In case you were worried about prolonged cat torture, we bring you Finchley escaping from the Santa hat in record time:
And relaxing in true Finch style a few minutes later:
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Christmas Cheer: How to torture your cats during the holiday season
I don't think I really need to say anything else.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thanksgiving in London
For the past two years, we've just kind of ignored Thanksgiving (we did make a halfway attempt at Thanksgiving the first month we were here, but it wasn't that great and definitely didn't feel like the real thing). But this year, we decided to go all out and invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate with us. Our friends were English, Polish, Kiwi (New Zealand), and Bangladeshi, so it was a pretty international crowd and most people's first Thanksgiving celebration!
Warning...the following are horrible pictures of me, post-nap and pre-shower and in my PJs. So sorry!
Our turkey!
Meg sent us a delicious and butterlicious turkey recipe. The first step was to separate the skin from the breast....kind of a weird feeling (as evidenced by Jim's face). Jim actually did the turkey and it turned out to be PERFECT!
It was a little bit of a tough bird, though:
Putting the turkey in the oven!
Mom's biscuits (which were an international hit!)
We dragged the outside table in as an extension and crammed everyone into the conservatory. It was a cozy Thanksgiving dinner! On the menu: Turkey with homemade stuffing, vegetarian stuffing, green beans with almonds, biscuits, Jim's delicious mashed potatoes, lentils, gravy (American style).
Victoria (New Zealand) made some REALLY good Pecan pie (her first pie ever!) which was hands down the favorite pie of the evening. She also made whipped cream:
Ben (England), Monika (Poland), Fatema (Bangladesh) and me, after supper and before dessert.
Jim and Mushtak having a chat in front of the fireplace that doesn't work:
The women finishing dessert:
The men, in the kitchen (why do men and women always divide at some point during parties?):
Dessert demolished. Pumpkin pie was a new taste sensation for most of the people in the room and they liked it! They did think that pumpkin in a can was kind of funny.
Jim, master turkey chef AND maker of outstanding cappuccinos (thanks to Meg and Dan's cappuccino maker).
It was an excellent dinner party and well worth the two days of cooking it took to make all that food! We are totally impressed with our moms, who have been cooking Thanksgiving dinners for over 30 years (and usually in only 1 day!). Now we know we can do it, too! And Jim has his coveted Thanksgiving leftovers, which he says is the best part. Happy Thanksgiving!
Warning...the following are horrible pictures of me, post-nap and pre-shower and in my PJs. So sorry!
Our turkey!
Meg sent us a delicious and butterlicious turkey recipe. The first step was to separate the skin from the breast....kind of a weird feeling (as evidenced by Jim's face). Jim actually did the turkey and it turned out to be PERFECT!
It was a little bit of a tough bird, though:
Putting the turkey in the oven!
Mom's biscuits (which were an international hit!)
We dragged the outside table in as an extension and crammed everyone into the conservatory. It was a cozy Thanksgiving dinner! On the menu: Turkey with homemade stuffing, vegetarian stuffing, green beans with almonds, biscuits, Jim's delicious mashed potatoes, lentils, gravy (American style).
Victoria (New Zealand) made some REALLY good Pecan pie (her first pie ever!) which was hands down the favorite pie of the evening. She also made whipped cream:
Ben (England), Monika (Poland), Fatema (Bangladesh) and me, after supper and before dessert.
Jim and Mushtak having a chat in front of the fireplace that doesn't work:
The women finishing dessert:
The men, in the kitchen (why do men and women always divide at some point during parties?):
Dessert demolished. Pumpkin pie was a new taste sensation for most of the people in the room and they liked it! They did think that pumpkin in a can was kind of funny.
Jim, master turkey chef AND maker of outstanding cappuccinos (thanks to Meg and Dan's cappuccino maker).
It was an excellent dinner party and well worth the two days of cooking it took to make all that food! We are totally impressed with our moms, who have been cooking Thanksgiving dinners for over 30 years (and usually in only 1 day!). Now we know we can do it, too! And Jim has his coveted Thanksgiving leftovers, which he says is the best part. Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Amsterdam...take 2
But first, the pies I made yesterday (in all their slightly deformed and a little burned glory. Pumpkin and apple, in case you can't tell.):
Well, we keep saying "as a last hurrah" about trips that we take, but our trip to Amsterdam was definitely the last hurrah because I'm tired and I'm also not allowed to fly anymore. But as a last hurrah, Jim and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend.
It got pretty cold in London as we were waiting for the train to the airport, so Jim let me borrow his hat. It would turn out that I was VERY unprepared for the even colder weather to come, so Jim didn't really get to use his hat very much.
It was already very Christmasy in Amsterdam, as evidenced by the decorations around town and the SNOW! Here is one of Santa's helpers (in case you don't remember from our last Amsterdam blog, in the Netherlands Santa comes over from Spain with his 8 black helpers and puts candy or switches in the children's shoes. More on that later.)
Some night shots:
SNOW!
As luck would have it, we happened to be in Amsterdam the weekend that Sinterclaus came over from Spain. Jim caught him with his 8 Black(faced) helpers on video as they made their way towards some VERY exciting children.
I guess it is more realistic that Santa come over from Spain on a boat with some...helpers...than Santa flying from the North Pole in a sleigh pulled by airbound reindeer with blinking noses and assisted by small, magical people. But we still find this cultural difference interesting.
The weather continued to be pretty miserable and cold and my really cheap umbrella almost didn't make it.
Jim at the floating flower market. We were also supposed to seek out the houseboat for homeless cats, but we kind of forgot.
While we were wandering through a market in the Jewish Quarter, it started to hail. So we popped into a cafe (NOT one of the famous 'coffee shops,' for the record) and had some hot chocolate. Jim really enjoyed his.
We finished our afternoon with more food at a funky place called Bazar, where they had delicious Mediterranean food. The lighting was fun, too.
Sunday was our cultural day. We started with a walking tour of a new area we hadn't been to before. It was still snowing, off and on. On an old bridge in the boatyards:
And on the tram, having decided we were tired of freezing and would rather ride in warmth to our next destination:
We went to the Rijksmuseum, where we stood in line in the freezing cold to get in and some annoying woman invaded our personal space (I think I was the only one who found this annoying). The museum was partially under renovations, so we saw the highlights...lots of famous paintings and sculptures and doll houses. The main attraction (according to the museum) was Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God," which was an 18th century skull, inlaid with diamonds. It was...sparkly? Worth a lot of money? Worth standing in line for 45 minutes in the freezing cold with an annoying lady in my space? I'm not so sure....
But fortunately, after the museum and being cold, there was another cafe! (do you see a theme? We tend to eat our way through vacations...) It really started snowing while we were enjoying our soup and lattes.
We walked through the snow and back towards our hotel...and FINALLY we found a second hand place where we could buy some hats that were actually WARM (and cheap). There was much rejoicing:
It's amazing how much a warm hat can help warm your whole body up. We were able to continue wandering around in the snow for a couple of more hours!
It was a fun trip. Amsterdam is a lovely city, the Dutch people are awesome and it was a nice FINAL last hurrah!
Well, we keep saying "as a last hurrah" about trips that we take, but our trip to Amsterdam was definitely the last hurrah because I'm tired and I'm also not allowed to fly anymore. But as a last hurrah, Jim and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend.
It got pretty cold in London as we were waiting for the train to the airport, so Jim let me borrow his hat. It would turn out that I was VERY unprepared for the even colder weather to come, so Jim didn't really get to use his hat very much.
It was already very Christmasy in Amsterdam, as evidenced by the decorations around town and the SNOW! Here is one of Santa's helpers (in case you don't remember from our last Amsterdam blog, in the Netherlands Santa comes over from Spain with his 8 black helpers and puts candy or switches in the children's shoes. More on that later.)
Some night shots:
SNOW!
As luck would have it, we happened to be in Amsterdam the weekend that Sinterclaus came over from Spain. Jim caught him with his 8 Black(faced) helpers on video as they made their way towards some VERY exciting children.
I guess it is more realistic that Santa come over from Spain on a boat with some...helpers...than Santa flying from the North Pole in a sleigh pulled by airbound reindeer with blinking noses and assisted by small, magical people. But we still find this cultural difference interesting.
The weather continued to be pretty miserable and cold and my really cheap umbrella almost didn't make it.
Jim at the floating flower market. We were also supposed to seek out the houseboat for homeless cats, but we kind of forgot.
While we were wandering through a market in the Jewish Quarter, it started to hail. So we popped into a cafe (NOT one of the famous 'coffee shops,' for the record) and had some hot chocolate. Jim really enjoyed his.
We finished our afternoon with more food at a funky place called Bazar, where they had delicious Mediterranean food. The lighting was fun, too.
Sunday was our cultural day. We started with a walking tour of a new area we hadn't been to before. It was still snowing, off and on. On an old bridge in the boatyards:
And on the tram, having decided we were tired of freezing and would rather ride in warmth to our next destination:
We went to the Rijksmuseum, where we stood in line in the freezing cold to get in and some annoying woman invaded our personal space (I think I was the only one who found this annoying). The museum was partially under renovations, so we saw the highlights...lots of famous paintings and sculptures and doll houses. The main attraction (according to the museum) was Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God," which was an 18th century skull, inlaid with diamonds. It was...sparkly? Worth a lot of money? Worth standing in line for 45 minutes in the freezing cold with an annoying lady in my space? I'm not so sure....
But fortunately, after the museum and being cold, there was another cafe! (do you see a theme? We tend to eat our way through vacations...) It really started snowing while we were enjoying our soup and lattes.
We walked through the snow and back towards our hotel...and FINALLY we found a second hand place where we could buy some hats that were actually WARM (and cheap). There was much rejoicing:
It's amazing how much a warm hat can help warm your whole body up. We were able to continue wandering around in the snow for a couple of more hours!
It was a fun trip. Amsterdam is a lovely city, the Dutch people are awesome and it was a nice FINAL last hurrah!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Coming soon...
Amsterdam! Thanksgiving!!!
Sorry for the blog slacking. We've been BUSY but will have a lot to talk about whenever we have time to blog again. So stay tuned....
Sorry for the blog slacking. We've been BUSY but will have a lot to talk about whenever we have time to blog again. So stay tuned....
Monday, November 17, 2008
This because I truly have nothing more exciting to report
Ok, so our friend Katie (one of my Fort Worth allies, who LOVED Fort Worth as much as I did!) posted this on her blog and then 'tagged' us. I love these things in email format, but never really considered putting something like this on our blog. Since I basically have done nothing today and continue to sit her, stultified, waiting for Jim to come home and cook fish tacos for me, I will indulge her (and myself).
8 TV shows I watch:
Alas, I'm afraid we don't really watch TV because even though we have one and have to pay TV licence tax for it, we don't have it hooked up even to "free view" (we didn't even know about freeview until a couple of days ago). We are contemplating cable...but having spent a small fortune on baby stuff recently, we are less inclined to jump on the cable bandwagon. That said, we do get a lot of stuff off Itunes and we rent TV series, too. So here is my long-winded answer:
1. The Sopranos (on DVD..we've been watching for more than a year now, but are still only on season four)
2. 30 Rock (via Itunes)
3. Six Feet Under (a long time ago)
4. Little Britain (on DVD...and which, we have decided, isn't really that funny because they just do the same skits over and over again)
5. Saturday Night Live (what we are 'allowed' to watch on the internet and accessing it from another country. SNL needs to come to ENgland!)
6. The occasional Frontline (via Itunes), when we need to be reminded that life is not all fun and games and funerals and the mafia..
...and that's it for us.
8 favorite restaurants
1. Top of the River--I don't know if this place was really as good as I remember it being, but in high school I thought it was so good and then they had to go and get bought out by the Vicksburg casinos and thus end good food in Vicksburg (unless you're into BBQ, which I am not).
2. Lola's--my favorite place ever in the whole world to get paella and major garlic breath (New Orleans)
3. Mother's--my favorite place in the world to eat coronary inducing South Louisiana food (also in New Orleans)
****I interrupt these favorite restaurants to say that I am considering what Jim would like, too...these are not just one half of us answers.
4. Tex-Mex restaurants in Texas...I can't remember the names of any right now, but they all taste about the same and they are all pretty good
5. The place down the road here in London where you can get big-ass American style milkshakes (oreo cookie milkshake..mmmmmmm)
6. The sushi place where Jim and I went all the time when we lived in Houston--on Montrose (sorry, folks...we've moved so many times....)
7. Cafe Brazil (Houston!)
8. Ottolenghi--London SO. GOOD.
8 Favorite singers and bands:
I find this a boring question, but I will answer it to the best of my/our ability:
1. THE CURE
2. James
3. Koop
4. OMD
5. Erasure (I'm afraid I AM kind of portraying my tastes over Jim's in this category, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. We saw Erasure recently and they were really fun!)
8 books I have read recently:
Jim is famous for starting new books and then falling asleep after two pages and then losing the book under the bed in a great mass of clutter. And if you want to know what I've been reading, check my goodreads.
8 things that happened yesterday:
1. I slept until 10 (whohoo!)
2. Umm....oh, we went for a walk in Hampstead Heath and it rained (surprise, surprise).
3. I met fellow pregnant women for coffee/late lunch and Jim went to a coffee shop to work (don't we lead exciting lives??). It was still raining.
4. Jim got me a 5 pound rug at an antiques stand (slightly damp, but very nice nonetheless).
5. We danced to techno New Order (for real).
6. We ate spaghetti.
7. Jim put up the lights in the baby's room.
8. We watched my stomach move around.
8 things I'm looking forward to
1. Parenthood
2. The departure of the guys who have been working on our boiler (they are perfectly nice, but having someone in your house all day long gets kind of old. And they are tracking mud all around..it's still raining.)
3. Heat (which will work when the boiler is fixed)
4. Jim getting home and making me fish tacos (he might not be looking forward to this as much as I am)
5. Sleeping
6. Amsterdam
7. Discussing the pointlessness of upside down Christmas trees with Jim over fish tacos
8. Watching my stomach move before going to sleep (never ending entertainment)
8 things I wish for:
1. A long and happy life together with Jim and our baby (and any more babies down the road, too)
2. Long and happy lives for our families
3. That Andy gets the job at Oxford and Kate and Andy live in England, too. That would be so cool!
4. To see our families more
5. More storage space
6. Supper...soon...
7. To know that I have made a difference somehow (sometimes you have to wonder...)
8. A good night's sleep
Ok, now I'm supposed to tag people, but I'm not going to do that. And I promise that there will be no more chains on the blog.
8 TV shows I watch:
Alas, I'm afraid we don't really watch TV because even though we have one and have to pay TV licence tax for it, we don't have it hooked up even to "free view" (we didn't even know about freeview until a couple of days ago). We are contemplating cable...but having spent a small fortune on baby stuff recently, we are less inclined to jump on the cable bandwagon. That said, we do get a lot of stuff off Itunes and we rent TV series, too. So here is my long-winded answer:
1. The Sopranos (on DVD..we've been watching for more than a year now, but are still only on season four)
2. 30 Rock (via Itunes)
3. Six Feet Under (a long time ago)
4. Little Britain (on DVD...and which, we have decided, isn't really that funny because they just do the same skits over and over again)
5. Saturday Night Live (what we are 'allowed' to watch on the internet and accessing it from another country. SNL needs to come to ENgland!)
6. The occasional Frontline (via Itunes), when we need to be reminded that life is not all fun and games and funerals and the mafia..
...and that's it for us.
8 favorite restaurants
1. Top of the River--I don't know if this place was really as good as I remember it being, but in high school I thought it was so good and then they had to go and get bought out by the Vicksburg casinos and thus end good food in Vicksburg (unless you're into BBQ, which I am not).
2. Lola's--my favorite place ever in the whole world to get paella and major garlic breath (New Orleans)
3. Mother's--my favorite place in the world to eat coronary inducing South Louisiana food (also in New Orleans)
****I interrupt these favorite restaurants to say that I am considering what Jim would like, too...these are not just one half of us answers.
4. Tex-Mex restaurants in Texas...I can't remember the names of any right now, but they all taste about the same and they are all pretty good
5. The place down the road here in London where you can get big-ass American style milkshakes (oreo cookie milkshake..mmmmmmm)
6. The sushi place where Jim and I went all the time when we lived in Houston--on Montrose (sorry, folks...we've moved so many times....)
7. Cafe Brazil (Houston!)
8. Ottolenghi--London SO. GOOD.
8 Favorite singers and bands:
I find this a boring question, but I will answer it to the best of my/our ability:
1. THE CURE
2. James
3. Koop
4. OMD
5. Erasure (I'm afraid I AM kind of portraying my tastes over Jim's in this category, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. We saw Erasure recently and they were really fun!)
8 books I have read recently:
Jim is famous for starting new books and then falling asleep after two pages and then losing the book under the bed in a great mass of clutter. And if you want to know what I've been reading, check my goodreads.
8 things that happened yesterday:
1. I slept until 10 (whohoo!)
2. Umm....oh, we went for a walk in Hampstead Heath and it rained (surprise, surprise).
3. I met fellow pregnant women for coffee/late lunch and Jim went to a coffee shop to work (don't we lead exciting lives??). It was still raining.
4. Jim got me a 5 pound rug at an antiques stand (slightly damp, but very nice nonetheless).
5. We danced to techno New Order (for real).
6. We ate spaghetti.
7. Jim put up the lights in the baby's room.
8. We watched my stomach move around.
8 things I'm looking forward to
1. Parenthood
2. The departure of the guys who have been working on our boiler (they are perfectly nice, but having someone in your house all day long gets kind of old. And they are tracking mud all around..it's still raining.)
3. Heat (which will work when the boiler is fixed)
4. Jim getting home and making me fish tacos (he might not be looking forward to this as much as I am)
5. Sleeping
6. Amsterdam
7. Discussing the pointlessness of upside down Christmas trees with Jim over fish tacos
8. Watching my stomach move before going to sleep (never ending entertainment)
8 things I wish for:
1. A long and happy life together with Jim and our baby (and any more babies down the road, too)
2. Long and happy lives for our families
3. That Andy gets the job at Oxford and Kate and Andy live in England, too. That would be so cool!
4. To see our families more
5. More storage space
6. Supper...soon...
7. To know that I have made a difference somehow (sometimes you have to wonder...)
8. A good night's sleep
Ok, now I'm supposed to tag people, but I'm not going to do that. And I promise that there will be no more chains on the blog.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Baby room extravaganza
I know I said we weren't going to blog about the baby anymore for a while, but Jim got me all excited by putting up the lights and mobiles, so I have to indulge in one more baby blog.
We found some really funky and fun lights in Camden, which we bought. They give the baby's room a college dorm room vibe, which we think he/she will appreciate (who needs traditional night lights when you can have trippy Christmas lights?!)
Here is a view with the flash. We've hired Robo-cat to keep an eye on things.
We found some really funky and fun lights in Camden, which we bought. They give the baby's room a college dorm room vibe, which we think he/she will appreciate (who needs traditional night lights when you can have trippy Christmas lights?!)
Here is a view with the flash. We've hired Robo-cat to keep an eye on things.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Cats and baby stuff
Ok, we've got babies on the mind since we had our scan today and got all our furniture over the past couple of days and I promise that the next blog will be focused on another topic. But these videos are funny. The cats--especially Finchley--are supremely curious about what is going on in our house right now. They are definitely aware that change is coming. Unfortunately the funniest video of Finchley's encounter with the baby swing won't upload, but here Jack seeks pregnant love and Finchley is intrigued by the mobile:
The cats aren't allowed in the baby's room without supervision, which is causing Finchley great angst. He keeps throwing himself against the door. Jack seems perfectly happy not to be in the baby room, as long as someone is petting him most of the time.
The cats aren't allowed in the baby's room without supervision, which is causing Finchley great angst. He keeps throwing himself against the door. Jack seems perfectly happy not to be in the baby room, as long as someone is petting him most of the time.
Cribs
No...not the MTV show, but an actual crib, which Jim put together yesterday. So now we're ready! We just need the baby.
The cats are hyper aware that something weird is going on, now that we have all this new furniture in the house and they aren't allowed to go into their favorite room anymore. Last night they were extremely 'high' and bouncing off the walls. Today we borrowed a baby chair from some friends and Finchley really isn't sure about it. We have a funny video, but I'm having problems getting it to work, so stay tuned!
We're ALL going to have to adjust.
The cats are hyper aware that something weird is going on, now that we have all this new furniture in the house and they aren't allowed to go into their favorite room anymore. Last night they were extremely 'high' and bouncing off the walls. Today we borrowed a baby chair from some friends and Finchley really isn't sure about it. We have a funny video, but I'm having problems getting it to work, so stay tuned!
We're ALL going to have to adjust.
32 weeks, 4 pounds and a little grumpy
Sleeping, peaceful baby:
Grumpy dump...not happy about being woken up for the scan:
Grumpy dump...not happy about being woken up for the scan:
Monday, November 10, 2008
Pictures in our neighborhood--taken by Jim
These pictures are better if you click on them and enlarge them (especially the last three).
Cats napping. On top of freshly washed and folded laundry and on suitcases are their favorite places to relax. They also love to knead on and pull my new, cozy Welsh afghan (grrr).
Flask Walk at night with Christmas lights.
A fairly short line for crepes on a Sunday evening (thanks to the rain).
The crepe makers. These guys work non-stop. And the result is delicious and not nutritious crepes(obscene amounts of butter and cheese are involved, but it's so worth it).
Cats napping. On top of freshly washed and folded laundry and on suitcases are their favorite places to relax. They also love to knead on and pull my new, cozy Welsh afghan (grrr).
Flask Walk at night with Christmas lights.
A fairly short line for crepes on a Sunday evening (thanks to the rain).
The crepe makers. These guys work non-stop. And the result is delicious and not nutritious crepes(obscene amounts of butter and cheese are involved, but it's so worth it).
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Another Saturday, Another Walk in Hampsted Heath
There are so many great places in Hampstead Heath. Yesterday, unwashed and rumpled, we straggled out first thing in the morning to wander around for a couple of hours.
It's not just our back yard that's leafy these days.
This is the podega, a fancy public garden:
which backs up to this palatial home...where we are going to move once we have a few more kids.
Seriously, we think that people actually live in this place.
Jim descends the spiral staircase:
And then relived his senior year high school picture moments:
In Golders Hill Park, there is a deer enclosure. This young buck had a pretty bad limp so we're hoping that the park is going to take care of him.
Towards the end of our walk, it started to rain pretty hard and I realized that I hadn't been in one of the famous English phone booths. So I briefly took shelter from the rain. It didn't even smell like urine!
It's not just our back yard that's leafy these days.
This is the podega, a fancy public garden:
which backs up to this palatial home...where we are going to move once we have a few more kids.
Seriously, we think that people actually live in this place.
Jim descends the spiral staircase:
And then relived his senior year high school picture moments:
In Golders Hill Park, there is a deer enclosure. This young buck had a pretty bad limp so we're hoping that the park is going to take care of him.
Towards the end of our walk, it started to rain pretty hard and I realized that I hadn't been in one of the famous English phone booths. So I briefly took shelter from the rain. It didn't even smell like urine!
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