Y'all ever have a work day dealing with customers which had this kinda feel to it??
(Out of town until Tuesday. Have a great weekend everyone!)
A lady from the city and her traveling companion were riding the train through Vermont when she noticed some cows. "What a cute bunch of cows!" she remarked. "Not a bunch, herd", her friend replied. "Heard of what?" "Herd of cows." "Of course I've heard of cows." "No, a cow herd." "What do I care what a cow heard. I have no secrets to keep from a cow!"
Okay, first and foremost, I must show y'all my favorite bartender in ALL of Europe .... everyone this is Guillome* .... Guillome, this is everyone.
Guillome is a HottieHotHotHOT bartender at Le Reservoir on Rue de la Forge Royale. This is a pic of him competing in the Flair** competition the bar was holding this night. I don't know if he won ... but he should have based on HOT factor alone.
"Hi Guillome, remember me?... the American chick sitting at the bar that kept staring and drooling. Yeah, hi ... I'm not so good at The Flirting with hot men. That I didn't fall down or wet myself shows improvement. But still not enough to make sure you knew that Buck is just a friend ... and that that was my last night in Paris ... and that I was madly in lust with you (well, that one you probably deduced from the staring and drooling). Anyway, just wanted to let you know that even though I'm back halfway across the world ... the drooling is still occuring (in only a non-Stalker fashion, of course. No, no ... really). So if'n you're ever in Portland, Oregon ... or want me to send you a copy of the video I took of you competing .... or if you just want to send me shirtless photos of yourself ... you can reach me here at the email address on this blog. K? K! Doesn't even matter that you don't speak much English and that I can't speak a lick of French ... we'll figure it out. Cool."
While on the topic of beautiful things (*grin*) ... how about some art from the Musee De Orsay?
Vincent Van Gogh's "The Afternoon Siesta" and "Van Gogh's Room at Arles"
Edouard Manet's "Moonlight Over Boulagne Harbor" and one of Claude Monet's "Waterlilies"
Two works I'd never seen before but loved: Vincent Van Gogh's "Church At Auvers" and Pierre Bonnard's "The White Cat"
And the interior of the Musee De Orsay, the museum building being a work of art in its own right:
Stumbled across this while strolling the Champs Elysees. A model in the Hugo Boss store getting dressed in the window. Yeah, don't think I wasn't VERY upset to not arrive til after he already had his pants and shirt on. Only got to see the coat and the socks and shoes ... and, of course, the Hugo Boss cologne. Sigh.
Floor -1, please.
All y'all will be happy to hear that I did NOT purchase this purse as a souvenir. Can you say "1-800-TACKY"?
Took a picture of this ATM screen. They had some little animated squirrel help you with your ATM transaction. Weird ... and yet cute ... all at the same time! :)
The Eiffel Tower:
Me at the Eiffel Tower:
Now let me explain a couple of things about that picture folks:
First off- beside forgetting my camera battery charger, a voltage adaptor also did not make the trip. So the trip consisted of me either with hair dryer and no flat iron or me with a flat iron and no hair dryer. Hence, the hair ... not so good. So please go easy on the critique. The hair would start out bad and just get worse. This was at the "worse" stage. It looks better today ... I SWEAR! ;)
And secondly, I am NOT a wino! The picnic food apparently was IN FRONT of me for this picture and I realize it just looks like me half passed out with my half drunken bottle of wine. Which actually kinda cracks me up. Hence, the sharing. Of the picture. Not of the wine!
Pont Neuf:
So Buck and I are eating dinner at a little cafe near the Arc De Triomphe and I go downstairs to use The Little Girl's Room. Downstairs I find a sink, two doors marked Prive, one door with a pic of a man and one door with a pic of a woman. I walk into the one with a woman on it and find this toilet only. (note, no seat - just rim)
So I quickly do my business, while hovering, take a pic, wash my hands in the sink in the common area and head back to show Buck. But before I can show Buck the picture, he gets up and heads down to use The Little Boy's Room.
When he gets back he's all "you should see the men's facilities." I'm all "I KNOW ... was it like THIS?" (as I show him the picture on my camera). He's all "uh no, it's a hole in the ground with feet prints on either side. You should go take a picture". Which I would have done ... or he would have gone back down and done ... had it not involved climbing STAIRS again, folks! Have I told y'all about The Stairs?! HO-LY SCHNICKETY! And so, my apology, no picture of the men's facilities ... all because of The Stairs.
See, here's some examples on what we continually encountered:
The Arc De Triomphe and The Stairs you need to climb to get to the top!
The Sacre-Coeur with its Stairs:
And The Stairs it took to get TO the base of The Sacre-Coeur (unless, of course, you know that "Funicular" means "a railway to take you to the top". Which I do ... NOW! (grumble, grumble, grumble))
But the sunset view from the Sacre-Coeur which (almost? :)) made the climb worthwhile!
And besides MUCH stairs there is also MUCH walking. As in ... MUCH. (especially when apparently the Metro line you need closes at 1am and you are stranded at a Metro stop that is miles from your hotel. And you can't seem to flag a taxi. Yeah, much walking.)
Or the next day when you think it would be great to walk to The Grand Arch de la Defense. Until the more you walk, the further The Grand Arch seems to get.
Yep, much, much walking.
See?
The Grand Arch de la Defense (once relatively close):
And a view from the top of The Grand Arch (which, God bless them, had an elevator to the top! (LOVE YOU, Grand Arch)):
You see where I've labeled The Arc de Triomphe? Yeah, that's about where we started. No, no ... it's there, really ... see, here's a close up!
But luckily Paris had many yummy things to take the mind off the pain in da feet. Like this:
No, no ... errr, I meant ... like THIS!
This was a coffee drink called "Chocolat Viennois". Didn't know what it was when I ordered it but knew it had coffee and chocolate ... how bad could it be??? :) And in this case, it was like a strong coffee topped with much chocolate mousse and whipped cream. Hello?! ... can you say "heaven"?!
And those little tubes on the plate are packs of sugar ... because who doesn't need more sugar in addition to a ton of caffeine and the sugary goodness already whipped up in a goblet of chocolate mousse??! Love you, Paris!!!
And last but not least .... The Louvre:
"The Venus De Milo" and "The Winged Victory of Samothrace"
Hope you enjoyed!
*"Guillome" may or may not be his name. I never asked (that would have involved replacing the drooling with verbal coherency). But Buck seems to think so. So that's what I'm going with.
** "Flair" as in the bartending while twirling bottles. Kinda like in the movie "Cocktail". BTW, thanks to cutie-patootey Brazilian bartender Tony for telling us about this event. No, no, Tony ... really ... THANK YOU!
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities say an 18-year-old Kentucky woman lied about being kidnapped to get out of a date with a man she met on the Internet.
..as lame as perhaps the Average Joe will. Cuz, y'all remember The Date That Would NOT End, right?! Yeah, had I thought of using the "I was kidnapped on my way back from the restroom" ploy ... I just may have!!! ;)
I promise! Still have a plethora of NYC and Paris pics to share with you. But that evil thing called "work" is getting in my way today (boo, hiss).
Until then, check out this site! They report up-to-the-minute news ... but only the Happy News! It makes for a nice change! Love the weather section! :)
Here are some photos from my recent trip to London. Just some random offerings for you of things I found interesting.
First off, God bless the Brits. They heard I was coming (ya know, ME? ... with all my dorkiness?) and thought to paint "look right (with an arrow no less)" or "look left" at every crosswalk to keep little ole me from getting my ass run over every time I stepped into the street. Ya know, what with them driving on the opposite side of the street and all! Thank you, Brits! Love ya!
My new favorite car!! Isn't it The Cutest?!?! It's called the Smart car. They're sooo tiny. Yet look like the driver (and front seat passenger) have plenty of room. Absolutely adorable. And coming to the US in the next year or two. Woot!
Ya know you've got to do fish n' chips while you're there!
Why, Nestles, why?! Why release this yummy Lion candybar in the UK and not in the US?! What the hell is wrong with you??! Curses!
Okay, so I took this pic outside The Shakespeare's Globe Theater. The story goes that patrons could pay 300 pounds to have their name put on one of these tiles (you know, a way for the company to raise money when building the site). So John Cleese buys two ... one for him and one for his buddy Michael Palin. Only, as a joke, he has "Palin" mispelled with two "L"s. Ah, what a card!
The Tower Bridge. During a lift. Which apparently people call in advance to find when those will be. Living in a city with a plethora of drawbridges, it didn't even occur to me to do so. Nonetheless, we were up in the towers for one lift and walking back from the interior tour for a second. I guess that makes us lucky!! :)
Alright. So while shopping on Oxford street (LoveLoveLOVE you, Oxford Street), I noticed that my regular clothing sizes weren't fitting when I went to try them on. Which, with all the stairs and walking I'd been doing, just seemed like a cruel joke of some kind. Hello? MUCH walking and MUCH stair climbing and I'm two sizes bigger than normal?! IN a week??? WTF, right?!!! Until finally, I'm flipping through some clothes and find this tag. Hallelujah, I wasn't crazy afterall. And the good news, now if anyone ever questions any of my clothing sizes (no matter on which continent purchased), I can simply say "oh, that's the UK size .... " :)
"Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!!". HEHEHEHE. Anyone know which movie that's from? Yep, National Lampoon's European Vacation with Mr. Chevy Chase! That dang phrase kept swirling in my head every time I saw Big Ben and Parliament. Every. Time. And y'all, you see them A LOT! So not being one to keep that kinda joy all to myself (*evil grin*), I soon had that line stuck in Buck's head too (you're welcome, Buck!). Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!!! (*snicker*) (this picture was taken from up in the London Eye)
For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what this sign meant. A man running for a rectangle?... WTF? Turns out ... it means "exit". Who knew? I think it's the man running which threw me off. Running elicits panic. Not good. Not quite sure while y'all just didn't write "exit"? Or in Brit lingo "way out"? But no, instead, a man running. Run, Forrest, run!
British Airways! You rock! Had a great flight! And loved this little option on the personal monitors which allowed you to check the visual on where the plane was during the flight, plus the stats on how high we were, the temperature outside (brrrrrrr!), and most importantly, how much longer (and the distance til) we landed! Very cool!
Buck and I stumbled across some odd things during our trip. This was one of them. Outside "Big Ben, Parliament!!" we found The Guinness Book of World Records doing a photo shoot of the World's Tallest Man and the World's Shortest Man. So I took a pic. I'm guessin' you can figure out who is who?? (*grin*)
And the picture you've all been waiting for .... (*insert drum roll here*)..........the picture of The Yarn! I found this yarn within John Lewis on Oxford Street! Lots and lots of yarn! I picked up 10 skeins of some Rowans for T1. Nothing for myself (I know, oh the humanity!). Loved that the person I asked directions from at the store's information booth said to hang a left when I reach the "haberdashery". Haberdashery? Anyone?? I just nodded like I knew what the hell he was talking about. And instead, just followed the women wearing handknitted items. (yeah, don't let the blonde hair fool ya ... there is some smarts hidden in this head of mine). BTW, doesn't Buck just look oh so thrilled to be hanging out yarn shopping? Poor da Buck!
And there you have it .... London. Love you, London!! Great shopping (OMG the shopping!!!), wonderful sites, super nice people and oh so clean a city! I hope to visit often! Until then, feel free to send Lion candybars!!! :)
I've never even eaten here ... but based on the name alone ... how can it be bad??? :)
Wild Abandon Restaurant and The Red Velvet Lounge Doesn't that just sound "groovy"?? :) I think I'm going to have to go check that out soon. Any takers?
Because today is a Monday (and thus by default not as good as, say, a Saturday!), I don't feel 100% and somehow I missed Fall and Portland went straight to Winter (ie brrrrrrrr!), I decided that today would be the day to report on my recent visit to the World Trade Center site. In other words, there will be no Funny here, people. The Sock was not even allowed out to view Ground Zero. That simply would have felt sacrilegious.
Okay, here we go....
Here's a view of the Manhattan skyline without the Twin Towers. This was taken from the Staten Island Ferry:
A couple of pictures of Ground Zero:
This is a sign posted at the memorial which depicts the timeline of the events of September 11th, 2001 (as with all other pics on this post, you can click each image to enlarge):
Do you remember back when I posted from New York City and mentioned that I would be writing about "Fuckin' Kids"? Yeah, well ... the following is what that title was referring to.
The WTC memorial also has some artwork created by kids who lost a parent on September 11th. The following are some pictures I took of a couple of those. Damn kids had me crying. And I don't like crying in public, people!!! OMG! .. can you say "heartbreaking"??? Criminey! Shouldn't be allowed, I tell ya. That last one just killed me.
But, on a brighter note, the plans for the new "Freedom Tower" look pretty cool. The pictures didn't come out great...what with the reflection on the glass and all ...but they give you an idea:
So there ya have it. The visit to Ground Zero. Other posts regarding events on the trip will be a bit more uplifting and/or entertaining ... I promise!! :) But this one just needed to be done.
