My Husband, the Workaholic

I think this is what our new life is going to be like - Bill working every chance he gets in order to succeed in his new international role.  We had a picnic of rather foul sandwiches under the 5th tree on the right (the 3rd tree was taken) and then I walked the Long Walk while he reviewed resumes.  If it weren't for the cigar I might not have recognized him.

A Typical Windsor Wednesday

Bill had to go to work today so I was left to my own devices.  I did meet up with two estate agents (which I don't want to write about until we have a flat finalized because I'm funny that way) but otherwise I was out and about enjoying the town on my own.  I had lunch on the Thames, read my book over a pot of tea and sat under the third tree on the right - my spot to meet Bill after a hard day at the office.  

Can you tell that I have a savage British tan??  

Bill and I had a nice dinner in Eton - this is defined by the fact that the meals did not come with chips (those are fries to you Americans).  So far every meal we've eaten has come with chips.  We had to go upscale to break the trend.  This is outside the conservatory of the restaurant.

 This is my after dinner cheese plate.  With pickled onions. Yum.

Windsor

Our day started with tea and a scone at an outdoor cafe near the bridge to Eton.

Followed by a flat viewing (not right for us, ugly decor, too far from town) and lunch at The Two Brewers near the castle.

 We then sampled The Long Walk.  This is one of the many walks on the castle grounds.  As you can see - it's very long.  We did less than half before we turned around.

 This is the view when you turn around.  Impressive, no? I was itching to get into the castle so we decided to split up for a few hours this afternoon and do Jen and Bill things.  I explored the castle and was tickled to get my ticket stamped to allow for free admission for the next year (something I normally wouldn't be able to take advantage of but now I can!!)

 ...while Bill sat under the third tree on the right with his book, iPod and cigar(s).  

Tomorrow - we spend the day apart again.  Bill goes to work while I meet up with 2 more estate agents.

Day One on No Sleep

Landed, dropped bags off at the b&b and fought the London bound traffic to Richmond for our first flat viewing.  We saw some good ones - but I can't post them because the pictures are on my cell phone and the phone has no service here in the UK despite a conversation I had with Verizon last week.  Everyone else at Heathrow was whipping out iPhones left and right, making calls, texting and basically taunting me with their abundance of service.

Our b&b room is called "open concept".  We found out that means we have to conceptualize a door on the bathroom.  You can see below the bathroom to the left and the end of the bed on the right...with nothing in between.

 After flat hunting we had tea....

 And later we had beer and dinner.  I am proud to say that I made it until 10:15 pm.  Ready for sleep!!!!

A gaggle of girls stormed into town...

The Albany girls, minus one, are in town this weekend.  Mom is holding Mini-Mom, a statue I got for Jen's birthday.  Now, no matter where we go, Mother will be watching.

Lili entertained us with song and story.  In return I gave her a hat.

Gina told us her favorite A.J. poo stories.  I won't go into details but to say that none of us will eat at Wendy's again.

Tatler University

Jennie is cramming for the UK.  She's born-again Tatler, the English magazine that has been in publication since 1709.

The original Tatler was founded in 1709 by Richard Steele, who used the nom de plume "Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire", the first such consistently adopted journalistic persona,^[2] which adapted to the first person, as it were, the 17th-century genre of "characters", as first established in English by Sir Thomas Overbury and soon to be expanded by Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics (1711). Steele's idea was to publish the news and gossip heard in London coffeehouses, hence the title, and seemingly, from the opening paragraph, to leave the subject of politics to the newspapers,^[3] while presenting Whiggish views and correcting middle-class manners, while instructing "these Gentlemen, for the most part being Persons of strong Zeal, and weak Intellects...what to think." To assure complete coverage of local gossip, a reporter was placed in each of the city's popular coffeehouses, or at least such were the datelines: accounts of manners and mores were datelined from White's; literary notes from Will's; notes of antiquarian interest were dated from the Grecian Coffee House; and news items from St. James’s Coffee House.

This month's articles include:

KIPPERS, ASPIC AND GIN – DINING LIKE THE QUEEN FOR A DAY

and          25 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE QUEEN

Betty heard the news

Queen Elizabeth is excited about the news .......

Bret, beer and a bonfire

Bret and I had a father and son night... went to the pub and came back home for Bret's favorite thing, a fire.  I don't think I'll ever get used to having a beer with my son.. it seems so wrong.....

But we had a great night anyway....  Happy 22nd Bret... again.

Birthday Biker

My little guy is 22 years old today.

Inconceivable.

Love you, Bret-man.

Noelle in Newburyport

Noelle made a guest appearance in Newburyport today.  The day was filled with chit chat and mexican fare at Agave.  Somehow many hours passed but I didn't even notice.  

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em

We went to visit Sumner today (Trudi's gentleman friend).  He's been feeling poorly but his health is improving and Bill says he still has a firm grip - not bad for 88.  We listened to Sumner's stories about the things he used to smoke when he was a kid - like pine needles wrapped in newspaper.  Bill is determined to try it. Sounds like a recipe for third degree facial burns if ever I heard one....

Post visit we went out to lunch at a local diner.  The poor waitresses were wearing giant poodle skirts and had to listen to 50's music all day (which I have nothing against but I'm sure if I had to listen to it all day long every day I would tire of it).  My meal was flavorless but Bill enjoyed his steak and eggs.   Later he smoked a cigar made of tobacco.  The pine needles will have to wait.

About a Chicken

Watching "About a Boy" and then the Celtics with our lawn chicken.

"About a Boy" is the movie Jennie and I fell in love to.  If you haven't seen it, do it now.

Get the soundtrack too.  The combination is fantastic.

This is Jen adding a note...I hope Bill and I were already in love when we first saw "About a Boy" because we were on our honeymoon!!!  But yes, we love this movie and we love that we saw it in Richmond with the Brits. I never get tired of hearing Hugh Grant say "Driving fast behind the ambulance was fantastic..." and "Shut up, you're wounding my soul!"

My cup runneth over - but not my bowl!!

I am so happy!!!  We have not 1....not 2...but 3 working toilets!!!  First and third floors now have new toilets with duel flush (one flush for #1 and another heartier flushing option for #2).    And our plumber worked a miracle on the second floor, reviving the mechanical chamber pot with new innards.   When he left I was so excited I told him I didn't know which one to use first!  

(I used the first floor, pee strength flush)

Welcome to my world, Bret

 Bret attending his first resume writing class.  I am his teacher.  His next lesson will be the mock interview, which is my favorite.  My favorite question to ask in an interview is "We just hired you and you arrive for orientation on your first day.  You are sitting anxiously awaiting the start of the day and in comes a fellow new hire.  It's the person you would LEAST want to work with again.  Who is it and what about them makes you miserable that you have to work with them?"
The reason I ask it is to see what type of person pushes their buttons, but the fun part is to hear what awful people there are out there.

Meanwhile, Jennie would watch period piece movies 24-7 if she could.

Here she is brushing her teeth while watching Becoming Jane.  We need to install a t.v. in the bathroom so she has no downtime for missing her stories....

Gnome Sick

Everything has a voice in our house.  Petey, monkeys, the drunk dogs from England...I think our five followers know what I'm talking about.  

Bill brought home this gnome from work.  It was a giveaway from the travel department at his office.  It's driving me crazy.  In an attempt to justify it's existence, it takes credit for EVERYTHING.   "I planned that trip to the super market for you!"  "I arranged for that day at the beach!"  It's constantly chiming in to say that everything we do was all from his thoughtful planning.  I have news for you, Gnome, you didn't just plan my last visit to the gynecologist - I called and made that appointment myself!!

Namaste .....

Scenes from a day at the beach...

Happy Mother's Day

 We took Trudi out to lunch on Saturday to celebrate Mother's Day.  We went to P-- where the last time I was there with Di and Stacey the manager was all over gluten free Di and bringing her all sorts of freebies.  (I'm not saying the restaurant name in case they google themselves).  Anyway, Bill, Trudi and I are all glutenous and I thought it would be tacky to try to get free food on Trudi's mother's day lunch (I reserve that behavior for when I'm with my own mother) so we just enjoyed the standard menu.  But I did see Diane's 'boyfriend' as we were leaving.

Next stop - J's Furniture where a Sleep Technician worked his magic on Trudi.  Trudi has been sleeping on the same rock hard mattress for 30 years.  It must be like a trip to a prison camp every time Truid goes to bed. (Not to mention 30 years of dust mite accumulation.  I'd hate to see that thing under a microscope.)  Anyway, it was time to get a new mattress.  They actually have their sleep technicians wearing lab coats - what exactly are they protecting their clothes from in this lab??  He did ask her to lie on the tech bed in various poses while he graphed the indentations.  For all my mockery, he picked the perfect mattress on the first try.  She tested come others but came back to number one each time.  Delivery on Monday - success!

 Meanwhile, back at the homestead we are having plumbing issues.  We have 3 toilets and at this point NONE of them are working in peak condition.  One is completely broken, one only flushes from inside the tank and now the first floor is exhibiting what I call a "lackadaisical evacuation with a post flush gurgle".  Basically it's only good for pee without paper which is not going to cut it!  The other night I dreamt that I forgot we had 2 other toilets in the house - that's how obsessed I am with this situation. So on the way to Plum Island for late afternoon reading, I made Bill stop at the hardware store for supplies and as soon as we got home, I put him to work.

While he was plunging I finally realized why were having these problems - I bought one of those cleaning doo dads that clips to the under side of the toilet bowl.  Do you see it in the picture?  Neither do I.  These problems started immediately after Malikai went in to pee the other day.  I hope he had fun flushing that thing down.  There is no sign of it but at least the flush is becoming more vigorous after plunging.  We will need full toilet capacity when there are 5 extra people sleeping in this house on Memorial Day.  Otherwise, we will all be running across the street to Laura's to use her toilet.   I need to rent the wheelchair for Mom again this year so maybe I should get a Handy House while I'm at it!!

Jennie didn't want to add this, but I thought it was too good a picture to leave out.... she didn't mention that before toilet plunging we spent a couple of beautiful hours on Plum Island.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Jennie and I watched a bit of The Dick Van Dyke show while eating our Friday night pizza.

We love The Dick Van Dyke show.  We saw the episode when Dick first met Laura while she was dancing for the boys in the Armed Services.  Dick paid Laura's dance partner not to dance that night so he could fill in and win her over.

Jen and I, inspired by the episode, work on our "Routine".

A few other comments:
* I had a crush on Mary Tyler Moore when she was on The Dick Van Dyke Show.  She pre-dated my crush on Farrah.
* Dick Van Dyke is one the greatest physical comedians and entertainers of my lifetime.  I loved his spontaneous flops and the way his body was like rubber when he danced.
* We both hated their kid in the show, Richie.  Which leads me to this list of the most annoying childhood actors.

 #5 Short Round from Indiana Jones

# 4 Danny Pintauro played Jonathan Bower from Who's the Boss

#3 Jonathan Lipnicki from Jerry McGuire

#2 Robbie Rist played Cousin Oliver in the Brady Bunch

#1 Larry Mathews yelled all his lines as Richie Petrie.  You win, Larry.  You're the worst....

No Photo Thursday

We didn't take a picture tonight, which means I photoshop old pictures....

I'm just speculating, but I am guessing Jennie won't like her picture as much as I do...

A Surprise Superhero Visit

Generally when I work at home I get a little lonely - but not today!  In the middle of a marathon con call, two little Avengers showed up ready to eat pizza and cupcakes.  Spiderman and Pantsless (a new bread of crime fighter) settled in for an afternoon of Dora the Explorer while I wrapped up the Monthly Operational Report.

could be the worst picture ever ...

I am going to keep posting horrific pictures of Jennie until she begs me to bring back the sink series....