What I Learned this Weekend

• This is my last 1/2 marathon. Six miles is a good distance to train to. I like it. I don't really feel the need to run further.
• I should always put on pants first thing in the morning. You never know who is going to come knocking on your door or at what time around here.
• You can't expect that there will always be a wine opener.
• I need to play a lot more poker...and watch others play it too. Too many strategies happening at once to keep track of with an untrained mind.
• Even at 33 years old, I sometimes still have no idea what's going on.
• Cooking for my friends makes me exceedingly happy. Anyone want to come over for dinner?

What I Learned this Weekend

• Heels are the preferred and correct shoe strategy for concerts at the Showbox. I can see from pretty much anywhere I stand
• I am kinda tall in my heels...I'm also kinda loud when you are ridiculously tall and try to stand in front of me.
• Alice Smith is gonna be really famous someday...and should be more famous right now.
• Easter really is better with candy and 5 year olds are the bestest...although I suspect some of those jellybeans may or may not have been made with crack the way I was eating them. So good.
• Gray, overcast and kinda cool is not only excellent yard work weather, it's great for running
• I can run 4 miles without stopping! (Maybe the jellybeans helped?)
• The Diller Room isn't that cool, kinda hard to find, and not worth the parking hassle...but it makes an awesome martini.
• I know a GREAT secret squirrel parking spot in downtown. No, I'm not sharing.
• Clams + Chorizo + Broth + Bread = Happy
• I've been overfeeding the H dog for the last year. Sorry fat girl, we'll get it right from now on!

What I Learned Last Week (NYC Edition)

• If you want to celeb spot in NYC, just sit in the lobby of the Bryant Park Hotel. I can't guarnatee A List, but I can guarantee you WILL spot them
• There is no guarantee of consistency in a soft boiled egg, even if you go to the same place three mornings in a row
• I love the East Village. If I lived in NYC, I would live in the East Village. It's exactly what a city should be
• The shoe departments at Saks Fifth Avenue are smaller than you think they would be, however, the 8th floor cafe is FABULOUS for ladies who lunch.
• If you are trying to fly out of JFK in the evening during the summer, chances are extremely likely that you will be delayed so just make yourself comfortable. You ain't goin' nowheres.
• Tempura fried tofu. In a word: awesome.
• I could very easily get used to a lifestyle that involves a driver and an Escalade on call.

What I Learned Last Weekend (Alaska Edition)

• I can run 3 miles!
• Despite the rumors, Flatop, just outside Anchorage, is a #$&*% HARD HIKE pretty much straight up hill.
• You can't hug a man in uniform when he's on duty...or maybe you can, but I wasn't allowed to.
• Even after several years of not living in Alaska, seeing a baby moose while running doesn't turn me into a tourist. It makes me think, "run the other way and get the dog out of the situation."
• That said, I still think baby moose are super cute.
• Good friends is always good friends. Despite time, distance, and lack of regular communication.
• It's called the "Winner Trail" not the "Winter Trail" - which somehow makes it less romantic.
• A hand tram is pretty damn cool and not at all as scary as you might think
• I know what absolute silence sounds like
• Despite never seeing a bear in the wild, I still have a very healthy fear of encountering one
• Sometimes, you SHOULD go to the right.

What I Learned This Weekend

• A Slip n Slide is a lot smaller, yet fancier, than you remember
• Two miles running is futher than I remember
• There are still some places in the United States that only take cash OR CHECK
• Harry Potter in 3D may be the only way to watch Harry Potter.
• I no longer feel 'guilty' about being indoors and 'wasting' the good weather. This sun ain't goin anywhere people
• I'm beginning to think 85 is a reasonable, hey almost cool, temperature.
• My dog is an excellent party guest.

What I Learned This Weekend

• Paint color choices can be overwhelming. It's harder than you might think to decided on a shade of yellow...without being too yellow...let alone what colors you want the rest of the house.
• Cherryride wants a hot pink bedroom.
• They sell cabinet knobs and drawer pulls at Target and they're priced better than Lowe's.
• You can get really sick of watching home improvement shows.
• I can improve my golf swing...and have!
• Marymoor Park is an awesome concert venue, especially on a warm September evening.
• John Butler Trio is better live than on the cd and you should all be big big BIG fans.

What I Learned This Weekend: Thanksgiving in Alaska Edition

It was a long learning weekend...

1. It's possible to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal without electricity. In fact, it might be the preferred way to do things.
2. No one likes the jello mold. Even if you use extra cranberry sauce to make it.
3. Mom is stingy with the leftovers. Dad is not.
4. The Nutcracker only plays for ONE WEEKEND in Anchorage. Just one. You miss it that weekend and you miss it. Oh, and even though the Nutcracker only plays one weekend it still won't sell out on the Friday night performance. (You can bring the culture to the people but you can't make them drink!)
5. Guessing how many minutes until the snow is clear off the highway is only a fun game to play on a long car trip for about a minute. After that, you need new distractions.
6. The Glacier Brewhouse still rates as one of my #1 all time favorite places to eat.
7. The Avenue Bar is the place to be in Anchorage...they even have their own local version of a Backstreet Boy.
8. The "Starbucks Cafe" at Barnes & Noble in Anchorage makes the HANDS DOWN WORST cup of coffee I have ever had. Even after it's been taken back to be remade. Terrible. Undrinkable. Disgusting.
9. Alaska and Seattle are having the EXACT SAME weather right now (thank you Global Warming). It was actually warmer in Anchorage when I left then when I arrived in Seattle.
10. Into the Wild is a good movie.
11. I am a Guitar Hero.
    

What I Learned This Weekend

• Seattle weather will never fail to surprise me. From hail to sunshine to torrential downpour in less than 30 minutes.
• A Husky can keep up for a while but eventually a running Duck will beat it. Go figure.
• Never ever ever ever ever put one of those "W" decals on your face...unless you want to look like you were involved in a skateboarding accident for several days following.
• Josh Ritter is awesome. You should all be listening. Seriously. Do it. Now.
• The Showbox is a really good venue. Perfect size. Good acoustics.
• Pike Brewery is a good place to go before the Showbox because it's across the street with good beers, food and you just might run into Josh Ritter and shake his hand.
• A scarily disportionate amount of MK's conversation revolves around Seth Rogan, Superbad, and Freaks & Geeks.
• Being sick on a long weekend is no fun but MK is a champ.

What I Learned This Weekend (Chicago Style)

• Chicago is my kind of town!
• Deep dish pizza should not be consumed more than once a year but damn it's GOOD.
• Everyone seems to agree that the John Hancock building has better views than the Sears Tower. I agree with everyone.
• The bean is pretty freakin cool. So is the fountain with the faces. (Didn't really focus on names of things)
• 9er and I may have been separated at birth.
• Cherry and I were definitely separated at birth.
• Four hours is not a long flight for a fantastic weekend.

Photos on Flikr. Recap later but some notes are in Twitter or you can go here for the highlights.

My Favorite Text Messages

A spin on the usual "what I learned this weekend," instead, I offer up my favorite text messages starting from Friday night. It was a greeeat weekend and included a pub crawl, dancing, and sitting on the floor of my flat (because I have no furniture) at midnight passing around a bottle of cava (because I have no glasses) before trying to go dancing in central London.

No, these are not all from the same people and only one person got 2 texts on the list. Names have been removed to protect the not-so-innocent and times are the local time of the SENDER.

• "Missing you. Plus, I am high." - Friday 3.32 pm
• "I am listening to Silverchair wearing an awesome green super hero cape. Not even kidding." - Saturday 4.20 pm.
• "Guess what. There is an article in the ft weekend about...? Snip snip!" - Saturday 5.01 pm
• "Apparently you have to actually be GAY to get into GAY" - Sunday 12.30 am
• "I is home. nice." - Sunday 4.16 am
• "Hating life right now, also never touching booze again. I guess that's mission accomplished!" - Sunday 4.30 pm

Adding photos to Flickr as well because they can run but they can't hide...

What I Learned This Weekend

• The Scissor Sisters put on an AMAZING show. We SO felt like dancing...and we did, knee injury and all.
• Suz has a much higher threshold for pain than previously understood.
• The A&E (Accident & Emergency or ER to the Yanks) is seriously a LAST resort. Do not go if you don't have to.
• Apparently in the UK, it's completely acceptable to ask a patient to wait for 4 hours just to SEE the doctor...even when there is only a few other people waiting.
• Meaning of Loaf will always return your calls, even if you didn't mean to make them (whoops!)
• It always takes longer to sort and clean for packing than you think it will and I own way more crap than I thought I did. Seriously, where does it all come from?
• There is more dust in London than anywhere else in the world and most of it is/was residing in my flat.
• Secretary is a weird twisted dark and brilliant movie. James Spader...wow. What a interesting career.
• Garden State is probably in my Top 5 movies of all time.

What I Learned This Weekend: Live Earth

Apparently, I LOVE Metallica.

Who knew?

I walked into Live Earth* jazzed to see the Chilli Peppers and Madonna. I left THRILLED that I had seen the Foo Fighters and Metallica. The Peppers & Madge were good - don't get me wrong - but it was f*cking METALLICA.

I was ready to start a riot.

I'd hereby like to make a motion that from this day forward only ROCK bands play stadiums of Wembley's size. Pop stars not allowed in anything bigger than an arena.

Who's with me?

Other stuff I learned this weekend:

• Live Earth crowds are very well behaved. No one wants to riot.
• Spinal Tap jokes are funnier if you've actually seen Spinal Tap.
• James Blunt sucks as much live as he does on the radio.
• The Chilli Peppers drummer looks just like Will Ferrell. It's kinda scary.
• Wembley can not handle a crowd of 65,000 people for 8+ hours. We stood in line for the bathroom, the food, the beer, the money machine...
• They only serve hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chicken & chips, and fish & chips at Wembley. This is a very limited selection for an 8+ hour concert.
• Wembly CAN control a crowd of 65k people entering Wembley tube station after the event. London police use cops on horses. They all stand in a line across the road to the station. They then make an announcement telling everyone to wait and then turn all the horses the long way to form a sort of horse wall across the crowd. Everyone waits until it's time to go again and the horses turn back to let everyone past. It's bloody brilliant.
• Musicians get the most amazing smile on their face when the crowd at Wembley sings their lyrics back to them. I could actually see Dave Grohl thinking, "This is awesome."

*Many thanks to my friend Brendan for the tickets, the beers, the hot dogs and standing in various lines for no less than 2 hours throughout different points in the day to supply me with all of the above.Many thanks also to Brendan for not being embarassed by me or my love of the RAWK when I discovered my love of Metallica. You are a true friend.

What I Learned This Weekend: Cinco de Mayo Edition

*Update: Photos now in Flikr

You'd think I'd have learned it all by now...you'd be wrong.

• No matter how much I want to, I have absolutely NO ability to pace myself in order to be able to eat some of everything that Jeff cooks. Sadcakes.
• After a few margaritas, if you want to video people dancing in the kitchen, all you have to do is say, "How come nobody's dancing?" and turn up the music. Works a charm.
• JBro is really not good at coming up with lies/excuses on the spot.
• Jeff is more willing to go along with a lame excuse than previously imagined.
• I can forget the phone calls I make in as little as 15 minutes...even when the phone is handed back to me with the person I called still on it.
• Cross dressing Ukranians are not a strong enough act to win the Eurovision contest (Serbia won).
• It is not possible for me to go straight to bed when I get home. It is possible for me to fall straight to sleep on the couch.

What I Learned This Weekend (Versailles Edition)

• Versailles* is HUGE. HUGE. It is a Grand Chateau (the Court), a smaller palace (for the family away from the court), a house for Marie Antoinette (away from her family - a girl needs her space) and a hamlet (small village of about 6 buildings) + a grand canal, a petite canal, 2 large fountains, 2 smaller fountains. and several hundred acres of grounds and gardens.
• You can rent bikes to peddle around the grounds at Versaille. I did. It took me 35 minutes at a leisurely pace to peddle all the way around the canal.
• You do not need to purchase a ticket to spend 5 hours at Versaille. I saved the Grand Apartments for my next trip (I will go back!)
• Marie Antoinette was completely out of touch with reality (yes, I know this is what we all think of her anyway but it takes seeing the complete village she had built so she could 'pretend' to be a milkmaid/commoner to make this a reality)
• No matter how hard I try to mimic the French words exactly as I hear them, I still have an English accent.
• Nutella crepes are always a good idea.
• I can live on croissants, wine and cafe au lait alone.

*photos in Flickr

What I Learned this Weekend

• Even with the best intentions, we will not make butternut squash soup.
• Even with the best intentions, I will not go running on the weekend.
• However, I will walk from my house to Oxford Street. It take about 50 minutes if you hurry.
• Dreamgirls is a FULL ON musical...and sometimes it's an awkward musical. It's not just a movie with great music performances.
• People applaud Jennifer Hudson even in London.
• No matter how old you are, the Science & History Museum is always going to be a fun time. Simulated earthquakes are cool.
• Lauren has never been in an eathquake.

What I Learned This Weekend - 15 Jan

• Suzanne will lead even when she doesn't know where she's going.
• Canadian hosts are not amusing in a London cabaret show and there is such a thing as bad burlesque strip tease.
• I don't like my friends to be seated too far away when eating in a restaurant without music.
• I can make a speech with absolutely NO preparation and despite several moments of wet-eyed weakness, not even cry.
• I like to make Jeff go first.
• In London, you can hire people to move a couch at 6.30 pm on a Sunday evening when you didn't even call them until 11.30 on Sunday morning.
• If I ever need to win a bet, I know I can fit 8 stacked Pringles into my mouth and eat them without losing any crumbs (however, I suspect I might be able to do 10).
• I don't like Lapsang Souchon tea. It smells like campfire.