Isn't it pretty to think so?

Day of a million things

2009-05-11T07:35:00.002-04:00

Just as a quick brain-dump/stress relief/mental break, here's a list of the 100 million things going on in the next 24 hours

#1 - Need to finish cleaning the greasiest kitchen in England. Seriously, how does that much grease get everywhere when I don't fry anything?

#2 - Just got confirmation that I have been accepted to the Masters of Science in Marine Environmental Management Program at the University of York this fall.

#3 - DH and I are "celebrating" our 8th wedding anniversary. "Celebrating" is in quotes because really, there's nothing special that we're doing, mostly because...

#4 - DH's and my octogenarian grandmothers are arriving from the States tomorrow morning for a two-week visit. These prospect of entertaining these gray hairs is rapidly giving me many many more of my own.

#5 - I am stressed out about everything, and there's no gin or tonic or limes in the house to take the edge off. I've not been myself for the last few days as the stress-levels have reached stratospheric heights, and I just feel like life is on hold until the grammas are packed up on their way back to the States.

On top of that, DH and I would like to start house-hunting for somewhere new to live, and I just simply don't have the time to do it right now. Then there's the stress of packing and moving and etc etc etc.

Please, if you see me babbling some incomprehensible jibberish and drooling out of the side of my mouth during the month of May, please hand me a Xanax or a G&T to get me back to my senses.

Things I am happy about...

2009-05-08T08:34:00.002-04:00

I find that when I'm not talking about the latest travel destination we've visited, most of my blogposts since I've arrived in England are about the things that make me unhappy: the weather, the boredom, the idiosyncrasies that I know are cherished by the English but annoying to this American.

That's a one-way road to depression-ville, though. So I thought I would purposefully sit down and focus on the things that I am happy about - even as the wind howls outside, I have bathtowels drying on the line outside and I know they'll be as stiff as boards when I bring them in, and there are no current plans on our horizon that involve me spending time in a warm climate.

#1 - We have no children. This sounds like an odd thing to be happy about, but seriously, I couldn't be happier. For every status update on FB that is something positive about parenthood, there are ten others that bewail some other stress, drama, problem, or frustration. I know it's not a very scientific way of understanding parenthood, but I think my bliss will be in ignorance on this particular subject.

#2 - We are financially stable. This is probably directly connected to #1, but I also chalk this up to the choices that DH and I make about our lives. Living beneath our means, keeping focused on our long-term goals and having clear priorities about what we value now are all key for us. But mainly it has been because DH has a good, stable job that he enjoys and even though I'm not working at the moment, when I was working it was also in a good, stable job that I (mostly) enjoyed. Is luck involved? If so, is it lots of luck, or just a little? Who knows - I hate to give too much credit to luck when it denigrates the very real choices and work we do to be in our position, but I also realize that circumstances beyond our control contributed to where we are now. Particularly during these times when so many are struggling, this bit is something I'm especially thankful for.

#3 - We have a positive marriage. Again, this is greatly influenced by #1 and #2, but I have been in enough relationships to know I have much to be thankful for in this respect. DH and I have similar values, similar life goals, and while our relationship is far from perfect (who's is, and what is relationship perfection anyway?) at the end of the day (or sometimes, the next morning) we contribute more to each other's life than we take from it.

#4 - I love my car. This sounds so shallow and minor, but it really represents something bigger. Everyone needs something that brings them utter and complete joy without strings, without complications, without drama, without trying. For me, that's my car. It represents the first BIG THING I ever bought for myself that was purely for me, that was exactly what I wanted, and it has never let me down. I can be in the worst mood in the world, but I get into that car and that black cloud evaporates immediately.

#5 - I have my health. I may not be in the best shape of my life, but I think my health is one of the most precious things I have. This is another one of those bit o' luck, bit o' personal responsibility things (don't smoke, don't drink to excess regularly, don't overeat but also have good genes and good fortune on my side). This is definitely one of those areas that could turn in an instant, but for now, I'll be happy about it.

Five things is a pretty good list I think. Some of them are in my control, some of them aren't. But right here, right now, as my two kitties sleep peacefully in the back room, DH is on his way home from work early, and a weekend full of work is in my cards, I can sit back and look at these five things and find a little internal sunshine to counter the dark clouds out the window.

Brilliant Barcelona

2009-05-01T05:01:00.002-04:00

DH and I are back from a 3 day, 3 night trip to lovely Barcelona. It's the perfect short trip city - it has enough sights to keep you entertained, but not so many and not so "important" that you feel guilt if you don't hit them all. It has great food - in fact, I really consider it a foodie paradise. It's compact and walkable, with easy and cheap public transportation when you want to get somewhere fast or your feet are aching a little. It's gorgeous - everywhere you look there's another something that catches your eye and makes you sit and stare.

We arrived at about 7pm Saturday night, checked into our hotel, and then headed out to Paco Meralgo for what was easily the best meal of the trip. Two bottles of wine (including a lovely spanish Chardonnay) and 12 plates of tapas later and we were full and happy. All for 25 euros per head, which I consider to be incredible value. One of our friends (we were traveling with three girlfriends from Harrogate) was a salsa dancer, so we hit the Mojito Club so she could dance the night away. We got to the club about 1130 and it was dead empty! However, by the time we left the club around 130am (when they changed from salsa music to reggaeton, we could barely get out the door. It was a good night, and we slept like rocks that night.

The next morning we got up bright and early (1000am) to the sounds of thunder and lightning! It was pouring rain, like a mid-summer storm. The storm ended, but the clouds never left us, so we set out to Mauri (a gourmet pastry shop) for a croissants and coffee breakfast before making our way down to the Gothic neighborhood to visit the Picasso museum. This museum focuses very heavily on his early work, when it's clear that he's a skilled, but otherwise unremarkable artist. The number of works start to thin as one progresses through his life (the museum is organized chronologically) but they also improve in their imagination and uniqueness. You can see the dramatic change in his style and expressiveness once he gets to his Paris phase - although there are hints of it in earlier periods. Finally, you see a dozen or so works from his blue period, and a room or two full of his cubist period (with a strong collection of his studies of Velazquez's Las Meninas. I had been previously "warned" that the museum was heavily tilted towards his unremarkable pre-Paris works, but all in all I thought that the presentation and the chronological arrangement did a strong job in showing his personal and artistic development.

After visiting the museum, we headed out for a tapas lunch and lazed around the Parc de la Ciutadella for a while. We then made our way to Barceloneta, the fishing village cum trendy neighborhood. The marina was FULL of sailboats, and despite the gray weather and spitting rain, we stopped on the beach and dipped our toes in the water. That night we made our way back to Eixample, where our hotels were, for a truly dreadful dinner at "Obamas" - a British-African theme spot, before hitting the sack.

Monday brought bright blue skies and sunshine - the perfect day for a little modernisme! After another lovely pastry and coffee breakfast at Mauri (where DH descovered the Snecken Brezal - a pretzel-shaped pastry that was divine!) we sauntered down the Passeig de Gracia admiring the myriad modernisme buildings that line the street. I really wanted to tour Casa Battlo, but the 16.50 euro price tag seemed quite steep. So we popped into Casa Amatller's gift shop, where amazingly I bought myself a necklace and earrings. We walked along to see Casa Mila (La Perdrera), then set out for the Sagrada Familia.

What can I say about the Sagrada Familia. It is one of the most unique, beautiful, stunning, impressive examples of modern architecture I've ever seen - and it's not even done yet! I could easily have spent an entire day exploring the facades and towers. We had gorgeous weather, which made the pictures all the prettier, but it was just an incredible place to visit.

After spending 3 hours at Sagrada Familia (and believe me, I could have spent twice that!) we made our way up to Park Guell high above the main city center to enjoy a little picnic lunch/dinner. It was quite crowded with tour groups, but nevertheless we found ourselves a nice spot on the mosaic-tiled benches and enjoyed the view. We took some lovely photos of the architecture of the park and strolled back down the hill to catch the Metro back into town. Dinner that night was at Taller de Tapas, which wasn't bad, but no where near the same league as Paco Meralgo.

Our final day began the same as our first - pastry and coffee at Mauri. We then strolled down the Passeig de Gracia to the Placa Catalunya, then down the (in)famous La Rambla. It has the reputation as being a tourist and pickpocket mecca, but in reality it's a kinda cheesy, tree-lined street with lots of street performers and tourist eateries overcharging for mediocre food. Our main reason for this stroll was to visit the Mercat St Josep - otherwise known as La Boqueria. What a feast for the eyes - what a feast for all your senses! The displays of food were magnificent! We spent about an hour or so just strolling around all the stalls, looking at the beautiful displays of fruits and vegetables, meats, seafood, eggs, cheeses, olives, spices, nuts, candies, etc. It was heaven. I was so sad that we had eaten only an hour previously, because there's nothing I would have rather done than to have eaten my way through that market.

We left the Boqueria reeling, trying to get a little fresh air and sunshine by strolling over to the Barcelona cathedral. It was nice, but really, having been through the Italian cathedrals, I just wasn't that in to it. Plus, it was being heavily restored, so that detracted from it quite a bit. We sat for a while, a bad decision since I ended up getting pooped on by a pigeon. Afterwards, we popped by Palau Guell for our last little dose of modernisme, returned to the Boqueria to grab some lunch essentials (a baguette, some chorizo, 1/2 pound of manchengo cheese, 1/4 pound of olives, and 1 pound of strawberries for less than 10 euro!) and then sat in the sunshine back at the cathedral and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

We ended our time in Barcelona by walking the rest of the way down La Rambla to see the monument to Christopher Columbus, and then watching the fishing boats return to the harbor before hopping into a taxi and returning to the airport.

We took over 600 pictures on this short trip, which you can see here, here, and here. You don't need a Facebook account to view them.

Long time no post... again

2009-04-16T07:41:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's been a seriously long time since I've last updated my blog. Facebook is certainly taken over this little blogs role in my life, except I find myself reliving my life as status updates and photos rather than a personal retelling of what's going on. I'll try and rectify that with a little post here.

Since my last post, I've gone to London and visited with two friends I met in Italy in 2004, I've done a 10 mile hike up a steep hill in the cold, wind, fog, and rain, I've visited two ruined abbeys (thanks to Henry VIII for those), a quaint seaside town, and driven my beloved Bug several times with the top down. I found our second trip to London a little anti-climactic, the hike more difficult than I anticipated, the seaside town almost identical to American seaside towns, except replace your pizza joints with fish-n-chips spots, and the ruins of abbeys to be haunting and cool.

On a more daily basis, I guess one would say I'm surviving, but not thriving. Oh I love the travel opportunities and have built a small social life, don't get me wrong. I just don't feel I have any purpose here. Hopefully things will be more personally fulfilling when I start another Masters degree program this fall, but until then I'll just concentrate on all the little things that need doing. My grandmother and DH's grandmother are coming to visit us for two weeks in May, and that's going to require
a considerable amount of preparation and planning. DH and I would also like to move to a different house this summer when our lease for this place is up - so there's house hunting and moving plans to make.

Still, when DH and I talk about going "home" it's something that I am keenly looking forward to, even though I don't think we quite know where "home" is. We'll have had strangers living in our DC house for at least two years, probably not caring for it as if it were their own. It's going to be so strange to return to that house - if we even do - knowing that others were washing their dishes in our dishwasher, showering in our bathroom, and letting their dog poo on our lawn (hopefully that's the only place it goes!). We've long talked about selling the house anyway; it's really too big for the two of us. So, in some ways, I don't feel like I have a "home" in DC to return to.

By the same token, I don't feel like Harrogate is "home." It is a temporary situation, and mentally I can't think of it any other way but temporary, which probably makes life more difficult and easier to deal with at the same time. Again, things may (hopefully will) change when I start school in the fall, but I just don't have any personal investment - emotional or otherwise - in our life here. It's an extended vacation from our "real life."

A lot of people struggle being expats because of how "different" things are (early shop closing hours, social structures, daily routines, etc). I find that element of living abroad quite easy to deal with. It's more the difference in my role - or rather the absence of a "role" - that I'm struggling with. People throw suggestions like "volunteer" or "get a job", and I've certainly looked around to try and get into those types of activities. But again, it's a question of personal investment. Back in the States I was very invested in my career, and found where I thought I was heading very personally and professionally fulfilling. There's simply nothing comparable open to me here; the exception being this degree program I'm going to pursue.

Is it possible to temporarily redefine oneself? Temporarily excuse yourself from where you really want to go in order to find another path to happiness, knowing all the while you fully intend to return to your original path? With the clock ticking all the time (two years and two months) down to when we plan to return, it's a difficult mental exercise to perform.

St Patrick's Day / Weekend in Dublin

2009-03-19T07:36:00.003-04:00

There comes a point in most everyone's lives when they realize that they are no longer "young." It doesn't necessarily mean that they are "old," or that they will not inevitably revert back to being "young" on the odd occasion, but what does happen is that the lens through which certain events are viewed is irrevocably changed.

I am no longer young.

DH and I spent St Patrick's Day in Dublin, which sounds to most people like an absolute dream. I'm going to assume that it is only because most people have not been to Dublin on St Patrick's Day. The analogies I've heard/made are that is it basically an Irish Mardi Gras, or an international Frat party, and both of those are apt. I think that the thing that disappointed me most of all is that people think that they'd like to be in Dublin because of the intrinsic Irishness of the holiday, and that being in Dublin would somehow bring that to the fore. But in reality, at least from what I saw, Irishness is reduced to an unflattering caricature drawn by the non-Irish, and being in Dublin for St Patrick's Day is no different than being anywhere else in the world, and indeed perhaps even worse for the expectations.

I found Dublin to be a really tough city to figure out. There are some things that we really, really loved. The parks are gorgeous and inviting and the people are quite friendly. And maybe because it was St Patrick's Day, or maybe not, I just couldn't figure out what Dublin was about. The city reflects this kind of uncertainty about its identity, I think. There are vacant lots and ancient hovels and tenements standing next to gorgeous new modern glass and steel buildings, as if they were trying to build a new identity that overshadowed the old without really dealing with the past.

DH and I arrived on Saturday and had a low-key kind of day, meeting up with some friends who were already in the city for a short while, walking around a couple of parks and whatnot, just trying to soak in the atmosphere and get a little oriented. That night, the hotel's bar turned into a nightclub open until 3am, which basically prevented me from falling asleep until 330am. Not a happy camper. We ended up changing hotels in the end.

Sunday we did our major "sightseeing," making our way to the Guinness factory, Kilmainham Gaol, St Patricks and Christ Churches, etc. It was Sunday that we started realizing how weird Dublin is... the Guinness tour was self guided, flashy and basically interesting, but still felt a little haphazard and thrown together, like they ran out of information but still had a couple of floors on the building to fill. The Gaol too, was poorly organized for tourists, with tours that filled quickly and seemingly no way to pre-book the (required) guided tour in advance, which forced folks to go WAY out of their way twice (once to book the tour, and once to take it). Our guide was earnest, but the information ended up being muddled, the history and significance of the place in the end was not clear. Is it a symbol of British repression? Does it memorialize the martyrdom of those who fought for an independent republic?

In a way, it's funny that Monday was, for me, all about finding out my identity, in a city that seemed not to know itself. I visited the National Archives to find the only surviving census documents recording my maternal grandmother's father's family presence in Northern Ireland and I visited the General Registry Office to get copies of the registers of my great-grandfather's birth and his parents' marriage. It was an interesting exercise, to say the least, and definitely has me wanting to learn more.

Tuesday, St Patrick's Day, was the most ridiculous day of them all. DH and I stood for nearly 4 hours to wait and watch the St Patrick's Day parade, which was without a doubt the most bizarre display I've ever seen. Again, like I felt most of the weekend, I was left thinking "I don't get it." We visited Christ Church, a mish-mosh of time periods encapsulated in this single space (from Viking-era crpyts, medieval tombs, Dark ages architecture and 16th and 19th century renovations). We ate lunch in St Stephens Green, surrounded by those too young to get into pubs and families with young children (everyone else, we presume, was in a pub drinking). That night we did venture into the Temple Bar district (think Bourbon Street in New Orleans during Mardi Gras) and carefully stepped our way around broken glass, urine, and vomit to a pub for a pint, and then to a traditional Irish restaurant for dinner.

The whole experience was truly mind-boggling, and I think that if I lived in Dublin, I'd high-tail it out of town during St Patrick's Day. From what we could see on the news and in a couple of small circulars around, there were serious Irish cultural events going on as part of the celebration, but those were utterly and completely drowned out by the drunken frat boy mayhem that visitors brought with them. The presence of so many foreigners, there for seemingly the singular purpose of getting as drunk as possible, makes it really tough for me to figure out what Dublin might be like without them. I'd like to find out, but I wonder if the Dubliners themselves aren't even sure.

Pictures are here and here, and you don't need to have a Facebook account to view them.

Love your cat(s)/dog(s) a little bit extra today

2009-03-08T13:42:00.001-04:00

My dear friend CCHarmony had to put her beloved Pepper to sleep last night. Pepper was a good dog - 15 years old! - and had been suffering from kidney disease for just about a year.

I'm devastated for her, because I can only imagine how sad it must be to put down a pet. So today, in memory of Pepper, my kitties are getting extra doses of love and hugs.

They, however, are not really that into it.

Eliza getting her extra dose of love... and desperate to get away from it!

Henry getting his extra dose of love... and just barely tolerating it.

So give your furry friend a little love today in memory of Pepper!

Americans in Paris... in photos!

2009-02-24T13:26:00.001-05:00

Links to our photos from Paris are:

Here and
here.

You do not need a Facebook account to view these photos.

Americans in Paris... Day 3 Recap

2009-02-24T09:46:00.003-05:00

Ugh. Another morning, another late-ish start. We had an imposing schedule planned - Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. We only ended up doing two of those things in the end.

We set out on foot in the direction of Notre Dame. This may have been one of our big mistakes, in retrospect. Looking at a map, things look fairly close together and you think you'll be stopping at a cafe or a boulangerie for some coffee and croissants so the walk should be no big deal. Well, when it's spritzing rain and you feel like you can't find a cafe or bakery to save your life, it's a very, very long walk indeed. we did find a little cafe around the corner from the National Assembly where we had a nice coffee, and did find a bakery with some croissants and pain au chocolat, but it just never felt as easy as it should have been. I don't know how to describe it and maybe we had bad luck by happening to walk on one street versus another (even though we tried to pop up or down a block or two when we seemed to be in a deserted area), but it was just a frustrating pain in the butt and it always seemed to happen to us.

Anyway, we made it to Notre Dame, passing a long, long line to get into Saint Chappelle (so we passed on it entirely) along the way. We toured the inside of Notre Dame, but again, the line to get up into the towers was long, and we just didn't have the spirit to deal with it in the mucky weather and spritzing rain, and with the specter of visiting the Louvre still ahead of us. So we passed.

We trudged over to the Lourve, searching for a crepe stand somewhere along the way. Again, it was one of those things that I just expected to be there... and we were walking along the Rue de Rivoli, a fairly major shopping road. We found one crepe stand, but the little hot plate wasn't working, so that was a bust. Finally, about five minutes later, we happened upon another little crepe stand and ordered two ham and cheese crepes for ourselves. Those things sat in our stomach like blocks of lead for the next couple of hours, but they gave us enough energy to get through the Louvre.

The Louvre. What can one say about it. It's immense. Imposing. Simultaneously crowded and abandoned, depending on which room you are in. We thought we were being ruthless with our itinerary - only visiting the Greek and Roman sculptures and the Italian renaissance art, but even that proved to be utterly exhausting. We did see the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, but in the end they were completely underwhelming. And because the Louvre was so insanely huge, even the stuff that I do love (Botticellis and Lippis and Titians and Canovas and Michelanglos) just wasn't that enjoyable.

Mentally, I was comparing the Louvre to the British Museum and National Gallery in London and the Uffizzi in Florence. In my opinion, the British Museum was much better organized with respect to it's Egyptian, Greek, and Roman collections. It didn't seem as scattered and seemed to tell a story rather than just showing off what they had. Same with the National Gallery's collection of Italian Renaissance art - the rooms were smaller, allowing you to spend time with some of the paintings and really get into them, rather than feeling like you had to see everything at once. Likewise with the Uffizzi. Again, there is no shortage of amazing famous art there - but again, the rooms are smaller, attendance is tightly controlled, and I feel like you can enjoy the art rather than being shuttled quickly by it. The Louvre, to me, feels organized in such a way to keep folks moving through the huge rooms. I know that there is an entire science behind museum collections and displays, and I wonder if this comes into play with the Louvre since it is such an immense space and huge tourist destination.

Also, the Venus de Milo is not that hot. :)

Anyway, we finally escaped the madness of the Louvre, feeling like we had seen too much to process and nothing at all. We refueled with an eclair and pain au chocolat from a pastry shop, and then made our way back to the apartment for another rest before dinner. After the days events, and again with the dismal weather, we were just feeling very blah about Paris.

The evening's events redeemed Paris for us, just a little though. Dinner that night was at Au Bon Accueil, quite literally in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. We were seated next to another American couple, the ambiance was very modern romantic, and the service and food were on par with our first night's experience. My starter was octopus in a ceviche style with a tomato-like salsa. Simply out of this world. There was a lot of acid to flavor the unique texture of the octopus, and I do not think that I've ever tasted anything better. If we had stayed another night, I would have returned for the octopus alone. It was excellent. DH had a simple salad dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette, Parmigano Reggiano, and walnuts. Yummy. For dinner, I had grilled sea bream (think trout) on fennel with a side of potato puree, and DH had an incredible sirloin steak with a roasted potato pancake. DH's steak was a revelation - perfectly, perfectly cooked, and with the first bite, you expected the nice tender taste of meat (which there was) but then there was this tasty caramelized crust that took a good steak and made it transcendent. Yum, yum, yum.

For dessert we both had a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, lovely perfection. Our neighboring Americans had had the same dish (my question about it had led to us striking up a conversation throughout the rest of our dinner). All in all, our experience at dinner went a long way in redeeming our time in Paris, but the best was yet to come.

I had wanted to see the Eiffel Tower "sparkling" the entire time we were in Paris, but we never seemed to catch it, leading me to believe that the "sparkling" was just a part of the display celebrating France's presidency of the EU, which had ended a little while ago. On our walk back to the apartment that night, I caught a glimpse of the flashing reflection of the Eiffel tower in the windows the buildings lining the street. DH and I ran about 3 blocks over to the park next to the Eiffel Tower and watched the sparkling lights for nearly five minutes until they ended. We got some pictures (which I am sure won't turn out in the end) but it just seemed like the perfect ending to a much better night. We walked back to the apartment, packed up our things for our morning flight back to England the next morning, and fell dead into bed from exhaustion.

Americans in Paris... Day 2 Recap

2009-02-24T09:25:00.004-05:00

Sunday in Paris.. not much to do other than sightsee. We dragged our butts out of bed quite late Sunday morning and started going towards the Musee d'Orsay. Along the way we stopped and grabbed a couple of croissants and two cafe au laits for breakfast (although at that point it was more like a very early lunch!).

The Musee d'Orsay was a nice visit. I'm a huge fan of the Impressionists - particularly Monet and Renoir. The collection was very good, crowds were manageable, and we got to see most everything we wanted. The museum building itself was stunning. An old railway station, the openness of the central area made it feel very airy and light. All in all, I'm glad we went, but I don't think I'd visit again. I'd probably try and hit some of the smaller collections (like the one at the Orangerie, which has a huge number of Monets) next time.

After d'Orsay we set out to visit the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. We were also starving, and desperately looking for a small boulangerie or something that had sandwiches, or even a crepe stand. For a city that boasts that there is a bakery, a pastry shop, a cheese shop, and a cafe on every block, we had a nearly impossible time finding anything open on that Sunday. We were forced to grab a sandwich at one of the tourist traps on the Champs itself, which wasn't bad, but wasn't really great either, but at that point we had burned so many calories walking we had to make them up somehow. It was spitting rain and quite overcast, which really cast a pall on the whole day. We finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe and were shocked to see it cost more to access the top than to visit the Musee d'Orsay. We did the tourist thing... climbing to the top to overlook the Champs and all the traffic in the Place de Charles de Gaulle Etoile below us. Our view over the city was really marred by the weather; Sacre Couer was barely visible in the distance. We climbed down and made our way back to our apartment for a much needed rest before heading out to what turned out to be the most disappointing meal of our trip.

That night we ate at La Fontaine de Mars - steps away from Cafe Constant where we had had such a good meal the night before, and recommended as a good Sunday night choice by several travel boards. Unfortunately, it wasn't our cup of tea. Our waiter seemed to be that famous Parisian waiter of lore, dismissive and snooty and barely there. We were handed English menus without a question, and the service felt more American (was he trying to flip the table?) than French. The two highlights were DH's starter - an absolutely lovely langostine bisque - and the bottle of Sancerre I ordered after being introduced to the yummy white the night before. Even these two highlights were diminished by the waiter bringing us the wrong bottle of wine at first ("whoops!" he said after I said "Sancerre?" as he was tearing the foil away from the cork. He disappeared for 10 minutes before reappearing with the correct bottle, and then he never refilled my glass despite the fact that it was being kept in an ice bucket) and then, even worse in my opinion, forgetting to bring DH a spoon with which to enjoy his bisque. I actually had to flag down another waiter after waiting for 5 minutes to get DH his spoon. Really it's unforgivable to forget that kind of thing.

For dinner I ordered one of the daily specials - a cassoulet (French white bean stew), and DH ordered the chicken with morels in a cream sauce. My cassoulet was just alright; the flavors were really muddled, the texture of some of the contents wasn't really nice, and all in all it just wasn't a success. DH's said that even though the morels and cream sauce were good, the chicken was dry and a little overcooked. Shocking! So, feeling pretty disappointed with both the service and the food, we opted to skip dessert and get the heck out of there. To be fair, the service wasn't universally abysmal there - we watched as one of our waiter's colleagues politely helped a Russian? couple at the next table understand the menu and the day's specials (our waiter - their's as well - had left the English chalkboard with the daily specials at their table saying "here's the English version" and walked away). Anyway, we were pretty bummed, especially since that meal ended up being the most expensive of our short vacation.

We stumbled home again, pretty disillusioned with Paris in general after that second day, to again wait out some noisy neighbors behind paper thin walls before falling asleep.

Americans in Paris... Day 1 Recap

2009-02-24T08:59:00.002-05:00

DH and I spent a long weekend in Paris, filled with walking, food highlights and lowlights, and lots and lots of butter.

Day 1:

We arrived via Jet2 at Terminal 3 at Charles de Gaulle airport. We were staying in an apartment one street over from the Rue Cler, so we called the rental agent from the airport to let her know we were in Paris. To make a long, fiasco-filled story short, we got to the apartment and there was no one there to meet us. After frantically calling and texting the rental agent for 10 minutes, the people I suspect were the "cleaners" came down and let us in. Apparently whoever was supposed to have met us was in some kind of accident (although it couldn't have been too serious since we got a hold of the agent about 30 minutes later). There was much drama and misunderstanding (the cleaners spoke very, very little English, and we spoke no French and very, very little Russian) but we finally got things settled.

We walked to the Eiffel tower, stopping at a little boulangerie/patisserie to pick up an outstandingly delicious onion quiche and a fairly pedestrian apple tart to eat in the park under the Eiffel. We took some pictures, then walked along the Seine for a while, took a chilly boat ride at sunset (which was not visible, since there were heavy dark clouds in the sky the whole weekend) and saw the Eiffel Tower light up for the night.

Without a doubt the highlight of Day 1 was dinner. In what I'm chalking up to intervention by a supreme being, DH and I walked into a fairly popular restaurant (Cafe Constant) a couple of blocks from our apartment at 8:00 and we able to score the last table available that night. Seriously, there was another couple studying the menu outside we passed while entering the restaurant, and when they walked in two minutes after we did, they were told the restaurant was full for the night. Two more groups walked in and were told the same in the following 5 minutes.

DH and I had done lots of mental preparation for eating out in Paris. All the guidebooks and online travel websites tell you that eating out is a religion in Paris, which lots of social codes and such. We wanted to try and fit in (or at least not draw undue attention to ourselves) as much as possible. We read the chalkboard menu all in French (no "menus" here... just chalkboards with the day's offerings) and used our little French phrasebook's menu decoder to try and figure out what everything was. We sorted out what we wanted, ordered in French, and when our waiter said something to us in English (can't remember the circumstance - maybe when we asked for wine) I realized that he had an impeccable unmistakably American accent. I asked him where he was from, and lo and behold he was from NYC (Queens, no less!). Moreover, when the Japanese couple sitting next to us asked if there was a menu in English, our waiter produced an English version of the menu that he himself had translated. DH and I just looked at each other and laughed and laughed... all that effort to try and assimilate, and we had a NYC waiter. It was gratifying, though, to know that we did a pretty darn good job figuring out what everything was from the original French.

Anyway, on to the meal. This was one of the best meals I've eaten in my life, no doubt about it. To start DH and I both had lobster ravioli in a bisque-like sauce. There are no words to describe how wonderful this tasted... the sauce was like velvet, the lobster was sweet and perfectly cooked, and it was the perfect-sized portion. Dinner for me was a lovely cooked filet of sea bass (not Chilean!) on a garlic-potato puree. Absolutely scrumptious! The only complaint I might be so bold as to offer is that the portion size was a little big. There were three filet "chunks", so to speak, and I had palate fatigue after eating two of them. DH had an interesting shrimp dish where the shrimp were lightly "breaded" and fried in what appeared to be a flaky filo dough. Underneath the shrimp were these little roasted potato "coins" that were divine. For dessert, I had a lovely, light Creme Caramel and DH had the richest chocolate I think we've ever tasted. Called "Quenelles Chocolat" or chocolate dumplings, they were these little, solid, egg-shaped milk chocolate "dumplings" that were swimming in a custard-like sauce. They were so rich he could only eat one, and after three bits I was similarly unable to eat any more. But they were incredibly delicious. We had a carafe of wonderful Sancerre white wine (nice and dry, very good with all the rich food we had) and perfect service. Needless to say, it really was a great dining experience. The same chef owns four other restaurants on the same street, and if we return to Paris, we'll absolutely be eating at one of them.

We stumbled home on our sore feet and fell into bed... waiting for the noise of the neighbors to die down behind the paper thin walls of the apartment before we finally we able to get to sleep...

Wii Fit - Greatest Invention Ever or Best Invention Ever?

2009-02-03T10:17:00.003-05:00

There's a whopping 5 inches of snow outside and it's quite cold and blustery. I, however, am staying active and having fun with my new Wii Fit. Based on rave reviews from several friends (including the one who inspired DH and I to get the Wii to begin with) I ordered a Wii Fit from Amazon as soon as they came back into stock after the Christmas rush. It arrived last night, and already I'm not sure whether I've burned more calories from actually using the thing or just busting a gut laughing at some of the routines.

I've learned:

- DH and I weigh about the same... only he's 3-4 inches taller than me (boo!)
- My BMI is on the high end of normal; DH's is perfect
- I have very poor balance control
- I am not coordinated enough to do step aerobics
- I am really weak and out of shape (just a couple of the strength training exercises and I was DYING!)
- I was an AWESOME hula-hooper when I was a kid, and I don't think that the hula-hooping routine reflects that accurately.
- It's kind of annoying to only do things for 2-3 minute spells only until you're one minute into the routine
- There is nothing in this world funnier than seeing DH's Mii get hit in the face with a soccer cleat. Nothing.

I really hope that the novelty doesn't wear off too quickly for me... because right now it is a ton of fun. I am the kind of person who will try over and over again for a perfect result, and, well, getting a perfect result with some of the challenges on the Wii Fit would mean that I had a perfect body, perfect balance, perfect strength, and perfect stamina. Since that's unlikely to ever be the case, at least I won't be bored for a really, really, long time.

And despite the fact that I'm terrible at the Step routines, I hope that someone comes out with a 20-30 minute step and/or aerobics workout for the Wii for use with the balance board, because I think that would kick butt.

The evolution of my photography

2009-01-26T10:56:00.002-05:00

I've been flipping through and loading onto Facebook a bunch of photos that DH and I've taken on various vacations through the years. I look at our first group of "digital" pictures taken on our 2004 trip to Italy (DH bought the camera while I was at my language school and brought it over with him when he joined me for some traveling). They're pretty awful. All kinds of interesting corners are cut off whatever we're taking a picture of, lighting is awful, and there aren't enough pictures of either of us with whatever we're photographing. I then look at some of the pictures I took on our trip to London, and while I'm not even an amateur photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I can definitely see an improvement. I seem to be thinking more about what I'm taking a picture of, rather than just snapping away and hoping it turns out okay. I'm also making sure that I have lots of pics of one of us in there, since the memory isn't really supposed to be the building or the art or whatever, but the fact that I was there with someone.

I really regret the paucity of pictures from my 2006 trip to St John with Jeffro and CCHarmony. By then, DH and I had been to St John twice already, and I guess we just thought we had enough pictures. I really regret not having pics of all of us fooling around in the pool and on the pool deck, rambling around in the Jeep, splitting open our poached coconut, etc.

At least I've learned to just keep snapping. If I get one fantastic photo for every 5 I take I'll be happy.

There and back again

2009-01-20T04:50:00.003-05:00

DH and I just popped down to London for a quick weekend trip. It's really great to be able to do that kind of thing! Anyway, we had a great time, saw about 60% of the stuff we had planned on seeing, and met up with a friend of mine I hadn't seen in almost 5 years!

As with my Germany trip, I won't bore you with details, but here's a quick recap of our trip.

Friday, Jan 16

Took the train from Harrogate to London Kings Cross, checked into the hotel, walked about seeing Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, and Trafalgar Square. Met up with Lucy for drinks and dinner, and missed the last Underground train back to our hotel, so we had to grab a taxi to get home (we had enjoyed quite a bit of wine by that point).

Saturday, Jan 17

Took a LONG time getting started this morning ;). In any case, once we did get going, we took a walk along the south bank of the Thames, seeing Parliament and Big Ben (again!), the London Eye (broken, unfortunately, as the weather was perfect for pics from the Eye), the Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral (didn't go inside as the best part - the whispering gallery - was closed for renovations), and Fleet Street. We closed out the day by visiting the National Gallery. I was pretty excited to see a bunch of Renaissance paintings, but found out that about 1/2 the paintings I wanted to see had been included in a special exhibition - so they weren't with the permanent collections at that time. Poopers! Oh well, we'll catch them next time. We were cautioned against leaving the Gallery by staff for a short time while a HUGE pro-Gaza, anti-Israeli incursion protest was taking place in Trafalgar Square (right in front of the Gallery). It was pretty wild with helicopters flying overhead and lots of shouting and chanting. When we finally got out, we walked back down towards Westminster, where yet another huge protest was taking place across from Downing Street - this one against the Sri Lankan government in the wake of a murder of a prominent journalist. More excitement. We took it really easy that night by eating dinner near the hotel in preparation for a big Sunday.

Sunday, Jan 18

Up bright and early! Had a hideously huge breakfast at a greasy spoon cafe near Victoria station (which I ate just half of), then made our way up to Covent Garden and through Soho before visiting the British Museum. Spent a few hours checking out the Rosetta Stone!, the Egyptian and near-east collections, and the Ancient Greek and Roman collections. After that we made our way to the Tower of London. We had wanted to take one of the Yeoman's tours and then spend another hour or so exploring the Tower. Unfortunately, the last tour had left an hour before we got there, and the Tower was closing an hour later. There was no way I was going to spend 16.50 pounds for just an hour in the Tower, so we left it until our next visit. Instead, we made our way over to the Tower Bridge, visited the upper deck (with clear skies and a beautiful sunset, it was great). Afterwards, we somehow made it back up to Covent Garden to a neat fish and chips place we'd seen earlier in the day, then raced back to Tower Hill for our Jack the Ripper night walk. Despite being 10 minutes late, we made it (miracle of miracles) and walked around the East End of London hearing about those lovely gruesome murders. Very cool.

The final bit of our day was supposed to have been a trip to The Sports Cafe to watch the Eagles/Cardinals game, but DH checked the score before we got on the Undergrounf, and it was 21-6. He was too discouraged to go out to watch the game, so we just went back to the hotel to ease our aching feet. It turns out the game was on a Sky Sports channel we got in our hotel room, so DH watched the painful second half from the comfort of our hotel bed.

Monday, Jan 19th

Final Day! Quick coffee and pastry from a neighborhood cafe was our breakfast, which we ate in a park overlooking the Thames. Then up to Westminster Abbey for the visit we were supposed to have done on Saturday morning. We spent about 2 hours touring the Abbey (which was awesome!), and by the time we were done it was time to collect our things from the hotel and make our way up to the train station for our train ride home. We'd enjoyed unbelievably good weather the entire weekend, and the instant our train pulled out of Kings Cross, it started pouring rain. C'est la vie.

Pics of our trip can be seen here.

Next month's trip: A long weekend in Paris!

What's been going on?

2009-01-15T04:13:00.002-05:00

It's another gray, rainy day in England-land.

Yesterday was a sunny, but coldish day. I drove my lil' Bug for the first time over to the University of York to meet with the co-coordinators for the MSc program in Marine Environmental Management. I even wore my sunglasses! The meeting went well. Nothing crazy or unexpected, I'd done my homework beforehand and there were no surprises.

When I got into my car after our meeting was over, looked up at the temperature indicator, and saw it was 51 degrees! My lower limit for putting the top down is 50, and the sun was still shining, so down the top went! Woot! I hadn't driven in England-land, and now I was going to drive with the top down!

Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. About five miles down the road the clouds started to build up, and the temperature dropped to 41 degrees. But I didn't care. I was on a two-lane highway, and speeding along at about 80 with some lovely Dethklok playing in the background. I did give up about 20 miles later, pulled over to the side of the road and put the top up, but still, I was thrilled.

Not much else interesting going on. DH and I are going to London for a long weekend, leaving tomorrow. I most excited about meeting up with two girls I met back in 2004 in Florence; we're having dinner Friday night!

So despite the crazy weather - I'm having a good week. I gotta find something more substantial to do with my time soon, though.

Moving forward while looking backward

2009-01-07T11:55:00.002-05:00

Having a Facebook profile and being a curious creature has been a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, reconnecting with friends has never been easier, most of the time with a wave of good memories and a lot of laughs. Old misunderstandings are likely to now be water under the bridge, and new, adult relationships can be built from the foundation of a shared history.

On the other hand, every connection you make with someone from your past puts a memory at risk. Friends who you respected immensely, thought were the smartest or coolest, or even people with whom you had a lot in common, grow and change as much as you have grown and changed. Sometimes you've grown and changed in many of the same ways, and the re-connection provides the catalyst for a whole new relationship. But sometimes the people you have in your memory have grown and changed in ways you would never have suspected, or they never grew or changed at all. That wonderful first love could now be a complete pervy creep. The best friend you spent so many sleepless slumber parties with might now be a bigoted halfwit. Would those be cases where ignorance is bliss?

And sometimes reconnecting comes with a wave of nostalgic angst. You never really know whether old wounds have fully healed and loose ends are definitely tied up until they're challenged head on. Before Facebook, heck, before the internet, plausible deniability ruled the day. In a few cases of my own, I do feel like I've taken a big risk, and I know that if I hadn't truly moved forward, I'd have been paralyzed by looking back and wanting to relive/rehash everything all over again. You never really know until it's too late.

In any case, right now I'm having lots of fun. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I've always been a bit of a risk-taker.

Happy New Year! What's coming up in 2009?

2009-01-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

Wow. It's 2009 already. That means it's been 15 years since I graduated from high school, DH graduated from undergrad 10 years ago, and we'll have been married for 8 years in November (but together for 12). I'll turn 33 in August!

Numbers, numbers.

DH and I partied it up with a small group of friend for New Year's Eve, with me drinking a twee bit too much! But it's all good. This is going to be a year of great uncertainty, I think. I'm probably going to apply for another grad program - this one at the University of York. Until that would start though (not until October) I've got to find something to do with myself.

DH is still happy with his job here, and I think we're starting to settle in to a small bit of a routine, though the holidays really screwed around with whatever it was we were starting to establish. We've talked about an awful lot of travel plans (Paris in February, London in January, Spain at Easter time, etc) but nothing has been bought in the way of plane tickets or hotel reservations yet.

The weather is still crap, but maybe, just maybe, the days will begin feeling a little longer in fact rather than in theory. Obama is going to be inaugurated in a couple of weeks, and I'm curious what his administration is going to mean to the agencies I hold dear (NOAA and NASA).

I want to start exercising more and getting out and about more (even just for weekend walks). I hope that the kitties stay healthy and happy. I hope to meet more people and travel more places and do some things that I've never done before. I hope that friends back home are able to come visit us!

Most of all, I just hope for a happy and healthy year for DH and me! If you've got your health, you have it all.

2008 was way too stressful for me, so here's hoping for a better 2009!

Christmas for Erika in Germany...

2008-12-27T11:07:00.002-05:00

I could write pages and pages about our trip over Christmas to Germany, but no one wants to read all that, just like no one wants to watch a slideshow of someone's trip to Florida. So I'll try and keep this short and sweet and just hit the highlights of each day.

Day 1 - Friday, 19 Dec.

DH and I set off for Munich, Germany, on Dec 19th out of Manchester Airport. Our flight was late and it was rainy when we landed. We got sort of lost in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) looking for the exit that would lead to our hotel (which was quite literally right next door) but nonetheless, had a great first night!

Highlights:
- DH eating his first Bratwurst!
- First visit of the Munich Christmas Market

Day 2 - Saturday, 20 Dec.

It was drizzling outside, and since we had booked the "I Love Chocolate" package through Sofitel, we enjoyed a really big, delicious breakfast before setting off for the Neue Pinakothek for our cultural immersion of the day. That night we had reservations at the hotel restaurant for our three-course chocolate dinner.

Highlights:
- Canova's Paris
- DH's first trip on a Strassenbahn (German street trolley)
- Chocolate dinner at the hotel
- Discovering super-yummy Nuernberger Brats at our new favorite Christmas Market (by the Sendlinger Gate)

Day 3 - Sunday, 21 Dec

We again slept in and enjoyed our huge yummy breakfast. Then we set off for the Deutsches Museum (German Museum) which is Germany's version of all the US Smithsonians combined into one single museum. Oy! We spent no less than 4 hours there! Afterwards we hit our favorite Christmas Market again for more Nuernbergers (although DH ate a normal Bratwurst) and some French Fries, and both our first Feuerzangebowle (traditional German hot drink at Christmas)

Highlights:
- Marine Navigation hall at the Deutsches Museum
- Watching a blind brass band perform Christmas songs at our favorite Christmas Market
- DH's first U-bahn (Germany subway) ride!

Day 4 - Monday, 22 Dec

Today we got ourselves out of bed a littler earlier than we had been, again enjoyed a nice breakfast, and then checked out of our Munich hotel and picked up our rental car. After a brief delay caused by a wicked accident on the Autobahn, we made our way to Noerdlingen, Germany. This is the town featured in the older version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory - at the end when they are flying around in the glass elevator. We also learned that the town was located in the crater of a giant meteor that hit over 15 million years ago, and that NASA astronauts had visited before their trips to the moon for quarrying experience. Pretty cool! They had a sweet little Christmas Market that we visited, eating a pretzel and - what else - another Bratwurst!

We left Noerdlingen to make our way to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, where we were staying for the night. After some very tense moments getting lost and being unable to find our hotel, we finally checked in, parked the car, walked around the town a little bit, and then did the Nightwatchman Tour! We had a really lovely traditional German dinner at one of the town's hotel restaurants before turning in for the night.

Highlights:
- DH's first drive on the German Autobahn (his max speed - 150-155 km/h)
- Noerdlingen - I loved it!!!
- Nightwatchman's Tour of Rothenburg o.d. Tauber
- Yummy Schweinbraten mit Knoedel at Restaurant Roter Hahn

Day 5 - Tuesday, 23 Dec.

Since we had arrived so late in Rothenburg, we spent most of the day walking the town, visiting the Kriminalmuseum (full of old torture instruments!), and walking along the wall, gardens, and towers of Rothenburg. We left in the late afternoon, just making it to Wuerzburg where we dropped off the car and traveled by train to my friend Andrea's, with whose family we were spending the holidays.

Highlights:
- Seeing Andrea and meeting her loverly family!
- DH's first German train trip!
- DH's and my first Weisswurst (traditional Bavarian/Franconian wurst - not to everyone's taste, but definitely to ours! YUMMY!)

Day 6 - Wednesday, 24 Dec. *Christmas Eve*

What a lovely day. We didn't really do much. Slept late, ate breakfast, walked around Ebelsbach and saw two castles in 10 minutes, relaxed, ate "lunch" (baked chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto and sage, potato cheese casserole (like an au gratin), and ratatouille), went to Koenigsberg i. B. to see another castle and a quaint little town, then returned to Ebelsbach, went to church for the childrens Mass and Nativity Play, ate yummy individual pizzas, and celebrated a traditional German Christmas.

Highlights
- The little kid playing the main shepherd looking for his little, white lamb at the Christmas children's Mass
- Home-cooked German food! Oh my!
- Walking around Ebelsbach
- Traditional German Christmas tree with real candles!

Day 7 - Thursday, 25 Dec. *Christmas*

Another completely lovely day. After having Christmas dinner (which in Germany is at lunchtime, since the main meal of the day for many Europeans is at lunchtime) which was out of this world (Roulade, Knoedel (large potato dumpling ball), and Rotkohl/Blaukraut (red cabbage)) we went to Bamberg to walk the town's streets. We visited the cathedral, popped into a little restaurant to try a Bamberger Rauchbier (a smoky beer that smelled like smoked ham, and kind of tasted like it too), and generally wiled the day away. Dinner was a meat and cheese platter - where I discovered a new favorite cheese!

Highlights
- Bamberg Cathedral - so gorgeous!
- More German homecooking. Mmmmmmm!

Day 8 - Friday, 26 Dec. *Boxing Day*

Sadly, our last day in Germany. After a quick breakfast, it was off to the train station to catch a train to Frankfurt airport. We said goodbye to our lovely hosts, who are unparalleled in their hospitality, friendliness, and openness, and set off for Harrogate!

Highlights
- DH's first ride on the ICE - Germany's super-fast train (even though we didn't get to go super fast)
- Seeing the kitties again, who were clearly fat and happy and barely noticed our absence (thanks to the excellent care provided by our young hired help).

Pics of our trip can be seen here.

Finally... news...

2008-12-16T10:56:00.002-05:00

Well, thanks to all of you who have offered tons of support, but I've just gotten word that I was not selected to interview for the Bosch Fellowship. At least I now know, and can refocus on getting a job here in the UK! No worries - I totally believe that when God closes a door, he opens a window. I'll think about reapplying again next year in any case.

Thanks again for all the well wishes!

Quick update - or rather non-update

2008-12-16T06:36:00.002-05:00

For the one or two of you who might be watching for news about my fellowship application, I'm posting to let you know that I still have no update. I emailed the woman yesterday morning (8am England time, so 3am US EST time) and heard nothing all day. Everytime a message appeared in my inbox my heart would jump into my throat, only to be disappointed by the sender being "American Airlines" or "Whole Latte Love" or somesuch other junk mail.

With my friggin' luck, the woman is either a) out sick or b) out for holiday vacation and I still won't know for weeks on end. The mail situation for our APO box is total crap too, so I don't know when/how I'm going to hear.

Frankly, I don't have the best psychic vibe about it anymore. I mean, if I had been selected for interviews, which are being held Jan 13-15th in NYC, I imagine someone would have contacted me by now for travel arrangements, right? Argh, this is so frustrating. I just want to know definitively one way or the other. I feel paralyzed not knowing. It's brutal.

"Tell me honey, how come you're so cute?"

2008-12-13T05:11:00.004-05:00

One of the leading actors from one of my all-time favorite movies died yesterday. Van Johnson, who was 92, starred in "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo," the Hollywood version of the true-life bombing of Tokyo during WWII.

The movie makes me laugh, makes me cry (of course), stars another one of my absolute favorites, Spencer Tracy, and has one of my all-time favorite pieces of dialogue that I use on DH all the time. If you're up one day and see it coming on TCM or something, sit down and watch it. What those boys (yes, they were just boys) did was nothing short of astonishing.

Here's the YouTube link for the trailer to "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo." My favorite piece of dialogue begins about 2:37.

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Kinda just started to freak out...

2008-12-09T05:40:00.002-05:00

Since arriving in England, I've put off a job search or anything resembling it because I've applied for a Bosch Fellowship. If I was awarded a spot, I would be spending Sept 2009 - June 2010 in Germany, working for a German government agency and a German non-profit/private sector firm for about 4 months each.

My application was submitted in October, with what I thought was a strong essay and what I knew were two very strong personal recommendations. I thought that I was supposed to hear via email by December 15th whether I was going to be invited just to interview for a spot. Re-reading the application acknowledgment email today, I realized that they are in fact mailing (by regular US mail) those results out, which I should receive by Dec 15th. I did give our APO address on my application, but we've been having tons of issues getting mail from the States at that address. So now I'm kinda freaking out, since they've requested that we not email them about the status of our application until after December 15th. Seriously, at this point I just want to know one way or the other, and not have this hanging over my head. I guess I'm just getting nervous now that it's nearly time to find out, since I haven't really been thinking of it until now.

Of course, with my luck, DH will pick up the letter today when he check our mail on base. It's like some kind of psychic link or something.

Weird, wild, wacky Christmas party (UK edition) - UPDATE

2008-12-06T18:58:00.002-05:00

I have learned since attending the surreal Christmas party last night that many of the things I thought were peculiar were indeed British Christmas traditions. To wit:

These are the cylindrical "bang" packages which contained the tissue paper hats and little plastic toys that I was confused by. I learned tonight that they are known as "Christmas Crackers." From Wikipedia:

"Christmas crackers are an integral part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland and in other Commonwealth countries. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).

In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled after Christmas dinner or at parties."

I don't yet understand the tissue paper crowns (which come in the crackers) or the ABBA connection, but I will solve these mysteries and report back to my faithful readers!

Weird, wild, wacky Christmas party (UK edition)

2008-12-06T07:14:00.004-05:00

Wow. I don't even know where to start this post.

Last night was DH's team's Christmas Party. It all sounded normal enough (normal to my American sensibilities, anyway). We were going to a local hotel for a meal, and meeting up for a little pre-party at a nearby couple's house for a little wine and cheese.

Indeed it started pretty much how these things go... we went to the couple's house, which was very nice, and enjoyed some pre-party drinks, were introduced to spouses and made some small talk, and it was all very expected.

I guess the first sign that things were going to be a little different should have been DH telling me that the dress code was either "smart casual" or "70s disco" style. These two things don't make much sense, but I just kind of let it go. When we arrived at the hotel for our pre-dinner drinks at the hotel bar, I looked around at the assembled crowd. Our group was only about 20 people; there were perhaps a hundred or so in the lobby area. People were wearing the widest variety of clothes I had ever seen assembled in one place in my life. There was a very large group of people dressed in black tie formal attire (with more women than I have ever seen in my life squeezing into dresses that had they bothered to check a mirror, they would have known their dress was four sizes too small) Oh - there was a complete lack of appropriate foundation garments as well - there were flat droopy boobs, poochy tummys, and spare tires in abundance. There were the "smart casual" folks, with the boys in nice pants and nice shirts and the occasional tie and blazer and women in nice sweaters or shirts and skirts or casual dresses..

And then there were the folks in the 70s garb. Just. wow. Bell bottoms and paisley galore (including some sequined bell bottom paisley, which was nothing short of insane). These people were dead serious about their 70s style costumes. Standing there in the lobby I bitterly cursed DH for not having a) told me to bring our camera and b) forgetting his iPhone in the car, which takes much better pictures than my crappy cell phone camera.

After a short while in the bar we were led by someone from the hotel staff up to the restaurant and to our reserved tables. The tables were decorated in a way I expected much more for a New Year's Celebration than a Christmas party - with little champagne poppers, noisemakers, strange popping package-type things that went "bang" when you pulled them apart, and really annoying balloon-type things that you blew up and let go, at which point they sailed around the room making that horrible deflating balloon squeal. They looked like giant flying penises and there were dozens of them flying around the room. Inside the little "bang" packages there were tissue paper crowns, which people all around the room were wearing on their heads.

I kind of stood there in shock for a few minutes, trying to understand exactly what this scene in front of me was. Eventually we settled down, had a fairly standard quality hotel-catered meal, and I just kind of was looking around at this surreal scene of grown adults at their companies' Christmas parties, wearing tissue paper hats and shooting champagne poppers at one another and setting off balloons around the room. It was like a strange LSD trip.

And it was only the beginning of the strangeness.

After dinner, once everyone had had their cake and coffee, the entertainment for the evening started. Now DH had told me that the hotel had a 70s theme club or something, he wasn't quite sure what. We joked that it would be something like an ABBA-fest (me) or a BeeGees-fest (him). This of course explained why some of the people in attendance were dressed in 70s garb.

At the front of the room there was a small dance floor with some lights and whatnot set up. The room's lights were dimmed quite low and some peppy instrumental music I didn't recognize at first started playing. I was in no way prepared for what appeared next. Indeed, I'm not quite sure I believe it actually happened yet.

At one point I recognized the musical refrain, at about the same time as DH did. I turned to him and said "Is that... Waterloo?" At that exact moment, the dance floor's lights came on, and there was a group of four - two men and two women - that were clearly an ABBA tribute band. And they started singing "Waterloo."

The room went crazy, "Woo-Hoo"ing and screaming, as if it was a room full of teenage girls and the latest boy band had just taken the stage. A woman, dressed in a 1920's style flapper dress (she was with one of the black-tie groups, I think), almost immediately jumped up on the buffet and started dancing (it was the first song! how much had she had to drink already that she was ready to dance on tables?). The ABBA tribute band was singing its heart out, and I was simply looking at my DH in utter and complete shock.

I kind of figured that they would play one or two songs and then a normal dance floor would follow. How wrong I was. I didn't even think ABBA had that many songs, but they played for a solid hour, with their "encore" number being, of course, "Dancing Queen." It was absolutely surreal. There is simply no other word for it.

Once the band finished playing, our group started to disperse - it was 1100pm on a Friday night, after all. I'm still not sure that I've processed everything that happened last night. After all, my Christmas party experience has mostly been a subdued meal with some folks you work with, perhaps a little bit of Christmas music on to get you in the mood, maybe a Secret Santa or White Elephant/Yankee Swap-type game for some wholesome laughs, and then everyone goes on their merry way.

I was not prepared for an New Year's Eve party-type craziness with an ABBA soundtrack. It was, to say the least, bizarre.

And here are just a couple of crappy cell-phone pics:

Hard to see... but up there are the blond and brunette "ABBA"-like chicks singing

Flapper-like chick dancing on the buffet - TO THE FIRST SONG!

I have a pic of DH wearing his paper crown, but to my chagrin he won't let me make it public.

Weird, wild, wacky weather (UK edition) - Part Deux!

2008-12-05T04:09:00.004-05:00

Well, something in the air made it snow yesterday - and the whole town fell apart. It was a whopping 2 inches! You'd have thought that we lived in Alanta, GA, or something, the way that they handled things. Traffic was snarled, streets were impassable. No one shovels their walks around here (of course, we don't even have our snow shovels - I guess that's one purchase we should make this weekend, that and some rock salt). DH drove my beloved Bug to work today and I am just praying he makes it okay.

Here are a couple of pics I took of the snow:

Yes... that is a car with a snowman on its roof. You can see more pics I took around town here.

In more gastronomic news, I got my second veg box delivery this morning (good job River Swale!) Take a look at these yummies! Carrots, onions, potatoes, red cabbage, fennel, leeks, and eggplants!

Weird, wild, wacky weather (UK edition)

2008-12-03T17:28:00.002-05:00

View from our bedroom window one morning

So over the past 7-10 days we've woken up several times to see a dusting or a coating of snow outside our north-facing windows. On many of those same mornings, DH has driven to work only to discover an inch or more of snow has fallen just 5 miles outside of town.

It seems that more than anything that altitude is playing a role in these differing experiences. From tonight's bulletin from the UK Met Office (their National Weather Service equivalent) applicable to our region (North Yorkshire):

There is a high risk of a severe weather event affecting parts of Scotland and the northern half of England. Snow spreading from the west on Wednesday evening will become persistent and heavy at times by the early hours of Thursday morning, eventually clearing away eastwards from England by Thursday afternoon and from most of Scotland by the evening. On low lying ground there is the potential for 2 to 5 cm of snow to accumulate, while on ground above about 150 metres accumulations of 10 to 20 cm are expected, with blizzard conditions and considerable drifting in strong winds. This is likely to cause disruption to travel networks, particularly across higher level routes.

According to Google Earth, the location where we live is about 470-490 feet above sea level - just at or under the 150 meter mark. Where DH works, however, he is at 750-770 feet above sea level.

Luckily, DH just got the snow emergency number to call to know whether to report on time or at all for work in the event of a major snow. I don't think that they get major snows (like 8+ inches) very often though.

D'oh

2008-12-01T11:36:00.002-05:00

I'm not having a lot of clothes-related luck.

Point #1 - DH and I went shopping for a nice new winter coat for him. We went all over Harrogate to the major stores hoping to find a nice wool coat. Our first stop was the Gap, where we had bought his current coat several years ago. They had one possible option, and it wasn't bad. 3/4 length and 70% wool 30% manmade. The problem was it was a quite a bit thinner/lighterweight than his current coat, quite a bit more expensive, and it just might not have been warm enough. We went to some other "English" shops, figuring that there are so damn many sheep around, there must be plenty of wool coats. Boy, were we wrong. At one of the more recognizable Brit stores - Marks & Spencer - we looked at coats labeled "Wool Rich Blend". What a total joke - "wool rich" meant only 5% wool! Total and utter crap.

Point #2 - Continuing with the whole "wool" theme, I bought a nice lambswool cream-colored hoodie from LLBean before leaving for the UK. Today, I thoughtlessly threw it in the wash, and lo and behold, shrank it such that it would only fit a barbie. Dammit. My own fault for not paying attention.

Point #3 - Continuing with the whole "wash" theme, I went ahead and washed all my bras today. Hanging them up to dry, I realized that I had washed ALL my bras, and there was no way one would be dry to wear to Quiz Night at our local pub tonight. Just great!

At least that's three things... so now I should be safe.

First Veg Box is Here!

2008-11-28T06:59:00.003-05:00

Exciting happenings today! My first veg box was delivered early this morning from River Swale farms. It was a mini-veg box and contained parsnips (3), mushrooms (gorgeous!!! about 6), potatoes (5), onions (4), carrots (4), and a stalk of Brussels Sprouts, which I love! I also ordered a block of parmigiano reggiano, which they get from a sister farm in Parma, Italy; a 2L thing of milk, which they get from a dairy that treats their cows right; and some salad greens that are grown on the farm, only under poly-tunnels.

I feel pretty good about it, since there is no spot for me to grow anything but some herbs on the windowsill here at the house (I do have Basil and Parsley flourishing). Everything looks really nice, and I'm excited to get cooking!

Long time no post...

2008-11-24T06:01:00.002-05:00

So my goal of posting every few days has fallen tragically short of expectations. Really, though, there isn't that much interesting to report.

In the past two weeks, I've met some folks for coffee that I met through the book club, I've gone to a couple of girls' nights out with some girls that DH works with, and I've finally visited the famous Betty's Tea Room in Harrogate, just yesterday with the girl I worked with at NOAA. Throw in the couple Monday night Quiz nights at The New Inn, and I've been at least as social as I was in DC.

The main challenges in the past couple weeks have been establishing routines and getting stuff set up to support daily life. At home, DH and I had joint and separate bank accounts to support house and individual purchases respectively. Moreover, since we were paid in dollars, and stuff was priced in dollars, and we'd had our accounts established for a significant period of time, and we knew about how much our monthly "must pays", groceries, and miscellaneous averaged out to be. Here, we've not yet had enough experience with all of us living here together to know how much the "must pays" are going to end up being, the fact that we have to pay our expenses in pounds sterling rather than dollars means that we have to allow at least a week or so for transfers from dollar accounts into our pounds account, which pretty much eliminates any casual or unplanned spending until we've got a solid handle on our "must pays" and have established a regular dollars-pounds transfer with reliable exchange results. Not that I'm a total shopaholic, but there are lots of little things that I'd like to get for the house (crock-pot, hand blender, etc) that I'm planning on putting off until things are more stable.

Another routine we've not really established well is our grocery routine. We've got several possible shopping places, and I like them all for different reasons. Shopping on base is good for staples, but not - in my humble opinion - the best option for fresh foods. We like our local Waitrose for meats and some veggies, and some local staples, but I like our local Morrisons for their wine, cheese, some veggies, and seafood. We went to our local Sainsburys this weekend, and it was okay, but nothing different from the other two, and two friends I've made here have recommended local farm delivery services that will bring local seasonal produce and dairy items right to the house. Since we have all these shopping places that we like for different reasons, it has been impossible to just say "we'll do all our shopping on Saturday morning", which leads to us running out of stuff midweek, forgetting critical items, or just feeling disorganized. In addition, I don't think that the fridge that we have here is very reliably cold, so I'm nervous about keeping things like meat and cheese in the fridge for more than 3-4 days. So that all it is frustrating.

Thankfully, the cats still seem to be adjusting well. And since this Thursday is Thanksgiving, I guess it's appropriate that I be thankful for something.

Oh happy day!

2008-11-11T14:24:00.003-05:00

I still haven't been able to shake this darn cold, and have a hacking cough that DH has described as "piercing." But today was a good day.

DH and I left for Liverpool out of Harrogate at about 11:15 this morning on the train. I was pretty tired this morning, the weather was really blustery with a sharp chill, and I was just not in my right mood. We spent the better part of the 3 hour trip staring out the train window, listening to the cacophony of conversations around us.

Once we got to Liverpool Lime St Station, we grabbed a taxi and asked him to take us to Seaforth Container Terminal. It was about a 10-15 minute ride, and at one point DH said "Look - there it is!!!"

I quickly whipped my head around and saw a little Salsa Red VW Beetle Convertible sitting up against a wire fence. Was that really my Bug? A quick look at the license plate area confirmed that at the very least, it was an American car (since we have the little plates). It was my first glimpse of my beloved car since it was taken away from me several weeks ago.

To be honest, I was worried the entire trip from Harrogate to Liverpool. I had heard lots of horror stories about cars being shipped overseas RO/RO - scratches, damage, thefts, etc. I just didn't have the strength to see dents or big scratches on my car. But sitting there up against the fence, it looked just fine.

I started to get excited, bouncing a little bit on my seat (it was one of the traditional English taxis - with the big back seat) and clapping my hands. The taxi driver started laughing, even though he didn't really have a clue where exactly we needed to go. We made our way into the dockyards (which was pretty cool), to the handling agent, and there it was. My Bug. Up against the fence. I literally ran over to have a look, carefully checking it over. No damage, no scratches, no dents, and the interior was just as clean as it had been when I handed it over. I was ecstatic!

We finished the paperwork, handed over our port charges, and took a few pictures before hopping and and driving back to Harrogate. DH drove - I'm not quite ready to take to the left side of the road yet. But that's okay. My Bug and I - we're back together again.

On being sick in the UK

2008-11-08T17:28:00.002-05:00

As a reward for staying up until nearly 6am and getting only 4 hours of sleep election night, I was given a horrifyingly awful head cold, which fully materialized - thankfully - after I had enjoyed a nice cappuccino and slice of chocolate mousse cake with a girl I had met through the book club I joined.

I am a terrible sick person - completely unbearable. This version of the common cold, though, totally beat me down. Endless gunk dripping into my throat, making it seriously raw and painful, which then made its way down to my stomach... and the next morning right up my throat again. What followed was two seriously awful days spent on the couch. One night DH forced me to drink a capful of the most awful Nyquil ever, and it did knock me out for a decent night's sleep - on the couch.

I've discovered that the new mattress DH and I bought before shipping our goods to England is a little to firm, which is leading to fun lower back, neck, and shoulder blade pain. We're now in the market for a foam mattress topper to make it a little more comfortable. There's my warning about rushing into a mattress purchase!

Anyway, depending on the time of day, I'm either on my way to recovering or suffering from a relapse. The one very huge, major, perhaps pivotal moment that came out of all of this was a singular discovery which may get me through many, many dark, cold nights here.

The Rice Bowl, a Chinese restaurant here in Harrogate, has Hot and Sour soup that is both hot and sour! It has spice! It has flavor! It was a little thicker than most H&S soups I've enjoyed (easily remedied with some hot water) but it had FLAVOR! It is a first for me here - food with heat (spice-heat in this context). I was so desperate, and this soup made me so happy!

Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

Election night - perspective from an American in the UK the morning after

2008-11-05T05:22:00.002-05:00

I stayed on the couch watching returns, waiting for the clincher (which proved to be Ohio, again) until about 330am GMT, at which point I dozed off and on until I finally made my way up to bed at 6am (that's 930pm and 1am EST respectively).

The BBC, ITV, and Sky News coverage was abysmal - SkyNews especially, but I was really surprised how bad the BBC was. They had a little panel of commentators, the first of which included the abrasive Christopher Hitchens. The 'moderator' clearly was disgusted by Hitchens' erudite but blunt assessments of the failures of the Administration and its impact on the campaign, and barely allowed Hitchens the opportunity to speak. They switched out the commentators around the table a couple of times, at one point giving John Bolton a seat at the table. Talk about repugnant - I have never seen someone so entitled and defensive - it gave those segments of coverage a very bad vibe. Poor job on choosing those commentators, BBC.

ITV wasn't horrifyingly bad, but it was rather boring. The couple of dudes they had in the main studio doing analysis were deadly dull. At one point they had completely messed up the electoral vote count, giving 103 to McCain and 34 to Obama, and they tried to defend their mistake with somesuch nonsense that it was based on calls rather than votes counted or somethings. Not very reassuring.

SkyNews was just weird. Their affiliate in the US - from whom they were getting the state result calls - appeared to be FoxNews, who was so different from the other two channels that it called their coverage into question.

One thing I noticed about all three was that their on-the-ground reporters were kinda dicks. I mean, I know that the UK has the reputation for direct questions in their news reporting, but their clear bias in favor of Obama even tasted bad to my mouth. At one point there was a BBC reporter in Virginia questioning a farmer why he had voted for McCain / the republicans when the Bush Administration had let so much go awry. The poor farmer didn't have much defense for his vote, other than the fact he had consistently voted the GOP party his whole life, but the BBC reporter basically niggled and poked this poor guy about his vote so much that it made them look like they were trying to make this guy out to be stupid. It was not a flattering moment for the BBC.

Another thing that annoyed me as an American accustomed to US reporting was the lack of depth of analysis into voting patterns, precincts reporting, etc. When a state was called by an affiliate network, they just kind of reported it, rather than putting the call in its proper contexts (how many votes, how many precincts reporting, where there were votes yet to be counted, etc). When they called Pennsylvania for Obama, I instinctively had a 2000 Florida moment - PA was supposed to be a pretty intense battleground state, and I had no idea what data the networks were using to make that bold prediction. Also, there was very little discussion of the almost equally important Senate races that were being fought. In the checks and balances system the US has, it's just as important to know how much power the party of the executive is going to have in the legislature. I was pretty disappointed by this - although they did cover the Dole-Hagen Senate fight in North Carolina, mostly because of its trainwreck value.

Finally, the production values and technology challenges that all three stations suffered from were positively amateur looking in comparison. There were lots of lost audio communications, miscues as to where they were going next, lame A/V aids trying to illustrate what was going on.

I can't believe I am going to say it, but I missed the US cable news networks - yes even CNN - in this election coverage.

In any case, the UK stations could not conceal their glee and elation about the Obama victory. Maybe that's why John Bolton was such a crab.

Election night - perspective from an American in the UK

2008-11-04T17:33:00.004-05:00

So it's election night in the US. It's 10:30pm, the polls are still open and will be for hours, and I've been watching the BBC on and off for most of the day. Any UK news has been relegated to secondary status in favor of reporting on the long lines (queues) and last-minute campaigning (unusual b/c of UK election rules).

Basically, there seems to be a sense of cautious optimism. The folks here have been "fooled" before (see: 2004 election, 2000 election), but with the polling being fairly strong in Obama's favor, they are pretty encouraged. There's no doubt who the BBC and general UK public wants to see in the White House, at all.

It's rather fun, and I wish that there was a pub showing the results as I would love to be with a crowd when it all rolls in. For what it's worth, I'm drinking some coffee just to stay up late enough to see the East Coast results come in.

I'll write again tomorrow, when the results start to reverberate through the public here. I'm planning on meeting another American for coffee tomorrow afternoon, so that's going to be lots of fun!

P.S. This is how silly reporting has gotten on the BBC's coverage of the US election. In their "Sports" segment, they've just reported on the Redskins' loss to Pittsburgh this weekend because there's been only one time since 193-something where the 'skins' have won/lost and the ruling party has remained in power/lost power respectively.

End of week 1 - thoughts....

2008-11-03T04:03:00.005-05:00

So, I've now been in the UK for a whopping week. When I visited in July, I was here for about 9 days I think, so it's not the longest stretch I've gone here yet. Still, my mindset is a little different; I'm still in vacation mode, but there's so much "real life" in front of me that it's certainly not going to last much longer.

DH and I are still getting along - somewhat and sometimes. It's been tough for both of us, going from having completely independent lives for the last 4-5 months to living together again. There are certain elements of the house that make this a little tougher. The kitchen is tiny and there is a severe lack of storage, so our previous habit of both being in the kitchen, he cleaning dishes and I making dinner, is just right out. No storage or counterspace means that everything is always everywhere, and that's pretty annoying. The house also squeaks like an old door, so if he wants to be watching TV on the second level, and I want to be doing something else on the third, well the constant squeaks and groans of the floor make TV watching less than pleasant.

The cats seem to be adjusting just fine, as cats would. We've started them on two high-quality UK cat foods. Eliza won't eat it but Henry eats one of them. I'm really happy Henry likes the one, it should be really good for him. I don't know what we're going to do with Eliza. She seems to be okay with Fancy Feast, so I'll try and see what the best flavors of that are (fewest corn and other fillers) and keep her on those. She was 13.5 pounds at her last weigh in, and she's supposed to be closer to 10 or 11. Fatty.

Perhaps the highlight of my entire first week here was a little book club that I've joined. There's an online forum for Americans in the UK, and one of the girls organized a book club which met for the first time Saturday. We read "Petite Anglaise," a book written from the blog kept by an English woman living in France. Recommended only if you like to see how a narcissistic fantasy-world dependent person can construct a life for herself (in her mind) only to destroy her family when reality doesn't quite match fantasy, and sets out to create other fantasy lives for herself, which again never match reality. Anyway, the meeting was about 80% social chat and 20% book chat, which I found to be an excellent mix! It was nice to start building a social circle that didn't rely on folks knowing DH.

On the agenda for this week: getting the kitchen storage situation under control, getting the living room arranged the way I want it, hopefully getting a cell phone number and bank account, getting my summer clothes and linens organized somehow. And I think that's just for the first part of the week. I also want to try and get to a proper grocery store for actual shopping. The commissary on base is good for some stuff, but meats are not a strong suit for them. There's a butcher at the end of the block, across from the pet store. Maybe I'll trek out when the fog burns off and buy a little food for us and a little food for the cats. Just have to be sure not to mix it up!

Life in the UK...

2008-10-30T08:34:00.002-04:00

It wouldn't be really fair to say that I am "adjusting" to life in the UK right now, as really, I feel like I'm on vacation right now. Since I gave a rundown of my last 24 hours in the US, I feel like I should mirror that with a rundown of my first 24 hours in the UK. Only, it would be a really boring, short post consisting of:

- Landing at Manchester Airport
- Collecting my baggage and going through immigration and customs
- Getting the kitties and driving home
- Eating something I can't remember for lunch and then falling asleep on the couch for two hours
- Eating something I can't remember for dinner and then falling asleep on the couch for two hours
- Watching something on TV I can't remember and then going to bed and sleeping for 14 hours.

That was my Sunday - 11am Monday morning. Not very exciting. Monday was kind of an easy day. We drove up to the base, got me a badge/id to get one base (my pic was awesome... I was totally prepared for it), bought some sundries like hangers, cat beds, and whatnot, and then went out to dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant with friends.

Tuesday we went to Ikea - which was a HUGE mistake because apparently the kids all have off school this week, and there is no real downturn in the Brit economy contrary to what they are reporting because the whole of Northern England was at the Ikea, kids in tow. Anyway, we survived the madness, escaping only with a wardrobe and some lamps and chairs and a couple of little things. Then we had dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Wednesday DH went back to work, I slept until 11am (my Circadians haven't adjusted yet - I'm not falling asleep until 1am-ish), built my wardrobe and two chairs, did some dishes and housework, then DH and I had tacos for dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Wow. Life here is really not too different from being in DC thus far. I am sure that as the weeks go on, and I finish all the housework here and start striking out into town my posts will get more interesting. There's enough to be done here at the house to keep me busy for a couple of weeks, I think, though. Just what I wanted to do - more housework!

The last 24 hours in the US, for a while anyway - Part 4

2008-10-27T07:50:00.003-04:00

DH and I drove off to the freight facility, luckily finding where we were supposed to go only getting lost once. DH practically sprinted inside while I searched for the paperwork and my passport for id. I met him inside the "Pets on Jets" office, and we were told that both kitties were there doing well, and we had to go to some other office first to collect the release form from British customs before we could take the kitties with us. We waited about 15 more minutes for our customs release, and then it was the moment we had been waiting for. The dude at Pets on Jets lifted Henry first onto the desk, handing him over to us. He was nervous looking, but fine, and DH grabbed him. Then came Eliza, smelling like cat pee (she had gone in her little cage, Henry had done better to hold it) and crying her fool head off again, but nonetheless fine. The dude handed me the form showing that they had successfully been cleared out of quarantine and customs and we were free to take them home, at which point I cried while shaking his hand thanking him. We loaded the kitties into the car, turned on the fan to blow Eliza's stinkiness away from us, and made the 1.5 hour trip back to Harrogate, family intact.

This picture is what made all the drama and stress worthwhile:

Henry and Eliza in the top floor window in our house in Harrogate.

P.S. Yes, despite the obvious sunshine, it is indeed Harrogate, England. We just happen to be having a rare, sunny morning. I am sure it will be raining before evening.

The last 24 hours in the US, for a while anyway - Part 3

2008-10-27T07:29:00.002-04:00

As soon as I stepped onto the plane, I asked the flight attendant "can you please confirm for me when my two cats are onboard?" He looked at me a little strange - it might have been the fact that there were tears rolling down my cheeks as I asked - and said he would check on it. I got into my seat (actually, the seat in front of my seat - I didn't pay enough attention to where I was sitting when I sat down in 23F instead of 24F) and watched as the cargo dudes loaded the bags into the belly of the plane. I was trying to see whether they also loaded the cats, but I had been told that the cats and mail go in last at the very rear of the plane, so it was unlikely I would see them.

Doors started shutting, both at the front and under the plane, and the little dude hadn't come back to tell me that my cats were on. Nevermind the fact that I have been more or less constantly crying throughout the whole boarding and loading process. I rang the little call button above my head and another flight attendant was immediately there. "Can you please let me know if my two cats are on the plane?" I asked again, in tears. He told me he would check on it right away. I texted a message to DH, letting him know I was on the plane and waiting to hear if the kitties were too. I sat there, weeping, until it was clear that the plane was just about to push back from the gate. I panicked a little - no one had confirmed that the kitties were onboard. As soon as I felt us rockback from the gate, the flight attendant (the second one) came by and said not to worry, the two cats had been loaded on. I totally broke down into full blown tears, with a couple of sighs and sobs, and the poor woman sitting next to me took pity on me, trying to reassure me that everything would be okay.

What it really was at that moment was a wave of all the things that had happened in the last six months at that point just cresting and crashing down on me. All that waiting, the separation from DH and going through 90% of the move alone was for that moment... getting our two kitties on the plane on their way to England with me. Lots of people would say that we were nuts allowing two animals to dictate our lives like that, but they are our kids, they are our charges, and we simply aren't a complete family without them.

Anyway, I cried off and on for the next 2.5 hours, I think. We were stuck on the taxiway for 25 minutes or so because of heavy air traffic, and the flight itself was one of the most turbulent I've been on, which had me worrying about the kitties the whole time. I tried to take my mind off of everything going on that I had no control over - watching the atrocious "Baby Mama" and listening to "Sense and Sensibility" via my little personal entertainment center in the back of the chair in front of me. Thankfully it got me through 4 hours of the 5.5 hours flight.

With about 1.5 hours to go, I started the waterworks again. There were times during the flight when I was convinced that I could hear the cats crying in the hold below (probably not) At this point, the final barrier to completing this move was British customs not letting the cats come home with us. Our bumpy flight was rewarded with a smooth landing, and we pulled into the gate in Manchester, and I anxiously watched out my window to see if I could catch them unloading the cats from the plane. No such luck again, and I made my way through the aiport, through immigration and customs (the cats were going through cargo customs away from the airport proper), and into DH's arms. We quickly loaded everything into our estate car (british name for a station wagon, and thank God for it, since we needed almost every inch of space for all the stuff and drove off to the freight facility to collect the kitties.

The last 24 hours in the US, for a while anyway - Part 2

2008-10-27T07:14:00.002-04:00

At this point it was pouring rain, and there were two major accidents on the Beltway, that gave us the benefit of heavy traffic. I settled back for the 3 hr trip to Jersey, mentally calculating how much time I might have to stop and have a final visit with DH's grandmother and my best friend Steph and her family. The math was adding up to: not much. Meanwhile, Eliza would not stop crying in the back of the van... driving me absolutely crazy. Except when she stopped, when I panicked that something had happened, like carbon monoxide fumes from the van's exhaust had overwhelmed the kitties, despite the fact we were doing 75 mph on the highway.

We made our first stop at DH's grandmother's house at about 430, staying only a couple of minutes since we still had to unpack the van at Dad's house. We stopped at Dad's house at about 515, when it was raining lightly, and somehow got all the crap out of the van (and me convinced my Dad was going to have a stoke or heart attack any second) in about 45 minutes. I took a shower, he switched the van out with his Cadillac, and we left his place at about 630 to stop at Stephs for just about 5 minutes before we had to leave to get to the airport in Newark.

All I could remember about my instructions were to go to door 3 of terminal C at Newark to drop off the cats. Unfortunately terminal C has an upstairs and a downstairs for international and domestic departures respectively. We drove around the airport twice looking for the Continental Quickpac desk before I spotted it. That's about the same time that the real waterworks began. I took the kitties and my suitcases out of the car, loaded them onto a huge trolley cart, and pushed it over to the Quickpac desk. It was about 745 and it took about 30-40 minutes for them to clear the kitties. I was in full tears-down-my-face mode, worried about them, the paperwork, and that Eliza would never stop crying/meowing/howling until she died from exhaustion. At least the last bit proved to be temporarily untrue, since as soon as she was set on the floor behind the counter she settled into her little bed, just looking around at everything.

It was finally time for me to check myself and my bags in for my flight. It was 830 at this point - my flight was at 1010. There were only two people barely working behind the 20 or so check-in stations. Complete chaos! There were only about 15 people in line ahead of me and I didn't get fully checked in and through security until 915. Boarding for my flight started at 925 according to my pass, I had to find room in the overhead bin for my largish (pushing the limit) carryon suitcase and largish "personal item" (a normal carryon bag - hey, I'm moving!). Not only that, but the whole day I had consumed exactly 1/2 of a 3 day old doughnut and a coffee, so I was in desperate need for food. Thankfully there was a large foodcourt right around the corner from the gate, so I went and bought myself a chicken salad wrap and a bottle of water, ate half the wrap before feeling really ill (nerves... the wrap itself was tasty) and made my way over to the gate, boarding the plane just 5 minutes later.

The last 24 hours in the US, for a while anyway - Part 1

2008-10-27T06:56:00.003-04:00

My last 24 hours in the US were more or less mayhem. There's just no other way to describe it.

After the storage movers were at the house from 930 am until 7pm Thursday, I was pretty convinced that there was a lot of stuff still in the house, but it wouldn't take too long to get it all out. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Friday I spent a half-day at work, getting home around 2pm. This was really the true beginning of the madness. My neighbor came over to take about 80% of what was left - foodwise - in the kitchen, which was a very good thing. Then her husband and son helped me move the previously blogged about 73 pound box into my car. After that, it was off to the vet for the cats' tick and tapeworm treatments and the final completion of the critical paperwork which, if completed correctly, was going to let my cats come home with DH and me - the entire point of my remaining in the US for the last 6 months.

Right after I dropped the cats off at home, I went straight to the post office to mail my three boxes, then back home again to fill up the car with trash for the dump. I was able to fit in one big trash haul before the dump closed at 8. From there, I really began packing in earnest, actually closing suitcases and starting to consolidate all the remaining stuff in the house to smaller and smaller areas. I continued sorting and packing and whatnot until about midnight, when I was simply too tired to stand anymore.

My dad arrived at about 8am the next morning in a big 12 person van with all the seats removed. I had barely woken up when he got there, and I don't think that I fully appreciated the amount of work we had in front of us. We loaded up the van for one big trip to the Salvation Army around the corner. When we got there at 910am, we were shocked to learn that not only did they not open until 10am (ridiculous) they absolutely under no circumstances would accept any donations until then. Our goal had been to get on the road by 10, and with a van full of donations, we couldn't fill it with the few things that I was giving to my dad to take to Jersey (bed, couch, and TV) until it was empty.

We ran back home and filled up my rental with the stuff that I needed to get to the dump (yes, yet another trash haul) and somehow by the time we'd filled my car, it was 10am - so Dad was off to the Salvation Army with the donations and I was off to the dump with a carload of trash. We met back at the house about 30 minutes later to fill up the van with all the stuff I was giving him, plus my 3 suitcases and two cats, which had been locked in the master bedroom closet at this point. This whole process took about an hour, maneuvering and shoving all that crap into the car - not to mention just getting the heavy stuff in there with a morbidly obese 60 year old man and an out of shape 100-something pound girl doing all the heavy lifting. We finally left the house about noon, about an hour later than we had intended, and still had to return the rental car and the stupid Comcast digital cable box. We were on the highway heading to Jersey at about 1230pm - a full 1.5 hrs later than planned.

The floormat weighs three pounds?

2008-10-24T19:50:00.002-04:00

Who knew that a single rear floor mat weighs three pounds. Even considering that it's one of those heavy rubber ridged ones, three pounds?

It's been a long, hectic day. I worked until 2pm, saying goodbye to everyone I liked. I got home, had about 15 minutes to settle a bit until my neighbor came by and took almost all the food I had left in the house (this is a very good thing!). They also helped me move three boxes into my rental car to drop off at the post office.

I then took the cats to the vet, where I waited for about 1.5 hours until all the paperwork was completed. I got them home, turned right around and got to the post office, where a very nice man helped me get the boxes out of my car, and told me the weights of all three. The first was 39 pounds... a lightweight. The second was 57 pounds, a little more formidable, but still handleable.

The third was 73 pounds. 3 pounds more than the maximum that can be mailed. I knew that the floormats were in there, and certainly taking a couple of them out might slip me below that 70 pound limit. I had no idea that it would only take a single, rear seat floormat to get me to 69.4 pounds. The nice man retaped the living heck out of the box and took it from me. Total for those three boxes - 88 dollars, including 5 bucks for insurance on the megabig box.

After that I got home, loaded up the car again, and headed off for an evening trip to the dump. Goodbye to almost all of Ray's computers (I didn't get the two monitors there yet). There were also about 7 big bags of clothes and clothes-related items that I tossed. It really made a big difference, getting rid of all that stuff.

With all that done I think that I can actually get through tomorrow morning without heaping amounts of stress. I expect one run to Goodwill, one last run to the dump, and a fill up before I return the rental. I think that once I get rid of this terrible headache I have (must be from not eating all day) I'll be up most of the night just trying to get to a place where I can execute all my plans and just go when I get up tomorrow.

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, though....

It's so hard to say goodbye

2008-10-18T14:27:00.004-04:00

Well, I've said goodbye today to two major parts of my life: my blond highlights and hair and my beloved VW Beetle 'vert. Although they told me Tuesday, the trucker dude called me this afternoon asking if he could possibly take it today. It actually made life a little easier, so I told him to come on by, quickly vacuumed the interior and took all the floor mats, CDs, and whatnot out of the car, got the license plates off, and said a teary-eyed goodbye.

Here's a pic of my Bug on the truck behind a new 2009 S-Class Mercedes. At least they can chat in German together.

The other, albeit less major, but still integral part of my life, is my blond highlights. Three years ago I chopped 11 inches off my hair, got a bob and a blond dye-job. I have had some variation of that bob and blond highlights ever since.

Today, I went in the complete opposite direction. Although I still have the bob, the best color to describe my new hair is "chocolate brown with raspberry highlights." It's totally new, and totally rad.

Sorry, no pics of that yet.

Let the real drama begin

2008-10-17T19:35:00.002-04:00

8 days. 8 days until I leave.

On the positive side: The house is rented. The tenants have signed a 2-year lease, so basically we don't have to worry about things unless these people can't pay the rent.

Also, the next week I'm going to have 101 lunches and dinners with friends, so that's good. That's less cooking that I'll have to do with my non-existent cookware.

On the "I'm gonna either die or cry from all this stress" side: this is the week I start the cats' formal paperwork clearance process. I had to transport both of them in one of their huge cages to the vet in my Bug, which the cage virtually doesn't fit in. I actually broke down in tears in the lobby of the vet, just trying to get myself together.

My Bug isn't going to be picked up until Tuesday now. On the plus side that is less time that it is sitting in the open at Baltimore's port, but on the minus side I didn't have to rent a large car to transport all my stuff to the dump and Goodwill. I'll manage with the Bug, but I just kind of wanted that done so I didn't have to deal with it.

I still haven't finished the second coat of paint on my fourth bedroom wall, and I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I've got to start emptying my fridge of food; I'm thinking of having an "Trader Erika's" sale where if you take it, it's yours. The canned stuff I'll donate, but there isn't all that much of that. The freezer, though, is a little more full than I would like.

I've got a list of stuff to do, including changing my address and canceling services and whatnot. There are a few blacklines on it, happily, but there are fewer than I would like to see.

I think that I am going to go on another little shopping spree, and stick Ray with the bill. It's the least I deserve for going through all this.

Shopping, painting, driving, donating, packing...

2008-10-13T19:02:00.002-04:00

Fraking busy weekend!

Saturday I cleaned the house again; the two applications we've gotten for the house are from less-then-financially stable people, so I left the house up over the weekend to see if we could snag someone a little better.

I spent most of the weekend at my grandmother's in Delaware. Sunday we went shopping at the outlets in Rehoboth, and I made out like a bandit. I had a good time, bought two suits I wasn't planning on getting, didn't get a dozen things I had wanted to buy, but all in all had a good time with my Gramma. It was good to get her out of the house for the day in any case.

Today I'm back home, cleaning up the damage the kitties left for me. I'm back to painting the bedroom; I only got one coat on it, and it really needs two. There's still about 3/4 of a wall where the desk and computer are that I haven't even gotten a first coat on yet - I'll get to that at some point.

Otherwise I got my grocery shopping done (no more week+ old milk!), donated three boxes of stuff and three bags of clothing (about 1/4 of the total stuff I have) to Goodwill, dropped off 5 pairs of shoes at the cobbler to get fixed, and started packing a suitcase. That's been the worst; realizing that there is no way that I can get all I want to send over to the UK in three suitcases (two checked, one carryon). I'm going to have to mail some boxes. Luckily sending mail to an APO box is relatively inexpensive.

Now if only I could get some large, sturdy boxes....

Countdown continues

2008-10-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

Two. Two weeks from today I'll be gathering up my kitties, suitcases, and nerves and heading off to the airport for my flight to England.

There are two applications for our house - both of which are from less than confidence inspiring applicants. Unfortunately, that's who is out there right now, searching for a place; people who've been foreclosed upon or had to sell their house in a short sale. I haven't yet said yes or no to either, so the house is still going to be up this weekend. I don't really expect much traffic, though. But I'll get the house in order all the same.

I'm going shopping with my Gramma this weekend. which will be a much needed respite from all the drama on this side of the Chesapeake. Tax-free shopping at the outlet in Delaware! Woot!

This week is going to be a big one. My Bosch application is due Wednesday. My beloved Bug is leaving me on Thursday. The cat's have their first of two final vet appointments on Friday. I'll likely have to make a decision about the rental applicants, finish painting my bedroom, and start getting some of the crap that I don't want to Goodwill or the dump. I'm going to try and hit the Post Office this morning to mail my transcript for my Fellowship application, and hopefully Monday night I can sit down and concentrate on finishing the application and my essay.

Focus. The one thing I need most right now, and that which I have the least of.

Please, avoid Tasmanian vodka

2008-10-05T19:49:00.003-04:00

Facebook is a wonderful thing. In July I reconnected with girls I went to high school with - some of whom I hadn't seen in 14 years!

Saturday night I reconnected with two of the three girls I lived with sophomore year of college. I hadn't seen them for 10 years! We had a lovely time, basically picking up right where we left off - lots of alcohol and lots of chatting! We were up until 4am, however, age has taken a toll on us all, and we all woke up around 8am unable to sleep any later. There was a time when we would have stayed in bed until 130 in the afternoon - getting up only to race to the dining hall before it closed.

There were pictures, reminiscences, and mind-blowing revelations. I really appreciate now what being a little older with a little more life experience puts all the things that were such huge deals into their proper perspective. Essentially we are all the same people, but with a lot more maturity and self-actualization. It's a beautiful thing.

It's just that there's got to be a time in many women's lives when they've got what they set out to get (a husband, a degree, a relationship, a family, a career, etc) and all those they set aside in the pursuit of those goals - unintentional and without malice - suddenly become important again.

One of the best things I love about my relationship with my best friend from elementary school is that we can go any length of time without talking, but the moment we reconnect, it's as if we just picked up exactly where we left off. I'm discovering now that it's not just the trait of that particular friendship, but all true friendships in general.

Moreover, last night I learned that if you don't want to be insanely drunk, avoid Tasmanian vodka. Luckily I didn't have to learn it personally :)

Biding time...

2008-10-03T11:52:00.002-04:00

And then there were three... weeks left, that is.

I am so tired. Tired of work, tired of trying to rent the house, tired of not being able to sleep a sound night's sleep, tired of being the only one in the house, tired of being scared and feeling panicky at every strange noise at night, tired of being solely responsible for the last part of this move, tired of having to tie up all the loose ends, tired of having crap for dinner because it's not worth cooking food for one, tired of being stressed about coordinating this complex web of activities that has to be finished before I leave, tired of worrying about what I'm leaving behind, tired of the myriad little things that need to be fixed or painted or improved or redone before I leave, tired of people thinking that England=London, and tired of waiting for it all to finally come to an end.

I'm at the point where I need things to be completed in order to feel like I can move on. And I'm no where near that yet in most aspects. The car's shipping papers are in, but that's just the beginning. The cat's paperwork isn't close to finished. The house isn't rented, my bedroom isn't fully painted, the carpets still need to be replaced, the oven still needs to be fixed, and all the stuff that's still in the house - particularly in the basement and the garage - needs to be dealt with. I haven't finished my Bosch application. I haven't even started crafting a UK-friendly resume (excuse me, CV).

I guess today's an "I'm feeling overwhelmed" day. There's been an awful lot of those lately.

Frickin' A

2008-09-30T11:13:00.002-04:00

So, I'm not the tidiest person in the world. For about a week, though, my house was like a museum.

That's all...a week. This week, not so much. I didn't make my bed, scoop cat poop, get rid of old cat food, put dishes in the dishwasher, etc this morning.

We haven't had anyone look at the house since DH left for England again a couple of weeks ago. I figured, no one was coming during the week, so meh, I can let it slide until the weekend.

Don't you just know that someone called and asked if they could look at the place this morning. Just my friggin luck. It's a total disaster, the master bedroom is like 3/4 painted, the basement has those two fans down there drying the floorboards where there was a leak, aforementioned stinky cat poo, food, no vacuuming. I just got totally screwed on that one.

Oh well.. what am I gonna do. Clean the heck out of the house tonight and not allow myself to slack again.

25 days left of this mess.

Down to four..

2008-09-28T08:46:00.002-04:00

Wow.

Not that I expected anything different, but time really does keep slipping away. I'm down to 4 weeks now, and I am kind of in that zone where it's just before a whole lot of things are going to have to happen.

On my date list:

Submitting my Bosch Fellowship application (due Oct 15th)
Mailing the documents and papers to ship my car (scheduled to go Oct 16)
Get a rental car
Take the kitties for their first of two final vet appointments (Oct 17th)
Get the movers in to put my stuff into storage (Oct 23)

This list doesn't include the various dates I've made with friends and family for "final visits", a bunch of miscellaneous paperwork I need to keep track of (status of a refund for some deck stuff, get the HOA information for my property manager, car paperwork to Ray for clearance, etc)

It also doesn't include the myriad things that I need to finish around the house, including finishing painting the master bedroom, getting a painter to do the staircase and hallways, getting new carpet in the house, and clearing out the basement and garage of junk.

Let's just hope I keep my sanity over these next few weeks.

Just over 5 weeks and counting...

2008-09-18T21:53:00.002-04:00

So, tomorrow marks five weeks until my last day at NOAA, and Saturday marks 5 weeks until I leave for the UK, and Sunday marks 5 weeks until I arrive in the UK.

5 weeks. Sounds like a longish time.

But once 5 weeks passes, it'll be 4 weeks and change. 4 weeks. That doesn't sound like any time at all. I have lots of stuff to do, many people to say goodbye to, and all those last minute logistics that need to be settled. Canceling phone, internet, etc. Shipping my car. Getting my cats to the vet for their health clearances. Packing my remaining stuff.

I'm kind of excited to be in the 4 week and under range. It makes dealing with being here rather than with DH a little easier. I mean, gosh, 4 weeks isn't long at all. I can handle that. It all seems much less daunting now than the beginning of the summer, when the first 6 weeks apart was just that - just the beginning. Now I'm on my last 5 weeks, the light has appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Now, if only I can keep the house clean until it gets rented, then I can actually relax - just a little.

Packed Bug!

2008-09-15T11:11:00.002-04:00

Many sincere and heartfelt thanks to Jen and Brett, who themselves are moving to Harrogate and have offered a small corner of their container to take some of our things that weren't moved the first time (like the bed frame so our bed won't be on the floor!).

Luckily, all we had left to send at this time fit in the Bug:

Did I jinx myself?

2008-09-14T18:21:00.003-04:00

And I thought yesterday was crazy...

Today DH and I kind of took it a little easy this morning... until about 11am when we got a call from a Realtor asking if she could show the house at 4pm. I was like CRAP! I was hoping to do serious cleaning after DH left, and just finish up some organizational stuff. No such luck, so DH and I spent our last day together mad cleaning - not company cleaning, showing your house to prospective renters cleaning. INSANE! We worked like dogs trying to get the carpets tolerable (they're being replaced, but our Realtor said "people react to what they see") trying to get the bathrooms organized and the master bedroom straightened up. Oy! I forgot to get to the downstairs bathroom, and the basement and the garage are disaster areas, but those are almost acceptable. The master bath isn't in great shape either. I - FINALLY - finished painting it yesterday, including the tough to reach area behind the toilet. There's a lot of paint spatters on the floor, though, that I haven't yet gotten up, and the caulk around the bathtub could use some help.

Once we got done all that we were reasonably going to get done, we both took a quick shower and were seconds away from leaving. DH wanted to say goodbye to the kitties, so we found Eliza (easy) and then looked for Henry. We couldn't find him anywhere. For a solid 15 minutes, we were panicking, running around outside just in case he had gotten out, looking in every conceivable spot for him. Finally, we found him sitting on a chair in the dining room (tucked into the tablecover, which is why we missed him the first ten times we looked there). We quickly got on the road and got to the airport.

But the story isn't over yet. DH's flight was supposed to leave at 530 for a 9pm flight out of Philly to Manchester. DH just called me at 6 to tell me that the plane they were counting on using had issues, and they're being switched to another plane. I hope to God he makes his connection. Argh!

Well hoping ain't getting. DH is home again tonight; his flight rebooked for tomorrow. I'll be sure to make the most of it ;)

Never. been. busier.

2008-09-13T10:44:00.002-04:00

Ugh.

I have spent most of the last day working on the house, desperately trying to get it cleaned up and cleaned out such that it is a) in a reasonable condition for showing, as it went on the market to rent this weekend, and b) that my work over the next 6 weeks would be significantly easier with a solid 75% of the trash, junk, yada, taken out or at least identified as trash.

DH was supposed to have gone home Friday night, but since virtually nothing on the honey-do list was complete (he did get my front license plate mounted on my car!) we decided to change his flight to Sunday night to give him the chance to get a little more work done. Plus, he had to have a tooth filling replaced Friday morning.

May God let me get through the next 6 weeks without falling apart.

Marking # 32

2008-08-31T20:57:00.003-04:00

In the grand tradition of my life, nothing is ever easy. I picked up DH from PHL yesterday afternoon - only I was about 45 minutes late getting to the airport because of a major accident on I95N yesterday afternoon that forced me to detour off the highway, and multiple major backups at the various tolls and whatnot. Nothing is ever easy, but I'm quite pleased that I have my DH home for my birthday.

Speaking of which, we're going to celebrate properly next weekend down in Palm Beach, however I did treat myself to one birthday gift:

I bought myself a pair of Wellies from DSW with a rewards and a birthday coupon I got in the mail. Sadly, they're going to come in very, very handy.

Moving movie

2008-08-17T13:37:00.003-04:00

No, this is not an emotional moment or mesmorizingly cathartic experience, it's the two movies I made of the movers (and DH) getting our couch into our small rental house in the UK.

The first one is a little broken; I changed the orientation of the movie halfway through, so don't hurt your neck watching the first half:

And then finally:

In awe of Michael Phelps...

2008-08-16T11:06:00.003-04:00

I am a rabid fan of these Olympics and in particular have been drawn most strongly by the men's gymnastics (my God - that pommel horse routine by that one American and the high bar routine by the other American - simply magnificent!) and, like everyone else in the US so it seems, the swimming.

I don't know whether it's the suits, the increased presence of technology to dissect and evaluate stroke technique, or what, but swimming, in my opinion, has never been more exciting. I swam competitively through most of high school, and I watch these guys and see things that 20 years ago we were told explicitly not to do (breathe only on one side, breathe every stroke, stay underwater too long, etc). Races are mostly exciting nailbiters, which makes me really happy, because that means that no one group has the absolute edge.

I didn't see the coverage of the 100M Fly live last night, but I did catch it on a YouTube link and now really regret missing it. I think that the main thing that I am so impressed about with Michael Phelps is that, from the outside, the guy looks to be one of the most well-adjusted superstars I've ever heard of. And you can tell exactly where it came from when you watch his mother's reaction to his racing in the stands. No win is taken for granted, no result is expected. Her holding her two fingers up last night, celebrating a second-place finish in the fly, made it seem that she would be just as happy with that result as the win. Given the media swarm about him and the whole Spitz 7 gold thing they seem to be pushing as their "hook" it's refreshing to see that the family doesn't seem to have bought into the hype. He's just her boy, racing his heart out and doing his best, and that's all she can ask for.

I know he hasn't had the perfect track record (the underage DUI incident in Salisbury MD comes to mind) but I think that made him even more grounded.

Between Phelp's and Shawn Johnson's lives as Olympians, and their demonstration that you can have a semi-normal life and still have success, it gives me great hope that systems like the Chinese and the former Eastern Bloc - where children who are potential Olympians are treated as commodities rather than people, will eventually fade away.

Go Phelps!

Edited to Add This is a most unfortunate photo of Phelps - very PG-13. Scroll down only if you dare:

Foiled! Darn you Chinese characters

2008-08-09T07:56:00.002-04:00

So, as I've written before, I LOVE the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I always watch, not so much for the artistic stuff, but really for the Parade of Nations. It's the moment where I think if aliens had given up on the human race, seeing that clump of humanity in the middle of a stadium might just restore it.

Moreover, I love the Parade of Nations as a little personal geography challenge - try and anticipate which country comes next!! Well, the Chinese apparently don't have an alphabet in their script, so instead of coming in in alphabetical order, they came in according to the number of strokes in the Chinese characters that make their country's name in Chinese. Totally totally screwed up my game - especially when Australia and Zambia were the final two countries immediately preceding the host country, who always comes out last.

Without my fun geography challenge, I was left with only one other diversion. It's a little game I like to call "What are they wearing?" The Hungarian women (flower patterned dresses), the Polish women (bad bridesmaid dresses) and the Spanish women (highlighter yellow outfits) were total WTF moments, topped only by the Lithuanian men in their "manpris." Oh dear. That being said, I loved a lot of the African and Pacific Island outfits that really reflected their cultures, thought too many countries opted for the boring blazer and pants combo (including the yawn-inspiring Americans) and loved the green of the Iranian's outfits (I think it was them - maybe it was India, I didn't take notes).

Kitty travel crates - check!

2008-08-07T20:19:00.002-04:00

The last couple of days I've been getting ready - well, readier - for our upcoming move to the UK. One of my tasks was buying crates to ship the kitties in. We have a small carrier for going back and forth to the vet, but the airline requires that cats have three inches of clearance above their ears when they're standing up.

Saturday I bought a 21 inch high crate - since it was the smallest reasonable size in stock at my local Petsmart. I got it home and stuck Henry and Eliza in it (separately). They had about 5 inches of ear clearance, and a whole lot of room otherwise.

So, thinking that perhaps I could go the next size down, I bought an 18 inch high crate last night. I stuck the cats in that, and immediately knew that it wasn't going to fly (no pun intended). There was only about 1.5 inches of ear clearance, and while it looked cozier, it just seemed too cozy.

I called Continental to see whether it was possible to get a crate that was too big, and they assured me that unless I was shipping a Chihuahua in a Great Dane's cage, that bigger was better to be sure the cats had enough ventilation. So tonight I went and exchanged the smaller crate for another larger one, and I've put the cats' beds, blanket, and gobs of catnip in them to tempt the kitties to check them out and be comfortable with them.

Eliza goes in and out no problem. Henry is terrified.

My week+ in England at a glance - part 2

2008-08-02T18:12:00.002-04:00

Thursday! Pushed into a corner, I realized that I had to let DH have his expensive toy. I gave him permission to buy whatever TV he wanted. This set off a flurry of research on his part to find out which was the best, yada yada yada. After revisiting the base exchange, several electronics stores, etc, he finally settled on a 37 inch LG flatscreen that cost as much as my plane ticket home. We got it home, realized that we didn't have the cable to connect it to the signal booster, which meant that he made a mad dash out to the Asda to get the cable so we could enjoy the TV that night. Here, I have to admit, it's a pretty awesome TV. The picture is incredible - I'm mightily impressed. We did some walking around town, bought two bottles of inexpensive but great wine at Morrisons, and enjoyed the TV that night.

Friday - this was our general home improvement day. None of the bathrooms had mirrors or shelves or towel racks, and DH had been planning just to borrow a drill so that he could install the bathroom mirror he bought, door handles on the wardrobe, etc. Anyway, we kept buying the wrong lightbulbs for the lamps we bought at Ikea, so we went to the DIY store to get the right ones (it took us four tries!). While there, we went ahead and bought a drill that was on sale, so back to the house we went with our new purchase so that we could drill holes all over the place. We installed a clothesline retractor thing in the backyard, the wardrobe handles, the bathroom mirror, the master bath towel rack, and I am sure a couple of other things I'm not remembering. Finally, by the end of the day, I started to feel like we had gotten the house into a basic living condition. There are still lots of little things I'd like to do: hang different curtains, have some plants in the back garden, install hand towel racks in the other two bathrooms, etc. But all in due time.

Saturday we strolled into town and had lunch in the Valley Gardens. We tried to enjoy what we expected to be our last day together, as I was hoping to fly home on Sunday. We had some decent sandwiches and some ice cream, people-watched a lot, and just enjoyed the nice weather.

Sunday - well, not too much great to say about Sunday. We spent the entire morning at the airport, hoping that I would get onto the flight home. Needless to say I didn't, so we headed back to Harrogate, hit an internet cafe and bought me a one-way ticket home (flying standby was not going to work), and just tried to get over the fact that we were both tired and cranky from waking up too early, and after 7 weeks separation, had spent a week together 24/7 and were getting a little edgy.

Monday DH went back to work and I enjoyed a quiet day on my own, walking around town and such. Not too much exciting happened, except we did hit our second pub quiz night together (we had gone the previous Monday as well).

Tuesday I woke up too damn early and flew home.

My week+ in England at a glance - part 1

2008-08-02T17:49:00.003-04:00

So what the heck did I actually do while I was in the UK. Here's a quick day by day summary.

Arrive Saturday on an overnight flight from Philly to Manchester. DH was waiting for me at the airport and by 10am we were on our way to Harrogate in a rental Vauxhall Astra. My navigational expertise combined with my lack of experience on English roads took us on some slow, plodding, small road through Bradford rather than sticking to the highway. A mistake that was not repeated again. We stopped at our new English home before heading off to the B&B DH has booked us in for two nights until our stuff arrived. We walked into town for my introduction to Harrogate, had Thai food, and retreated back to the hotel early for some much needed R&R.

Sunday, after enjoying an interesting breakfast at our B&B, we took a drive into the countryside. We also spent some time at the house mapping out what furniture was going to be moved into which rooms in preparation for the movers' arrival the next morning.

Monday was moving day, and the movers were there bright and early Monday morning! That took the vast majority of the day - the two small moving dudes that were there had to deal with three floors of living space, and my constant inability to remember that in the UK, the first floor is called the ground floor, the second floor is the first floor, etc. The queen size box spring we sent didn't fit up the stairs, and neither did our Pottery Barn couch. The movers hoisted the couch through a second floor window that had a french door (I took a movie of this process, which was impressive!), but unfortunately after they left, DH and I worked together and disassembled the box spring so that it could be shoved up the stairs. Good thing we did too, since the bed frame I sent, which I thought was a full/queen frame, was in fact a twin/full frame, and so the bed is currently resting on the floor. I unpacked all our dishes and miscellaneous items while DH went out for Chinese take-out. It was a long, long day.

Tuesday was Ikea Day! We got to the Ikea in Leeds around 10am, searching for a small kitchen table and chairs, a wardrobe (there were NO proper closets in the house), and a desk, among other things. We made one pass through the store, and we had measured the backseat to ensure we could fit our purchases in the car. We had no problem with the desk and kitchen table, but realized that the wardrobe we wanted posed a serious challenge, and the chairs we wanted weren't in stock. After buying one set of things and remeasuring the car with a little different seat configuration, we went back into the Ikea, enjoyed a Swedish meatball lunch (soooo yummy) and bought the wardrobe, some other chairs, and an ironing board from the clearance section (yeah!). To make a long story short, we somehow managed to fit it all in the car (although DH noted that it was seriously unbalanced) and get home in one piece. We spent the remainder of the day assembling the wardrobe and kitchen table and chairs, and then collapsed again into bed.

Wednesday was electronics day! We visited the base commissary and base exchange for our initial purchases - including a hair dryer, which I had been without for 3 days! we bought some groceries, a toaster oven, iron, and the hair dryer, but not a vacuum or TV. We took all our first purchases home, where I discovered that I'd bought an American hair dryer! POOOP! That was going to have to go back. We then went out and visited the UK equivalent of Best Buy - Currys - to look at TVs, hairdryers, and vacuums. I found a hair dryer (yeah!) and a vacuum I liked, but unfortunately they were out of stock. More importantly (certainly from DH's point of view) I accepted that he was right and there were no TVs available that were not extremely expensive 26+ inch flatscreens. (there were little 13 inch TVs, but they were still flatscreen and ridiculously expensive as well). We stopped by Sainsbury's on the suggestion of the B&B owner and, lo and behold, found my vacuum! Hooray. We went back to the house and I vacuumed the loving heck out of our couch, which was covered in enough cat hair to build another cat! We built the desk from Ikea, and collapsed into bed.

TBC

England round-up

2008-08-02T17:13:00.002-04:00

You know, I'm sure that while I was in Harrogate, I had a million little observations and stories that I intended to document on my blog. For example, I observed that the vast majority of people in Harrogate under the age of 60 either have no fashion sense whatsoever, or think that they are being stylish by wearing the latest cheap knock off of the latest fashion 3 sizes too small. I've never seen so many cellulite ravaged-thighs, muffin tops, unsupported oversized breasts (the underwire has clearly made no inroads and people are wearing bras with overstretched and paperthin cups - not a pretty sight), plumbers' cracks/coin slots, and poochy tummys jutting out from under belly tops in my life - and I have been to grad school in the recent past here in the states! Don't get me wrong, I'm no Italian fashion plate, but yikes. Wild.

As another example, when the Romans left Britain, they clearly took all their plumbing technology with them and permanently set the Britons 100 years back in terms of distributing hot and cold water through homes. I mean, separate water taps? I know they're cute and quaint in reproduction Victorian B&Bs, but in a house built since 2002? You've got to be kidding me. Moreover, "mixer" taps don't actually mix hot and cold water - they merely provide the two through separate openings on the underside of the tap very close to each other (as opposed to being on opposite sides of the sink) so that if you move your hands back and forth rapidly, you can intermediately treat the scald burn on your hands. WTF?

Finally, Harrogate has got to be one of the whitest towns I've ever been in (granted, I've never been to Salt Lake City). I saw exactly 3 people of color on the street. Three. That I could count them so exactly is depressing. It explains the dismal state of the food available. The two predominant flavors are either saccharine sweet or British bland. We had Thai - dominant flavor sweet; Chinese - dominant flavor sweet; pasta sauce from the Coop - sickeningly sweet; Italian food - bland; Spanish tapas - mostly bland; Indian food - not bland, but not especially flavorful and certainly not spicy. I blame it on the utter lack of people of color bringing their flavors into the city. All the waiters were Polish, and I desperately wanted to ask one of them where they got Polish food (mmmmm, pierogies) but I realized that more likely than not they lived in Leeds, and left all the yummy food there.

But luckily that represents the extent of the complaints I have right now. I can't even complain much about the weather - YET! - because it was generally very nice while I was there. Of course, the general consensus of those who had been there longer than 10 days was that the weather I experienced was in fact the exception for the summer thus far, but really, Harrogate is a nice little town. The neighborhood we're in is Goldilocks just right. Residential enough to be quiet and separated from city noise, but close enough that the downtown district and lots of shops are a quick, pleasant walk away. The gardens around town are pretty and peaceful. The town is clearly amazingly rich - BMWs, Mercedes, Jags, and Porsches replace Hondas, Toyotas, Fords, and Chevys. I can't figure out what all those people do, though, since there is no industry - heavy of otherwise - that I spied.

I don't get to move there full time until late October because of the cats, and by then the sun will start setting by 4pm and the weather will be decidedly worse. I'm pretty optimistic though that it will be an enjoyable three years.

Even quicker update...

2008-07-29T21:53:00.002-04:00

Waking up at 5am England time (that's midnight Washington DC time).

Two trains from Harrogate to Manchester Airport.

Two flights from Manchester to Glasgow to Philadelphia.

Three hour wait for each in the airports.

Two hour and twenty minute drive home courtesy of my dad.

10:00pm Washington DC time and I'm home.

Twenty two hours straight without any sleep.

Cats are alive and fed.

Goodnight.

Quick update!

2008-07-28T07:22:00.002-04:00

Well... I'm going to try and keep this a truly short and quick update. There will be much more to post once I get home.

That's right, once I get home.

I'm sitting here in an internet cafe in Harrogate. I had hoped to get a flight home yesterday, but unfortunately there were only 3 free seats and I was number 4 on the standby list. Then I was told that they had changed the aircraft type - my flight over was on a A330 Jumbo jet - very big - and after Sunday they were changing it to a 757 (not a jumbo jet) and were like 80+ people overbooked for the remainder of the week. Lovely. Anyway I need to get home, so DH and I bit the bullet and paid for a very expensive one-way flight home. That only gets me to Philly. On Tuesday. At 630pm. I don't know yet how I am going to make it the rest of the way home - whether I am going to take a train to Union Station and then Metro home, or try and get my Dad to drive me back, or I don't know what. Once I get back to Philly, I guess I can try and figure that all out. Fun!

Things here have otherwise been pretty good. It's a nice little town, decent little house, and except for all of the little annoyances (it takes like 4 weeks to set up a telephone, and then another 2 to get internet - what is this, the stone ages?) it'll be pretty easy to adjust. Much easier than I anticipated, really. I've got tons of humorous observations (when the Romans left, they clearly took all knowledge of plumbing technology with them), some minor complaints (see plumbing issues) and lots of things to like well enough. I think it will be a fairly interesting but comfortable 3 years.

Enough for now... I'll write again when (if?) I make it home.

BTW Jeffro - you would LOVE Harrogate. You could just sit on a bench on the main "roundabout" coming into town and just marvel at all the various cars.

So it begins...

2008-07-17T17:04:00.002-04:00

Here we go. I leave for the UK tomorrow, am no where near being packed yet, have a bunch of housework that I want to get done before I leave, have to come into work for an early meeting before going to the airport, and on top of all that, my pre-flight nerves are working overtime right now. I don't fly well, and the whole situation of flying stand-by and whatnot is really working my last bit of stamina.

I've got a 6 hour layover in Philly, so I think I'm going to try and use the time productively and go into the city for a little shopping. The R1 goes right downtown, so that shouldn't be a big deal for an hour or two. I will make sure that I am at the airport nice and early so that I can be sure of getting a spot on the plane. Of course, it's not the ride over to the UK I'm worried about. Seats are going to be tight on the return trip, and I just hope I'm able to snag one!

Seeing as I am scheduled to arrive in Manchester at 9am UK time Saturday morning (4am local DC time) I'm guessing that there is now about a 36 hour countdown starting just about now to when I am going to be a quivering, jibbering, emotional mess. I feel bad for whatever immigration officer I have to deal with. Wish me luck!

I knew it was going to happen

2008-07-12T19:42:00.005-04:00

Today was a long but wonderful day! I drove up to Jersey for lunch with some friends from high school - some of whom I hadn't seen in 14 years! We had a fantastic time, and despite the fact that we were together for 4+ hours, we only scratched the surface of all the stuff we could have talked about.

There was one event which threatened to mar my day. I had just gotten onto the DC Beltway off of 270. A woman in a white car in the far left lane was yammering on her cell phone, drifting occasionally into the near-far left lane and going about 15-20 miles slower than the speed of traffic. Naturally, I was in a bit of a hurry, so I downshifted, punched it, and passed the woman on the right, going about 75 miles an hour.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spot the cop sitting on the far right shoulder. Sh*t.

Sure enough, 2 minutes later I look in my rear view mirror and see the cop closing in fast, lights off, but unmistakably coming after me. I begin to pull to the right, and finally he's right behind me, lights flashing, and I know I'm toast. Ever since I got the car and started appreciating how much pep there is under the hood, I was pretty mentally prepared to get a speeding ticket.

Resigned to my fate, I pull over onto the side of the road - pulling over as far as I possibly can, since this is the Beltway and I don't want it to be dangerous for him. I roll my window down, leave my hands on the wheel, and wait for him to come to my window.

"Hello ma'am. Do you know why I've pulled you over today?"

Internal response "Hm. Was it the speeding or the passing on the right or the reckless driving or all three?"

Actual response "No sir I don't."

At this point I'm waiting to hear how fast he's clocked me going, how dangerous it is to pass on the right, yada yada yada. What I didn't expect to hear is this:

"Ma'am. Do you know that your front license plate is missing, which is required by Maryland state law?"

Internal response "WHAT?"

Actual response "Yes sir I do know. I haven't had it installed."

"Ma'am. Do you have your front plate?"

"Yes sir. It's in my backseat on the floor."

"Ma'am, I can't see it back there. Can you show me?"

So I reach around to the back seat and luckily can reach it fairly easily under the roadmap. I show it to him and he seems satisfied.

"Ma'am, can I have your license and registration please?"

At this point I remember reading somewhere that a cop can get nervous when you start digging through stuff looking for these things, because for all he knows you're pulling out a gun or something. I remembered reading that you should always state what you are going to do before you do it, so I tell the officer that my license is in my purse and I'm going to reach in and get it. I do exactly that and hand it to him. I then tell him that the registration is in the glove compartment and that I am going to open it up and reach in there and get that, which I do. This cop is like 10 years old, he's clearly young and new. No need to spook him or anything.

Anyway he takes my info and goes back to his car for like 10 minutes. He comes back and I see a white slip of paper in his hands.

Internal response "Sh*t. I'm getting a ticket."

"Ma'am. Since you have your plate, I'm only going to give you a warning today."

"Thank you sir, that's very kind. I'll have it installed as soon as possible."

And then... thinking that I've basically gotten away with murder at this point, since he clearly didn't catch me speeding or passing on the right... he says:

"Have a nice day ma'am. And please drive safer."

HAH! He totally pulled me over for the speeding, but since I was so cute in my Bug, with my sunglasses on, iPod in the cupholder, he just couldn't bear to give me a real ticket.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Fun fact: The song playing when I got pulled over - "Just Stop" by Disturbed.

Why can't a man be more like a woman?

2008-07-11T20:28:00.004-04:00

I've decided that the real problem with men is that they don't think like women. I've proven to myself today that when I put my mind to it, I can do things that most women would defer to a man. Today I received a replacement battery for my iPod Mini. I like my iPod Mini, but the battery on it died a long time ago. I begged DH to just change the battery, but he couldn't be bothered, saying that it was just better to buy a new iPod. Well I rejected that idea, and went ahead and ordered myself the replacement battery kit (came with instructions and a little tool to pry it open). Anyway, I've now got a working iPod Mini with a brand new lease on life. Go me! And that was for only $26 (paid for the 2 day FedEx shipping, vs 150+ for a new iPod.

Moreover, DH has also failed to think like a woman, and that had made me very, very angry. He can almost do it... he even says that the things I wish he would think about he did indeed think of, he just didn't think them all the way through. There's no explanation of why he didn't follow that logical line of thinking (like hm, Erika probably wouldn't want to spend the first two nights in the UK on some smelly borrowed air mattress on itchy sheets with crummy pillows in an otherwise empty house; she might like to be in a nice comfortable bed in a hotel room instead, where breakfast will be served rather than cobbled together and all the conveniences of our modern era are right at hand). He just stops at "well, I won't mind, so Erika probably won't."

Why do men stop at "probably?" Or "maybe?" Or "Should I?" It's as if they think that initial thought, which begs a thorough examination of the possibilities, ramifications, and unintended consequences before choosing a course of action, and rather than taking the time to think it all the way through, they just stop and default to whatever their preference is. There's a whole world of unexplored thoughts and considerations that men never dare enter.

It's puzzling. Prof. Higgens definitely had his song backwards, but is the perfect portrayal of what happens when a man pursues a course of action without thinking of all the consequences for all the affected parties. Poor Eliza. Poor Erika.

Why don't I just save myself the trouble and kill myself now

2008-07-07T20:12:00.003-04:00

I love hot, humid weather. I was born in August in Florida, for crying out loud. I crave the sun, revel in the heat, bloom with humidity.

And unfortunately I'm moving with DH to the UK for three years. Even more unfortunate I am leaving in 12 days to spend a little more than a week with him. During the time of year when it is supposed to be the best weather they get.

And then I see this article posted on Fark.com. Basic summary is in this quote, "With the thundery showers expected to continue, forecasters predicted that the country may have seen the last of any lengthy periods of sunshine." Mind you, these aren't the humid heat driven thunderstorms of our summer, these are the miserable storms of our November/March.

I gotta tell you, when DH said this weekend was cold, windy, and rainy when they were out, he tried to make it sound like an anomaly. Now I know that nice weather is the true anomaly. And it's going to kill me.

I'm going to be a very frequent flier to the Mediterranean, I predict now.

Why I miss having a man around the house

2008-07-05T17:33:00.002-04:00

It was another productive day around the house/yard. I got the lawn mowed, some housework and sorting done, and cleared out the weeds from the side garden. Still haven't figured out what I'm going plant there.

Anyway, the title of the post refers to an unfortunate discovery I made in the backyard. A dead young robin, almost full grown. Normally I would have called DH over immediately to deal with it. Instead, I had to pick up the lifeless, limp little body with a shovel, bring it to the corner of the yard, dig a little hole, and bury it. Just awful.

Then, as I set about mowing the rear yard, I was attacking some of the weeds growing at the edge of the deck when a very small bunny hopped out and ran into a little patch of wildflowers growing near the garden. I immediately cut off the mower, terrified that there might have been another under there or something. I finished mowing the rest of the yard as best I could, completely avoiding the area where the little guy had escaped to; I was worried he would hop out in fear and end up.... well I'll say no more. I got most of the yard finished when I went over to check out whether he was still in the little flower patch. He was, so I grabbed some lettuce and tossed it at him. Note to self: all this does is scare him. He hopped out the open gate into the side garden among the stargazer lilies. I go ahead and finish the rest of the yard - the areas I avoided when he was in the flower patch. Then I was ready to tackle the front yard, so I wanted to shush the bunny back into the backyard where he had been hiding originally. It took me like 20 minutes to convince him to come out from under the lilies and hydrangea and around the gate into the backyard again, but he finally did it. He was so frickin' cute - you could have held him in the palm of one hand.

I hope he's one of the lucky ones. He must be the offspring of one of the large bunnies I've seen eating the lettuce out of my garden. I wonder if I should lay a piece of wood down and give the little guy a ramp up to the lettuce for himself.

Productive 4th!

2008-07-04T14:15:00.003-04:00

So admittedly I haven't been extremely productive - house-work wise - for the past several weekends. However, today I did get a good bit of needed work done.

My number one priority was cleaning out my front garden of weeds and dead tulip stems and getting a little color back into it. I went up to my favorite nursery first thing this morning (Home Depot had jack for selection) and bought three flats of impatiens (not my favorite, but good value since the season is almost over). I then got home and weeded and planted the impatiens in the front garden; the whole ordeal took about 3 hours! Anyway, the front garden looks like a showcase now rather than an embarrassment, and I can plant something more permanent (a perennial or something) in the fall when the impatiens poop out.

Next I needed to get a wireless router. With my new roommate (who is working out like gangbusters - I'm so happy about that) we needed internet access in two rooms for two computers. The wireless router we did have is sitting on a ship in Antwerp right now, so I just went out and bought a cheap one that I can easily resell in a couple of months. While at Best Buy, I found what I've been looking all over for - Seasons One and Two of The Venture Bros! I'm totally excited! It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.

For the remainder of the day I'll try and figure out what I am going to do with the side garden, which is completely overrun with weeds and choked plants, and the other side of the front garden, which is bare because I yanked those four bushes out. Then I have to hit the backyard!

Last night I caught the last 3/4s of Jane Austen's Persuasion and Jane Austen's Regretson Masterpiece Classics on WETA last night. They're rerunning the absolutely fantastic BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice next weekend, so catch it if you can. I'm still hoping to see Persuasion in its entirety.

Change is in the air...

2008-06-28T09:33:00.002-04:00

So after 2-3 completely miserable weeks, I sense that things are starting to turn around.

My neighbors are home from their vacation. This sounds like such a small thing, but they are the only people who know that I am here alone, and it is so comforting that they're back and watching out for me. Mrs. George (not her real name) came over soon after they got home with Cosmos in hand and we drank and chatted for nearly 2 hours. It's been a real weight off my shoulders.

The second bit o' news is that I've decided to get a roommate. It's nearly a perfect situation; she's a 19 year old college student who is managing our neighborhood pool. She just wanted a place to stay a couple of nights a week (maybe 3-4) to save her a 3-4 hour daily commute from her parents' place. She's going to be nice and low maintenance, take care of my cats when I visit DH in England (no kennel needed - yea!), and just having someone else in the house is going to give me that little additional bit of peace of mind. I'm quite happy with the situation.

Eliza is getting better, I'm starting to get a little braver, and I'm sleeping more (still not great) so my mental state isn't as fragile. I've got a loose date when I am going to fly and see DH (mini-mental countdown started) and once he gets the house situation sorted out and our stuff moved in, I think I'll really feel better about things.

All that being said, I'm still keeping that big breaker bar beside my bed. And checking the basement for spiderwebs every couple of days.

Losing it...

2008-06-23T09:41:00.003-04:00

This is my 500th post, and I wish it was more upbeat.

I think that I am slowly but surely losing it. I had hoped to get a lot of rest this weekend, but it seems like the Gods are conspiring against this. Saturday night I managed to fall asleep around 1am. Shortly thereafter, a car alarm went off across the street. I woke up thinking that it was the house alarm going off again, and grabbed the giant torque wrench/breaker bar thing next to the bed and went out into the hallway. Once I realized it wasn't the house alarm, I looked out my window and saw the car alarm going off. Regardless, I wasn't able to calm down for some time.

Sunday night, again going to bed with the best intentions, I was awoken by Eliza's strange behavior. She had been acting weird most of the afternoon, but around 1am she was crying loudly, running into the litter box, and I saw a little bloody-looking pool of liquid. She had been having diarhhea that afternoon, but this had clearly taken a turn for the worse, so off to the emergency vet 25 minutes away to have her looked at. I got home around 4am. She's fine, but needless to say, didn't get a lot of sleep last night either.

I think that I am going to end up like one of those Hollywood celebrities who checks into the hospital for "exhaustion."

Multi-media weekend

2008-06-21T20:02:00.002-04:00

Last night, after imbibing some wine (Sav Blanc from NZ always a winner) I watched Stranger than Fiction from the Comcast On Demand menu. It was actually a really cute and clever movie with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson (love her!), Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhall.

Well, I should say I watched 98% of it. For some reason the cable crashed right at the very end of the movie, and I had to wait until the cable came back this morning to see the complete ending. It was very frustrating.

Before ordering that up, I watched the new episodes of The Venture Bros and Metalocalypse on the Adult Swim website. It's not quite as good as watching it on TV, but I'm also never able to stay awake to watch them Sunday nights either. Both were strong episodes, although I thought that Metalocalypse was particularly good.

Finally, today I drove out to the Eastern Shore for a family reunion. It was a nice enough drive; I have a really fun triangle sunburn on my chest from where my V-neck shirt exposed my skin. I've been listening to my Dethklok CD fairly regularly lately, so I decided to peruse our CD collection for some more CDs to enjoy on the ride. I listened to a fairly wide variety of music: Metallica's Black Album, No Doubt's Return to Saturn, Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill (sang myself hoarse!), and Def Leppard's Hysteria. I had U2's Joshua Tree, but I didn't feel in the mood for it. If I had had Achtung Baby, I probably would have sang myself hoarse a second time (I love that album). I had been looking for Motley Crue or Nirvana, but I couldn't find them before I left.

Tonight I'm looking forward to a little more wine and the BBC's version of Robin Hood.

Taking care of myself

2008-06-20T20:58:00.002-04:00

So it's no great secret that two weeks into my separation from DH (physical, not emotional or marital) and I'm not really doing so hot. The burglar alarm going off last Sunday really did a number on my psyche, and I don't think that I've slept more than 20 hours all week.

Gradually I've been looking for ways to ease the fear. I'm leaving lights on all over the house, which has helped a little. I had considered sleeping pills, but DH suggested the much more enjoyable solution of a little wine before bed. I didn't have any drinkable wine in the house, so tonight I decided to take some steps towards taking better care of myself.

After chatting with DH on the phone, I called and ordered some Indian take out. Before picking up my order, I stopped at a local beer/wine store and grabbed a bottle of red and a bottle of white. Montgomery County selection absolutely sucks ass; I found one bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of California Pinot Noir. I'm about halfway through the Sav Blanc and I think that I'm going to sleep just fine tonight.

I hope, anyway.

Remind me why I'm not in England right now

2008-06-16T19:18:00.003-04:00

I don't seem to be having an awful lot of luck lately - at least with respect to dealing with living by myself. Yesterday's false alarm may have permanently scarred my psyche, preventing me from sleeping through the night without being terrified of it going off and worse, confusing me with the "boy who cried wolf" scenario.

Next I woke up this morning to the news that a major water main had broken in MontCo and we were being asked to conserve and boil water. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, whom I get my water from, has offered this helpful map for residents wondering whether they are included in the "boil water" orders:

I live in the little red area north of the gridlines. In fact, I think there are a whole lot of people affected by the "boil water" order who couldn't find themselves on this map. I can't zoom in on my street or anything. Stupidest map ever!

Finally we had more storms roll through today. This isn't a big deal, we've been pretty lucky with respect to trees and whatnot. But today, of course, I forgot to close my upstairs windows (I turned the air off last night in anticipation of the cooler weather this week). Wet carpets everywhere.

This plan of waiting until October to join DH isn't looking too great in the light of day. What was I thinking?

False alarm freak-out

2008-06-15T12:47:00.002-04:00

I know that having the burglar alarm is a good thing, but jeebus did my blood pressure go through the roof this morning.

This morning around 10:30am, I was in my bedroom working on my bank account, when the house alarm went off. I didn't recognize what it was for like 30 seconds, and when I did it didn't really register that something might be wrong. I ran downstairs to shut off the alarm, and saw Henry walking away from his chair. No big deal, I thought, maybe one of the cats got into the basement.

But then I looked at the basement door, and it was locked and I hadn't opened it for like three days.

The phone rang (I knew it to be the alarm company) so I ran back upstairs, chasing Henry in front of me, to answer. The alarm company said that the basement motion detector had set off the alarm, and since I knew that the basement door was locked and both cats were in the bedroom, I had no idea what was going on. Being alone, I asked that they go ahead and send out the police. I locked my bedroom door, and waited for the police to show up, basically with my heart racing and crying a little.

DH happened to be on the computer in England about this time, so I quickly dashed off a message to him. I was convinced that I could hear sounds in the basement now, so I called 911 (the police called to check it out, and they said that if I heard anything I should call 911 right away). Anyway, to make a long story short, the police got here, I waited outside while they checked out the basement, and they came out a short while later telling me that there was no evidence that anything had happened to set off the alarm.

Then what the heck set it off? I called the security company to ask for help in case there was something wrong with the motion detector. The girl on the other end suggested that I check it out for spider webs and ants; apparently they set off basement detectors all the time. Sure enough, there was a spiderweb over the cover and a little thing (maybe a spider's meal?) hanging right in front of the detector. I cleared it all off, and the girl recommended that I get some kind of bug repellent in the area to keep it from happening again.

All I can say is that I'm really glad that this didn't happen at 3am in the morning. And my heart has finally calmed down from all the excitement.

On living alone...

2008-06-11T20:13:00.002-04:00

Tonight is really the first night since DH left last Thursday that I don't have anything else to concentrate on besides myself. Since he left I've been preoccupied with getting our household goods packed and ready for shipping - no small feat. The movers came and left yesterday, and the remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent working from home and working on the house - getting the disarray caused by the initial shipment into some semblance of order.

I really hadn't taken the time to adjust to the fact of being on my own. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it requires one to establish a new routine, make sure that I prioritize taking care of myself as much as I prioritized taking care of DH, make sure that all the little jobs that DH usually covered (scooping kitty poop, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, killing spiders) were not neglected.

I'm getting there. I made myself a nice dinner tonight, ensured that I had something marinating for tomorrow night, did some weeding in the garden, let the kitties run around outside for a while. All good, healthy things.

It's a shame it's summertime and TV sucks butt, though. Oh well, there still lots of housework that needs to be done.

Really hon? Really?

2008-06-08T17:56:00.004-04:00

This is for you, Jeffro.

You can see more pics DH took walking and driving around Harrogate at his little web album.

Aren't they cute

2008-06-08T15:07:00.003-04:00

This just in from DH near his workplace near Harrogate, England. Watch for the little guy running away at the speed of light near the beginning of the video.

Here I go again on my own

2008-06-05T21:05:00.003-04:00

So DH is gone now. I dropped him off at Dulles tonight, waited in line with him while he checked in (over an hour!), said goodbye at the security line, and drove home by way of White's Ferry. All in all, it was pretty emotional, but I toughed it out. And the drive home really helped - that route takes me through some really nice farm and countryside, and it was a nice, relaxing trip.

There's no shortage of tasks ahead of me. Pack-up is Tuesday morning; I have to have everything sorted out that I want to ship to England and ready to move before then. Sincerely daunting task, considering that we spent the last three days prepping DH's suitcases and were still throwing random stuff into them at the last minute.

I've got the kitties and I'm sure that we'll all get by okay. I do look forward to having a countdown both for my first trip to England to visit Ray as well as my final move date. Uncertainty is not my friend.

This is it...

2008-06-04T20:11:00.002-04:00

So this is it. My last <24 hours with DH. His flight (United to Heathrow, then Leeds) leaves tomorrow at 630. We have to be at the airport around 4 I think (I'd better check that). Then he's gone, and my first chance to see him won't likely be until the end of July - 7-8 weeks from now.

On top of that, pack-up is Tuesday, so between DH leaving and then I have to get all the stuff that we're shipping sorted and organized somehow.

I think I am going to have a very busy, stressful weekend.

Please send more wine!

Twice in six months...

2008-06-01T22:23:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it. I go years, years, without visiting an emergency room, and now I've been twice in six months.

DH and I were working in the backyard, trimming some trees that were hanging over the back fence. Suddenly I stepped on a unsecured bit of landscape edging and it swung up and hit me in the left eye - right smack in the middle of my left eyebrow. Blood was everywhere, my glasses (which likely saved my eye) were flung off somewhere, and for the first moment, I was convinced that my lens had shattered and buried itself in my eye. DH freaked out when he saw me drop to the ground clutching my eye - apparently he thought that I was going to be holding my eyeball in my hand or something.

Anyway, to make a long story short, since it was a pretty big gash so close to my eye, off to the emergency room we went. Two and a half hours later - no stitches, no corneal abrasion. Still, better safe than sorry. It was a pretty ugly cut, right in the middle of my eyebrow. My glasses... well they are intact, but they are bent out of shape crazy. Another trip to the eye doctor for me.

I just know that it is going to scar, and then no eyebrow hair will grow, and I'll have a little bald spot right in the middle of my eyebrown. Awful.

DH is feeling really confident after this episode, leaving me alone in four days.

What kind a day is it when...

2008-05-25T22:08:00.002-04:00

... you can't tell if the dark spot on your knee is a bruise or dirt?

It's been a long day, on the heels of yet a longer day. DH and I drove up to Jersey yesterday to visit with his Gmom before he leaves, and to visit my girlfriend and her husband in celebration of his graduation from Rutgers! We left the house around 9am and didn't walk in the door until after 1am. It was a mega-long day and I did all the driving. Poor Beetle.

Despite not getting home until this morning, somehow I woke up bright and early this morning (well.... 8am). I popped right on the computer and posted DH's car on Craigslist. Since it was a manual transmission, and wasn't going to be bargain-basement priced, I figured that it might take a week to sell.

Boy was I wrong. 12 hours later and someone was driving off with the keys, title, and tags in exchange for hard cash. Very nice.

Of course, now that means that DH will have to drive the Beetle around for the next week or so until he leaves. I probably should have thought my cunning plan through a little better.

I'm not going to complain

2008-05-23T20:25:00.002-04:00

Trust me, I want to. Work has been ridiculous lately; I've spent the better part of the last week working on a single task. Frustrating. I just realized that I've scheduled a very important meeting for myself the same date and time DH needs to go to the airport to fly to England. There is a mountain of stuff to do before we pack and ship; then I'll be living on my own for an indeterminate amount of time, since I don't yet know when I'm going to fly over to join DH.

Good news is that the cats are good to go - well, 5 months from now anyway. Their rabies antibody tests came back and so 6 months from April 25th they're eligible to enter the UK under the PETS scheme.

DH leaves in less than two weeks. Cats can't leave for 5 months. Brilliant

I don't think that I'm mentally ready to deal with everything I know I'm going to have to face in the next couple months.

Please send wine.

A couple more thoughts....

2008-05-13T19:59:00.005-04:00

Not that there has been any drastic change over the last 24 hours, but I just wanted to share.

1) We've already had our visa applications approved and visas issued. We should have our passports back from the British Consulate in NYC tomorrow afternoon. That was fast.

2) If you haven't yet, you must read this article in the Washington Post about the racism - latent and blatant - that Obama campaign volunteers have faced canvassing for him. It's shocking that in this day and age there are still those folks out there, that with all the information readily available via the internet and other sources that easily disputable misinformation and lies still pervade. But then again, maybe it isn't that shocking after all.

I disagree with just about every Obama position he holds. But at the same time, I still want to see him win. If he wins, I believe he could be another Kennedy. Now, if you really look at what Kennedy's presidency was actually like, it was a near disaster - Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis - the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war, etc. The era that followed - the Civil Rights and Student Movements of the late 60s, the feminist revolution, the change in culture that happened after his presidency... that's what I hope for. When Kennedy was elected it marked the first time a Catholic was President, and that was considered a major thing. Breaking barriers as a society - through electing Presidents - sends the message to those holding social progress back - those outright racists described in the article - that they are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem, and their anachronistic views and values have been overcome. I think that this country took some steps backwards when it re-elected W - sending the message that the hard-core conservative Christian right, more concerned with keeping gays from marrying and teens from having sex than solving the very real social problems of pollution and poverty, and promoting government policies that rejected science in favor of religion in a country established on the principle of keeping religion out of government. Electing Obama I think would be a drastic swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction.

It's not the first guy on the beach who wins the war - it's the wave behind him.

Random thoughts...

2008-05-12T20:21:00.002-04:00

So I've been getting a little lackadaisical with the whole blogging thing. There's not much new to really write about. Work is still insane, England-move plans are still creeping along, the house is still in need of major work, yada yada yada.

The only things of note are:

1) The British Consulate confirmed acceptance of our visa applications and noted that processing would likely take 5 business days.

2) This weekend I paid $45 to fill up the Beetle! It wasn't even on empty - or even close to it. 3/4 empty, maybe. I only got about 24 mpg last tank, but I blame that on my lead foot.

3) I nearly forgot our wedding anniversary was Sunday. We didn't do anything in particular... just more housework. We've been married seven years; there's just no point in marking the occasion every year.

4) I had my first Five Guys burger and fries last week. Since they only cook their burgers well-done, it started out behind the potential curve. It was alright, a little wet and messy (I had cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, pickle, mustard and ketchup). The fries were decent enough, not really crisp enough for my taste, although I did like the malt vinegar. Definitely not the second coming in terms of burgers.

That's all. I didn't say they were exciting things of note.

Damaged fingerprints? Really?

2008-05-03T17:55:00.002-04:00

Every day brings us a step closer to moving to England! Friday I had my biometrics appointment. They digitally scanned my digits (fingers) and my face. One interesting tidbit I learned is that two of my fingerprints were damaged such that they had to take several scans of each before an acceptable scan was made. The reason: typing on computer keyboards. That's right. The girl scanning my fingerprints in asked if I worked on a computer all day, and when I replied that I did, she said that she could tell because I had several damaged fingerprints. Who knew? So weird.

Today DH and I made major progress towards getting the house ready (and thus ourselves) for someone else to occupy. We cleaned out the garage. Three trips to the dump and some serious dust induced sneezing later, the garage looks like a room. It's pretty impressive. There is still a lot of stuff in there that I need to get rid of (old paint cans, for example) but we're significantly closer to having a tidy garage.

For those keeping score:

The garage - about 75% complete
The basement - about 50% complete.
The deck - about 75% complete
The yard - about 50% complete
The interior of the house - about 0% complete.

I did pack two boxes of books that we intend to ship over with us. That leaves 6 bookshelves full of books that I need to sort for storage and selling. There's still major paper records sorting and shredding that needs to be done, furniture that needs to be figured out (ship, store, donate, or sell), clothing that needs to be sorted through, linens and things that need to be sorted...

Oh, the list goes on and on.

Packing? What packing?

2008-04-27T14:29:00.002-04:00

Ugh. The beat drums steadily on as DH and I try and get ready for this move. DH went for his biometrics appointment Saturday, and I guess the whole package will be sent off to the British consulate in NYC sometime this week. After that, the waiting game begins...

In the meantime we worked hard on the yard yesterday - trying to get it into somewhat reasonable shape. We had someone come by to look at the deck so that we could get some help getting the railings installed.... that's one summer project we're not going to be able to finish. Otherwise we mowed, weeded, and generally spruced up the yard.

Today we're working our way through 4!! years worth of papers that we've never bothered to sort through. Insane! The shredder has been working overtime.... even jamming to a complete stop for like 5 minutes until DH got all the junk out of it. We're not even close to done with that yet!

I guess during this week we'll concentrate on getting that kind of stuff done. Once it goes out in to the trash/recycling, we'll have a cleaner slate to start again from.

Oh, and just to top it all off, Henry had a dental cleaning on Friday. Poor guy had to have two teeth pulled, poor little guy. He just can't catch a break. They took the cats' blood for submission to the lab in Kansas for rabies testing for them to get into the UK, so there's that. Now Eliza got loose poopies again (just started yesterday). She got out into the yard for like 1 minute yesterday, and then the loose poopies started again last night. Coincidence? DH thinks so, I think not. Ugh.

And so it begins...

2008-04-20T19:09:00.002-04:00

Finally, we've started making progress towards "The Great Move."

1) The first big step in truly making the move was telling my Gramma. It's been a month now (almost) since my PopPop passed away, and she asked us to come down this weekend to take her to the cemetery. We did that and spent most of the weekend down there, gauging whether enough time had passed that it was okay to tell her. We told her over dinner Saturday night, and amazingly, she was excited about it. No worries at all.. in fact she's already planning her trip over with Ray's Gramma! I'm so relieved!

2) Ray finished his visa application - at least the 98% of it. The visa fee (a whopping $400! Luckily he's getting reimbursed!) for some reason didn't go through (maybe their credit card processing system was down?). Anyway, once that goes through - the official visa paperwork is started and the real countdown to Ray's departure begins!

3) We've started cleaning out our stuff. Tonight we worked on the basement - at least 1/3 of it. We sorting stuff out into trash, keep, and sell. So far, the sell pile is a lot smaller than I thought, the trash pile is about the size I thought, and the keep pile is actually pretty small. Also, we've discovered how many picture frames we have that we never used (I think we got them all as wedding gifts) and how much kitchenalia I have that I don't use.

That's the beginning of the beginning.... I can't wait for the end of the beginning!

One drama departs, another drama arrives...

2008-04-11T20:36:00.002-04:00

I can't win for losing! Just as I've settled my mind about the whole dream job affair (and yes, I am still very much settled) Henry-cat goes and gets sick. He started pooping all over the den - including on the leather couch! - and acting all sick and malaised.

Turns out he has a bacterial infection in his GI system, poor little guy. They gave him a shot of antibiotics, and we were given drops to help clear the infection. We've got him secluded in the blue room - again! If it's not one thing it's another with these cats. He also needs to have his teeth cleaned this month, and we have to do the blood titer so we can all go to England together.

In better news, DH got his work orders today - so we can finally start the process of getting visas, biometrics, etc. Don't know yet what his "start date" will be. Haven't made any other major decisions yet either, though.

Decisions - always better when they're made for you?

2008-04-10T12:47:00.002-04:00

Life has been a whirlwind lately - what with DH's pending move to England, my job hopes with my dream office, not knowing what parts of our DC life to close out and what parts to hang onto - the mountains of decisions to be made felt stifling and dizzying.

One decision, however, might be out of my hands, and I'm not displeased about that. I was offered an interview for the job I applied to in February (finally). Being a resourceful type, I tried to find out who my competition was. And I think that I have identified a true competitor. If my speculation and research are in fact correct, then there's really no chance for me in the position because the other person is simply much better qualified in all respects.

And I'm okay with that. If it had been someone more marginally qualified - or not really more qualified at all! - I might have felt more slighted. But right now, I am kind of waiting for the inevitable to happen. This person will most likely be offered the position, and probably to great strategic advantage, as other changes in the office are rumored to be in the works, which might open up even better possibilities.

One decision likely taken out of my hands, and a decision I can hardly argue with. In fact, if I'm right on the person, I might think a bit less of the office if they didn't choose that person. Now there's no wondering about how to work it out with DH's relocation and my dreams... it's off to England I go in August/September without second thoughts!

Provided I'm right about everything I'm speculating about - who the person is, that they are offered and accept the job, yada yada yada.

Austen-intense weekend

2008-04-06T22:30:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it, but I've spent more than 7 hours today immersed in the world of Jane Austen.

This afternoon I spent 5+ hours watching CC's Pride and Prejudice DVDs that she so graciously lent to me. I just finished reading the book last week, and I also watched the Keira Knightly version Friday night. There's simply no contest - the 1995 version of P&P is far, far superior in cast, story development, characters, etc. I loved watching this even more after having read the book. I enjoyed recognizing Mr Darcy's complete 180 with respect to his behavior after Lizzy turns down his first proposal - it's just wonderful. The KK version is dreadful; KK is a bad Lizzy Bennet (she's just not right), Mr Darcy is okay, but he's no Colin Firth, Mr. Bingley is acceptable, as is Caroline, but really, the story was overly modernized and changed some pivotal scenes (why were Lizzy and Mr Darcy out in the rain when he proposed the first time? Ridiculous).

Tonight I watched the conclusion of the Masterpiece Theater version of Sense and Sensibility. This time I've seen Hollywood's take on the story first (with my absolute favorite - Emma Thompson - as Elinor) and I love, love, love that movie.

I knew that my opinion of this MT version (also written by Andrew Davies, who did my favored P&P) would hinge on one scene - when Edward reveals that Robert married Lucy. When I watch the ET version, her breaking into tears triggers a full-on sobfest for me. Unfortunately, the MT version just didn't live up to it. Although I was more sad for Marianne when Willoughby's deception is revealed (and he confronts Elinor? I'll have to read the book to see if that happens in the original text - and the duel with Brandon too!) I was cold to Edward's confession to Elinor. Their relationship just didn't seem solidly established to me.

Maybe I'm overly influenced by the first version I'm exposed to - in which case my opinions probably hold no water. I've watched both versions of Emma (Hollywood's with Gwyneth Paltrow and MT's with Kate Beckinsale) and I'm fairly neutral on them. I don't really like the underlying story as much, I think. I've got that book too, though so we'll see what I think after reading that.

Gotta get through Sense & Sensibility first, though.

Thank you and goodbye, faithful companion

2008-03-30T19:32:00.003-04:00

I sold my 1995 Saturn SL1 "George" today. He had been a reliable and faithful friend for the past 10 years (I bought him in 1998) during which time I put about 110k on him. He'd started to develop the shakes while accelerating and at higher speeds, and since he had served his purpose as an emergency back-up for the Bug this winter, it was time to send him to a new home.

The people who bought him were a couple of young folks. The girl had just relocated from Florida and needed a car to get her from her home to the Metro and back; she was accompanied by her uncle (who was probably our age) who liked to tinker with cars. In fact, he was restoring a Mercedes turbo-diesel from the 80s, and had already converted another Merc diesel to run on veggie oil. Since George had some issues and needed some work to be perfect, I felt that it was a good match and let him go for a bit less than I had hoped. It's okay though, because he's gone now, to a good home I think. That's all I could have hoped for.

Thanks George! For all the times we've had, all the miles we've driven, it's been swell.

DH is mad I didn't take my St John bumper sticker off the trunk lid. Oh well.

Thanks for the sign, Pop-Pop

2008-03-24T09:26:00.002-04:00

PopPop passed away very peacefully on Saturday afternoon, less than a week since I'd last been down there. My Gramma was there with him, and she said the last thing he said to her was "Can you please turn the fan on?" Interesting.

DH and I of course went straight down there to be with my Gramma. We came home yesterday evening, and I had an interesting experience.

When my PopPop and I last spoke, we made a little deal. I promised him that I would look after Gramma if, when he passed, when he saw my mother, he would tell her I said hello and that I loved her. It was a deal - happily when I last spoke with him he was still pretty mentally sharp, so that was good.

Anyway, on that last trip I had brought a whole bunch of pictures in my suitcase in preparation for things. Last night, DH emptied the suitcase and put the unzipped, empty suitcase up on a small chair. Eliza, for some reason, couldn't resist the suitcase, and kept pawing and yanking at it, finally bringing the whole thing down crashing on her. She wasn't hurt, but when I got the suitcase and brought it right side up, a picture slipped out of the pocket.

It was a picture of my mother on her 30th birthday, about a month before she died, and my PopPop was right behind her.

I took it as a sign that he had fulfilled his promise to me. Thanks PopPop!

Blimey, we're 'aving to consider it!

2008-03-21T10:52:00.003-04:00

I love Top Gear, love Britcoms old and new, love London, and appreciate the maritime history the English are so proud of.

And I just might be a part of it for a couple of years.

DH has received a formal offer (with all the details) for a position in northern England (Yorkshire - I'm still learning these regions). It's one of those too-good-to-pass-up opportunities, but it's going to take an awful lot of work to get us in the place we need to be before we hop the pond. Among the things we're considering:

- Selling the house (especially in this market - what timing!)
- Selling almost all our stuff (90% of the crap we own we're not attached to, and the 10% we are we'll either ship over or store somehow)
- Dealing with the cats? Shipping them over might be expensive, stressful, and difficult to arrange, but we'd probably do it anyway
- What about my Bug? Selling DH's car is a no brainer, and I'm going to try and sell George the Saturn this weekend. But my beloved Bug! Oh what to do?
- Helping Gmom. Not much more to say about that.

Oy vey! So much, so much!

Circle of Life

2008-03-17T09:42:00.004-04:00

Photo courtesy of Brian Vallelunga - PopPop Thanksgiving 2007

Well, it's been a rough week, and a rougher weekend. PopPop's condition is deteriorating quickly, which may be a blessing for him, but rough for all those who love him.

I spent all of last week down there with them, which was an absolute blessing. While he was still healthy and out of pain we got to talk about a lot of things - old stories of his, me thanking him for everything he'd done, etc. I had some real quality time alone with him. My aunt and cousins are going down in the next few weeks, and I really hope that there's enough time left for them to have their time alone with him as well. Before leaving last night, I realized that it was likely the last time I would see him alive. I told him goodbye in just the way I wanted to, and he said goodbye to me, so there's some small consolation there.

I was going to write more about the events of this past weekend, but I think that I've said the most important bit.

What I've cooked this weekend

2008-03-09T19:13:00.002-04:00

My entire weekend can be summarized by what I cooked. I'm going down to Delaware Tuesday to be with my grandparents, and this is what I'll bring:

- Turkey meatloaf with carrots, parsnips, and green peppers (4 mini sized ones)
- Chicken meatballs with parsley
- Baked Macaroni and Cheese
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Pork Shepherds pie (2)
- 4.5 Blueberry waffles (we had some for breakfast ourselves)

That's just what I've cooked so far. I'm planning on also making a spinach lasagna and some other kind of baked pasta. I may have run out of cooking steam for the baked pasta, though. We'll see. I also made fish cakes for dinner for DH and me, and made falafel patties up, ready for frying, for tomorrow night's dinner.

Besides all that I've cooked, Trader Joes has been a godsend for a couple of low-sodium, low-chemical, ready-made meals. I'm bringing their frozen cod fishsticks, chicken nuggets, and from Whole Foods I got low-sodium pre-made steak fries and sweet potato fries. I'm also bringing some frozen veggies, dark chocolate truffles from TJs, and some jarred sauces for quick meals to make there.

I'm still exhausted. My gramma has an appointment with a hospice worker tomorrow.

I should post about my PopPop's actual diagnosis. It's metastatic melanoma. Basically it's a melanoma skin cancer (which he had removed in winter 2006/2007) that metastasized to the internal organs (his lungs, liver, etc). This is basically Stage IV for the disease, and, depending on when diagnosed, means a 6-12 month remaining life span. It's an extremely aggressive cancer, there's only one (very rough) chemo treatment approved by the FDA for it, and it's the same disease that killed my mother.

As if I needed any more stress...

2008-03-07T14:24:00.002-05:00

So here's the story:

1) DH has been offered a job in England. No idea what we're going to do about that.
2) I still haven't heard about the job I applied for in my dream office. It's been over two weeks at this point
3) My grandfather (my favorite living relative) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's likely metastatic melanoma that has spread to his lungs, liver, etc. I'm in Delaware now with my grandparents, as the doctor has said that he is not supposed to be left alone, and my grandmother isn't able to get out to the store and whatnot because of that.

Yikes. I think I really need that vacation now!

I'll update as time permits. We'll be home again for the weekend, since the cats will need some looking after and my sister is able to come down to hold fort.

Guest blogger: DH

2008-02-25T21:19:00.002-05:00

So this post is because I wanted you all to know that Wifey is an absolute sissy. It comes time to change her bandage on her 5 (not 6) stitches - not that she'd know because she's afraid to look - and she is bawling like a baby. Tears in her eyes and everything! So we get the original bandage off and out come the waterworks - "I don't want to look!", "I'm scared!", etc. So long story short, I have to do the whole thing myself - clean off the area, apply the Neosporin-stuff, and put on the new band-aid. All the while, she is standing there crying like a little girl while I work on her hand.

Wimp.

Six stitches!

2008-02-25T14:54:00.002-05:00

That's right.. six stitches have taken up temporary residence in my left hand. This morning I dropped a bottle of Torani syrup right onto my shotglass full of espresso, breaking the shotglass and causing me to drop my hand right onto the broken glass.

I screamed bloody murder for DH. Unfortunately he had just gotten into the shower, and while he did hear me, he thought my muffled screams were simply me saying goodbye, as I do every morning. I ran upstairs, clutching a paper towel to my bleeding wound, and banged on the bathroom door while yelling. Poor thing only got 1/4 of a shower this morning.

We spent nearly 3 hours in the Germantown Emergency Room waiting for someone to look at my hand. I guess the good thing to come of all this is that I now know that there is an emergency room (outpatient only) right around the corner from us. Wish I had known that before I cut my hand.

At least it was my left hand that was injured. No pain to report as of yet, but I've just bought a big bottle of ibuprofen in preparation. DH has some left over hydrocodone (I believe it is the generic version of Percoset) if I can't sleep for the pain tonight.

First time I've ever had injury-related stitches. That's cool.

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

2008-02-24T16:00:00.005-05:00

What a fun-filled weekend. Yesterday I accomplished grocery shopping (bought lots and lots of veggies at WF)! I've been watching WAY too much BBC America, including "How Clean is your House" (hmm, not very) and "You are what you eat" (hence lots of new veggie friends in our life!). I've bought rutabagas, bok choy, some weird Odwalla-like green drink that has spirulina and broccoli in it (along with mango, banana, and apple juices), red and green cabbages, and beans and lentils. I've tried to incorporate two vegetarian dinners (well, at least no meat as the main protein, I'm not diligent about checking the ingredients I'm using) into my weekly menus. I've even bought tofu!

Last week I tried a roasted red pepper pasta sauce with roasted red pepper and silken tofu. It wasn't all that great; the blandness of the tofu overroad the taste of the red peppers. Maybe it needed more garlic or a higher red pepper to tofu ratio. It wasn't bad, just bland. Last night I made mushroom quesadillas, with mushrooms, diced jalapeno peppers, onions, and cheese (Tillamook, which is vegetarian cheese), guacamole and sour cream, and whole wheat tortillas. They were excellent; mostly because I didn't follow the recipe too closely (I have a new vegetarian cookbook that's 5 ingredient easy vegetarian meals - sometimes the recipes need more than 5 ingredients to sing). I spiced the filling up with some cumin and chili powder! Major yums!

I really need some easy non-soup bean and lentil recipes. I am going to try a Spanish lentil rice recipe later this week. We'll see how it goes. I also bought an immersion blender for homemade smoothies. I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but maybe I'll get lots of ideas now that I have it.

On the topic of food, this morning I made crepes for breakfast with chocolate and banana filling. It reminded me of the crepes I had when I was in Paris - except the crepe was a little crispier than I remembered my Parisian crepe to be. C'est la vie. They were still so yummy - I swear I was having foodgasms. Tonight I am making stuffed peppers with a black bean and corn stuffing. This recipe is from my new America's Test Kitchen cookbook. That's the cookbook that's given me my new fantastic pan-fried salmon cakes recipe which I am desperately in love with. We'll see how this one goes.

In other interesting news... I've also fallen in love with the UK version of "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares." I just find the stories very compelling, and the insights very interesting.

Today I washed my car! Yes... it's only 45 degrees outside, but my poor car was so, so dirty I couldn't stand it. I was almost in tears every time I looked at it. Now it's all shiny and new looking, and I'm very happy. The cleanliness should last another 2 days, I figure.

And in still more news... just when we thought it was safe to clean out the room DH's father was staying in, DH's brother (yes, the one with the new baby and wife who hates me and didn't invite me to the baby shower or have DH as one of his brother's groomsmen in her 6 bridesmaid/5 groomsmen wedding) called to ask if he could stay with us for 4 weeks while doing some work in Rockville for his company. "No" is of course not an option. He's a smoker, though, so I am going to require him not to smoke anywhere near the house (I don't want nasty cigarette butts in my flower beds or lawn). Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the house is going to smell like cigarettes when he's here. I'll have to find a good solution to that. So that's something to be annoyed about.

Finally, the job posting for the office in which I desperately want to work closed on Thursday. So we'll see if I can clear the technical hurdle (which I think that I can) and then on to the true test: does that deputy director want to hire me? Argh. So frustrating.

Tonight I am going to settle down and watch the third and final part of the BBC/A&E version of "Pride and Prejudice," so that should be a nice way to close out the day.

It was a truly remarkable weekend!

New member of the Jane Austen Club

2008-02-18T09:03:00.002-05:00

The past two Sundays I have been watching the 1995 joint A&E/BBC production of "Pride and Prejudice" and I am completely in love with it. I had heard about it online, where people raved about Colin Firth's "Mr Darcy," and while I don't find myself completely bowled over by any of the actors in their parts, I'm completely sucked in to the story.

Now, some of you might have read that instead of watching the Super Bowl, I was watching Sense and Sensibility (Kate Winslet/Emma Thompson version), another Austen movie I adore. I also realized that I have watched the 1940s version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson.

This 1995 version of P&P has completely captured me, though, and I'm not sure how. The final part of the series (it has been shown in three parts on PBS's Masterpiece Classics) airs next Sunday. I'm just not sure I can wait that long, despite knowing exactly how the story ends.

I should probably put those books on my "to read" list ASAP!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T20:32:00.002-05:00

For Valentine's Day, I made a Shrimp and Scallop Fra Diavolo, baked Valentine's day colored M&M chocolate chip cookies for DH to enjoy during "Lost," and planted a garden with 7 different herbs.

That's right, I said planted a garden.

DH got me an Aerogarden for Valentine's Day. It was a total surprise, a nice one. I joked that the message that it sent me though was "get in the kitchen and cook me something!"

Too funny.

Now in 4-6 weeks I'll have fresh herbs, just in time to plant my real garden outside!