Homecoming

Home at last, home at last. Yea! I've been on US terra firma for 5+ days now, and glad for my return. My homecoming was suitable given the long absence, with no shortage of "I missed you"s and "I love you"s since getting bak. I even got two days of extra good behavior out of it to boot. Of course, her typical 4-year old behavior has returned in full since then!

So today, Lily told me, "I like it when Pete says I'm exasperating." And I corrected her, because I had taught her a long time ago upon my command to tell Peter HE was exasperating. And of course that's what I thought she meant. So she said, "Sometimes I'm exasperating too."

Truer words were never spoken.

More Musings from the UK

1) I can't quite figure it out, but when you want to cross an intersection kitty-corner in the U.S., you have to cross the street twice. However, I have been thwarted in my efforts to cross a traffic circle kitty corner in fewer than four street crossings....Hmmmm...operator error, perhaps?
2) When I was last in England, circa 1989, approximately 35% of all women you'd see walking on the streets or riding the tube wore mini-skirts and black tights. Fast forward 19 years, and approximately 35% of all women you see walking on the streets or riding the tube wear mini-skirts and black tights. Some things never change.
3) Fish and chips are not as good as I remember them to be. Mostly they just taste greasy now. However, they have this fabulous Portuguese chicken semi-fast food place called Nando's that I hope someone will import to the U.S. pronto.
4) The National Gallery is definitely as good as I remember it to be. Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Titian, Da Vinci, Monet, Renoir (my favorite), Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Degas, Gainsborough, Picasso and practically ever other famous artist that's ever graced this earth since 1200 A.D. is represented in this museum. AND it's FREE.

Musings on London

1) Being the word aficionado that I am, I couldn't help but smile when I saw the sign at the rail station reading, "Do not alight here." Isn't alight just a brilliant sounding word? I'm going to advocate using it conversationally much more often. They also say "brilliant" here quite often, which I personally find to be brilliant.
2) They have lots of old things here. The older something is, the prouder the Brit describing it to you is. I saw/visited many old places last night on the "Hidden Pubs of London" walking tour. This is the second walking tour of London I've been on (granted, the first was 19 years ago), but I don't think you can't beat these tours for entertainment or pure value for the price - only seven pounds. It was obviously quite a popular tour, as our group numbered in the upper 40's. Unless you don't really count the Aggie college girls that were along on the tour, because they are Aggies after all. The final stop on the hidden pub tour was very old - dating back to the 1600's in fact, and it was delightfully named "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese."
3) As I sit here sipping a cup of quintessentially British,Twining's patented, Earl Grey tea, I am also reminded of another interesting tidbit from the tour last night. We in fact passed the original Twinig's tea shop, which is the oldest shop in London that's been owned by the same people and been in the same location. Apparently the tea trade back in ye olde days was not unlike the drug trade of today. Plenty of black market tea exchanged hands back then, and the purveyors of said tea wanted to make as much money from it as they could, so they cut the tea with other, non-tea ingredients, making it all go further. So if you were to drink British tea sometime in the 1800's, you would most likely be imbibing a mixture of black tea leaves, twigs, and powdered sheep dung. Yummy, huh? I think I'll stick with my Earl Grey.

Navigating the Underground

So last evening I decide to take myself to Covent Garden, becuase it's supposedly one of the trendy hot spots in London these days and I figure I can find a good restaurant there. And certainly I can manage the Underground, or the Tube, as they affectionately refer to the subway here. After all, I spent four months in England once upon a time (never mind that that time was 19 years ago), and by all accounts, I remembered it being pretty easy to traverse about London on the tube. So I step into the Charing Cross tube station right outside my hotel, by my 5 pound ticket, and proceed through the maze that lives underneath Trafalgar Square, where I'm staying. The station is so large, it takes me approximately 10 minutes just to walk to (and down to) the tube platform. But finally I'm there, having just missed the last tube, but wait another 3 minutes til the next one arrives. And then it's just a quick ride to my stop, Leister Square, where I proceed to ascend to the surface and arrive in Covent Garden! Yea - only 15 minutes and I've successfully gone from one London neighborhood to another. It was as easy as I remembered. I see bustling streets that appear to be filled with restaurants and bars and cafes and theaters (this is the West End after all), and I pick one to begin my jaunt. Two minutes of foot traffic later and I arrive in....Trafalgar Square. Granted, the opposite end of Trafalgar Square where I started from, but Trafalgar Square nonetheless. I sighed, turned around, found a nice Italian restaurant where I dined on spinach and ricotta ravioli with roasted plum tomato sauce and walked the five minutes back to my hotel. Come hell or high water, and tube stops be danged, tonight I WILL find a new neighborhood to explore.

Auf Wildenstein

So a few final observations on Germany: 1) Contrary to the title of my last entry, it was the Autobahn I was on. Turns out even though you always hear the phrase “THE” Autobahn, they really mean “the” Autobahn, as in “the” highway. A generic term in other words. The journalist in me had to get that editorial correction in there. 2) If you plan to visit the touristy sites in Munich, work out on your stair climber for at least two weeks preceding your trip. Munich itself is pretty flat, but many of its attractions (Peterkirche tower, toy museum, Residenz) have lots and lots of stairs. I climbed more than 500 of them on Saturday, 305 in Peterkirche alone. Yes, I’m a dork and I counted them. 3) Leberkas, Bavarian meatloaf, is yummy. 4) So is Munich.

Loved the weekend, because it meant I got to talk to Lily and Peter both days, never mind about work or the time difference. Before I left, I had written out 14 little notes for Lily – one to find and open each day while I was gone. I thought maybe she wouldn’t miss me so much if she had that constant tie to me each day. In any case, I put the number of days until I got back at the bottom of each note. So I was talking to her Saturday, and I said, “Did you find Mommy’s note today? Only 8 more days til I get home.” At which point she promptly informed me that there were 9 days til I returned. And I corrected her and said it was really only 8 days. And SHE SAID the note said 9 days. At which point I SAID the note must have been wrong, b/c it was 8 days. And SHE SAID…are you ready for this?…, “But you wrote them.”

Yes, my daughter is a Smart a**. I think she must get that from Peter.

It wasn't the Autobahn...

...but I knew my cab driver was going fast by US standards last night, approaching 200km per hour. I checked the conversion chart this morning - that's a whopping 123.0315 mph! Kind of cool.

They do take their beer (or bier) seriously here. Even in the AMD Munich offices, the conference rooms are named Hacker-Pschorr and Lowenbrau. I was amused.

More Observations from Deutschland

1) If you're a Desperate Housewives fan, you might be interested to know that the Adam and Eve paintings that appear in the show's introduction sit in a museum here in Dresden Germany. They were painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1526.
2) Sentiment for dearly departed farm animals rarely kicks in wehn I see a pre-packaged pork chop at H.E.B. However, seeing an ENTIRE roasted pig on a spit (which is what we were served for dinner the other night) is a different matter altogether. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the little piggy. But he still tasted good.
3) When you hear an East German saying the phrase "not the", it can sound strangely like the word "Nazi". Ironic.
4) Short microprocessor fab workers in blue overalls and hard hats can bear a striking resemblance to Oompah Loompahs.

We Apologize for this Temporary Interruption

...of the Momsoon blog that is, since Mommy's now officially on her 2-week business sojourn in Europe. I will temporarily replace the Momsoon blog with the "A PR Manager's Diary of Dresden and Munich, Germany and England" blog.

But before I get to Dresden, where I am now, I have one Mommy thing to report. I had no idea they now made greeting cards where your child can record their voice in the card. Peter and Lily happened upon one of these Mother's Day cards for me, and now I get to hear Lily say "Mommy, I love you" whenever I want. I will probably wear the card out, since I still haven't found an uncomplicated way (read: a way that doesn't require you to dial 50 digits) to make international calls from here yet. I think I was maybe supposed to get a calling card or something. Oh well.

So now on to Dresden. It's Pfingstmontag today, a holy day and holiday known as Whit Monday in English. I haven't quite figured out it's full significance, but accoording to Wikipedia, it's supposed to represent a "second Pentecost." And since the AMD offices in Germany are officially closed, I took the morning off to go on a bus sightseeing tour. It appeared that the entire city took off work as well, because everywhere I looked the city is teeming with pedestrians, bicyclists, and tourists galore. And all of them drinking coffee or beer. It's challenging to find a plain old water (or vasser) in this town.

Apart from a semi-preponderance of graffiti and an unsightly sighting of a Speedo-clad Euro, Dresden has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Stunning Baroque architecture, hills, castles, fountains, parks and gardens galore, many of them terraced and all of them in full bloom. The city also sits on the banks of the beautiful Elbe river. Owing to a mechanical issue that delayed my flight out of Frankfurt, I arrived after dark last night, but was treated to a take your breath away night view of some of the financial institutions along the riverside. I'm staying in a hotel near the famous Church of the Old Lady, which was left in ruins for nearly 50 years after the city was bombed out in WWII. Reconstruction finally began in 1993 and was only completed a few years ago. I neglected to bring a USB cable to upload photos from my camera, but I'll send some out after my return. To top it all off, the weather is stunningly beautiful today - sunny with temperatures in the mid-70's.

Among the more interesting sites on the bus tour - a sign advertising an "erotic car wash" and the home of the gentleman who discovered rat poison. This discovery made him very rich. You could tell it by looking at his villa.

Well now, I'll get around to doing some work for the day. Auf Wiedersehen for now!

Work Less, Blog More

In this era of presidential primaries (doesn't it feel like an era?), I thought I'd title this blog in the style of a presidential campaign slogan. Granted, maybe it's a title more suitable of a grade school Student Council presidency, but nonetheless...



At any rate, my excuse (this time) for not blogging as frequently as I should be is that pesky little thing called work. It has a funny way of interfering with more interesting and creative pursuits. Like blogging



And soon it's about to interfere with motherhood itself. In 3 days, 3 hours, and about 16 minutes, I will be en route to Europe for a 2-week stint. That's right. Two entire weeks without my Lily. That's exactly 10 days longer than I've ever been away from her before. In other words, it's an eternity.



Not to mention I will also be away from my beloved. And I've sort of become accustomed to having him around as well.



Suffice to say, Beloved Daughter will be in the more than capable hands of Beloved Fiance for the duration. But I still can't help but wonder what scars I might be leaving behind. (Note to self: Deposit additional $600 in account for Lily's future therapy sessions.)



And if ONE MORE PERSON asks me "Aren't you worried about being gone for her for that long?" I will absolutely, positively lose it. OF COURSE I'm worried. And I've course I will miss here. Along with Mother's Day and her dance recital. :(



What I won't miss is Lauren Chou's birthday party. See Jan. 14 "The Princess Diaries" entry -No offense to Lauren intended.

I know of course that I've actually probably spent more time worrying about being away than I'll actually be on the trip. And it will be over before I know it.

But still...