i was in nyc on sunday night, staying with my friend andy (whose g.f., my b.f., was out of town). we couldn't get enough of hurricane coverage. we both had work to do, but we kept CNN on. and then once he went to bed (and i kept working) i couldn't stop hitting 'refresh' on my browser window to see if something else had happened in hurricane katrina's path.
was it just me (and steve, who mentioned it when i got back to chicago), or did the band 'katrina and the waves' come to anyone else's mind during this whole thing? horrible i know, but true.
at one point on sunday night, as the world waited for the storm to move slowly north to make its next landfall, there wasn't anything to show on t.v., so the newscaster actually showed the covers of sunday newspapers, sharing their ridiculous headlines. my favorite headline was published on monday, and i believe it was by the new york post (figures); 'the big queasy'.
...
tonight, i went with some friends from work to ravinia, which is an amazing outdoor concert venue here. strangely enough, you can't see the stage from the majority of the 'lawn' seating area, but it doesn't really matter since everyone is having too much fun picnicing. :) we saw the gypsy kings tonight, which was fun, and downright relaxingly therapeutic.
g'night.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Saturday, August 27, 2005
so i downloaded the new google talk when it 'beta' launched this week (side note: i find google's habit of releasing things to the wide-open public and calling them 'beta' products for months and months completely ridiculous). i am completely torn on my opinion. it's super basic, so it doesn't have any of the frills/toys of the other 'big three' messenger services (AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger). while i know i don't need those frills, i have to admit that i find the cutesy yahoo messenger avatars kinda fun, and that i update mine on a semi-regular basis. and i really like being able to listen to streaming radio every now and then via messenger.
and then conversely, i like what some guy named christopher hall said about google talk:
"The program is efficient, streamlined, and down-to-Earth in its execution.
I won't deny that it's extremely Spartan in its appearance, but the presentation is textbook Google elegance. I'm not interested in emoticons, skins, and file transfer. I need this to communicate, not fancy up like a 12-year-old girl's Trapper Keeper.
If this is what I have to endure to avoid being assaulted by ads (*cough, AIM, cough*), I'm in."
...or maybe i just like his mention of trapper keepers, and i miss spending time customizing one for back-to-school.
come to think of it, what's stopping me? maybe i need a bitchin' trapper keeper for post-labor-day work fun.
and then conversely, i like what some guy named christopher hall said about google talk:
"The program is efficient, streamlined, and down-to-Earth in its execution.
I won't deny that it's extremely Spartan in its appearance, but the presentation is textbook Google elegance. I'm not interested in emoticons, skins, and file transfer. I need this to communicate, not fancy up like a 12-year-old girl's Trapper Keeper.
If this is what I have to endure to avoid being assaulted by ads (*cough, AIM, cough*), I'm in."
...or maybe i just like his mention of trapper keepers, and i miss spending time customizing one for back-to-school.
come to think of it, what's stopping me? maybe i need a bitchin' trapper keeper for post-labor-day work fun.
Monday, August 22, 2005
i found this article about northwest airlines and their mechanics union strike contingency plans really interesting. i would love to see the airline industry figure out a way to keep the legacy carriers operating so that there's plenty of competition. and i was surprised to find that northwest only has 79% market share at metro airport (it seems like 90% at least) and that it's less than their share in minneapolis (80%).
Sunday, August 21, 2005
aug. 9
can you believe i'm still updating this with entries from my vacation? sheesh!
well, folks, this is the day when it all started falling apart. we had booked ourselves on a one day tour to get out of town and into the countryside a bit. steve had picked the tour because he was excited to see the nature-y stuff like europe's oldest tree, and a waterfall. i was excited to visit scotland's oldest working distillery.
the tour was actually quite lovely, despite my fear of guided tours being utterly schlocky. our tourguide had lived in the area that we were touring for his entire life (he was definitely grandparent-age) and told us quite a few personal anecdotes. our tour bus was only a little bigger than a van, which helped too. we saw plenty of bit tour buses, and i kept feeling like we were somehow cooler.
the first stop, the distillery, was a bit campy. not only do they take you around the distillery (cool!) but they have a big 'experience center' for their popular blend of scotch, the famous grouse. it was kinda fun to have scotch for breakfast (since we hadn't eaten that morning), and i have to admit that the ads for the famous grouse are cute and the music is really damn catchy (in fact, i'd definitely download the jingle as my mobile ring if i had a nokia -- but that might be saying more about my dissatisfaction with all of the pre-loaded rings in my new phone).
a good portion of the rest of the day was spent driving around the countryside, which is *beautiful*. we stopped in several small villages to see sights like churches and the oldest tree, which is actually not all that much to look at (the sequoias in cali are much, much more impressive, as are the virgin white pines at hartwick pines in michigan. the lakes were amazingly pristine and shimmery, but the waterfall, unfortunately, was pretty much nonexistent because they'd had such a dry year (damn global warning!). it made me remember my family's big 'trip out west' when i was in jr. high, because we'd been at yosemite during a dry year and most of their extremely popular, beautiful waterfalls were nonexistent that summer. (sigh). to make matters slightly sadder, it started to rain while we were out hiking to the dried-up waterfall. fortunately we did see one salmon, trying to make his way upstream despite it being very early in the season. that made the lackluster waterfall a bit more unusual and scotland-y.
salmon-y waterfalls or no, steve wasn't really able to enjoy this day much at all. as the day progressed he felt worse and worse, and when we stopped in kenmore, a cute little town where i bought the yummiest homemade shortbread, steve decided he just wanted to lay down in the grass in the little village park. i had felt little pangs of carsickness during the day, since scotland is extremely hilly and our guide drove like a madman, but apparently steve wasn't just carsick.
by the time we got back to town, steve needed to rest. however, we had tickets that night to the famous edinburgh military tattoo. it had started to rain, but we decided to purchase ponchos and brave it out, since the tattoo took place rain or shine. in addition, we had spent way too much on tickets, so we weren't about to let a little rain dampen our spirits.
this was probably all fine and good for brad and i, but definitely was not wise for steve. he was out like a light the minute that we got back to the hotel. brad and i had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar, and then called it a night.
aug. 10
steve needed to sleep, so brad and i went without him to the scotch whiskey heritage center, where we learned a bit more than we had at the distillery, and had our second liquid breakfast in a row.
by the time we got back to the hotel, they'd kicked steve out (despite us requesting a late checkout) so we headed for the train station, and on to glasgow.
steve was pretty much the living dead at this point, so we checked into the nasty hotel he'd found us there, and unfortunately that was all he was going to see of glasgow. we did get him out for japanese noodles (although all he had was miso soup) that night, hoping it would help, but it didn't seem to. however, while we were at the noodle shop the craziest thing happened. the noodle shop was on the second floor, and apparently a pigeon flew up the stairs and then got trapped in the noodle shop (since all of the windows were closed). it kept flying around and trying to go out the windows, but while we all scrambled to open more windows, it unluckily kept aiming for ones that were still closed. after it had knocked itself silly for the third time one of the cooks came out and grabbed the pigeon and placed it outside one of the windows with his bare hands (i can only assume he washed up thoroughly afterward). it was surreal.
there didn't seem to be a ton to do in glasgow, but we lucked out because we were there during 'piping live!', which was the second annual bagpiping festival and competition. there were bagpipers all over the place, and we were staying along one of the busy pedestrian-only shopping streets, so there was crazy bagpipe music outside our hotel most of the daylight hours (not such a good thing for poor steve). however, the lucky part was that, for brad and i, there was an awesome concert by the st. laurence o'toole pipe band which was attended by a ton of pipers that were competing that week (the emcee asked for a show of hands and we were totally surrounded in the audience!). it was very unusual for a concert, since the attendees were very openly allowed to take photos (we even took some video, which i'm not sure was allowed). i would link to my photos here (and would have throughout this narrative) but we took so many during the trip that i ended up downloading them from my memory cards onto brad's laptop, and he still hasn't sent them to me).
anyhow, that concert ruled. and then at the end of it brad and i went to a 24 hour kebob place where we had a late night feast. :) good brother/sister bonding, i'd say!
aug. 11
brad had booked us another countryside tour this day, and unfortunately steve was too sick to join us. not only did we feel horrible that he couldn't go, but we felt sorry for him since the hotel was such a dump. i had the breakfast room manager make up some toast and tea for him, but he couldn't even eat that. :( apparently he was able to go across the street to the pharmacy (which wasn't open until after we left for our tour) but otherwise he didn't get to leave the room all day, and boy! did he hear a lot of bagpipe music (and apparently some random cover bands as well).
brad and i had a pretty fun day. the tour we went on really focused on two big attractions (as opposed to a lot of little ones like the previous tour). unfortunately the bus was a bigger one, with a pre-recorded tour tape. brad and i guessed that it was somehow synched by GPS, but we forgot to ask.
the first big attraction we went to was stirling castle, which really is spectacular. like edinburgh castle, it's way up on a hill and the views of the surrounding countryside are awesome. we did the whole self-guided tour, but my favorite part was when we were eating at the castle cafe and shared a table with an elderly fellow. i asked him if he was enjoying the castle and he said "all of these castles are basically the same -- old falling-down buildings." and he basically said that after having traveled all over the world, he'd learned that the view is usually the best thing. that definitely helped me calm down my 'see it all' instinct and relax. :) i was really proud of myself, and realized that i hadn't thought about work much at all and (other than worrying about steve) was having a pretty damn good vacation.
the next major stop was loch lomond, which is the largest freshwater lake in the uk, and has castles and huge mansions along the lake's edges. we took a boat tour, and despite it being a bit chilly in the wind outside on the boat, we had to keep going outside to take pictures of the scenery as we went along. (man, i wish i could link to those photos!)
last, we went to the neighboring loch lomond and the trossachs national park, which was stunningly beautiful with crazy windy roads. there were several places to stay in the park (mostly timeshares, with a few b&bs) and i kept thinking that i'd have to bring steve back to stay there.
we were exhausted by the time we got back to town, and it was all we could do to drag ourselves out to dinner. brad and i did our usual 'drink in the hotel bar' but only really chatted for a few minutes and read our books together for most of the time. i guess we were really beat!
aug. 12
we have come to the end of the story, friends. all that is left is a painfully delayed flight to o'hare out of glasgow airport, and sending steve home to our new condo while i continued on to detroit (on another painfully delayed flight) so that i could attend my cousin's wedding the next night (steve's brother kevin was my wonderful date).
i wish things had gone smoother, that's for sure, and steve didn't even really get well for another week. it took him 4 days before he went to the doctor, who couldn't really figure out what was wrong with him, but ran tests and gave him antibiotics anyhow. it turns out he lost 10 pounds in one week (which he didn't need, and i did!), but that he's finally back to normal, from an eating and sleeping perspective.
this weekend we had a great time hosting his uncle brian and cousing barrett, but it's already way past my bedtime, so i guess i'll have to give you the scoop on that tomorrow.
g'night, folks.
can you believe i'm still updating this with entries from my vacation? sheesh!
well, folks, this is the day when it all started falling apart. we had booked ourselves on a one day tour to get out of town and into the countryside a bit. steve had picked the tour because he was excited to see the nature-y stuff like europe's oldest tree, and a waterfall. i was excited to visit scotland's oldest working distillery.
the tour was actually quite lovely, despite my fear of guided tours being utterly schlocky. our tourguide had lived in the area that we were touring for his entire life (he was definitely grandparent-age) and told us quite a few personal anecdotes. our tour bus was only a little bigger than a van, which helped too. we saw plenty of bit tour buses, and i kept feeling like we were somehow cooler.
the first stop, the distillery, was a bit campy. not only do they take you around the distillery (cool!) but they have a big 'experience center' for their popular blend of scotch, the famous grouse. it was kinda fun to have scotch for breakfast (since we hadn't eaten that morning), and i have to admit that the ads for the famous grouse are cute and the music is really damn catchy (in fact, i'd definitely download the jingle as my mobile ring if i had a nokia -- but that might be saying more about my dissatisfaction with all of the pre-loaded rings in my new phone).
a good portion of the rest of the day was spent driving around the countryside, which is *beautiful*. we stopped in several small villages to see sights like churches and the oldest tree, which is actually not all that much to look at (the sequoias in cali are much, much more impressive, as are the virgin white pines at hartwick pines in michigan. the lakes were amazingly pristine and shimmery, but the waterfall, unfortunately, was pretty much nonexistent because they'd had such a dry year (damn global warning!). it made me remember my family's big 'trip out west' when i was in jr. high, because we'd been at yosemite during a dry year and most of their extremely popular, beautiful waterfalls were nonexistent that summer. (sigh). to make matters slightly sadder, it started to rain while we were out hiking to the dried-up waterfall. fortunately we did see one salmon, trying to make his way upstream despite it being very early in the season. that made the lackluster waterfall a bit more unusual and scotland-y.
salmon-y waterfalls or no, steve wasn't really able to enjoy this day much at all. as the day progressed he felt worse and worse, and when we stopped in kenmore, a cute little town where i bought the yummiest homemade shortbread, steve decided he just wanted to lay down in the grass in the little village park. i had felt little pangs of carsickness during the day, since scotland is extremely hilly and our guide drove like a madman, but apparently steve wasn't just carsick.
by the time we got back to town, steve needed to rest. however, we had tickets that night to the famous edinburgh military tattoo. it had started to rain, but we decided to purchase ponchos and brave it out, since the tattoo took place rain or shine. in addition, we had spent way too much on tickets, so we weren't about to let a little rain dampen our spirits.
this was probably all fine and good for brad and i, but definitely was not wise for steve. he was out like a light the minute that we got back to the hotel. brad and i had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar, and then called it a night.
aug. 10
steve needed to sleep, so brad and i went without him to the scotch whiskey heritage center, where we learned a bit more than we had at the distillery, and had our second liquid breakfast in a row.
by the time we got back to the hotel, they'd kicked steve out (despite us requesting a late checkout) so we headed for the train station, and on to glasgow.
steve was pretty much the living dead at this point, so we checked into the nasty hotel he'd found us there, and unfortunately that was all he was going to see of glasgow. we did get him out for japanese noodles (although all he had was miso soup) that night, hoping it would help, but it didn't seem to. however, while we were at the noodle shop the craziest thing happened. the noodle shop was on the second floor, and apparently a pigeon flew up the stairs and then got trapped in the noodle shop (since all of the windows were closed). it kept flying around and trying to go out the windows, but while we all scrambled to open more windows, it unluckily kept aiming for ones that were still closed. after it had knocked itself silly for the third time one of the cooks came out and grabbed the pigeon and placed it outside one of the windows with his bare hands (i can only assume he washed up thoroughly afterward). it was surreal.
there didn't seem to be a ton to do in glasgow, but we lucked out because we were there during 'piping live!', which was the second annual bagpiping festival and competition. there were bagpipers all over the place, and we were staying along one of the busy pedestrian-only shopping streets, so there was crazy bagpipe music outside our hotel most of the daylight hours (not such a good thing for poor steve). however, the lucky part was that, for brad and i, there was an awesome concert by the st. laurence o'toole pipe band which was attended by a ton of pipers that were competing that week (the emcee asked for a show of hands and we were totally surrounded in the audience!). it was very unusual for a concert, since the attendees were very openly allowed to take photos (we even took some video, which i'm not sure was allowed). i would link to my photos here (and would have throughout this narrative) but we took so many during the trip that i ended up downloading them from my memory cards onto brad's laptop, and he still hasn't sent them to me).
anyhow, that concert ruled. and then at the end of it brad and i went to a 24 hour kebob place where we had a late night feast. :) good brother/sister bonding, i'd say!
aug. 11
brad had booked us another countryside tour this day, and unfortunately steve was too sick to join us. not only did we feel horrible that he couldn't go, but we felt sorry for him since the hotel was such a dump. i had the breakfast room manager make up some toast and tea for him, but he couldn't even eat that. :( apparently he was able to go across the street to the pharmacy (which wasn't open until after we left for our tour) but otherwise he didn't get to leave the room all day, and boy! did he hear a lot of bagpipe music (and apparently some random cover bands as well).
brad and i had a pretty fun day. the tour we went on really focused on two big attractions (as opposed to a lot of little ones like the previous tour). unfortunately the bus was a bigger one, with a pre-recorded tour tape. brad and i guessed that it was somehow synched by GPS, but we forgot to ask.
the first big attraction we went to was stirling castle, which really is spectacular. like edinburgh castle, it's way up on a hill and the views of the surrounding countryside are awesome. we did the whole self-guided tour, but my favorite part was when we were eating at the castle cafe and shared a table with an elderly fellow. i asked him if he was enjoying the castle and he said "all of these castles are basically the same -- old falling-down buildings." and he basically said that after having traveled all over the world, he'd learned that the view is usually the best thing. that definitely helped me calm down my 'see it all' instinct and relax. :) i was really proud of myself, and realized that i hadn't thought about work much at all and (other than worrying about steve) was having a pretty damn good vacation.
the next major stop was loch lomond, which is the largest freshwater lake in the uk, and has castles and huge mansions along the lake's edges. we took a boat tour, and despite it being a bit chilly in the wind outside on the boat, we had to keep going outside to take pictures of the scenery as we went along. (man, i wish i could link to those photos!)
last, we went to the neighboring loch lomond and the trossachs national park, which was stunningly beautiful with crazy windy roads. there were several places to stay in the park (mostly timeshares, with a few b&bs) and i kept thinking that i'd have to bring steve back to stay there.
we were exhausted by the time we got back to town, and it was all we could do to drag ourselves out to dinner. brad and i did our usual 'drink in the hotel bar' but only really chatted for a few minutes and read our books together for most of the time. i guess we were really beat!
aug. 12
we have come to the end of the story, friends. all that is left is a painfully delayed flight to o'hare out of glasgow airport, and sending steve home to our new condo while i continued on to detroit (on another painfully delayed flight) so that i could attend my cousin's wedding the next night (steve's brother kevin was my wonderful date).
i wish things had gone smoother, that's for sure, and steve didn't even really get well for another week. it took him 4 days before he went to the doctor, who couldn't really figure out what was wrong with him, but ran tests and gave him antibiotics anyhow. it turns out he lost 10 pounds in one week (which he didn't need, and i did!), but that he's finally back to normal, from an eating and sleeping perspective.
this weekend we had a great time hosting his uncle brian and cousing barrett, but it's already way past my bedtime, so i guess i'll have to give you the scoop on that tomorrow.
g'night, folks.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
dateline, aug. 7
we got up and headed to heathrow. they were doing maintenance on the tube (not because of the bombings) and so we took the lovely heathrow express.
our flight up to edinburgh was wonderfully uneventful, and we made it to our hotel without any hassle, and met up with brad (steve's youngest brother). he had just finished a month long program at cambridge and was therefore done with his undergrad career.
the fringe festival was going on, and edinburgh was crazy. there were street performers almost everywhere, and where there weren't performers there were people promoting their shows by passing out flyers, harassing passerby or otherwise trying to garner attention. my favorite was the guy who ran up to steve and started beat-boxing in steve's face. he was actually really good, but when we told him so he said there was another guy that he works with who's even better. :)
that evening we took a guided tour of mary king's close which is a narrow medieval street that ran from the main drag through town (high street) down the steep hill of the city to the lake at the bottom of the hill (north loch). it was basically covered over to build a large municipal building in the 18th century, and has been a series of creepy underground chambers since. we really *loved* the tour and the history. definitely take a look around on the web. there's a pretty comprehensive site here and a review here.
aug. 8: edinburgh
we got off to a late start, and i was a bit grumpy. i got up and used the bathroom first and then went to the hotel's breakfast room to wait for steve and brad. neither of them came. i finally confirmed with both of them that they weren't going to meet in the morning as planned and decided to sleep in instead. sooo... i went to the mall across the street from our hotel. it was a fun place to kill a couple of hours, but the exchange rate kept me from buying anything except a couple of pairs of socks (i didn't pack enough) and some sunblock (there's some sort of newfangled thing called meroxyl that is used in sunblock in europe now but is still being tested by the fda here, so i decided to load up).
anyhow, once we got going we went to to the castle. the views alone were amazing, and the sense of history in a place like that puts our country's puny past to shame. i mean, they haven't even really used the place since before we were even fighting for our independence.
that evening brad and i went out to a bar and spent some good ol' quality time over pints. unfortunately steve wasn't feeling all that well. :(
i've got to run now, but stay tuned as brad and i drink more, and steve gets even less well...
we got up and headed to heathrow. they were doing maintenance on the tube (not because of the bombings) and so we took the lovely heathrow express.
our flight up to edinburgh was wonderfully uneventful, and we made it to our hotel without any hassle, and met up with brad (steve's youngest brother). he had just finished a month long program at cambridge and was therefore done with his undergrad career.
the fringe festival was going on, and edinburgh was crazy. there were street performers almost everywhere, and where there weren't performers there were people promoting their shows by passing out flyers, harassing passerby or otherwise trying to garner attention. my favorite was the guy who ran up to steve and started beat-boxing in steve's face. he was actually really good, but when we told him so he said there was another guy that he works with who's even better. :)
that evening we took a guided tour of mary king's close which is a narrow medieval street that ran from the main drag through town (high street) down the steep hill of the city to the lake at the bottom of the hill (north loch). it was basically covered over to build a large municipal building in the 18th century, and has been a series of creepy underground chambers since. we really *loved* the tour and the history. definitely take a look around on the web. there's a pretty comprehensive site here and a review here.
aug. 8: edinburgh
we got off to a late start, and i was a bit grumpy. i got up and used the bathroom first and then went to the hotel's breakfast room to wait for steve and brad. neither of them came. i finally confirmed with both of them that they weren't going to meet in the morning as planned and decided to sleep in instead. sooo... i went to the mall across the street from our hotel. it was a fun place to kill a couple of hours, but the exchange rate kept me from buying anything except a couple of pairs of socks (i didn't pack enough) and some sunblock (there's some sort of newfangled thing called meroxyl that is used in sunblock in europe now but is still being tested by the fda here, so i decided to load up).
anyhow, once we got going we went to to the castle. the views alone were amazing, and the sense of history in a place like that puts our country's puny past to shame. i mean, they haven't even really used the place since before we were even fighting for our independence.
that evening brad and i went out to a bar and spent some good ol' quality time over pints. unfortunately steve wasn't feeling all that well. :(
i've got to run now, but stay tuned as brad and i drink more, and steve gets even less well...
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
soooo... on to a recap of our trip.
aug. 3-4
we flew out on the evening of august 3rd, and actually had a lovely, on-time and smooth flight into heathrow. since steve is really bad at dealing with jetlag, we both attempted to put ourselves into drug-induced sleep. i used ambien, and steve tried sonata. he claims he didn't sleep at all, but i *swear* he was breathing really evenly and seemed really still in his little makeshift tent under the airline blanket.
anyhow, we were still pretty beat once we found our way into london and dropped off our stuff at the hotel, so we didn't do a heck of a lot on august 4. it was my mom's birthday that day, so i thought a lot about her and about our relationship. steve and i wandered around knightsbridge, and spent time browsing around the more ridiculous shops at harrod's. we didn't really look in any of the clothing areas, but spent time exploring the famous looking in the weird boutiques, like the antique map store, and the crazy little boutique in the basement that sells really unusual liquors and decants them into bottles in front of you (sara's booze purchase #1).
even though we downed several starbuck coffees (which, i realized, were probably the first 'dine-in' starbucks coffees i'd consumed in the last 9 months, at least), we were still extremely tired. we decided that we wouldn't be able to stay up much past dinner, so we found a really cool sushi place where we sat at the counter and ate sushi from the selection on their sushi bar conveyor belt. that amused us for quite some time, and then it was back to our hotel, where we slept super soundly.
aug. 5
this was our hard-core london tourist day. we hadn't really planned it as such, and we didn't even really get going until quite late, but we ended up seeing pretty much everything that was on our (mental) to-see lists (no, we didn't really have lists).
i had been to london before, but pretty much only when traveling by myself. i've found that going to all of the touristy things is easiest alone since then you can pace yourself however you want. luckily, we were pretty much up for the same pace of touristy-ness that day. i only got annoyed with steve's tiredness once. :)
we started out slow and by the time we were done with our leisurely first meal (breakfast food for me/lunch for him) we passed by buckingham palace. well, it just so happened that it was only 15 minutes before the 'changing of the guard' so there were tons of tourists waiting around. for some reason there was a big sign that said "the next changing of the guard is at 11:30 tomorrow" we didn't hang around. we walked around in the parks nearby and then noticed a group of guards practicing some sort of event over at the parade grounds. i asked one of the policemen what was going on and he told me that it was not actually a practice, but the pretty boring manner in which they change guards at the nearby buildings. he then instructed me that i shouldn't miss the changing of the guards over at buckingham palace -- which is much more interesting -- and is happening in 10 minutes.
steve and i cursed the inaccurate sign and ran back to the palace. we happened to run right past the gate to the guards' barracks when they were heading out, so we walked alongside the parade for awhile, which was awesome. by the time we got back to the palace, there were too many people lining the route and blocking the gates, so we didn't actually see the changing of the guards. however, i think steve probably preferred watching them march and play their festive patriotic marches more than he would have enjoyed the changing ceremony.
after that, we headed to westminster abbey. i had never been there, and it really impressed us both. steve was so enamored with the ornate carvings and dedications that he spent over 15 minutes right in the entryway reading the first few that we saw. i had to point out to him that there were hundreds, and that if he wanted to read and study them all, it would be all we'd see that day (and we'd be pretty hungry by the end of it!). we then walked through the self-guided tour and saw all of the 'sights', but i think the regular plaques extolling the virtues of various exalted dead were steve's favorites. he loved the tributes, which often stated things like "this is in remembrance of X, a steadfast and noble gentlemen who loved his country above all things and served his majesty with honour and dignity..." (you get the picture).
we spent several hours there, and by the time we were done we were hungry again.
there's not much in that area, so we wandered for awhile, amusing ourselves by constantly repeating "look kids, big ben, parliament!" (from lampoon's european vacation) many, many times. we finally found a pub and had a pretty dang traditional meal of fish-n-chips (me) and shepherd's pie (him). i also realized then that i don't like tetley's beer. ah, well.
the only way we were going to make it to the tower of london in time to see it before closing was if we took the tube, so we played our own little part in 'not letting the terrorists win' and headed east on the district line.
steve has been reading these obscenely large and heavy hardcover books by neal stephenson and a good deal of them is set in london back in the 1700s. he was therefore really psyched by the tower of london, especially since some of his novels' characters spent time there. we did the traditional 'beefeater guard' tour, and then had just enough time to see the crown jewels and run through the torture and arms exhibits before closing. it was really great to see steve enjoying himself so much. :)
we bought ice cream cones and walked across the tower bridge and over to the tate modern, which is one of my favorite places in london.
unfortunately steve doesn't really share my interest in modern art, and our legs were pretty much collapsing at this point, so we only walked through a few galleries before we decided that we needed a bit of a break. we went upstairs to the bar, and had a couple of drinks while watching boats on the thames. it was pretty crowded, so we were only able to score one barstool up against the windows, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. we started talking to the chap next to us, who was supposed to be meeting some family friends who were in from out of town so that he could show them around. he told us about all kinds of fun things we could (and should) do on our next trip, including a crazy through-the-city rollerblade ride that happens monthly (i'll have to train first) and a beautiful horsetrack just outside of town that doesn't have computerized betting systems and instead has bookies with chalkboards (!). we bought us a round and we chatted awhile before he gave up on waiting for his family friends and surrendered his barstool to steve.
after watching the river awhile more, we headed out for dinner. i convinced steve to let us get indian food :) and that was it for the night. we went back to the hotel and passed out.
aug. 6: are you bored of my blog yet?
having seen pretty much all of london, we had no idea what idea what we wanted to do on saturday. we knew that we weren't really interested in being inside very much of the day, since it was beautiful out (and friday had started out quite rainy).
we headed over to the british institute of architects, where we thought we'd see the winning design for a new arctic research station. according to the time out magazine that we had, it was the last weekend of the exhibition. unfortunately the magazine was wrong, because the exhibition had closed the day before, and the new exhibit, which was on low-income housing, wasn't all that exciting. :(
a nearby park was hosting fruitstock, which sounded right up our alley, since it meant smoothies, healthy food and free music. we happened to arrive in the downtime between bands, but we still had a really awesome time people watching and then caught one band's set. they did an awesome cover of the white stripes's "seven nation army" with a female vocalist and an electric fiddle. it made my day!
we didn't do a whole lot else that day. we tried to get standby tickets to see guys and dolls, starring ewan mcgregor (who i have a huge crush on), but we didn't have any luck. we waited in line for about 40 minutes and a few people ahead of us did get in, but we had to comfort ourselves with the fact that we saved a ton of money by not getting tickets. steve also helped further comfort me by buying me indian food for dinner (which was amazing, considering we had it for lunch that day as well).
steve went to bed relatively early, and i wasn't quite ready yet, so i hung out in our semi-posh hotel lobby, drinking gin-n-tonics and reading my fluffy but fun bookclub book.
---
okay, i'm guessing that you're really bored by now. i'm also really interested in going to join steve to watch the news and see how the crazy pull-out in the gaza strip is going, so i'll sign off for now...
xoxo
aug. 3-4
we flew out on the evening of august 3rd, and actually had a lovely, on-time and smooth flight into heathrow. since steve is really bad at dealing with jetlag, we both attempted to put ourselves into drug-induced sleep. i used ambien, and steve tried sonata. he claims he didn't sleep at all, but i *swear* he was breathing really evenly and seemed really still in his little makeshift tent under the airline blanket.
anyhow, we were still pretty beat once we found our way into london and dropped off our stuff at the hotel, so we didn't do a heck of a lot on august 4. it was my mom's birthday that day, so i thought a lot about her and about our relationship. steve and i wandered around knightsbridge, and spent time browsing around the more ridiculous shops at harrod's. we didn't really look in any of the clothing areas, but spent time exploring the famous looking in the weird boutiques, like the antique map store, and the crazy little boutique in the basement that sells really unusual liquors and decants them into bottles in front of you (sara's booze purchase #1).
even though we downed several starbuck coffees (which, i realized, were probably the first 'dine-in' starbucks coffees i'd consumed in the last 9 months, at least), we were still extremely tired. we decided that we wouldn't be able to stay up much past dinner, so we found a really cool sushi place where we sat at the counter and ate sushi from the selection on their sushi bar conveyor belt. that amused us for quite some time, and then it was back to our hotel, where we slept super soundly.
aug. 5
this was our hard-core london tourist day. we hadn't really planned it as such, and we didn't even really get going until quite late, but we ended up seeing pretty much everything that was on our (mental) to-see lists (no, we didn't really have lists).
i had been to london before, but pretty much only when traveling by myself. i've found that going to all of the touristy things is easiest alone since then you can pace yourself however you want. luckily, we were pretty much up for the same pace of touristy-ness that day. i only got annoyed with steve's tiredness once. :)
we started out slow and by the time we were done with our leisurely first meal (breakfast food for me/lunch for him) we passed by buckingham palace. well, it just so happened that it was only 15 minutes before the 'changing of the guard' so there were tons of tourists waiting around. for some reason there was a big sign that said "the next changing of the guard is at 11:30 tomorrow" we didn't hang around. we walked around in the parks nearby and then noticed a group of guards practicing some sort of event over at the parade grounds. i asked one of the policemen what was going on and he told me that it was not actually a practice, but the pretty boring manner in which they change guards at the nearby buildings. he then instructed me that i shouldn't miss the changing of the guards over at buckingham palace -- which is much more interesting -- and is happening in 10 minutes.
steve and i cursed the inaccurate sign and ran back to the palace. we happened to run right past the gate to the guards' barracks when they were heading out, so we walked alongside the parade for awhile, which was awesome. by the time we got back to the palace, there were too many people lining the route and blocking the gates, so we didn't actually see the changing of the guards. however, i think steve probably preferred watching them march and play their festive patriotic marches more than he would have enjoyed the changing ceremony.
after that, we headed to westminster abbey. i had never been there, and it really impressed us both. steve was so enamored with the ornate carvings and dedications that he spent over 15 minutes right in the entryway reading the first few that we saw. i had to point out to him that there were hundreds, and that if he wanted to read and study them all, it would be all we'd see that day (and we'd be pretty hungry by the end of it!). we then walked through the self-guided tour and saw all of the 'sights', but i think the regular plaques extolling the virtues of various exalted dead were steve's favorites. he loved the tributes, which often stated things like "this is in remembrance of X, a steadfast and noble gentlemen who loved his country above all things and served his majesty with honour and dignity..." (you get the picture).
we spent several hours there, and by the time we were done we were hungry again.
there's not much in that area, so we wandered for awhile, amusing ourselves by constantly repeating "look kids, big ben, parliament!" (from lampoon's european vacation) many, many times. we finally found a pub and had a pretty dang traditional meal of fish-n-chips (me) and shepherd's pie (him). i also realized then that i don't like tetley's beer. ah, well.
the only way we were going to make it to the tower of london in time to see it before closing was if we took the tube, so we played our own little part in 'not letting the terrorists win' and headed east on the district line.
steve has been reading these obscenely large and heavy hardcover books by neal stephenson and a good deal of them is set in london back in the 1700s. he was therefore really psyched by the tower of london, especially since some of his novels' characters spent time there. we did the traditional 'beefeater guard' tour, and then had just enough time to see the crown jewels and run through the torture and arms exhibits before closing. it was really great to see steve enjoying himself so much. :)
we bought ice cream cones and walked across the tower bridge and over to the tate modern, which is one of my favorite places in london.
unfortunately steve doesn't really share my interest in modern art, and our legs were pretty much collapsing at this point, so we only walked through a few galleries before we decided that we needed a bit of a break. we went upstairs to the bar, and had a couple of drinks while watching boats on the thames. it was pretty crowded, so we were only able to score one barstool up against the windows, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. we started talking to the chap next to us, who was supposed to be meeting some family friends who were in from out of town so that he could show them around. he told us about all kinds of fun things we could (and should) do on our next trip, including a crazy through-the-city rollerblade ride that happens monthly (i'll have to train first) and a beautiful horsetrack just outside of town that doesn't have computerized betting systems and instead has bookies with chalkboards (!). we bought us a round and we chatted awhile before he gave up on waiting for his family friends and surrendered his barstool to steve.
after watching the river awhile more, we headed out for dinner. i convinced steve to let us get indian food :) and that was it for the night. we went back to the hotel and passed out.
aug. 6: are you bored of my blog yet?
having seen pretty much all of london, we had no idea what idea what we wanted to do on saturday. we knew that we weren't really interested in being inside very much of the day, since it was beautiful out (and friday had started out quite rainy).
we headed over to the british institute of architects, where we thought we'd see the winning design for a new arctic research station. according to the time out magazine that we had, it was the last weekend of the exhibition. unfortunately the magazine was wrong, because the exhibition had closed the day before, and the new exhibit, which was on low-income housing, wasn't all that exciting. :(
a nearby park was hosting fruitstock, which sounded right up our alley, since it meant smoothies, healthy food and free music. we happened to arrive in the downtime between bands, but we still had a really awesome time people watching and then caught one band's set. they did an awesome cover of the white stripes's "seven nation army" with a female vocalist and an electric fiddle. it made my day!
we didn't do a whole lot else that day. we tried to get standby tickets to see guys and dolls, starring ewan mcgregor (who i have a huge crush on), but we didn't have any luck. we waited in line for about 40 minutes and a few people ahead of us did get in, but we had to comfort ourselves with the fact that we saved a ton of money by not getting tickets. steve also helped further comfort me by buying me indian food for dinner (which was amazing, considering we had it for lunch that day as well).
steve went to bed relatively early, and i wasn't quite ready yet, so i hung out in our semi-posh hotel lobby, drinking gin-n-tonics and reading my fluffy but fun bookclub book.
---
okay, i'm guessing that you're really bored by now. i'm also really interested in going to join steve to watch the news and see how the crazy pull-out in the gaza strip is going, so i'll sign off for now...
xoxo
Monday, August 15, 2005
well, amigos, the three of you that read this have been wondering about me, and wrote to ask how i'm doing. thank you.. i really appreciate it.
here's what happened: i was working, working, working. then we moved to a new place (a different unit in the same building, although now we are owners instead of renters). then we had a bunch of houseguests. and then we went on vacation.
so now i'm back. and i'm really enjoying our new place more than i thought i would. it's pretty much a mirror image of our old place, but we were concerned that the view (although from a higher floor) wasn't as good. we used to face the lake, but decided that it wasn't worth the $40k premium, so now we face the city. the north-facing windows in the living/dining room are somewhat blocked by the ugly back of the hyatt, but then we can see the top of the hancock building over it.
the view from the study, where i'm writing, is amazing at night. not only do you get a nice view of some of the bridges over the river, but you can see some really amazing buildings.
at the end of the river-bend is the riverbend condos building, which has a few fun lines of bright blue lights across the front of the building at night, but you have a view of my favorite building in town, the carbon and carbide building, which is the home of the hard rock hotel nowadays, and the awesome building at 35 e. wacker, which i guess is known as the north american life building.
since we're now on the 34th floor (we were on 20 before) there are a few little upgrades to this unit over the last one. we still have crappy quality rental carpet, but now we have tile in the entryway. we have the same sink (we miss our old bart-installed sink in ann arbor sooooo much!) but at least now there is a pull-out faucet. the bathrooms are the same, but the subtle upgrade in this unit is that we get much, much larger medicine cabinets. i have hogged them with my crap, and i love it. we also have a cooktop range stove, which slightly scares me because steve's mom keeps telling me all about how it has to be cleaned with the special cleaner and we can only use certain pots on it. i guess it's an upgrade, though, and since i don't really cook anyway, i guess i shouldn't worry about it too much.
the condo purchase and move went pretty smoothly, although there was a big fat bump. we only had the freight elevator reserved for a two hour block, from 5-7 pm. unfortunately the building wasn't exactly being generous with the elevator, since we only have one and there were about 150 moves taking place this month. so steve hired some movers to help us, and we had them scheduled from 4:30-7:30. he figured that we could have them move everything down the hallway and ready to go from 4:30-5, move things up and down from 5-7, and then probably end up with some things that needed lugging again from 7-7:30.
well, by a little after 5 the movers hadn't come, and i had been sneaking boxes and hanging stuff up in the regular elevator for a couple of hours. we were anxious to get going on the big stuff and were wondering where in the heck they were.
it turns out they had our reservation down for a friday, when the day of our move fell on a tuesday.
sooooo... after some begging and pleading steve convinced the moving company to find a couple of guys (i can only imagine the conversation their manager had to have to get some guys to come out in the pouring rain immediately that evening -- thank goodness it was an indoor move!). the two movers arrived around 6 and moved us for an hour, although steve and i had already done much more than we should have without the wheeled carts that the movers brought. i had packed my books (and other crap) much too heavy, and boy! were we sore the next day. :(
so that's our moving story. i hope you enjoyed it. and i hope that sometime soon you can visit to enjoy the view. we've already had alex & sarah and keenan & carrie visit, and we hosted a little shindig for some of our chicago friends on venetian night, when we started with cocktails at home (which has been christened Super Sky Hut, or Sky Hut II: Electric Boogaloo>, then had a pretty elaborate picnic at grant park while watching the boat parade and fireworks. venetian night is definitely my favorite chicago event (steve loves the upcoming air & water show).
anyhow, i'm rambling.
and i'm tired.
and i'm sorry that i have been a piss-poor correspondent.
tomorrow night i shall update you all on our trip to the UK. i have a work event (focus groups -- oooh!) that may last as late as 10 pm, so i may not get to blog the entire trip memoir, so i appreciate your continued patience and loving thoughts. :)
here's what happened: i was working, working, working. then we moved to a new place (a different unit in the same building, although now we are owners instead of renters). then we had a bunch of houseguests. and then we went on vacation.
so now i'm back. and i'm really enjoying our new place more than i thought i would. it's pretty much a mirror image of our old place, but we were concerned that the view (although from a higher floor) wasn't as good. we used to face the lake, but decided that it wasn't worth the $40k premium, so now we face the city. the north-facing windows in the living/dining room are somewhat blocked by the ugly back of the hyatt, but then we can see the top of the hancock building over it.
the view from the study, where i'm writing, is amazing at night. not only do you get a nice view of some of the bridges over the river, but you can see some really amazing buildings.
at the end of the river-bend is the riverbend condos building, which has a few fun lines of bright blue lights across the front of the building at night, but you have a view of my favorite building in town, the carbon and carbide building, which is the home of the hard rock hotel nowadays, and the awesome building at 35 e. wacker, which i guess is known as the north american life building.
since we're now on the 34th floor (we were on 20 before) there are a few little upgrades to this unit over the last one. we still have crappy quality rental carpet, but now we have tile in the entryway. we have the same sink (we miss our old bart-installed sink in ann arbor sooooo much!) but at least now there is a pull-out faucet. the bathrooms are the same, but the subtle upgrade in this unit is that we get much, much larger medicine cabinets. i have hogged them with my crap, and i love it. we also have a cooktop range stove, which slightly scares me because steve's mom keeps telling me all about how it has to be cleaned with the special cleaner and we can only use certain pots on it. i guess it's an upgrade, though, and since i don't really cook anyway, i guess i shouldn't worry about it too much.
the condo purchase and move went pretty smoothly, although there was a big fat bump. we only had the freight elevator reserved for a two hour block, from 5-7 pm. unfortunately the building wasn't exactly being generous with the elevator, since we only have one and there were about 150 moves taking place this month. so steve hired some movers to help us, and we had them scheduled from 4:30-7:30. he figured that we could have them move everything down the hallway and ready to go from 4:30-5, move things up and down from 5-7, and then probably end up with some things that needed lugging again from 7-7:30.
well, by a little after 5 the movers hadn't come, and i had been sneaking boxes and hanging stuff up in the regular elevator for a couple of hours. we were anxious to get going on the big stuff and were wondering where in the heck they were.
it turns out they had our reservation down for a friday, when the day of our move fell on a tuesday.
sooooo... after some begging and pleading steve convinced the moving company to find a couple of guys (i can only imagine the conversation their manager had to have to get some guys to come out in the pouring rain immediately that evening -- thank goodness it was an indoor move!). the two movers arrived around 6 and moved us for an hour, although steve and i had already done much more than we should have without the wheeled carts that the movers brought. i had packed my books (and other crap) much too heavy, and boy! were we sore the next day. :(
so that's our moving story. i hope you enjoyed it. and i hope that sometime soon you can visit to enjoy the view. we've already had alex & sarah and keenan & carrie visit, and we hosted a little shindig for some of our chicago friends on venetian night, when we started with cocktails at home (which has been christened Super Sky Hut, or Sky Hut II: Electric Boogaloo>, then had a pretty elaborate picnic at grant park while watching the boat parade and fireworks. venetian night is definitely my favorite chicago event (steve loves the upcoming air & water show).
anyhow, i'm rambling.
and i'm tired.
and i'm sorry that i have been a piss-poor correspondent.
tomorrow night i shall update you all on our trip to the UK. i have a work event (focus groups -- oooh!) that may last as late as 10 pm, so i may not get to blog the entire trip memoir, so i appreciate your continued patience and loving thoughts. :)
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