Finally

Pictures to come, but the carpet's getting installed in the basement and the hardwood floors are re-done - we're moving in tomorrow.

We'll be surfacing in our new digs soon. Keep your fingers crossed we make it through without involving divorce lawyers. (Just kidding, but if you've moved with a partner...you know what I mean).

As a blogger I read says, Ciao.

What Barack and Joe Said

Whether you agree with them or not, these men have a heavy burden to bear as we move out of these hard times. Please keep your thoughts and prayers with them and with the United States of America.

I am in tears to think that when I was born, Martin Luther King Jr. was only a year away from death for being a black man that believed we should all be treated alike. When Barack Obama was born, blacks could still not go to some areas of Washington, D.C. Even though he had a red-headed Irish American mom, he would have been excluded, and she would have been permitted to enter. How sad.

This has probably tied, if not exceeded, the moon landing for the most amazing thing that's happened in my lifetime. I am glad my children are growing up in a country where really, almost anything is possible. We've still got a few hurdles, but it's coming along nicely.

That is all.

Good Thoughts Needed

Good thoughts, hopes and prayers out to my Dad, who developed an infection they are trying to deal with through non-invasive methods - if it doesn't work, they'll want to do some surgery. Please send good vibes his way so that he can get this stuff dealt with once and for all and be able to eat a juicy steak and potato dinner.

What a Week!

Here's a smattering of what we experienced. It was a great trip, though one I personally probably didn't appreciate as much as I should. It's a genetic habit. I often find it hard to live in the moment, mostly because I'm so worried about what the men in my life are experiencing. I need to let it go. I know (insert Craig Ferguson's Scottish accent here). Keep telling me that, okay? P.S. The formatting on this stinks, but I'm getting tired, so it's going out there and I'll mess with it later.

First, we stumbled off the plane at 7:30 a.m. London time. We managed to make it to the hotel around 10 a.m. after stumbling our way through immigration (the line that went on forever) and onto the tube.

Thankfully, the hotel had our room ready, which was a surprise, so we went up, showered and generally tried to get ourselves oriented with it being daylight and all. Then, we went and found the first cool thing - the BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER. It's in London. All over the place, but particularly in Chinatown. Big Bit and I can vouch for the fact it's better than Chinatown in San Francisco. It's better than the Chinese food in Chinatown in Singapore, for heaven's sake. This was the first time we ate Chinese, but it wouldn't be the last. This was a pleasant surprise to me - I'd not made it to this end of London in my brief weekends there.




Then, it was on to see "Spamalot". TH and I saw this in Salt Lake City over a year ago. We could get cheap (read, seats that were in a scary steep balcony) for their Boxing Day show in London and we figured the boys would enjoy it - they love The Holy Grail and the Killer Rabbit. We all tried to nod off a bit, but we enjoyed the show and the theatre it was in was truly killer.

Oh, what else? We went to the British Museum (lots of pictures of mummies and so on, that I won't post here at this time), more Chinese Food. Oh and the Tower of London. Here's Big Bit taking a picture of more of the Tower. It was pretty cool.









Here's where the Crown Jewels are. We couldn't fit it all in the first day as the line was too long, so we went back another morning to see the jewels - got in right away. My father in law is right, they're cool but not worth standing in line for. We had bought an annual pass that got us into several palaces, going one time to the Tower all but paid for it, going twice more than paid for it, and we weren't done yet!







Next, Harrod's and Kensington Palace. Harrod's was AWFUL - I'd never seen it so crowded. All of London was crowded, actually. We left there fairly quickly and went to Kensington. Like many American females of my age group, I got up in the middle of the night to see Princess Diana get married and also to see her funeral. I felt very close to her, sometimes you marry a prince and he turns out to be a big fat frog and he has a mean mother who tries to help him take your kids away from you. Sorry, I digress.


The Palace itself is impressive, but the amount they really have for display is fairly small - the highlight, for me, being several of Diana's dresses on display, including the one she wore when she danced with John Travolta. She was very, very tall and very very thin.

The bits wore themselves out. More than once.


















We went on the Eye on New Year's Eve - our wedding anniversary. I don't like heights so I wasn't impressed but we all agreed it was something you should do at least once. It was kind of foggy that day, so most of the pictures weren't that great. (the one at the beginning of the post did, however).


Then - fireworks. We were still trying to figure out the camera, but TH got a couple of good ones, at least. They were magnificent, AND we didn't have to be in the crowd of drunks for four hours with no food, bathrooms or drinks! Yes!


























The last day we went out to Hampton Court Palace, which Cardinal Wolsey built and King Henry VIII stole. And it is very cool indeed.


Last, but not least for now, I leave you with a picture of the ice rink at Somerset House. In the movie Love Actually (my favorite ever!), this is a prominent shot at the beginning of the movie. And it was very cool when we walked in the courtyard and it looked like a scene from the movie. Just perfect.

Preview

Much more to come (once I find the memory chip TH apparently took out of the camera) but here's a preview kids - those of you who get Christmas cards from us or will this year will see this shot again - it's too good not to distribute.

Aren't they just cute?

Amen

I found this song in Utah while listening to the Satellite channels on DirecTV. I won't tell you the genre it is, though you might guess from my post title. It is a perfectly inspirational song on all levels, and , I believe, does not hint at its genre since TH actually likes it. I am NEVER going back to OK*. Nor should you, my friends.

*by OK, I mean for "settling" instead of seizing what life can offer you and you it. Seize the day!

Survived

Well, we survived the trip - more to come later, I wasn't able to post while there because my stupid work laptop has an issue with Google...it wouldn't let me sign in. We flew back into Salt Lake Friday night, and of course, what else was going on but a SNOWSTORM. (Have I ever mentioned I hate snow in Utah? I think so.) We stayed the night there rather than trying to get our jet lagged bodies home, which had the nice side result of getting to eat at Acme Burger, which is one of my favorite places in Salt Lake to eat.

Some random thoughts about the trip -

First, London is really beautiful and I think everyone enjoyed the trip. I have to say I've had enough testosterone surrounding me for a week that I need some serious time to myself. Which is why my plan for tonight is to send TH gaming with his friends, Big Bit to his room and Little Bit to the XBox so I can be ALONE.

Sixteen year old males take longer to get ready than sixteen year old females. I'm not kidding.

Europeans who travel to London on holiday are rude and pushy. Not Britons, mind you, Europeans. Americans, at least ones traveling to London, are polite, try to maintain personal space and say "excuse me" frequently. And I'm not just talking about us, mind you, I saw this repeatedly as there were a lot of marching bands from the U.S. in London for the New Year's Day parade. TH and Big Bit both commented we heard more "foreign" and U.S. accents all week than we did British accents.

The BBC has a lot of useless programming. Although I did see Judi Dench more than once, and that's always cool.

I love the magazines there. They are more vapid and superficial than People Magazine if you can believe it, thus they are my guilty pleasure while there.

The fireworks were AMAZING and thanks to a columnist in the U.K. Guardian who I read a few hours before we headed out, I found the best way to get to see the fireworks without having to wait four hours in the "viewing area" - go on the tube to the Vauxhall Bridge, watch them from a short distance, then go back to the tube and ride quietly to your destination while the crowds all fight each other by the Eye. Bless you, good man, bless you.

I highly recommend The Mitre pub on Craven Terrace. It's got nice staff, it's kid friendly and the food is very good and affordable.

Happy New Year everyone, hopefully pictures tomorrow!