Yesterday was a long week

That pretty much describes the first day with the girls! Working on very little sleep and countless second winds, we caught up with the girls and exchanged travel stories and laughed about how much we love losing luggage and eating airplane food, not because it is good, but because it is there. Lisa shared a story about getting smacked on the plane by the guy behind her on the flight over (don't worry, Ann played interference and prevented Lisa from hitting back!) and having the flight attendant play babysitter with the rude gentleman.

We toured the house with the girls. It was and IS bloody cold in this place. Colder than usual. I found out that the heaters are all off, due to some timer wiring situation, and Scottish Energy will be out sometime today to fix it. They enjoyed seeing the place, enjoying the 'faded elegance' of Dutchess Anne's glory. They are staying in 106, and looking forward to hearing the faint noises of babies' crying, as they are situated next to the haunted nursery.

After letting the girls shower off the grime and filth of 4,300 miles of travel, we headed up to the Is bar to grab some lunch an a pint. Okay, make that 5 pints. Now, of all the pubs on High Street, the Is bar is probably the last place we want to be getting tanked and being loud. (Wha! Us! Loud?) I knew it was time to leave when I'm at the bar, ordering, and Lisa shouts, "I have have more PESOS! Let's get another drink!" Okay Stevie K, that rivals the 'Tea & Crumpets' comment at Benvenido's in Alnwick earlier this month. We headed down to Sam's, closer to the house, and a little more friendly to drunks.

We had 2 or 3 pints there, played some music--well, some of us did. On Lisa's run of the jukebox, what she thought was a music box ended up being a gambling machine, but not before slugging £2.00 into it!! So, we played the silly games and lost. Bowling and a snowball fight on touch screens are difficult, don't waste your money.

Knowing that we needed to get back to the house soon, we decided to get some pizza; naturally, we ended up in Coach & Horses to have "just one more". Tim decided to show the girls our favourite pub while I got the pizzas. Well, Lisa came with me, and I persuaded her to join the others and I'd be there soon. "Just take the first right turn". Damn, I meant SECOND! So, as I walk into the Coach, I see Tim, Karey and Ann, but no Lisa. Shit. It's dark, it's getting late (although in the scheme of things, only 8:00pm; sun sets at 330pm really make for a long evening!) and I have 3 drunkies and 3 pizzas to mind. I set the 3 pizzas with the 3 drunkies and tell them I'll meet them back at the house and looked for Lisa. I found her, back at the Is bar. We had our final pub pint and made our way back to the house, however, we found no people and no pizzas, at first. Then we discovered that they were sitting in the dining hall with John(Santa, to the girls, who all took turns on his lap) Mary, Jim & Susie and Rick, their guest, enjoying the fire. Too much Jack Daniels, 3 cigarettes and a Carling later, I left the fray for bed. I heard that the others stayed up for a few more hours before making their way to room 106, or our couch, for the scared one.

Today: Edinburgh, the city. I'm going to give the girls the lay of the land, so to speak, and introduce them to the Royal Mile and Princes Street. I'm sure we wont' have any fun. ;)