I'm so happy today. The quiet kind of happy, just knowing that things are good in my world and I am blessed.
Today is my Matt's birthday. I'm incredibly grateful that God put him in this world and in my life as my partner and my best friend. He is a good guy to go to with a problem and he's really funny with his goofy songs and silly faces. I respect him for wanting to teach and for making a living as a musician. His desire to do something about poverty and to make a difference beyond the U.S. inspires me.
We're celebrating in a low key way - I'm making dinner at home and then...then...we don't HAVE to do ANYTHING this weekend. Well, fulfill some duties at church on Sunday, but that's fun. I am so sleeping in!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Wednesday in London - and Oxford
Since Matt and I both have fondness and appreciation for the writings of C.S. Lewis, and since Matt has fondness and appreciation for The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, we decided a trip to London wasn't complete without also visiting Oxford, where both those men worked and wrote. (And it was supposed to be pretty - and we know other important people went there too, although I can't think of any right now.)
Anyway, after a very filling breakfast at our hotel (frosties cereal, fried ham, cooked tomatoes, toast, and tea), we went to Paddington Station, where we caught the train to Oxford.
Some highlights:
Radcliffe Camera (I don't know why the building is called a camera. We weren't allowed to go in because students were there or something.)
The Divinity School - it's not really the divinity school anymore, but it was pretty and very old (built in the 1400s). It also served as the hospital wing in some of the Harry Potter films.
We had fish and chips and bangers and mash at the pub where the "Inklings" used to meet to grab a pint and talk, particularly about literature.
We visited the Church of St. Mary the Virgin where C.S. Lewis preached the sermon "The Weight of Glory."
The grounds of Magdalen College were beautiful. This is the deer park. Can you see the deer? It was fenced off, but so pretty.
There was a problem with the train back to London that evening, so it took forever to get back. We were so hungry we almost gave in and grabbed dinner at a McDonald's, but we found a fun carry-out pizza place instead.
Anyway, after a very filling breakfast at our hotel (frosties cereal, fried ham, cooked tomatoes, toast, and tea), we went to Paddington Station, where we caught the train to Oxford.
Some highlights:
Radcliffe Camera (I don't know why the building is called a camera. We weren't allowed to go in because students were there or something.)
The Divinity School - it's not really the divinity school anymore, but it was pretty and very old (built in the 1400s). It also served as the hospital wing in some of the Harry Potter films. 
We had fish and chips and bangers and mash at the pub where the "Inklings" used to meet to grab a pint and talk, particularly about literature. 
We visited the Church of St. Mary the Virgin where C.S. Lewis preached the sermon "The Weight of Glory."
The grounds of Magdalen College were beautiful. This is the deer park. Can you see the deer? It was fenced off, but so pretty.There was a problem with the train back to London that evening, so it took forever to get back. We were so hungry we almost gave in and grabbed dinner at a McDonald's, but we found a fun carry-out pizza place instead.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday in London
This is shameful. I haven't posted since last Tuesday?! I guess it goes without saying that I (and Matt too) have had a very busy weekend and week before that.
Anyway, Tuesday in London was cool. We started the day with a quest for cheap theater tickets. The hitch is cheap tickets to a show you actually want to see. We really wanted to see Wicked and we did manage to find discounted tickets. Then we went to the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and a bunch of other neat old stuff that is, well, not British, making the name of the place kind of illogical. You couldn't call it the "Stuff we took from other countries when we were occupying them" Museum. If I remember correctly, there's some debate about giving certain items in the British Museum back to the countries of origin, which I'm not sure about, because the British Museum obviously is taking really good care of everything and letting people in for free to enjoy history.
That said, here's some ancient Greek sculpture:
And a horse sculpture that was shockingly realistic (the horse is on the left, that's Matt on the right):
And a room that used to be a library:
I have to admit that I'm a little fuzzy on what we did for the rest of the afternoon after leaving the library. We tried to go to a lunchtime concert at St. Martins-in-the-fields (which is so not in the fields), but they're undergoing construction and not hosting concerts. Then we got rained on. Then we ate lunch at this diner in what appeared to be the business district - it was really cute in a dive-y kind of way, and we had a very flustered and sweet older waitress. Then I don't know what we did, maybe napped? We ate thai food for dinner, I remember. They put potatoes in my curry.
Wicked was great. I would recommend it. A fun and powerful show about standing up for what's right, the dangers of mob mentality, and true friendship. It was also fun to ride the bus back to our hotel after the show and see the city at night.
Anyway, Tuesday in London was cool. We started the day with a quest for cheap theater tickets. The hitch is cheap tickets to a show you actually want to see. We really wanted to see Wicked and we did manage to find discounted tickets. Then we went to the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and a bunch of other neat old stuff that is, well, not British, making the name of the place kind of illogical. You couldn't call it the "Stuff we took from other countries when we were occupying them" Museum. If I remember correctly, there's some debate about giving certain items in the British Museum back to the countries of origin, which I'm not sure about, because the British Museum obviously is taking really good care of everything and letting people in for free to enjoy history.
That said, here's some ancient Greek sculpture:
And a horse sculpture that was shockingly realistic (the horse is on the left, that's Matt on the right):
And a room that used to be a library:
I have to admit that I'm a little fuzzy on what we did for the rest of the afternoon after leaving the library. We tried to go to a lunchtime concert at St. Martins-in-the-fields (which is so not in the fields), but they're undergoing construction and not hosting concerts. Then we got rained on. Then we ate lunch at this diner in what appeared to be the business district - it was really cute in a dive-y kind of way, and we had a very flustered and sweet older waitress. Then I don't know what we did, maybe napped? We ate thai food for dinner, I remember. They put potatoes in my curry.
Wicked was great. I would recommend it. A fun and powerful show about standing up for what's right, the dangers of mob mentality, and true friendship. It was also fun to ride the bus back to our hotel after the show and see the city at night.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday in London
I have got to say that it's a very nice break in my day to look at London pictures during lunch. One of our favorite parts of London was visiting The Tower of London, which was includes old royal residences, the Crown Jewels, and well, prison cells and execution sites. Quality history, people.
Tower Wall - nice to look at while you wait to buy expensive tickets.
This guy was outside the crown jewels.
Matt was really into the military stuff here. There are several more pictures of various old guns, swords, and armor that I will spare my viewers.
This section of the tower was once occupied by the queen, in fact, I think the guards still call it "The Queen's House."
The White Tower - construction on this started in the 1100s. Yeah.
We made friends with one of the guards! He was furry!
I was taken with this beautifully simple chapel in the White tower.
After spending a good part of the day at the Tower, we crossed this - the Tower Bridge to explore neighborhoods on the other side of the Thames. We went to a pub for lunch and saw the recreation of Shakepeare's Globe Theater.
Then, here, St. Paul's Cathedral. Quite nice, but we kind of had to rush because we wanted to...
...see this, after climbing 533 very narrow, winding steps to the top of the cathedral. They close the tower before they close the cathedral and we barely made it.
You'd think we'd be tired after all that, and we were, but we weren't done yet. We went back across the river to visit the
Tate Modern art musuem. After that, there was an ill conceived search all over what was apparently the legal district for a historic pub, with Matt constantly assuring me it was just down the block or right around the corner. In the end, the pub was found and diet coke was procured, but I must offer a warning - beware the travel book map.
Tower Wall - nice to look at while you wait to buy expensive tickets.
This guy was outside the crown jewels.
Matt was really into the military stuff here. There are several more pictures of various old guns, swords, and armor that I will spare my viewers.
This section of the tower was once occupied by the queen, in fact, I think the guards still call it "The Queen's House."
The White Tower - construction on this started in the 1100s. Yeah.
We made friends with one of the guards! He was furry!
I was taken with this beautifully simple chapel in the White tower.
After spending a good part of the day at the Tower, we crossed this - the Tower Bridge to explore neighborhoods on the other side of the Thames. We went to a pub for lunch and saw the recreation of Shakepeare's Globe Theater.
Then, here, St. Paul's Cathedral. Quite nice, but we kind of had to rush because we wanted to...
...see this, after climbing 533 very narrow, winding steps to the top of the cathedral. They close the tower before they close the cathedral and we barely made it.You'd think we'd be tired after all that, and we were, but we weren't done yet. We went back across the river to visit the
Tate Modern art musuem. After that, there was an ill conceived search all over what was apparently the legal district for a historic pub, with Matt constantly assuring me it was just down the block or right around the corner. In the end, the pub was found and diet coke was procured, but I must offer a warning - beware the travel book map.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Something to make my day...
This morning, one of my storytime moms told me that her daughter prays for me every night when they say their prayers together. Wow.
P.S. More Europe later.
P.S. More Europe later.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
More London, Day 1
Buckingham Palace - there were tons of people here, for no reason we could see, as there wasn't anything particularly interesting happening
Buckingham Palace gate - it's not too over the top, right?
Trafalgar Square, we came here after we were able to check into the hotel
That's me at Trafalgar Square, which was also crowded. We hit the National Art Gallery in the background after we took this pic.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
London, Day 1
Me in St. James Park
Westminster AbbeyP.S. Believe it or not, it's snowing here tonight.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
back in the usa
Wow. What a weird week this has been. While Matt and I were running errands this morning (garbage dump, coffee, post office, grocery store), I pointed out, "On Monday, we were in Paris." It was a little hard for us to jump straight back to work on Tuesday and go full steam until yesterday evening after work. Now we're both suffering sinus infections or colds or something.
But we had an awesome trip! I was scared about doing this all on our own, no group or tour guide, but that made an adventure of figuring out what we were doing, where we were going, and what we were eating (v. important to me!) I'm going to spend the next week or so sharing pictures here, and here's the first:
A view of Big Ben and the London Eye on our first day in London.
But we had an awesome trip! I was scared about doing this all on our own, no group or tour guide, but that made an adventure of figuring out what we were doing, where we were going, and what we were eating (v. important to me!) I'm going to spend the next week or so sharing pictures here, and here's the first:
A view of Big Ben and the London Eye on our first day in London.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Leaving on a jet plane...
We'll be back in about a week! We're flying out today for London and Paris! I'm excited about Europe, but I'm also excited about a week away from work and chores. Look back here for pics when we return. Yippee!
Monday, March 26, 2007
Been reading and not much else
I'm not sure how, but I've managed to finish two more books. Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney was a great mild thriller with a very interesting premise - smallpox! Very clean, but with teen appeal, and addresses current fears of bioterrorism.
I just finished (like three minutes ago, as this is my lunch hour) Mr. Chickee's Funny Money by Christopher Paul Curtis. Curtis' The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 is up there on my list of favorite children's books, so I knew I would enjoy this too. It had the same sly humor and thoughfulness of The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963, but the story is over-the-top contemporary silliness. Fun.
I just finished (like three minutes ago, as this is my lunch hour) Mr. Chickee's Funny Money by Christopher Paul Curtis. Curtis' The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 is up there on my list of favorite children's books, so I knew I would enjoy this too. It had the same sly humor and thoughfulness of The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963, but the story is over-the-top contemporary silliness. Fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)