Well, we got back early this morning from a whirlwind trip to London.  We arrived Saturday morning on no sleep, and spent the day walking around and squeezing as much as we could in the short time we were there.

We had the fortunate experience of traveling with our friends, Riyad and Kelly, who had never been to London before.  We had a great time showing them around, and having traveling companions made an enjoyable trip even more fun.  The above picture was taken just before the 9 hour flight to London.

We stayed at the Andaz hotel, which is a new concept in hotels, and has only been around since about September 2007.  There’s no check-in desk – when you walk through the door you get your own “concierge” who checks you in, gives you a tour of the room, and serves you drinks while you wait.

Riyad and Kelly enjoying a spot of tea in the hotel lobby.

The hotel had little bowls of fresh plums everywhere.  They were delicious!

Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We were unable to take pictures inside the cathedral, but we climbed all the way to the top and got a great view of the city.

I’m considering that climb to be my greatest accomplishment during the trip.  My leg muscles are still sore.  I slowed everybody down, but I made it.  The others didn’t complain too much when I used the “climbing for two” excuse.

After St. Paul’s, we went to Lord of the Rings, the musical.  Technically, it was phenomenal.  It was all the show that money could buy.  The script itself was more like a recap of the movies than an actual story by itself.  They had to squeeze so much into 3 hours that if you haven’t seen the movies or read the books you’d probably be pretty lost.  But visually, it was fascinating to watch.

After the show, we took an evening stroll along the Thames.

I just love London at night.

During our stroll, we stopped for dinner to enjoy some genuine British “fish & chips.”  The waiter put the plate down and in front of me was the biggest slab of fried fish I have ever seen.

And I at the whole thing.  Without even realizing it.  Apparently I worked up quite the appetite climbing to the top of St. Paul.

Our view of the Thames River and St. Paul’s Cathedral from the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to the Tutankhamen Exhibit at the O2 Arena.  It was fascinating, and I strongly encourage you all to see it when it comes to Dallas in the fall.

We then retired for a good night’s sleep and enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the morning.  Our hotel had a delicious complimentary breakfast – which was really fortunate, since otherwise it would have been the equivalent of $50/person for the meal.

Us in the restaurant after stuffing ourselves silly with all kinds of goodness. Breakfast in a nice restaurant was great start to the day, after which we headed over to the Tower of London to see the Armory, the Crown Jewels, and whatever else we could fit into the hour we had at our disposal before the flight back.

The White Tower inside the Tower of London.

We then returned to our hotel, checked out, met our driver and began the hour-and-a-half drive to the airport.

And missed our flight.

Public Service Announcement: FYI, American Airlines at Gatwick Airport has its own security that you have to go through IN ADDITION TO regular airport security.  So if you arrive at the airport 5 minutes after the security guys have gone home (!!!) you will not be allowed to check in and board your flight.

Also, there’s only one flight per day to the States out of Gatwick.

Also, it costs $260 PER PERSON to change your flight, plus the shuttle fare to Heathrow Airport where the later flights are.

Also, there are no more direct flights to Dallas, so you have to be routed through Chicago.

This Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by the Association of Exhausted and Sleep Deprived Travelers Who Obviously Needed to Waste Some More Time Attempting to Return to the Comfort of Home.
Fabulous.

So the flight back was an adventure…  But perhaps it was good that we were so exhausted because we had reached the point of sleepless insanity where you can’t do anything but laugh in the face of ridiculous inconvenience.

We made it back to our house about 1am this morning (which was 7am London Time), having been awake for yet another 24 hours.

Bed has never felt so good.

In the future, perhaps we will try to spend more time at our destination than on the plane, but overall this was a really fun trip and we’re glad we took the weekend to go.  Especially since it will probably be the last time we can travel internationally for a long time.

Thanks to Jens for planning and executing the trip for my birthday, and thanks to Riyad and Kelly for joining us and making it a very special adventure!

So we’re in the playroom today which also happens to house my Gazelle.  Kaelin makes the announcement that she’s going to go do some exercise and starts walking toward the machine, which she knows she’s not allowed to touch.

Before she reached it, I used my warning voice: “Kaelin, do you remember what Mama said about touching the exercise machine?”

She stops, as if considering the consequences.  Then she turns to me, and with a most sober look on her face says, “More or less.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  So she started to laugh.  Between giggles, she says, “Mama, you say that all the time!”

I had no idea that “more or less” is one of my pet phrases… but J agrees, so apparently it’s true.

Who’d have thought?  My kid actually listens to what I say.

So we’re in the playroom today which also happens to house my Gazelle.  Kaelin makes the announcement that she’s going to go do some exercise and starts walking toward the machine, which she knows she’s not allowed to touch.

Before she reached it, I used my warning voice: “Kaelin, do you remember what Mama said about touching the exercise machine?”

She stops, as if considering the consequences.  Then she turns to me, and with a most sober look on her face says, “More or less.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  So she started to laugh.  Between giggles, she says, “Mama, you say that all the time!”

I had no idea that “more or less” is one of my pet phrases… but Jens agrees, so apparently it’s true.

Who’d have thought?  My kid actually listens to what I say.

***

Earlier today I informed Kaelin that it was time for her nap.  She immediately goes into the bedroom, and I’m thinking is she seriously agreeing to go take a nap without making me chase her down?  That’ll be a first.

But before I can follow her, she turns around and comes trotting out toward the living room.  “Oops, I forgot,” I hear her say to herself.  “I forgot to hide!”

Sigh.

I’ve been busy recently, which has been nice.  For several months I only had a job in the loosest sense, as there was no work for me to do because my project was being held up by technical and personnel difficulties that were quite beyond my control.  Not a good thing when you get paid hourly.

Now things are running on several fronts, which is keeping me busy and even allowing me some creativity in my work – which is essential to my job satisfaction.  And the fact that I’m getting paid again is making life a little easier.

However, sometimes being a contract worker is difficult.  I try to do things to the best of my ability, and I want to deliver a good product.  But ultimately, I have to give the client what they want.  At times, those two goals can be in total conflict.

Things my current client has said to me thus far:

• We have a logo?
• The logo on the current website isn’t our actual logo.
• We don’t have a digital file of our logo.  Just recreate it in Photoshop.
• We may want to redesign our logo.
• We don’t want to redesign our logo.
• We want you to redesign our logo.
• Ok, we understand your point that we should use a unique font instead of Times New Roman for our logo.  Perhaps we can try the standard default font in Microsoft Word 2007 instead.
• Don’t optimize our website for search engines.
• Here are some example websites for what we’re looking for: (followed by a list of websites that have absolutely nothing in common, and in the end, none of them were really what they were looking for).
• We don’t want the website to make a bad impression, but we’re not really concerned about making a great impression.
• We don’t want to put a lot of information on the website, just a general idea of what we do.
• The main purpose of our website is to show our portfolio and make it look good, even though all the pictures we’ve given you to use are bad.

Fortunately, I think I HAVE persuaded them to hire a professional photographer and retake the pictures.  At least that’s one step in the right direction.  I’m kind of looking forward to when this project is over.

Yesterday J walked into the kitchen while Kaelin and I were enjoying our respective bowls of Cheerios.

J: “Are you guys eating some O’s?”

Kaelin: “Actually, we’re eating cereal.”

* * *

You know how sometimes when you’re on the phone and it will start echoing – and all of a sudden you can hardly talk to the other person because you’re so distracted by listening to everything you say repeated back to you with a 2-second delay?

That’s totally what it’s like to take Kaelin to Subway and try to order a sandwich.

* * *

Hey, thanks for all the name suggestions you guys!  I’ve tagged a couple that I like and have added them to my “list.”  Perhaps this kid will get a name before he’s born after all

Yesterday Jens walked into the kitchen while Kaelin and I were enjoying our respective bowls of Cheerios.

Jens: “Are you guys eating some O’s?”

Kaelin: “Actually, we’re eating cereal.”

* * *

You know how sometimes when you’re on the phone it will start echoing – so you can hardly even talk to the other person because you’re listening to everything you say repeated back to you with a 2-second delay?

That’s totally what it’s like to order a sandwich at Subway when Kaelin’s around.

I haven’t talked a whole lot about this pregnancy.  Somewhat because it’s been relatively uneventful (a good thing) and somewhat because it’s hard for me to really wrap my mind around a child entering this house until I know its gender.  Which I know would have made pregnancy very difficult for me 20 years ago.  But I can’t envision a genderless baby, so I usually don’t try.

Anyway, we found out yesterday.  Looks like we’re having a BOY.  I can finally start planning the nursery.

Let the Great Name Debate of 2008 commence.

And now I’m totally wishing that I had one of those blogs that 500 people read and comment on so I could start asking for name suggestions.  See, J and I struggle with names, especially boy names.  Until yesterday, I didn’t have a single one that I even liked.  And when I do come up with some that I like, J is sure to hate them.  So I need plenty of backups.

We both agree that we don’t like common names.  I grew up as an Amy, which meant being one of six in every class.  I will not do that to my child.  We both have a fondness for Gaelic names, and (it seems) names that end in “N.”  Due to our last name, we really shouldn’t pick a first name that ends in “L.”

Anybody wanna play?

Well, it’s official – we’re having a BOY!

The sonographer told us that if this one turns out to be a girl, then she’s going to have to start flipping burgers or something – because there’s no mistaking it.

I’d post the sonogram picture, but I think I’ll just save it with the tub and potty training pictures to mortify him with when he brings a girl to the house.

And now, the Great Name Debate of 2008 shall commence…

“Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft products.”

Well, the new computer is a beauty. It’s fast, sleek and has plenty of room and strength to handle my 5 quadrillion photos and big (expensive) software programs. I spent most of the afternoon setting it up.

And then I spent most of the evening troubleshooting. My screen saver stopped working. I had this happen on my old laptop but figured it had to do with the fact that several of the programs had quit working. I never solved it on the old computer, but was not about to let it go with my brand new one.

I found plenty of forums with people having the same issue. Apparently there is a common conflict with the start-up programs running in the background and the Microsoft Wireless mouse. Most of the people reporting the problem were using a Dell computer with a Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse.

I followed all the suggestions, disabling most everything from my start-up. Most of the programs they said to disable aren’t even on my machine. I sought help in the Microsoft Knowledge Base and got the same answers. Everybody said “disable this program” or “remove that program.”

To no avail.

Finally, I came across a solution that I was shocked did not appear in any of the forums or websites.

I SWITCHED MY MOUSE.

Problem solved. Except, now I have to buy Jens a new Logitech wireless mouse because I stole his and he’s grumpy about it.

On Saturday, we made a special trip to Red Robin, one of our favorite restaurants and one that we seldom get to visit because the closest one is over half an hour away. They have great food and Kaelin always gets a balloon – which, to a 2-year-old, is pretty much as close to Heaven as it gets.

We told the host that there were three people in our party and one (Kaelin) needed a highchair. We were led to a table for two. At Red Robin, a table for two is just that – there is no room for a third plate, and certainly not for the kids’ menu place mat they always give you.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to fit at this table. There are three of us.”
“We can extend the table.”

There were approximately 12 inches between that table and the ones on each side of it (which were occupied). If they extended the table, the people sitting next to us would not be able to get out of their booths. And there would still be no room for a highchair.

We explained this to the host and asked if we could just have a bigger table. Seeing several large tables empty around us, we didn’t think this would be a problem. He said ok, and went back to the front for a new table assignment. He then returned and led us to … anther table for two.

“This table isn’t any bigger than the last one,” I explained to him. “We have three people and this is a table for two.”

He muttered some excuse about how he doesn’t know how many people the tables seat. I stood there blinking at him, trying to comprehend the fact that evidently COUNTING THE CHAIRS at the table was a concept too advanced for him.

He then asked us if we wanted a booth instead. Looking around, I saw several booths nearby that were clearly meant for 4 people and would allow us the space we needed. “Sure, that would be fine.”

He then led us halfway across the restaurant to … yet another table for two.

At this point, I began to lose my patience. “Is there a reason that we cannot get a table that will seat THREE PEOPLE?” I gestured at one of the many empty table around that would suffice.

He looked at the table I had indicated and told me that he couldn’t seat us there because they couldn’t put a highchair at that booth.

I saw other non-booth tables available that could have accommodated highchairs. I considered pointing that out, but was afraid his brain might derail and explode at the possibility of other options.

I asked him dully if they had any booster seats, and the reply was yes.

“Then please bring us a booster seat and take us to a larger table.”

Somehow, we finally made it to a table that had enough room for the three of us and our meals – and boy, were we hungry at that point. Next time, I may just tell them we have 5 in our party, and hope we end up with a table for 4.

I’m getting a new laptop today.  A much needed new laptop, as my previous one takes 20 minutes to start and has decided that several of its programs are optional.

Consequently, I have taken over the home computer, which has J none too pleased because it means we can’t be on the computer at the same time (read: he can never play his computer games because I tend to hog it with work stuff).

I cannot tell you how excited I am about my new purchase.  It’s supposed to arrive via DHL today and I’ve already checked the tracking information 4 times in the last hour and a half.  A few minutes ago, a bus drove up to pick up my elderly neighbor and I just about jumped out of my skin thinking I was hearing the DHL truck.

If it doesn’t get here soon, this is going to be a Very. Long. Day.

“Mama, want me to tell at story about Dora?”

“Sure.”

“Once upon a time, there was … DORA. The end.”