"back from paris" written by Ladycroft on estrip.org

Category: photos

07/20/08 09:26 - 70ºF - ID#45079

back from paris

I fixed the photos from a few posts ago*

I had the most fabulous time in Paris EVER. I've been before, but it was SO much more enjoyable this time around with Rory's arm to hold onto. Finally made it to the catacombs which I found pretty amazing (and not at all creepy) but my camera sucks in low light. I have a few 'ok' shots, but I'll post some of Rory's when I get them, they are spectacular. Can you believe they actually exhumed 6 million bodies and shoved them in old quarries? Crazy!

We also made it out to Euro Disney which was entertaining, as if I haven't been to Disney like 5 times in the last month! It was interesting to compare and contrast rides. My votes stand that Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror are way better in their US version. However...Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean were WAY better over there! Seriously. This also comes after having just ridden the newly updated version of Pirate's of the Caribbean in the US, to which I WAS going to tell you all is much better than it's first version. Just in case you ever go.....

There was also this restaurant that was 'inside' the Pirates ride, meant to look like you were in the jungle by a river. It was simply AMAZING! The food was really good, and the atmosphere was just divine.

first i took the train up to Lille to visit friends

i had a beer called 'kwak' which was served in this unusual way

tribute to joan of arc in the cathedral

my friend lived on the 5th floor, so the bathroom was....short

if you stand up in the bathtub your head sticks out the sky light

amaury

rory's flight was delayed and we got to our little hotel at midnight

more paris photos in next post, i have to finish sorting them out!

Permalink: back_from_paris.html
Words: 340
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: potpourri

07/06/08 09:51 - 71ºF - ID#44877

rory quit!

Time Smoke-Free: 5 days, 16 hours, 46 minutes
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 114
Lifetime Saved: 20 hours

I never asked him to, but he did it. I'm so proud of him!

Yes, I see my photos didn't post - I'll deal with it later. I just wanted to share my joy first :)

metalpeter writes at 01:28:12 07/06/08 - Comment #36778: congrats. Hopefully he stays smoke free. It is really surprising how many people quit have it licked and then for some reason go back to smoking again.

jenks writes at 01:09:34 07/06/08 - Comment #36775: congrats! there's another ticker like that one too, that also lists how much money you've saved. It's pretty inspiring.

tinypliny writes at 11:30:23 07/06/08 - Comment #36770: That is awesome! Congratulations to Rory and to you!

I went to this talk at Roswell about how researchers are promoting people to stay in the quit mode. Apparently, portable tactile and visual stimuli strengthen the resolve the stay smoke-free. The experiment was an interesting one. They recruited a bunch of people who drank alcohol and put them through a training session that emphasized quitting alcohol. Then they were subjected to a number of "temptations", eg. given a bottle of wine and asked to pour it out repeatedly into wine-goblets, given a six-pack of beer and asked to pour it out into glasses etc.

Now comes the interesting part. The study subjects had been put in two different rooms because of the lack of space for "temptation" part of the study. In one of the rooms, a graduate assistant had forgotten his pencil with a funny-shaped eraser on the table. The researchers noted that the study subjects who were in the room with the pencil-funny-eraser resisted temptations MUCH BETTER than the ones in the other room.

Quite unconsciously, the unusual object on the table reinforced the quit-training they had received prior to the temptation experiment. Thus the researchers hypothesized that perhaps giving the study subjects memorable textured objects to keep would reinforce the quit-training. The textured objects could be anything - a Keychain, a medal, a small toy etc. They just have to be unique enough that, in the unconscious mind, the study subjects could make an association between the object and the intial training or the urge to quit in the first place. The second phase of the study is being carried out currently. They are extending this concept to quitting programs and stay-quit programs for smoking.

So maybe you could talk about how much you LOVE the fact that he has quit and without telling him about this whole experiment, just give him some small textured thingy that he can keep with him all the time. If the researchers are right, this object will remind him of you and the talk you had and encourage him to stay in the quit-mode. Just a small thing worth trying! :)

Nagging may also work, but positive reinforcement is better.

Good Luck!

james writes at 11:07:51 07/06/08 - Comment #36769: now you stay on his ass about not picking one up. Going through quitting a second time is worse than the first time.

mrmike writes at 10:42:01 07/06/08 - Comment #36767: Congrats on the smoke free journey so far. Keep on keepin' on

Permalink: rory_quit_.html
Words: 46
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: photos

07/04/08 05:27 - 73ºF - ID#44863

photo catch up

I'm so behind on photos! I finally sifted through all of (e:jbeatty)'s photos for the parts of the trip I was missing. Here are a few shots from the communist statue park we visited in Budapest. Also, a few from Disney/Universal. I'll try to get everything up on my photo site before heading out of town again! Ciao peeps.

run away!

he got me....

dinner with the peeps

my nephews on their first amusement park ride

mohammed at universal

lego family

fireworks

Permalink: photo_catch_up.html
Words: 100
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: potpourri

06/30/08 05:45 - 72ºF - ID#44831

back in the dohaha

I had a delay getting out of Orlando, but still managed to get on my plane in DC. I was so, so, so happy to be back in Rory's arms. I also came home to an amazing surprise. They put up a partition in my hallway. "What does that mean", I hear you ask. Well dear friends, it means I now have a relatively private entrance to my part of the building, which means it is now acceptable for me to have male visitors in my residence. Which means, for the first time ever, I'm going to make Rory dinner at MY place and he can some over and enjoy it!!!!

Really, having that type of restriction wears on you. I mean I'm almost 33 for crying out loud! With the inability for any public display of affection AND not having 'boys' over, I was seriously beginning to feel like a 13 year old trying to enjoy a chaperoned date. So, needless to say I am over the moon about this new addition!

Further more, I got some newer furniture and my apartment almost looks like it matches and belongs to a grown up! We requested 'new' furniture back in January and it's still a tit-for-tat battle as to who actually does the work. I swear this country wastes about a bajillion man hours working to avoid work and about 10 hours actually working. Not that I'm hatin' on anyone, just to make that clear.

I'm on duty this week, then I'm off to Paris next weekend. Rory finally got the time off approved, so we get to spend a whole 3 days together! No work, no moral police, just US....freedom.....and an exciting adventure together :) Let me hear you say, FUCK YEAH!

Travel photos to come.

Permalink: back_in_the_dohaha.html
Words: 294
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: travel

06/21/08 11:08 - 63ºF - ID#44747

down in disney

I made it down to Disney. The flight was uneventful until we were just about to land in Orlando. Either we had a mechanical issue or we were about to run into another plane. We had to abort our landing. We were really close to the ground about to land when suddenly we accelerated into what felt like mach 5 and made a sharp climbing turn. Jeepers!

So here I am at Disney. Seems like we'll have a lot of free time with this conference so today Mohammed and I went to Epcot. The rides aren't so great, but it's really cool meeting and talking with the staff. They come from all over the world and of course that floats my boat.

Most pleasing of all, I finally got to have a video chat with Rory this morning. The time difference is so wrong it makes it very difficult to communicate 'live'. I was just pleased as punch to get to spend an hour with him, hear his sexy accent, see his face. In all my life and experiences I've never felt 'homesick' the way I am when I'm so far away from him.

I'll get some photos up when I get back home in Qatar. Sorry if I didn't get a chance to see you, talk to you, or meet you while I was home. It's an exhausting trip and there's only so much catering I can do considering how far and long I had to travel to get there. So, hopefully next year! Because I won't be home for a year. But next time hopefully I'll have Rory in tow and you can meet the fabulous man in my life :) Ciao peeps.

Permalink: down_in_disney.html
Words: 283
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: travel

06/13/08 07:16 - 69ºF - ID#44634

i made it

I'm here!

As I was flying business class I got to check out Doha's new 'premium terminal' for business and first class only. Yah. They built an entire terminal JUST for the elite traveler. It was very lush. A bell hop takes your things from the car, then you sit in big leather seats until it's your turn to check-in, in which you get to sit in another big leather seat. Then you can enjoy the lounge. I got a buffet breakfast with a latte. The bathrooms were crazy fancy and set up like a spa. They even had showers. Sadly, the more I travel this way the more difficult it becomes to cram my ass in coach for a long flight. Of course, now it takes a flight to be over 6 hours for me to even consider it to be getting 'long'. Amazing how perspective changes when you start doing these 2/3 day marathon flights.

Anyway, when I landed in DC I was supposed to have a 3.5 hour layover. This turned into 8.5 hours. My flight was delayed because of all the storms. Well, everyone's flights. There were tons of cancellations and delays. By 11pm I was confident I'd be spending the night in the airport. I could hardly keep my eyes open to stay updated since I'd been awake for some 30 hours at that point (I don't really sleep on planes). But in the end, the Buffalo flight crew really wanted to get home so we flew out at 1:20am and got into Buffalo at 2:30am. My poor parents had to pick me up, I felt bad. I would have just rented a car but I could barely walk let alone safely drive a car for 1 hour.

So here I am, trying to acclimate to the time. No way would I ever be up at 5am! Except that my body thinks it's 12 noon. So dear peeps...looks like my weekend is probably committed to familial events, but I'd like to see ya'll during the week. Perhaps a little dinner? Lunch? Playing frisbee? Has Shakespeare in the Park started yet? Give me a shout, sooner than later. Time flies and I only have a few days :)
Ciao, LC

Permalink: i_made_it.html
Words: 367
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: travel

06/09/08 02:35 - 68ºF - ID#44590

hoppin the continents

Tomorrow morning I'll be heading west, traversing the continents, hopping the pond stateside. It's a 15 hour flight from Doha to D.C. but Business class makes it humane, even enjoyable.

I have 9 days to play before I head down to Orlando. If you would like to see me, get in touch.

Ciao, LC

Permalink: hoppin_the_continents.html
Words: 53
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: e:trek

05/25/08 02:08 - 65ºF - ID#44447

plitvitcka jezera

These are SOME of my pics from Plivitcka Jezera.

this little old japanese lady gave us origami cranes and lips, it was too cute

Permalink: plitvitcka_jezera.html
Words: 44
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: e:trek

05/23/08 09:37 - 48ºF - ID#44429

i'm baaaaack

It was a whirlwind trip. 3 countries in 6 days: Croaita, Slovenia, Hungary. I'm still in recovery so I won't write much today. Here are a few teaser photos of the different places we explored. Enjoy!

I flew over the Austrian Alps in a twin prop plane (Munich to Zagreb).

graffiti everywhere!

and loads of cafes

we took a bus to plivitcka jezera, which literally dropped us off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere

we camped out in bungalows at Camp Korana, which we nicknamed Camp Corona or Camp Cat (explain later).

and spent hours hiking through this amazing UNSECO park! (tons more photos to come)

then we took the train into ljubljana, slovenia where we stayed in a renovated prison - the coolest hostel i've ever stayed in!

it was in an art community (more crazy photos to come)

it stormed something fierce and we got soaked climbing to the castle

yeah. soaked.

Then we took an overnight train to Budapest where we were woken every 2 hours or so for a border crossing passport stamping extravaganza. Then my camera battery died and I, being a tool, forgot my charger so I have nothing from Budapest except whats on the others' cameras. We visited this cool communist statue park on the outskirts of town where I bought a Russian military belt. (e:Jbeatty) has some really fun ones from there!

All in all I obtained 9 stamps in my passport in 7 days!!! I'm going to have to order extra pages real soon, I only have about 3 left! Enjoy kids. More to come.

Permalink: i_m_baaaaack.html
Words: 284
Location: Niagara Falls, NY

Category: potpourri

05/18/08 03:46 - 48ºF - ID#44380

greetings from lubjlana

So we ended up hitting this amazing park in croatia...spletiva jezera. A series of lakes that fall into one another with amazing waterfalls and this beautiful aqua blue water. Wait til you see the pics!

We took the train into Slovenia to Lbjulana. This city is WAY cool. (e:Jbeatty) and I might go to a cave today while the others trot around town. We couldn't get a room tonight so we'll prolly take an overnight train to Budapest and try to sleep on that.

Last night (e:Jbeatty) and I ate something really interesting. I'm not going to say what. I'll save it for him to share, since I really only had a bite. Which in and of itself will SHOCK you all.

I also tried squid ink for the first time yesterday (on rice). Kind of tasted like soy sauce. I have photo evidence.

On our bus ride out of the waterfall park this crazy old country man got on the bus and sat by me. He smelled like a sausage factory and was wearing a shit brown hat with no top and Sally Jessie Raphael glasses. He was so cool! I wanted my picture with him but I was sure he didn't speak English.

Some old Japanese ladies gave us origami at the park. Random but too cute.

This post is ALL over the place. Gotta go, my time's running out. Ciao peeps!