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!

Rainbow River Pics

I don't lie! Beautiful, eh?

The River

More River

The River makes me jump for joy!

Really cold water on a really hot day is delicious!

When you put a clump of Spanish Moss on your sister's head, you might get beat down with a palm frond...be careful!

I hate you, Mozzie's!!!!

I'm staring at 4, count 'em, F-O-U-R mosquito bites I have received in the span of about 15 minutes sitting at my computer. I hate mosquito bites but getting a mosquito bite in my freakin' house really gets to me...feels so violating! Agh! That's something I miss about Denver...no bugs, at least not the bite-you-in-your-office kind. Is it me or does that mozzie to the left have genitalia?

Another thing that irritates me...little intsy, wintsy car accidents. So, this guy in front of this other guy slammed on his breaks today to pull into a $5 parking lot, probably so he could visit the whale shark death-trap at the aquarium. I'm so happy that he was able to find a cheap lot, I just wish he could've seen the lot a little sooner so he wouldn't have slammed his breaks causing the guy in front of me to slam his breaks causing me and my precious car to accidentally tappity-tap-tap his precious car. Dang! No damage to my car, minor damage to his but I assure you this episode will be a pain in my ass for much longer than necessary. Dang again!

On a positive note (because my glass is half awesome), the little bumper car game gave me an excellent excuse to come straight home and have a delicious beer. I need to calm my nerves, right? And now that I'm all intoxicated and feeling giddy, I shall share more positive happenings in my life....

Last week I volunteered at the USO at the Atlanta airport. It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking and I haven't wanted to give so many strange men a big hug in my entire life (sorry, hubs, but they needed one real bad...). The ones coming home were ecstatic and it was beautiful to watch the reunions...like the beginning of Love Actually on steroids. The ones leaving looked sad & weary. After seeing them I promised myself I would no longer bitch on Sunday nights about not wanting to go to work on Monday. I did a great job until Sunday night hit. And Dang again! These boys were headed back to loneliness, heat, fear, exhaustion, boredom and I was so sad to be the one walking them to their plane while the entire airport stood up and cheered. You think that Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl made you tear up? Try being in the midst of all those emotions and seeing soldiers with tears streaming down their faces. Holy crap. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be talking about positive happenings....In all seriousness, volunteering at the USO was an amazing experience and I would love to do it again.

This weekend, my dad, sister and I traveled to the sprawling metropolis of Dunellon, FL. What's in Dunellon, you ask? 1) Grandparents...dad's parents to be exact. The grandma (we call her "Nana") a whopping 5'1", the grandpa (you guessed it..."Papa") a staggering 5'5". They are tiny. And adorable. And they have a blind Dotson named Dixie who also happens to be darn cute. 2) The most amazingly beautiful river I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. Everyone should go. The water is spring-fed and crystal clear...it looks like you're swimming in the Caribbean in some areas where the grass isn't growing on the bottom. You can see straight to the bottom even though it's 8-10 feet deep. It's called the Rainbow River if you want to check it out. I will post pics from the trip soon.

This week it's off to Austin for work & a quick visit with an old friend.

Enjoy these last weeks of the summer!

Alas...

The movie has been watched, the book has been read and I am having major Harry Potter withdrawals. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss my feelings on the book yet as my husband had to wait for me to finish before he could begin and I refuse to spoil anything for him. So, zipped lips and keyboard keys until he's finished. Lucky for us, he reads stupid-fast so we won't have to wait long. I won't discuss the film yet either except to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And now I will remove the annoying Harry Potter countdowns at the top of this blog. So sad.

I'm down, I've got the 411...

"...and you are not going out and getting jiggy with some boy, I don't care how dope his ride is. My momma didn't raise no foo'!"

10 points if you guess the movie.

Before you begin, please place the fleshy, movable, muscular organ, attached in most vertebrates to the floor of the mouth, otherwise known as the tongue, into the buccal aspect of the gum, otherwise known as the cheek.

And, begin!

So, you know you live in the hood when you go to your monthly neighborhood association meeting and are handed a copy of "Da Slang Thang", a dictionary of sorts translating local slang words so us non-ghettofied (is that pc?) folks can understand conversations we might overhear on the street. So that you can all be enlightened, I have chosen some of my favorites...

1) Big Pimpin' - a male who claims to have access to a lot of money and/or prostitutes

2) Celly - a cellular phone

3) Rollin' on Dubs - a car with chrome rims, specifically 20" or larger.

4) Floss - to show off and/or tease with material possessions, especially cars or jewelry. I'm actually really glad to know this one because I couldn't figure out why Fergie keeps singing "flossy, flossy"....NOW I get it. Thanks "Da Slang Thang"!

5) Murk - to kill someone; (2) to run or in the act of running away

6) Sizzurp - an alcoholic drink composed of vodka, a fruit drink high in glucose and cough syrup, preferably containing codeine

7) Wangsta - a wanna-be thug, imitation hustler or psuedo-gangster; (2) somebody who has been doing illegal activities for a long time but does not have any material possessions to show for it (cami question....what if you've been doing LEGAL activities for a long time, like work, and still have no material possessions to show for it? Does that make me a "worksta"?). Originated by Jungle who is Nas' brother; made popular by 50 (pronounced "Fiddy") Cent and is now understood nationally.

8) Hooptie/Squata - a vehicle, more often than not an older model vehicle that does not run very well. "Hooptie" is generally known nationally while "squata" is primarily used in the Northeast. Also formerly known as a hoodoo in South Texas.

I think this post is a great lead-in for an experience I had several weeks ago but never got around to posting about. And now, enjoy what I like to call "A Night on Lannon Avenue..." a.k.a. "Reason #947 Not to Smoke Crack":

5/9/07:
5:00am
Awaken by the soothing sounds of a crack lady-of-the-evening (would "whore" be considered more offensive than prostitute? Is there some ho-hierarchy that I'm not aware of?) screaming into our neighbors house that they need to go in the garage and have sex with her because she needed some change. She was specifically yelling at "Gerald" (names have been changed to protect the identity of our cracked-out neighbor) who apparently did have sex with her recently for $5 and whom, according to screaming ho, smelled like piss when they did it. The one-way(ish) conversation went something like this:

Ho: Gerald. Gerald, give me some change.
Ho: Gerald. Hey Gerald. GERALD!!!! Gerald, come "f" me in the garage so I can get some change.
Ho: Gerald, I'm gonna steal your bike if you don't come out here.
Ho: G-E-R-A-L-D!!!!!!
Gerald: "B"! Go home!
Ho: Come on Gerald.
Gerald: I don't want you. Go home!
Ho: Gerald, you owe me $5.
Gerald: "B"! Go home!
Ho: Gerald, if you call the cops I'll kill you.

And so on and so on...There was much screaming, demanding of cigarettes, life threats, etc. for about an hour when somehow she made her way into the house where she proceeded to lay down on the kitchen floor and refuse to leave. I finally made it back to sleep as they were still yelling at each other and I'm pretty sure "Gerald" was either physically pulling her or kicking her out of the house. All went silent around 6:30.

We're not in Snellville anymore folks.

Ohhhhhhh SNAP

Jeremy Enigk has a new album releasing August 21 called "The Missing Link". I've barely recovered from World Waits! Let's hope there is a tour. Let's hope that tour gets dirty and comes to Atlanta. Let's hope I'm freakin' in town this time. Eeek!

In the meantime, can we talk about the fact that I am about to explode with Harry Potter excitement? Movie! Book! And how could I have totally forgotten that Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix for the wii came out today...what?!?!? I'm going to swish-and-flick my butt all over our living room and blast Wizard Rock as loud as I can...oh, good times are about to be had.

Happy 4th to all...I will be joining 50,000 of my closest friends shuffling down Peachtree Street tomorrow. Then BBQ's, slip 'n slides, beers, pools, friends to follow.

Be safe.

R.I.P. Granddaddy

My grandfather passed away at the end of March and a couple weekends ago, the family headed down to Panama City to spread his ashes in the Gulf of Mexico, minutes from the condo where he and my grandmother have lived the last twenty-something years. I have never experienced an "ash-spreading" before so I wasn't sure what to expect. One of my grandmother's friends was gracious enough to take the entire family out on his boat (I don't know at what point you stop saying "boat" and start saying "yacht" but this thing was brand new and massive...two bedrooms!) so we could share the moment together and make an outing out of it. I thought we were going to go a couple miles out in the ocean but as soon as we left the marina and the bay heading into the gulf, we rounded the jetty's at St. Andrews state park into the most beautiful clear, aqua-blue water I have seen in PC in quite awhile. At once everyone on the boat decided we were at the perfect spot...I was glad we stayed so close in, close to his home, close to the places he's gone fishing, close to where his kids and grandkids played in the ocean. It was perfect. Words were spoken, tears fell then my uncle poured the ashes in the water and we all threw flowers. The water was so clear, you could see them float for a bit then sink into the water, the flowers following the cloud as it moved with the current. It was truly beautiful. You can actually see the shadow of the ashes on the bottom of the ocean if you look closely at the picture above...that was how clear the water was. Beautiful! So beautiful, in fact, we couldn't help but jump in and go for a swim. I would like to think Granddaddy was right there with us playing in the water and enjoying one last swim with his family. Perfect ending....

I won't go into the fact that the minutes after we jumped in the water, the ladder dropped off the boat because we drifted in too shallow and had to do a massive family ocean rescue just as a huge thunderstorm was blowing into the gulf...pandemonium! Just know we are all safe and I bet my granddad was laughing his ass off!

Lazy Post No. 2

I know it's totally lazy of me to post videos but, to be honest, not a lot is going on in my life right now...nothing particularly post-worthy at least. Lots going on, plenty busy but with those mundane day-to-day things and occasional good times sprinkled in. I'm sure I could talk those things up a bit and make my life sound like a party but why pretend? So, instead, a video of a truly remarkable little girl that brought tears to my eyes. Enjoy.

ps - try to ignore simon, the other judges, the audience and the cheesy music at the end. we're focusing on the singing only, ok?

Ah, a post!

I think these chicks are pretty funny. Check them out.

To Zach and Ann Lillie

Work work work work work work work work work. And then I work work work. Work.

But sometimes, I get to play with my dog (for you, Zach - he misses you and stick time)...



And tend to my modest-yet-bursting-with-potential garden (for Ann Lillie). Ladies and gentlemen...my ice plant -- ta da!

And, my pansies that have been looking beautiful since NOVEMBER. Booya!


My thumb is still flesh colored but in just the right light I think I can see some green!

After a 12-hour workday today and probably another four 12-hour workdays to finish out the week, a brief stint in Mexico (pronounced meh-hee-ko for my unilingual friends) next week, customer meetings the following week and then even more customer meetings the week after that, the posting might be few and far between for a bit.

However, soon Mr.Simmons will be leaving his lovely wife for 7 whole weeks so perhaps the pain and sorrow of his absence will inspire me to write through the tears and finally give some substance to this most superficial of non-celebrity gossip blogs. We'll see. Until then, enjoy this unbelievably pleasant weather that seems to have blanketed the east coast, play with your dog and plant some flowers. Life is good.

I said booya.

Liar, Liar

I know I am a little late catching this story and you'll rarely see or hear me express my political views (to be completely honest, i don't know that i understand my political views...something i struggle with and seek to define...) but this article has utterly infuriated me today. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/24/tillman.hearing/index.html

I am not too naive to think that we aren't lied to on a daily basis from both political parties, the media, hell, even our employers and churches and schools. But rarely do these lies stare you straight in the face, out in the open. Most often we put our guards up and pile on the cynicism, knowing the lies are all around us but unsure of exactly what they are or how to locate them. This time, it's crystal clear: we were told one thing, actually two things, both of which were bold-faced lies. Not just exaggerations of the truth...lies. Will anyone be held accountable? I'd like to stand up in front of the world and tell everyone I am best buds with J.K. Rowling and we hang out eating ice cream and chatting about whether or not Hermione & Ron will make-out in the 7th book, but that would be a lie. To the world.

We were lied to about WMD, we have been lied to about progress in the "war" and now we have been lied to about how two of the most well-known soldiers were killed/"rescued". It makes me want to put my fingers in my ears and yell "blah blah blah".

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain, complain, complain without ever taking action or offering up solutions so I apologize for the rant.

Shut your mouth!

So there we were, in Panama City for my grandfather’s funeral, when I learned that my family not only reads my blog, but they also email excerpts of it to their friends and think I’m so stinking hilarious that my grandmother wants me to write her eulogy so everyone will laugh at her funeral. Sick? I’ll say. But do I eat up this kind of attention from my family, especially Momma Dot (aka - grandmother extraordinaire and my favorite person on earth)? Absolutely!

My biggest concern after making this discovery is that I may have unintentionally offended a beloved family member with my frequent use of the word “ass” (one of my favorites! I may dedicate an entire post to this most-awesome of words) and “damn” and my one-time mention of “balls”. Thank goodness I found out about their reading before, heaven forbid, I used “f” or “s”! I am in the camp that believes cussing in front of parents is extremely disrespectful, especially if they do not choose to cuss in front of you. I am still, at 27, fearful of my mom hanging me by my toenails for whatever reason so I figure I better not press my luck by running my mouth in front of her. To this day, I have only said “f” once in front of my mom and I can distinctly remember the conversation and the situation and was lucky it was over the phone so she couldn’t snatch me up right then and proceed with the hanging. As far as I can remember, I have never said “s” in front of them although I came very close while at the driving range one day with my dad.

So, I will continue to keep my blog PG (maybe PG-13 every once in a while if things get exciting) so my family will keep reading.

And, Momma Dot, if I were to write your eulogy, I would absolutely be sure to include the following:
- the time I stole your Nicorette gum and you about killed me for it
- Duke, Willie, Teenie & Weenie
- Warter
- Dot’s guide to poisoning your husband’s nurse
- High rollin’ Mexican Train gambling
- Aliens

I love you and thanks for reading!

Ein, zwei, drei...Frikadellen!

Saturday night fishbowls 'o beer, taut (and turgid?) sausages, fried cheese & pickles and rhubarb pie slices are delicious...especially when enjoyed with good friends in the sprawling metropolis of Stone Mountain Village, GA. If you're ever in Atlanta and looking for some yummy German cuisine, be sure to check out The Village Corner Tavern. Highlights included the biggest beer I have ever seen (the Berliner something-or-other), the most delicious of all the delicious roasted potatoes I've ever had in my life and wind-up hopping lederhosen available for purchase*. Good times were had by all and I was falling out of my chair with a third of my big ass beer left to drink...happy 27th Mandy!


* Copy on the back of the wind-up lederhosen box:
Lederhosen, which literally means "leather pants," are a traditional folk costume worn mostly in the mountainous regions of Bavaria and Austria. They are a happy sort of short trouser that love music and dance. So next time you have cause for celebration or revelry, wind up these 3", hard plastic folkpants and watch them hop about! After all, what good is a party without Lederhosen? I mean really, what is?

my big, BIG, big beer

chris enjoying his sausage

chris in a meat-coma before he even had the first bite!

mandy and her birthday cake

Have you seen this?

Thanks to my good friend, Perez, I found this little gem. I'm not even sure what to say about it accept that seeing Alanis shaking her ass right in the camera makes me laugh. I was really hoping she would act again after her stellar role as God in Dogma...this video goes to show that dreams really do come true. So today, let's not thank India or silence or disillusionment or clarity, let's say a big Thank U to Ms.Morissette and her lady lumps. Mmmm. *gag*