Good sign of the week.

The Iowa State women are number 13 in Sagarin's ratings. Of course, that still only makes them fourth in the Big 12, but still. And their RPI's probably only in the mid-40s (because their SOS is eh), but still.

Thanksgiving in London

Although Matthew labeled our travel day as "Day 1," the fact that we had no sleep really makes Day 2 blur together with Day 1. Our flight got into Gatwick early in the morning and by the time we got through immigration, got our luggage, and cleared customs, it was rush hour. So taking our luggage on the train and the Tube was a bit more crowded than we would have liked. In fact, I kept thinking the ticket machine was broken by not giving us an off-peak travelcard, until I realized we were actually traveling in rush hour. After that many hours of traveling and no sleep, you have no idea what time it is!

We trooped our way to our hotel and dropped off our luggage. As the hotel website promised, it wasn't too far from the Kensington (Olympia) Tube station. We were a bit concerned because this Tube stop is a limited service station, but we later figured out that it wasn't too bad and ran late enough for our needs. We figured the only reason the station was even still operation was because a big exhibition center was right there, as well as a transfer to several suburban train lines. Anyway, the hotel location worked well, and the price was right.

After some brainstorming, we decided to see a matinee show and headed off to the half-price ticket booth. Along the way, we went in search of an ATM and something to eat. We satisfied both of these requests on Kensington High Street, including a stop at Marks & Spencer (department store -- it'll come up in a story later in the week again) for lunch. I got my first taste of typical English fare -- a prawn sandwich! From reading Time Out, we found that not too many shows have Thursday matinees but we decided on "Sweeney Todd." It turns out it's another Stephen Sondheim musical, which is the same as "Assassins" that we saw in New York.

In between buying our tickets and the show starting, we wandered around Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I was really hoping to see the London Christmas tree, which was supposed to be in Trafalgar Square, but it wasn't there yet. In the National Gallery, we joined a gallery talk by one of the docents, but we were both so sleepy from the lack of sleep that both Matthew and I started dozing off. We quickly realized that sitting still was not a good idea (as good as it felt) and we moved on. The National Gallery was one of my favorite places when I lived in London -- great works of European art, a beautiful museum, and free. I found my favorite works and even noticed some I hadn't noticed before.



We finally made it over to the theatre, exhausted but happy to be in London. Just like "Assassins" this Sondheim musical had a very bizarre story line. "Assassins" was about presidential assassins, while "Sweeney Todd" was about a barber that kills his clients and bakes them into pies. It takes quite a skill to take these topics and put them into musicals. Despite such a morbid topic, I actually rather enjoyed the musical. I liked the staging and how they put it together. (After we got back to the States, we actually saw a scene from a earlier production of "Sweeney Todd" on a PBS pledge drive special and decided we far preferred the production we had seen.)

On our way back to our hotel that evening, we took a detour to Harrod's -- got to get that shopping in, right? We also finally got some Thanksgiving dinner -- a chicken sandwich from a sandwich shop near our hotel. Definitely not the traditional turkey dinner, but we weren't exactly in a country celebrating the holiday with us. The guy running the sandwich shop teased us a bit and wanted to know why we were having sandwiches for our big Thanksgiving dinner. Turns out they were some really tasty sandwiches with some British television and an early night to bed.

Tripologue, Day 1

We got into an airplane at Reagan National. We took it to Raleigh-Durham, where we were required to stay seated during the entire flight because all flights in and out of D.C. require all passengers to be seated during the half-hour before landing in/after takeoff from the D.C. airport, and by the time we were 30 minutes beyond D.C. airspace, we were in our Raleigh-Durham descent. From there, we got on an airplane leaving for London Gatwick, where my in-flight entertainment was Anchorman, Kim's in-flight entertainment was The Notebook, and Kim slept for about 90 minutes more than I did (that is, 90 minutes). We have no pictures for Day 1, because they would have been boring.

If only I were qualified.

But I'm sure they're swarming with applicants.

The fastest dental pick in all of Richmond.

I've always been slightly perturbed by how quickly my dentist looks at my mouth before considering it cavity-free; while I'm not in favor of my mouth containing cavities -- especially since it's currently unfillinged -- it seems as though he ought to spend just a bit more time making sure it's all a-okay. Today, I decided to time him. I started mentally counting a quick "one-one-thousand" after he told me to open my mouth, and by the time he had taken his tools out, I was only at "six-one-thou..." Am I crazy in thinking this is not enough cavity-searching time?

Rarish things that I would like for Christmas.

* Sufjan Stevens' three "Songs For Christmas" EPs. (No link, since I can't find where to buy them.)
* Holy Tango of Literature.
* 5 On the Outside: Vern's Writings on the Films of Cinema.
* 25 Words or Less.
* Smelling a Rat, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party and Goose-Pimples.
* Any cricket or rugby game for the GameCube. (Yes, I looked when we were in London.)
* The Beckett on Film collection.
* The InFocus X1.
* Finale 2005.
* Yes, I know those last two items are expensive. But am I not worth it?

Buster's a believer?

No, but apparently Tony Hale is.