Jamie & John in London

Cheers

2007-12-07T05:04:00.000-08:00

Jamie and I are sitting in the brand new Virgin Atlantic lounge desperately trying to relax as we explore everything this swanky pad has to offer. So far we think we've seen some WAGs and a guy wearing an NFL Network badge. Not too bad for early Friday Afternoon!

Quick recap of this week:
Wednesday was my leaving do for work. We reserved an area at the Oxygen Bar in Leicester Square and had a fantastic night! Loads of people came from work and even people from Jamie's shows came to see us off.

Thursday the cats left. Sadie was well-behaved, but Jovi was not having anything to do with her crate. We were sad to see them go, but we'll see them on Monday.*

*Jamie and I just jointly typed that sentence. I had the left hand, she did the right. FUN!

In the afternoon Jamie saw Swimming With Sharks starring Christian Slater. She said it was crap. *Jamie here to set the record straight: it was mostly crap due to an awful lot of shouting and TERRIBLE American accents! But Christian is still hot as ever!*

We ate dinner last night at Crispy Duck 2 with Steve. It was the perfect bon voyage meal, replete with standard Crispy Duck classics - Eponymous Crispy Duck, Salt & Pepper Squid, healthy amounts of Tsing Tao, and great company.

As sad as we are to leave London and the life we created here, we are very excited to begin this new chapter in our life, especially since we'll soon be three.

Cheers!

FIN

The Cats Are a Bit Confused

2007-12-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the furniture is gone and the flat is nearly bare. There are a few pieces of furniture left that the new tenants are buying, six suitcases, two very confused cats and a kitchen full of food. Our internet was down most of the day today and I was frantic trying to figure out what I would do after Flo left and I was alone in the apartment without a TV. But as you can see, Pipex came through for me and all is well. I was sorry to see Flo go. She was a huge help this weekend- packing, moving things, making sure the movers washed their hands after cigarette breaks, and generally keeping my mind off the fact that we're moving AGAIN. I don't know what I would have done without her.

The coolest thing we did while Flo was here was go to dinner at Dans le Noir? last night, where we dined in complete darkness. It was an amazing experience! All the wait staff are blind and they guide you into a completely dark room, take you to your seats, explain the lay-out of the table to you and leave you to your own devices when it comes to pouring your drinks and eating your food. We didn't know what we were being served and it was a lot of fun trying to figure it out based on taste alone. All our other senses were quickly heightened. Every time they brought new groups into the room, it sounded like they were shouting and every time a dish was brought to the table, everyone could smell what it was. It was a true sensory exercise and I would strongly recommend it to anyone visiting London or Paris (where it originated.)

Tomorrow is our leaving do, Thursday the cats leave and the cleaners come and we fly out Friday afternoon. We plan on writing our final blog from the airport on Friday. Until then- adios!

Let the Packing Begin!

2007-12-03T02:49:00.000-08:00

At 10:00 this morning, three lovely men from Expect Move arrived to begin our move. They're on their second cuppa and are thoroughly entertaining Flo and me as we sit on the sofa reading Lucky Magazine and the sports section respectively.

Will keep you posted...

Thanksgiving in Zurich

2007-11-28T02:12:00.000-08:00

Hi All

Sorry it's been so long since we've written. I'm going to let John tell you about his Day with the Dogs another time and I'm going to give you a quick recap of our Thanksgiving and Anniversary.

We went to Zurich for Thanksgiving with Flo, Keith and Lauren (a friend who is studying in Rome this semester.) We took the first flight out Thursday morning. The problem with that is that the tube doesn't start running until 5am, so we couldn't take the tube to the airport. Had to take a cab. Oh well- not too bad. We arrived at la Casa de Flo y Keith at 11am exactly- less than five hours door-to-door. I will miss that.

As you would imagine, Flo had everything under control. The apartment looked like a page out of Martha Stewart's magazine, the turkey (which is a hilarious story all its own) had been marinading in brine for 24 hours and she was cool as a cucumber. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and even got to watch the end of the Macy's parade and the first football game of the day thanks go their amazing Slingbox!

Friday we went exploring into the mountains. First, we bought wood for their fireplace. Then, we went to a restaurant with a gorgeous view for drinks. Finally, we went to a fabulous fondue place that puts DIP to shame. Unfortunately, this exploration was marred by the fact that a heavy fog had set in and we couldn't see ten feet in front of us. Seriously, I don't know how Keith was driving! Look-

Fog or not, we still had a great time. After dropping off the firewood, we made our way to the train station, the site of the largest indoor Christmas Market in Europe. They did have a Christmas tree decorated entirely of Swarovski crystals, but this seemed like a better place to take a photo-

It was very pretty but not as large as I thought it would be. I was also expecting very "Swiss" things but it was pretty much like any other Christmas Market- a lot of food and costume jewelry. Flo and I had mulled wine (mine was non-alcoholic) and John and I had bratwurst and bread. It was delicious!

After that, they dropped us off at the airport and we were home by 10pm our time. We would have liked to have stayed longer, but I had rehearsal the next day and John had his boys' day with the dogs...

We celebrated our 7th Anniversary in the usual way on Sunday- watched our wedding video, ate pizza and drank beer. FYI: Non-alcoholic beer is SO GROSS!!!!!!! My hormones are definitely in full effect this week. Usually, I only cry at key points during the wedding video but Sunday I started crying with the exterior of the church and didn't stop until my bridesmaids were dancing on the tables. You, hussies!

CHAMPIONE CHAMPIONE!

2007-11-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

We won the PR Football league on Wednesday night! We believed we would only take away second place, but the team in first place didn't win a single match on Wednesday and we won all three of ours. Therefore we won on goal difference since we had the same number of points in the league.

I won't lie, the first match was a hard fought win and the second match looked grim as we were down 2 - nill at the half way mark. But showing our mark as true champions, we dug deep and overcame adversity to win 4-2! We then destroyed the final team 7-1. I personally had the best match of my career - I was like a ninja cat as I humiliated the opposing strikers.

That's enough bragging - except for this one fact - we forfeited 4 games due to player unavailability, and we still won the league!

We have a cup knock-out competition on the 28th and then the award ceremony. In other sporting news, we're rooting for Israel to win against Russia today.

A Very English Weekend

2007-11-14T04:25:00.001-08:00

Hi there

While John was loving it up in the Madrid office, I was experiencing a truly English weekend.At 9:27am Saturday morning, Steve and Penny picked me up in a gun metal VW Golf courtesy of Streetcar and we began our trip to Essex. I should mention two key points. One- Steve was EARLY! Two- We had no directions. Steve was planning on using Emily, his Sat Nav, but she decided to be fickle for most of the trip. So, he pulled up a map of London on Google Maps and we zig-zagged our way through the city, up and out to wonderful Essex. And we managed to only make two wrong turns! It's amazing how little traffic there is in London at 10am on a Saturday morning. We even made it across the Tower Bridge with no wait. See?

The whole trip to Essex was scheduled because a friend of ours read an article about The Company Shed, a wonderful fish restaurant on the coast of Mersea Island that serves fresh fish at its finest without the trimmings. You bring your own beverages, sauces and bread/butter. It sounded like a good excuse for a weekend away and the trip was born.

The thing about Mersea Island is that it isn't always an island. It is connected to the mainland by a causeway, which floods every day at high tide. If you don't make it to the causeway by hightide, you have to wait an hour or so until the tide starts to recede before you can go across. This made our meeting time very important. We arranged to meet on the island at noon. Let's just say our car made it but the other two didn't.

Don't worry- we didn't enjoy the seafood without them. We waited at a cool 15th century pub and all went in together after the tide receded. As a pregnant woman, I was limited as to what I could eat, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the rest of the gang chow down on what was described over and over again as the best seafood/oysters/etc. they had ever eaten. Here's what the table and the gang looked like after several seafood platters, dozens of oysters, a few lobsters and a couple of bottles of champagne.

After lunch, we checked into our B&B, which looked like something out of the Brady Bunch. We had a great night. Played some Jenga, ate yummy pub food and enjoyed magic tricks by our two youngest companions. I retired early (11:30,) but there was apparently a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit into the not-so-wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast, we ventured to a park where we flew kites and took in the awesome English coast. We experienced true English weather on Sunday. It was rainy, windy and chilly when we ventured out to the park. The rain would stop and start, as is common. Then, the sun came out! It was wonderful. The sun reflected off the sea. It was truly magical.

And just as we were heading to the cars to find lunch, the sky opened up! There's nothing like crossing a large open area of grass with the English sky pouring down on you. I was at a strong disadvantage, not being able to run to the cars like everyone else, but it was okay, because I was the only one with an umbrella.

The trip finished with a great pub lunch and a three-hour drive back to London, which saw Penny, Steve and me finding our own alternate route through the streets of Hackney and miraculously getting Emily to work just as we found our way to Tower Bridge again.

It was a great weekend. I only wish John could have joined us.

For those of you who are wondering, we didn't do too shabby last night at Quiz Night. We were bang-on average. But we were up against some stiff competition. This pub has a Quiz Night League with standings and everything! So, I was quite impressed with our team. We might try it again before we leave.

Tonight is John's last batch of football matches. Hopefully, his extremely swollen fingers won't hinder his goal-keeping abilities.

My Mom says I'm cool!

2007-11-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

Jamie is on her way back from a weekend trip to Essex with Steve and some other friends. I was supposed to go with them, but Madrid rescheduled their office move for Friday & Saturday instead of Thursday & Friday.

The Madrid move marked my last official duties as European IT Manager. I honored the occasion by purchasing two cans of San Miguel Especial from the airport cafeteria (with some Tex Mex Doritos so I didn't look weird). I enjoyed my cerveca especial and regarded the magnificent view of the Madrid landscape from the panoramic windows of Terminal 4 of the Madrid Barajas Airport. I noted the sunset over the sparsely treed hills surrounding the airport was a metaphor for my era as European IT Manager. A simple metaphor, a device so frequently used (I'm a SYMBOL! *CRASH*) that my brother Mike's graduate writing class would sooner carve out their eyeballs with their fancy graduate school pens than be forced to read about it. But still, it was very special to me (*CRASH*) .

I have been promoted in preparation for our return to the US (in 4 weeks?!) and we have hired a new IT Manager who started last week. The upshot is that I shouldn't be called in to work at 3 AM if someone unplugs the servers, which will be a welcome change!

Quiz night didn't happen - our friends were sick last week, so we're trying to reschedule for this week. I know you are on the edge of your seats, so we'll let you know if we get to go!

In a desperate measure to be as cool as our gimptastic friend "Noelle", I jammed my fingers so badly while making a save in my Wednesday night football (soccer) league that I can't wear my wedding ring and my middle finger is as thick as a big fat sausage. However, I lacked the resolve "Noelle" showed and stopped short of breaking my fingers. Which I'm OK with.

Get Well Soon, Noelle

2007-11-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

With Ed's guest blog nowhere in sight, I thought I'd give you a brief summary of our weekend. But first, a shout out to our friend Noelle who is recovering from a broken ankle while trying to blog every day for the next 30 days. Stay strong, Noelle. We're rooting for you!

Our weekend was splendid. We realized that we have very few left in Londontown and should maybe start doing all those things we wanted to do but haven't done. We thought about that...and then decided watching the Arsenal/Man Utd. game at the Alex was much more important. And it was. We snatched a draw out of the jaws of defeat deep into extra time and by the end of the match, I was considering changing Cooper's name to Cesc in honor of Cesc Fabregas. Don't worry, John won't let me.

The rest of Saturday was spent at a crappy baby store in Brixton and a leaving do for a friend who is heading back to New Zealand after five years in London.

Sunday was a relatively lazy day, although John did make it to the gym and I managed a walk. Of course, we are devastated by the debacle called a football game that occurred last night in Philadelphia, but I won't get into that.

Tomorrow we head to a quiz night at a pub up the street. Last time we tried one of those, Steve was the only other member of our team. Needless to say, two Americans and an Australian didn't fare too well that night. This time, however, we'll be playing with actual English people. Fingers crossed!

You Can Drink In The Street! (guest blog by Marissa- Ed's will follow shortly)

2007-11-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

Marissa and Ed in London—October 26- 31 (Sorry for the length)

Greetings! This may well be the last guest blog since John and Jamie are moving back to the US in 6 weeks!

I have never been to Europe, and couldn’t wait to do so many things. Unfortunately, the first thing I did upon arriving at Heathrow was throw up from motion sickness after circling for 15 minutes. Ahhh precious memories.

However, things looked up considerably once we got through immigration and took the Tube the entire way to their house. It took about 90 minutes. It was great! The Tube is superb compared to the El in Chicago. We took the Tube everywhere. Love it! After thoroughly admiring and cooing over Jamie’s blossoming tummy, she took us to a tasty lunch and gave us a tour of their charming neighborhood. After bathing and napping we headed to John’s office to meet him for dinner. John had already been drinking at his in-office bar for a few hours as it was Friday. We headed out to find a pub, when Ed and I learned that Londoners drink in the street! You can legally drink practically everywhere, and people do. So, we stood on the sidewalk in front of a pub on a very crowded and busy London sidewalk drinking wine and beer and cranberry juice for Jamie and Cooper.

We then found a great Indian restaurant for dinner. After we were sufficiently full of some of the curry that London is known for, we headed to the very posh Goring Hotel to meet Jack Welsh and his wife for drinks. We had a fantastic time with them!

The next day we headed to Westminster Abbey, which was simply beautiful. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We then strolled around, found a pub for lunch and went to Covent Garden market. Then it was back to their apartment to rest up before our night out. We met their friend Steve in Soho at the Red Lion and drank in the street again! Once food became a necessity we wandered about until we found a Thai restaurant for dinner.

The next day we woke up to John making us a delicious English breakfast which we enjoyed in their conservatory.

Ed and I headed off to the Cartoon Museum and the British Museum. The British Museum is really cool. Not only are the exhibits like nothing I had ever seen, but the settings in which they are displayed are entirely exquisite unto themselves. We met Jamie, John and Steve at their favorite pub, the Alex, for an Arsenal Football match. That was a highlight! A pub during a match is as quiet as a library, except when a goal is scored, at which point mayhem ensues. Fabulous! We had a quick dinner at a fish and chips restaurant which was marvelous. Then we went home grabbed road beers (a real term) and took the Tube to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys. http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/WhatsOn/ceremonyofthekeys.aspx

It’s the ceremony they do each night to lock up the Tower. You must request tickets and only about 40 people get to go each night. We enjoyed it immensely. I highly recommend it.

The next morning we went on the Big Bus Tour of London and saw it all! We sat outside on the top of the bus and saw every big site in London. And who says the sun doesn’t shine in London!?!?! We had fantastic fall weather the entire time. It only misted a bit on the first day.

We went back to the Tower and did that tour which included the Crown Jewels. If you like diamonds, it’s a must see! We then went on a boat tour down the Thames before heading off to a romantic lunch at a risotto bar, Ooze, recommended by TimeOut London. We walked about some more prior to heading home. Jamie cooked us a delicious dinner of her mother’s famous recipe of stuffed peppers, and we made our way to another neighborhood pub for merriment.

We started our last full day in London with a 10:00 AM sun-filled trip on The Eye

We then met Jamie at The Wolsey for fancy English breakfast. It was phenomenal and so cool inside. Apparently, jeans are unacceptable attire for the main room at the Wolsey so we were placed in the tiny side room for the underdressed commoners. We then went to Harrods and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Both places are full of so much stuff it’s incredible. Jamie left at this point to go to auditions for her last Showcase in London. Ed and I walked through the Inns of Court, which were absolutely gorgeous but they are likely only something my husband, the attorney, would want to do. This was the only time on our trip where I knew confidently that we were the only tourists!

At this point we were starving and headed to Mother Mash, a modern pie n’ mash shop (another TOL rec), in Soho for a delicious lunch. Once fortified, it was time to get really serious and do some London shopping. We found an amazing new winter coat for Ed at Muji and picked up a few things for myself at Top Shop. Top Shop is H&M on crack! After thoroughly exhausting ourselves at the shops we managed to rally and meet Steve and John at Trafalgar Square. From there we took a quick walk over to Chinatown to experience the Ramsburg-lauded Crispy Duck restaurant. All around it was darn good Chinese food, but that Crispy Duck appetizer is like nothing I have ever eaten before. It was so good!

We managed to pack a TON into 6 days in London, including loads of QT with John and Jamie. Thank you both so much for being such spectacular hosts. London is a fantastic city, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun as it was had we not been with you.

Fall Behind

2007-10-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

We fell behind last night. Yes, that's right, while the US has decided to be difficult and change the clocks on a date that's all their own, the rest of Europe fell behind an hour last night. So, if you were 5 hours behind us, you are now 4. If you were 6, you are now 5. And so on and so forth. Take advantage of it this week by calling us lots, because it will all be back to normal next weekend.

On another note: Ed and Marissa arrived safely Friday morning and we've been having a grand time. Hopefully you'll get a guest blog from them but their time is short, so I make no promises. For now, let's just say we've already had late-night kebabs, spent some time with Jack Welsh and are preparing for John's famous English Fry-up. Life is good.

The Ozzman Cometh

2007-10-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

While Jamie searched for our new apartment, I kept very busy.

I watched England beat France in the Semi-Finals of Rugby World Cup. Exciting, except I somehow ended up with French-Albanians who were very upset. At least we had good kebabs after. Apparently one of the French-Albanians owned the place. I also didn't know where the heck I was.
I attended training for fancy IT stuff in preparation for my new role at work.
I went to Paris for work from Friday - Monday. Ok - Paris needs elaboration.

So I went to Paris to integrate a company into our network. This should have been a walk in the park. Of course it wasn't. I spent the majority of the 4 days closed in a windowless server room. Not to bore you with details, let's just say I was a victim of language barriers, poor documentation, and what I shall politely term laziness.

Nevertheless, I cracked the whip and got everything fixed an in place for Monday morning. Job done.

I did get to watch England lose the Rugby World Cup to South Africa on Saturday. Oh - did I mention the Rugby World Cup final was in Paris? No? Oh. Sorry. Don't get excited- I watched it in a pub. In Colombes. Colombes is just north of La Défense. La Défense is a newer business park in Paris, with the Grand Arche, at the end of the Metro. So I was pretty much in the equivalent of Jersey City. I think Colombes means pigeon.

I did however manage to attract the only Englishman in the pub. He's lived in Paris since 76. We watched and tried to understand what the heck was going on. For those who don't know Rugby, imagine organized Rumble Fumble with lots of punting.

Le Grand Arche (an office building - the scaffolding is actually an elevator shaft):

Sunday afternoon I actually got to be a tourist. I had a Croque Monsieur and a Kronenbourg - and I conversed solely in French with my server! I've discovered that when I need too, I can remember the phrases I need. However, I must compose them, practice, and then speak. Also I need to phrase them so I am answered with Yes, No, or You're Sexy. I guess High School French did stick somewhere.

I decided to visit the cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Molière, Jim Morrison, and Chopin are buried. It was beautiful. When I'm dead, I want people to visit my grave in such a setting. It's morbid, but whatever - where else can you be in a green landscape overlooking Paris, in the company of poets, musicians, writers, and crazy men in ratty Doors t-shirts trying to give you impromptu tours?

A picture of Chopin's Headstone - my 2nd Favorite Composer. Props to anyone who knows my first.

An extra trivia point - lookup Oscar Wilde and Clapham Junction. It'll make you sad, but we live in Clapham.

Speaking of visiting graves, guess who else was there to see Jim Morrison?
Ozzy. Seriously. No kidding. Purple tinted sunglasses and all.
I think he was with one of his sisters. She pet this cat:

Well, Jamie should be here soon so I better put some pants on. Or maybe half pants.

PS Go Flyers! And leave Andy Reid alone - you can't argue with his record.
At least Arsenal is still top of the league. In fact they are playing right now. Currently they are winning 6 - 0. The announcer has said they are playing "Heavenly Football". At least one of my football teams is playing "football from paradise".

My Brother, the Actor

2007-10-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

John is working in Paris and I've been home in PA for a little over week now. What a week it has been! My uncle got married last Saturday, which was a blast. Then my parents and I went apartment-hunting in Hoboken and Jersey City. We found a good apartment in a great building in Jersey City. Our lease starts a week after John and I move home, which is perfect timing. Now, if we can only figure out how to get our bed delivered in less than 5 weeks! BUT the best part of this trip has been surprising my brother Eli and seeing him perform in Scapin at LVPA.

I know you will all think I'm just being biased, but the truth is- he is FABULOUS! Everyone agrees. The show itself is leaps and bounds above other high school productions. The actors are so comfortable on stage that the director has allowed them to adlib. You can just tell they're having a great time up there. But Eli as Sylvestre blows me away every time I see it. I've seen it three times and am going to the matinee today. He is so energetic and present. He is free onstage physically and vocally and just lets go. It is an absolute joy to watch and I am unbelievably proud of him!

Congratulations on a great show, Eli!

Walking Through A Mini London Fog

2007-10-11T02:30:00.000-07:00

John and I have experienced many amazing things in our almost two years in London, but one of the most fascinating was the London fog last December. It delayed flights, stopped traffic and was truly a sight to see.

This morning I went for a walk in our beautiful common and discovered a sort of mini London fog. It was nowhere near as heavy as last December, but it was quite beautiful. I could hear the children playing long before I could see them. I heard dogs' collars jingling but there were no dogs to be seen. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. I took photos on my mobile but have no idea how to upload them. Sorry, folks. You'll just have to take my word for it- it was pretty damn cool.

I think we've been busy

2007-10-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

As I listen to the Eagles struggle to reclaim their fire, read about the Phillies post season collapse, and watch Fiji lose the Rugby World cup quarter final (don't ask) I find solace in the fact that Arsenal is #1. However, I'm bringing my Philly attitude to the Premiership just in case.

Last weekend I brought Jamie with me to Madrid. I worked in the Madrid office on Friday while Jamie explored the museums and shopped. We had a lovely dinner with people from the office - in lovely Spanish style we finished dessert after midnight! Jamie then acted as my Madrid tour guide. We went to the modern art museum and took a walk in the park - complete with a romantic row boat excursion on the lake. It was a wonderful weekend - hopefully we'll get one more Euro weekend under our belts before moving home. Here are some Madrid Highlights:
Cat in the drain:

John Rowing on the Lake:

A Duck in the Lake:

Museum of Ham:

This past Friday I went to Paris for work. It sounds more glamorous that it actually was - I caught the 5:30 AM Eurostar and sat in their server room all day with technicians who speak English as well as I speak French. At least I got to practice French again. I caught the 7:20 PM Eurostar home and sat down on my couch by 10 PM. I do get to back for a long weekend for a major project in two weeks, hopefully I'll have some time explore!

My work football team is currently kicking ass and taking names in our new league. It's a PR league, so we play our competitors. The best part is that our first 2 games we couldn't field all 5 players due to work conflicts and illness, so we recruited two 14 year old boys to cover - they're the ref's sons. One of the kids actually scored the winning goal in one of our matches. They were crushed last week when we told them we didn't need them since our full team showed. We agreed to use them as Subs if we got far enough ahead in a match.

Jamie and I saw Cooper again last week. We're proud to announce he is completely normal - he has the right number of everything and is a normal length and weight. No pictures though, he was a bit shy during that part. I think we need to get a release form from his agent before we can take more pictures.

Farewell, Jose

2007-09-20T00:35:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning excited for my day at the spa but my mood was quickly changed when I turned on the radio. What could possibly depress me on my day of relaxation? Jose Mourinho, my favorite coach in all of football, has left Chelsea! There has been a lot of tension between him and the owner in the past year or so, but to lose Jose is to lose the spirit of Chelsea. Don't get me wrong- you all know Arsenal is my favorite team- but Jose was a character unmatched in English football. I will miss his funny comments about making omelettes without Grade A eggs. Farewell, Jose. You will be missed.

30 Ain't So Bad and Navels Look Nicer Without Their Piercings

2007-09-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

Quick quiz: which of those statements do I actually believe?

For those of you who don't know- I turned 30 yesterday. Let me start by saying I was fine with turning 30. I have had an amazing 30 years and can't wait to see what the next 30 bring. Well, I felt that way until Monday afternoon when I took the midwife's orders and had my navel ring removed. No big deal, right? Oh no, my friends. When you are about to turn 30 AND you are pregnant with your first child AND you are about to buy your first home, removing your navel ring becomes a bit more symbolic. Well, at least it did for me. I came to the obvious conclusion that I was giving into old age and would never have fun again. Please remember that I am pregnant and excused from momentary bouts of insanity. Suffice to say Monday night wasn't pleasant for me or my loving husband who tried unsuccessfully to convince me of how much fun I am while I cried into my pillow.

Tuesday was a new day, however, and I refused to allow my naked and unattractive navel to get me down. John, the amazing man I married, made me French Toast for breakfast and handed me a Mommy-to-be Day at the Spa as my gift! When he left for work, I opened my other cards and gifts- thank you to everyone! And took a nice long bath. Mariesa took me to lunch at Sticky Fingers, a great American burger-type joint, for lunch. We had a fabulous time. See?

Steve and John took me out for my birthday dinner at Boheme Kitchen and Bar so that I could indulge in Macaroni and Cheese. Have you noticed the theme of the day? I couldn't drink to my birthday, so I ate to it and ate and ate and ate. Then it was off to Spamalot for lots of laughs. As I sat there listening to King Arthur and his gang sing, "Look on the bright side of life," I was reminded of how lucky I am to be where I am at the young age of 30. And I left that theatre honestly looking forward to the next thirty years (while still missing my navel ring ever so much.) See how happy I was?

Thanks to everyone for your emails, calls, cards and gifts. It really helped to make it one of the best birthdays ever.

How the Mighty have Fallen

2007-09-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Almost as though penned by the hand of Aeschylus, Perros Del Diablo fell from grace Wednesday. Our hamartia was hubris, and it was our hubris that laid us low. After soundly defeating our first opponents of the night with definite authority, we allowed ourselves to rest on our laurels the second match, thereby losing the Championship.

No Deus ex Machina came to our rescue, our only solace was our sole supporter to whom we awarded our trophy for winning the first 5 weeks of the Premier League.

Workers Unite!

2007-09-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Since we got a new punter, here's a punter trivia question:
Which Eagles kicker holds the record for 15 punts in one game?
1. Jeff Fagles
2. Tom Hutton
3. John Teltschik
4. Sean Landeta

In the spirit of Labor Day Metronet has gone on strike. This means that all but 3 tube lines are not running in London until Friday. I happen to be lucky enough to live on one of those lines that is running. However, we now have all the several gajillion folks trying to cram on as they figure out how to get work. So I plan on taking good ol' bus 88. I'll let you know how that works out.

Well, for those of you don't know, Jamie's pregnant - 15 1/2 weeks! And yes, it is mine.

So what else have we done? Well, we were in the states for a while. Jamie went home to visit Sarah, Christian, & Henry.
Henry:

We had an early 30th birthday party for Jamie at her parents' house. Her mom even got Jamie the same clown she had when she turned 1 (he was 17 at the time). We told our families we were expecting via the medium of progressive folk guitar. A link at the bottom of this is to the video if you're interested.

Clown (Jamie is not 1 here):

I worked in the NYC office for a 6 days, which was good. I also played golf with my boss which was fun, if not exemplary of my semester of golf lessons, oh 8 years ago. Guess it is time to go back to the pro shop and buy me some lessons! I also spent a lot of time catching up with people I haven't seen in forever.

We then had ANOTHER party for Jamie with our peeps from NYC and other assorted guests with cars. The 60 degree and rainy (lovely English weather, what what.) weather we had all week in the city was replaced by 95 and 100% humidity. Perfect weather for sitting in Central Park! After a picnic we migrated downtown to Mexican Radio for a massive dinner (Table for 20 please, thanks). We all enjoyed the lovely atmosphere and the exquisite presentation of the dishes as more catching up and regaling of stories of the past year was done. Thank goodness it was good mexican food, cause lord knows we can't get any here. THEN we whittled down to a small group and visited Kellie at Pennyfeathers and then migrated to 119 to see Wayne.

Birthday Girl!

I must note that totally unplanned, my brother Mike and fiance Caitie were in Astoria visiting a friend. So we all got together at 119 and danced to the Oldies and crazy punk until all hours. Rockin Robin indeed.

UP next - our trip to Dover!
Trivia Answer: 3. John Teltschik
Oh yeah - video:

A Quickie from Jamie

2007-08-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody-

I just wanted to say- I can't wait to see you soon! If I'm not seeing you on my whirlwind 2-week tour of the northeast, then you either don't live in the northeast or haven't had a baby recently and there's just nothing I can do about that.

I am flying into Newark on Tuesday, spending time with the family- taking Eli to Penn State, celebrating an early 30th with my family, visiting with our Goddaughter, shopping- then it's off to DC for a few days with the newest Fox/Dawson and his amazing parents- then it's up to NYC for some much-needed sun in Central Park and another early 30th with friends. (Yes, I know, I'm spoiled!) Then right back to London to ring in the start of the 2007 Showcase Season. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Anyway- remember to email John while I'm gone- he does get lonely.

The Tomato of 2007

2007-08-05T14:02:00.001-07:00

In 1983, against which team did Ron Jaworski throw an 83-yard touchdown to Mike Quick on the first play of the game?

a) Baltimore Colts
b) Dallas Cowboys
c) Chicago Bears
d) St. Louis Cardinals

I do hereby declare that I have a green thumb. That or we have grown plants that are idiot proof. As evidence, I submit my first ever ripe tomato.

This is a proud day, especially as I have studied tomato growing at my father's knee. It's true. He would show me the tomato plants he hoped would later yield a big fat tomato that he could slice up, salt, and eat raw as a snack (I've seen this happen). More often than not the plants would decide not to fruit, causing disappointment at the snacking hour.

But on this proud day, the 5th of August 2007, here in London I have picked my first home grown tomato. Jamie and I then ceremoniously sliced, salted, and ate the tomato. I will be the first to admit that it was a light snack. But it was our snack, ethically grown and harvested.

Speaking of the EcoBandWagon train, we purchased an Eco-Pack of environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. Dish washer detergent & rinse aid, dish soap, washing machine tablets and powder, "bleach", spray cleaner, scratch free cleaner, and floor cleaner. I'll let you know how that goes.

Let's see - other happenings:

Flo & her parents visited for several days - it was a lovely visit.

Jamie and I joined the rest of the English speaking world and finally saw The Simpsons movie last night. Next on our list is the Transformers, which better be cool. I am personally holding out for the G.I. Joe live action feature film - you know somebody is working on that and a Rainbow Brite movie to tip this 80's nostalgia thing on its head. We also finished up Lost Season 2.

Summer has finally arrived - at least for the weekend. We met up with Steve Saturday and sat in the park and did nothing for a good solid 8 hours. I'm actually wearing shorts!

Also, a very special welcome to Henry Giles!

Trivia Answer:
b) The Cowboys. The Eagles lost that game 37-7.

The Grass is Greener, by Jim (with comments from Dan)

2007-07-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Dan and Jim's Travelogue July 6-21 (Get ready, it's long)

In preparation for our journey, Dan and I monitored the weather in Edinburgh, Scotland and Bangor, Wales. Cold and wet…today, tomorrow, and perhaps forever…no surprise to anyone who has been to the UK. Excited about escaping the searing sun and humidity "Vuh-gin-ya", we stuffed our suitcases with sensible layers of clothes. And aren't we glad we did, because it seems that we attached a grappling hook to the sun and brought it with us across the pond, much to the delight of Londoners who had been overcast with weeks of rain.

With our priorities in order, (well…Dan's first priority), we set out for the Genesis reunion tour concert at Twickenham Stadium. What's that you ask? Why, yes, Phil Collins is still alive, and he can still sing. Quite well, in fact. It was an outstanding concert, even to those of us who are not quite as obsessed…I'm sorry, did I say obsessed…I mean, enchanted by Genesis. (enchanted, obsessed, why split hairs? It was the best concert ever! I cried.) We had great seats on the side that gave us an intimate view of Phil and his drums. (50,000 Genesis fans can't be wrong)

Edinburgh:

The next morning, (pretty darn jetlagged) Dan and I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. For me, the train ride was truly one of the highlights of the trip. For 4 hours, I stared out the window watching the countryside skate by. Truly remarkable, the landscape of the UK can best be described as God's golf course, complete with God's fluffy golf balls…sheep. (lots and lots and lots of sheep) Edinburgh was a bustling city, quite touristy (think Busch Gardens) unless you are brave enough to get away from Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile. While everyone was looking up at the castle, Dan and I slipped through the crowd, down a side street and towards Arthur's Seat. Set on top of foothills, Arthur's seat is a birds-eye view of Scotland. Onward and upward we climbed. Then down again. Wait a minute, we climbed the wrong hill. It was then that we found right hill. So up again. And well worth the three days of sore calves. We spent the next day taking an excursion to the outer regions of Scotland, including Glasgow , Loch Lomand, and Sterling Castle (and more sheep). While the trip was magnificent, the driver made it even more fun, with his scruffy unshaved look and Sean Connery accent, threatening to "come back there and sort out" a Chinese gentleman who kept yawning loudly behind him. (He was actually quite humorous!) Our last morning was spent at Edinburgh Castle, which was lovely. And it was back on the train to London!

View from Arthur's Seat:

Dan on "the seat":

We had one night in London, just enough time to shift dirty clothes around in the luggage and off we go with John and Jamie to Wales. Another splendid train ride, despite the obnoxious iPods and cell phone users. (who uses their phone as an iPod, without speakers. Honestly!) We arrived to find rain, but true to form, the sun managed to follow. The car rental (a big noisy rattly Mercedes van) was what seemed like a test in trust. I quote the rental agent, "Oh, I am sure that will start to work once you get on the road." Lovely. But kudos to John for his masterful driving skills in the many roundabouts (and so-called "two-lane" roads. More like ¾ of 1 lane! John gets the gold star for that one). And Jamie gets props for her encouragement to "stay on the left" while wiping fog from the windshield. (And how bizarre to see all the signs in two languages, one English, the other a bizarre language made up entirely of the letters L, W, F & Y, as in, "Can you tell me how to get to pub in Llyffwanwhhllyffll?")

The Town:

The beach house was situated 100 yards from the sea, on an open area of land filled with sheep and cows. Recently updated, the house had a modern feel in a rural setting. A week of good eating, lots of sleeping, and hours of reading was a refreshing break for all of us. We played pool, darts, hearts, backgammon, and chess. We ventured into Llandudno Junction to see Harry Potter V (Jim liked it a lot, Dan thought they cut too much from the book). We toured Caernarfon Castle (where Prince Charles was crowned Prince of Wales). We took long strolls along the shore, and walked to hill forts and strange stones in the middle of fields. And we wasted at least two days watching cows fornicate (we have the photos to prove it). (We even watched a sheepdog round up the sheep for shearing, while being yelled at in Welsh. Awesome.) Charmed by the Welsh, you can probably still hear our song echoing in the foothills of Caernarfon Bay, "Y Pant The Dingles!" (Don't ask.)

The Beach:

Stroll on the beach:

Back Yard View:

Standing Stone:

On the morning of our departure, the rain finally caught up with us. We returned to a flooded London, and a few puddles in John and Jamie's flat. But nothing could dampen our spirits. Thank you to John and Jamie, it's "bean" another splendid vacation, we love you. (As they say in Dinas Dinlle: Choelia hynny gwartheg ydy yn cael hystlen)

VACATION NEEDED!

2007-07-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

*UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM*
Have you missed your Eagles' Trivia? I know I have!

Let's move into the 40's:
The '49 Eagles only had one loss, who beat them?
a)New York Bulldogs
b)Chicago Bears
c)New York Giants
d)Detroit Lions

The Brother's opening night went over very well. The house was just over half full (as was my pint glass) when the house lights went out. Everyone we spoke with really enjoyed the show - even the people who would tell us if it was crap! I was told that the best part of my sound design was the dog barking in the background. Unfortunately, it was a real dog that lives down the street with a wonderful sense of timing.

Dan & Jim have arrived and left for their short trip to Edinburgh - they'll be back Thursday night. We leave Friday for 8 days in North Wales! We'll be staying at a lovely cottage doing absolutely nothing. I think we all deserve this big break. I rented the only automatic vehicle within 200 miles - A 6 passenger Mercedes Minivan. Better start studying those crazy english road signs again!

Dan & Jim also came to see Jamie's show AND took us to see Genesis in concert! I'm sure they'll describe the experience in their forthcoming guest blog. I would like to just say that Genesis still got their prog rock roots going strong. Very impressive for a casual Genesis fan such as myself.

My football (soccer) league started up again - I missed the first match so I could attend Opening Night. Wed night marks my debut as a Premiership 5-A-Side Goal Keeper. I'm excited. We actually may have real uniforms too! Don't know if they were ordered yet, so it may be my standard long sleeve white & red top, blue work out trousers (pants), red, white, or black socks (Depends on my mood really),and Electric Blue shoes.

Answer: B - The Chicago Bears. I know, right? It was away at Chicago, lost 21-38. '49 is also when they won the NFL Championship - they beat the Los Angeles Rams 14-0 and had a Wide Receiver named Neill Armstrong who scored 5 TD's that season.

*UPDATE*
I wore the red socks.

The Brother Opens Tonight

2007-07-03T11:01:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know that my first full-length play is opening tonight at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre. John has been kind enough to upload the postcard for you to see.

Happy 4th of July!

The Transfer of Power

2007-06-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a monumental day in world politics. The UK has a new Prime Minister. That's right- as torrential rains and flooding continued to wreak havoc on the north of England, all eyes were on Westminster, where with very little ceremony, Tony Blair handed over the reins to Gordon Brown. Here's how it happened:

At noon, Tony Blair made his way to the House of Commons for his last Prime Minister's Questions. This is normally a time for ministers to ask questions and challenge the Prime Minister and then the Prime Minister gets to respond to each person. Yesterday, however, most of them just congratulated him on his ten years of service and patted him on the back. The highlight was when someone I don't know challenged Mr. Blair on something to do with the EU. (I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but it isn't easy to understand them with all the cheering and jeering going on in the background.) In response, Mr. Blair stood up and said something like, "I just don't think I'll be bothered with that one" and sat back down. Oh what fun!

After his standing ovation at the House of Commons, Mr. Blair made his way to the palace where he formally offered his resignation to the Queen. At that moment, there was NO PRIME MINISTER!!! Since it is always at this crucial moment when bad guys strike in film and television, I waited along with the rest of the country with baited breath as Gordon Brown waited for his call from the Queen. He received it and rushed to the palace, where the Queen apparently asked him to form a new government. He was in there for almost an hour as we all sat on the edge of our seats waiting and hoping he would emerge before anything terrible happened. Finally, he did emerge and we were all safe again. Phew! Today he has done what the Queen asked and formed a new government- shuffling everyone around like a Vegas black jack dealer. I look forward to seeing if it makes any difference at all.

A Substitute Guest Blog

2007-06-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Susie and Geoff just left after a wonderful, but short, visit. Unfortunately for you, we kept them too busy to write a blog. So, I thought I'd give you a quick update/rundown of their visit. Susie arrived on Wednesday. Geoff flew in Saturday morning. The weather turned grey and rainy (aka British) Friday and we spent a lot of time in galleries and museums. I think they may have had enough art to last a month or so!

The highlight of the visit, however, was definitely Saturday night, when we attended a performance of The Lord of The Rings, the musical. Yes, you read that right! "How long was it?" You ask? They managed to trim it down to 3 hours, while doing their best to keep every plot element. It should have been called "The Lord of the Rings: abridged." In John's words, "because they attempted to keep every plot element, nothing was given much importance and you didn't really feel invested." (he said it much better than that!) We didn't think the music was that great and the men sounded more like rock singers than musical singers, but it was definitely worth seeing for the design alone. The set and costume design was phenomenal. The stage has multiple revolves and every piece of the stage can move up and down independently from the rest. They also use puppetry and stilts and everything you can think of to use in a show. It was a wonder to watch! In spite of the terrible heat (we were up in the highest balcony,) I would recommend seeing it if you can get the cheap seats.

Yesterday, while I was in rehearsal, John took Susie and Geoff all over London- hitting all the attractions we had missed- and then we had a nice pub dinner followed by rousing games of Anagram and Shout About Movies.

It was great to see Susie and get to know Geoff. We were sad to see them go. They are now headed to Paris and Brussels for a few more days.

In other news- my show opens one week from tomorrow. YAY! And John isn't feeling well, so he came home early and is napping.

We got Icky Thumped!

2007-06-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

Trivia Question #2: What was the score of the Eagle's first game?
a) 21-3
b) 56-0
c) 31-17
d) 56-14

The O2 Wireless festival was amazing. We met Steve at a pub called The Swan by Hyde Park. We sat outside enjoying the fine British weather and waited for the opportune time to collect our tickets and make our grand entrance.

After a very confusing ticket queue we finally entered the fair and quickly oriented ourselves to the closest Beer, Toilets, and First Aid stand (more for my benefit as I'm the non-lethal accident magnet). We wandered around a bit until deciding to sit by the sound booth. It is my opinion that the best sound is next to the booth.

Modest Mouse did not play. Disappointing, but we quickly got over it when realized how awesome Satellite Party is. Perry knows his audience and played at least 5 Jane's Addiction songs. It was also a real party on stage with three bikini clad dancing girls who took turns singing and playing various instruments. All in all a fantastic time!

Queens of the Stone Age - or QOFTSA as they were abbreviated on all documentation which caused a great deal of consternation on our parts - WHO IS QOFTSA? Jamie finally figured it out and we all felt very stupid - were good. Steve and I decided to reclaim our youth by running into the pit towards the end of their set. All went well until I was 3 rows of sweaty flesh from the stage and I lost Steve.

I decided to make the best of it and wait until The White Stripes started so I could be that close to Jack and Meg. When I finally made an effort to get back to Jamie I discovered that I was caught up in a tide of humans. I would make it 6 rows and get pushed back right to the spot from where I started. I then realized that the only way to go out was to go up. I turned to guys behind me and pointed up in the air. After some wild gesticulation a group of well intentioned drunks proceeded to almost drop me on my head. Some bright fellow figured out that you should lift humans by the torso and sorted them out and got me above the plane of sweaty heads. I had an excellent view of Jack as I crowd surfed my way to the front. I was dragged down in front of the barriers by the security staff and made my escape.

I made it back to Jamie and Steve just in time - they were going to check the first aid tent for my mangled body. After brief rejoicing we then turned our attention to the job at hand - getting our faces melted off by the Stripes.

What a great time. Thanks again Jamie!

Answer to Eagles' Trivia: b) 56-0 The Eagles lost to the New York Giants on Oct. 15, 1933.

Mac is Back and Black Velvet Revolver

2007-06-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Donovan McNabb is practicing in mini-cap. For some reason that's gotten me incredibly excited about this season. Excited and depressed - I am a Philadelphia fan.

I am so excited, I am inspired to check out my Philly Sports Challenge: Eagles Edition quiz book. I am quite surprised to learn that I know most of the answers to "Depressing Eagles: the 30's" - for example, I knew Hank Reese kicked the most field goals in the 30's. How, I have no idea. So until I get bored, I'll pick an Eagles Trivia question and post it at the beginning of the blog and put the answer at the end.

Here's number one:
Which of the following Eagles players was not an attorney when not playing football (awkwardly worded, but whatever):
a) Jack Roberts
b) Henry O'Boyle
c) Lee Woodruff
d) Joe Kresky

In other news (and a tense change) I saw Velvet Revolver in concert last Tuesday at the Hammersmith Apollo. It was fun. You know the band - its Slash, Duff, and Matt from GNR and Scott Weiland from STP. They have a couple songs on the radio that are rocking, but the best songs of the evening were the Guns N' Roses and STP covers.

It was comical to watch Slash and Scott compete for focus on stage. Each one believed they were the main event. Scott whirled his way around the stage in a pale Mick Jagger impersonation often screaming into a megaphone pointed at a microphone (symbolic juxtaposition or cheap effects?) whilst Slash gyrated against his guitar cum phallus in the faces of the poor sods smashed up against the stage. Of course, anyone who knows GNR knows that the real star is Duff, cause all the chicks into GNR digg Duff. Man I miss playing Dig Dug.

Tomorrow I get to see Modest Mouse, Satellite Party (Perry Farrell's new project), Queens of the Stone Age, and, and, AND!!! the White Stripes. This of course is due to the ticket I received as my 30th Birthday present from the lovely Mrs. Ramsburg the Younger (until next fall- YAY Caitie and Mike!).

The answer to today's Eagles' Trivia:
a) Jack Roberts - the book doesn't say what profession Jack Roberts used to support his football habit.

The Ramsburg Family Vacation: What did we do? We made relaxing!

2007-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Our vacation was awesome. I apologize, but this is a long post. Why not print it out and take it to the john with you?

ROME

It started off with a 4 hour delay at Heathrow. We sat for about an hour in the heat of an non air-conditioned cabin before we were asked to deplane. I've never had to deplane before. After a while we were allowed to board the aircraft again. Turns out the compressed air truck was busted and couldn't start the engines and we had to wait for a new truck to drive by - however we missed our takeoff slot and had to wait to be squeezed in. Jamie and I were told all of this by our seat mate Dave from New Zealand. He too was heading to Rome for a cruise (25 Days, La ti da!). We made it to our hotel room in Rome at 1 AM and made dinner out of mini-bar beer and bedtime chocolates.

Jamie and I booked ourselves on the bus tour of the city so we could make sure we saw all of the sights of Rome. There were cats everywhere! You may know this, but legend has it that Cleopatra gave Caesar cats as a gift. He turned out to be allergic and let them go- the first cats in Rome.

Mike and Caitie arrived that afternoon - we banged around the city looking for the TREVI fountain and the Spanish steps. We ate dinner at Alfredo's - The best Fettuccine Alfredo we've ever had! JFK, Sylvester Stalone, and Ernest Borgnine have all eaten there - I saw the pictures on the wall. We went back to the Spanish Steps to enjoy some gelatto and a romantic Roman night. Turns out the Spanish steps are more of a pickup place for drunk teenagers.

The next morning we met Mike and Caitie at the train station and found out that they got engaged that morning! What a way to start the week!

COSTA CONCORDIA

Holy crap! I knew cruise liners were floating hotels, but this takes the cake. Approximately 12 separate bar areas, a huge lobby reminiscent of the dining room on The Poseidon, an on board art gallery, and 4 different restaurants, casino, and a video game room (btw - 2nd player on Tekken's buttons are screwed) are available for whiling away the short time between ports. The top decks included 4 (really small) swimming pools, hot tubs, and a water slide. One of the decks had a retractable roof so you could hang out indoors in crappy weather. In an odd design choice, you could also eat your breakfast amongst the early bathers. To describe the decor, I'll paraphrase my father - "It looks like South Philly threw up on the walls"
A Ceiling - the lights changed colors.

There were several musicians scattered around the bars to provide what was mainly background music. We listened to wonderful keyboard drum machines, a beautiful violin and piano duo, and our personal favorites - the singing bar tender and waiter at the Pub Classico Dublino. I've never heard From Russia From Love sung live, or so often.

Ports of Call:
Savona
We had a half day in the Italian Rivera. Unfortunately for Savona, all the shops were closed so we could not spend the euros burning holes in our pockets. It was a drab and dreary day - we visited the ruins of a fort and a flea market.

Barcelona

Barcelona was also a half day, but what a different experience! We loved Barcelona. We saw so many different things walking along La Rambla: street performers, artists, a naked man with interesting piercings, pet vendors (birds/rabbits) - now that I think about it they could be fresh dinner vendors, tons of magazine stalls (20 euro worth of Spanish wedding magazines? GIRLS!) We had a lovely lunch in an out of the way courtyard, replete with jugglers, violinists, and a stumbling heroin addict. Jamie and I can't wait to go back - so far Spain is definitely our favorite continental European destination.

Mallorca

If you cruise into Mallorca, pre-book a tour/excursion on Mallorca. Otherwise you get screwed and end up walking for 2 miles to have espresso overlooking a marina and get a big open sore from your flip-flops. However, the conversation more than made up for the hike. We retreated to the top deck of the ship to enjoy the sun which was fantastic.

Tunisia
Tunis was great - Mom actually made it out on the tour with us. We had a crazy-lingual tour guide who phrased his commentary in question form e.g. "How many people live in Tunis? Very easy to answer - 400,000" and then repeated in German for the 3 families who got on our English tour by accident. We saw ruins of Carthage - "How many people did the Baths hold? 4,000 a day", and a museum dedicated to mosaics. We also got to "shop" in a market in a picturesque village. We ran the gauntlet of sellers hawking their factory hand made wares and found the only woman who owned her own stall and went crazy shopping - YAY FEMINISM! All of the vendors thought Jamie was Spanish, but called to her English - "Hola, Spanish Lady!" They'd look at me and either speak French or English. Which is good since I barely speak both. I really liked Tunisia - it also marked the first time I've been to Africa.
Warning sign at Carthage, and Mike and Caitie "shopping"

Malta

We were victims of an unscrupulous cabbie who convinced us he knew of a much better beach than the one to which we paid to go (in advance at the tourism stall). We were deposited around the corner from said "beauty sand beach" and discovered it was a small gross harbour. Super Dad to the rescue - after a brief exploration he discovered a fancy pool club (infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean sea) and we lounged all day. We took a different cab back to the ship. On the way we passed our bad cabbie who flagged us down and wanted to know why we didn't wait for him to drive us back. Caitie says, "You ripped us off, SIR!" and away we went. Apparently our new cabbie knew the bad cabbie and was very upset that he tricked us. I liked the new cabbie. Also, the ride back was half as much as the ride there.
Super Dad takes a break-

Palermo
Palermo seemed like it would be cool if the stores were open and it weren't raining. After some searching and making a teenage boy waiter cry, we found a fantastic pizza joint. I ate a calzone the size of my head and was very happy. We then found an open air meat and sea food market which was really cool, if stinky.

Cruise Entertainment
There was a beautiful theatre on board. We caught 3 performances - a Flamenco dance troupe, a famous Italian singer (who covered the Scissor Sisters), and a Magician. However, they paled in comparison to the entertainment troupe.

Kudos to the cruise entertainment team. Not only can they speak English, Italian, French, and Spanish, they are up early assisting with disembarkation and tours, encouraging afternoon games, run the audience participatory evening entertainment, and then get people to go disco dancing until 2 AM. Unfortunately for them, adults have a hard time getting sexy on the dance floor when there are 5 year olds spinning around on said dance floor until 1 am. Except for creepy sleeveless guy who apparently brought his favorite escort with him on the cruise.

Mike and I started out by participating in the Circus on Sunday night. The Circus consisted of getting 4 guests to wear silly wigs and make a weird human support bed.

Mike and I signed up for karaoke only to learn that it was a tournament and we were singing the a) only English song b) only non ballad. They loved us, mainly because Mike ran around in a circle while singing "baby light my fire!" as I made sexy poses. We made friends with the guy dressed up as spiderman (they wore different themed costumes every night - seems karaoke and super heroes go hand in hand). Mike's favorite part was when the lead guy told us we were great, and we should believe him because he is Superman and I retorted, "You're not Superman, you're Mr. Incredible" which was true.

We ended up spectating the remaining entertainment sessions once we realized everything was designed to make people laugh at you - in good fun of course, but I didn't want to waste my superior talents. Rock and Roll night they got people to dress up like John Travolta and Olivia Newton John and made them fall over during the dance moves (upsetting one older bigger lady). Sexy Night the girls were wearing bunny costumes and the guys in Chip N Dale outfits. The games were very explicit - the ladies had to get a racquetball up one pant leg and down the other, crossing over the gentleman's junk. The next game involved popping balloons held over various anatomies - the balloons cunningly removed at the last minute to create awkward situations. The final game consisted of blind folding the gentlemen, placing a bottle of water between their thighs and making them find their partner and - for lack of a better word - hump the water into a glass held in the lady's lap. We also enjoyed 70's night, which was more like 90's night with some 70's music and peace head bands. Lots of fluorescent colors.

The best part of the entertainment team's repertoire was the whistle and bouncy techno dance beat that was the basis of their interludes. "HUP HUP HUP HUP"

Dining on the Costa Concordia

Breakfast and Lunch were mainly buffet affairs - you could sit by the indoor/outdoor pool, or take your chances in the free for all that was the official buffet seating area. I think we missed the memo that said you could cut in front of people in the buffet line as long as you were going to take 5 minutes trying to pick up the last slice of pizza with the tongs.

Dinner was fantastic - we sat at table 244 in the Milano Restaurant served by Martin and Mr. Saitdit. Martin proved that he was the best waiter on that ship night after night - mainly by his attentiveness and Parmesan cheese application flair. He would flip a spoonful of cheese at your plate - he was batting .780 at the end of the cruise. Unfortunately Jamie's lap was the target of the other .220. Mr. Saitdit was always so happy and excited to be working there, it would improve your mood just to watch him pour you more wine. We had two gala nights where we wore suits and the ladies wore beautiful dresses. Our last night was Italia night - it culminated in the waiters dancing with all of the ladies and starting a restaurant wide conga line to the sounds of Vallero.

Our Cabins
Mike and Caitie had a cabin adjacent to ours which made meeting for events and meals easy. We each had an exterior room with private balcony. Mom and Dad had suite, which means they had a butler at their disposal. Mom and Jorge hit it off big time. Jorge would screen calls for her, "Mrs. Sandi is making relaxing outside, may I take a message?", scrounge up plates of snacks, and provide companionship as she rested her leg.

Sunset from our balcony

I could go on and on, but this post is way too long as it is. It was an amazing trip, and one that we'll all remember forever. Can't wait for next year's!

CIAO.

Michele in London...

2007-05-20T10:32:00.001-07:00

"Cheerio"--- or something like that....

So I've been here for almost a week now & can't believe my trip is almost over. London is quite a busy city and there is plenty to see and do. We saw Big Ben ("kids"), London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Eye, etc. I've seen the inside of many a pub also. For those of you who know me, I'm sure you're quite surprised by that! Jamie had a meeting on Tuesday night- so John, a coworker of John's, and I met for "a drink". This turned into an impromptu pub tour. Although it was a Tuesday night- the English seem to treat every night like a weekend night. Pubs were pretty full. Oh and time of day doesn't seem to matter much at all either. We walked by many pubs during our sightseeing that had plenty of people in them- even at noon.

Wednesday, Jamie and I left for our trip to Dublin, Ireland!!! Definitely need to go back- because the 24 hours we spent there was certainly not enough. Weather on Wednesday was not so good. Chilly, windy, rainy, & gloomy- not typical words I think of when I picture Ireland. I foolishly expected shining sun and green rolling hills (with dancing leprechauns). Because we stayed in the city of Dublin- there certainly wasn't much green. And who knew it would be so difficult to find an actual Irishmen in Ireland. It turns out Dublin is quite the melting pot. And oh so many tourists!! Americans, French, Italians, Hungarians, etc, etc.- everywhere!!! I just wanted that beautiful Irish accent! Took till almost midnight to hear it! Met two Irishmen at a pub who bought us some drinks. Then they took us to another pub where we could finally hear some traditional Irish music. Attempted some Irish jigs- unfortunately there's some pictures to prove it. Thursday was a much better day- weather wise! Finally some beautiful sunshine that lightened up the city and made it feel more like my anticipated Ireland. Saw some wonderful sights-- St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and of course the 'gorgeous' Guiness factory. Will definitely have to go back when I can visit outside of the city!

Friday, Jamie & I took the bus tour of London. Cheers to Jamie for actually wanting to do it again since it was like the 5th time she has done it. Jamie has learned so much about London and it's history that she could do her own bus tour that could probably top some of the others. What a beautiful day it was! The sun does shine in London!!! I have some sunburn on my nose to prove it! Met John at his work- where, ready for this... there is a bar inside his work!! The company stocks the alcohol! Employees can have a refreshing beer after a hard week of work. What a concept! Think I can bring that to the States? Met John's Australian "mate" Steve there and the four of us followed up our trip to the work bar with a speed game of grocery shopping. (The barbeque was the next day!) After that we went to a pub named Alex's. There I realized I had only met one or two actual Englishmen! Fortunately, I met a nice English bartender, who's name happens to be Jamie, at the pub. We invited him to join us to a Comedy Show that we are planning to go to on Monday. Have to see how that goes. Also at the pub- met an unforgettable drunk Scottish man- seems he has a strange manner of picking up the ladies that involves curse words that I never dare repeat.

Saturday, was the big combined Barbeque- with Jamie & John's neighbors, Lindsey & Andy. Quite a few people came and we had a "lovely" time. Met some more Australians- who are just a blast to hang out with! Participated in a made up game of "Penalties". This basically means anytime there was a party foul, i.e. spilling your drink, losing your drink, etc- the person was giving a penalty. Unfortunately, the penalty was a shot mixed by one of the fellow party goers. The type of shots that were mixed are probably better left to the imagination- but if you want a slight indication- picture hot sauce, olive juice, tomato juice & vodka--- all mixed together. Thankfully, I did not suffer any penalties! During the party, I watched on the "tele", my first English "football game". Definitely not as exciting as Amercian football! Do you believe we sat through over 2 hours of play to see just 1 single goal?!? After the barbeque, we decided to head to "Alex's Pub" again. Saturday nights in this part of London are unlike anything I've seen before. The streets are packed with people and just about every pub or nightclub has a large line (or "que" as they call it here) of people waiting to get in. Even Alex's was packed to the brim. Literally- people were packed in like sardines! It was near impossible to even move- let alone take a sip from your drink without someone bumping into it and you wearing most of the drink. We still managed to have a good time. Jamie, the bartender, took a break and had a drink with me. Also, ran into the drunk Scottish guy from the night before who had no recollection of what had occurred the previous night. Surprise, surprise!! Met a group of Irishmen. Figures, huh? Had to meet the Irishmen in London! Overall, was a great Saturday!

Time to head out. Will try to update after our night out at the Comedy Show...
Thanks to Jamie and John for a fabulous time!

Michele

Your Daemon is: A MOUSE?!

2007-05-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Busy couple of weeks! The best part was flying in to PA for a quick weekend for my goddaughter's christening and 1st Birthday. It was great seeing both mine and Jamie's families. It was way to short though - but I think I've almost got the hang of this jet setter thing. Probably will be used to the trans-atlantic flight just in time to move back..

Jamie comes back tomorrow (Yay!) with Michelle (double yay!). As fun as living like a bachelor can be, I can't wait to have her back. I'm also very jealous of Jamie, as she was able to visit NYC and meet up with everyone we haven't seen since Christmas.

For those of you who care - Perros Del Diablo are now on top of our new league. So far our record is 5-0-1. Our most recent win was 15-2. I've been invited to play in a friendly 11 a-side match in July which will be a lot fun, or a nightmare as I've never played goalie on a full size field with a full sized net.

I was reading a friend's blog, and saw that he filled out some quiz and was given a tiger daemon. I thought that was cool, so I took the test. I got a friggen mouse.
Here's the mouse. Since I'm not sure I'm happy with the mouse, I've left it open for you all to change.

Here's my oh-so-cool mouse.

Career Update and Other News

2007-04-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

I know you are all dying to know what I've been up to lately- well, the wait is over! I finished my last showcase for the season last week. It was a good show with the best turn-out of the season. I was happy! Now, I get a little summer break from showcases. But don't worry- I don't plan on resting on my laurels- I will be directing my first full-length London play in July! It's called The Brother and it is a fantastic new piece of writing by a new playwright. The show will be at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town the 4th -21st of July. Dan and Jim will be in town after it opens and will get a chance to see it before we head to Wales. I am very excited. We are in the middle of casting as I type and it's looking good. In September, I will have two showcases- one each in Manchester and London- and then it's off to Cornwall for 4 weeks where I will be directing True West at a theatre in Liskeard! That's what I've got at the moment, but there are a few other projects in the works as well. Will keep you posted....

In other news- Myke and Drew's leaving do was Friday night. It was a great party in spite of its sad purpose. I would post a picture or two (I took 250) but I'm not really sure how to do it. So, you'll just have to take my word for it. This whole build-up to them leaving is quite depressing. They were our first London friends and they introduced us to fun things like: Waitangi Day, cribbage, Greenwich Park and Greenwich Market, absinthe and (THE most important) Crispy Duck! London will be strange without them. Their last night in town is tomorrow, so after Perros del diablo play their first two games in the new league, we will be heading out for one last London hoorah with the gang.

Enough sappiness!

FYI: I will be heading home to PA for two weeks on Monday. John will be joining me for our God-daughter's Christening May 4th-7th, but he might be lonely the rest of the time. If you haven't talked to him in a while, it would be a great time to call or email!

Perros Del Diablo have been Promoted

2007-04-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

My football team has been promoted to the next division after devastating our current division. More specifically, we won 9 out of 10 for 27 points and had a goal difference of +37. So hopefully our next division will be more challenging.

Since there was actually no way we couldn't get promoted last night, I was allowed to come out of goal and play! It was friggen awesome! I only played out for 10 minutes, then went back into goal. Which was good because I could barely stand up after 10 minutes. I thought I was in ok shape with my regular leisurely runs around the common and my gym visits. I'm not. Not by a long shot.

Speaking of long shots - I did get a shot on goal. I pulled it wide and to the right, but what the heck! I also learned that I'm good at challenging the ball. I guess because I lack finesse I just run right in front of the guy and kick at the ball until something happens. Reviewing the videos Jamie took on our camera, I resemble more of a shuffling chimp than a proper footballer. The best videos are the ones where Jamie is talking "Nice!" or my favorite - "OH JOHN!!"

Team Photo (one of us used to play pro):

We then went to the pub (of course) to celebrate our promotion. We sat outside and enjoyed the unseasonably warm night air (45 degrees) and regaled each other with stories of how awesome we were. We were joined by some more friends and were having a nice relaxing evening. Then our bicycle wine merchants rolled up.

I call them the bicycle wine merchants because they rolled up on A (pronounced "AH" for those of you who don't even own A gun which would necessitate A gun rack) bicycle and proceeded to pull bottles of wine out from down their pants. They wanted 10 pounds a bottle. I thought, "What a bargain! I know guys who would pay 100 pounds for wine that touched your junk." I then stared at them until they left.

Of course, I wasn't enough of a threat to overcome the lure of the beautiful sirens at our table, so I gave in and started messing with them, a favorite Ramsburg family bar game. I was a plumber to them, and they called me Mario.

They really enjoyed chatting up the ladies, and told one of the guys on the team that his cooking was shit. Apparently he looked like a chef from the pizza joint next door. They were funny the first 3 times they rolled by, but the fourth was pushing it.

Here's a picture of them:

On a sadder note, our great friends Myke and Drew are moving back to the States next week. We're going to their leaving-do tomorrow night - it seems like it will be a great party. We're going to the Living Room just off of Regent Street - fancy! Now we know how everyone felt when we left NYC to come to this great city. It's an odd thing to have a hole in your heart that is barely plugged by knowing you'll always be friends. That and the stories, and Absinthe.

Catch you later.

4 Day Weekend!

2007-04-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I are relaxing on our last day of our 4 day weekend. We just spent a couple of hours outside enjoying the sun on the Common. We have forced ourselves to do next to nothing so we can fully appreciate our free time. We just finished up disc 1 in my Time Team - A History of Britian DVD collection Jamie gave me for my birthday.

Gosh - lots has happened - Jeff and Rae had a blast while they were here. Jamie and I got to play tour guides and show them just about everything in London. One of these days I think we'll open our own tour group. We also found a great little Indian place before seeing Wicked.

My birthday party was amazing. We started out by going down to the pub to watch Arsenal (who lost) and then sitting outside enjoying the warm(ish) weather. We then moved on to China Town to Crispy Duck for dinner - Crispy Duck couldn't sit all of us, so a nice waiter walked us down the street to Crispy Duck II. I had no idea that there was such a demand for Crispy Duck that they needed two buildings! Then we sang our hearts out at K-Box before retiring to our flat to enjoy champagne (thanks Mom & Dad!) with our friends. If you want to see the pictures, email me and I'll send out the links.

Here's a picture from dinner:

Perros Del Diablo lost our first match of the season on Wednesday - 2-3. Only two of us from the regular team could make it to the game. Unfortunately it took us too long to find our rhythm with the guys filling in. However, we did get on the ball and tore apart our opponents 6-2 in our second match of the evening. I also tore apart my gloves sliding on the astroturf after one of the balls that made it past our defense. Here's that picture of me missing a penalty from March 21st -

Friday we went to the Zoo with Andy and Lindsey to see the new gorilla exhibit. The zoo was pretty cool, and the gorillas were impressive. The best part was the canal trip to Little Venice and finding a great pub for dinner. We got a backyard view of some of the larger mansions in the area as well see some really cool houseboats from the canal.

Easter Sunday was spent at Myke and Drew's with Steve, Andy, and Lindsey - they cooked a fantastic dinner for all of us. It was a great night.

John is old!

2007-03-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone-

We are currently celebrating John's 30th. Andy, Lindsey (in her new skeleton hoodie), Drew, Myke, Steve, Jeff, Rae, Steve, Hannah, Martin, and Ross are here and we are having a blast! Just wanted you to know that we have rung in his 30's in style!

We started with a football match (we lost- so we don't want to talk about it!) Followed that with dinner at Crispy Duck II and finally Karaoke at K-Box in Leicester Square. We had a blast singing! Now we are home and enjoying the champagne that the parents sent over!

Thank you to everyone who sent cards, emailed and called. He is having a great night/day!

I'm sure you'll get a full report with photos soon.

3 Soft Goals

2007-03-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Rae are here! They arrived early Sunday morning - we'll give you more details later, but we're having a great time! Also, Perros Del Diablo supporters will be pleased to know that we now dominate our division with 4-0-0 record. We beat last week's teams by large margins giving us a huge lead in goal difference! I only let 3 goals get by me, 2 of which were own goals - they bounced off my defender and straight in to the goal. The 3rd was my fault - I gave up a penalty by leaving my special keeper area (I was very excited about getting the ball) and guessed left when the guy shot right. There is a great action shot of the penalty kick that Jamie took - I'll post it when I have more time. Off to wake up the visitors!

2007-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night my football team demolished our two opponents. It's a five a side league, and the matches are 17 minutes each. The action is really fast and scores are normally high. We won 6-1 and 4-0. If you want to keep up with the league, here's the website. We're Battersea Wednesday 2nd Division.

I wrote a match report for the team, I'd post it here but it has some last names - email me if you want a copy. Here's some pictures my wonderful wife took. She hung out behind my goal, so you get a good view of my lovely rear. We wear white tops and blue shorts.

You can't really tell, but I'm making a save.

"KEEPER KEEPER KEEPER" - whoever yells this loudest is the one I roll the ball back to.

Like a tiger waiting to pounce. Red shoes on the left was jealous of my blue shoes so bought his own flash.

Changing out of my boots so I can go to a pub and celebrate our win! As my knees testify, old astroturf is more akin to sandpaper than plastic grass.

Thursday night was the leaving party for the guy who worked with me in IT support. Jamie came out and we had a great time. Several other people were leaving, so we got to combine all the parties into one blow out. Jamie and I left before it got too messy, which was a good thing!

Friday night Jamie and I went to check out a theatre that may be used for a project she's working on. I'll let her describe the absolute crap we subjected ourselves to for an hour. I could've just pooped on my hand and flushed a 20 quid note down the toilet and saved 55 minutes of boredom.

St Patrick's day was fun - Lindsey and Andy went out with us around Clapham. Our criteria was to find a pub with live Irish music. We did find a place with a live Irish band. Unfortunately said band tried to experiment with Doors covers and weird jazz fiddle. We left after 1 pint. We then went to the Swan in Stockwell - a blatantly Irish club/bar/pub, only to be informed that cover was 15 pounds each! F* that. We then turned around and went to Balham and found a fun bar, but no Irish music. We eventually ended up back in our flat with curry and doner kebabs and played Shout About Movies - which Andy now calls Shout About John Ramsburg's Hobbies.

We've spring cleaned in preparation for this year's first visitors - Jeff and Rae! They'll be out on the 25th and spending all week with us to help celebrate my 30th, which is looming ever nearer. I'll be in Frankfurt this Thursday and Friday helping to move our German office to a new building.

The Sun Came Out and Jamie Returned or Sir Ian, please stop stalking me!

2007-03-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, Strangers!

How have you been? I've been busy and happy. Debut Productions has kept me working hard, but it's worth it. We're slowly instituting changes that are making the showcases better. We already have almost 20 agents and casting directors booked for our Tuesday show next week! (That's a lot- so be impressed- be very impressed.)

I spent three days last week in Manchester for my first Manchester Showcase. Karen, one of the women who runs Debut, booked my hotel for me. When I looked it up online, I found terrible reviews saying things such as, "Dear God- don't stay here!" They spoke of bugs in the shower and hairs in the bed. She, of course, was very upset to hear this and made me promise to leave if it was that bad. Now I consider myself a relatively tough woman, but I draw the line at hairs in my bed. I was hesitant to say the least. But, thankfully, there were no bugs or hairs in my room. It wasn't the Ritz, but it was cheap and a warm place to rest my head.

The rest of Manchester was perfectly nice as well. Granted- I spent most of my time in a studio theatre four times the size of the one I work in in London- with dressing rooms and wings and a booth and everything- so I was in my glory! I did manage to spend an afternoon in a pub with some of the actors. The pub was great- picture McKenna's but smaller. I found out later that it used to be public toilets. Leave it to me!

I'm scheduled to be back in Manchester in September. The Showcase is actually on my 30th birthday, so John is going to come up with me. I figure we'll go up a day early, so that we can visit all of the fun music landmarks- like the Lesser Free Trade Hall where the Sex Pistols played.

Upon my return to London, the sun came out. It is glorious today! 60 degrees! John, Lindsey and I went to the Farmers' Market and bought good food and a few plants for our patio. Then John and I went for a run. YAY! Sunday!

In John news- his first official football match is Wednesday night. To Lindsey's utter disappointment, I have sworn off Body Attack (our Wednesday class) until John's season is over so that I can commit to being a proper WAG. I'm going to wear prada shoes and gucci sunglasses and sit on the sidelines sipping pimms.

If you've made it this far- you deserve to know what the second title of this blog means. I am sorry to say that Sir Ian McKellan has begun stalking me. Two weeks ago- I saw him two days in a row outside our Sainsbury Local. Last week, upon my return from Manchester, I walked out of the tube station and there he was- the first person I saw! Sir Ian, if you are reading this (and I'm sure you are,) the stalking must come to an end. If you want me to direct your next project, all you have to do is ask and I'll check my diary.

HAGGIS!

2007-02-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

I had my first taste of haggis tonight. Our neighbors were eating it for dinner and offered me a fork full of haggis, taters, and turnips. I really liked it - it was like a sweet black pudding.

We saw Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe. I'll let Jamie write about the directing, acting and the set when she has Time (with a capital T Hugh). I will say that the end of the 1st act was ruined by some schmuck taking photos in front of us with a huge ass camera. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. Why didn't an usher jump him? Jamie kept kicking his seat. He didn't return for act 2, so I assume he is a design student or photographer stealing shots. It was an amazing moment on stage. One of my highlights was seeing all those kids who came to see Harry Potter with their parents. Parents who failed to research the play. I was impressed with the distinct lack of giggling. At least they all were exposed to live theatre.

We discovered that we can walk to Brixton in 15 minutes. The bus takes 30 minutes. We always thought it was so far away. We walked to the movie theatre to watch Hot Fuzz. It was friggen fantastic! I don't know if it's out in the US yet, but it's the same guys who made Shaun of the Dead.

I was jealous of our good friend Noelle, so I went and got myself a new pair of glasses. I did after all wear the last ones for almost 6 years. I also got a new prescription for my contacts. However, like all my new contact prescriptions it is WRONG. At least this time it was subtle - Left eye is perfect. The right eye is good up to about 10 feet away. Picture this scenario: Put in your new contacts. Check out your vision by looking at the toothpaste, mirror, etc. Everything is cool. Head outside. Immediately want to vomit because you can ALMOST see everything. FUN! At least I avoided the wonky eye.

News on the football front - I paid in for my league membership yesterday. So it's official, I'm on the team. I also named the team. I work with 100 people whose job is to be creative and I named the team. Perros Del Diablo. We just watched Bombon El Perro and I was stuck on Perro. Like when Brad Pitt kept saying El Camino in the Mexican. I'll post a picture of me in my kit when I have one. Exciting! Odd thing is, Jamie and I just received a slew of Latin American films from our mail dvd service. All very good, just odd timing, since we're still waiting on LOST series 1 Part 2..

Jamie went to Manchester yesterday, and I was in Madrid Thursday night and Friday during the day. I had a great time in Madrid even though I was working. What a great city. We are very lucky.

-John

John "The Hands"

2007-02-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

I know you are all on pins and needles waiting to hear how my first stint as goalie went!

As you may or may not know, I had to buy all new kit for the game. Kit is English for crap/stuff/equipment. I now try to exercise my new vocabulary as much as possible. Aside from my new AstroTurf shoes (turf trainers) I went for the best prices. I am now the Umbro kid - shinguards (shinpads), shorts (bottoms), t-shirt (top). My socks (socks) are not Umbro, as I bought the .99 pair. My goalkeeper gloves were selected as they were the only ones in my size. My new turf trainers are wicked (flash). They are bright electric blue. I figure I can at least distract players with the flash that are my feet.

The game itself was a lot of fun. We played on half of the field (pitch) sideways. The sidelines are now goalines. The goals themselves are smaller than regulation and there is a semicircular zone around the goal where the keeper lives, and all shots on the goal must be made from beyond the zone.

I learned some crucial points:

After stopping a corner kick with my face, I learned not to be afraid of the ball as it doesn't really hurt that much
After stopping afore mentioned corner kick, I learned not stop balls with my face, as the goal only comes up to my waist.
Screaming helps
American football gave me the wonderful skill of stopping immediately when I hear a whistle - unfortunately the only whistle on the pitch was being used on another game. I was confused a lot.
Diving on AstroTurf is ill advised.

To end this post, I will leave you with the salient bits (parts) of the company email describing the game:

QUOTE (edited to remove names)

Indeed, one feels that if the opposing team had our shot-stopper, John 'the hands' Ramsburg, in goals then the game might have been closer. In a very impressive debut, Ramsburg made a number of crucial saves and silenced any potential critics with a great display. Great hands John!

After the match, manager Jimmy R summed things up nicely, saying: 'That was great. We were great. Let's get to the XXXing pub'.

Quite.
END of QUOTE

Waitangi Day, Wolfmother, Snow, and Goal Keeping

2007-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

What a busy week!

The Arsenal game was amazing. We learned the chants and songs - what we could understand anyway. That atmosphere was electric - and then they won in overtime! The new stadium is beautiful, and our seats were great. It was also interesting to learn how London deals with 50,000 people all going to the tube at once. Mounted Police make you stop and wait in the streets for the platforms to clear. Can you imagine living there? All those fans storming your neighborhood?

Saturday was the annual Waitangi Day Circle Line Pub Crawl. This year I got separated from the group during the 4 PM Haka and ended up in the middle of Kiwis who insisted that since I was there, I must take off my shirt. So I did. I did manage to meet up with everyone shortly after the Haka and then made it home 8 hours later. A grand total of 12 hours out. Jamie had rehearsal so couldn't make the pub crawl this year - however, she did go out with her girlfriends that night and must of had a great time since she got in well after I did!

Monday we saw Wolfmother at the Hammersmith Apollo. They rock. Definitely check 'em out if you haven't already.

It snowed again! This time it was "the snow storm of the century" all 7 years of it. London only received 2 inches which melted rapidly. That didn't stop the entire underground and rail system from falling apart though. I did make it in to work on time - for some reason the buses, which drive on the snow covered streets, had no problems.

Another news bulletin - in a rare moment of cocky extravagance, I agreed not only to play for the company FC, I was asked to be the goal keeper! I had to go out and buy everything - shoes, gloves, shinguards, socks, etc. I did buy the flashiest shoes, so hopefully I can distract people with my shiny blue feet. First game is on Thursday - wish me luck!

Arsenal 3 - Tottenham 1

2007-02-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

That's right- we won! It took 30 minutes of overtime, but we did it! We'll give you a full report soon, but I didn't want to leave you hanging.

Emirates, Here We Come!

2007-01-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen: my husband is the best husband ever and he managed to get us two tickets to Wednesday's Carling Cup Semifinal between Arsenal and Tottenham! I cannot tell you how excited we are!!! Full report to follow-

Where have we been?

2007-01-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry we haven't written in a while, but we've been busy! The big news is that as of February 2nd, I (Jamie) will stop temping for a while. YAY! The production company I've been directing showcases for since May of last year has asked me to produce them as well. That means more money, not as much as temping, but enough to make the leap. I have started taking over producing responsibilities while temping full-time, so my schedule is pretty full. I also have a few theatre projects in the works- nothing definitive yet, but enough to fill in what free time I have left. I may have to go back to temping in the summer- when there are no showcases, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now- I am making my money as a theatre professional and that makes me pretty happy. AND the best part is that I get to go on my first official business trip- to Manchester! I'll be directing showcases there in March, September, and November. I will actually spend my 30th birthday in Manchester for a showcase. Don't worry- John is going to take the day off and come up with me. Aw, how sweet!

To help me deal with my newfound crazy schedule, I've decided to start taking Yoga classes. There's a beginner's class every Tuesday at our gym and today was my first time. I never thought I'd be able to focus in a class like that, but let me tell you- when you are trying to balance your entire body on one bent leg while holding the rest of your body perfectly parallel to the floor, you can't really think about anything else. And when it was all over, I still managed to feel relaxed. I think I'm hooked.

In John news--his boss was in town last week and he found out that his company is expanding and he will soon be responsible for an office in Paris. All I want to know is how soon will he need to visit and how long can we stay?!

Lest you should worry that our lives have become all work and no play, here's a summary of some of the fun we've been having:

We signed up for the British version of NetFlix and started watching LOST from the beginning. We are almost at the end of Season 1.

Two weeks ago we saw a production of Sam Shepard's Savage Love and Motel Chronicles at Theatre 503. Savage Love wasn't much to talk about. Motel Chronicles stood out for two reasons. First- they chose to do it in American accents, which is risky for a low-budget studio show with no dialect coach. Secondly- one of the actors was AMAZING! He didn't just have a great accent, but we actually thought he might be American. He stood like someone from the Mid-West, he walked like it, he had the rhythm of the speech. It was the best "American" I've seen here. Unfortunately, the other two actors weren't nearly as good. And onstage with him, it was painfully obvious.

This sunday started off with the two of us taking a Spinning Class with our neighbors Andy and Lindsay. Have you ever taken one of those? Let's just say it is Tuesday and my legs are still sore!! After the class, we went to Myke and Drew's place for Sunday Roast. We ate delicious food, drank (mostly) good wine, and played cribbage. Good fun was had by all- Myke even let me play Eminem toward the end of the night!

There's lots more to tell, but I don't want to ramble. They say it snowed in areas of London today. I think they lied.

Oh no, Becks, don't go!

2007-01-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Okay- so he won’t technically be leaving England- since he hasn’t played for the national team since the World Cup- but it will still be sad to see him go. For those of you who aren’t up on your soccer news, David Beckham is leaving Real Madrid this summer for the LA Galaxy Major League Soccer Team!!! People cannot believe it! They thought for sure that he would head to another European or Asian club, but America? The truth is- it was inevitable. He just couldn’t resist the pull of Hollywood- the stars, the glitz, the glamour, the £130 million pounds over 5 years! And, of course, Victoria is dying to live closer to her new BFF, Katie Holmes!

To be fair- Becks says he is making the move because he wants to inspire American children to continue playing soccer past the age of 10 (or something like that.) Being a newly inspired soccer fanatic, if that is even a part of his reason, I say, “Thanks, Becks!” Whatever his reason, I think England will be sad to see him go. I know I am! And I don’t know what I’ll read until we return to the US when I will again be able to bask in the cover stories about his and Victoria’s glamorous parties, their incredible fashion-sense and her ever-shrinking body!

Start the countdown, Americans, you are in for a treat!

Ho Ho No!

2007-01-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

UPDATED: PICTURES!
Christmas
New Years
What a whirlwind 2 weeks!

The Fonz was amazing. Apparently the show we saw was not true Panto, but closer to Musical Comedy according to the reviewer. However, I felt that breaking up the story of Peter Pan with a bawdy rendition of the 12 days of Christmas and the Indians dancing to Eye of the Tiger/the Final Countdown was more akin to insanity. And who could forget the heart wrenching end of Peter Pan where a comedian comes out in a giant kangaroo suit and makes the audience sing along to the Kangaroo bounce song? Ah, J.M. Barrie would be delighted at this "riddle of existence."

Our flight home was jam packed with excitement. First, we used our miles and were able to snag the last two upgrades to Premium Economy. Simon Schama sat next to Jamie - he's only our favorite BBC History documentarian! When we landed, a drunk Englishman was hauled off by two of Newark's finest. OK, they got him as far as Upper Class (strangely vacant since we were asked to remain seated) before his pants fell off and then pissed on the aisle. I agree with Simon who said, "He bears a striking resemblance to the Earl of Essex, who lost his head in 1592 for being a troublemaker." Oh, the tears of laughter are indeed bitter sweet. Actually Simon turned out to be a regular guy who was pretty cool.

3.5 Hours later than planned, we made it to Stillwater, a bar on E 4th. Kudos to those who had a show and stayed up late enough to say Hello/Goodbye! After much catching up we moved onto 119 where we continued to revel and rejoice in each other's company. I did spend too much time messing with some tool who tried to sign me up to his new "Internet based band marketing site - rejected.com!" I convinced him that Dave was a respected independent music reviewer. Fun, but too time consuming - I missed out on good friend time. One breakfast and cab ride to hoboken later, we crashed at 7 Am.

Off to the out-laws! A wonderful weekend that was of course too short. I met Brady and Mona for the first time. Jamie and I were asked to be the God parents of her newest cousin - who I also just met, Emily! Mark, I'm sorry, but God says I can't let her be a Cowboys fan. I checked the bible- It is a moral obligation. It was great seeing the newlywed Flo and Keith and their parents. And it was wonderful seeing the family. Again, not enough time visiting everyone, but a wonderful Christmas morning.

Christmas afternoon was spent with the Ramsburg's. The Eagles gave us one of the best Christmas presents with a victory over the Cowboys. Boxing day was a lot of fun - we saw Rocky and partied with the Mathews and the Giovincos. Wednesday Susie & Jeff visited us, along with the newly engaged Josh and Regina! YAY! But as always seems to happen, we had to leave too soon.

We got bumped up to Upper Class on the way back. Oh bother! A fast flight thanks to the fold-out bed and comfy "flight suit" we made our groggy way back to Clapham. I worked on Friday which was a gentle shock.

New Year's Eve saw us on the HMS President, a 1918 vessel moored to the Victorian Embankment. We partied until three with multiple South Africans and 3 Antipodeans. A lovely South African couple asked us to join their book club - we agreed. It now totals 4 people! Hopefully they will return our calls... Jamie and I danced, but not all night. We relaxed in the Piano bar below decks after watching the fireworks and calling those people the London Mobile network would allow . We met even more South Africans - one of whom is a huge Michael Vick fan. Go Hokies! Some Rufies' curry later, Jamie and I were fast asleep by 5 Am.

New Year's day was spent watching Family Guy - thanks Mike! - and just getting our energy together to join the workforce on Tuesday.

All in all, a fantastic if exhausting trip.

Almost there...

2006-12-19T03:06:00.000-08:00

Hi all- Jamie here. John is in Frankfurt today for work. Don't worry- he isn't leaving me home alone two nights before we leave for Christmas. He left this morning and is returning this evening. What a jet-setter, huh?

Today is my last day at my temp job until the new year. YAY! I am really looking forward to tomorrow- when I will watch Miracle on 34th Street and wrap presents!

But the most interesting thing about tomorrow is that John and I are going to see a Panto. Panto is a phenomenon here. All the theatres all over the country do these shows at Christmastime. From what I gather- they are silly musical takes on fairy tales with famous tv stars acting in them. We're quite excited, but not just because we're taking in some culture. We are going to see Peter Pan and guess who is playing Captain Hook...

HENRY WINKLER!!!!!

That's right- we're going to see The Fonz playing Captain Hook in a silly English show!

Thursday morning we will rise early, have a big breakfast, give the cats their stockings, make a quick trip to the gym and head home for the holidays. We are so looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on our extremely short visit.

If we won't see you, we wish you a very Happy Holiday and a Joyous New Year!

Christmas Time

2006-12-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy two weeks!

Jamie and I went to a Christmas party with some people from a theatre group with whom Jamie has been workshopping off and on. It was at a house 2 stops south from us, so it was close and convenient. I had a great time, met lots of new people who seemed cool. The house was the main event - it is owned by Terry Johnson, the playwright of Piano/Forte. Terry wasn't there, but everyone seemed to be his close personal friend. Seeing his home really cements some of his literary devices. Two well formed devices for those who are familiar with Terry's work.

Speaking of theatre, Jamie and I saw Gates of Gold on December 4th. The guy who produced the Dreamweave Arts festival that Jamie worked on over the summer directed and produced the show. The show was good, if sentimental. It seemed to go over well with Sir Ian McKellen who sat next us. Ok, not next, but 3 seats over on the aisle with his friends as a buffer. Of course, the theatre seats 60 in a thrust, and Ian (as I now call him) was the main attraction.

Speaking of famous sightings, I had fun at my work support team Christmas lunch (support = it, hr, finance, reception). Apparently there was a famous ex English rugby player there. The ladies were bedazzled by his perma-tan and bleached smile. I was more of the "Huh?" crowd. It was a fun afternoon into evening into morning lunch.

Speaking of Lunch, Jamie, Myke, Drew, and I went to Bath over the weekend for a bit of Christmas shopping and R&R. It was quick trip, only one night. We'll post links to pictures soon. It was great - we took a bus tour with a witty tour guide. The guide had a penchant for bullshit, which was fun. We then walked around the packed market for a while and took care of stuffing our faces with sausage. On Sunday we went to the new Spa - it's fantastic! There is a heated open air pool on the roof. The pool has views of the abbey and the surrounding countryside. Four aromatherapy steam rooms are complemented by a central waterfall shower fed by the water of the hot springs. Myke decided to taste the water. I'm surprised he didn't spend the rest of the trip on a toilet. After a relaxing two hours Jamie and I caught the Arsenal game while Myke and Drew toured the roman baths. All in all, a successful trip!

Dublin Survived, Ice Skating, and an Exciting Tie

2006-11-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hello,

It's John. I had my office holiday party already. Thanksgiving day my office flew everyone to Dublin. Nice huh? Not only that, we partied on the roof of the Guiness Storehouse (the home of Guiness) in the Gravity Bar. The Gravity bar is an oval shaped glass enclosure with a 360 degree view of Dublin - very beautiful.

I got everyone dancing shortly after the steak buffet. We danced all night until they closed the bar at 1 am. The Guiness flowed freely and for free! I busted some mad shapes on the floor and had a fantastic time.

When I finally arrived at the hotel, I was a bit hungry. I know, you must be surprised that John Ramsburg was hungry. I mentioned this to those around me in the lobby of the hotel -I forgot to mention that the lobby was turned into an impromptu Cohn & Wolfe party palace - ie bottles of wine and pints in abundance from the hotel bar that was kicking out everyone.

I was accompanied to the nearest open burger "palace" - Not McDonalds, Wendy's, or Burger King BTW- by a nice lass who suggested purchasing cheeseburgers for everyone. Guess what I got to ask a cashier at 2:30 AM?

"We would like to purchase 55 Euro worth of cheeseburgers. Can you make that happen?"

Luckily for us, the manager realized the benefit of thawing out 25 meat patties. We got a veggy burger, chicken burger, and two cokes thrown in for free.

According to those still sentient in the lobby, we were like Santa arriving on Angel's wings. A little bit of heaven wrapped up in cheeseburger form. One could argue the state of contemporary society based on the messianic reception we received. Please don't. I just brough cheeseburgers to the masses - St. Johnny R would acceptable..

We were flown back the next afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't have time to actually explore Dublin, but that was more than made up by having my first (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) Irish Guiness in a gastropub off of O'Connell street during lunch the first day.

Friday night Jamie and I went to the Natural History Museum to their Christmas shopping fair. We did some shopping and went ice skating. I haven't gone ice skating since I was sixteen, and Jamie had only gone once. Did you know rental skates now have hard boots like ski boots? WOW! What a difference 13 years makes! Aside from major advances in rental skate technology, it also removes your ability to skate. Jamie and I spent our hour session in the kiddie training rink - we think we'll be ready for the big rink next time. It was very romantic, and I am very proud of Jamie - she picked it right up!

We then celebrated our sixth anniversary on Saturday in our traditional fashion of watching our wedding video, eating pizza, and drinking beer. It was great.

Today (Sunday) we did some more shopping and then watched the biggest Football (Soccer) game of the season (Man U. vs Chelsea)! It ended in a draw - which was fantastic, as it means the Gunners have chance of getting back into fourth sometime before June.

Exciting news - a new free TV station now shows American sports. If we stay up all night, we can watch the Eagles play at 1 am. I look forward to reading all about it tomorrow morning.

Off to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

Jamie here. John wanted to write, but he is in Dublin today for his company Christmas party and I thought you deserved an update. So- here it is!

Our show went very well. It was an absurd short play and we had less than a week to rehearse, but we pulled it together in the end. The cast was John, Mariesa from Actors Studio, and Emma, an actress who did one of the showcases I directed. They did a great job with a difficult script. John, of course, was fantastic and it forced him to go beyond his comfort zone- which is always a good thing for an actor. The show was part of a festival called Bite Sized. Ten plays. Ten minutes each. All by new writers and directed by young directors. I was lucky to be a part of it, because 8 of the other 9 directors all go to school together. They've started a company focusing on producing new works. And they've asked me if I'd be interested in working with them again. It was definitely a worthwhile experience.

On Friday we answered phones for two hours for the BBC Children in Need Telethon. That was cool. We spoke to a lot of different people from all over England. We couldn't understand a lot of them and many of them couldn't understand us- but we managed to get their money for a good cause. I have one story to share: There was a little boy- 7 years old maybe- who got a 14 out of 14 on his spelling test. His mom gave him 5 pounds as a reward. He called to donate that 5 pounds to Children in Need. That is just one example- there were so many children who called. It was very touching.

Sunday was our Thanksgiving. Andy, Lindsey, Myke, Drew and Steve came over and we had a full Thanksgiving Dinner. I even managed to successfully make a turkey!!! Thanks to A LOT of help from my mom via skype and telephone. We had a lovely time. It was Andy and Steve's first Thanksgivings and I think they'll be coming back next year!

I am heading to work in a minute. It's weird working on Thanksgiving, but here it's just another Thursday. John is in Dublin and I'm sure he will have great stories to tell you when he returns.

Friday we are going Chistmas shopping and ice skating at the Natural History Museum- which should be interesting since I've only been once before and I was knocked over by a kid! They have a Christmas Market outside and since it's Black Friday (not here of course) I HAVE to buy something!

Saturday is our anniversary. So we will be partaking in the annual pizza and wedding video tradition- after my day of rehearsals for my November Showcase.

Should be a nice relaxing weekend.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And for those of you who will be shopping tomorrow- HAVE A BLAST!!

Thank you

2006-11-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

We want to thank everyone in the US who voted with their hearts on Tuesday and helped to create change and force Rumsfeld out of office. I (Jamie) have been jumping around the house in glee since hearing he is leaving! Now- if only we can take Virginia...

Systems Are Down

2006-11-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

Jamie here. I'm temping at the moment, but our systems are down. So I thought I'd share three quick things with you.

1- I am a clumsy fool! I managed to cut my eye open last night. Now I look like a boxer. It's kind of cool actually, because I look quite tough. I'll take a picture tonight and post it.

2- John and I are going to see Fireworks tonight in honor of Guy Fawkes day. Remember remember the 5th of November. It's going to be a weekend full of bonfires and fireworks. I'm so excited!

3- We are doing another play!!!! I will be directing a short play in a festival called "Bite Sized" at Theatre 503 and John will be acting in it. I just got the play Wednesday and it goes up the 12-14. Nothing like being under the gun! It's a great script and I'm very excited. You can check out more on the festival at the website. Click Here

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Oh Bother.. BOO, I Suppose

2006-10-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here eating Fun Dip, the last of my pilfered halloween candy from the office. Actually it's called Double Dip and has a clever sugar dipping stick that has a slight concave curve for prime fiz dip collection.

Halloween in England is LAME. Apparantly most parents won't let their kids go trick or treating because it's not safe. Also, nobody gets dressed up at work. Imagine being the only cowboy in a room full of sweaters. That was a fate I almost avoided today. I did in fact wear my sherrif's hat to the office.

There was an office party of sorts. Someone laid out bowls of sweets and made jello ("jelly") shots. Which was an odd combination, but I coped. I ended up being called "Woody" by the more clever members of staff. I was also the only male even making an attempt at a costume. Some ladies put orange and black ribbons and feathers in their hair. Apparantly a bang up job by English standards.

People were amazed to hear that at home adults do actually dress up for Halloween parties. Further bafflement ensued when I explained that you can in fact dress up as anything you like, and the costume doesn't even need to have the adjective "Spooky" or "Dead" shoehorned onto the description.

Well, my fun dip is finished. Wish Jamie luck as she deals with my all night sugar high!

Didn't You Get the Memo?

2006-10-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently not. But if I did get it, I believe it would have read something like this:

MEMO

DATE: 29 October 2006

TO: All women living in London aged 15 and over

Please remember to wear your autumn uniform today. For those of you who may have forgotten what the uniform entails, here is a reminder:

-Skinny Jeans (whether you should be wearing skinny jeans or not)
-Boots over your jeans
*A note about the boots: they can be knee-length or ankle and if you are really desperate, big suede winter boots will suffice*

Thank you,

The Fashion Police

My First Trip to Spain by Jamie Ramsburg

2006-10-26T03:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

There is so much to tell about my first trip to Spain! But I promise to keep it brief.

First of all- let me announce that I barely spoke any English while I was there and I managed just fine. I brushed up on my Spanish the week or so before the trip and on the flight there and, while it was far from perfect, people understood me and, for the most part, I understood them. I did have a little trouble with menus, but that's mostly because they put ham in EVERYTHING even if it isn't listed as an ingredient! That being said- we did have some great food.

The hotel was beautiful! We got a big room with pretty shuttered windows and a not terrible view. I managed to fit in a little sightseeing before the rain came, but once the rain came it did not go away. So I spent most of the day Thursday in the Museum of Modern Art (el Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) which was amazing!! There are entire rooms devoted to Miro and Dali AND there is one large gallery dedicated to Picasso's Guernica. Guernica is probably Picasso's most famous painting. It is HUGE and is his comment on the horrors of war. It is mesmerizing.

There are many stories I could tell, but I think our trip to Madrid can be summed up by one:

Thursday night after dinner John and I wanted to have a drink before returning to our hotel. There was a little bar across the street from our hotel and we thought we'd go there. If you'd like a frame of reference, there is a photo of the outside. It is the eighth to last photo in the batch.

We walked into this place and it was empty. There were two people: the bartender and the cook/owner (I think.) So we ordered our drinks and sat at the bar. There was no TV, so after about two minutes John got bored and asked me, "Are you comfortable translating for me?" I said, "Not really." So he asked the bartender if he spoke English. He didn't. The bartender looked to the cook/owner who didn't speak English either, but now he wanted to talk. And voila- I'm translating! We spent about 30 minutes with John talking and asking questions- me trying my best to translate- listening and attempting to comprehend the man speaking- and then translating back to John. It was like a bad comedy sketch! The man told John I was doing well, but the truth is: my tenses were a mess, my vocabulary was less than acceptable and I spent a lot of time searching for the right words! By the end of our first beers, I hurried John out of the bar reminding him that he had an 8:00 flight the next morning.

That says it all. I can't wait to go back!

Click Here to see our photos

We're Back!

2006-10-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here in my jersey listening to the Eagles playing the Bucs. So you can guess my mood.

Jamie and I have finally returned from our Jetset week! I flew home last Friday (the 13th, dum dum dum) - I went straight to Jeff's rehearsal. I was overlooked in the order of the ceremony, so we went back through everything so I could read the selected Bible passage. It was a great reunion between Jeff, Josh, and me.

I picked up Jamie after the rehearsal and headed for the rehearsal dinner. We sat with the pastor and his wife and my friend Brad and his wife Heather. There were other people we didn't talk too. Which is fine - Jetlag hit me about the same time the main course was served. My body screamed " It's 2 AM you crazy bastard! Stop eating and go to sleep!" I ignored the screaming and regaled people with stories of London. Actually what came out was a lot of nonsense that received polite nods.

Saturday morning Jamie and I watched our nephew Tommy play flag football. Tommy actually had positive yardage and had a brilliant fake handoff that fooled the other 6-8 year olds. His coach also uses the Statue of Liberty play to great effect. I left early into the second game to go hangout with Jeff and the guys before the wedding. After some good bonding time the wedding started. I went up to read at the lectern at the appropriate time. However, the pastor forgot about me and continued on with the ceremony. I stood patiently watching the pastor and trying not to steal focus. Finally I was given leave to read my passage. Job done, I stepped down and watched one of my best friends get married. Good stuff.

There was a 2 hour gap between the ceremony and the the reception at the Willows. I went over with Josh to keep him company during the 2 hour long picture sessions. Those of you who have done this understand that this means drinking beer while making fun of your friends getting their pictures taken.

The reception was great - we had a lot of fun. My IT skills came out as I assisted Jeff's older brother in setting up a laptop to play a slideshow on a projector. I alternated between feeling cool & useful/big fat nerd.

We had a drink at the after party in their hotel (after I purchased a movie for Josh's room) and after some heartfelt goodbye's Jamie and I headed home. Jamie was a great designated driver. Props yo.

Sunday night we flew back to the UK - I worked on Monday. Monday I decided I'm not a jet setter, and those people who are jet setters either lie a great deal, or smoke crack.

Tuesday I was mostly back to normal, and then I had to fly to Madrid for work on Wednesday night. I know, rough life!
I took Jamie with me, so I'll let her tell you all about her first trip to Spain!

No Sense in Waiting

2006-10-10T11:42:00.002-07:00

Hello, John Here.

We're waiting to go see Glen Phillips play at a pub here in Clapham. I know! Most of you a) don't care b) think I'm a freak.
It's very exciting. Glen Phillips was/is the lead singer from Toad the Wet Sprocket and has been playing solo for some time. We've seen him in New York several times, and I'm excited that we get to see him play here for only 4 pounds!

So the Eagles won. Which is great. Jamie and I put on our jerseys and went to Bodean's BBQ and watched the first half. We were the only Eagles fans in the place. The other 5 people watching the game were Dallas fans. There was also the "I'm impressing my date" Dallas fan who was obviously just trying to push our buttons. Except he didn't know what the hell was going on. Lucky for him, we didn't show him what Philly fans can do (Mainly getting thrown in the jail built into the stadium for stupid drunken stuff, but I digress).

The game actually got a 1 inch blurb in our local free paper. I quote, "Terrell Owens was protected by armed guards as he returned to the Philadelphia Eagles following his acrimonious departure last season. And it was an outing Owens will want to forget..." Lito sheppherd's interception made it in as well. I would like to point out that the sports writer used "acrimonious" in a sentence correctly. See how different this place is?

Speaking of T.O. and Different - I think it's time to discuss toilets. Toilets in the UK are designed by idiots. Everybody Poops, so keep up with me. The preferred design is more circular than elliptical, a flimsy material (plastic or balsa wood) with the basin rapidly tapering off into a 2 inch hole. Therefore, you need a) tremendous water pressure b) a scrub brush 3) HAZMAT suits(optional, but recommended). Without them you've got a disaster of biblical proportions on your hands. Seriously, a 3 year old could devastate these things, let alone a 29 year old American after late night curry (what we call Indian food here). Lucky for us, we actually have water pressure, a scrub brush, and a decent toilet. However, I do wear the HAZMAT suit on occasion - it gets a certain someone romantically inclined...

Lazy Sunday

2006-10-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Jamie here. We are having a divine lazy Sunday and I thought I'd take a minute to catch you up on life in London. John is busy fighting the Japanese in Medal of Honor and I for one am glad the war is not resting on his shoulders.

Before I tell you about our weekend- I want you to know that we saw an amazing show last weekend. Piano/Forte is a new play by Terry Johnson currently at The Royal Court. We saw it last Friday with Steve, Myke and Drew and were so impressed, we sent Flo and Keith to see it Tuesday night. It is beautifully and intelligently written and the production was fascinating. I strongly recommend reading it and, if given the chance, seeing it.

In other news- Flo and Keith left Thursday. We had a wonderful time with them. I feel like I know Keith now and that is a good thing. They were adorable and happy and I didn't want them to leave! Since then, we have been decompressing. We spent most of the weekend in our lovely flat. Friday I woke up to hammering on the wall at my head for the last time! I moved all the furniture around while John was at work and we are both much happier with the set-up. Will it stop the construction from waking me up every morning? We will find out tomorrow....

The big event for us this weekend was a trip to Apsley House and Wellington Arch. We decided a couple of weeks ago that we haven't used our English Heritage Cards enough, so we packed them in our pocket protectors and headed to Hyde Park today. The Apsley House belongs to the Duke of Wellington. He stays there when he's in town, but it is also a museum for the first Duke of Wellington's collection of china, weaponry, art, etc. For those of you who don't know, the first Duke of Wellington won the battle of Waterloo. Apparently the thing to do back then in order to express your gratitude or respect was to give china and I'm not just talking a place setting. These rulers gave the Duke centrepieces for a table that sat 36 PLUS china to serve those 36! In John's words, "Can you imagine being the guy who kicked someone's ass so bad that everyone gave you all this shit just to eat off of?" It was a beautiful home and a wonderful collection.

After the house, we decided to brave the autumn English weather, ie. it was sunny but could rain at any moment, to go to the top of the Wellington Arch. We thought there would be a view of Green Park and the palace, but alas, the view was blocked by trees. Luckily, it didn't rain on us.

Not to be undestimated, a light English shower fell as we made our way to the tube. I remarked to John that it was a good thing there weren't downpours in London because we only had one umbrella. Of course- when we got out of the tube at Clapham North, the sky opened up and there was a huge thunder and lightning storm and torrential downpour! It was the kind of weather I expect in New York, not London. But I guess I'm in for a treat this autumn!

I am off to make chicken korma for dinner- from scratch. I know, I'm so domestic!

Catch Up, John style.

2006-09-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello!

A quick update from John -

I bought Jamie an Arsenal Jersey for her birthday. We went to a pub to watch a game in Arsenal uniform, and Jamie was told to go home. Good fun! They beat Man United, so we were happy. Arsenal won last night as well, so things are looking up for the team.

We purchased a subscription to NFL Field pass so we can listen to Mr.'s Reese and Quick on the radio tell us all about the Eagles blowing the game. I wear my Jersey as I listen to the computer telling me of pain and misery delivered in interceptions, blown covers, and missed blocks. At least I have Frank's Hot Sauce to comfort my pain.

I started recording my songs on our new laptop. Mr. Pederman and Myself will be collaborating transatlantic, so look forward to new recordings!

As for party/wedding news... At Flo & Keith's wedding I was the "Party Star" - I was the king of the dance floor.. I ponied like maronie, mashed the potato, and swirled the girls like nobody's business. Dad would have been proud. At the after party, I redecorated the wedding party suite with my able bodied assistant, Ms. Rutkoski and played Huck Finn in the hot tub. I tried to police the party, but was informed in no uncertain terms that a "half naked elvis does not tell me what to do." Point taken.

Jamie and I met up with Elba and her boyfriend Dave at Milk & Honey - a private drinkin' club in SoHo. Dave and I decided the fate of western Europe as we swilled beer in lieu of the $50 scotch and fancied cigars we could not afford. We then moved onto an unmarked nightclub where I proceeded to fend off prospective suitors by claiming I was gay or straight as the situation warranted. At the end of the evening Jamie and I chased our bus 7 blocks before we were allowed entry. I expressed my disapproval by not making eye contact with the driver. He was duely chastised.

Now Flo & Keith are here wrapping up their honeymoon on our air mattress. I have ear plugs, an eye mask, and plenty of inner tube patching materials. Once an Eagle Scout...

That's all kids. SWAK.

We Survived the Flo/Keith Wedding!

2006-09-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't that be a great t-shirt? But seriously- the last two weeks have been amazing. Here is a relatively short synopsis:

I arrived in Newark around 9pm Friday night, the 1st. My flight was a bit delayed, but I can't complain because I got home around 11 and Flo didn't make it home from ABE until 2:30am. After a quick final fitting Saturday morning, I whisked Flo away for a surprise weekend in NYC. We met up with Jenny, Carolyn and Susie and promptly proceeded to battle Ernesto with all our might. And, ladies and gentlemen, that poor hurricane didn't stand a chance!

Highlights of the weekend:
Wine and pretzels in Jenny's apartment
Being the ONLY table at El Rio Grande and applauding the guacamole guy
Multiple pitchers of sangria at Havana Central
Walking all the way to Magnolia (okay- it was only a few blocks) for an early birthday cupcake only to discover they decided to close for Labor Day- the nerve!
Pigging out at Benny's Burritos
Hanging out at Jimmy's in the Upper East Side with a bunch of college guys harrassing Flo (That may have been because of the thong she was wearing outside her jeans:)
Walking down East 92nd Street
Everyone pitching in to deflate one air mattress
The BEST brunch ever at Sarabeth's on Madison and 92nd
A quick visit to the reservoir
A last-minute dash through Times Square to get to our bus on time

It was an amazing weekend and gave Flo and me the chance to relax before the wedding week. The week that followed was wonderfully busy. Flo and I shopped till we dropped. We even managed to buy a few things for the wedding:) Together we cut, pasted, copied, popped and decorated a million things. Those of you who think my lists get a bit out of control should see us together. Suffice it to say we bring out the OCD in eachother. Thanks to those lists and a group of great helpers everything went smoothly.

The wedding was magical. Flo was breathtaking. Keith couldn't stop smiling. Tropical Storm Florence stayed away. Everything looked beautiful. The food was delicious. John danced with every woman there- including but not limited to my mom, Flo's mom and Keith's mom. And most importantly- my toast was a huge hit! Somehow I made it through with only a few pauses due to crying.

There was only one small snag the whole night. Keith burned a CD of their song for the band and a minute or so into the song- it skipped! I had horrible flashbacks- would Flo suffer the same tragedy her best friend suffered only six years ago? I looked at her- she looked at me-we held our breath-- and the song kept right on playing! When it was over, we decided that having your song skip during the reception is a sign of good things to come.

For those of you wondering...yes, I did dance on the chairs along with a few of the other bridesmaids and the bride herself!

To say I had the time of my life would be an understatement. There is so much more to tell you, but this blog is long enough already. Once I get the photos uploaded, I will email the link to anyone who wants to see them.

As for my birthday- thank you to everyone who sent cards, called or sent emails. I feel very loved! I was lucky enough to celebrate with friends and to have dinner with my family Sunday night. We flew all day Monday- what fun! But when we got home, John had a frozen pizza waiting for me and chocolate fudge brownie ice cream (with a candle) for dessert! He also gave me two CDs by English bands that I like and an Arsenal jersey. Arsenal is our favorite soccer team. I can't wait to wear it to the pub.

I have had an amazing two weeks and I am positively exhausted! Now it's time to buckle down and get some directing work. Hope you're all doing well-

Get Loaded in the Park

2006-09-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we attended "Get Loaded in the Park", a music festival held in our very own Clapham Common. For those of you who may be unaware, summers in England are jam packed with music festivals. Get Loaded in the Park is definitely one of the smaller festivals - most are like the Philadelphia Folk Festival, where you camp out for days and check out the acts you want to see. This is only two days, with the second day having the main rock acts.

Jamie and I bought tickets for this festival several months ago. We didn't know any of the bands that would be playing, we just figured it would be fun. And it was fun. Myke and Drew joined us as well.

The show was headlined by Babyshambles. Babyshambles is the new band that Pete Doherty, former singer/guitarist of the Libertines, fronts. Never heard of Pete Doherty, Babyshambles, or the Libertines? Don't feel left out - they are mainly English famous. In fact, the Libertines were a very good rock act. Unfortunately, Pete Doherty can't seem to get off the crack or the heroin. Starting to ring bells? He is Kate Moss's on again/off again boyfriend that instigated her cocaine pr nightmare.

Pete was REQUIRED BY LAW to attend this concert as he also has a habit of relapsing and getting arrested prior to gigs. If he missed it or got loaded, he goes to prison for a long time. Which by rights he should be - he's violated his court orders more times than a tame monkey violates his diapers. Their set was entertaining if uninspired. I later learned that the songs I liked were actually from his Libertine days. And they call him the last great Rock star.

We saw De La Soul of "Me, Myself, and I" fame. I don't think it was their type of crowd.

A DJ called Adam Sky played as well. He was really cool. He had two crazy dancing girls and incorporated live vocals, guitars, and keyboards into his songs. And a trippy video screen with messed up animations. Bet the guys on acid thought it was way cool. Unless it freaked them out.

Speaking of freaked out - when I went to use one of the plentiful toilet facilities (thank you event organizers!) some guy was just hanging out watching people pee. Odd. He left after a bit. They had porta-urinals in case you wondered how he was getting into the porta-johns (porta-loos as they say here)

Lots of other local bands played, some we've even heard on the radio! The act I enjoyed the most was The Young Knives. The Buzzcocks were great too.

Lilly Allen also played - you may not have heard of her either - she's a 19 year old singer who became famous on MySpace. Now she has two videos out and a largish following. She was ok live. I wonder if she'll be around next year.

I wanted to check out the second stage acts. I have always found a band that I really liked at a second stage. Jamie and I trekked over to catch The Pipettes, ostensibly a punk girl group. Jamie and I fought our way into the tent where the stage was located, and promptly turned around. IT WAS NOT GOOD. They were a gimmick band, nothing more, nothing less. What we saw was a couple of girls doing 60's motown dances while singing in front of a "punk" band. Maybe they're better than that, but I'm not going to waste my time.

On another note, last night I saw a live band, went bowling, played crazy English pool (tiny balls?!), and sang Kareoke with strangers.

Until next time!

Some Firsts 8 Months In

2006-08-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone- Now that we've given you ample time to read Dan and Jim's guest blogs, I thought I'd write a quick note.

I want to thank Dan and Jim for their great posts and kind words. We, too, thoroughly enjoyed their visit and were very lonely after they left.

In addition to everything you read, we managed to experience three "London Firsts" while they were here and I thought I'd share them with you. We did the following things for the first time in London:
Bowling
Dancing
Attempting to place a bet

We went bowling at the Trocadero Mall in Piccadilly- Jim won by a landslide and a good time was had by all- see?

Dancing was a bit of an accident. We thought we were meeting some friends for a birthday party at Soho Bar Saturday night. When we arrived, I was surprised. It was a great little hip-hop club, but it didn't seem like our friend's kind of place. Oh well- I loved it! We danced and had a few drinks waiting for them to arrive from their 80's Boat Party. After an hour or so, we realized they were around the corner at Bar Soho- who knew there was a Bar Soho AND a Soho Bar? But we loved Soho Bar and will definitely be returning for some dancing.

Finally, we tried to place a bet on a football game. John and I have been very curious about the betting parlours that dominate the high street, but were too nervous to enter. That was until Dan arrived and encouraged John. So, on our way to watch the game at a pub, we walked into a parlour. Dan and John went straight to the counter while Jim and I stood off to the side trying not to look lost. In the end, they couldn't bet on the game because it wasn't televised. But now we know how to do it. Uh-oh! Oh- for those of you paying attention- yes, that means we went to a pub to watch a game that wasn't televised. But we still had a good time at the pub. Dan and Jim got to see our favorite pub and we played Deal or No Deal - the Arcade Game. Good times!

I am heading home to PA Friday for Flo's wedding, so I'll be out of touch for a while. Cross your fingers for nice weather and stay tuned for John's blog on the festival we went to on Sunday with Myke and Drew.

The Queen's Address

2006-08-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all, it’s Jim. (Oh yeah, HM the Queen says hi, too.) All right, so perhaps I have not posted in a timely fashion while touring London and Nice. For those of you who have been here, it’s easy to understand how distracting this place can be (the consumption of large amounts of alcohol notwithstanding).

First of all, I may not be the Queen; however, after staying with John and Jamie, I truly feel like royalty. Our visit to London would never have been the same without them. Their hospitality is beyond gracious and Dan and I are eternally grateful.

Ok, off we go to Nice, France via British Airways. (That’s a whole other blog we don’t have time for.) All I can say about Nice: unbelievable. But what makes a vacation is the company you keep (we love you John and Jamie!). And in a foreign country, that company should collectively be able to compile 3 or 4 vital phrases in French such as, “May I purchase some wine?”, “May I purchase some bread?”, “May I purchase some cheese?”, and “May I purchase more wine?” We did quite well (thanks John!).

A lazy day on the beach with warm tropical sun, crystal blue waters (pictures do the water no justice…it is BLUE), and an acceptable quota of Speedos made the day enchanting. Laying (lying?…whatever…where’s the corkscrew?) on the rocks was quite interesting for those of us used to sand. Afternoon naps would prepare us for dinner. Strolls along quaint streets resulted in devilish delights to tickle the taste buds.

Memorable moments (those not washed down by cheap wine) include: a long worthwhile walk up some very steep stairs and then another set and yet another to gardens and Henri Matisse, a tableside magician who had the skills of Job (from US television series Arrested Development), a tipsy run through Nice to find fireworks (and a bathroom), insanely expensive drinks at a Holiday Inn, a pleasant check in (English speaking!) hostess at the hotel, and sitting on a bed playing rounds of Hearts while having rounds of wine. We now know the difference between a bottles of wine that cost 2 Euro and 5 Euro (and each increment between). But after the third bottle of wine, it really stopped mattering. You do the math.

We did our best to tour, visit and even exist in the French culture. Warning to travelers…go ahead, try to speak French using your high school or college class, just don’t be offended when they correct your pronunciation or they just flip to English. Now, many would say that they hated hearing their beautiful language ripped to shreds by an American accent, however, (in happy Jim land) I like to believe that they want to practice their English and much as we want to practice our French.

I loved Nice, France. And honestly, it surprised me. I was excited when it was planned but had some reservations: language, culture, etc. Prices are very reasonable, people are generally friendly or at the very least, civil. Dare to go off the beaten path. Our best discoveries are when we took an adventure. So put Nice on your travel list. I think it gives you a taste of French culture in a beautiful setting. (Who needs some big tower?)

Alright, on to London.

We stayed at the Ramsburg B & B. Accommodations were impeccable. While London can be expensive, the Ramsburg’s have a way to give you all of London on a budget. Jamie is a walking A to Zed of information. Jamie should have a job as a docent to all of London.

Our first night was recovering from flights and France. We enjoyed a night of Mario Party where you can be the Dreamstar! The next day was our day to visit a pub (although they were NOT airing the Arsenal game…which Jamie deemed a crime). And then it was off to a delicious dinner at Dial, serving tasty bits before our visit to the theater. We howled at the American humor of the show “Avenue Q”, I highly recommend it no matter where you are. The only way to describe it is take “Rent”, smash it together with an adult Sesame Street, and give it the humor of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

After the show, we found our way to Soho. Now, I was confused because I though Soho was the name of the area of town. And apparently it was, but it was also the name of the bar where we were trying to meet Jamie’s friends. And it was very chic. We had a good time for while, but then we realized, there was another Bar Soho up the street. Lots of people dressed up from ‘80s (on purpose). It was interesting to see London’s interpretation of 80’s.

Sunday was a day of recovery, needless to say. Some Mario Party, a little football, lots of tele. Okay, on a side note, there are some fascinating things on the tele over here. I thought the “exchange rate” of money was interesting, the “exchange rate” of tv programs is just as interesting. Be sure to compare common shows when you are here.

All right, then the typical tourist stuff begins on Monday. And carries through Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess you can pretty much figure what we saw on the bus tour on Monday. The bus tour was the best deal, be sure to take it and take advantage of it. And the National Gallery is a freebie and a must do. Instead of spending the 14 pounds you would spend to go up in the London Eye, use it on a companion guide to the National Gallery (it’s a souvenir!). Our “ghosts of London” walking tour was okay, but we got to know our tour guide very well and it made for a special memory. Thanks Barry!

Tuesday, Dan and I jumped a train to Windsor Castle (the weekend home of the Queen). It was amazing, especially in August because parts of the castle are only open during August. Now, perhaps I was being presumptuous to bring a suitcase…but it was obvious to me that the State Apartments were not in use. Whatever. And they say those “Qtip” guards are not supposed to break character…who knew they actually guarded things…(that’s okay, they didn’t catch the pea sized rock I took from the pathway!)
We returned home to an incredible meal prepared by Jamie of stuffed peppers.

Wednesday was a tour of the globe, and the Tate Museum. Once again, the free things win. The Tate Museum was stunning. Spend 17 pounds you’d waste elsewhere and get another companion book.

So now, here I sit. Telling you everything we did. But words do no justice to the experience. Make sure to get here if you haven’t. And if you have been here but neglected to go to the art museums, then you need to return. Truly, London is expensive. But it can be cheap and wonderful if you are smart. The most magical moments were sitting and eating homemade sandwiches in Trafalgar Square, having coffee and walking the South Bank, standing in front of any artist you could possibly name and being face to face with their masterpiece.
To share this moment with my love, and my friends has been a life changing experience. To make light of it would be a disservice. The lesson I’ve learned is that sometimes the best things in life are free: friendship, love, art and history. Everything else is just fluff. All you really need is a guidebook, a sense of adventure, and a couple great people. Their names are John and Jamie. We love you.

Clapham, the Final Frontier

2006-08-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

This will be the first of a (hoped for) series of blogs chronicalling the ongoing adventures of the Starship Ramsburg. This week's Guest Stars: Dan & Jim.

The scene opens on our guest stars sitting for an hour in a 100 degree plane in our nation's capital. A baby a few rows up, naked but for a bulging diaper, shrieks as if possessed by Old Scratch himself. The flight attendants pass tiny cups containing what passes for a sip of water to a parched, sweaty and now pacing crowd, while the"last of the luggage is loaded on board". Through our sweat and pierced eardrums, we quietly thank the 23 extremists and their little plot to blow us up for delaying our departure.

Once in the air, everything goes smoothly, save a slightly cramped seat, and the fact that our guest stars discover far too late that the alcohol on Virgin Atlantic flights is free. Estimated sleep: 90 minutes.

Switching now to first person, we eventually arrived in London to the waiting hugs of Jamie and a long tube ride back to Clapham and the luxurious Ramsburg garden flat. I (Dan) take an impromptu nap while Jamie and Jim shop online for and pick Jamie's shoes for Flo's wedding. Did you read that Flo? Jamie has shoes! Fabulous ones at that.

Jamie's delicious curry and several gin & tonics and scotches later, bed comes, a brief time before our 3am taxi to the airport for our trip to Nice. Estimated sleep: 120 minutes.

We will leave our heros here for the moment, leaving you wondering, what of their trip to Nice??? Will John play Craps at a ritzy French Riviera casino? Will Jamie find French baby clothes for her soon to arrive (or already arrived???) cousin? Will Dan & Jim be able to tell the difference between the French and Homosexuals? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Not to spoil the next chapter, but I want to get this in here before anyone else gets to make the joke (like that London France Underpants nonsense), Nice... was Nice. More to come.

You wanna put some shrimp on the barby?

2006-08-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

John here.

The weather has turned decidedly English- it's a good thing we're going to Nice with Jim and Dan!

Friday Jamie and I rented The Dukes of Hazzard. I laughed my ass off. It's stupid, but fun.

On Saturday we watched Drew play softball on her company team. We met up with Myke just in time to catch the last game. Drew's softball league caps games at one hour which makes sense for tournaments; however, the resulting rules dealing with the last inning are also decidedly English. All I know is that they were winning until the Ump called the game, which means they lost because the other team got 2 automatic runs. I think Cricket is simpler by comparison. We also had the fun of taking a local overland train for the first time - the tournament was by the Barnes Bridge station for those of you keeping track.

We had drinks at a pub along the Thames and played outdoor Jenga. Outdoor Jenga is Jenga made out of larger blocks and played by drunk people. Very entertaining. Also entertaining was the Thames tidal flooding trapping us at the pub (OH NO, THE HORROR) for an extra hour. The water came right up near the door of the pub and some cars needed to be moved to higher ground to avoid being swamped. There were signs warning of this event, but we didn't connect flooding with the tide. Live and learn. I dipped my finger in the Thames. It did not burn off, so one up on the Schuylkill.

Today we found a good Mexican place in Clapham! We also learned that my Bob's Big Boy Piggy Bank purchased at the original Bob's Big Boy in Burbank California holds approximately 35 pounds worth of small denomination coins.

Off to sleep - you'll next hear from us after the French Riviera- I'll let you know if I end up breaking Le Chiffre's bank at the Baccarat table! If you don't get it, it's ok - Google Le Chiffre.

I Need Your Help

2006-08-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

As Flo's wedding quickly approaches, I find myself needing advice on a few things. Normally, I would just ask Flo. But, seeing as it's her wedding, I don't want to bother her with mundane details. So, I'm going to bother all of you. I need advice on two things: shoes and deodorant.

No! Don't stop reading! This is very important and if you have any knowledge of shoes and/or deodorant, I need your help!

1- Shoes- The wedding is in the beginning of September in her parents' backyard. The backyard bit means I can't wear thin heels. I refuse to wear flats, so I'm in search of a platform or thick heel. The dress is very simple. It is a black strapless dress from JCrew. (You can see it by clicking HERE.) I will also be wearing a black satin sash around my waist and a pearl necklace and earrings. Since the dress is so simple, I feel like the shoes need to be a little fancier. But most platforms or thick heels are too casual or they don't come in black or they don't come in my size. Long story short- I am having a hell of a time finding a pair of shoes. So, I would appreciate any advice you can give me from what style you think would look best to where I might be able to find them. I was trying not to order them online because of fitting issues, but at this point- I'll try anything.

2- Deodorant- This is a question for the ladies. Has anyone found a CLEAR deodorant that actually works and is actually clear? I have tried many and been failed every time, so I thought instead of buying another ten brands willy nilly- I'd ask around. Anyone?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Oh- if you'd like to see Caitie's pictures from their visit, click HERE. A lot of them are similar to the ones I've already posted, BUT there are also photos of their romantic day trip to Paris AND
our week in Devon, which are definitely worth seeing- for the murder mystery night alone.

The Best News Ever

2006-08-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

My brother is out of Iraq and on his way home! Thank you to everyone who kept him in your thoughts and prayers. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am and how grateful I will be to hear his voice.

Another Taste of Summer

2006-08-07T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hello there- is it still unbearably hot in the good ole US of A? Well, London had a perfectly timed resurgence of summer this weekend. We went to Fruitstock on Saturday. Fruitstock was a free music festival in Regent's Park. It was a bit overwhelming at first, because John and I were the first of our group to arrive. That meant we were in charge of finding our spot. The problem was that there were a BILLION people walking around and it was hard to look for ground space. Luckily- we arrived just before those people all decided to sit down, so we managed to claim a nice sized spot for the day. The group slowly filtered in and we enjoyed a perfectly sunny day in the park with free music and a few bottles of wine.

At 8pm, Arrested Development came onstage. Yes- that Arrested Development. No- I didn't know they were still around either, but they are. Anyway- Drew and I decided we needed to be closer to the stage. So, she led the way and somehow managed to get us a few "rows" back! I was very impressed- although I felt a bit guilty about moving in front of all those people, so I apologized and told everyone who would listen that I was too short and she was moving me up front so I could see better- and most of them felt sorry for me! After the show, we followed some friends to a pub just outside the park (well, we got a bit lost in the park and walked in circles for a while, but we did eventually find it.) A good time was had by all!

Yesterday we vegged around most of the day and then went to see a Fringe show in the evening. It was a series of four one-acts focusing on the Floods of 1953. Apparently- hundreds of people died in these floods and thousands lost their homes, but there is barely any mention of them in history books, etc. because it was such a failure of the government that they've gone to great lengths to help people forget they happened. So, this theatre company spent months researching and workshopping and arrived at four plays relating to these floods. Some of them were better than others, but I admire their intentions. And the space is fantastic! The location is a bit sketchy and not easy for us to get to (it took an hour by tube and bus and walking) but the space is big and it appeared to be flexible. I will definitely be making an effort to direct something there before I leave.

Let me leave you with some wonderful news---my brother is scheduled to leave Iraq this week! Please keep him in your prayers or thoughts as he makes his journey home. Thank you.

Has the end come already?

2006-08-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

They all warned me. "In London," they said, "it gets really hot for about three weeks and that's summer." The entire time we had visitors, the weather was amazing. It was HOT HOT HOT and I got a great tan! BUT as of Monday, it has been cloudy with fall-like temperatures. I'm talking hoodie weather, which I love, but not in August! Is this the end? Has summer really passed me by? Or will we get a resurgence of beautiful weather in time for Dan and Jim's visit? And if summer really is gone, how long will it be before the temperature in the tube goes below 100? Stay tuned to find out...

In other news- I volunteered at The Globe last night and it was the first time it rained while I was working a performance. When it rains, we have to wear these STUPID plastic bags called "macs" so that our placards that say "Shakespeare's Globe" on one side and "Steward" on the other don't get wet. I have been told if you get your placard wet, you might as well just go home because you'll never hear the end of it from the Steward Captain- she's a bit obsessive.

Side note- the show was The Comedy of Errors and it was very funny (maybe a little too campy, but I'm not a fan of the whole mistaken identity genre, so I was happy with the camp.) The director, Christopher Luscombe, made great use of the space and the columns, which hasn't been the norm this season.

A Return to Life as Usual

2006-07-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind three weeks! As you can tell from the guest blogs, we had a blast! Devon was beautiful. John drove a 9-passenger people carrier all the way there and on little day trips- he was quite skilled! One day, Mike, Caitie, John and I drove to Blackpool Sands, which was an hour and a half from Torquay. It is one of the best-kept beaches in Devon and it's a bit off the beaten path. We had to take a ferry across the smallest river you've ever seen- the River Dart. The queue for the ferry was about 30 minutes each way, but the ferry ride itself was less than five! We had to take a lot of narrow streets to get there and on the way there- we were behind this caravan (camper) and a big tour bus came around the corner- straight at the caravan. The caravan moved to the side to let the bus pass and John tried to follow, but we weren't completely out of the way when the bus started coming at us! Caitie stuck her hand out the window and yelled, "STOP!" He didn't. But John moved quickly and saved the day! Then we laughed a lot! On the way home, we followed signs for the ferry queue, but when we turned the corner, the queue was backed up far behind us. We didn't know how to get to the back of the line, so John jumped the queue. Well, we got to the ferry and this woman came running down from the dock to tell the ferry master that we had jumped the queue (she wasn't a driver- just a concerned citizen apparently.) And he made us go to the end of the queue! We felt like schoolkids and laughed a lot on the way to the back of the queue.

The family went their separate ways on Saturday and we must admit we are quite sad. We had such an amazing three weeks- with Flo's Shower and Bachelorette Party, Eli's visit, the Ramsburg visit and the Ramsburg family trip to Devon- we had forgotten how lonely London could be. But have no fear- Dan and Jim will be here in exactly two weeks! And in the meantime, we've got plenty to keep us busy!

John has a big audit at work next week and I will be focusing on a serious exercise/diet for Flo's wedding, which is in less than six weeks, and finding WORK!

Hope you're all doing well- we love you!

The Devon Top 10

2006-07-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Caitie here…

We’ve had a very eventful week since arriving in Devon. So many things have happened…writing it all out would bore you sick. So I am going to give you the Top 10 Events. And now, when you are in our presence, you won’t feel left out of our inside jokes.

Mike and I got locked into our bedroom. The only possible escape was a tricky one . . .we had to scale the wall and climb into Aunt Linda’s room. Once we defied gravity and reached safety, a locksmith was called. Rumors spread that it was Tom’s nighttime playfulness and door-handle-jiggling that broke the door…it’s still a mystery.

9. Tom meets a “friend” Andy at the Clocktower (a pub) and gets directions to a secret beach. We all sit on the edge of our seats as John drives miles away from civilization only to find a beautiful and quiet beach hidden in the cliffs! And of course, there is a pub right at the top of the hill where Tom can get snookered while Jamie, John, Mike and I work on our tans.

8. Daddy, you’re making me soo sad! Quit making me sad.

7. Watching E! Entertainment’s most random 101 Amazing Hollywood Moments, and getting cut off at 21! But mostly all the English TV is random and boring.

6. John and Jamie winning Couple of the Week for winning the Cranium match and all the cheesy lovey dovey comments made by John. (For instance, Sandi says “John look at the cottage behind you.” To which John replies, “I would, but I can’t take my eyes off Jamie.” Puke!

5. Sandi blasting oldies from the CD player in the kitchen and strongly encouraging all of us to do a line dance with her. . .which we happily did. All of us clapping and bopping to the temptations, working our groove thangs from the oven to the fridge. Not awkward at all.

4. The “Carnival”. Carnivals in Devon are actually parades. We were very distraught to learn this, but then, magically, we discovered rides! Mike and John each paid 10 pounds (20 dollars) to ride “The Power Shot”, a giant slingshot-looking thing that launches its riders 200 feet into the air. Jamie and I were screaming louder than they were! Then we decided to go on a nice relaxing ride, which, unbeknownst to us, was faster, spinnier and scarier than the Power Shot, we almost all puked, but got ice cream instead.

3. Murder Mystery Dinner. We all dressed up, Mike as Clarke Crumpett the Arab; John as Johnny Come-lately the Cowboy; Jamie as Sue Spender the Stripper; me as Losta Morales the Actress; Sandi as Fanny Chaise-Lounge (blond with big boobs); Tom as Cecil Lothario, the esteemed Hollywood director; and Aunt Linda as Monica Makeover the hairdresser. I had to hold it in all day that I, Losta, was the killer, and in the end, my acting was terrible and they all knew it was me. What can I say, I cannot tell a lie. That’s the truth.

2. John goes on a weird “I will hump anything” spree, starting with Mike, then the kitchen table and then the door…he had an evil gremlin laugh while demonstrating. Again, it wasn’t awkward at all. Sandi reprimanded him and promptly put his little gremlin tail between his legs.

1. And last but not least, our adventures to Black Sands beach. We had to take a ferry over the river to get it and on the way home we passed all traffic and cut the line. We are Americans! We got called out by a bloody wench who ran down and told on us!! And she wasn’t even in a car!! Don’t blame John though, I was the one peer pressuring him to cut in line!

That’s it. If you are lucky, John and Jamie (once they finally get rid of us) will enlighten you on their perspective of this trip. Oh, and also, I would like to note, I made it all two weeks hanging with these Ramsburgs. . .and I am still standing. If you are as shocked as they all were, then you too can call me Superwoman.

Thank you and good night.

Mike Blog #1

2006-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Mike here.

Even though Eli thought I was older than John, I am, in fact, the youngest member of the family. (It's okay Eli, honest mistake. Nobody can deny that I am more mature than John. Clearly it has nothing to do with the receeding hairline.)

I have been directed, by the blog administrators, to write only about one event. Otherwise I would go on and on and everyone would get bored and stop reading. The topic of the blog is John's birthday BBQ.

So. . .we have now been here for a full week. The reason for the delayed blog is simple - Jamie and John didn't like having us in their home. They give us a cursory tour of the apartment (which is loverly) and then they made us sit outside the whole time. . .away from the photo albums and the cats and the computer. In retrospect, the decision to contain us in the back porch area was a wise one. We are large people, clumsy by nature. And mostly we are self-centered and unaware of our surroundings. Had we been inside, we may have dislodged the photo of Jesus from the bookshelf, or God forbid, we may have tramped on Jovi's tail. No hard feelings, guys, you have to protect what's yours. The thing that bothered me was, they appointed their next door neighbor, a scottish dude named Andy, the guardian of the doorway. If any of us went near the door, he would scream "HAGGIS!" and then kick a soccer ball directly at our arse. It was humiliating.

More about the BBQ. . .John sucks at cooking turkey burgers, but he makes a mean polish sausage. In all honesty it was a fantastic occasion and John got to celebrate his birthday, albeit belated, with his immediate family. Jamie arranged a gorgeous a dessert tray and placed a candle in the middle of a delicious fruit-tart. We sang happy birthday and John blew out the candle in one large breath. He's a big boy now.

For those of you who had the pleasure of visiting J&J in NYC, you have no idea how much larger the London apartment is. It makes the old apartment seem almost comical. No longer do they live in a home fit for Lilliputians. No, now they have a bonafide crib. To put it in perspective, their entire NY apartment could fit in their screened porch, or "solarium".

Back to the food. The Ramsburgs can eat. And eat. And eat. We have decided to weigh ourselves like the British, in stone. There are 14 pounds to a stone. If you suck at math, that means if you weigh 14lbs, you are one 1 stone. You can see the advantage in weighing yourself in stone. If you can guess how many stone I am, I will give you 5 pounds(english currency). Pounds/Dollars is a conversion that is not so advantageous as the stone/lb conversion. Basically you double whatever you pay in pounds and the sum is what you are paying in American dollars. Caitie tipped a cabi five punds and then realized she wasted $10 on a taxi driver. I digress. . . the food at the BBQ was good, and there was lots of it. Burgers, dogs, sausages, chips, potato salad, fruit tart, lemon tart, crisps, beer, wine, pepsi light and sprite. We ate like romans and then played Cranium, girls against guys. Naturally, the women cheated and completely emasculated their counterparts. Even the scottish guy was taken aback by their blatant disregard for the rules. But whatever, we remembered that we could pee standig up. That's what matters in life.

As the evening progressed, certain members, notably John, regressed. He and Jamie got into a nasty "row" about the results of the Cranium match, and John managed his feelings of inferiority by guzzling cans of Carlsberg lager. It was classic Johnny R. He broke out the guitar and began to serenade his wife, a touching show of affection. Unfortunately Jamie wasn't wooed by this, and John wound up strumming the g-chord and singing in monotone. Here are some lyrics I can remember: "Jamie Lynn I love you, even though love is a weird thing and sometimes word are misunderstood. The sky is black and mike ramsburg is wearing a terry cloth shirt. My shoes are comfortable. Stonehenge tomorrow. Music is noise and if nobody listens then its poetry." You get the idea.

You'll be happy to know that the lovers made-up and eventually we all left and spent the night at my parents' rented flat. We woke up at 3:30am and went to Stonehenge. That's a whole other blog.

We are in Devon now, at a gorgeous home overlooking Torbay. It's heaven, really. Everyone is yelling at me to finish. Another Cranium match awaits. This time it's couple vs couple. . .

After Eli...

2006-07-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hello--

Eli has left and I am sad. He didn't get to write another blog, because we were just too darn busy. BUT- I have attached the photo link to this entry. There are A LOT of photos because I combined his and mine into one folder. But they are great photos. Eli and I sat down and named them all on my computer, but that messed up my Uploading. So, I haven't had a chance to rename them. But you should be able to figure them out.

To sum up Eli's trip- we had a blast and I am so grateful to Mom, Dad and Dan for sending him here and to Sandi and Tom for including him in all of the family events. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if he could have stayed longer. Next time- at least two weeks!

Now the Ramsburg family is off to Devon for a week. I'm sure you'll hear from Mike and Caitie while we're there!

Click Here to See Photos of Eli's Visit

And for those of you who were wondering- Flo's Shower went perfectly (except for Keith ruining the surprise in the 11th hour!) And the Bachelorette Party was tons of fun! If you want to see pictures, email me and I'll send you the link!

Guest Post 2!

2006-07-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Eli again. Here's an update on the last couple days.

So far we've gone to many of the places we saw on the bus/boat tour. Parliament & Big Ben, where I took plenty of pictures. The Tate Modern Art Gallery, where Jamie and I saw plenty of art that requires tilting your head to understand. The Millennium Bridge, alternately known as the wibbley wobbley bridge, which thankfully did not wibble and wobble as we crossed :P. The new location of the Globe Theatre, where we got free tickets to the tour and exhibits. There was a whole big exhibit for The Gunpowder Plot, since it involved William Shakespeare. We ended up also going to the book store so that I could buy a book about The Gunpowder Plot. I bet you couldn't guess that it's titled The Gunpowder Plot =-O! We also went to the location of the old Globe Theatre no longer standing. Thanks to some punk, there's a Georgian building over its foundation, resulting in its relocation. Apparently this Georgian building takes priority over the Globe Theatre, which has 10,000 times its historical value.

But that's not all! John's family has come into London for a nice visit. They've rented this crazy Mansion Flat in Kensington. It's really nice. We all went to eat dinner at a restaurant down the street yesterday. I had Salmon and Artichoke cakes with bits of tomatoes and chips. Oh, and deep fried Brie, which I shared with Jamie. After dinner we went to listen to Mozart at the Royal Albert Hall. It was really great, I loved the orchestra.

Today, I went with Jamie, John, Mike and Caitie to the London Eye. It's this gigantic Ferris-wheel for those who have no idea what I'm referring to. When you get to the top, you can pretty much see the entire city, it's really great. There was this group of really hot Spanish chicks in the line next to us. Hehehehehehe.

Right now, we're all waiting around to start a BBQ. We've actually got a lot of extra time since we finished off Jamie's wonderful schedule in great time. Stone Henge tomorrow, LIKE OMG! Haha. I can't wait.

Guest post!

2006-07-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hiya, it's Eli (Jamie's brother). I'm guest posting because that's what you do when you stay with them in London. Sooooo, first off I'd like to mention that Virgin airlines is wonderful. I had an English breakfast on the flight. I have to say it beats the Bagel McMuffin I had prior- and it was complimentary, so beat that McDonald's =-P! I watched two movies with Jamie: V for Vendetta and Firewall. V for Vendetta was a terribly great movie, which I plan to buy in the near future. Firewall was pretty exciting, but the character of Bill Cox was really confusing. He never really established power because he was pretty lax for a criminal, yet he had no problem with killing like 4 people during the film. I don't know. Anyway, the flight was comfortable and quick. We got back to the flat at about 11 I think and we watched some TV and ate Indian food that John cooked for us :D.

The next day we didn't do TOO much. It was basically the prep work for my stay- currency exchange, oyster card, etc. etc. I got a feel for the tube and workings of the city. It's a lot more laid back than New York, although I find that people try to cram themselves into the tube trains even though they can't really fit. It's funny to watch them think they fit and then get hit by the door. Maybe that's a bit mean? Meh.

So today was a big day. I went on a tour of London on a double decker bus. We sat at the top. Got some nice sun :). We drove through the city and took a look at some historical landmarks. I kinda favored the Globe Theater and the Parliament building. Jamie suggested we take a walking tour, but I wasn't sure. There was a Beatles walk and a Haunted something or other, which was basically a pub crawl. Now I would have enjoyed the pub crawl, however "me mum" doesn't want me to drink. Jamie and I had our debates about this, haha.

So after our tour we went to the National Portrait Gallery. I have to say there must have been like 2000 paintings there. We started at the Beatles gallery where I learned there were actually two band members replaced. It didn't explain in detail, but apparently Ringo Starr took over for somebody who died of a brain hemorrhage :(. Also, somebody played Bass prior to Paul, which makes me wonder what Paul was doing during that. We then moved on to look at portraits of the royal family and some other rich people back in the day. We skipped the Victorian period because our feet were beat, but we did check out the current family portraits. Pretty interesting stuffs. Afterwards we waited on some steps outside. It was nice out and I took a nap while Jamie read. Really we were just waiting for John.

This is where the wonderful cell phone journey begins. John showed up and we went down the street to get Jamie a new phone/plan. It took quite a while but when it was over with Jamie and John mentioned how fast the service was. Okay..? That was our epic phone journey. Then we came home and here I am. I'll probably post one or two more times, I've still got about a week ahead of me :D.

Back to the harbor?

2006-06-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well Folks, I'm back in Madrid!

I awoke at 4 AM to get the airport. Which was a mistake - my driver go there in 20 minutes. I had over 2 hours to kill. Lucky for me, the lounge was open! I pried my eyelids open and drank coffee after coffee. Eventually I got on the plane and promptly fell asleep.

After some London office "emergencies", the details of which shall remain shrouded in mystery, I successfully articulated the move of our Madrid office to a new location - said location being decided 2 days prior to the move. Awesome! Tomorrow I get to watch as everyone hooks up their computers. I also get to tell the local support staff how to do things right, or in low French, "MY WAY!"

I had a very Spanish lunch of cold tomato soup and a skewer of fried scallops and prawns. Prawns are what the English call shrimp. Apparently they don't deturd them here either.

I finished up my work around 7:30 PM, and the local FD took me out for Tapas - it's 2 hours too early for actual dinner. We had some Jamon ("ham"), fried prawns, Anchovies on Toast, and some cheese thing that made me want to die. Picture Blue cheese without the blue and 100x more fragrant. I tried it because I want to start finding cheese I like. This cheese was good for about one bite. I also found out that Spanish people like to put lemonade in the beer - it tastes good. Oh, Lemonade is not Lemonade. It's a lemon fizzy drink. Crazy, I know!!

I just watched the most ridiculous CNN euro weather report. They showed PA - specifically flooding in PA. "very luck for you if you are in Philly! Many delay in the areas."

I had a beer in the hotel "bar". Don't get me wrong, this is a very nice hotel. However, the bar is empty - it's an area of the lobby. The bar itself has many bells on which one may ring. If one were so inclined to the ring the bell, the following action occurs:
Man leaves the reception counter through hidden back doorway
Man appears on other side of lobby behind said bar
Customer requests beverage
Man provides requested beverage and a small bowl of chips/crisps.
Customer signs for beverage and drinks it in awkward silence. After which he retreats to his room.

German MTV shows American videos. The Spanish video channel shows early 90's videos. Spin Doctor me up a pocket full of Kryptonite baby!

---
Day 2 - Setting up the computers for everyone went well. I used my pidgin Spanish to communicate. Pidgin as in "Necissicito cable de Electridad?", "Aiedo?", "Si, Dos Cervacas", "Comma se desay, This blows?" Pardon my spelling.
I had an "early lunch" at 1:30 - 2 is the normal early lunch. I ate squid on potato slices. It was what it sounded like, but it grows on you.

Everyone left at 3:00 - Summer hours have started for our office. They work until 7-8 most of the year so they can beg off early in the summer. The new building actually follows "old" Spanish hours - they close from 2:30 - 4:30 in the afternoon. I sat and fixed all of the computers "my way" while I was alone. Done, back to the hotel for a nap and some refreshments, and the World Cup in Spanish or German depending on which announcer annoyed me the most.

I had dinner reservations at 9:30 with the Finance Director and her husband - I jumped in a cab at 9:00, showed him the address and away we went! We started driving through the old part of Madrid, which is pretty cool. Then the driver stops, points to the traffic and tells me that this is as far as he can go. The "traffic" was actually an impromptu parade - some DJ's in the back of truck were driving through the city with a crowd of kids walking behind. After vaguely understanding the directions to my destination, I brave said kid crusade.

I actually did not get lost. Oh, don't be so proud. Turns out I only got the first part of the directions "Straight until you can't, then make 2nd right" Actually after the comma there was a left, a right, and another left. Oh well. Thank goodness for Google Maps Mobile on my phone! Typed in my current address, and where I was going and BAM! Directions. Albeit driving directions, but I was able to improvise my way around.

I had a lovely dinner - More Jamon, Fried fish, and salad. Now "salad" is actually a plate of the following: A full grown peeled Asparagus, and lettuce. Dressing consists of Oil and mayonnaise - separate, so you can just have oil or mayonnaise as your prefer. Aside from the asparagus, it was like eating the topping of a McChicken sandwich. Sounds gross to you, but you know me - I loved it! I had sorbet for dessert - it comes in a glass with a straw and is melted.

We decided to have after-dinner drinks - unfortunately my hosts were very unfamiliar with the local bars and got lost. We wandered and found a cab - they remind me of Chicago cabs, white small cars. We went to their old "disco" by their house. Apparently they used to have a pool that everyone would jump in at 5 AM when they closed the club. But now the pool is filled in as a dance floor. After our drink a cab was found for me and home I went.

-----
Saturday - I rescheduled my flight Friday night so I could come home Saturday. The original move plan was for me to go and finalize some server stuff on Saturday and fly home Sunday. Due to everything going smoothly it was unnecessary. I got home right when the England game started. I quickly changed and went to the pub across the street. BORING. The crowd at the pub were subdued and blocked the TV. At half-time I went to the Alexandra which I knew would be jumping. Pushing past the sweaty people (it was 87 outside) in the first room I made it to the back room. We screamed, sang, and gave the TV that weird British V finger thing. England lost in overtime penalty shoot-out and we all were quiet. I grabbed one last drink and headed outside to enjoy the nice "it's so hot!" weather.

I turn around to see a man sitting on a picnic table outside. What catches my is that there are two women, one on each side, holding his arms above his head. I then realize there are red rags around his wrists. I ask the man next to me what happened - apparently this idiot punched both fists through the window of the upstairs bar in frustration/despair/craziness when England lost. He did not look good - I waited until the ambulance came to see what would happen. That was a let down. He walked into the rear of the ambulance and away they went. Away I went with my new pint glass. Calling his survival a let down is morbid, but I feel it highlights man's need for spectacle.

--------
Sunday - I helped Jamie at her Art's festival, which is now over!!!
Our friend Beth's band played and was awesome, the mobile Midsummer was executed well, and my beekeeper suit and mittens kept the sun from turning me purple. All in all a good Sunday. I wish I could take the day off tomorrow and relax. Oh well! Back to the harbor.

Fixed?

2006-06-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Let me know if this doesn't work
Pictures

If you want to see more than Frankfurt, click "Browse All Albums" on the bottom of your screen when the slideshow loads.

HI!

2006-06-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

John will work on the link to photos from the last blog and let you know when it's fixed.

We are both crazy-busy with work stuff (and football) right now, but I wanted to say HI and that my new favorite English word is "People-carrier!" It's their word for SUV or van- isn't it great? Use it today- it will make you smile:)

Frankfurt and Milan

2006-06-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I just spent some time in Clapham Common soaking up the sun, or in my case, desperately trying not to turn purple. We're going to watch USA play tonight at a pub on our high street. Currently Ghana is playing the Czech republic and winning - which is like UR playing Notre Dame and kicking ass.

My business trip was fun - just wish I had more time to take in the sights. But being a business trip, I did get more tourist time than I thought I would.

I flew Business Class the entire time which is a new experience for me. I didn't know I was allowed to fly business. Maybe I'm not and someone messed up. Maybe I'll push my luck and book my ticket to Madrid as business class. I have to help them move their office at the end of the month.

The most exciting thing was having my bags checked straight through to Milan from London. Unfortunately for me, I was spending the night in Frankfurt. After waiting for an hour at the Frankfurt baggage claim, I finally found out the location of my bag. Lufthansa gave me an "emergency" overnight bag. The overnight bag contains the following items:

Toothbrush and toothpaste
Folding hairbrush and with a mirror
Shampoo
Roll On antiperspirant (In Europe?!)
A razor and shaving cream
Laundry detergent so you can wash your stink ass socks in the sink
One giant XXXL T-shirt

Not so bad right? So I met the IT staff and the Finance Director of the Frankfurt office wearing my clothes from the day before, avec giant t-shirt.

Frankfurt was totally destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt. Unlike London, there are very few giant ugly concrete minimalist buildings. Mostly 4-6 story buildings in nice colors. The neighborhood in which our "hotel" was situated was very residential. I wouldn't mind living there if I spoke German. I say "hotel" because we booked our rooms fairly late, and Frankfurt is hosting one of the World Cup stadiums. So my room was more like a fancy dorm single with a private bathroom. Food wise, I had nothing German except for some average beer in .5 litre mugs. Wasn't for lack of trying - we couldn't find a seat at most places that night because Brazil was playing and the only place to eat lunch by the office is a Japanese restaurant. I have been told the best Japanese food outside of Japan is in Frankfurt. I couldn't tell the difference.

Milan was a different story all together. We stayed in a swanky hotel, ate Italian food and drank Peroni, wine, and sparkling water. The Milan office is cool - it is in an old house that had been converted into an office building. I ate the best tasting pizza I've ever had during lunch - with a fork and knife no less! Milan is also covered in graffiti - imagine Astoria on a large scale.

Word to the wise - if you fly into Malpensa Airport, look into taking a train or the shuttle to get to your hotel. The airport is 28 miles from Milan, so the cab fare is about 80 Euros.

Towards the end of the day my boss and I went to the Duomo (a Cathedral), walked on its roof, shopped for his fiance, and watched England win their match in the hotel lounge where we discovered a beer called Torborg.

I bought Jamie a bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio and an official World Cup 2006 Football from Frankfurt. Overall, a good trip.

Pictures can be found here:
Milan
Frankfurt
Madrid
World Cup 2006 - England's First Match

P.S.
Ghana won, and the US drew last night.

A Brief Hello

2006-06-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since we've written. My only excuse is: FOOTBALL!! The world is consumed by it right now and why should we be any different? We (at least I) have spent every available moment watching football. I go to the gym instead of running in the Common so that I can watch the games. I LOVE the World Cup! For those of you who don't know- the US team didn't do so hot in its first game Monday night. For a team who is ranked fifth in the world, it was a big disappointment. They lost miserably. BUT they are going to make some changes for their next game on Saturday- so we shall see. England, on the other hand, won their first game on Saturday. They faded in the second half (apparently that was due to the fact that they aren't used to the scorching heat) but they did win. We had a blast watching the game. We went to a pub with a bunch of friends. We paid £10 each for a seat at the table and a halftime "buffet." There weren't enough seats for all of us and the "buffet" was a HOT DOG, but it was still worth it. I'm very disappointed that I'm going to miss the next England match (on Thursday.) I scheduled my first British haircut at a salon that is only open late on Thursdays- don't know what I was thinking!

John is in Frankfurt right now. He left yesterday afternoon. In a couple of hours, he heads to Milan for two days. I miss him, but it's pretty cool that he gets to go to all these places. I'm sure he'll have fun stories to share when he returns.

Hope all is well with you!

The Reprieve Gala at the Globe

2006-06-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

I had a fun night last night and wanted to share it with you. As you know, I volunteer as a Steward at Shakespeare's Globe. (Oh- this is Jamie, in case you didn't already know.) Well, last night they hosted a charity event for Reprieve, "a UK charity that fights for the lives of people facing the death penalty and other human rights violations," and I volunteered.

I got to work inside for the first half and was outside for the second half, but I popped in to see a bit in the second half anyway. The comedians were fantastic! They were Mark Thomas, Stewart Lee and Kevin Eldon. If you ever get a chance to see one of them, I strongly recommend it.

But it was the musical guests that got me excited. First was David Knopfler, one of the co-founders of Dire Straits! He played new songs and they were pretty mellow and a bit sad, BUT HE WAS A CO-FOUNDER OF DIRE STRAITS! How cool is that?! There was also a singer called Allison Moorer. I didn't really get to hear her, because she was in the second half. But I heard this gorgeous alto voice coming through the doors when people came in and out, so I am going to try to listen to more of her stuff.

The BIG band, however, was The Proclaimers! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the brothers who brought us "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more-just to be the man who walked that thousand miles to fall down at your door- badadadatda...badadadatda..." You get the picture. Anyway- they played a couple of newer songs but they ended with that one and I was thrilled!

Eli, I don't know if you remember this, but you and I used to sing that song at the top of our lungs every time it came on the radio. I'm pretty sure we drove Mom mad! So, I sang along at the top of my lungs last night and imagined you were there with me. It was great!

The show went super-long, which was annoying, but I got to see the Proclaimers (and other cool acts) for free!

And that was my night. Aren't you glad I shared?

Hope you're all well...

"You know I don't speak Spanish!" or play football

2006-06-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

Madrid was great and more than made up for me having to travel all day on a Holiday.
The landscape that I did see was dry, reddish in color, with lots of pine and scrub. After that I was mainly in the city. I didn't check into my hotel until about 11:00, and then I had to work for about an hour from my room. Then I went out to find dinner at Midnight - I had heard you can eat from 9:30-12:30. Mostly places were closed but I found one that let me order a full meal. I had mussel's to start, spicy pasta for dinner, and a cold apple pie for dessert.

The next morning I ate breakfast at the hotel and hopped in a cab to the office. I thought I would try to pronounce the address in Spanish, as opposed to pointing to my piece of paper. Apparently Calle de Zurbano and Calle de Surrano sound quite alike when I say it, so I ended up on the wrong street. No worries! Hopped into another cab and armed with experience, pointed at the address on the piece of paper. 5 minutes later I'm handing the cabby a 50 - all I have after paying the last cab.

This guy is all like, no way jose! "Smallest bill I have Senior, I apologize" "No - too big, no change" "Take me somewhere I can get change" .. starts yelling at me in Spanish... "Senior, I can't understand you, and it still won't make me have any smaller bills" ..yelling.. hands me change...I get out of the car while he is still yelling. I like to think that he was yelling at fate because I am just so darn sexy and he was jealous.

I worked all day, then had a couple of hours to take in the sites by my hotel before dinner (at 9:00, which is 30 minutes earlier than normal). I walked around the Palace and the Cathedral de Madrid and took lots of pictures.

We went to see X-Men 3 Friday night in Greenwich to watch it with Myke and Drew. We don't know how it ends - the film caught and melted during the last 20 minutes. Bummer. They gave us free passes and refunded our money, so it worked out.

Summer finally arrived! At least it is here on holiday.. T-shirt and Jeans weather. We took our neighbors to the Greenwich market yesterday and spent the rest of the day in Greenwich park with Myke an Drew. It was amazing. We had Subway Subs (no oil & vinegar - not even an option! crazy English), beer, wine, cheese, meat, olives - you get the idea. Regular lazy day gorging yourself.

Our neighbor Andy was feeling punchy, so he borrowed a football (soccerball) from some guys and we kicked it around. Myke had an errant pass into the face of some French lady. She wasn't happy, understandably. So we move further away. I tried to juggle a little and the ball got away from me too. Straight at the French lady. "Heads UP!" I say. "Ah, Jesus Christ!" She says.
I chased the ball in an effort to stop it. I managed to pop it up over her head and leap across her body. Didn't even touch her. That was my most athletic moment of the year.

The we got the Aerobe stuck in a tree, which provided much entertainment as we tried to get it down with our empty jug of sangria. I actually managed to get this 1 gallon thing stuck in the tree. We did finally get the Aerobe.

After, we walked to a riverside pub and enjoyed some refreshing drinks and food. On our way home, we passed under the Prime Meridian - there is a laser that shoots from the Greenwich Observatory marking 0 degrees. At one point we were in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Pretty cool. A lot cooler than being in New Jersey and New York when going through the Lincoln.

Grillin' in the Rain...

2006-05-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

John is in Madrid at the moment and so you are stuck with me yet again- you could do worse!

We had a lovely barbecue on Saturday in spite of the weather. You should have seen my cute husband standing outside in his cowboy hat grilling as the rain fell down! Of course- if I hadn't been so busy playing hostess, I may have taken a picture or two to share with you, but you know me: no time for pictures- must keep guests happy! Everyone had a wonderful time- helped along by my mother's famous potato salad recipe, apple pie, fairy cakes (it's their word for cupcakes) and beer. We even played Cranium at the end of the day. Did you know they have a UK version? There were six of us left (three guys/three girls) and one of each sex was a Brit, so we played men vs women and tried the UK version. What a mess! The men kicked the women's butts- mostly because our neighbor is a Cranium Wiz!

We also introduced our cats to the neighbors' kitten that night. It went pretty well and I predict they will be BFF by the time we leave.

We had a good dose of New York friends this weekend. Laura was in town for the show, Phillip spent the weekend with us, and Elba and her boyfriend David came to the BBQ and met up with us at a pub on the South Bank Sunday night.

John is in Madrid until Wednesday afternoon- I miss him terribly! I'm sure he'll have some fun stories to share when he returns.

Until then- have a great week!

Two in one week- what a treat!

2006-05-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hello! It’s the Missus here! Before I tell you how the show went last night, I want to take a moment to tell you about what I call “London Fridays.” Every Friday morning, without fail, I encounter hundreds of people rolling suitcases behind them or lugging large duffel bags on the tube. It’s sort of like an army of weekend warriors! Yes, I do realize that people all over the world go away on the weekends, but this is a phenomenon. They bring their suitcases, duffel bags, backpacks to work and leave for their weekend holidays from there. It almost feels like the city is being evacuated every Friday – hundreds of people flocking toward the nearest exit. I imagine it must be difficult, though. I mean it’s hard enough to focus on Friday, especially when you are going out of town for the weekend. Why would you want to torture yourself by staring at your suitcase all day? Can you imagine? Just staring at it- knowing that the cute swimsuit you bought for the beach is in there waiting to be worn or the tickets to the concert are calling your name- but you are stuck creating spreadsheets and making copies! I am told that while this is a year-round phenomenon, the number of suitcases does increase exponentially with nicer weather. By the way- when does that nicer weather start? And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the phenomenon of London Fridays. On with the show…

I am happy to report that the show was a success. The performances were fantastic (especially John’s) and the audience loved it. There was an adjudication at the end, about which I was quite nervous. It was an older man who sat in the FRONT ROW and wrote throughout the three shows. He also made a lot of disgruntled noises during the first show, which did not help my nerves! He tore the first play apart. I agreed with everything he said, but it was brutally honest and I thought he could have found a more constructive way of saying that the show sucked. Then-in my opinion- he was a little too kind to the second show. It was a full-length that they cut for the purpose of the festival and we all know how well that usually turns out! I would be interested to see the full-length, but the one act didn’t do much for me. He thought it was good, though. Then- it was our turn….HE LOVED IT! He said the dialogue was “snap-crackle-pop!” He said it was “nicely stylized” and the characters were “clear.” He commented on everything we had worked on- it was a GREAT FEELING! The only negative thing he had to say is that in general he doesn’t like the American Male Voice and that John might have slowed down a bit to help those who don’t understand the “jargon.” Well, unfortunately, that was a choice I made as part of the style that he had complemented earlier and I had never thought of the fact that people might not understand the accent. It definitely gave me something to think about. Afterwards, I introduced myself and thanked him for his comments and he gave me another note, which was right on. He was very complimentary and I was very pleased.

BUT---I have to vent to you because you will understand. The guys who run the festival were extremely friendly and laid-back- really nice guys. At tech, I was a little put-off by their relaxed nature since I’m used to the very strict regime of the Sam French Festival and Fringe and because I’m a bit OCD about organization and efficiency. I told myself to embrace it and be thankful for the change, but deep inside I was worried- worried that "relaxed" really meant "not on the ball." Well, guess what- they messed up! For those of you who don’t know the play, Below 14th is a very easy show techwise. There is: lights up, lights down and three sound cues. Cake- Well, they brought in the opening sound cue before John was set, snapped at my actress to enter BEFORE they brought up the lights and brought in a sound cue, which was the cue for a line, late! Needless to say, I was very unhappy with the tech, but the cast handled it all beautifully and no one was the wiser. So, all-in-all it was a great night. The end.

Double Your Pleasure...

2006-05-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

John and I have decided to each write a snippet tonight to make up for the fact that it's been over a week since our last blog. Surprise! I'm starting! I am so sorry that I left you hanging about our dinner at Christopher's and The Crucible. We had a fantastic night! Most of you will remember that we got a free dinner for two at Christopher's because of our bad experience when Flo was here. Well- let me tell you- when you walk into a restaurant with a letter from their manager apologizing for the horrible service and asking you to give it a second chance- people treat you like royalty! The service was IMPECCABLE and the food was ten times better than it was in February. So, suffice it to say the manager has really turned things around- go him! And it only got better from there. The Crucible was astonishingly good. The production design was simple and very well-utilized. The acting was honest. The direction was easy. He didn't put anything on it- didn't change the time or the language- he let the play speak for itself and it did. This is one of my favorite plays and the production was everything I'd want. We thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. What a great night!

In other news---Below 14th goes up on Thursday at 7:30. We have tech tomorrow and we are definitely ready. I only wish we got more than one performance, but that's life! Laura (the playwright) and Philip are coming in Thursday to see it. And to celebrate the show and their being here and Memorial Day--we are having our first party. We're having a Barbecue on Saturday at our place---and of course it's supposed to rain all week- YAY!

Finally, I've taken another theatre-type job. I'm helping to coordinate a Community Arts Festival the weekend before The Fourth of July. It's a little bit of extra cash and I think I'll be making a couple of good connections. Most importantly I'll be helping a community put up an Arts Festival- which I think is pretty cool! One of the guys I'm working with on the festival is a director and he told me the best way for me to get Directing work here is to create my own work and get people to come see it. Sound familiar? So, Playwrights, start getting some stuff together, because once Below 14th is over, I'm going to start focusing on proposals and putting up my own production and I'll be calling you! That's all from my end- so without further ado...

RAUL! KING OF THE TANGO!

English schools are going to start sending warning notices to parents when their children are fat. Starting from Pre-school. I think that is the best way to raise healthy, well balanced children. You certainly won't develop low self-esteem or eating disorders when you are told you are FAT by your school. I'm sure they'll waste millions of pounds trying to socially educate parents and students on how not stick your finger down your throat or sleep with the first person who looks at you. Which brings me to another point - Britain's youngest mother is Eleven years old. WOW!

In other news, Arsenal lost the Champions cup to Barcelona. Not only did they lose it, they were winning until the last 10 minutes, and then they lost it. It's just like being in Philly. So no more football until June, when the World Cup starts. I think I will actually support England. I feel almost like a traitor, but come on, which one of you guys is going to support/care about the United States? Reminder - this is the MEN's world cup and Mia Hamm retired, so put your hand down Meredith. I will actually be in Frankfurt for Togo V. South Korea. Can you think of anything more exciting!

We made an impulse buy at Woolworth's. Corey Feldman's Directorial debut was only 1.99! We had to get it.

I go to Madrid Memorial Day evening for work. Jamie can't make it, so it won't be as awesome as it could be - but I believe I will struggle through somehow.

A Quickie

2006-05-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone-

My first paid directing gig has come and gone. The Showcase went up this week. I think it went well and the Producer was happy, so - YAY! I'm hoping we can work it out so that I can direct some more in the fall. It depends on if the dates I'll be out of town conflict with the Showcase dates. We shall see...

I am very excited to announce that John and I are going to see the RSC Production of The Crucible tomorrow night!!!! I am very excited because I love the play and this production has gotten great reviews. We're going to try Christopher's again (the restaurant that gave me SQUID and then apologized with a free dinner for two) and then head to the theatre. I'll let you know how it goes!

Have a great weekend-

Have You Missed Me?

2006-05-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone--Jamie here! Sorry it's been so long...I've been a little busy and I have lots to tell!

First, I have an announcement: I have a new cousin! My Aunt Stephanie had a beautiful baby girl named Emily Rose Cooper on 5 May. YAY, Steph!

Speaking of 5 May, isn't it interesting that they don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo here? What a shock to my system to not be drinking Margaritas on Friday! Well, don't worry- I made it through on Stoli and diet coke. By the way, they don't call it Stoli here. When I order a Stoli and Diet--they usually look at me funny and I have to say "Stoli Vodka" and point. They say the whole name here. Who the hell says Stolichnaya?! Well, I guess it's not hard to say, but let's be honest- Stoli just sounds cooler! In other news...

I'm temping at a Property Management Company for rich people. The job should last until the middle of June. I'm finishing off a Maternity Leave because the woman before me got the lead in Pygmalion at a decent off-West End Theatre. It's fine. The people are pleasant, the work is easy and the pay is good. I've been a little stressed this week with temping, the Showcase, Below 14th and trying to keep up with my weightloss regiment for Flo's wedding. Guess which one has taken a back seat? But the Showcase goes up Tuesday and Wednesday, so that should give me a bit more time. Speaking of the showcase...

It's going well. We had a run-through yesterday and the Producer was very happy (which is good.) I've had a few problems with people who don't agree with me and don't take my direction, but overall it's been a great experience and I hope they ask me to do another.

Below 14th is also going really well. The cast is topnotch (they really are- I'm not just saying that because I'm married to one of them) and I feel very confident. I've just finished 20 letters inviting Artistic Directors of Fringe and Off-West End theatres to the show in the hopes of finding someone willing to give me more work. We shall see...

I am also happy to report that after only 4 months of living in London my name is in the Programme at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Yes, I'm in there in a list of about 500 Stewards, but I'm there! I had my first Stewarding session today. It's opening weekend and the show is Coriolanus. I got stuck inside next to the gift shop selling programmes and renting out cushions, seat backs and blankets. So I didn't see the show but I did stay warm. I met some lovely ladies, mostly senior citizens, and Dominic Dromgoole walked past me. There seems to be a bit of skepticism among some of the Stewards regarding him. Everyone was so fond of Mark Rylance and I guess Mr. Dromgoole isn't as much of a woo-er as Mark was. I suppose time will tell.

In other news- John bought a grill today. We are hoping to have a cook-out Memorial Day Weekend. It's not actually called that here, but there is a bank holiday on Monday and it's the weekend after the show AND Phillip will be here. We're both looking forward to putting the Conservatory and Patio area to good use.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you're all doing well. Drop us an email if you have a chance and let us know what's up.

Cat Party

2006-05-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Banks closed = PARTY!

2006-05-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

We have the day off today - National Holidays here are actually Bank Holidays. Banks close to celebrate something or other, and just about everyone else closes too. So we celebrate May Day!

The cats are great - they have adjusted quite well. Jovi love/hates the conservatory. We bought them new food dishes. One dish says Cat Party! and has a cat wearing a party hat. We're feeding our neighbors' kitten while they are away for the weekend. He's a lot of fun too. Which is good. Nothing worse than a boring kitten.

Jamie and I stepped in a big pile of poop Friday night. Whoops - I mistyped "Went to see American Dreamz". We also rented Revolver. WTF happened in that movie? I looked it up online and it still sounds like a load of BS with a big budget.

We noticed that our building has a neat plumbing fixture. An artifical waterfall was cascading next to our bedroom window earlier today. We go outside and see that there is a pipe sticking out from the 3rd story gushing water. I wonder what it was draining. Then again, I don't.
It has since stopped.

Rehearsals are going well for Below 14th. I've already learned a lot from Jamie. Jamie's other showcase is coming along as well AND she just got a new temp position as an assistant to a Real Estate sales team through June!

Signing off from the Mirror World of the UK,
John

Together at Last

2006-04-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry we've been MIA for so long. We just got back to London Monday morning. We had a wonderful trip home. Thank you to everyone who came out to see us--we miss you already!

The big news today is that the cats have arrived!!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after four agonizing months the Ramsburgs have been reunited in our new home. Sadie and Jovi are exploring the place as I type and, surprisingly, they seem to be okay. I think the intermediate move to my parents' house helped a lot- it kind of prepared them for the journey.

In other news--we had our first rehearsal last night for Below 14th and it went really well. I'm very excited about the cast. I also had my first meeting for the Showcase on Monday afternoon. I was a bit loopy from the flight but it too went well and I look forward to my first rehearsal with the actors on Saturday. That's all for now--I'm sure you will receive updates on the cats in days to come (ie. Sadie has already developed a British accent, etc.)

Football, Pubs, and Electricity

2006-04-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi - John Ramsburg comin at ya.

I've had a quite the week living it up as a bachelor.

I saw Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Apollo Theater - Same cast as NYC - Wow! It's one of those shows that can be a little long winded but still good if the actors aren't on their game, or up to par. Everyone brought their A game - even if Ms Turner sounded like she was fighting the miserable cold that has been spreading around London. For those interested, the Apollo Theater was also the West End home of The Norman Conquests in 1974.

I daresay I have found our "local" - there is a pub 2 blocks off the High street that meets my requirements - at least it did on Wed when I went to watch the football match. It's small, but offers areas to go hang out and be away from the crowd. And like most respectable places in our neighborhood, they have picnic tables and gas heat lamps if you want to chill out under the stars.

I think I'm close to having an actual football team that I support - I mentioned this to Jamie and she retorted - "Name two players". Of course, I could only name one and the stadium. So now I read the sports section of the daily papers. Anyway it's the Arsenal Gunners. Watching on a small TV at the pub I felt somehow involved with the other 3 guys watching the match. Not like Thanks for Dinner involved, more of a camaraderie. Of course, I seemed to have a picked a decent, yet often mediocre team. They would be perfect in Philly. There were even some missed goal opportunities that I - I, John Tuba Ramsburg, recognized! To quote the guy next to me, "the chair I'm sitting in could've scored that time". We had to watch the small TV because a more popular game was on the big screens. I felt like the sole Bengals fan at Down the Hatch.

I've been to Greenwich for dinner and drinks. I had the observatory pointed out to me on our way to the Trafalgar Pub. Greenwich observatory is where Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) comes from. Apparently Greenwich time taunted the other times into submission. We ate tapas at a place more known for its hot male twin owners than for the food, then stayed up all night and argued about music at Myke's flat. The next morning I was treated to a home cooked fry-up, complete with Myke in sunglasses because his head hurt. I was fine, oddly enough. Myke did manage to set the absinthe and his counter on fire at 3AM, which I observed with an odd bemused detachment. He's a chef - he put it out with a frying pan. Smart dude.

I went back to Old Street to the Drunken Monkey - and boy were there lots of drunken monkeys. DJ was good, but turned up way to loud. I guess I wasn't his target audience.

Other news, I now row at the max resistance - I even rowed 2000 meters in 8:47 the other night! I know - exciting!

Hope everyone has a happy Easter and/or Passover.
Off to bed - To Sleep! To sleep!

John's Birthday Weekend

2006-04-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hi Kids! It's John. Sorry I didn't get to write sooner. This is a long one.

First off, thanks to everyone who successfully navigated the postal system, telephone exchanges, and the internet to wish me a happy birthday. I especially enjoyed giving Brian race results 8 AM Sunday morning - it was 11:00 PM in LA! WHAT A COUNTRY. We actually turned our clocks ahead one week earlier than the US.

I'm putting a link to our pictures at the bottom of this so you too can see what we saw.

Thursday:
Work. My boss was in town all week. Thursday afternoon Ben (the guy who actually works for me - I'm in charge of somebody?!) buys me a nice chocolate mousse cake that we share with the rest of the support team and throw back a glass of champagne or two. This office has a good Birthday policy.

We decide to go meet up with Myke and Steve and some other folks they work with up by Sherlock Holmes' house. Good times - we then had sushi and sake. Myke ordered our food - it took him 15 minutes. I challenged him to a rock paper scissors duel for the fish egg roll. I won (or lost, as some may say) - I actually enjoyed it.

Friday:
Wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head.
Make our way to Enterprise Rent-A-Car and pickup our Vauxhaul Corsa - 1.4L Automatic. A) I can barely drive manual B) I don't want to open the door when attempting to shift
I proceed to crap my pants.
OK - So I've driven in New York City - I actually like driving in New York City.
London is like taking the worst of Richmond drivers and slapping them in New York City aggression. So as opposed to everyone being aggressive (New York) they are aggressively stupid. For example, someone zipped past me just to make a 3 point turn in the middle of the friggen road!

Jamie, Magellan that she is, gets us through the city and onto the highway system.
We take our time, pulling over at the various road service stops - 3 major companies run these places - Welcome Break, Moto, and Roadside something.
They are so friggen clean! They also have slot machines.

After 6 hours of slow driving (silly me - I thought the speed limit was 55, not 70. No signs) we arrive in Shrewsberry and check in at 164, our Bed and Breakfast. Famished, we strike out for the nearest food. Conveniently, it's 3 doors down at a pub called The Dun Cow (it has its own bus stop). After dinner, we walk into the main part of town by crossing the English Bridge. We settle on a pub called The Old Lion Tap. We could've been in New Jersey, except for the accents. It was Kaeroke (sp?) night and a going away party - makes for the best of times!
Song selections included:
-The Most beautiful Girl in the World
-Uncle Mark and Steph's wedding song
-Hero (actually sung well by a young guy who was definitely getting some later)
-and FAME
I drank Landlord beer, which was good.
There was a crazy amount of security for this place. I guess they have crowd control problems - fighting over the mic or something.

We left shortly after Fame for reasons most would understand.
Saturday -
Big English Breakfast and PRESENTS!!
Jamie got me a bottle of 15 year old Glennfiddich Scotch because I'm awesome AND a printed and bound photobook of The Local Seven from 2004-2005.
She's awesome.
Off to find Arthur!
Quick Background - I am huge Arthur buff. Nerd some may say. Not as bad as I once was - no talking dragons this time around. Anyway, I decided my birthday trip should be to where Arthur was supposed to be, if he were a real person. I did some digging, found Shrewsberry had a massive tourism site for Finding King Arthur, and then Jamie found a book supporting Shropshire as the area in which the "real" Arthur lived. This book makes a pretty strong case that Arthur was actually the title of the local king in the area just after the Romans abandoned Britain. His name was Owain and is listed in a genealogy of local Kings.

First Stop - Wroxter or Vivicorium
Wroxter was the 4th Largest Roman City in Britain. Immediately after the Romans left there is evidence of brief decay, and then a resurgence of about 50-100 years - the only city to do so. About the same period Owain was in charge.

It was pretty cool, the actual wall of the Baths is still standing, and they've rebuilt the hypocaust tiles and excavated some supporting walls to give you an idea of the size of the building. It was so cool - you stand on what was essentially the covered sidewalk, marked by a gravel pathway, of the great yapping Way, the road to London which now lies under a small unmarked country lane. Across the street is the Forum, but it is now simply private farm land. Lots of moments that make you realize that few things are permanent in life happened on this trip.

The lovely English Heritage stewards convinced us to sign up for the annual membership - national guide book included - so now we can get into any national heritage site for FREE (aside from our dues)

Finished with the Romans, we move onto The Wrekin.

The Wrekin
After driving around utilizing 3 different maps, we ask for directions. Jamie got us so close, but apparently we had to drive through 3 unmarked villages and make a left at the biggest cow pie.
The Wrekin is a big hill/small mountain with a 2 mile circular path to the summit. Owain's daughter in law is said to have watched Wroxter burn from the fortifications on the Wrekin's Summit. We park and commence what we think will be a leisurely hike. Covered in mud and slightly out of breath, we reach the summit. No wait, not yet, just a little further up that hill (rinse, repeat).

AWESOME VIEW. Well worth it. Jamie and I decided that these people are tough - All ages and abilities are walking up the Wreking with us. Old ladies, guys on bikes, little kids. I just wanted nap watching them.

We depart and head for Hawkstone Park & Folies (HPF)
HPF is listed on the Arthur map for three reasons -
1. A small roman cup was found in a statue in part of the park called the Grotto (an old roman mine) in 1920 - some scholars (scholarticians?) claim it may have been the inspiration for the Grail. Which is crap, but I won't get into that here. You already think I'm a nerd.
2. There's and animated Arthur - who would pass that up?
3. HPF obviously made a generous contribution to the map company

HPF is one of the worlds first Theme parks - created in the Victorian age to generate income on an otherwise worthless piece of mountainside. Features such as the the Dragon Walk -a big muddy path Jamie and I tried to walk, but were forced to go back when we realized it was mostly knee deep mud, the Jungle Path, the Grotto, the Awful Precipice, etc must have been a great novelty 125 years ago. I can just picture proper English gentry with their wives and friends, "What what? The Dragons Path, how devilishly clever! Humph humph!"

We were about to abandon this crazy park when Jamie saw signs for the Grotto. To get there, we had to cross the Swiss Bridge over a deep ravine. Again, I crapped my pants. I'm not the best with heights.

We enter the grotto and hear a strange, amplified voice! We hurry over to find the fabled animated Arthur! However, it was not an animitronic Arthur a la the Hall of Presidents in Disneyland ("I am Abraham Lincoln!"). Simply a mannequin with a bad wig, some signs, and a looped video of some guy's head telling you the story of Lancelot and Gawain defeating the giants of the Red Castle. The disembodied head in the TV (think Jambie from Pee-Wee's play house) is the animated Arthur.
This actually did make the 45 minute hike worth it. Check out the pictures for the comedy that was HPF.

Baschurch
Baschurch is home to the Berths and the Berth Pool. Baschuch is identified in an old Welsh poem as the resting place of the Kings of Powys - so Owain should be buried here and Excalibur would have been cast into the Berth Pool.
We drive around in circles, but there are no signs! I figured there would be something as this is the most important site in my mind. Finally we stop and ask for directions at the Post Office.
Where's the Berth's? I ask
I am answered with a stare
The Berth Pool?
Hmmph.
You can't go there. He's asking about Ellis' farm Amy!
That's private land - you can't go there without permission.
Ok, thanks I say.

On our way out of town we actually pass the pool, but there is nowhere for us to stop. At least we got to see it.

We went back to the B&B , had some curry at Shamilima or somesuch, had my birthday cake and lie in bed watching tv for several hours.

Sunday - Ruins, Stone Circles, Hill Forts and Closed Castles
Another hearty English Breakfast and we set off for the Much Wenlock Priory
The Much Wenlock Priory, like all monastic institutions in England was closed down by Henry VIII. How does it relate to Arthur? Well, the crown jewels of the local kings were supposedly hidden there when they lost to the Anglo Saxons. Our Audio Tour was narrated by the last monk to live in the priory. He must have been very very old when he recorded it. There is also delightful topiary - at least there was until I started tearing the place apart looking for Arthur's crown Jewels. Jamie enjoyed the new lambs the most.
Stone Circle of Mitchell's Fold
It's possible the Sword in the Stone theory is based on an ancient custom of determining Kingship through battle. Such a sword fight would have been fought in a stone circle, the victor being named King. Off we go to the closest Stone Circle!

Jamie plots our course and presents two options. We take the smaller roads straight to the circle, or the highways in a more out of the way route. Recalling high school geometry, I select the most direct line, since it is the shortest.

OH MY GOD.
There's a section on the map called the Long Mynd that's on our way. We go through some more tiny villages following signs for the Long Mynd. The road is narrowing, and eventually there is a sign that says Long Mynd, an open gate, and extremely steep gradient.

The Long Mynd is a friggen mountain. The road is ONE LANE. ONE LANE. One side (mine oddly enough) is the sheer drop to your death, the other, the mountain. I didn't pack enough underpants for this trip.
There are several areas to pull over and allow oncoming traffic to pass and lots of "scenic views". I pick the one at the top, flat part - check the pictures.

We finally get down the mountain, and follow signs. Unfortunately the signs are for towns not marked on our maps, so since I'm an Eagle Scout we use an age old technique called dead reckoning - or also called guessing in a manner that convinces your wife you a right. The road turns to gravel, then dirt, then to ruts - also going back up the mountain. Then there is a locked gate blocking the road. Awesome. I get to drive in reverse back down this road for a good mile.

Finally we reach the stone circle. At that point the weather changes from sunny and brisk to freezing and hail. It didn't seem so bad, so we walk the 1/4 mile to the circle - that was so cool (besides huddling behind the stones for shelter) walking around a site so ancient and obviously sacred. Then we turned into the wind to go to the car. WOW. Check the picture of Jamie.

Powys Castle (the Red Castle)
We then head into Wales to check out a castle. We pulled over for a bathroom break at a restraunt, car wash, petrol station, grocery store combo. As we get back in, I mention that I'm hungry. Jamie offers to get me a pie (like chicken pot pie, not apple) like the guy in the car next to us. I look over and there is this large man shoving this pie into his mouth with both hands. A funny had to be there moment. We follow the signs to the Castle and pull into the car park. The nice parking attendant informs us the castle is closed and will not be open until the end of the month. So much for Wales!

Owestry Hill Fort - One of the best examples of an Iron Age Hill fort, complete with earthworks.
We take a secret back way to the hill fort since we missed the initial turn. We park and begin walking up the hill, reading the information signs - BTW - if you work for English Heritage, please use my dues to fix these signs. You can't read half of them anymore.

You don't comprehend the layout until you get slighlty above the fort and can see the layers of fortifications - ditches, embakments, etc. Owestry Hill Fort is where Owains last ruling descendant is thought to have lost the kingdom. I was hoping to see rebuilt circle huts, but it was just a flat field at the top. We circumvented the fort and headed for Whittingon castle.
Whittington Castle is the castle most commonly identified as the Grail Castle. It too was closed. Jamie and I missed it twice. "How do you miss a castle?" you may ask. Easy - it was behind scaffolding and in the middle of town. We were able to walk around parts of the castle not blocked off by construction fencing.

Back into town for dinner and more lounging about. This driving on the left wears you out!

Monday - I skipped the full English breakfast today - opted for scrambled eggs and toast.
We drove back to London - Jamie plotted a new course to the rental agency as we decided not to stop at the flat to drop off our things. She did a great job- recommend her to any explorers anytime. Being more comfortable, I drove the actual speed limit the whole way home.

Over 500 miles of driving and some great times. Jamie only had to say "ON THE LEFT" once!
This weekend goes up as one of the best birthdays ever.

Here's the link to the pictures - I hope this works. If not, let me know and I'll invite you to the ofoto gallery

PICTURES

I've been waiting so long...

2006-03-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

Hello all- sorry it's been so long since our last blog. Usually when that happens, it means John wants to write but can't find the time. He has been very busy at work this week because his NY Boss is in town. I might have let you wait a little longer, but I can't because I just got great news and want to share it with you all. After years of waiting, I have just been given my FIRST PAID Directing Gig!!!! I will be directing an Actors' Showcase for Debut Productions. Apparently Showcases aren't widely done here and this is the only company that really does them. The story of this job is kind of funny. Got time for a story?

I had sent in my Resume for a theatre teaching job. The women who run the school also run a Production Company that produces Actors' Showcases in a few cities in England. They called me in to interview for a teaching job and as a Director. By the way- I got that call when my Mom was in town- I told you she brought me luck! The interview went really well but I wasn't sure about the schedule for the One Act I'm directing in May. I got those dates Monday and emailed them to the women and voila! I will be directing their May Showcase and if it goes well, may continue to direct for them next season! I wish I could call you all one-by-one to tell you this news. I just called my Mom (it's 5AM in PA) and left a message on her machine!

In other news--John and I will be leaving Friday morning for his Birthday Trip to Shrewsbury where we will explore the towns of King Arthur and celebrate John's 29th Birthday in style (we're staying in a Tudor Home.) As long as John remembers to drive on the Left - that is!

The Aftermath

2006-03-23T07:56:00.000-08:00

Jamie here. I've spent the past few days recovering from Mom's visit- she's a very active one for her age! (that was a joke, Mom) As I'm sure you could tell from her blogs, we had a fantastic week together. But Mom did not just bring Frank's, South Beach Bars and Vanilla with her, folks. She also brought some luck! On the second day of Mom's visit, I received an email. Laura, a playwright friend from NY, had submitted Below 14th (a show I directed for the Sam French Festival last year) for a One Act Festival in London. It was accepted. So, I have landed my first London directing gig! Just to be clear- I am not being paid and it is only going up one night. BUT it is a great way to meet people and to have my work seen. It will also be nice to put "London" on my resume. So, now I am scrambling to hold auditions before I leave to come home on April 5th. I placed my first ever Casting Notice this morning and have already received about ten responses. This is going to be interesting....I'll keep you posted.

OH MY God!! Goin Home Already :(

2006-03-20T02:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, I am sure U have been waitn with baited breath to hear whats a been goin on:) Well Can I start with I am Pleasantly Exhausted ! Boy can Jamie get alot in in a short time! But; I'm sure many of you already know that already. Well I must start with I can NOT believe it is Ok to Pee outside.. EWWWWW ! but; true!! So that's my tip for UR trip- watch out:)
Friday Jamie and I got up and she had a couple of errands to run.. And I got to veg a bit. By 1:30 Jamie waz home and off we went to Shop yes Shop isn't that what girls do best ? Right Flo : ) . Well we headed for Harrods and I was reluctant to buy things there mega expensive in my world. But; none the less I did give in and buy a few souvenirs. We left Harrods and walked around a bit and looked in other shops some we have back home that I will visit and buy some things that I liked but; was not gonna pay double here! Then out to dinner. It was St Patty's Day and all and we thought Oh let's find a Pub.. AH ya everyone else thought that same thought. go figure. So where did we eat U ask. A steak house yes indeed. Food was excellent and so waz the atmosphere. The Company was the best though!

Off to the queen Theater to see Les Miserable. John warned that it was a little sad . He was right! But; it was fabulous! The voices on the actors WOW knocked me out! Loved It!! Left the theater the streets were absolutely MOBBED!! I didn't mind it in NY . This seemed to me alot worse! Got home and crashed to start a new day of JOY!

Saturday up and out to see London by Tour! First thing was a brisk and I mean brisk walk around town. Our tour guide's name was Frazer. Great tour guide and a great tour.. Lots of pics!
Back To the National Gallery to Pee inside :0) And off to the bus tour . Yes on the famous double decker buses and It was Brisk Up There but; we are not USA sissys ! Right ?
Another great tour lots to C. And we did see it! This bus took us to the boat tour to cruise the river Thames and the boat was sooooooooo nice and warm! All glass so we got a great view all around. Loved It!. What a day! HUH! Got home at 6ish and John made Indian food for dinner and we watched a movie and chilled.

Sunday: one more day to try to keep up with Jamie cause, she can move on those lil legs of hers. John and I just strolled while we tried to keep up . And ran a few times too. :/
Well after a short nites sleep we were off to: PARIS! yes we were! Get to the tube by 7:15 to catch the Eurostar by 8:00. Made it! And back through security we go. Good to know everyone is doing their job with security. Well Mum set off the alarms. Yup me and "my belt I said" ButI was frisked all the same! By a very cute lil gal. Ok she smiled and let me through. Jamie said" U should take that belt off comin back"! And I said depends on who's doin the friskn:) She didn't seem entertained by that.
Finally we arrive in London and get tickets to the metro and exchange money sounds quick huh was'nt! But that's ok we were in Paris and soon above ground and off and runnin. Walked a bit around town and found a French Cafe' to eat lunch. In the window it said they served sandwiches but; once we were seated no sandwiches. So French Onion Soup and French Fries what else right. Very Good Lunch!
Back out on the streets to stroll while waiting for our tour bus. At 3:00. Walked across the street to Tuileries Gardens. Big Park fancy name:) It was awesome though lots to see and not enough time in a day! Jamie got a bottle of water there and paid 2.50 euros.. tooo much money!
We got in line for the tour bus right behind 2 other small groups of ladies and then everyone started to gather no order to things and U know how we like order. Finally at 3:00 the driver lets us on the bus which had airconditioning which was not running and when Ur at the top of a closed in bus it gets very warm! 1\2 hour later he starts the bus and we leave! Thank God! I waz a meltin. Nice tour. Got a nice ride around the City and taken to a Boat where we cruised the River Seine. Now That is a trip U must take I Was all over the boat at lotssa angles gettn Pics. It was Awsome! Loved It!!
Got dropped off at the Eiffel Tower sooooo cool.. Soooooo Big. Now I always knew that just standing next to it was mind blowing!
Got a bite to eat at a stand and stood and ate it in front of the Royal Theater Chaillot. Back to the metro and off to Eurostar . Long Story I know but; Bottom line is I had a terrific Time here with Jamie And John they were both great sports waitn for the ole lady to catch up. I know one thing if U can come o vist them U should. By the By the weather was great in Paris and only 1 day was it really chilly! It's all about the layers. Well I am goin home today to sleep :)
I just want to say I can NEVER Thank Jamie And John enough for this vist!And for Jamie being a BIG Part of planning a surprise 50th Birthday Party from abroad! The Best Birthday Ever Jamie. TY Lottsa Love MUM xoxoxoxoxoxo
I Hope UR All Well ! And not terribly Bored:/ Jamie could not believe I wrote this whole Thing!.. Ciao!

Hello From MUM Coops :) 2nd Visitor to The Flat

2006-03-16T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Well I have arrived!! For anyone who may know I recently turned the big 50 .. And had a nice Birthday surprise party. And this trip is a gift to myself..I have never flown Internationally Nor Alone But; all the same I am here.. I flew Virgin Atlantic Jamie and John's recommendation and they were right it was a very comfortable flight alil bumpy at times but; nothing too bad:) Food waz plentiful and no one sat in the seat next to me so I had 2 seats. Wow HUh! I thought so. I met a Welsh woman who now lives here in London on the plane whose daughter moved to NY 3 years ago and she was coming from NY and she did walk me through the airport and to passport security and then we were split up and I waz on my own :( Yes I waz abit nervous but; rose to the occassion and found my luggage and my daughter! Yeah !! I Love it here! We have been going almost nonstop except to sit on the "tube" or the double decker bus . Yes I'm braggin. We have done the following things thus far:oh wait U should know Wednesday was a Beautiful Day! We were up by 7;00am and outta the flat by 9am and off to Clapham Common Park for a wonderful cup of Java and a long stroll . And there is nice green grass already and daffodils too. After a wonderful stroll off to the West End- Covent Garden Market to do some shoppn. Way Cool! Entertainers and lots of shops. First gift I bought waz for my lil niece and god child Lizbeth a hand painted T-Shirt with Big Ben/A Double Decker Bus and The Sign Covent Garden Market cute..We walked around alot in the West End and I put my hand in Bruce Willis hand ... On the side walk hand prints for the stars.. What big hands Ya got Bruce :)..Took a double decker bus ride home.. Day2: Up round 8ish coffee shower and off to the Camden Market place must tell U today much cooooler. But; dressed for it and ready 2go. Once at Camden Markets we noticed they were still settn up and strolled for a bit and Jamie bought a vintage dress looks great on her and I finally found a top and a bag for the spring really neat 1 if I say so myself. Some hot chocolate and off we go .. More shops now open and I wanted to go to a place called "Spank " But; Jamie would not allow it. But; she did take pics of me there with a model dressed all in leather Momamia! Any who we left there and went to a small cafe Inhabitions and had some delicious homemade veggie soup and fresh bread ohh and of course afternoon tea. VERY GOOD! We decided to go to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and see what we could see there and tryn get on the tube before rush hour and we spent time there and off we were to the tube and home.. Whew! Tomorrow is hopefuly dinner in a Pub for St . Patty's Day and off to see Les Miserable.. And Back to the pub?? Maybe we shall C. If UR plannin a trip to London to see the queen "Jamie" be prepared to hit the ground runnin.And by the by the queen waz not here . Guess she didn't know I waz comin to town :) Well I am havin a blast and look forward to Sunday also we are plannin on going to Paris! Did I ever think that I would be here.. Let alone Paris? NOWAY.. But; I am and I'm goin for it.. So I hope I did not bore anyone. I'm not the writer FLO is ..I hope UR all well. Take Care.Maybe I'll Blog again before I'm off and back to the States.Maybe I'll stay :0) Just kiddn Eli..

She's on her way...

2006-03-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hi, Everyone-

The "she" in question is my Mum and she is on her way to London (well, she will be in two hours!) I'm sure I will convince her to write at least one Blog entry while she's in town, but here's a little sneak peak at what we'll be doing: Harrod's, Camden Markets, St. Patrick's Day at an Irish Pub, Les Miserables, A Sightseeing Bus & Boat Tour, PARIS!! Just a few things:)

Many of you have asked how the Surprise Party went- she was completely surprised! She had a great time and was thrilled to see some friends she hadn't seen in years- SUCCESS!

Today is my last day at this temp job. It's a shame because the guys have been great and the work has been minimal, but it's good I'm leaving because I'd hate to get attached. I am hoping to be working in the theatre, after all.

Finally, I have another addition to the American-English translations:

knock on wood..............touch wood

Have a wonderful week-

2006-03-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody! C'est John.

We've had an exciting weekend. Jamie had her training at the Globe Saturday morning and it went great. They toured parts of the Globe where normal people don't go, like the Lord's Room. In fact, she gets free tickets to the Lord's room for some shows as a thank you for volunteering. They even provide breakfast and cab fare home if you steward a Midnight show!

We had quite the Friday. Let's just say that after sufficient weirdness, we ended up having two discussions with two separate people who aren't fans of Americans, one of whom is American. Odd no? The lesson I take away is this - Drunk argumentative persons on a night bus in London are most likely not statisticians, no matter how much they quote "facts" and "figures" of ephemeral nature. We did however meet a nice puppy.

Jamie and I went to the St. Patrick's Day Festival today - that's the picture. We caught the tail end of the parade and then walked around. It seems we were there a bit early for crazy Irish antics, but we did get to see the Lord Mayor in person as he opened the festival.

Other good news - our DVD player finally showed up this week. Off to watch some movies!

What can it all mean?

2006-03-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hello, Friends-

I am writing from work. I was expecting to be the only one in the office today, but two men who had never been here came in today. They actually gave me some work to do and I was busy until noon! Then I read Time Out and looked for theatre jobs online. They just left and I am alone with 45 minutes to go and thought I'd write.

I was musing to John last night that I have learned so much in one week of working here. This very nice man (we'll call him Tottenham) who has been the only consistent person in the office has enjoyed exchanging bits of information with me. He showed me a map of the UK and pointed out good places to visit, I showed him a map of the US and we discovered together which states were the least populated. To my surprise- Vermont is second! We've also learned several new words. That is what I'd like to share with you today. Before moving here, we were aware that some words had different meanings in England (never say "fanny pack" for example,) but I am continuously encountering more and more. Here is a short list to which I'm sure John and I will add in the coming two years. Some of these you already know, but I wanted the list to be complete. The first word is the American word and the second word is the English word for it. Enjoy!

pants............trousers
underwear..........pants/knickers
sidewalk.........pavement
stroller.........buggy
truck...........lorry
drugstore...........chemist
cell phone............mobile
fuzz...........fluff
call..............ring
highway..........motorway
apartment..........flat
rent (as in a car)...........hire
rent (as in a flat).............let
appointment book/datebook...........diary
soccer.............football
football...............American football
cabinet/closet.............cupboard
broke (as in "no money")............skint
girl/lady..................bird

More to follow...

Those who blog together...

2006-03-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hi - We're doing a joint blog tonight. This is John's part-
I have discovered that most cold medicine here sucks. You can get Codine over the counter, but you can't get a decent 4 to 8 hour congestion remedy. Another fun fact - Night Nurse kicks Nyquil's ass. You better be in bed when you take it cause you ain't doin anything else for 8 hours. So my cold is mostly past, thanks for asking.

That's it for me - Oh, I'm getting better at the rower! I can actually row 2000 Meters under 10 minutes and walk around immediately after! For those of you confused by metric, 2000 Meters equals about .000000000000000000000000000000000000001 Parsecs, or 2 half-Bogles. Which do not equal one Bogle, as a half bogle is how far Bogle can throw a rock while drunk. Hi Bogle.

Jamie's turn-
As you know, I started temping on Wednesday. The job is a piece of cake. There are only a couple of guys in the office and there is little to no work. I answer the phone which rings about once an hour and fix a couple of reports. Even though the guys are really cool, I resisted the urge to get online last week. BUT today I spent most of the day online- reading the NY Times, London Theatre Reviews and doing research for my Mom's visit. I'm going to be the only one in the office on Thursday! Nice, huh? I got out early on Friday, so I walked around the city a little. I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, but it costs 9pounds to go in, so I left. I have issues with paying to enter a church. And I figure at some point, a visitor will want to go and I'll go then. Then I took the bus to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Portrait Gallery. It is so cool! I went with my class four years ago, but they have made major changes and the collection is HUGE and FREE! I really enjoyed it in spite of the fact that I was wearing my high boots and my feet were killing me. They have a Shakespeare Exhibit right now- looking at portraits that may or may not be him and trying to figure out who he was and what he looked like. I didn't see it, though, because John and I are going to go to that together.

On a sad note- I read today that the Theatre Museum may have to close because they didn't get the funding they requested. You may remember that I was disappointed with the museum but hopeful that it would improve. Apparently, it needs a ton of money to transform its space and if they don't get the money, they will have to close. I will continue to look into it and keep you posted.

That's all from me for now.

We hope you enjoyed our joint blog!

Working Girl

2006-03-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, Readers, it's official: I am no longer a LOL (Lady of Leisure for those of you not familiar with the initials.) Today was my first day temping London. "How did it go?" You ask? It went pretty darn well. It was relatively uneventful but there are a few things worth mentioning.

It was my first Rush Hour commute and let me tell you - my husband is a saint! He has told me about having to wait for a train and then not getting on because there is no room. He has told me how he has waited up to half an hour before actually getting on a train only to have to transfer a few stops up because the train wasn't going his way and I sympathized with him, but I just had no idea! You see, Londoners have this Mega Flaw when riding the tube: They never step all the way into the train. As Flo can attest, this is an annoyance during normal hours but you can usually ask people to move in or just push your way into the train. The problem with Rush Hour is that everyone jams into the space just in front of the doors. So while in New York 10 more people could easily fit into the center of the car, no one at the doors can or will move to let you on. It is UNREAL! It's a good thing I gave myself my trademark 20 minutes of extra time, because I had to let 2 trains leave before literally squeezing my body into the third train. Luckily I was heading in the direction of the city, so most of the trains were going my way and I only waited 15 minutes, but it was still very annoying. Now I understand why John takes the bus to work!

Even with the crappy commute, I arrived five minutes early and before anyone else in the office. So I ended up waiting a bit. The head guy wasn't in today, so I mostly sat around. I am told that there are 5 men in the office, but only one of them was there for most of the day today. He was so friendly! He made me a cup of coffee (instant) first thing and then proceeded to offer me another every time he made himself one (which was frequently.) We spent a lot of the day discussing London and New York and travel. He gave me a couple of projects but I maybe worked two hours on all of them combined. Another man arrived a little after 12 and left around 3. He came in. I said, "Hi." He said, "Hi" and sat at his desk. What is it with people not introducing themselves? Loyal readers will remember that Flo and I experienced this problem when we went out with John's coworkers. Shortly after he arrived, I took it upon myself to do the introductions.

Oh- I only made one "silly American" blunder. I was trying to add a color printer to my account. The nice gentleman gave me the filepath but it wasn't working. We tried it with spaces, without spaces, etc. Finally, we gave up and called the Help Desk. She said she'd have someone get back to me. Two seconds later I thought, "Hmmm...I wonder if..." Have you guessed it? Yup! I was writing COLOR but it's COLOUR! In my defense it's spelled COLOR on the side of the printer. Only one for the day- not bad.

And it snowed a tiny bit today! It barely counts as snow- it was that really light stuff that almost looks like rain when it falls and it doesn't accumulate. This has happened a couple of times this week. It only lasts a few minutes, so you have to be in the right place at the right time. But it's nice to see something white falling from the sky- even if its only for a minute.

Well, that's about it on my first day working in the UK. I'm sure as I get more to do, I will have more fun anecdotes to share.