Sorting By "Random"

I had been trying to figure out a way to sort the pictures that I have in a database randomly. I knew that you could choose to order them according to a specific id in ascending or descending order. But, I did not know that you could simply use the code "Order By NEWID()" in the select statement to accomplish this. As a result, I ended up with the following:

itemtemplate
asp:label runat="server" id="lblPics" text='<%# Eval("Pictures") %>'>
asp:label
itemtemplate

...and then use the sql select command,

SELECT [Pictures] FROM [My_Photos] Order By NEWID()


...pretty cool.

Roma

Buona Sera raggazzi!

This is Signora Allison. I am writing once again to break the monotony. Rome is really very lovely. Today, we decided to go to Piazza di Spagna. Great place! Lots of old buildings ( Villa di Medici....Damon-I think you are missing an "i" at the end of your last name.) We passed the Spanish Steps and didn't even know it...But, we later went back and had a look a them. Not very spectacular...but most of the monuments are like that. You spend all day trying to find them and when you do they are cool for about 5 minutes...then you are looking for the next must-see building or statue. We took a long walk up the street and through a park. We saw Harry Potter again. I know, I know...but it is such a good movie and we needed somewhere to to cool down and rest from all the walking...it is easily over 100 degrees here most of the day and we walk an average of 5-7 miles a day. We also went shopping...alot! In between the very expensive stores like D&G, Versace, and Prada, there were cheaper stores. I know I drove Jeff crazy with my store hopping. I love one store I discovered in Paris and found here called Zara. I bought a couple of cute things. Yet, Jeff never spends tons of money. But, today I changed that. I persuaded him to buy something very expensive. =)
We have five nights left here. It is amazing it went by so quickly. ( 6 planes in three weeks) Jeff and I don't want it to end, but are both homesick for our animals and our families. We have learned to navigate the cities well and have had a bunch of luck sometimes( four star hotels) and other times we have had no luck(walking 4 miles in the middle of nowhere with the sun beating down on us and cars whizzing by--just hoping we are going in the right direction).

See you soon- We love you all!

Hi, From Rome

Allie and I are now in our second hotel in Rome. The first was crazy nice. After staying in two unsatisfying hotels, we needed something nice. So...we went to Priceline (which has been great to us for all of the trip) and found a great hotel. The great thing about Priceline is that when you book through them, they try to get you the nicest room possible for any given hotel. As a result, we were given one of the executive suites. To give you an idea, the room had a minibar, a dishwasher, modern decor, jacuzzi, etc.

Seeing the Colosseum is so surreal. You begin to speculate how many thousands of people have died inside those walls.

We'll go to see the Vatican on Monday - where Allie will have to read a few paragraphs describing how she must dress in order to enter. Men can wear whatever they want...women cannot. For some reason, this pleases me.

On our time off, I'm trying to get my Design site finished. I'm about 75% of the way there.

I haven't been able to post as much...so here are a few quick notes

• Space Mountain 2.0 Rocked


• Everyone picks their nose in public here


• Harry Potter 5 was amazing.


• Answers.Yahoo.Com has saved my butt many times lately


• Allie is becoming obsessed with Star Trek: Voyager. How adorable.


• We got to watch a loudmouth Oriental woman argue with one of the street vendors over the price of a purse. "It's not real" ...she said in a very oriental way. "Why you want charge that much?"


• It is way way hot in Rome


• I didn't love Milan that much


• More English speaking folk in Rome than anywhere else (besides London losers!).

Long Wait

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Internet is mucho expensive. I can't post any pictures right now because I'm using the crappy tv internet in the hotel. The last few days were pretty rough. ...Lots of traveling and lots of mistakes. I'll go into more detail when I'm on my own computer. Right now, we are in a beautiful hotel in central Rome. Because we booked through Priceline, we were able to get an executive suite without even knowing it. Yesterday completely sucked! Today rocks. Bye

Disneyland Paris

This place is great. Although it isn't as big as Disney World Orlando, many of the rides are much better. Space Mountain: Mission 2 is twice as good as the original. Pirates of the Caribbean is much better too.

We're actually in a very nice room with a deck. We've only spent half a day at the park so far, but we love it. I really wish Zach could be here to experience it. He is at the perfect age for these parks. Maybe this Christmas *hint hint*

After tomorrow, we'll go see the new Harry Potter and then we're off to Milano.



"The Treat Of Choice At Disneyland Paris"






"Allie in front of a skull."





"Allie's 25 Euro Steak."

Louvre and Disneyland Paris

We went to the Louvre today. That place is stressfully large. It is almost impossible to take it all in in one day. We were able to see 'The Mona Lisa', 'Madonna of the Rocks', and a bunch of statues that I can't remember the names of. I was especially interested in visiting some of the mummies. We ate at a quaint Italian restaurant tonight and are leaving for Disneyland Paris tomorrow morning. If they have internet access available, I will make another posting then.

Last night, I got screwed into buying Allie a rose. Not to say that I wouldn't do it naturally if I had the choice. My problem is that I had no choice but to do so. Let me explain:

A couple nights ago, Allie and I went to a nice restaurant. An Italian - we'll call him Demarko - came to the table...took a longer than desired look at Allie....and then held up a few roses for me to buy for her. At this point, if I said no, I would look like a loser boyfriend and a bastard at the same time. I told him one (by holding up one finger) rose. He then says, "Not three?". I responded with, "No...just one."

When we finished eating dinner, a second Italian joined in on admiring Allie. His name was probably Demarko too.

So how was I supposed to enjoy dinner knowing that I got conned into buying a rose from two Italians named Demarko? They're lucky that I didn't show them my biceps.

Updates

I'm spending 20 euros a day to write these damn updates - so enjoy them! That's an order.

I'll catch you guys up on the last few days. We've been having a great time - while walking about 7-8 miles a day. I think Allie has been getting sick of me lately. On more than one occasion, she has told me to get on the wrong subway. She said it was a mistake, but I'm sure that she was calculating.

The night before we left London, we went to see "The Lord of the Rings" - the play. It is the most expensive play ever made. We were amazed by the grandeur of the place. At the halfway point, all of the orcs come out into the audience and scare the females. These guys were HUGE. One of the orcs took a personal liking to Allie.

We've seen most of the main attractions in Paris. Notre Dame was beyond amazing. I am going to post some video of that in an hour when the video finished uploading. We accidentally stumbled upon the Louvre today...but we'll actually go inside tomorrow. Unfortunately, Tom Hanks was no where to be found. I heard the words "Davinci Code" about five times in the short time that we were walking around the building. I'm sure the workers there get pissed off. They have some of the most amazing art work ever created - but all that the people want to see is where Tom Hanks stood at the very end of the movie.

On the way back to our hotel today, we came to a beautiful church surrounded by people with cameras. Something was definitely happening, but we couldn't figure out what. It was definitely celebrity related. We deduced that it must be related to an American celebrity and some sort of wedding. After a bit of waiting, we found out that we were at Eva Longoria and some dude's wedding. Ciao.

Long Wait

Sorry for the lack of updates. We haven't had internet access lately. Since my last blog, Allie and I transferred to a TERRIBLE hotel in London. The next day, we took the Eurorail to France. Standard prices were about 250 Euros for the both of us, but if we left at 5:00 in the morning...the price was 112 Euros. Needless, we got up at 4:00 that morning. The train ride was great. Allie wouldn't know that because she slept the whole time...

We are now in a great hotel in Paris called Sofitel (thanks to luck with Priceline, we got a 4 star hotel for about $120 a night). We saw the Eiffel Tower yesterday (huge) and went to Notre Dame today (which was unbelievable.) We're learning French as we go...and we haven't been doing too poorly. Some of the french that I learned in Belgium is paying off. I'll make a more detailed posting later tonight. Ciao! Happy Birthday to Mrs. Peterson!

Walking in the Rain...alot.

Ello poppets!This is Allie. This is my point of view (if you are tiring from hearing what the Jeff has to say). Last night we went to Piccadilly Circle. Fun place! But, good Lord it rains alot here! We found a very comfy, Irish pub to settle into for awhile. Afterwards, we walked around until the rain drove us inside a Starbucks. This is turning into a common theme, by the way. It rains...we go to Starbucks. The weather here is sightly schizophrenic. Raining one moment and sunny the next. I digress. We went back to the hotel last night and Jeff slept...alot. I watched two episodes of Star Trek, then finally found sleep. We woke up to what sounded like a man crying in the morning. It was actually a huge pigeon cooing on our window. Then we woke at noon (Jeff lied when he said he set an alarm)to find the maid trying to get in...She wouldn't take no for an answer. Although she wasn't happy, we finally got her to go away. Today we started out by going to a little cafe and then walking alllllll the way to Big Ben, Scotland Yard, Starbucks, Westminster Abbey & Cathedral. It was very fun.
I am going to end this right here by making a few observations...The English dress much cooler than us and this fact wounds me because I tend to consider myself a fashionable gal. Observation number two...Pigeons don't like to fly here. Pigeons walk everywhere and are more pushy than the natives. Lastly, Jeff is still mad they made him get rid of his coke before leaving the pub. I would like to add that I told him they would probably do this before we tried to walk out but he didn't believe me.

Cheers then, Allie

By The Way

By the way....Did I speak about the surging pain that I felt in my groin when I converted $300 to 130 pounds at the airport? Painful as buttocks!

Not Tired

3:00 A:M ....I can't sleep. It is the weirdest feeling because I want to sleep, but my body is on Nashville time - which should be about 9:00.

Allie had her first European coke today. The two cokes together came to just a bit over 4 pounds....equals 8 dollars. What a great deal!

I'll post more pictures in the morning. We're scheduled to go see Big Ben and to go on the "Jack the Ripper" tour.

Looking at the main body of water in London makes me remember being three years old and watching Kirmit and Fozzy fall into it at the beginning of "The Great Muppet Caper".

Tiny Room

I'd say our hotel room is about 6x6. ...Tiny. The flight from Charlotte to London wasn't too bad, but there are so many steps. Fly....Connection Flight.....Land....Luggage....Convert Currency.....Buy Train Ticket.....Get On Wrong Train....Get Cab.....Wait For Hotel.....etc.

We are both exhausted, but are planning on going out to dinner in the next couple of hours.

While waiting to check into our hotel, we walked about five miles to check out Buckingham Palace. The building is undeniably beautiful, but a little anti-climatic. Allie and I laughed that the only people there were Americans and Chinese people....all with cameras in hand.

Separation Anxiety and Puke

US Airways is somewhat of a butthead. Allie and I were both seated in the middle seat on different sides of the aisle. While Allie was comfy and conversing with a 60 year old man and a nice plump woman, I was sitting next to a ticking time bomb. A young girl was on the verge of puking on the plane. She was extremely nervous and kept rocking back and forth while moaning. I told her to shut up a few times, but nothing seemed to work! Ultimately, I asked to have her seated in a different section.

...Actually, this is what I imagined doing. In reality, I didn't say a word.

We are currently sitting at our terminal in Charlotte waiting for our London plane to arrive. Talk to you in ten hours.