England, one million years later

Okay, so it isn't THAT long since we returned. But it has been so long that now we are nearer to Taryn & Tom's visit to the States than to our visit across the pond.

Speaking of England, it's currently #hateEnglandWeek on twitter and the trend is pretty funny, with tweets like (I didn't include the hashtag on all of these, but for the non-twitterers out there, the tags just link all the comments together on one page so you can read through what people are saying about one topic):

"They might have invented the serial killer, we perfected it. #JacktheRipper #HateEnglandWeek"
"The only kind of chips I want with my fish are Doritos."
"It took an American to play an interesting Sherlock Holmes. "
"You had to have 6 different James Bonds. We've only had one Chuck Norris. "
"... spice girls ruined my sixth grade year."
"Big Ben isn't even that big"
"Tea time is stupid."


You get the idea... However base and silly these may be, I've definitely giggled and am appreciating the rivalries developing around the World Cup.

I guess posting about what a great time we had during England sort of goes against the whole "Hating England" thing, but I've got time to blog and gall darn it, I'm going to do it. BUT I am still rooting for the good ol' US of A on Saturday, even Taryn is!

Soooo England... riiiight... since it took me a ridiculous time to even post about two days and an even longer time to get around to the remaining 4-5, I give you a pictorial journey through our trip accompanied by a few captions:

  (This is where the "original" American's sailed from, you know, Plymouth Rock! Taryn and Tom live in this lovely city.)

 A bird pooped on Sir Francis Drake's head... no respect...

 We headed to a small village with thatched cottages to solve a mystery... the village of Cockington! Hahahahahaha. Yes, we are immature.

  

 Proper tea time in Torquay.

 Pinkies up!

That's Devonshire Cream and it is AMAZING. We now have some in our fridge to relive moments like these:

 Priceless! Such a good looking couple.

 Album cover.

We had the pleasure of running some fabulous trails in Plymouth, awesome trails:

 Stretching for your health!

There was a dog or two along the trails, we had to stop to observe.

When you run in England there are really old bridges and ruins around you. Cool!

Our final meal in Plymouth was good ole Fish 'n Chips with a Bitter Shandy.

This particular brand was nasty, but lemonade and beer is not a bad idea, like a suped-up Arnold Palmer.

Then we headed back to London where we welcomed into my uncle's flat for our last evening. His wonderful driver, Colin, picked us up from the train station, showed us around my uncle's neighborhood of Chelsea and took us to the airport the following day. We promised him a pint upon our return to England, he more than deserves it!

Et voila! L'Angleterre!

NOW, GO USA!!!! USA! USA! USA! USA!

May the Fourth

I am a really bad nerd. Why? Because I never knew until today that this is Star Wars Day.

You don't know why? Because May the 4th Be With You... Oh puns, you never fail to amuse me or annoy me.

Anyway, Cake Wrecks did an homage to Star Wars (Jen, the author is a hugely awesome nerd) and other Star Wars nerds have been coming out of the woodwork on facebook and twitter. So there you go. May the Fourth Be With You. Hopefully if you fancy yourself as a true nerd, you already knew about this whole thing.

Running Updates

Since Logan and Jody are being much better at keeping the world up-to-date on their running achievements (nice racing skills friends, I wish we were closer so we could run more together), I thought it was high time to catch everyone up on what the heck I've been doing.

So! You may remember in January I stated my intent to run a race EVERY MONTH. Wellllll, that has not been the case. Not because I haven't wanted to, but because my hip/pelvis injury reared its ugly face and I could no longer ignore it. So I was back in PT and scaled my running down significantly. BUT as of March 15th, my pain was significantly reduced, core strengthened, balance in tip-top shape, hips realigned and I was cleared to train again! WOOOO. However, this delay put me way off track for marathon training with June 26th coming up quick, so I dropped my registration to the half marathon and am shooting for a full in October at the Portland Marathon.

Enough about the future. What have I done so far this year? This past weekend I made my triumphant return to the world of racing as part of the "Big DaWg" Relay Team at the Tacoma City Marathon Relay. I highly recommend marathon relays. You never get passed (if you start in the later legs, like at mile 11, with fresh legs... hahahah), you get a finisher's medal (cheating?) and you get to be a part of a real team. It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Oh you couldn't see my head? Sorry, that is my fancy hunting camo Seattle Mariner's hat. 

Joel's fine art work rooting our team on in downtown Tacoma.

Our team was primarily UW employees (plus Maureen!) and we kicked major booty. Or some booty. There were 15 teams, the majority were in the same class as ours and we placed 4th. Our marathon time was: 03:47:08 (almost a BQ time for the under 35 ladies... just saying...). The course was exceptionally hilly and I could not imagine running the whole 26.2 miles especially because of the wind! Sheesh. (Sheesh signalling my disgust with the wind and my bad impression of it...)

I was lucky enough to have almost 5 of my 6.3 miles in Point Defiance Park, sheltered from the onslaught of gusts. But when I exited the park and had over a mile of hills left, I was hit head-on with the wind. Nothing like running against the wind. Even with the hills and wind, I still was able to finish my leg in approximately 50 minutes and 40 seconds.

We were chipped timed, but only got recorded at the start, half and finish. I tried to time myself, but my new watch confused me and at my first mile when I attempted to enter my split, I reset the watch... niiiiiice work Elizabeth. I was able to catch 2 or 3 relay teams in front of ours and passed the timer off to Machiko (my best work running buddy - we've even busted out 7 miles on our lunch break) who KILLED her 5 miles and passed another 2 teams. She squeezed all 5 miles in 38:40! Are you kidding me?!?! Speed demon. She will definitely help me as I train for a speedy Portland Marathon.

And that was that!

I have a few races to look forward to:
May 16th Beat the Bridge 8K
May 22nd New Balance Girls on the Run 5K at Seward Park (although I will just be coordinating all the volunteers and not running....)
June 16th Seattle Rock N Roll Half Marathon
October 10th (10/10/10!) Portland Marathon

Yee haw! I love racing.

Also, I promise to get the rest of England up. Prommmmmiiiiiiiiise.

England Days 6 & 7

When Duncan left off, we were enjoying Taryn's home-cooked curry in Cheltenham...he mentioned that we played Texas Hold 'Em that evening after dinner, he stole part of Day 6. Stephanie Tanner would definitely pull a "How Rude!"

S'okay Dunc, I forgive you. But I will elaborate on the evening of Day 5, we hit up the local movie theatre for Kick Ass! Which was pretty dang entertaining... however  disturbing, mostly for **SPOILER ALERT** the young child murdering people... 

But back to the English countryside:

On Saturday, we headed to Bath for the day. Bath is a beautiful town, filled with buildings that make you want to punch something because you are overwhelmed by the cute level. I had a number of cute attacks while traveling in England, but Bath was BEAUTIFUL and filled with a ridiculous amount of history. 

But first! FOOD! We were headed to a restaurant for bangers and mash - everyone was jealous of my sausages and mustard mash from two nights ago. It was worthy of their jealousy. So we were in hot pursuit for more sausages! On our way to said restaurant, we passed the "Bath Tub" and saw a comparable menu for cheaper prices. SOLD! And what a choice it was. I give you an Aubergine Stack, Bangers and Mash (topped with parsnips! YUM!) and a most excellent burger - despite the first burger attempt... success!

After lunch we made our way into town and stopped at a super cute shop "Found" and spoke with the owners for awhile about their current venture, their recent WOOFing expedition in New Zealand and a good local coffee shop... that's what happens when you mention you're from Seattle. Here's the view from their shop window:

 Pretty terrible right?

It was quite rainy though... We tried to be emo, but Tom and Taryn are much better at acting cool than I...

We headed further into town and spent a good chunk of time wandering Bath Abbey. Awe-inspiring amount of details and history in this church:

Notice the old English... "f" has replaced "s" within a number of words. Silly!

Check out the first recorded Abbess of Bath... 676 AD!!! And look at those Abbots' names... sounds like Middle Earth to me. Nerd? I show the rest of the list because I find the whole no last name prior to 1290 interesting, but look at poor Richard in 1476. Sorry Rich! No surname for you.

We left the Abbey, wandered around in the rain for a bit. Saw the outside of the Roman Baths... the line was way to long and it was again 15 quid each. Sheesh! On our way out of Bath I made the gang swing into the Jane Austen Centre, I love me some Jane and I had to check it out. Plus I got to see some paintings of Mr. Darcy as styled after Colin Firth in the best production of Pride & Prejudice ever.

Then we drove back through the countryside... gross:

That evening, Tom whipped up some Thai noodle soup... amazing. And we played poker and celebrity.

The next day was HOGWARTS!!! Well as close as we could get. Oxford!

B-E-A-utiful. Can you believe people go to University here? I would not be able to concentrate.

I'd be doing too many chin-ups on the Cotswold Stone buildings. Tony Horton would be proud.

We visited Oxford Castle. And got put in stocks...

It was pointed out by smarty-pants English pants: "Actually I think those were meant for your feet..." He was right... we just have small necks?

On the castle grounds, there was a massive hill, man-made with some sort of structure within it. I made everyone climb it. And jump off of it.

On our way back down we spied Tom throwing handfuls of pebbles. Taryn and I thought he was throwing them at people as they crossed his path...

He was really aiming for the daffodils.

(Look closely, see the rock in action?)

We walked around Oxford some more, admiring the ridiculously beautiful architecture and marveling at the locales where Harry Potter visited (or where the films were shot... details, details).

We saw a performer and his dog. The pup sang along with the harmonica, adorrrrrrable. 

And then Duncan tasted Millionaire Shortbread...

Near tears my friends... one tasty tasty treat. (I did not hold true to my "no sugar" rule while abroad, I had to taste the local delicacies!)

Then it was back to Cheltenham for a "pub quiz". In America, we call that trivia. It was good fun - in spite of our neighboring group insisting that we let them cheat off of our sheet. There were even questions about the US and Washington State. We were accused of cheating based on our accents when we got Mt. St. Helen's correct. Oh right, being born near an active volcano and knowing the year it last erupted IS cheating. Pardon me, dear Brits.

I know I was supposed to do the rest of the trip, but this is already getting out of hand (or long...) - I'll be back with more!

England is a coming....

I promise! Sorry I am not nearly the timely blogger that Duncan is. Now hear this... I will have Part 2 (Part 1 here) our British Adventures posted ASAP. It was just too nice of a day to sit inside and blog. I will leave you with this little tid bit though:

SANCTUARY!!!

(The large piece of wood I've pulled out was used to barricade the door to protect those seeking refuge behind the church doors. It was still there and was in working condition in a VERY old church. I love the ridiculous amount of history in England...)

Seestor Begonia is Thirty!

Note, this is posting from the British Summer Time zone, sorry if it doesn't quite line up with the proper day of  the seventh of April.

(For any of my siblings that read this blog and are shocked by the lack of birthday posts on their respective days of birth, I apologize and will make sure to do so more thoroughly in 2010.)

Dear Elder Seestor,

As you reach the 30th anniversary of your birth, I would like to reflect upon all the things you taught me:

1. How to deceive Mother and Father to procure more sweets.
2. How to fight crime with the swiftest of ease.
3. How to become a double black belt in Jiu Jitsu while attending grammar school.
4. How to properly complete all tasks at finishing school while maintaining my boorish charm.
5. How to use glasses as an accessory and tool to look more intelligent.
6. How to tie all sorts of sailor's and Boy Scouts' knots.
7. How to pick locks (to procure more sweets).
8. How to illegally pirate Betamax tapes.
9. How to tame a rabid grizzly bear.

So perhaps none of the above is true. Nonetheless, my seestor is an incredible human being. She in fact has taught me a number of things and acted as an essential mentor when it comes to my education, my career and my life these days.

Here is a quick homage to my seestor Begonia, also known as Katy...

Katy has a great sense of humor and a massive love of holidays, mostly Christmas:

She also taught me how to make this face:

She loves her fambily and we love her!

And we love our chothers.

Thanks for being a great older seestor Katy face! I love you! Even with hair and glasses like these:

We do love Nelly, but this picture of the first three is too awesome not to (re)post.

Hooray Seestors!!!! Goooooo THIRTY!!!!