Got back this morning from Merrie Olde London, where I was forced to go for work for the last three days. No worries; I think we actually made some tangible contributions to national security, so your taxpayer dollar was well spent. And if I can have some fun and eat some good Indian food on top of that, well, better me than you.

One of my good friends from college is living in London at the moment, working on her Masters in Fine Arts. So Monday when I got in, she got us tickets to go see Mary Poppins (the new musical, not the old Disney movie), which is currently in previews. It was an absolute blast. Not only did they have tap-dancing chimney sweeps; they had a suspended-upside-down-tap-dancing-on-the-ceiling chimney sweep.

Tuesday night, our British colleagues were kind enough to sponsor a dinner for us. The food was very...English. You know--brown food, brown sauce. Three different courses of it. And lousy wine with a French name. I'm getting really spoiled living in Italy. On the other hand, dinner got much better once we got rid of the wine and started going with the English ales. And to their credit, they did take us out afterward to an underground pub with a cave inside and bought us all some nice port for dessert.