Care for a Cuppa & a Bickie?

Sadly, this is our last day in England. I will post a full write-up of our trip when I get back but thought on a lazy Saturday morning before heading out to the Camden Lock Market, I would check-in.

We have truly been living as Londoners for a week which has been fantastic. We've been staying in a flat for free (much to tell about the flat later...) the entire week and taking trips into the city and surrounding areas during the day. I love it here. The underground is perfection and we have no problems getting anywhere we want to go. I love the seas of people speeding through the endless maze of tunnels heading to work. I love all the walking. We're staying in a beautiful area of Camden called Primrose Hill and walking back to the flat one night, passing one of several pubs & restaurants on the way, I thought "man, wouldn't it be great to have this stuff so close by?" We totally do! We have three bars, six restaurants, a salon, a cleaners and a coffee shop all within a half mile of our house in Atlanta but we always drive! Why do we do that? Walking a half mile here is nothing.

Quickly, a list of places/people/food/things:
Rochester (again) - home of the Grandma, an adorable city in Kent a 45 min. train ride southeast of London. Beautiful cathedral & the only Norman castle with 4 walls still standing. Trying to absorb the history in a Norman castle is impossible, beyond comprehension really.

Grandma - I love her like I love my own grandmothers. She has an adorable little flat that's perfectly grandma-sized and still makes the best cup of tea I've ever had. I wish we could see her more often.

Westminster Abbey - as with many, many, many other places throughout this country, I'm in awe of the history, the architecture, the grand scale. Here I saw and touched things that Kings & Queens have seen and touched for almost a thousand years. The Coronation Chair was particularly fascinating to me....I had no idea of its history.

Bath - picturesque and actually a fairly large city...who knew? Seeing Roman coins blew my mind for some reason. Best food we've had on the trip. If you're ever there, visit Yak Yeti Yak for some delicious Nepalese and the Rummer for truly fantastic pub food (we have yet to find delicious pub food in London).

National Portrait Gallery - in the 2007 Portrait Award room, I saw the most incredible portrait paintings I've ever seen....several looked so much like photographs even nose to nose with the canvas you could barely tell it was a painting; the tiniest of creases in the lips, the faint fuzz of hair on a woman's cheek.

On tap for today is the market, hopefully finally making it to the top of Primrose Hill where we hear has the best view of the city, and taking a stop at Kings Cross Station to see.......wait for it............PLATFORM 9 AND FREAKING 3/4!!!!! If you don't know the significance of the fact that there is a platform 9 and 3/4 and that I will get to visit it, then you just aren't as cool as I thought you were.

More to come including pics when I get back.

Cheers!

I Hate to Brag....

...But my hubby is a poker-blogging genius! I am thoroughly enjoying trying to keep up with his London-happenings while covering the WSOP Europe and am continually amazed with his writing.....it's funny, sarcastic, smart. Needless to say, I'm a proud wife.

Check it out.

On a day when various media outlets are debating whether or not we spend too much time in remembrance of 9/11 each year, I will share this story of my co-worker, an admin in my department, who remembers every single day. I knew she wore a flag every day but I had no idea...

One Sweet World
Happy Birthday #
Two Step
Corn Bread
Don’t Drink the Water
You Might Die Trying
Grey Street
#27
What Would You Say
Sweet Melissa
Louisiana Bayou
The Dreaming Tree
Eh Hee
So Much To Say
Anyone Seen The Bridge
Too Much
#40 (tease)
Warehouse
Stay
Encore:
All Along The Watchtower
Ants Marching

i will say this...i fully understand that i am losing "cool points" and possibly even devoted readers with this post (assuming i had cool points and devoted readers in the first place), however, it. was. amazing. for a night i was 17 again and giddy as hell. he's still incredible, he's still beautiful and he's still loved by frat*-boys the world over. and i adore him. i said it.

next month, will attempt to re-gain coolness with the new pornographers.

next week, london!

*i once had a boyfriend who chastised me when i called his fraternity a "frat". he said "would you call your country a cunt?" no lie. sorry for using the c word.

Sunday: View from the Porch

It's a beautiful Sunday morning. After the dog and I strolled on down to the coffee shop,we spent the rest of the morning hanging out on my kick-ass front porch. The action from the best little front porch on Lannon was in full swing this morning. The most shocking site of all.....

THIS!










That's right....our awesomest of awesome neighbors are moving! It was a sad morning watching the truck pull up and remove 6 years of their life for the big move, TWO BLOCKS away. So, so sad. We will miss them dearly.

All the action made Tal restless so it was time to play.

"Mom...Mom! Let's play ball!"














"No, wait!!! Let's play with the bone instead!"















"Ok, now throw it over the porch and I'll run and get it and bring it right back! Kick ass!"
































He pooped out quickly at which point I was able to enjoy my coffee and paper to the soothing sounds of Tal-panting. What would a summer morning, or afternoon, or evening be without panting?




















Oh! And here's a lovely picture of my choleas with a little orange flower (I can't remember what it's called) peeking through. I used the underwater setting on my camera which darkened everything in the background and made the colors really pop...who knew choleas were so beautiful?

The little things...

It feels, at the moment, as if we have finally "turned the corner" in terms of weather here in the ATL. August was brutal. Today we're looking at a cool 91 degrees. To celebrate the deliciously cooler temps, I drove home yesterday with the windows open in the car and received one of those pleasant little surprises that totally made my drive home bearable and put a smile on my face. My ride to and from work takes me right past Radial Cafe, one of many ridiculously delicious breakfast joints in town. So there I sit, driving along in my traffic coma when all of a sudden the most mouth-watering smell wafts through my car window instantly snapping me out of my daze. I don't know what they were baking but it smelled just like warm, strawberry pop-tarts! Yum-ee! The rest of the ride home I was thinking about when my sister and I were kids and would fight over the chocolate pop-tarts in the pop-tart multi-pack. What a great surprise on an otherwise mundane ride home. Props to Radial Cafe for the aromatic joy they are spreading in Candler Park...be sure to roll down your window and take a whiff when you're in the area.

The Liam Chronicles: Newborn Baby Poop is Gross

Liam Hannah finally graced us with his presence on Labor Day around 10:00pm after a sleepless night (Mandy went into the hospital Sunday night while Charles and I were over having dinner with the mom & dad-to-be...) and long day of waiting at the hospital. The whole baby thing is uber-fascinating to me and I have never wanted to be a fly on the wall as bad as I did on Monday. I wanted to know everything: Was Mandy scared? Was Chris excited? Were they going to cry? Was Mandy going to scream? How many doctor's will be in there? How long will it take her to push? Will the baby cry? How bad will it actually hurt? Will Chris cut the cord? Will Mandy wish her mom was in with her? Will the baby look like an alien?!? I really wanted to be in the room the entire time and see everything that was going on.....alas, as Mandy didn't even want the mom's in the room, I had a feeling it was highly unlikely she'd allow me to hide in the corner freakishly observing every tiny detail of the event. And you know I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut mid-push - I would either ask a ridiculously inappropriate question like "Aren't you worried you're going to accidentally pee on the doctor with all the pushing?" or I would start a cheer like I did in the waiting room "Gimme an "L", you got your L you got your L. Gimme an "i", you got your i you got your i...". Oh yeah, I did it. I also had myself, Charles and the entire Hannah clan put our hands in and yell "1-2-3 Go Baby!" at Taco Mac during Liam Watch 2007. I know, I'm retawded.

It was really exciting when we found out Mandy was finally starting to push and I couldn't help staring at Mandy's mom, Chris' mom and Mandy's dad. I kept thinking they must be freaking out inside but all three looked calm as a cucumber. I, on the other hand, couldn't keep still and couldn't stop asking Mandy's mom and grandmother a thousand questions. As soon as the nurse walked into the waiting room and announced Liam's arrival there was a flurry of action and every chair in our section of the waiting room was vacated in a flash....it was like the team bench clearing after a major victory, complete pandemonium!

After giving the family a little while with the baby, Charles and I headed in and got our first glimpse of Liam. I had prepped Charles before we went to the hospital that newborns typically look really weird and gross so he wouldn't be shocked when he first saw the baby but Liam is truly a beautiful baby. Lots of really light brown hair, adorable little eyes that were opening and closing and looking all around. Long, tiny fingers and fingernails and a good strong grip. What else could you ask for? The best thing was seeing Chris with Liam....so precious! He was holding him and introducing him to everyone in the room...100% smitten! It wasn't until the next day that I even saw Mandy holding the baby! I don't think Chris likes to give him up. He does, however, like to show you really disgusting pictures of what Liam's first poop looked like. Let's just say, I had never heard of meconium before and it will now haunt my dreams. Think oil spill. And grossness.

I'm so excited for Mandy and Chris and am looking forward to seeing how they handle this whole baby thing. I will be sure to take lots of notes for when Charles and I start having kids that baby someone else will be having soon :)

Here's a pic of Liam's tiny wrinkled feet - fyi, we are so high-tech in this day and age that apparently the ink for the footprints is clear and once placed on the paper causes a chemical reaction that then creates the image of the print. Crazy!

The second pic is of Liam's stats if you're interested.

Welcome to the world little man!

ps - You can check out Liam's progress and thoughts on life at liamhannah.blogspot.com. Enjoy!