Category: travel

London, 2025

Better late than never, eh?

I just want to document the trip to London Kiki and I went on. Our first trip together I think since 2000 or so. Pre-blog!

I had a conference for work (the same one I went to last summer) and so the plan was for her to meet me afterwards and we would stay on for another several days.

The trip didn’t start out promisingly – I was supposed to arrive the day before the conference so I could get some sleep beforehand, but my flights were an unholy mess and I didn’t arrive until the morning of the conference, and I was a wreck. I’d had to get a hotel room in Miami for a few hours during the day just so I could get some sleep. A little. But otherwise I’d been awake for two and a half days on maybe 5 hours of sleep total. Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. But I made it through, got to see my coworkers, had a great conference.

Karen and I went into London together, then met Kiki at Paddington. We had lunch at a cute pub near the station. I had bangers and mash. Yum.

After lunch, Karen went to her hostel and Kiki and I found our airbnb, which was fantastic. It was across the street from Battersea Power Station, and even though it was south of the river, it was quite convenient and easy to get around from.

That evening, we got some groceries and stayed in, since Kiki was pretty tired.

Saturday

Took a walk to Camden. Went to see a play with Ewan McGregor (play was meh, but we breathed the same air as him so it was worth it.) Had dinner at a Michelin star restaurant. Forced Karen to come meet us one more time.

Sunday

Walked across the river, stopped by our old flat, met a friend for tea at Liberty. Bought some fabric. Bought some shoes because my feet were killing me.

Monday

Took boat to Greenwhich, explored the o2, took gondola across river. had lunch at Seven Dials Market (featuring the cheese conveyer belt), went to bookbinding store (thank you Kiki!)

Tuesday

Went to Kensington, walked a bunch, did pedal boats, got lunch at Harrod’s, ate at park, Kiki let me go back to book store (THANKS KIKI!) Dinner at Dishoom.

Wednesday (home)

Borough Market, ate a bunch. Walked around a bit, went to airport.

And some more pictures from various days (I can’t remember which, exactly. I know I could figure it out, but if I don’t finish this now, I never will.)

Hopefully it won’t be 20+ years before we do this again!

17 years, 8 months

A week from today is their first day of senior year.

(I’ll save any thoughts I have on that for next week’s post.)

Junior year, over and out

Last day
First day

Just like that, junior year is over. They’ve gotten taller, their hair has gotten messier.

It was an eventful year for our family, and since I have neglected to post much, I’ll just go over it all now.

I was on sabbatical August through October, which was fun. I traveled a bunch. To Canada, Florida, Virginia, and Chicago. My friend had a baby. My mom and Larry moved to The Villages. I redid the upstairs bathroom. The boys turned 17 while I was in Turkey for work. Oliver got his driver’s license. We went to Florida for Christmas. In January my brother’s house burned down in the wildfires. I turned 50. Kiki came to visit. We took family pictures. It snowed here. A lot. The boys did some extras work on a movie. I went to Virginia for Kiki’s 50th. George got mugged. I went on a cruise. George’s dad died. I got some new tattoos. I learned I’m probably going to need shoulder surgery.

So while a lot of good things happened, a lot of terrible things happened as well. I am hopeful for the next year, even if the world is a dumpster fire. We are going to Virginia next week for Emily’s high school graduation and we’re going to visit some colleges. I am going to England for work in July and Kiki is meeting me there. It’ll be our first time there together in almost 25 years. Maybe Linus will get his driver’s license (no rush!) In September we’re seeing Pulp again. In October I’m going back to Singapore for work. Somewhere in there I’m likely going to have that shoulder surgery. The boys will apply to colleges. They’ll decide where to go.

And then the house will be empty. Okay, I’m done thinking about the next year!

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Earlier this month I went to Istanbul for a work trip and I swore to myself I’d blog about it because it was such a memorable place.

When we weren’t working, we were walking around a lot. We ate delicious food. We petted cats. We shopped. We probably didn’t haggle as much as we should have.

We visited very old buildings. We drank tea and coffee and people tried hard to sell us rugs. We stayed in Europe but visited Asia.

Did I mention there were a lot of cats?

Not a clue. But no complaints!

The street where our coworking spot was located was full of lighting stores. It was really interesting. Lamps and neon and parts and bulbs and everything you could possibly need to provide light. That was every store. There was another street that was all power tools. Another that was shops selling screws and nails and nuts and bolts. I loved that.

It took a long, long time to get there and a long, long time to get home, but it was worth it.

Wherein I ramble about my trip to England

When I was given the opportunity to attend a work event in the UK, can you guess how long it took me to say yes? About half that. Even though my sabbatical was supposed to start on July 1. I pushed that baby back until the end of the month, and on July 8 hopped on a flight to London.

I arrived a day early so I wouldn’t have to attend the event all jet-lagged, and since it wasn’t in London, I decided to spend that first night in Oxford (much cheaper than London anyway. Look at me saving the company money!) As it turned out, my niece Emily was going to be in Oxford for a month for a program, so my plan was to hang out with her a bit before meeting up with my colleagues.

A friend picked me up from the airport (look at me saving the company money again) and we went and had lunch in Windsor. I’d never been! It was adorable, and we even got to see the Changing of the Guards from our table.

After lunch I headed to Oxford and Emily and I got some food and walked around a bit. I stayed in a super cute B&B (well, minus the B) and saw some of the sights. I was exhausted though, and had to allow myself a nap at 5:30pm so I could make it to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour. It all worked out, I got a decent night’s sleep and then woke up, unsure what to do. I had to check out by 10:30 but couldn’t meet up with my coworkers until 4.

I realized I could store my luggage in London, so that’s what I did. I used this app called Stasher and paid about $8 to have a random hotel store my bags. Very handy. I took a bus through just ridiculously adorable countryside to get to a train station which took me to the city. Then I spent some time wandering around London. I’d be back at the end of the week, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to tick some things off my list so I’d have more time at the weekend.

So I went to Borough Market and had some lunch (if a cup of strawberries drowned with chocolate counts and I think it does) and then I went to the Peloton store to get a shirt for my class on Friday (sound familiar?) I rode a bunch of buses, which was great. I love buses.

HOWEVER. My knee was twinging weirdly in the morning, and by the afternoon I was almost in tears. I could barely walk. It didn’t help that I got on a bus going the wrong direction at one point and had to find the right stop. It was agony. I have no idea what was wrong with it. I’ve never had knee pain like it.

But I had to get to Luton, where we were staying, so I hobbled my ass to pick up my luggage, then hobbled my ass to a train station, nearly in tears, and managed to get to Luton. Bringing my bag up the stairs at the station was truly pathetic, but finally I got to the house and was able to meet up with my coworkers and ice my knee. That helped a bit.

We ordered in Nando’s (my first time!) and tried to watch the semifinals of the Euros, but we were stuffing our faces with chicken when the game ended so we missed all of the excitement.

The next day, we went and had breakfast at the most British cafe you can imagine and I was able to get a knee brace from Boots. Then we headed to the festival grounds for this event.

It’s the strangest thing, a conference disguised as a festival, but it was pretty great. It was for people in talent acquisition (which I am, as an operations manager for our Talent division, that’s what I do now) and there were a lot of interesting talks (in tents) and booths for vendors, and a ferris wheel, and food trucks, and portapotties, and really, it was very similar to the music festivals I’ve been to, only less music. And cleaner.

Afterwards, a few of us went to another coworker’s house for dinner (he’s on parental leave) and I was VERY excited to play with their baby but she was asleep, which was devastating, but we were fed well, and had a wonderful time hanging out. Got back to the house after midnight, like the party animals we are, then passed out.

Friday a few of us took the train into London for lunch, then we parted ways and it was time for phase 3 of my trip: Pam Takes London 2024.

I have dreamt of taking a solo trip to London for literally half my life. (I was going to do it for my 25th birthday, but I moved to New Orleans instead.) And it was everything I could have hoped for.

I checked into my very tiny airbnb, then headed to the Peloton studio for my first class. My knee was doing fine, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me anyway. Fortunately, I felt zero pain during the class (or after.) I won’t go into great detail about the Peloton classes I did, it really wasn’t that different from the New York classes. (But I will say that the showers in London were waaaay better.)

After class, I had dinner at a little French place in Covent Garden, then got gelato, then went back to the airbnb.

Saturday was my big day.

I woke up too early, no coffee shops were open yet, but once one did, I left to get some breakfast. Nothing else was open except one Waterstone’s, so I went there to browse. I still had time to kill so I went back to the airbnb and hung out until I could actually go somewhere.

And that somewhere was Liberty. Which you can read all about here.

My airbnb was very well situated, more than I would have imagined. It was close to the Russell Square underground station, and there were plenty of buses. So it was never a big deal to go back to drop things off or just rest for a bit.

After Liberty, since I wasn’t too far from Soho, I decided to wander aimlessly a bit. I ended up walking by some old sights from our stay in 1997.

Then I went in search of lunch. I couldn’t figure out where to go, so I decided to get the tube to High Street Kensington, where I grabbed a sandwich and pastry from a little cafe and walked down to Kensington Gardens to eat it.

After that, I decided to hop on a bus to go to a bookbinding supply shop that was near Victoria. After perusing and buying some goodies, I went to get on a bus to drop everything off at my room. I cursed my lack of directional sense because it took me forever to find the right bus. But eventually I did, and I dropped everything off while I tried to figure out what to do next.

It was mid-afternoon, so I decided to check out one of the (free!) museums in South Kensington. The V&A won out. After spending so much to go to museums in NYC, it was a nice change to be able to just walk in to this one without spending a dime.

I just wandered around, really, and looked at whatever caught my eye.

It wasn’t open for too long, so I then decided to go for a walk by our old flat. I was tempted to have a drink in the pub we used to go to (not that it’s the same or anything) but I was a weenie and just wanted to get some dinner. I really wanted this pizza/salad thing from Pizza Express, which is, like, everywhere. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal to get a table alone, but the location in Covent Garden can bite me because they just did not seem to want to seat me.

So I went to friggin Shake Shack instead. Oh well.

I was pretty tired after that, so I went back to the good ol’ airbnb.

Sunday morning was a set of two short Peloton classes, after which I met up with a friend. We had a truly Instagram-worthy lunch after doing a little shopping (I wanted to get a baby gift for a friend while I was in London.) Then we had a pint in a pub (so I could tell George I did) then I headed over to Buckingham Palace for the tour I’d booked months ago.

It was pretty cool, I guess. I was most excited about the garden tour. It was to take place after going through a bunch of rooms in the palace. (No pics allowed.) So I go outside for the tour, but decide to get some tea and cake before. After eating, I follow what I assume is the garden tour path, but I am unimpressed. Where are the famed English gardens?

Well, after this path shunted me unceremoniously onto a busy street, I decided that was the worst “garden tour” ever. Only YESTERDAY did I realize I missed the whole friggin thing. I saw zero signs directing me to this alleged garden tour, so the 15 extra pounds I paid for that were completely wasted. I’m so mad. Hmmph.

So. I had time to do things, so I took a bus to Piccadilly Circus to go to some shops (a giant Waterstones as well as Fortnum & Mason to pick up tea for a friend.) Got a few books and the tea, then got on a bus to go back to the airbnb.

Decided I’d try again for the pizza/salad, and this time, I was far more lucky. It was a lovely evening and the restaurant was empty (thanks to the Euro finals, everyone was at pubs instead) and I had my pizza/salad and some wine.

It was a lovely evening, and so I went back to my room to read and relax, and I could hear people yelling during the game, so I really didn’t have to watch it at all.

Monday morning I woke up early again, so I got coffee and sat in a little square with it, and just tried to really enjoy my last few moments in London. It was heavenly, and I really just did not want to leave. Sigh.

Went to airport, had bangers and mash, got on plane, made it home after a million hours of flying and no sleep.

I need to do that again.

Liberty of London

I’ll have a longer post later about my trip to the UK that I just got home from, but I wanted to do a separate post about my pilgrimage to Liberty for fabric.

The last time I went to London was in October 2017. I started sewing in February 2018. So I had little interest in fabric shopping back then. How things have changed!

I literally teared up when I walked into the area with the fabric. It’s just so beautiful. I made a lap of the floor to get the lay of the land, and then had to go peruse other parts of the store because I was overwhelmed. I get decision fatigue at the best of times, I knew it was going to be bad here.

So the fact that I was there only an hour or so is quite impressive. I knew if I didn’t make a decision relatively quickly, I never would. (This was my strategy at Mood last month as well.)

I wasn’t going to limit myself to sale fabrics, but I also knew I could get more if I did. At $38 a meter in today’s exchange rates, I would have limited myself to two meters, but since I hit up the sale section, I was able to get three. Plus a bunch of other stuff.

I really loved this fabric, but they didn’t have much on the bolt, so I just bought a handkerchief:

I bought two one-meter remnants of this, hopefully I can make a top or a skirt out of it:

And I was able to get three meters of this. I think I can get a dress out of it.

I really don’t know what patterns I’m going to use. I don’t want to rush into making anything.

I also got this tote bag:

Now. What am I going to make??

Five days in NYC

We got home a week ago from our second-ever family vacation (I mean, that was only the five of us, not the entire extended family.) We were originally going to go to the Pacific Northwest, but uncertainties around the costs of car insurance for teenage drivers and because our mortgage went up a LOT thanks to stupid *$#%& homeowner’s insurance, we opted to save a bit of money and go to New York instead.

Why New York? I mean, why not? The boys had only been once before, and loved it, and I love it, and George loves it. And I was able to get a good deal on our plane tickets, thanks to Southwest miles. (Not to be confused with Southwest Miles, which is Miles in New Mexico.) (Sorry, dumb joke.) (You know what, I’m not sorry.)

We stayed in a fantastic hotel, one I highly recommend, the Life Hotel. It was small, so not overwhelming, and the rooms were absolutely adorable (but not tiny.) And I mean, two big hotel rooms for five nights in NYC is going to be a lot of money no matter what, but for what it was, it was quite reasonable. (And it’s the former home of Life magazine. Pretty cool!)

So, on to what we did:

Thursday

Arrived in the late afternoon. After a taxi ride to the hotel (did you know that even the minivan taxis can’t really accommodate a family of five? George and the boys had to sit four across in the back seat. Yeesh.) we unpacked and rested for a little bit before going to find some dinner.

We ate Detroit-style pizza, as one does in New York. (Look, it was somewhere we’d eaten in 2019 and so it was an easy decision.) On the way, we went into the lobby of the Empire State Building, and then we passed a Paris St Germain shop (Miles’s team) so had to peruse the goods there before heading to dinner. We took the subway to a nerd store for George, then we walked around some more and headed back to the hotel to sleep.

TIP: You won’t spend more than $34 per person riding the subway/bus if you tap to pay with your phone. And we took the subway (and buses) a lot. I put my Apple card on the boys’ phones so I wouldn’t have to tap them in at every station, and we ended up hitting the cap on Monday.

Friday

We went to visit my company’s office space. It was gorgeous! There were free snacks and lovely views and a weird vibrating chair.

Then we walked to a store that sold vintage soccer jerseys, and after that, headed to the 9/11 memorial. (We were going to take the Staten Island ferry there and back, but decided against it when we learned we’d have to wait an hour for a ferry back.) Ate some lunch, then I made them go with me to the Peloton store so I could get a shirt for my classes.

So it turns out, I have a really terrible sense of direction in Manhattan, because I was constantly getting us lost. I cursed Google Maps many, many times, and used the compass app on my phone a lot. And we retraced our steps frequently. And don’t tell the others, but once we stayed on the bus a bit too long and had to backtrack.

We rested for a bit, then took a shorter ferry over to Brooklyn, then went to Grimaldi’s for pizza.

It was a long and exhausting day so I was about to drop by the time we got back to the hotel.

(Did I mention the heat was worse in NYC than in New Orleans? It was so draining – at least in New Orleans, we hibernate when it’s this hot. We don’t walk miles around a city.)

Saturday

In the morning, we met up with Erica and her family at Bryant Park. I finally got to meet her son!! (and her husband, who I know I hadn’t met before, but it felt like it, you know?) We had some food and hung out, then went across the street to the library (not the huge one with the lions, but the building across the street) where there’s a terrace on the 7th floor that was perfect for 2 year olds to run around and grown ups to chat (and teenagers to lounge, sulkily.)

After saying goodbye, we went to the Natural History Museum, which was of course fabulous. Sitting in the Planetarium for a show saved us, but we nevertheless only lasted a couple of hours there, because we were all still pretty wiped from the day before. We did eat an overpriced lunch there, where we had…pizza. (Among other things.) We took the bus back to the hotel (stopping at the PSG store again as well as the Apple Store) and chilled until dinner.

Did I mention the amount of ice cream the boys ate? It was a lot. They’re big soft serve fans, and basically wanted to get a cone any time we passed a truck, which was often.

Dinner was takeout pizza from a really adorable place near the hotel where everyone was delightful. After this, George and I vowed no more pizza.

Sunday

My first Peloton class!

After, we took the subway to Brooklyn to meet Madi and her boyfriend Aaron at a cute little cafe. Madison used to be so shy and now she is almost THIRTY which I cannot handle and it was such a delight to hang out with them. And I was happy to see a part of Brooklyn I hadn’t been to.

We decided to go to the Transit Museum after, because it wasn’t too far away. It was an unexpected delight! It wasn’t huge, but the lower floor was an old platform that was filled with old train cars. We had a lot of fun critiquing them, and sitting a lot.

The boys and I went to Rockefeller Center after that to go to Oliver’s team store as well as another vintage soccer shirt store, and I had banana pudding, so even though we got lost a bunch, it was worth it.

We went back to the hotel for a while, then George really wanted to go to a diner, so we went to the Tick Tock diner that turned out to be in the lobby of the hotel we’d stayed in for our fifth anniversary trip, so it wasn’t our first time eating there. The breakfast fiends were in heaven.

Monday

My second Peloton class!

Afterwards, I went to Mood and I was VERY PROUD of myself for being decisive and just buying two gorgeous pieces of fabric and then getting the hell out.

The boys and George were sitting in Bryant Park again, so I met up with them and we went to the Intrepid, which was George’s big ask of the trip. (And after I went to two Peloton classes, I couldn’t exactly say no, not that I would have.)

We spent several hours there. George was in heaven. It was pretty good, but I had my backpack and it was very heavy and I kind of wish I’d dropped it off at the hotel before we went, but I survived.

We walked around Central Park a bit after that and then went back to the hotel.

Our hotel was in Koreatown, so we found a ramen place around the corner and had delicious soup for dinner. It was the boys’ first time having “real” ramen, and they all enjoyed it.

Tuesday

Sadly, time to go home. I went for a nice peaceful walk by myself because it was FINALLY not sweltering. I also went into the Harry Potter store but did not buy anything because I’m not about to put another dime in that evil woman’s wallet, but it was fun to look around anyway.

And then it was time to head to the airport. In an Uber this time.

And then we came home and picked up Ziggy and all was well with the world.

October, a recap

Well that was a busy and fun month!

Started off quiet. I finally tested negative for Covid. I made a shirt.

Went to Los Angeles and Vegas, but I already posted about that. (But here are a few highlight pics anyway…)

The day after I got home, the boys and I went to a Pelicans game, because tickets were super cheap.

Not a whole lot happened for a while. I made that moto jacket.

Ziggy was cute.

Took the boys driving a bunch to practice before they started the driving portion of their driver’s ed class.

Then I went on my the second trip of the month! Also to see Kiki and go to a show!

I flew to DC Friday, and we went to a Caps game.

Hung out with Maxie and I tried on $80k worth of jewelry on Saturday. We went to some thrift stores to finish off our costumes, and Kiki bought me this Friends Christmas sweatshirt. Later that evening we heard about Matthew Perry. 😦

Saturday night we went to a Halloween party. Our costumes were awesome.

Sunday, Kiki and I drove to Silver Spring to go see a concert and spent the night at a hotel there. Then I flew home the next day. A short but super fun trip. I hate not knowing when we’ll see each other again. Hmmph.

I did get to see lots of fall colors, which was neat.

And then yesterday was Halloween. I handed out candy, but not many kids came. Mark my words, next year I’m going to get full-sized candy bars. I’m going to be one of those houses. Don’t let me forget.

U2 at Sphere

In 1991, if 16 year-old Pam wasn’t listening to INXS, she was listening to Achtung Baby. If I hear any songs from it now, it instantly transports me back (in a good way.) So back in March when I saw that U2 was playing the album in its entirety in Las Vegas, I texted Kristina and joked “we should go to this” and to absolutely no one’s surprise, she said “okay!”

So I spent the past weekend in Las Vegas (and a little bit of Los Angeles) with Kiki and Mike, where we saw U2 in concert at (the?) Sphere.

For some reason, flights to Las Vegas were super expensive, but both Mike and I have brothers in Los Angeles, so we decided it would be better to fly to L.A. and drive to Vegas. Road trip!

So I flew to Burbank (closer to my brother’s) on Thursday afternoon, then we surprised Ellie at UCLA. I think she was surprised, anyway. Turns out she has tracking on me on her phone. Hmm.

We had dinner, then went to her teeny tiny dorm room where I got to see the quilt I made her in its home!

The next morning, I had breakfast with Evan and Jennifer, then Kiki and Mike picked me up for the trip to Vegas. It was cool to drive through the desert – I’ve never seen one up close before!

We arrived at our hotel at around 4, and it took us a while to get checked in and to finally find our rooms (these hotels are massive!) and then it was time to get ready for dinner.

The dinner was incredible, we went to Picasso at the Bellagio. Lots of pics on my Instagram post:

The next morning, we got overpriced coffee from Starbucks, and then I met up with my friend Lisa, who lives in Vegas. We hung out for a while in my room, then after she left, Kiki and Mike and I went and grabbed lunch and then went in search of merch. The lines were stupid, but I was able to get my brother and I shirts.

After that, Kiki and I had an appointment at Lip Lab, which I was very excited about. I was finally going to get the perfect brick red (NO PINK) lipstick!

It was so fun to watch the technician mix the colors. Like an artist with a palette! And she nailed the color perfectly. Then I tried a bright pink that I would normally never wear, but she said suited me. I did not buy that one. But I did get a sheer balm in the same color as my lipstick. And Kiki got two lipsticks. One was so perfect I gasped when I saw it on her.

We also got to name our lipsticks, and they engraved them on the cases. I don’t really have any pictures of the lipstick on, but trust me, it’s perfect.

don’t ask.

After that, we went to the pool for an hour and drank extremely overpriced (but delicious) cocktails (are you sensing a theme?) and then it was time to get ready for the show!

So I guess this is the real point of this post. Well. It was incredible.

We ate a bit and had a drink when we got inside (all very good) and then it was time to find our seats. We knew we were in a good section, right in the middle near the front, but we had no idea how good they were going to be. We were in row 16, but row 16 was really just four from the front. The general admission area was between us and the stage, but it wasn’t that big. We were close. And right smack in the middle.

A DJ played a bunch of 90s songs to get all the old people in the mood and then the show started, and honestly, I don’t know what else to say besides it was visually incredible. Just beautiful. The graphics were so crisp and beautiful and jaw-dropping.

I took a lot of pictures and videos.

After the show, I was exhausted, so I went back to my room pretty soon getting back, then the next morning we packed up for the drive back to L.A. And then I came home yesterday after staying at my brother’s again.

So that’s it! A wonderful trip with my best friend seeing an amazing show, AND I got to see my niece. What else can you ask for?

September recap

Well, that was a month.

Started off nicely with a work trip to Ireland that really deserves a post of its own. But let’s face it, I’ll never get to it if I don’t post about it now, so let me post about it now.

I arrived in Dublin around lunchtime on Saturday, and met up with my coworker Tiffany, who also arrived that day. Everyone else was getting there on Sunday. I went a day early so that I could meet up with Alicia, but for reasons, she was unexpectedly in Louisiana. So Tiffany and I met up with her husband Mat instead, and it was a fun night. Maybe too fun. I did not feel well the next day, let’s just put it that way.

The next day, we picked up the rest of the team and made our way to Kilranleigh Lodge, a house a bit over an hour outside of Dublin, the location of our meetup.

It was gorgeous, but somewhat rustic. The wifi wasn’t great, the heat wasn’t on yet so I was freezing the whole time, and it took a while to get anywhere, but the scenery made it worth it. And the dogs.

We spent one day in Dublin, and I did finally get to see Alicia, so that was fantastic. And then we went on a little Irish music pub crawl, which was very entertaining.

My trip home was not uneventful. Due to my flight being delayed, I missed my connection in DC so I got to see my sister and her family, and I got to stay with Kiki that night! Bonus!

And the other bonus I got from the trip:

After 3.5 years, it finally got me. Thankfully, it was mild, just like a cold, but I tested positive for over a week, so I only just got out of isolation. It was nice to get to hug the boys again!

So that’s about it, really. Ireland and Covid. What a September!

What we did in July

I feel like July was another busy month. I definitely drove a lot. I mean, I went to three different Buc-ee’ses. (Not sure how to pluralize Buc-ee’s.)

The boys finished up the classroom portion of driver’s ed. Still waiting to schedule their road time with the instructor. In the meantime, we took them to drive around a few times. Only sort of harrowing. And at the end, they were only sort of mad at me for laughing so much.

There was the fourth of July (nothing exciting, the boys were at a sleepover, I watched fireworks through the bathroom window), then the boys went to the beach for a week with Grandee and Larry and I spent some time in Terry’s pool. I also made a bathing suit top real quick. (The Sandpiper from Helen’s Closet)

I drove to Orange Beach for a couple of days at the end and spent some time by the pool before bringing the boys home. We tried fishing but spent more time watching sharks and sting rays and a blue heron.

Then this past weekend, I took the boys on a short trip to Atlanta to see a pro soccer game. (Atlanta United vs Cruz Azul, a team from Mexico.) We had a great time.

We stayed the night in Birmingham on the way there to see Mary Catherine and her people, and it was wonderful. Don’t tell the boys, but it was my favorite part of the trip. So nice to see friends. Of course we got a picture of the boys with Millie, and I got to catch up with Ann Fran. It was all very lovely and for a minute, we all wanted to move to Birmingham.

Then we headed to Atlanta, and went to IKEA on the way into town, then relaxed in the hotel room (it was storming), then the next day, wandered around downtown. We went to the World of Coke, which was entertaining, and the boys gazed longingly at the College Football Hall of Fame, and then I felt terrible for not taking them there instead but it was $30 a person and also, for me, snoozarooni. But Miles got a hoodie, at least.

That evening was the game, which was at the big fancy stadium where hot dogs were $2 and giant refillable sodas were $4. Glorious to this cheapskate. I was rooting for the other team, and they won in a penalty shoot out, which was so nerve wracking it reminded me why I don’t really like sports.

(I guilted them into lots of group pictures, heh.)

And then yesterday we wandered around Georgia Tech, snuck into the stadium, then drove home and that is July!

Other random things: we discovered Miles has a silver spot in his hair; Ziggy is still cute; we did not escape the escape room; the broken door finally got replaced in the vanity, so it’s done!

August means the start of sophomore year of high school! Eep!

June, in review

June was a busy month! So let’s get to it.

It started with a trip to California for my niece Eleanor’s high school graduation. Just me, not the boys or George.

We went to UCLA (that’s where Ellie is going in the fall) and walked around (after having In and Out for lunch.)

Before the trip, my brother said, “bring hiking shoes.” I said, “do I look like the type of person to own hiking shoes?” so it was in my sneakers that he tried to kill me the next day. We hiked up to Echo Park on an extremely damp and foggy and misty day, on a very narrow trail, and I was 100% convinced that only one of us at most was going to make it down to the bottom in one piece. Thank god I was wrong. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess up Ellie’s graduation week.

I’m not kidding, it was grueling (at least to me, someone who lives in a very flat place) and even my brother said later that he was nervous for me. Sheesh. Here are a bunch of random pics, including none of the view because you couldn’t see anything! But, in spite of that, I felt very accomplished, and it was nice to spend time with my brother. (Don’t tell him I said that.)

I googled this hike to get some info about it, and if I’d read “The majority of the trail is along the side of the mountain with some narrow switchbacks – it may be difficult for those that have trouble with heights” (emphasis mine) then maybe I would have rethought this decision. This is a good post that has pictures of, wow, what it might have looked like had I been able to see anything! It’s fine, it’s fine. Probably best that I couldn’t see how far I would have plummeted to my death.

The rest of the trip was hanging out with family, eating, going to Paper Source, Ellie’s graduation, going back to UCLA, seeing Pawnee City Hall, shopping at Mood, and basically spending a lot of time in electric cars.

I was really excited to give Ellie her graduation gift, a quilt I made for her in UCLA colors. I hope it keeps her warm and cozy while she’s at college. Sniff, sniff. She was just a tiny baby, I can’t believe she’s off to college.

Okay, so then I went home, and the day after I got back, George left for his long-awaited trip to the UK. He was going to be gone for two weeks, and little did he know that I had big plans while he was gone. Kiki came to visit and while she was here, we redid his bathroom downstairs. It’s so much better! (Of course I posted a ton more pictures and details here.)

He came home last week, and since then, life has gotten significantly quieter (that’s good.) Oh, I made this (Selwyn by Cashmerette) shirt early in the month, but I haven’t been able to get a good picture of it, so after a few glasses of wine, my friends stuck me in a bathtub to get some.

hee hee

The boys are finishing up driver’s ed today, so expect the July recap to be full of danger and intrigue!