I see I've been MIA again. I don't know where the time goes.

I forgot to mention on our Corbridge trip that on the way there, I saw a double rainbow. It was really beautiful. I saw another one just a few days ago, as well. It's always nice to see rainbows.

Another thing I saw a few days ago was the coolest bus ever! It was a black, vintage bus, restored in cherry condition. It was really something! I would have loved to have snapped a picture of it, but since I was driving, that was pretty much out of the question.

Lately things have been a bit hectic. I've been trying to get all my Christmas shopping finished, wrapped, boxed up, and sent to the States. NO ONE should have to have their Christmas shopping done before the 5th of December!!!

Things will continue to be hectic, since Ryan and I are leaving the UK in less than a week. Of course I haven't started packing yet. I've been thinking about packing. Does that count???

I love serendipity, coinky dinks, whatever you want to call it. Once in a while, the myriad of separate forces in the Universe will converge to do some tiny thing, just for me, just to cheer me up. Such a thing took place just a couple of days ago. I was walking along, pushing Ryan in his stroller. Just as I was passing Marks & Spencer, a man standing in front of the store (handing out flyers), out of nowhere burst out singing, "All the leaves are brown..." Really, what are the odds of a California native walking by a store in England, hearing a man singing, "California Dreamin'"??? It definitely brightened up my day!

Happy birthday Uncle Archie!

Love,

~Holly, Ryan, and Larry

On Sunday, I ran the Leeds Abbey Dash, a 10K charity race for Help The Aged. I originally hadn't planned on running it. Weeks ago, Larry registered and paid for the race. Unfortunately, his tdy to Germany came up. We had the race chip and the bib number sitting here all ready to go, so Larry suggested I run the race. Lately I've been feeling pretty good about my running, and Carissa very kindly volunteered to watch Ryan (I talked to a rep for the race and they said no jogging strollers allowed), so off I went.

This was the first big road race I'd run in the UK. Nearly 4000 people finished the race. I wound up around the corner from the start of the race. Once the gun went off, it took me about five minutes to cross the start. The field never thinned out, which in a way was nice. Even though I don't care much for maneuvering and having to jockey for position, having people around all the time helped me to keep a good rhythm.

The course was pretty much an out and back through some fairly unattractive parts of Leeds. At the turn around, the course did loop through a scenic park, which surrounds Kirkstall Abbey ruins. (Here are a couple of websites: http://www.kirkstall.org.uk/abbey/ and http://www.leeds.gov.uk/kirkstallabbey/. Both have photos and history.)

The race didn't have a costume category that I was aware of, but I saw a couple of men running in dresses, and a couple of women wearing flowery granny underwear over their running atire. I'm sure they had their reasons!

I felt good and ran well, finishing with a chip time of 55:11. I was pleased, considering I almost never run that far on my own. (Most of my runs are normally anywhere from three to five miles, and those are usually done while pushing Ryan in the jogging stroller.) I looked up my results online, and was amused to see that even though I'd called ahead of time and supposedly had the race entry changed to my name, I wound up having run the race as a male, under Larry's name! So I have no idea how I placed as far as my gender and age categories go. However, overall I was 2462nd of 3950 finishers.

I'm glad I ran the race. I felt good and accomplished afterwards!

~~~

(Correction - In the, "Credit where credit is due," dept.: Some time ago I credited Larry with telling me about the Harrogate Harriers. It was brought to my attention that Paula told me about them as well, very possibly before Larry did.)

Best birthday wishes, Bill!

Love,

~Holly, Larry, and Ryan

(I took this picture with my phone. Yesterday morning I went for a run, with Ryan in the jogging stroller. I let him out to play and run around on the Stray. He loves getting all muddy!)

Today was a rainy, crappy weather day. It was one of those days where the weather makes you feel edgy and tired at the same time. I knew Ryan and I would feel better if we got out. Sarah had told me about an indoor play area called, "Winky's." I called to ask her where it was, and she suggested meeting there. She came by my house so I could follow her there. That was a good idea! It wasn't far from my house, but it was down a couple of small side streets in an industrial area. I never would have found it on my own! It was pretty much just inside a warehouse, but the play equipment was perfect for kids Ryan's age. Ryan had a blast running around, while I got to chat with Sarah. The place has a café as well, so we had a nice cup of tea while the kids played.

The last couple of days, Ryan hasn't napped. Today I finally got him tired out! :) He's taking a mondo nap right now, thank goodness! He needed it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I began my celebration by running the Menwith Hill Turkey Trot on Wednesday. That was a lot of fun! I ran the course while pushing Ryan in the jogging stroller. We did really well. I placed 73rd out of about 220 people, and ran the 2.8 mile course in about 27 minutes. This was a two minute, and 30 place improvement over my finish last year. I have to admit, it was fun passing people. Every time I did, I would hear, "I'm getting passed by a woman pushing a baby!!!" :) Right before the finish, I was catching up to the guy in front of me. His friend yelled, "The stroller is coming up on you!" and the guy sped up! I looked at the friend and said, "Thanks!" It made me laugh though, to be that guy's inspiration for running faster at the finish! :P

For me, the race was also so much more enjoyable this year because now I know people and have friends. Last year I was still pretty new to the area, and only had a few acquaintances. The race course took one turn through the housing area before finishing. It felt good to have friends to wave to as we went by.

On Thanksgiving Day, Ryan and I went to Sarah's house for dinner. It was really nice. Carissa and Tom and their boys were there, too. Sarah made the turkey and several wonderful sides. Carissa and I both made and brought yummy things as well. I was so happy to have good friends to spend Thanksgiving with. It was a very enjoyable evening.

When Ryan and I got home, I put Ryan to bed and spent the next couple of hours on the phone with family. I do feel a bit bad for Larry this year. He had to spend the day alone and had pizza for dinner! We did talk on the phone for quite a while though, and the Dolphins won, so that was some consolation. :D

Last week I went on a shopping trip to Calais with my friends Carissa, Sarah, and Aimee. (Left to right in this photo.) The trip was organized through a coach tour company, Sunfun International. One of the pickup points for the tour bus was RAF Alconbury, which is a good two hours south of Harrogate. The pickup time was 4am! So, we decided to head down the night before and stay at the hotel on the base.

Aimee very kindly drove. After sorting a few logistical hiccups out, the four of us had dinner in Harrogate Tuesday night before heading to Alconbury. We ate at an Italian place called, "Est Est Est." It was a weeknight and early (for dining out here), so the place was nice and quiet.

Sarah wanted an amaretto sour. The waiter informed us they didn't have sour mix. The maitre'd came to our table and asked Sarah, "You want an amaretto sour?"

Sarah replied (to the effect), "You don't have sour mix though, right?"

The maitre'd said, "Sour mix is for bartenders that don't know what they're doing."

!

So we were curious to see how Sarah's amaretto sour (without sour mix) would turn out. When the drink did come, it was a different color than Sarah expected, but was otherwise pretty good. Sarah gave us a taste. I don't know what amaretto sours are supposed to taste like, but this seemed pretty good. A little while later, the maitre'd came back with a straw, stuck it in Sarah's drink, and put his finger on the end of the straw, extracting a taste. He said he wanted to see how it turned out. We all just sort of looked at each other. I couldn't believe he did that!

The food was pretty good. I ordered a glass of house white wine. I really am not a wine connoisseur, but I'm pretty sure I've had stronger water! :)

I had a nice time at dinner. If that was all the four of us had done, I would have been plenty happy! It was very enjoyable just to go out to eat somewhere nice, with friends.

After dinner, we made our way to Alconbury. We got checked in, and after a bit of confusion as to where our rooms were, got settled in. We really didn't get much rest. By the time we got to sleep, it was pretty late. The tv in the room next to the one Carissa and I shared was on all night, extremely loudly.

By 4am, we were out in front of the base, waiting for the bus. The day before, I made a pumpkin cream cheese bread for us to munch on as an early morning snack. It hit the spot, if I do say so! :)

We managed to doze a bit on our way to Dover, where we took the ferry across the English Channel. I hadn't realized I'd get to see the white cliffs of Dover on this trip. They were really amazing. I also didn't realize I'd get to take a ferry. (When JoAnna and I went to Paris in the summer, we took a train under the Channel. This was my first time on a big ferry.) We stayed on the bus, which drove right onto the ferry (which, by the way, was named "The Pride of Calais," of the P&O Ferries line). We got off the bus, and looked for a way out onto the deck of the ferry. We finally managed to get out on the deck as we were pulling away from the dock. The ferry was pretty big, and we were pretty high above the water. It was actually quite a sight, being able to get a view of the cliffs, at the break of dawn.

I wanted to take pictures, but discovered that I'd left my camera behind. Sarah and Aimee didn't bring cameras, so Carissa was our official photographer. (I will post more photos at some point - hopefully soon!)

It was really cold and windy, so after admiring the view for a while, we went inside. There was a pretty big duty free shop on the ferry, as well as plenty of lounges. There was a cafeteria, a coffee kiosk, and a slightly nicer sit-down restaurant. There was an arcade, and also a little kids area with table toys. All in all, not too shabby.

It was only about an hour's trip from Dover to Calais. The bus took us to a store called "Pidou." It reminded me of Smart & Final. When we'd checked into the hotel at Alconbury, the lady at the front desk had said, "Going on the booze cruise, eh?" That comment made sense once we saw how much alcohol people were buying at Pidou. Apparently people will buy a whole year's supply at once. The only thing I bought was a selection of beer from Belgium for Larry.

There was also a little store next door that sold Belgium chocolate.

From there we went to our destination, which turned out to simply be a mall. I had to laugh because honestly, there's a huge mall just down near Manchester that's just as nice. The prices weren't that much better in Calais, except that the main currency was the euro, rather than the pound (although, a lot of places did take pounds as well).

We had crepes for lunch, which was fun!

At the front of the mall was a huge, WalMart-esque store called, "Carrefour." We bought a few things there.

I had been hoping to finish my Christmas shopping, but didn't really find much that I liked, gift-wise.

The main point of the trip for me was more just have some kid-free time, and be with friends.

After a few hours of shopping, we were back on the bus. We actually had to go through immigration before getting back on the ferry. Now I have a Calais stamp in my passport!

Our return trip was on "The Pride of Burgundy." We went back up on the deck to watch the ferry turn around and leave. The sunset over the shore and the city was quite beautiful. (This photo was taken on our way out on the Burgundy.)

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our feisty and terribly politically incorrect Scottish bus driver! Sarah and Aimee were sitting in the front of the bus (Carissa and I were towards the back), so they told us about all the crazy comments the bus driver was making that the rest of the bus didn't hear.

We pretty much retraced our journey, dropping people off. Unfortunately, people forgot things on the bus, so we had to stop and wait for them to catch up to the bus, and get their things. That was annoying. 

We stopped for a bite for dinner once we were on the road towards Harrogate.

All in all, I'm glad we went and I had a very good time!

I'm here! I'm alive! All is well! :)

Goodness, it has been a while, hasn't it?

I really just have not had much of a chance to be on my computer lately. However, I do wish to rectify my lack of entries soon.

Larry left in the wee hours Sunday morning for another tdy. Unfortunately, he will not be back before Ryan and I leave for the States. :(

Hope everyone has a good week - especially with Thanksgiving coming up!