Update on #1 (Cadair Idris), and #9 - maybe

I have my ticket to Wales.  I will be headed there on February 5th on an American Airlines red-eye flight, and returning on February 22nd at a decent time of day.  I had enough points with a card to have to pay only the taxes, which were over $150, but that still beats any other price.

I will be south Wales for the first week, and then head north.  I will spend sometime with Paul Allen at The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Machynlleth, and my #1 thing to do before I die is very near CAT.  So I am planning on climbing Cadair Idris.  I suppose I might change my mind if the weather is too crazy for climbing and spending the night, but at this point I figure that climbing in the winter is a mad thing to do - that means according to the myth I should come down the next day a poet.  Go up mad, return a poet - not a bad exchange.  Of course, I could simply end up twice as crazy.

I will be lecturing at a castle on the 12th, and am looking forward to that experience.  Atlantic College meets in a castle.  Maybe I can find a way to stay there as well, and then I could fulfill #9 on my list as well.