What we've been up to

Other than the pics I put up today, it's been awhile since we've checked in. We've been busy. We had a great trip back to the US. We had to return to get our work permits finalized. So we are no longer "on vacation" while in London - we are official workers.

We spent four days in NYC visiting Erin's college friends and celebrating the coming birth of Cindy and Shamil's first kid. It was a great time seeing everyone, meeting Laurel's boyfriend Mark and generally having fun. Mark, Shamil and I avoided most of the baby shower stuff since Shamil hooked us up with tickets to a taping of Conan O'Brian and then a trip to the Bronx for a Yankee game. We were also lucky to stay in Greenwich Village at an apartment of a friend of Cindy's who was out of town. So cool to hang out in NYC for a few days, even though it was so hot outside.

After NYC we went to Seattle for a week. It was a little weird to drive by our house and stay at Brian's house a couple of blocks away, but it was great to be back in Seattle. It definitely felt like home. We had an extremely busy week of work, meetings, dinners, catching up with friends etc. The highlights included meeting Kirk and Jen's new arrival Zoey, hanging out at Brian's house including a weekend BBQ he hosted for us, a great dinner at Jen Wells' house in the garden with other Hitachios, hanging out at the Morris house and meeting new arrivals Elle Tindall and Bailey Morris. We spent Saturday morning with Dick and went to our house to "check-in" on Heather and Atria. They are doing a phenomenal job taking care of our house. Best renters we could have possibly gotten. Atria recently made screens for the windows and asked if it would be okay to strip and refinish the doors between the dining room and sun room....absolutely! Thanks Atria. Oh, and I also bought a new suit. Now I can really fit in in London.

Now we're back in London and officially over the jet lag. While I loved being home in Seattle, it reinforced how important it is for us to take full advantage of the time we have in Europe. To take advantage of the slow business time in August we've booked plans to go to Prague next weekend for a long weekend and are nailing down plans to go to Scotland with Cimp when he is in town in September. Golf and distillery tours, plus all the historical sites Erin will make us go to :) will be a blast. I also finally bought a bike. A week back in the sweltering tube made biking to work and elsewhere seem mandatory.

Sorry for the posting delays. I know some people would prefer briefer posts more often, so I'll try.

Ted

How about pictures?

Well, I guess my stall post didn't work. Here are the often requested pictures.

Erin and Ted on the Isle of Wight














Erin and Honor Smith (our Hitachi friend) at the Osbourne house on the Isle of Wight
















Here come the Wimbledon photos. First David Han, Erin, Ted and David's friend Stephanie with our queing cards as we enter.
















This is Maria Sharapova in practice round. It was cool how close we could get to the practice rounds. I know you may think this is kind of a lame picture, but you need it for the next one. Remember the orange shirt.















Now here is the famous picture of me and Maria Sharapova! I know you're jealous. Really, that's her, see the orange shirt in the background. Thanks to Erin for indulging me with this special remembrance of Wimbledon.

















Erin, David and I enjoying the time honored tradition of breakfast at Wimbledon. Actually it was at 4pm during a rain delay. I have to admit that strawberries and cream is a bit overrated.















One more of the two of us at Wimbledon.
















More pics to come soon....

Is this thing on?

We returned yesterday from a week and a half in the US (more later). I will also attach pictures soon as I finally found a way to get them off of my camera.

I really enjoyed talking to people while in the US who said they had been reading the blog. I was sure a couple of people were, but I can't really tell. You could, however, leave me a comment in the comment section. Right below each post is a place to comment (others can read it as well). Or you could send me an email, ted_corbett@hotmail.com. It would be interesting to know who actually looks at this. So if you're looking now, take a minute to post a comment and let's see who's actually reading this. I also appreciate ideas about what I should write about too. I've been told, for example, that I'm very detailed...I think that means shorten it up. Will do.

Ted