A RUN-down of the week

In just a few minutes, Bree & the money she raised for the heart foundation and leukemia research will attempt a 5K Run. I ate a chocolate bar just now to support the cause. Maybe she'll be spotted by a scout and asked to train for the 2012 Olympics - which are going to be in LONDON!!!! That was big excitement today - coworkers stopped work and pulled up the announcement broadcast on the Internet. Of course I remained fully attentive to my responsibilities (but I could still hear).

Tuesday was a clean-up night: we are trying to get the house clean for the upcoming MIL inspection - but no matter how much laundry you do and dishes you wash, it seems that there is always more to be done.

Monday was the big ASDA trip - trying to stock up for the next couple weeks.

Sunday after church, we journeyed down to meet a coworker and go to Camden Markets - what an experience. I've never seen so much junk with a price tag in my life. It was all worth it for the really cheap Chinese food stand.

Saturday included a workout, a grocery store run, and most exciting of all:

WIMBLEDON!!! We sat on the hill and watched the big screen as Venus Williams came back to beat Lindsay Davenport. After watching some no-names doubles players, we stumbled upon fifth row seats watching John McEnroe play doubles! He still argued the ref per style, but the match was fun to watch as the players would makes jokes and comments. For instance, shouting mine and then shouting yours even if it clearly was not.

The nightcap was watching a couple hours of the Live-8 concert - which was a HUGE deal over here. Even people who are usually quite normal became quite frantic. On top of that, they are firm believers and advocates for the Make Poverty History campaign. A majority of people actually seem relatively informed on the issue, even if they have differences of opinion on how to achieve the end result. Certainly, they seem to have the topic more on the forefront of their minds than most of us back home. Somehow here it doesn't seem like "people way over in Africa" but people not too far away and not too different than ourselves who are starving everyday.

While they may be much more open-minded on that issue, many people around us are extremely closed-minded when it comes to evaluating Bush or his policies. They tend to have a even more rudimentary anti-diposition than the pro-disposition of a typical Texan. They "know" that his policies hurt the environment and push the world into war - and refuse to have a discussion on the topic. And while they think that government must intervene to stop the anti-competitive practices of mega-corporations they simultaneously revolt against what they think is a "growing nanny-state."

This is not intended to be a catch-all analysis, nor a stereotype of all of the people in London- only observations of what we've seen.

Friday night we gave a last-minute effort to get a dress and tux in time to go to a company ball - you can ask Bree for the story and the outcome.
That night we dined at a wonderful Turkish restaurant, yummy! And of course we followed it up with a double helping of Season 1 of 24.

Anyway - now all of you who visit this site more frequently than we do may renew your comment-frenzy.

Check back for MIL stories to come - she arrives in the morning. And we're very excited of course.