80's Pomp and Circumstance

Thursday morning we woke up and were eager to get out and about the city again. We started out by having breakfast at the Bakery Cafe right up the road from our hotel. The Europeans are big on very small breakfasts so we had croissants and hot chocolate to eat. We headed out on the Underground back to Buckingham Palace, our first stop. We watched the changing of the guards, there were so many people there and this isn't even peak season.

The inspection of the guard shack before the guards actually change


After the actual change they have a band that played. They played for about 15 - 20 minutes and we were shocked as we listened. The first song that they played Greg and I listened and thought, "Hmmmm, this sounds familiar", but we could never figure it out. Then the songs began that we did recognize. Are you ready? Are you sure your ready to read the songs that the Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guards ceremony had played? Ok, here we go:

Thriller
Eye of the Tiger
Love Lifts Us Up
Time After Time
You Give Love a Bad Name

What a riot. After we left the changing of the guards ceremony we headed to Trafalgar Square. This is a huge hot spot for filmmakers. Some of the movies that have been filmed here include 101 Dalmations, The Avengers, and 28 Days Later, along with others.

One of the large lion statues at Trafalgar Square


Popular spot for pigeons to hang out and take food from passerby's at Trafalgar Square


We walked around for a while and ended up eating at a nearby pub called The Porcupine. While Greg enjoyed the ale, the food was very greasy, typical of an English pub. After lunch we went to The Photographer's Gallery and saw some interesting pictures, to say the least, not my style of pics at all. We continued on foot around the Chinatown area and then on to Piccadilly Circus and the theater district at Leicester Square. Lots of lights and somewhat like Broadway in New York, but on a much smaller scale.

The play Equus in which Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) is staring in. It doesn't open until 2/27/07.
This billboard is located near Leicester Square, the theater district.


The main square at Piccadilly Circus, lots of billboards and lights.


We then walked to a nice shopping area, called Covent Garden. We had a couple of our friends, including Lisa, had told us about it so we were eager to head there. We didn't buy anything but had fun watching the street performers and just browsing in the shops.

We headed back to Earl's Court and ate dinner at Wagamama, a noodle bar. We had to get up very, very early in the morning so we went to bed early.

Valentine's Day with the Brits

After having a nice relaxing afternoon, we got up early to try to squeeze as much as possible in on our first real day in London. We grabbed a quick breakfast at our hotel, then made our way over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. The only problem is that during the winter, they only do the changing of the guards every OTHER day, and of course this wasn't the day they were doing it. We were a little disappointed, but figured we'd come back the next day, so weren't too concerned.

It didn't seem too far, so we figured we would walk over to the House of Parliament On the way, we noticed a crowd of people gathering and figured we would check it out. It turned out to be the changing of the horse guard on one of the parade grounds. It was interesting to watch, but lasted a very long time.

One of the Horse Guard


After the changing was finished, we walked over to the House of Parliament where Big Ben is located. We also went by Westminster Abbey which is located in the same area. They were both nice and impressive, but we didn't spend too much time since we had so much to see. There were docks located really close to Big Ben, so we hopped on a boat and took a cruise down the Thames river over to the Tower Bridge.

Tami and me on the boat


Tower Bridge


When you get off at the docks close to Tower Bridge, you are right at the Tower of London, so we went in there next. We expected to get through it in an hour, but it's so huge and there is so much to see we stayed for like 3 or 4 hours. The highlight was seeing the Crown Jewels, but seeing the Ravens and all of the weapons and torture devices were very interesting also. They had one section where they had actors portraying what life was like during the times when the Tower was active. We talked with one of the guys for awhile and it turns out that his wife was in Woodstock Georgia, so he knew exactly where we were from..... small world.

Around 2:30, we figured that we weren't going to make it to lunch since we still had a lot to do, so we grabbed a quick snack at a little cafe at the Tower. After we left, we were starving since it was about 4:00, so we found an Italian restaurant called Brassierie that was close by and had a wonderful late lunch. After we were full again, we started out going across the Tower Bridge to South London and walked around. We eventually made it over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and took a tour. It was fairly impressive, built in 1997 as a faithful reproduction of the original Theatre that was located really close to where the original was situated. It was built using wooden pegs rather than medal screws and even has a thatch roof.... the only one allowed in all of London since the Great Fire of 1666. They still do productions, but since it is an open air theatre, they only do them in the summer.

Looking up from the seats in the Globe Theatre



We stayed at the Globe until they shutdown, and by then we were exhausted. We had really wanted to go out for a nice meal for Valentine's Day, but since we ate lunch so late and we were so tired, we decided to go back to our hotel instead. When we got off the Tube station at our hotel, we went out a different exit than we normally did and were shocked to find a huge group of people, paparazzi and a line of Limo's. Apparently, their annual Brit Awards were that night and they were being held at Earl's Court which is right down the road from our hotel. We stayed for awhile to see if we could see anyone famous, but you could mainly just see people's backs as they got out of their limo's and posed for pictures. Besides, it was the Brit Awards, so we figured we wouldn't know many of the British celebs anyway.

Earl's Court where the Brit Awards were held.



We started to go to our room, but figured we should eat something, so we ran up the road to a little pizza place and got a small pizza and some bread sticks and took them back to our room. Paired with a bottle of wine, it wasn't that bad of a supper. However, I'm not going to push my luck and will be taking Tami to a proper Valentine's Day supper next year.......

Welcome To London

We left Atlanta on Monday, February 12, 2007, and arrived in London Tuesday morning. We made it to Earl's Court, where our hotel was located, without any problems. The hotel was not exactly what we expected but it was still pretty good. We got upgraded from just a basic room (which turned out to be so small that the two of us would not have even been able to turn around without hitting each other) to a suite, or actually a complete one bedroom apartment. It even had a full dishwasher in the kitchen and washing machine/dryer combo. It wasn't as nice as the website but was still much better than the room we should have gotten, we were very happy with that arrangement.

Since the first day was only a half day in town and we were a little tired we didn't venture out too far. We were starving since we hadn't had a real meal in over 12 hours, except for airplane food, so we stopped and ate at Zizzy's. This was a very cozy Italian restaurant where we had some wine and lunch and unwound from the travel. We then walked around Earl's Court and ended up at Holland Park. We just walked around the park for a little while, watching all of the owners and their dogs out for walks after work. On our way back down the main street I noticed a movie theater, the Odean, which happened to be playing Musc & Lyrics already. We stopped in and watched the movie before heading back to our room.

We did make a pit stop on the way back by the local grocery store and picked up some snacks for the room. We didn't eat too much that night as we had gorged ourselves at lunch. We had this awesome desert that some would die for. It was a warm belgian waffle topped with bananas, caramel, chocolate, whipped cream, and ice cream. Yummy!!!!

No pics for the day but there will be more on the following days.

Vegas, baby....

Tami has been torturing me for months about the great birthday present she got for me this year. In the beginning of December, two wrapped medium sized packages appeared in the den which were supposed to be my present. I was stumped, I had no idea what it was. I was told that I couldn't open them until we got back from my birthday supper, which was also a surprise. So, my birthday finally arrived on January 2nd, and it was time for us to go out to supper. Since it was a surprise, I got a blindfold and rode in the car for about 30 minutes in the dark. When she took off the blindfold, we were in the parking lot of Hartsfield Airport leaving in a couple of hours for Vegas.

I will give Tami props, she kept the secret very well. She got with my manager and work and arranged for me to be off and for someone to back me up. She also wrapped up a box of kitchen stuff that we had packed up and a new tent we had bought (the content of those two packages I previously mentioned) to throw me off the track. We had a great time in Vegas, and I'll be updating with specifics and pictures in the next couple of days.

Mission: Christmas at Disney Part 3

Day 5: Epcot

Christmas at Epcot

All five of us got up early to beat the rush at Epcot, which never arrived until after 5 pm. The day was a little marred by rain and tornado warnings, but it didn't stop us. We started out by riding the Test Track, that was a blast, we didn't realize it was sort of like a roller coaster.
The whole family at the Test Track ride
Then we rode the new ride called Soarin'. It is a virtual ride where you fly over a lot of landmarks in San Francisco, that was really cool. All of us enjoyed this ride thoroughly. Then we headed off to visit the different countries. We started in Mexico and worked our way through Norway and China before heading off to Morocco for lunch. Lunch was excellent.

You can't go to Epcot without getting a Viking hat.

Trolls!!!!!!!


Mom and Dad then headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap and we continued on through the rest of Morocco and then to France. We met up with the parents to see the Candlelight Processional in which Gary Sinise read the Christmas Story.

Tami and Jenny in front of Epcot France


We then walked through Germany and England where we had supper at the Rose and Crown. The food and drinks were so good. The last thing we did was head over to watch the firework show that they had. It was fireworks put together with fire, lasers, and even a giant globe that had digital images on it.

Day 6: Home

We got up early, yet again, to catch the bus to the airport, the entire day was uneventful. Once we got home we met up with my mom and Brad for lunch before Mom, Dad and Jenny headed to see Kaye and Bill in Lincolnton.

Greg and I exchanged presents with my mom and Mindrey. I got a travelling bag that I had seen that I absolutely loved from Victoria Secrets. The bag has a painted pink Union Jack symbol on it, this will be perfect since we are going to London in February. I also got a pink iDog, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest DVD, the Gwen Stefani DVD, a Georgia Bulldog pink tshirt, and some socks that have the Union Jack symbol on it. Mindrey also got me some of the New Zealand coasters with Chili Peppers on it and a beautiful necklace from her Sorrelli collection that I have been looking at for a very long time.

Greg got a gift card from my Mom to the Apple store and a book that he had wanted. My present to him came a day late but I think he was okay with the wait, I got him the Nintendo Wii system, it has been so much fun to play, very interactive.

We gave my mom a leather tank cover for her motorcycle that she had been looking at along with a joke gift of a pot and potting soil, maybe she will replant her ivy one day.

All in all Christmas was excellent this year. Can't wait until New Year's.

Mission: Christmas at Disney Part 2

Day 3: MGM-Studios

Greg, Jenny and myself all got up at 6 am again this morning to hit the rides. Mom and Dad stayed at the hotel a little longer to get ready, and to feel better since they were both sick. We got to the park before it opened and were the 3rd roller coaster to go out on the Rockin' Roller Coaster with Aerosmith. That was the best ride that we rode the entire time. We then hit the Tower of Terror which wasn't nearly as scary as we thought it was going to be. We also got some pictures with some of the Disney Characters like Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Chip N' Dale, and Stitch. He was the best, even though we weren't originally planning on seeing him. The three of us were wearing shirts that we bought at the Vortex which have huge skulls on them and they got a lot of attention from everyone at the park. Mickey seemed embarrassed and Stitch wanted Greg's shirt. Stitch was taken with me, since I danced with him, he was a lot of fun.

Tami with Stitch

Mickey was shocked by our shirts


We also got pictures taken with Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc and even the characters from Cars.
Tami with Tow Mater from Cars.


Afterwards Mom and Dad got there and we were off to the Stunt show, that was amazing to watch. Seeing all of the car chases and explosions and such. We continued on with more shows and rides. At nightfall the park turns on the over 5 million lights from the Osbourne family. It was really neat watching the light show that was going on to the music and the snow was fun. We had dinner at the Sci-fi Diner which was set up like a drive in movie theater, where we all sat in cars to eat dinner and watched an old black and white screen that showed some clips of old movies. Then, back to the hotel for a little shut eye.

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Game Day at the Animal Kingdom

This day followed the same pattern of the three of us up early to be at the park when it opened and Mom and Dad arriving later. We started off with the Expedition Everest roller coaster, that was so much fun, except for the 35 minute wait we had to endure because the Yetti was being difficult. We were the first roller coaster to go once it started. We ended up riding it again before we hooked up with Mom and Dad since we enjoyed it so much. The next stop was breakfast and then the safari, I love seeing the wild animals just roaming around. We even got to see a baby giraffe. We did all the rides and shows at the Animal Kingdom that we wanted to do and even watched the parade. Recommendation: Do not waste your time with the Tiki Room, it was bad.

We headed back the Magic Kingdom for dinner, we had reservations at the Liberty Tree. We had a blast with all of the characters, we even took a funny pose with Goofy, inside story from the Bufords. We then went outside and watched the Light Parade, it was so beautiful. Then we headed to Cinderella's Castle to watch the fireworks.

Jenny and Tami with Goofy

Mission: Christmas at Disney Part 1

Day 1: Arrival/Downtown Disney

We arrived at our hotel around 7 pm, grabbed a bite to eat and then we were off to visit Downtown Disney. It was pretty uneventful, we walked around, did a little shopping, and even grabbed some hot chocolate from the Ghirardelli soda shop. While walking around Downtown Disney we looked at all of the awesome lego displays that were created. They had small window displays of some cities and large displays of animals and even a dragon in the water. We got to see part of a firework show as it peaked over the buildings. All in all it was fun but we didn't do too much.

Lego London.... We'll be in the real London in a couple of months:



Day 2: Magic Kingdom...a taste of Epcot


Today started out very early, 6 am in fact. We headed off to Magic Kingdom since we had breakfast reservations with Cinderella. The breakfast was really good and we had a ball taking our pictures with the other princesses like Jasmine, Snow White, and Belle, we even had pictures taken with our Fairy Godmother.




The best part was Jasmine's confusion on the Smokey and the Bandit shirt that Greg was wearing. We weren't sure if she really didn't know what Smokey and the Bandit was or if she was playing her "role".



After breakfast we headed off to enjoy the rides. Our first ride was the Futureworld Transit Authority, which is just a covered train system that takes you around part of the theme park. The rest of the day was spent riding rides and watching shows. I happened to be wearing an Alice shirt so all day we kept trying to get my picture taken with her but somehow she kept managing to to slip through our grasps, so no picture with her. We do have lots of other pictures though, so no biggie.

Once done with all of the rides and shows that we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom we attempted to start Epcot. That did not go too well. There were torrential downpours and all of the dinner restaurants were booked so we headed back to the hotel for dinner. The dinner spot at the hotel is called the Pepper Market, my recommendation is to never go there, the food is okay but the wait staff could care less about you.

Look at all of the pretty lights

Got a few quick updates to share. We haven't been too busy lately with anything worth posting. However, we did go up to Charlotte the week before last to spend time with our friends Chad and Marc. Tami has known Chad since they were very little. Tami and I were both sick which put a little bit of a damper on everything, but we still had a great time. We both got better; however, Tami required some medicine to get back to 100%. After that, we've just been getting ready for Christmas.

Tami, me, Marc and Chad













Last night, Tami and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. We went out to a restaurant called Aqua Terra located in downtown Buford. It was the first time I had eaten there. Tami had been there for lunch, but said the menu was entirely different for supper. The food was excellent, we'll definitely be going back. After that, we went out to Lake Lanier's Magical Nights of Lights. We've been every year for the past few years and it's always a lot of fun. Basically, you drive around six miles on the islands which feature tons of light displays. Here are a few of the pictures that turned out the best.

Candles


















12 Drummers Drumming.













The Holiday Village. This is where they have shops and a small amusement park. Normally we roast marshmellows in the large bonfires that they have setup, but last night was just too hot. Instead, we rode some of the rides in the amusement park.








A picture of Tami and me from the top of the Ferris Wheel.












Also, we fly out tomorrow going to Disneyworld with Dad, Mom and Jenny to spend Christmas at the Magic Kingdom. It should be a lot of fun and we plan to take a lot of pictures.

Since we won't be posting anything before, we wanted to go ahead and wish all of our friends a family a Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Eat Well, spend time with family, and watch parades and football.

Goooooooo Dawgs!! Sic 'Em!!!!

I was just excited that UGA beat the 5th ranked Auburn Tigers 35-17 that I had to say yeah!

All is going well just staying busy. We will start the holidays next weekend so we will try to post about it.

Run Willow Run

This weekend we took Willow and Daisy Adair to the Second Annual Atlanta Walk/Run for Animals. The point is to bring your dog in costume and do either a 5k run, or a 1, 2, or 3 mile walk. We only planned to do the 1 mile walk because we still weren't too sure about Willow's knee, but as you can see, she was having a ball, so we kept going and did the 2 miles.




Afterwards, they had a costume contest as well as several contests such as best kisser, best trick, longest sit/stay. We were a bit biased and thought that Daisy Adair should have won...



or at the very least, Willow should have won with her Dinosaur costume.




but alas, we weren't winners. However, Daisy Adair did win the longest sit/stay competition..... I guess all of that money for obedience finally paid off!

Gooooooo Dawgs!

Last Saturday, we attended the UGA - UAB football game. For those that don't know, UGA was the university that Tami and I both attended (the University of Georgia). It was great to get back to Athens again. We let the top down on the Jeep and went down early to give us time to walk around downtown and campus a bit. UAB isn't exactly a powerhouse, and UGA pounded them for a 34-0 victory. The only bad thing is that we both got really bad sun burns....although Tami's was much worse than mine.


Here is Tami at the arch in downtown Athens:


Here are both of us in front of Sanford Stadium:


Here is practice before the game:



The UGA mascot, appropriately named Uga VI:


And finally, our seats were great, 6 rows back. Here is Stafford after running the ball in for a touchdown..... he's the guy laying down on the job in the end zone :)

still alive

Wow, do we suck at this blog thing. It's been well over a month and we've done a ton of things, and I still haven't updated this thing. We're still around and doing really good. Just get busy and don't remember to do little things like keep our blog up to date. Recently we did a tour of the north and visited our friends up in Philly and Rhode Island and also met up with our niece Carol up in New York (pictures will be forthcoming.... I promise before October rolls around.)

We're also excited that football season is back. We have tickets to go this weekend to a UGA game.... the first time we've been in about 6 years. We're doing fantasy football this year, and of course Tami is ranked #1 after the first week. We've also started bowling again, so we're definitely busy. I'll try harder to keep this thing updated....I promise

Birthday

It has been a while but we have been busy. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I got to celebrate it multiple times.

Jenny came down on June 30th and spent the weekend with us. Friday we went and saw The Devil Wears Prada. On Saturday we went shopping and then we went to the Braves game, which they lost, but still had a lot of fun. On Sunday (my actual birthday) we got up and me, Greg, Jenny, mom, and Mindrey all went out for breakfast and then went bowling. It was a riot. In all of the years that I have known Jenny and Mindrey we have never gone bowling so it was a lot of fun. Afterwards, Jenny had to hit the road but the reamining 4 of us went and saw The Lake House. All 3 movies were really good.

We had wanted to see Superman III on the IMAX but it was sold out so me, Greg, Mindrey and mom saw it on the regular theater on Tuesday, July 4th. Thursday night we went and saw Pirates of the Carribean at midnight. That was a lot of fun and a lot of people.

Wow! We sure do like our movies.

On Friday, July 7th Greg surprised me and took me to Savannah for the weekend. It was so relaxing. We had wonderful food, a great bed and breakfast room, an hour and a half massage (ahhhhhhh) and lots of sight seeing. That was the first time that we had ever been to Savannah just the two of us. It was nice just to get away and relax.

I want to thank Greg so much and make sure everyone knows how lucky I am to have him.

Today we are off to Philadelphia, we will have lots to report on when we get home at the end of July.

Tami

The School is going to the Dogs!!!!

Graduation day.....Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Today Daisy Adair graduated from her beginning obedience training class. Training had been going well but the final night was filled with stubbornness. We were to have a sit-stay contest and the dog who would sit for the longest won a prize. At home we had been able to get her to sit for almost 2 minutes without moving. However, it class she would not sit at all, we were out of the contest before it even began.

Oh well, she still graduated. Isn't she so cute in her cap.

























Also graduating is her friend Murphy, he is a handful but so cute.

and a good time was had by all....

This weekend, we traveled up to Dillard for our Aunt Mary Ann's birthday party. I dragged my drums up there and Dad brought his piano and we played a lot with Uncle David and his group which was a lot of fun. As an added bonus, that will serve as practice to our 1 "gig" that we play every year at the Tignall Fall Festival. Anyway, we got to meet a lot of Aunt Mary Ann's friends and visit with everyone who we don't get to see nearly enough, so it was a lot of fun.


Moving on to the dogs. We came home Sunday from running some errands and found Chewy covered with something sticky. We had no idea what it was, but it quickly became obvious that her ear was in a lot of pain. She was a mess, so we gave her a bath.




We also gave all of the other dogs a bath since they were due, so Daisy had her first one (and she wasn't very happy....)



We did give her the traditional "mohawk"



We took Chewy to the vet on Monday morning, and it turns out that she has a bad ear infection. We're putting drops in her ears twice a day, and we're already seeing an improvement. She is much happier.




On the Willow front, she went to the doctor yesterday and they removed the staples. They said that she's doing pretty good, but now we're going to start doing short walks and help her stretch out the legs to make everything work properly again. She has started to put her foot down a little, but not putting much weight on it yet. On the plus side, the lampshade is being retired and she can pick at her leg all she wants now :)

Chewy!

In the interest of equal time, I realize that Chewy hasn't gotten nearly as much time, which is really a shame since I have plenty of cute pictures of her. So, without further adieu:








and the big finish is Chewy playing hide and seek with Chopper: