After our early night on Friday we were up early on Saturday. After the usual flaffing around packing cameras, guide books, maps etc we were ready to hit the road. We were going to the Zoo!!!!
Stephen is getting grumpy with our satnav lady, as she seems to want to take us the most tortuous route possible to our destination. She did the same yesterday - wanted to take us round the whole of the I-395 when it was easier to go across Memorial bridge. Stephen ignored her nagging when she was telling him to exit and she eventually saw things his way!!
The National Zoo is lovely. We wandered round for nearly 3 hours and saw the elephants, lions, tigers and of course, the main attraction, the pandas! Here are some Panda stats: They eat 60lbs of bamboo a day, and poop back out 40lbs of that (SO much fibre!). Because they eat a diet so heavy in fibre they're lacking somewhat in the energy front, so they sleep around 17 hours a day (lucky, lucky, lucky things!). They are in the mood for lurve around 3 days a year...which is why the panda population is endangered. Apparently they show the male panda "Panda Porn" (in his brief waking moments) to make sure he has some idea what to do when the Mrs is in the mood!!!
The lady panda was up and about and beginning to eat her way through the 60lbs of bamboo, but the bloke was flat on his back and sound asleep!! Very thoughtfully he had decided to take his nap directly in front of the glass of the enclosure, so we got a great view of him!
Sunday 31 August 2008
Lovely dindins
We walked along to Bookbinders on Friday night for dinner. It was great! We got a table in the conservatory, which is gorgeous - all glass and giant palms. The food was superb... we shared the crab cakes as an appetisers, then we both had steak of varying cuts, and finished with an ice cream sundae and espresso. We were both happy and replete after that, so we waddled back along the road. We were much too full to consider having a drink after dinner!
Shopping and scandal
After work on Friday, we popped along to Pentagon Mall as I needed some make up. I just happened to be passing Macy's so I popped in for a quick browse...and found the most fantastic suit! Its black (quelle surprise), its Calvin Klein, and its now in my wardrobe. I had to justify it to myself...but its beautifully cut, lovely material and wasn't actually so very expensive...
I met Stephen in the food court for a coffee before we headed off. There was chaos at the parking exit. The pay station wasn't working in the mall, so we headed out as you can pay at the exit too. Except there wasn't a cashier on duty.... there were cars littered about, reversing up to get into different lines...chaos!
As we had left it way to late to book anything for the Labor Day weekend I was skimming my DC guidebook to see what touristy things we hadn't done. It was a different one from the one I usually use and full of trivia - which you know I love!! (Why can I remember trivia, but can't remember the big stuff? Like my name????). My eye was caught by the panel on DC sites of scandal, seduction and skulduggery (I wonder why!) and I noticed that the Pentagon City Mall food court got a mention. As we had just been there 1/2 hour before I was intrigued, so read on....This was where Monica Lewinsky was waiting to meet Linda Tripp for lunch, when Linda betrayed her and led Ken Starr's henchmen down the escalators to take Monica for questioning at the adjacent Ritz-Carlton. Stephen and I had unwittingly been sitting at a key spot in the Clinton impeachment saga! Who would have thought that a mall food court would be the site of such scandal!!
I met Stephen in the food court for a coffee before we headed off. There was chaos at the parking exit. The pay station wasn't working in the mall, so we headed out as you can pay at the exit too. Except there wasn't a cashier on duty.... there were cars littered about, reversing up to get into different lines...chaos!
As we had left it way to late to book anything for the Labor Day weekend I was skimming my DC guidebook to see what touristy things we hadn't done. It was a different one from the one I usually use and full of trivia - which you know I love!! (Why can I remember trivia, but can't remember the big stuff? Like my name????). My eye was caught by the panel on DC sites of scandal, seduction and skulduggery (I wonder why!) and I noticed that the Pentagon City Mall food court got a mention. As we had just been there 1/2 hour before I was intrigued, so read on....This was where Monica Lewinsky was waiting to meet Linda Tripp for lunch, when Linda betrayed her and led Ken Starr's henchmen down the escalators to take Monica for questioning at the adjacent Ritz-Carlton. Stephen and I had unwittingly been sitting at a key spot in the Clinton impeachment saga! Who would have thought that a mall food court would be the site of such scandal!!
Politics, politcs...
Obama gave a great speech. The impassioned democrats in the office said it was a spectacular speech. He looked and sounded Presidential. His VP nomination, Joe Biden just looked insincere! I didn't hear his speech, so perhaps he has other strings to his bow...I don't think I'm alone in my feeling that the guy is creepy. I just hope he doesn't hurt Obama's chances.
John McCain's announcement of his VP choice was a bit of a curve ball! Of the names that had been talked about with certainty, Sarah Palin wasn't one of them! Its a clever choice. She's young (which he is not), she's a woman (so may pick up the disaffected Hillary voters), and she's a social conservative (which he's a bit soft on).
Let the games begin! We now have 2 months of gladiatorial combat to look forward to before the election in November.
John McCain's announcement of his VP choice was a bit of a curve ball! Of the names that had been talked about with certainty, Sarah Palin wasn't one of them! Its a clever choice. She's young (which he is not), she's a woman (so may pick up the disaffected Hillary voters), and she's a social conservative (which he's a bit soft on).
Let the games begin! We now have 2 months of gladiatorial combat to look forward to before the election in November.
Friday 29 August 2008
Obama for President
We are sitting here, watching the TV and waiting for Barack Obama to give his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention. Its 45 years to the day since Dr Martin Luther King gave his "I have a dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Anticipation is high...
Wadder, wadder everywhere - but none I want to drink!
Talking of wadder...
I asked for a glass of water last night. One duly appeared, and I picked it up and sipped it. It was warm and lacking in ice. Yeuk!! Obviously I had slipped up by asking for water not wadder. I guess this triggered the "she asked for water - she must be British - British people don't put ice in their drinks - they mustn't like it cold - if I give her warm water she'll be delighted" train of thought.
I asked for a glass of water last night. One duly appeared, and I picked it up and sipped it. It was warm and lacking in ice. Yeuk!! Obviously I had slipped up by asking for water not wadder. I guess this triggered the "she asked for water - she must be British - British people don't put ice in their drinks - they mustn't like it cold - if I give her warm water she'll be delighted" train of thought.
Can I have some iced wadder? and hold the wadder...
Paul asked if we wanted to go out for dinner last night. All the family are heading back to the UK on Friday after enjoying 5 weeks of summer over here, and obviously the kids wanted to spend some quality time with their favourite soft touch babysitter before they went home. We arrived in Chadwicks shortly before they did. I first realised that they were there when a little pair of arms wrapped round me and a little head buried into my back.
"Can I sit beside you?" said Josh.
"Can I sit beside you?" said Katie
Oh oh, we're heading for an argument I thought. I only have two sides! Beth was playing it cool though, being much too grown up to get involved in an argument over who got to sit where.
She's not too grown up to get involved in the game of dropping ice down Stephen's back though! I think its great. All three of them want to give me kisses, cuddles, tell me secrets and play noughts and crosses...and all they want to do to Stephen is give him High 5's as hard as they possibly can and drop ice down his back. Beth got him a cracker - straight down the back of the shirt into the back of the jeans!!
As parents worldwide will testify, this is common behaviour in their children when in proximity to Stephen! I remember a couple of years ago we were at a BBQ and Stephen had 4 kids chasing him round the garden with handfuls of ice. It was nasty when they caught him...he had 3 children hanging off his shorts which began the inexorable slide downwards (we certainly saw more of him that we wanted to!) and the 4th was shovelling handfuls of ice anywhere they could!
Then there was the Close BBQ when I had left him there as I had wilting plants to get into the garden. I could hear distant shrieking and laughter...1/2 hour later he appeared - totally soaked from head to foot as he'd had a water fight with the kids!!
The comical sight of the evening was probably me being towed along the street by Beth and Katie, running ahead so we could hide round the corner and surprise they others. I'm built for comfort, not for speed and was also trying to keep my handbag from coming crashing off my shoulder and knocking Katie out. I was having to do this solely by using the power of positive thought as I had a small hand in both of mine!
"Can I sit beside you?" said Josh.
"Can I sit beside you?" said Katie
Oh oh, we're heading for an argument I thought. I only have two sides! Beth was playing it cool though, being much too grown up to get involved in an argument over who got to sit where.
She's not too grown up to get involved in the game of dropping ice down Stephen's back though! I think its great. All three of them want to give me kisses, cuddles, tell me secrets and play noughts and crosses...and all they want to do to Stephen is give him High 5's as hard as they possibly can and drop ice down his back. Beth got him a cracker - straight down the back of the shirt into the back of the jeans!!
As parents worldwide will testify, this is common behaviour in their children when in proximity to Stephen! I remember a couple of years ago we were at a BBQ and Stephen had 4 kids chasing him round the garden with handfuls of ice. It was nasty when they caught him...he had 3 children hanging off his shorts which began the inexorable slide downwards (we certainly saw more of him that we wanted to!) and the 4th was shovelling handfuls of ice anywhere they could!
Then there was the Close BBQ when I had left him there as I had wilting plants to get into the garden. I could hear distant shrieking and laughter...1/2 hour later he appeared - totally soaked from head to foot as he'd had a water fight with the kids!!
The comical sight of the evening was probably me being towed along the street by Beth and Katie, running ahead so we could hide round the corner and surprise they others. I'm built for comfort, not for speed and was also trying to keep my handbag from coming crashing off my shoulder and knocking Katie out. I was having to do this solely by using the power of positive thought as I had a small hand in both of mine!
Wednesday 27 August 2008
Would Sir like to taste the wine?
Stephen is just back from a customer dinner. One of the UK employees was hosting (and picking up the tab) and he made a slight error of judgement. He asked the North America employee (and multi-multi-millionaire) to order the wine....
Poor Lex was a little bemused when the bill arrived. He thought that the restaurant might have miscalculated...but no. On closer inspection (with reading glasses on) he realised that the wine had cost $406. For one bottle!! Stephen said "but it was a 1 litre bottle"... I didn't realise that they sold Chateau Lafite by the litre...does that make it Chateauneufdecrap?
Poor Lex was a little bemused when the bill arrived. He thought that the restaurant might have miscalculated...but no. On closer inspection (with reading glasses on) he realised that the wine had cost $406. For one bottle!! Stephen said "but it was a 1 litre bottle"... I didn't realise that they sold Chateau Lafite by the litre...does that make it Chateauneufdecrap?
Farewell to Pat & Jude
Pat and Jude are the latest Brits to head back to Blighty. They fly home on Thursday and are going to be missed by everyone in the office. We had their leaving lunch today, and a presentation (with ice cream cake) in the office just after.
The past couple of days leading up to this haven't been entirely incident and irritation free. I picked up a really nice photographic print at the Torpedo Factory whilst we were out and about on Saturday and dropped it in for framing at the store across from the office yesterday afternoon. They wanted to charge me a fortune for framing it, so I made some "oh, crikey that's expensive" noises, thrust the twins at the guy behind the desk and got a 25% discount. I knew the twins were good for something!! He promised faithfully to have it ready for first thing this morning...he lied! I wandered over about 10am and it wasn't ready. Time to panic? Not quite. I was told to come back in 20 minutes and it would be ready. Thankfully this time it was!
Lunch was no less fraught. We had agreed to go to the Thai restaurant for lunch, but I was faced with a mini-rebellion from the finance end of the office. It basically boiled down to Ted's or they wouldn't come as they didn't like Thai.... Rather than have 1/4 of the office not attend I spoke to Pat about changing the venue (but, of course didn't say why). As it turned out he was happy to go to Ted's, but it still rankled with me rather... If its not your party, surely you don't dictate... you turn up, eat the food (even if you don't like it), and make conversation... I'm sure they didn't think of it that way, more likely they felt they were just stating a preference as to venue.
Joni phoned Ted's and made a reservation. We had to go at 11:45 (which is practically breakfast) in order for them to accommodate us. We duly turned up just before the allotted time, and I went to speak to the hostess only to be told that they didn't have a reservation. When I told her that we had made one with the manager that morning, she told me that we couldn't have as they didn't take reservations for the same day.
Oh deary dear. This was not good. For her. She had just pushed me firmly over the edge from being mildly irritated to thoroughly pissed off. Apparently people could tell that I wasn't happy when I pulled myself up to my full 5 feet and squared my shoulders. She was a little twig. I reckon that I could easily have taken her... "Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the Smackdown. Tonight's main event, by way of 3 falls or a submission..." Kickass Kerry was narked.... The manager appeared around this time (probably alerted by the gurgling noise coming from his hostess as I wrapped my hands around her throat) and began to sort it out. But as the hostess had given away our grouping of tables, the best they could do was 3 tables near one another.... Oh deary, deary dear...
As it turned out the tables were fine. Not great. But fine. We then had to deal with the girls sitting on one table, and the boys on the other...but sometimes you have to let things ride! I let it go.
Jude and I had a really nice chat anyway. Pat and Jude have been rushing around trying to see all the things that they hadn't managed to see during their time here. Yesterday was Mt Vernon. Today Jude was off to hit the shops (and empty them) in a last spending spree. There was a pair of shoes she was particularly coveting...that's my girl! When I leave here it will be with a credit card in one hand and a pair of Manolos in the other...
Pat and Jude
With their tasteful leaving gift (well I chose it - I would say that!)
The past couple of days leading up to this haven't been entirely incident and irritation free. I picked up a really nice photographic print at the Torpedo Factory whilst we were out and about on Saturday and dropped it in for framing at the store across from the office yesterday afternoon. They wanted to charge me a fortune for framing it, so I made some "oh, crikey that's expensive" noises, thrust the twins at the guy behind the desk and got a 25% discount. I knew the twins were good for something!! He promised faithfully to have it ready for first thing this morning...he lied! I wandered over about 10am and it wasn't ready. Time to panic? Not quite. I was told to come back in 20 minutes and it would be ready. Thankfully this time it was!
Lunch was no less fraught. We had agreed to go to the Thai restaurant for lunch, but I was faced with a mini-rebellion from the finance end of the office. It basically boiled down to Ted's or they wouldn't come as they didn't like Thai.... Rather than have 1/4 of the office not attend I spoke to Pat about changing the venue (but, of course didn't say why). As it turned out he was happy to go to Ted's, but it still rankled with me rather... If its not your party, surely you don't dictate... you turn up, eat the food (even if you don't like it), and make conversation... I'm sure they didn't think of it that way, more likely they felt they were just stating a preference as to venue.
Joni phoned Ted's and made a reservation. We had to go at 11:45 (which is practically breakfast) in order for them to accommodate us. We duly turned up just before the allotted time, and I went to speak to the hostess only to be told that they didn't have a reservation. When I told her that we had made one with the manager that morning, she told me that we couldn't have as they didn't take reservations for the same day.
Oh deary dear. This was not good. For her. She had just pushed me firmly over the edge from being mildly irritated to thoroughly pissed off. Apparently people could tell that I wasn't happy when I pulled myself up to my full 5 feet and squared my shoulders. She was a little twig. I reckon that I could easily have taken her... "Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the Smackdown. Tonight's main event, by way of 3 falls or a submission..." Kickass Kerry was narked.... The manager appeared around this time (probably alerted by the gurgling noise coming from his hostess as I wrapped my hands around her throat) and began to sort it out. But as the hostess had given away our grouping of tables, the best they could do was 3 tables near one another.... Oh deary, deary dear...
As it turned out the tables were fine. Not great. But fine. We then had to deal with the girls sitting on one table, and the boys on the other...but sometimes you have to let things ride! I let it go.
Jude and I had a really nice chat anyway. Pat and Jude have been rushing around trying to see all the things that they hadn't managed to see during their time here. Yesterday was Mt Vernon. Today Jude was off to hit the shops (and empty them) in a last spending spree. There was a pair of shoes she was particularly coveting...that's my girl! When I leave here it will be with a credit card in one hand and a pair of Manolos in the other...
Pat and Jude
Jude and I pausing for breath
With their tasteful leaving gift (well I chose it - I would say that!)
Sunday 24 August 2008
mmmmm...ice cream
Kristen suggested brunch this morning, and it seemed a damn fine idea to everyone! We walked along towards King as it was a gorgeous morning, warm, sunny and not terribly humid. Perfect weather! We were about 3 blocks from the house when Stephen first spotted the demo taking place ahead of us. We saw the Mark Warner campaign banners as we got closer. As they were standing outside his house we figured that they were either going to set fire to them, or were friendly. They were friendly! They gave a loud hurrah and then quickly dispersed. I hope the Senatorial candidate is an early riser or it might become quite annoying to be woken at 9:45 each Sunday by a rousing cheer!!
We had brunch in Chadwicks - our first time there. It was very good! It was Paul who spotted that they did a bottle of champagne for $9. Good lad! We didn't indulge in a bottle, but Stephen and I did indulge in a bucket of mimosa for a whole $3 each. Why haven't we been here for brunch before?? The food was pretty good too!
We hooked up with Morag and Simon just after brunch. They work in the same place that Paul is going to be starting in shortly, so we thought they might be able to answer some questions that Paul had, and offer further suggestions as to areas to look for accommodation. After a chat Paul and Kristen headed off to the metro, DC bound and we headed off with Morag, Simon and the girls.
Stephen and Simon were swinging Lizzie between them and Alison wanted in on the fun! Lizzie had other ideas though and reclaimed her spot pretty quickly. Alison was slightly put out that she had only had a couple of swings when Lizzie was getting loads, so Morag and I stepped up. We (wo)manfully swung her all the way across the marina towards the food court. It took a little more effort on her part too as she had to pick her feet up as we couldn't swing her as high as daddy and uncle Stephen, but we did alright! Once we got inside they were clamouring for Stephen to lift them up, high in the air. He is their own personal amusement park!
After they had all eaten we walked along through the park beside the marina. The girls and Stephen and Simon went off to walk along the rocks and Morag and I had a lovely shady spot to watch them from. It was lovely, sitting in the shade watching the boats pootle up and down the river. Alison was taking photos with Stephens supervision, and she was doing pretty well! She certainly seems to have an eye for it. A budding Annie Liebovitz in the making!
It was getting pretty hot and Ben & Jerry's was singing its siren song. Everyone was sorted out with ice cream and sorbets when disaster struck. Alison was climbing onto a stool when her sorbet fell out of the cone and plopped onto the floor. Disaster! There were lots of tears.... B&J's were good though (I'm sure this happens all the time!) and gave her a new sorbet with extra sprinkles which soon stopped the tears. Lizzie was having a grand time with her chocolate ice cream. She was getting stuck in with gusto!! Not only to hers, but also to her dad's when she fancied a change, then her mom's, then to Stephen's. It was obviously a very good idea to sample all the flavours to make sure that hers was definitely the best! She was almost as messy as Stephen was at the end of the day - he'd managed to spill coffee down his t-shirt earlier. He blames the lids on the cups, but everyone else somehow manages to contain the coffee to either the cup or their mouth....
We walked back home taking some snaps as we went. It really was a lovely day!
Paul and Kristen are now on their way home to NYC, complete with a huge number of apartment details. I think there were a couple of possibilities, so we'll wait and see what they decide in due course. We've volunteered to go see anything that comes up.
I was laughing at something that Paul said when we were waiting on Stephen.... Stephen has spent all weekend commenting to me on how much Paul looks like his dad Jim (and he really does!), so I had to smile when Paul told me that he thought that Stephen looked like Jim! Apparently he and Kristen had got split up coming off the metro and ended up leaving the station by two different exits. She had then phoned Paul and said "there's a guy over there who looks like your dad. Is that going to be him?"
Stephen plus coffee stain. Taken by Alison.
Alison looking very angelic
Stephen and his fan club
Me next!!!
Lizzie enjoying her ice cream
Kristen and PaulOld Town Photos
Lee Street 
The Town Hall bedecked in the stars and stripes 
Town Hall and Market Square
The fountain in Market Square 
The Waterfront near the Marina
Looking towards the Potomac
Lee Street
Saturday 23 August 2008
Sleepy, grumpy...
I've just been to Target (I was getting Target-withdrawal as I've not been for weeks!) and bought new pillows. I'm not a great sleeper and buy quite a few pillows in search of the perfect pillow combination. My last ones were pretty good, but suddenly they began to feel as though they were stuffed with rocks. It was time for new ones.
This was really brought home the other night as I had gone to bed, read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, switched out my light and immediately fallen asleep. I woke up feeling fairly awake. It was still dark though. I've trained myself to check the clock when I wake during the night, as I can lie there for ages thinking "the alarm is going to go off any second" and then find its only 4am. I checked the clock. It was 11:35pm. I had been asleep for a whole...40 minutes!!! I was now awake, it was still the same day as I had gone to bed, and I couldn't find a comfy position at all. No matter how much I pummeled the pillows they still felt like rocks!!
Its probably as well that Stephen wasn't here. I would only have got grumpy with him...he can sleep through anything and there is nothing more frustrating when you're lying awake in the middle of the night than the contented gentle snoring of someone deep in the land of Nod!
This was really brought home the other night as I had gone to bed, read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, switched out my light and immediately fallen asleep. I woke up feeling fairly awake. It was still dark though. I've trained myself to check the clock when I wake during the night, as I can lie there for ages thinking "the alarm is going to go off any second" and then find its only 4am. I checked the clock. It was 11:35pm. I had been asleep for a whole...40 minutes!!! I was now awake, it was still the same day as I had gone to bed, and I couldn't find a comfy position at all. No matter how much I pummeled the pillows they still felt like rocks!!
Its probably as well that Stephen wasn't here. I would only have got grumpy with him...he can sleep through anything and there is nothing more frustrating when you're lying awake in the middle of the night than the contented gentle snoring of someone deep in the land of Nod!
Oh, woe is me...
I've had a rather rough time for the past few days. It all began to go wrong mid-morning on Thursday when I began to feel rather sick, and went downhill from then on it. I called it quits around 2pm and headed home. Which was perfect timing as it turned out, as my tummy became a particle accelerator shortly after. I wasn't able to hold onto any food for very long. Poor me! I woke with the alarm at 6:15 the following morning, got up, immediately felt sick and rushed to the bathroom, then back to bed for another 5 minutes. Again I got up, again felt sick and again went back to bed for 5 minutes. I was really determined not to leave Joni on her own in the office, so ignoring my body, I got up and had a shower. Big mistake. By the time I was done I felt awful, and began to acknowledge that it my body might be telling me something! I needed to be horizontal as upright=nauseous and near my own bathroom in order to spend some quality time with my loo...!!
Thankfully, by the time Stephen reappeared from his visit to the UK I was feeling more human. Especially thankfully as later that evening we were collecting Stephen's cousin (another Paul!) and his girlfriend from the metro as they were coming down from NYC for the weekend. They're moving to the area and are down to look at apartments. They've seen umpteen today and I think they're beginning to run into one another in terms of what they're all like. We've been round a couple with them. One was an apartment in a historic house on Prince St. It had some nice mouldings and hardwood floor, but it was like Honey, I Shrunk the Apartment!! The bedroom would have fit a bed and that was it, and the kitchen (if you can call it that) was essentially a cooker on one side and a sink on the other - almost no counter top at all. As you might expect, the new builds were all almost identical and the older ones were in need of some TLC. We're moving the search from Old Town to Pentagon City tomorrow.
Thankfully, by the time Stephen reappeared from his visit to the UK I was feeling more human. Especially thankfully as later that evening we were collecting Stephen's cousin (another Paul!) and his girlfriend from the metro as they were coming down from NYC for the weekend. They're moving to the area and are down to look at apartments. They've seen umpteen today and I think they're beginning to run into one another in terms of what they're all like. We've been round a couple with them. One was an apartment in a historic house on Prince St. It had some nice mouldings and hardwood floor, but it was like Honey, I Shrunk the Apartment!! The bedroom would have fit a bed and that was it, and the kitchen (if you can call it that) was essentially a cooker on one side and a sink on the other - almost no counter top at all. As you might expect, the new builds were all almost identical and the older ones were in need of some TLC. We're moving the search from Old Town to Pentagon City tomorrow.
Thursday 21 August 2008
Advertising space
You know in the UK you have adverts for Cillit Bang (or whatever its called) where a man comes out and shouts "Hello, I'm Barry White" (or whatever he's called) "and I'm here to tell you about...". Well we have the US equivalent where a man comes out and shouts "Hello I'm Harry Black" (or whatever he's called!) "and I'm here to tell you about Kabooom". This chap advertsises all sorts of home and car cleaning products. He's on the TV all the time. It therefore didn't surprise me to see him in another advert...but it took me a while to realise that he wasn't shouting about the amazing powers of another cleaning prodct. He was advertising life insurance!! It was a bit of a stretch in the credibility stakes!
I miss the clever and funny adverts you get in the UK. They just don't have the same thing here at all! The adverts are all rather earnest. And they aren't scared to rubbish the competition! There is no subtle suggestion of a carton design for the rival product. No! Its all extremely direct! "Here is why Brand A is better than Brand B".
We also get a constant stream of adverts for medication which you should "ask your doctor to prescribe". The advertisers are also compelled by law to list the contra-indications of these medications - usually read at auctioneer speed at the end of the advert! Some are rather serious, including the ultimate contra-indication... It would certainly put me off taking them! We can cure your ingrown toenail, but the tablets could kill you, addle your brain or make your arm drop off. Hmmmmm....let me think about that one!
If ever you need more information on any er, how shall I put this? - gentlemen's medications, can I suggest picking up a copy of Golf Magazine? It cannot have much space for articles on golf as every TV advert suggests you buy a copy for more details on its product!
I miss the clever and funny adverts you get in the UK. They just don't have the same thing here at all! The adverts are all rather earnest. And they aren't scared to rubbish the competition! There is no subtle suggestion of a carton design for the rival product. No! Its all extremely direct! "Here is why Brand A is better than Brand B".
We also get a constant stream of adverts for medication which you should "ask your doctor to prescribe". The advertisers are also compelled by law to list the contra-indications of these medications - usually read at auctioneer speed at the end of the advert! Some are rather serious, including the ultimate contra-indication... It would certainly put me off taking them! We can cure your ingrown toenail, but the tablets could kill you, addle your brain or make your arm drop off. Hmmmmm....let me think about that one!
If ever you need more information on any er, how shall I put this? - gentlemen's medications, can I suggest picking up a copy of Golf Magazine? It cannot have much space for articles on golf as every TV advert suggests you buy a copy for more details on its product!
Make mine a venti
We have coined a new phrase today. Starbucks no longer sells us lattes. It sells us liquid will to live!
"Hey! How are you? Can I have a venti, extra shot, no foam, will to live please?"
I think it could catch on!
Its certainly very apt for me some mornings. Despite getting up at the crack of dawn I'm still not really a morning person. It can take a bit of time, and caffeine before I feel perky and/or able to deal with perky people!
My latte addiction is something of a standing joke between me and our Chairman's EA. She called me this morning and her first words were "Its me! Have you had your coffee yet?" She was in stitches when I told her that we're calling it "will to live" now.
I have needed the extra boost of will to live in the past couple of days. One of my young colleagues is going to the UK on a business trip and he is hyper excited about the trip which is very understandable. I think its only something like his second or third trip out of the US and he's looking forward to visiting the two main sites then spending some time in London.
I forget that I'm a jaded old hag when it comes to travel. I travel a lot, I book a huge amount for people in work and have done for the best part of 14 years. I know travel agent speak. It doesn't phase me. I'm happy to book via our work travel service. I'm happy to book on line. I was once able to book a custom 5-centre vacation in 40 minutes direct with the travel company when it took a (very hopeless) travel agent 10 hours (a whole day, plus some time the following day sitting in the agency) to book a two-centre holiday straight off the brochure pages. Its safe to say I'm comfortable with the whole idea! It easy to forget that others are more apprehensive about the whole process. And when I stop and think about it I can appreciate why....but having to go through everything in great detail many times is somewhat sapping!!! Its all booked though, so he can get on with the exciting "anticipation" part now!
"Hey! How are you? Can I have a venti, extra shot, no foam, will to live please?"
I think it could catch on!
Its certainly very apt for me some mornings. Despite getting up at the crack of dawn I'm still not really a morning person. It can take a bit of time, and caffeine before I feel perky and/or able to deal with perky people!
My latte addiction is something of a standing joke between me and our Chairman's EA. She called me this morning and her first words were "Its me! Have you had your coffee yet?" She was in stitches when I told her that we're calling it "will to live" now.
I have needed the extra boost of will to live in the past couple of days. One of my young colleagues is going to the UK on a business trip and he is hyper excited about the trip which is very understandable. I think its only something like his second or third trip out of the US and he's looking forward to visiting the two main sites then spending some time in London.
I forget that I'm a jaded old hag when it comes to travel. I travel a lot, I book a huge amount for people in work and have done for the best part of 14 years. I know travel agent speak. It doesn't phase me. I'm happy to book via our work travel service. I'm happy to book on line. I was once able to book a custom 5-centre vacation in 40 minutes direct with the travel company when it took a (very hopeless) travel agent 10 hours (a whole day, plus some time the following day sitting in the agency) to book a two-centre holiday straight off the brochure pages. Its safe to say I'm comfortable with the whole idea! It easy to forget that others are more apprehensive about the whole process. And when I stop and think about it I can appreciate why....but having to go through everything in great detail many times is somewhat sapping!!! Its all booked though, so he can get on with the exciting "anticipation" part now!
Wednesday 20 August 2008
Oh, the power of the remote!
There is a small upside to not having my protector here....I can watch what I want on the TV! I am not normally allowed control of the remote, and he is a complete remote control commando! If I glance away from what I'm watching, even for a second, the TV is immediately turned over to baseball/soccer/football/golf/Olympics...whatever sport is in season. Actually, in season doesn't matter. They show repeats of all sports all year. You can watch football and ice hockey in summer and golf and baseball in winter. I was flicking through channels on Saturday and there was sport on practically every channel! I had to get to the religious channels before I found something non sport related!
I have been on a mission to watch as many chick-flicks as I can before he gets back! You know...the kind of thing that would make him run screaming from the room, or reach for the sickbag! He still brings up the time that I made him watch Neverland...I was moved practically to tears and he was...well, he was not! So far this week I've watched soppy, sugary, emotional, musical, uplifting films every night and have been loving it!
I have been on a mission to watch as many chick-flicks as I can before he gets back! You know...the kind of thing that would make him run screaming from the room, or reach for the sickbag! He still brings up the time that I made him watch Neverland...I was moved practically to tears and he was...well, he was not! So far this week I've watched soppy, sugary, emotional, musical, uplifting films every night and have been loving it!
The Great Hunter
Why, oh why? Why do these things happen when my protector is several thousand miles away? Stephen is the official bug dispatcher and rescuer of (not so) helpless women in this house and he's still in the UK.
I was was passing the downstairs loo when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark shape on the tile floor. I put on the light and there was a spider! Eurgh!! It looked dead. It soon was. I was looking for the dustpan in order to scoop it up, but couldn't find it. I found it out in the yard (don't ask me why). I went to pick it up...and there was a spider on it. I shrieked and kicked at the dustpan and watched as the spider scuttled off into a crevice. After a dash back in to scrape the spider off the floor I went down to the gate in order to toss it over the fence - as far from the house as I could! I was so intent on performing a perfect pitch into the rear garden that I failed to see the huge web that was spun across between the plants. There was yet more shrieking as I fought to brush the clinging strands of web off my face. My poor neighbours must have been wondering what the heck was going on...or watching and laughing at my antics!!
I am now sitting here twitching at the touch of imaginary spiders. I am going to have to go and have a bath and wash my hair in a minute, otherwise I'm not going to get any sleep at all tonight. My recurring dream is one in which spiders are crawling in my hair. I haven't had it for a while actually, but feel this may change now! I'm sure Stephen is looking forward to me waking him in the night for the next few weeks as I sit bolt upright shouting "get them off me" as I swat at the imaginary spiders in my hair!!
At least the wildlife isn't so bad here. I can deal with a few spiders every now and again! Stephen was down playing golf at Pax River a couple of weeks ago and came back with tales of the preying mantis on the porch screen, the snake on the drive and the vulture sized mosquitoes that were trying to chew his leg off! I would be in a state of permanent anxiety at what would assault me whenever I walked out the door!
I was was passing the downstairs loo when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark shape on the tile floor. I put on the light and there was a spider! Eurgh!! It looked dead. It soon was. I was looking for the dustpan in order to scoop it up, but couldn't find it. I found it out in the yard (don't ask me why). I went to pick it up...and there was a spider on it. I shrieked and kicked at the dustpan and watched as the spider scuttled off into a crevice. After a dash back in to scrape the spider off the floor I went down to the gate in order to toss it over the fence - as far from the house as I could! I was so intent on performing a perfect pitch into the rear garden that I failed to see the huge web that was spun across between the plants. There was yet more shrieking as I fought to brush the clinging strands of web off my face. My poor neighbours must have been wondering what the heck was going on...or watching and laughing at my antics!!
I am now sitting here twitching at the touch of imaginary spiders. I am going to have to go and have a bath and wash my hair in a minute, otherwise I'm not going to get any sleep at all tonight. My recurring dream is one in which spiders are crawling in my hair. I haven't had it for a while actually, but feel this may change now! I'm sure Stephen is looking forward to me waking him in the night for the next few weeks as I sit bolt upright shouting "get them off me" as I swat at the imaginary spiders in my hair!!
At least the wildlife isn't so bad here. I can deal with a few spiders every now and again! Stephen was down playing golf at Pax River a couple of weeks ago and came back with tales of the preying mantis on the porch screen, the snake on the drive and the vulture sized mosquitoes that were trying to chew his leg off! I would be in a state of permanent anxiety at what would assault me whenever I walked out the door!
Monday 18 August 2008
Food glorious food
Stephen has headed back to the UK, so I spent today gutting the house and cleaning it to within an inch of its life. Then as a reward I watched the most saccharine, romantic, girlie movie I could find...the kind of movie that would have Stephen running for the door. I'm trying to catch up with all the chick-flicks that I missed at the movies (which is a lot!).
We were round at Andy and Marie's on Friday night. They had invited us round for a curry. Marie had been busy in the kitchen. It was very tasty indeed! Stephen called me earlier to tell me that he had been out for the best curry when he was home. He was also crowing about the bacon sandwiches on farmhouse loaf that he'd had for breakfast. What a rotter!! I have bacon, but bread....now that truly is difficult to get!
We were round at Andy and Marie's on Friday night. They had invited us round for a curry. Marie had been busy in the kitchen. It was very tasty indeed! Stephen called me earlier to tell me that he had been out for the best curry when he was home. He was also crowing about the bacon sandwiches on farmhouse loaf that he'd had for breakfast. What a rotter!! I have bacon, but bread....now that truly is difficult to get!
Olympic highs and lows
I had to laugh when I was reading the BBC news website the other day. It was reporting on two competitors who had tested positive for banned substances and been chucked out the competition. One guy was stripped of his medals in pistol shooting. WHY do you need performance enhancing drugs where you're basically standing still?? And the other was a female gymnast who had come 82nd on the floor exercises. Surely, if you only come in 82nd then you must be using the wrong kind of drugs!!!
Phelps has won his 8th gold medal at these Olympics and the whole of the US is justifiably proud of his achievement. Team GB is also doing really well (they've won almost as many as Phelps has on his own!), but we're not really getting to see their achievements!
Phelps has won his 8th gold medal at these Olympics and the whole of the US is justifiably proud of his achievement. Team GB is also doing really well (they've won almost as many as Phelps has on his own!), but we're not really getting to see their achievements!
Wednesday 13 August 2008
An undecided voter
I had to laugh the other morning. We were driving into work and were following a car into the building which had bumper stickers for Obama AND McCain. Talk about sitting on the fence!!
Olympics
Stephen and I are enjoying the unbiased Olympics coverage and news reporting. We were watching the synchronised diving final the other night and we got to see dives from the British team, the US team and the Chinese team...and that was about it! They did not show any of the dives from the Australian team - and they got the bronze medal!! They simply didn't exist as far as the coverage was concerned!
Watching Mark Phelps going for Olympic glory is fun though. He's something of a local boy as he comes from Baltimore. There have been numerous features on his training. On a typical day he swims laps for 5 hours, goes to the gym for a couple of hours and spends the rest of the time sleeping and eating - over 10,000 calories a day!
The USA women's gymnastic team came a cropper last night and lost out on gold to China. I had only seen the first rotation on the vault before I called it a night. They were moving onto the Uneven Bars as I hit the stairs. (Incidentally, when did they stop being Asymmetric Bars?) Apparently it all went horribly wrong when they were doing the beam routines and one American girl vaulted on and then immediately fell off. There is a lot of water cooler (and news broadcast) debate about the ages of the Chinese gymnasts as they would appear to be younger than the 16 years old you need to be to compete in that competition...
We might have found Stephen's ideal retirement job. We're getting to see a lot of women's beach volleyball (needless to say the US teams are good, so we get plenty coverage!) and we think that Stephen would be well suited to be the guy who brushes the sand off the girls butts when they've finished the match. I'm sure that I would in no way be jealous of him brushing sand off tall, leggy lovelies in tiny outfits!
Watching Mark Phelps going for Olympic glory is fun though. He's something of a local boy as he comes from Baltimore. There have been numerous features on his training. On a typical day he swims laps for 5 hours, goes to the gym for a couple of hours and spends the rest of the time sleeping and eating - over 10,000 calories a day!
The USA women's gymnastic team came a cropper last night and lost out on gold to China. I had only seen the first rotation on the vault before I called it a night. They were moving onto the Uneven Bars as I hit the stairs. (Incidentally, when did they stop being Asymmetric Bars?) Apparently it all went horribly wrong when they were doing the beam routines and one American girl vaulted on and then immediately fell off. There is a lot of water cooler (and news broadcast) debate about the ages of the Chinese gymnasts as they would appear to be younger than the 16 years old you need to be to compete in that competition...
We might have found Stephen's ideal retirement job. We're getting to see a lot of women's beach volleyball (needless to say the US teams are good, so we get plenty coverage!) and we think that Stephen would be well suited to be the guy who brushes the sand off the girls butts when they've finished the match. I'm sure that I would in no way be jealous of him brushing sand off tall, leggy lovelies in tiny outfits!
Boston - The Photos
The old meets the new
Hotel Lobby
Kerry's personal heaven 
Have you seen Boston Legal? This building might be familiar.
Beacon Hill 
Louisburg Square (where Louisa M Allcott lived) 
The view from near John Kerry's house 
We pick up the Freedom Trail 
The State House
As if we didn't remember where we were... 
The original Cheers Bar
Having lunch at the new Cheers Bar
Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall
The Boston skyline from the Common
Trinity Church 
Trinity Church reflecting in the glass of the Hancock building 
The cute ducklings statue 
One of the Swan Boats 
A lovely day for a Guiness? More like a lovely day for the ducks! The weather on Sunday when we got back to the hotel.Monday 11 August 2008
A weekend in Boston
We left the office about 11am on Friday and jumped in a taxi to the airport. Yus indeedy, the Sparks were on travel again! A weekend in Boston beckoned...
We had the usual minor inconvenience where we went through the self-service check-in option and at the end it told us to see a ticket agent. So we joined the short but very slow moving queue...we finally got to the agent and 30 seconds later were holding boarding cards! Thankfully security was really quiet so there was still time to grab a panini before they called the flight.
We were staying at the Lenox hotel just off Copley Sq in Boston. It was lovely! Turns out it was a Historic Hotel of America. The staff were lovely too! We were whisked in and greeted by umpteen staff on the floor and given a REALLY nice room. We dumped our stuff, grabbed our cameras and headed down to Copley Sq and Trinity Church, then onwards to Boston Public Gardens. The Gardens are lovely, but perhaps not being shown at their best on Friday. It was threatening rain and very dark. It didn't seem to put off the participants in not one, but two, weddings going on about 100 yards apart!! Shortly after passing one wedding I was overtaken by a rather grumpy looking bride who strode past me with a friend in hot pursuit, who was shouting back "I'll let you know if I need you" to someone else in the wedding party. "Oh, oh" I thought, "wedding jitters"! Actually it turned out that she was going to get changed in that most private of spots...under the bridge in the Public Gardens, directly across from the huge queue for the Swan Boats!! I only hope that the friend who was in hot pursuit had a sheet to preserve her modesty.
It wasn't long after this that we decided to seek shelter. Cars were passing us which were very wet indeed, so we wimped and headed back towards Copley Sq in search of a Starbucks to wait it out. Well we searched, and searched...I know we had passed one, but neither of us could remember what street it was on! We ended up going to the Prudential Centre shops (where we found a Starbucks) and wandered round there for a while. It was around 5pm and we decided to go to the lounge bar at the top of the Prudential building for a cocktail and to admire the views across Boston.
We were almost finished the drinks when I noticed that it was finally beginning to rain. Big drops were sploshing across the windows. It was time for another round! The weather really began to close in then. There was lightening lighting up the skies all around us - and we had a panoramic view. Stephen joked that if we lost sight of the John Hancock building (less than a half a mile away) then we were in trouble. A few minutes later it had gone, completely engulfed in clouds.
We couldn't afford to stay for a third round so we headed back down to Mall level in search of umbrellas - which we seem to be amassing in industrial quantities! We always seem to end up buying some when we're away. It just seems so defeatist to pack a brolly somehow! As the eternal optimist I like to believe I'll be bathed in sunshine wherever I go!
We sloshed the 2 blocks back to the hotel, got changed and then headed out for dinner. One of the staff recommended Morton's steakhouse which was mercifully close, as at that moment the heavens really decided to open and it was pouring down! I was wearing fabric ballet pumps and they were soaked within seconds. I had to sit through dinner with sopping wet feet - lovely! Dinner was fantastic though - worth getting soaked for!!
We were up early on Saturday, and after a quick Starbucks (yes, I will be checking myself into the Priory when I return to the UK to deal with my latte addiction) we headed over to the Public Gardens. The weather was better on Saturday - alternating between sunny and overcast - so the Gardens were looking much more verdant. We went in search of the Ducklings statue, and eventually found it, completely submerged in children. As even I'm not cruel enough to throw them all off we didn't bother with trying to get photos and marched on towards the Bull & Finch bar which is just across the road. The outside of the bar is instantly recognisable as the bar from Cheers.
We then spent some time wandering round Beacon Hill - the posh district! It was very nice and reminded me a lot of Old Town Alexandria, and even parts of New Town Edinburgh in that it had little cobbled streets, town houses and delightful tiny front gardens. John Kerry lives in Beacon Hill (we stood outside his house) and Louisa M Allcott lived in Louisville Square until her death. After I dragged Stephen away from admiring the Aston Martin parked in the street we walked to the gold domed State House, then picked up the Freedom Trail which we followed past the historic sights until we got to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. We were growing weary by this time - time for lunch!
We ate in the Cheers Bar which was there solely to cash in on the franchise! The original Bull & Finch Cheers bar is always packed out with people (despite the fact the inside is nothing like the TV show..) and I guess they realised there was a good thing going on! Apart from a few cardboard cut outs of Carla and Diane, this bar was nothing like the series either!! As Cheers is the bar "where everybody knows your name", and as you had to give your name to a waitress to go on the waitlist, I was rather disappointed not to enter to a rousing call of "Kerry" or "Steve" when we walked in! Ah well....
We walked on round the harbour (or rather round the habba) then picked up the Freedom Trail once again out to North End Church before heading back to Quincy Market for another coffee stop before climbing in a cab back to the hotel. We hit the Irish bar for a couple of drinks before heading out for a walk round Back Bay and Newbury Street (posh shopping and nice restaurants). We had dinner in what turned out to be the worst restaurant in Boston! It looked promising - a nice patio, a basket of foccacia which was scrummy, a G&T strong enough to fell an elephant... but they really spoilt it by microwaving the main course. There was no way that they could have cooked the entrees in the 5 minutes that elapsed between us ordering and the food coming out, and sure enough my "homecooked" lasagna was made of rubber. We took a walk further along Newbury St after dinner and passed a couple of really lovely looking restaurants (with patio seating), including an Indian restaurant. D'oh!!!!
The Irish bar beckoned at the end of the evening. At one point in the evening I realised that Stephen obviously needed to have his ears re-excavated when he asked the obviously American sounding barman how long he had been in the US as he thought he was Irish....
Sunday dawned a beautiful day with clear blue skies and sunshine. We headed back down towards the Public Garden and found the duckling statue free of children for a few brief moments...yay! A chance of a photo op....shame the lighting wasn't great. It was actually too sunny and there was a huge contrast between light and shade. The brief seconds between waves of kids didn't allow for more than a few snatched shots. The sunshine did wonders for the Trinity Church though. It transformed when caressed by the golden rays of sunshine. We headed back to the hotel to pack, stopping en-route for Sunday brunch at Stephanies (another lovely restaurant on Newbury St). Stephen wanted bacon and eggs which was the one thing not on the menu so he had to order it as sides...I had to giggle later when it all arrived on separate plates - and he looked surprised!!
We packed, checked out and headed to the airport. Again we had a problem with the self-service check in and were again told to wait in the extremely slow moving line. We noticed that there were a few flight cancellations but put this down to the flights being empty. It wasn't until we got to the gate that we began to realise there was a bigger problem... There was a severe weather system over the Eastern seaboard which was making its way towards Boston. The plane that we were supposed to be getting on hadn't left the ground in Washington, nor was it likely to for some time...they couldn't fly over, around or through the storm. We held on for a few hours whilst they kept pushing the departure time further out. Eventually they told us that there was a strong possibility that no-one would be going anywhere that night and the best thing we could do would be to go away and come back in the morning - which is precisely what we did. Around 30 minutes later we were checking back into the hotel we had left only a few hours before! I had phoned and taken their cheapest room (which wasn't particularly cheap - Boston is eye-wateringly expensive for hotels), and the lovely, lovely girl on the desk upgraded us to a deluxe King room as we poured out our sob story and said how happy we were to be back.
Staying an extra unplanned day meant shopping. We grabbed brollies and sprinted through the bouncing rain to Lord and Taylor next door. Stephen did remarkably well considering that we went in to buy him pants and socks! He came out with a whole raft of polo shirts, shirts and jumpers as well as the pants and socks. The pants were rather misjudged actually. He thought he'd save a few dollars by buying the pack on sale rather than the Calvin Kleins. I realised this was a mistake when I opened the pack back in the room. A HUGE mistake! These were hardly the tighty whities as modelled by David Beckham....These were a HUGE pair of Y-fronts!!! It has taken me most of the day to overcome my hysterical laughter....
I was also laughing hysterically when we left the store as he was rather rough with his brolly and completely broke it! It was still absolutely pouring down and I wasn't sharing, so he had to try and hold the fabric end onto the pole and also hold it outward into a brolly shape....at least that's one less brolly to store carefully in the stockpile.
The great news about the flight delay (in addition to another night in Boston which is a lovely city) was getting to try again for dinner. Of course we headed directly for the Indian restaurant. It was delicious!! Scottish readers will appreciate this - they did pakora and spicy onions...both missing from an English curry experience. It was fantastic!
We had the usual minor inconvenience where we went through the self-service check-in option and at the end it told us to see a ticket agent. So we joined the short but very slow moving queue...we finally got to the agent and 30 seconds later were holding boarding cards! Thankfully security was really quiet so there was still time to grab a panini before they called the flight.
We were staying at the Lenox hotel just off Copley Sq in Boston. It was lovely! Turns out it was a Historic Hotel of America. The staff were lovely too! We were whisked in and greeted by umpteen staff on the floor and given a REALLY nice room. We dumped our stuff, grabbed our cameras and headed down to Copley Sq and Trinity Church, then onwards to Boston Public Gardens. The Gardens are lovely, but perhaps not being shown at their best on Friday. It was threatening rain and very dark. It didn't seem to put off the participants in not one, but two, weddings going on about 100 yards apart!! Shortly after passing one wedding I was overtaken by a rather grumpy looking bride who strode past me with a friend in hot pursuit, who was shouting back "I'll let you know if I need you" to someone else in the wedding party. "Oh, oh" I thought, "wedding jitters"! Actually it turned out that she was going to get changed in that most private of spots...under the bridge in the Public Gardens, directly across from the huge queue for the Swan Boats!! I only hope that the friend who was in hot pursuit had a sheet to preserve her modesty.
It wasn't long after this that we decided to seek shelter. Cars were passing us which were very wet indeed, so we wimped and headed back towards Copley Sq in search of a Starbucks to wait it out. Well we searched, and searched...I know we had passed one, but neither of us could remember what street it was on! We ended up going to the Prudential Centre shops (where we found a Starbucks) and wandered round there for a while. It was around 5pm and we decided to go to the lounge bar at the top of the Prudential building for a cocktail and to admire the views across Boston.
We were almost finished the drinks when I noticed that it was finally beginning to rain. Big drops were sploshing across the windows. It was time for another round! The weather really began to close in then. There was lightening lighting up the skies all around us - and we had a panoramic view. Stephen joked that if we lost sight of the John Hancock building (less than a half a mile away) then we were in trouble. A few minutes later it had gone, completely engulfed in clouds.
We couldn't afford to stay for a third round so we headed back down to Mall level in search of umbrellas - which we seem to be amassing in industrial quantities! We always seem to end up buying some when we're away. It just seems so defeatist to pack a brolly somehow! As the eternal optimist I like to believe I'll be bathed in sunshine wherever I go!
We sloshed the 2 blocks back to the hotel, got changed and then headed out for dinner. One of the staff recommended Morton's steakhouse which was mercifully close, as at that moment the heavens really decided to open and it was pouring down! I was wearing fabric ballet pumps and they were soaked within seconds. I had to sit through dinner with sopping wet feet - lovely! Dinner was fantastic though - worth getting soaked for!!
We were up early on Saturday, and after a quick Starbucks (yes, I will be checking myself into the Priory when I return to the UK to deal with my latte addiction) we headed over to the Public Gardens. The weather was better on Saturday - alternating between sunny and overcast - so the Gardens were looking much more verdant. We went in search of the Ducklings statue, and eventually found it, completely submerged in children. As even I'm not cruel enough to throw them all off we didn't bother with trying to get photos and marched on towards the Bull & Finch bar which is just across the road. The outside of the bar is instantly recognisable as the bar from Cheers.
We then spent some time wandering round Beacon Hill - the posh district! It was very nice and reminded me a lot of Old Town Alexandria, and even parts of New Town Edinburgh in that it had little cobbled streets, town houses and delightful tiny front gardens. John Kerry lives in Beacon Hill (we stood outside his house) and Louisa M Allcott lived in Louisville Square until her death. After I dragged Stephen away from admiring the Aston Martin parked in the street we walked to the gold domed State House, then picked up the Freedom Trail which we followed past the historic sights until we got to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. We were growing weary by this time - time for lunch!
We ate in the Cheers Bar which was there solely to cash in on the franchise! The original Bull & Finch Cheers bar is always packed out with people (despite the fact the inside is nothing like the TV show..) and I guess they realised there was a good thing going on! Apart from a few cardboard cut outs of Carla and Diane, this bar was nothing like the series either!! As Cheers is the bar "where everybody knows your name", and as you had to give your name to a waitress to go on the waitlist, I was rather disappointed not to enter to a rousing call of "Kerry" or "Steve" when we walked in! Ah well....
We walked on round the harbour (or rather round the habba) then picked up the Freedom Trail once again out to North End Church before heading back to Quincy Market for another coffee stop before climbing in a cab back to the hotel. We hit the Irish bar for a couple of drinks before heading out for a walk round Back Bay and Newbury Street (posh shopping and nice restaurants). We had dinner in what turned out to be the worst restaurant in Boston! It looked promising - a nice patio, a basket of foccacia which was scrummy, a G&T strong enough to fell an elephant... but they really spoilt it by microwaving the main course. There was no way that they could have cooked the entrees in the 5 minutes that elapsed between us ordering and the food coming out, and sure enough my "homecooked" lasagna was made of rubber. We took a walk further along Newbury St after dinner and passed a couple of really lovely looking restaurants (with patio seating), including an Indian restaurant. D'oh!!!!
The Irish bar beckoned at the end of the evening. At one point in the evening I realised that Stephen obviously needed to have his ears re-excavated when he asked the obviously American sounding barman how long he had been in the US as he thought he was Irish....
Sunday dawned a beautiful day with clear blue skies and sunshine. We headed back down towards the Public Garden and found the duckling statue free of children for a few brief moments...yay! A chance of a photo op....shame the lighting wasn't great. It was actually too sunny and there was a huge contrast between light and shade. The brief seconds between waves of kids didn't allow for more than a few snatched shots. The sunshine did wonders for the Trinity Church though. It transformed when caressed by the golden rays of sunshine. We headed back to the hotel to pack, stopping en-route for Sunday brunch at Stephanies (another lovely restaurant on Newbury St). Stephen wanted bacon and eggs which was the one thing not on the menu so he had to order it as sides...I had to giggle later when it all arrived on separate plates - and he looked surprised!!
We packed, checked out and headed to the airport. Again we had a problem with the self-service check in and were again told to wait in the extremely slow moving line. We noticed that there were a few flight cancellations but put this down to the flights being empty. It wasn't until we got to the gate that we began to realise there was a bigger problem... There was a severe weather system over the Eastern seaboard which was making its way towards Boston. The plane that we were supposed to be getting on hadn't left the ground in Washington, nor was it likely to for some time...they couldn't fly over, around or through the storm. We held on for a few hours whilst they kept pushing the departure time further out. Eventually they told us that there was a strong possibility that no-one would be going anywhere that night and the best thing we could do would be to go away and come back in the morning - which is precisely what we did. Around 30 minutes later we were checking back into the hotel we had left only a few hours before! I had phoned and taken their cheapest room (which wasn't particularly cheap - Boston is eye-wateringly expensive for hotels), and the lovely, lovely girl on the desk upgraded us to a deluxe King room as we poured out our sob story and said how happy we were to be back.
Staying an extra unplanned day meant shopping. We grabbed brollies and sprinted through the bouncing rain to Lord and Taylor next door. Stephen did remarkably well considering that we went in to buy him pants and socks! He came out with a whole raft of polo shirts, shirts and jumpers as well as the pants and socks. The pants were rather misjudged actually. He thought he'd save a few dollars by buying the pack on sale rather than the Calvin Kleins. I realised this was a mistake when I opened the pack back in the room. A HUGE mistake! These were hardly the tighty whities as modelled by David Beckham....These were a HUGE pair of Y-fronts!!! It has taken me most of the day to overcome my hysterical laughter....
I was also laughing hysterically when we left the store as he was rather rough with his brolly and completely broke it! It was still absolutely pouring down and I wasn't sharing, so he had to try and hold the fabric end onto the pole and also hold it outward into a brolly shape....at least that's one less brolly to store carefully in the stockpile.
The great news about the flight delay (in addition to another night in Boston which is a lovely city) was getting to try again for dinner. Of course we headed directly for the Indian restaurant. It was delicious!! Scottish readers will appreciate this - they did pakora and spicy onions...both missing from an English curry experience. It was fantastic!
Friday 8 August 2008
Thursday is Daiquiri Day
Random sight of the day. A woman in full George Washington costume (including the hat) sitting in Cafe Manna eating a sandwich at lunchtime. Which means that in the past couple of weeks we've seen two Presidents in Arlington. Not the current one of course, but we're working through them!!
Dawn and I were feeling the need to shake loose a little tonight. And what better way to do that than to make daiquiris? It just so happened that Dawn had a blender in the car...and a bottle of rum (of course, we had in no way had planned this!). After Dawn made a quick trip to Harris Teeter for mango we were good to go. We were in the kitchen just before 5pm whizzing up a blender-full of rather good mango daiquiris. We managed to make quite a mess, and the consistency took a little work - mine was first out and needed a spoon to consume it - but we got it down pretty well in the end! We were pretty quickly joined by a large portion of the office, responding to the siren call of the blender. There was a party going on!
Dawn and I were feeling the need to shake loose a little tonight. And what better way to do that than to make daiquiris? It just so happened that Dawn had a blender in the car...and a bottle of rum (of course, we had in no way had planned this!). After Dawn made a quick trip to Harris Teeter for mango we were good to go. We were in the kitchen just before 5pm whizzing up a blender-full of rather good mango daiquiris. We managed to make quite a mess, and the consistency took a little work - mine was first out and needed a spoon to consume it - but we got it down pretty well in the end! We were pretty quickly joined by a large portion of the office, responding to the siren call of the blender. There was a party going on!
Thursday 7 August 2008
Little fridge of horrors
Joni and I tackled the icky fridge this afternoon. People aren't very good about removing their uneaten lunches. I found something that had become a "liquid lunch" the other day. You know it can't be good when your sarnie turns into soup!
We went through the collection of sticky jars and wrinkled apples. I found a couple of stonkers - apple juice that was a year old and (this was pretty amazing!) a jar of grape jelly that was best before October 2005!!!! This pre-dates the office build-out and the existence of the fridge it was sitting in, which means that someone took the jar of (at that point) year out of date jam out of the old fridge and put it in the new one where it has sat for a further 2 years!
We were ruthless! We threw it all out. We washed. We wiped. It is a delightful, sweet smelling place now! People need no longer live in fear of opening the door and having some new life form leap out and try and strangle them...
We went through the collection of sticky jars and wrinkled apples. I found a couple of stonkers - apple juice that was a year old and (this was pretty amazing!) a jar of grape jelly that was best before October 2005!!!! This pre-dates the office build-out and the existence of the fridge it was sitting in, which means that someone took the jar of (at that point) year out of date jam out of the old fridge and put it in the new one where it has sat for a further 2 years!
We were ruthless! We threw it all out. We washed. We wiped. It is a delightful, sweet smelling place now! People need no longer live in fear of opening the door and having some new life form leap out and try and strangle them...
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Peachy!!
I picked up some lovey ripe peaches when I was at the supermarket on Sunday and sat down to enjoy one last night. It was beautifully ripe and very juicy and sweet. Imagine then, me sitting on the sofa, the peach sitting peachily on a plate. I take a bite - no more than a teeny nibble. The peach juice-bomb explodes and I end up with juice all over my face, up my nose, on my glasses, dripping off my elbows....Luckily I had the foresight to take kitchen towel with me so I was able to mop up, but I was a mess! My leason is learned. Eat the next one whilst wearing a bib, sitting in the bath!!
I want curry....and I want it now!!
I've just made a serious error of judgement. I watched (as I frequently do) Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. The restaurant featured tonight was an Indian and I've just sat through an hour of people making, eating and talking about Indian food. I have never craved an chicken jalfrezi as much as I do right now!!! I had got over my curry cravings months ago, and now...I want one...NOW!!!!! I should have turned it over immediately. It was such a bad idea to watch it! I was just torturing myself.
What not to wear
I forgot to tell you about my senior moment the other day. And the worst of it was I didn't realise I was having one for several hours!! I was in the elevator at the end of the day when I glanced down and realised that I was wearing a patterned white top....and a black bra! Oh the shame!!! The worst of it was I was on my way to the airport to meet Colin - what a great first impression! - and had no time to change!!
Of course I immediately berated Stephen at length for not telling me! Surely he should have noticed when I was getting dressed that there was a potentially embarrassing underwear situation going on? I was laying the blame firmly at his door anyway! As I normally manage to dress myself without such incidents I'm not sure what was going on in my head. I can only assume that after all my late nights and lack of sleep last week I was actually still unconscious when I got dressed that morning!!
I have had a few minor "wardrobe malfunctions" in the past...you know the kind of thing. You turn around and discover that your wrap top is not as tightly wrapped as you thought and one of the twins is halfway out to saying hello - but this is always in perfectly co-ordinated undies!! Standards are slipping!!
Of course I immediately berated Stephen at length for not telling me! Surely he should have noticed when I was getting dressed that there was a potentially embarrassing underwear situation going on? I was laying the blame firmly at his door anyway! As I normally manage to dress myself without such incidents I'm not sure what was going on in my head. I can only assume that after all my late nights and lack of sleep last week I was actually still unconscious when I got dressed that morning!!
I have had a few minor "wardrobe malfunctions" in the past...you know the kind of thing. You turn around and discover that your wrap top is not as tightly wrapped as you thought and one of the twins is halfway out to saying hello - but this is always in perfectly co-ordinated undies!! Standards are slipping!!
Sunday 3 August 2008
Irish eyes are smilng
I was flicking through the local paper last night when I noticed that there was an Irish Festival going on in Oronoco Park today. It promised the local pipe band and Irish foods. We've seen the pipe band enough not to be too excited about that, but the thought of Irish food...well perhaps that might mean bacon and sausages sandwiches...
As it was hot and humid and Oronoco Park is about a 30 minute walk away, we parked the car in Cameron St and walked the rest of the way, after dropping into Starbucks for an iced tea (me), and an Americano (him). We got to Oronoco Park and there was...nothing there!!
Never mind, lets take some photos says my own personal David Bailey, pulling out his new super camera. I wandered off a few feet to admire the view, only to have my attention pulled back around by the cursing coming from Stephen. It seems that somehow he managed not to put the battery in his camera!! Luckily I had mine in my handbag...
Oronoco Bay Park sans Irish Festival
As it was hot and humid and Oronoco Park is about a 30 minute walk away, we parked the car in Cameron St and walked the rest of the way, after dropping into Starbucks for an iced tea (me), and an Americano (him). We got to Oronoco Park and there was...nothing there!!
Never mind, lets take some photos says my own personal David Bailey, pulling out his new super camera. I wandered off a few feet to admire the view, only to have my attention pulled back around by the cursing coming from Stephen. It seems that somehow he managed not to put the battery in his camera!! Luckily I had mine in my handbag...
Oronoco Bay Park sans Irish Festival 
A car. Okay - a Ferrari....
Founders Park - the other side of the Marina
We assumed that the festival was maybe Sunday, so we walked back along to King Street. We could hear someone singing Irish songs but assumed that maybe he'd turned up on the wrong day too! It wasn't until we got back to the marina we discovered that the Irish Festival was in full swing - on the grass behind Starbucks!!
There was someone singing Irish songs, the local Irish pubs (except O'Connells) were represented, there were stalls selling all sorts of Irish souvenirs, and of course Guinness. The Irish food that was promised turned out to be Hawaiian shaved ice, cotton candy, BBQ chicken, hot dogs and burgers. About as regionally authentic as the food at the Scottish festival last year with included crabcakes and BBQ!! Oh well, its just as well that I met my Embassy friend for lunch and stocked up with another pound of bacon from the shop!! She arrived for lunch with a cooler packed with bacon, sausages and black pudding for us all - there were about 15lbs of pork products in there!!! We love Heather!!
Getting ready to audition for Riverdance
Saturday 2 August 2008
The Welcome Wagon
Our company has a great graduate programme that allows new graduate to do stints in areas around the company, getting a view of the whole company and gaining lots of experience. A few luck out and make it to the US. Jacqui was one, and our newest arrival - Colin - is another.
He arrived yesterday and I volunteered Stephen and I to be the Welcome Wagon and go and collect him from the airport. I got a call from the company that had organised his accommodation letting me know that the keys were available and suggesting that I collect them before heading out to the airport as the site office closed at 6pm and who knows what can happen to traffic round the Beltway during rush hour.
Having planned to leave the office at 1:30 it was inevitable that we got delayed and didn't get away until nearly 2:15. Colin's flight landed at 2:40, and with having to get through immigration I hoped we just about had enough time to get there before he appeared! We jumped into the car and legged it in the general direction of the apartments whilst I fought with the overly complicated SatNav. We were there before I got it to accept the address!!
I leaped from the car and into the office. There was a girl behind the desk trying to find a package for a resident. She threw me a look and snapped "what number?".
"I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett who's moving in today".
No verbal response, just another look. She eventually found the package for the other chap and swished round the desk and past me. I was immediately in hot pursuit.
"Excuse me, but I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett"
"What number?"
"He's moving in today"
"I can't give keys to someone not on the lease"
"He's possibly not going to get here until after 6pm. I was told to collect the keys by the letting agent"
""I can't give keys to someone not on the lease. People generally tie moving in with our office hours"
"Well that's not a possibility. He's currently on a flight from the UK. I'm going to collect him from the airport this afternoon"
This just elicited another stroppy look. Oh dear....
"Right. Let me get my phone. I'm going to call the letting agent and you can speak to him and explain why I can't collect the keys". I turned on my heel and stomped out to the car to get the agents phone number. I was rummaging in the car muttering loudly to Stephen about the stroppy attitude of 20 year old girls when she came out of the office with an envelope of keys and thrust them at me without a word.
We finally got on he road and spent most of the time on I-66 doing a staggeringly fast 25mph. I was pretty convinced that he would be out and waiting for us by the time we finally got there! Thankfully we picked up speed, and immigration was slow... We had about 30 minutes to wait before he came out. I was there with my sign as neither of us had any idea what the other looked like!
He's a very nice young guy, very chatty. We got him back to his apartment (just before 6pm!), and then left him to it as he was keen to go and explore. He's just across from Potomac Yards (Target, Best Buy etc), so pointed him in that direction as he was wanting to go buy a cell phone and have a look round.
He arrived yesterday and I volunteered Stephen and I to be the Welcome Wagon and go and collect him from the airport. I got a call from the company that had organised his accommodation letting me know that the keys were available and suggesting that I collect them before heading out to the airport as the site office closed at 6pm and who knows what can happen to traffic round the Beltway during rush hour.
Having planned to leave the office at 1:30 it was inevitable that we got delayed and didn't get away until nearly 2:15. Colin's flight landed at 2:40, and with having to get through immigration I hoped we just about had enough time to get there before he appeared! We jumped into the car and legged it in the general direction of the apartments whilst I fought with the overly complicated SatNav. We were there before I got it to accept the address!!
I leaped from the car and into the office. There was a girl behind the desk trying to find a package for a resident. She threw me a look and snapped "what number?".
"I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett who's moving in today".
No verbal response, just another look. She eventually found the package for the other chap and swished round the desk and past me. I was immediately in hot pursuit.
"Excuse me, but I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett"
"What number?"
"He's moving in today"
"I can't give keys to someone not on the lease"
"He's possibly not going to get here until after 6pm. I was told to collect the keys by the letting agent"
""I can't give keys to someone not on the lease. People generally tie moving in with our office hours"
"Well that's not a possibility. He's currently on a flight from the UK. I'm going to collect him from the airport this afternoon"
This just elicited another stroppy look. Oh dear....
"Right. Let me get my phone. I'm going to call the letting agent and you can speak to him and explain why I can't collect the keys". I turned on my heel and stomped out to the car to get the agents phone number. I was rummaging in the car muttering loudly to Stephen about the stroppy attitude of 20 year old girls when she came out of the office with an envelope of keys and thrust them at me without a word.
We finally got on he road and spent most of the time on I-66 doing a staggeringly fast 25mph. I was pretty convinced that he would be out and waiting for us by the time we finally got there! Thankfully we picked up speed, and immigration was slow... We had about 30 minutes to wait before he came out. I was there with my sign as neither of us had any idea what the other looked like!
He's a very nice young guy, very chatty. We got him back to his apartment (just before 6pm!), and then left him to it as he was keen to go and explore. He's just across from Potomac Yards (Target, Best Buy etc), so pointed him in that direction as he was wanting to go buy a cell phone and have a look round.
Happy Birthday QInc
It's QInc's 7th Birthday, so we had a birthday party with cake and ice cream on Thursday.
"Happy Birthday" (in primary blue)
Added to the frantic activity of Wednesday's baseball preparation, Tim was ordering a cake online from one of the local supermarkets. Now, Tim likes to talk and run things by me, but I swear that after he had gone through the cake details (at approx 20 minutes of explanation) for the 3rd time (to me or to people passing by my cube) I was about set to throttle him!! (In the nicest possible way of course!) He was giving really explicit instructions about the colour of the icing and was worried about these some of these (or the parentheses and quotation marks) appearing on the cake.... Dawn was more worried about the icing coming back with a "U" in QinetiQ. And she was right! Thankfully they were able to fix it, and you'd never know it was there!!
Mr Wrongkindofbeer got into my bad books again. He gave me a hard time as I'd not put the chilled beer in the fridge (which was full of food) and had stuck it in the cupboard as apparently "American beer will go bad if its chilled and then allowed to go warm. You don't want to make people sick, you need to throw it out". Now I'd never heard of this, so I did a little web research. What a bunch of hooey! The web information came from a brewmaster of 40 years standing, so I think we can pretty much say he knows what he's talking about!!
I thought the whole beer thing was just ridiculous given that every American (including him) in the office embraces leftover food! They were scarfing down the BBQ leftovers without a thought for their intestinal safety!! I was okay with the salad, but not reheating chicken which had already been reheated when we got it to the office... Still, they were all alive on Friday, so I guess it was fine!
"Happy Birthday" (in primary blue)"QinetiQ" (in pastel blue)
Tim's very specific instructions....
Tim's very specific instructions....
Added to the frantic activity of Wednesday's baseball preparation, Tim was ordering a cake online from one of the local supermarkets. Now, Tim likes to talk and run things by me, but I swear that after he had gone through the cake details (at approx 20 minutes of explanation) for the 3rd time (to me or to people passing by my cube) I was about set to throttle him!! (In the nicest possible way of course!) He was giving really explicit instructions about the colour of the icing and was worried about these some of these (or the parentheses and quotation marks) appearing on the cake.... Dawn was more worried about the icing coming back with a "U" in QinetiQ. And she was right! Thankfully they were able to fix it, and you'd never know it was there!!
Mr Wrongkindofbeer got into my bad books again. He gave me a hard time as I'd not put the chilled beer in the fridge (which was full of food) and had stuck it in the cupboard as apparently "American beer will go bad if its chilled and then allowed to go warm. You don't want to make people sick, you need to throw it out". Now I'd never heard of this, so I did a little web research. What a bunch of hooey! The web information came from a brewmaster of 40 years standing, so I think we can pretty much say he knows what he's talking about!!
I thought the whole beer thing was just ridiculous given that every American (including him) in the office embraces leftover food! They were scarfing down the BBQ leftovers without a thought for their intestinal safety!! I was okay with the salad, but not reheating chicken which had already been reheated when we got it to the office... Still, they were all alive on Friday, so I guess it was fine!
Friday 1 August 2008
Take me out to the ball game....
Wednesday was our outing to watch the Washington Nationals play the Phillies at Baseball. It had been several weeks in the planning, Tim was very excited and taking care of all the arrangements, and was rolling with the punches...it turns out that the original idea to tailgate at RFK stadium wasn't going to work out as they didn't open the lots until 5:30 and the game started at the new stadium (a shuttle bus ride away) at 7:10. No time to cook the burgers! So having been told that there was a BBQ pit at the side of the building he duly went off and booked that through the building management office. Sorted! Or so we thought! I suggested that we take a look on Tuesday, and quickly discovered that there was only a small seating area, and certainly no BBQ pits....
Time to panic!
Options were:
1) buy disposable BBQ's - quickly discarded as you can only fit about 4 burgers on each one and we were cooking for 30....
2) call caterers. Dawn suggested Red, Hot and Blue so Tim went off to call. They usually want 24 hours notice so they weren't sure they could do it.
Dawn and I continued to swap e-mails on options whilst I was babysitting, until nearly midnight. The next morning I did a web search and came up with Chicken Out. Tim called and they cold do it. Situation saved!! Dawn was going to pick it up whilst Tim and I went off to Costco to buy the rest of the stuff. Just before we left Tim got a call from the Red, Hot & Blue delivery man wanting to know where we were located. WHAT??? Turns out that they could do it, but had failed to actually let us know....
Tim, Stephen and I headed off to Costco and Harris Teeter to get the booze, chips, dessert, ice - all the essentials for a good party, so after a load of rushing around we got back to the office to set up. We decided to hold our alternative tailgate in the office as it was looking suspiciously like rain.
I was busy icing down the cans of Ratspiss Lite when someone came in and had the temerity to complain that we'd bought cans (not bottles) of Lite beer. When I pointed out that there were bottles of Heineken I was informed that he didn't like that, and he supposed he'd have to just drink Pepsi. Surely if you pour the beer into a glass it all tastes the same? Or do they brew it differently for each container type?? He got a look and quickly exited, but that didn't stop him moaning about the food, the location of the tailgate...pretty much everything really.
After being told that parking at the new stadium was not overly plentiful I decided to pre-book a space. We had originally been going to tailgate and park at RFK and bus over, but as we weren't tailgating there, and I didn't fancy waiting on a bus at the end of the game along with thousands of other fans, booking a space looked a great option. The parking lot nearest the stadium was $40, but what the heck - it meant that we weren't walking round a dodgy area of DC. I was gnashing my teeth and swearing at the end of the booking process. $40 parking turned out to cost $49 when you added on all the taxes, fees and, most unbelievably, the $1.75 "delivery" they charged me for printing out the parking pass on the office printer!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tim was huffing when I put out an e-mail with the transport options. "I thought we were car pooling to RFK" he pouted. WHY? It was just another step in the cat-herding process and half the folk were taking the metro anyway. Let me just say.....AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!! Were people conspiring to do my head in??
Anyway, people seemed to enjoy the food. They had a nice time getting to know one another. Paul;s kids had a great time alternatively cuddling me, riding round the office on an electric scooter and putting ice cubes down Stephen's back! We ended up with loads of food left over, so we (my 3 little helpers and Lisa) had a fun time trying to stuff it all into the fridges (especially when I found a bag of rotten, liquid primordial soup, that may have once been someones chicken sandwich in the small fridge).
The game was good. Or at least as good as it could be when you're supporting possibly the worst baseball team in America! The Nats lost 8-5, and the game rules are still pretty incomprehensible to me!! I'm actually pretty sure that Americans only really go to sporting games in order to eat themselves sick! There was a girl in front of me who ate: hotdog, popcorn, cotton candy, nachos and washed it all down with beer. As she was pretty skinny I figured that that was possibly her only meal that week!!
Dawn bought be a bag of CrackerJacks as I'd said I had no idea what they were. (Its caramel and peanut popcorn, very tasty!). They were immortalised in the song traditionally sung at baseball in the 7th Innings Stretch - where you literally stand up and stretch! I'd always assumed that it was something to do with the actual game, not crowd entertainment!!
The new Nationals Stadium
Me with Beth and Katie. Lisa and Paul in the background.
Time to panic!
Options were:
1) buy disposable BBQ's - quickly discarded as you can only fit about 4 burgers on each one and we were cooking for 30....
2) call caterers. Dawn suggested Red, Hot and Blue so Tim went off to call. They usually want 24 hours notice so they weren't sure they could do it.
Dawn and I continued to swap e-mails on options whilst I was babysitting, until nearly midnight. The next morning I did a web search and came up with Chicken Out. Tim called and they cold do it. Situation saved!! Dawn was going to pick it up whilst Tim and I went off to Costco to buy the rest of the stuff. Just before we left Tim got a call from the Red, Hot & Blue delivery man wanting to know where we were located. WHAT??? Turns out that they could do it, but had failed to actually let us know....
Tim, Stephen and I headed off to Costco and Harris Teeter to get the booze, chips, dessert, ice - all the essentials for a good party, so after a load of rushing around we got back to the office to set up. We decided to hold our alternative tailgate in the office as it was looking suspiciously like rain.
I was busy icing down the cans of Ratspiss Lite when someone came in and had the temerity to complain that we'd bought cans (not bottles) of Lite beer. When I pointed out that there were bottles of Heineken I was informed that he didn't like that, and he supposed he'd have to just drink Pepsi. Surely if you pour the beer into a glass it all tastes the same? Or do they brew it differently for each container type?? He got a look and quickly exited, but that didn't stop him moaning about the food, the location of the tailgate...pretty much everything really.
After being told that parking at the new stadium was not overly plentiful I decided to pre-book a space. We had originally been going to tailgate and park at RFK and bus over, but as we weren't tailgating there, and I didn't fancy waiting on a bus at the end of the game along with thousands of other fans, booking a space looked a great option. The parking lot nearest the stadium was $40, but what the heck - it meant that we weren't walking round a dodgy area of DC. I was gnashing my teeth and swearing at the end of the booking process. $40 parking turned out to cost $49 when you added on all the taxes, fees and, most unbelievably, the $1.75 "delivery" they charged me for printing out the parking pass on the office printer!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tim was huffing when I put out an e-mail with the transport options. "I thought we were car pooling to RFK" he pouted. WHY? It was just another step in the cat-herding process and half the folk were taking the metro anyway. Let me just say.....AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!! Were people conspiring to do my head in??
Anyway, people seemed to enjoy the food. They had a nice time getting to know one another. Paul;s kids had a great time alternatively cuddling me, riding round the office on an electric scooter and putting ice cubes down Stephen's back! We ended up with loads of food left over, so we (my 3 little helpers and Lisa) had a fun time trying to stuff it all into the fridges (especially when I found a bag of rotten, liquid primordial soup, that may have once been someones chicken sandwich in the small fridge).
The game was good. Or at least as good as it could be when you're supporting possibly the worst baseball team in America! The Nats lost 8-5, and the game rules are still pretty incomprehensible to me!! I'm actually pretty sure that Americans only really go to sporting games in order to eat themselves sick! There was a girl in front of me who ate: hotdog, popcorn, cotton candy, nachos and washed it all down with beer. As she was pretty skinny I figured that that was possibly her only meal that week!!
Dawn bought be a bag of CrackerJacks as I'd said I had no idea what they were. (Its caramel and peanut popcorn, very tasty!). They were immortalised in the song traditionally sung at baseball in the 7th Innings Stretch - where you literally stand up and stretch! I'd always assumed that it was something to do with the actual game, not crowd entertainment!!
Take me out to the ballgame,
take me out with the crowd,
buy me peanuts and crackerjacks,
I don't care if I ever get back
The new Nationals Stadium 
Me with Beth and Katie. Lisa and Paul in the background.
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