Char-Blog

Spain!

2009-05-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Anna!

2009-03-07T03:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my big sis Anna! It is with this monumental event that I decided to resurrect my blog. If any of you out there still read it then consider me BACK.

London!

2008-12-05T03:56:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I am blogging from the great city of London. Francie and I are currently at an internet cafe, where she is finishing some presentation evaluations for her class. I'm checking dlisted and other people's blogs. So far today we went to Tesco and bought some bran, raisins, 2 milks (they were on sale) and Francie got a stocking stuffer for whoever she gets. I won't say what she got but its savage. We then went home, ate the homemade raisin bran and watched a show about buying houses and fixing them up to re-sell. Genius idea if it works out but it looked like a lot of work.

In a little while we're going to walk to Bobby's work and maybe go to the bucks with him. Later tonight it's off to the cinema most likely. Tomorrow we will have lunch with some Fitz relatives in town, go to the pub to watch the Man United game, and hurry home to catch x-factor. Such a busy weekend! On Sunday I might do a little ho-ho-ing and then on Monday morning it's back to Edinburgh on the train.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

TTFN,

Char

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-12-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

William and I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people last Sunday! Here's what was on the menu:

Hummus & Carrots
Euro Chex Mix
Turkey (2)
Mashed Potatoes
Potato Croquettes
Scalloped Potatoes
Carrots
Green Beans
Rolls
Ceasar Salad
Stuffing
Gravy
White Sauce
Pumpkin Pie with Whip Cream
Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

The turkeys took 20 hours to thaw out!! Who knew!! Luckily we bought them Saturday morning. It was a grand event!!

(pics to come-william left the camera at work!!)

William Graduated!!

2008-12-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

William graduated with his Master's degree in civil engineering. Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!

Halloween

2008-11-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

Halloween was.................a blast! And, over a week ago. Took me awhile to get these photos up, for 2 reasons. One, I'm lazy. Two, once I got over my laziness I realized William transferred all our photos to an external harddrive. This postponed it another few days, although, as I just found out, it's simple to retrieve them- it's just a usb connection. Anywho, my flatmates and I hosted a small Hallween get-together. We had a few friends over and a LOT of food. It was a good combination. In hwa and Johanna stole the show- they (apparently) have never carved pumpkins before but they turned out awesome. They even looked good yesterday when we got around to throwing their moldy remains out. Another highlight was In Hwa trying on my diet coke costume- we toasted the costume with- what else- a diet coke.

Euro radio

2008-10-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

I often listen to the radio while I feed/split my cells (too difficult to explain- a scientific 'experiment' for those of you know aren't familiar with lab talk). It's great to listen to the radio during that time because the work doesn't usually require a lot of thought so I can zone out and rock out to the radio. HOWEVER, I have noticed an odd trend in the music they play here. There are the typical current hits but then every hour or two they play songs like Ironic and Drops of Jupiter. Who even sings Drops of Jupiter? It makes me cringe every time I hear it, so basically once or twice a day depending on how long it takes me to do my cells. They LOVE Alanis. It's not just Ironic, but they play all her other old hits too. It's odd yet at the same time a nice blast from the past.

What song I'm really loving though is So What, by Pink. Makes me think of Ab Nelson, who has always been a huge Pink fan.

Just a spoonful of sugar

2008-10-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

William and I went to Mary Poppins the musical on Friday. It was fabulous!!! So, so good and yes, she did fly through the audience on her umbrella. Classic! The musical is touring now after being on in the West End for awhile. Mary and Bert were the best, obviously, but the kids (Jane and Michael) were actually so good, too. Not just their singing but their acting as well, which was a bit unexpected because sometimes the child actors are really cute but lacking in the acting department. Did anyone know that when the book came out in 1934 there were 2 other kids in the Banks family as well??? Baby twins. How cute! Wonder when they got cut. I didn't read far enough on Wikipedia to find out. William and I spent the bus ride home from the playhouse trying to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Wait for it, wait for it...............its a new post!!!

2008-10-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Char-blog fans (Madge, Anna, Mom, Francie and Dad...Anthony? Christina?). Anywho, I would like to apologize for posting ONCE last month. My goal for October is two posts at least (and yes, this one obviously counts). Not sure what to talk about.....I have been working hard but doing plenty of fun things lately as well. September was a month for trips to Ireland for me. I went one weekend for William's little sis's 21st birthday party. I had a pre-party dinner at Marios with everyone's favorite newlyweds and then F and I headed to Strad for the partay. The dj was great and Francie and I tore up the dance floor, mostly with William's younger cousins. A couple weeks later I was back in the land of sheep for another party- F and B's second wedding reception! Complete with an old car to drive them to the hotel, it was an extremely well put-together evening. A red carpet was rolled out for them to walk into the hotel on and we all had a champagne toast right before entering. The cake was brought out with sparklers lit and our very own Reesa Dalbotten sang I Cross My Heart for Francie and Bobby's dance. Stine and I joined her for Shoop Shoop directly after (we were back up singers) and I must honestly say I don't think the Irish knew quite what to think of us! It was a fab fab night, full of dancing and of course, a sing-song that lasted into the wee hours. I would say the only slight downfall of the night was that Noreen had to (literally) sew me into my bridesmaid dress. It was a sticky zipper (I swear, I didn't get fat in between wedding receptions!!) that only zipped two-thirds of the way up. Luckily Noreen had some perfectly matching green thread to sew me up. I really should have taken a pic- it was pretty hilarious! I will now try to steal some pics of the night off Thomas's facebook because I think he's the only one who has posted any and I took maybe 1 pic the entire time. We also put on lots of bronzer so see if you can tell. PS- listening to So Long Cowboy. Rich Kay, if you're out there- it's one of your best. A classic really!

Carrot Cake

2008-09-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of it! I recently re-discovered my love for carrot cake. William and I have had it at least 3 times in the last two weeks and the only reason we haven't had it more is because the bakery where we get it always runs out. It's that popular! You can buy it by the slice and, get this, YOU tell them how big to make the slice! Genius. They have had 2 different varieties: one has the cream cheese frosting and one has more of a traditional icing. I usually don't care for the cream cheese frosting, mostly because the store-bought carrot cakes usually overdo it, but this one is delicious! Thin and creamy. Here is one of many carrot cake recipes. I was going to try to make it myself but there are way too many ingredients so I think I'll just continue to buy it. SO GOOD!

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoon of baking soda½ teaspoon of salt
¾ teaspoon of ground ginger
½ teaspoon of ground all spices
1 cup of vegetable oil or light olive oil
4 eggs
1 cup of granulated sugar
½ cup of fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2cups of shredded carrots2 cups of chopped walnutsToasted cream cheese icing

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour at 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and all spice onto a sheet of waxed paper. Beat oil, eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a larger bowl on medium speed for 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in orange juice and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture on lowest speed just until blended. Stir in carrots and walnuts until combined. Scrape onto prepared pan. Bake in heated 350 degrees oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Spread with cream cheese icing into 16 squares and serve.

I've returned!!

2008-08-24T03:56:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've been back in euro-land for 3 weeks but have yet to write a new post. LA-ZY! Here's what's happened in the last few days, weeks, months.
1. I went home to Seattle! (well, KENMORE to be exact!) For some reason the only pics William took downtown were of the viaduct so here is the best one. It's glowing in the sun.

2. Anna, Alex, Max, William, my mom and I hiked to Camp Muir on Mt Rainer. This was an AMAZING hike, 100% in the snow and 100% in the sun! It was a good thing we had some ice-cold (well, really luke warm) rainer beers to sip at the top.

3. William and I went to universal studios and disneyland! SO much fun! We almost couldn't handle the heat but an ice-cream a day certainly helped.

4. Francie and Bobby got married!!! It was a week full of fun activities. A bridal shower for Francie, golf for Bobby and the boys, a delicious rehearsal dinner and rowdy sing-song, a Mariner's game, and white water rafting, with plenty of impromptu pints and sing-songs along the way. It was such a fun week!

Congratulations are in order!

2008-06-25T02:58:00.001-07:00

There have been 3 very exciting things that have happened in the recent past. Hip Hip Hooray to these 3:

1. Francie passed her driving test...IN IRELAND! Congrats!

2. William got a 1:1 in his Master's degree (highest possible grade)! Congrats!

3. Claire and Kevin got married! Congrats! (more pics from their wedding in Skye to come!)

Francie's Hen Night!

2008-06-20T02:18:00.000-07:00

What a night! Anne and Shelagh joined Francie, Madge and I at Francie's house and we started the evening with a classy glass of champagne. Then it was on to the Anvil to meet up with the rest of the gals. The bride-to-be was given a pink feather boa and tiara courtesy of Debbie. Francie was a little wary of the 'hen' outfit but, as you can see from the photos, she embraced her inner hen and spent the later part of the night dancing with her boa. We couldn't have gotten it away from her if we tried!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

2008-06-11T04:07:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

CYPRUS

2008-05-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Francie, Anna and I had an unbelievable time visiting Madge in Cyprus! We drove all around the island, stopping along the way to lounge on the beach, eat frozen yogurt and take an amazing hike. More pics to come!

Oh What a Night!

2008-04-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

What a FAB musical! William and I went and saw this musical on Friday night. I was tired after work and needed a DC to get me there, but after the first few songs we really woke up! People were standing up and dancing and singing along. It was such a great atmosphere. The singing was good and the dancing was even better! Mary Poppins is coming in October so that's our next show!

Come on United!

2008-04-09T04:32:00.001-07:00

As many of my faithful readers know, I have gotten VERY into soccer over here. When in Rome. Everyone 'follows' one team or another and after meeting William I really didn't have a choice as to who I could follow! We went down to Manchester last year to catch a game, which was awesome! Most of the time though, we head to the pub to cheer them on. Tonight is a big game against Roma (HA- when in Rome!). If Man United win they go to the semi-finals of the Champions League tournament. Very exciting!!! Because William is out of town, I will be heading to the pub on my own to cheer them on. Should be good! Cross your fingers for a win!

Saturday Night woot woot!

2008-04-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the cinema with some friends from work. We saw 27 dresses and it was SO GOOD! Just the type of cheesy, romantic comedy that I love! Tammy and I got some pizza hut (funny that I never eat much pizza hut at home but have it here pretty often! ha) first and then went straight to the movie. I had a spicey veg pizza, with tomatos, jalepenos and green peppers. It was delicious and the icing on the cake was that there was free refills on the pop. What a treat! Couldn't get a taxi after the film so I ran home in my wedges and here I sit, watching soccer highlights. A perfect Saturday for me!

Step up 2: The Streets

2008-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

William and I saw Step up 2: The Streets last night at the cinema. If you missed Step Up (out in 2006), don't despair...you can still follow along in this amazing sequel. It was great! Made us wish we could dance hip hop! I would definitely reccommend seeing it; the music in it is good, too.

Lucky Streak!!!

2008-03-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Luckiest week ever!

1. Won a bottle of whiskey at work!

2. Found five pounds on the street!

3. Bought a lottery ticket! (jury's still out on whether this was lucky or not. have to check the numbers now!)

Catch-Up Blog!

2008-03-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have been m.i.a. on the blog front lately so here is what's been going on! I got an early birthday present from my parents and was VERY suprised to find it was a mountain bike!!! William had it all assembled by the time I got home from work and didn't even let me guess what it was. It was a total surprise and I bought a helmet and lock today so we can finally go for a ride tomorrow. Can't wait!

I spent my birthday weekend in Ireland. Francie, Bobby, William and I had a fab time at Mario's for our birthday dinner and then of course, it was on to the rugby club. We danced it up and a guy Francie didn't know wiped her forehead because it was so sweaty. Kind of odd but nice I suppose.

I have to give shout-out to Booter, as well, because we went on a great walk with him. He has really come of age and is a full grown dog now! This is one of his 'senior pictures.'

William and I flew back to Ireland a day earlier then planned because two of his friends came to Edinburgh to surprise him. He was TOTALLY surprised, which is always fun, and we all had a good night out on Tuesday. Our flatmates Carolyn and Kenny were out as well, and we ended up doing karaoke all night. William and I sang Endless Love (not our pick!), which was interesting to say the least. I also sang Loveshack with one of Carolyn's friends, which was much easier because I could yell and not attempt to sing. Great night!

Edinburgh Half Marathon!

2008-03-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

We did it! William and I ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday. This pic is us racing for the finish line. We didn't train too hard for it, which is something I would not reccommend, but it was fun nonetheless. We did it in 1 hour and 51 minutes, which was faster then we thought!

Kenmore etc.

2008-03-13T05:28:00.000-07:00

Despite the reason for my return to K-town last week, it was great to go home and see everyone. Max, Anne, Francie, my mom and the coolest 'small dog' ever, Oggy, went for a walk around Greenlake. Oggy even took off his fleece and harness to play with the other dogs at the dog park. This is a lookalike Oggy:

On Wednesday, Francie, Grandma Martha and I drove to Vancouver. It was a very pleasant drive and was so sunny Grandma lent me her shades. They looked a little like this but were brown around the edges. We had a great time at a dinner party at the Foley's- the salmon was amazing, as usual!

On Thursday Anna treated Francie and I to pedicures for an early bday present. When I showed them to William he said, 'It's a miracle! You should get that done at LEAST once a month!' We then went over to the units house to have a yummy dinner of sausages for the meat eaters, cranberry-apple-almond-feta salad, and risotto with tons of parmesean. The highlight of the trip occured when we got a call from Anna shortly after she left to drive home. She was nearly arrested for not paying a ticket from 3 years ago and I had to go pick her and her car up down by Masers. Such excitement!!

A birthday dinner for Anna rounded out the week. A fun group of people + homemade pizzas + lemon cake= a good night!

Grandma

2008-03-13T05:08:00.001-07:00

So many memories of my grandma! Here are some of the highlights:

Riding the train every summer for 5 or 6 years to Wenatchee to hang out on the farm with G & G Kay.

Cait, Francie and I swam in the pool, drank Dr Pepper, fed the cows, and ate frosted flakes every morning for breakfast.

We picked peaches straight from the tree and fed the cows some and canned the rest with my Grandma.

Back when I ate meat, I loved my grandma's chicken and dumplings. I also loved her barbequed ribs...until I found out where they came from!

I will miss her a lot, but I know she is in a better place now.

TV

2008-02-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

I've really never been a 'TV' person, but I have to say that right now I definitely am. Although I should really call myself a 'youtube' person because in order to keep up-to-date with my shows I watch them on youtube because they are either not on in Scotland or on a couple days/seasons late and I am far too impatient for that!! I am currently into the latest america's next top model, project runway and american idol. Have to say that project runway is the best, but I can't seem to break away from antm or american idol either. Have to say I think Christian will win project runway and he deserves it. I liked Rami at first but he has really overdone the draping. Over it.I like Katarzyna the best so far in antm but its early days still. I kind of love and hate american idol...its the millionth season and all of the judges are annoying but I do think the youngest guy, David, is the best. I also like Ramiele but I haven't see the girls show for this week yet (waiting for youtube or Friday, when it's on TV here. sigh.)

I will be in Seattle/Kenmore/Wenatchee for the next week so perhaps I will blog from there! It will be great to see the fam. I am planning on eating lots canned peaches to remember my wonderful grandma.

Glasses

2008-02-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

2 good things: 1) they look a little better in person and 2) i only really have to wear them at work

Danke

2008-01-29T01:03:00.000-08:00

Thank you to my faithful readers! (aka Mom and Anna). Glad you still check the blog. I was having some techincal difficulties posting pics last night and got REALLY frusterated and quit. Hopefully I'll be able to get some up tonight.

I remembered my blog!!!

2008-01-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

Sigh. Maybe I'm not fit to be a blogger. Can't seem to find time to blog even though I have HOURS of time on my hands. hmmmm. Will try to be better about this!!! Here's what's happened since I last blogged.

1. Madge and Barbie arrived in Edinburgh! We went out with a bang. Also went to Inverness for one night to visit Nessie. Madge chipped her tooth on the bus ride up and William, Barbie and I ate a LOT of hummus. We were so tired from the bus ride etc. that we got an Indian takeaway and ate it in our room at the B&B while watching the Man United game. So cool.

2. New Years!!! Celebrated at the Hogmanay street party with chips dipped in dijon mustard....yeah that was pretty much the highlight! Oh and the fact that Margaret's toes were completely numb afterwards due to her new heels. haha. 3. I moved!! William and I moved into a new flat. It's savage! What wasn't savage was cleaning the old flat- my whole body was sore!!! Big thank-you to Tammy, if you're reading this, and her bf Andrew for helping us move our stuff! You guys are the best!

4. Madge returned to Edinburgh for another week after a whirl-wind tour of Ireland with Francie. We had dinner and played Simpsons monopoly with my new roomies, ran around the meadows almost one whole lap and had a FAB night out on her last night. The most significant thing I recall from that night is trying to request Britney's Piece of Me over and over again to the DJ, who was not amused. He DID play Baby One More Time so all was not lost but STILL.

5. I'm looking forward to a week off over my birthday and Easter and then a week (or more perhaps!) in Cyprus at the beginning of May.

Christmas Tree!

2007-12-20T01:38:00.001-08:00

Francie, Bobby and I ventured out to find a Christmas tree last Saturday and what an adventure we had. We did a little ho-ho-ing before and were running a tad bit late but thought we had plenty of time to drive to the tree farm. It closed at 4pm because of darkness and after getting a bit lost we arrived at 4:10pm. We had been told over the phone by the tree farm owners that it closed strictly at 4pm for u-cut trees but there would still be trees they had previously cut for sale. Obviously we would not drive 2 hours to take home a tree SOMEONE ELSE cut, so when we got there Francie and I went around the back of the barn and Bobby went directly into the woods to scope a tree. We told the kid working we had the tree all picked out but had forgotten our saw so he trustingly gave us one and we cackled as we ran into the woods. The three of us searched quickly for a fine, full and fat tree. We cut it down, had it wrapped, paid for it and were back in the car within 10 minutes of arriving. Very efficient! Now I'm off to my work Christmas party woohoo!

Self-rising flour

2007-12-13T01:49:00.000-08:00

Self-rising flour is the vain of my existance. I had never heard of it until I moved over here and now I can't get away from it! Self-rising flour ruined bunny heads last Easter and now it's taken it's toll on Christmas cookies as well. Apparently self-rising flour is regular flour with baking soda or baking powder or both already in it. Sounds like it's saving you time and money from buying them separately, right? WRONG. It must include some sort of alien ingredient because it completely blows up everything you try to bake. Exhibit A is Mr Santa in the middle of the photo- he's huge! The object on the right

is supposed to be a snowman and the one on the left is a circle (I mean Christmas tree ornament). Despite their scary size, these cookies turned out to be quite tastey and William and I finished them off last night!

Learning how to blog

2007-12-05T04:49:00.000-08:00

I'm baby-stepping here. I've figured out how to post a pic! Thanks to Madge for her detailed instructions. This is the Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh's biggest attraction. I have been here 3 times already and could recite the audio tour to anyone who would like to hear it. It is really cool and old and if you come here, you must go!

Welcome to the Char-Blog!

2007-12-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Char-Blog, where Char news and views will be posted for all. I am very excited to enter into the world of blogs and only hope my life is interesting enough to write about. Things I am excited about right now are watching America's Next Top Model and Project Runway online on Thursday (I have to wait til some kind soul posts them on youtube), getting the Christmas tree with Francie and Bobby on the 15th, and my work Christmas party on the 21st. Last weekend William and I went to Aberdeen to watch the Premier League Snooker and saw John Higgins live and in person at the hotel bar. For those of you who may not know who this celeb is, he is a snooker player from right here in Scotland. Needless to say, we were a little starstruck (we actually were! he seems really nice). The snooker was live on Sky Sports so we tried our best to smile and get on TV. That's all I'll write for the moment....think I'll try to see what this blog can do!