A bit of a backlog

Note: 'A bit' always signals a typical British understatement

Yesterday I was talking to my mom and she says, 'You must be really busy, you haven't had any time to update your blog!' OK, I can take a hint. But I've nearly reached the point of paralyzation (I made that up - comes from the English 'paralysation', I swear). I have travel from nearly 2 months ago that I haven't posted about yet! So... I will try to pick out some snippits, and I encourage you to check out our pictures as always! The links are updated at right. I'm going to keep this post to July's events.

Bordeaux
At the 4th of July weekend, Jason, his mom Carole, and I traveled to Bordeaux for a wedding - Jason's mom's cousin Nigel's son Michael was to be married. Due to a family emergency, the wedding didn't happen, but given we were in Bordeaux and the weather was gorgeous we made the best of the weekend.

The Bordeaux region is mainly known for its red wines (primarily Merlot / Cab blends), is full of tiny family chateaux, and of course its gorgeous countryside. We had rented a car, so we drove through tiny and medium sized towns in the region southeast of the city of Bordeaux, and managed to have a few private tours / tastings and of course a few delicious meals. On the last day, we stopped in the town of Margaux, and given it was still morning, we opted for a chocolate tasting at Mademoiselle de Margaux, whose specialty is chocolate covered armagnac cherries. Amazing! And, as it turned out, it wasn't too bad to spend our Independence Day in France.

USA!

I expected it might be Christmastime before I was home again, but I managed to swing an extra trip using miles and my persuasive skills (i.e., I nicely asked if I could work from home for a week and they said yes.) So, for one week in July, I worked from the comfort of Mom & Dad's kitchen in Portsmouth, which was actually a very serene office. I spent my mornings on the phone back to the UK, and then around 1pm when they all wrapped up their days, I actually got stuff done! My weekend and evenings were peppered with all sorts of family (and 'family') visiting, from a LeMay lobster bake, an evening at the Atkinson Country Club with Julie, seeing cousin Jamie & Amy's new baby Joey, a Chill visit, and some quality time on & off the golf course with Mom, Dad, and Greg (who happened to be around for the weekend!). Evidently Greg was also happy to see me (or maybe just really excited about the 'photo shoot finale' to his visit):

USA, Part Deux
On the second and final weekend of my trip, I traveled down to DC/Alexandria for my college roommate Lisa's wedding. I didn't expect that I would be able to make it to her wedding given the distance, so it was a real unexpected treat in my summer. College weddings are always fun mini-reunions, although they're changing a little as kids get added to the picture! Nevertheless, it was good fun seeing some of the usual and less-than-usual suspects from the PSP crew, along with a blast from the past in Rob Ledger!

The wedding was simple & beautiful, but the outdoor tent reception ended rather abruptly when an enormous summer storm complete with lightening, driving rain, and extreme wind forced us inside. Alas, it certainly made it memorable! The next morning I strolled around Alexandria and remembered what summer (98 & humid) is like! Next time, shorts not jeans! A far cry from the famous 'British Summer'.

Back in the UK
Finally, in case you're wondering what Jason was up to all this time... well, a lot of the usual weekday excitement (read: work), but on the second weekend he and his mom went to Kew Gardens, a botanical garden a little further out of London from where we live. There were some pretty spectacular plants, worth flipping through the album. Here's a slideshow but it's better to watch full-screen through picasa. (I hope it works!)

Well, that's it for July! Tune in soon for August, which I will hopefully be able to tackle before September is out!