Unintended Consequences

That's the thing - they're unintended. This is the story of two decisions, which both had unintended consequences, and which led - one to the other.

William IV was the 3rd son of King George III, and no one ever expected him to be king. But between one thing and another, king he became, when he was 69, and he reigned for 7 years. His biggest historical claim is probably that he managed to stay alive until his niece, Victoria, reached the age of 18, and so could become queen without her mother being queen's regent. Queen Victoria did pretty well for the Monarchy.

Money seems not to have been William's friend. In face, when Parliament - faced with the prospect of no heir to the throne, offered to pay off all of William's debts if he would leave his mistress of 20 years (and their 10 children) to marry

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Happy Chinese New Year

Owen, being 11 and male, is not a fan of Valentine's Day. He hung in there with the family on Sunday morning while small surprises were given and received, but the big love-fest just isn't his bag. This year, however, Valentines Day is also Chinese New Year, and since Owen loves all things Chinese, he spear-headed a trip to London's Chinatown. It was a huge party! The dragons were dancing, the drums were drumming, and the crowds were out en mass. We ate incredible dim sum at a restaurant Owen found on-line, and awful desert from a Chinese bakery (I hate sweet red bean paste.) We exploded Chinese snap-n-pops in the rain that night with thousands of other wet people, all of us dodging umbrellas and prowling souvenir shops. It was loud and crazy, and Chinatown rocked. As did Owen.

Like Mother Like Daughter

On our last day in Paris we decided to wander. Our wandering led us to a little restaurant in Montmarte with wonderful onion soup, and a window looking out across the street at a huge seconds shop called Sympa. We watched women digging through giant piles of clothing on tables as we ate our soup and roast chicken, and when a truck pulled up to drop off more boxes of clothes, Ella and I decided to cut to the chase. We spent an hour or so digging and comparing, and by the time we left Ella had scored pants, skirts, sweaters... she got a new wardrobe for €28. I think she has the Brenna Bargain Gene.Hey - it's cheaper than the Paris Designer Gene!

  

We Love Paris in the Winter

We visited the Palace of Versailles while we were in Paris this past week. There's no doubt that the hall of mirrors is magnificent, and Marie Antoinette's estate is beautiful, but the real action was outside the palace. Sure, in the spring the grounds would be stunning -- immaculate gardens with flowers in bloom, fountains flowing and and statues not covered in tarps. But then, we wouldn't have been able to do this. The real action at Versailles was outside on the icy slope.

  

Language Barrier

We are truly awful at a few things.  Two things we both really suck at are directions, and foreign languages. But we try. On both counts. We march out of our flat every morning after pouring over paper maps and Google maps. We write down names of streets and plot each turn. Lately we take a picture of our computer screen with the Google map up - cause Bob's BRILLIANT!! We still get lost constantly.

Linguistically we give it our all, but we're

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