She Shall Remain Nameless

The stage: Dinner at the National Portrait Gallery, overlooking the well-lit London cityscape. A lovely prefix dinner, accompanied by four well-educated friends, chattering away about life, love and other mysteries. The conversation is animated and punctuated by the surrounding crowd of twenty-somethings with after work drinks, and fifty-somethings with after museum meals.

Friend One: "I would really love to get back to the Tate Modern to see their new exhibits. The Dali exhibit last year was fantastic. Expensive, but fantastic."

Friend Two: "The Tate had a Dolly Parton Exhibit?! .... Oh wait, you must mean Salvador Dali. .... Please don't tell anyone I just said that."

Friends One through Four laugh hysterically because Salvador Dali and Dolly Parton exist in such different worlds that it's hard to imagine that they have ever, in the history of the world, been confused before. (However, someone might want to call Trebek and tell him it would make for a good Jeopardy answer where they combine two phrases, like Salvador Dali Parton.)

Friend One: "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it, but I do have to put it on my blog."

And, scene.

I Guess It's Cool in France

Friends, your eyes do not deceive you: This is, indeed, a Durex Premium Condom Dispenser in the middle of the main drag in Bordeaux.



Or, more accurately, Blaye, the little town outside Bordeaux where we stayed. A town where you struggle to find more than 6 people under 50 in a restaurant on a Friday night. I can't imagine that this little gem gets much good use, but apparently someone thought this was a good enough idea to spend the money implementing it.

I can imagine very few situations in life that would make this transaction worthwhile, but cie la vie. French is the language of love, so who I am to argue with their birth control choices?

The Other Brother is Pretty Dope

Cas' Jeff quit his ill-fitting job earlier this year to start his own label/website/art/eventualworlddominationstation.

You should check out his site for two reasons:

One, it's cool, has an insightful blog, new music, and fun clothes that will make great Christmas gifts.

Two, the more money he makes off of my friends, the closer I am to securing the title of Best Sister-in-Law EVER.

So, go check out Solid Gold Hubcaps Clothing, listen to Jeff's song (complete with a retelling of the Disney classic, Robin Hood) and buy some crap cause you know you'll like it and you care about my future.

Bordeaux Si Beau

You know you are getting older when weekend trips start looking less and less like collegiate Spring Break Celebrations and more and more like fake Honeymoons.

Catie somehow found this amazing little villa online. Beyond the beautifully redone rooms, oozing with character, was a small kitchen stocked to the gills with artisan salts, local peppers, and all kinds of interesting spices. We canvased the local market and made our purposely French-styled dinners of sauted shrimp, cheese, bread, veggies and some of the best wine you can find in the world for ten euro.








We rented a car, and I got to be the driver again. Look friends! You should be proud that I have finally learned to keep my eyes on the road. I have many fond (?) memories of Cristie and Heather in the back of my CRV telling me that I didn't need to make eye contact with them when I was driving.



Apparently, a villa is a house, and a chateau is a house where they have vineyards. We visited this one, got a tour from Maryse, the owner, and got lots of terra (French speak for mud) on my boots.




The people were so gracious and let us stop at their homes, taste their wine, pet their dogs, and ask silly questions. Pretty perfect.