The invasion of the Americans, Meat sticks vs. Velveeta, and round 2 with the crispy duck...

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond after another GREAT DAY in the Mother Country. Let me tell you - the last 36 hours have been BOOOOOOOOOMB Diggity.

After leaving you on Sunday, I had a GREAT chat with Mom, and we planned out her time in the UK and Europe. Mom - I'm SO GLAD you got tickets for those prices! We'll get you all set up for the rest of the trip - it will be AMAZING!

After that, I finished "The Children of Men" by P.D. James. Dean, AC, and anyone else who values my literary opinion - AVOID P.D. JAMES. I've given her two chances, and she's let me down twice. I am NOT reading another novel from her EVER. "The Children of Men" was particularly disappointing given all the promise, and some sins are unforgivable. Oh well - next up: "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr.

The evening was FANTASTIC. We rolled over to Fizzy's, where she had QUITE the spread of booze. An hour later, we were eating a Demario's pizza (Di's favorite) and hanging out at Liz's, where we caught both the AFC (PEYTON!!!!) and NFC championship games. Granted, it made for a long night, but it was a BLAST. We had lots of great laughs, Grimshaw rolled over with the Droewars (See Lynda, I can spell it, damn it!), which I was eventually dipping in Velveeta cheese (Liz - that dip was OFF THE CHAIN).

I ended up passing out during Overtime (but I did see the final kick to win), and I ended up sleeping on the couch until just after 4 AM. 4 hours later, I was up, cup of coffee in hand (thanks Liz), ironing my clothes (insert cheap and hurtful jokes here - DUCKHEAD RULES, BABY!!!) and getting ready to kick off the January Integration Session. That's right - members of the GHR Transition Fellowship - UNITE!

It was another busy day, but the reward at the end was MONEY. JT and I led the gang into Chinatown, where we revisited the spot JT and I hit on Saturday night. The results were even more spectacular, including TWO crispy ducks. Shogun - without you there, the ordering was left to me, but I felt I delivered. Throw in some Tiger beer, 9 mains, plenty of rice, and Liz rockin' out to Boom-Boom-Pow, and you've got a recipe for success.

The most classic moment was when the bill came for the Hitman. Here's a synopsis of the conversation:

Hitman: "This receipt isn't very detailed."

Chinese server with spiked hair (CSWSH): "Yes, that's because it's written in Chinese."

Hitman: "Yep - got that part. For example - what does this little symbol here mean?"

CSWSH: "That is beer."

Hitman: "And this little symbol?"

SCWSH: "That is chicken."

Hitman: "All the chicken or a certain kind of chicken?"

SCWSH: SILENCE - NO RESPONSE

Hitman: "Which little symbol is gratuity?"

SCWSH: "It's not in there?"

Hitman: "Really? None of these little symbols are gratuity?"

SCWSH: SILENCE AGAIN (insert Table cackling here)

However, the host was good enough to re-write the ENTIRE BILL in English, which was nice.

The only other surprise was walking out to some married Scottish couple looking to pick up some members of our crew to make a scene from "Eyes Wide Shut." All in all, talking to those cats (the PYSCHO WIFE IS IN THE PHOTO), was an odd experience, and I was glad to run away from them. To quote VA: "SKETCH."

Now it's off to bed - back into the gym tomorrow! I hope...

That's all the news that's fit to print. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny