snapshots of ireland

A little late (as are all my picture posts these days), but here are some photos of our tour of Northern Ireland in late August.

blog roll update

Jonah has (re-)entered the blogging world! Hooray!

two things

1. Arr! I ain't believin' me own bad memory! I failed to direct all ye good folks to pay homage to Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, I did. What a squiffy I am.
   
   
2. Jonah told me about this monstrosity a little while ago, but I managed to put it out of my mind, until Greg reminded me. One word: UGGABUGGA!!!!

happy 25th!

It seems the smiley "emoticon" is 25 years old!

Thanks to Jonah for passing this little tidbit along.

brrr!!

YAY! Today is the first day of properly chilly autumn weather in London...so there was actual NEED for my morning latte (over and above my caffeine addiction).

Scarves are out...the air is crisp and chilly...ah, it's wonderful!

it's ridiculous...

...how cute baby Daniel is, especially in his Wagamama t-shirt!

summer photos

Well...some of them, anyway.

Here's the snapshots from the trip to Houston and LA in July.

More pictures to come soon, from the trip to Ireland. And for those of you following along, both Abby and I survived quite well. Mick might be dreaming of a holiday without either of us, but all of us arrived home safely. :)

i can't resist

...I'm totally copying this from my friend Beth.

It turns out...snails actually really are cute!!



I'm not sure I'm going to stop eating them, though.

bank holidays: no joking around

Given that I can't keep up with any of the other trips (large or small) and associated pictures that require posting for your viewing pleasure...I thought another trip away to pile on the picture-posting stress would be a good idea.

Seriously though...a(nother) trip to Ireland is around the corner! Mick and Abby and I are going to Northern Ireland for 4 days! Yes: I'm going to be on vacation with a 4 year old person. Nobody panic: I will have supervision!

What prompted me to share this bit of information with you, my dear reader, when I don't typically pre-share all of my other holiday plans? Well, because it seems the British don't kid around with their holidays, and that makes me chuckle a little bit.

Almost all my friends here and several work colleagues (total English phrase I can't not use) are all fleeing the immediate area for the bank holiday this coming Monday (thus creating a 3-day weekend trip, at the least). If some of us weren't going to other parts of the UK, I'd be nervous that there would be a mass exodus of the entire country, leaving nobody to watch the cricket matches! Oh wait...nobody watches those anyway.

a few pictures

There are heaps of photos I'm working through to post an album of Houston, LA, Christchurch and Edinburgh sometime soon.

However, for now I offer a few random snapshots...because something is better than nothing, right?

Mick loves trucks...and they are EVERYWHERE in Texas. Yeehaw!


Obligatory stop in Houston for boots and a hat. Yes, we're at "Boot Town".


Mick's mom (mum) in Christchurch with tiger-faced Abby. don't you LOVE her dress?!


The fam (L to R): Abby, Mick, Nanny Ruby, Margaret, Barry.


Beach huts along the quay in Mudeford (near Christchurch).


View from Mudeford toward the Isle of Wight.


Heather "accepts" a flyer for a Fringe show in Edinburgh.


Ensign Ewart pub...this one's just for Kelly. :)


I guess the Cow Parade came through Scotland as well...?


And finally, one for all my punny friends...a souvenir shop in Edinburgh.

return...with a guest blogger

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After a season of relative silence, I offer a return to the blogging world by way of a guest post courtesy of my Mick. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dovie asked me to do something about this photo for her blog ages ago…apologies for the delay…even though you didn’t know there had been one until just now.

A couple of years ago I was watching a news report that had something to do with Canterbury Cathedral. I really can’t remember what it was, and to be honest it really doesn’t matter. The news reporter was standing at the bottom of this flight of old and worn stone steps while saying his bit to the camera.

For some reason the thought struck me that these steps were a symbol of hope. When the steps were first put in place they would have had sharp square edges and have been completely smooth and flat. The thought of changing the shape of those hard stone steps simply by walking on them would have seemed ridiculous. Yet hundreds of years later, thousands of feet have walked up and down those steps and slowly over those centuries the shape of the steps has changed.

Sometimes I look at situations that seem just too vast for me to realistically expect any significant change. It’s at times like that when I need to remember the steps, remember my God and faithfully play my part.

Dovie and I went to Canterbury Cathedral earlier this year and walked up and down those same steps. We took this picture as a reminder of hope.

my, how the time does fly

I'm dangerously close to a month of silence. I'd chalk it up to writer's block, but the truth is that life is just a bit out of control these days.

However, it's been an eventful summer so far. Here are a few pictures from July.

less is more

Jonah and I were talking last night about a few specific situations that have recently happened which make me wish I had the power to actually change the world.

It reminded him of this Tolstoy quote:

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Ouch. Tolstoy also said:

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."

Wow. Eight tiny, but powerful, words.

Interestingly, one of the things that came out in our conversation last night is that I have a habit of over-explaining things.

I know that I do this. I HATE that I do this.

It's one of the things that frustrates me in other people...but I'm guilty of doing it myself!! I won't out Jonah on any of the things that came out about him, but since this is my blog, I'm happy to use it for my own personal confessional. (See! I just did it then a little bit! Oi! What am I like?!)

I think that this over-explaining habit has something to do with the fact that I like quotes.

Partly, it's nice to find a blurb where someone famous says something that supports your thinking, because somehow that seems to make it more valid - which is an entirely separate discussion which might be fun to have.

But really...the reason they appeal to me is that when you find a quote that sums up an idea or argument really well, it's fantastic...because the best things come in small packages, right?

The most difficult thing for me is finding the delicate balance in giving enough background for people to get the big picture with sufficient detail, so that when you throw out a punchy one-liner...it has real impact.

birthday shout out!

The holder of the strong opinion was born this day many moons ago.

Is it time yet for those "By the time Jesus was your age...he'd saved the world" jokes yet? Or did I miss my chance at that last year?

weekend snapshots

Jonah and I went to Kent this weekend. The rain followed us almost all the way to Canterbury, but we lost it somewhere along the way.

Even though it wasn't exactly a pilgrimage, we walked for hours around the city on Saturday and saw quite a fair bit of history, most of which we were completely unaware of...much like one is when traipsing around Rome.

On Sunday, we got out the atlas and picked a place to spend the day along the way back to Wimbledon. There were lots of choices, but we decided on Hever Castle - which we've both decided was a very good choice.

For the picture lovers: here they are. ENJOY!

the story of the kerfuffle

I left work at 5:30 for the first time in weeks on Monday. Excited to have an early night at home with no other commitments, I came strolling through the main door of my block of flats just after 6:00, and that's when the fun started.

There's a flat just inside the main door, and I heard an alarm going off inside. Oven timer? Smoke alarm?? Burglar alarm???

Knock, knock, knock. No answer. Hmm...I head back outside to check the windows...can't see a thing inside. Grr. Well, maybe it's nothing. Up the stairs to change clothes and wait a few minutes to come back down to check again.

Coming back out of my flat, I could have sworn I smelled something electrical burning, so I hurried downstairs to investigate further. Still the alarm is beeping. Still no answer at the door. The door isn't hot, but after another quick run upstairs to knock on the neighbor directly above said flat, I'm now convinced I smell an electrical burn of some sort. Right, then...I'm calling the fire brigade! My first ever 911 call (though it's actually 999 in England).

Fifteen minutes later, they showed up and 3 firefighters poured out of the truck. They can't decide if the smoke they're smelling is really there, or just their clothes. I'm thinking: "Seriously guys?" They do all sorts of poking around and peering through windows with fancy heat-sensitive cameras and can't find any reason to break down the door or do anything else.

So I get a "Well, you did the right thing by calling, but there's not really anything else we can do." Um, thanks...I guess.

I trudged back upstairs, convinced something still wasn't right, but who am I to argue with a fireman about FIRES? I decided I'd come back down and sniff around in about 15 minutes. I mean, clearly the building isn't on fire, but maybe things will have changed in a bit.

I hate to admit it, but I got distracted and forgot to watch the clock. About 30 minutes passed before I FELT something shake the building.

Um, I think the fire brigade is back, and I think they just broke down the door. I managed to grab my handbag and mobile phone and get downstairs in about 10 seconds where a neighbor confirmed that, yep, it was just as I suspected. Someone else got home and went through the very same scenario...and this time the smell was strong enough to convince them they needed to go in.

I still don't know exactly what happened, but three firemen came and knocked on my door two separate times and spent some time poking around the heating cupboard checking wires and such. Sadly, none of them appeared to be a fire brigade calendar model. Unlucky.

And that was it. A funny sounding smoke alarm. The smell of electrical burn. A fruitless first call to 911. But a night that ended with a broken-down door for one of my neighbors and a nasty smell in the hallway.

All rather anti-climactic, but I guess that's what you want in a potential fire situation, isn't it?

what a waste

The London 2012 Olympic logo has caused quite a kerfuffle (there's that word again) on this side of the Atlantic.

It cost £400,000 to create and is U-G-L-Y, which has sparked even more bitterness about the overall cost of the Games, which as risen from the original estimate of £2.35 billion to the current estimate of £9.3 billion. Ouch!

There's an online petition to have a new one commissioned, and people from all over the UK are sending in their cut at an improvement on the icon that will label the Games. The BBC has posted at least 2 galleries of images: this one and this one.

Of the amateur submissions the BBC has posted, I think they would have spent the money better by giving it to the guy who created this one:



Or they could have given it to me. I'm sure I could come up with something than the official logo. Or something people would hate less, at least!

word of the day: kerfuffle

There was a bit of a kerfuffle at my building last night.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to write the story at the moment (oh, to be a well-trained journalist who can throw down a 10,000 word story in 30 minutes or less).

However, I'll leave you with this teaser: I got to dial 911 for the first time in my life.

paintball, anyone?

We went. We saw. We did not conquer.



On Saturday, Jonah (a.k.a. Mick) and I went for a day of paintball with his brother and brother's fiancee...and 14 or so complete strangers that we got paired up with once we arrived.

The opposing team that we competed against all day was CLEARLY more experienced than our rag-tag bunch, and we lost by a land-slide.

And it was pretty hot out.

And the masks you have to wear (complete with someone else's sweat from the day before) constantly steam up so you can't see anything.

And sometimes you do something stupid like leave the field because you got hit before you realize that it bounced off and the paintball didn't explode (which therefore doesn't count as a legitimate hit). Sometimes you do this 2 or 3 times. Ahem.

And sometimes the guy you nail right in the knee refuses to acknowledge he's been shot, hides from the game marshalls and proceeds to wipe off the hit. GRR!

BUT...and this makes everything else above worth it...

YOU GET TO SHOOT A (paintball) GUN ALL DAY LONG!

Excellent stress reliever. I highly recommend it. In a word: cathartic.

Highlight of the day: Jonah was the only one to earn bonus points for our entire team (including the strangers) all day long! At the end of the day, a decent percentage of our total points earned were directly attributable to him (which unfortunately tells you a lot about how many overall points we earned)!

I blame the strangers for our overall loss on the day. I mean...I'm a TEXAS GIRL. I was practically born with a BB gun in my hand. And with the team hero coming from our little foursome...there's a clear theme emerging here, I think.

two for the price of one

First, at long last...I have finally finished the bit of editing I wanted to do on Barcelona pictures, and you can see them here. Yes, I know that I forgot to edit the title paragraph, but I haven't figured out how to fix that in the last 30 seconds, and I'll live with the imperfection.

Second, I did a 5K with my friend Janet this morning. I'll spare you the before and during pictures...but here's our "after" shot.