To Do

Things I need to be getting done:

I need to order the new battery for my Toshiba.
I need to order the student's version of Photoshop.
I need to get my mom's internet working.
I need to buy at least a small, cheap tripod, a lens cleaning cloth, UV filters for my two lenses, and perhaps, perhaps, a polarizing lens. The UV filters both protect the lenses, and improves image quality a hair, and they're cheap. I'm so ignorant I don't even know whether you leave them on all the time, or only put them on when you're using the camera - if the latter, I only need one. The polarizing filter can be really cool - it eliminates reflections, so you need one for photographing water, and it also makes foliage look better, deepens the blue of the sky, etc...

I need to get some things done for trip/school planning:

I'm torn between a desire to have secure plans, and to be spontaneous, regarding this summer. Still, I'm starting to feel a bit better, as most of what we need to pre-book is coming together.

We've booked all of our lodging in Scotland - we're bumming at Palak's house in London, Allan's house in Lockerbie, and Allan's brother's flat in Edinburgh, so we only needed to reserve hostels across the Great Glen Way. In some of the towns there was only one hostel, so I'm glad we have that done. We've also booked bus rides from London into Carlisle, and from Inverness to Edinburgh. We're saving loads by taking buses instead of trains, even though it is taking a shade longer. Apparently the ferry we're taking, and the train north to Oban, though Glasgow, don't need to be prebooked.

The U.S. trip is slightly less settled - I've really only booked airfare. But, it's a big country, and we'll have a car, so we shouldn't need to prebook any lodging really - we can just keep going to the next small town. That said, Liisa and I are going to chat soon, and if we're planning to camp in Rocky Mountain National Park or something, we might need to reserve ahead. I think we've also picked the activities we want to do in Colorado and South Dakota, so we'll need to reserve those. Still - we're using our own car, and bumming with my family on Florida, so enough has been done that if everything goes to hell from here on out, the trip is still doable.

The only plane ticket that's left to book is the flight to Spain from the U.K. Should be pretty cheap, but the fact that I'm not a U.K. citizen has screwed us out of a few deals, and I'm also going to need to fly on a decent airline because I'll have a semester's worth of baggage on me. So, I'm anxious to do that, but we're planning to get it nailed down by the end of the week. Also our lodging in Barcelona, and we might look into the cheapest ways to get from city to city in Spain and make sure they don't require prebooking.

Finally, and this is a big one, I need to find an apartment for Spain - start emailing people and inquiring. This scares me. XD But I can do it!