Sorry for the radio silence, but I've been unable to access the internet for the last week. I'd be going through withdrawal symptoms, but I haven't been home either.

Last week, we flew to Washington D. C. and had a lovely time meeting up with Rob the Llamabutcher, who looks nothing like a llama and sure is a snappy dresser.

Then we flew on from Dulles to Heathrow and have been hanging out in London ever since. While Justin is dining in the Inner Temple dining hall and hanging out with very, very British barristers, the kids and I have been logging many, many miles, both on foot and on the Tube.

Every day we start out with a walk to our closest Tube station, about a mile away, and then head out on the day's adventure. We're hit the London Eye, the Museum of London, the Tate Modern (an excellent chance to teach children how to separate good art from bad), the Natural History Museum, a lovely bookstore, taken a trip down the river to Greenwich and stood on the Prime Meridian. We've also wandered through Hyde Park, the Victoria Gardens and gone to mass at Westminster Cathedral (not the same as Westminster Abbey).

All in all, it's going quite well. Sadly even with all my walking, I'm not growing any thinner, because the belly is rapidly expanding. British people, generally more polite than Americans, don't comment much on my interesting condition or my already large family size, but I've gotten one or two shocked looks -- such is my lot in life.