Flight delay

I spoke too soon about the flight delays. Stephen has just had a call from John. They're on their way back here. Their flights have been cancelled, and they're re-booked on the same flight tomorrow.

Wacky weather

The weather here has been what can only be described as extremely changeable today. One minute it is blazing sunshine and super hot, and literally the next minute it will be totally chucking it down in the manner of someone turning on a fire hose, then back to sunshine just as quickly.

Our visitors have headed off to the airport. Knowing how mind numbingly dull it can be when you're stuck at the airport I hope that the wacky weather doesn't cause them any delays.

Ma heid!

We went to Chadwicks for dinner last night. It was okay, but not without its issues. The server brought out a chicken quesadillas instead of chicken tenders for the appetiser. Because she got the order wrong and it took the kitchen time to make the tenders, they appeared about 30 seconds before the mains. Then she did the horribly American thing of clearing the plate as soon as the person had finished eating, so we were all sitting plate less and June was working her way through her pizza. She paused to chew, put down her cutlery and the server tried to whisk the plate away. Stephen and I were shrieking "She's still working on that!". Which raises the point that waiting staff here don't get the cutlery signals i.e. knife and fork together on the plate signals you're finished. Then when the bill came, she had charged us for the quesadillas!

Stephen, John and I went to O'Connells for a drink after dinner, but I had to leave after one. It was really loud and too many people were shrieking. It was totally doing my head in! There was a group of girls in fancy dress at the table beside where we were standing who were loud, and one of the guys with them was really drunk. He knocked his bar stool over backwards when he stood up (narrowly missing John), and later was sitting with his head on the table which prompted his friends to pour beer on his head. Then I nearly lost my front teeth when someone going to the loo knocked into me just as I was taking a drink. All in all, it wasn't a great experience! I left them to it and came home whilst they tried their luck in Chadwicks, which by all accounts wasn't any better!

Smelling gorgeous

We're just back from a trip to Tysons Mall. I popped into Macy's to buy some perfume and made out like a bandit!! I was looking for Escada and was about to ask an assistant to help me find it when she pre-empted me and thrust a card with a new fragrance into my hand. It was gorgeous!! I agreed that I was going to take some and she was delighted! So much so that she opened the sample drawer and loaded me up with loads of samples - and not the itty bitty phials. No. I was loaded up with travel sized bottles (2.5ml size) of about 4 perfumes. As we were walking towards the counter to pay I could see there was some shop assistant eyebrow semaphore going on. When I got there they gave me an YSL make up bag with shower gel and body lotion to complement the perfume. Was I the first person to buy it today? Did I win the perfume jackpot? Whatever it was I was very happy with my gorgeous perfume and free goodies!

They are really good here at giving you freebies when you buy cosmetics. For a start there is always one of the companies offering you a free gift. And there is none of this UK nonsense that you have to buy two things, and one has to be perfume or skincare in order to qualify. Nope. If you buy a couple of eye pencils you'll get the gift. If you buy something more expensive - like the skincare - then they'll open the sample drawer and chuck stuff into your bag. If you buy two skincare items and they have a gift going, and you ask, then they'll happily give you two gift sets without batting an eye. They are not the perfectly made-up ice maidens you have in the UK who guard the free samples with their lives and make you feel like they are dispensing a huge favour when they bestow a single sample upon you after 10 minutes of pleading on your part.

Nocturnal wanderings

We all went to Southsides for dinner last night and, after dinner and after Stephen had secured John's freedom by bribing Lyle with offers of calling in a movie, we headed home and left them in the bar doing brotherly bonding.

I was zonked after a long day in work, so I was in bed sound asleep by the time they rolled in. Stephen was a little tiddly and woke me briefly when he came to bed as he was blundering around with the grace of a baby elephant. He also woke me during the night. He sat up, then stood up, but didn't appear to be going anywhere. "Stephen are you going to to loo? Then GO". He grunted and wandered off and I fell asleep again. It was when I was telling him this morning about his nocturnal wanderings that I began to worry...he didn't remember getting up! I'm now worried that he didn't actually go to the bathroom and I'm going to find a wet patch in the closet!!!

I'll have fries with that

When I was in the office being grumpy the Spark posse were on the road to Potomac Mills, Fredericksburg and Skyline Drive. Apparently (but I've still to see the photos) they got some lovely shots of the Blue Ridge Mountains at sunset and they saw Yogi Bear having a snack whilst reclining in a tree. Its probably just as well I wasn't there as I would probably have had something to say about their lack of sense in getting out of the car to get a closer look!!!

I spent the evening doing turbo-FF-catch up of 5 hours of Dancing with the Stars. It was the season premier - 3 nights/5 hours...thank goodness for TIVO. I was able to fast forward through it all in about 2 hours. Its strange to think that I'm now on my 3rd series of the American show in 15 months!

I flaked out before they got home, so I didn't see them when they got home. And I didn't see the cardinal offence being committed... I have a cream sofa...I can spot chocolate on it from about 5 miles, so imagine then me descending the stairs and spotting an open box of chocolate mints sitting on it. Not happy, but I was prepared to be forgiving until I actually found chocolate marks. A few steps closer. What is THAT?? A McDonalds take out bag sitting underneath the chocolates...FULL of fries. My lovely clean, cream sofa smelt like McDonalds. I was really quite restrained considering. I took all the food and dumped it onto the kitchen cabinet and dragged Stephen into the car where I then ripped his ears off during the drive to work. He understands that I am not happy! And was blaming him, no matter who it was that left the fries there. We got back from work and I've stripped the cover off in order to wash it and deal with the grease spots (which I didn't spot earlier or he may have been killed as opposed to verbally bruised), and febreeze the cushion in order to deal with the horrible smell. Ah well, I suppose these things happen...

The day at work didn't get any better! Again people seem to have sensed this...POQI brought me a muffin and Dawn a chocolate brownie. I am stuffed with sweet things!! I needed them....

Take me out with the Crowd

The baseball was good. The Nats won!!! 9-4!! A fairly comprehensive victory from one of the worst sides in baseball.

We learnt a valuable lesson on the journey there...never let Stephen navigate!! He was following the directions from the Nats website, and obviously didn't work out that you need to read ahead a couple of stages as they try to make these idiot proof and end up making them more complicated than they need to be. He didn't realise that we had already done the "road bends slightly to the right" part and sent us right instead of left...oops. Right into the traffic jam...big oops!! Thankfully it didn't take us too long to put it right and we got to the stadium in good time to collect our free t-shirt and enjoy the sights and sounds of the pre-game build up.

It was a late night and I was tired the next day...and rather grumpy! I'm not good without sleep. POQI has obviously figured this out as a muffin was plonked on my desk mid-morning. A kind of DO feed the Grumpius Bitchius offering.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

We're going to the baseball tonight, so the sound of grinding teeth has again been resonating over the Metro DC area as I subjected myself to daylight robbery and booked parking. The only way I could do it without actually shouting sweary words at the top of my voice was to skip quickly past the places where it told me there was a $3 convenience fee, a $4 booking fee and, the one which always makes me grind my teeth, the $1.75 delivery fee...which allows me the privilege of being able to print my own parking pass!!

I am just about able to overcome nasty thoughts about what I would like to do to the owners of the parking who charged us $50 to park, because of the fact that 4 of the tickets are free. Mr Wrongkindofbeer is a season ticket holder at the Nats and had a whole load of "rain checks" from cancelled games that had to be used this week. As he was going to be in the UK he was handing them out to the office so they didn't go to waste. I can almost forgive him for driving me insane with the whole wrong beer/beer goes bad thing. Besides surely there is no such thing as bad beer? You could sook it through the bar towel or lick it off the bar and it would still be fine. Hmmm, on reflection maybe I'm not quite ready to entirely forgive...!

Lets NOT analyse this

I carried on the strange dream thing last night. I dreamt that the Top Gear team were over here trying to buy classic 1950's American cars for as little money as possible. I cannot describe how terrible it is having Jeremy Clarkson inside your head when you're sleeping! As much as I enjoy the show and his sardonic humour I really DO NOT want to dream about him, the Hamster or Captain Slow!!

I do not even want to think about what that may mean...eurgh! Disturbing!

Humm us a happy tune...

It looks like we have two hummus junkies in the office. Seriously, if this carries on I think I'm going to have to stage an intervention! There is a new sandwich shop opened which sells pita (its really good!) which we've been going to pretty frequently for the past couple of weeks. However, it seems that a stuffed pita a day is not enough for some... almost every day the boys go down and get an afternoon snack of hummus and pita which they go and scoff in the kitchen. It is excellent hummus, and I'm not averse to a spot of hummus myself...but EVERY day?? These lads have a serious hummus addiction problem!!

At least they're not picky eaters! Stephen has his moments (I mean the man doesn't like mashed potatoes for Gods sake! That's just wrong!), but I think Lyle takes the crown for the pickiest eater in the clan. We went to Chadwicks last night and he ordered cheese pizza (one of the very few things he'll eat besides McNuggets and Fries) but didn't like it because it was too cheesy.... hmmmm...methinks we'll be making trips to the golden arches for drive-through. Anything for an easy life!! At what age do you get over the picky eater stage? Well Stephen is mid-40's and still won't eat veg , so I suspect that catering for Lyle's 18th/21st/Graduation/Wedding may be easy - we'll just need to find someone to go to the drive through to collect the Happy Meals!

Another shopping fix

It was a very pleasant walk down through Old Town and, whadda you know, I had to pass Gap and Banana Republic when I was out. Banana Republic is for ladies of a more twig-like stature than me, so that was purely a browsing opportunity, but I did manage to buy a couple of things in the Gap Outlet. It was really quiet in the store so, for once, I was able to get to the clothes without being trampled underfoot by hordes of eager bargain hunters! I spent more time than was necessary looking at jeans. I actually had to give myself a good talking too when I found myself kneeling on the floor searching through pairs for one my size. I seem to have developed an unhealthy desire for denim. Now I have tried it I need to have more, more, more I tell you...GIVE ME THE JEANS NOW.... Get a grip woman!! You've had your denim fix for the weekend...

I did buy a pair of black casual trousers, even though trying them on was a rather unnerving experience! I walked out the changing room, came face to face with the assistant who immediately burst out laughing! I'm was hoping it was at something her co-worker had said and not because of how I looked. "I like your top" she said, to try and recover the situation. Oh, oh. What's up? I had pulled it up in order to fasten the trousers. Had I forgotten to pull it back down? Was I flashing the world (or her) the Twins? I quickly looked down to check. No. That wasn't it. It was going to remain a mystery, and I was going to remain paranoid!! I just smiled and quickly backed out of the changing room...

I have to say that I can truly say that I suspect my taste is in my ar$e right now. I was seriously looking with a view to buying, a bright orange jumper. What is going on?? I had to do a quick "would you be seen dead in that in the UK" scenario. No. Move away from the vivid colours... I mean I am the woman who only wears black right?

I've just unpacked my purchase and put the trousers in the pile, along with the jeans, to be taken for alteration. I then went on a foraging expedition to the rear of the walk-in closet as I knew there was a pair in there I had bought some months ago which also needed to be taken up. Turned out to be more than one pair!! I found an additional four pairs - two of which had come with me from the UK!!! I'm going to have a whole new wardrobe when these come back.

I'll have another 'rita...hic

We popped up to our local last night for a quick bite to eat and a drink. I got a margarita and, as we were sitting at the bar, I got to see exactly how our favourite barman Colin mixed it. All I can say is that margarita mix must be really expensive as there was only a tiny splash of that went into the mix. The rest was just alcohol!! And lots of it!! Stephen was worried that he was going to have to carry me home - especially as I managed to suck down 3 of them!!!

Thankfully the burger must have soaked up some of the alcohol as I was just pleasantly relaxed rather than falling over! Stephen's mum, brother and nephew arrived from Glasgow at about 10:30pm and I was sensible at that point...I gave June wine and I had water.

Lyle was desperately keen to go to Six Flags theme park, so everyone has headed off to go and do that. I'm really not a theme park fan, so I've stayed behind in order to finish the laundry. As its a gorgeous day I'm going to go for a walk in a minute... The weather has changed in the past week. Last weekend was impossibly hot and sticky, but on Tuesday there was a change to maybe 80F temperatures during the day, cooling down to maybe 60F at night. Its still pretty pleasant to walk about in shorts and t-shirts in the evening...when you're British anyway!! I was amused to see people walking about in coats (not even jackets!) and scarves on Friday night!! They were dressed like Nanook of the North and Stephen and I were still dressed in tropical gear!!!!

Shop til you...drop? Or at least become slightly tired...

Having been a mini philanthropist a few weeks ago and donated $5 to charity when shopping in Macy's, I was the proud possessor of a 20% discount card valid yesterday for the "Shop for a Cause" event. I was not about to waste an opportunity to spend/save money on clothes so I dragged Stephen off to Pentagon Mall for a quick look. He assured me that he didn't need anything, so I ditched him and went on a girlie spree...and isn't it typical that there wasn't loads of stuff that I loved?



I got another pair of jeans. Shock - I haven't owned a pair in 30-odd years and now I have 3 pairs! The 3rd pair was essential as (not having bought jeans in 30-odd years, and because I'm still trying to work out what US size I am) one of the pairs I bought were too big and baggy - they are essentially "Mom Jeans". The other pair fit much better, but they are artfully distressed and therefore not suitable for dress down Friday. Oh, who would have thought jean ownership could be so complicated?!



I also got a really nice silk/cotton mix summer skirt which was reduced down to almost nothing in the sale rack. I also got a nice Michael Kors top...and that was it!! What a waste!! Nothing else managed to catch my eye...talk about a wasted opportunity!!



When I was browsing the racks I found a top and thought "Oh look someone has put that in the wrong place"...I had bought it 6 months ago. In fact I liked it so much I went back the next week and bought another one as it was reduced in the sale! It was Calvin Klein and was a red long sleeved t-shirt with a black mesh over top. I picked up the one from the rack yesterday and it was identical in style and colour, but it was a different brand! This was a very direct example of designer clothes being "diffused" down to the high street!



Typically, this morning, having assured me yesterday that he didn't need anything, Stephen piped up about needing new undies....and not ones which could be used as an emergency sail in a tall ships race!! I don't know why he didn't managed to think of this yesterday, but hey! Its a good reason to hit the shops again soon!!!!

Yummy

We went to Mai Thai for dinner last night. I had Cashew Chicken which I hadn't had before and it was delicious! Which begs the question - why have I never had it before?? Probably because I just adore the curry dishes. Mmmmm...curry.....

We passed 100 King (where we had dinner last Friday) en route to the restaurant and it was closed - padlocks on the doors and everything! I guess having to comp the meal of the table next to us was the final straw! No wonder the manager looked worried!! It has changed hands a few times since Christmas (although as the menu is basically steak you don't necessarily realise). I hear that the rent is exorbitant and the place stood empty for 6 years before we moved here...which I don't understand. Surely the landlord would be better off to take a reduced rent and have the monthly income from a thriving business rather than have the place standing empty?

Fly me to the Moon (and all I want is a flight to Glasgow)

Have I vented before about travel websites routing you via really odd places? I've been offered flights routed via Chicago (north and west of here) when I want to go to Florida (south). Its so bad that I often joke that their routing me via Alaska!

I was in absolute stitches this afternoon though...we're back in the UK in November and I was looking at costs for flights from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh to Birmingham. They were coming in at a really horrendous cost ($500 each) so, knowing you can get much cheaper flights than that, I investigated further....

They didn't seem to be offering me any direct flights (of course!) and the funniest routings I found were as follows:

London to Glasgow (bear in mind this this a 1 hour flight and costs about 50 quid on cheap tickets)
London to Edinburgh (where there was a 5 1/2 hour layover, during which time you could drive back and forward to Glasgow about 3 times!), then Edinburgh to Stornoway, then Stornoway to Glasgow. Total duration 9 1/2 hours. Total cost $1000.

Edinburgh to Birmingham (again a 1 hour flight and cheap!)
Edinburgh to Gatwick, Gatwick to Glasgow, Glasgow to Birmingham. Total duration 10 1/2 hours. Total cost $900.

Can you imagine if you were deficient in British geography (I'm saying nothing about the education system of my host nation!) and were on this site trying to book flights? Perhaps as it was a US site it was assuming that I'd want to "experience" as much of the UK (or at least its airports!) as possible in a short a space of time, in the best tradition of the American Grand Tour of Europe!

Can you imagine the possibilities for luggage going astray on one of those routings? It might never catch up with me! I could be back home and my luggage would be on holiday in Milan!!!

I know someone who this happens to regularly - his luggage frequently goes to more exciting places than he does! I suggest he buys someone at customer service a really huge box of chocolates and asks them to delete whatever it is that disgruntled check-in staff have loaded into his notes on his frequent flyer account!!

Dream a little dream

I had a strange dream last night and (unusually) I remembered what it was when I woke up this morning.

I was looking after POQI's children and had taken them to the Park. Dawn had come along to help me and we were sitting at a picnic bench trying to feed them chicken nuggets and fries, but they were making a horrendous mess which we were trying to clear up. I then decided I wanted to look in the cathedral (which had magically appeared), but when I went inside it was just a cathedral shop. I then had to get a lift down to go and meet Dawn and the kids, but ended up in Macy's. Thankfully at this point I woke up!!!

I was trying to work out what this might mean.... I think that maybe Dawn and I are the office Mom's who have to look after, spoon feed and tidy up after POQI's unruly Business Development "children".... Not sure about the cathedral/Macy's thing...unless it means that shopping is my religion!!

Bye bye Babes...

We met up with Colin for a last hurrah before he moves. He's off to Denver, Colorado at the end of next week and although he's excited about making a new start and starting a new job, he's going through something which is very familiar to Stephen and I...the dawning realisation that you're waving your friends and family goodbye, and although you're never more that a plane ride away, you're not going to see them just as often as is possible now...

Its just another Manic Monday...and Tuesday...and Wednesday!!

After all the to-ing and fro-ing last week over this US visit by the UK person I had thought all was sorted out, and we could plan our vaycay to follow on from the end of the visit. Not so! I got a call on Monday to say that the visit wasn't long enough now and he COULD stay over the weekend and into early the following week. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I have now shelved thoughts of a week in Southern California and a trip to Vegas to see Elton John. It is filed in the "all too difficult" bin where it will no doubt languish.... Its a real bummer, but these thing happen I guess....

I now have a 2 page To-do list. I've decided that they're almost not worth having as its extremely dispiriting when it gets longer rather than shorter! I feel like I'm slowly beginning to get back on track...I actually managed to score a few things off the list today! WooHoo!! It has been a manic fortnight, but it seemed to slow down a little tiny bit this afternoon. It was the first day this week that I didn't have to break open the emergency dairy milk!!!!

The weekend at Arts Fest - the photos

Some interesting sculpture

King St on Saturday- mobbed during the Arts Fest

Fantastic colours in the sea horse sculpture

A giant scary steer

Our new purchase

One of the prints that Stephen finally hung today. Its of King St.

Stephen in Chadwicks waiting for his lunch on Saturday

Me and the Twins

No, not somewhere in the Med! This is Lee St as we were crawling home this morning.

Lee St

Lee St - a patch of shade beckons!

Sunday, Sunday

It has been really hot this weekend. It was pretty brutal yesterday when we were walking abouts the arts fest. We were very sweaty by the time we got home! I wasn't overly thrilled by the forecast for today which was predicting a temperature of 97F... those kinds of temperatures mean sweating profusely even if you've not expended any energy! Standing still in the shade and sweating is not something that I particularly look forward to. (Comatose on a sun lounger with a daiquiri in hand is a different matter!) Thankfully, the actual temperature wasn't quite as high as forecast. We had an actual of 93F which felt like (according to the weather channel) 100F. I can testify that it really did!! We walked along to Firehook bakery to get coffee and a muffin, then had a short walk up King to revisit the Arts Fest and by the time we got home my t-shirt was absolutely wringing. I looked like I was just out the shower!!

We turned the a/c up to max and concentrated on some indoor tasks for a while. After months of nagging I finally persuaded Stephen to hang the selection of pictures that have been accumulating over the past few months (I won't embarrass him by telling you exactly HOW long!!). Its all looking rather fabulous now!

I did eventually brave the outdoors again. Our windows at the back needed washed - they were covered in spiders webs into which had flow a high number of little insects. Net result - a diminished view of the woods. I had looked up the internet for local companies to call. All seemed to simply come and power wash the windows. No-one was up for squeegeeing all the panes it seems! I needed a quick fix, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands. Therefore this afternoon I grabbed my hose and pointed it at the windows. I quickly stopped as I was getting soaked by the splash raining down on me. I had only just dried out. I wasn't up for another soaking! It was a temporary halt only as I sent Stephen to find me a brolly. So there I was, brolly in one hand and hose in the other happily squirting the webs off the windows. I am probably now referred to as the Strange Scottish Woman by the neighbours - it certainly looked a little odd! It made a huge difference though. I still need to find someone to come and wash them properly, but at least we can see out now!

We popped out to get a pizza for dinner. We had thought about BBQing, but the thought of standing around in our little heat trap of a back yard, heating the air even further with our 56,000 btu gas grill was not appealing to either of us!! The pizza was good, until I found the additional topping... there was a long dark hair baked into a slice. Eurgh! I was looking askance at it when Stephen whipped it off my plate and dropped it on the floor. Talk about destroying the evidence!!

The Mystery of the Headset

Dawn and I both received a mystery packing in the post last week. It was a USB headset - no covering note, no indication of who it came from, just a Farnborough postmark. We were intrigued, so I phoned Dave to find out if he knew what it was about. We joked that it was probably just because some IT geeks probably thought we would look hot in them and sent them over, and I should expect a request to put on the headset and talk phonetic alphabet to them!!

The mystery was solved the next day when we got an e-mail telling us what it was about. We were part of a pilot scheme to trial voice comms using our internal messaging service. Andy B caused chaos for both Dawn and I at various points in the week when he called us - as neither of us had actually bothered to unpack them from the box! So there was a frantic moment of activity on Monday as I struggled to get them out of the box, untie the cables, plug them in, get them on... then deal with the hysterical laughter from Paul when he caught sight of me...in my cube with a headset on. I obviously need to learn how to work the "Call Centre Chic" look!! Its a good idea - the only problem I've had is that I've been glued to my land line all week, so haven't been able to answer when people call me. Will have to try harder!!

Arts Fest 08

It's the Arts Festival in Old Town this weekend. King St from Washington St down to the Waterfront is full of tents displaying artwork. The artists come from all over the US to take part. Once again there were credit cards burning a hole in my pocket! We bought a piece from the same artist we had bought from last year. I just love his work! And because we were returning customers he knocked $100 off the price. What a guy!

Given that the place was totally packed with people, I was surprised that there weren't more people carrying pieces home. But there was just us! There were some lovely, lovely pieces on display. I could have bought a couple more! But the price tags weren't quite so friendly, so I was restrained!!

Slow service - yippeeee!

Stephen and I both had hair appointments yesterday. We hadn't realised that we had almost simultaneous appointments until a couple of days before. Its rather weird having your spouse sitting in the chair next to you!! I approached my appointment with trepidation. My hairdresser is pregnant and had turned into a hormonal butcher during my last visit. My hair was hacked rather than cut and was impossible to style. It had no style! It was just hair, and just there! Thankfully she was back onto form this time and I have a decent cut once again - and no grey hair! Yay! Saying that, I have already made an appointment with my lovely ex-hairdresser Dave for when I'm back in the UK. I still think US stylists are way behind UK ones in cutting techniques and styles.

We went out for dinner last night to 100 King. We were both hungry for steak and its one of the better steak places. They serve prime Hereford beef! They do a dinner menu for 2 for $79 (including a bottle of wine) which seemed like a great idea. We ordered a couple of G&T's (strong enough to down an elephant), ordered the food, ate the bread, started on the wine... we were commenting on what a lovely meal it was - food was very good, and there was a decent time between courses, it was European timing in fact - when we were distracted by the manager making profuse apologies to the table next to us and offering to comp their meal. It seems they were not impressed with the "slow" service and had chosen to complain at length. They seemed to be enjoying the food though, as one guy barely lifted his face out of his plate whilst his girlfriend complained loudly! They had arrived after us, and were pretty much ahead of us in courses so the management must have been worried that they'd be comping two tables. We were enjoying being allowed to savour and taste the food as opposed to having to shovel it down at high speed when you see the waiter approaching with your next course!

September 11th - Lest We Forget

Thursday was September 11th and the 7th Anniversary of the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. The President dedicated the Pentagon Memorial, and there were ceremonies over the country. Arlington was bedecked in Stars and Strips in a moving display of patriotism. The office is located close to the Pentagon, and many of our staff have worked in Crystal City and Arlington for many years. The events of that day are still a highly emotional experience for them. They were literally watching events unfold beneath them as their office buildings overlooked the scene.

There were many programmes showing on the TV this week remembering the events of that terrible day. One of the most moving that I saw was a compilation of videos taken by ordinary people, some out in the street, some in their homes looking over the Twin Towers. There was no additional voice over commentary, just their anguished and panicked voices as the enormity of what they were seeing began to sink in. It had me in tears.

It has officially been a week and a half!

The hellish week continued right through to Friday. There were some fun times, and I'm pleading to have either a Valium lick or intravenous PG drip installed into my cubicle!

I had sent one of the UK PA's an agenda for a visit around a month ago so she could check with her boss he was happy. The feedback was positive, so we went ahead and lined up appointments with all the companies (some of which were extremely hard to get!). I called her on Thursday to let her know I was going to book the travel and she said everything looked good. Then about 10 seconds later she said "Oh did I mention that he can't travel out until Thursday, but we can slip it by a week". No actually she had failed to mention that minor detail!! And its not just so easy to slip it by a week! Grrrrr....

I spent the day phoning all the companies finding out if it would be possible to move the meeting dates. The next morning I woke to an e-mail saying he could now travel on Tuesday. Great! This meant that 2 of the meetings could stand (luckily the two most difficult to obtain!) and we could easily re-arrange the others for the following week. It meant that Paul wouldn't be able to a long-arranged meeting, and also meant that Stephen and I would not be going on a California holiday which we were going to tag onto the end of the trip - but that was okay - we could work things out! So, having re-done the schedule and lined up the meetings for the following week I get a phone call (only 3 hours after the e-mail)....saying that he now couldn't stay over the weekend - so the meetings for the following week were now off!!! Aaaarrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!! On the down side, I must look like some kind of useless, disorganised incompetent to these people with whom I've had off-on again-off again-on again conversations. On the plus side, we get our holiday and POQI gets to make his long-standing meeting!!

This was in addition to all the other things that were going on! I'll need to do catch up next week as I was having to park the urgent stuff in order to deal with the super urgent, sky-falling-in stuff!! Where is my fireman's uniform? It was so bad I had to break open the emergency Dairy Milk!!

Lance pedals towards the finish line

Paul B is nearing the end of his charity cycle ride. He's riding, along with a number of others, 350 miles Coast to Coast from Biarritz to Narbonne in aid of the Hope foundation for cancer research. He's been in training for a while, both whilst he was here and when he returned to the UK. Training has seemed to involve cycling great distances and then hitting the pub for the well deserved treat afterwards!

I've been keeping an eye on their blog - posted each day after the gruelling ride. I have to admire Lycra Lance - I would get tired driving some of the distances they are cycling! Stage 3 was 80 miles most of which seemed to be uphill. Tiring huh! But then imagine getting back on your bike the next morning and cycling another 80 miles... No. I couldn't do it either! So I tip my chapeau to him...

I was quickly skipping through the photos, but couldn't see any of Paul on first glance. Hils pointed me to Day 3 where he can be seen having a spot of lunch and sitting on a bench. I have to admit to being distracted by a cyclist who appeared in a fetching blue number a few photos before. I was worried for the welfare of the armadillo he appeared to have stuffed down his shorts!

To follow their progress, and maybe donate a quid or two, click the link...

http://www.hfcr.org/coast-to-coast/day-1/?new=y

The travel challenge

It was Day 3 of "the week" today. I am awaiting news from the UK as to whether we need to change all the plans for a visit of UK folks to the US. This was a cross-USA tour which we thought was all sorted bar booking the travel and I was told as an aside today, by a rather "vague" PA, that we might have to slip it a week. Oh, if only it was that simple!!! We've turned somersaults to get some of these meetings set up!!

I was also trying to book a 3 day trip to Canada for POQI. This has been something of a movable target for the past week and I totally lost the ability to be professional this afternoon when the latest flight change was eased into the conversation. Actually, it was when I checked Expedia and discovered that there were no direct flights and it would take 6 hours to make a journey that you could drive in 4 1/2 hours, that I lost it. I was hysterical with laughter. I totally lost focus and the will to work.... Thank goodness my fantastic travel guy managed to find a flight (which shows that expedia don't give you all the options). Everything is booked now, so here's hoping it doesn't change again!

A new lunch option opened at the beginning of the week. It sells pita pockets, hummus etc. Three of us went down yesterday, and two of us were stricken down will tummy troubles today. Thankfully (for me) I was the one who was fine! My pita pocket was absolutely delicious - really fresh tasting and very scrummy so I hope that it was coincidence that the others were ill today... A few of us were talking about trying it again on Friday when Stephen pointed out that that was a dumb idea...we should really try it on a Monday as there was no point being sick on our own time!!

POQI is entering the building. Stand by. Stand By.

It's the end of the second day of what is turning into the week from hell! Actually, its not so much hellish bad as hellish busy. I've spent the past 2 days madly running about, when I've not got my phone glued to ear and my fingers glued to the keyboard! We've got a VIP visit to the UK going on and there is a lot of "stuff" to sort out to make sure it goes smoothly. Paul asked me earlier today if my to-do list ever got smaller. Never! I write it at the start of the day and then, like today, only manage to score off a few things before events and fire-fighting overtake me and I have to add more to it!!

There are some road closures going on around the office on Thursday due to the dedication of the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. The police and local authorities very kindly posted maps on their website so we know which areas to avoid. I was very surprised to see that on the map were marked the routes that POTUS may be taking. They did use the code, but we've all seen the West Wing and read Tom Clancy...we know what they're talking about!! Anyway, it gave me an idea. I'm going to refer to Paul as POQI from now on...

Lady in Red, er Black

I was doing laundry the other day and realised that I wear a lot of black! I mean, a huge amount! I don't know why this would come as a surprise to me, but it did. I think it was probably to do with the fact that Stephen hadn't added much to the laundry pile as he'd been ill and lived in shorts and t-shirts, which meant that I had to acknowledge that the huge pile of dark washing was ALL mine. All black, with maybe a few items of red.... I needed to open up my colour palette a little. Move away from my funereal clothes choices. Embrace a little colour!

My old fall-back was always to wear a black jacket and trousers with a t-shirt underneath, so I stopped by the shops to re-stock on self coloured t-shirts. I have branched out into lilac and plum...okay, so I also picked up black and white too, but that's just between you and me!! At least my shoes have more colour than my wardrobe. The office is still reeling from the canary yellow pair I wore a few weeks ago!!

I actually managed to ruin a non-black T-shirt last night. I was being slutty and having dinner from a tray as Stephen was away and I wanted to watch the end of the Murray v Federer tennis match... I managed to drop a forkful of sweet and sour chicken down my t-shirt. Actually I managed (and this is some trick!) to drop it down the inside of my t-shirt!! It was burny! I had to rush upstairs and try and get it all off the shirt and out of my twins containment unit before I did myself serious damage!

Hanna the Horrible? Well, not so much!!

We survived!!

We survived the howling breeze and the torrential drizzle... Hanna was not as bad (here anyway) as they were expecting. It rained pretty non-stop from when we woke through to about 6pm - at times it was absolutely lashing down, but I don't think we had the volume we were expecting. The flooding on King St didn't happen. I think Cameron Run (which is where Pat & Jude used to live) overran its banks as there was a report that the Beltway may have to close in that area, but that was it...

We spent the day lounging. I baked Brownies and read a book, Stephen watched the sport: Murray v Nadal, Football, Baseball, Soccer, Formula 1.... (you can see why I went to read a book!). About halfway through the brownie baking, and at the most torrential part of the storm, Alison and Morag came round for a visit, so I had someone to try out my brownies on! They weren't fantastic (a bit dry), and I forgot to grease the tray before I poured the mix in, so we had Turtle Brownie crumble when I tried to take it out and put one on a plate. I am truly the Undomestic Goddess!

Stephen felt slightly recovered this afternoon, so he went out for a walk to see what the aftermath was like. I had been struck down by a "my head is going to explode, why is it so bright" headache, so I popped a painkiller, pulled on the wraparound shades and tried to sleep. It seemed to do the trick anyway. We both felt okay enough to walk out to get a pizza and enjoy the clear air and the very clear sky.

Hanna - the build up

Cold update: Stephen is still not feeling well...He's milking the sympathy thing for all he's worth. I had a mild snapping of my temper tonight, but only because I was tired and hungry and he was whining!

Tropical Storm Hanna update: She's still coming! They have had TV crews down on King Street tonight as the city have handed out sandbags to the businesses on King Street and the streets which may flood down near the river. They're expecting the water level to be 2-3 feet higher than normal during high tides, and there is the chance of flash flooding too.... I've been out back and moved all the lightweight items into the bin store and moved the garden furniture into the corner of the yard. I'm standing by to bring it inside if its looking nasty in the morning. We're due to get the worst of the storm in the afternoon, so there is time to do some last minute battening down if needed!

I've also been to Safeway and stocked up with the essentials: water, loo roll and beer....

I was speaking to Dave from Malvern today and he was commenting that the US news reporters always seem to compete to see who can put themselves in most danger to report from the worst of the storm. I was telling him that I had to laugh at this ridiculousness when watching the news of Gustav last weekend. One news reporter had lashed himself to a pole on top of a building in New Orleans. You couldn't hear a word he was saying, you could barely see him, but he was there trying to tell the world what the weather was like!! I have promised not to lash myself to a tree during the storm tomorrow....

"Where's Kerry?"

"Well she lashed herself to that tree with her webcam in order to report on the storm for her blog. It took off in the storm. We're tracking her, and she's expected to make landfall in Cape Cod on Monday"

Well it had us in stitches anyway!!

Coughs and sniffles

Stephen is still feeling pants. He's been at home for the past couple of days shivering, sniffing and generally feeling none too special. Getting a cold is bad enough, but getting a summer cold is particularly horrible. For both of us!! We'll be having a quiet weekend I think - as well as his cold, we also have to deal with a tropical storm Hanna bearing down on us. Its due to hit on Saturday and we're expecting a lot of rain and high winds. I went out for a quick "batten down the hatches" pre-storm back yard tidy up just now and ended up wet. I picked up the tarp which usually covers our wood pile, but which we folded neatly a few weeks ago, and loads of water poured down my leg. It was nasty!

Sorry? I can't hear you! Can you speak up??

It seems I was harsh in my rush to judgement with regards Stephen's sore throat. He sounded like a dalek yesterday (and spent all day going round saying "Exterminate" in a truly hilarious impersonation...), and woke up with a cold this morning. By lunchtime full blown man-flu had set in, so he came home to wallow in self pity. He's normally quite resilient so he isn't good at being ill...which means that I'll be driven insane in a couple of days!!

I had a nice surprise in work today. A British contractor dropped into the office with a couple of bars of cadburys. He was over on vacation and we weren't expecting him, so it really was a surprise, but a welcome one!!

The rest of the day went downhill! Mr Wrongkindofbeer committed the cardinal office sin of having a conference call on speaker phone with his office door open. He's loud and I could clearly hear every word of both sides of the conversation. I can sometimes tune it out, but I was doing monthly reporting today (giant spreadsheet - lots of analysis) and it requires a lot of concentration. I couldn't do it. I had to decant into Paul's office and shut the door (firmly!), then pop my way through a load of bubble wrap. It was the giant bubble kind for superior stress relief!

As I was working through, trying to get the report finished I asked Joni if one of my colleagues could cover the phones at lunchtime. She called him. He agreed. It was about 20 minutes later Dawn stuck her head in the door asking if I'd seen him...it turned out that he had "popped downstairs to get something to eat" and left the phones unanswered. Surely not the point of agreeing to take the phones. As he wasn't around I took them, but of course wasn't at my own desk so had to keep running back and forward to get numbers etc. I was annoyed as I take the phones every day, and the one day I didn't (as I wanted to work!) he got bored and wandered off!! See, I told you...I was grumpy!! Everything was getting on my nerves!!!

I joked that I needed a sign for the front of my cube...and as I had just been to the zoo (and it was definitely like a zoo in the office today!) it should read something like this...

Kerry

Latin name: Grumpyus Bitchius

Habitat: Bars, restaurants, tropical islands and the little cube outside President’s office

Diet: Is especially fond of chocolate bars and liquidised Mango and rum drinks.

Kerry is generally kind, warm and fuzzy but at certain times can display ogreish behaviour and become irritable and short tempered. These periods of irritability generally coincide with the preparation of the month end reports and are exacerbated by loud noise and inefficiency. During these periods we advise that the public APPROACH WITH CAUTION as she has been known to bite. Extreme caution should also be exercised early each morning as she has been known to savage people before she has been fed her latte.

Arlington

Stephen has no voice this morning, due to all the shouting he did yesterday watching the soccer. He is getting no sympathy from me. Its a self inflicted injury!



After a coffee and quick apartment viewing for Paul, we headed over to Arlington Cemetery. We visited the two must-see's: the eternal flame at the JF Kennedy grave and the Tomb of the Unknowns. We also went to the Robert E Lee house which is situated overlooking the JFK grave. To get there we had to climb the slope...death by a thousand steps! We always go places woefully under prepared...we failed to pick up bottles of water, and it was hot today... It was touch and go whether we would make it back to the car, or whether they'd have to call an ambulance for us!!

The Memorial Amphitheatre

The Lee Mansion

The Changing the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns

Looking across to the Lincoln Memorial

Labor Day

Today is Labor Day. The unofficial end of summer....so despite the fact that it will be over 80F for the next 6 weeks or so, the pools will close for the winter, and the TV shows all begin their Fall programming. Indoor activities rule...

This is also the day when I need to put aside my white outfits and shoes (you can't wear white shoes, or all-white outfits after Labor Day), and the day when I need to swap my straw stetson for a felt one!

Georgetown boat trip photos

Old Town Marina with the Torpedo Factory in the background

The Lincoln Monument with Memorial Bridge in the foreground

The Lincoln and The Washington Monument

The Jefferson

The Washington Monument

Stephen

Washington Harbour at Georgetown

A section of the C&O Canal

Us in front of the Watergate Building

Georgetown bound...

2 pints of margarita = a really good nights unconsciousness/sleep! I barely heard Stephen's alarm go off at 6:30 this morning, nor did I hear him leave the house. I only just heard him texting me the score at half time! He had gone off to the Rangers supporters club in order to watch the Rangers v Celtic game. He came back hoarse and jubilant. Rangers had won 4-2...there was a group of 20 Scotsmen in DC who were exceedingly happy today!


As this is the weekend of doing things we hadn't got round to doing before, we decided to catch the water taxi over to Georgetown this afternoon. When we got down the marina the queue was HUGE! It was 5 minutes until departure time and I thought we'd never get tickets. Thankfully the huge line was to board the boat. It was a much smaller line to actually buy the tickets!



We boarded and headed to the top desk to grab a seat...and ran into Stuart and his family. Stuart is a fellow Bear and Chairman of the supporters club, and was equally as hoarse as Stephen! It was lovely to meet his wife, little toddler and his mum and dad. He and his wife both work at the Embassy and we knew a few people in common. The boat ride was a lot of fun. We passed all the monuments and saw lots of other sights...including the butt of a girl on the top deck! We had moved downstairs for a minute and she was standing against the guard rail wearing a little floaty dress...the couple sitting next to me were in stitches so I followed their gaze...her little skirt was floating about in the breeze and flashing her butt - thank god she was wearing underwear!!! (Although the underwear wasn't nearly big enough!!)

We wandered about Georgetown for a bit, then had a bite to eat. I'd remembered that this one place had a nice patio, but had forgotten that it had limited Stephen potential in its menu. It was a pretty lite bite we ended up having!!

I spent the entire journey back to Old Town trying to avoid being stabbed by the underwiring in my Twins Containment Unit, which was making a bid for freedom. I was torn between pushing it back in, or pulling it out...but that might have resulted in non-identical twins! Not a good look! Another containent unit bites the dust...Will need to do another massive M&S re-stock when I'm next back in the UK.

We headed to the Chart House to see if we could do drinks on the patio. The hostess smiled and told us there was a 2 hour wait for a table. We decided to try again some other night!! We headed to Chadwicks and stayed a little longer than anticipated!!! They sell Magners cider, and pints were disappearing rapidly!!

The National Catherdal photos

The Cathedral

One of the unusual gargoyles

Cathedral and Kramerbooks

From the zoo we headed to the National Cathedral. It is a stunning building. But I really had to keep reminding myself that it was only completed in 1990. I'm used to visiting cathedrals in the UK and Europe which were built hundreds of year ago! It had all you could hope for in a cathedral: vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses and beautiful stained glass. It also has a collection of unusual and fabulous gargoyles! These include caricatures of people involved in the building of the cathedral and...Darth Vader!!! We spent a long time there snapping away. It has some truly stunning architecture to admire.

From there we made our way down to Dupont Circle for a quick wander. Parking is a bit of an issue round there, so when we saw a parking sign we did a circuit of the circle and pulled in. It was the car park for the bank, and there was a sign that said you had to pay up front. A guy was collecting cash, so I rolled down the window and asked how much. $8 for 1 hour and $16 for more that that. We made a face at each other, but we were there and could almost stomach paying $8 for parking... The guy then asked for $16. I made it plain that we would be a maximum of 1 hour and he told us that we had to pay the $16 and if we got back early we would be refunded the other $8. Well, ma heid disnae zip up the back, so we declined his kind offer being pretty certain that we would never see the $8 refund!! After a bit of driving around we found an on-street parking spot, so abandoned the car and headed over to Kramerbooks, or more specifically the Afterwords cafe, for a soft drink and a peach cobbler and ice cream - yum yum!

Last night we had a quiet night - we headed to Southsides (our local) and had a quick dinner and a couple of pints of margarita! Excellent!!!

You can come too, too, too. We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo - The Photos

Chowing down on bamboo...

Pausing for breath. 60lbs of bamboo is a lot of eating!

Brace yourself Stacy....
Prairie dogs are affectionate to each other...

Cheetah

Lion

Tiger

Lunch!

The best shot we got of an elephant all day!