ghastly

This morning when I walked in the office, I was greeted by the most grotesque celebration of Halloween I have ever seen:

Immediately after this picture, I made him take that thing off. You can see why.

I'm also proud to show off a little of our building's creativity! Here are some of the finalists of the pumpkin-carving contest:


Halloween is always so awkward for me, because I see people who could either be in costume OR really bad dressers...and you just can't tell. And then I look down at what I usually wear, and see how people could think the same thing about me. Huh.

cookies!

I love it when my house smells like detergents and warm cookies. And peanut-butter oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies, no less! I figured Nolan would want a good dinner and some cookies maybe while relaxing after 40 hours on call at the hospital. I was right. And I got home a little earlier today since my class dismissed early. All day today and tomorrow I am in a project management class that I am absolutely LOVING! I will give more about that tomorrow when I'm done, because for now I'm going to bask in the warmth of a kitty on my knees and the smell of cookies in the air, and my husband in bed beside me. Perfect night.

knotty

You know you're married to a med student when you find things like this all over the house:

Looks like he's been practicing his surgical knot-tying with floss again.

<3

Also, something depressing was the way it looked when I left my house this morning:

I had to walk to the muni in the almost pitch-blackness, and was a block away when I heard a rushing sound behind me and almost had a heart attack, but no: it was Nolan. He was on his bike, and had wanted to walk with me. But I almost died of fear when I heard that. Stupid winter darkness. And getting up early.

meow

Sometimes all I want to do when I wake up in the morning is give Milo a swift kick. The fat little child can't stop crying, and I have NO idea where he learnt it! He must be a dog in disguise afterall. This morning I tried to smother him under the blankets and pet him ferociously, but as soon as my hand stopped moving, he was crying and squirming all around. Guess it's good at least in that it makes me wake up early. But he's still my favourite little friend. Everyone has their faults <3

With New Moon about to be released in 3.5 weeks, the fandemonium is out of control. Summit is releasing 30-second clips to the fan base just to keep them from becoming a riotous mob, and I feel like it's slowly chipping away at the actual movie's hype. Maybe I should adopt ylehsa's approach and refuse to watch any clips until I see the movie in theaters. But! They're just sitting there! At least I'm proud to say I don't leave hideous comments on youtube about wanting to marry Edward Cullen. Hhh. Teenagers and their raging hormones. Today I watched a clip they released of a kiss scene, and all the comments looked like this:

princesscullenxx:"omg i wish edward would kiss me like that <3!"
bella23894: "DDRRRRRRROOOOOLLLLL!!!!"
edwardslover: "omg he GROANED! hot!"

I figure, if I am ever going to thoroughly embarrass myself, I have much more creative ways of doing so.

Quote of the day via text:
Mom: "Rose* has returned!"

*My parents' rogue beagle that keeps going prodigal when better food and adventures are to be found elsewhere for a few days.

You make me happy, when skies are gray...

Well, drives up to Placerville are always fun. The traffic, the sweltering heat (70% of the year), and the hours in the car debating stopping for dinner and losing time or just sticking it out and starving. The highlight this past time was Milo. He sat like a little wilted flower on my lap and under the seat the entire time, until Nolan started driving like a crazy person ("I love these roads!") on the backroads, and about 2 miles from home, it finally got to him and the dry-heaving began. A split-second later and I aimed him at my pants while he wet-heaved and vomited chunky kibble all over my pants. At least he didn't get it all over the car, whew! Needless to say, he was starving when he walked through the door.

The weekends there are actually really fun though. So relaxing and enjoyable--it always makes us wonder what we're doing in the city. Huh. I went to Target on Saturday to get some scrapbooking stuff, and laying on the curb by where I parked was a child's vampire costume. It just so happens, that I can wear most child sizes, and I don't have a Halloween costume yet. So I snatched it up and voila! it fits! So now I'm going as a child vampire for Halloween, wooo! Sometimes being tiny has its perks.

Today was the start of my getting back into shape after vacation period. So we'll see how it goes. So far: no coffee and no nasty foods. Other than some Halloween candy. Heh.

I usually dread waking up on Mondays because let's face it, it's just depressing. But I LIKE it when I get woken up not by an alarm at 6:30am, but by someone big and warm peeling back my covers and kissing my forehead and singing "You Are My Sunshine." Life is good.

Quote of the day:
"What is wrong with this woman? She is asking about stuff that is nobody's business. What do I do? Really, what do I do here? I should have written it down. Qua-something. Qua. Quash. Quarbo. Quabity. Quabity assuance. No. No, no, no, but I'm getting close." - Creed from The Office

bubbles!

Thanks to Mentos fruity gum from Holland, the best gum ever for blowing bubbles, I was able to do this today without embarrassing myself in the elevator:

Impressive, you say? That was taken at the halfway point! HUGH!

I also want to say congratulations to my learner, Jennifer, on her completion yesterday! Hey and on almost being finished with Twilight, wooo!

venus de milo

Thanks to ylehsa, we have a modern interpretation of the Milo part of this famous statue:


This week has been such a blur. Not only do I feel super unproductive, but I've been messy too. Milo's loving having suitcases and a virtual obstacle course to play in our living room, but I'm tired of stepping over stuff and watching out for the breakable items (sorry about your chocolate, Nate!). And I have the massive task of scrapbooking our trip sometime in the near future. Also yesterday when I was waiting for my elevator to go home, I blew a huge bubble JUST as the elevator came, the doors opened, and two guys got to watch me picking scraps of green gum off of my cheeks and lips because it was too old to just pop neatly like a normal bubble as I walked on. Mmmm, professional.

Since Nolan has been sick, the only productive thing he has done this week is watch several seasons of The Wire and eat all of my favourite cereal. Well and he's been putting in his time towards becoming a doctor, but I mean let's keep the focus on what's important here, and that is that I like having a nice bowl of cereal waiting for me before bed. But! I still find him endearing!

Right now, we're just looking forward to our weekend visiting my parents and washing clothes (thanks, Mom!) and sleeping past 6am. Two days of relaxation, here we come!

kilimanjaro

We still have two suitcases half-full of stuff on our floor. At least it gives Milo something to jump in and play around for a few days. I'm promised these will be put away by tomorrow, but we shall see!

I don't have a lot to write today, mainly because I'm still recovering from the peak that was Europe, and coming back down is proving to be more energy-consuming than I thought it would be. But at least today I put some pictures up! Here is one of my favourites:


Ah well. Time for bed. Tomorrow I have to get up at the crack again so that we can head up to Placerville for the weekend ahead of SF traffic. Wish us luck!

Quote of the day:
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it."
-Henry Ford

200!

Post #200 on my new(ish) blog = a free title when I otherwise can't think of one.

Tonight we officially unpack our bags and buy groceries and settle into life again. Two days, it took us TWO DAYS to recover. But mostly because Nolan is a baby when he's sick (just kidding, N!...sort of.), and insisted that he was too sick to stay up and unpack...but had enough energy to catch up on our tv shows and harass me for a massage. Hhh. So: tonight.

Also I've had issues lately with losing things. But not in the normal way; instead I have, in fact, done such a great job of hiding my valuables, that I have hidden them from myself. Like a huge roll of cash (all of my Europe money) that I hid safely while we were abroad so that I didn't have to carry it in my purse all the time and risk it being snatched. Which reminds me: I had two maps stolen out of my backpocket while there. TWO. Both of which were grimy and all crinkly, to which I say, "Take that, pickpockets. I hope you wept of disappointment." Anyway: when we got to Holland, I finally confessed to Nolan that it was missing, though I didn't tell him how much because I was embarrassed as it was, eeek. So we were sad about it and he kept teasing me about losing stuff, and I was secretly hating the French again because I was sure our French maid who came into our room had stolen it out of my suitcase. And then on the plane when I got out my travel pillow: BAM. A wad of cash rolled out. Turns out that WAS a fabulous hiding spot, because it took me DAYS to unearth it. Example number 2: my mom's car keys (sorry Mom!). We had to move the car for streetcleaning last night, and couldn't find the keys. Nolan had moved it last, so I was harassing him about losing them and feeling irritated, when I decided to randomly admire earring collection in my jewelry box and: BAM. All of a sudden I remember taking them from him before we left and putting them in a safe place. Needless to say I'm still feeling a little...sheepish. And I just realized I have to find new safe spots now that I've shown mine to the world. Hello world.

Quote of the day:
"i want to smack the look off of the groom's face. he looks like a cheeky, asian elmer fudd."
-ylehsa

2.2 pounds

Okay, first I have to finish our trip commentary, and then I have to tell you how it feels to be back. And that is totally different than how it feels to be on vacation in Europe. Ahem:

I think I left off in Amsterdam before heading to visit relatives. Okay. So we ran to the grocery store the next morning for some breakfast and snacks, and then jumped on a train to Amersfoort, where Nolan’s uncle was picking us up and taking us to their home in the country. Arriving at their house felt like coming home, and after days and days of traveling and living in weird hotels/gift shops like the place we stayed at in Amsterdam, sitting on a nice couch in a warm home and being served the most DELICIOUS things I have ever tasted and some freshly made coffee just the way we like it = heaven. Plus it was nice to just sit for awhile and catch up with his aunt and uncle. We spent the rest of the day like that, and they helped us get situated in the lovely bed and breakfast they were having us stay at just down the road. Seriously: best place we have ever stayed at, including our honeymoon I think. We had our own little cabin looking out onto the garden, and had a huge clean room decorated like a Dutch cottage in the woods…which it was, complete even with wine and chocolate awaiting our arrival. Whew! We had dinner that night with his aunt and uncle, and got to meet his cousins as well, and had just a wonderful time chatting with everybody. After dinner they served us coffee and liqueur with crème on top; the kind that you have to eat with a tiny silver spoon. It was incredible! Needless to say, after we said our goodnights, we slept the best we had all trip. Seriously amazing. The next morning we packed up and headed out for a drive with his aunt and uncle across miles and miles of Holland. We stopped in a tiny town at a coffeeshop that is hundreds of years old and had more coffee and biscuits and liqueur with crème on top :) Then we moved on to see the smallest town in Holland, and have a ferry take our car across a wide river. More driving, and we arrived in Arnhem, the town where Nolan’s family has a lot of history. We stopped in at the local bakery and got some more treats, and walked around a little bit, and then hopped back in the car to head to Den Haag, to meet more relatives!

When we arrived there, we had drinks and cookies with Nolan’s great aunt, a woman who is truly amazing for her age, and she showed us around her tiny house and showed us a lot of the family history and the most beautiful dollhouse I have ever seen, that she and her husband made entirely by hand! Hopefully I can post a picture of that soon, because it was amazing! We stopped to visit more cousins and see the beautiful home where they lived, and then we drove off to admire the Parliament buildings, and the Palace of Justice, where famous criminals through the ages have been brought from around the world. Incredible how much history this tiny country has. After a full day on the road, we finally arrived back in Amsterdam, said our goodbyes to our lovely aunt and uncle, and went looking for our accomodation for the night: a hotelboat anchored on one of the docks near Central Station. We were put up in the crew's cabin, which apparently is code for "tiniest cabin ever made", where you can't even close the door to the bathroom because it will hit your thighs, and this was bad news because we were both somewhat...uh..."sick". We went out on the town one last time to get any other souvenirs we would need as well as dinner and breakfast for the next morning, and then headed home, and tucked ourselves in our tiny bunkbeds (!) for the night.

There isn't much to say about the next time period, because it just involved us hopping on multiple planes and trains, etc., and wanting to give up and sleep on the streets instead of waiting for our muni home, but FINALLY (after firmly establishing what I have long known to be true: that the San Francisco Municipal Railway system is one of the worst in the world), we fell into bed with Milo, in our own home at last. Time of arrival at home: 9:30pm

Time of arrival at work this morning: 8:30am. That's inhumane. And yet, it was my own choice. Sometimes I question my own sanity. Although, I think I was partially antsy to get back just to ensure that my inbox wasn't about to explode with something of dire importance. Other than being a little sleepy--and I used Starbucks to cure that malady--it wasn't too bad. Although I can definitely identify with this, and confess to thinking these EXACT things before, during, and after my vacation (click to enlarge):


ps-Our last night in amsterdam we bought a kilo of french fries with sate sauce. Do you know how much fries that is? TOO MUCH.

Quote of the day:
"Ash: hahaha: wayne brady is on this episode of stargate. Whyyy? Hes not even doing something funny or musical."

Reborn

It's official: I have been reborn a Dutch-woman. All these years of hearing from my husband, the proud Dutch citizen, the wonders of Holland, I am finally a believer.

It all started when we spent our last day in Paris, and I realized that what had started as a sore throat from the fumes of Paris and it's filthyness (that happened to me the last time I was in Paris too, so I'm not making it up!), had
morphed into a full-blown cold. Thanks, Paris. We hopped on our train to Holland, and while I watched out the windows for the next 4 hours, I saw Paris turn into Brussels, which turned into Antwerp; all of them somewhat busy and dirty. But then a wonderful thing happened: the smoke stacks and graffiti were slowly replaced by sunny forests and quaint country roads lining old Belgian and Dutch homes; the roads filled with bicycles and people waving while riding alongside quiet brooks. Then there were windmills and horses and canals and buildings. We stopped in Rotterdam and Den Haag, and then we arrived at Amsterdam Centraal station. Once we arrived at our hotel, which is flanked on two sides by canals and on the other by a small cobblestone street barely big enough for a car, we went out to see the city, and visited the Dam Square, the infamous red light district, which was fascinating but naturally a little odd to see the women selling themselves in each windows, and to a coffee and pastry house. Several hours later, we buried into our big warm bed and fell asleep. Mostly. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep because of my stupid cold and runny nose (where does it all come from?!), and some tapping noise outside our window. Again, thanks, Paris.

Today we woke up late and decided to chuck our itinerary in favour of wandering, and wander we did. We walked all over looking for coffee and poffertjes, which are basically like tiny pancakes, but better, and finally settled on a croissant in the south of the city. Then we walked up and down the flowermarket, and around the old mint, and began a day-long hunt for a poffertjes pan, because we want to be able to make our own! After traversing the tiny city a few times, we found the Albert Cuyp Market, which stretches maybe almost a mile, and where there are no tourists and the vendors have everything you could imagine. From clothing and household goods to fresh cheese and pastries and even art, of which we got three huge pieces to add to our collection. By the end of the day we found our heavy poffertjes pan, and were ready to lug everything back. Now we are resting in our room, about to grab dinner, coffee, and most likelyore fries and pastries :) Tomorrow we are off to Amersfoort and Arnhem to visit Nolan's aunt and uncle, and see more of Holland. I'm madly in love already and it's only been one day.

Tour Eiffel

I have been trying to get Nolan to try a croque-madame while we've been here, but since we haven't had much luck finding a good place for one, this morning we settled for the American equivalent: an egg mcmuffin at McDonalds. After browsing some local markets for awhile, we hopped on the metro to go see Les Catacombes, a creepy place where the medieval bones of thousands line the walls far under the streets of Paris. However, due to graffiti, the place was closed...so on to Les Invalides! We wandered the esplanade and then made our way into the beautiful area, where the admission was a tad overpriced. So: Nolan had free admission because he is under 25 and a national of the EU. I sat in the cafe and had my daily coffee time and people-watched, and then eventually used his free ticket to run in and at least see Napoleon's Tomb. The man is buried like a god, with the largest tomb I have ever seen in my life--his body is encased in seven different caskets! Anyway. Then we walked over to the Rodin Museum and took pictures with the famous "The Thinker" statue, and admired the gardens, before walking over a gilded bridge to the Champs-Elysees. After wandering the famous walk, we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, where again, it was overpriced for me but free for Nolan. So I stood at the base and read the tourbook while Nolan used his Dutch citizenship to climb to the top and take pictures. After that we were beat, and came back to our neighbourhood for a delicious dinner by the Moulin Rouge and a nap in our room. 2 hours later we came back to the Arc to see it all lit up at night, and then walked over to see the Eiffel Tower, which was all lit up and gorgeous. Even more so when they flipped a switch around 9 and what looked like a million flashbulbs or tiny fireworks went off all over the entire thing. It was incredible!

You know that feeling when you get salt water up your nose and down your throat and you want to die? The smoky nasty air in Paris has the same effect on me. It burrrrnnnnsss. Also, I'm getting a cold, so I am ready for more sleep. Tomorrow: on our way to Holland!

Les Tuileries

Today we woke up early to grab some croissants and head down to Notre Dame in time for a choir mass and to explore the cathedral and poke around the tourist shops. Truly, that place is both beautiful and inspiring, and makes me just a little sad that the US doesn't have such rich history. 

Then we headed over to check out the Conciergerie, the prison where Marie Antoinette and Robespierre were held before their executions. We saw the Palais de Justice and La Chappelle, and looked around both of Paris's little islands on the middle of the Seine River. Then we walked along the river and eventually came to the Louvre. We spent hours and hours there, walking each enormous wing, and still missed giant parts of the museum. The place is like a small city, it is so huge! We did, however, manage to see some awesome things like the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, the Hammurabi Code, and of course the Mona Lisa, among other things. Incredible! 

Then we walked along the Tuileries, the large garden that stretches from the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde, which is better known to us Americans as Place de la Revolution (where the infamous guillotine once stood and where the streets ran red with blood). In the place where the guillotine was before, there is now a huge obelisk that was a gift from Egypt to the King of France. We were so tired after this that we skipped the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe (don't worry, we will do it tomorrow!). We came back, stopped at a butcher's shop on the street and got a delicious dinner and some piping hot baguettes and some pastries of course, and headed to some steps to eat. We eventually crashed for an hour in our room in bed, then went out for more pastries and drinks. Now I am thoroughly exhausted and awaiting another busy day tomorrow, woooo!

La Butte

This morning we woke up late and headed straight to the train station to catch our Chunnel train to Paris. we grabbed a coffee at the station and sipped it while we flew under the English channel at around 200 kilometers per hour. Smmhhhh bliss! We found our way to our hotel here in Paris, laid on the bed for awhile, then headed out to hike to the top of Montmartre and see the Sacre Coeur and the last day of their annual wine festival. We forgot that we had no euros, so we hiked down to the Moulin Rouge to get some cash and take pictures, picked up an amazing dinner at a street stand, then walked back up the hill for some wine tasting and of course buying. We headed back to rest our feet, then decided to walk back to the bottom of the Montmartre area for some pastries and coffee, then back again. Tomorrow is more adventures, and maybe even more walking than today...though twice up and around the Montmartre Butte in a matter of hours must be some kind of record.

Dressed to kill!

I suppose I have two days to catch up on...so here goes!

Yesterday, Nolan and I set off early for the Museum of Natural History, and spent about an hour looking at dinosaurs and cool gems and other neat "earth" things, before we finally got bored and walked over to the Victoria and Albert museum. There we saw creepy old 17th century bedrooms, paintings of course, and some random displays with the lights turned off so that one had to use a hand-cranked flashlight to see the displays. We still don't know what the point of that was. Then, thinking we would find food, we headed to Westminster and Parliament. Wrong. Note to self: if ever starving, avoid famous historical places. So we walked what felt like miles and finally found a McDonalds. Okay: I KNOW. But we were starving and there was nothing else! Mmm those golden arches just fatten you up wherever you go. Then we headed to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and of course Buckingham Palace, where we loitered on the queen's steps until it started to rain. Perfect time to grab a coffee in Trafalgar square! People watching is one of my favourite things to do, and there are some doozies here, let me tell you.

Next up was dinner at St. Martins in the Fields, which is a very old church with a very old crypt below it. And on the crypt, is a cafe! Seriously. Coolest thing ever: having a traditional English meal in an old crypt by candlelight. And then, no we weren't done yet. We took a 3 hour walking tour with a hilarious guide who told us the history of old London and the river Thames. We got back to the hotel around 10:30, found my luggage was still missing, and crashed exhausted into bed.

Today, we called the airport to hear that they had found my luggage and would be delivering it to the hotel later. Hooray! So we hopped on the underground, and arrived at the Tower of London for a long tour and history of it's bloody history. Amazing! We also saw the crown jewels and admired that extravagance for awhile. We walked across London Bridge to the southern bank's Borough Market. It was NUTS and packed with people. We sampled fruit smoothies and desserts, and had a couple of bangers in bread (sausage), including a wild boar one that was actually pretty tasty! We bought a meatpie for a snack for later and then walked to Shakespeares old Globe Theatre, where we had yard tickets (watching the play while standing in the courtyard) for "As You Like It". It was incredible! Our feet were killing us, but it was well worth it! Then we headed back to the cafe in the crypt for dinner again! After stuffing ourselves we stopped at Harrod's for some more delicious pastries and then back for hot showers and finding my suitcase, YAY! And tomorrow we head to France around midday, so await another update!

Bangers and Mash

So here we are in London town. We started out a bit rough as the first thing I did when we landed was promptly vomit huge amounts all over myself. I don't know if it was the ambien I had taken not sitting well in there, or the fact that my body was disoriented, or how I had consumed huge amounts of food and gum and tomato juice on the flight (what? The in-flight meal was fantastic!), but I bet it was a deadly cocktail of all three. Nolan's reaction? To promptly photograph the incident. Yep. So I am sitting in my seat with the rest of the passengers filing past me out of the plane, drenched in a pool of vomit (really, it was everywhere), and Nolan snaps some keepers both of me AND my product. And I quote: "move your hands, babe. I want to get a shot of the puke between your legs." We're going to have such classy photos of this trip, I can tell.

Anyway. So we get me to the front of the plane where I use the bathroom and at least de-chunkify myself, and I remove my pukey sweater, and we set off. Of course, one of my suitcases was put on a different flight, so it will be arriving tomorrow. Naturally it's the one with my makeup in it, so Our first several pictures are definitely going to be at the top of the attractive pile. Oh well. As N pointed out while we were on the tube on our way to the hotel, "But we're in London!", I am going to make the most of it. Although at the time I wasn't too excited about it, clutching my barf-ridden sweater and my lost-luggage tag and noticing the people around me holding their noses. Sweet. Welcome to London.

Once we got here, I took an amazing shower and changed clothes and washed the other ones immediately, we hopped back on the tube and went to Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Notting Hill, Portobello Road, High Street, and walked around Harrod's. The park and palace are amazingly beautiful, and as an added bonus: the temperature was about 75, and sunny!!! Most gorgeous day in the park ever! We have the pictures to prove it for you doubters, as well. After walking miles and miles around the park and Portobello Road, we admired the neat houses in Kensington borough, and then marveled at the awesomeness that is Harrod's. Seriously, a different them for each room! And the bakery/candy and gelato/cafe room looked like it was out of Willy Wonka's dream world. We bought several delicious pastries and then sat upstairs at the Starbucks across the street (we will go somewhere more exciting for coffee tomorrow, I promise!) and sampled them with our lattes. Most delicious pastries ever! And we haven't even hit Paris or Amsterdam yet!

After that we came back to the hotel to turn in early, and, surprise!: woke up wide awake at midnight :( so here I am: Nolan went for a walk to try and wear himself out enough to fall back asleep, and I thought I'd test out the hotel's wifi with my iPhone. Bingo! In reality, I see another Ambien in our near future to get us back on a normal sleep schedule, though.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Natural History Museum, as well as Buckingham, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, etc. OH and we are having dinner at a cafe in a hundreds of years old crypt. Heh. More details tomorrow.

For now: farewell and goodnight!

Quote of the day:
" There's no place like London!" - "Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim

Leavin', on a jet plane!

I think when things are winding down before a big event is when you get the most antsy. And so, the product of that time was this with ylehsa via email:
[O][][x]
[x][x][]
[O][][]
The world's stupidest game of tic-tac-toe.

We're all packed and ready (and I am pretty sure I won the bet), and we leave early tomorrow morning for the airport. I've got the best gum in the world packed in my purse, and I'm looking forward to sipping my tiny tomato juice on the plane while watching whatever's on the big screen.

Quote of the day:
Me: "You spelled my name wrong on your list! You forgot the 'e' on the end!"
Nolan: "I didn't....hhh. Fine. I forgot your name, and I guess I don't know your birthday or your middle name either."

tide to-go

Having Nolan home is like having a heater back in your house during the winter after weeks of living in the cold. Literally. I had to pull out the summer pjs again because his body heat combined with Milo's curled up next to me was more than I could handle. Milo has been so pleased to have his friend back at home too. In fact, he has been celebrating by wearing Nolan's favourite outfit, his dress whites:

And yes, I realize that posting this picture makes me officially one of "those" people who buy outfits for their cats, but! Doesn't he look cute! You can't deny it! Who could say no to that little face! Put your hand down, Ash.

N and I have a competition on for who can pack the best for Europe. I threw myself into that arena because, let's face it: I am the world's best packer. I'm bringing the BARE minimum, and I know Nolan won't be able to beat it. I mean, when they told us we could only bring 44 pounds of belongings to Israel last summer, guess who beat all the boys and only brought 27 pounds! HUH! This is what I'll pass down to my children someday, since I can't share the "I walked home in the snow barefoot 3 miles with 50 pounds on my back so stop your whining" old story. My kids will just know how to pack the least amount of underwear and shoes possible to get through a vacation. My secret? Pack travel-laundry soap. That way I still wear clean stuff, but save space. ANYWAY: I was thinking I would win this competition until N decided that the rules clearly stipulate that it isn't based on weight, but on the number of items, and he also said that the judges WILL be counting every piece of makeup I bring. SOB!

Also: I have reawakened the candy bowl at work, and I think this might have been a mistake. I'm going to have to lock it up to keep myself from rummaging.

Quote of the day:
"Ash: I suppose that hideous creature is a little cute
But ONLY in his uniform"

Europe: 36 hours!

A bicycle built for two!

Having Nolan home again has been the highlight of my YEAR I think. Well, that may not be true. And the year isn't over. But: I was the happiest person alive when he walked through that door at 7:30 sharp last night! We had dinner, played, caught up and talked, and between 9pm and this morning, watched all 5 episodes of Glee! Yes, Mom, it's THAT good that I watched them all multiple times and Nolan couldn't tear his eyes away.
This morning, he made me his famous pancakes that are TO DIE FOR, and then we borrowed our neighbour's tandem bike and went for a ride to the beach. Let me just say that riding a tandem bike uphill is the hardest thing ever, and Nolan kept looking at my feet to make sure I was still pedaling, hah! Also being on the back = really scary because you can't see anything and you just have to keep pedaling, not knowing where you're heading. Good thing Nolan is a daredevil even on a big yellow cruiser tandem bike. See:


And now he's at the driving range with a friend (what a life!) and I'm at a Starbucks that smells like a pet store. You know, dog food and wet sawdust. Swanky. Later we're watching the Ducks game (Go DUCKS!) and then I'll be putting the finishing touches on our trip for Wednesday.

While I had his camera this morning, I also stole a picture from our Great America trip that I never saw until now. Behold:

This memory is tainted only by the fact that shortly after this picture was taken, "Angelica" tickled me and it felt a lot more like there was a 30-year-old perv in that suit, molesting me, because THAT particular tickling was aimed more above my ribs than I would have liked.

On Friday, my coworker sent me a link to a video he and a friend made while in college. Glad to see that a prestigious school like the one you went to is turning out quality work. He said that his one line ("Whatever.") took him 15 takes just to make him sound stupid enough:


Quote of the day:
"Love is a game that two can play and both win."
-Eva Gabor

Europe: 3 days!

home again

Not much to write today, because...Nolan should be home any minute!!! EEEEE!!!

Europe: 4 days!

farmville

I have no idea what the draw to Farmville is on Facebook, but apparently it's causing quite a stir. I have a friend, in fact, who posted an entire photo album of her Farmville pictures. To me, this sounds like some kind of agricultural trekkie invasion, but I could be wrong.

Quote of the day:
"Ash: Okay so there's this other hot guy who hangs out
ANYWAY
so I was talking to my friend and we were laughing about farmville
And suddenly my altoid FLEW out of my mouth in his direction
And landed on the floor
And he said he thought I wa going to pick it up and eat it
SO EMBARASSING"

Nolan: Tomorrow!
Europe: 5 days!