The week we had

Oh, I mean, it wasn’t exciting or anything, I just didn’t want more than a week to go by without blogging so I shall blog about what we did this week.

The boys started camp, which has been great for me. It’s nice and peaceful at home, and I can go to Orange Theory to work out, and of course, they’ve been having a great time too. Their friend Ethan is at camp with them, and from what they’ve told me, they’re all thick as thieves. So that’s fun. They’ve been swimming every day and went to Laser Tag yesterday and blah blah blah mainly they’re not doing anything electronic for 6-7 hours a day and that’s the best part.

Of course, I’m the worst mother ever and forgot to put sunscreen on them for the first three days of the week, so by Wednesday they all had rather pink shoulders. I definitely felt like shit.

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I went and had dinner with my triplet/quad mamas, that was always lovely. Here I am with the mamas from here.

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Saved up some Amazon gift cards and got some amazing (and eye-wateringly expensive) noise cancelling earbuds. I feel quite confident that I’m going to snooze like a baby on the airplane next week because of these as well as this travel pillow I bought. YES I DID.

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I don’t care in the least how goofy this looks if it means I can get a few hours of sleep on the plane. Erica and I arrive early Friday morning, and that night we have a presentation to give. So if I don’t sleep on the plane, it could get really ugly.

In non-travel-related news, we made pizza bombs! I love Tasty. I am addicted to watching the videos, even though half of the recipes look less than appetizing. These were a big hit with the boys.

Okay, I should have sealed up the dough better. Whatever.

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And now I shall end this post with this ridiculously adorable picture the boys found online.

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Austin in April

I got back the other day from a week-long work trip to Austin with one of the two teams I work on. It was a great week of bonding (we have a lot of new Automatticians on the team that I hadn’t met yet) and eating. I have decided that if it came down to food, I’d much rather live in Austin than New Orleans.

The food:

The work:

The fun:

Go team! (Thank you selfie stick)

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Two teams!
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The grackle. Our meetup mascot.

More NYC pics

Want to post these before too much time passes.

Lots of pictures from places we worked, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, a visit to the 9/11 memorial, and lots of group pics because because. Also Daryl.

January 30, 31, February 1, 2016

A couple more days in New York!

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Saturday was spent working until dinnertime, when we headed to a Brazilian place for appetizers and then this amazing pizza place for the rest.

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Sunday started with brunch at a meatball restaurant (why not?) followed by a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and a visit to the 9/11 memorial.

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Monday was the last day of the meetup, sad.

(Lots more NYC pics to come in a separate post.)

 

2015 in review

Man, did this year go by fast, or what?

January

I turned 40!

In Barcelona!

Then celebrated again with my friends once I was back home.

February

Not much besides Mardi Gras, really.

My Achilles’ tendon started hurting.

Went to Vegas for Kiki’s 40th.

March

Spoke at my first WordCamp, in Dayton.

Ran the Shamrockin’ Run for the third time.

Emily and Ellie visited.

Scott Bakula was in our front yard.

April

Kiki came to visit and we had a garage sale.

We also went on a big boat and watched missed seeing Heather finish her first Ironman triathlon.

It was…a slow month.

May

I took the boys to Virginia.

The boys made a movie.

Miles danced.

I wrote a v popular post for the New Orleans Moms Blog.

Started physical therapy for my Achilles’ tendon.

June

George and I gallivanted around England.

July

I went to NYC for BlogHer.

Completed my third (and last) triathlon.

August

Got the attic insulated.

My coworker came to visit.

I photographed my friends’ wedding.

The boys started 2nd grade.

I went uber-Goth for the NOMB Mom’s Night Out.

September

We got a new fridge!

I was volunteer coordinator at WordCamp DFW.

The boys started playing soccer.

October

We were devastated by the loss of our dear friend Gareth.

I went to Park City again for the Automattic Grand Meetup

I got another tattoo.

Ran my twelfth half marathon.

November

George and I celebrated our tenth anniversary!

We went on a big cruise.

December

The boys turned 8!

We got a dog!

My ankle still hurts.

In blogging news…

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 190,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 8 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Cruise on the Norwegian Dawn (recap)

Okay, sit down, this is gonna be a long one.

Sunday, November 22

Stephanie drove us to the cruise terminal, so we were able to avoid paying for parking or a taxi. The boys were so excited. I was proud of my minimal packing skills. Though later I will have wished for more clothes. We waited in several lines to get on the ship, but finally, we were on!

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Back on land

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Larry and my mom with the grandkids

We just got home today from a week-long cruise with the whole family, and while I will be writing up a very detailed post with pics and stuff, I wanted to jot down a few things before I forget.

I am still a little dizzy. I didn’t get seasick or anything, but getting your land legs back is a real thing. My body is adjusting to being still for once.

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Ellie and I being totally serious.

I am terrified of getting on a scale. There’s just so much food. And it was good. And rich. Oh, right, and we had the unlimited beverage package. So there was that too. I think I’m going to try to detox for a week or so, and then see how bad the damage is.

The boys were kind of celebrities on the ship. By the end of the cruise, if I just had one of them with me, random people would say, “you lost two!”

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Siblings.

It was really awesome to hang out with my siblings and their kids and spouses. We don’t get together often enough. No wonder since we’re spread out all over the place.

The boys are now all eating new foods. Oliver ordered PB&J at every meal, they all scarfed down calamari (okay, we told them it was shrimp), and Miles stole half of my lamb at last night’s dinner.

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Oliver getting all the food.

And they ate so much food. I mean, the ice cream alone – Miles ate about 8 cones a day. Not even exaggerating. Their breakfast plates were piled high with bacon, sausage, pancakes, cereal, toast, etc. And then we’d have lunch, and at dinner, they’d order two or three entrees each. And eat them all.

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More to come…

 

London (the rest)

I think it’s time to wrap up my trip recap, so I’ll just put the rest of the London bit in this post.

Tuesday was our second day in London. George wanted hats, but I’ve already blogged about that. We also did some other shopping and browsing, which was fun.

On the bus!
On the bus!
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Piccadilly Circus
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Me ‘n’ the Queen at Hamley’s

After we got George a jacket and me some tea at Marks & Spencer, we went our separate ways. I ended up eating a sandwich in Soho Square, where Kristina and Anne and I used to meet for lunch almost every day, 18 summers ago.

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The next day, George and I poked around Camden Market (it was pretty dead, being a Wednesday) before meeting a friend for a pub crawl.

Pub crawl!

Yes, this is Pimm’s on tap.

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Cool pic of a bridge we were near. Can’t be more specific.

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The best meal we had all week, if you ask me: Toad in a Hole!

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Thursday was our last full day, so I crammed as much in as I could. Museums, (okay, mostly the gift shops), walking around my old haunts, etc. It was a pretty warm day, and people were covering every inch of grass everywhere. I love London for that.

Friday, we flew home. The end.

London (part 1)

We spent as much time in London as we did in Keswick, but I took about a third as many photos. I suppose it’s because I already have a ton of pictures of London. And by this point in the trip, my shoulders were killing me from carrying around a heavy bag with my camera, so I took most of the photos with my phone.

Anyway, enough excuses.

When we first got to London, we went directly to the Airbnb that we had rented. It was tiny but clean and bright. Perfectly sufficient for our needs, and just down the street from a tube station. I’d say the only downside was the size of the bathroom. The sink in particular was just comically small. Washing my face was…messy.

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Anyway, after dropping our stuff off, we headed out to explore a bit. We walked up (and I do mean up – didn’t we leave the hills behind in the Lake District?) to Hampstead, where we hit up a pub (natch) before catching a glimpse of Hampstead Heath.

Oliver is a far more common name over there.
Oliver is a far more common name over there.

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Okay, that’s enough nature.

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More Keswick

Just to round out the Lake District portion of our trip…some more photos of sheep, and other stuff we did.

Another Keswick walk: to Castlerigg stone circle

IMG_2349Another day, another breakfast, another walk. We ended up spending the day between our two big walks in the town of Cockermouth, where we went on a brewery tour and visited a few pubs (shocker.) For breakfast, I chose the slightly less hearty meal of yogurt and granola, plus scrambled eggs with salmon. Good choice.

But on Sunday, we were ready to tackle another one. This time, in keeping with our theme of “walks with Castle in the name,” we decided to take a walk that encompassed the Castlerigg stone circle. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see this stone circle, but it started right near our B&B, and the distance was manageable (about 4 miles.)

Well, not to give away the ending, but it was exquisite.

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Keswick: Castlehead walk

On Friday, our first full day in Keswick, George and I decided to try a walk. It wasn’t very far, so it seemed like a good one to start with. But we flatlanders forget that maps don’t always show elevation. So it was a little more challenging than we expected, but totally worth it.

Here’s how you tackle a stroll to the top of a mountain hill.

First, you start with a hearty breakfast. What you don’t see here is the sausage, bacon, egg, mushrooms, and hashbrown I ate before taking the picture. (I should mention here that we stayed at the very excellent Stonegarth B&B, recommended by my coworker Rachel. The breakfasts were beyond delicious and the proprietors kind and friendly.)

Next, you walk through town to get to the visitor’s centre so you can get a map so you can get lost before finding your way to the start of the walk. Admire the flowers along the way.

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Finally, you arrive at the path in question. Oh look, there’s the lake! Our first glimpse since arriving in the Lake District. This one is Derwentwater.

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