Unless one of us is diagnosed with a fatal disease, or something else at that level of awfulness happens in the next two months…
Rupert and I are moving to Britain.
Yes, that Britain. The UK. Ye olde England.
Less than two weeks ago, Rupert’s employer (a big, eeeevil corporation) offered him a position at their UK location for a 3-year stint. He wants it. I said okay. We’re gonna do it.
I know! Of all places for a person with an entire blog category called “Britain Surrenders” to go. Surrender they will…TO ME.
Of course I have qualms, such as the fact that I won’t be able to take my guns and will be in a socialist country that has Shari’a courts. But we cannot say no to this opportunity because we’re going to be able to travel Europe for the next three years pretty much at our whim, and we really want to do that. As you may know, I’m kind of obsessed with history; I minored in WWII history in college (the first time around) and have since become well-versed in ancient Roman history, and my god! The things I’ll be able to see!
When you can only visit the ancient sites while on a crazy 2-week vacation, that’s great and all, but living there, only hours away from Paris and Amsterdam and Rome? Knock me down and call me Betty, it is like a dream come true.
We’ll probably be living in the southern part of England, which means Normandy Beach will be a short ferry ride away. The monument in Germany with my grandfather’s name on it (he was shot down on a bombing mission in August 1944) will be only hours away. I can go see it, finally, with a simple weekend jaunt. We’ll be able to take a long weekend to go back to Rome to finish seeing all the things we missed when we were there last winter.
Hadrian’s wall? Day trip. The Maginot Line bunkers? Day trip. Dozens of WWII and ancient sites? Day trips! I could go on and on but you get the point. I’M TOTALLY STOKED.
And of course I will blog it all. Rachl Lukis storms the EU! Imagine the possibilities.
I really don’t even know what else to say; I’m pretty much freaked out about the whole thing, it came up so fast and I’ve been too busy with school to really absorb it all. Rupert says there’s only about a 1% chance it won’t happen, yet I still am trying not to get my hopes up. I will be crushed if we don’t get to do this.
I’ll have to change my education plans and will probably go right into a master’s program over there, possibly in something like international politics. Why not? Maybe I could get a job with the State Department and become an actual serious person.
And the dogs, oh the dogs. If I take them, they have to be quarantined for 6 months, and we’ll be traveling so much…I just don’t know. I love Maggie but I might have to find her a new home where she’d be happier than being cooped up in a flat where the sun never shines. Sunny is another story. Sunny is my precious. I have loved her since she was 8 weeks old and she only has a few years left. But she gets car sick and has never been in a crate in her life, how will she handle the flight over there in the cargo bay and then living in quarantine for months? Oh my god. I do not even want to talk about it.
Rupert’s company wants him over there by the end of January so the push is on. You can see now why I’ve been so distracted for the last week or so; it was all I could do to stay focused on the election and chemistry and work. And this explains all the Wild Turkey, too.
Told you there was no baby. Oh, but yep, Rupert and I will be getting married. We were gonna do it next year anyway, but in order for me to go as his dependent (and thus be able to work and earn money there), we have to be married first, which is just fine with us. Living in sin is fun and all, but when you know you have the right person, well what can I say. Right is right.
So, well, there you have it. Lucas in the UK. Sorry for leaving you just as your new socialist overlord takes over, but it’ll be kinda neat to be over there in Britain and the EU, giving you first-hand accounts of what your future looks like.
Bollocks! You’ll have to purchase some barbed wire to coat your flat and keep out the crazies! Cheerio!
*blank stare*
*chin on floor*
Cannot function. Cannot comprehend.
Wow! What an amazing opportunity.. Good luck. And it’s probably a good thing for you Obama was elected, as the rest of the world will not hate us quite so much now.
I still think it’s babies. But now babies with bad teeth.
Congrats, Rachel! You sound way beyond excited! And that certainly is the opportunity of a lifetime. I don’t know how we will survive without dog pics, though.
P.S. My money’s on you over the socialist wimpy Brits.
That is so awesome! It sounds great. And congrats on the marriage! I can’t wait to read your posts from across the pond.
Congratulations! And welcome to the UK!
The sheer wealth of history and culture on your doorstep can be pretty overwhelming, but it’s great exploring everything from the Roman Empire through the Norman Conquest, Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the World War battlefields….I could go on forever.
Forget Hadrian’s Wall being a daytrip from southern England though – that’s a hell of a drive!
WOW.
Sounds great.
Congratulations to Rupert.
Can’t wait for the blogging from the UK.
Wow. Of all the things I thought you would say that was not one of them. That sounds like such an amazing opportunity though; I’m jealous at you being able to travel through Europe. Congratulations on the impending marriage as well. That’s very exciting!
Can’t wait for all the amazing pictures you’re going to take!!
Congratulations on your opportunity and all that comes with it.
Congratulations! All the best in joy for you both, Rachel. Since Margaret Thatcher left the title of “Iron Lady” open, they’ve needed a good, non-wobbler over in the Olde Countrie. You’re just the woman to smoosh those Squishy Marshmallows. And I hope you find a good person locally to care for teh doggehs.
SWEET! Oldest son just moved there. To south central UK as well. With an EVIL megacorp. In the arms industry no less! His main bitch: TAXES TAXES TAXES!! Like you, he’s groovin’ on the history, so it ain’t all bad. Will be glad to hook you up. For insight and awareness. And maybe a free aeroplane ride. Get used to the funny spelling. They do it to piss off the Yanks.
Cheerio!
Congrats, Rachel, on both your wedding and your (anticipated) change of address. Living over there will be an adjustment, but it won’t be too bad because you speak roughly the same language as the natives. Also, you know that at the end of three years you will be headed home. I lived in London for eight months. I wouldn’t want to live there permanently, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
Where will you be living? I know you will want to travel to the Continent, but there is a lot to do in London and in Southern England. I’m sure you will be inundated with info and suggestions and I’m happy to add to that if it would be of interest.
Congratulations!
For some reason, I have “Over There” playing in my head.
wwwwwwwwwWOWie! How exciting!
I worry about Sunny, though. At her age, the trip and new surroundings can be daunting. And, if she’s sequestered for six months without Maggie, she may get lonely and bored. You may need a whole lotta crazy shit to dress her up in and put on her head just to keep her interested.
Rachel – you might be able to take the dogs without 6 months of quarantine. We looked into this when I was facing a possible assignment there. There’s a big bureaucratic program where they can verify rabies immunity and then ship your dog (only via certain carriers on certain routes, although Dallas to London on British Air is one such route) into the UK and bypass quarantine. The details are at:
No. Decent. Beef….
sorry if I missed if you are a vegetarian or anything….
But *GREAT* BEER!!!!!
Oh, and I’d offer to take one of your dogs in, but we’re in Colorado, and I have one dog that turns into Cujo when she is around any other dogs – cept the puppy we have now…
Blessings and God Speed!
rory
Completely blindsided here. (Or should I say gobsmacked?)
Best wishes to you and Rupert.
Can’t wait for the blogging from England.
Pwease pwease pwease take me with you. That is awesome news for you guys. Congrats!
At first I thought, “No! Don’t leave us!” But then I remember that they do, in fact, have internet on the other side of the Atlantic.
I’m happy for you! Jealous, too, but mostly happy for you :)
isitaboutmycube beat me to it, but YES! I know people who’ve taken dogs to the World’s Champion Sheepdog Trial — it can be done! (It is a PITA — you have to time everything just so and have all the paperwork down to the last jot and tittle, but YOU CAN’T GO WITHOUT SUNNY!)
HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS! I hardly know where to start.
Okay, first things first: Congrats on the nuptials. I LOVE that word. It seems like it should be so filthy but it’s so proper.
Secondly, sorry to hear that you may have to split the dog-namic duo. I just lost a pet and you having to split them up really struck me as a close second in importance to the upcoming nuptials. (giggle…’nuptials.’ works every time)
Third…Holy fracking freakout, Lukis in Englund? Huh-whutt theee fuck are those poor bastards going to do with you? I fear that you may accelerate the downfall of the Empire. No wait, I don’t fear it, I welcome the thought. Please tell me you are going to blog your ass off while over there. Please? I will but sad bee dog stuff, tell you that you are awesome three times per day and make sacrifices of pork to whatever canine deity is required to keep you writing, and hopefully about how flip-tastically socially retarded Europe is.
If there are any concerns about hosting a blog from a foreign country…please feel free to contact me. I’m currently hosting for a couple people in China and would bend over back-side-updownwards to keep your blogging.
Congrats on all of it and wow. Just…wow.
Awesome opportunity. We did something similar not too long ago – moved from DFW to D.C. (and then back) for 1-1/2 yrs. It was fun to be able to hop on the Metro and go see all of the monuments. You will have a great time.
I’m w/ Casto. I don’t know what to say. Congrats of course. On both the marriage and the move. Texas will be less of a place w/o you. Hopefully you’ll be coming back and not become a socialist sissy expecting us to foot the bill for you bad teeth.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
Update Amazon wishlist,
starting nowat you earliest pleasure ;)!I envy you. You’ll have the time of your life. Remember,if any Brit asks you who you voted for….tell them you wanted to vote for Obama but you didn’t because he was black. Then tell them if they don’t like it they can sue you in Shari’a court. I’ll bet you’ll be making friends like crazy over there.
I am so excited that you’re coming over here! Where are you, London? (that’s a ‘southern part of england’, but I’m sure if you were moving to London you just would have said so, so…)
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this place. I suspect you are going to very much not like parts of it. I really hope you can find some things to love.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Aren’t you afraid the world will go to fuck and you won’t be able to get back?
Also, bring toothpaste…I heard they don’t have it over there.
Rachel–
YOU don’t have to leave! All the fine young leftists (and the old fart ones, too, like Bernadette Dorn and Bill Ayers) KNOW you don’t live in their America! YOU LIVE IN TEXAS! Foreign land of the W bird!
So, relish the fact that our great president will be coming back to live at his ranch. If Texas is ever attacked by Jihadists, you have the premiere leader there, ready to take charge!
Oh, and Homofornia is now California, again! We’ve ended gay marriage and the open door to allowing polygyny, polyamory and polyandry. After all, if it really WAS about equality, the California Supreme Court should have made ALL those forms of marriage legal. So, we took it on ourselves to fix the legal flat tires that the Cal. Supreme Court created. Heterosexual marriage and the nuclear family are back in the driver’s seat. It was time.
Holy crap that is freaking incredible! Congrats! On everything! Oh my holy hell I’m SO jealous… the traveling, the history! I seriously cannot wait to hear all about it.
Rachel, you may be able to get around the quarantine requirement. See on the new “PETS” program that lets you avoid quarantine — they extended it to the US a few years ago.
Which would be great for Sunny especially if you can avoid it: I have a couple of friends who moved to the UK with their two cats just before the quarantine requirement was lifted. One of the animals apparently gained a lot of weight in quarantine; I haven’t seen that cat since they left but I’m told he’s impressively fat now.
WOW – have a great time! Congrats on the wedding!
Shit, didn’t see itsaboutmycube’s post. Sorry for the redundancy.
CONGRATS in advance. Rupert is a lucky SOB.
Hey, I can’t believe my daughter beat me to commenting! Congratulations on both the upcoming marriage and the fabulous opportunity to explore Europe! I spent six weeks there on business when the commenting daughter was 2 years old and I’ve never forgotten it. You can do sooooo much more when you’re not constricted to a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to read all about it.
Wow, Congratulations, and thanks for shining a little bright light on this post-election day!
Can we learn Rupert’s real first name now?
Congratulations Rachel!! I can’t wait for the future blog posts.
OK, I’m relenting. Congratualations on the marriage AND the move to the land of Shari’a and bad food (after all, there are those who believe that France and Italy were created to counter the bad food in England!).
Get your fill of Eurinal, I mean Europe, and hurry back stateside, where we will be plotting counterrevolution. And, remember, WE are the ones with all the guns and ammo!
Congratulations and all, but it won’t feel the same without you on this side of the pond.
I see that some people beat me to the punch on the quarantine avoidance. I had to quarantine one of my dogs for 6 months and I’m sure which one of us it was harder on. Okay, mostly him, but I hated it. Besides, you’ll need Sunny since you can’t take your guns.
The time zone difference will make comment conversations a bit tougher, but I’m sure that we’ll manage.
Congratulations again on the opportunity, but most of all on your upcoming nuptials. Being with the right person makes all the difference in the world.
One down side to the move: this move is going to make that relationship thingy with Megyn Kelly much more difficult.
Wow – congratulations! Such exciting things are ahead for you guys. I wondered if there was marriage in the books based on your previous entry. Congratulations, and best of luck to you both. I look forward to living vicariously through you as you explore more of Europe. It’s a marvelous place, and I’m supremely jealous of all the adventures you’ll have!
First the election and now this! Rachel getting married and moving to England! What the hell?
I’m incredibly excited and happy for you!
What a great time in your life to explore Europe.
Rachel, my mom and dad had to take my 18 year old cat when I moved to Hawaii. She was too old for the travel etc. My Mom and Dad had such joy having her and they really loved and spoiled her a lot. She died there in my Mom’s arms and was well loved.
Life throws curves and you must do your best and that isn’t always perfect.
You know what happens when you read certain bloggers everyday? You get kind of choked up when you hear they are experiencing two life changing events. Fascinating.
I am gobsmacked! HEH.
Soon the world will be reading the tales of Rachl Lukis, international woman of mystery.
Best wishes to you both.
Wow. Just wow…
All this left-field news in two days…pardon the pun :-)
Big congratulations on the upcoming nuptials…*giggle, snort*
Be sure to get down to see Heidelberg, Germany; my wife and I were stationed there back in the early 90’s, and it’s one of the few places outside the states that I would consider living long-term.
I REALLY look forward to hearing about how you write about the EU libtards. Go get ’em, Wachel! We’ll hold down the fort over here for you.
Better not wear your helmet in public over there — wouldn’t want to be recognized!
I’ll be in my bunk.
Ha! Exactly what I thought too!
Congratulations doesn’t seem like a big enough word for this event. And I love the “oh btw, we’re getting married” buried in there at the end. This is totally awesome, and I’m totally jealous.
Congrats! England needs all the help it can get, even if it’s just on loan.
Check out Old Sarum Hill Fort outside Salisbury while you’re there, then slide into town and see Salisbury Cathedral. Very very awsome. Imagine trying to build that thing today.
HOLY. SHIT.
Congrats!!
*blink, blink*
Why you leavin’ me????
This was totally unexpected, and I was dutifully checking in by phone several times today to learn the big news!
First, you’re getting married! WOW – that’s so fun and fantastic!
Second, you’re moving overseas. Texas feels LESS SAFE already. :)
As you may remember, we spent two weeks in Scotland last September, and I STILL miss it like the dickens. Homesick for Scotland. And now you’ll be able to spend long weekends there. I. AM. SO. JEALOUS. In a good way.
What a thrill, Rachel. I couldn’t be happier for you, and you’ve made a melancholy day exciting with your news.
Remind our cousins the Brits what a backbone looks like – they need the inspiration. :)
And my next adventure to Scotland will definitely include a side trip to see you. Although why I think that’s more likely than me seeing you when you live 5 hours away in Dallas is beyond me, but it’s a helluva lot of fun to say. :D
Please take Sunny – the paperwork will be worth it. She’s too lazy to care about being cooped up in a flat, and you can always hire a dog sitter for when you travel. They are professionals over there.
Just WOW.
Best wishes on your upcoming nuptials and the best of luck to you. Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Hate to contradict RW Donn, but don’t listen to people who tell you the food is bad in England. The trick is to (mostly) avoid English food. Fish and chips are great and so is the roast beef if you are in the right place. Indian and Pakistani food is incredible, there are a lot of pubs now that serve really good Thai food, there are all kinds of good Italian and Greek and Japanese places. You won’t starve.
On the flip side, don’t eat Chinese unless you are in London’s Chinatown and you go to one of the places that either serves dim sum or has dead animals hanging up in the window. A chicken sandwich over there is cold cut up chicken on buttered bread. Scottish food is to be avoided at all costs. Bangers and mash is sausage gone horribly, horribly wrong (just go to Germany). And the worst thing: If there is a decent hamburger joint in England, I have never found it. You can get good steak, but you will probably have to go to an Argentinian place to get it.
Oh, and one last thing. When you are drunk, don’t go to a kebab shop and get the lamb. Just don’t do it.
Rachel, welcome in advance to England.
Please believe that, just as the New York Times is not representative of all Americans, so the BBC is not representative of all Brits. In other words, you’re going to find plenty of good folk here.
The other good thing is that, by May 2010, we will have a general election, so you should be able to see, first hand, the socialists getting kicked out of power. Which I guess you might enjoy …
Holey Flying Monkeys that are flying and holey. You said it would make us laugh. The ROFLMAO laugh. I just got done trying to catch flies in my open gob. I am excited for you and strangely worried for the UK! It will be a whole new experience reading the rants from your first hand perspective.
First weasel and now you. I’m jealous about the visiting history stuff, I’ll try not to let it show.
Also congrats on the pending nups. Bigger congrats on living in sin this long. And remember, drive on the left.
Congradulations on the marriage bit, a “be good, and if you can’t be good, be safe’ on the move to Brittain, and about the whole ‘day trip to some of the coolest tourist spots in the EU’, envyenvyenvyenvyenvy.
Btw, if you ever get a hankering for Tex-Mex, I suggest the Texas Embassy, within a stone’s throw of Trafalagar Square (If I’m remembering that right). It’s no Taco-Bell, but at least the serve margaritas.
Getting married and leaving the country. Some people will do anything to get out of a chemistry test. Beats the hell out of “the dog ate my homework”.
WOW! Just wow!
Congratulations on the upcoming marriage.
I can’t take in a dog, but I would be an excellent caretaker of firearms while you are there.
Rachel in the UK. They won’t know what hit them.
By the way, the range invitation continues to be an open one and will be when you get back.
Please make sure you post your wedding plans and stuff here for all of us to enjoy from afar. Yes, we are that happy for you.
You know what would be fun? An online wedding shower. With chat, and adult beverages, photos, and an online wish list that we can all chip in on during the shower. :) I’m sure it can be done.
Someone with a blog will have to host it. Rachel won’t because she would never in a million years participate in a free-for-all for gifts for herself. But it would be fun!
Rachel isn’t going to Britainistan for the heck of it. It’s job-related. However, I am waiting for a mass emigration of conservatives after what just happened. America is not a viable entity anymore.
First the election. Now this news. Blimey bloody hell!!
(Congratulations on the wedding)
Heh, at least you won’t have to shave for three years. Always have to look on the bright side!
But… what’s wrong with that?
Anyway, since I was never likely to meet her in person, I guess it doesn’t make that much difference to me whether Wachel is on this side of the Pond or not.
Don’t listen to Snowdog; Scottish food is the BEST in Britain!
Rachel,
The guy who used to read you from Kuwait and is now back in USA. I did UK from 96 to 01.
Do NOT under any circumstances put sunny in quarantine in UK. it is a hellhole. You wouldn’t believe it. i’m shocked the dogs even survive it.
What you CAN do, though it is complex is get Sunny rabied and chipped and documented ASAP, have her live with someone in USA from that date for 6 months and then she gets RE-medicined and documented etc. and she can come to you in UK. effectively she serves her quarantine time in USA. Having said that it is a nightmare of paperwork especially the last 3 days getting it all done and her on the plane.
my wife and i do springer rescue. we once came across a post on rescue site from an english woman in florida who the INS had screwed over and she needed to get out of USA immediately. she wouldn’t put her beloved english cocker through quarantine and was literally close to putting her down. we said waht the hell. called her, she brought the dog up to savannah and left an hour later. she was ours for 6 months until we got Denny back to her in York UK. i might still have copies of old documents. You will need a very responsible person on this side to pull it off and a good vet that preferably knows how this works, but it can be done.
if you want to talk just use the email and i’d be happy to help in any way I can. unfortunately in a rental with a 1 small dog limit so I can’t help personally
Don’t drink the water. People have been peein’ in that water for centuries.
WayneB – I like the whole buttering the bread for sandwiches, but when you are used to a deliciously fried chicken breast with waffle fries, minced up cold chicken is a big step down.
Jock – I spent some time in Scotland (Aberdeen – I’m oilfield trash) when I lived in London. The people were great, the pubs are fantastic, the land is beautiful, the young girls are delightfully underdressed. But the BEST food in Britian? No. See ‘Haggis’ as Exhibit A.
Wayne B: Took the words right out of my mouth. I had that sandwich in my school lunch all the time!
Congratulations, Rachel! As a fellow history geek – I am jealous.
oooooh Rachel! As much as I adore my country (even now!) I have such a travel bug. I’ve been all over Asia but never to Great Britain or Europe and I would love to go! I know you’ll have a wonderful time and I giggle at the thought of them submitting to you. They’re in for a treat! Good luck to you!
So no robot hands, then. Sigh.
Enjoy the opportunity. Especially since you aren’t going over there permanently.
I won’t tell you where to go, or what to visit. But whatever you visit, visit the HELL out of it.
Congrats on the fantastic opportunity and the pending nuptials…
I too would love to offer my abode to Maggie and Sunny, but I am afraid that one of them may eat my asshole cats.
Be sure to visit the old Republic of Texas embassy in London.
Congrats
Good lord, can this week get any fucking worse? First we gain a Marxist President, then we lose one of the only people in America who can help shield us from his stupidity.
I was headed your way in about 4 weeks and was going to take you and Rupert out for a good drunking.
Damn.
This is kinda like when Lee from Right- Thinking ( and Moorewatch where Rachel, Lee, Jimk and I all used to write) left. He moved to China, got some guest writers for his site AND IT SUCKED ASS FOM THAT DAY ON>
Rachel, no guest bloggers, please!
Congratulations all around.
While in England find a Nando’s. Best chicken ever and it is actually hot and cheap. Wonderful.
Be careful of the Guiness though. I was there for three weeks and gained 10 pounds. They actually classify Guiness as food…not drink.
WOW.
I’ll say this: Britain just got a hell of a lot less surrender-y.
Warning! Spoiler! Warning!
Bad.
Congrats!
Take the opportunity.
Give the dogs back to your parents.
I’ve done that with my brother. It hurts a lot less than any other choice.
Promise that any time someone asks you about life in America, you’ll mention how much you miss your guns, and let us know how they react. You can have a whole blog category on it!
Hey Rachel, do you still have that picture I sent you of what your grandfathers bomber looked like? Think I sent it a few years ago…
And as long as you are going over there, we expect to see some good pictures!
I’m just saying that about the pics because I am a bit of a WWII historian. I’m full of knowledge..My wife tells me I am full of it almost every day. I think she means the history part.
Hey, now Rachel and Rupert can go pub crawling!
OH, RACHEL!!!!!!!!! Happy-happy-joy-joy for you!!!! A wonderful opportunity AND the rightness of Rachel & Rupert made official. [happy sigh]
(And yes, I am fully aware that I am a gushing ninny, and I completely embrace it.)
OMG. I’m so excited for you Rachel!
I can’t wait to read about your travels, see the photos.
Getting married. Wow. That brought me to tears.
Please stay the good hearted Texas gal that you are, don’t go all European on us (and start talking like Madonna), okay?
God speed and God bless.
I think that you underestimate our lovely blogmistress’ desire for shiny things. You know, like guns and shell casings.
Congratulations, best wishes and soccer hooliganism forever. Watch out for the Glascow kiss.
Congratulations on both counts.
WOW!
Good news indeed, I’m jealous, even as Britain falls into disarray, I would love to move there for the sheer HISTORY of the place! *sigh*
..So…whens the big goodbye blog get together? I wanna get smashed with THE RACHL LUKIS before she storms Europe’s shores!
Congratulations indeed Rachel.
I lived in the U.K. for a few years in the early 80’s while working for an evil branch of the U.S. Government.
Needless to say I survived and I was better for the experience.
You should look up Theo Spark while you’re there. His blog “Last of the Few” is highly entertaining in a Hogardian sort of way.
As much as I envy you this adventure, Rachl Lukis, if you take Sunny you will have to slim her down or
I shit you not.
Whut Redhead said. Oooh, Scotland! You’ll love that place. I’m not into salmon but MA said it’s the best she ever had in her life.
Congratulations! On everything.
Wait ’til the Brits get a load of Sunny.
So happy that you’re “making honest people” of each other. Marriage is a good deal. I worry about you and Britain though. Sure you don’t want to move to Boston for 6 months, just so you can adjust gradually? I mean, you’re in TEXAS!
Congratulations!!!! On all accounts!
Marriage is good. Tell Mr. Lucas I said congrats. :)
I’m floored, Lucas invasion into EU? And getting married on top of it?
Congrats!
Please Please PLEASE PLEASE Continue to blog about what you find while there it is going to be comical and educating at the same time!
Congratulations Rachel!
There’s just one problem. I just went to tacobell.com, and it looks like the don’t have any Taco Bells in the UK. I hope I’m wrong.
I think we should start the “Rachl Lukis British Bail Fund” right away… you’ll be arrested in 6 months, tops, probably for having the temerity to shove some hooligan who gets in your face to threaten you.
But seriously, congratulations on the wedding! We’re all invited, right? ;-)
Rupert and I are moving to Britain.
Gasp.
Congratulations Rachel!!!!
But, I swear to 0bama, if you get all intellectualized and go squishy, I’ll hunt you down…and cry.
Congrats on going underground in the UK for us.
Even more congrats on making Rupert an honest man.
If i didn’t already have two kids and a dog, I’d offer to take on one of the beasts.
MARRIED! I KNEW IT! That’s so exciting!!! Most awesome!!!! You will have the time of your life and I’m so jealous that you’ll get to do all that traveling and exploring. And hey, you’ll get to experience that free health care firsthand and can tell us all what it’s really like! Hopefully you won’t get sick, or actually need some doctorin’ or anything.
Rachel’s getting maaaarrrieeed, Rachel’s getting maaaarrrieeed!
Congratulations – keep in touch! :)
Yay! Congrats!!
Kick butt and rip out the noodle that the Britons have been using for a spine and whip ’em with it.
Rachl Lukis storms the EU?
He only won last night and already the brain rot has set in.
Congratulations
When you’re toddling around Europe, please don’t forget to find Bono, George Clooney, Brangelina, Madonna and that fucker from Coldplay and tell them all to SUCK IT!
Congratulations!
Don’t, under any circumstances, start watching EastEnders!! That show is like crack!
Congratulations! I am so excited for you and the soon-to-be Mr. Lucas. :) And moving to England…all those historical sites…I’m so jealous I can’t even stand it.
“Hadrian’s wall? Day trip.”
You cannot know the depths of jealousy churning in my heart right now…
…could you take us with you….pleeeeeease????
Like everyone else, I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m jealous…but I’m happy for you! And Rupert too!
Oh well. So much for whisking you away from Wupert.
But, congrats to you, and that lucky turd.
Damn…. I wanted you to get hitched, But leave the damn country??!?!?!
Holy Hell.
Good luck kid! :D
Hey Rachel stay pissed. Wait, pissed means something entirely different over there doesn’t it?
Take long underwear. And Hats and scarfs. Northern Europe has a different idea of what the function of heat is. For example, my experience of Holland is that they think heat is used to keep the temp in your house warm enough so that the water in a glass on the table does not freeze. I’m serious. Everything is so heavily taxed that it is too expensive to heat your home to American standards. They set their thermostats at about 50 degrees F from what I could tell.
I spent a winter in London and learned that their windows are not double-paned or weather stripped. Cold air leaks in all around. Nothing is insulated.
We lived in a flat that had coin meters for heat and electricity. The landlord used to come in and empty the heat coin bin and laugh and mutter about Americans and how we are such babies about the cold. And I had spent the previous ten years in the mountains of upstate New York, where we know from cold.
Congratulations to you and Rupert both, here’s to many more years of Texas-style sanity spread wherever life takes y’all.
As to Britain, well, I can’t say I envy you because I love it too much on this side of the pond, but I’m happy if you’re happy. And I can certainly understand the desire to see the history firsthand: that I can envy easily.
To confirm what Bad Penny said, it is usually the foremost complaint of Finns who visit the Great Britain, that it’s so friggin’ cold there.
We should make up an English-to-English disctionary for our hostess. I’ll continue…
1. When someone asks you for a rubber they want to erase a pencil mark.
2. When someone asks if they can knock you up in the morning they want to give you a wake up call.
Holy cats! Gobsmocked is right.
Goin’ to the cha-pel and we’re _|_ gonnna get marreeaadd… That’s so cool.
New Job for the Rupert and new perspective for the best blogger in Murika, I mean the World.
Any idea what Wild Turkey costs there? You don’t wanna know. Start to like Scotch.
My Grandfather also didn’t make it through WWII. Captured in the Battle of the Bulge (106th Div) and died from concussion in an Allied bombing raid on a rail yard.
Sincere congratulations. Add a trip to Stonehenge, a picnic at and a pint at any pub in Whitchurch, where still lives. He’s a stiff-necked prig, but the villagers definitely are not, and the place is just lovely!
Dayum, girl!
So we all get to be bridesmaids and groomsmen?
Speaking of English beers, you absolutely positively must try Old Peculiar, which I last quaffed in 1999. You’ll want to have its children.
how has no one made a joke yet?
What an adventure!
Remember, in the English periodic table, the noble gases are on the left-hand side, and the alkali metals are on the right. Be careful not to switch the two when when filling fluorescent light tubes, building lasers, and other day-to-day tasks.
(Oops, fixed now)
Call the local Rottie rescue group, they will help find Sunny a new loving home. It is terribly hard to do but thirty years ago we had give away our dog when we moved to Australia for five years. Our 6 yr old mixed breed dog was taken in by a foster family for adoption and they kept him. We got a few followup letters from them. I still tear up when I see his pictures, but he lived out his life happily. I know this because we “paid it forward” by adopting a 9 yr old rescue Springer in 2000 and he was one of the best dogs we ever had and was so happy/grateful to be with us.
BTW- if you can get around the quarantine American Airlines is the best for animal transportation, they get it. Make sure it is a non-stop flight and Sunny should be fine.
We flew our current Springer and two cats from CA to Florida in ’06 and back this April without any problems what so ever. The critters fared just fine, they hunkered down, animals are stoic, the dog peed like a race horse as soon as we let him out of his crate and then was his usual happy self.
Don’t believe the old saw about English food, we’ve lived in the UK several time over the years, you’ll find plenty of tasty fare.
This is sooo exciting!!!
And you must try sticky toffee pudding. Seems like there are a million different recipes for it, so no two are quite the same. I’m salivating just thinking about it.
Congratulations!!! A great job opportunity and getting married to our glorious leader all in one, Rupert you are one lucky man.
Holy screamin’ eagle shit woman!! Are you serious? I mean, congratulations and all, but I’m stunned! I do expect some crazy good blog postings, but, but, but – YOU – in BRITAIN???
Wow.
So, I was half right in my guess – about the marriage part anyway.
Ha! I got you beat. I’m moving to a little farmhouse on the English Channel in…ohhhh…three weeks, if my visa comes through on time.
I’ve been threatening to move to another country if Obama won for months, because both those things were in the cards all along.
Sadly, moving to an even MORE socialist country isn’t a very clever gesture.
“An online wedding shower.”
I love that! :)
Are you going to have a pretty, made up wedding. Or just a go down to the court house shin dig?
I better get my act together and send you that little thing I’ve been meaning to send for about a month now. *grin* I don’t want to have to ship over seas!
Well, at least the Euroweenies will like you and other Americans now because, well… HopeChange. We’re fixin’ to become as irrelevant as Europe in just a few short months anyway. Might as well get a preview of what’s in store for the Former USA.
Congratulations and good luck.
p.s.: Don’t mention your last name in the UK, they’ll blame you because their cars won’t start in the rain. (Sorry… British sports car humor… never mind.)
While sentries sleep, Rachel plots getaway.
— Almost everybody. Except, mockmook, probability is zilch our [heh. note possessive] Rachel goes all intellectualized and … squishy.
Now, cos, how the hell come Rachel, parting kimono to reveal minor in military history, didn’t marry ME? (‘cept, shit, I was already took way backalong when it was wittle-bitty Wachel.) No wonder she’s bad-ass. I mean that in a good way.
DO IT! Marry and be merry! Big hurdle in marriage is learning to simply put up with each other. Mark my words. Once across, rest is fucking-easy. (Both fucking, and easy.) Speaking of which, you’ll have to learn new words you can’t use on television.
I’m 2-4 as a deflowered political contributor supporting candidates against Democrat’s [typical – ed] dirty politics. I tried to help Sarah and Bill Russel, too. Maybe I didn’t give enough money.
In hindsight, we would have never seen a President McCain. Nor, methinks, will we ever see a President Fred Thompson (drool-inducing vision of First Lady Jeri notwithstanding.) Both men are far too honorable to conduct a successful campaign in today’s poisonous atmosphere. It’s worse than the freaking 1790’s when there weren’t political parties yet and everything was personal. So we’re stuck with shit.
Skool change major to International Relations. Does that mean a possibility of a future President Rachel?
Courage, men of England. She is coming to roil the Waters.
Congratulations to you both! I hope that your front-line reports from the Sceptr’d Isle are happier than they are sad, in terms of how far they have fallen.
But hey, enough of my droopiness. Way to go, you two crazy kids! Fingers are crossed here that you get the call, and that you write it all down.
Hot diggity damn!!! That is great for you both and there just might be hope for the EU yet.
Please do keep blogging, your rants with brit’ cusses should be priceless (hell, the ones in Texas yankee rock, so why shouldn’t the ones with a Monty Python touch to them).
I’ve got a home for a couple southern bitchs. There is room for Maggie to run and a reinforced love-seat for her royal Ridgeback hippo-ness, complete with Mexican blankets and a Jack Russell ready and willing to give her humpin’-love.
Congratulations on all counts to you and Rupert (NHRN).
This cracked me up. And so did this by dogette:
I very diffidently say this may be a long thread.
Well, this was a bright and happy thing to read at the end of this day! Good things do happen to good people.
Just awesome. So many congratulations are in order, too. Here’s to you an Rupert!
And here’s hoping for a smooth transition… I mean for Britain…
Rachel,
I can’t add anything except, “Me Too!”
IE: Congrats to you both, and I’m really looking forward to your blog posts from Over There.
Best of luck!
1. Will you come shooting with me down here in Autism, TX …er…I mean Austin, TX before you move? Bullets on me.
2. Can I gun-sit your firearms while you’re across the pond?
Oooo. That’s heavy, Rach. Congrats on the marriage, if that’s what you want to do. Me, even for a man I’d have a hard time giving up by guns and doggies.
Congrats, congrats, congrats!!! What a dream!
The marriage, too, but I am so envious at the time that you’ll be spending in Europe, and the wonderful historical sites you’ll be able to see.
If you go to Herculaneum or Pompeii, please, please please post pictures! That’s the one (okay, two) place(s) in the world I want to see. And if you get the chance to (illegally) scuba-dive off Thera…well…jealousy is my name.
I hurt for you for Sunny – but if she were mine I wouldn’t take her. A six month quarantine is a lifetime for an animal. And Maggie, well, if I didn’t already have two dogs, a cat, and five kids I’d offer her a home in a minute.
Hadrian’s Wall…Stonehenge…
Enjoy the journey and post many pictures…
Rachel — Best wishes, and as a regular reader who’s never commented, I’ll be looking forward to your continued blogging.
Oh, and on the idea of working for State — they definitely need people like you. I had to deal with their weenies in DC while at another agency, and lived amongst their not-quite-weenies-but-still-blockheaded colleagues for most of this year while at the Embassy in Baghdad. When you’re done with the Brits, knock some sense into those foreign service types, too.
Congratulations.
You will love it!…the people smell, but the buildings are cool!
About time on the marriage thing. We was gettin concerned fer yer virtue, woman.
Have a good time gettin your furrin devil on. Nothing makes America sweeter than living among heathen for awhile.
Congratulations, and I look forward to reading your reports :)
What? I thought it was just Fwench too primitive to understand personal hygiene and deodorants and that shit.
Congratulations! On both the wedding and the chance to see all the history. :)
AWWWW!!!
Thank you all. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I consider you friends even though we’ve never met.
Don’t even know what to say.
NEVER FEAR. I will be blogging even more over there than I do here, trust me. And taking even more pictures. Won’t be able to start school until at least next August, and Rupert will be traveling a lot so I’ll have many long hours on my own with nothing to do but tell you about what I see and what I think of the place. And of course I’ll be following the U.S. news like a hawk.
And I have one more promise. If I end up not taking my dogs, they WILL be with new owners who will take lots of pictures of them with shit on their heads. I’ll extract a blood oath to this effect.
Again, thanks so much for all the congrats and well wishes. There will be much more blogging about this in the next few weeks, as I find out the date we go and all that stuff. I welcome any and all advice and tips and info from anyone from the UK or who has even visited. I’m absorbing it all like a sponge.
Oh and one more promise: I won’t get squishy or take on a fake British accent or become a fan of socialism. Please. You can take the hillbilly out of ‘Murrica but you can’t take ‘Murrica out of the hillbilly.
You’ll have a great time.
Yay!
Just read your news – how exciting! I’m so grateful you plan to keep blogging, because I’d miss it terribly if you stopped…
Please take millions of pictures of Ireland and Scotland. Post them. There is Scotch and Irish blood in me, and I have never been.
Congratulations Rachel!
I highly recommend reading Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island before you go. He is an American humorist who lived in England for twenty years. The book is filled with great helpful tidbits and I daresay you will enjoy his sarcastic wit.
Best wishes!
Well, after picking up my jaw (which has lying on the floor for the last half hour), what can I say but congrats, both on getting married and tripping off to Blightey.. Making a mad dash from the sinking ship, eh?
Poor olde England, it’s about to be invaded again and this time ‘resistance is (definitely) futile’. They won’t know what hit ’em. this is one invasion that may do them some good.
Very happy for you both..
Rachel – congratulations on everything. What an amazing opportunity!!! I hope you both enjoy the heck out of yourselves while missing most of the Obama presidency! :)
Shit. You were the only reason I didn’t threaten to move to New Zealand. Shit.
99% congrats on the move and a full-blown congrats on the impending marriage. :)
If you play your cards right, “Lucas in the UK” will be a bestselling and very funny book that will make you a fortune and then make you a second fortune when you sell the film rights.
Congrats to you both. Give the old mother country a big kick of Texas wake-up!
Once again I must come out of lurker mode to comment.
BRITAIN?! We go and fight a war to get away from them, and now you’re gonna voluntarily move over there?!
/jk
=)
Congrats, on being able to indulge your inner history buff, and on getting married. Hope you’re able to use the info provided by previous posters to keep Maggie and Sunny.
Congrats! It sounds like an opportunity of a lifetime.
Congrats! I wish I could get a deal like that! For that, I’d even consider getting married! I’d love to live in the UK…I’m a huge history buff and there’d be all sorts of things to explore.
I would offer to ‘foster’ your sweet dogs, but I don’t live in Texas anymore. *sigh*
It wouldn’t take much, yanno? A medical power of attorney…a simple contract…a good loving home for them both, not to be seperated. And they would still be here for you when ya got back home. I can’t believe there is no one in the DFW area that wouldn’t be thrilled to have them both, and take silly pictures to keep you updated.
And, YAY! Congratulations Rachel and Rupert!!
Come on DFW area!!! Step up!
“Maybe I could get a job with the State Department and become an actual serious person.”
Obama’s State Department? You’ve got the equivalent of “Rachel the Plumber” written all over the web and your forehead. Just a little input to consider.
*blink*
Well, have fun, take lots of pictures, and eat battered snack foods!
Congratulations!
My advice is look to establishing a reliable resource for an ALB (Advanced Logistical Base) and preposition sufficient supplies of Taco Bell taco shells and chili spices. I assume the heathen in the target area are capable of providing ground beef.
Oh, and when you do get to Scotland, have a haggis. Do so just to prove you aint scared of it. It’s one of those character building things.
God. They NEED you! I have a teenie weenie little art blog, with a no politics rule, cause you know artists . . . However, I have always felt free to comment on someone elses’ teenie little art blog if they were writing about politics. I usually am disagreeing with them if I’m commenting. Today I took offense at someone in merry old England when she stated that it was such a good thing that we Americans could shuck off our prejudices & vote for Obama. The inference being, of course, that all of us who didn’t vote for him just couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of that prejudice we haul around with us. So I responded. Nicely. Calmly. Even told her I hoped we could still be “friends”. Bad idea. She went ballistic & has even shut down her blog because she was so angry with me. !!!! I’m sure she’ll be back, under another name, but JEEZ!!!!! I shoulda known. Never EVER try to have a political discussion with a liberal/artist/photographer. So go. Teach. Enlighten. You are called.
Debi
Totally off topic:
Found at jimtreacher.com
Wonder how soon the Obama brown shirts will be coming for those reporters over at The Onion.
This is my attempt at trying to get over the funk of losing the race and losing our Rachel. It’s just all kind of surreal.
Hey, Rach – did I ever tell you that the grass around the Maginot Line bunker has to be burned, because apparently there are still live mines buried all around there? I found that out the hard way, when I was trampling in the grass trying to get good B-roll for a story I was doing for AFN. I was told to get the hell out of there. NOW! he he
RW Donn wrote:
“Oh, and Homofornia is now California, again! We’ve ended gay marriage and the open door to allowing polygyny, polyamory and polyandry. After all, if it really WAS about equality, the California Supreme Court should have made ALL those forms of marriage legal. So, we took it on ourselves to fix the legal flat tires that the Cal. Supreme Court created. Heterosexual marriage and the nuclear family are back in the driver’s seat. It was time.”
What an utterly stunning comment. I don’t believe I’ve seen such a spectacular blend of ignorance and offensiveness in quite some time.
Congratulations, RW Donn. You’ve managed to justify my lack of faith in humanity.
And Rachel? A sincere congratulations to you and “Rupert.” May the two of you have a long and wonderful life together.
Screw the well-wishing…. can I buy your house?
oh okay….. I do wish you guys well.
Now can I buy your house?
Marriage is a wonderful institution.
Of course they used to say that about insane asylums, too.
Ya GOTTA go up and visit Scotland. Beautiful country, great people.
If any of you play golf I could hook you up with my BIL.
Well, congratulations if that’s really what you want to do.
But I’d sooner cut off my own arm than give away my cats.
A better analogy would be “sooner have my lungs removed” since I am in fact allergic to them. I didn’t find that out until it was too late and we had already bonded.
But I guess living in England will get you used to America’s future, where guns are banned, law-abiding citizens are criminally prosecuted for defending themselves, and there’s a mosque in every neighborhood.
Europe for three years? How absolutely cool!
I’m a retired widower and I’ve been to Europe four times. I NEVER get tired of it. It’s a Disneyland for adults.
I am a life long student of WW II history. In 2003 I did a pilgrim trip to visit as many battle sites and other WW II related sites as possible. I have to say that walking on Omaha Beach early in the morning sends giant shivers and not from being cold. Do it! Go to Pont du Hoc and marvel at the bomb craters that are all still there. and…AND especially spend some time at American Cemetery. I was there on a late Sunday afternoon. There were a surprising number of people and I heard all languages…French, English and German. At sunset the American flag was lowered to the sound of taps and everyone…from every nation….immediately stopped walking and talking. They turned to the flag and stood at attention. I don’t need to tell you what that did to me…a very patriotic American. Try to be there an hour or so before sundown and wait. You won’t regret it.
A final comment. I am convinced that many if not most Europeans have not forgotten what we did in WW II. The one km victory markers from Utah Beach across France to Bastogne, Belgium are a good reminder for all.
So have a great time. You won’t even be here for his majesty’s coronation. Lucky you.
Holy shit, Rachl Lukis!
Congratulations on the impending nuptials, and the 3-year stint in Europe. Despite the crap politics, I, too, would love to live there for a short period of time, for many of the same reasons you mentioned.
Best of luck to the two of you. :-)
I am sad that you are leaving, albeit temporarily (I hope,) but I will join the others in congratulating you on both your impending marriage and the opportunities that this move presents you.
I envy the fact that you will avoid a first-hand experience of the horrors of the incoming administration.
I spent two years in Europe while I was in the Army, and I used all 60 days of my leave time traveling the continent (and even off of the continent, when I made a brief visit into Morocco, where a fucking camel slobbered on me. That bastard.) Germany is fantastic, as are England, Scotland, Austria, Italy, and just about everywhere else I traveled–from a historical point of view, at least. The countryside of France is nice; Paris and Parisians are completely assholian (although this may have been because it was evident that I was in the American military.) Regardless, the only way that I would ever return there would be for the purpose of burning it down.
A word of advice if you decide to visit any of the Scotch Whiskey distilleries: when you reach the end of the tour, where they offer you a sample of their product, it is best not to taste it and say, “Yuck!”
Some of those Scots are quite burly, and they will deposit you on your ass on the sidewalk in a hurry.
Congrats!
Just did a Justice of the Peace,we turned right around got the certificate and had my ID within…24 hours from Fort Belvoir,VA.
We pretty much had the same theory I didn’t see a point in moving all around while my husband was underwaying,and then deploying.
So what the hell lets get married.
We had the same theory as you guys did…but in order for us to get shore duty,my husband would have to stay on the dry docked ship til 2011.F**k that.
So we’ll see what the Army can give us.Hopefully they work overseas orders easier than the Navy does.We were looking at the Naval base in Italy…I was ready to piss myself at the sheer thought of being able to hop a plane and go to Germany or England.
Have fun…You’ll have a blast.Congrats again!
Absolutely fabulous!!! I lived in (West) Germany as a kid and was able to see most of western Europe. Of course, I did not appreciate it then as I do now. I am insanely jealous…yet so happy at the same time. If you get up to Scotland and need a tour guide in Edinburgh, let me know. Have family friends up there—kid you not, this guy looks like Shrek (except in a pale blue, Scottish kind of way). Congrats on the nuptials and best wishes to both of you.
Rachel in ye old England? Amazing. Sounds like a sequel to “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”.
The Brits won’t have a clue as to what hit them.
Doug Turner is right. The Normandy sites aill stay with you forever. And they haven’t forgotten–it gave me chills to see the stars and stripes flying in France. I think it is a rural/city thing kind where the sophisticated types will sneer but the hillbillies (peasants?) know the score.
And speaking of France, get yourself a fast lense for that camera of yours because they let you take pictures in the Paris museums (non-flash for the really cool impressionist stuff, total free-for-all at the Louvre).
And Ireland!
I am so trying not to be jealous. I will be living vicariously through you.
You’ll hate it there.
Good luck Rachel. Make sure you visit the Imperial War Museum and HMS Victory.
Backalong I’d used to work nextdoor to an elec. supply outfit. I wandered over to buy some stuff and was chatting w/ secretary, delightful English lady, and this very idiom came up. She had a relative who’d flown over to visit, landed @ JFK and later complained how “I had to knock up about five taxi drivers before I got a ride.” And giggled telling the story.
mongo: …And remember, drive on the left. Point. I personally know a guy owns a Brit tech outfit who’d pop over to visit onceinawhile. When he was here no one would ever ride with him. He was such a dangerous driver to begin with, no one would stay with him long enough to see which side he’d try to drive on.
Coversely, I was personally in Okinawa in the 1970’s. It had practically been a US colony for years after WWII and a full transition to Japanese civilian authority was still kind of an in-progress thing. 1945 US military was the only ones who had cars and habitually drove on the right. In Japan proper, however, they drive on the left. Or seem to. It is said the sound of a car horn translates into Japanese as “Attention! I am about to do something extraordinary!” So there were both left- and right-drive cars running around and Okinawans were sometimes unsure which side to drive on. This is, of course, a recipe for chaos. I dealt by not driving. I either walked, or rode the very efficient Japanese busses which, btw, drove on the right.
Wow… that is an opportunity not to be passed up! Congratulations to you and Rupert on all counts.
Check out the tax consequences too, before you go. I’m no expert. Sometimes folks in your situation will have to pay taxes to both countries, UK and US, and sometimes not.
Some folks I used to know, who took jobs in Saudi Arabia, were able to arrange things so that they did not pay American income taxes while they were over there.
Regarding your dogs: Won’t members of your family take them in? That’d be better than giving them away to strangers. It’s also hard to re-home senior dogs (which Sunny is).
I will add my congratulations to those of everyone else. What great news on the marriage and the moving front.
My in-laws are living in Glasgow on pretty much the same kind of work assignment as Rupert (FIL is an exec for a big engineering firm). If I am correct, the ‘Glasgow Kiss’ mentioned earlier in the post is known in ‘merca as a head butt (so maybe you should take your helmet). Everybody in Glasgow goes by a nickname rather than their real name (heh, sorta like this place).
We visited Scotland in July this past summer and loved it. Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbruh) is great, loved St. Andrews. The coolest thing though, was going to the Isle of May to see the puffins and arctic terns during their nesting season.
The next stop was Poland where we visited both Warsaw and Krakow. Warsaw has a lot of gut-wrenching WWII history. We visited the monument in the Jewish ghetto – sad and inspiring. It was difficult to explain to my son (who is eight) the decision that the Jews made to die on their feet rather than (hope) to live on their knees. The neat thing in Warsaw is that many buildings and other locations have PW symbol ( ) from WWII era – it was a graffiti used then and means “Poland Fights.”
Food in Scotland was more than passable (plenty of Italian and other ethnic type restaurants). Do try the Haggis (funny picture here we saw this in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow) at a good restaurant (it is still a C- grade even then, but it must be done).
Do it all, Rachel. Invest in a good camera, though. And, in your spare time, straighten our cousins out a little bit.
~cheers
PS – when shopping or eating or doing anything else that tempts you to start converting pounds into dollars — just don’t.
Congratulations on the marriage!
The invite’s still there if you’re ever in Manchester and you want to laugh at a bunch of socialist students and lecturers.
Hey, I’ll make you a deal – I promise not to turn up at the wedding and embarrass you if you agree to get Rupert to terminate Gordon Brown with extreme prejudice!
Ever see anyone wearing a fucking t-shirt that says “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kerry”?
A friend of mine wore one. He always called me a “five-dollar-an-hour Republican”. That was pidgeon holing me a bit, for sure, cuz, hell, when I was a paper boy THAT ammortized out to more than that. Not that I MAKE good money now, I fuckin’ EARN it. Oh, by good money, I mean, really, not good money, I make enough to… fuck it, I’ll tell ya… I am cool with it. Not much. But it does well enough in America. I guess I should be another diehard Democrat ‘cuz it just isn’t fair!
At any rate, I had had enough during one get together so I demanded, “Don’t blame you for WHAT?”
This was in 2007. Really. What the FUCK was so FUCKING BAD in 2007? This was at the guy’s house (3000 sf). He was grilling out in the backyard and enjoying BEER. Is that so fucking bad to wear a shirt like that? He started wearing the fucking shirt in 2005 for fuck’s sake.
WTF is poor in this country? And if you feel so fuckin strongly about the “poor”, go HELP THEM YOUR FUCKING SELF! I’ll do my part, you do yours. We’ll see which one can handle going where the “poor” actually LIVE.
Created crises.
Masters of propoganda. The Fifth Column marches on full of Useful Idiots. None of which could handle a fucking parade.
Wow, good luck Rachel! And congratulations (early) on marrying Rupert. I am so jealous of your move to the UK. Great history, very friendly people and you’ll be in the country with the best football (soccer) on the planet. Don’t listen to what assorted Red Devils/Gunners/Blues try and tell you, the best team in England is most certainly Liverpool FC. Reds Forever!
And if you get here and happen to wander by Plot D Row 23…well, your Grandad wasn’t the only bomber crewman who didn’t come home, and whose name is on marble or bronze in Europe.
Wow, Congratulations!!!
Well.
Multifarious congratulations and felicitations!
“Rupert”, what did you put in that Wild Turkey?
I’ll look forward to reading posts from Texas-on-Thames.
The Queen Mary 2 and QE2 have kennels on ship. They have deals for winter crossings that are an amazing deal.
Can’t believe you’re leaving us, but you’re going to love the UK, warts and all. Go to the Cabinet War Rooms, in Whitehall. They’ll give you a new appreciation for Winston Churchill and the Brits at large!
Noooooooo!! You and Rupert will starve.
Do all the dog related paperwork before you leave then the dogs can skip quarantine.
My husband’s family took their dog, Cindy. They were in the Air Force. Cindy got to fly on commercial airlines while the rest of the family flew on Air Force cargo planes. Cindy went to Japan with them too. The family got stuck on Midway Island for two weeks while Cindy got spoiled rotten at the Japanese airport animal kennel.
What a wonderful adventure, marriage and living in England.
Well, I’m done sulking about you leaving. Oh, and I finished grading those darned mid-terms that I didn’t work on last night during the election.
Where was I? Oh yeah. You’ll like some things about the UK, especially if you get to spend time in Scotland. I spent 2 weeks there some years back. We stayed in Stirling and used that as the launching point to the bigger cities. Also, the William Wallace monument is there and it’s pretty cool. Eileen Donan Castle is great, especially if you’re a fan of the Highlander movies. Really gorgeous up in the Highlands.
My only gripe is that now, with you moving, I’ll likely never get a chance to meet you in person. Of course, that chance is about zero now, so it’s not like I’ve lost that much, but still.
Good luck and congratulations again. We will stay in touch via the innertubes and such.
P.S. Good advice about warm clothing. It ain’t all that warm over there, not even in summer. I hope that you’re warm-blooded.
That’s some big news! What a big opportunity for you guys. It probably is stressful now but I’m sure it all will work out in the end.
Hey. Barack! How much is an eight ball?
Well, there’s that. Legalization would eliminate x amount of money & time and devotion (from our police forces) and don’t forget about the effect of NOT going to prison for selling pot and experiencing PRISON and being bitter about that… actuary tables can’t figure this shit out.
He needs to legalize marijuana & cocaine.
He did it! All the talk about the first. He not only inhaled, he snorted- and he did it again. First admitted cocaine user in the White House.
I watched these kids today. About how a black guy is President elect, and how THEY NOW KNOW ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Cuz a black guy became President elect.
Sad. Where in the FUCK do they live? Like THIS is the turning point? What happened to the lives lost, missed and DESTROYED from ?
Contrary to what the media and the Democrat party wants to sell you, this Country is NOT racist. Enough so that REPARATIONS could be REVERSED.
Wow! Cool! Congratulations to the both of you! Worrisome about the doggies tho. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a happy solution for all of you. Just keep us posted!
WOW! Congratulations to you and Rupert, and best wishes for your move!
I hope everything works out for you guys, and for Maggie and Sunny too.
Oh wow !! Congratu-fucking-lations girlie. Great news on both accounts. I even got goosebumps ( w(What am ? This is the internet, you may not even exist).
But really exciting.
Way to rub it in. But seriously…. (Curse you, Phil Collins) That’s fantastic. Congratulations on the big move. I’ve always been an anglophile, so I’m more than kinda jealous. Also, congratulations on the engagement. You’ve been one of my favorite bloggers since the first site and I’m really happy for you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to sorely miss your voice (in American politics) over the next three years, but good going, woman. Good going.
Much love and best wishes. I’ll totally be here to read Rachel Lucas’ invasion of the UK (and EU on weekends and vacations).
*in moderation! sweet!*
I voted today!
Neat how the Democrats extended it to Wednesday, huh?
Can you tell?
Late to the party, I guess.
way to go and congrats and all that…as I was enjoying your blog and comments today there was one thing I was wondering…i am going to plead ignorance here so don’t yell at me too loud…I’ve only ever driven thru the Republic of Texas when I drove big truck so I didn’t get to meet many people in your fine ‘merican state…does everyone there have an accent? do you ms lukis? if you do I betcha those blokes across the pond will go ape shit! you should definitely bring your stetson (or buy one), and the boots and spurs and have tons of fun with all that…
Its cold in England. The dogs will need warm out-fits. The bee and elephant costumes don’t look very warm. Great Britain has nice wool dog sweaters.
Please keep the blog going so we can see the dogs in their new sweaters.
As I understand it, Ms. Lucas does not have a Texas accent. (Personally, I think that’s just tragic, but I am a sucker for a good southern drawl.)
Congrats on the marriage & the move!!
mmmmm. . . . . .
Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. Rachel, you HAVE to post pictures of your adventures in England (also pics of your wedding?). I have to live vicariously, you know, since I can’t afford to move there myself.
But seriously, I wish you and Rupert all the best. Also the dogs… the stuff other posters have written WRT getting the dogs to England without the six-month quarantine sounds interesting. I hope you can take the puppies with you.
Best wishes and please keep blogging. Your insights and sass are great. They also seem to draw spirited commentary from like minded persons and sometimes it feels sorta lonely being on the proper side of the political fence. Empathy allows us to half ass enjoy your happiness and experience of strange new things.
Adam Smith, Winston Churchill, the Magna Carta – there are some solid intellectual roots and brethren there.
I ngre up with someone fronm E ngland. No His bitch of a mom wa.. so was hi s dad,
Anyway, they suck except for their big sidters geeting naked.
His dad trie to kick my ass afet we ha d a dispute.
I was thitreed. I won. OLr so i tink.
WOW! Congratulations, Rachel! I am just way too jealous for words.
Life , as you know, is what happens when you’re busy making other plans, and it sounds like this little jaunt into history will be great for everyone and have life-long effect.
Way to go, Rachel!
Rachel, I’m a little late to this party, but I offer my most heartfelt and sincere congratulations. I’ve been reading you since the very beginning, and it feels like a good friend just laid some very good news on me.
The first thing I thought of when you said you were moving to Great Britain was all of the military (and other) history you’ll be privy to. And not only in England, Holland, Belgium, France and Germany, but I’d love to hear your thoughts of visiting holocaust sites in Poland if you get the chance.
I hope you and Rupert have a long and wonderful life together, and this newest adventure is just an early chapter of a very long book.
Well dang.
Thank goodness for the interwebs. It reaches the UK and back just fine.
My only concern is… for the dogs. Take that advice up there about finding a different way in for Sunny, the whole quarantine thing sounds dreadful. Perhaps an exercise and vitamin routine might get her into shape for the trip?
Another upside is the Brits are farther along with their animal cruelty laws than we are, so, there’s that… gosh, I hope you’ll find a way to take Maggie too, if only because she’ll be a source of continuity for Sunny.
Congratulations! Salud! Skol! and Mazeltov! on your nuptials. You and Rupert deserve lots of happiness.
I’m very happy for you Rachl, very happy indeed.
Way to go, Rachel! Do they have Taco Bell in Britain?
From what I’ve heard the food isn’t all that great, but I’d kill to get to got to Ireland and Scotland.
I’m in Germany right now. Food’s all right, but the beer is awesome. Everyplace has its goods and bads. What an exciting adventure!
Have fun storming the castle!
(…and stay safe, okay?)
…And already the elephantine “humour” about “bad teeth” begins…
It’ll be nice having you here, Rachel.
About your guns: You’re welcome to come shooting with me. Anyway, under Obama, you’ll all lose ’em anyway.
See you soon,
maximus otter
PS: If you want to visit the American Military Cemetery at Madingley, Cambs:
…drop me a private email. I live about 10 miles away, and my wife & I would be delighted to put you up and show you some British hospitaity.
Best wishes,
maximus otter
laughykate is/was a Marine, or married to one?
No. Was in San Antonio on business and at least where I was didn’t even sound Midwestern. Sounded just like Californians. otoh, I, too, drove across TX once (1975. With Joyce.) Across Panhandle (and OK Panhandle, too) on US 54, anyway. Fuel (human) pitstop @ DQ in Dalhart. Pretty lady came up behind counter to welcome us, opened mouth to speak and I swear this tangible TX-shaped cloud formed in the air. I’m like toaster about those accents. Patronized walkup @ local donut shop, told pretty lady in the window, “You’re not from around here.” She smiled, “Ouwklah-hohma” real slow. Glenn melts into puddle-shape. cttoi, another occasion same donut shop, guy in line in front of me commented about me wearing my ex-‘s ring around my neck. He got really flustered when I corrected him.
Pam asked wedding pictures. Vision of Cowboy Wedding. Boots and hats. Appliqueed embroidered Western shirt — wayback Mom used to make those. Gunbelt and holster. Knee-length gown with petticoats. CCW just above garter. Is this silly?
congrats, I’m currently in spectacular Kyoto with over 17 thousand shrines and temples to explore and after the election may not come back. Looking forward to your future blogs.
Intrigued, she asks Not That Glenn about the meaning behind wearing a ring on a necklace?
And Rachel, again.. about the house….. (not that I mean to sound pushy here or anything but…… early bird and all that) is it on any land? Just a subdivision lot? Can I grow vegetables?
Rachel if you are going to be in the South of England you will be able to visit Bisley the home of shooting in the UK also if you want i shoot at my club every weekend and we have guest days once a month and you and Rupert would be most welcome,we cannot have hand guns or semi/auto rifles but lever actions bolt actions are allowed no full bore pumps but .22s ok send me an email if you want more info and all the best for your move here. AJD
Congratulations to both of you! That’s really great!
If you ever decide to have a look at North-West Italy (specifically the Piedmont area), I humbly offer my services as a tour guide.
Turin is not as touristically renown as Rome and Florence, but believe me, it’s very beautiful – and we have (comparatively) large streets.
I hope you’ll be able to bring Sunny with you – it wouldn’t be the same without her.
Now, why hasn’t anyone whipped up a Demotivator on “Rachel storming Europe” yet?
It has to do with this. When everybody was all emotional Tuesday nite I revealed its existence a little further up the thread and a few kind people asked me to post it.
Rachel…check my blog…it has bits of English history on it and I’m a pretty good tour guide…feel free to avail yourself of any help I can provide.
Rupert,
Be very careful.
Oh sure, she’s nice now. Got the blog and dogs to keep her busy. Supports you in all your endeavors. But marriage invariably brings out the true nature of girls: Eeeeevil.
All those pithy quotes in the “girls” section of her blog? Rope-a-dope. Don’t believe it man. As soon as she says “I do,” she will become just like all the others.
Just like a certain presidential candidate, women seldom disclose their true plans in the campaign. She really does want to rule the earth, and she will begin with your you!
Remember, it was Eve that tempted Adam…
Congratulations, Rachel and Rupert! Have a great time in the UK and a great marriage.
Try to take the time to go to London and walk down Victoria Street starting up by Westminister Church. Almost every British military unit has its own museum along that street . A facinating look into history.
My congratulations to you and Rupert, Rachel! I know you will enjoy yourself there.
well!
congrats on the upcoming knottying!
Wishes that your enjoyment of the EU is as much as you envision.
Congrats! Serious advice: get some practice driving on the left BEFORE you go, then get some remedial lessons after you arrive. It’ll make the transition much smoother.
If you were only going for a few weeks or months, I wouldn’t insist, but as you’ll be over there for three years, I will demand one vicarious pleasure. You have to attend one of these:
Just make sure to watch a few runs (especially if there’s an ‘international shed’ — it will blow your dog-whispering mind!) before retiring to the beer tent :).
Chris,
She ‘wentin’ her place (I forget what it ‘wuns’ her — don’t think she ever said) — remember?
Edit: Re Brit cartoons, I’m a fan — for obvious reasons.
Rachel,
Great News! Or it is if it makes you happy, which it seems to. I spent a month in England with my Parents, back in the summer of 1975, and loved it.
To help you get acclimated, heres the address to a site celebrating a British Cultural Institution; Giles!
Starting just before WWII, and running until his death in the late 1990’s, Giles Cartoons (and the annual collections of them) are a window on everyday British life. Giles himself was a bit of a Red, but he skewered EVERYBODY.
wait…this wasn’t a nightmare? I just woke up and was hoping it wasn’t true. I can’t bear the thought of a U.S. with President Obama and NO Rachel Lucas! *sigh*
Just teasing. I am actually pretty jealous now that I think about it. I love history too and will probably never make it over there with a wussy hubby afraid to fly. Take LOTS of photos.
I wish I could take Sunny and Maggie for you. But somehow I don’t think they’d appreciate the Zoo that is our house. Sunny and Quinn would probably want to kill each other. Plus we’re in Washington State.
bwa ha ha ha ha I love that movie. :)
Casto and Chet,
Me too! Think of Rachel and Rupert navigating the fire swamp that is Europe! ()
Breaking Nes: Owners of FAT DOGS in ENGLAND go to JAIL!
You’re going to go bonkers over there! Keep yourself sane by listening to Wogan in the morning on Radio 2.
I’m escaping to Canada in March. I threatened to move to Canada if Obama was elected (of course, my friends pointed out that I’d move there anyway, details details), and now I get to make good. My husband is in the Canadian navy. I have my doubts about that country though . . . I’m going to be moving to Hippie Central on the west coast . . .
I hope you keep blogging. I think that you’ll have a LOT of things to blog about over there! Also, most people don’t hate Americans like the liberals would have us think.
The most important question – will you still be Rachl Lukis, or will you be Rachel whatever-Rupert’s-last-name-is???
You can’t leave. We NEEDS you!
Seriously, though, good for you :)
Congratulations on the engagement!
Rachel:
Normally, when I read about the goings-on in Great Britain, I wonder to myself “What are those morons thinking?” From now on, I’ll have to amend it to “What are those morons, other than Rachel Lucas, thinking”
My best wishes to you and Rupert, and I eagerly await your posts concerning the move.
MarkoCincy
OMG Rachel – that is fabulous news – I mean a baby would have been nice, too, but this is even better – the baby can come later. But, you must blog from London – I would be crushed if I couldn’t read you daily!
– Karen
My point was that I was a kid. And that fucking ninny MAN from UK fought me over something me and his brat kid argued about.
He lost. So did bratboy.
But SKINS is a fun show.
And Hadrian’s wall will be cool. So will all the other stuff you get to see PERSONALLY.
I look forward to reading about the assholes you will have to beat down at their version of Target.
I have a request. Please find and aquire a dog of war from Europe in about two and a half years. A good breed to investigate is the Neapolitan Mastiff. I am sure you could find something remotely related to an Alexandrian Molosser. You could see history and bring back a piece. And, being the brother’s keeper you are, you’ll let your minions live vicariously through you, overlord Rachel, when you blog about it.
Too many comments to wade through to see if this has already been mentioned, and it’s wildly off topic, but check out that have started “leaking” anonymously about Palin, so as to scapegoat her for their putrid candidate’s loss.
Red State has started to well and truly fuck these assholes, making them and whatever candidate they support radioactive going forward. Since Palin was the ONLY reason that I voted for McCain, and I know that I wasn’t the only one, I’m completely on board with this. Time to salt the earth upon which they stand.
Hello and good wishes. I’m an American living here and yeah. Homesick too.
I’m writing about your dogs.
I think you might want to check again because it was our understanding before leaving home (Palm Desert,Ca) four years ago, that there was a way to bring our cats without that long quarantine. It does get a bit involved but the govt. here and under much pressure, altered the old rule.
Sadly, we ended up having to give up our fur critters, but I know there is no longer a 6 month wait. Or, is that just cats?
No harm in digging though.
Cheers and much good luck. There is a lot of history here and great opps. for photography.
Our street has only 9 houses on it, the first built in 1909. Our road is approx. 800 yrs old believe it or not, and there is a Bronze Age burial ground at the end of the street. History. Love It!
OMG, the idea of Sunny’s bulk in a proper English sweater is laugh-out-loud hilarious. This must happen!
Rachel, I forgot to mention that this summer is in Scotland. It’s the largest Clan Gathering since the 1800’s or some such ancient date. It’s in July and you simply must go. Clans from all around the world will be congregating. There will be a Clan march down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and the International Highland Games (which an American team from NC has won the past couple of years) and lots of other kick-ass Scottish things to do. Oh, and lots of bagpipes – god, the Highland pipes – makes my scalp tingle just thinking about it.
You simply must get your manly-man into a kilt. It’s just about the sexiest thing evah – I can’t explain it, but you’ll know when you see Rupert in a kilt.
I want to go to The Gathering myself, but won’t be able to – so you must go and takes lots of pics! I’ll experience it vicariously through you.
Also, don’t miss out on visiting the Orkney Isles – with their fierce Viking influences. It’s a long, long drive up to the most northern port of Scotland and a several-hour long ferry ride, but the jewelry is to die for. Nordic/Celtic barbarian stuff which even I, not into bangles, would be proud to wear. The standing stones are larger than Stonehenge: see Ring ‘o Brogdar and Stones of Stenness (they are not far form one another). Also, see the 5,000 year old village and burial mound. It will give you goosebumps.
Oh man, I’m making myself homseick again for Soctland. The people are so fantastic and the land is the most fiercely beautiful place I’ve even seen. It’s different from the majestic, alpine beauty of the Alps or the Rockies. It will grab you spiritually and never let go. I don’t know how the Scots left their beloved land to come to America, but thank G-d they did, as they were foundational to our country. You will love learning how the Scots were integral to the foundation of freedom and democracy in America.
And hey. Stay away from black pudding.
I wrote this on the wrong thread, hope it’s not too off topic.
My Awesome Mix Tape #6 Says:
NNTG –
Thank you so very much for sharing such a beautiful tribute. Your writing inspires me to finally get back to my blog and attend to some of the loss I have experienced, maybe even get some things sorted out through writing.
How lucky you and your wife were to find each other in this world. That love that you two had (and still have) will carry your daughter through life well. She will most likely emulate that love in her own marriage someday.
Being a caregiver to someone you love is a rare gift that many people choose not to accept. I believe there is a special place in Heaven for the caregivers of the world like you NNTG. And even better than that, you’ve got someone who went ahead of you and will be there waiting with open arms.
You are blessed.
Thank you again for sharing.
I wish people would quit talking about Scotland. I’m bitter than I haven’t been back in 11 years.
Spare your Sunny the horrors of air travel and quarantine. She will be in survival mode the whole time, which will be very hard on her physically.
I took care of and loved a friend’s dog for half year and then shipped her by air to San Francisco from Denver. She was completely discombobulated. Exhausted and hyper-active at the same time.
This was a trip of only 2.5 hours in the air. Think about it: going through airport operational processes with LOUD, strange noises, yelling people, relentlessly bumping around and out-of-balance in a crate, with startling temperature and air pressure fluctuations. Sunny will perceive apocalyptic conditions and react accordingly.
I know her life won’t be the same without you either but a transition to a caring and calm new home is by far the more humane choice. Either choice is heartbreaking, alas.
I am so with you on this physics geek. On this blog alone people were energized by Sarah’s nomination, enough so that people who had never given money to any campaign, ever, were excited to hand over their hard earned bucks to make it happen for McCain.
McCain was NEVER my candidate. I would have prefered Fred Thompson or heck, even Mitt Romney was more to my liking than McCain. I’m hoping I’m not in the minority when I remind people that it is important to remember that McCain almost jumped ship a few years back and was going to run as a democrat.
As soon as all of the hoopla dies down about “The One”, and especially once the media starts tearing him to shreds as is their nature, I am going to put a Palin/Jindal 2012 bumper sticker on my car.
You know, it always bugged me that the other side made fun of McCain for not being able to use a computer, but now I’ve begun to rethink that position. I know it is a physical thing for him, but even so, he should have had his staff scouring the blogs such as Whittle’s and our dear Rachel’s so that they could get a clue as to what the REAL people were thinking.
My husband, constant listener of AM radio, said that there is talk of trying to pull together a viable 3rd party. Let’s not forget The Pirhana Party!!
My bumper: Pirhana Party supports Palin/Jindal 2012
Rock on little Pirhana!
I know I’m late to the party but wishing you and Rupert safe travels! Good luck with whatever you decide with your babies. My cousin brought her pooch to Italy with little difficulty – hopefully it will work out for you too, if that’s what you decide.
I hear restaurant food is awful and expensive in London, unless you like Indian. Alas, I know little of England’s geography, and don’t know if that’s anywhere near where you’ll be but am throwing that out there…had a friend who works as a court reporter for the House of Commons and heard many tales of woe about the lack of dining options.
Hooray! CONGRATULATIONS!!! :D
On the contrary, I liked McCain. I don’t like hard, hard partisanship because neither side is right 100% of the time. McCina was more likely to vote on issues the way I feel about them.
As for Palin. She just wasn’t ready yet. Maybe next time. But let’s be honest, 50% of her popularity is because she’s young and pretty. She’s no political scholar. Less than most on this blog in fact. Yeah, she can manipulate the situation around her to get elected to Alaska, but she just wasn’t up on moderns American themes and policies.
She’ll probably never get my vote, especially if she strays from the Constitution and shoves religion into her policy making practices. I suspect she will, pandering to the true believers. But hey, those of us who believe in a world older than 6000 years is a group that grows every year.
Hmm… Rachel vs. Europe. The odds sound about right. Edge to Rachel.
Thanks for many good reads, both when I should have been working and when I looked you up in my spare time. I hope you enjoy the cool, wet weather, the interesting regional accents and personalities, and the depth of the society’s history.
Remember – a brolly with a stiff spine is as good as a pointy stick. And yobs are to be attacked first, before they pick you out as a victim of their group.
Don’t bother with Scotland..it’s even more socialist that England and the weather makes England seem tropical.
Sorry physicsgeek, I am enamored of Scotland – always have been from afar but even more so for having been there. I will be bitter too, if I don’t make it back for another decade. :( Makes me sad just thinking about it.
Start making plans to take your wee ones when they are old enough to appreciate it (if the world hasn’t ended). My kids were 13 and 9 – perfect ages for all the historical aspects and the sheer adventure – clamoring over castle ruins, scooting inside burial mounds, hiking the glens, and sleeping in a real haunted castle :)
I guess you mean Vancouver? More delicious irony would be moving further up to, like, Prince Rupert.
#6, And thank you. Still many things to say. Joyce was technically still alive when I started the Baby Girl Brown story, but I knew I’d need to write something, and used it to maintain a state of cold realism, which worked for a while.
Actually, we didn’t “find” each other at all. A Third Party, (benevolent, or malice aforethought?) almost literally smashed us into each other and we stuck, at a party both of us reluctantly decided to attend at the last minute. Detailed stories of how people meet are usually intricate, but also usually boring if you don’t know the principals.
Y’know the caregiver thing hits in various ways. People used to play impressed that I was some kind of Saint or something, which embarrassed me at the time. And spouse-caregivers are wives; I read up some of the lit on it and felt kinda genderbent at times. My older viewpoint was that I’d signed up for it. My later viewpoint, not in conflict, was that conservatives take care of their own. I had an example to keep. Love and Commitment. I borrow a STNG Worf line into this context: Do not forget. Do not let your children forget. And do not let your husband forget.
And complete cos, to [sigh] politics: Thompson would have been my candidate, too. But as I said before, methinks him too honorable a man to have been elected. As was McCain ftm. If it was McCain vs, oh, even Hillary I would have had to think harder. But to witness the poison, note the first MSM reaction to Thompson’s announcement was to go dig up his ex-wife looking for shit to throw. Yet more of how honorable Thompson is: His ex talked him up, said she’d work for his campaign if called. As the slates ended up, there was only one fucking way to go.
McCain’s “negative, dirty” campaign he supposedly ran seemed to consist mostly of playing Obama’s own statements back at him. Obama himself, pos I think he is, isn’t the real villan in the drama. He didn’t need to run a “negative, dirty” campaign on record. The Press ran one for him, unasked. That stink persists.
LATE EDIT:
And yes, I’m dowdifying the hell out of you on purpose.
She’s no political scholar. And neither are you. You’re reading her personal views as quoted in our “unbiased” media and ignoring her actual policies, which were not nearly the same.
Less than most on this blog in fact. In your case, you are belied by your own words.
Yeah, she can manipulate the situation around… and somehow manage to do it without support of a political party; she’d pissed the Alaska Republican Party off even before she was elected Governor.
She’ll probably never get my vote… I believe you.
especially if she strays from the Constitution and shoves religion into her policy making practices. I will refrain from mentioning the names Barack Obama and Keith Ellison [other names could be inserted in place] in the same sentence. Oops. Obama and Ellison (Oops, I did it again) are not, within my ken, tied to each other. Yet. Except maybe thru Louis Farrakhan (880000 and 50000 hits respectively. I admit not having chased them all down.)
Rather than start a flame war, I will respond only this one time. It’s way too fucking soon to start trolling for 2012. Besides, (you hope) she might not be re-elected in 2010. The rest is nonse–I mean, silence.
*hip check* Okay, Betty!
I’m really excited for you! It would be sweet to be so close to all that history for the next several years.
I was a 19YO student in Germany back in ’88, and I would love to go back to visit Europe again. I’m also a huge WWII buff and visiting Normandy to see how much labor and material the Germans wasted building the Atlantic Wall was just jaw-dropping. Those bunkers, pillboxes, and observation towers will be there as long as the pyramids have been in Egypt.
I didn’t see the Maginot Line, but I expect it will be pretty much the same as the Atlantic Wall–an eternal monument to man’s folly in building giant fortifications easily overcome by another man’s ingenuity in knocking ’em down, circumventing them, or otherwise rendering them useless and obsolete.
Please keep the blog going and POST PICTURES!
Rachel,
I lived in England a couple of times. I think you will enjoy it if you love history, as you say. You may also feel homesick fairly quickly, but it has changed a lot since I was there. There are tons of American businesses there now, unlike the last time I lived there (1981).
The political attitude is much different. Not as many conservatives, but they’re around. You’ll find them.
I loved being able to easily go to France or Spain to see famous places. It’s no big deal to go to another country in Europe. Just like going to another state. And from London you can travel on the chunnel and be in Paris in a few hours.
I also lived in the south of England. It’s very lovely there, depending where you settle.
Everyone should live in another country at some point in their lives to appreciate America better. Not that you need to, but it will open your eyes more.
Oh, nice! Twist the knife for those of us who would give a digit or two for the privilege, but have yet to go :)! Been to England, yes, very briefly, but Scotland? I raise Shetland sheep, need I say more? ring any bells for anybody? drooooool!
As to the Palin bash-fest, I overheard some asshat reciting a litany of her shortcomings on some hideous O’Reilly clip that The Boss found linked from LGF. “Oh, please, please turn that evil crap off! Vile! Disgusting!” says I. He did — I married well :).
1) Congrats.
2) In no seriousness at all: COWARD!!! Running out on us just when the getting is going to SUCK!! I’m SOOooo tempted to leave this country, if I only had an excuse to do so. And a job. And a place to live. And a passport. I really don’t want to be here for the next four. They are not going to be pretty.
Awwww! Wachl and Wuprt sittin’ in a tree…
Srsly, congratulations to the both of you! I hope you have a wonderful time in England and that you are able to find a comfortable way to bring the dogs with you. I liked the idea of the big boat….that’s probably the only way I’ll ever get to Europe ’cause I’m scared to death of flying. Yeah, irrational, I know, but I can’t help it.
Please take lots of pictures, especially of the looks you will get from Saxons who don’t unnerstand yew. ;)
I would love for you to do a Rachl Lukis travellogue of Cork, the armpit of Eire. More heat and stink and culture converged in one area than you can shake a deodorant stick at.
Otherwise, be sure and let us know if you get to go to Newgrange, or the Dingle peninsula in spring, or Iona.
‘Cause you know we live vicariously through you, dearie.
Best wishes to the new Mr. Rachl Lukis, too.
Congratulations! I’ve made a few trips to London this year with my job. I don’t know if I’d want to live there long-term, but other parts would be quite nice. You’re going to have a blast!
Rachel:
Glad you’re happy about it/sorry to see you go; hope you’ll still keep the blog going as I check it every day.
Make sure you blog about your first traumatic experience with the National Health Service; I’m sure it won’t take very long….
Rachel, what wonderful news! Just checked in to your blog a few minutes ago after a couple of days hiatus (yes, I was growling and hissing about the election). Watch out for those insane British town councils.
Above all, congratulations on your engagement and forthcoming wedding!
If you make it to Heidelberg let us know. My wife and I would love to entertain you. You have our email. Good luck and enjoy the UK.
Oh, BTW, the Maginot Line is in France on the French-German border in the Alsace. About 45 minutes from us. If you want to see it we can arrange a tour. Not a day trip from the UK.
Rachel,
If you need a temp home for the dogs, drop me a line. They would get on just fine with my old lab and ancient Rott. I’m in the country and the house I’m in has plenty of space. Just in case you need it…I’d have problems parting with my animals too.
To the person who wants to put a bumper sticker on the car, I will offer a little free pre-print proofreading:
I believe it’s spelled PIRANHA. That’s if you’re referring to the carnivorous fish.
Congratulations! How exciting!
My parents took me to Europe when I was 12. I’ve always been glad I got a chance to go and see so many interesting and historically significant places with my own eyes. (Especially before I turned into a teenage sourpuss who thought she was too good to associate civilly with her family.)
Congrats Rachel, but you might want to think twice before taking Sunny:
wouldn’t want you to spend 12 months in jail.
Cool. Have a blindingly good time. Keep blogging.
Go outside and have a good look at that Texas sky and feel the warmth. For you will not see sun nor feel its warmth for three years. Trust me, you will miss blue sky and green grass. But if you have 2000 pounds worth of socks anythings possible.Pat the dogs on my behalf.
Did you even have a candidate? I kinda forgot there about the hard sell it took to get me to reluctantly cast the vote. You gonna get the whole Brisish accent, like Madonna?
NNTG:
oh man….. I am so sorry for your loss…..what a beautiful tribute. To be so truly loved, it’s a gift.
May your heart heal.
C
NNTG,
Is it bad of me to want a student of history and a person up on current event to be the leader of the free world? SHe barely even has a college degree. Whether I am a political sholar or not is irrelevant, I am not asking to be your leader.
Palin shares your values, I get it, she’s just not smart enough or at least educated enough to be our leader. She’s slightly below average, ( average being the readers here for reference, we’re all just average people ere, right?) and I demand an exrtaordinary leader. There are a lot to choose from , even those who share your values.
Let’s not settle for any but the best, she’s just average.
Now I don’t know why I think Palin being not up for the job makes me an Ellison/ Obama supporter. That’s a huge jump to make. In fact,if I recall correctly, I was THE ONLY PERSON ON THIS SITE that supported the ONLY CANDIDATE that could have defeated Obama. WHile I was trying to get ya’ll to understand that we need to vote for Mac, Obama ran past you and took away our country. I VOTED for PALIN , even though I think she’s not very bright.
This is our problem. We all 99% of us want the saeme exact thing, yet we argue over that 1% like our fucking lives depend on it. I’m not starting a flame war, I’m just giving the perspective of someone who looks at this very differently, someone who has been involved as a civilain with the government since 1992 and in uniform since 1985.
Rachel, I wish you the very best!!
I’ve been to the UK twice, and Europe once, and can’t wait to get back…As a fellow history buff, I wish I could hide in your suitcase!
:-)
Now that I’ve found your blog again, you’re going straight to my favorites list!
Cheers!
Holy crap, Rachl Lukis! I’m so happy for you! Also, we’d like to come visit.
And btw, I totally should have guessed when you dangled the bait the other day, because my first thought was actually that you’re moving to Europe.
I almost envy you…almost. Well, tut tut and all that…or whatever.
Good for you. I’ve decided to goto school in Singapore.
Holy crap! I’m away for a few weeks and look what happens.
Congratulations to you and Rupert. May you both have wonderful experiences and share many blessings. I’m so glad you’ll be keeping in touch. Stay healthy and safe.
Congratulations, that’s awesome news. Good things happen to good people.
If you get the chance, visit Strassbourg. They still remember the Americans who helped them drive out the Nazis. The plaque thanking us for that had no German translation, an oversight I’m sure.
The other must see is Heidelburg and some of the castles along the Rhine River.
Wow! Didn’t see that one coming. It’s an amazing opportunity and I am really looking forward to Lucas Across The Pond Blogs.
As I was reading your post I immediately thought, “Oh, please get married before you make a move this big!” and then you revealed the happy news. Congratulations to you both.
You won’t be able to afford the gas for all these trips.