Reed is the guy that is moving back to the US so he can actually be with his wife. He is hoping to be back in time for the birth of their first baby. We took a picture of some people here mocking him. (He tends to stick out his lower lip when concentrating.) I think he will get a good laugh knowing I am putting this pic on the blog for all to see.

See you soon!

Yvo said the goodbye speech today just in case he has to fly off at a moments notice if labor starts, otherwise Reed is set to leave next Friday. I shall miss him. :(

Off to Ireland this weekend and then goodbye to mom on Monday. But good news for me, I will be home in 2 weeks!!!

So we went and saw FAME last night. I was dreading it... hate musicals with a few, very few, exceptions. I was pleasantly surprised though. It was pretty good. There was one actress (and I use that term VERY loosely) that was beyond awful. I cringed every time she came on stage. Other than that it was pretty good. The dancing was a lot of fun to watch. I don't know how they do it. I was exhausted just watching them....

Meeting Renee and my mom for lunch at Doughmasters and then Renee is catching her bus back to Heathrow. I think she had a good time here!! I don't think she is looking forward to going back though!!!

Here is Gen this morning on the couch (Alisha was still asleep when I left...)



They had a good flight, Gen slept 8 hours on the plane but Alisha didn't sleep at all. I guess that is why she was still asleep when I left this morning!

We are all meeting up in London tonight to see the show "FAME" Woo-hoo... a musical.... looking forward to spending the evening with the girls though!

Here are the pics from Paris, I didn't take too many as I already have pics of the tourist things. But here is a nice one of us sitting in a cafe on Monday. (We all got a little sunburn from this.)



Had a great time in Paris, the woman that ran our B&B was a little odd and it was more like staying in a room in someone's apartment than a B&B. We even had to share a toilet with her!

Saturday and Sunday were very cold and windy. We did manage to see all the sights on Saturday and get back a little early. We were all pretty worn out (Renee still had jet lag). On Sunday we did a bike tour Fat Tire Bike Tours I HIGHLY recommend to anyone! (They also do tours in other cities.) The biking was great and itt took us to Versailles and we were able to ride around the gardens and have a picnic lunch there. We worried half the day it would rain on us though. When we got back, we took a nighttime river cruise and relaxed.

Monday was the best for weather. It was about 75 and the wind had died down. We spent the day walking the streets and shopping. It was a very nice way to end the weekend!

YAY! Gen's plane has landed, right on time at 3PM. They are landing in nice weather, a little overcast but a real nice temp, somewhere in the low 70's would be my guess.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AUNT SUE!!!!!

Hello everyone! We are back safe and sound. We came back on Monday and took the trains o we missed everything at the airport (thank goodness). In case you didn't hear, a ceiling collapsed at the Paris airport and killed a few people. I hope none of you worried about us.

As is usual on a Tuesday after a 3 day weekend, I am a bit busy here at work so I don't think I'll get time to put the Paris pics up today. I'll see what I can do though.

Very exciting day, Gen and her friend Alisha are on their way here!! A full house, so exciting!!!

My mother has this amazing ability to not suffer jetlag. On the other hand, Renee does not have the same fortune. On Wednesday night she couldn't sleep until 2am and then woke at 6. Last night we were worried because earlier in the evening she was really tired, but then around 10 she said she felt wide awake! You'll be happy to know that she did have a good sleep after all and is well rested today!

Renee left early to go to Hampton Court (Mom has already been there). They are then meeting up at the V&A museum. We are all meeting at the Waterloo station around 6 to catch our 7pm train to Paris!!!

And what are you doing this weekend? :)

OK, so here goes a bit about our trip to Rome. It started out a bit shaky. We were staying at a convent and it has a curfew of 11PM. We figured we weren't going out partying at night so that should be ok. Unfortunately, I forgot about Friday night. Our plane landed at 9PM. We then had to figure out how to take a train to Rome then took the subway to a stop a couple of blocks from St. Peter's. On the map, it looked like our convent was about 2 blocks from St. Peters, opposite from the subway stop. All looked well. But of course, why should things actually go well? We arrived in the center of Rome somewhere after 10PM. We then found the correct subway station. We sat down to wait for the subway and looked up at the sign. It said we had 9 minutes til the next train! Oh no!! I looked at my watch and it was about10:30 at this point. We still thought we would be ok because on the map it didn't look like we had very far to go.... The subway finally came and we got off at our stop at 10:50... hmmm... 10 minutes... we started walking very very quickly. Here we are dragging rolling suitcases over these cobbled streets, clack clack clack... we were trying to wake the dead with all our noise!!! The 2 blocks to St. Peters sure seemed a lot further! When we got there I told my mom we were half way, I thought that was good news but she sighed. And then we saw the hill... I wondered why our street curved on the map, I just thought it was a curvey street, but oh no, it curved around a hill! We stood at the bottom staring at it and a very nice Italian man looked at our map and confirmed that was the hill we needed to go up.... then the church bells rang 11PM. And this is the part of the story where I have to give mom tremebdous amounts of credit! She took off running up that hill!!! I could barely keep up with her! Unfortunately we ran right past the convent (it wasn't marked as we later found out...) and we ran straight to the top of the hill. As we stood and panted we got a gorgeous night time view over the city. One more look at my watch and it was now 11:15. Mom looks at me and asks what's the backup plan if the nuns don't let us in.... hhhmmmm backup plan?

We realize we must've missed it and start going back down the hill and pass a couple. They point out which building we are to go to. These big metal imposing gates.... we ring the buzzer and the gates magically open. Straight in front of us is a nun... and not a happy nun. We walk up and give her our paper. Needless to say she didn't speak english and well.. my italian is non-existent. She calls over another nun and they go off to talk about us, we started to follow them in and she raised her hand up and said NO! So we stood and waited. She came back and said "Tardy!" so I put my arms up to simulate an airplane and then show her the map of the subway station and draw my finger along the line of how far we ran and I ran in place to show her we ran and poor mom was just standing there dripping in sweat and panting. We must've been a pathetic sight, they took pity on us and let us in.

The room was very bare, but clean and cheap for Rome prices. We instantly passed out. The next couple days were a blur of pizza, lasagna, pasta and lots of ice cream (4 times to be exact) WOW, you can tell I live in London, all I think about is the amazing food! The weather was beautiful (another thing I am keen to notice now that I live in London) I even got a little sunburn on my nose and the part in my hair!

The pictures show everything we saw but they don't show how exhausting it was. By the time Monday came along we were ready for the plane ride home! So we could just sit! We went to go pay and check out and low and behold, we need more to go wrong. We owed €300 and they only took cash! Cash? who only accepts cash these days, I guess nuns.. So mom hops in our taxi and has him take her to an ATM, while I waited behind as collateral (actually I volunteered so I could just sit!)

All in all, everything worked out. I think mom really enjoyed her first trip into a non english speaking country. She really embraced the differences and especially the food. She said lasagne will never taste the same again....

And now we are off to Paris tomorrow!

9 months from today, I am getting married!!! (well and Jamie is too!)

OK here are the pics of Rome. Here is one of my favorite though! I have never seen so many nuns in my life!!!

WOW! Your level of patience is non-existent!!! J/K! I have already received emails about not having the Rome pictues up. You'll be sorry you asked for them once I do get them up as there are 135 of them!!! I am hoping to have them ready tonight before I leave work and will try to write about our adventures later today or tomorrow. SOOOOOO busy at work right now!! Since my mom and Renee are here, I'm not staying late to work on personal stuff. But here is a picture of me in the Temple of Diana to tide you all over. Like my pose?



And here is a pic of Renee from this morning after a good nights sleep.

YAY! Renee's plane landed at 11:44, about 5 minutes ago.... too bad it will still take her a couple hours to get to my place!

Well here we are at Terminal 1. Since I now have a silver BA card, I was able to bring my mom into the pretty upper class lounge. We're both using the free internet right now and then we'll move down to the wine bar and maybe sit in the garden area with the sound of birdies chirping away!

MMMMM.... eating grandma's oatmeal and raisin cookies. I have actually shared around the office and everyone gets excited about the American Grandma cookies! Everyone loves them!!!

Grandpa also sent over raisin scones. I'm not sharing those. Well except for with my mom... I suppose I could try to hide them from her.....

Well I'm off work now, run home, eat lunch and pack for Rome, then we are off!! We are going to go back to Heathrow the same way my mom came so hopefully nothing slows us down. I hope to have some great pictures for you all on Tuesday!

Well be proud of my mom. She found a bus that took her straight from the airport to the station near my place. She got in, made a cup of tea and took a bath. By the time I got home she was very relaxed and ready for sleep. We went out for dinner at a bar (cheap, happy hour food) then went back to my flat. She struggled to stay awake until 9 and then passed out. She said she slept through the night pretty much so she was well rested and perky this morning. Mom plans to take the train to London then ride the underground up to Camden Market and go to Regents Park for a walk. The weather is pretty overcast but hopefully it won't rain.

Mom has arrived at my flat! All is well!

By the way, new look! What do you think?

I just checked the BA website and mom's plane landed at 11:56!!! Now let's see how long it takes her to get to my place. :)

Well my mom is somewhere over the Atlantic right now, hopefully sleeping soundly. She should be at my place somewhere around the time all of you are waking up!

I went to the gym again last night and moved up in my running schedule! I made it to week five! That is walking 2 minutes and running 8 for 30 minutes. My calves and shins were willing me the whole time. I kept thinking that I just needed to work them out but as I struggled up the little hill to my apartment and my legs felt like they were going to explode I realized they didn't just need to be worked out. I got to my flat and just laid on my bed and could actually feel the blood swirling around in my legs. Very odd sensation. Well today I wont be going to the gym and my legs will thank me!

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!! Well the weather sux, but I am in a great mood! My mom leaves today and will be here tomorrow. Think good thoughts for her as she is going to try to brave public transport all on her own to get to my flat. It will be an adventure for her!

I also received great news yesterday!!! A friend from work back in Glendale applied for a job here and got it!!! He will be moving here in June! I am soooooo very excited. I have been in a particularily bad homesick funk for the last week and this makes all the difference in the world!

Well another exciting weekend of sitting around and watching the rain. I did venture out on Saturday to go see Wonderland (it was all right, kind of good) and go grocery shopping. I also bought 3 more wedding magazines which puts me up to about 20. That was about it. Since I didn't take any pictures this weekend, you will get leftovers from Stephens house form last weekend. Yoshiko took these.





By the way, I think I may have the comments working again.... if someone wants to try....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RICHARD WOLF ON SUNDAY!!!!

They like TV shows where they are fixing things. They fix up alot of houses and gardens and people. They really like getting in the middle of marriages and making people look stupid on TV. Last night they started a new show called "Fairy Godfathers" it was too good a premise to resist. The thing is that they got 2 woman to say their husbands were awful good for nothings and the show sent the wives away for a week. During that week 2 gay guys went in and lived with them to help them get in touch with "their inner woman" It was quite funny and the men were really good sports about it. They gay guys threw away their ugly clothes and taught them how to cook and iron and clean. At the end the women were happy and they got new husbands.....Now do you see why I complain about tv over here? That was the best thing on and at prime time! 9PM!!!

Well it is the weekend! YAY! Very excited about mom coming next week so I will relax as the next 3 weekends will be crazy! Rome, then Paris then Ireland. Whew, I'll need a vacation after all that.

Mom is bringing me grandmas cookie and grandpas scones.... mmmm.... can't wait!

Have a great weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ADRIAN AND EMILY!!!!!

Mike's party was swell. It is so handy living in the same building! The group gave him Ray-Bans for sunny SoCal and a Doughmasters apron! Fantastic!

Work is sooooo busy right now! I say this in a good way though. It is nice to be so involved and having a feeling of accomplishment. Speaking of work.... gotta go!

Tonight is Mike's going away party. It is all too sad..... forgive me while I go off to cry.....

Pictures from Stephans House:

Well I accomplished my goal for the weekend. I did nothing!! Saturday I took a shower around 4 and went grocery shopping with Mike (our last grocery tip..) and then back home and back into my jammies. I did watch Rosemary's Baby with all the lights on and it wasn't as scary as I thought it might be... Sunday Mike, Reed, Yoshiko and I went to Stephan's house "The Lawn" He lives out in the country near Winchester about 1.5 hours away. It was a lovely day and I got to meet his wife Natalia and children Sasha and Andre. We had a wonderful BBQ and jumped around on the trampoline. The boys played some football, frisbee and ping-pong. The sun was out and I even took off my jacket a few times! Wonderful.
Monday I.. you guessed it sat around. What else are you supposed to do when you have the day off work and nothing planned? I imagined what I would want to do instead of going to work if it were a regular work day and all I could think was to lay around. I finally talked myself into going to the gym at 3:30. (Lukle, be proud! I am now on week 4. Walk 3 minutes and run 7 for 3 times!!!) I also did some weight training. I felt very proud of myself and went back home to my jammies!