Saturday, April 30, 2011

Song Challenge Day 8

Day 8- a song that you know all the words to

CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SON by Kansas. I LOVE this song and Supernatural introduced me to it. That is why there is a Supernatural video to the song. And YES I do know all the words to this song. So much so that this song came up on "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and the girl DIDN'T PICK IT (and still didn't know the words to that song...). I TOTALLY could have won with COMWS.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Today's Challenge (not a song)

... is to read David Sedaris stories without snorting with laughter in a silent classroom of science students.

Challenge accepted.

Challenge succeeded (with a few slight near misses....)

Where were you when....

...this happened?
and this....
and this.... (Harry was clearly elsewhere....)

I was here.....
curled up on my little couch in the dark, computer balancing precariously on my lap. I also was facebook chatting with Roni.
How could I NOT get up for the Royal Wedding? Seriously, guys. I loved everything about it.

I loved the "people watch" of folk walking into the abbey.


Her gorgeous dress (and I love her smile)


Her sister looking good! Man, nice genes in that family! Loved her dress too. Plus, wrangling those bratty little kids. I mean, the bridesmaids/flower girls/whoever they were.


When William told her she looked beautiful

Harry peeking back during Kate's walk up the aisle and reporting to his brother (apparently he said "she's here now... wait til you see her...)... and let's be real, Harry in general. Can we like him now? Has it been long enough since the Nazi incident?


Singing God Save the Queen (including Prince Phillip)- do you think it's awkward to sing about your wife when she's standing right next to you?

Yep, saving her, the one in the middle.


The hats- wow, what in the world is going on here?


The choir boys.... oh love them!


And choir men, I guess (especially the bow ties! Rockin'!)

Beardy McBearderson
Winning!


Chelsey Davy- I'm sorry, but WTF? I know you're possibly dating a prince, but learn how to match!


It's so weird to know these people spent their wedding SO in the public eye. You wonder how they are like in private but you can tell that they love each other and will make it. They certainly looked happier than Charles and Diana.

Congratulations, William and Kate! Getting up at 3 am was so worth it!

Denver or Bust!

Oh man this is soooo delayed but here are pictures and stories from Denver! I flew in Thursday night with a little bit of a delay but made it eventually. Youval and her friend Erin picked me up and we headed back to DU. I was starving so even though it was kind of late, we headed out to Illegal Pete's to get some delicious burritos. It reminded me a lot of Parilla Grill in Hyde Park. So yummy. But so filling so I made her walk me around campus and show me some of the sights because I needed to walk off that burrito.

The next morning, we headed into LoDo to wander around and see the sights. Our first stop was a gorgeous old bookstore with several stories, tons of walled shelves and wood panelling almost everywhere. The kid's section was great, including its collection of Berenstein Bears books. They really have hit up every single issue in the Berenstein Bears series- including God and the Birds and the Bees. There was also a great collection of snarky cards. Which I would have bought if they weren't too expensive.


Yep, BB went there....
We wandered up and down the main thoroughfaire of downtown, going into Colorado tourist stores, shoe stores, Starbucks (there was an extra drink so I gave it to the man outside selling homeless newspapers and he gave me a newspaper in return- my good deed of the day), and whatever else struck our fancy. We tried to go into this gorgeous church but it hadthe most complicated system of hallways that we eventually gave up and went to the Capitol instead. At the Capitol we encountered a Tea Party. Yeah, they weren't crazy at all. One guy wanted to give us a flag. We declined.



Other sites of the afternoon were the Denver Library, the Denver Art Museum and its gift shop, a huge preppy mall that we didn't go into and the train that we took all the way back to DU.
Youval had a couple of events in the afternoon so I chilled out in her dorm room, catching up on the Office and Community and Outsourced before being picked up by Kristen. We went downtown for dinner and went to a place called Paramount. The food was really good and we sat outside, which gave us a great view for people-watching but the waitress sucked. Blondie didn't let us participate in Happy Hour nor did she ever come by and see if we were doing OK. Luckily the food was yummy. That night, back at Kristen's, we proceeded to do our usual Friday night tradition and watch Ghost Adventures.


The next morning, we wandered around downtown Loveland, picking up some coffee on the way. I even got to frolick with the family in front of the the Loveland Museum. We spent the morning, early afternoon in Fort Collins, wandering around the cute little downtown area. I even got a belt for $1 at a thrift store that had a bra Christmas tree. Don't see that every day... There were some totally sweet little shops, including one that had everything arranged by color. So pretty in there. And a lot of really cute outfits. Since it was birthday weekend, we also decided to pick up some cupcakes which we ate before we delicious lunch of pizza at BeauJo's. The waiter was a LOT better there and the honey for the whole wheat crust was magnificent. It was a gorgeous day and we couldn't have asked for a nicer afternoon.




sooooo yummy...
Back in Loveland, we went to Lake Loveland and walked around for a little bit, taking some pictures and encountering another Tea Party- this time there was only one lady leading the protest and she did so by riding around on her little bike with a sign and having free tea that nobody could tax. You tell 'em, crazy lady. We went to some outlet malls and wandered about but eventually decided to just head home. The rest of the night was spent playing Idaho Monopoly (C of I colors represent with the houses and hotels!), watching Ghost Adventures, eating a lot of unhealthy food, drinking margaritas and pretending to be rich white men with our drinks and cigars. Total blast.







Yeah, she wasn't crazy at all...




The next morning was Kristen's birthday so of course we had to celebrate with Mimosas! We went to the Rialto Cafe downtown with Youval where there was an open buffet of pastries and fruit and bottomless mimosas. So delicious! From there we wandered down to Coor's Field to see the Rockie's take on the Cubs. Most of the game was spent tied 5-5 and only once we had left to catch the train to dinner with Kristen's parents did the Rockies decide to score four more runs. Awesome, thanks guys! Kristen and I had dinner with her folks by the University and then we headed to their house for a bit before heading home to relax before heading up to Estes on Monday morning.






Of course we had to recreate our Old Men's pose from the night before!

And I got Kristen a free beer because it was her birthday. Because I'm a rockstar and know how to ask :)
We headed up to Estes for most of Monday, stopping of course at the Stanley Hotel on the way up because who doesn't love the Shining and think that Jack Nicholson is incapable of not being creepy. He totally deserved that baseball bat whack from Shelley Duvall. Redrum, Redrum, Redrum!

After walking around downtown Estes, we met up with Travis and he took our for a whirl tour of Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw some herds of elk, gorgeous views of the mountains (which would have been much better if it wasn't so cloudy), and fought the elements as we explored. Up at Bear Lake, the snow was coming down hard and windy and we were freezing as we took pictures. The same happened when we got to the top of the road before it shut down. More gorgeous views, more snow, more cheesy smiles because we were freezing. The only thing left to do was find a place to eat and we ended up at DiLeo's. Tom DiLeo, our cook, was a hoot in a handbasket. He yelled at customers, told you what to get, make funny comments and had a very interesting syntax and way of speaking. You could tell that he spent a lot of time along but he was hilarious and his sandwiches were delicious!








We headed back down to Denver where Kristen dropped me off so that Youval, her roomie Taylor, friend Maggie and Sophie and I could head over to the Hillel House for passover. It was obviously different than we had been used to at home but that's because nobody can throw a Pesach Seder like the Yadlins! The food was good, there was some singing and we went through the story of Moses and the Israelites, which is what's important. Of course there was a Supernatural episode afterwards and a late night. I slept really poorly and kept getting calls about the shuttle that picked me up at 5:15. Turns out later that I was on the wrong shuttle- I didnt' realize that I was that big of a commodity but I guess I was. The most difficutl part of that day was a tie between trying not to be tempted by Einstein's Bagles at 6:30 in the morning and subbing for the kids on only one cup of coffee...

Overall, awesome trip though! Thanks for the memories, Denver!

20 Things I Miss

I've been thinking a lot about Oxford lately and here is a list of things I miss:

1. City Centre, minus the tourists
2. The path up and down the canal
3. Tea and Ben's Cookies for dessert
4. Going to dinner with Roni and splitting two dishes
5. The Museum- both chatting with the girls and reading in the galleries
6. My crazy Pathfinders kids and HW Club kids and their antics
7. Discuss group, especially group dinners and socials
8. The BEST (and cheapest sandwiches ever)
9. Lunch in Christ Church meadows
10. The Ballroom! Oh those gorgeous dresses!
11. Oxfams on every corner
12. Huge mugs of hot chocolate with mounds of whipped cream enjoyed in a window seat above the High.
13. The sculpture garden in Summertown Library
14. The narrow passageway to the Turf
15. Drinks with the girls at Chequers
16. The Pitt Rivers House of Weird (my name for it)
17. Cutting through the Bodelian and Sheldonian to catch the bus
18. Holding my hand out to wave for the bus to stop
19. The Covered Market and the Market at Gloucester Green on Weds and Thurs
20. Everything...

Song Challenge Day 7

Day 7- a song that makes you think of a certain event

6th grade graduation. Enough said....



Man, what a horrific song this was.... we hated learning it. Especially when they made us actually reach up in the air, every time we sang the word "Reach". How cliche....

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Song Challenge Day 6

Day 6- a song that reminds you of somewhere

On the lake with Candice!