Darcy's birthday is Aug. 5

need a gift idea?

The Orangery at Kenn

 
 
 Susie and I stumbled on to the Orangery in Hyde Park and decided to eat all our meals there.  This is a scone with clotted cream (think really good whipped cream) and jam and tea.  
 

This is orange cake.  I had it for breakfast...

This is the outside of the Orangery.  We sat at the tables outside for tea, and inside when we went for a "high tea".   

This is the view from the approach.  It kind of sits at the end of the park and was where we were headed away from when we saw Prince Philip fly out.  Princess Diana and kids lived just down the walk from here.  

More London

 
 
 This is the Corus Hotel where we stayed our first three nights.

And a side view...

And what the other hotels looked like.  Look carefully and you can see Susie down the street.

My First attempt at Picasa

This is a picture of the crocuses in Hyde Park where we walked and Susie ran almost every day.







This is a circle view of what the apartments and hotels looked like in our area. Easy to get lost!







These are Daleks. Toys from Doctor Who. Not sure how they got in my London album and I can't figure out how to remove them.







This is the Swan in Bayswater where Susie and I had fish and chips.

Crown Jewels

Well, turns out that Flickr.com has just about the same pictures I took, just without Susie in them. So I'm posting these so you can get an idea as to how fun it was!

Here is a picture of what one of the crowns in the "crown jewels" looked like. I didn't figure out that all the jewels were in crowns until I got there by the way...

Tony Bennett leaves

He could've left last year and didn't, so can't be too mad. Sad to see him go to Virginia.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/

Failed attempt to prank ruthie

I left a note on Ruthie's car (actually Katies), pretending to be an angry neighbor. Looks like it fooled no one.

Only video of Mom's bday party

sorry i forgot to bring the camera up until after she'd opened her mixer.

Andrew dances to the beat

Here's andrew at Mom's bday party, moving to where the rhythm takes him.

Busy Day

Well, we're sure busy today.

What Ryan's been up to...

Ryan Leslie has been creating a buzz for some time now and with the release of his debut album he looks ready to claim his place among the R&B elite. Featured songs, "Addiction" and "Diamond Girl" are available on itunes today!

Susie and Martha And...

Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth. We were at Hyde Park, on our way to tea, and a royal helicopter flew in and landed right by us. As all good tourists would do, we all walked over and watched as guards with semi-automatic guns branched out and this guy walked out. Everyone bowed and he got in the helicopter and flew away!

We were quite pleased. At first we thought it was Prince Charles, but after checking online, he is out of the country. We pulled up this photo and sure enough, he's our guy!
Quite the timing as we saw his castle today!!

Happy Birthday, Septo-Mom

Imagine the media attention we'd gotten if you'd had all of us at once...Anyway, happy birthday, we look forward to the party. I"m pretty sure i got the date right this time*

*for those who dont know, when i was in college I called mom in October to wish her a happy birthday. I was using the Chimacum birthday calendar, which, incredibly, listed a different Dorothy Olson in October. Town of about 2,000 people and there two dot olsons???

Sighted at Issaquah Costco

Legendary center Bill Russell. Only thing I could see in his cart were two big boxes of garbage bags. The same I buy!!!

For past famous sports star sightings on the East side, click here

Great move

Ranks up there with Jason Kidd's fake crossover in 1998

Favorite Quotes!

"Someone's been in here with the ugly stick..." Martin Short, walking into a bar in Three Amigos

Any other favorites??

-If I may, as the eldest and first born granddaughter, have my vote for Smartest Olson considered, I'd like to nominate Grandpa. I'm befuddled as to why he was ever bumped off the list...was it the 20 year smoking stint? If so I think all descendants who smoked the cardboard off of clothes hangers should be disqualified.

Title revoked!

Only weeks after winning "Smartest Olson", my title has been revoked. Not only did I forget the calendars at Nick's party, but I did not check the accuracy when I received them. They have all the pictures for the months, but none of the individual pix on the birthdays. :*( Marth, Rachel has your calendar and John has his. Buck, yours is in the mail.

I'm in the process of trying to either get Dad's money back or get new ones, but trying to talk to a live person at iPhoto is as challenging as trying to return something to Amazon. It might be easier to find the holy grail than find a human contact to solve my calendar problem.

Sorry!