Keys

I cannot find my work keys, and I found out this evening that this could be a real problem.

Last Tuesday I was at work and needed my keys for something, and when I looked in my purse to get them, they weren't there. We had been in Tyler the previous weekend, so I emailed Aaron's mom and grandmother to ask them to look for the keys (neither of them have found them). I've looked in my car and Aaron's car numerous times, we've looked in and under all of our couches, I've looked on and under my desk and my co-worker's desk...

I haven't been able to find the keys anywhere. I have a few more options (including calling Housekeeping to see if someone found them), but I found out this evening that if I can't find the keys, our entire building plus one floor of another building will have to be re-keyed and all of our professors issued new keys, all at great expense to my department. This makes me extremely embarrassed and sad and angry and frustrated and...

Please pray. Of course, I want first and foremost to find the keys, and I know the Lord knows where they are. I would love for Him to speak to somebody about where they are and return them to me. But if this doesn't happen, please pray for grace on the part of our professors and especially my new boss. I really hate the idea of going to her and telling her the department will have to spend thousands of dollars because I can't find my keys.

...and if you happen to see 8 or 10 brass-colored keys and a Boston key chain, please let me know!

London, Day 2

On the second day, we visited a little internet cafe down the street from our hotel. We had thought we'd be able to find internet access from our hotel, but we couldn't. It turned out that internet connections in London and Paris were much harder to come by than we thought they would be.

We then walked through some light rain to Paddington station. I have to say that being in a city with good, reliable public transportation was really a cool experience for me. So few people drove in London or in Paris, which is the polar opposite of where I live. I so enjoyed the experience and really wish it was one I could participate in in real life. Still, at the end of the day, we were always really worn out from all the walking.

Paddington station was interesting. It's a combination of overland trains and subways, so it's very, very busy, especially during the morning when we were there. Aaron had to use the restroom (during which time he discovered the novelty of pay toilets), so I sat on a bench and people-watched. Two things interested me. One was a pigeon. I swear to you, this was the largest, fattest pigeon I have ever seen in my life, and it just walked through the station as if it were one of the morning commuters. What really cracked me up, though, was the way the pigeon moved. His head bobbed in time to his walking, so when he sped up to get out of the way of some people, his head would bob really fast. It was hilarious.

The second thing I noticed was that there were NO overweight people. None. Zero. I was actually looking, having heard about us lazy, overweight Americans. Well, they're right. I'm sure it has to do with all the driving we do as opposed to all the walking they do.

And while we're sort of on the subject, can I just take a moment to communicate to you how fast-paced London is? I don't know that I can adequately describe it, but Paddington Station was just an example. Pretty much everywhere we went, people were bustling about. Someone was always running to catch the tube, or the bus, or a cab. It was a little overwhelming sometimes.

While we were in London, the weather was cool enough to need a light sweater, which was WONDERFUL! Other than the brief showers these first two mornings, the weather was sunny and clear, in the upper 60s to low 70s. In a word, perfect. However, I had brought only one sweater with me, mainly because it was the only I owned. It didn't seem feasible to wash it every night, and I'd been wanting another one anyway, so we took the tube from Paddington to Piccadilly Circus again because we'd seen a Gap the day before.

While here, we shopped around some. I found a great sweater at Gap, which I realize is not all that adventurous of me. But the price was right, and I can say my Gap sweater came from London.

I know we bought some souvenirs, too. We also stopped in a National Geographic store, which was really neat. It was like a bigger, better, more upscale Pier One. Fewer items, much greater cool-factor. They had one-of-a-kind furniture from all over the world (with one-of-a-kind prices), and there was a small art gallery of sorts with NG photographs. It was a fun little stop.

I'm having a hard time remembering when we went to Harrod's but I'm pretty sure it was this day. We didn't take any pictures, but it was certainly interesting. The store is ginormous, and divided into different rooms, with each room devoted to one thing. For example, there was a chocolate room, a food/market room with cuisines from all over the world, a wine room, a candy room, and then all the regular department store sections. We wandered through all the food rooms a few times, bought some more souvenirs, and grabbed lunch to take back to our hotel since there weren't many places to sit in the food rooms.
After lunch we made our way to Covent Garden. After much reflection, I think I've decided this was my favorite day. It was relaxed and fun. We wandered through some neat little shops and boutiques. We looked at purses at Fossil, and I drooled over what I simply could not afford (I did buy a Fossil wallet at an outlet store state-side and I love it). I walked through a bead shop that had an eclectic, crafty feel. I didn't even know that many varieties of beads existed. We wandered around, taking in the London sights and stopped to watch a particularly good busker.

That was another thing that was so neat about London--the buskers. (Aside: If you haven't seen the movie "Once," you need to go rent it now.) There were so many good street performers, many of them musicians. It was so fun to walk through the tube station, listening to the music bounce off the narrow, rounded walls, and then come upon some guy playing guitar and singing, or a girl playing violin.
While in the Covent Garden area, we also visited a Crabtree & Evelyn, which I honestly didn't know was a world-wide chain. The one in London didn't give out any free samples like the one in Tyler does, though. There were several other higher end shops in this area, but many of them were closing, as it was early evening by now.


We wandered past an opera house (on the left) and saw many Londoners dressed to the hilt, so I suppose there was a performance that night. As we turned the corner next to the opera house, we walked past some very swanky, brand name shops. They were much less interesting.
We were getting hungry so we decided to visit this Turkish restaurant, Tas Ev, that Aaron had picked from our London guide book. It's on the South Bank, so we made our way across the river.

View of the London eye from the 'north' bank


Crossing the bridge
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the South Bank
I was skeptical about eating Turkish food, but that was one of the best meals we had the whole trip. They had this really good bread on the table, and then I ordered some sort of chicken & vegetable grill plate with almond rice...oh my goodness. I wish I had some right now. The flavors were spectacular.



The London Eye, Big Ben and Parliament in the background

One of the funny things I discovered about London & Paris (Europe?) is that their 'lemonade' is very different from ours. I ordered lemonade several times in hopes of getting, well, lemonade, but what I got was quite a bit like Sprite, but not as sweet. However, in London they had This Water in all of the Starbucks and I fell in love with the lemon flavor. It was like lemonade, but not as intense. Yum.


By the time we left the restaurant, it was quite dark and quite late, so we headed home to bed.
Next up: London Aquarium and Buckingham Palace!

Why do you ask?

Noah: Why did the dog try to get to the other side?
Aaron: Why?
N: No, I asked you why. You have to tell me, and I'll tell you if you get it wrong.
A: Oh, okay.
N: Why did the dog try to get to the other side?
A: Because he was crossing the road?
N: No, to get to his dog food!
A: *obligatory snicker*
N: Why did the cat try to get to the other side?
A: To get to his cat food?
N: No, because the dog was chasing him!

____________________________________________________

This conversation went on for several minutes, and ended up with a dinosaur eating a chicken, and Aaron telling Noah that elephants are herbivores. I wish I had this on video; it's one I'd never tire of watching.

Ode to raking

So, this is a poem I wrote more than three years ago. It's a very deep look into my soul, and explores the special place I have in my heart for raking. While it's been a while since I've raked my yard, I did other yard work last week, and the feeling is pretty similar.

I hate raking; it’s a blight on the season.

Every year I dread it, and I think I know the reason:

Blisters on my hands, dirt in my nose,

Leaves in my hair and acorns under my toes.

There’s not one redemptive thing ‘bout raking, because when

I’m finished raking up the yard…I have to start again.

More from the archives

A couple of years ago, Rishi hired Amanda and me to overhaul our house church's song books. At the time we met in two different groups--a Sunday night group and a Sunday morning group. Each group had different song books. Some of the songs were the same, and some were different. There were all sorts of formats and finding songs was often difficult. As we began to meet more often as a whole church, the need for unified books became apparent. This was particularly important to Rishi, because things like that are important to Rishi, so he offered to pay Amanda (his wife) and me to complete the job. In an effort to get the job done in a timely fashion, we agreed on a deadline. But then, of course, life happened, including a rather large move for Rishi and Amanda, and we found ourselves in need of an extension. What follows is the request Amanda and I wrote asking for more time to complete the song book project.

With regards to the Church in Waco Song Book Project (henceforth known as The Project), we, Amelia Kathryn Maddox and Amanda Len Sriram (henceforth known as The Projectors) do hereby request that an extension be granted with regards to the 1 October 2006 deadline (as agreed upon in Verbal Agreement 1.1 with Mr. Rishi Sriram, henceforth known as The Projectile) due to several unforeseen and/or unavoidable interruptions, delays, and incursions to said deadline. The following is an extensive, although not necessarily inclusive, list of interruptions, delays, and incursions, and should be sincerely and unreservedly considered by The Projectile as valid, compelling, and legitimate grounds for granting the requested extension:

i) facilitation of the well-being of the offspring of The Projectile, including, but not limited to: diaper changes, multiple daily feedings, clean-up, transportation, entertainment, discipline, and affectionate displays of Love

ii) facilitation by The Projectors of the well-being of the offspring of other Church in Waco Saints, including, but not limited to, the Maddoxes, the Olmsteads, the Taylors, the Whatleys, the Griggses, and the McPhees

iii) unprecedented demands on time of The Projectors due to another endeavor whose deadline was immovable, inflexible, and unchangeable, namely Painting, Cleaning, and Generally Home-making Johnny’s House. (Please reference one email dated 20 September 2006 from Mr. John Kinnaird, Community Bank & Trust, expressing the extreme gratitude Mr. Kinnaird possessed due to the completion of the Painting, Cleaning, and Generally Home-making Project.) Questions about the validity of completing said endeavor before The Project may be directed to Mr. Kinnaird or Mrs. Erin Griggs.

iv) packing, storing, transporting, and unpacking the household items of The Projectile and one Projector, including, but not limited to, accoutrements, bric-a-brac, and appurtenances, a venture which has even yet not been fully accomplished due to the overwhelming nature of the undertaking, as well as to item v)

v) overseeing, facilitating, and guiding various improvements, repairs, and enhancements to the new domicile of The Projectile and one Projector

vi) an unforeseen delay in the receipt of an original Song Book, which was vital to the accuracy, exactitude, and functionality of The Project

It should also be noted that approximately 69.839% of The Project has been completed, including, but not limited to: imperative decisions made regarding the makeup, arrangement, and composition of the completed Project as it relates to individual Saints in the Church in Waco; templates created to easily facilitate future additions to The Project; winnowing out, eradicating, and deleting unused and/or unknown songs; and correction and input of over 63 songs into The Project database.

Having now presented the case for extension fully and to the best of our knowledge, The Projectors do hereby request that the deadline be moved forward a period of time at least 15 days, and not to exceed 30 days, specifically defined as a time period ranging from 15 October 2006 to 31 October 2006.

The Projectors request that a formal response be made in a reasonable and respectful time period. Any questions or clarifications regarding this request may be directed to The Projectors. Any disputes or debates relating to this request may be addressed to The Projectors’ third-party negotiator, Mr. Aaron Maddox (henceforth know as The Muscle, who may turn The Projectile’s name into a reality).

The Projectors

29 September 2006

London, Day 1

*Please remember that you can click on any picture to see it enlarged.

We arrived in London around 7 in the morning after spending 9 hours in the airplane. I don't remember much about Gatwick except being glad our luggage arrived safely, but I do remember the train ride into London. Everyone was dressed in their business suits and they were so quiet! There was little to no talking; everyone was drinking coffee, listening to iPods, and/or reading the morning paper. I was looking out the windows, taking in all of the British row houses with their tiny backyards, thinking, "This is England, this is England," trying to make it real.

We took the tube to our hotel, The Oxford, which was in a lovely little neighborhood just a couple of blocks away from Hyde Park. If you click on the last link, you'll see the tube stops on the map; Lancaster Gate was the one we used every day, and I can still hear the automated voice announcing our stop. Our hotel was nice--nothing fancy--and kind of like a bed and breakfast.


The bathroom was absolutely tiny, smaller even than our half-bath at home, but it was a full bathroom. The shower was even tinier--maybe 2x4? In any case, tiny. But everything worked, and it was a good place to come 'home' to in the evenings.

(Sorry 'bout the lid being up.)

This is the view from our room. Not much, but it's London, baby!


The one bad thing about this hotel was that there was no elevator. We were on the third floor, which is actually the fourth floor because they have a 0 or ground floor, then 1, then 2, then 3. So every night we had to climb the three flights of stairs to get to our room. This wouldn't have been so bad--we had to do a similar thing on our trip to San Antonio--except that we climbed stairs all over London all day, every day. Stairs were the bane of our trip, and climbing up those stairs to get in bed at night was more and more difficult as the week went on.

After dropping our things off at our hotel and getting changed, we set off. We got rained on a tiny bit, but we were smart little tourists and always carried our umbrella. It only rained for a few minutes, but after the brief morning shower, it was an absolutely lovely day with temps in the low seventies.

Our first stop was the largest bookstore in Europe, Waterstone's. I was in the middle of reading a trilogy and had meant to bring my book with me to read on the plane and when time permitted, but inadvertently grabbed the first book of the series, which I had just finished. We stopped by the bookstore to see if they had the second book, but they didn't. (If I recall correctly, they did have the first and third books.)

We had a lovely lunch of some sort of really good salad, bread, and tomato-basil-lentil soup (that's to-mah-to, not to-may-to, and bah-sil, not bay-sil) at Waterstone's top-floor bistro, 5th View. There's a great view, which you can see if you click the link, but it's also kind of a classy place, and I really didn't want to whip out my camera. After lunch we went to Picadilly Circus, which is akin to Times Square.



Get used to this pose of ours. It will become very familiar in the pictures to come.

We then walked over to Leicester Square (I can also hear the automated tube voice saying this stop--Les-ter, not however you might think to say it) which is in the theater district. On a later day we bought discounted tickets here to see "Les Miserables" and on another day we saw the beginnings of a movie premier, but we couldn't figure out what movie it was. More recently, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premiered in Leicester Square. How awesome would it have been to be there at that time?!?

One of the things that was so fun was that almost everywhere we went, at least on this side of the river, the buildings were old and ornate.

From here we walked down to Trafalgar Square.




There was a great view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from the Square. (Note also the very cool, old, ornate buildings.)


This is us on the steps of The National Gallery.

And a view of The National Gallery from the other side of Trafalgar Square.

We then walked down the street toward Big Ben and Parliament...

passing Downing Street on our way.

They wouldn't let us in to meet the Prime Minister, though. Awfully touchy, those British Secret Service blokes.There was a demonstration going on in a little square between the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The Tamil Tigers were protesting the oppression of their people by some other people, and somehow the PM and the Queen were also to blame. I'm not quite sure what all it was about, but they were loud.

One of the things that surprised me most about London was how incredibly diverse the people were. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to hear more British accents, because so many of the people we saw weren't typical Brits. It was really neat how many different ethnicities we saw all over they city.

The London Eye in the background. More on that later.

We worked our way around the Tamil Tigers demonstration to Westminster Abbey, which I hadn't realized was basically next door to the Houses of Parliament.

Westminster Abbey was our introduction to the many old and ornate churches we would see. It's still incredible to me how much work went into building this place.


It's also incredible how old it is. Originally built in 1045, it was rebuilt in 1245. That's really, really old. I knew one of the things I'd appreciate most about the trip was how much older Europe is than the states. I was right.

It's amazing that this building has been here for so long and seen so much history. Words can't express my amazement.

And ornate!! Did I mention ornate? I can only imagine the work it would take now, with the modern tools and technology we have. But I just can't fathom the incredible time and talent it took to craft this building.


We weren't allowed to take pictures inside at all, but I remember the tall, arching ceilings and the stone floor, under which many people famous and not so famous are buried. I remember ancient stone tombs with figures and pictures carved into them, so old that many of the features were worn away. There was so much to see and experience, and yet we were so incredibly tired and jet-lagged that it was hard to pay attention. I do remember one British curator berating a tourist who insisted on taking video. The guide threatened loudly to throw the man out if he continued to break the rules. I snickered. And made no attempt to take any pictures. Here are some I found on the web, for those of you who haven't seen the sights:

The tall, arched ceilings

Old, crumbling stone tomb


Tomb of Edward I, aka Longshanks (boo, hiss! I've seen "Braveheart." I loathe you, Longshanks!)


Tomb of Elizabeth I
The coronation chair. Again, allow me to reiterate how old this thing is.

Also again, to reiterate, the above five pictures are not mine. I did not take them. I found them by googling Westminster Abbey and Westminster tombs.

We left Westminster Abbey stunned and in a stupor. We were really tired. It was about 5 pm and we decided we were going to head home and hit the sack, but not before one last picture in front of Big Ben. Somehow in the process of posing for this picture, Aaron crossed a gate line or something, and the copper in yellow yelled at him to back up. I think they were overly protective with the Tigers demonstrating loudly across the street.

I think this is the night we went to The Swan for dinner. The Swan is a pub just down the street and around the corner from our hotel. Later in the evening, the place would be packed out with people eating, drinking, and hanging out. Next door was a little convenience store where we bought many bottles of water. This first night, I had fish and chips at The Swan, because you can't go to London and not have fish and chips, right? Well, oddly enough, I didn't like fish any better in the UK than I do in the States. And, come to think of it, I don't think Aaron (who actually likes fish) ever had fish and chips. Go figure. In any case, it was a full, fun day. More to come later!