Bye Tillie, we'll miss you

I have some sad news to report... over the weekend, Matilda Beemer Yarmey, the beloved family dog, passed away at the old age of 17 (or 119 in people years). Tillie had been with us since the Providence Country Club Charlotte days, moved out to California, then back to Charlottesville. Towards the end she couldn't see or hear, or smell very well, but she still seemed to be a happy dog and boy did she always love a treat. I think she just decided that she had lived a long enough life and was ready to move on.


Tillie was a great dog and she will be missed dearly.

Where's Ric? And I missed homecoming...

Not a whole lot to update since Ric's out of town and I've been hanging out on my own for the past few days. I did participate in a "Silly Games in the Park" event on Saturday put on by my very distant cousin, whom I met for the first time in London a couple weeks ago. Something called "Klub" was played, but I opted to lay in the sun instead. Also went to dinner with some Americans, one of whom went to Wake with me (Evan Remmes, for you Deamon Deacons out there) and I have to admit that it was nice to spend some time with a few fellow Southerners. They were all from NC/VA except for the one guy who was born and raised in San Francisco. How perfect!

It did mean that I missed my five year college reunion (not "anniversary" as I had been calling it all weekend)... But I guess that's part of living across the water.

So Ric's probably mid-seminar right now. Everyone send him good juju. If I had to guess, he's answering questions about the "credit crunch" and how it's going to impact the housing market and, tangentially, overseas investments in foreign oil.

In other news, here in the UK the fifth largest mortgage lender (Northern Rock) had to call in the Bank of England because of fears that it couldn't remain financially solvent. Kind of crazy because people over are lined up for blocks and blocks to take out their life savings... 2 billion pounds in the past couple days have been withdrawn. They're afraid that the company won't be around for much longer and they'll lose all of the money they've saved. I went to lunch this afternoon and thought people were waiting for a theater show, maybe a store opening or some celebrity book signing. Or maybe (hopefully) the iPhone was being released and they were all "queuing" for blocks to get the first one... which happens to be something the British people do very well...queue. However, once I noticed the median age of the group, I knew that couldn't be the case. Hundreds of people worried that they were going to lose their life savings and waiting for hours and hours in line to get it back (and put it "under the matress" as one woman was quoted as saying). Industry experts are saying that nothing like this has happened here since the 1930s. Obviously it's the UK media, so things are exaggerated, but it's still a pretty big deal.

Watching the Emmy's right now (one day late) and the guy from Lost won best supporting actor. What in the world is he wearing??!! A fluorescent pink shirt and black sequined tie?? Really? I don't think that have that store on the island...

What else...

Since Edinburgh, a lot as happened. We had a great visit from Ric's dad and Lora. Celebrated Lora's birthday. Had Donna from Sparkpr in town. And I had a huge event for work. And that was all in the same week....

The following Monday I collapsed from exhaustion (literally) and had to stay home for the day, laying on the couch and FINALLY finishing my book. Feeling much better and trying to take it a little easier this week.

Other updates... I've been asked to sit on the advisory board of a company called Avenue7, which is a fashion/social networking site for girls aged 12-17. And Ric's been working really late this week preparing for his seminars in the Chicago area. If anyone is visiting the Windy City next week, make sure to look him up!

Edinburgh Fringe Fest

On our first ever "bank holiday" in the UK, Ric and I headed up to Edinburgh Scotland (which I've been told should be pronounced Ed-in-bra, not Ed-in-burough as I had been doing...) for the annual Fringe Festival. It's the largest arts and theater festival in the world and lasts for over a month with 2,000 shows on at any given time. Ric and I didn't quite manage to see all 2,000, but we caught 4, all of which we enjoyed.

Here are the pictures from our trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelbremer/

Edinburgh is an absolutely gorgeous city that I would highly recommend visiting. It has the charm of a medieval castle and the beauty of the green highlands and ocean (or North Sea? I'm horrible with UK geography... is Scotland even in the UK?)