Ok, ok - I've been bad, but for a good reason

Right, so I haven't posted anything since the first week of April - and I know that's horrible of me. I will do better, I promise.

*BUT*

The delay was because I was getting our webspace set up to host our pictures for the blog - so that's the good news :)!

If you take a gander at the side of the blog, you'll notice a new section titled "Photo Albums." This is where we'll be hosting our pics from all of our adventures. We only have about 50mb of space....so I may have to pull some of the albums down at some point, but they should all be up there for a couple of months anyway (plus I'm looking around for some better hosting, so should increase that capacity).

Right - it's very late and time to go to sleep. We went and saw Reggie Watts and Lizz Fields at the Jazz Cafe tonight. I think we were both a bit dissapointed, unfortunately.

Reggie did a great job, but you could tell that the band and him hadn't totally jelled yet. I hadn't heard Lizz before...to be honest, her set wasn't all that great. She may sound good on her album, or in other performances, but she wasn't really doing it for us tonight. We're giving Reggie a 6 on the 1-10 scale, and Lizz a 3.

Ok - going to bed. Hoping to get out tomorrow and enjoy some of the fantastic weather we're having in London these days. Spring has truly sprung!!

ps - huge congratulations to Brian and Patsy on their wedding today, I wish I could've been there to see it! Best wishes, hope you take some time to relax now ;-).

Portugal: T-Minus 11:00 hours and counting :)

Well - We're getting ready to take our first trip out of the country! Heading off in the morning to spend five days in sunny (knock on wood) Portugal! We're pretty excited about it - at the very least, it's a chance to get out and just relax for a while...which will be welcomed by both of us. I have to admit...not sure what to expect, but I suppose that's the fun of it :).

We'll be staying in a flat with a view of the beach near the town of Albufeira - just west of Faro in the Algarve...one of the more touristy parts of Portugal (we're getting in just before tourists season really starts). Apparently we're only a few minutes walk from the beach - and the town is fairly nearby. Regardless - we've rented a car, so I'm sure we'll get out and explore the area a bit.

We'll have our mobile phones - and we're flying on Easyjet...just for reference sake ;-).

The past few weeks have been good - busy with work and everything, but also trying to sort out details for this trip and several others. The one that's concerning us the most at this point is the Olympics trip. Accommodation is a nightmare...hostels in Athens (not even the good ones) are charging upwards of €180 per person, per night. Highway robbery, I say. Penny has come across a few promising spots for cheaper, I've been investigating camping options, and one of my newest co-workers happens to have a friend who lives in Athens...who may be willing to stay with friends and rent us her flat. So - couple of leads out...hoping to get it sorted next week.

We went and saw Stomp at the Vaudeville theater on Friday night, which was really fun. Definitely not your typical musical or anything...but the stuff that they do is amazing. Highly recommend it to anyone.

Went a bit domestic on Saturday ;-). Picked up some houseplants, and some baskets for organizing all of our random bits and bobs. It's amazing how much more comfortable a place can be with a few plants in the room. Penny's Aunt and Uncle (Jenny and Malcolm) were in town as well - so we met up for dinner on Southbank. Good food, good company - good times.

Lots of new people around these days - there's about 5 new people in the office this week (some are short term assignments from the US) - which is a lot of fun. My friend Danielle Zaklan got into town on Saturday, kicking off her 6 weeks in the London office, and we met up and did some sight seeing etc. on Sunday. Was pretty exciting, mostly because she's our first visitor to come and hang out in our 'hood :).

Other than that - internet and network are working great. I think Penny's starting to enjoy the benefits of wireless....kinda fun that we can both sit on the couch/bed/patio and research trips at the same time. I also enjoy bugging her on IM while we're both online...what can I say...I'm a dork. Sometimes a guy just needs a quick game of online checkers, ok??

Speaking of the internet - sometimes I still am amazed by how much you can do online. As I write this - I'm chatting with my friend Liz in Seattle, watching a live play by play of the Mariners' opening game (go M's!!....Willie Bloomquist is actually kicking some butt....which we'll need if Spiezio's on the DL), checking the weather in our vacation spot, and publishing a journal to the web where friends and family from around the world will keep up on our adventures. Ok - I'll stop waxing poetic about the 'Net...I just think it's cool (not that there isn't a lot of dangers/annoyances out there too).

Right - I think that's about it for now. We have some webspace with our broadband account - so I'm going to try and get that sorted so we can post our pics online when we get back. At the very least, I'll try to get them up on Ofoto or something.

Hope you're all well! Will post when we get back :).

ps - Thanks to Tiff for the nice card and housewarming gifts (and DJ & Drew for signing the package)!! A quick note on sending us stuff: The royal mail is pretty hopeless with packages (it took me 8 trips to the post office to get the parcel), so you might want to send bigger items (anything that won't fit in a letter slot) to our office addresses. I'll post those on the side a bit later.

pps - Mexican food update - sadly, haven't tried to cook any bigger dishes recently...but am on the hook to deliver a feast for Cinqo de Mayo...so I had better get on it.