Last Two Days in London

There was only one day we didn't have a hotel. I left one night open in case we wanted to rent a car and go somewhere outside London. Turns out we were perfectly happy in the location we were. The only bad thing is we had to try to find another one. We walked all the way next door and rented a triple room. Good news for dragging our heavy luggage, bad news is they put us at the bottom of a really long, narrow staircase. No, there was no lift. *sigh* I was really tempted to stand at the top of the stairs and give my case a good kick, but I endured. It bumped easily all the way down.

The last sight Julie wanted to see was the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. We walk umpteen miles only to wrestle our way (or was that muscle our way?) as close to the fence as possible, which is about 7 people deep. It's 80+ degrees out and yup, I'm sweating. People are swarmed around us. I can't see a dang thing! Our running joke was, "Oh look, fuzzy hats!" At one point I asked Andy to put me on his shoulders. We all laughed. The best thing I saw that made my day, were two little blonde girls sitting on their parent's shoulders. They couldn't have been more than three years old, cute as buttons and looked like twins. They both had expensive digital cameras and were happily snapping photos from their vantage point. I heard the mom tell one of the little girls she did a great job. Too adorable. Save yourself the trouble go here:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/ChangingtheGuard/Overview.aspx

and here:

CotG Video Youtube

Later that evening Andy and I met his Eve online buddy in London for dinner. We caught the underground tube to the Oxford Circus area. Andy had sent him a picture of us so he could find us outside the station. It was really nice to put a face to a voice. He and his significant other are from South Africa. We went to a great Thai restaurant and spent several hours visiting with them. It was a great way to spend our second-to-last evening and get to learn a bit about South Africa. Now I want to go there!

Tonight we are hanging out at the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel. It's right next to the airport as we don't want to have to worry about getting there tomorrow. Overall it has been the most enjoyable trip I have ever had. I have memories upon memories and we have about two gazillion pictures to go with them. Look for more pics on my facebook. See you back home!

Edinburgh Scotland Tour

Edinburgh is a definite must come back to. After a very rocky start, meaning we waited for 45 minutes to be picked up (starting at 5:45AM), finally called the tour company, and they send a private car to come get us. Apparently our transfer driver was waiting for people who hadn't bothered to tell them they didn't need a ride. Little did we know that our train tickets were for 7:00 AM. We arrived at 6:58AM. Needless to say, our frantic tour person at the train station had our tickets changed to the 8:00AM train. The good news is we have first class tickets so the ride is very nice, great scenery all along the route. The only downside is we lost an hour of our self-guided tour day. We arrive in Scotland at 11:30 and catch the hop-on-hop-off bus to Edinburgh Castle. We spend a couple of hours there and stop for lunch at a local cafe. Our train was leaving for London at 5:15PM, so we finished the city tour and headed to the train station. Whirlwind day...we all want to take a day off from sight-seeing.

I'm already planning an extended tour of these places for when Andy and I retire. Andy says I'm several years too early but I'm too excited to wait. :)

Tour of Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle

First day in London, we have a day-long (really, really day-long: 14-hour) tour of Bath, Stonehenge & Windsor Castle tour. This picture is of the Roman Baths in Bath. Our transfer driver picked us up at 8:15 a.m. in the pouring rain. I had been forced to buy an umbrella (I would have thought they'd make them better than this in LONDON!) as I seemed to have left my really nice Seattle umbrella somewhere on the property of the Italian Villa. I'll chuck it just before we leave to come home.

We get a late start as we need to wait for the tour company to find us a bus. Hmm. Turns out we get a brand new one that doesn't even have the company logo painted on. It was nice and our tour guide Steve is very knowledgeable and quite witty. He's been in the business for 25 years and is hellbent on making up that hour we've lost. Here's his website: http://steve-tourguide.com/ It has a lot of interesting pictures and information there. We can tell he is a seasoned tour guide as he proceeds to tell us all about the London sights on the way out of town to Bath which we hear again when we take the big Hop-on-hop-off London city bus tour.

First stop is Stonehenge. Turns out that a few years ago they discovered that it wasn't extra terrestial or a sacrificial offering ground. It was a grave yard. They had the stone part, what's left as we see it today, which signifies death, and a replication of it built out of wood, with little houses built. People would save their dead (either cremated, or boiled clean bones) and meet there twice a year. Once at the winter solstice and again at the summer solstice but only if they had anyone from their tribe die during one of those times. They know this as there are several sites they have excavated and found bones. Read Steve's website for more info. Pretty interesting stuff.

We pre-order lunch from the bus via Steve's cell phone and stop at a wayside restaurant. Andy has the bangers and mash (sausage with mashed potatoes smothered in lots of onion gravy). Julie and I have the pork. We get exactly 45 minutes to eat and have to rush back onto the bus to continue on to Bath.

Bath was interesting as well. Back in the 17 & 1800's rich people would go there to recover from the pollution in London, but several years ago they excavated it and found the actual Roman baths and have done a pretty good job of restoring quite a bit of them. I would like to go back and spend additional time there as the city is quite charming.

We are all quite tired by the time we get back to the station. It was a good day.

Viva La Chunnel!

Julie, Andy and I said goodbye to Sue and Brenda at the end of our cruise and the next morning cabbed it to the train station to catch our train from Paris to London, also known as the Chunnel. Brenda and Sue are heading back to the states, and we still have another week of excitement.

Everything is going well, this time we really do have first class reservations (see previous post from first train ride in coach) and it is wonderful. Nice relaxing 2.5 hour ride, we visit, watch the sights when not in the tunnel, and read our books. I highly recommend train travel. They have it down in Europe. Trains are super fast, it's really quite a rush when your train passes another one going the opposite direction.

We arrive at the station and grab another cab to the Best Western Victoria hotel. The hotel could not have been in a better location. Very near the Victoria Station which has trains, buses, underground and tons of shopping and restaurants. The only problem is that our rooms are actually in the annex portion which is around the corner from the main hotel and doesn't have a lift. Yes we have to lug our ginormous suitcases down a long stairway. (See many previous references to our huge bags.) Julie and I are lucky, the hotel worker carries mine down for me and Julie is on a different level so she only has a few stairs to go down. Andy carries his own. This is to be our home for the next 5 nights. Next up: City tour, Stonehenge and Bath.

Sue's Big Day-Last Night in Paris Dinner

Here we are, the last night in Paris. We are doing an evening dinner cruise on the Seine. Sue knows we are doing the cruise, but doesn't know about our birthday surprise. Note our cute little hats. Note also that Andy is taking the picture and he was a wonderful escort to this bevy of beauties. As we walk across the waiting room before boarding the cruise, I hear someone say, "that must be the party starters," I believe they thought we were paid entertainers. Heck, we do it for free, and we get better with wine.

When we first get seated., the family across from us has a small child who is enamored with a battery operated barkey-dog. She screams every time Dad tries to take it away, or turn it off. Brenda asks the waiter to tell them to put it away, and he looks at her aghast and says, "but it's only a CHILD," to which Brenda replies, "the child can be moved." We were not very popular at that point, but to appease us, he goes and has the live band turn up the music. Perfect!

We start the first course and people come over to take our picture. Apparently we are making a great new Parisian fashion statement with our cute hats. Either that or the wine is kicking in and we're having too much fun. :)

The sights are wonderful - people sitting along the banks are waiving as our boat passes, and the city is beautiful under lights, especially the Eiffel tower, and France's mini version of the statue of liberty. Food is really good, we have the waiter sign the cork from our wine bottle (a tradition we do when we are celebrating a special occasion). He seems to really like that.

It is time for our gifts to Sue, so Julie and I sing happy Birthday to her (we were pretty dang good I might add) and present her with the jewelry. Not long after, the waiter comes back with a wonderful confection that has a sparkler candle, along with the band who sings her Happy Birthday again. Overall, I'd say that's a pretty good way to mark a special Birthday year.

We all really enjoyed the evening, which was our last night in Paris. Next up: Julie, Andy & Theresa head for London via the Chunnel!

Sidetrack before the Big B-Day Cruise...Sights and Nonesense

As discussed in my last blog, we moved out of our 'slum' hotel (125.00 per night) in a seedy neighborhood and into what was equivalent to the Ritz, smack dab in the middle of everything you would possibly want within safe walking distance, even at night.

It's funny because the restaurant workers in the seedy neighborhoods were very nice and friendly to us (Chinese and Italian), while the fancier area restaurants were pretty snooty. I think they were mad because we made it farther in the Soccer Cup than they did. Not sure but they seem to be pretty passionate about it around here. :P

At our new digs in gay Paree, we had a nice walled-in court yard garden area where we could meet and have breakfast in the morning or drinks in the evening and the staff was extra accommodating to us.

I usually like to take a guided tour of the city I'm touring so I can decide what to go back and do. In Paris, we took a boat cruise early in the day and got to view everything from the Seine. Very fun! We then went on to see the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, and a special surprise Dinner Cruise to celebrate Sue's big 5-0 since we would still be gone for her big day.

Brenda and Sue's daughter Cassie had decided to buy Sue a piece of jewelry in every country they visited. Julie, Andy & I got in on the Italian piece of jewelry - a beautiful blue topaz bracelet and a French silver necklace.

Producing Electricity in Europe + Other Stuff like Paris

If you are following along with my blogs you will see that the last one left off saying how you produce electricity in Europe. Ok, I'm self-centered enough to mislead you. After all, it is about me. What I'm talking about is putting your door key into an outlet that lets you use the electricity in your room. Electricity is expensive enough that they make you use your ONE room key to keep the lights on. If you leave, you get about 5 minutes of courtesy lighting before they go out. I know, I timed it when Andy had to leave the room to call a friend because the phone connection sucked from our basement room. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me get back to France.

By the second day in Paris we realize we are in a really seedy part of town. Website pics looked great. Brenda does some Internet checking and finds a hotel in what a waiter later described as the "Golden Triangle," read: five-star really expensive, you will have to cash in your retirement accounts to pay for, but totally worth it. They bend over backwards for us and seem to like us.

Side note: French people do not really like Americans. Small slights...sitting in a sidewalk cafe and asked for the bill...apparently the waiter didn't like us much. We wait about 20-30 minutes and I decide to use the loo. Walking to the restroom, a waiter steps in front of me and pretends to check a bill or something. I tell him in French "pardon me" and he says yes and moves. I come back and we still don't have the bill. Finally Sue says, "watch this, " and proceeds to stack our dishes. You have never seen a waiter produce a bill so fast in your life. Gotta love that passive-aggressive-behavior. :)

Back to the blog: We are within walking distance of everything worth seeing. We walk and we walk and we walk, which is a really good thing after all the food we've been eating. Coming from not-so-sunny Seattle, I am roasting and sweating profusely which really sucks.

We did the Eiffel Tower, we did the Louvre (for only 3.5 hours) OMG - note to self: go back for several weeks to see the entire thing. We only touched the minimum - Mona Lisa,Venus de Milo, antiquities of Rome and Greece...too awesome!

Next up: Sue's 50th B-day Seine cruise. More Fun!!

Does Paris Have Seedy Neighborhoods, and Am I Paying to Be in One?

Got off the plane in Paris and kissed the ground. Not literally, just figuratively while wondering how American unions would deal with this. Wildcat strikes I guess? Hmm.

Took a taxi to the Hotel, lots of construction which should have been a sign. Cost the 5 of us 60 Euro (+ 25% to convert to dollars, you do the math). checked into the hotel, very nice English speakers. Rooms are typically European, read: SMALL. Everything seems OK, but temps outside are 90-ish and there is no AC. Do have some nice fans in the room though. Andy and I ballet dance around each other getting from the computer, bathroom...um, that's all the room there was. Had a bed and very little room for our ginormous suitcases. See the references about luggage in the first couple blogs. Tsk.

Struck out late at night to find dinner. Looked at the Hotel's map of recommended spots and saw the closest one was #7. We all eagerly head that way and end up at probably the only Chinese restaurant in Paris! We're cool though, 5 cranky Americans, no food for hours. Chinese sounds superb! We go in and the Chinese owner is so nice and friendly that it's worth it. He really went out of his way to make us feel welcome. Food was awesome!

Next up: How to produce electricity in Europe. :P

Thursday - Viva la France and Italy and Strikes!

We got up early Thursday to get packed and ready to fly to Paris. Used the Garmin this time to get us to the airport. Boy oh boy...tip for you Garmin users: check to make sure you don't have it set on "avoid toll roads" or else you will be seeing every single round-about between Tuscany and Florence, and believe me it is very easy to go round and round and round on the round abouts. What should have taken us 20 minutes ended up being an hour.

Lucky for us we got there in plenty of time to hurry up and wait, and wait, and wait. Brenda kept warning us that she was jinxed when it came to airline travel. (For a day-and-a-half trip to Texas for a wedding, it took three days, nine flights and seven airports!) Should have known then. The airline started out delaying our AirFrance 1:15pm by 15 minute increments. After about the 3rd time of changing the departure, the natives and everyone else started getting restless. At that point the harried counter person told us that the flight was cancelled and we should get on the bus outside the door and go to baggage claim to get our bags and rebook. After standing on the bus for about 15 more minutes it drove about 200 feet and dumped us all off! We then waited another hour for our luggage which never came. Finally we left baggage claim went back through security and back to our gate. Much to our chagrin (or relief) we were told that the plane was actually working and our luggage had never been off-loaded. *sigh*

Some of our party had tried to rebook while waiting for luggage so lost seats on the plane and had to be reassigned. Needless to say the five of us were spread out about the plane. While the plane was boarding the captain came on and told us to take our seats immediately as we needed to get going. Of course nobody was listening and continued to mill about. After everyone was seated they came back on the speaker and said that there was an air traffic controller strike in Paris and we had missed our 5 minute window to take off. We would have to wait for the next opening which would most likely mean another 2 hour wait! By this time, people are really cranky, and demanding to get off the plane. One hour goes by, then a second. People who want off are told to push the attendant button and someone will come talk to them about disembarking. Some people get off, the rest of us soldier on in the sweltering heat (more on sweating later). The captain explained that those who got off the plane would be stranded until Saturday as the Italians were planning to strike on Friday. Meanwhile, a crabby French Dad with two daughters kept insisting they give his daughters food. This is another story entirely so if you care, ask me and I'll fill you in.

After the second hour of sitting on the tarmac, they start giving water to the children. Brenda asks for water twice and is told children get it first. Little did they know she was suffering from heat stroke and had dangerously low blood pressure. Finally, the flight attendant asked if she was ok and Brenda said no. They instantly called an ambulance and took her out on the stairs. While the aid car was trying to get her to go with them, Brenda was refusing thinking she didn't want to get left behind. Finally they took her up in first class, found a Dr. onboard, did an EKG and laid her on the floor with her feet up. After giving her massive liquids, she got reoriented and the captain decided to have the crew do the food service on the tarmak.

Finally we all got juice/water and tuna or salmon sandwiches. We left at 7:00pm. Note to everyone: don't ever fly in Europe, take the freakin' train!

Tuscany - Day after Wedding - Wednesday

Wednesday was a very low key day. Most of our group went sight-seeing. Andy and I hung around the Villa near the pool and visited with those who were around. The weather had been pretty rainy up until the day of the wedding. In fact, the only time it rained that day was while we were having the wedding dinner in the restaurant. We were lucky the weather gods were smiling on us.

If you get a chance to travel to Tuscany in Italy, I highly recommend the The Villa Fambroni. It is located in the beautiful Tuscan Valley and is a 12th century castle (Panzalla Castle), divided into several fully-equipped apartments. The villa can accommodate anywhere from two to 45 people throughout the property. Our party stayed in the Il Pergolo which can accommodate up to 10. We had eight and were quite comfortable. Stephano and his partner Sergio, were as gracious as they could be. Not only does the property have a restaurant and winery, but the owners are also chefs and offer cooking classes and catering services. Be sure to bring food and drink with you as the restaurant is only open at certain times/days, but can be negotiated as needed.

Day of Wedding

Finally here! Pretty low-key, but high stress for me. I can only imagine what Ashley is feeling. Two+ hours before the wedding, I check in on her, Amanda and Lani (maid-of-honor & bridesmaid) are assisting her getting ready. They are double-timing it on her hair with dual curling irons. The best I can do is retrieve sustenance for the maid-of-honor, hold the curling iron and hairspray, and converse with Lori (mother-of-the-groom). Ashley is beautiful even without the dress. Lori's space is being invaded as her room is being used for preparing the bride.

I head out to get ready myself. Denial is still rampant.

Before the wedding we are doing pictures. I'm still ok. Such a beautiful couple. They were made for each other. They have been together for 10+ years, so this is a natural step. Pictures went well. Good-looking people on all sides of the families.

Ceremony - Beautiful! What can be any better than a terrace overlooking the Tuscan Valley?! Short, sweet, Ashley & Kyle are a little nervous. Kyle messes up a couple of words but it's totally sweet. Blink, blink, it's over.

My BABY IS MARRIED!! Reality sets in...reception is awesome. Proud Mama's tears flow. (See facebook reference on day of wedding.)

Italy - 2/1 days before the wedding

Disaster! Babbie finds out the next morning (Sunday) that her passport and 400 Euros were lifted from her purse somewhere between Rome and Florence! She, Pete, Rae, and Andy have to do an embergency trip back to Florence to report the theft to the consulate and get a temporary passport. Good news is they also get to sight-see while I prepare for the big event.

Theresa (don't you love the 3rd person?!) & posse (Sue/Brenda) head into the nearest town to buy items to decorate the restaurant for the formal wedding dinner. This is the suprise. We found major bling: pink/white glass cubes and purple/pink flower candles along with silk long-stem roses to decorate the different tables. Stefano (Villa owner, chef, head tour guide) is gracious enough to help us call the florist and get bridal flowers for the wedding party as well as flower arrangements to augment the bling on the reception tables. We went with white/pink roses for the Bride & bridesmaide bouquets, white roses for Dad's/Groomsmen and pink roses for Mom's and Grandma. The table arrangements were also pink and white rose mixes. Really beautiful. My Posse+Julie and other wedding guests moved said bling/flowers to the reception/dancing area after dinner. It looked beautiful.

I can't say enough about Stephano and his partner. They totally bent over backwards to help us make the event perfect. Stefano actually called the florist - they had been closed for what is equivalent to siesta the entire time we were in town - he translated for us ordering all the flowers and then drove us into town the morning of the wedding to pick them up. He was even patient enough to let me run get a Mother-to-Daughter bride gift at the nearby jewelry store. If you ever go to Italy, you *have* to stay at Villa Fabbroni. Here's the link: http://www.villafabbroni.com/ I will certainly be leaving an excellent recommendation for them on his website.

Special shout out to Brenda, Julie and Sue for keeping Mom sane and everything decorated!

Italy - Day 5+

Got to Florence via train, grabbed a cab from the train station to airport to pick up the rental cars. One Garmin, one Tom Tom, two cars and little luck finding the Villa. Did see the beautiful countryside of Italy though. Tip: make sure you have the correct GPS coordinate settings before you actually start driving - 3 different settings in the Garmin. The scenery of rural Italy is unbelievable - just like the depictions in books and paintings, absolutely gorgeous. Ran into Dave Porter at the grocery store and followed him to the Villa. Such a small world for being in a different country!

The Villa (actually a 12th century castle converted into several apartments) is amazing. Lots and lots of antiques and marble everything. We rented the whole thing since there are near 40 of us. The owners are nice as can be and super helpful. There is an on-site restaurant and winery. Great fun and family, I can't imagine life getting much better than this. Italians are very friendly and nice.

Working on a surprise for the Bride and Groom, more on that later. Rehearsal dinner was last night, wedding today. Best friends Sue and Brenda plus sister Julie helping to keep the mother-of-the-bride sane. Andy downloaded the first batch of pics to the computer yesterday. I haven't seen them yet though...will try to get some of them posted soon. Ciao!

Alexandra - so right on the manicure!! Toni - postcard on it's way, just have to find your address!

Italy - Day 4 Rome to Florence

Train travel...love it! Our hotel room in Rome was pretty much next door to the Rome Termini station. Huge, huge train station which was also our next mode of transportation from Rome to Firenze (Florence).

First things first. Day 3's afternoon was spent at the Roman Coliseum. I pre-purchased our tickets online to "avoid the long lines" only to mis-connect with our tour provider. Not sure if the whole thing was a scam or what as nobody we talked to, including the ticket office, had ever heard of Italy Tours.com. I'll be doing some more investigating on that. Seemed like a legit company. When we called the number the person who answered only spoke Italian so we couldn't lodge a complaint. We ended up walking around for miles and got a couple of great photos of us all flipping off the coliseum. I probably won't be posting those to face book though.

Back to the train. After figuring out how to validate out train pass (one ticket for 3 passengers time stamped in the terminal before boarding) we excitedly got on car three, track 9. Train's leaving at 12:15 pm and we can't seem to find Sara's seat. Since the car wasn't too crowded we picked a random seat for her figuring we would move if needed. At 12:14, Sara reads the ticket and says, "Car 8?"

Hmm, I thought the seats were pretty luxurious for coach and I realize we are sitting in first class. I misread the ticket's passenger number (3 of us) for car number and knew we'd better get ourselves back to coach - which happened to be the same car my sister and her kids were traveling in. So here we are with our stupid heavy bags (see previous 2 blog references to heavy bags), and are literally running from car to car through the train, only to be stopped at the restaurant cart which is locked. Having just witnessed passengers running hurriedly to catch the last train, and being denied access, I had visions of us experiencing the same fate. By now it is 12:15 and we have to haul our bags off the train down several steps, run the length of the restaurant cart and get back on before the doors close for good. Lucky for us we were in time and even managed to find space for our stupid heavy bags, which by-the-way had to be stored overhead. Ugh! So we were sweaty and panting but at last found Sara's seat.

Italy - Days 2 and 3 - Rome

Wow! Rome - unbelievable...the history, the culture, the quaintness, the graffiti - amazing.
Had a great flight over on Air Canada. Having been a travel agent in a previous life I knew to get bulk-head seating on the over-seas flight (tip: next best thing to paying for business/first class seating when exit rows are not available). Plenty of room for my 6'4 hubby. He watched 3 movies during the flight, I drank lots of red wine with my new Canadian friend Anna who happens to work for the airline and was flying home to London after interviewing for a new job in Canada. Totally gregarious, would have made a great New Yorker. Most of the passengers in coach were treated to our loud conversation and all of them knew my name by the time we landed as she was well trained in using it in conversation. :)

Upon arrival in Rome, we checked into our 5th floor hotel (elevator not working as someone on the 4th floor didn't shut the outside door (another blog, but see the reference to me checking my bag in the previous blog...which translates to: heavy freakin' bag hauled up 5 flights) and met up with our good friends Pete & Babbie. So we're doing the Italian thing and sitting at an outside cafe, enjoying great conversation and some rosso vino, when a guy walks up asking us for a cigarette. Since none of us smoke, we were telling him we didn't have any cigarettes. He gets this funny, guilty-like look on his face and in broken English says, "Well, since you don't have any cigarettes, how about I take one of these," and proceeds to grab one of the bottles of wine off the table and runs off. It was actually pretty funny as the look on his face was like that of a kid getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, and he totally ran like a girl.

Highlights in Rome: Seeing the Vatican's Sistine Chapel/Museum. Interesting factoid - since it is its own country, you need a visa to get in. Tourism is not a valid reason. We decided if we wanted to get one, reasons could be Seminary study (student visa) or car washer as the only thing we saw of the Vatican country was a large parking lot. Our tour guide told us there was a couple of shops and a store, but not a whole lot else. She also told us the Michelangelo spent his whole time painting the ceiling standing upright with his head bent back. Having done this for so many years he developed a hump in his back and his eyes tended to roll back in his head at inopportune times. Interesting. Also learned that the artists were natoriously vain in that they painted themselves, friends and enemies into many of the paintings (some not so favorably).

Italy - Day 1 (2) - Leaving Seattle - Destination Rome

Here I am at 2:30 am Italy time (somewhere around 6:30 pm Seattle time) and my insomnia has finally kicked in, big time. Not too bad I'm thinking for being gone since Wed and it is now Sunday. It took a while for it to catch up. I wonder if it has been happening during the day... (or night if I were on the west coast) and I just didn't notice since my days are screwed up with the 9 hour time change? Probably.

Here's my trip thus far:

Day one - first mia culpa - trying to get through screening at Seattle airport.
I'm doing good, no big issues, I'm checking my bag so I don't have anything in plastic baggies to screen. I'm walking through the x-ray machine and the TSA guy is shaking his head at me. Not understanding, I keep going. He gets this funny look on his face and holds up a sign that says, "Do Not Enter." I stop mid-stride and shake my head back at him, shrug my shoulders and say, "what?" He promptly points at my feet and says, "your shoes." DOH! I forgot to remove my dumb shoes. I must have traveled at least 20 times since 9-11 and never forgot them before. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

Why do Dogs Eat Rotten Stuff?

Ewww, I was just doing some research on why dogs eat rotten stuff and came across an article on why dogs eat poop. Here's a link to the article if you have the stomach: http://www.pet-comfort-products.com/why-dogs-eat-poop.html

The actual definition of this is "Coprophagia," and dogs do it on purpose and it can become a habit. Gross!

Our dog used to eat kitty roca. I wondered why I didn't have to clean the kitty litter box so often. Since we no longer have the cat, I think the dog is cured. Maybe she needs to go to a dog psychiatrist just to be sure. According to the article there are many abnormal canine eating issues. I know for sure our dog has food issues. She was abandoned as a pup and spent several months on her own before she was adopted by my hubby. Nobody gets between her and her food dish. No free feeding from the self-serve bin at our house. She gets her morning meal, her evening meal plus a Scooby snack.

She's not allowed to eat people food, but pretty much everyone besides hubby and I sneak her human food. Occasionally we'll slip her a morsel or two, which 'magically' falls from the sky. Since she's not allowed to beg, she doesn't know how to catch food that's tossed to her. It's entertaining to see unknowing humans toss her food and watching it bounce off her head. Of course, then we have to give them the lecture on how we don't feed our dog people food, but nobody really cares.

Another odd thing dogs eat is grass. I always thought it was because they were sick to their stomachs and needed to purge. All the dogs I'd seen ingesting grass pretty much ralphed shortly after. Not so says my youngest. She took an animal behavior class and says they do it because they like it. According to my google search, we're both right. If dogs eat it fast enough it will make them regurgitate right away. It also says many of them just plain like it.

I think I'm about done with this topic now. I mean the next logical step would be to talk about body parts dogs lick and I'm not going there. I suspect the real reason dogs eat rotten stuff is because they can.

Stop Winking at Me!

Ok, I'm not really winking at you. I have a spastic eye muscle (blepharospasm) and it's driving me crazy! I've read all of the advice and been to the Ophthalmologist. Here are the most common causes given:

1. Stress
2. Dry eyes
3. Fatigue
4. Lack of sleep
5. Prolonged staring at a computer screen or television
6. Nervous system disorders

Number one is a given, it comes with the gig I do. Number two isn't it. I drenched my eyes with drops for weeks several times a day, no change. Numbers three and four are out. I get plenty of sleep. It's one of my favorite past-times. Number five, uh-huh. Ding, ding, ding. If I'm not on a computer or reading, I'm probably staring at a TV. We actually have Five TV's in our house, plus the one on my computer, Six. Can you believe it? Just think, I can probably cause my eyes to twitch faster by watching TV on my computer!

I went to the Ophthalmologist and she gave me a clean bill of (eyeballs?) health. No glaucoma, moisture levels are nice and average, no nerve or blood vessel damage. Lasik surgery seven years ago, not an issue. Bonus! They have a new way of testing for glauc. No more puffs of air aimed at your eye that make you jump a mile, and cause your eye muscles to twitch!

Ultimately it boils down to they have no idea why it happens. She told me the nerves just go wacky, and it can last up to 6 months. *Ugh!* Oh well, it's better than having to give up TV on my computer. That would be a sad day. So, if you see me winking at you, let's go with I like you, a lot.

Why am I called MT?

Why am I called MT? Actually it's my kids and their friends who call me MT. It stands for Mother Theresa. I have this way of being a care taker so it was a pretty natural fit. I've been called it a lot in my life. That and the obvious... it's my name and I am a mom.

So what's in a name? Growing up my family used to call me TC for Top Cat. Not really sure how that came about. I can't for the life of me figure out how I related to the cartoon character of a cat who hung out in garbage cans. Maybe it was a premonition because my initials did become TC when I married and my co-workers in high tech always called me TC or just T. My first work IM name was Tester T.

So I went from TC, to TR, to TC again. Then TB or just T. The T is probably laziness on my part. Who wants to type Theresa all the time? Nobody can ever spell it anyway.

Most people are sticklers for making people spell their names correctly. Not me. When I give my name to someone who's writing it down, I just go with what they repeat back to me. I don't bother correcting them. It's fun to see how many different ways my name comes across in junk mail.

Thanks to the government my original middle name got replaced with my maiden name. I never could get it straightened out with all the places that mattered so when I remarried I changed my name legally to reflect it. Years later I still can't get everyone on the same page. I guess it's due to my apathy about spelling my name so I'll just go ahead and chock it up to Karmic Kismet.

First Things First

Since this is my first blog, I think it only natural I should list some possible blogging topics:

• Is the ability to multi-task a benefit or hindrance?


• Why am I called MT?


• Why does my eye still twitch when the Ophthalmologist says I'm fine?


• Why do dogs eat rotten stuff?


• Is it really 'mind over matter'?


• Do I want to blog on politics?


• Should one vent about work in public?


• What other blogs do you have T?


• What's with that photo anyway?

As you can tell, my mind follows a natural train of thought. NOT. In fact, it is so far from orderly I amaze myself sometimes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I can multi-task like crazy, which I love. At times it's comical. I get a lot of stuff done in a day. I will jump from doing one thing to the next at home. A good day is when I actually finish all of the things I've started. Luckily I usually catch myself after starting around 4 or more things and make a conscientious effort to finish them all before heaping anything else on the task pile.

I do this at work too. I'll start the day jumping from one thing to the next on my computer. By the middle of the day I have 6 or more things open on my desktop. The trick here is to get them all handled in between meetings. Thankfully MS Office has tasks! I highly recommend using tasks if you too multi-task. I'll include the help link here for your convenience: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/CH100744081033.aspx

I wonder if this is boredom or ADD? I really like change and I don't have a problem concentrating when it's really necessary. So I will chalk this up to liking variety. As they say, variety is the spice of life!