t is for thanksgiving index

Last November we held our second annual Thanksgiving Dinner in England. I realize that was practically an age ago, but lots has happened to me since then so I’m just getting around to it. Here are some statistics from the event.

Don’t look at me like that – this is not the strangest thing I’ve done on this blog. You know the craziness drill around here. 


Getting ready to cook



Number of people who attended last year: 14

Percentage of repeat guests this year from last year: 72

Number of people last year who had ever been to a Thanksgiving dinner: 1

Number of those people who were me: 1

Number of people who attended last year who admitted Googling “Thanksgiving” because they had no idea what to expect: 5

Number of people attending this year: 16

Number of people attending this year who had ever been to a Thanksgiving dinner: 10

Number of those people who had been to a Thanksgiving dinner because they came to ours last year: 9

Number of people our house will comfortably hold: 8

Number of people invited: 18
Number of people in attendance whose name begins with a vowel: 2

Number of people in attendance who are American: 1

Number of people in attendance who were born in England: 9

Number of people in attendance who are vegetarians: 5



Homemade salad dressing

Animals at our house at the time: 1

Animals at our house at the time that are canine: 0

People who at some point during the evening had to sit on the floor: 4

Number of photos taken: 326

Bottles of wine at our house before the party: 3

Bottles of wine at our house after the party: 7

Number of candles burned: 15

Number of dishes served: 15

Number of dishes that had leftovers: 1

Hours spent preparing the food: 6

Hours between the last guest leaving and our departure for Belgium: 0

Number of countries in some way represented: 7



a strange crush

I have a crush on a character from a video game.  I LOVE HIM.  His name is Professor Layton.  There have been three Professor Layton games so far and I love him more with each one.  I have the British versions of the last two, but I think only the names are different.

Is this odd behavior?

I mean he's composed, intelligent and he wears a top hat.  He solves puzzles.  He's obsessed with being a gentleman with the ladies.  I mean...come on!  AND...he has a nice accent. 

There's even a character in there named Paige.  She's a total nerd (shocking) and she's obsessed with organization and study.  Remind you of anyone??

Could that BE more me?  No, no it couldn't.  I'm in the game.  Literally.

If you like puzzles and you have a Nintendo DS, I recommend this game.  It is so much fun.  The Bear and I have played the last two games together and it's one of our favorite downtime activities.  Be warned, though, it's totally addictive. 

I CANNOT wait for the next one.  They can't make it fast enough.

Have any of you played this game?  Am I the only adult who plays Nintendo DS games?

s is for some stats stuff

On my stats page it says that one person searched for “backstreet boys” and got my blog as a return. Um…what? How far did that person have to scroll down to get to my site? I mean until now I’ve never mentioned the backstreet boys. In fact, I don’t think I’ve mentioned backstreet or boys separately. ODD. Now that I’ve mentioned both several times in this paragraph, maybe that one lonely, searching, surfing person will have a friend who also ends here searching in vain for the backstreet boys. Just to be sure, I’ll mention it several more times. Backstreet boys, backstreet boys, backstreet boys. There, I think that’ll just about do it.

Speaking of stats, I’d like to say hello to not only the US and the UK, two countries close to my little heart, but also Canada, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, France and South Africa. Those are apparently the countries where most of my readers live according to the “All Time” tab. I think that’s fascinating. It changes when you click the “Month” tab. Apparently last month the 8th and 9th most frequent visitors were from Moldova and South Korea. I simply love how random that seems – because if you read my blog with any regularity (I’m talking to you Hong Kong, number seven last week) you know I’m a random kinda gal.

Hong Kong

What I do not care about is my audience by browser or operating system. I mean…does anyone who has a blog care about this stuff? Am I missing something? I’d rather they use that space to tell me more about countries. Like the list of countries. Yes.

Just checked my search words for this week... “phrases for cars” made the list. I just do not understand it.

Do you have any strange stats or search words?

a unique candle holder

When we were wandering the cave markets in the Netherlands I was really drawn to this display of candle holders.  It was in a dark corner and the warm orange tones of the candles made for a nice atmosphere. 

What I didn't realize until we got closer was that they are made of big blocks of salt.  Yep. SALT.  So cool.  (And just in case you were wondering, which you were, I did touch one and lick my finger just to be sure they weren't lying.  Gross, but effective.) 

They told us some nonsense about how they cleaned the air or released something important that you should breathe or something - which I didn't buy.  What we did buy, however, was one of these candle holders.   They were make such a nice light and we really fell in love with them.  I can't remember how much it cost, but it wasn't that expensive and it was worth every penny. 

What we didn't love about it was the fact that it weighed a ton and Bear we had to carry that thing for three days.  Ah, well.  It's safe at home now. 

I love finding strange little treasures in the nooks and crannies of the world.

What is the most unique thing you've found on your travels?

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girls and lipstick

I went on a girly trip last weekend.  While getting ready to go out to eat we realized that we had each brought more than one lipstick.  When we pooled them to take a photo, this is how much we had between us.  There were four girls, but this was only from three of us (one of us was too slow on the draw to make the photo).  And it didn't include several tubes of chapstick.

It's tough being a girl. 

My mentor always told me to always wear lipstick, even if you don't wear a speck of any other makeup.  She never let me be seen without it.  Good advice.  She also taught me how to position a napkin on my lap according to appropriate etiquette.

How much lipstick do you (or your spouse) carry?

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r is for random (what else?)

I thought random was an appropriate R word for me. So here goes.

I only have one wisdom tooth. I always forget exactly where it is so I guess my dentist thinks I have some sort of memory problem since I ask every time I go in. I remember that it’s on the bottom, but that’s all I got. Do you know how many you have? Am I the only freak who has less than four?

Here is an actual conversation I had on the phone with my mom once:

Mom: “I made monkey balls!”
Me: “Do you mean monkey bread?”
Mom: “Oh. Yeah. That.”
Me: “Well? Was it delicious?”
Mom: “I don’t want to think about it now.”

I have an unhealthy love of journals. Well, any paper product really. I mean I have so many blank journals I could open a small shop. Why? If I wrote everyday I couldn’t fill them all up before I die. Yet, I still want to buy more. Every time I see one I just get all happy and giggly and I can’t help myself. *Sigh* I feel the same about note cards. I am a freak. A freak with one wisdom tooth.

I have an unhealthy love of pens. Oh, wait…probably should stop at one unhealthy thing per blog post.

I had a dream last night that I was in a Kung Fu war with cast of The Big Bang Theory. Is that odd? I don’t know Kung Fu, although I kinda wish I did because it was awesome in my dream. I mean I was really, really good at it. I’m totally looking up places I can take Kung Fu. First thing tomorrow. HI-YAH!

I’ve decided to try out being vegan. I’m going to start by doing it every Monday. I would have just dived in but I think I need to do a trial run once a week first. It’s going to be a learning curve for me. Plus, I’m going to have to ease into giving up bread. I live on bread. I love bread. And pasta. And lots of things with eggs in. But I did it for a couple of days and it was great! Of course, the first thing I had the day after was pasta and bread, but…I did it for two days!

Okay. I’m going to stop there. This is long enough for a post with no pictures.

picture patterns

I love photographing churches and cathedrals...like this one, The Basillica of the Sacred Heart in Atlanta, Georgia.

There are a lot of things I like to photograph no matter where I am in the world.  Some of those things are bicycles, churches, people and food.  Do you find that patterns emerge in your photography? Are there some things you take photos of more than others (other than maybe your kids/family, which is a gimme)?

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meh.

I'm not inspired today.  Sorry.

Since I can't be asked to soul search for a blog post, here's a cute little sailboat.

q is for quote

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him."

~ Buddha

I love and believe this quote.  In my life and personal journeys I've found that the ability to control your own mind is both very, very difficult and extremely rewarding.  It's the only path I've found to being happy.  I've strayed from that path many times, but I always manage to find my way back.


The Buddhist temple near my house.  I don't attend, but it still seemed appropriate.

 One milestone in controling my mind was learning to take responsibility. What a freeing exercise!  I don't tend to take responsibility for everything because that would be out of control.  The key for me is to take responsibility for things that are within my control.  I don't have a perfect track record for that, either, but I have a much more healthy conscience now that I've broken the barrier between me and blaming others for everything. 

Buddhist temple, complete with Zen garden

I've long since broken through the stifling need to fit in and have everyone I meet like me - it owned me in high school just like everyone else, but then I grew up.  That's not to say that I don't care what anyone thinks because I do.  I want to look nice for work.  I want to look nice for my Bear.  I do value the opinions of those who matter to me, the people I respect.  However, I'm not a slave to the bandwagon and I'm okay with the fact that not every person I meet will love me.  It's the nature of diverse culture and I think that's what makes the world interesting. 

Do I sometimes find myself obsessing over my hair? Yes.  Do I sometimes look in the mirror and begin the list of things I need to do/be/say/think/accomplish so that I'll be an acceptable person?  Yes.  But now, it doesn't get the best of me.  The voice of reason and love wins.

The temple from the park

These are the fruits of controling yourself so that other things, people, circumstances don't.  It's being who you are and not what you think other people think you should be.  It's truly loving yourself, no matter how cliche that sounds.

That's what I think.  But that's just me.

How do you manage your thoughts?  What are your biggest challenges?

odds and ends fourteen

Does anyone remember Indiglo watches? Man, I really loved those things. Mine looked kinda like this one. I mean, I was really fascinated. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it was because they reminded me of fireflies.


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Speaking of fireflies, one of my mom’s nicknames for me is firefly. She said that it’s because I light up her life and not because I’m bug-like or because my butt lights up.

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Speaking of my mom, one time she had a house full of guests and she came in the room and said, “Hey, do you guys like watermelon?” They all said yes very expectantly. Her response: “Oh. Well I don’t have any. I just wanted to know if you liked it.” Then she left. That was about 12 years ago and we still make fun of her for it. We’re a ruthless family.

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Speaking watermelons, am I the only person who thinks seedless watermelons are weird and unnatural? I still eat them, though.

Speaking of things that are weird and unnatural, do you ever say a word that you use all of the time and realize how strange it sounds? Like “fork” or “noodle”? I’m mean try it – say “fork” like twelve times in a row. Go on, no one will stare. See? Strange.

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Speaking of words I use all of the time, I think that I’ve permanently adopted the word “bin” in lieu of “trash can.” It’s one of the things for which I can thank the great people of the UK. That and adding the words “as well” to the end of every sentence on which it will comfortable affix. I may be a bit paranoid but I think there are probably other things that I’ve picked up but don’t realize it. After two years of being in the country, I sometimes forget which phrases/words I adopted there and which I brought with me. It’s like a weird selective amnesia. It wouldn’t be a problem but I hate it when people try to impress you by having an accent from somewhere else or use sentences they think make them sound interesting. Now and then my friend Liz looks at me and says, “That sounded British.” GAH. Not that I don’t love they way the British sound (I do) but I’m not being pretentious. I’m just an idiot with a poor memory.

Speaking of digging holes, whatever happened to all of the sinkholes you used to hear about all the time? In the 80’s or 90’s there were so many on the news. Lately….nothing. What gives? (Ha, ha…what gives? Get it?? It’s the ground that gives because it’s a sink hole!)

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Yeah. I’m just gonna go now.

I'm linking to Random Tuesday Thoughts.