Mom-a-palooza (Part I)

(November 3, 2008)

It's been a long while since I've done a girl's road trip.

It's been an even longer while since Mom and I have done a girl's road trip.

It was high-time we did a girl's road trip!  =)

Booked a suite at a bed and breakfast just outside of D.C., packed our bags, programmed the GPS and left this parting picture for my honey:

First stop....Starbucks.  (It just couldn't be helped)

Second stop...gas...(that couldn't be helped either)

Third stop...Potomac Mills Mall: 
hours and hours of shopping, walking, talking, more shopping, eating, watching teenagers start a food fight and then scramble and more shopping.
 
It was...heaven.  =)

After we both felt pretty pleased with our many purchases we hopped back in the car and drove to our b&b.

We arrived at the Stafford House in Fairfax, Va to find one heck of a suite!

The bed was HUGE...the ceilings were vaulted...the sitting area was fantastic and the bathroom....well....the bathroom was truly something.....

After checking into the b&b we headed back out to pick up sandwiches and bagels from Panera for dinner.

Exhausted from a full day of shopping, I popped in a DVD while Mom took advantage of the 6 person jacuzzi tub.

Friday morning we woke to a delicious breakfast delivered to our room...it was fabulous.

We took our time eating and pampering ourselves...and then it was time to step outside...

Mom and I were completely mesmerized by all the Fall colors.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous...so we decided to make our way to the National Zoo.

After walking about 15 miles around the zoo we decided to invade Mom's cousins house. 
She lives about 5 minutes from the zoo!

Mom's cousin cooked us a FABULOUS lamb dinner (complete with baked potatoes and fresh green beans) and we helped hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and just talked all night.  It was really neat to hear stories about my Mom as a child....it was...refreshing.  Mom and her cousin had me laughing the entire night.

Five or six hours later...it was time to drive back to the b&b.

We slowly made our way into the suite and crashed.

It was a cool way to spend Halloween.

Laptop ER...

(October 24, 2008)

Yesterday was a very "touch and go" day for me.

Got to work yesterday morning to find my work laptop (of whom I've had a 2 year relationship with) sick and unresponsive.

Panicked, I dialed laptop 911...IT.

IT responded in record-breaking time.  They swooped in, packed my laptop onto a roll-away gurney and whisked it away to the laptop ER.

I sat in complete disbelief.

What if my laptop doesn't make it?  I depend so heavily on it!  All of my files...all of my projects...all of my favorites...what will I do?!?!

There is another computer at my desk that I edit video on, so I turned it on and opened my work e-mail to see if I'd gotten anything from IT yet.  I hadn't.  I freaked out.  Then I realized it had only been 3 minutes since IT took my laptop away...they probably hadn't made it back to their office yet.

I waited.

And waited.

It's a terrible thing....wondering what you've lost.  I felt so.....low.

The phone rang.  I picked it up on the first ring hoping and praying it was good news about my laptop.

It was my husband...with bad news regarding our home bathroom.  Great.  Fantastic.  BLOODY HELL!!!!!!!!!!

I was already extremely frustrated and worried about my laptop and now he was giving me more bad news...on a day that was supposed to be extremely happy for me.  Mom (aka: Yokayama) is visiting from Hawaii and would be arriving in a few short hours.  I haven't seen her in a year!  And now just as she's visiting...our bathroom is not in working order?!?!?  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Needless to say...I was not pleased with his news about the bathroom.

Irritated beyond belief, I hung up the phone and jumped onto the other computer to check e-mail again.

There it was....one little e-mail from IT:
"Working on your laptop.  Will keep you posted."

This sounds serious.  It's been my experience before that they were able to determine the problem within several minutes and then send me a detailed e-mail of what they were doing to remedy the situation.

Not this time.

The phone rings again.

It's IT.

"Your laptop isn't responding to anything."

My heart sank.

"What does that mean?" I ask, hesitantly
.
"I'm not sure yet.  I've tried a few things and it just doesn't respond.  We may have to rebuild it."

Oh no.  I've heard horror stories about other co-workers having their laptops rebuilt.  Missing files, missing software, missing signature settings in Outlook.  This is very serious.
 
Another phone call.

It's my Mom! 

She's landed in Richmond and is heading to baggage claim.  I realized that what felt like several minutes since I found my laptop had actually been several hours!

My husband picks her up from the airport and they whisk me away to lunch.

Seeing my Mom calmed me down significantly.  I told both her and my husband about my laptop going into surgery and they were very hopeful. 

Lunch was great. 

We went to Strawberry Street Cafe....it was fabulous; good food, better company...wonderful stories.  I completely forgot about my laptop.

Then...back to the real world.

After lunch I rush to my desk hoping there is another e-mail from IT....there isn't.

Is no news good news?  Is no news terrible news?  Has my laptop expired and they've been trying to reach me but I was out having lunch?

I check my voice mail.

"This is IT, I'm sorry this is taking so long, I think we're going to be able to save all of your data and I'm reinstalling your software now.  Give me a call when you get this."

OMG!  My laptop's going to live!!!!!

I call IT and they give me the skinny on my laptops condition.

I immediately text my husband to let him know that my laptop is going to make it.

"Oh thank god," he replies.  "I was starting to plan the funeral..."

At 4:26 p.m. my laptop was out of surgery and responsive. 

I checked most of my files, my settings, etc. and everything seemed to be there.

I logged off and whispered to my laptop, "I'll be here when you wake tomorrow morning."

Thank goodness for IT.

Dog in a bush...

(October 20, 2008)

This picture was taken over the weekend when Gridge decided he'd rather lay IN one of our bushes instead of on his nice comfy-cushiony bed.

Jody thinks he did it because it was warm outside and the bush was nice and cool. 

Only Gridge knows.  =)

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland: An Adult Musical Comedy

(October 8, 2008)

Ok folks…this one’s not for the kiddies….

Alice in Wonderland: An Adult Musical Comedy starts off like any bad 70’s flick….the audio doesn’t exactly sync up with the visuals, the acting is putrid (I guess that’s to be expected when the main character is played by a former playboy bunny), the costumes are…stupid---and the activities involved in this film are….well…to be honest…I’m not even sure how to describe the activities in this film...

Think Alice in Wonderland with a few sexually explicit musical numbers, lots of nudity, women dressed up as cats licking Alice dry after Alice falls into a pond, Alice’s discovery of self-gratification after being prompted to rub herself by a talking rock, a completely hilarious scene between Alice and the Mad Hatter (who allows Alice to kiss his….), Alice reviving a Humpty-Dumpty dude who hasn’t been able to get it “up” in awhile, a crazy dude with rabbit ears, talk of an insane Queen, etc.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I fell asleep half-way into the film....and so my review of Alice in Wonderland: An Adult Musical Comedy must end......prematurely.

Why was I watching this movie to begin with?

Check out latintroublemaker's blog for an explanation:

http://latintroublemaker.vox.com/library/post/becareful-when-picking-movies-online-or-you-will-get-a-surprise.html

Don't Ride and Talk...

(September 18, 2008)

I don't know what I was thinking.

I was on my bike riding home from hanging out with my nephews and my husband called so I used my right hand to answer the cell.

I was well balanced and all seemed to be going well so I went ahead and let go of the handles.

"Whoa!  Guess what I'm doing?!?!"  I ask my husband with enthusiasm.

"What?" he asks.

"Riding my bike with no hands AND talking to you!"

I felt so proud of myself.

Next thing I know...my pant leg is falling down and gets caught in the chain.  My left hand instinctively hits the front brakes...my right hand would instinctively hit the back brakes but I was holding the phone with my right hand...so I flipped over the gosh darn bike!!!  LOL!!!!

The phone went flying.

I got up (mostly unscathed) and picked the phone up.

"Did you just fall off the bike!?!?!"  My husband asked with a disbelieving tone.

"Yup."

Serves me right.  I had no business riding and talking at the same time.

At the moment...

(September 9, 2008)

I'm missing the pure silliness that is my brothers...

Movie Review: Hogfather (part II)

(September 4, 2008)

As promised....the dramatic conclusion to this Hogfather review:

We left off with Susan, the monster-beating governess, going to death's house to find out why death is impersonating Hogfather on Hogswatch (Christmas eve) with his sidekick Alfred in tow.

We also left off with Teatime and his gang trying to put a spell on all the teeth they found at the tooth fairy's castle. 

We've now learned that in this world, one can control you if they have some of your hair, your toe-nail clippings or your teeth.  Interesting.
 
There is also a group of wizards at an unseen university that I neglected to mention in the first part of this review (simply because they failed to leave an impression on me) that has been sitting around talking about students, hygiene and a machine one of the students built called the Hex.  (The hex is the largest thinking brain in the world)

Death and Alfred get to a small, dirty house and death reads the letter to Hogfather..."I'd like some food, some warm clothes, lots of toys, etc."  Alfred, ever so graciously says "well he can settle for an apple and a truck" (or something like a truck).  Death doesn't seem pleased.  "What?  You can't just give them everything they ask for...it's the whole socio-economics of the world.  They need to want things..." he says.  Alfred then explains to death about the first time he really wanted something for Hogswatch...
"I was a little lad and I saw this beautiful wooden horse in the window of a shop.  I had my nose against that window all day staring at that horse, hoping someone would buy it for me.  Someone did go in and buy it, and for a moment, I thought it was for me, but it wasn't.  Incidentally, my nose froze to that window and I stood there, stuck for hours after the shop closed.  I put up my stocking and the next morning I got a wooden horse, it was the size of my hand, my father carved it himself."  Death interupts, "and that meant more to you than any expensive toy..."  "No." Alfred says quickly.  "You're selfish as ever when you're 9.  I wanted that giant wooden horse."

Meanwhile, at deaths house, Susan reads a book and is suddenly knocked out by a huge gust of wind and has a dream of a castle of bones.  She comes too and jumps on deaths horse (a white horse) and rides to this castle.  (It's never explained how she finds it so easily).  Once she arrives, the castle starts to collapse and she has only seconds to get out.  Not without saving some random guy wearing a sheet.  She takes this guy to the unseen university (apparently she can see it because she is only half human---death being her grandfather after all) and she asks the professors/wizards to help her.
"This is the god of hangovers," she announces as she throws the guy she rescued from the castle of bones on a table.  He is clearly....drunk and passed out.
"What do you want us to do?" asks one of the wizards.
"I need you to make him sober so I can ask him some questions."
The wizards all look at each other with frantic faces...."you need him sober...so you brought him here?"
The wizards get together and come up with some kind of cocktail that is "pure sobriety" in a bottle.  The god of hangovers drinks it....and passes out.  He later comes to and says he has no recollection of where he came from...that one day he just...existed.
Similarly, this wierd knome suddenly existed earlier in the movie at the unseen university.  The headmaster remembered this and said, "wait one moment...things that have never existed before are just....turning up all of a sudden.  things that we imagine."
To test the theory, one wizard announces..."well I always wondered if there was an eater of socks...you know...since there always seems to be one sock missing."
"To the laundry room!" one shouts.
They all run to the laundry room to find....yup...you guessed it....a wierd little creature that looks like a mix between an anteater and a goblin....eating socks.
Susan doesn't really have time for this so she jumps on deaths white horse and starts to ride off when the god of hangovers is suddenly sober enough to jump on the back of the horse.
"I'll go with you." he says goofily.
"Are you any good in a fight?" Susan asks.
"Well....I can be sick on people."
Content with that answer, Susan and the god of hangovers ride off...into the unknown.

Back at tooth fairy's castle, the wizard Teatime employed to place a spell on all the childrens teeth is having some difficulty in performing his task.  One of Teatimes other thugs has found a big vault that has numerous locks and is instructed by Teatime to open it.

Back at the unseen university, the wizards are taken by surprise to see death (again, impersonating Hogfather) drop down the chimney with gifts.  They confront him and death explains that Hogfather has...disappeared and so he's taken his place to keep people believing.  The wizards tell death about the wierd creatures that are coming into existence all of a sudden and then death sits down and has a conversation with Hex about what's going on.
"What will happen if Hogfather dies?" he asks Hex.
"The sun will not come up in the morning." replies Hex.
Bummer.
"Will the Hogfather die if nobody believes in him?" asks death.
"Yes." replies Hex.
"Do you believe in the Hogfather Hex?"
There's no reply.
"Dooooo yooooouuuuu believe?" asks death, sounding slightly irritated.
"Yes." replies Hex.
"Good, I need you to believe."  With that, death takes off.

Susan and the god of hangovers has suddenly ridden deaths white horse right into a childs drawing and for a second I thought we switched movies to Mary Poppins.

They walk through this fantasy drawing land and find a house, open the door and voila!  They're in the tooth fairy's castle.  They happen upon Teatime and his gang (the gang is a little smaller now because he's killed off a few of them by this point).  There's some chasing that goes on and some crazy ridiculousness.  Susan and god of hangovers happen upon the kidnapped tooth fairy, only she isn't THEE tooth fairy (apparently it's kind of a commercialized business) and once the god of hangovers sees this tooth fairy employee for the first time he falls in love with her.  The two of them run off (making later appearances here and there).

Susan confronts Teatime who grabs her sword (deaths sword, his second favorite weapon Susan happened to grab while snooping around his house earlier) and trys to kill Susan.  Only, weapons don't work in the tooth fairy's castle...because it is built and maintained by childrens imaginations.  So there is no death in the castle.  And death himself can't get to the castle.  There's a scuffle and Teatime falls to his death (so we think) and Susan opens the big vault with all the locks.  Inside the huge room, there's a tiny wireframe bed with a little old lady (who looks awfully suspicious) resting there.
"Hello dear." the frail woman says.
"No." Susan says.  "You're not the tooth fairy."
A really wierd conversation takes place and Susan beats up the old lady...then we see it's not really an old lady after all....it's a bogey man (they said bo-gee, I assume they mean boogie)...and not only A bogey man...THEE bogey the man...the ORIGINAL!
The bogey man tells Susan his story of scaring the children, but then starting to care about them and then he wanted to protect them and you know (hair, toe-nail clippings and teeth can be harmful if anyone gets their hands on them) so he started the tooth fairy business.
Then...the bogey man dies (even though there isn't supposed to be death in the tooth fairys castle).
Then Susan employs one of Teatimes gang members (who actually is a good guy) to look after the teeth.

Back at the unseen university, the professors and students are celebrating Hogswatch when suddenly Teatime falls onto one of their tables.  Apparently, the tooth fairy's castle is located over the unseen university.
He gets up and leaves.

Susan goes back to the house where she is a governness but death is there waiting for her.  She still needs to find the Hogfather.
Next thing you know... death and Susan are riding the white horse over a snowy mountain where there's a big hog running from some dogs.  The hog is the Hogfather before he became the Hogfather and the dogs (we later learn) are the auditors trying to kill him.
Susan steps in, saves the hog, death steps in, gets rid of the auditors.  (death was breaking all sorts of rules).
The Hogfather becomes himself again, the sun rises...and all seems well.  Susan is dropped back off at the house where she invites death in for some hot cocoa.
Susan and death seem to be getting along when TeaTime shows up and trys to kill them.
No worries though, Susan kicks ass.
Teatime dies, death stops time so the kids Susan governs won't see the body and then hands Susan a Hogswatch card.
There seems to be a bloodied feather stuck to the front of the card.  Death explains Alfred suggested he put a sparrow on the card...but that when he tried to put it on...it didn't want to stay.  "It didn't seem to be in the spirit of Hogswatch at all." he says...disappointed.  Susan smiles and thanks him.  Apparently whatever family drama they had was now forgotten.
Death is about to leave but Susan has to know why he did what he did.  Why he impersonated Hogfather.
"Humans have to believe.  It's what makes them human.  It's what makes them interesting." he says.
Susan smiles.
"And can you believe," death continues, "with all of the interesting things in all the worlds in this universe...someone actually came up with the idea of boredom?"

The movie ends...or so we think.

Then we see the words..."a long, long time ago..."

Death walks into a toy shop and asks the owner, "how much did you sell that wooden horse in the window for?"
"Twelve dollars." says the owner.
"I'll give you 50." says death.
"Do you want me to wrap it up for you?" asks the shop owner.
"No, but incidentally, there is a young boy with his nose frozen to your window outside...a little warm water should do the trick."
And then we see Alfred, as a boy, his nose frozen to the window.

This was definitely the MOST random movie I've ever seen in my life.  I can't say that I'd watch it again...(unless I'm drinking) but I would definitely suggest it just for the pure wierdness of it.  =)

Movie Review: Hogfather

(September 3, 2008)

We got a movie from Netflix yesterday called Hogfather.

We're not entirely sure who placed this movie in the queue....perhaps it's a leftover souvenir of the drunken mysteries night....who knows?  =)

Anyhow, we got it and so we decided to watch it....well....half of it....apparently this movie is 3 hours and actually has an "intermission".

I have no idea how to explain this movie....honestly...it's probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

Here's a rundown of the first half:

In a galaxy far, far away, there is a world resting atop the shoulders of 4 elephants resting atop the shell of a ginormous turtle floating through space.  In this world there live wizards, humans, pixies that roll joints, a league of assassins, death himself, weird governesses who beat up the monsters under your bed, the tooth fairy, Hogfather (their version of Santa Clause) and lots of other...things.

We're introduced to all of the characters on Hogswatch eve (Christmas eve).

Apparently, these wierd, ghost things that call themselves "auditors"---though we don't know what they audit, employ the league of assassins to eliminate Hogfather....or...the fat man as the head of the league called him. 

The league gives the assignment to Mr. Teatime, who pronounces his name Taya-Thy-May.  Teatime could be Johny Depps version of Willy Wonka's twin.
 
So Teatime goes in search of Hogfather (who the auditors tell the league they don't know his whereabouts, yet at the end of the conversation they tell the league "don't try to find us...we'll find you....we know where you live...we know where everybody lives...."  Except Hogfather I guess.

Meanwhile, we see this governess (who got a bad highlighting job) putting some kids to bed and then beating the crap out of some monsters under their beds.

Also meanwhile, we see death hanging out at his place, keeping a watchful eye on all of these hourglasses that are meant to represent peoples lives.  As they run out, he grabs the hourglass and goes to work.  He happens to see Hogfathers hourglass running out (that apparently is supposed to be impossible since Hogfather is a mythical being) and decides to find out what's up.

Teatime in the meantime has kidnapped the tooth fairy.

Death can't find Hogfather but finds his sleigh (pulled by hogs of course) and decides to impersonate Hogfather so kids continue to believe in him.  Death takes his pixie friend Albert (who is rolling a joint in almost every scene) with him as his "elf".  Albert is probably the coolest character ever.  He instructs death that his "Ho-Ho-Ho" needs some work.

Teatime and his troupe of misfits begin piling all the teeth in the tooth fairies castle together and he forces a wizard to put a spell on the pile (apparently, in this world, you can control kids when you have their teeth).

Death (impersonating Hogfather) climbs down the chimney of the ass-kicking governess and she's not happy to see him.  Apparently death is her grandfather?

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you this movie got even weirder...but it does!!!

Susan, the governess, looks in a mirror, gives herself a cool "do" and stops time with the snap of her fingers.  Then she heads over to deaths house to figure out what the heck is going on in this crazy world resting atop the shoulders of elephants resting atop the shell of a ginormous turtle floating through space.  =)

Then we hit intermission and turned the movie off...it was bedtime.

Tune in tomorrow for the dramatic conclusion of my Hogfather review.  =)

Twilight vs Southern Vampire

(September 2, 2008)

So I don't know how many of you are Twilight fans...but I found this interesting...

First off, I LOVE the Twilight series and am SUPER excited about the motion picture this coming winter.

Well...this morning I read this article about a new HBO series called True Blood...which happens to be based on a series of novels called Southern Vampire series about a human waitress who can hear others thoughts and she meets a vampire but she can't hear his thoughts and vampires are able to purchase synthetic blood so they don't have to feed off of humans anymore, etc. 

It just seemed really wierd to me that there were so many common factors between Twilight and Southern Vampire.

So I thought, maybe this Southern Vampire author took Meyer's ideas of vampires in modern time and ran with it...only I found out that the Southern Vampire series was started in 2001....two years before Meyers came up with Twilight.

Hmmmm.....

Now, I haven't read any of the Southern Vampire series and I'm in no way accusing Meyers of anything, I just thought it was...........weird.

The New Do...

(August 30, 2008)

Got my hair cut today. 

As usual...they went shorter than I asked....oh well..

Photos provided by Jody:

Smiling...

(August 29, 2008)


My Mom definitely knows how to make my day.  =)

I was feeling a bit low after having a really scary dream last night and so she called me, ran outside and waved to the webcams so I could see her. 

THEN....she enlisted some of her co-workers to wave to me too!  =)

I love webcams....and I ESPECIALLY love people who wave at them!!!!!!!!!!  =)

Love you Mom!!!!!!

Beer-drinking Menehunes....

(August 15, 2008)

Got a photo text from one of my brothers last night...

I didn't really get a chance to look at the text until this morning....
it totally made my day.  =)
Olympia was my Papa's beer of choice.
Simply seeing this can brings back such great memories.....
Like the time my brothers and I were in a hotel room somewhere with Grandma and Papa (many many years ago) and Papa left a can of Olympia sitting on the table.  A few minutes later, he called us over to the table with this strange kind of excitement in his voice.
"Look!" He shouted, pointing at the can.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
The can was.....moving.
It was moving in a half-circular motion...very...very slowly.
We shouted and giggled and Papa told us it was probably the Menehunes drinking the rest of his beer.
(For those who don't know...Menehunes could probably be explained best by saying they're Hawaii's version of leprechauns)
My brothers and I looked under the table to see if Papa was fooling us but there was nothing under the table.
There were no strings attached to the can.
We couldn't figure it out!
We sat there for a long time just watching the can move. 
I remember looking up at my Papa for some kind of explanation....
"That's why you never leave your beer unattended."  He says with a smile.
Lesson learned.  =)

It was many years later when the same thing happened to me with an almost empty can of pepsi that I realized how the Olympia beer can had moved around on its own.
Turns out the condensation from the cold can had formed a tiny circle of water at the base of the can...lightly holding it to the table.  The table also happened to be located directly under a ceiling fan that was on at the time which pushed air either directly onto or into the can causing it to move.

I think I like Papa's Menehune version better....

My Scottish Love Affair...

(August 13, 2008)

I've been exhausted since we got back from our Scotland vacation.

Not because I've spent countless hours going through photos and video.
Not because I've spent days on end trying to get my body back on schedule.
Not because of work, or family or anything like that....
it's because I can't stop dreaming and even day-dreaming of Scotland.
The bluest skies I've ever seen....the pillow-like clouds that seemed to follow us everywhere we went...the intense contrasts of colors....the beautiful shire-like creatures.....the soft ground....the intense sense of history and self-importance....the accents....I can't stop thinking about it......
I thought this was just a fling....a love affair...but I'm starting to realize now....
I may have fallen in love...

UK Vacation (day 11 and 12)

(July 26-27, 2008)

Day eleven--St. Andrews to England

Shane, Si and Gabriel happened to be driving down to England today too (Shane had a tough guy race he was competing in on Sunday in London) so they rented a car and we all drove down to Shane's buddy's house in England together.

The drive was long (but then again, we'd kind of gotten used to long drives on this trip) but we eventually made it to Leo's house (Leo was also running the tough guy race).

Took absolutely no pictures today. Weird.

Turned in early as tomorrow we'd head down to London and catch our flight back to the U.S.

Day twelve--London to New Jersey to Virginia

Woke to the crowing of a rooster who did not understand his job.

Roosters are supposed to wake everyone up when the sun comes up....not at all hours of the night.

Leo should really have a talk with him....

anyhow, woke first at 3 a.m., then at 4 a.m., decided to get up and shower while everyone else was still asleep.

Packed up the car, said our goodbyes to our dear friends and hit the road by 6:30 a.m.

I guess I can blame it on the rooster, but I actually fell asleep in the short 2 hour drive from Leo's house to London.

Woke up while Jody was pumping petrol and got excited about seeing Buckingham Palace. We weren't able to see that when we first got to London, so I definitely wanted to see it on our way out.

Found a car park (car parks in London are the worst...they're small, terribly organized and EXPENSIVE!), parked the car and headed on foot toward the palace.

Because it was still pretty early on a Sunday morning there were hardly any people around!

Felt like the palace was ours!

We walked around a little, took some pictures and then really needed to hit up a bathroom.

Unfortunately, again, it was early on a Sunday morning, so NOTHING was open yet. We didn't have enough change to use a public bathroom so we ended up waiting for a coffee shop to open at 9 a.m. It was pretty comical.

After breakfast at the coffee shop we headed back over toward the palace....

but got completely caught up in the beautiful gardens and parks that surround the palace instead...

Marveled at the London eye (pictured above)...laughed at some crazy ducks....took a quick reading break next to a patch of the Queen's roses (roses that were planted in honor of her birthday) and just truly enjoyed London...

Time really flew by that morning (except when we really needed to use the bathroom and couldn't find one) and the next thing we knew we needed to start heading to the airport.

Not without first accidentally running into Buckingham palace preparing for the changing of the guard...

Not surprisingly, I got extremely depressed as we started walking back to the car park.

I didn't want to leave.

I didn't want the vacation to be over.

But alas...the real world was calling......

We walked alongside and then through Hyde park on the way to the car where Jody snapped this last picture of me on vacation...

and I snapped this last shot of Jody on vacation...

He was laughing at me because I had gotten myself stuck in the park...(there were no openings in the fence he's so cooly leaning on and so I had to walk a ways to get out)...

We got back to the car, figured out how to pay for the darn parking and then drove to the rental car turn-in.

I wish I would've gotten a picture of the rental guys face when he got a good look at our car....(to be fair, we did put that car through hell).....it was priceless.

We went through the paperwork, got it all squared away, caught a shuttle to the airport, got our boarding passes, checked our luggage, went through security and made our way through the beast that is Heathrow.

When we arrived in London 11 days ago the airport was practically empty...today...a Sunday...it was practically erupting.

There were masses of people on top of people...in small quarters...only Heathrow isn't small! It's huge! Yet it looked like a crowded beehive. If I didn't fear for my camera I would've snapped a few shots of the madness, but it was too chaotic.

Our flight hadn't been assigned a gate yet so we decided to get a bite to eat which was a mission suited only for the brave. Jody secured a table and sat with our carry-ons while I muscled my way through crowds to get in line for 2 bagel sandwiches and some water.

After eating, I pulled out a book and Jody went in search of playing cards. (This is the first time he's ever travelled without them)

Forty-five minutes later he had his new London-themed playing cards and we knocked out a few games.

Once our gate was assigned we packed up the carry-ons and cards and headed that way.

The plane boarded a few minutes late (no biggie) and this go-round we had better seats than before....I had a window seat too! It was awesome.

Got the same FABULOUS treatment on the flight.

Watched a few movies.

27 Dresses...so not worth it.

Smart People...definitely not worth it.

Had more fabulous food, watched more movies and then just like that, we were landing in Newark, N.J. 9:30 P.M. Eastern Time.

At this point we'd been awake for approximately 23 hours.

Deboarded the plane, picked up our luggage, went through customs and found out our continuing flight to Richmond had been canceled due to weather.

Ran over the the Continental desk (they were the carrier flying us to Richmond) and asked what to do...the Continental representative typed away at her computer (I'd really love to know what they're seeing on that dang thing...because they just type and type and type and type and you're left standing there wondering if they're actually helping you or ignoring you)......

after about 3 minutes (no joke) she says the next available flight is the next day at 9 p.m.

"That's not going to work," I tell her.

She types away.

"Well, there is one flight tomorrow at 1:30 p.m."

Why didn't she see that one before? I don't understand these people.

"Yes, that works," I say. "Now where do we stay tonight?"

"That's not our responsibility, since Virgin Atlantic was your main carrier they're responsible for putting you up for the night. You'll have to go to their ticket counter."

We sigh. The Virgin ticket counter is all the way on the other side of the airport. We just came from there when we landed. My blisters on the back of both feet had already re-opened due to all the walking around the airport. I wasn't a happy camper.

We trek all the way back to the other terminal and talk to Virgin.

"No, we got you here on time, we held up our side of the agreement, if Continental canceled your flight then they are responsible for you, not us."

Jody and I are seriously not happy at this point.

"You'll need to go back to Continental and tell them it's their responsibility."

"We just came from there, is there any way you guys can call them and tell them that we're coming back over there and that this is their responsibility? Because I don't want to walk back over there and have them try to send us right back to you." Jody says, clearly aggravated.

"We don't call the other airlines, but I'll give you a print out of the FAA guidelines that specify they are the responsible party to help you out." The Virgin manager runs into the back room to print this out and Jody looks at me with tired eyes...."we should just rent a car and drive home."

Ten minutes later, with FAA guidelines in our hand, we trek all the way back to the Continental terminal. My feet were bleeding at this point and I could barely walk so I sat down with our luggage and Jody stood in line to talk to a rep.

An hour later, Jody comes over and says Continental will not pay for a room (because the flight was canceled due to weather, it's not their fault), nor would they pay for a rental car to let us drive ourselves home. And even though all their signs said they were partners with Amtrak (apparently this is out of date), they refused to put us on a train.

All in all, Continental left us hanging....big time....and I seriously will never book with them again. Ever. I would've felt completely differently if they had at least tried to help us....just a little.....

So, Jody starts calling the car rental agencies at the airport....we find one that we can drive one-way, we rent it, we pick it up and we hit the road.

At this point we had been awake for 26 hours.

The first hour of the drive was fine...we were both still pretty hot-headed about the whole Continental thing, then I couldn't keep my eyes open and drifted off.

I woke a few times asking if Jody was OK, he was...but I was deathly afraid that if I fell asleep there was nothing to stop him from falling asleep, so I tried my hardest to stay awake with him.

We called a few people, played a few games, drank some caffeine, talked and then eventually (I can't even remember where we were at this point) we needed to pull over and nap.

We parked in a fire stations parking lot and napped for about 20 minutes before a police officer knocked on our window and asked if we were part of the fire squad.

"No," Jody says. "We're just driving through and I needed to rest my eyes for a second."

"Ok, well this is private property so you're going to have to rest your eyes somewhere else."

So we got kicked out of the fire station parking lot (which wasn't being used in the first place) and found a gas station not to far from there where trucks had parked for the night.

We slept for a good hour or two and then continued on.

Staying awake for the rest of the drive was a complete nightmare.

We were just so tired...but we needed to get home. The madness just needed to be over.

Finally, at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, we rolled into Ashland.

Home sweet home.

Vacation accomplished.