Missing England

Some time ago, I wrote this about missing New York City:

Sometimes I miss New York as if it were a person. It's as if the city has its own character and disposition and certain things (scenes/actions/encounters/events) remind me of this. It feels very unlike how I miss "home" home (Michigan). It is neither nostalgic nor wistful nor vague but a distinct sadness that I forget until I am reminded of it.

The same is not true of Durham. England is too unobtrusive, too even-tempered and polite, to cause me to miss its personality. So how, then, do I describe this sense of loss I feel?

Perhaps Durham is for me like a lost hat or a favorite sweater now too worn to wear. It is warm and comfortable, familiar, an easy choice. When I catch myself in the mirror, I am, at times, taken aback by its presence about me. Other times, it fits so well that I forget it's there. Wistfully and with a certain measure of regret, I let it leave me (or let myself leave it), and I am surprised that such bittersweet feelings of tenderness, quite simply but aptly explained with a childish "I feel sad," could develop in a fraction of the time spent wearing other things.

Funny Photo Friday: what you won't find for sale in the paper

We visited Megan's sister in NW Iowa this week and found a few strange things in her newspaper. Actually, we went to the Dairy Dandy and the entire experience was weird, but we didn't bring the camera with us. Too bad. It meant all we could do was laugh at the "Vegetable Burger" on the menu. Meant "for veggie lovers," it came with one beef patty, lettuce and tomato, with the option of making it a double...



We wondered if it meant the meat sandwiches slept around or just the meat...








The "noon lunch" is a little funny, but so are the fact that they serve "taverns" as food. Are there payment plans? (Jennie tells us these are like sloppy joes)

Funny Photo Friday: It means something else here, but still kind of funny...

This one may only be funny to our English friends, but for those of you that aren't quite as up to speed on your British parlance, here is a refresher.

Funny Photo Friday: that's a lot of children to make happy

So it was on the Avenue of Americas (6th), but seriously... seems an awful big title to fill for a park smaller than our old Manhattan apartment.

In NYC.

Funny Photo Friday: when a sweater is not enough

Yup, they were on all four paws. This was most definitely taken in Manhattan.

Funny Photo Friday: American Sizes

Well Starbucks has Tall, Grande, and Venti so why not?

From the Iowa State Fair

Funny Photo Friday

My sister snapped this at a conference center. If only it were always that easy to find a girl, eh, men?

Funny Photo Friday: At Least They are Thorough

Any Questions?

Postojna Cave National Park, Slovenia

Funny Photo Friday: so could this car go sideways?

Oops. We missed last week's funny photo and now we're a day late on this week's. Tsk, tsk. I guess we've just been so incredibly busy discussing the Fate of the Blog, that we've lost track of time... Anyway, here's an old one from about March.


Not the best photos as they were taken from my phone... but the coincidence of where this van parked near my office in Newcastle was too good to pass up.

Some of our favo(u)rite 39 photos

Sorry for the lag of posts as of late folks. We are finally feeling a little more setteled down (despite still being jobless and homeless) but there has been so many things to do as of late, portfolios to print (and endless fuss over), resumes to write, (and rewrite), and the glorious phone calls to potiental employers (I can think of little I like more than those).

Anyway, to get our mind off of those things here are a few of our favo(u)rite pictures from the most recent trip.

Istanbul, Turkey

Come on, you know you want to see the other 38...

Grand Bazzar, Istanbul, Turkey

Hagia Sohpia, Istanbul, Turkey

Blue Mosque, Istanbul Turkey (Sensing a theme here yet? Istanbul was surprisingly LOVELY!)

Nafplio, Greece

Bridge to Patras, Greece (This lil' bugger cost 11 euro!)

Metara, Italy

Pompeii, Italy

Alpine Mountain Field, Slovenia

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Bled, Slovenia (The only lake in the country, but what a lake!)

Florence, Italy

Cinque Terra, Italy

Krka National Park, Croatia

Pisa, Italy

Random Roadside lunch break, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

I honestly have no idea, Europe

Cannes, France

Piran, Slovenia

Monaco, Monaco

The Only Campground in Albania, Albania

Along the road, Albania

Berat, Albania

Gjirokaster, Albania

Gjirokaster, Albania

Lunch, France

Vikos Gorge National Park, Greece

Chartes, France

Spice Bazzar, Istanbul, Turkey

Bosphorous River, Turkey

Volos, Greece

Vikos Gorge National Park, Greece

Meteora, Greece