Abe Lincoln + Regrets, Scotland and Helsinki

Oh hello there. To start, I found THIS gem sitting near a dumpster in our neighborhood and took a picture thinking, "oh that will be mine on our way back from dinner!" And I would have done it too, but someone already claimed this slightly soiled masterpiece and I regret that I did not hide it when I first found it. REGRETS.
  

Speaking of that dinner - we had my birthday dinner at Bubble Dogs - which is a restaurant that serves hot dogs and champagne. NOM NOM NOM. It was glorious.

Anywho - we've been traveling again! This time we did a whirlwind trip to Scotland with the Shmoo's and Tony and it was awesome. We took the train to Edinburgh to meet up with everyone and then our fabulous driver, Charlie, took us from there to Isle of Skye, Highlander castle, Inverness, and back to Edinburgh by way of scotch and Scottish beer drinking. Charlie was an awesome guide and really warmed up to us - even agreeing to an extra day of taking us around, showing us his wife's knitting (she's really good) and sending Jefferson a text to thank us for the fun trip. What a great guy!

 

Edrador Distillery Tour!

Tony & The Shmoos

We walked up the William Wallace monument in Stirling, Scotland (this was a lot of steps and I didn't like that part one bit), which also happened to be a Pokemon Go "Gym" - for those not familiar it's a place where you can battle your Pokemon against other people's. Jefferson and I took the Gym over and then some little kid at the top of the monument told us that he was going to battle us and NOT take it easy on me. Here's a picture of him being a sore loser in the background and us being victorious (but in the end, he won - darnit).

See that little kid in the corner?

Bernard makes an appearance.

CHEESE! and Charlie

Birthday dranks.

Me + Scottish hairy cows!

The gang outside our Edinburgh hotel.

After Scotland we flew over to Helsinki for the weekend with the Wild's. It was a cool little city but very, very expensive. Stupid expensive. We walked all over the city - saw lots of markets, shops, famous buildings - but one of the coolest parts was visiting the botanical garden. Who knew I was even into that? Well I was this time and the lily pads were awesome looking:

Super cool lily pads.

Per usual we tried some Mexican food whilst in another country and let me tell you that Finland does NOT rank high on the "tastes good/decent" scale. Shudder. Fear not, friends - Jefferson still makes me a vat of beans with all the right spices (brought from the US) - so I am doing just fine. Great even.

Denmark, land of Hansens

Jefferson cut my hair. Is it straight? Absolutely not. To quote Jefferson, it is asymmetrical and edgy. Did he do that on purpose? Absolutely not. I still like it, though.

      

I also took my first trip - woo! I met up with Jefferson in Billund, Denmark and we did a road trip over the weekend to Copenhagen, Odense and then back to Billund. Ever wondered what an open closed pizza was? ME TOO. And now I know. It's a calzone with a cut open down the middle. It did not taste good. Actually, besides breakfast, the food in Denmark isn't so great. We met up with our friend Britta and she showed us around Copenhagen where she lives (in the coolest apartment ever) and she did introduce us to creamy balls - a popular Danish dessert. They are usually chocolate covered (dark chocolate, white or milk), filled with marshmallow and the base is marzipan. They were fun to eat but I bit in wrong and got it all over my face. Jefferson got it on his face in solidarity.

    

The wrong way to eat a cream ball.

Solidarity, sister.

   

    

Much to our surprise, we also found the best Mexican food that we've eaten outside of the Americas. It was a family owned restaurant in Vejle that had great service, tasty beans and the only place we went to that gave us tap water for free. Thumbs up. Plus we tried an assortment of Danish beers and although most were too hoppy for my liking, it's always fun to try the local stuff.

Danish beers

 The best part of Denmark was going to Legoland together. I went three times during this trip - once by myself (fun but kinda boring), once with Jefferson (SO fun) and once with our friend Aya (also really fun and got to see way more of the park with her). It's a much bigger park than I expected and a lot more fun for an adult than I would have thought.

At Legoland replica of Nyhavn...

At the real Nyhavn!

 

Best mirror maze EVER.

 












Lego totally suckered me into buying stuff I really don't need. They have these little mystery bags that you can buy - each one has one dressed up Lego figurine in it but you don't know who you'll get until you open the package. The Disney figures just came out and they had a picture of Maleficent so I had to try to get her. I'm not a huge Disney fan, but Maleficent has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Jefferson and I got three packs (cheaper to buy in bulk) and didn't get her, but found out from the cashier lady that there are stands of figures at every cash register and each employee has a figure on their nametag - and you are allowed to swap out any figure you have for one you see and they HAVE to give it to you. MUA HA HA. So we did that but still didn't find Maleficent until...I was waiting for Aya at one of the shops and decided to feel out all 40 Disney packages at one of the counters until I felt was probably her - and I was right. Phew - no more need to spend money on silly Legos I don't need. But man they are cute.
    
In Odense we went to Hans Christian Anderson's childhood home and museum and found out a lot more about that guy than I knew before. He led a pretty lonely life but then found fame and friends later in life - so he had a happy ending. I never realized how many classic fairy tales he wrote beyond the Little Mermaid (The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, etc.).

At Hamlet's castle!

      
For some reason I lost a lot of things in Denmark but got them all back. My first day at Legoland I lost my hat - but got it back from their lost-and-found on my second visit. I left my credit card in their machine when paying for those dang figures, but the lady ran after me and returned it. And then I left my phone at the airline counter but luckily the Billund airport is teeny tiny and the security guard knew it was mine since I was the only person in line. Sometimes I wonder how I function by myself...SQUIRREL.

There was a bug. I swear.

Posing with cute hairy cows!

    

Marchy March March

It's been a long time since we posted what we've been up to - and we finally have a bunch of pictures to share so we'll let those speak for themselves.

One day this month Sarah Wild and I got a baby sitter and went out for a day on the town. We did afternoon tea like the ladies that we are, then hit up the Ice Bar for a drank, went to a beautimous cheese shop and stopped a a strange but interesting little museum called The Geffrye. It was a particularly awesome day.

   

 

I celebrated St. Paddy's day like I usually do - by dying everything I ate/drank that day green. I had green oatmeal and green chai for breakfast. Then green Mac'n'cheese for lunch. Then green champagne and Guinness Stew and Guinness cake for dinner. And of course, I wore green. 

AND I made the long pilgrimage to the one and only Boden store. It's a catalogue I used to get all the time in the states for this UK clothing company and although I love the clothes they never seem to fit right when I ordered them. So I made it a point to go the hour and a half (three trains) out to the far West side of London to the only brick and mortar shop of theirs that exists and try on EVERY LAST THING to once and for all see if anything there would fit me. Four things looked great - and now I know - and knowing is half the battle.

 

Here are some pics of our place. It's hard to get good angles, but our main room has our Taco Bell Hot Sauce painting as the center piece, just how I wanted it to be! Plus our dining room table where we can see the Thames river from. Here's also a pic of my glorious wine fridge in the guest bedroom and our main bedroom with all the stinking Ikea furniture you could hope for. This is a great apartment! We even had breakfast our on our deck the other day - here's a shot of that, too. Each month we've been getting a beautiful bouquet of flowers courtesy of Rocko and they really brighten up the place.  All three months of flowers are shown below.

   

 

      

I've been hanging with Sarah Wild and Alfred a lot plus have started to babysit Alfred ALL BY MYSELF. I know. We laugh, sometimes he cries, sometimes he pukes on me. It's all great fun - so I thought I'd share a pic of this little guy - he's so darn cute!

Next up: Easter, then we're going to Denmark the following weekend, Paris for our anniversary the  weekend after that and then WHO KNOWS. Stay tuned and stay thirsty, my friends.

Karen "Homemaker" Hansen

We went to the bank today so I could become a real person that can do things like pay the bills and guess what they put my occupation as? That's right, "Homemaker". I tried for, "Lady who Lunches" and I was given the suggestion, "bean quality assurance tester" - but alas, Homemaker it is. I'll try to figure out just what that means to me.

Amurica Night!

   

That's a real guy back there!

Ok, house is put together and we had our first ever - but hopefully not last - American (AMURICAN) party.  For some reason only Americans attended even though my invite told everyone that we'd serve Kraft Mac'n'cheese. Strange. This first installment of 'Merican awesomeness had a Tex Mex theme to it - quesadillas, five layer dip, buffalo chicken dip, and guacamole. No matter the theme, I'll always serve a bit of Mac'n'cheese, methinks. It just feels right.

Alfred, Sarah Wild and I celebrated National Pancake Day this week by going to our usual pub, Richard the First and eating maple bacon pancakes. This is the same place where Sarah Wild and I found Nessie (mini Loch Ness monster stuffed animal) and won a free scotch. They weren't going to serve pancakes until 4pm but since we're now regulars, they made some for us - HOW COOL IS THAT? And the pancakes were delicious. Breakfast for lunch is always a good idea. The three of us have also become quite the walkers - so we can explore all different neighborhoods and walk there to make it a tad more healthy.  One such walk took us up the very steep (ugh) hill to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where I stood on the ol' prime meridian line. The Observatory is in the middle of a massive and very beautiful park that I'll take all visitors to - it's really amazing and the views are fantastic. HINT HINT. Who will be our first visitor?

 

Pancake Day!

Found Nessie!

In my attempt to do all the things in London, I said yes to going to a Mime festival a few weeks ago. Yes, you heard me. Mime Festival. Cat and I only attended one show and the "mimes" spoke a few times which I think is a bit unbecoming of a mime, but no one kicked them out of the festival. It was less of the creepy clown-like mimes that I was expecting and more of a major physically challenging show similar to Cirque du Soleil but very quiet and just using 20 foot poles (climbing them, swinging from them, walking on them, etc.). I totally appreciate the strength it took but couldn't get into the art behind it as much. Glad I went, though!

We also all attended an art gallery show of a painter that was doing a Night/Day exhibit featuring animals - and there were live animals at the show! A few bunnies, a giant turtle, and a mini alligator called a Spectacled caiman. It was a pretty cool show but and as you can see, the art really spoke to us. Then we headed to the brand new pub that opened about a five minute walk from our place and it's AMAZING! It's right on the Thames, is beautifully decorated and has good food and drink. We're all working on becoming regulars there.

I found a good burger place but I am still on the search for good bacon.

I'm a painter! And a cook!

Although I may have spent part of this morning with my hands completely covered in purple paint, I think I'm doing an ok job. Who knew the third paint I used would be the NON-water soluble one? I didn't! But I found out rather quickly when trying to clean off the brush. I was envisioning having to walk to the nearest hardware store with purple sticky hands and ask for their help, but luckily I had one clean pinky, access to the internet and olive oil in the house. PHEW. All is well and my Ikea furniture is transforming into SASSY furniture.

This whole learning to cook thing is going well too thanks to my slow cooker/crock pot and Sarah Wild's tutelage. I have chopped several onions, observed how to fry an egg, and helped in the preparation of chili, several soups, a lamb shoulder, baking a whole chicken, and I made Jefferson's Broccoli-Quinoa-Goat Cheese recipe all by myself. I've been informed of the proper tea etiquette but I don't quite get it myself and I'm positive I'm doing it wrong so once I know more I'll report back. Speaking of that chili. Maybe, perhaps, Jefferson and I thought that the "chili powder" that Ruth and Sarah Wild had was regular, American flavor - but instead it turns out it was intense, Indian, crushed flaming hot pepper and MAYBE the recipe called for 2.5 tablespoons of it and MAYBE we all wanted to die while eating it. Maybe.

Me and the neighborhood boys.

My feet are constantly cold because all I brought with me are my slip-on chucks, but that's about to change since (1) we get our shipment tomorrow so all of my lovely, lovely shoes will be mine once again and (2) it's supposed to get warmer next week (up to the 50's!).

In an attempt to do more and try new things I showed up randomly to a volleyball league last night that I was not signed up for and they let me sub on a team. It was fun and a good level of play but MAN do I miss my team from Chicago. And bacon. I miss bacon. Real, Amurican bacon. Chicago volleyball and bacon go hand in hand, see.

Jefferson and I took the river boat to a coworker's Portuguese themed party the other night and it was a really great ride that I highly recommend. You get to see all of the London bridges and tons of sights (big ben, the london eye, etc.). Plus the party was fun and had great food. I am, perhaps, consuming too much cheese. But is there really such a thing as too much cheese? I think probably not.

I'll post pics of the apartment as soon as the paint is dried and our shipment is all put in it's place. Ta ta for now, meine watermelons.

Happy New Year from London!

New Years Eve!

Oh hellooooooooo! We made it and have had terrible colds since we got here - which is why we're delayed in sending any sort of update to anyone. But we're on the mend and if you've been interested in how we're doing and what we've been up to then please do read on...

On New Years Eve we did what I assume all Londoners do to prep for the coming New Year - we went to Costco and Ikea. Aw yeah. You can't stop us from buying in bulk - we're Amurican! Jefferson drove a little truck thing to and from the stores a few times (stick shift, wrong side of the road, no rearview mirror) - and did a great job (even with all of my stressed out fidgeting and noise making).

Then we had a super fun New Years celebration at Ruth and Sarah Wild's place with a bunch of people from here and from the States. They got us all AMAZING ugly Christmas sweaters for the par-tay and Rocko sent us a bunch of Fireball swag - we look goooooood (but the Fireball lip balm was toxic). We played a game called Exploding Kittens which was weird and confusing but had some of the best art and strange sayings I've ever heard. I also enjoyed being told I was "fresh off the boat" several times that evening. Heh.

After that we started to settle into the apartment - which is crazy that we already have one to set up - woo! Thank goodness for Ruth and Sarah Wild. I have no idea what we would have done without them! The view of the Thames river from our place is cool and there are TWO BATHROOMS, people. Also two bedrooms so please start booking your flights to come visit. We'll create a calendar of some sort so we can schedule all visits appropriately. Come any ol' time - we're ready when you are.

Cooking!

Sarah Wild and I spent a day (with Alfred) setting up most of the Ikea furniture we bought so I'll send pics once all of that is done so you can see the place. We three have also been practicing COOKING. Yeah, I said that. I helped COOK. I even did our dishes one day. It's like a whole new world. We'll see how long it lasts.

I have so many questions that Sarah Wild and Ruth have been helpful in answering: How does the heater in our apartment work? Why do they have King beds but not Queens? What does cream tea mean? Why can nobody seem to understand me when I speak? Tat = junk, Tit = idiot, Apartment = flat, Sausage = Bangers, Bill = Note, Excellent performance = Blinder, Bloody = non-offensive explanative, Sneakers = trainers, Cilantro = Coriander, Thanks = Cheers, Doctor's office = surgery, Shopping cart (or just cart) = trolley.

It has rained every single day we've been here, but not all day and not a ton or a downpour - and yes, we've seen the sun! A few times! I'm excited for the shipment of the rest of our stuff to come so I can put on better shoes for this weather but other than that it's been awesome. More to come as we explore our little area and the rest of London town...