Thinking of breaking my trip into multiple posts. Good thing I write down things we do on these trips because sometimes it is just a big blur.

Okay, first stop, London via Heathrow. Stayed in Holland Park at a Hilton on Hilton Honors points. Lovely neighborhood with a tree-lined street and a huge crescent of townhouses across from the hotel. Hotel was quite hideous on the exterior, but quite fun on the inside.

Things we did in London:

• ate pistachio macarons.
• met Jason & Robin at Piccadilly Circus
• ate "Fook kin Fried Rice" - lest you jest it was delicious.
• saw protestors yelling at each other over the Olympic Torch relay
• Wandered around the completely awesome Tate Modern
• ate a Buffalo Mozzarella salad at a tiny bistro neasr Harrod's
• walked through Hyde Park in the drizzle
• ate delicious Indian fare at Zaika in Kensington
• toured the Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum
• finally saw inside Westminster Abbey
• walked in the snow past the London Eye

Our main reason for visting ever more expensive London was to see our friend David, who had graced us with his presence at our infamous tropical storm wedding 3 1/2 years ago. Along with his ladylove Gita, David showed us a marvelous time by spending some time with us on Saturday for lunch and dinner and then later took us to their local pub where we all enjoyed a beverage and cupcakes.

We took the Tube everywhere except for the night we had dinner with David and his ladylove, Gita. We took a cab due to foul weather and being guilty of watching three episodes of "Futurama" in the hotel room while it rained.

One of the highlights to the trip was taking the tour ofthe Cabinet War Rooms and seeing where Churchill and the gang hung out during the Blitz. The audio tour gave a special insight to the entire situation and the rooms themselves were amazingly decked with actual furnishings left there at the end of the war. It was a little pricey but well worth it and Martin even wants to return and visit the museum again!

Movies I saw on the flights:

• Juno
• Gone Baby Gone
• Persepolis

This past weekend was my husband's 20th high school reunion. It was unlike any reunion I had ever attended, but I haven't attended that many. Martin's graduating class had about 800 students. Martin had a major in high school: aerospace. (Is anyone surprised at that one?) Martin's high school had about 9 floors, including a pool in the basement, the second largest auditorium in NYC (after Radio City Music Hall) and the girls' gym was on the 8th floor. We're talking huge. He knew several people from his class and we met his English and History teachers and watched a bunch of what I called "Old Brooklyn" walk across the stage from the class of 1937. It was quite nice to wander around a school that about a dozen elevators and rooftop handball courts. Martin's school was quite awesome so I totally understand how he could have such fond memories of an actual building.

Also, bought me a smaller Manhattan Portage bag. I think that they might not be as cool as they once were, but I carry my large one almost everywhere and it looks so nasty that I thought a new one might be in order. It is gray where my older one is blue. I ate rice balls at this Italian restaurant for the very first time. They were...interesting.

I have published new pictures on our Flickr account. Be sure to check out the Israel collection of photos! They are mostly of Israel and Tampa. Mostly they are lovely but I have come to the decision that with digital or film, I never take enough photos. It is a sad realization. Mainly , I think I should have taken pictures of the glorious food we ate and every hotel room we stayed in. So in case there are no pics to reflect the fun we had in Israel, here are some lovely things that we did:

• visited the artist village of Ein Hod
• waited patiently for the rain to stop in Haifa (it never did)
• experienced rain & hail in the Negev
• petted an alpaca and a donkey
• enjoyed a McKabob
• ate about a ton of hummus
• visited the Atlit Immigration Camp
• flew home on El Al in flight attendant seats

Three great things happened over the past week: (forgive me if I'm a little behind in the news, I've been travelling)

1. Rob & Amber are GONE from the Amazing Race All-Stars.
2. Travelled through Israel with Martin.
3. Found out that some friendships are not what they appear to be.

I try not to write hateful things on this blog about anyone in particular. Groups of people yes, but no names really. But right now, I want to write something hateful and I'm just not going to fall that low. I will repeat my mantra: I am above it, I am above it...

Tomorrow we are going on an adventure. I have not made a big deal out of it b/c most people have shown little or no interest in where we are going and when. Even my own mother thought we were going April. (I explained that we planning to see her in April). Plus, it seems that everyone I know is going somewhere this moth. Ninjagirl is going to NZ. My parents and Granny are going on their first ever trip to Hawaii. Martin and I are going to Israel.

Hopefully we will be able to meet up with our friends James & Rose, who are somewhere in the Middle East and maybe Egypt about now. Safe travels to all.

Just finished a four day weekend. We flew absolutely nowhere. I did get to see the new Drew Barrymore movie "Music & Lyrics." Sure it was a romatic comedy and yes I saw it with ninjagirl. It was rolling on the floor funny and any movie that does a Pop-Up Video reference is all right in my book.
I also finished a scarf using this fascinating method taught to me by Mz. Librarian. The scarf is about 10 feet long and it is above freezing today so I didn't even get to wear it to work! I finally got around to watching this six year old animated movie called "Spirited Away." Not sure why it took so long but it was also excellent.
Martin and I also watched "The Empire Strikes Back" on Saturday. Best Star Wars movie, hands down. I'm such a girl that I would have fast forwarded through all that Darth Vader "I'm your father" broohaha just to see more of Leia and Han.
"Amazing Race All-Stars" was last night. Run Charla Run! They are in Ecuador, where every man looks like my uncle. And very well could be. The country looked so lovely and clean that I am ready to go find my long lost relatives. Cotopaxi here we come!

With a winter storm warning in effect my mind harkens back to Florida. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that. Not that living in Florida was that great. I had a horrible turn as a sportbike girl and got my tongue pierced. Most of my friends except for maybe two (yep two) worked with me in the libary so I wasn't much for getting out and about. Good thing is I'm still friends with these two folks. For now I am slowly making more friends. Most of them are still library-related.
I have tried to get into stamping and I even joined the Sisterhood at the synagogue. I went to a lovely luncheon in the fall where the speaker talked about finances for women over 50. Didn't really apply to me. At the same lunch, one woman actually asked me why I had even bothered to join the synagogue since I didn't have kids. These are the people that give organized religion a bad name. Because apparently they have nothing to offer if I don't have rugrats. I was disheartened that someone would think that way.
Of course, the stamping group is really not that different. (To be fair I've been to two separate stamping groups and one was far more diverse than the other.) Most of my stamping experience again revolves around people asking if I have children and when I answer in the negative they really don't have anything to say to me. This all is shocking to me since most of my friends have 1 or less children and I do not consider them odd. In fact, most of my friends aren't even married. So where did all these women with 3 kids come from? I don't even want to talk about the fact that most of them don't work and then complain that their husband gives them an allowance.
I feel like I live in the Twilight Zone or that I'm surrounded by haggard looking Stepford Wives who don't know how to dress. Aren't there any simpatico people in the 'burbs? Where are the young cool couples? They can't all live in Chicago. . . can they?

So, I have a nickname and it is Sunshine. This name has a long and wonderful history back from I was bubbly and young. In college I had a friend who would often annouce: "And representing the Sunshine State, it's Amy!" This is because I'm from Florida and I was attending school in Louisiana. I'm sure there were other students from Florida, but I never met them and my friend seemed to get a kick of announcing my entrance into a group this way. So fast forward a few years to grad school. I am dubbed 'Sunshine.' I am not sure if this is a carry-over from the original Sunshine State connotation or a new invention all together based on the fact that my personality is like a big ray of sunshine. (I know a lot of you are probably snickering at this and you can stop right now).
The nickname is used by all of four people that I know of.

On a related note, I went to Birmingham this weekend. Actually most of my time was spent in Tuscaloosa. When I was younger my parents and I would go to Tuscaloosa to spend the day shopping at the mall and then eat at the Picadilly cafeteria. This mall was awesome for two reasons. They had a Gyro place in the food court and they had a Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store. I would save up a month of allowance just to go hog wild in that store. I have no idea if we went to Tuscaloosa 5 times or 20. I just remember that the mall was huge to my small eyes. Wow! Are things always smaller than how you remember them? On a rainy Sunday the mall took us about 35 minutes to explore. This did not include our 1 hour lunch at the Picadilly. I did not get liver & onions, my all time fave, since I didn't see it until after I had ordered the chicken. Oh well.

Driving around Tuscaloosa was a delight as I was with one of the four known people that refer to me as Sunshine. I had delish BBQ in Birmingham with Sweetie as well and got to see the Vulcan up close and personal. While talking pretty much the entire weekend ( I sound like Bea Arthur today)the Mz. and I were discussing other lovely sites to see in Alabama and we began talking about the Ava Maria Grotto in Cullman, AL. Then we started talking about this place. It looks like a beautiful place and so today I looked them up and due to a wonderful teacher my sophomore year in high school I learned about the Order of the Poor Clares and was thrilled to find them in Alabama of all places. These are by far the coolest looking nuns I have ever seen: Check this lovely lady out. It's amazing that I wanted to be a nun when I was little. I think I just liked the idea of having a bunch of girls that all lived with each other. Maybe it was because I never had a sister.