giving me directions
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

Eleanor is a good companion (guide) in NYC. She knows where to eat. And, really, that’s all that matters.

The three of us spent a long evening in a quiet wine bar talking about our combo bookstore and wine shop that we want to open someday. It will obviously be awesome. And successful. And very, very cute. (I mean sophisticated).

at Prague castle
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

Yes! I finally got our pictures up on Flickr (click on the little flickr badge on the lefthand side of our blog)! Be prepared: There are nearly 200 posted and I only put up about half of the total amount of pictures we took. And, for some reason, they aren’t in chronological order. Which is annoying.

Telfer took 99% of our pictures. Also be prepared for a lot of random, very nerdy pictures of me.

Our trip could not have been any better and we saw and did so many amazing things that it’s a little difficult to know exactly what to post about…so I think over the next few days (starting to feel better now but still blowing my nose every five seconds), I will do several mini posts about our big travels.

nerdy book clock
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

SO, yes, I realize we’ve been home for almost a week now and there’s been nary a posting or a picture. Excuses: I have been sick with a variety of interesting illnesses since we arrived home and Telfer is a working machine. This is one of those weeks.

But, we had a fabulous time on our vacation. More to come. The picture is of the clock (and our only purchase besides a few random, cheap things) we bought at this cool shop in Germany.

what to take what to take
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

The ticker tape running in my head this week:
Why, why am I taking a two-week vacation as school is starting and we are truly in our busiest time of the year?

Ah, because, I love a resident. I literally have one more thing to cross off my work to-do list and in a couple of hours will have most of my personal stuff done as well. Yeah!

Tomorrow morning we are off to NYC to visit Eleanor and Molly for a couple of days and then we are going to spend nearly two weeks in Eastern and Central Europe drinking espresso and eating lots of pastry. We’ll do other things as well but you know, I haven’t eaten lunch yet and espresso and pastry sounds about as good as it gets.

And now, the dilemma. I can’t decide which books to take. Look at the stack above and a quote below. Any comments? Make ’em quick as we leave in the morning.

All tourists cherish an illusion, of which no amount of experience can ever completely cure them; they imagine that they will find time, in the course of their travels, to do a lot of reading. They see themselves, at the end of a day’s sightseeing or motoring, or while they are sitting on the train, studiously turning over the pages of all the vast and serious works which, at ordinary seasons, they never find time to read…
-Aldous Huxley, ‘Books for the journey’ (1925)

birthday present
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

With birthday money from mom and dad burning a hole in my pocket, I bought this bookshelf from pottery barn kids that I have had my eye on for awhile. There is nothing wrong obviously with how cute this set-up is but the fact that we.do.not.have.children. But, when we do, they will have books. Lots of them. So, thanks Mom & Dad!

I have scored big this summer at yard sales – you can’t really tell, but there are about forty of those little golden books on the bottom shelf, all acquired at about ten cents a piece.