Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Warning: Tooting Ahead!

I have to toot my own horn. Ok, I don't HAVE to toot my own horn, but I just GOTTA show you my best web layout EVER. It's so freakin' sweet that I don't know what to do with myself. Well, I guess I really like cheryl.terrel.us, too, but this one is just COOL. Anyhow, go check it out at Betwixt Mine Ears! =D

Britain Museum 07-14-08

Wow! I'm finally putting pictures up from our last full day in London! I didn't think it would ever happen! ;)

This is our trip to the Britain Museum, aka the museum of artifacts that the British stole from other nations and now keep because those other nations just wouldn't take care of them. Anyways.

The Rosetta Stone, a statue of a pharaoh and a large impressive stone thing that looks a bit like a centaur, though I think it was Egyptian.

These photos are from the uhhh, Oriental section? Boy that's probably not PC, but I have no idea what they called it. Anyways, I think you can figure out most of the photos...

Yes, yes, that is a statue of George Washington! It was a gift from I think Virginia, though I can't help but wonder what they were thinking when they gave the British a statue of a victorious traitor.

The last is a photo taken from the entrance to the Britain Museum.

Monday, July 28, 2008

London Misc 07-13-08

It's the biggest grandfather clock I've ever seen! Plus a photo of the London Hard Rock Cafe for my friend Aaron who collects the glasses - one of those gifts that says, "I thought about you, but not for very long." 0=D

I really appreciated the Londonians' (Londonites?) thoughtfulness in reminding people which way to look for the traffic since they drive on the wrong side of the road... The last photo was just a cool building, but I did wonder, "Do they serve Prince Albert in a Can? And what does that mean anyways?"

A taxi (they all look the same except for the color, a two-for-one special on lamps and so many people Cheryl said, "We're not going down there." The Ferris wheel is the London Eye if you're wondering, and it goes very very very slowly. It would probably take long enough to finish for me to end in a huddled, moaning mass of tears and cursing. Yeah, we didn't ride it...

A Texaco! Something familiar! (besides the Pizza Hut we ate at that morning and the McDonald's where we got a McFlurry so that we could use the bathroom yesterday) And, ummm, some buildings...

New Background

I finally made a background I like! I found this image from fishmonk's gallery, selected a chunk, colorized it into a blue using one of the blues from the canal in the header photo, used the clone tool to get rid of the droplets on the edges, copy and pasted a few raindrops near the edges that seemed especially empty, then stuck like ends to like ends to make a starting pattern, and voila! a background was born!

Exciting isn't it? =D

Sunday, July 27, 2008

London's Big Ben, Westminster Churches, Etc. 07-13-08

On Sunday we went to Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Once again, photos of the inside were not allowed, but it didn't make much difference because the inside looks to have been mostly gutted for repairs (I hope not more hideous modern remodeling). The architecture is a Byzantine response to the Neo-Gothic architecture of Westminster Abbey (or at least something I read somewhere said that). =)

I don't know what this first picture is, but it's neat. The second one is St. Martin de Porres (also Anglican *sigh*), or at least I think so. Andy will know. =)

This is Westminster Abbey. We didn't go inside because they were having a service (imagine that! on a Sunday of all days!), and that would be rude. =) So we took pictures of the outside. Not really satisfying, but oh well.

Big Ben! Did you know that Big Ben is attached to Parliament which is that huge freaking building stuck to Big Ben? Who knew?! (besides Andy, who also happens to be looking handsome as usual in the last photo of Big Ben)

Some miscellaneous pictures of Parliament Square, which oddly enough is in front of Parliament (Westminster Abbey was on one side of the square with Parliament on one of the adjoining sides, I think).

Yes, those are protesters in tents out there. They're protesting the Iraq War and had some obscenely high death count up (2 million or something), which I haven't seen in relation to the war except on their signs. Somehow I think if 2 million anybody's had died, the media would have let us know. But whatever...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Big Park 07-13-08

After Mass we had lunch at Pizza Hut which was, pretty decent (it was Pizza Hut) until a group of maybe 20 or 30 Italian teenagers came in with their supervisor who demanded that the manager give them a special deal according to her rules. She was loud, they were loud, it was annoying. I wanted the manager to tell them he didn't care what she wanted, he wanted them to be quiet or to get out, but he didn't, so we left soon after they arrived. I think the time when a parent acts out of sacrificial love the most must surely be when they are teenagers - they were wearing the silliest clothes, and I don't know how I will ever make it through my own children's teenage years if they do the same...

Anyways, once we were done we went over to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, but those photos will come later. After those places, I was ready to avoid some crowds and be a bit lazy, so we went to some big park to relax. That's where these pictures are from. =)

This is me being a brat for the camera, and me making up for it so my mom will have a nice picture of me. =)

This is a big field in the middle of London. Very exciting. Also apparently sneeze conducive to Cheryl. I had one of my legendary sneezing attacks which put me out for the rest of the day. I'm not sure if dinner was as bland as it tasted or if I just couldn't taste it...

The lake reminded us very much of Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte*, so we took pictures. Otherwise I suppose it wasn't very exciting.

This is the statue of some queen. Maybe Andy remembers who. It was somewhere close to this pretty little gated garden that reminded us of the Secret Garden (with the exception of the secret part). ;)

*I hope Andy is pleased that I finally looked up some facts instead of him having to do my fact checking. =D