denial

Three days before Saturday before Thanksgiving and a week before traditional Thanksgiving and I haven't done anything.

Yoikes.

Must order flowers tomorrow.

nm

nothing to declare

I have stopped buying things in London unless I really think it is necessary. Everything is so expensive and nowadays, so available anywhere. Most of the time, my bag has the Sunday Times, some cheese, Hello! and OK! and maybe a few things from Muji. I don't even declare 75 bucks and luckily, they never really ask.

The only sure thing is that each trip requires a visit to a chemist to buy feminine protection. I have no idea why, but I am doomed to visit anywhere with the joy of bleeding to death.

It is a given that I will have approximately 2 tampons in my bag at the beginning of my trip and64 minus what I used by the end.

So, next time they hassle me at customs, I'll proudly display my lil-lets and see if they ever bug me again.

smooches,

nm

knackered

My flight is delayed out of ORD. I will arrive at home at 2:30.

I am not amused.

nm

london kills me redux

Yeah, you know who you are. London, November 2006.

To tell you the truth, I hate large events. I avoid large crowds of flyertalkers, I hate to talk points and miles for very long. We’re all fascinating people who lived fascinating lives away from our airports/hotels and our obsession of miles (1,963,000 to date on AA and counting). I hate the drama that can happen at any event. I’m too old and detached to give a crap about what someone said about someone else. In the last few months, I have realized that life is too short to deal with psychic trauma- mine and yours.

Imagine that all yesterday, there was none.

Okay, I had a little bit when I needed to get John to pick a hotel so that I could go in search of cheese. He bucked up and we moved on.

Thanks John. J

All day yesterday, there was none around me that I could detect. I loved it.

I also enjoyed meeting people I had only heard of and in some cases, admired from afar. You know what, they are all normal people.

It was fun.

Dinner was great. I actually won something (2 nights anywhere in the Hilton chain, I’m thinking Japan) and had some really good conversations and really good food at Café Lazeez. JK, we’re going here and a panto.


Smooches,

Nm

I'm tired and the idea of sitting on the plane for seven hours has no appeal.

Flight is chock a block full.

I think it's going to be a full on ambien, ear plugs and decaf dunkin donuts expereince. Pardon me if I ignore you for the next seven plus hours.

The doode on the FL desk is dork.

Nuff said.

smooches,

nm

idiots to the right please

Merle, the triceratops, at the BR, SEA-ORD-LHR. November 2006.

Can we talk?


If you don't know what to do at the airport, I recommend you spend 10 minutes at the TSA.gov site and learn.

Smooches,

nm

chocolat chaud

Chocolat chaud, Marche Raspail Biologique, December 2005.

I love hot chocolate, not too sweet, but very hot and chocolatey. We recently sampled some of EATS hot chocolate at the West Seattle Farmer's Market. TH got some and I was supposed to hold it while she shopped and I chaperoned Ernest the puppy. Well, that hot chocolate didn't last too long around me.

It was yummy.

Today I went to Fran's to pick up some salted caramels and truffles to take to our hosts of the London Mega Do. I declined the caramel with macadamia nuts and she offered me a sample of their hot chocolate.

Yum is all I'm going to say.

TH and I will go to Fran's after perambulating E. the puppy in the Village. He usually is seen jumping into the fountains and woofing at things that squirt him. I get a latte and she gets a mocha. Things may have to change after this new discovery.

Okay, off we go to bed. To the airport in the am, no, my upgrade did not clear. I plan on a nice yogurt parfait from the dilletante, a latte and maybe I'll slice up some of that yummy mouse house cheddar that F&J brought in September.

Travel safe y'all.

nm

oh what a day....

Fabulous news on the political front. I felt great last night and this morning I felt even better and gosh darnit, after I came home from my board meeting, I felt like taking ernest for a walk, even if I would be drenched.

Welcome to the new world. I love this country and maybe today, I feel like my vote counted this time around.

Now, if we could get that continuing resolution dealt with and give us a budget...

Other than that, I'm leaving for London on Friday. It'll be fun, I'll see Jen and catch up with some others. I have a Sunday planned that includes Columbia Road followed by five hours of gardening at my aunts (Pray for good weather)....

Oh, I read with fascination about Britney and Kevin. It repulses me, why do I care?

later taters.

nm

PSA

Vote today as if your life depended on it.

Because it does.

nm

all good things come

Persimmon, chez NM, November 2006.


Rainy Day here. We watched the radar all day. Looks like the worst is over.

Not much else to say, we have two persimmons this year. It took 15 years, so I am happy.


nm

insurmountable

I have 3000 plus pictures in flickr. They all need captions and new tags.
I say 50 a day. What do you think? 75 if I'm procrastinating.

nm

Today we went out and bought TH a new phone. The same freaking one we had. We also upped our plan as we somehow (damned conference call) managed to go over our minutes to the tune of 60 bucks.

For some reason, I didn't have a text message plan. WTF?

Okay, so now we're 100 bucks poorer.

Its been a day.

The dog also has gas. How fun is that.

nm

motivate me

Hat house, October 2006, South Park.

I have to write a measly 1400 word paper for my preservation planning seminar. I have the topic, I have materials, I have ideas, I just don't give a whack.

I have to be done by tomorrow to finish my AMS extended abstract.

Very interesting topic. I'm looking at a house that a bunch of community members nominated for landmark status and received it, which basically made it impossible for the new owner to short plat the land around it enough to make it economically viable. He felt that the house was not worth saving, the land was valuable, thus the house should be destroyed.

In the process I have learned that this house - very lovely and architecturally significant, was a meth production facility in a old Seattle neighborhood. The house has a happy ending, someone offered to move it to a lot close to its original location and fixed it up very nicely. The house is now being rented for a song if it was say, in my neighborhood, but very expensive for where it is.

The old lot is now a sea of hideous new tract houses.

The landmark is lovely, if not totally out of context in a sea of newly developed market rate townhomes, even with a 10' buffer, it looks strange.

Makes me wonder if things like this are worth preserving when taken away from their original landscape. It also makes me wonder about what motivates people to save things in a neighborhood that is going to change, no matter what.

nm

needle in a proverbial haystack

How hard is it to find a cell phone in a moderately well organized and clean house?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Sigh.

nablopomo away

Its National Blog Post a Day for Month according to Z, who heard it from fussy. I'm up for the challenge I think even if it means posting from a skanky internet cafe next weekend. NM is not taking a laptop to London unless necessary. Too much overhead these days....


Anyhoo, not much to say, TH is sick, Ernest has pano, I feel like crud, so we spent most of the evening feeling sorry for ourselves. Me, snoring on the couch, TH and E. dd on the futon in my office. I think E. dd now thinks that all beds should be this big.

Now, we're all awake and its close to midnight.

If you blog, join us, link to Fussy and wow us with your witty thoughts and prose.

nm

Roma, Roma, Moleskine City Guide, October 2006.

It is very rare that I take advantage of the concierge service of any hotel I stay in. This past weekend, I did use the concierge to book a table for me at Lutetia Brasserie for lunch, find me a restaurant and to track down the elusive Moleskine city guides for the cities I am most likely to visit and annotate any guidebook or map I may have.


They were located at the WH Smith on Rue de Rivoli, which is an expat hangout. I did try the Bon Marche book and paper department, called Brentanos and checked a few places that were independent with little luck.


Turns out WH Smith had most of them and at least the Paris guide was waiting for me at the cash desk.


What can I say?

I am a bit dissapointed. They are small, which I guess is good if you are going to carry it everywhere, but the maps are not so great. The London maps have very little detail on them, so unless you stay on main drags you'll get very little use. The Paris guide is much better on maps and the metro map is useful, but why not put in a RER map? I'm used to journalling in a bigger moleskine, so it was hard to adjust to this size.

I didn't start filling out our Paris one, I may do it this week.

I'll take my London one next week. I don't suppose I'll be seeing anything new or exciting, so I'm not sure how much I can fill it out, but it is a step in the right direction.

I'll post the maps and details on my flickr asap.

nm

Colissmo, XL. October 2006.

What I did last weekend.

5.5 kilos of chocolate sent.

Mon dieu.

How can two people who were gone for five days and had done laundry before they left, have generated four if not five loads of laundry?

Geez.

Bags emptied, chocolate aliquoted, laundry started, mail sorted, bags put away, email checked and showered.

Off to bed.

nm

so sue me

In Chicago, tired, but happy to be almost home.

Lots of fun in Paris, getting there was not a lot of fun - sitting on the ground Seattle, not sure we'd make it to Paris directly, long wait for a train to Paris (locale) on the anniversary of the Riots in Clichy sous Bois.

However, it was lovely once we got there.

Chocolate, macarons, a stunning view of the Tour Eiffel, catching up with JB and making plans for collaboration, finding the elusive moleskine Paris and really just trying to chill.

Brussels was much the same, I had a great time watching TH buy chocolate. By then I was on chocolate overload. Not even Pierre Marcolini could tempt me.

Back in the Flagship lounge, where cell phone usage is now limited to the old smoking lounge, I give a dirty look to a guy on his cell phone in the cell free zone. He tells me to call his lawyer if I have a problem.

Really.

So sue me.

nm

carrot and stick

Boul. Raspail Marche biologique, December 2005.

If you are a basset who loves both sticks and carrots, what do you do? The carrot is supposed to tempt you, but the stick is also tasty. Its a hard thing. Sometimes, you should just pick one, but which one.

I am realizing that in my desire to lose 15 lbs by the end of the year, that I have gained five and it is all in my stomach. My friend S. calls this the Buddah belly. My spring coat is tight and unfortunately, its 68 degrees in Paris. Oh well, they say black is slimming.

So, do I beat myself with the stick for using food as reward or punish myself with carrots for eating too much? I'll tell you after I have a salad for lunch on Friday in Paris and then stop at Laduree for three macarons - citron, framboise and maybe fruits de bois.

Sigh.


nm