by Laura Grimes

JoJo and I say hello from London. Let’s surprise Mr. Scatter by filling him in this way about our travels, shall we?

Editor’s note before I begin: I have The Wimpy Camera and when it comes to camera equipment, even the wimpy kind, I am technically disabled. So my deep apologies in advance. (Some of these photos were taken with The Wimpier Camera, my Blackberry.)

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When I picked up this postcard from SCRAP in Portland a few weeks back, my friend, Holly, said, “If you send me that from London, I’ll know where it came from.” Well, guess what?

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The Pantsless Brother (TPB) has been waylaid by an ash cloud. Regular Scatterers will remember his predicament with gas in his pants so being waylaid by an ash cloud should be considered par for the course for him. In the meantime, I’ll scatter while I wait late at night and try not to drink all the beer before he gets here.

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Before JoJo and I left Portland, his buddies in the hood wished him well:

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After having endless trouble checking in online a day before departure I’m happy to report that once I was at the airport I was checked in, through security and had ordered coffee even before Mr. Scatter was back home. Considering we live only a hop, skip and barely 20 minutes from the airport … slick!

JoJo said goodbye to Portland:

(Sorry! I know. It was the Blackberry so I could transmit it easily and I took endless shots to try to get a good one. It doesn’t do well indoors.)

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JoJo said hello and goodbye to Calgary:

Only JoJo knows how many times Mrs. Scatter tried to get a better photo, and, knowing how important it is to get a good photo of a little monkey and the struggles with bad backlighting, he would personally like to apologize to the professor-looking dude sitting close by with the book and highlighter.

It was Calgary and some game with sticks was on TV. Vancouver was wiping (rhymes with “gas”).

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Holly, this is for you: Security in Canada nearly confiscated my collage scissors:

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Both airplanes had lots of empty seats. Bad for the airline. More pillows for me.

Both times I was near the lav (convenient), which attracts a parade of people (constant). Are they trying to tell me something?

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I got on only one wrong train. I had only one to catch.

JoJo said hello to London:

JoJo liked the view from the apartment:

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Since I started writing this post, The Pantsless Brother arrived (relief). This is for him (the kind is a wink — better Brit beers tomorrow).

It’s also for LaValle, who posted this photo and a very touching, not-to-be-missed story to go with it.

Cheers!