trying not to think about having to hike down that steep and slippery riverbank after dark if it turned out they needed to go back to gank some kinda river monster.

He scanned the room once more for good measure before tipping his head back and closing his eyes for a few seconds, enjoying the moment of peaceful relative safety and the mouthwatering aroma of sauteed onions wafting out from the kitchen. His attention had turned completely to the burger he knew was only a few minutes away when suddenly his peace was shattered with a single sentence.

“I can’t believe Dean and Cas made out!” one of the girls exclaimed.

That got Dean’s attention. His eyes snapped open, but he restrained himself from jumping up and demanding a clarification of that random outburst. He even managed to (barely) maintain the disinterested facade he’d been wearing since he’d sat down.

The other girl, the one who’d reminded him of Lisa, snorted and shook her head. “It’s gotta be some sort of publicity stunt. The publishing company’s probably trying to drum up interest in the new series.”

The Cassie girl nodded slowly, and Dean couldn’t see her face, but when she replied she sounded dejected. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Edlund’s got what, seven years worth of fanfic to compete with? If he’s really planning to start writing again, he’d need to do something huge to hook fans back in with new canon.”

Dean almost groaned when he heard the name Edlund, because they couldn’t possibly be talking about Carver Edlund, aka Chuck, aka God. Because he’d floated off to who the fuck knows where with Amara months ago. There was no way in hell he was actually bothering to keep writing the Supernatural books, or the Winchester Gospel, or whatever he was calling it nowadays. Surely he had better things to do than to keep fucking with Dean’s life. They had to be talking about something else. Right?

“Sam and Dean already saved the world and stopped the apocalypse,” the Lisa girl replied. “Can’t really get much bigger than that.”

Dean couldn’t help it. He let out a pained little groan. As if the fact that their case that was going absolutely nowhere wasn’t irritating enough to deal with, apparently he and Sam were about to be used for story fodder again.

The Cassie girl laughed. “True. The only way they could go bigger is if Sam somehow came back from the cage, or Dean finally confessed his feelings to Cas.”

Feelings? Dean thought, the fluttery rush of a few of those unconfessed and repressed feelings threatening to break free. He stomped them down as usual, refocusing on the girls’ conversation.

“Yeah. I wonder where the series picks up again. Right after Swan Song, maybe? Dean prays that night, and Cas comes back to him and they finally tell each other how they feel. Maybe the new books will be about Dean out hunting with his angel by his side for all time.”

While she’d spoken, the Lisa girl’s voice had gone all dreamy and far away, and Dean had to shake himself a bit because his thoughts were wandering off in a dangerously similar direction. It was easier than picturing Lisa-- of all people-- speculating on his post-apocalypse love life. It just felt wrong.

He also couldn’t deny that he’d been wondering more and more what it might be like to settle down like that; if Cas would ever stick around long enough to even try. Dean thought they’d make a good team, anyway. Since they didn’t currently have an apocalypse hanging over their heads and Cas had been sticking around to hunt with him and Sam more and more, maybe it was a good time to give the thought some closer attention. Dean's mind had begun to wander off down that dangerous path when the Cassie girl scoffed.

“No, Rachel. I’m serious. Read the press release for yourself.”

The Cassie girl handed her phone over to her daydreaming friend-- not Lisa, mercifully, but Rachel-- who read aloud, “Flying Wiccan Press, the original publisher of the Supernatural series by Carver Edlund, will reopen its doors through a generous grant from an anonymous donor. After nearly seven years, Edlund promises that the long-awaited new installment in his iconic series will be just what fans of the series have been waiting for.”

Long-awaited? Dean thought with a barely restrained laugh. Iconic? What was that publisher lady smoking? Rachel stopped reading long enough to raise a suspicious eyebrow at her friend, and Dean decided he liked her right then and there. That press release was a bunch of self-aggrandizing bullshit if he ever heard it.

“Are you serious right now, Andi?”

“Keep reading,” Andi-- not Cassie-- insisted, and sat back in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest.

“In our exclusive interview, Mr. Edlund shared a few juicy spoilers of what fans of the series are in for. The first novel will deal with Sam’s resurrection from Hell. The second will test their understanding of the hunting lore, bringing both old and new friends and foes into a battle that spans heaven, hell, earth, and… purgatory.” She stopped reading for a second, but Andi egged her on.

“You’re almost to the good bit.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, but kept going. “The third book will introduce a nearly catastrophic fate for Castiel, but his ordeal will give him profound new insight into humanity, especially where it concerns the one human he shares a more profound bond with.” She stopped reading for a few seconds, and Dean watched her eyes go a little buggy as her friend started squealing like a teakettle. Rachel cleared her throat and went on. “Will they finally clear the air between them enough for a kiss? All three novels will be published together and can be preordered blah blah oh MY GOD. I can’t believe Dean and Cas made out!”

The two of them were too busy squealing at each other to notice Dean quietly having a heart attack one both over. It took everything he had not to leap from his seat and snatch the phone out of Rachel’s hand to read the words for himself. What the fuck was Chuck even thinking, publishing something like that? He and Cas had never kissed. That hadn’t been what happened at all.

Yeah, Cas had met with a nearly catastrophic fate, back when Metadouche had cleared out heaven and left Cas human for a while. But it had done the opposite of clearing the air between them or whatever the hell Chuck wrote in his new books. They’d all met with a long series of pretty damn catastrophic fates over the last seven years, come to think of it. The whole sun-nearly-imploding thing had been pretty damn catastrophic in itself, and they were only a few months past that particular disaster. Still, Dean hadn’t yet properly worked himself up to completely clearing the air with Cas.

What, he was working up to it. Slowly. Probably.

These kinds of things took time.

“Seven years of nothing but angst and fanfic, and now it’s finally going canon,” Andi said.

“I know, right?” Rachel replied. “The tension must be insane between them by now. I couldn’t even imagine it.”

“Being that in love with each other, sacrificing themselves over and over for each other, and never getting any of the benefits? Yeah. I would've exploded by now. They deserve at least a make out after all that.”

Okay, Dean thought. So maybe he really had taken too long. Then again, Cas really had stuck around this time (finally!), and he hadn’t seemed interested in leaving again. He’d even taken over one of the spare rooms in the bunker instead of haunting the library and hallways all night. Maybe for once he really did intend to stay.

But what if suddenly springing his years of pent-up feelings on the guy scared Cas off? Dean stared out the window and thought about what might change if he were really to sit Cas down, uninterrupted for once, and lay out the whole truth. Then again, if Chuck had written it, it was destined to happen one way or another. How desperately awful could the fallout be if God himself had predicted it happening?

How bad could it be if Dean simply refused to fight against one of Chuck’s prophecies, just this one time?

If anything was worth setting aside his stubborn instinct to rebel against the Grand Plan for, this was probably it. So why the fuck was he so scared?

He was contemplating the long list of potential scenarios that could result from giving in to what was supposedly his destiny (as if simply thinking of Cas as his destiny wasn’t mind-bending enough) when an older woman brought out his cheeseburger and set it in front of him. Dean absently picked at his fries for a minute until he noticed Cas walking up the to the front door of the cafe. He picked up his burger and took a huge bite so he’d have an extra minute to compose himself before he’d be expected to say so much as hey, Cas.

Cas saw him and waved, but detoured to the front counter to order a cup of coffee. He didn’t always eat, even if it was something he’d been doing more and more often lately, but Cas would never turn down a cup of coffee. That gave Dean two precious extra minutes, time enough to appreciate a couple more bites of his burger and battle down his nerves. He scarfed nearly the entire thing while Rachel and Andi began packing up their books. That was probably for the best, he’d thought. The last thing he needed was a couple of nosy fangirls… fangirling over him while all these thoughts about Cas and Chuck and prophecy and destiny floated around in his head.

By the time Cas slid into the seat across the table from Dean, the two girls were making their way toward the exit. Dean followed them out with his eyes before finally turning to Cas and swallowing the last bite of his cheeseburger. It landed in his stomach like a rock.

“Hey, Cas,” he said, picking up his half-melted frozen whateverthehellitwas and taking an overly large gulp to wash everything down.

Cas smiled back at him, cradling his warm mug between his hands. “Hello, Dean. Did you have any success at the river?”

Dean sighed and sat back from the table, his appetite suddenly gone. This wasn’t some weird, awkward date with Cas. They were supposed to be working a case, not... flirting with each other, or whatever Chuck thought was supposed to be happening here. The last fifteen minutes evaporated like an impossible dream, and he disappointingly focused back on the real world again.

“Nah. There was nothing to see. I fell on my ass a couplea times and frightened a deer, and that’s just the highlight reel. You get anything at the morgue?”

Cas hummed and took a sip of his coffee. “I didn’t sense anything from the fishing equipment, either. Other than the fact that all of it was brand new, and yet covered with old blood. There were still price tags affixed to some of the gear, and none of the blood was even human.”

“What, some kinda monster blood you think?” Dean asked, finally wondering if they had a solid lead on what they were hunting. “You think the guys maybe fought back against whatever grabbed them?”

Cas shook his head. “It was pig’s blood, obtained from a local butcher shop about two weeks ago. I questioned the butcher, and he confirmed that he sold a middle-aged woman two gallons worth just before the first disappearance.”

Dean made a disgusted face at that. “He didn’t think that was strange?”

“Oh, he did. The woman said was testing out several blood pudding recipes.”

“Sounds like way too much blood pudding.”

Cas shrugged. “He’d never seen the woman before or since, and she doesn't fit the description of anyone else involved in the case so far.”

“So another dead end.”

Dean sighed and toyed with what was left of his fries. At least he’d managed to gobble down his cheeseburger before the mention of blood pudding killed his appetite for red meat for the rest of the day.

“You hear from Sammy yet?” Dean asked, giving up on his fries and turning back to his salt caramel slush.

Cas shook his head again. “After I left the butcher shop I examined the records at the historical society. These disappearances seem to be unique in the town’s history. Nothing like this has ever happened here before.”

“So is this even a case? Or did these two dudes get together with some mystery chick and fake their own deaths for the insurance money or something?”

Dean’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see a text from Sam.

>>Starting to think this isn’t a case. The detective just texted to tell me that both fishermen were found alive and well two towns over

“What the hell?” Dean said aloud, before furiously typing out a reply.

“What did he say?” Cas asked, and Dean held up a finger before finishing his message.

<<Where the hell have they been all this time?

>>They both woke up in this little B&B about an hour ago. No memories. The owner insists they both checked in of their own free will and have been hanging out together for the better part of the last two weeks.

<<WTF?

>>I’m heading back to the station to interview them both. If you and Cas want to meet me there in an hour or so, we can probably head home tonight.

Dean relayed the messages to Cas, who agreed with Sam.

“We should probably interview both men to determine if they’d been possessed or otherwise influenced to behave so strangely.”

Dean nodded, studying Cas’s sincere concern. “Maybe this is still our kinda case,” Dean agreed after a few seconds. “Freaked their wives half to death worrying about them. It sucks to have a loved one wander out of your life like that with no explanation.”

Cas’s shoulders slumped and he studied the remaining contents of his mug with an intensity that had Dean concerned that the mug was going to shatter under the force of it. He was about to make a joke about it when Cas looked up and focused that intensity right on him. Dean was now concerned that he was the one in danger of shattering...

“I’m sorry that I ever left you that way, Dean.”

“What?” Dean’s heart rate doubled. This was it. They were gonna clear the air, right here in the corner booth of this tiny cafe. He sucked in a fortifying breath of coffee-scented air and hoped to Chuck he wasn’t about to ruin everything. “No, Cas, I get it. You had important stuff to do. And hey, just like these guys, you always come home eventually.”

Cas finally smiled a little bit. “Home? Yes. I feel like I’m home now. I think I’d like to stay this time.”

Dean blinked a few times and tried to remember to breathe. This was really happening. “Stay. Like, permanently?”

“If you’ll have me. Yes, Dean. I’ve spent a long time trying to determine where I belong. I know you said in the past that I was part of your family, that I’d always have a home with you. I think I finally understand that that’s where I belong.”

“What, at the bunker?” Dean blurted out.

Cas smiled wider. “With you, Dean. Wherever that happens to be.”

Dean nodded and ventured another shaky step out onto the limb that Chuck had written for him. So far, so good, and the branch was holding steady. “Maybe we could try hunting together more. Just the two of us.”

“I think I’d like that very much,” Cas agreed.

Dean’s mind ran back over the good-as-gospel prophecy that he’d fortuitously overheard right before Cas had arrived. For once in his sad, sorry life, Chuck hadn’t steered Dean wrong. They were definitely clearing the air at a rather alarming rate now. All that was left were the big confessions and then, hopefully, the making out. He tried to ignore the feeling that he was about to be strangled by invisible hands and choked out the words he’d been pushing down for years.

“That’s good, Cas, becauseyouknowIloveyouandIjustneedyoutostaywithme.”

As soon as he got it out, his eyes went wide with panic and he stopped breathing entirely. Dean was sure he’d fucked everything up. He’d let one stupid overheard conversation between a couple of teenagers fill him up with the ridiculous notion that their words had really had Chuck’s stamp of approval pasted over them. And really he should’ve known better. For an omnipotent god, Chuck didn’t exactly have a perfect track record with his prophecies. Dean had found a way to bork Chuck’s grand plans a couple of times now. For a few terrifying seconds, he was positive he’d done it again.

Across the table, Cas looked just as stunned as Dean felt, but at least he hadn’t run away. And he’d mercifully not demanded that Dean repeat himself, despite his rushed and garbled delivery.

“I… I love you too, Dean.” Cas tentatively reached one hand out across the table and rested it atop Dean’s.

Where Dean’s palms were damp with panic sweat, Cas’s were warm from cradling his coffee. Even so, Dean didn’t hesitate, flipping his hand over and grasping on to Cas’s. He reached into his pocket with his free hand and tossed down a tip for the waitress before sliding out of the booth and dragging Cas along with him.

As they reached the door Dean muttered under his breath, “We are so not making out in a coffee shop. I don’t give a rat’s ass what Chuck has to say about it.”

They made it all the way back to the Impala before giving in to destiny.

***

“I can’t believe Dean and Cas made out,” Sam said, walking down the sidewalk a few blocks away.

“I know, right?” Chuck agreed, looking and sounding as enthused as a chipmunk rediscovering a lost nut stash.

Amara rolled her eyes at her brother’s glee, but appeared to be quietly content. “That was a lot of trouble to go to, but I believe the result is more than worth the effort.”

“Quite rewarding,” Chuck agreed, dumping the bag of school books he’d borrowed in front of the local high school as they walked past. “That was definitely better than any of the plans I ever came up with for those two. I never could quite get them on the same page. You’ve got a real knack for writing, Sam. You should think about taking over the Supernatural franchise. There’s not a lot of money in it, but maybe you’d be better at it than I ever was.”

“So you’re not really publishing new books, then, right?”

“N-no!” Chuck exclaimed, as Sam loomed over him dangerously.

“He’s retired his typewriter,” Amara confirmed. “It was interesting to play so many different characters this week, though.”

Chuck smiled at his sister, counting off all the people they’d invented to make Sam’s script come to fruition. “Two fishermen, two distraught wives, two teenage girls, one park ranger, one police detective, one nosy and slightly traumatized hiker, and one morgue attendant, and one nice lady with a slightly unnerving passion for finding the ultimate blood pudding recipe. I think it was worth it in the end. Plus, we’ve got new fishing gear!”

He pulled the former "evidence" out of thin air and handed one set of slightly bloodstained fishing gear to Amara, who took it happily.

“So now you’ll teach me to fish?”

“I think so. There’s a few natural wonders I think are best taken in with a few hours of quiet contemplation. Even if it’s occasionally interrupted by a trout.”

“You promised to show me all of your greatest creations, brother. I’ll hold you to your word.”

Chuck grinned at her. “I think you’ve already seen my greatest creation, but the National Parks are worth a visit anyway. Bears are pretty cool. And elk. Arctic foxes are super cute, too... at least when they’re not noshing on even smaller and cuter animals. I think we’ll start with Alaska, then.”

Amara nodded at him, taking in Chuck’s excitement with an equal measure of seriousness.

Chuck turned to Sam. “Give us a call if you need us for anything. You know how to reach us.” And then the two of them disappeared.

Sam smiled at the empty air for a minute and then congratulated himself on a job well done. He wouldn’t have to deal with Dean and Cas pining all over each other anymore, at least. And hey, maybe he really could write better stories than Chuck did. He wasn’t half bad at it, if he said so himself. Not to mention the fact that he now held all the publishing rights to his own life story. It was a win all around.

He strolled slowly back to the parking lot outside the cafe feeling pretty damn proud of himself. Until he reached the Impala, anyway.

He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut against the new reality he’d created for himself, and wondered for a moment if it was too late to get Chuck back here to undo this. Dean and Cas were way too busy in the front seat of the Impala for a weekday afternoon in a public parking lot. Sam really had no one to blame but himself for the spectacle he was now forced to live with. He gathered his nerve and marched forward into his own self-made future, grumbling under his breath, “I can’t believe Dean and Cas are still making out.”

read it on AO3

[jonahwatson80]

A day out in Dornoch this Autumn

Whether you are a local, here on holiday or just passing through on the North Coast 500, Dornoch is the perfect place for a day out.

Below are 4 itineraries of things to do to fill these beautiful bright Autumn days in Dornoch.

_______

Itinerary #1

——————–

Start the day with breakfast in the The Courtroom Dornoch. Choose from their fantastic menu and sit back and admire the court scene mural, browse the newspapers provided and review the Carnegie memorabilia. Wander up Castle Street to Dornoch Stores to get yourself some tasty treats. The store offers a full range of food and drink including fruit, vegetables, meat, game, fish, cheese and dairy products. They focus upon local Highland and Scottish produce and have a fantastic range to choose from the make the perfect picnic!

Head down to Dornoch Beach and spread a rug on the sand or choose from one of the benches to enjoy your lunch on. If you have children, make the most of the new playpark which is situated next to the beach. After lunch take a leisurely walk along the golden sands towards Embo. Stop to paddle in the shallows or explore the rock pools.

For your evening meal, book a table at The Eagle Dornoch. The Eagle serves some great locally sourced and wholesome pub grub as well as a wide range of real ales and more than fifty Malt whiskies available for you to try, a few of which are locally distilled. It has a great atmosphere and is the perfect place to get ‘the craic’ with the staff and other guests. The Eagle also has rooms if you are looking for a bed for the night.

_____________

Itinerary #2

——————–

Start the day with a nail treatment at Dornoch Hair and Beauty which is situated in St Gilbert Street in the centre of Dornoch. They have a range of treatments available- what a wonderful way to start your day out! For those amongst you who don’t enjoy having your nails done, why not treat your dog instead?! Make an appointment to see Vicki at Ultimuttly Groomed– she specialises in all aspects of dog grooming including hand stripping, bath & brush, full grooms, nail trimming, and clipping and can provide a luxurious experience for your VIP pooch. Then pop across to the Barn Owl Bothy to browse their wonderful range of arts and crafts which have been made by local designers and makers.

The Coach House Bar and Restaurant (formerly the Dornoch Inn) offers an extensive Bar Menu including Dornoch Farm Butcher burgers, steak pie, Bannermans of Tain scampi, all day breakfast, toasties and sandwiches. Their restaurant menu includes starters such as ham hoche terrine, haggis tower, crab cakes, pork spare ribs and breaded brie wedges.

Time for a walk to blow away the cobwebs after lunch! Dornoch is rich in history and a very good introduction is to follow the Historylinks Trail, available from Historylinks Museum. This walking tour starts and ends at the museum and takes in many interesting sites around the town.

After your walk pop into some of our independent shops. Jail Dornoch is the perfect place to start. Situated in the centre of the town, it is a wonderful, historic building- Sutherland’s 19th century jail. In 2000 it was completely transformed into a unique shop selling clothing, accessories, arts and gifts. Just over the road is the Jail’s sister shop, Country Interiors, which is an Aladdin’s cave of beautiful decorative objects, gifts, soft furnishings and furniture.

Once you’ve spent the afternoon shopping it’s time to relax over dinner. The Dornoch Castle Hotel’s Garden Restaurant overlooks  the formal walled gardens and is the perfect place to end your day in Dornoch. They have maintained an AA Rosette status for six years running and use locally sourced produce to highlight all that Scottish cuisine has to offer. Enjoy a whisky after your meal in the world famous Whisky Bar and be sure to try the Thompson Brother’s Gin which is distilled on site in the Dornoch Distillery. If you are looking for a bed for the night after your day out then The Dornoch Castle is a wonderful place to spend a night in the Highlands.

____________

Itinerary #3

——————–

Start your day by exploring Dornoch’s high street; the perfect place to take a wander on a sunny Autumn day. It’s picturesque and historical centre was shortlisted in 2016 for the Great British High Street Awards and has many hidden delights ready to explore. Look out for the renowned Dornoch Bookshop which has an incredible range of books including Scottish, Travel, Biography, Fiction, Crime and Cookery sections aswell as an acclaimed children’s corner.

After lunch visit the relaxing Aspen Spa which is based in the Carnegie Courthouse in the centre of the town.Treat yourself to one of their luxury face, body, massage, nail or grooming treatments. Their shop has a range of gorgeous products as well as a health, home spa & beauty products and gifts vouchers. Complete your afternoon of relaxation by booking onto a Whisky or Gin tasting at the award- winning Carnegie Whisky Cellars. Whether you are a novice wanting an introduction or a connoisseur, the tasting experience in the original Dornoch Courthouse Record Room with its atmospheric vaulted ceiling and with walls lined with exclusive bottles of malt whisky will be an experience to remember.

____________

Itinerary #4

——————–

Wake up early and head along the old railway line towards Embo. During this walk you will pass through woodland, fields and beaches and walk alongside the world-famous Royal Dornoch Golf Course.  Before lunch do a spot of shopping in Simply the Best Fairtrade Shop which sells an incredible range of fair trade gifts and food. Dogs are welcome and so if you have been walking with your dog you can take them in to browse with you!

For lunch go to Harry Gow’s. They have quiches, sandwiches and other savoury treats as well as ice cream and fantastic sweets and cakes. Everything is made fresh on site and there is wifi so you can catch up on emails whilst you eat. Afterwards head to Kingcraig fabrics to take a look at their Scottish Woollen goods which include travel rugs, scarves, bags, hats, tweed and tartan fabrics as well as luxury knitting yarns. Why not buy something unique and order a cushion, curtain, bag or cape in your choice of fabric.

It is definitely time for tea and at Links House you can experience an Afternoon Tea that is extra special. Sandwiches and savouries, homemade cakes and mini desserts surrounded by the charm, grace and elegance of one of the world’s finest small hotels. You can also buy gift vouchers if you would like to treat a friend.

End your day by booking a bespoke tour around the local area with Dornoch Private Hire (DPH) Sit back and enjoy the views in comfort in one of their luxury vehicles.

For accommodation options check out the Visit Dornoch website.

Article Source Here: A day out in Dornoch this Autumn

A day out in Dornoch this Autumn posted first on http://visitdornoch.blogspot.co.uk