Kendra Babbles

Today Blake and I navigated the tube on our own and made it to Tower Hill to see the Tower of London.  We had intended to get there around 10:00.  We made it around 1:00.  Apparently staying up until 2:30 for several days in a row takes a toll and getting out of bed is tough.  So after some fish and chips we started our tour at the Tower.  Our tour leader, known as a Beefeater, took about 45 minutes to tell us some of the history of the Tower.  I can’t accurately describe the comedy of a Beefeater, but I must say we were thoroughly entertained.  After the tour, we wandered around the Tower to see the Crown Jewels of England, the Bloody Tower and the Prisoner’s Tower with carvings in the stone made by prisoners hundreds of years ago.  London has done an amazing job preserving the history of their city and of England, even after the fire of 1666 that wiped out most of the city.

Our original plan was to also see the British Museum today, but since we couldn’t get out of bed this morning, we ran out of time.  We met John and Michelle for a tasty Italian dinner and then headed home for an early night.  John and Michelle have to return to work tomorrow, so we are trying not to keep them up until 2:30 in the morning.

Tomorrow we will take the hop-on hop-off bus tour in the morning and then tour Westminster in the afternoon.  It will be our last day in London, which is very sad, but we have had such a wonderful time that we will be back as soon as we possibly can.  There is so much more to see and do!

After blogging last night, we apparently weren’t sleepy enough and stayed up until 2:00.  So instead of getting up early to get tickets for Avenue Q, we didn’t make it out of the house until 1:30.  But the theater gods were in our favor and we scored 4 seats together in the 11th row for half price.  I don’t know how it happened, but we were all pretty excited.

We made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral mid-afternoon and toured the main floor.  St. Paul’s has the second-largest dome in the world, which sounded like a good idea to climb at the time.  The first level after climbing 257 steps is the Whispering Gallery.  This part of the dome is inside and looks directly down to the cathedral floor (so I hear, I tried not to look).  You should be able to sit on one side of the Gallery and whisper, and someone 32 meters away can hear what you are saying loud and clear.  We gave it a try, but there were too many people to tell if it worked or not.  The next level is is the Stone Gallery, 119 steps up.  This gallery is outside, but surrounded by a fairly tall stone and iron barrier with great view of the city.  The next level is 152 steps up.  I decided maybe this was not for me, but John insisted that gallery was inside, so I went for it.  John is a liar.  After climbing many spiral iron staircases (with steps that are see-through) we made it to the Golden Gallery.  Which was outside.  Again, John lied.  And there is not the option of turning around.  So, while Blake, John and Michelle saw amazing view of the city of London, I saw an extensive collection of graffiti on the stone exterior of the dome.  Blake was an amazing husband during this slow circle of the dome exterior, blocking as much of the exterior he could while we went around some very tight corners.  I think my fear of heights is officially confirmed.  After we made it back down the labryinth of stairs, we tried to vist the crypt of the church, but apparently it was well past visting hours and we were politely encouraged to exit. 

After that, we did some shopping.  I was very successful. 

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then headed to the Guilgud Theater to see Avenue Q.  The show was hilarious.  It is politically incorrect and fantastic.  Watching the puppeteers switch voices and puppets and still interact with others on the stage was amazing.  Our seats were awesome.  Theaters in London are much smaller, so although seats are a bit harder to get for a good price, you really never get a bad view.

After the show we had a drink at a pub, walked to see Big Ben at night, then caught the Tube home.  Tomorrow we are visiting the Tower of London (where Blake and I will navigate the tube on our own!), then the British Museum in the afternoon. 

On New Year’s Eve we boarded an early train heading north to Edinburgh, Scotland.  It was my first time ever on a train like that and John was smart and booked us in first class.  It was great to see the English and Scottish countryside, complete with cliffs and sheep and green fields.  I saw that in between my naps anyway. 

After we arrived and found the hotel, we went out to the Royal Mile.  Blake and I headed up to the castle to check that out (pics later, can’t find my camera cable).  Then we met up with John and Michelle for dinner.  The group decided a nap was in order to make sure we made it to midnight, so after our naps we loaded up with layers and hand and foot warmers and headed out to the Hogmany fireworks.  There were huge crowds of people and as it got closer to midnight the vibe was more and more exciting.  We did our countdown to midnight and then watched an amazing fireworks show.  It was like the finale of a normal fireworks show, but it went on and on and on.  Amazing!  One of our best New Year’s celebrations ever.  Snow and 18 degrees - I’ll never forget that part either!

New Year’s Day we slowly got up, had breakfast and made it to the bottom of the Royal Mile to see the Holyrood Palace, the office Queen’s residence when she is in Scotland.  The tour was very interesting and we got some good pics that I’ll eventually post.  We boarded a train at 5:00 for London, and now we are trying to make ourselves sleepy because its midnight and we are all wide awake.  Tomorrow we are hoping to get tickets to see Avenue Q, visit St Paul’s Cathedral and possibly the British Museum.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s!  Cheers!

 After a couple hours delay at DFW, we made it into the air for our eight and half hour journey to London. We enjoyed some movies during dinner, then I promptly fell asleep for at least 4 hours! Great way to pass the time. We landed in London around 10:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. Dallas time), wound our way through the UK Border Agency and customs, collected our bags and shoved all of our stuff in a taxi. I wish I had taken a picture of our creatively arranged baggage in the taxi, it was definitely an accomplishment!

A few minutes after making it to John and Michelle’s flat, we all thought it was time for a nap. Now we are forcing ourselves awake so we can sleep better tonight. It’s 4:00 now and almost dark outside – this could take some getting used to! We are heading out for some dinner and then are planning on a quiet night in, since our train to Edinburg leaves at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.

The last few months have just been crazy.  Between training for the San Antonio half, volunteering, work and life in general, Christmas just snuck up on me.  All the sudden it was December and I was not feeling the Christmas Spirit.  All I was really feeling were the remnants of a cold I caught in November - not exactly something Christmas movies are made of.

Every December I try to find a new way Blake and I can contribute to make someone else’s life better.  Last year I went with a food bank.  The year before it was the ASPCA.  This year I read an article about the Salvation Army Angel Tree in the Dallas Morning News.  Turns out they had 8000 more angels this year, but fewer people were adopting the angels and they were starting to worry.  Normally the angel tree is not really my thing.  I have no idea what to buy for kids and it seems my money never goes as far with the angels as it could with a food bank or pet rescue.  But the thought of a poor little boy or girl not receiving any Christmas gifts because of the economy was just unbearable.  So I talked to Blake and he agreed, and we adopted an angel from the nearby mall.  After some head scratching in the Target boys clothing section, and much debate over which WWE wrestling toy was the better choice, we bagged up our gifts and I returned them to the mall.  It is true that what I budgeted for charitable donations did not go as far with the angel tree, but I think maybe I got more out of it this year.  I’m feeling very Christmas-y now knowing that a little boy is going to have a warm coat and two awesome wrestling toys to open on Christmas day.

But just as I thought I could check this off my list, this shows up in the mail from the SPCA.

How am I supposed to turn down these adorable faces???  Sigh.  Now I’m off to find more money in my budget.  I’m a sucker for a puppy face.

*Depeche Mode

Shelby and Tucker finally got to meet Santa Claus!  I’m not sure they were very impressed, as they spent more time trying to get out of his lap than anything else.

Shelby just looks terrified.  Really she was just so excited to be out and around all these other dogs that she was doing her pet-store puppy cry and was just shaking with excitement.  She could not have cared any less about Santa.

 Tucker’s picture is more impressive, but he is looking at the squeaky toy they had above the camera and not actually at the camera.  He has his priorities.

So they aren’t set for modeling careers, but it was all for a good cause.  Donations generated from the picture session go to Paws in the City to help them with their vet and boarding fees for the dogs and cats they rescue.

*Elvis’ version is one of my favorites

“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.” - Robert Frost

Recently I turned 30.  The big three-oh.  I did not have a major meltdown or drop into a state of depression over my lost youth.  Instead, I got up early with Blake and took the dogs for a walk.  After that, I took a nap!  Maybe that is where my age is showing - more naps.

I had a wonderful birthday week.  Tuesday I had dinner with good friends and good wine.  Thursday we walked the dogs, which makes the dogs happy, which makes me happy!  I took the afternoon off and got a massage and met Amanda for a manicure and pedicure.  It was a great day!  Blake and I had a quick dinner at Tin Star that night since he wasn’t feeling well.  On Sunday we spent the afternoon at my parents helping with the kitchen remodel and eating dinner.  The day ended with chocolate pie - one of my favorites!

Usually on my birthday Amanda takes me to lunch and we eat food that is not good for us and generally have a fantastic time.  This year she was supposed to go to Mexico, but her trip was postponed, so she said she would take me to dinner Friday night.

It was all a big, fat lie!

Instead, Blake and Amanda had conspired to get my friends together in a mall parking lot, where the above group of people were waiting with a limo to drive us to Fort Worth!  Surpise!  I was pretty shocked to say the least - especially when my sister showed up after giving me a tall tale about going to the ranch for the weekend. 

On the way to Fort Worth we stopped for beer.  Blake was happy.

 We had a fabulous dinner at Lambert’s.  The food and service was excellent, even after we played musical chairs and totally screwed up the poor server’s seating chart.

In summary, I have the most awesome friends and family ever.  They went to all this trouble just to celebrate my birthday, and I really appreciate all of it!

*Gorillaz

**All photo credits go to Zach - he was our camera man for the evening and did a fabulous job.

I think when you have a blog you should probably post to it more often than 2 or 3 times a year.  I’m obviously a big violator of that rule!  So here’s a blog about when I’m at right now.

Still running.  Some days I’m doing more old lady shuffle than an actual run, but I haven’t given up yet!  My weird leg/hip/butt injury is much better, though I can still feel it when I’m running.  Thank God for yoga and chiropractors.  I’m signed up for the White Rock Marathon Relay in December.  I have the first leg - 6 miles or so.  I’ve run the course twice before, so I’m pretty confident I’ll do okay.  I haven’t set a goal yet, I’ll wait until I’m a bit closer to the date.  I’m also running the San Antonio Rock n Roll with my brother Chad and my sister-in-law Shelly.  It’s one month before the White Rock race.  Unless my running pace improves dramatically in the next 3 weeks, I’m aiming to finish under 2:30.  And if that doesn’t happen?  Well, I’m just aiming to have a good time.  It isn’t often that I get to see Chad and Shelly, so I want to have fun and enjoy watching Chad finish his first half marathon.

I’m also still yoga-ing.  I really enjoy it.  It feels like an hour of nothing but making your muscles feel better, which I think we all need.  I’m considering dragging my mom to class sometime.  :-)  I never thought I would enjoy it this much, typically I can’t pay attention for more than 30 minutes or so, but I’ve never had that problem in these classes.

I’m also still working.  And working and working and working.  Enough said about that.

For me, I seem to be able to get either my personal life in order and going well, or my work life, never both.  I don’t know why that is, but I suspect it’s because there are not enough days in the week.  Realizing that my running was suffering and I was falling farther and farther behind the group, I came up with a new training schedule.  In theory, this schedule allowed me to get in 4 runs, 2 yoga classes, and still have 2 nights a week at home where I don’t have anything scheduled so I can actually see Blake every now and then.

That was the theory.

Unfortunately the schedule involves getting up at 5:00 a.m. 3 days a week, which takes a toll on me.  It also involves working out twice a day 2 days a week, which makes me pretty worn out by the end of the 2nd work out.  In short, its pretty tough, but after going over it a few times, it really is the best way to try in squeeze in all those workouts and still see my husband, and actually work a 50 hour week too.

Now, when I have to add in that 5th day of running, things could get ugly.  I’ll post again when that happens!

In the midst of all this training and fun work, we did make time for a trip to Chicago to see my oldest (as in I’ve known her the longest, not that she is old) friend Lou get married.  We had an awesome time exploring Chicago and Lou’s wedding was fantastic.  Lots of happy people and dancing and of course, cup cakes.  I’ll have to make another post about that whole trip!

Well, that’s the high level overview of the last 3 or so months of my life.  I know everyone is so happy to have read it. 

*Eddie Vedder

Last night I tried my first yoga class.  Well, first except for the one Bikram class I took earlier this year where I about died.  That type of yoga is more aerobic and less relaxing.  I was tied up in knots for days after that, which is pretty much the opposite of what I was looking for.

 Anyway back to my yoga class last night.  I found a studio very close to our house that offered a few beginner classes and after emailing with the owner, I decided it was a good place to start.  I actually ran into the instructor, Zed,  in the lobby of the building and was able to introduce myself and get a feel for how she taught the class.  She was very helpful in getting me setup in the space and showing me where everything was.  She talked to the students about anything that may be bothering them that they would like to work on and then began the class.  There was a lot of terminology I didn’t know, but it was very easy to follow along and she broke down quite a few things to help me get the hang of it.  Fortunately my years of ballet helped me to understand her corrections and attempt to alter my body to obtain the proper alignment.  In some cases it was just not possible!  However by the end of class I really felt like my muscles were well stretched and could see an improvement in my flexibility already.  I know yoga has lots of other benefits, but for now just loosening up the hips and hamstrings was a huge deal and I think it will really help me with my running down the road.

*Frankie Goes to Hollywood

I think most everyone has seen it now, so its probably safe to post this now.

I have left behind my 29 years as a blonde. 

I am now a brunette with red highlights, and it kicks ass.  My hair is shorter, more feisty, and makes me feel like the subject of the Cake song Short Skirt/Long Jacket (if you have not heard this song, we may not be able to be friends anymore).

The story:  In late February the D Magazine blog for all things Dallas and fashionable, ShopTalk, posted a blog asking for entires for their annual D Beauty hair issue.  3 people would be selected and sent to different salons for a hair makeover.  I have been disenchanted with my hair lately and hadn’t had it cut since October.  I pondered entering, but was secretly worried they would want to give me a pixie cut or even worse, give me some lame blonde highlights and send me on my way.  I really wanted a significant change, but I still wanted it to look good!  So after debating over it for a few weeks, I finally took some extremely candid photos and submitted my entry.  No, I will not be posting those photos for your viewing pleasure.  They are frightening.

Fast-forward to late March and I’m thinking I didn’t get picked.  I hadn’t heard anything and the original post said they were picking in mid-March.  I am not heartbroken, but again am frustrated with my hair’s lack of well, oomph.  A week later they emailed and said I was picked!!  I immediately got excited, followed by a bit nervous, then excited again.  I went to the salon 3 weeks later for my hair makeover.

Here is what I looked like a few weeks before the appointment:

 And here is what I look like after 5 hours with Daniel Lewis at The Green Peridot in Frisco.

 Feisty, yes?

I love it.  It’s very easy to style and except for after a workout, always looks pretty good.  Daniel did a great job.  In the beginning I could tell he was trying to get a feel for how far I was willing to go.  He just kept playing with my hair and asking random questions.  Finally I just put it all out there - leave it long enough I can make a ponytail (even a little nub-tail is fine) and just go for it.  So then he got more excited and wanted to talk about color and he again was trying to figure out what I wanted.  I didn’t want to tell him too much, because I figured he is the pro and should know what would be best, right?  But I did say I really wanted to go darker.  Then he got super excited and said “Is red okay?” and I said fine and he was off mixing color before I knew what happened.  The actual process took awhile, but once the color and cut were all finished and they let me see it, I was so happy!  I think it looks fantastic and I love to see people’s reactions to it.  :-)  So far everyone likes it, or they are covering very well. 

It should be in the summer hair issue of D Beauty, if anyone wants to see the professional photos and styling. 

*Cake