thank  you cherylshops, for letting me know that project runway is back!

michael, nina, and heidi, please get rid of suede ASAP. referring to yourself in the 3rd person is so over.

or however it's spelled. Anyway, Spain was fantastic and I can't wait to go back. The bike ride was awesome, the ferry ride was amusing, the mini-burn had most of my favorite bits of Burning Man with a lot less of the hassle (and no tourists), and the castle was fantastic. If you are ever in Spain, I highly recommend staying at a parador. Basically the Spanish govt/tourism dept have refurbished castles and monasteries across the country, turning them into hotels. So cool! The one we stayed in was in Olite, but they have others scattered across the countryside, even in Ibiza.  We'll definitely be returning at least to the west coast of Spain. Ole!

We're getting ready to hop on the bike and drive down to Portsmouth. From there we hop take a ferry for 36 hours to Bilbao (the website claims it's a cruise - like ferry). After that it's another bike ride along the coast of Spain heading north, stopping in Pamplona to see the aftermath of bull running, then heading east. Final destination? Nowhere.  Nowhere being the name of the European regional burn. Should be cool !  Too bad it's raining for the ride to Portsmouth. We'll be there from Tuesday to Sunday.  Then it's the same ride in reverse, though we are hoping to spend Sunday night in a Spanish castle. Fingers crossed!

And that's why I moved to old Blighty.

We had a fantastic trip to Maine. Spent some quality time with gravities and her family, in particular her supercute daughter. We also talked about a lot of wedding stuff with Grimbil's mom, and met with all of our vendors. So much nicer to talk in person than over the phone or via email. I'm really lucky, all of our vendors are easy to talk to and full of great ideas. It makes me eager to retire so we can move to Maine full time. I'm hoping we can retire at 50. That would be awesome.

It's only a matter of weeks now til the wedding!

in Maine scoping out wedding stuff. Met our caterer after months of emails and phone calls, and she's awesome. Tomorrow we meet the baker, Thursday the photographer. It's really happening!

 is it horrible of me to say that i wish i had more guys on my team? my staff keep getting pregnant, which makes resourcing hard.

One of the many bennies our company offers over in London is financial advisors. Makes sense, since the company's business is to invest people's money.

Tomorrow we have our first visit with the financial advisor. Tonight we have to fill out a client questionnaire, which is longer than any college application I've seen. God, we're doing homework!  But it will feel good to finally talk to a professional about what we should be doing with what we have.

We have Rock Band
i already have a callous from drumming
Soon I too will have an over developed calf muscle

Cuz I know you care what I think about silly movies.

Initially  I wasn't  going to see it. I was pretty happy with the way the series ended (except for Miranda, who always gets shafted anyway. I mean, when girls play the "which character are you?" game, nobody ever thinks they're a Miranda). But then a bunch of girls I work with were planning on making a night of it, and it's been awhile since I've been on a girls night, so off I went.

It was about what I expected. Part funny, part annoying, great outfits. Some good one-liners, great comraderie among the girls, love conquers all, etc. Chris Noth does a great job of looking lost. And it's nice to see Charlotte be a bit bitchy.  It made me nostalgic for my NYC girlfriends. It was a fun way to spend an evening, and if you're looking for something to do then have at it. But it's certainly not the movie of the year.

And now for the annoying. And granted, none of it really affects the plot. It probably says more about my state of mind than it does about the merits of the movie. But anyway:

Remember back in the days of the series when Carrie actually had some financial restrictions? It made her more human, at least for me. She had nights where she stayed in, or invited friends over, or walked because she drank her cab fare. Her over-the-top lifestyle made much more sense when we found out that her apt was rent controlled and only something like $750 a month. There was that episode when she realized she had no savings because she had spent so so much on shoes. The only reason she was able to buy her apt was because Charlotte loaned her money. Granted, none of this was admirable behavior, but it was something of an antidote to the excesses that were celebrated in the rest of the show. It made me feel better about not being able to afford everything I wanted.  Now take the movie. Thanks to writing 2 more books, Carrie now has the money to spend however she wants.  In one scene in the beginning she is worried about being able to afford a crazy phat apt. But after that it's no holds barred. She can afford to hire an assistant. She can afford to completely re-do her apartment (not to mention buying it back on short notice and with penalties). All this while maintaining if not increasing her old spending habits. Maybe it's a reflection of the current economic climate. Maybe I'm thinking about the insane costs of things like weddings or my values have changed or something. But for some reason it all rankled.  Do 2 book deals really make you that much money?

And then there's Samantha's pooch. First of all, kudos to all of the girls for parading around in bathing suits when they aren't spring chickens. But to me it was completely insane when much was made of Samantha having a little tiny belly, especially since a few minutes later they were celebrating her rather advanced birthday. I'm going on the record now, just to warn you all, that when I'm 50 I'm probably going to have a pooch.  I hope we can still be friends.

So those are my 2 cents. I know you can sleep better at night for having read this.

since I'm sure you're all dying to know, my fake eyelashes are gone. They only lasted about 4 weeks, and I think I was pretty careful with them. Or at least as careful as I could be while putting in my contacts.  They do say that it's good to get touch ups starting at 2 weeks.

But I'm definitely doing it again for the wedding.

This past weekend was a long weekend in the UK, so Grimbil and I headed to the French countryside to visit our friends Jenny & Nico.  They live in a small town of about 2,000 people in Burgundy. We visited several towns - the one his parents live in (whose name eludes me but translates as "Viney  Rock"), the town J & N live in, and Macon, which has a thriving music scene (one night we saw live jazz, the next live punk).  But everywhere we went it was gorgeous: quaint little towns sprinkled among green hills and fields, with the occasional white cows grazing in pastures. No neon signs, no strip malls, no suburban sprawl. It could have been pretty much any decade in the last hundred years or so, maybe even earlier if you ignored the cars. What struck me most is how sustainable their lifestyle seems. Everything is local, seasonal, fresh.  I mean, who knew that even cheese has seasons? I can't wait to go back!

I like Hong Kong more than Tokyo. It is warmer in every way

 i haven't had a good night's sleep since friday. i'm becoming increasingly braindead, which is making it harder for me to handle a situation that is cropping up at work. of course, having a situation to handle at work when i'm in a different time zone is part of why my sleep schedule is a mess. and so the cycle continues.... 

you know, i used to get really excited about the prospect of traveling to foreign countries for work, but it's become more of a pain in the ass than an adventure. 10 hour work days, conference calls in the middle of the night, having to introduce and prove myself to a new group of people each week, i'm tired of it.  by the time i leave the office, i don't feel like sight-seeing or being adventurous or enjoying another culture. i just feel like eating and sleeping. this trip in particular is annoying because the few people i already know in each office that i'm visiting are all on vacation, so my built-in social network is gone.

i also don't feel like i'm really settled in london since i'm always on the road. grimbil and i meet cool new people, and then i don't see them for months because i'm on a trip. makes it hard to develop a circle of friends. 

does this mean i'm getting old?

 in tokyo now. sooo tired - only a few hours sleep last night, and a 10 hour day at work today. plus i have a conference call at midnight.

but, saw some sumo wrestling last night. pretty cool!

i' ve arrived in Singapore and will be here til Sunday. So far all I've done is work out (go me!), eat an awesome meal at the hotel resto, and take a stroll along orchard road. The great thing about Singapore is that it's incredibly safe even at night. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do this weekend before I fly off to Tokyo. Any recommendations?

I made the mistake of buying The Lovely Bones to read on the flight over, and consequently spent most of my flight sniffling and trying really hard not to cry. It's a very good book, but my god so sad. Thank goodness for the little privacy screens between seats on British Airways, otherwise the guy next to me would have thought I was a nutjob. 

Here's hoping the jetlag isn't too bad.

happy anniversary goodgirlfriday!

and happy cinquo de mayo to the rest of yall

It's a long weekend, so we took the bike on our first road trip. Destination: Brighton. A seaside town that the royal family used to visit back in the day when bathing in sea water was thought to be theraputic. The ride was great, gorgeous weather and lovely countryside.

Brighton is a fun town, one of the most liberal cities in England. It reminded me of a cross between San Francisco and New Orleans. Unfortunately it's also the bachelor/bachelorette party capital of England. I have never seen so many girls in matching t-shirts and silly headbands. But still, we had a great time.

Tonight I'm off to Singapore. Grimbil will be all on his own for the next three weeks. Just him and GTA4....