cot.

Funny story. Last weekend, in london, we decided to take an overnight trip to bath, england. *kb* looked online and found a hotel that had connecting rooms (so the three kids could go to bed in one, and we could hang out in the other) and she called to make the reservations. While talking to the hotel employee, she asked if they had a baby crib or pack 'n play for 9mth old *tb*. The women said no, but that they had cots. So *kb* had them put two in the room for the two girls- in order to make it easier to move them around if necessary. Since they'd left their pack 'n play in the states, the plan was to stop at a toys 'r us (yup- they have them in the uk too) at some point and pick one up. This point ended up being after we'd done the tourist stuff in bath, and were on our way to the hotel. Turns out that the closest toy 'r us was 30 mins away, and it closed in an hour. Before buying one, *ab* called the hotel once more to make sure they didn't have anything, and was told (sternly, at that), "Sir, you already have two cots in the room." He told them that we had two rooms, so space wouldn't be a problem. The kids were ready for dinner, so after some discussion, *kb* dropped me, *ab* and the three kids off at the hotel so we could check in and get them some food. After getting the keys and dragging three kids, a stroller, several bags and a suitcase up a flight of stairs (because they didn't have a "lift"), *ab* opens the door, and says "oh my god. There are two pack 'n plays in here!" They even said pack 'n play on the side. He called *kb* who had yet to reach the store, and she laughed the entire way back. Next time you go to the uk, and need a baby crib, you'll know that a cot is the same thing.

product.review.

For years and year, my dad used listerine after brushing- the blue kind. Once I came around to the whole flossing and rinsing after brushing idea, I too started using listerine. Sure, my mouth burned and my eyes watered, and I swear my gums felt swollen afterwards, but my mouth felt nice and fresh and clean. I felt I was doing something to keep my teeth from falling out of my head, plus, my dad's a pretty smart guy, so why not follow in his footsteps. Then everything changed. Several months ago, I learned that he had switched over to act. I wasn't sure what to think at first. Listerine had been such a stable (or is it staple? I never can remember...) product in his life- something I associated with him- and the thought of him swishing with anything else was more than a little shocking. Then he told me about the fluoride- act has it, listerine doesn't, and the fluoride is what closes up those little holes in your teeth and makes them stronger. So I decided to give it a shot. I've been using act faithfully since last fall, and I've never really liked it. It leaves a fake sweet flavor in my mouth after rinsing, and never really makes my mouth feel clean like listerine did. Well, today everything changed. While browsing the isles in my local cvs looking for new deodorant, I came across a new product, listerine tooth defense. Yup- this minty flavored purple liquid combines both fluoride and the sharpness of listerine into one bottle, and it leaves my mouth fresh, without the gross aftertaste. A+.

new.bag.

I got my sleeping bag! I went over to rei today to check them out since this weekend is packed, and I needed to use my 20% off coupon by sunday. I was still pretty torn between the north face cat's meow, and the mountain hardwear bag I liked, so I figured I'd try them out and talk to a bag-smart employee who could steer me in the right direction. This is what I learned. The benefits of down bags over synthetic are mainly the packing size and the weight. They tend to compress more, and are generally lighter than synthetic bags. Other than that, synthetic bags (at least the good ones- not target ones) appear to beat the down in the areas that would be important to me- mainly warmth. Once down bags get damp, they stop insulating, and you get cold, cold, cold. Synthetic ones can apparently get pretty wet, and still keep you warm. They also dry a heck of a lot faster, and the loft stays around instead of flattening out. Some of you non-campers out there may question how often sleeping bags get wet. You're probably thinking that the chances of this happening are nil, and I'm sacrificing weight and compactibility for something that will never come in handy. Let me tell you- every year since my sister started camping with us, up until a couple of years ago, it has rained. Not light showers either- but drenching, squish to the middle of the tent and don't bump the sides, downpours. Once or twice (when we had our old canvas tent) my brother and I moved to the car and left our dad and *j* and *k* to weather out the flood. Needless to say, we've taken many trips to the dryer section of local laundromats over the years. Even now, with my own fancy water "proof" north face tent, there are times I wake up and condensation has built up on the floor of the tent under my sleeping bag, and everything's a little damp. Don't get me wrong- this tent stands up great in rain and wind, and keeps things remarkably dry. When it comes down to it- if you're sleeping outside under a few layers of nylon, there's no way to stay completely dry. So, after climbing into many sleeping bags on the raised platform at rei, I finally decided on the cat's meow. It's not as claustrophobic as I was expecting, there's extra padding in the feet and hips region (where women tend to lose more heat) and it actually weighs less (at 2lbs, 14 oz) than the down bag I was considering. Not bad, not bad! Now I just need to find a campground that's open before memorial day weekend.

some.london.pictures.

I posted a bunch up on my flickr account (click the link over there on the right), but here are some to start you off. First up is *sb* working the chopsticks at wagamama's in bath, england. (I loved this place, and was excited to learn that they're opening their first u.s. restaurant in faneuil hall at the end of april. Who's coming?) We took a weekend trip to bath the last weekend before I returned to boston. It was like a vacation within a vacation for me. On the right is *gb* listening to the audio guide at the roman baths. They had a children's version which I checked out, and thought was pretty cool. Instead of just giving the history and info like they do on the adult version, the kids got to listen to a story told by "real" roman characters. The whole tour was actually great, something I wasn't really expecting so much. It was built on hot springs, and you could see the water bubbling and steaming. I really wanted to touch it, but there were signs saying that the water is untreated, and not safe to touch. Bummer. Next up is my london family hanging out by the great bath in the roman baths. I started calling their flat "home" while I was in london. It's nice to have a couple of places where you feel as comfortable as you do in your own home. Their place is definitely one of mine.

brrr.

I brought cold weather to london. It's actually been warmer in boston this week than it is here. This is particularly distressing since the week before I arrived, it was super warm- like no coat just t-shirt weather. All the grass and trees are bright green, and there are tons and tons of beautiful colored flowers all over the place. I brought mostly warmer weather clothes, and only a light coat, so I've been doing plenty of laundry to make sure I have something warmish to wear. Not only is it cold here, but it's been snowing a ton. How often does it snow in london? Very, very rarely. I brought the snow storm with me when I flew overseas. Marvelous.

fourteen.hours.and.forty.five.minutes.

Big day for me today. Got up at 8am london time (4am boston time), went over to the half price ticket booth at leicester (lester) square and picked up three tickets to blood brothers- the musical I'd wanted to see years and years ago in nyc, but had left before I'd had the chance. Then over to the orla kiely flagship store, a dream-come-true for me. From there I took the tube to meet *ab* at the tower of london, took a tour (which was quite fascinating, actually), saw the crown jewels and the cullinan diamond info, walked over the tower bridge (the bridge you think of when you think of a london bridge), up the thames, over the london bridge (a rather boring bridge) and back down the thames to *ab's* office. Took the tube home (yup- I call their place in london home now) and walked down the high street before getting back around 5pm (1pm for most of you). Took a shower, changed clothes, ate leftover indian, and grabbed a minicab over to the theater at 7pm (3pm). The show was great- we even went to the bar during intermission and ordered three glasses of wine, but ended up with a bottle (it was apparently cheaper) and got to pour the entire thing into three plastic cups to bring back into the theater with us. Upon arriving home at 10:45pm (6:45pm) I found that my heels were a bloody mess. I'm talking- blood all over the backs of my shoes, on the inside of my pants, and running down my ankles. Yup- both of them. I clearly deserve a foot rub.

virgin.atlantic.rocks.

So no posts over the past few days with good reason- a huge snowstorm. My flight was scheduled to take off at 8:40pm on friday night, the same day boston was hit with a very snowy, very windy storm. At the time we were leaving for the airport (*ja* drove me in- thank you!) there was no delay or cancellation, despite the rough driving. We got there around six, and grabbed a quick dinner before I went through security. Around 7:30, they announced that the flight would be delayed since the runways were shut down, and the incoming flight from london wasn't allowed to land. (It circled over logan for almost two hours (after a seven + hour flight from london) and eventually had to be rerouted to jfk since it was running low on fuel.) They were convinced that we would get out, but it would just take some time until the plane could get refuled and out of jfk (since they were overloaded down there with all the rerouting going on). There seemed to be a bit of a competition going on between virgin atlantic and british airways- both had flights going to london heathrow, and both were waiting for rerouted planes to make it back to logan. Unfortunately for me, british airways was the only one to get out that night. Mainly because their plane had been rerouted to montreal instead of jfk. We all kept hanging around, hoping we'd get out of there, but finally, at 3:30am, they cancelled our flight and rebook us all on a 7:40pm flight saturday night (23 hours late). An icelandair flight to zurich had been cancelled around 1am, and I listened as they announced that there were no more hotels available in boston, that everyone was on their own, and that they wouldn't be able to be rebooked until the 19th (moday). I worried that we'd end up in a similar situation, but that wasn't the case. Virgin atlantic set us all up with rooms at the seaport hotel (super nice) along with food vouchers to their restaurant (super delicious) and bused us over and back. They apparently got about 150 rooms, and we had $45 to spend on food. I considered going home since they offered to pay us for a taxi there and back, but decided to take advantage of a free hotel. I have to say- if I couldn't be in london, this was the second best place to be. I snuggled in the super warm, high thread count sheets, and slept for four hours before getting up to shower before breakfast. I filled up on high quality breakfast food, took an hour nap, and then had a glass of wine with lunch before checking out at 3:30 and hoping on the bus back to the airport. Our flight got out on time, and I caught about 1.5 hours of sleep before landing in london at about 6:45am their time (so 2:45am boston time). I met up with *kb* and we got back to their place soon afterwards. I'd decided to make myself stay up until a regular bedtime in order to get the jet lag over with, but since I'd only had about seven hours of sleep over the previous 48 hours, this was easy said than done. Regardless, I managed to do it, mostly by keeping busy and doing some touristy stuff. They had a babysitter come at 7, and the three of us went to a gastro pub called the fat badger for dinner. (I'll write another post specifically about this later on.) It was unbelievably good. Then we went to the windsor castle for drinks afterwards, and this was easily the coolest, best bar I've ever been to. (On a sidenote, it's sad that the british folks can still smoke in bars. I was very stinky when we got home, and now have to wash my jeans again.) When I fell into bed at 11pm (7pm boston time), my body was happier than it had ever been to lay down. I slept for 11.5 hours, and woke up a new person. Jet lag? No longer applicable.

london.countdown.

Twenty one hours and thirty seven minutes to go. If the snow screws with my flight, I'll be pissed.

hiking.with.little.people.

I took the girls on the skyline trail in the blue hills today since it was almost seventy degrees. I was a little worried about how they'd handle it since it's one of the more challenging hikes, but since it's also the one I know the best, I figured I'd go for it, and turn around if need be. *m* and *l* were amazing out there. They scampered up steep, rocky inclines, and hopped down the equally tricky declines. Even five year old *e* was a trooper- I only held her hand at the steep parts since she's so tiny and her legs are so short. We finished the whole thing in two hours and eight minutes- just a little longer than it takes me when I go with people my own age.

iPod.proposal.

I've been playing around on the apple website recently (since I've been looking into the the nano and nike combo) and I'm really happy with the free laser engraving they offer for the iPods. I like to enter in different stuff to see it show up on the model iPod. Today I was thinking about whether or not they have restrictions on what they will and will not print. It will pretty much let you enter in anything, but who knows what happens once you actually try to order it. Maybe there should be a website with the most creative iPod engravings. I think that someone should propose on one. They could write something like "I love you...will you marry me?" All of you who know me should remember this in case you ever need to suggest it to someone. Got it?

ten.times.too.slow.

I've been working on this new mendelssohn piece, and I really like it. It has some really difficult tempo sections, so I decided to listen to it online to make sure I was hitting them all right. Turns out that I have the beats down, but I'm playing the song way too slow. Not a little too slow, but a lot too slow. In fact, the piece is supposed to be played so fast that I doubt my fingers would be physically capable of it. Geesh.

london.countdown.

Four days, twenty-two hours, and forty-six minutes until take-off. I'm gathering supplies. So far, I picked up some non-british items from costco (kraft easy-mac, flintstone vitamins and mrs. dash) along with infant tylenol and an iPod shuffle. Some stuff will have to wait until the end of the week, and more stuff is scheduled to arrive via fedex and the likes. I'm impressing myself with my organization level. I have a list of things to bring, all categorized under headings (running gear, shoes, clothes, etc) and I'm thinking things through instead of using my normal packing method- ie. shoving as much stuff as possible into the chosen suitcase and hoping I don't forget something. I guess that my backpacking trip really did help prepare me for future packing challenges. After that month, this is a breeze!

right.place.at.the.right.time.

I lucked out today. I met up with *ba* and *ja* for lunch today out near *ja's* place (mexican, and darn good) and after hanging out for a bit, left to drop *ba* off at his parent's place since he had a family commitment at 5pm. I went in to say hi since I hadn't seen his parents in years, plus his two and a half year old niece was there (along with a large portion of his extended family). They invited me to stay for dinner, and after being assured I wasn't intruding, I accepted, and tried several different delicious quiches and a big salad. (Did I mention that we'd gone out for mexican?) The commitment he had to be back for was a concert by the indian hill orchestra, and since his grandmother had hurt her arm (and ended up with six stitches) the night before, they had an extra ticket. After making sure I wasn't imposing again, I thanked them for the invitation, and tagged along with his mother, two aunts, soon-to-be sister-in-law, and family friend for a great concert. Both *ba* and I are piano players, and actually appreciate classical music, so we were both practically drooling throughout the last work- rachmaninoff's concerto no.2, op.18- as the pianist carried an incredibly complex piece. We got back to his parents house around 10:30pm, and went straight for the piano, where we worked out some new duet pieces. As soon as I get copies of them, there will be no stopping me!

defrost.

I had a dream a week or so ago that I keep meaning to post about, but seem to always forget. Here it is.

I'm with the girls, or some other kids, and we're in a big factory with rows and rows of shelves. After talking to a man, we get a box to bring home with us. He reminds us to keep it in the freezer until we need it. (What's in it? I bet you're thinking an ice cream cake.) We get home, put the box in the freezer, and then clean out an old fish tank. We cover the bottom with wood shavings, hook up a little water bottle, and take a hamster out of the box from the freezer. He's frozen (clearly), but we stick him in the cage anyway, and after a little bit, he defrosts and is a-okay. We do this seven times, and have a cage full of hamsters. As we know, hamsters have a relatively short life span, but we're prepared- there's 156 other frozen guys hanging out in the freezer box. They all look the same (which is just like my childhood hamster, pinky, who was an allover blond with a pink nose- thus his name) and I'm guessing this is to ease the replacement process when one kicks the bucket.

The subconscious is a spectacular thing. I can't believe it took me this long to post about it.

neglected.child.

I have a funny story. (Sorry for sharing this mom, but it's just too funny not to.) My sister *j* had her gallbladder out three days before christmas. She was in serious pain that morning (which she's since heard is worse than childbirth), and woke my mom up at 7am to bring her to the hospital. My mom got right up...and then went into the bathroom to blowdry her hair before bringing *j* to the hospital. Even though there were other reasons behind her needing to do this, we'll never let her live it down. Cut to last night. My parents and *j* met up for dinner at one of their favorite italian places about 20 minutes from the house. My dad drove straight from work, and met them there for dinner. Afterwards, he headed home while my mom and *j* went into marshalls, which is in the same parking lot area. After she found some cute shoes, *j* went looking for my mom to ask her opinion. Not able to find her, *j* bought the shoes, and then must have gone into the parking lot to get in the car. Which wasn't there. Our mom had left *j* at marshalls by herself, with no way to get home. My mom has a cell phone, but leaves it in the charger at home, so *j* couldn't even call her to turn around. She had to call the house, where our dad was by this point, and he sent my mom back to get *j* once she got home. Apparently, our mom thought that my dad had gone into marshalls too, and *j* had left with him without telling her. As *j* says, "I might be dad's favorite (which she is), but I'm definitely not mom's." Now we're down to three contestants.

poor.*j*.

I brought *j* to my two classes at the gym today. She came on monday as well, and was still sore from the weights class. Today's classes are taught by my favorite teacher, jenn. She picks on me throughout both of the hour long classes, and makes me work harder than I would otherwise think possible. *j* liked today's classes better than monday's- she said that jenn reminded her of sarah jessica parker and someone else- I can't remember who. I told jenn that she could pick on *j* too, but since she didn't realize that *j* was my sister until the end of the first class, she didn't want to scare away any friends by torturing them. She did make *j* do a plie squat by herself since she tried to give up before jenn wanted us to be done. I think she'll be awfully sore tomorrow.

the.gods.are.smiling.on.us.

My sister *j* and I had a very successful shopping trip tonight. She needed new jeans (as did I) and since part of the svelting challenge this week was to skip a regular workout and spend some quality time doing something with someone who's important to you, I decided to skip out on my planned treadmill run, and head over to the gap outlet with her. She's on spring break this week, and while most of her friends are somewhere warm, she's stuck back in the boston area with me dragging her along to the gym. Lucky *j*. Back to the gap. She had to drive in from our parents place, so we didn't get over there at 8:30pm, but since it's open until 9:30, we were good. I wasn't interested in spending a lot on jeans since hopefully, they'll just be too big for me soon, but I did need at least one new pair since my others are falling down. It's a little embarrassing. We each grabbed four or five pair in different cuts and sizes, and headed to the fitting rooms. I was debating between a dark pair with no stretch, and a lighter pair with stretch, but after modeling them for *j*, choose the dark ones. I also got a pair of navy pinstripe pants which will come in handy in london. *j* paid first, and while the guy was ringing up my purchase, she noticed that the dark jeans rang up at $9.97 (as opposed to their listed $39.99). He confirmed that that color was on sale, and said he was pretty sure they had a bunch more in the back. At that price, I wanted another pair, as did *j*, so he went back to check. We tried to hold back our excitement in case they didn't have any in our sizes, but he came out with two pair- one for each. Once we got home and tried on the jeans, we made the decision to go back tomorrow so *j* can return the full price pair she'd bought first, and hopefully pick up another pair for $9.97. I might even get a couple in the next size down. We're giddy with excitement.

(After this successful jean trip, we stopped at target (which was open until 10pm) and got everything I was looking for- the last two packs of wrist weights that I had a raincheck for from a month ago (which they haven't had the last couple times I've been there), pure zone face wash which I can't find anywhere else, and four three packs of stride gum. On sale.)

woo.hoo!

I ran four miles tonight. While this may not be very impressive for all you marathon runners out there (*cough* evil twins *cough*), it's very impressive for me. Including my warm up and cool down, it totaled 4.41 miles! This makes the possibility of running a 5K much less scary!

closed.eyes.

I spent some time in my much neglected darkroom today developing film that has been sitting around since mid-december. As I was rolling the film onto the reel (like this one) I realized that I always shut my eyes. This is particularly perplexing, because I'm doing all this in a pitch dark room. Even if I were to keep my eyes opened, I wouldn't be able to see myself rolling the film. I guess that it does rely heavily on your sense of touch- needing to curl the film just so while feeding it onto the reel- but I'm interested in where I picked up this habit. I guess I'll never know, unless I go in for some hypnosis sessions.

happy.birthday.*b*.

Today's my brother's birthday. Happy birthday *b*! He's out in san francisco for a week and a half- I think for a conference or something. I waited until 4:30 boston time before calling, since I never know what he's up to at night, and didn't want to wake him up too early on his birthday. He was at lunch with a friend. I said happy birthday. He told me he kept forgetting it was his birthday, and when a friend texted him "happy birthday" this morning, he thought it was a joke. Now we know why he forgets our birthday's- he can't even remember his own. So sad.

less.than.two.weeks.

I just got really excited about my trip to london. I leave in less than two weeks- on a red eye the night of march 16th. I've been planning on visiting my friends there, but it was always so far away, that it didn't really hit me until today. I managed to get a pretty good price on a direct flight there and back (no 11 hour layovers for me!) a month or so ago. I'll get there bright and early at 7:10am london time (so 2:10am east coast time) on st. patrick's day, and will be there until the following sunday- the 25 around 2:30pm. I was at the gym this morning, and the teacher for my favorite saturday class told me that she probably won't be here next week, but she'd see me the following week. It wasn't until I was in the car that I realized I'll be in london that week. Then I saw that *ab* (my london friend) had called and left me a message while I was in the gym, and I got all pumped up. I was talking to him about what stuff they needed (since I'll have a large suitcase with plenty of room for all the american stuff they don't have over there) and what they had planned for that week. We're going to see a show- which is exciting. I'll have to remember to pack something kind of dressy.

new.bag.

I'm having a dilemma. I decided that I want a new sleeping bag- not want so much as need, actually. I have two right now- one that's about 15 years old, and probably 5 pounds heavier than when I got it due to dust mites, and a seven year old one that I got for less than $25 (I think it was actually $22.88 on clearance) at target. I'm not sure why I thought it was okay to buy a sleeping bag at target. Don't get me wrong- it would be perfect for the overnight sleepover at a ten-year-old's house, but it's huge and heavy (and therefore not convenient to bring on the backpacking trip I'm planning to take sometime in the spring), and it's too short for me. I don't think that I realized they make sleeping bags in different lengths, but since I'm 5'9", one that's meant for people up to 5'6" doesn't quite cut it. My toes aren't happy being jammed at the bottom while my shoulders stick out at the top.
So- right now I'm faced with three issues:

1. The cut. Almost all the good sleeping bags are mummy shaped, which I feel rather claustraphobic in. My 15 year old one is a mummy, and I usually unzip about a foot of it from the bottom so I can stick a leg out. This is fine in the summer, but not so great when it's colder out. However, I don't want a regular rectangular one that won't be comfy and warm (as well as compressible), which brings me to number 2.

2. The warmth factor. My instinct is to go with a warmer rated sleeping bag- probably a three season that's in the lower temp range (three season's are usually between+15F to +32F). Though I've done it before, I can't really see myself camping in the snow anytime soon, so I'm not even considering a four-season bag. My only concern with this is that I'll be too hot in the warmer summer months when I'm more likely to use it. I suppose this isn't really a dilemma though, I can just unzip the whole thing.

3. Finally- whether to go with the down or synthetic fill. I haven't researched this one enough to even wager a guess.

All this came about when I got my rei membership dividend check in the mail today. Since I got a bunch of stuff there for my europe trip, I paid the fee, and now get back 10% of my yearly spendings for life. (You can bring the check to the store and request cash, but it's clearly made easier to apply it to future purchases.) Plus, until april 1st, I have an extra coupon for 20% off of one item- in this case, a sleeping bag. Boy oh boy. I need some input from all you outdoorsy readers! Here's one I'm considering right now.

fig.tree.

Today I got a forwarded message from *ap.* Normally I'm not a fan of the forward, but that's because most of them have that clause where you're suppose to forward them to a bunch of other people within six minutes, and if you don't, you and everyone you love will be struck by lightening and killed instantly. I always just delete them, but still don't like the possibility of being fried alive. Anyway. Today's forward had no forward clause, and it was really interesting. It separated the year into increments, and then assigned a tree to each group. You find your birthday within the groups, then see which tree you are, and finally read the description of the tree. This is mine:

Jun 14 to Jun 23 - Fig Tree

Fig Tree (Sensibility) -- very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates
contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, great sense of humor, has artistic talent and great intelligence.

It's pretty much straight on- except maybe the part about animals. Not that I dislike them, but I'm not one to get excited about petting dogs or cats. Mainly I just want to wash my hands afterwards (although this is probably because I'm allergic to them). The e-mail's too long for me to post here, but if anyone has any requests, post a comment with your birthdate and I'll post your tree info.