4 july 2009

I loved this entire virtual exhibit of ads 'Rebranding America'. Some are controversial, some are brilliant.

But this one is poetic. by Dan Wieden of W+K12 in Portland.


Let's celebrate our independence to dream, believe, create, love, and parade.

Happy fourth.

the lost tribes of new york city

this video by london squared is rad.



i love animation of inanimate objects. and nyc.

via a cup of jo, via this branded youth.

darren had other dinner plans so i splurged on myself

And it was so good!!

the top of st. paul's cathedral, london

His view...


...and mine.

Dear Dad,

Happy Father's Day! Thank you for wanting me to have more than you ever had yourself. You are one in a million.

I love you!

happy birthday

I am, oh so happy that we are a team.

I love watching ours shows together in bed.

I love that you make me laugh.


Here's to 70 more June 17ths together.

Postscript: Congratulations on rocking that Lanark paper.

so, we went home to america and it was awesome, part 1

I can't even describe how incredible it was to be home. So, I will show you in pictures:

1. My first sweet sip of a re-fill-able-fountain-machine-with-ice-diet-coke.


2. We had a great time hanging out with the rest of the Zufelts at Jim & Heidi's wedding--which was fabulous. Other than their beautiful vows, the best part of the day was the location and the food.


Oh, and seeing my man in a tux for the first time.


3. Reuniting the Anderson family at Hogle Zoo.





Hilarity.

On memorial day we got to go eat french toast with these guys.


Whilst in Utah I also ate:

This salad twice:


A big bag of these:


And this while I was hiding out in my car in the Sugarhouse Smith's parking lot before I went in and perused their (incomparable) makeup isle looking for a new eye lash curler.


And so many of these I made myself sick:



I love America.

Oh, and part 2 will be coming soon.

Also, a Flickr account so that I don't have to blog so many pictures.

Also, us. Coming home (mostly) for good in December.

I can't wait.

a new computer deserves high quality desktop art

Darren found me this one via.

the only reason i can even think about leaving tomorrow

a full report on all the junk food and family time coming soon.

portobello road, part one

i have much more to share about london, but i couldn't wait any longer for this series on portobello road. the nottinghill area was one of my favorite parts of london. if i lived there, this is where i'd try to live. (inevitably with 12 other people in a one room flat...just to afford it).

i also was feeling good enough to be in charge of the camera, so for this post only, i can claim credit for the photos.

without further ado, portobello road, the non-food related post:

happy mother's day

dear mom,

i'll be there soon.

i love you.


P.S. i like when we match.

london, part three

Read part one here, and part two here.

One of the highlights of our visit to London was the permanent gallery of the British Library. You can see original Beatles lyrics alongside an original Magna Carta from 1215. I love libraries and the British one didn't disappoint.

(Marilyn and Rod. The library courtyard. The Newton statue by Eduardo Paolozzi.)

We really enjoyed the library and it was the perfect way to start a quiet Sunday in London. (We also enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate and muffin at the Starbucks across the street!)

Next, the gorgeously housed British Museum. By far, my favorite thing about the Museum was the museum itself. Breathtaking.


To be honest, I had more pain in my dogs at the British Museum than any other time during the whole trip. It was day three of travel and I was beat. My feet were a little better every day after this, but sometime about a quarter of the way through the museum I thought that I was out for the count. Consequently, I don't remember much.

I know I saw the Code of Hammurabi. And I saw a bunch of other very important works from my college Art History classes, but it's all fuzzy now. I know that D and my Dad ended up going through most of this together, and I have some great pictures of my parents in front of ancient ruins from Egypt.




Plus we got some great shots outside.


And to round off the day we walked through some amazing London neighborhoods.

did you ever run for student government and have to wait all day friday to find out who won?

Well, I did. LOTS. And I won some and I lost some, but that agonizing wait was the worst part of the entire election.

Today I had an interview at my school. I have been doing Supply Work (substituting) for a teacher who is off on maternity leave. Women can take up to a year off for maternity and still come back to their job, so the school can hire someone in their absence. So there was a very real chance that someone else was going to get the full-time job, even though I was covering for her these first few weeks.

During the last class period of the day the Principal came down and asked me to come back to his office before I went home. Those last thirty minutes d r a g g e d on.

And despite my obvious shortcomings (I didn't go to Teacher Training in Scotland, so I am VERY unfamiliar with the curriculum)...

I

Got

The

Job!!!

Life is good. We are so blessed. And it's my birthday...which means CAKE!

Have a good weekend!

london, part two

Read London, Part One here.

I firmly believe that when you go on a trip you should have an itinerary. Not a minute-by-minute, steadfast, love-and-die-by-it schedule, just a list of things that you would like to see and places you want to go, that you've researched out BEFORE you get there. And if it is organized by most-least desired it's even better.


Basically the point of this entire trip was to see as much as we could possibly see, without killing ourselves over it. My mom was REALLY organized with her planning and had gathered a lot of good advice before she came on her very first overseas trip. She had a notebook of paperwork, maps, and travel information with her so that made it a lot easier to plan each day.


When we were finally reunited the first night in London, (And after a short detour in the Hyde Park area of the city--no, we weren't lost, just confused--when we started running into streets of Foreign Embassies we knew we were in a posh, albeit wrong, place.) we gathered in my parent's hotel room and went through our lists together. Anything that we had BOTH marked as something we wanted to see went to the top of the list. Straightaway we cleared a few items on the list. They were worthy sites, and we would have gotten to them had we been only visiting one of the cities, but because we were going to lose some time traveling between cities, we were fairly brutal when it came to the final list.


Each subsequent night we would gather in one of our hotel rooms and plan what we wanted to do the next day. During the day if we missed something or realized that one of the sites we had planned was closer to the ones planned for the next day, we'd shuffle things around. Often we would spend more time than we had thought at places that surprised and pleased our attentions. Really, it was a glorious way to travel.


Our second day started with a walk along the River Thames towards the Parliament Building and Westminster Abby. (See pictures above, and immediately below)


We then went to the incredible Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. No pictures, but we for sure went there. I highly recommend it if you're every going to London. It was fascinating.


We then walked to Trafalgar Square and went to the excellent (get the audio-guide, it's amazing) National Gallery and the less interesting, but still cool, National Portrait Gallery.

Even though this picture is not great, I wanted to show you that Darren was actually on the trip. It's a crop and resize of a much larger photo of the entire building, so forgive me.

We ended the night walking through Piccadilly Circus and eating yummy food at Wagamama.

Then crashed in bed that night!

Next post: full-English breakfasts and more pictures.

And because I can't post without a funny/embarrassing Darren story...

While standing on Westminster Bridge, Darren commented to my Dad, "Look at those ladies!" when he saw this:


Only my Dad thought that he was talking about these ladies:



So funny!

uhhh...this is what freaked out looks like

So, as of 8:50 AM tomorrow morning I'm officially a teacher in Scotland.

I was asked right before Spring Break to cover for a lady going on maternity leave. I had one two-hour meeting and all day today to prepare to take over 10 different classes which is six different preps--each with their own curriculum. Some classes are basic, first and second year Geography, three are Standard Grade Geography, one is a Standard Grade History class, and one is an Advanced Higher Geography class that I see two times before they take their assessment.

To compare, last year I taught three different preps (Geography for Life, United States History, and Utah History) a couple of times each--and I had taught two of those same exact curriculum for the five years previous.

At about 3:30 PM today I realized what I had gotten myself into and a mixture of total excitement and utter fear took hold. I mean, I haven't done this for almost a YEAR.

I hope it's like riding a bike.

P.S. You'll understand if more of the vacation pictures aren't posted until later in the week?

london, part one

Our holiday with my parents was supposed to start two Fridays ago at Heathrow airport at approximately 1:20 PM Greenwich Mean Time.

Then our flight from Aberdeen was canceled.

With no way to contact my parents while they were in the air, we had to just get on the next soonest plane, fly to a different airport, and try to meet them as soon as we could. I called the airport and the plan was for them to receive a page an hour after their flight landed telling them to meet us at Victoria Station at 4:00 PM.

Turns out they never got the page. Darren and I frantically searched the station for an hour, until he finally convinced me that they were still at Heathrow, having never known to leave there for Victoria. We decided to split up, me staying 'just in case' and him going to the airport to collect them. We had missed three calls, but since we can't check our voicemail on our hand-me-down phone, had no way of getting a hold of them.

The next two hours were like the most miserable of my life of late. It was FREEZING in the station, like an idiot, I had worn capris, and our mobile was dying. I found a Starbucks that would let me charge my phone, and I waited for Darren to call me with news. When my phone rang about an hour and half later and it was my Dad's voice on the other line asking "Ummm, Lindsey? Where are you?", I just lost it.

There I was in Victoria Station, in LONDON (my dream come true), crying like a baby.


An hour later we were all reunited and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.

We had SO much fun and took 1006 pictures by the time the two weeks are over. Don't worry, I won't post every single one.

I got sick two days into the trip and was hopped up on Cold & Sinus medicine the whole time, so Darren was completely and utterly in charge of the camera. My favorite pictures are the ones he took of my parents when they were first seeing all of the major sites. It makes me cry just looking at these.

Rod, Marilyn, Parliament

Marilyn, Big Ben, Rod

I miss them so bad it hurts.