Miscellaneous thoughts

Another week has gone by, and it is now time for a quick update. I spent the first half of the week in training in Windsor (west of London), covering required compliance and regulatory type topics. Sad to say, there are things that bore even accountants to tears...this training being one of them.

Meanwhile, Dalton and Maggie have "befriended" some spiders that live in our back garden. They've taken to finding ants and putting them in the spiders' webs. It's actually kind of neat, because the spiders will come immediately and wrap up the ant into a little package in about five seconds. They were giving the spiders names, but Dalton crossed the line yesterday when he actually brought one inside the house.

Maggie is working towards her big dance production which occurs next month. She has practice every weekend, but she is really enjoying herself. She did a mini dance for us last night, and she does really have a gift for dance.

I went traipsing into Redhill this morning to buy a few groceries and odds and ends, and a present for Maggie, because she read all her "popcorn words" yesterday. The "popcorn words" are basically small words that Michelle has put on little pieces of paper that are kept in a popcorn bag. There were about thirty or so, ranging from "I" to "look" and "because". So, Maggie is really progressing on the reading front. When we got here, she couldn't read at all, and now she's able to read short books. I am really proud of her.

Of course, once in Redhill, I saw a sign which I always mean to take a picture of, but I never seem to have the camera with me. It's a sign for a little cafe - Cafe de France, to be precise, which offers a full English breakfast. I just find it humorous. That still doesn't compare to the sign at the Vestavia McDonald's which at one point was "NOW HIRING LOSERS". But even better (and my personal all-time favorite) was the Birmingham Southeastern Meats, which was running a special on "Black Anus Beef". Yum (or as they might say here - "Scrummy.")

So, I guess that's that. Mich and I are planning on getting out this afternoon for some Mommy and Daddy time (something that has been incredibly scarce ever since we arrived here - I think we've actually had alone time about twice in the past year plus.) We're somewhat undecided on what to do - we haven't had the opportunity in so long, we just don't know what to do with ourselves. Anyway, keep checking in, and we'll keep you updated on what's going on.