This Friday we head to the UK for our 5th visit and second extended stay in London. The first time we were there we fit in tons of sightseeing, but hey, this is London we’re talking about… there’s still lots more to see & do. On our hit list this time:

• Tower of London
• Thorpe park
• Museum of London/Museum of London Docklands
• Westminster Abbey
• Warwick Castle
• Buckingham Palace tour (last time we were they they weren’t giving tours)
• London Aquarium
• Parliament
• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• Showing of ‘Wicked’ at the Apollo Victoria Theatre
• Duck tour (at Sydney’s request)
• Big Ben (seen only from afar on our last visit)
• Westfield Shopping Centre
• London Eye
• Beaulieu Estates/Abbey/National Motor Museum/’World of Top Gear’ Exhibit

Add to this what we saw the the first time:

• Stonehenge
• Changing of the Guard @ Buckingham Palace
• British Museum
• Dali Universe
• Kensington Palace
• Somerset House
• Tate Modern
• Science Museum
• Hampton Court
• Leeds Castle
• Victoria & Albert Museum
• Natural History Museum

Put it all together and I think we’ll have covered most of what this amazing city has to offer. That said, if anyone has a last minute tip on something we should not miss, I’m all ears. I’ve got a lot on our agenda but there’s always room for more. The way I see it there are two schools of thought when it comes to vacationing:

(1) See a few things with plenty of relaxation in between and make sure to save some sightseeing for your next visit. Sleep in, eat well in nice restaurants, and end the evening with a relaxing glass of wine while watching the sunset from a famous landmark. The whole: ‘a vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in’ school of thought.

(2) You may never be here again, so cram in as much as you possibly can. Take lots of pictures. Grab take away meals on the run when & where you find them. You can sleep when you’re back home; if you don’t come away from vacation exhausted, you did something wrong. Screw the booze - you need to be sharp and hit the ground running when the alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m.

Personally, I’m all about number two. (<– hey look! a poop joke!)

This trip will be a little different because Jim and Robbie won’t be there most of the time. Robbie is going to Spain with a group of friends and Jim will fly back to Dresden to work next mon-thu. (joining us on weekends only). That, and we’re not leasing a car this time… only using public transit. Did I mention I’m terrible with directions? Following them…. asking for them…. remembering to write them down in the first place…. I pretty much suck at it all. So I’m filled with horrible visions of me lost in London with Sydney and no one to call for help. Should be fun.

So here’s to carpeing the diem, opening myself up to all that London has to offer, and improving my map-reading skills!

first came:
installment one
followed by:
the sequel

and now, once again… actual phrases uttered during conversations around the house… some i’d love to try and explain… but that takes all the fun out of it.

bozo is my hitler
oh god, i feel like i snorted a smartie
my dragon fell in love with a jelly fish, but he didn’t care.
i can make bacon out of k’nex
stop trying to shove me into the clown face
you wanna taste something weird?
i want to sit here and suck on a pancake
i don’t want you smelling my airheads
(overheard in my dream) it has the right blend of pasta and paperclips
FAIL… fail like a white baby (which then became…) fail like a white baby listening to godsmack
everybody knows i don’t have on pants
i inverted the cross and stuck it under the pentagram

my level of anticipation for this is so unnaturally high that it’s almost inevitable that there is no way it can live up to the expectations.    but i can’t stop myself from squeeing like a middle school girl with twilight tickets over the idea of playing this game.   the original alice game remains one of my all-time favorites and is the game i’ve replayed more times than any other.

The long-awaited sequel picks up 10 years after the previous game with Alice having just been released from an insane asylum and journeying to uncover the mystery behind her family’s death. The game jumps between “gloomy and stark London” and the “rich and provocative Wonderland,” and, as McGee explained in a statement to the press, “takes this colorful world and reinvents it with psychotic personalities and pervasive insanity.”

no release date yet, but when it gets closer i’ll definitely be playing the original again to get ready for it …i just hope that it doesn’t try and do too much to update it and sticks really close to the original…

I love all the shopping sites in America. From Mighty Goods to Outblush to Think Geek to We Covet, I read ‘em all. Unfortunately I don’t think such sites exist in Germany (fellow expats– hook me up with links if I’m wrong). But I still want to drool over & occasionally buy cool stuff.

Anyway, here are some things I’ve found in my searches through German websites. And yes, there really are a lot of cool things to buy in Germany. America hasn’t cornered the online shopping market yet, just polished it to a high gleam & aimed a mega-watt spotlight at it.

1. Market Bags from Butlers:

As any expat living in Germany will tell you, shopping bags are important! They’re not provided and the ones you can buy in grocery stores are lame. So why not have something pretty? While my favorites will always be the canvas bags we bought state-side at Whole Foods, these are cool too. And at only €3,99 per bag, why not stock up?

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2. Storage crates from Impressionen:

Who couldn’t use more storage? And with these awesome wooden crates stamped ‘Art du Cinéma’ you’ll be storing in style. (I’m so over rubbermaidy type plastic storage containers). €29,95

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3. Zen it up with Heine’s wooden Buddha:

(ok, I know I’ve been here too long when I don’t even snicker while typing Heine’s) The €69,90 price tag may not lead to Nirvana, but all seven of your Chakras will no doubt vibrate with positive energy when this guy’s in the room.

♦

4. Greenwich wall clock from Maisons du Monde:

Perfect for a home office. Or just figuring out what time it is in Portland before you end up calling your friends at 3:00 a.m. (oops!). €69,90

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5. ‘Mystic Africa’ Pan Am prints from Maisons du Monde:

This set of two, based on an old Pan Am ad campaign, would grace any wall. €79,90

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6. Room divider/shoji screen from Heine:

Love the negative image on the screen… and at €99,00 it’s a perfect large, functional piece of  art for the boudoir.

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7. Salvadoran armchair from Maisons du Monde (can you tell I love this site?):

Stripey fun in an armchair! And at 129,00€ I think it’s a good deal for something that’s eye-catching AND functional.

♦

8. Set of steamer trunks from Impressionen:

Stackable steamer trunks make a perfect coffee table/end table/nightstand. We could all use a little old world charm, amiright? €189,00

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And now for the interactive ‘game’ part: of the 8 things I’ve listed, one I bought a few weeks ago (when I first started writing this - I’ve gotten so lazy about blogging lately), one I plan to order tonight and one I really don’t like at all. The rest I’ll just have to covet for the time being.

Can you guess which is which?

p.s. You can click on any of the photos to go directly to the item listing. Some of the stretched images (stupid blogging format) look much better on their original site.

mr. j. is a musician.  clearly music is a big part of his life.  but he is also an accountant who rides the bus to and from work and has to walk about a mile a day from the bus stop to his job.  for some weird reason he doesn’t even mind doing it… because it gives him time alone with music caressing his ears… basically, his nirvana.

so when his mp3 player broke he was devastated… which is why i decided to trade in some dvds in order to get him at least a cheap one until we can afford to get him what he wants (an itouch).

this is my first time using amazon’s trade-in store and i was a little nervous about the whole process… especially reading the part about if anything is wrong they won’t return it to you or give you credit… all my dvds are in great condition, but i still didn’t know how picky or arbitrary they would be.

the level of how worth it something is to trade-in definitely depends on the product… for example: since i have all the individual seasons of six feet under as well as the full box set, i figured i would trade in the seasons, however they netted almost nothing, so i opted to keep those on principle.    but season 1 of criminal minds brought in $10.50 so that went bye-bye.  that show is literally on every single night on ion and a&e, so i don’t know why… but i went with it.

all in all i traded in 14 items (1 game & 13 seasons) and got a credit of 68 dollars.  it bothers me a bit that my shelf looks emptier and i have less dvds now… but i didn’t part with anything that i didn’t feel comfortable with.

they pay for shipping, so it’s as easy as printing out a packing slip and the ups (or usps, though that option doesn’t take games) postage… find a box and ship them off.   i traded them in on july 12th and today (the 20th) the credit is in my amazon acct.  which is a faster process than i figured it would be.     and  pretty soon mr. j’s commute will once again be the best part of his work day.

i would definitely do it again… though i wouldn’t want to have to.

this is my latest find that i have to rave about… i was telling my son about it and he said “calm down, you sound like an infomercial.” i can’t help it, it’s just really neat. i’ve been looking for a song off of rockband 2 since i first heard it in-game and now it’s happily in my library.

http://www.video2mp3.net/

it converts any youtube video (or other videos) into an mp3 file. it was free, fast and sounded great (as long as the source video sounds good)…  i didn’t know something like this existed but i’m thrilled it does…. love, love, love it.

Back from another great weekend trip to Prague. It was our 3rd visit and I was worried it might seem a little pedestrian at this point… but I’m happy to report we’re STILL not jaded - yay! Picture-wise there wasn’t much we hadn’t snapped before…. at least until I happened upon what has now become one of my all-time favorite signs. Check it out:

I would give my eyeteeth to own this. Seriously. It’s times like this I wish I were artistically talented instead of just capable of appreciating art. And now I’m feeling all sulky. Heh. Oh well, if any of you know a great artist who could replicate this for me, let me know…

We also stayed in a cool and funky hotel with awesome ceilings:

And after a long, hot (and by hot I mean… fucking hot) day of sightseeing, all we had energy to do was lounge around and stare at the ceiling anyway, so I’m doubly glad it was interesting.

Great weekend… and only 12 days to go until we leave for London!

i don’t have a cell phone, but it’s good to know that if the time comes i won’t have to stress over picking out a ring tone… i have it all figured out, i know exactly what i want…

were-running-out-of-time

oh yeah…

happy is something else… but what i am right now lives nearby happy. it’s content. if you would have told me 2 months ago that i was about to go through doctors saying to gather the family because my mom had days to live… go through the bedside vigil while that tough little cookie said “not so fast”… go through her delusions and confusion and paranoia… go through having to go home and leave her 3 states away with her last words a combination of clear, lucid declarations of love followed by her saying she knows i’ll never be back because the people outside her window were going to capture me… and go through coming home to the tearful, emotional confession of my son’s that he has been dealing with a ten month opiate addiction and then the multiple attempts at finding help… and that i would go through all of that while dieting.

yeah, if you had told me that two months ago my reaction would most certainly not be to predict that i would be sitting here now feeling better than i have in a really long time. and yet… that is exactly how it is.

i feel really pretty ok… of course i’m still worried about all those problems that are all still being dealt with, but i’m surprisingly relaxed and almost content with life suddenly. i have a huge desire to find creative outlets, i’ve been laughing more than crying and i have even felt almost sociable (almost). for me anyway.

and i think i’ve figured out the whys… and i’ve come up with three and a half things:

1. it’s stupid that it took me a lifetime to realize that the simple expression “you are what you eat” actually has meaning. but hey, better late than never. eating too much junk is really nothing more than bad habit… truth is the more time i spend away from all the processed junk the less i feel like i want it and the healthier i feel. my body… but also my brain. i have even found myself craving healthier food. which is not to say i don’t still think lovingly and longingly about a nice bag of potato chips from time to time… but it’s not nearly as much as i would have thought.

2. outside support - i’ll never be a social butterfly and i’m good with that… but i’ve been feeling more open to new people and more connected to those in my tiny circle. and the more honest i am the more support i feel back. i don’t normally rely on people all that much and tend to try and work most things out in the privacy of my own head, but what do ya know… it feels nice to get support from people that care about you. again, i know this is another simple concept that took me an embarrassingly long time to understand. the more i open up to people and let them in, the stronger it makes me. very foreign concept and kinda cool too.

3. music - i have barraged myself with music lately and it opens up my brain in a different way from other outlets. i can lose myself in tv or movies and i love to do that, but it’s a bit more analytical because we’re given visuals. with music it’s all about feeling. what i find interesting is that i don’t have a lot of happy music in my library because i’m just naturally drawn to stuff that’s more on the dark, depressing side. that is just who i am and i even like that about me (most of the time)… but i’ve found that the content doesn’t matter… i can listen to sad or disturbing songs and still get all the positive benefits. all the music also feeds that creative thing and sparks a ton of conversation in my house… it awakens me.

3½. i give this one a half because i’m not doing that great with successfully implementing it. again, this is common knowledge… i’m beginning to think i’m quite the idiot… but i’ve been trying to get more, regular sleep. my normal sleep routine would find me all over the map… but commonly getting anywhere from 0-4 hours a night… one night going to sleep at 3… the next night at 11… then stay up all night… then 5… it was a total free-for-all. and it’s hard to give up that part of me that likes that i don’t like to sleep… but unfortunately i think i’ve been paying the price for all the years of this abuse. i’ve been trying (trying) to go to sleep at around the same time every night. and i found the right window where it seems if i go to sleep i will stay asleep a little longer. i think if i had a real sleep routine i’d feel even better… this may take some time but at least i’m doing better.

it’s my natural response to avoid feeling good because of that fear that if things go well something bad will happen… but something bad is going to happen anyway… it doesn’t matter if i’m feeling positive or negative… what’s going to happen is going to happen. so i’m just going to feel as good as i can when i can and deal with the rest.

that’s the plan… today anyway. i think i’ll be here more often but with mostly lighter stuff and media related fare for my own enjoyment. perhaps get around to all those lists i love making. the idea is to not get too bogged down with the heavy stuff whenever i can avoid it.

A lot of people are saying Mel Gibson’s career is over. Not so. Here are just a few ways he can capitalize on the leaked tapes:

→ National Spokesman for the Tourette’s foundation.

→ World renowned author of autobiography entitled: You Will Read This But You Will BLOW ME First

→ International clothier with a line of novelty ‘blow me’ tees & wife beaters.

→ App developer for Apple. With iphone apps like ‘find the dysfunctional cunt buried in the rose garden’ and ‘blow me first you cheap ignorant bitch-whore’ he stands to make a fortune in Chris Brown and Charlie Sheen downloads alone.

→ Designer of ‘deep throat’ inspired sex toys for the discerning male.

→ Personal trainer. Because nothing gets your blood pumping quite like Mel yelling ”Get up off your ass and blow me you goddamn pussy!!”

As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons…