Halfway

Madeline turned 6 on Wednesday. She's getting taller every day. Abby was Madeline's age when Madeline was born. Alex was Madeline's age when we moved to Cambridge. Life goes by pretty damn fast.

My niece, Ashley, is heading out to Boston tomorrow to begin her adventure with the Boston Celtics Dancers. I'm excited for her. Have fun Ashley!

Some things that have stuck with me from the trip to England:

• Everything is smaller over there. Actually, I think it's all bigger here. We Americans are all about excess. I don't know if we do it because we can, or because we're used to it, or because we're spoiled, or all of the above. I don't know if it's right or wrong either, but to me it feels like excessive selfishness.


• Every single person I met over there was extremely kind and generous; all of Angie's relatives, their friends, the guys that own the Oxygen club, the guy that helped carry our suitcases up the stairs in our mad rush through London to the airport, the people on the trains, everyone. They all really made an impression on me.


• They like chips (we call them french fries) with everything. They have great sausage, much better than anything I get here.


• There are sidewalks everywhere, and everyone does a lot of walking. They have to, gas costs about $12/gallon over there.


• Some of the neighborhood pubs have playgrounds out back. The kids like it. I like it. Beautiful.

Just today, I ran mile 250 of my 500 mile goal. I'm halfway there. I still have a long way to go, but I feel very good about it. I ran more miles in August than any month so far.

Peace-
Matt

Homeward Bound

Some shots from London & Liverpool.

What a great time we've had. We did so much and still want to do so much more. I wish we had another 2 weeks here. We'll come back some day for sure.

We're headed home tomorrow.

Peace-
Matt

Roundabout

We're having a blast here in the motherland. It's amazing how gracious, kind, and hospitable everyone over here is. Makes me realize how selfish we Americans are, for the most part. Very nice people here.

Angie's cousin got married last night. It was a beautiful wedding with lots of emotion, and a super good time.

We're off to London tomorrow and to Liverpool on Thursday. I hope to be able to post lots more photos on Friday night.

All of the photos above were taken by my daughter Alex. She is a great photographer, and has an amazing eye. She's a much better people photographer than I am.

Cheers Mate,

Matt

Arrival

We're here!

Peace-
Matt

Cheerio

We're off to England tomorrow. I'll be glad when the travelling's over and we finally get there. Flying sucks.

We'll be back on the evening of August 25th. I got a global phone loaner from verizon and will have a cell phone if you need to get in touch. It's my cell number. You can call me just like you would if I was here. It's $1.29/minute though, so I won't talk long. I'll be checking email too.

"What's with all the panoramics lately?" Good question, it's just what I've been seeing.

Just ran mile 230 of my 500 mile goal. I'm a bit behind, but still running.

Peace-
Matt

Pounds

Seven more work days until vacation starts. I went to the bank yesterday and turned dollars into pounds. Between the exchange rate & the bank's fee, I felt pretty violated. This is going to be one damn expensive vacation. It's just money though, and some memories don't come cheap.

Alex and I went to see Batman last night. It was great. Heath Ledger was amazing. What a great actor. I wasn't impressed with his rump riding cowboy performance, but as the Joker, he was awesome. Too bad he's dead.

Peace-
Matt