Off to Espana

The title says it all except for...
Question: Where are we going?
Answer: Valencia (east coast on the Mediterranean Sea)
Question: Have I packed?
Answer: NO!
Question: When are we leaving?
Answer: Tomorrow morning!
Question: Why are you blogging?
Answer: Feeling sooo lazy.
Question: Ready NOW?
Answer: Okay, I'm going.

Funny Stuff

I saw this on a friend of a friend's Facebook page (Thanks Erica's friend) and totally snagged it.

- I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

- I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sistahs!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

- The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

A Matrimonial Milestone

Today, Craig and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I know it's cliche, but where did that time go? Hmmm, let's see... it went the way of (in sort of chronological order) two and a half cross country trips to move to three US states of varying climates, various deployments scattered throughout, the purchase of two homes, an awesome dog and some crazy cats in the mix, three spectacular children, a trans-Atlantic move, and the ownership of at least 10 automobiles.
We also first met one another on October 21, five years before we actually tied the knot. We are the product of a blind date through mutual friends. Craig was in his first year at Navy and I was still a senior in high school. We talked for about three hours at a dance and I don't even think we danced once! Afterwards, we were both smitten with the other and began the letter writing saga of love. I wonder how many letters we wrote to one another during our college days. We still have them all, but we are both too lazy to count them. We'll leave that up to the kids one day.
Craig always has been the person on whom I can rely, to whom I can complain, with whom I can make plans and enjoy life. He still just cracks me up at the drop of a hat and that's why we hardly ever fight...well, why I never hold a grudge... well, not for too long...
Here's to at least 20 more!

Non-Stop

So yesterday, Craig, Evan, Owen, Owen's friend, Felix, and I went on a Cotswold hike which began at the Kilkeney Pub. (Finn went to St. Edward's Senior School for their Open Day to act as a tour guide for the morning. Attendance was MANDATORY for Years 7-9.) We hiked a gorgeous route coordinated by the Anglo-American Womens' Club which is the group that coordinates the olde lady pub lunches of which I am quite fond. Afterwards, we had a yummy pub lunch.

Finn telephoned to say he had safely walked home. Then we headed home for about an hour to gather Felix's things and we were off to Gloucester to take Owen and Felix to a laser tag birthday party. We thought the boys were running low on energy but we were waaaay wrong. They were hyped and ready to go. Craig and I dropped them off then headed back home because I was going to see the authors Lisa See and Xinran speak about their books at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. They both write about China, especially Chinese womens' stories. Later, Craig picked up Owen and I walked home. On the way home, I stopped to pick up a curry Craig had ordered for dinner. We stuffed ourselves and watched the X Factor (UK's American Idol counterpart) and Match of the Day where we get to see all the recaps of the day's football matches. The big news was that Aston Villa (my favorite team which is presently in 6th place in the league - Go Acorns!) beat Chelsea (the #2 team in the league standings). Also, Craig's team, Arsenal (#4) beat their opponent as well.
Today, Craig and Evan went to see an event at the Literature Festival and I am awaiting their arrival back home so that we can hop in the car and go to our favorite pub to meet some friends, the Andrews, to eat lunch and then bring their kids to our house so that Amy & Scott can go to a Festival event. I am just hoping the sun decides to peek out some so we can eat outside and the kids can run around in their beer garden otherwise it will be too chilly to sit and eat and the kids are going to get antsy. Wish us luck.
Next on the list is finishing homework and getting Finn packed for his big week-long Year 7 trip to Morfa Bay, Wales. I think this upcoming week might actually be a quiet one.

Stroud

Since it was Columbus Day, Craig had a US holiday (yes, he gets both U & UK holidays - scha-weet!). We bought our living room set last year on Columbus Day and so, true to form, we bought a small sofa from IKEA this time around. After our early trip to Bristol, we headed to Stroud, a nearby town to Cheltenham for lunch and sightseeing. We took a scenic route into Stroud through the Stroud Valley which really is just a little slice of heaven. We want to return there to do some walks. On the way, we stopped at a roadside pub in the small village of Slad called The Wool Pack which made pretty much the best sandwiches I have ever eaten and I am really not a sandwich fan.

View from the terrace at The Wool Pack

Aside: I learned the next day at the olde lady pub lunch that Slad is a famous town because the acclaimed Gloucestershire writer and poet, Laurie Lee, grew up there. From Wikipedia:
"Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, (26 June, 1914 - 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter raised in the village of Slad, Gloucestershire. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). While the first volume famously recounts his childhood in the idyllic Slad Valley, the second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1934, and the third with his return in December 1937 to join the Republican International Brigade."
The first of his books features the pub we had eaten in. Looks like I have some reading ahead of me!

Stroud was a nice town, but really nothing special. However, the train station is very convenient for a quick trip from Cheltenham.

This is the train shed at Stroud. On the side it reads:
"STROUD STATION
EXPRESS GOODS TRAIN SERVICES
ONE DAY TRANSIT BETWEEN IMPORTANT TOWNS."

Detail from the Church of St. Laurence

On our way home, we passed through a couple of towns I'd like to explore more and a pottery studio is calling my name.

The Sound of Silence

This past Friday and Saturday, our sponsorees graciously watched the kids for an overnight as well as giving us a gift certificate to a nearby B&B called The Green Dragon for an overnight stay. We had a wonderfully relaxing time and were amazed at the quiet all around us, so quiet that we had real conversation time and were able to visit a church, a cemetery, take a short walk, eat three meals completely uninterrupted AND visit two towns in the same day. The Green Dragon is in the VERY small village (if you can call it that) of Cockleford. The dinner and especially the breakfast were well-worth the stay. The furniture is made by a famous craftsman who also did the woodwork in the Yorkminster Cathedral and his "signature" is the engraving of a mouse on every piece. We saw these at Yorkminster as well.

In the morning we took a stroll down a side road and came upon hunters who were pheasant hunting. The double barrel shotguns were a bit unnerving but we were well within sight and away from the actual hunting area.


Run Mr. Bunny!

We then proceeded to a town called Northleach and visited the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the cemetery there. We got to spend as much time as we wanted because we STILL had no children in tow!





Those two images are wool shears and a sack of wool.

My Three Sons - brass on a grave




This door was squished in a corner off a small street and looked about as authentic as it gets.

We jumped back into the car and went to Burford for lunch. We had visited Burford when we brought the kids out for a visit back in 2005 and the town looked exactly the same. We had a small pub lunch with pudding because we were still full from our breakfast. We antiqued a bit, snapped some photos and headed back to relieve Amy & Scott of the burden of our children.




Later that evening we went to a friend's house for an awesome dinner and great conversation. The kids got along well even though Owen was exhausted from a busy couple of days especially an all day field trip to London and the school Hallowe'en disco the day/night before.
Sunday was filled with more relaxation and two Cheltenham Literature Festival events. Owen and Craig went to see Chris Bradford who wrote a thrilling Young Samurai series (Owen was enthralled by the karate and sword demos) and Finn and I went to see Michelle Paver who wrote an amazing series called The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, a must read for the 10-14 year old set.

Follow-Up

My Mom said the horse rocker was a hand-me-down from her cousin, Jeanette. My Great Aunt Thelma gave it to her once her cousins were too big for it. Jeanette is over 70 years old so the horse is at least that old. There's our family heirloom. I think we took it to my parents' house when we moved??? I have a great photo of me in it at about two years old, but it's in storage back in Maryland - snap!

A Blast from the Past

So on Tuesday after visiting with the olde ladies at the craft morning where I purchased some tomato chutney and a hand knitted cardigan, I went to lunch with a couple of friends. As we were walking to the cafe, we passed a barbershop and in the window was an old child's ride on toy, like from WWII old. It is a metal carnival horse with a small cart and somehow a child would push two pedals which then makes the whole thing go. Now it just so happens that I own a rocking horse pretty much exactly like the one in the window and I stopped my friends to show them. At the EXACT same moment, and I am not joking, a woman my mother's age points to the toy and says to her husband, "I used to have a toy exactly like that when I was young." We looked at one another and were just gobsmacked. How uncanny is that? We then got to talking and it turns out she grew up in Wales and was born the same year as my Mom, during WWII. She then went inside the shop and looked at the horse to see where it was made. It is made in England. My maternal grandfather was stationed in England and France during WWII as a Colonel in the US Army. I am assuming this toy was passed down to us kids from my Mom, but I need to email her and ask. Or Mom, if you are reading this, please make a comment so we can get the rest of the story. Or email me and I will finish the story because the woman wants me to call her if I get any more information.

I know this isn't the best photo, but you can still make out the horse and the red cart behind it.

Mr. Rogers is in the House

I believe pretty much everyone knows who Mr. Rogers is from our good old childhood. Well, everyday, Craig comes home and since it is either raining or he is just sweaty from his bike ride home, he changes clothing. This includes a comfier pair of shoes and sometimes a sweater in the cooler months once he's cooled off. He then goes and feeds the koi in our mini pond in the garden and sometimes whistles a tune. He joked today that he is turning into Mr. Rogers and I agree with him. The funniest part of this story is that the owners of the house we live in have the surname of Rogers. How weird is that?

Conker Crazy

Owen has become an insane conker-ite. For those of you not in the know, Conkers is a game "traditionally played by children in the UK using the seeds of horse chestnut trees – the name conker is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself. The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string. They take turns to strike one another's conker until one breaks" (from Wikipedia, of course!). There is a World Championships held on the second Sunday in October near Cambridge.
We have conker trees all around our park. Owen collects a basketful and sets to work peeling off the outer pod, pushing a large, thick needle through the seed and tying the string. He actually made his fingers sore yesterday, requiring band aids. The only downside is that he makes an incredible mess inside and outside the house with all of his materials and the leavings of the conkers. So much so that he is driving me conker crazy!

Goat Breath Chili

Today we traveled to the RAF base for the semi annual hail and farewell for Craig's organization. A traditional chili cook-off is held at the autumn h&f's. This year Craig decided to enter his "Goat Breath Chili". There were about 10 contestants and while Craig's concoction did not win, it was still very yummy. The guy who won actually won last year as well and I heard that he put like eight pounds (yes, pounds) of steak into his recipe and he imports the spices directly from Spain or something.
They also had a salsa contest (the munchie, not the dance) and my friend, Amy, who was our sponsoree won! Yeeehaw for her, ya'll! Or is salsa Mexican? In that case muy bien, mi amiga!

Sunny Olde England in October

I planted some bulbs in the gah-den today after completing the gah-dening and a general clean up yesterday. It was very hard to dig through the soil. I heard on the radio yesterday that we have had three straight weeks without rain. Now yesterday, it did rain a bit, but it was more like thick mist for the morning and cleared by the afternoon. We are also having what we Americans would call and Indian Summer. Very beautiful days. I don't know what these Brits are talking about when they complain about the weather! Actually, strike that, I do know. It's a string of such niceness that makes the drizzly dark even worse. Oh how I am not looking forward to December and January, but I am making a mental note of days like today to dream about when I am freezing.