Jennifer Knapp

A month or so ago my husband sent me a link to an interview where Jennifer Knapp comes out of the closet.
I'm not one of those bible thumping, homosexuals are evil, let's burn them at the stake kind of christians. I do believe that homosexuality is a sin, but I feel that it is no more than any other sin be it lying, stealing, or getting drunk on Friday and rolling into church on Sunday like nothing's up. I feel like this sin has become fashionable to hate on like drinking in the 20's and Satanism in the 70's. Anyone remember how EVIL Ouiga boards used to be? I think they are still evil, but they aren't in vogue anymore as a sin so we as a christian culture have moved on to the next big thing, Homosexuality. Who knows what the next big sin will be?

But I digress.
Jennifer's music touched me very deeply throughout my adult life. I was introduced to her in college by my roommate (who ironically enough turned out to be a lesbian as well). It was possibly the one good thing that roommate did for me.
Jennifer's music was so raw and pure and from a place very personal. I struggled for years with looking and being the "perfect christian". I didn't read my bible everyday, get excited about God or raise my hands in church like everyone else. I lusted after my boyfriend. I didn't think the occasional drink or cigarette was wrong. I flopped back and forth between thinking I was "saved" and thinking I needed to be "saved" for many years. In this way I felt very connected to Jennifer through her music, because I felt she felt the same way. She wasn't perfect, she didn't pretend to be. She had moments where she messed up royally and had to ask for forgiveness and felt dirty (Refine me, Undo me) and other moments where she felt secure in her faith and in God's mercy (His Grace is Sufficient, In the Name). I went on this journey with her and she with me.
So, to hear she is gay doesn't shock me for some reason. Maybe it's because I found out about my roommate years ago and I associated the two together. Or maybe it's because it doesn't matter. Sin is sin. And all her songs were about struggling with sin nature. But it does sadden me. Not because she is gay, but because she's unapologetic about it. She's disheartened with the church (which I completely understand) but she doesn't see her lifestyle as contradictory to what God's Word says. I struggle with things all the time that I know are wrong, but I'm not sure I've ever engaged in sin and wholeheartedly believe that the sin is not sin. That being said, I have knowingly ignored God's word and engaged in things I shouldn't knowing full well they are not what God wants me to be doing.
So I cannot in any way judge her. I have an enormously huge plank in my eye that I struggle to remove and cannot say anything about anyone as long as that is there. And that won't be until this life is over so by then it won't matter will it?
But I do feel for her. I think she is just mislead and the church's reaction sadly will be to stone her instead of love her back into the fold.
Why are we so quick to forgive a pastor who commits adultery but yet cannot love someone who struggles with homosexuality? What is wrong with us as a body of Christ?
So Jennifer, know that I still love you, will still listen to Kansas and The Way I Am and continue to feel your music as deeply as I ever did.
I don't know if I will purchase your new album. I just don't know at this point. I grapple with the fors and againsts it and at the moment neither side has won.
But I look forward to the day you come full circle.

To all my fellow Potheads!

You true fans stood in line with me at 10:30 Tuesday night. You wore your house colors (blue for us Ravenclaws) and your wands held high, you entered the movie theater.

You knew, that like me, Wednesday was going to be a b****. But it was worth it.

I personally felt that this movie was very good and I think it just might be my fav. It's up there in the top 3 for sure.

A few things to note about the movie:

1. Alan Rickman is a god. Snape only grows more cool with each scene and movie release.
2. Professor McGonagall, also one of my favs, aged about 20 yrs between the two movies. Not sure if that was on purpose or if Maggie Smith is just starting to show her age. Please oh please don't let her be too old to be in the last one. We simply must have the scene where she screams while Harry is in Hagrid's arms!!!!
3. The ending... they left out the funeral. I knew they probably wouldn't have the whole ordeal, but a sweep over shot or something would have been nice. The whole death scene and non-existent after fight scene (which was really more of Harry getting pwn'd by Snape than anything else) left much to be desired. Ok, they didn't want to have a big battle when there's a very similar scene in Deathly Hallows. I get that. But this part in the book really kicked me in the stomach, and while watching the movie, I really didn't get emotional at all until Fawkes showed up. And he was only on screen for a few seconds.
4. I loved the 'high school' scenes. It was like the Goblet of Fire parts where they have to learn to dance and are all awkward, only now they are a little less awkward. But it was still very high school and I loved it, because even though all this stuff is going on - they are still just 16 and care about all the things that 16 yr old's care about.

So bottom line - good movie. Great up until the death scene.

Ken gets a bath

Kenshin is so furry. He gets hair everywhere.

So I decided to bathe him and hopefully wash away a good amount of the fur that seems to cling to my sofa like it is glued on.


Immediately, Ken does not like the water.


He tries swimming away.


Then climbing the walls.


Finally, he grabs my arm in desperation. Thankfully, he has no claws.


He does like the part where I scratch his booty. But he would never admit it.


Is it so bad? Poor Kenshin, so mistreated.


Time to drip dry.


Ken, you weigh a ton when dripping wet!!


Time to dry off!


Annie wants to help.


My little refugee, kitteh!


Oh so fluffy!!!



"Now I can escape and spend the next 6 hours licking myself!!!"

Party like it's 1985

I turned 30 this week and so in celebration, we threw a big to-do. I wasn't technically born in the 80's (missed it by 6 months) but I grew up then, so I chose an 80's theme.



I made this cake myself. I'm quite proud because it was my first endeavor in fondant and multi-tiered cakes. The squares could be larger and the sides more straight, but not too shabby for my first try.
It's a rubix cube BTW....





Everyone having a really good time. I was glad so many people dressed up.
Jesse made an 80's movie/music video montage and had it playing on the wall. It was pretty sweet.


I danced until I was so sore the next day I could barely walk.


Jesse had my dad sing Happy Birthday to me in front of everyone. He sings it in this lounge lizard, croony voice. It's quite cheesy.

more pics coming as soon as I get them loaded!

Closing Time

That's also a song I love by Semisonic. I think I loved the video and that's why the song sticks in my head as a favorite.

Anyway...

We are closing on the house tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will be a home owner. That's just crazy.

Praise the Lord we have stairs!

I don't know what happened, nor do I want to know.

All I know is, my dad called me this morning and my stair rail is completed and being painted this afternoon. It will be ready for installation tomorrow.

I could jump for joy!!!!! One more hurdle over and done with. They think we will close next week sometime.

Which means we should be moving next weekend! I am so excited. I can't wait to be in our new house.

Frustrations

I am peeved. I am beyond peeved.
The house is done. Everything has been installed and it is move-in ready. Except one small detail.

There are no rails on the stairs. Honestly, this wouldn't bother me if they'd let us move in. I'm not planning on using the stairs for awhile so I don't see the big fuss.
The stairs will be done, we just don't know when.

Here's the story of the stair that couldn't:

My father is a civil engineer who has worked for a iron fabrication company for 30 years. Jes and I thought iron railing would be pretty and Dad could get us a deal. So we had him draw up a plan for the rail and after some tweaking we approved it. This was about a month ago. We had to wait until the wood flooring was installed on the steps to get the measurements right. Jesse and I were very excited because the rail we picked out is the same rail we saw and fell in love with at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Ireland. It's very cool that we could get the same railing as that place.

I don't know what or who caused the next big slow down in production, but the rail wasn't even ordered until 2 weeks ago. Then it was found out that it wasn't in stock and had to be shipped from Texas. Originally, the rail was going to be installed by the 17th. Then it got pushed back to the 20th. And then again to the 23rd or 24th. Then on Friday my dad calls me and tells me that they got the rail on the 20th, but hadn't started it yet. (They've had it in stock for nearly 5 days at that point).
Today I find out that my dad's company is owned by a bunch of a-holes. Now I've known that for some time now, but never thought they'd be like this to me. BTW, we are paying for this rail out of pocket and have already given them a check.
They have decided to put all other jobs ahead of mine. They told my father today that they weren't sure when they'd be able to get to my job.
Daddy threatened to quit, I had to talk him down.
We were hoping/wanting/needing to close this week. My lease is running out and I need to start moving into the new house before it does.

My real estate agent is trying to see if there is anyway we can close without the rail being installed.
These people are holding my house hostage all because of some petty differences with my father.
So I'm hereby announcing to the world and anyone who will listen...

If you ever need to build iron railing for your house/apartment/hotel whatever... Do not use Allen's Steel Products in Arlington, TN.
If they treat a family member of one of their long time employees like this, there's no telling how they treat their bread and butter customers.

I'm sure everything will work out in the end, but they have some seriously bad kharma coming there way. I wouldn't want to be them for all the money in the world.

Interior Improvements

Strange, because that's the name of an account that I use in budgeting.

Anyway. I'm finally well! (YAY, applause!)

I have had a bugger of a sinus infection. It lasted about two weeks in all. But I'm well now and ready for the christmas season.

Loads of stuff have been happening at the house this week.

First, we got our tile floors laid. And the tile around the fireplace was put up.

Also the kitchen cabinets are in along with the counter tops! I haven't seen them yet, but hopefully I'll be in to see them today.

But the coolest part are the lights are all installed. I really love our lighting choices. Jesse's favorite is the front porch light, while mine is the one in the dining room.

PAINT

I've had the flu for nearly a week now (ever since Thanksgiving) and haven't been out to see the house since.
Last time we were out there the builder was there and we gave him all our paint colors for the interior walls as well as our tile selection. That was the day before Thanksgiving. The bricking was halfway done and they had just mudded all the walls and ceilings.

Jesse and I holed ourselves up for the holiday weekend (only venturing out to do some Black Friday shopping - Buy a washer get the dryer for FREE at Sears!) Since I was sick we didn't venture out to the house at all. He went out there yesterday to pick up marble samples.
We didn't expect a lot of work to get done over the holiday weekend. But actually they finished all the brick work and got the walls painted inside! The paint is still pretty light and they're going to come out and do another coat tomorrow.
Our dining room is robin's egg blue and the living room is the color of coffee with cream. The kitchen looks orange right now, but once the second coat goes on it should look red clay brick colored. Jesse's study is also quite light. It should be a darker grey when it is done.
I love the color of the guest bathroom. It's a sage green that we are going to do a Japanese motif around.
I can't believe they got the house primed and painted over the weekend.

Update on the brick

Ok.. it looks better.
I freaked out a little prematurely yesterday. Jesse went back by and took pictures and says that it is definitely drying lighter.


And they got the mudding and dry wall all the way finished. I wonder how long before we start painting?

Brick

They've started bricking this weekend. And I'm a little freaked out.

I finally agreed to a red brick. Jesse persuaded me that it would look better with the columns. But I didn't want it to be too dark or look too much like a college campus.
When we went to the brick store to look at a thousand samples, I really liked this one called Old Boston. It was still red, but didn't look purple or scream Ole Miss. I liked it with a gray mortar that the sales lady told me was called ultra dark.

I looked at the site this weekend and first of all, the brick seems a bit darker than I thought it would. And secondly - the mortar is black, which makes the brick looks purple-y.
The builder swears that it always looks dark at first and as it dries it will lighten. But part of me is freaking out. This was one of the few things I was truly picky on and disagreed with Jesse on. All I can imagine right now is super white columns up next to it and feel like I'm living at Ole Miss or worse, the white trim will make the brick look even darker and I'm living in the big purple house.

In other news, our drywall is up and the kitchen cabinets come this week I believe. The builder thinks we'll be in before New Year so long as it stays dry this December.

Updates!!!

It has been awhile since I've updated this blog.
I have started traveling for budgets again and just haven't been able to get the pictures uploaded to photobucket so I could post them here.

I haven't been to the house very much during this time because I'm not in town or I'm working late. And since daylight savings happened, I'd have to leave the office at 3 just to make it out there before dark. So I usually get to see the house on weekends only.
But Jesse is out there everyday, keeping me posted.

And alot has happened.

First of all, they finished the attic, and got the roof framed up. This all happened about a day or so after my last post. And then within a day of that they got the shingles on.

The attic is huge. Our staircase goes up the middle of the house so it basically splits the attic in half. It's meant to be future expansion but we decided we're only going to expand to one side and leave the other for attic space.

You can really see how the foyer is going to look with the roof on.
This past weekend Jesse and I went by and marked all the places where we want outlets and light switches with post it notes. We did this on our own because the HVAC had already been run and we didn't know when the electrician was coming. Good thing we did because about 2 days later he came and I was out of town. So I'm very glad we marked everything because even though Jesse was there to show him where we wanted things wired, I had special outlets that I wanted in the kitchen and baths that Jesse wouldn't have known to ask for.

The plumber came this week as well and ran all the plumbing. And I now have bathtubs! The one in the master is going to be a jacuzzi corner tub. I haven't seen it in person, but I hear that it continually warms the water so no matter how long you stay in the tub the water doesn't go cold. Sweet! I can get nice and pruny.

The doors and windows were delivered yesterday so I guess those are going up next.
Now we're just waiting on the ground to dry so they can deliver the bricks.
I'm starting to get so excited about this house now.

I found out that Target lets you register for house warming gifts, so of course, I made a list. It's probably tacky and not very good etiquette, but I don't care. I don't even care if I get anything on the list - I'm using it to keep my colors straight for all the rooms.

Ceilings make all the difference

I went out to the site today. I haven't been out in a week so the last time I saw the house it was just a block on concrete.
Now it actually looks like a house. There are outside walls and ceiling joists and stairs!
It now feels like a house and I can really start to see how it's going to look finished.
We designed this house ourselves by frankensteining a bunch of floorplans we liked so to see something 'real' was nice. It was also nice to see that our vision in our heads that we drew on paper didn't somehow get lost in translation - nor does our vision turn out to make our house ugly or impractical.
Jesse was quite scared about the staircase in particular. This was his particular vision and now that we have stairs, you can really see how it will look with rails and the balcony overlooking the front door. And I have to admit - he's right - it looks good.
And I walked into the master closet and it is just the size I thought it would be. Somehow, adding walls and ceilings makes the rooms look so much larger.
I think we have the makings of a really nice home.
It's still a bit crazy how we're building a house. That this lumber and dirt is going to be a place I live at soon.

Framework

Jesse went out to the site today and apparently we have walls.
He says that it looks bigger, but I think he might have been saying that for my benefit.
I'm still really worried that I got the measurements wrong.
He did say that the laundry room was huge.
He sent more pictures.

And apparently he's freaked out our neighbors. He was hanging out in his car outside the house site, waiting for the builder and our neighbor came out with her big dog to see who he was. She said her kids had noticed his car there alot lately and she was afraid he was a stalker or killer or whatever. He introduced himself and she seemed relieved. What's crazy about this whole scenario is that we've met this lady before with her husband.

Concrete and optical illusions

They poured the concrete this weekend.
And I'm just a tad freaked out. I know that houses look smaller when you are looking at just the concrete, but still, our house looks tiny.
I'm the most freaked out by the master bedroom closet. I stood in it and just couldn't imagine it being the right size.
Normally this wouldn't bother me except I helped draw up the plans. I wrote down the dimensions for my dad and he drew them up. I took measurements of the house we liked, and I'm for sure that I wrote down the dimensions for the rooms correctly, but I didn't measure the closets. I just kind of eyeballed it.

What if I got them wrong? It gnaws at me everytime I think about it. I really liked the master closet at the house we looked at it. It was nice and big and now I'm just thinking about how I might have got it wrong and now we have to live with it.
Jesse and I measured it for our own sakes, and the measurements seems fine, but it still looks small. We even laid down in the living room. He's about the size of our couch and I'm about the size of our loveseat and we were seeing where each piece would go and if everything would fit. It seems to fit ok, and I'm sure the neighbors think we are quite crazy laying about on a concrete slab.

In other news, a cat has made our new home his new home. Jesse found this cat in our yard and apparently it had claimed the yard as its own. Jesse calls him Mr. Squatty since he's squatted on our land. But Jesse also says that Mr. Squatty is very mean.

Color palettes

Jesse, ever the designer, has developed a few color ideas for our house.
And of course, his ideas are great. Stinks that my husband is better at decorating than I am.

Master bedroom:
We're thinking about striping the walls, but overall making the master suite look and feel like a 5 star hotel room (Not too far off from the Sofitel St James we stayed at in London - see this blog)

Dining Room:
We disagree slightly on the exact shade of light blue, but a light blue and brown combination for the dining room. We found the coolest console table at the Pottery Barn outlet and it's the color blue he likes. I think we'll use it as a buffet.

Living Room:
My sofas are brick red, so we have to work with that. This is still under construction, he wants to work the brown and blue from the dining room in there, but not quite sure yet...

Study/guest bathroom:
The guest bathroom is going to be all Japanese/zen inspired. My mom gave us these japanese ink prints a few months back that would look great in there (Japanese writing that we haven't translated yet, a woman in a kimono and a cherry blossom tree - very cool looking) and jesse found a neat vase with a cherry blossom design on it. I want to do something with a shower curtain that makes it look like the old japanese paper walls and lanterns.
Jesse's study, which is off this bathroom, is going to be gray on the walls with white/black furniture and white trim, and maybe some green accents. Very masculine, but sophisticated.

The beginnings of a foundation

They've started work on the house. So far all we have are the frames for the foundation. Here are some pictures. Not really much to look at just yet, but excited that there is something on top of the grass that was there a few days ago.

Jesse is convinced that they are missing a piece or haven't finished because it looks too small to him. And it does look small, but I remember when we built my parents house and the foundation looked really tiny.
My mom says that it looks tiny until you get the walls up.

We went out this weekend and lo and behold, guess who our neighbor is? Andy Dockery. For those of you who don't know, he was one of our closest friends in high school. It's kind of crazy that we'll be living across the street from him. At least we know one of our neighbors isn't a homicidal maniac!

Going out there and looking at the frames it hit me that we are building a house. I mean, it's real now. There is lumber with my name on it. We have our new address. I feel so old and grown up. I'm going to be a homeowner - how responsible of me!

We have LAND!

Jesse and I decided awhile back that it was time for us to become homeowners.
We've been searching for several months and just couldn't find what we wanted in the place we wanted.
So we are building. AAHH!!

The idea of building scared the be-jeebies out of me because of many things:
1. My parents built their house when I was young and it was a very stressful experience which I absorbed.
2. It's budget season here at Mid America which means I'm busier than ever. I'm traveling two or three days a week on average and the days that I am in town, I'm at the office until after dark.
3. There are 432,972 decisions that you have to make when building a house (yes that's the real number and I didn't just make it up :P) The shear volume of choices makes my mind come to a grinding halt. Do I care whether my trim is eggshell or ecru? Whether I have red brick vs brown (which I do)?
I am the girl who gave her mother a couple of pictures from a magazine and then let her plan my wedding for me with barely any input. This is the girl who had no idea where she was going on her honeymoon until she got off the plane at the location (And even then, wasn't 100% sure)

I'm not very picky. I'm a no-fuss, laid-back kind of person most of the time. But now I'm suddenly supposed to care about colors and finishes and chestnut floors vs oak.
On top of the fact that I have no time to make those decisions right now.
So no - I was not thrilled with the aspect of building.

But I got over it. See. I have a really great husband. Who's currently not working and has really great taste. I trust him to make all the decisions for me, with a bit of guidance on my end.

I was terribly nervous about the financing when the Dow dropped 700 points (that did not help my stress factor at all). But after talking to my mortgage lender and hearing that our financing is in place and fine, I'm fine.

It's crazy, but I'm really not stressed about this now. Now that it is upon us and we've signed papers, I'm quite calm.

So, weather permitting, we should start moving dirt this weekend and hopefully have a foundation by monday!!

Odd Signs while abroad

We encountered a few odd signs while we were in England and Ireland.
They seemed odd to us as 'Stupid Americans' but probably make perfect sense to the Brits.

No Nothing at any time
This sign seems to say No doing anything or nothing at any time. It doesn't exactly tell us what we aren't supposed to do. There is nothing in the circle that the line is crossing out. Are we to do nothing? Or make sure we aren't doing nothing?
We eventually figured out it meant no parking, but again - confusing at first.

Great Tastes of America
We loved this one. Mostly because at Mickey D's in Ireland they were having a "Tastes of America" campaign where you could buy burgers that were supposedly from various areas in America. It gave great insight into what they thought America's tastes or flavors supposedly are.
The Miami burger - 100% beef, bacon, monteray jack cheese, lettuce onion and cheese sauce on a chili-chive bun (Doesn't that just scream South Beach to you!!?)
The New York Supreme - beef, mayo, bacon and american cheese on a sesame seed bun
The California Supreme - beef, bacon, monteray jack cheese, tomato sauce on a sesame seed bun
Arizona Grande - beef, bacon (they sure think we like bacon huh?), monteray jack cheese, mayo & peppers on a chili-chive bun
And the best was the Oreo Toffee Flurry. Labeled as a great taste of America, it's a flurry flavor you can't even get in America.

Children on the Rampage
This sign was posted outside the Old Mill in Lower Slaughter I believe. I love the word rampage. Not unruly, not disruptive, but children who are rampaging through the center will be removed. Great choice of words!

Humped Crossings/ Humped Zebras
These signs were everywhere. "Humps - next 10 yards" or "Humped Crossing".
Our favorite were the humped zebra signs. We learned that zebras were pedestrian crossings (those zigzagged lines you see on the roads). And if they were raised, they were considered 'humped'. Still, in our perverse American minds it gave way to all kinds of jokes and innuendos.

Recycled Teenagers
It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but on the chalkboard sign it says "Recycled Teenagers - over 50's" This particular pub was calling senior citizens (or the over 50's set) recycled teens. So over course, we had to get our very own recycled teens to pose in front of the sign.
Also, not so much a sign, but you could hear over intercoms and such at the train/plane stations about 'super citizens' instead of senior citizens. It brought to mind a kind of ultra-patriotic, super hero kind of Brit. Someone wearing the Union Jack as a cape and calling themselves "Britain Man".

Stonking Good!
We ran across this sign in the theater district. We don't what stonking is, but we sure do want to have some. I do think we had a stonking good time in jolly ole' London.

Mind the Gap
Seen all around at Subway Stations (or the tube or Underground as it is called there) We know it means watch your step, but we saw various versions of this all around England. "Mind your head" when going through a small door, "Mind your step" when walking over rough terrain. But it brings to mind the idea of obeying the gap or step "Mind your mother, Mind the gap".
Maybe we're just weird and overthink things.


Riding with Hitler
This was a sign in the British war Museum and apparently part of a campaign during WWII. But can you imagine the same sign today? When you ride alone you ride with Osama Bin Laden?

June 1 - Paris

Paris.

I have dreamed since I was a little girl about going to Paris. About the Eiffel tower and all it's romance, the city of lights, the city of love. But somehow reality never lives up to the dream and that was the fate of Paris.

We woke up at a ghastly 4am to catch the train to Paris. We had just a few hours to tour the city and we wanted to make the most of it.
May I say that the train was the best form of transportation I have ever been in. I think we were in business class, but still, it was so clean and comfortable and they served us a really good breakfast. If I ever get back to Europe, I'm going everywhere by train.

Of course, the worse part about Paris are the French. I'm not one of those 'freedom' fries kind of people, but honestly, the French need to chill out a bit. I know very little French and tried to use that as much as possible and be polite and not come off as a "Stupid American". But some people can't be pleased. I was trying to buy a piece of gum at the station and the lady was chattering away in French. I asked her "Parlez vous anglais?" and she rolled her eyes and sighed heavily and then replied in English to me. I'm sorry I'm not fluent in French. Please forgive me and my stupid education. But thankfully, she was the only really rude person I ran into during my short time in the country.

First stop into Paris was of course the Eiffel Tower. And it was everything I dreamed it to be.
The only problem was that we didn't get to stay there long enough. I could have spent a whole day looking out at the city and then having coffee at one of the cafe's inside. The tower is supposed to be (in my mind) a romantic experience. The problem is, you can't get very romantic with your inlaws standing next to you. I don't fault them, it just changed what I thought my first visit would be. But the views were great.

After the Eiffel Tower we had just enough time to see Notre Dame. But because of time we had to do a rush through tour. On the way we stopped at a cafe and I got some crepes (yummiest thing ever) and bought a beret from a sidewalk vendor. And yes, I wore it. How can you not have a real live french beret and then not wear it?
We barely scratched the surface of Notre Dame. Just enough to take a few pictures and hang out for a bit in the gardens.

And then we had to bit adieu to Paris. A very brief 4 hour visit. I hope I can return someday and give it more time. We didn't even get to the Louvre or Arc D'Triomphe.

The train ride back was better than the train ride up. They served us a nice dinner with complimentary wine and champagne (Yay french!). If your glass was even partly empty they would come by and fill it back up without asking.
We had a good share of alcohol and probably acted more like stupid loud Americans than we had the whole trip.
We realized that business class actually meant that because we were surrounded by people in suits and working feverishly on laptops. And here we were, foriegn tourists acting like fools.
Oh well. We had a good time.

It was our last night and I had one last thing I had to do before I could go home to America.
Our train let us out at King's Cross station and for any Potterheads out there, you know what I had to do.
I couldn't find it at first probably because I'm a muggle and have no business looking for it, but I asked a station worker and he pointed me in the right direction. And there it was, Platform 9 3/4. The way into Hogwarts for all you non-Harry Potter fans.

Earlier in the week I had run across a Hog's head pub, and found Charing Cross road (and what I suspect is the hidden entry into the Leaky Cauldron, but of course, I can't see it, because I'm a muggle) but Platform 9 3/4 is the climax.


And so concludes our whirlwind but wonderful European vacation. Another 12 hours on a plane and we are home.