The ring is here!

I was diagnosed with Swine Flu on Tuesday of this week, so needless to say its been a not fun week of sickness. The bright spot by far, was Joe's arrival on Friday night. He came straight from a flight (he was in the Canary Islands this week for work) and was carrying a special package - my engagement ring! I haven't taken it off all weekend :)

Valentine's day in London

Joe and I planned a Valentine's weekend extravaganza - dinner at an old-timey cabaret on Saturday night (Proud Cabaret) and Avatar in 3D IMAX complete with couch seats on Sunday.

We saw a burlesque show at Proud. Joe has been wanting to see one for some time (he loves Dita von Tesse). It was cool, but got repetitive after a while and I think its safe to say that we're not really keen to see more. The venue, although it had a really cool atmosphere about it, had a bunch of technical problems because the sound guy was new and kept missing his queues. I think the audience didn't really mind though - in fact they started rooting for him - Dan was his name. But the main host, "red dress girl", was getting really rude and bitter with him in front of everyone. She kept taking digs at him in every interlude and it just got embarrassing after a while. I think we were sympathizing more with Dan than her at this point. Anyway - the show was still fun, but not sure we'd go back.

Today, we just got back from the 3D IMAX. Joe purchased these tickets more than a month ago! Avatar was as good as everyone has been saying - I loved it! The imagery, the story, the special effects - it was awesome and even better to see it on the "biggest screen in the UK". We loved it!

Joe also surprised me with a Valentine's day gift of a beautiful bronze Coach bag and tulips. It was so sweet of him. I got him a sweater (and the evening out at the burlesque show), but wanted to get him one of those multi-colored swimsuits he's holding up in the picture too. Joe wasn't so keen, though :)

P.S. Here's a copy of the Valentine's day card Joe got for me too.

I need a pair of these...

Joe's been in Finland all week for work, eating reindeer, snowboarding, and flying in F-18s. What a life! He got back on Saturday morning and came to visit me in London. We went out to a show (Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen). It was really good and we were on the 2nd row so we felt like Gandolf (who Ian McKellen plays in Lord of the Rings) was in our living room!

I read a really funny quote about the play afterwards on Wikipedia that perfectly describes it "[the play] has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice." Funny, but true.

Today, we had a lazy start to the day and then headed over to the British Museum. Its just around the corner from my flat in Bloomsbury and Joe wanted to see the Rosetta Stone. To be honest, the place is full of stolen artifacts from Egypt, Greece, ... Its surprising when you see it for the first time - entire Greek temples chopped up and brought to the (anything but) British Museum and re-assembled for the world to see. The argument for museums says the pieces were better preserved here, but it still feels a bit weird looking through all of these Egyptian pieces so far from their home. Joe is pictured with a cool statue - I could use some of those winged shoes!

I also just made plans to come home for Christine & Michael's wedding in Houston at the end of March. I'm going to take a couple of days to do some more house hunting in Birmingham at that time and my mom has agreed to come with me - thanks, Mom! Finally, good news on the job hunt. I'm making some headway in finding internal opportunities within my Firm and its feeling more likely that I'll have a role to go to in Birmingham. Keep your fingers crossed for me!