I'm safe and sound at the Renaissance Hotel in Reading typing like mad at 9p a minute on a strange keyboard. The meeting in Rochester Tuesday (yesterday? hard to tell at this point) went well...
It was wierd flying west to Chicago to catch a plane east to London, though [my colleague] Nick Lanier said we mostly went north on the international flight. Our plane was an hour late, so we had a nice dinner at the Wolfgang Puck while we waited. I got stuck in a center seat, but slept ok and don't feel too bad. Weather is nice, a tad windy but nice temperature. I picked up my car and drove to the Hypermarket on Bath Road (remodeled since we were last there, but still lots of nice food) and got a picnic: Red Leicester cheese, honey Yorkshire ham, baguette and English butter, clotted cream and fresh strawberries. I've checked in, and they have this coin-operated computer in the lobby to write. I'll bet I can write from AWE when I am there, but I'll try to keep people notified of what is going on. There are 8 LANL people here, maybe we will all meet up for dinner. England is in mourning: Michael Owens tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and though they are through to the quarter finals everyone is worried. (Well not everyone: one BBC announcer was mostly talking about how "dishy" some of the English players were.) The other big news is Royal Ascot, with top-of-the-hour bulletins on what hat the Queen was wearing. Fun to be in a foriegn land.
Marilyn had a killer day yesterday. When I briefly called from Chicago before hanging up my cell phone for the duration, she was driving around Daramiramascotta or whatever still looking for Amy. I hope after 12 hours in the car yesterday (I'm sure with breaks) she didn't even LOOK at a car today.
---Cris
[At about this point, we found the camera which had been lost in the car...]
Shortly after Cris called, we found Amy and drove right into her garage. We had some heavy rain from a lightning storm and the bugs were plentiful and big.
It was like Amy and I were sitting in Sanfa Fe talking and enjoying each other as we alwlays had. Her year in Korea sounds like it was a real challenge. She didn't sing at all and was afraid to do a lot of things because of the language barrier. The kids are bilingual and Sung has gotten back his language after leaving the country when he was 9 year old. Amy, however, had to work really hard to get a few basic phrases so she could get around. Around 10:30 pm we crashed and I didn't awake until 9:30 this morning. Susie was up shortly after and E got up at 11:45. I jogged, showered and had a leisruely morning as Amy had to pick someone from the Portland airport.
I worked on getting more of the little jobs done and got our electric hooked up
and the Washington Post ordered. That was a service from the electric company.
It takes a lot of time so I stopped and we came down to main street and had
delicious seafood for lunch. I had scallops, E had mussels and Susie had
schrimp, Griffin had crab cakes. It was all so fresh. Last night we stopped in
Bath at the Taste of Maine and E had her first lobster. I shared it with her
but I was so tired, I didn't really enjoy it.
I called Sher to get us a hotel in Arlington until the 3rd and she said I should book it and Cris could take her the receipts so I will do that and hopefully I'll find something good. I did book tickets for Little Women the musical for July 15th at tHe Kennedy Center. FUN!!!!!
Sol glad Cris is safely in England and that we are not in the car at all today. The kids are shopping up and down main street so I could have time to let you all know we are great.
Yesterday, we just drove. We had breakfast in Syracuse and called Sean to tell him we were passing his old university. We made good time to the boston area but then hit some stop and go traffic and it was a long drive up to Amy's little towh. It didn't help that Cris and I stayed up very late in Rochester, trying to get the list made for me and last minute details ironed out.
Okay onto the hotels.
Love Marilyn
_________________________________________
hi i am interupting mom but she said i should wright something to u ( it is elizebeth by the way )
me and susie just went shoping and it was very fun and now we are going to go do something i have no clue what it will be but we will see ok love u
elizebeth!@
We had coffee with Jamma yesterday and walked down to the river
and the kids bounced shells off the water. It's half salt and half fresh and
has tides. Quite fun! Then Amy took us to the beach. We had ice cream
and by the time we got there, it was quite overcast. It didn't bother the
4 kids however. Susie, Elizebeth and Mena were in right away and Griffin
was not far behind. I thought I would go in but it was really cold.
Then we had a late lunch of lobster at a real local place.
Got home and cleaned up and headed up to Chris and Julie's.
We missed one turn but everything else went fine.
Julie had made spaghetti, garlic brad and salad and it all tasted super.
It's so nice to be back in a rhythm of eating because you are hungry
instead of eating in the car all of the time out of boredom.
Then we took a drive down to their church's block party and met a
lot of their friends and the girls had an ice cream and we played frisbee.
We had asked if we could see "So you think you can dance?" and Julie was already taping it so I got to see her scrapbooks and then we watched the show and headed back home. I was delighted that my driving glasses worked very well in the dark on strange roads.
We slept in AGAIN and I had a nice visit with Amy again and a
30 minute jog. Then we headed up to Augusta again and saw where
Chris works. We intend to have lunch here at the apartment and then
see the capital and do a little sight seeing until Julie is out of work.
It's so nice to see Julie Liz and Chris and Julie and head about their lives and activities. I am so sorry that Mary is missing this nice visit with her kids. It will be wonderful though that Dave can stay so long because all of his new colleges chipped in their vacation time so he could go to the funeral and the 2 kids will fly down on Monday. They will have a great family time even though it is such a sad event. I know that Sue had a great life but it is still not easy for those who loved her to let her go.
I've talked to Marianne and she is expecting us Sunday afternoon so our vacation is continuing on. I booked a hotel in Alexandria that has a kitchen for $99 a night *** so hope it is not too far from our new town house. All of the utilities are set up. It is pretty great--they take your social security number and soon know that you have paid all of your previous bills and you don't have to do deposits. We have no renter yet. The folks building a house were just asking for too many changes and the agency said that's bad news. they will bug us all year.
Okay, I'm missing lunch so off I go. Hope you are all well and I will tell the kids where you are eating, Cris. That will make you feel like you are closer. We are in a settlement of women and children. Andrea, Amy and Jamma are all without their mates so we fit right in. It is so wonderful to be with Amy again. I will really try not to lose her again. We are so sypatico, do so many things just alike.
Very fun! Marilyn
Can I believe it has been 3 years since Marilyn and the girls were with me in Reading? My mental images of Susie and Elizebeth here don't seem that long ago, but I guess it is true. I walked around the town this morning, and I can say the British economy is doing well and Reading appears to be booming, certainly on a market Saturday. The older businesses are closing, new ones popping up everywhere, globalization is moving in (I was drinking my Starbuck's as I walked by stores half of which are straight out of a U.S. mall), the people seem happy and prosperous. Lots of restaurants to try; I still haven't decided which sports bar I will go to at 1600 to watch Germany-Sweden.
At the end of that trip 3 years ago we did a long weekend in Paris. This reminds me of a great story from our drive east recently. We were having dinner, at a Macaroni Grill outside Columbus Ohio, and our waiter was a young student at Ohio State. At some point it came up he was from Cleveland, "the best city in the world" he said. The next day, as we drove around Cleveland, Susie remarked on him and why he would think Cleveland is so great. I said, well, people are usually proud of their home town, and you are from Santa Fe which is a pretty cool place, and Susie gave me that teen-age stare and said, "Dad, I've been to Paris." If you know Susie, you know she wasn't being snotty at all, she was just stating an obvious fact. So much for Cleveland or Santa Fe.
I was thinking about what to bring back as presents for the girls. But as I said, everything seems to be stuff they could have more fun shopping for themselves at an American mall. The best things around here are the fresh foods, and they don't import well. If the girls want to reply with ideas, they are welcome to.
I goofed on transcribing the new address of my old friend over here, and am so far failing to track him down. I have his new address I believe, but he is unlisted for a phone in directory assistance, so I may just try to drive by his house tomorrow. I've got some books to read, some writing to do, I'll check out a movie and of course the matches this afternoon and evening, and overall have some much needed down time after a pretty intense few weeks. Sounds like Marilyn and the girls are finally relaxing -- I hope you are all jealous of the lobster they are getting to eat!
---Cris
I don't know how far I will get on this as dinner is in a few minutes. We are now in Plainsboro, NJ and Mary Lou had a wonderful welcome for us.
We finished up our visit with the Maine folks. We had a lovely afternoon with Chris and Julie 2. We met at BoothBay and we could just follow Julie Ann all around the town so that was easy driving. We saw a small aquarium but it was quite wonderful in the variety and the hands on approach and we quite enjoyed it. Then we wandered the shops and picked up some gifts. The girls had seen a miniature golf but the 20 somethings didn't seem too interested so we excused them and they headed home. Thanks, Julie and Chris for all of your care of us and all the fun you planned for us especially during such a stressful time. I hope you could rest up and that Chris and Julie Liz made it safely down for the funeral of their grandmother. It is hard but I am glad that you could all be together. We headed home after our game. Susie started out with some amazing holes in one but then clutched up a little towards the end. Lots of m isquitos!!!! We had a relaxing time with Amy, Griffin and Mena. The rest of the Lalime cousins found other things to do. We ate a fun meal and then played a game. Amy and I had a walk in the morning and took a NY Times to her sister Andrea. The clan was gathering so it was good that we made our farewells and headed onto CT. It was so WONDERFUL to connect with Amy again. I just didn't want to leave her. We have such simpatico for each other and do our lives so similiarly. It is like being with another sister. The kids enjoyed each other as well. The only thing that would have made it better was if Sung and Cris could have been there as well. Thanks, Amy, so much for having us all week. It was great to not have to pack again and to have little pieces of time all week to visit and be together.
We drove and we drove and we listened to the book '"The Devil Wears
Prada". We hit bad traffic on 91 and crawled along.
The girls were really enjoying the book so they didn't mind but my
clutch foot got prettty tired. We got to Hartford and callled Marianne
and she just stayed on the phone and talked me into Wethersfield.
By then it was raining terribly hard and was very hard to see but we made it.
Marianne had dinner all ready and Marion was there.
Then MaryLou dropped in and finally Barb, Marianne's sister dropped in.
The girls said one little old lady after another just came popping in.
Marianne had sauce, meatballs and pasta, salad and garlic bread just
like always. Then we had chocolate eclairs, chocolate dream pie and
cherry cheese cake. The girls were amazed to have 3 desserts.
It was all so familiar and sweet for me. I slept in the little room and the
kids had my old big room and Marianne slept on the couch.
We felt terrible about displacing her but she said she liked it as it
was something different.
I managed a little jog the next morning and we got the kids up eventually. We all drove over to see the Mark Twain house. We had a nice tour guide and it was an enjoyable 40 minutes. Then we tried to go over to the University of Hartford. We drove a little out of the way until Marianne and I found something familiar. The school is the same or at least the music building is the same. I walked out on the stage while someone was having a class in Millard Concert hall and Susie was horrified because of the signs saying only authorized personnel allowed. She has a good respect for authority.
We didn't get home for lunch until 3 pm. Mariannne had bagels, lox and cream cheese for me, tons of lunch meat and bread for sandwiches and potato salad that was delicious--it had mayonaise and sour cream in the dressing and Yukon gold potatoes. Very tasty!!! Then I wanted to get the camera fixed as the chip was full. We got down to the shop and we found a bunch of other chips in the case and felt foolish but as we were driving away, Susie said it was still saying Chip Full. So we drove back and he deleted an old chip so now we have 240 pictures again to shoot up. We headed off to the movies on the Berlin Turnpike. We just couldn't find the theaters. There appeared to be no sign on the road and people just kept sending us first up the highway and then back down after we had missed it. Very frustrating! Finally a man said follow the signs to the grocery store at the next light which we did and tucked in a corner and do wn under from the highway were the theaters. We were 15 minutes late for Click but still enjoyed the show very much. The commercials made it all seem so stupid but it had a very nice ending and a good message if you get a chance to see it. Marianne didn't go with us but had some dinner for us when we got home. We went to bed fairly early as we planned to get into the city early.
We left Marianne's at 8:45 AM, a world record for this trip. No problem getting on the Merritt parkway but I couldn't find the Henry Hudson and went over the Tapanzee Bridge and realized I was on the Garden State Pkwy and headed to NJ went back and somehow managed to drive into the Bronx and down to Yankee Stadium and several other sights so we got a very colorful entrance into Manhattan. We were into Harry Potter 6 by this time so the only time the kids were unhappy was when I ejected the tape and would try to ask where I was or look on the pathetic little maps I had. I bought a tourist book but it mostly said Do not drive into the city--take public transportation!!!!!
We found our Annie and Sean hotel the Portland Square hotel and checked
in after leaving Camp across the street for 25 hours for only $37. We got
organized and headed out. E had left her shoes in the car and they
wouldn't let us go down to it and I had forgotten my cash in my big
suitcase. We had repacked into only one bag. So we got E a nice pair
of shoes at Strawberries and we played the game of how to do NYC
with a credit card only. We had to buy real tickets to Hairspray since
TKTS only takes cash. We bought a Fun Pass but didn't use the subway
enough to make it worth it. We went to the Carnegie Deli for cheese cake
after the show and had our blinzes and cheese cake before they said no
Credit card and so after talking to the manager, she hand wrote out a
credit card deal. So it wasn't too bad. Susie was a little
afraid to be out in the city after 10 PM but she could see that it is light
and lots of people were out. She was amazed to read the Carnegie Deli
stays open until 4 AM and reopens at 6 AM for breakfast. We are not in
Santa Fe anymore.
[Back to the day.] We walked up to St. Patrick's
and then to Tiffany's. E bought a [secret] for Emma's Ba' mitvah.
It is in a Tiffany box with the white bow so we think Emma will be thrilled.
Then we went to FOA Schwartz and E got a Tigger.
A quick call to Sarah, E and Susie's old babysitter and we had the
name of the Mars 2112 restaurant. Sarah had taken Elizebeth there while
Barb and I had a big people dinner one night 6 years ago and E wanted
to take Susie there. The ride was cute amd the waiters were all dressed
up like Aliens and the food, fortunately was good.
Hairspray was very good! There was energy non-stop.
The kids were sad that we hadn't taken them in ABQ so we went in NYC.
It was much bigger and glitzier and the mother played by a man was still
awesome. The message that chubby little girls can have dreams and
attain them too was good. On top of that she toppled segregation in her
town so way to go. The girls really liked it. I'm enjoying having these
conversations after we do things together so much.
I got the kids up by 7:45 this am and we got ourselves checked out
of the hotel and had breakfast at the diner across the street.
We hopped on the subway and went right down to South Ferry
and the boat was right there (I had bought the tickets the day before).
The Statue of Liberty experience is a little desappointing right now
because you can't go up in it. You can't even go up on the base without
having written for tickets 2 days before so they can check your security.
So we had the circle around the lady finished in 15 minutes. I asked the
girls if we could go to Ellis Island. We watched a tremendous movie on the
immigration movement. It was so amazing to think what these people
went through to get to a better life. We had a piece of fudge and headed
back up town where we had great sushi in a Japanese restaurant and
then we picked up our stuff and headed to MaryLou and Nancy's.
The girls were very disappointed that I didn't get lost and only got
about 1 1/2 hours to listen to Harry Potter.
MaryLou cooked us a delightful Italian meal and we talked and
talked and caught up. The girls got to watch "So you think you can dance?"
again and Susie even got to vote tonight. I don't know who is going to
want to wade through this besides my Mom and Cris but now we have a
record.
We will have our furniture delivered Monday the 3rd so life is going along. Lots of showings of our house in Santa Fe but no renters yet.
Love, Marilyn
I am sitting in Steve Batha's room, using his laptop to construct this message while we watch Netherlands-Portugal. It has been a really nice weekend. After breakfast yesterday and my tour around Reading, I finished my picnic lunch from the hypermarket and then went to a movie. I saw "Lakeshore," a chick flick date movie with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves that made me miss Marilyn but I'll rent it on DVD and have a date with her in the future. Nice homage to Chicago architecture that I enjoyed. As I was walking back to my hotel, thinking about what to do next to find Mike and Juliet Dunne if he didn't get my e-mail to his business address, I bumped into Mark Taylor and his significant other from Australia, Michelle, as they were shopping about. Mark is the young man being groomed to take over for Mike at AWE, and was running the workshops that we came out early for this week. He had Mike's mobile number (or at least an old one) so I went to try it. When I got to the hotel , as expected Mike the workaholic had checked his e-mail, had left me a phone call with his numbers, and so we connected. He and Juliet had JUST moved again, for the second time since we visited them 3 years ago, three weeks ago, so I didn't even have that address. I decided to do Sunday lunch-at-a-pub with them today instead of driving around last night, and we made a date.
I watched Germany-Sweden, and then walked over to the Wagamama's I found. YES. there is a Wagamama's in Reading now! Wonderful udon noodles for dinner with some gyoza, and then back to my room to finish with the great Argentine-Mexico game.
This morning I read a little and napped, and then about 11 headed towards Swindon. Mike and Juliet have bought a house in Highworth, about 30-40 minutes west of Oxford (10 minutes north of Swindon for those of you with a map), so quite a ways out west on the M-4. Fun to drive at unlimited speed. Found their place with no problem, and got the tour. It is VERY much like the Dursley's house as shown in the Harry Potter movie, complete with closet under the stair (though there is also a half-bath there not at the Dursley's.) I think Juliet was amused and not insulted by my comparison, but she was correct that the Dursley's is more square than this one. The interior finishes are all circa early 70's we think for a early 50's built house, and they will have much work to do to re-model over the coming years. (Juliet claims she is never moving again, especially not when Mike becomes head of the major sister laboratory to Rutherford in the north near Manchester [apparently a family joke]). They also have pulled up the rug on their bottom floor revealing very nice chevron pattern wood floor that I encouraged them to sand and stain and told them about our experience this spring. The house also has a HUGE yard by English standards, in a lovely town filled with flower boxes where the Chinese take-out is far enough away you can't smell it but close enough (200 steps) to get quickly. And it is only a minute drive out of town to the country side, with the Cotswolds close by.
Juliet has switched to teaching at a large (700 students pre-K through 7 I believe) private school on the way towards Oxford. She had been unfairly treated by the British school bureacracy in terms of "management points" and salary when the deal she had with the headmaster fell through when the headmaster suddenly retired, so we were able to compare notes on our jobs. She interviewed for the job, and then had to say yes-or-no to the job offer that very afternoon with no time to consider or change mind -- that was tough on her. Mike has had to trade in his sporty MG for a Saab; still no kids on their horizon.
We drove to a town one over that was owned by the British Heritage Trust (?) in its entirety to check out an old pub that supposedly had very good food. Its reputation was deserved: wonderful rare roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and excellent veggies and roast potatoes. (My mom's Yorkshire pudding is a little better though.) I think Mike and I boored Juliet, but we tried to include her when we could. And we had an excellent conversation about the science we are involved in and I learned some good things from Mike's experience.
I took my leave a little after 3 and drove like mad back to Reading. I was doing 90, and still wasn't the fastest on the motorway. English drivers rigourously obey the speed limits on the small roads (where there are lots of automatic cameras to nail them) and then make up for it on the motorways. I pulled into the hotel just as The Game was starting at 4. The hotel bar had a TV, but it was quiet and nearly empty, and I wanted to sample some rabble. I called Steve Batha, and he agreed to join me down the street at The Orange. It was filled and noisy, with lots of people in white wigs with red crosses on them, lots of English uniforms, lots of face paint. But it was smoky, and the people were NOT chanting continuously (too many students trying to pick each other up I think) and not really into the details of the game (Ecuador man gets a yellow card, I expected the entire bar to spontaneously erupt, but only a few of us seemed to even notice). So at halftime we went back to t he hotel and finished the game there where we could sit down.
Then I took Steve back to Wagamama's for dinner, and we talked shop, and now I am finishing my e-mail and will hit send and go off to bed to finish the last game there. People kept asking why I didn't go in to London this weekend, and I honestly said I was bored with London (at least by myself), so I'm happy with my weekend and getting to spend time with my friends. Now I have a long hard week of meeting to look forward to, including my talk in the morning. I hope the short drives Marilyn and the girls have to do won't be too hard on them, and that they find a great show to see in New York on Tuesday.
---Cris
A very short message today before the conference begins. Long meeting yesterday, then dinner at a Portuguese chicken barbeque place where Glen Magelssen and I shared a bottle of a wine he had never tried, and then a very bad soccer match before bed (Ukraine beating Switzerland on penalty shots 3-0). I'm getting too much sleep without having all my e-mail from work to deal with, and waking up very early in the am.
I did want to mention one thing for Marilyn before I forgot. At Mike and Juliet's house, because of the so-called drought in England, they have a very nice rain barrel collection system that takes all the runoff from their roof and stores it in two interconnected barrels for use in gardening. I think Marilyn should insist we do the same fancy plumbing (well, not fancy with plastic pipe but effective) at our home in Santa Fe when we return.
Drought: ha! Rained yesterday and a little Sunday, threatening rain today, but we are in dark room with shades drawn all day so it really doesn't matter.
Hope the girls find a good show tonight in NYC!
Love,
---Cris
I am really homesick. I'm not sure which home, but certainly for my family. And I am SOOOO tired of restaurant food. The Reading Renaissance Hotel does B&B, the breakfast comes with the room, and it is a big English breakfast but also some yogurt and some fruits and some breads and a little cold meat and cheese as in Germany. But after a week of trying nearly all permutations and combinations I am tired of it and just want a bowl of Cheerios or a bagel and cream cheese. The beer at the pubs is good (not great, too much globalization going on -- in some pubs you can't even find English beers on tap!) but otherwise English sandwiches are inedible. There are lots of nice restaurants in Reading, but I want to stand in a kitchen and cook some stir fry for myself.
I took Steve Batha to Wagamama's a second time on Sunday night, we went to the Portuguese bar-be-que chicken place Monday, and Tuesday night the conference threw a reception at The Jazz Cafe. It's a place in the wall of Madjeski Stadium (the big modern football stadium in Reading --- The Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing on Sunday!) and we had it to ourselves for the evening with a light buffet and an open bar (with at least one good English ale). There was a keyboardist and singer doing jazz standards in the background all evening, reasonably nice. At one point, under instructions to "keep it mellow" the keyboardist played "Close to You" by the Carpenters and I broke and couldn't stand it anymore, especially when some of my tasteless colleagues actually clapped. So I asked whether he could do Art Tatum or Monk or something, and he broke into Ellington and Goodman (which is certainly a large step up from the Carpenters). Paula Rosen, the British organizer of the conference, se eing my interest in the music, got me to dance with her and everyone was amazed that I didn't crush her. "Beauty and the Beast" and "the long and the short of it" were some of the more polite comments (Paula comes up to about my belly button). We lasted three songs and died, and none of the married couples would join us, but we had fun. I tried moving around from table to table meeting people, but nobody else was moving and the "empty" chair would turn out to be someone's coming back from the loo and so I would move on.
Last night I then decided to be anti-social and took my book the Peppa Sale, the Sardinian restaurant next to the hotel that treated my family so nicely three years ago. Good meal, not great, but friendly service, and I got a long way in my book. Tonight we have the conference banquet down at the Mill House, same place as last time if Marilyn remembers, and I'll probably go to Wagamama's on Friday again before I leave early on Friday.
I filled up my car with gas today. Gas is nearly 1 pound per liter (about $7 per gallon I think somebody figured). A liter pumps really fast, and watching those pounds pile up quickly is kind of shocking. I've done well on the driving, only one event when I misjudged the right of way at a traffic circle and cut somebody off a little. The scariest part is passing the bicyclists on the narrow roads out to the Lab here.
I miss the soccer games at night. England all thinks their team is rubbish and is going to get killed by Portugal on Saturday. They sound like Cub fans.
OK, I need to go back to work. I'll be calling early afternoon Saturday when I get into New York. Love to you all. ---Cris
We made it to Washington DC this afternoon. We made it down from NJ easily. I had great directions from MaryLou and Nancy and only had a little trouble finding the last road. Reynolds St. was a small street and the Washington Suites was recessed back from the street a little bit. I drove back and forth a milliion times looking for Reynolds street. It was a small sign and then suites are set back from the street. We were lazy and ate room service. The hotel is fine.
Somehow, our order got screwed up and the movers will not bring our furniture on Monday. I'm very sorry. I was very unhappy with Lori today and she said she would call them and raise a ruckus on Monday and try to get a date sooner than the 10th of July. ARGGGG! Thank God the suite is fine and we can probably survive here for a while longer.
We had a lovely day with our NJ friends. MaryLou's daughter joined us with her
2 children and we walked around all over the Princeton Campus and then had lunch
(not too good) and then walked to Thomas Sweets and that was very good! I had
my favorite chocolate with mounds bars blended in. The girls found then to be
quite amazingly delicious.
We bought the game of PIT and had a rollicking game until dinner called --we finished in time to watch the 2nd evening of So you think you can dance? ML and Nancy and I sang around the piano during the commercials.
We got to bed at a reasonable hour and Nancy came in and woke me at 7 am and had to say good by. We have some nice stuff from Chanel as she works there. The trip down was easy and we listened to Harry Potter again. We're only on tape 5 and we have 5 to go. We'll have to drive back to Santa Fe to finish. Not!
The Wahington DC hotel is just fine and we have a kitchen. The dishes are a little sketchy but it should be fine. I exercised and we had a great swim. The pool is quite large and is 9 1/2 feet deep. We just ordered room service tonight as we were feeling lazy.
Tomorrow we meet our landlords to get the keys etc at 11 am and wait for Comcast to come. Cris should get in at 5:45 pm so we will go get him. Sad news==somehow our order was not relayed and we are not in line to have our furniture delivered Monday. Lori said she would call and yell at the woman who was suppose to be seeing to it on Monday. She was already out of the office when Lori called. Sigh! Now we are scheduled for July 10th but hope to get in sooner once Cris and Lori start raising Cain.
Okay, the girls are ready for bed so I'll sign off. Hope all of the travelers are having fun and we'll think of you while we watch the fireworks in Washington DC.
Love, Marilyn
After my third and last meal at Wagamama's last night and watching the games, I
got up at 5:30, made it fine to Heathrow, spent the little bit last of my
pounds, caught my 10:20 flight to JFK, read "Memoirs of a Geisha" and watched
"Failure to Launch" on the plane (another chick flick to rent with Marilyn on
Netflix), had an easy connection in New York, and got to the curb at Washington
Reagan National at 6pm to be picked up by Marilyn and the girls. Big hugs and
kisses!! They had been grocery shopping, we went to the suites hotel and
cooked up some chicken and veggie stir fry, did some swimming and I'm about to
crash after Marilyn gets off the phone with Marla (welcome to the mailing
list!). I haven't actually been to DC yet, but we flew right down the Potomac
on a nice evening.
We've been sharing stories, and will plan out the next few days tomorrow. Just wanted to let people know I made it back safe. And I'm not in England, which I'm sure is not a happy place tonite after they lost to Portugal.
One last comment: our landlords are apparently very nice, and amongst many nice actions they loaned the girls a cassette player so they can listen to Harry Potter inside. And Marilyn picked up all our mail and got Comcast installed today. So we'll just be tourists for a few days while we try to get our belongings out of hock. Some good movies just opened, so we'll be checking out the good theaters around here.
---Cris