London Day 3

We have had a long and productive day here in London and visited multiple sites. We started by waking up and going to Westminster Abbey as it opened. We then went to the Churchill Museum and Churchill War Rooms which was very interesting. We then went to see if there were half-price tickets to a play that evening. There were and we purchased tickets to see Les Miserables in the evening. We then went to the British Museum and viewed the large collections of historical items. We started with Ancient Egypt, moved on to Assyria, and then to Greece. We viewed a few other items before moving onto the British Library. Inside the British Library there is a collection of historical books and documents including one of the four remaining copies of the magna carta. We then had dinner at wagamama, a modern asian noodle house which was delicious. We then saw Les Miserables at the theatre it has been at for the last 20-something years. It was a great production and we enjoyed it greatly. Megan and I are worn out and are going straight to bed. Pictures will come later. Good Night.

London, Day 1/2

We have arrived safe and sound in London and have already been enjoying the sights. Our trip began with our friends driving us into Chicago and dropping us off with plenty of time to spare at the O'Hare Airport. We checked in, received our boarding passes and went to the United boarding gate. With only a few minutes before boarding they asked for volunteers to go on a flight 45 minutes later on British Airways. Megan and I volunteered and at the last minute they sent us off to British Airways. Well, when we arrived at British Airways they denied us seats and sent us back to United. Now we had no boarding passes and no flights for the evening. We went to the only United personnel we could find, the baggage claim office. There we met a wonderful woman who was kind enough to call the supervisor of our original flight. Luckily, our original flight was delayed as the plane was broken! They decided to replace the plane with a plane that was 10 seats larger. They gave us seats in the Business Class seats and we were off (at 1 AM CDT). BTW, business class is one of the best ways to fly international red eye flights. We arrived shortly after 1 PM in London.

We reclaimed our bags and took the Tube to Trafalgar Square where our hotel was. There was a large St. Patricks Day celebration on the square and we had to navigate through the sea of people to our hotel. Once there we cleaned up and got ready to go out for dinner. We began walking up the streets near our hotel and decided on a pub, the Brewmaster. Megan and I ordered some good food and enjoyed the cozy pub. We then took the tube to the London Eye, a large ride that took us high into the evening sky for great views of the London skyline. We are tired after just this half day and are going to get a good night's rest to prepare for another busy day tomorrow.

Pictures:

New Job

I recently had the opportunity to go to a "spa" party hosted by one of my friends here in Wisconsin. It featured a great product line called BeautiControl. I loved the products so much that I decided to become an independent consultant. I am now available to do SpaEscape parties which are a great way to relax and try products in the comfort of home. I also have a website. Check it out at www.beautipage.com/meganetrussell. Be sure to take the online skin care e-profile, which will help you determine which skin care routine and speciality solutions are best for you. I am also available to help with any questions you may have. Ask me about it!

Happy New Year!

Some pictures from our New Years celebration. I happened to be at home this time when I posted :) Enjoy!


The evening started with a friendly game of poker.

Everyone indulged on chocolate and sparkling grape juice.

The crackers were noisy and fun!

Spencer took the liberty of decorating. I think it looks rather nice.

Kiss at the stroke of midnight--aren't timer great?

We had a great evening!



Spencer and I head off to London on Saturday for spring break!! We are bringing the camera and hope to use it. ;)

More on the weather....

I know I write about the weather a lot out here, but it's on my mind a lot because it's been so cold! At any rate, the other day it was about 40 degrees (which is saying a lot since I don't think it had been above freezing since at least November) and I thought it felt warm. In fact, I ran errands in a knee-length skirt without insanely thick wool tights and I didn't even get chilly. My coat was almost too warm. The other thing I've noticed is that when I wake up and check the temperature is if it's 10+ degrees I usually think something like, "oh, it's only 12 degrees. That's not so bad," and then I skip grabbing that extra sweater or pair of gloves and instead of wrapping my head so only my eyes show I just grab a simple scarf and hat. Funny how when you've been forced to walk to work when it's -40, 10 just doesn't seem that bad. I do have one thing to say though: I want to do residency in Florida! or Hawaii!!

My (1st) 6 Minutes of Fame

As Megan described, we went to Kohler, WI this past weekend as part of the Wisconsin Surgical Society. I researched with one of the doctors over in Megan's department over the past summer and got to present the research that I'd done. Kohler is about an hour north of Milwaukee and registration was at 7AM. Since I could only stay one night, I chose to stay Friday night since I would be there all day Friday. Therefore, we drove up from Milwaukee early Friday morning, luckily there was no snow, no accidents, no traffic! My fellow student colleague was the second presentation of the morning at 7:40AM. Luckily I was not until 10:40AM. It went well. I was nervous until I got up there and then I was just fine. I felt honored to be speaking to surgeons, some of who were 30+ years into their careers. It was a good 6-minute presentation, my follow-up questions were taken up by a fell0w surgeon's recapitulation of my recommendations.

Kohler is a beautiful little town built on the Kohler brand of home furnishing fixtures. We had a nice big whirlpool tub in our 5-star room with endless amounts of hot water! We also got to visit the Kohler Design Center which is a big IKEA-style showroom with examples of all the neat and new bathroom technology that they are producing. The third floor was a collection of mock-bathrooms that were fun and interesting to look at. Maybe we'll go back many years later to help design our own bathroom. . .

I'm back at school this week waiting for classes and tests to get overwith so that I can enjoy my Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I can't wait to see how much snow we get this year.

State Fair (yes I know it was in August and it's now November)

A plethora of people! (Most either drunk or becoming drunk). Note: there was a ton of fried food on a stick. Wisconsin may be one of the least-healthiest places to live.

Isn't he cute?

If only my bank account were that big!


Moo! Cows are the coolest. Except for frogs!

Yarn Woes

About, oh I don't know, 3 years ago I started knitting a sweater. My Grandma Morgan taught me to knit over the years and I decided that it was a good time to switch up from scarves. It's not that the sweater has taken me an extraordinarily long amount of time to knit, it's just that I'd work on it and then put it down for 10+ months. When I'd finally pick it up again, I'd have no clue what I had been doing so I'd usually rip it out and start over. So during general conference this year I did two things: I finished tying a lop-sided quilt I made for Spencer out of his old jeans and I cast on the last sleeve of the now 3-year-old sweater. Then I got really busy (so busy I can't quite remember what I was so busy with) and put it down again. Fortunately, my friend Heather turned me on to a new blog: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ . I love this blog! She posts and knits prolifically. I have been reading all of her old posts since she started back in 2004. So far, I'm only 4 months into the blog (she posts almost every day), but I'm loving it! Filled once again with the desire to knit, I finally finished the last sleeve, blocked the pieces, and sat blissfully down to sew them together. (Just a side note, I will be headed to Portland in two weeks to see Grandma and Grandpa Morgan, so I wanted it to be done by then to prove that yes, I still knit). The first problem I encountered was slightly unsettling. I have never sewn a sweater together before so I though maybe that was the problem, but alas it was not. The neck was too tight for my gigantic head! The next problem was that the arm hole on the body were waaaayy to big for the sleeves. Since I know I followed the sleeve pattern, I am now ripping off the top of the front and back of my beloved 3-year sweater. This should allow me correct for both problems, as I will now be modifying the neck. You can see a picture of the finished project here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0609608800/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link It's the 3rd one down.

In other news, Spencer and I spent the night in a five star hotel last weekend and then went a saw a ton of toilets, bathtubs, and sinks. Let's hear it for Kohler, Wisconsin! I'm also now in love with the Bread and Bean Eatery in Sheboygan Falls (right next door). I had the best chicken Florentine panini and chocolate cake there ever!

Wisconsin Weather

You know you're in Wisconsin when the weather has mood swings. For instance, this week we had our first snow flurries and it has been nice and chilly--somewhere around 30/40 degrees. I was just checking the weather forecast and noticed that it's supposed to be 60 or so at the end of this week. Weird. I thought we were progressing into winter, but I guess this state just wanted to tease us. That's how the cold started: it was a wonderful 70 degrees or so, then the day before October the weather suddenly thought, "oh no! It's fall! I have to be cold!" And wham---it was suddenly cold overnight. Of course, last year (with our 110+ inches of snow), we did have one day where the temperature jumped from the negatives to the 70s which caused a killer twister to rip through the area a few towns south of here, so I guess it could be worse. As our local weatherman says, "If you don't like the weather in Wisconsin, wait a few minutes." He isn't kidding.

Just a side note: The days are really short now: the sun comes up fully around 7am and it's dark somewhere around 6pm. Soon we will enter the world where I go to work in the dark and I come home in the dark and wonder if the sun really even exists anymore (that's what you get for working in a cube).

Camping at Kohler Andrae

Megan and I went camping this weekend about an hour north of Milwaukee aloong the shore of Lake Michigan. We slept through the first major frost of the season. We were warm in our newly acquired tent and enjoyed my masterful fire skills. Here are a few pictures of Megan at the beach.