words

If you like words, and know a lot of them (and I know at least a few of my readers do!) then you should check out this site. Free Rice donates grains of rice for every vocabulary word you answer correctly. Yeah, it sounds kind of weird but how cool is that? Check it out and make a little difference in the world today. Thanks to Justin for the tip on his blog.

I feel the earth move under my feet

In case you're wondering, no, I didn't feel the earthquake...so everything is fine with me.

Wien

I'm headed to Vienna...

I was expecting a bit of a cold, wintry get-away but it looks like the temperatures there are actually in the fifties right now. Who would have thought that it would be colder and snowier in Cincinnati? Well, I guess if you know that Vienna isn't in the Alps that would be a clue. I didn't realize it but Vienna is famous for it's cakes and coffee. I think you know how I'll be spending my time! (I think I will prefer that over Wiener schnitzel)

one day at a time

The great thing about London is there are so many things to do.

The bad thing about London is there are so many things to do...and I want to do them all!

Things are about to get really busy for me. It's all my fault, and they are all fun things but I might get quiet for awhile. I'm in the midst of moving down the street and have a lot of trips coming up. With everything going on it's hard to think of things to write. The rest of February and March will be a whirlwind but I am looking forward to my my parents coming in one month!

fashion police

Last week I went to Hamburg for some training...We had a two hour delay leaving London so I had plenty of time to spot some interesting fashion faux pas. This was the best and I managed to catch the poor, unsuspecting man on camera as he came out of the bathroom. Two different shades of orange?? Classic.

I can't keep up

Does he want to stay or does he want to go? Will they or won't they trade him? Does he want to go to Miami or Washington? I wish Chad Johnson and the Bengals would just make-up.

I would walk 500 miles...

If The Proclaimers actually walked 500 miles I think they would be pretty sore. Yesterday I walked about 17.5 and I am feeling very stiff. We started our training for Trailwalker by walking from Wimbledon to Central London and back in 6 hours. Checking the route on Google maps you can actually figure out the distance which is cool. So 17.5 miles down, 42.5 to go.

I am getting used to the idea that I live in London...but sometimes it still strikes me at random times. The other night it hit me that I can navigate my way around the city without a map now (for the most part), and walking all the way to Central London and back was also cool. Now we just have to walk all the way to the coast!

hey, bloggers

I mentioned before that there is a service that tracks buzz on blogs, etc. You can check it out here. They have various tools on the site and one is BlogPulse profiles. You can enter the URL of a blog and it can give you various statistics. I tried entering my URL and it was a little creepy, although I can't say that I was surprised. For example, it could tell me that I'd recently referenced www.nkotb.com. If I go to the trend search tool I can search the trend of New Kids on the Block buzz and see there was a huge spike in late January with up to 0.11% of all blogs analyzed referencing New Kids on the Block. I'm sure it would be more interesting on a more high profile blog. Here's another interesting media/social-networking website where you can rate TV, movies, music and websites and also check out the latest buzz.

I'm a slave...

...to my email.

What did people do all day at work before they were chained to their laptops? I think I am a little obsessive compulsive. It partially stems from the fact that I am in client service so my job is to respond to client needs. That has trained me to respond to emails very quickly. Now it's to the point when I get an email I have an urge to respond almost instantly...except for a few that I would just rather avoid altogether.

It's even translated into my personal email habits. When I wake up in the morning one of the first things I do is check my email. I don't understand those people who don't turn their computers on all day. How do they survive? What if someone emailed them or wrote on their facebook wall and they don't know about it until tomorrow? I'm at a computer all day at work but then it's hard to tear myself away. (To be clear, it's not the work I can't tear myself from)

They tried to make me to go rehab and I said, "No, no, no!"

the super bowl

uh oh

Which Character From The Office Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

I guess I'm not too surprised...although I'd like to think I'm a mix between Angela and Pam.

can I get my hopes up?

Are new episodes of The Office around the corner??

catherine riley

Congratulations to my wonderful friends Eric and Melody on the birth of their daughter, Catherine Riley, on Tuesday night. I can't wait to see her in person!

people carrier

Well, I finally have my driver's license and finally have a car. It's a temporary company car until they can get me my own...and I hope temporary is very temporary. Check it out:
It might be hard to tell from the quality of the picture but it's a mini van! (Vauxhall Zafira) Here they call them people carriers. Whatever. Call it what you will but it's still a mini van. I'm not sure how I am going to parallel park this baby on the streets of London - that will take some practice.

Overall, it's a nice car and I'm grateful to have it. I was just hoping for something smaller. (Although it will come in handy when I move down the street). I've driven to Oxford and back twice now with the help of my TomTom so I am certainly not afraid of the roads. I noticed while I was driving that it actually feels more real that I'm living here now. For some reason driving makes me feel more normal, more settled. Although the settled feeling could also come from the fact that I'm driving a mini van - usually people driving mini vans are settled down with kids! I didn't have that in mind for awhile...

2 worlds collide

A Bengal playing in England

Oasis UK

Last weekend I went to a volunteer information day for Oasis UK. I've been looking for an organization to volunteer with and heard about Oasis at a Stop the Traffik event (they are partner organizations). They have a hub in Lambeth, near Waterloo where they have a church and do work with a lot of youth projects. Among other things they have set up a radio station where kids can go to express their creativity and receive training in media. They have other hubs in the UK focusing on the homeless and education as well. Globally they have operations in many other countries including India where they assist in the fight against human trafficking. It was great to get out and hear about their vision for impacting the community and see how others are serving Christ.

my vote

Well, since I had no takers on the poll from my previous post I thought I'd tell you my vote:I'm going to see The Police in concert this summer in Hyde Park. I wasn't really old enough to appreciate them when they were originally together so it's a good opportunity to see them. Very exciting!