Melyssa-with-a-Y

Last night was the USC-Notre Dame game in LA. This is the first time in six years that I haven't been there! (it's not so bad really, they only play at Thanksgiving every other year) At 1am, we brought up the online game-tracker and watched the beginnings of what we hoped would be a massacre by the Trojans. And it was! I went to bed after the first touchdown, but the final score was 38-3. Fight On! (and, Oregon State lost to Oregon, so SC might get to go to the Rose Bowl after all!) I thought about sleeping late, but decided to get up and go to the British Museum with Mom and Bryan. I mean, I'm only in London once a year -- if I'm lucky -- and the last time I was here was 3 years ago. I could spare an hour or two of sleep for the British Museum! of course, it was cold and rainy and gross outside, but it was worth it to go back and see the sarcophagus of Cleopatra and the Mesopotamian sculptures and Egyptian hieroglyphics. I love that stuff. :) I also love the a...

Starting with dinner last night: Indian food at Bengal Clipper near Betty's apartment. The food was tremendous, but the service was crap. (Betty did warn us that this was the case.) I hadn't seen Betty since she was in DC visiting, right before I moved to Texas. She hasn't changed! :) We took the tube to Tower Hill and walked across Tower Bridge. (Photos of this part of the evening did not come out well, because of my inability to hold 100% still when taking a photo at night. Oh well. You've all seen Tower Bridge before! Instead, I give you a photo of Big Ben that I took on the way back yesterday evening.) The food was very good, and we were part of a group of 13 -- Betty's oldest friend from high school and her husband were visiting from the DC area for Thanksgiving. Both of their sons live in London, too. And apparently the girlfriend of one of the sons went to Bryan's high school for a while, but was a year ahead of him. (did you follow that trail?) ...

No waking-up-at-6am-to-shop for us today... although given that I didn't really fall asleep until 7:30am, I could have! This time zone thing is a killer. I slept mostly from 7:30am to 10am. Then Bryan made breakfast. Eggs and bacon (or sausage) and toast and tomatoes. The kid can actually cook! :) We let the "grownups" go off on their own today, and Bry and I went to the Imperial War Museum to see the Ian Fleming/James Bond exhibit . It was REALLY well done. I hadn't realized how much Ian Fleming had used his personal experience in Naval Intelligence as influence on his Bond adventures. It was also interesting to see the gadgets and memorabilia from the movies, and how the films had differed from his original stories. (Many of the oddest villains were not written by Fleming at all -- like Jaws, Scaramanga, and Drax.) I bought some goodies and some Christmas presents at the shop! :) The Imperial War Museum is a huge place, full of moving exhibits and interestin...

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving! Today we started off with some quick antiquing at Spitalfields. (What, you thought this family could get through more than one day without a flea market?!) They've apparently updated the space recently, so there were fewer dealers, but a slew of new restaurants -- a Gourmet Burger Kitchen(gbk) , Wagamama , La Tasca , Giraffe , and some others. We didn't find much in the antique stalls, but the artist stalls on the other side were full of gorgeous goodies - purses, jewelry, shirts, dresses... (no, I didn't buy anything) We stopped for lunch at gbk -- a fancy version of Five Guys or Mighty Fine -- we just beat the lunchtime rush. Then we went looking for Be vis Marks , the oldest synagogue in London. After a minor challenge with the map, we found it, but we couldn't go inside. The "best kosher restaurant in London" is also there. After that, we walked over to the Guildhall Art Museum, to see an exhibit of GF Watts...

The family is starting its travel madness early this year... we're all boarding planes for the other side of the pond around the same time today. Mom & Dad on BA, Bryan on Virgin, and me on AA. It's almost 9 hours from Dallas to London.... bleh. I brought some SimplySleep, so hopefully I'll nod off pretty soon. I also brought a pair of socks that have been languishing in my project bag for six months or so ( Diamante socks, from knitty, in Fleece Artist, 100% Merino, bronze colorway) I stopped at a sock-and-a-half, though it looks like I have enough yarn left to make more. One good thing: The Dallas airport D Gate area has a nice little charge station, so my laptop can charge and I can sit on a stool and not huddle on the floor near an outlet like I've had to do at the A gates. So I'm actually getting some work done. Haven't been to London in 3 years! It was about 10-15 degrees colder last time I was there (it was a month later), too, so I'm hoping ...

Aubrey decided that tonight we all had to get some religion. :) We were treated to a performance by the Austin Babtist Women at Oil Can Harry's. [I was one of the only five or six women in the place, and definitely one of the only straight ones!] We had dinner beforehand at Hut's hamburgers , an Austin institution. I hadn't been there yet. Big, greasy, messy burgers and pretty tasty fries. Yum! Anyway... the Babtist women have been singing together for nearly 22 years, raising money for HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and other charitable causes. Altogether, they have raised over $6M! We had prime location in the front of the room to watch the show. And while they only did four or five songs, they were a RIOT! They were all decked out in wigs and makeup and dresses and high heels -- though amusingly, they didn't bother to shave off their facial hair! The dresses really reminded me of the dresses that grandmothers wear at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. Definitely the kind...

at the AMD party for SC08 -- we got two tables in the front. The band is awesome!

will.i.am's newest -- it's a catchy song! (I love the video snippets of people singing along - Hi Kyra and Kevin!)

Dani did this meme today, so I thought I'd steal it. :) Where is your mobile phone? Sofa Where is your significant other? undetermined Your hair colour? Mahogany Your mother? Funny Your father? Stubborn Your favourite thing? Cooking Your dream last night? weird Your dream goal? Peace The room you're in? Living Your hobby? Knitting Your fear? Loss Where do you want to be in 6 years? Austin Where were you last night? Wake What you're not? JAP One of your wish-list items? House Where you grew up? Washington The last thing you did? Cook What are you wearing? Jeans Your TV? Small Your pets? None Your computer? Old Your mood? Spent Missing someone? Joel Your car? PT Something you're not wearing? makeup Favourite shop? Target Your summer? Hot Love someone? everyone! Your favourite colour? Red! When is the last time you laughed? 8pm ...

Today, I had to rush home at 4:15 to meet the technician from the cable company, because some of my cable channels were on the fritz -- pixelated, blacking out periodically, or not coming in at all. And the phone kept losing its dial-tone. So they had to send a tech, because my "signal was weak." Little did I know that the dead animal that was removed from the attic in September -- right before Gigi was here - the smell was awful! -- was related to the weak signal... Two and a half hours later, when the tech finally finished re-running my cable all the way across the garage and through the attic and down into the wall behind the tv, he told me that the cable had probably been chewed by a rat. *shudder* Maybe that's what killed it - it got zapped? Yuck. But that wasn't his most interesting comment. As he was finishing the paperwork, I turned on Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, who was talking about President-elect Obama's first press conference. The tech (who I think ...

I feel like I can breathe! And Go Virginia!

.... Is the moral equivalent of Jews for Jesus. --pnav