Moment at the Knitflix Movie Night when I laughed so hard I almost cried last night? Loud buzzing noise happens. Everyone looks around to see what it was. (I think it was feedback from an amp or speaker or something - are amps and speakers the same thing?) Out of nowhere, I hear someone quietly say:

Fries are done.

I had to find out who said it. I professed my adoration for her, very publically. And now? The song is stuck in my head. Still, 13 hours later.

By the way, Caro makes awesome bags. Go check them out.

In case you have never seen or heard the “Ding! Fries are Done” video and song, you can find it, complete with lyrics, here. It is wrong on so many levels. Consider yourself warned.

Julia sent me an e-mail last night about the Knitting Movie night in Austin tonight at Hill Country Weaver’s. She wrote something along the lines of “Don’t you wish you could be here?”

I wrote back and asked if her offer to come to stay in Austin any time still applied.

I’ve wanted to go to Austin since March to see Tara & Julia. Mike said that once school was out, I could go for a road trip. I got to see Julia a few weeks ago when she came here to go to Ikea, but I haven’t had a Tara fix since she took us in for Hurricane Rita. She came to Houston while I was in London, and we were both bummed about missing the chance. Now I get to see both of them! Wheeeee!!!

Yeah, don’t tempt me. You just never know - I might show up on your doorstep if you’re not careful.

I’m really, really feeling the need to make some soap. I haven’t made in any probably a year now because I was still so burned out from back when I made it full time. I just couldn’t do it. I think the trip to Lush and B inspired me though. If I make it, I’ll be posting it in the Etsy store and updating here too. Consider this fair warning.

Now if I could only find my lotion, lotion bar and lip balm recipes…

I didn’t want to watch “America’s Got Talent.” It looked way too cheesy. All of the commercials made me cringe. I just did not want to watch it.

When we turned on the TV tonight, it was on.

We got sucked in. All three of us are sitting here, just waiting for the next talented act or the next train wreck. It rocks! If you have missed it, check it out. If you watched tonight, which act did you like best? The cloggers gave me goosebumps. Angel boy was a bit freaky, but I’m glad they gave him another chance. And while Mike didn’t like the band and agreed with Piers that the lead singer wasn’t strong enough. The eleven year old girl that sang? She was incredible! A-maz-ING. Amazing. Stunning, so amazing.

Snow White should never strip though. That was just wrong.

Regis Philbin still bugs the heck out of me, but fortunately he was a minor part of the show. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go set up my Tivo season pass…

We had to go down to the Medical Center (annual-ish follow-up appointment for Jason’s foot, nothing major) and then dropped Mike off at his office while Jason and I went to have lunch. When we got home, we discovered that …

MY BAG IS HERE! MY BAG IS HERE! MY BAG IS HERE!!!

Finally - my clothes, my hairdryer (wouldn’t work at Ann’s flat, so I sent it off with Mike), my curling iron, my purse, my other Birkenstocks - they are all here! Yeah!

I have more energy today then I have had since I returned. So much energy that I have been upstairs moving out boxes, rearranging things, and moving Jason from his old bedroom to the room that was the guest room at his request. The dust bunnies attacked though, so now that most of the work is done I think I’m going to have to call it quits for today. I really don’t want to wake up feeling worse tomorrow!

I still don’t have full recovery of my voice though. It isn’t quite the sexy, sultry screen vixen voice but more the mouse squeaky voice. I would really like my voice back.

I would also like my suitcase back. British Airways has had it since last Thursday, and I would like the rest of my wardrobe any time now. Mike was told last Thursday night that they knew where it was and we would have it within 48 hours. Sunday he was told that they didn’t know why he was told that, as they actually didn’t know where it was. Yesterday he was told that they had it in London; it seems that even though it was travelling with him, he put MY name on it. My maiden name, which is what is on my passport. Why? Because it was an “overflow” bag - a duffel bag that folds up tiny that I had with me that I put a bunch of dirty clothes in and a pair of shoes I would not need so that I had room in the suitcase for yarn. It was small enough for him to carry on, but I told him it was ok to check it. In his haste, it made sense to put my name on it since most of the stuff in the bag was mine.

He flew British Airways. I flew Continental. British Airways didn’t know whose bag it was because it didn’t match any information they had since I have never flown with them. Sigh. At least my bag might finally make it back to me now.

Now if only I could find my voice again.

I felt the need to answer this survey. Don’t ask me why. Yarn & Order made me do it. She is being quite the influence today, isn’t she?

1. What time is it in Guam now? (best estimate)
Uh, like I have a clue. Let me see … it is late enough on Monday that it is probably Tuesday there by now.

2. Do you like baloney?
Yes, I still do. Even after the horror stories about what is in it. I almost never eat it though, and but when I do it MUST be Oscar Mayer. I agree, the correct spelling is bologna. I don’t care if anyone says it can be spelled baloney. That is just wrong.

3. Favorite shade of green:
Sage
(more…)

I have been remiss on posting about my London yarn shopping experiences. As Julia noted, that is is probably a pretty good sign of how lousy I was feeling.

Wednesday morning, Ann and I were both a little slow to start moving. Ok, I slept in late. Traveling to Wales and back in a day while working on getting sick is a bit exhausting. Once we were up and about, Ann discovered she had to go into her office for a bit to take care of items for a workshop the next day. She kept apologizing, but seriously - it was pretty cool. Just interesting to see the “real” side of life in London, the way people really work. I didn’t mind the detour at all, except it did cut down on Ann’s time at our next destination.

After we left her office, we headed off to Stash. While Liberty is fabulous in the sense of the building, the heart of London, the entire store and all of the goodies that it offers, Stash was by far my favorite yarn store in London. It is beautiful, well organized, Nathalie and Michelle were fun, friendly, and helpful in finding yarns that we would love. We were just giddy to be there. It was worth the extra walking up and down the hill to see the shop! (Note: take a map, and don’t assume it is on the wrong street. That hill is evil.) I was so glad to be greeted by a table and chairs when I walked in the door, because I was ready to drop!

I need to take photos of the goodies that I brought home from Stash, but here is the list:
- Silkwood yarn - Contessa thick n thin for a fun scarf - colors of blues, turquoise, plum, rust and brown
- Lana Grossa Meilenweit Magico sock yarn in color 2523 - blues and greens
- The find of the day: Colour King Cashmere lace weight yarn in turquoise blue (see a theme here?) - 900 yards for a shawl. I may need 1200 yards, so Michelle may be getting a request to bring more over when she comes to the US next month.

And I have to take a moment to say “Hi!” to Nathalie’s Mom! She pointed out to Nathalie that I was in London, so it was nice to get such a warm reception when we got to the shop!

Ann had an appointment back in north London, so she left me at the shop to browse some longer. Once I made my way to the train station, I went back into town and then to the Oxford Circus tube stop to return to Lush’s new store, “B”. Once I arrived, I was sucked back in to Liberty. I just had to admire all those handbags and bath goodies one more time. While there, I decided I really must make some Mrs Beeton wristwarmers. It just seemed like the perfect London thing to bring back since I met Brenda and since Rowan yarn is from England. Just one problem - I didn’t have the yarn requirements with me. I did, however, have Brenda’s number programmed in my phone and I had planned on calling her before I left - so it was perfect! Who else would know the requirements better than her? She helped me out and I left with a skein of Kidsilk Haze in shade 582, a sort of teal green, and Kid Classic in shade 840, a nice light gray.

After I left Liberty, I headed off to “B” for perfume, ducked into Lush for all of 2 seconds (seriously, stepped in, turned around, left), and then went to the cool Japanese store with all of the travel accessory goodies. Next time I travel, I am all set with containers to hold my bath products.

Ann came back to Carnaby Street to meet up with me and we headed off to check out John Lewis, another department store with yarn. They didn’t have anything exciting that we had not seen already, so after looking over everything we left for dinner. After dinner, we headed off to Tesco way north of London (outside the circle, up in the hills - far, far away) to see if they had Fakenstocks like Ann had. She had the most adorable shoes, which I would have sworn were Birkenstocks until she told me that they weren’t. Unfortunately, the Tesco didn’t have them - but they did have a DVD player for a great price, which Ann bought for her flat. It had been a long day, and I still had to pack - mainly pack my yarn! - so we went home and watched “Two Weeks Notice” while I packed. Nothing like a good Sandra Bullock movie to finish up the day! (Speaking of which, we saw the crowds waiting for the London premiere of her new movie on Monday - I took photos of the red carpet, minus the stars!)

If my Mom will help me with the lining portion of the bag, I really want to make the Isabeau Tote. How cute is that? Check out Yarn & Order’s handbag from the same pattern - sweet!

When Mike left London for The Hague, he got super sick. He sounded terrible whenever he called on the phone - I could just hear how congested he was. The whole time I was in London, I was congested. I blamed it on allergies and black boogies from the Tube. You don’t realize just how bad the pollution is until you blow your nose. The day I was in Cardiff was one of the few days I wasn’t congested.

Then I flew home.

I prepped for the trip. I took Clarytin (UK Claritin) and Sudafed beforehand. I drank a ton of water on the plane. And yet as each hour passed, I could tell my ears were hurting more, my throat was getting more hoarse, and my sinuses wanted to explode.

We landed just after 4:15 pm as a storm system rolled into Houston. I found out later that my plane was one of the last to land at Intercontinental for some time. Mike was on a flight scheduled to land an hour after mine. He had the car keys, and once he made it through customs we would go home. Ha! I made it out to the waiting area around 5:00 pm. The board still said his flight was due to land “On Time” at 5:35. It said “On Time” until almost 5:50, when it changed to “Delayed”. Gee, you think?

Sometime after 6:15 or so he called me … from Dallas. Thanks to the storm they had circled the airport for awhile, and just as they were going to land the pilot pulled back up and said they were going to Dallas instead.

I was at my breaking point. I was sick. I was tired. It was 6:30 in the evening, and I had been up since about 2:30 am Houston time. Cranky is putting it mildly. My Mom had offered to come and rescue me, and once I learned that Mike was in Dallas I took her up on it. She and Jason came to pick me up and take me home, which made me very happy.

Mike was supposed to be in Houston by 8:30 pm. At 9:30 or so, I went into my usual neurotic worry state where I was convinced his plane had crashed because I had not heard from him yet. I was afraid to turn on the news. When I called him and he answered, I was a bit snarly about the whole thing. Turns out he was dealing with the fact that British Airways had lost my suitcase that he had with him. It was supposed to be a carry-on, but he had decided to check it. We still don’t know where it is at, but really the least of my worries right now.

I woke up early Friday morning, only to discover that I had lost most of my voice. Mike was also feeling terrible, so while I went and picked up the dog and took her to the groomer, he called the doctor and made an appointment for later that morning. He told him that we both had the exact same symptoms, and we got a “two for one” deal as the doctor wrote us both prescriptions for mega antibiotics.

I still feel like crap, although better than I did on Friday. The drugs leave a very funky taste in my mouth, which is not pleasant at all. I still have a fever, which is not normal for me - I rarely run a fever, so when I do I notice. Mike and I both feel achy and cruddy. It has been a fun weekend around here.

After 3 days, I still have almost no voice. Which sucks, since I really want to get my podcast out. My deep, sexy voice would be almost amusing if people could actually hear me. As soon as I recover, I am recording it. The fact that I can’t right now is really bugging me.

I still have many stories to share from my trip. I promise to get caught up soon. For the record, Ann is my hero, in addition to being a fabulous hostess.

When Ann and I visited Liberty yesterday, we finished our trip with a visit to the Art Bar Cafe to sit, knit and enjoy some “tea.” For us, tea involved soda and water and some toasted crumpets. They were simply delicious!

While at Liberty, I picked up some Rowan yarn - 2 skeins for a pair of socks. (Gee, big shock there.) That is what is in the bag, in addition to some 1.5mm circulars.

The trip to Cardiff today was fabulous. The weather was perfect, the town is great for walking around in, Brenda and I stopped in some really cool unique shops, and then visited the castle where we had lunch and knit outside of the Norman Keep. Nothing like knitting near a 700 year old castle. It was fun getting a chance to just sit and talk with her, and I look forward to a longer visit the next time I come to the UK. Hopefully, I will be able to afford all the goodies at Melin Tregwynt that I want then, along with cooking goodies for Mike from Lakeland. If you ever have a chance to visit Cardiff, I highly recommend it!

I have much to write and photos to share, but I’m not on my laptop right now and that is where all the goodies are at. So here is a brief list of things to look forward to, also known as the list to remind me of what to write about as the sock & I have seen many things:

Meeting Kayla
Greenwich, the Royal Observatory, and that $@£$**$ big hill to get there
Meeting British Bloggers
Losing my wheels
American breakfast, British style
I don’t know who Elizabeth is and I don’t want to be a prostitute
Visiting Paddington Bear
The Jack the Ripper walk with Donald whatshisname
The tube and bus adventure
Liberty
Carnaby Street and the beauty that it offers
Do not tell me what to tip

I am having a simply delightful time with Ann. After being in the center of touristy London, it is really wonderful to be out and about in the real London. Tomorrow, I will be heading over to Cardiff and meeting up with an American in Wales. Yes, that American. Yes, I am quite excited. Wednesday there will be time spent at Stash, the latest yarn store in the UK, and more touristy goodness. Then Thursday it will be time to head for home. And while I am having an absolutely fabulous time here and loving the beautiful weather, I am really looking forward to going home. I miss Jason and my parents. I miss my own bed. I miss home.

Click photo for larger image. To visit this photo on Flickr, click here.

Whenever I travel, I always seem to have a meltdown day about midway through my trip. On my honeymoon, it was the day we went to see the Arc de Triomphe and I flipped out over not wanting to cross the street to see it up close. I was hot - it was hotter in Paris than it was in Houston that day - my legs hurt, I was tired, I was hungry, I was sweating, there was no air conditioning anywhere. Poor Mike, I totally caught him off guard when he said he wanted to walk over there and I flipped out. Why? Why would you want to do that? It is the Arc. See it? It is right there. Not going to look any different up close!

Uh, yeah. I was wrong. There are really cool carvings and it was worth taking the tunnel under the street over to see it. I apologized after we ate. We joke about it still to this day.

Today was one of those days. I hope I have it out of my system now, because I can not handle another one. The day had some really fabulous highs, but it also had some pretty bad lows.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. If we close the light-blocking drapes, we sleep too well. So last night, we left them open. Thank you, Mr. Sunshine, for waking me up. I tossed around for a little while, and then realized that I was missing the BEST light for photographing Parliament. Late in the day, the sun is behind Parliament, so it is hard to take pictures of it. However, at 6am, the light is perfect. So I woke Mike to tell him that I was heading out. It was amazing to see London in this early morning light. People were already out, going to work on the bus, riding their bikes, jogging. In London, you walk miles every day - why on earth would you want to go and jog?

I left with an almost empty 1gb memory card in my camera. It holds 266 images at top jpg resolution. I returned with a full memory card. I went to Parliament, then down to St. James Park, over to Trafalgar Square, up to Hungerford Bridge, to the far side of the London Eye, and back to our hotel. I was gone until almost 7:30am.

I came back to the hotel, talked with Mike, downloaded my images, took care of some phone calls, and then - I crashed. I’ve been battling allergies all week, sneezing, scratchy throat, gunky eyes. It finally fully hit me today. I had to go back to bed. I set a wake-up call and went to sleep. When it was time to get up, I still felt miserable, so I lingered and ended up leaving the hotel late for the “Secrets & Splendors” walk that I planned to take at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It didn’t matter that I left late in the long run though, as the Central line of the tube was down. *grumble, grumble* So with transferring trains and walking, I ended up getting to St. Paul’s just 40 minutes before it formally closed.

However, as I left the tube stop that I ended up going to (Masion House), I turned and looked down the street and recognized the bank from Mary Poppins. That made me a bit giddy, and I sang “Feed the Birds” as I walked towards St. Paul’s. Then, as I crossed the street, out of nowhere it seemed - the dome appeared before me. It was breathtaking. All of the hassles with the tube were forgotten - well, at least softened a bit - and I explored the rose garden for a few minutes before heading inside. Once inside, I was stunned by the pure majesty of the Cathedral. It is amazing.

There were Evensong services today at 5pm, so after I explored the cathedral and visited the gift shop, I took a seat for Evensong. The music was beautiful and so soothing to my weary, tired spirit. It was moving to take part in worship in a place that has seen so much over the centuries. I can’t even find words to express how it made me feel.

Afterwards, I returned to the rose garden because everyone should stop and smell the roses. I sat for awhile and knit on the sock. Then it was time to pick up the camera and explore. That was when I found the beautiful specimen above. How perfect is that? I still can’t believe the symmetry and the circle in that flower. I have never seen anything like it.

I returned to the hotel where Mike had just returned from work. I had said that I wanted to go on the “Jack the Ripper Haunts” London Walks tour, but I simply didn’t have it in me. My feet just hurt too much, and my legs had almost given up on moving. Mike was also feeling worn down, so he was not keen on going to beghin with, so my decision worked out fine. He let me vent about my day, which was a tremendous relief. Then he listened as I shared the amazing details too. Afterwards, we headed out to dinner, this time walking on the Embankment side. It was so nice to just stroll in the evening with him. We had a nice meal, and then returned to the hotel to rest for awhile as we waited for Kayla to call. She came to the hotel and we headed to the hotel bar for a drink since the pubs had just closed. (They close at 11pm.) A quick phone call home to talk to Jason and my parents, and now it is time for bed. Tomorrow we will head out to the Royal Observatory to see the Prime Meridian, and then to a blogger meetup with Ann. Hopefully my sore, aching feet from today will not return, and the travel funk day is done.

Thanks to the Queen’s birthday celebration at St. Paul’s messing up my original plans of touring there this morning, I found even better things to do today! I went on an Original London Walks Tour of Old Westminster and learned many things that I would have otherwise never known about Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the area surrounding them. It was absolutely fascinating. I love to travel because I love to see and learn about the history of an area, and if you are like me then I highly recommend the London Walks tours.

The tour ended at the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchhill Museum. I am always interested in WWII history, so this was a “must see” for me on this trip. As a bonus, since I had just been on the walking tour, I got a discount off of admission. It was incredible to see in person where Churchhill and the War Cabinet conducted operations during WWII.

Right as I came out of the Cabinet War Rooms, I was in the middle of a queue full of people. I asked what was going on, and learned that they were queued up for Beating Retreat:

Beating Retreat is a musical spectacle of sound and colour. On two successive evenings in June, London’s famous Horse Guards Parade, off Whitehall in the centre of the city, resounds to the stirring sounds of the Massed Bands of the Household Division as they perform Beating Retreat, one of the major spectacles in the capital’s ceremonial calendar. The event starts at 7 pm each evening with the salute being taken by Her Majesty The Queen or another member of the royal family.

I walked across to St. James’s Park to watch it, and it was fantastic. In addition, I got to see the Queen! Ok, she was just a speck as she got out of her car, but still - the Queen!

Pictures to come, but now that I have cleared off the camera card (uh oh, that means I took 225+ photos today, so far), it is time for us to head out for dinner.