HH Hotties Hangout

[fafnir]

We left June 15 and got back on the 22nd of July-- this includes a few days in Chicago visiting family at the end. I'm not even tired!!

[EYE HEART BAGS]

Originally Posted by Sybaryte

Awww...thanks EHB! Rory is on summer break.

I hope He's having a great summer. He deserves a break!

[hereiam]

x

[lulu3955]

Originally Posted by jennirane

YOU, missy, can answer the same questions about Oz! Anthony Bourdain just did a No Reservations in Melbourne and it just made me miss it so much. Where'd you go? What did you see?

I went to Walhalla, Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. It's a cute little area. I didn't do or see very much cuz it was a business trip. Same Questions:

Best museum? Local Pub was full of gold mining history.
Best street food meal? The Winery had some great cheese and I ate plenty and walked in circles to get more does that count as street food. LOL Which is funny cuz I don't drink and I'm a vegan. LOL
Best fashion moment? When the airport lost my luggage and asked what color my baggage was I pointed at my Zap Lorca and said "this color" and they found it in five minutes.*see pic*
Best "I can find my way around!" moment? Getting turned around while I had a walk on the beach. I looked at the sky and found my way. It was awesome.
Best "this is what travel is all about" moment? My walk on the beach. It made it almost feel like a vacation. It was a very Cool evening (which I like) I had my blackberry turned off. I didn't have to worry about my dogs. It gave me some unclouded thinking time. Which I really needed. That hour was the best I've had in months.

Pic of my travel companions: (old pic but it's what I wore)

[jennirane]

The walk (AND the pub!!) sounds pretty nice for a business trip, Lu! I got stuck overnight in the Adelaide airport one time. No toothbrush :(

And it must have been great, cool weather!

[gingeybear]

Awww..fafnir..missed you...(is that Suzi Parker in your avatar?)....can you say "Kunsthistorisches in Vienna" three times without stumbling..how about once..how the heck is it pronounced and can you get there before you say it?

Sounds like a trip that you and your kids will remember forever and when they have their own families you can go down memory lane...I still do with my Mom and hopefully will with my kids...and did you get some sachertorte..and kaffee mit schlagg..see Klee and the wonderful Bauhaus and Art Nouveau in Vienna..and the opera house..and and and..sigh..oh..the Marchè au Puce flea market..and so much that I am dying to see with my kids and heck..with some friends too...ah..living vicariously is so much fun..and if you haven't scored your persols yet..they are discounted in Loehman's and Century 21 department store...thanks so much for sharing...

Lulu...it sounds like a business trip that turned into a mini holiday...loved the cheese sampling..and I love that Zap!Green Lorca story...way better than our bright orange socks tied on all our bags...XOXO welcome back y'all.

[dcblam]

ah lulu and fafnir -
welcome home and thanks for giving us your answers to jenn's thought provoking questions....LUV IT! makes one think about how they would answer the questions.....

ah.....fafnir....we have another thang in common - our favorite train station, Ferrovia Firenze!

and....lulu, your beach description sounds so serene....something that you have so needed considering all that U have been through lately!

on a complete superficial note.....I am feeling melancholy now that the Tour de France is over....am so happy for the victors and am watching replay number 3 today.......can't get enough! George Hincapie, You ARE THE MAN, and Lance, you are awesome and Alberto....so talented. Andy Schleck - adorable, you and your bros. and you will be in YELLOW in Paris soon. Levi - you were MISSED....it could have been so different if you didn't CRASH! Ah, I'm gonna miss these guys......ah, just watching them in Paris is sublime.....what a visual pleasure.....makes me verklempt!

[jennirane]

Blam, thought of you today while I was watching the last stage... I was SO impressed with Lance this year. And Cavendish at the end... sometime I'll have to learn how the whole thing works, though. I was lost, LOL! (And I can score a spring training extra innings baseball game...)

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by dcblam

on a complete superficial note.....I am feeling melancholy now that the Tour de France is over....am so happy for the victors and am watching replay number 3 today.......can't get enough! George Hincapie, You ARE THE MAN, and Lance, you are awesome and Alberto....so talented. Andy Schleck - adorable, you and your bros. and you will be in YELLOW in Paris soon. Levi - you were MISSED....it could have been so different if you didn't CRASH! Ah, I'm gonna miss these guys......ah, just watching them in Paris is sublime.....what a visual pleasure.....makes me verklempt!

Totally agree, melancholy and all. I've watched every stage, usually both the morning broadcast and the expanded evening version. I watch a lot of sports, but I particularly love the ones that seem to create whole worlds of their own. I'm fascinated by round-the-world sailing races (couldn't tear myself away from the internet when Ellen MacArthur was doing the Vendee Globe) and the America's Cup, but the Tour de France seems to translate especially well to television.

It's so comforting every year to tune in and hear the familiar voices of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen (and the humor of Bob Rolle), and know that for three weeks I can be submerged in their world. Even if I didn't care about the race, the scenery alone is incredible -- and the camera people do an awesome job with it -- seemingly at great risk to life and limb.

The scenery makes even the less eventful stages interesting to watch, but what I love most about the race itself is its variety and complexity -- that there are races within the race, stages (and even parts of stages) for sprinters, time-trialers, climbers, and whole teams. That there are teams who train for a whole year for the glory of getting one rider in a small or solo breakaway, even if the breakaway is caught before the end of the stage, as well as the teams with the goal of winning one or more stages, and the teams with the overall win as a realistic goal. That at various times there are both power struggles and alliances between teams, and within teams. That depending on a rider's/team's main objectives, there is so much strategy involved, overall and in each stage. That there are unwritten rules and customs as well as the official rules. That there is an individual winner, but it's very much a team sport , requiring almost unimaginable effort from riders whose job it is to support the team leader, with no ambitions of their own. That it's such an international sport, with multi-national teams made up of riders who can't even easily communicate with each other. And that so many of the riders are so interesting and/or adorable (Fabian ).

I'm already looking forward to, and wondering about, next year's race -- what will be the killer climb, how many stages can Cavendish win, will the top three still be at the top, will Levi be back with Lance and Johann, will George forgive Lance for possibly hurting his chances for a day in yellow and rejoin him, who else will be on Lance's team, and where and with whom will Alberto end up? Sounds as much like a soap opera as a sporting event.

I was devastated when American TV temporarily abandoned the race after Lance's previous retirement. Fortunately, the formation of his new Radio Shack team should encourage American TV to keep covering the race. I hope his successful return will raise the popularity of bike racing in general in the US (I miss seeing the Giro and Vuelta on TV), even though the long stage races are difficult to summarize on the evening sports news -- if there's been a breakaway of non-contenders, the reporters will bemoan the fact that the favorites have moved down several places without explaining the reason. I guess it is an unusual sport that way; you don't often hear that a major league baseball team hasn't bothered to try to win a couple of games in order to save their energy for an upcoming game on a different type of field that suits them better.

Well, this post has been long and rambling enough. I won't even try to get back to anything relevant to tpf by discussing feed bags.

[dcblam]

Originally Posted by disconnected

Totally agree, melancholy and all. I've watched every stage, usually both the morning broadcast and the expanded evening version. I watch a lot of sports, but I particularly love the ones that seem to create whole worlds of their own. I'm fascinated by round-the-world sailing races (couldn't tear myself away from the internet when Ellen MacArthur was doing the Vendee Globe) and the America's Cup, but the Tour de France seems to translate especially well to television. It's so comforting every year to tune in and hear the familiar voices of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen (and the humor of Bob Rolle), and know that for three weeks I can be submerged in their world. Even if I didn't care about the race, the scenery alone is incredible -- and the camera people do an awesome job with it -- seemingly at great risk to life and limb. The scenery makes even the less eventful stages interesting to watch, but what I love most about the race itself is its variety and complexity -- that there are races within the race, stages (and even parts of stages) for sprinters, time-trialers, climbers, and whole teams. That there are teams who train for a whole year for the glory of getting one rider in a small or solo breakaway, even if the breakaway is caught before the end of the stage, as well as the teams with the goal of winning one or more stages, and the teams with the overall win as a realistic goal. That at various times there are both power struggles and alliances between teams, and within teams. That depending on a rider's/team's main objectives, there is so much strategy involved, overall and in each stage. That there are unwritten rules and customs as well as the official rules. That there is an individual winner, but it's very much a team sport , requiring almost unimaginable effort from riders whose job it is to support the team leader, with no ambitions of their own. That it's such an international sport, with multi-national teams made up of riders who can't even easily communicate with each other. And that so many of the riders are so interesting and/or adorable (Fabian ). I'm already looking forward to, and wondering about, next year's race -- what will be the killer climb, how many stages can Cavendish win, will the top three still be at the top, will Levi be back with Lance and Johann, will George forgive Lance for possibly hurting his chances for a day in yellow and rejoin him, who else will be on Lance's team, and where and with whom will Alberto end up? Sounds as much like a soap opera as a sporting event. I was devastated when American TV temporarily abandoned the race after Lance's previous retirement. Fortunately, the formation of his new Radio Shack team should encourage American TV to keep covering the race. I hope his successful return will raise the popularity of bike racing in general in the US (I miss seeing the Giro and Vuelta on TV), even though the long stage races are difficult to summarize on the evening sports news -- if there's been a breakaway of non-contenders, the reporters will bemoan the fact that the favorites have moved down several places without explaining the reason. I guess it is an unusual sport that way; you don't often hear that a major league baseball team hasn't bothered to try to win a couple of games in order to save their energy for an upcoming game on a different type of field that suits them better. Well, this post has been long and rambling enough. I won't even try to get back to anything relevant to tpf by discussing feed bags.

ah disconnected -
my oh my, you have eloquently written a summary of the beauty of this sport! Indeed, it is comforting to hear the voices and commentary of Phil and Paul, as well as the wacky enthusiasm of Bobke! I think Craig Hummer came into his own this year and the broadcasting team really jelled. Thank goodness for DVR.....I have not erased many of the stages and can play 'em back. Lookin' forward to the next race and to see how Team Radio Shack gets outfitted! Great talkin' w/'cha......
and yes, Fabian is TDF! AND, it looks like he has a fab personality too!

AND, where was Wiggins towards the end of the race yesterday??? Christian leading out Garmin...wow....with no Bradley in sight? Hey bro - U should have been there to help lead out!

[jennirane]

Disconnected, I need you and Blam to sit me down and explain all the nuances :) but I'm sympathetic to the melancholy! That's how I feel after the World Series every year. The academic part of my life goes against the natural rhythm of the seasons (autumn is my spring) but baseball's my link to the "real world" and when it's all over in October, I know it's hunker-down time until Spring Training. Football feels like it's happening to other people. Hockey's sporadically thrilling. Basketball just bores me. It's all filler until that little note in the paper when it's still cold as bejeebus: "Pitchers Report to Spring Training!" and then the world's right again :)

[paelaf]

Welcome back fafnir! You have definitely been missed around here!

Last night I made the mistake of looking at my face with a black light. Um, can we say sun damage?! It was freaking scary! Has anyone ever done this? My skin is freckled a little bit but I didn't think I had suffered the repercussions (yet) from my sun-worshiping college days. Think again! There it is...right below the surface. I'm about to drop some cash on this and the whole murad environmental line. Anyone tried it or have any other recommendations? Age Spots | Sun Spots | Murad Age Spot and Pigment Lightening Gel

[jennirane]

Yup... have done this, Paelaf. Super-scary after a life in south Texas and Sydney! Haven't tried the line or anything serious, but DID have a good come-back to an overeager (but cute) salesman at the mall in Denver. One of those booth/kiosk places? I was walking with my two nieces from Brasil, and this guy was just following us, telling me my skin was great, and he couldn't tell how old I was (so I said "thank you... 39") and although my skin was great, what would I say if he told me he could erase those FEW tiny crow's feet I had? (I told him, "I'd say I like my crow's feet... they're how I know I'm 39!" and my nieces just giggled.)

Good luck with the Murad... I'm sure someone's tried it. We seem like women who find these things if they work

[paelaf]

Originally Posted by jennirane

and although my skin was great, what would I say if he told me he could erase those FEW tiny crow's feet I had? (I told him, "I'd say I like my crow's feet... they're how I know I'm 39!" and my nieces just giggled.)

LOVE this jenni!

[lulu3955]

I haven't tried any of the aging creams or face washes but *TMI* I have been using the Murad Firm and tone serum for about a year and half to get rid of stretch marks on my chestile region and it's worked so far. Oh and the samples that I get with my orders smell really nice.
I'm kinda naive about what to do with my skin. I'm in the in between stages. I don't have wrinkles but I don't have acne either. I don't even want to think about looking in the black light mirror thingy. I think it would blow my mind. LOL