AND THE PREPARATIONS BEGIN...

Eyebrows waxed. Outfit bought.

I NEED AN EDITOR

Talking to friends today, I realized that this blog was poorly written. I say this because they had gotten the impression from it that I had received a $400 haircut (and they were the second group to mention this to me). Let me clear the (h)air here - I did not get, nor would I ever get, a $400 haircut. I went to Amanda (not the owner Nick), who charges a normal price for a haircut. The day that I get a $400 haircut is the day that I better be the next CS.

SUPPORTING MARK LEE

I've pretty much known what crib bedding I want for awhile now, and I even went to check it out at the only store I thought carried it in Manhattan. That was last weekend in Soho, and unfortunately, they were sold out of it, as was their sister store on the Upper East Side. Doing some internet research the other night, I came across it at a few more online retailers for $15 less than at the other store, plus one of them offered free shipping, but it was also sold out there. However, these other sites gave me a key piece to the puzzle and told me the brand name of the set. With that information in hand, I Googled the whole crib set name and was surprised when an eBay link came up. I was even more surprised when the link led me to my bedding set being sold from an online liquidation store and the highest bid was currently $2.50. With shipping charges listed at $12, I figured even if the set was a return or slightly flawed (though the eBay page states that the set "appears brand new or factory sealed and we believe it to be in complete and perfect functioning condition"), it was too good of a deal to pass up. So I did what Mark Lee hopes everyone does at least once in their life - I signed up for an eBay account and started bidding. I even went so far as to not join the boys for dinner last night, so I could stay home and watch my auction through to the end. There was one other bidder who joined late in the game who kept trying to outbid me, but I guess she was turned off by my maximum bid of $15.50 because she left fairly quickly. At 9:20pm last night, I won the auction and this morning I paid a grand total of $27.93 to have my crib bedding set sent to me, while saving hundreds of dollars in the process. I heart eBay.

CS/17

2:45pm, corner of 15th Street and 5th Avenue

Me: "Look at that ugly green Bentley!"

Adrian: "Look at that ugly, old woman in the backseat!"

Me: "Hey, that's Diane von Furstenberg!"

"HOW SURE ARE YOU?"

I just finished my second practice day of calling Mark at work to read him a mock-Millionaire question. Since he is my main go-to guy and my show is two weeks from today, we decided it was time to see how this machine worked. Yesterday, it didn't work too well. However, it was our first day and the set of questions (made up by Adrian) was extremely advanced. We were also working over a computer microphone using Skype and having Adrian tell us our time. We knew we needed to change both of those things. We also hadn't set any boundaries such as Mark not talking until I'm done talking - something that would eliminate us talking over each other. Tonight, it went much more smoothly and gave us both a boost of confidence. I used my headset and I had a timer on my screen that I controlled so I could see to the second how much time we had left. The question sets were also more Google-able, if you will, and Mark was able to correctly help me out about 90% of the time. I will even give him his props and say he knew two of them without having to Google at all. It's definitely helping to practice and as long as Adrian keeps making his question sets, we'll keep at it.

CONSTRUCTION CACOPHONY

If it wasn't bad enough that for the past two months, crews have been working steadily to demolish the building that faced our bedroom windows, this morning, a different crew started a street project right outside our living room windows. We were happy to notice, when we got back from our trip, that the building next to us was completely gone. Now they're simply finishing up the removal of debris and though annoying, still isn't as loud as when they were actually tearing the building down. Of course, we worry about what they plan to build there and how loud and long it will take. I guess we'll have to get used to our 7 a.m. wake-up call. The street project out front looks to be a smaller job, perhaps only taking a few days to a week. But still. With the air conditioner going and the symphony of jackhammers and bulldozers, it's a wonder we can hear each other talk.

LEARNING NEW THINGS IN OLD PLACES

There's nothing like being home again after a long vacation, no matter how fun the vacation was. This one we were just on was a tad too long due to weather (rainy all over) and pregnancy (simply that I can't walk as fast or as far I could before). However, we came back with some new insights, and I would have blogged about them before, but I couldn't remember my Blogger password while on the trip - obviously, something I need to learn.

Amsterdam: We learned that the tram is easy and inexpensive. We never took this once the whole time we lived there last year, but this year our hotel was quite south of downtown so it was a must. We learned both where the main tram ticket office is and where the machines are in the station. We learned that when you buy intercontinental train tickets, you should make sure you're not in a smoking compartment. We learned that you should enjoy the train lounge offerings while in the lounge, as they won't let you take out any of the drinks for the actual train ride. We learned that you can't go to differently located outposts of the same food chains, as they don't measure up to the ones you're used to. We learned that McDonald's is a lifesaver in any city in the world.

Berlin: (Technically, this isn't an old place for us being that we'd never been there, but it fits as the city itself is quite old.) We learned that the people we encountered in two hotels (oh yes, we were moved the first night as our hotel was overbooked) are so nice and have such funny English accents that it's like being in a "Saturday Night Live" skit. We learned that you can't trust a guide book originally printed in 2006 for certain open restaurants, as Berlin changes with the times and this is 2007. We learned that being in such a modern city with such an incredible history is both educational and awe-inspiring.

London: We learned that you can actually take the tube straight from the airport to almost any location, instead of spending a ton of cash on a black taxi. We learned that if you want to stop spending $8 per person for a one-way tube ride, you can purchase an Oyster card that saves you a ton of money. (Why we didn't figure this out last year beats me.) We learned that the second time you visit Harrods is nothing like the first - it's that amazing. We learned that the newest outpost of The Hummingbird Bakery is just as good as the first. We learned that having good friends in a foreign city you visit makes for a great time and good eats.