just very bad bloggers.

hi all, i've gotten quite a lot of comment on how the blog posts have ground to a hault. i knew this blogging thing raised expectations...

here are a few headlines for you and some photos - think of it as the top ten or so things that happened in june and july.

1. i rode my bicycle A LOT for bike month. people on facebook are probably sick of hearing me go on about cycling, but it took over my life in june because i was the promoter of all things bike at work. i ended up riding 250 miles in june and feeling really good as a result. i highly recommend it.

2. chris wore my backpack after i rode said 250 miles with it strapped to my back. not a nice idea. smelling like someone else's sweat is a tough lesson to learn.

3. lesson learned. purchased panniers, should arrive tomorrow. we went for the highly functional ortlieb as i gave up hope of finding any that were beautiful and functional.

4. my softball team won a game. i wasn't there for it, but they did win. softball is still fun, but i am definitely the most casual player on the team. oh well!

5. the red coats beat us at our 4 of july kickball extravaganza. we hosted a dozen+ friends and played kickball. team USA was more concerned with beer than running after booted balls. a truly fantastic day for all (from what has been pieced together retrospectively)

6. we found a new flat - moving day is around the corner. anyone got time to come over and pack a box? this time we've only got about 10 boxes, so it should be a snap. movin on up to a two bedroom flat on the hill. come see us.

7. went to slovenia for five glorious days. amazing how far you can get with three words: pivo (beer), hvala (thank you) and dobra dan (hello!). seriously, go to slovenia. you may ask where the hell it is, but believe me, you won't be able to forget it once you've visited.

8. running short on 10 fabulous things...how about, our dog went on holiday without us. yep, paco went to cornwall with his dog watcher. strange? you may think so, but to us, not so much. a week without the dog might be just what the doctor ordered every once in a while. he even sent us a postcard.

9. we booked tickets to dublin for october with the strebs. they will be our first visitors to the new flat (unless one of you smarties books a swift visit).

10. received dress for sister's wedding in the mail and it fits like a glove...this only to say - we'll be home in a month!! wow! seemed like so far away, but really looking forward to seeing everyone and making time go in slow motion while we are there. NOT looking forward to six flights in 14 days (i've got some serious carbon repentence to make up).

TEN. i made it. my neck hurts oh, 11. chris went home for a wedding (bano's wedding, had a great time, i'll make him write about it) and picked me up a pillow, i know, random, but mine was crap. this one was great for about a week until my arms started falling asleep almost every night, which apparently was because i was sleeping weird on my 7 vertebrae according to an OT friend...too much detail...now i just can't figure out how to sleep on it. maybe i will go back to the arms falling asleep thing. hmm. that just doesn't seem right.

done.

will try to do this more often...maybe not the top ten format, but the writing.

xojo

a paris

in paris.

ahhh. this has been on the list for a long long time.

chris is fending off swine flu, the butlers are fighting jet lag, the french is incredibly rusty. bring it on paris. 

the train ride was joyous. champagne popped at 9:40am, bottle deux (2 for all you non-frenchies) around 10:25. clearly giggles and merriment followed. such a great way to travel. civilised and efficient. now it is time to explore the city of lights. eiffel tower tonight? oui oui

i don't think chris really hates learning french.

just to set the blog record straight, i think he is kind of enjoying it and he is good at it. 

right now i am avoiding doing my taxes and wondering about the mechanics of snot making...how does a relatively small nasal cavity produce so much stuff? i'm kickin' it's ass though. but i wish i had those kleenex with the greasy lotion in them. there is something sort of disgusting about them, but they really do save the snoz.

chris didn't mention that we joined a softball team. it has brought back a lot of really good memories. and a sore shoulder. the team is great fun & i look forward to telling you about the all star moves we bring to the field this spring.

over & out

All things French

Part of the reason we moved to England was to explore Europe and have a bit of adventure before we get boring and old. 

The hard part with that is we're both typical Americans and don't speak any other languages very well. Jo had french in HS and has it in the way back of her brain. I took Latin. A dead language. Don't ask. I have a bit of spanish in my head but not too much.

We decided that it was time we both learned a language, but which one? Jo knows a bit of french, I know a wee bit of spanish. French it is then.

One motivating factor is that we can get to Paris in 2 hrs by train. In fact our wonderful friends Brian and Tricia from Portland are coming for a visit in May and we're heading to Paris for a few days. We came to the conclusion that if we visit anyplace multiple times while we live here, chances are it'll be to France. 

So now we have these audio lessons that we listen to. We're supposed to be good and listen to them every night and practice with each other as well. I hate it. I'm no good at languages. It's too abstract for my brain. Plus I'm sort of lazy in general.

Listening every night has turned into my listening on the bus ride into work and on the way home. It's perfect because I'm stuck on the bus anyway and it's either that or read the newspaper. Might as well force feed myself a new language. The one problem is you have to talk a lot using these lessons, which means I'm talking to myself in french, saying things like, " Do you want to have lunch with me at 3 or 4 o'clock?" or "I would like to buy some wine and some beer." Mind you all in french. 

At the very least I'm as annoying as those loud cell phone talkers. At worst I'm the crazy self talker in the back of the bus.

I'll let you know how learning a new language goes for a guy who's brain doesn't work well in that way. 

To get in the spirit of all things french I made some crepes. That's what you get a picture of today because I couldn't really take a picture of me sitting on a bus talking to myself.

Paco's second big adventure

We figured since Paco is no a bona-fide world traveller he could handle a trip on London's world famous Tube.

Our destination was Hampstead Heath. It's a wonderful old park to the north of London. It has all kind of history that I can't even begin to describe. I can tell you in that movie Notting Hill that's where Julia Roberts character is shooting a movie. Don't ask me how I know this.

If you're excited to know more about the Heath read up on it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampstead_Heath

So the plan was to meet our friends Melinda & Aaron with their dog Sassy up in the Heath for a walk and a stop at a pub. To get there we had to brave public transportation with Paco.

I'll say this. He did really well taking the bus and the Tube. I'll also say this. Escalators freak him out and he starts bucking like a bucking bronco. He hates them. Same goes for those moving paths that they have in airports....they have them in a few of the train stations and Paco doesn't trust them one bit. He nearly took Jo to the ground he freaked out.

But once on the train the biggest worry was that Londoners generally don't like or are afraid of dogs. They sort of stare at dogs like some weird alien that only exists on TV. We literally saw kids scream and jump out of the way of Paco. This is Paco we're talking about. Not some mean foaming at the mouth dog, but our big fluffy muppet looking dog.

Anyway we got to the Heath and it was a fantastic day. Warm and sunny. Just what we needed to help bring spring our way. 

As we tromped around the park we noticed that there were flocks of people running in the hills. We had apparently stumbled upon the UK Cross Country nationals. Interesting to see all these people running in giant herds. Looked like a flock of birds when you saw them in the distance.

I won't bore you with too many details of that fine day.

I do want to end on one quick item. 

We ended up going for lunch and drinks at this great old pub called The Spaniard. It opened in something like 1530. I ate at a place that is older that my country. Hell it opened only 40 years after the the Americas were stumbled upon my Columbus. It was a great afternoon in the sun and finished off with a pint and some good grub.

On our walk back to the tube stop Paco spotted something one the ground and picked it up. Dead rat. That's right. My dog had a dead rat in his mouth. I had that...holy crap I'm going to have to wrestle a plague infested dead rat out of my dog's mouth....moment. Then he shook it like it was one of his toys and I yelled for him to drop it, and kindly he did. My dog is gross.

Jo celebrated her first birthday in London just a few weeks ago. It fell in the middle of the week so we had a nice quiet night at the house. I tried to convince her that we should have a huge party or go to a Rave or something like that but alas she vetoed my attempts. In the end I cooked up a great meal (Jo requested prime rib since she was turning 31 and was once again a prime number) and we had cupcakes for birthday cakes. 

I think we (I) have an obsession with cupcakes in places of adult sized cakes. As a side note cupcakes are called fairy cakes here. Who knew?

As part of Jo's birthday we're heading to the mineral hot springs in Bath. We just haven't gotten off our butts and made it there yet. Maybe in the upcoming weekends. Jo needs a good soak!

I'm a total slacker at this

In my mind I just wrote a blog entry a couple weeks ago.

I just checked in I last wrote the first week of January.

That's just laziness people. Pure laziness.

I work well with lists, so here's what I'll go over today in a few posts to break it up:

- Middle east relations

- Jo's birthday

- Paco and the train

- learning french and making crepes

I haven't talked about work at all on here, and I'll try to keep it that way for the most part. But when work takes me to the Middle east I'm going to spend a few minutes on it.

So, I'm

 working on a project in the UAE that involves restoring this old mud fort and building an exhibition space and cultural centre on the site to celebrate the life and culture of the Emirate people. Cool project and cooler that I got a chance to go down for a few days.

When I think of the UAE I think of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and there ultra skyscrapers and crazy development. I was staying in Abu Dhabi and I definitely saw some developements that were outragous and amazing all at the same time. I passed one site that was being built at once...which included 27 towers, 7 hotels and a conference center. In essence they we building something the size of Pittsburgh in one go. Amazing.

My project is in a town called Al Ain which is an oasis town on the border of Oman.

I'll not bore you with project details, but here are a couple pics from that trip....