See ya, bye!

Well, I leave England this weekend. What a complete and utter bummer. Lachlan has really started to depend on me, and now I have to leave. Do you think customs officials would notice a blond-haired child in my luggage? With any luck, and some savings, I can come visit frequently. I've been prepping him for my departure, counting down the nights and he's determined to come visit, as long as he can watch "kids programs" at "Sister Lindsay's house." I'll get right on that, LB.

On the other hand, I'm quite excited to start moving/working. I think I'll just crash at Allison & Lilah's for a bit, rent a car or something and start driving around that part of the country until I find somewhere I really like...or I get tired of driving. I'll be in LA for a bit over a week, though. Anybody who cares, drop me an email. One good thing about going back so early is that I get to help out with abc.com for the Academy Award Nominations. Basically, the night before they announce the nominations (which are announced at 5:30 am on Tuesday the 31st) they lock us in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences building, take away our cell phones, provide us with food, we find out all the nominees before the public and create the info for oscar.com. I'll be jetlagged anyway, so I might as well be put to some use.

Oh, and about the lack of blogs...sorry. I feel like there's too much to tell, that I can't cover it all or that there's not enough to tell. I'm not exactly sure. I'll be better once I get back, promise. Well, once I get my computer fixed. I'm pretty sure that the AC connector on the motherboard is loose. Basically, it doesn't recognize when it's plugged in...for a split second it does. If I hold the plug in place, push with all my might on the back of my computer, it works. Seth and google pretty much confirmed my opinion. Anyone have a soldering iron to stick it back on?

Holy cow, I'm addicted to myspace. It's ridiculous. Tracking down people I haven't seen for years or have lost contact with. Friends hailing from all parts of the vast spectrum...from pre-facebook college kids to best friends from 4th/5th grade. But, you know what I hate? People who get carried away with html. My page is bare bones, but man, what's with those leopard print backgrounds, scrolling images, videos, songs and cursive text? Dude. Ugh. All you myspacers know what I mean...when you open up someone's page and IE/Firefox freezes. I'm not talking about anybody specific. Someone asked my sister if I was on myspace (before I actually was), and she said no...and he said, "Yeah, she seems like more of a facebook person." I think he meant I'm too much of an L7 weenie (please, somebody get the reference), and he'd be right. Myspace may be too much of a good thing, it's one thing to give the user options, but quite another to let them run wild - with videos and dancing gifs and a Top 16!!!! Ahhh!!! What's this world coming to?!?! Screw you, Thomas - creator of Myspace Editor V3.6!

Phew, sorry about that, went crazy for a moment there. Goodnight!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Lachlan is a very vocal kid, and though he says "Scuze mes" at least 5 times in every sentence, he's come up with some whoppers. Enjoy.

(Directly after a kiss goodnight)
Lachiebeag: Why are your boobies so big?
Lindsay: I have no idea how to answer that question.

--

(to the waiter at the Indian restaurant on New Year's Eve)
LB: I'll have a lemonade with a piece of lemon and ice. And I'm a policeman cowboy superhero. (Waiter leaves) That should keep him busy for a while.

--

(to guy outside under yellow streetlamp)
LB: Why are you grey?
Guy: Sorry?

--

(upon meeting Allison's girlfriend, Lilah)
LB: Why are you a liar?

--

I'll post more as they happen. Seth and Amanda are safely back in LA, so the house is empty again. As for my job update...I'll be starting on February 15th. As soon as they send me my relocation funds, I'll be out of here...such a bummer. I'll probably stay a week in LA, and then head to Virginia and stay with Allison/Lilah while I familiarize myself with the area and decide what state to live in. I wish I could stay longer and travel around. Oh well. I'll do what I can from here in the short time I have left. Luckily there are a lot of things within driving distance. For instance, today I drove about 10 minutes to the Waverley Abbey ruins. It was a monastery built in the 12th century by the Cistercine monks. It's right between 2 arms of a river, I was there ALL by myself for over an hour, just parked the car and walked a few hundred meters along the river, not a soul in sight. And right across one of the rivers there is one of those huge English country manors. It reminded me of one of those Victorian movies with those lawn parties with ladies and umbrellas. I'll go back and take pictures. My next day trip will be to Windsor castle and Eton. Also, Camberley is about 2o minutes away, so maybe I'll scope that out since the 2 princes attend the Sandhurst military academy there. Who knows, maybe I'll snag myself a royal. One can only hope.

Friends come and go...

So, Shelly leaves tomorrow. Bummer. We've had a good time, and Paris was fun. We got there at about noon on Thursday and left at 8pm on Friday. We packed a lot into that time, though. We walked about 500 miles (and I would walk 500 more). We took one of those red double decker bus tours 2 days in a row: in London, then in Paris. If you've ever been on one, you know you HAVE to sit on the top deck, in the open air. So we did. And we were SO cold. But through the teeth chattering and the Paris snow, we took some good pictures and learned a few things. Pictures to follow later.

Seth and Amanda are going to come visit for a couple of days before they return to the states. That'll be fun! Too bad they're cutting their trip short, but they've seen and experienced SO much and they have enough to do once they get home (anyone hear church bells?).

Lastly, I heard from my boss at Microsoft, and she wants me to start February 1st. Holy cow! That means that I'd have to leave here in a couple of days in order to get ready to move to....wherever, find an apartment AND report to Dallas on Feb. 1. Not going to happen! I'm trying to get an extension, but I haven't heard back. Cross your fingers!

London is expensive.

So, though I'm having a great time, money is disappearing quickly. Even without the horrible conversion rate (it's about 2 US dollars to a pound), things are just way more expensive here. I don't understand it...salaries here are pretty bad, so how do people survive? I'll let you know when I figure out the mystery. I bring all this up because while Shelly's here, we've been spending our time doing "touristy" stuff, and paying to do it. On Thursday we're going to Paris for a couple of days...and it's costing us each about $150 USD (80 pounds) to take a train there and back. It's a 2 1/2 hour ride. And that's the cheap student rate at the cheapest time. Vultures.

Well, on to better topics...

Shelly, Anne and I went to Stonehenge the other day, it was very cold. It was really cool, though! Those rocks have been there for 5000 years. And they were rolled there from a couple hundred miles away. And nobody knows why. Crazy.

We've also been going into the city to visit, and see the various tourist sites. Tomorrow we're going to take one of those double deck tour buses and sit on the the top. Yay. The weather hasn't been that great (it was raining last time we went, as you can see below), so we've been hanging out around locally. Hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow.

Sally went to Scotland for the new year, she's with Jessie, Robert and Lynsey in Tiree. If I haven't told you about Tiree, it's the little island that my dad grew up on off the west coast. It has about 700 residents, very flat, really quaint. I went there a couple of years ago, and all the old people knew who I was. Tripped me out. Well, Sally's there right now and enjoying herself. They had a big dance, or ceilidhs (pronounced "kayli"), on New Year's Eve for Hogmanay. Hogmanay is the Scottish tradition...well, you can read about it here.

Lastly, I won't be able to watch the Trojans beat the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl. We don't have the channel it's on...and I can't go anywhere to watch it because it's at midnight. I am very bummed. If any of you want to record it for me, it'd be much appreciated.

I hope you all had a great New Years!!! Some images for your enjoyment and scrutiny:

With a Royal Guard and his horse at the Royal Guard Parade.

How English can you get? Phone booth, post box, lamp post, quaint street in Farnham...

In the park of Farnham castle, walking the path which goes from behind our house to town, about a 20 min. walk...

Lastly...Shelly in a phone booth with a real thatched roof cottage. (Or, as the Trogdor song goes...THATCHED ROOF COTTAGEEEESSSS...THATCHED ROOF COTTAGEEEESSSS.)