Give them an inch...

I think the spell I used to banish all the weeds from the garden was actually an Engorgement Charm.

The Leckhampton Loop

Friday night, I made the executive decision that we would all go for a hike on Saturday. Around here, we tend to spend too much time imagining things to do that would be really fun, and a lot less time actually doing them. So what if the weather is crap. I'm pretty sure summer has officially fizzled into fall. However, we're lucky we live somewhere very similar to home in the states where the scenery is beautiful even when it rains. Anyway, since I made the gigantic leap of actually making plans to do something, I made Jeff find us a hike to do. Luckily, he knows how to work the internets really well and landed on www.nationaltrail.co.uk. So cool! There are 15 National Trails, most of them are 100-200 miles long, the shortest being the Yorkshire Wolds Way at 79 miles and the longest the South West Coast Path at 630 (!!!) miles long. The paths are mainly for walkers, but parts are open to horses and bikes, as well. The website also has directions for short, circular routes that incorporate parts of the main trails. We settled on "The Leckhampton Loop" on the Cotswold Way, 102 miles of trail between Chipping Campden and Bath.

We stopped at Tesco to pick up some snackables and water for the dogs, before driving about an hour to postcode GL53 9NG. Not too long after that we were off and walking on the Cotswold Way.

Sascha went #2 after about 30 seconds of walking and I'll be damned if I'm going to carry her poo in a bag for 4.5 miles so we tied it to her harness. We find that really funny in this house. Plato's harness has gone missing so we used the gentle leader instead. Besides making him heel like an angel, it had the welcome side effect of making going on a walk in a new place way wayyyyyy less exciting. It also makes him rub his face on your leg every chance he gets which is endearing. He really hates it though so I think we're going to reserve it for special occasions. Especially exciting occasions when we want to temper his happiness with just a smidge of depression. You know.

We chuckled at the over-dressed British ramblers until it started to rain (HARD, in a "is it hailing???" sort of a way) and they whipped out an amazing array of rain gear. They definitely had the last laugh in this case and I think I've seen the light in regards to pants that zip off into shorts. And hiking shoes. Since I completely destroyed the one pair of sneakers I have for going to the gym (on the other hand, an excuse to not go to the gym!!).

The dry stone walls along the path were so pretty. I especially loved this one with a dog door.

At the high point of the loop we were treated to some beautiful views.

We made friends with a cow and it was SO CUTE and I want one.

Tired dogs = good day.

Pie and thai and more pie and other things

Jeff and I have been working our way through the second season of Twin Peaks and besides being generally awesome, it gave me a major hankering for some pie. The characters are always going to the local diner and having pie and coffee at random times of the day. Not only are they all strangely good-looking, they apparently also have amazing metabolisms. Long story short, I wanted some pie. Of course, I had to make things wayyyy harder and pick this Martha recipe for Cheddar-Crusted Apple Pie. Apart from the crust being really really annoying to make, I was also a little annoyed with myself when I realized about half way through making it that I really didn't like the combination of the sweet filling with the cheesy crust. I like savory THEN sweet, not savory and sweet together. I developed a strategy which was to eat all the crust first, which, as expected, made me want something sweet, which, you know, HOW CONVENIENT, because I still had the pie filling left. It was pretty good, but I've eaten so much pie the last week it is kinda grossing me out to think about it. I guess I should have taken Jeff seriously when his response to my pie-making announcement was "Nooooo pleaassse don't make any pie, I beg of you...." Obviously, his self-control is greater than my own, but he wasn't the one within smelling/viewing distance come lunch time every day.

As you know, Beau Thai has sorta of fallen from favor so we tried a new thai place this week in Henley-in-Arden. It is closer than Beau Thai so we were hoping for the best, but it was total crap. I really wanted it to be good because Henley is pretty cute, and it is nice to have a stroll down the main street while we wait for our food. We've been there twice now and can confirm that the first time was definitely not an off-night, the food is legit bland.

I've been meaning to straighten out the nightmare jungle that our back garden has become but it is so easy to pretend it isn't there when the part of the yard where we normally hang out is so pleasant. It is only when I'm sitting at the kitchen table looking out the living room window that I'm slightly embarrassed at how bad it has gotten. Not that I didn't accomplish anything yesterday. The white outdoor chairs were getting a little nasty so I gave them a good car-wash style clean. Then, the garbage bins caught my eye so I cleaned them too and it was sooooo satisfying. That's my problem with cleaning. I get distracted deep-cleaning random places, like the area under the sink or the utensil drawer. Don't look now, but how does it get so gross in there?!?!

My sister Kate just started school and soccer at Baylor after transferring from Santa Clara. I'm no expert but I'd say she looks damn good doing whatever she's doing.

And finally, Margann turns 23 today! This seems as good excuse as any to post this photo (of a photo) of the three of us back in the day, featuring Margann looking particularly sassy. Happy Birthday!!

This gives me nightmares

Ok, another video, I know. Every time I see these Febreze commercials I die laughing. Laughter tinged with just a bit of fear. I would go to great lengths not to sit on a dissgu---shudder---ssting couch like that, must less put one of its pillows so close to my nose.






There is another video (and I'm angered because I cannot find it) where a girl and a guy are sitting on a similar couch. The guy takes of his blindfold before she does and is treated to the sight of her happily sniffing a nasty old pair of men's undies.


BTW, Frebreze is totally not my style. When things smell overpoweringly Febreze-y and flowery, I am instantly suspicious of what's lurking underneath. As the owner of two dogs, I'm no stranger to gross smells, but I find the cure is to keep things CLEAN. It would be like putting on deodorant instead of taking a shower, which I think we can all agree ain't right. Not that I know anyone who would do that.

Stockers

Apparently, that's what the cool people are calling Stockholm these days. (And by cool people I mean a cool coworker of Jeff's. Our social circle has shrunk enough that 1 person = people. So "I have friends!" translates to "I pay a friendly girl to teach me riding!"). After arriving in Copenhagen on Saturday, we were quite delighted to get the hell out of there and onto a blissfully walking/museum free 5 hour train ride to Stockholm. Jeff later commented that he wasn't that impressed by the countryside along the way which was hilarious because he was reading A Dance with Dragons and did not look out the window a single time.

First, I have to show you some pics of our room because it was cooooool. I was actually a little worried that our hotel was even TOO COOL for us until we joined the usual socks/sandals (Tripadvisor-reading) folks at breakfast. We had our ACNE jeans so I don't know why I was so worried. We kinda got a bad vibe when we checked in because the check in person was being completely monopolized by another hotel guest and didn't even say hello to us for the longest time. At first, we were ticked off at the reception guy but throughout our stay we realized that particular guest was a FREAK who was ALWAYS harassing the receptionists. I think he probably went downstairs to talk to them right after breakfast in order to have enough time to pick a place for dinner.

As in Copenhagen, we had stunningly beautiful weather in Stockholm and spent a lot of time just wandering about soaking it all in.

By this point, our reserves of clean clothes were depleted so we hit up H&M (more useful souvenirs!) for t-shirts and socks. When we were leaving Jeff was all "Wow!! I had no idea H&M was so cheap!". Clearly, he has been living under a rock, or the modern day equivalent: noise-cancelling headphones.

We went to the Army Museum, which I thought was going to be musty and booo-rrrinnggg, but it was one of the best museums we went to the entire trip. Just great displays and a very in-depth English audio guide. Also, its discussion of Sweden's "neutrality" during WW2 was surprisingly unbiased.

We went to an open-air museum called Skansen. It was founded in 1891 and contains 150 traditional buildings from all over Sweden that the founder bought, dismantled, and rebuilt in Skansen. The buildings themselves were cool, but the best part was all the Nordic animals that live there. We saw brown bears, wolves, wolverines, lynx, moose, wild boars, European bison, reindeer, foxes, and seals. A lot of them had babies, too.

It was really hard to tear ourselves away from the lynx babies playing with their mama. Please ignore the part in the video where I'm a huge bi-otch. Always a pleasure, right Jeff?




Other than the baby animals, the real highlight of our trip was going sea kayaking in the Stockholm archipelago. It was nice to get away from the tourists and do something active. Our hotel got major negative points for starting breakfast no earlier than 8am on the weekend so we had McDonalds (haha) and took a 45 minute bus, followed by a 15 minute water taxi ride to the island of Runmarö.

Jeff and I shared a kayak. I was perfectly happy with this arrangement until Jeff was like "GOD. I can't believe I have to share with you." Excuse me, WHAT? And then he wanted to be, like, in front of everyone as if he KNEW WHERE WE WERE GOING. Sometimes I just stopped rowing because we were getting too far away from the pack, but then I was dude, stop rowing, I want to get a work out too ya know!! All of this was punctuated by me demanding every 30 seconds whether or not Jeff was steering (which, just so you know, HE WASN'T). Classic.

We paddled for a few hours before stopping on an island for a swim and a picnic lunch. I'm still fantasizing about that lunch. The food wasn't unusually good but the hard work getting there, the sun, the swim, and the scenery (including Philip, the hunky guide) all combined to make something awesome. 

So that was our trip. We had such a fun time, particularly in Stockholm, and though we'd love to go back there are so many other new places to see! Hmm where to next....

If Plato was in charge of weather.com