update from Philly

Hi Everybody (or anybody that still reads this)...
We haven't written in ages, partly because we're no longer the London Dresners. And partly because we're not planning European vacations now. But anyway, Blogger's not about to take our web address away from us, so we might as well keep in touch.
Wanted to share a funny postscript. When you volunteer to give blood in the US, they ask a bunch of questions about where you've been to make sure you're not at high risk for diseases like malaria and CJD (mad cow disease). I lived in the UK for less than five years total--apparently that's now an exclusion criterion here! Did you in the UK know you were disease-bearing? Sometimes I just extrapolate from what they ask...
But the funny part was, the questionnaire asked "where have you been in the last three years outside the US?" And the nurse actually wanted locations and dates! He agreed to settle for country names and durations of stay in each. I gave him a shortened rundown: UK, almost 3 years, Germany, 2 weeks, Italy, 2 weeks, France, 1 week, Egypt, 1 week, Ireland, 1 week, Japan, 1 week, Belgium, two weeks, Spain, 1 week... (I'm sure one of my daughters will remind me that I skipped almost a dozen countries--the nurse ran out of lines on the form.) The only destination of any concern to the local health authorities is Egypt, as El Fayoum is considered a high malaria risk, but since we never went there, I was acceptable.
In local news, Samantha's going to be crushed that her Eagles football team is out of the playoffs. They were playing hard, and almost pulled it out. Three more weeks until the Super Bowl!

Now the...Philadelphia Dresners

As of 10:30am tomorrow, we are officially the Philadelphia Dresners when we close on a small 4-bedroom house in Springfield PA (a suburb of Philadelphia). More details soon. Suffice it to say, it's been a slightly mad mo nth wrapping things up and moving internationally. But we've made it!

London's Wild At Night!

Okay, so this is the weekend for the Notting Hill Carnival, which is the largest group of people drinking in one place in the world, as far as I can tell...(no, American football games don't even match this--several hundred thousand people line the streets and walk in the parade).
[ http://www.visitlondon.com/whats_on/notting_hill_carnival.html The parade route runs about 20 minutes' walk from our house. ]
I went for a couple of hours late this afternoon, but wasn't drinking, just listening to the music. I bumped into a couple of friends there (helped one find the nearest open Tube station) and then made my way home for dinner. I went back in to the office for a couple of hours after that, and was a little worried about walking home. Yes, it's a very short walk (10 minutes if I'm going slowly) but there's a footbridge over the Tube tracks that can be a nervous place to run into people at night, especially when you know there have been lots of drunks in the neighborhood. So tonight, I came up the steps, looked down the length of the bridge, and saw.... a fox! He (or she) turned and stared at me, apparently almost as surprised as I was, so I got a good look--its bushy tail, triangular ears, even whiskers looked just like a storybook picture. It skittered down the opposite stairs and I didn't see it again the rest of the way home. Had to share that though...I know there are foxes around here (in spite of this not exactly being suburbia) and the odds are I'd run into one some late night, but I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be using the concrete footbridge to cross the tube tracks!

Beaufort Hotel

Sami sandwich between daddy and grandma. Mom and Dad were spoiled this week at the Beaufort Hotel, two blocks from Harrods and a fun, full-service hotel complete with warm scones and tea every afternoon.

Spinning around.

Science Museum Launch Pad

Went to the Science Museum with Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Norm and spent an hour playing in the play area "Launch Pad."

And Shawn

And Shawn...

Sami

Just for fun.

American Destinations

Well, we are the London Dresners, but a couple of my trips this year have been to the States. In May I went to Seattle for a conference. Didn't spend too much time doing tourist-type stuff, but did get to the Science Fiction Museum and the Music Experience (or whatever it's called). The Museum was fun--Alien and Star Wars and Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and War of the Worlds and a whole bunch of others (Terminator, Men in Black, and V) from movies and television were represented with great visual exhibits. The weapons cabinet was excellent! Every kind of blaster and ray gun that have been imagined. The classic authors were well showcased, and their influences were mentioned in the displays of the newer, more well-known stuff. The Music Experience was too crowded to appreciate--most of the conference had assembled there for cocktails. It had some neat displays (including a comparative art section with classics and modern versions) but generally was impassible.
The trip to the Seattle Aquarium the next day was much more fun--the river otters were adorable and the jellyfish display cool. The touchable tide pool was tons of fun--got to feel an anemone tugging at my finger (the staffer explained that it was tasting me) and touch a sea cucumber again (slimy and squishy, just like the ones off Australia).

The trip I just got back from was a whirlwind visit to Cleveland for an interview. The job wouldn't be in Cleveland, but that's all I'm going to say for now. I did have an afternoon free, so figured I had to check out the Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame. ( http://www.rockhall.com/ ) My review won't be comprehensive, but then neither are the exhibits. There's great stuff there! The guitar exhibit is a lot of fun; the costumes from various decades were very entertaining. The music is great, of course--everything from Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson to the Sex Pistols (who vigorously refused to come to their own induction--their refusal letter is shown on one of the videos) and U2. There's a large Bob Dylan ("An American Journey" or something like that) exhibit, which pays a lot of attention to how he crafted his early look and sound after Woody Guthrie, and discusses his other influences. The 1971 Concert for Bangladesh film plays in a room on the ground floor--got to see live performances from George Harrison and Dylan, and learned who Leon Russell is. The film cataloguing all the inductees is entertaining and disappointing at the same time. It's almost an hour long, but very little of the music is unfamiliar to the audience, in spite of the number of rock forefathers (and godmothers) that have been inducted into the hall. I thought it would be a good chance to tell some of their stories, and let people appreciate their music. There's a bunch of 'jukeboxes' around the hall so you can punch up tunes from anyone, and I did try out Robert Johnson later on. The film showing moments from the induction ceremonies was very fun--things like Elton John calling Bernie Taupin up on stage to join him, and Rod Stewart inducting someone into the "Hall of Flame". In all, the place was definitely entertaining (better be, for a $20 admission charge!) and I could have probably spent another hour looking at the exhibits and punching up tracks.
Back in sweltering London today...the Metro just published pictures of Hyde Park, scorched brown and dry by the recent weather.
Regards to all!