We haven't written in ten days now! But don't worry for the most part, here's what you've been missing from my (Matt) life.

6:30-7:00 - Wake Up
7:45 - Leave for Work
8:15 - Arrive at Work
1:00 - Lunch
5:00-5:30 - Leave work
6:00 or so - Get home
7:00 - Some kind of dinner
8:00 - 11:30 - Freelance work

I have to put in extra freelance work to pay the bills until my pay goes up in April. Two more months!

But, I should emphasize that I do like my job.

There has been some excitement though. Grace and I decided to make more of an effort to take advantage of living in London, by going to a free museum on the weekend. Last weekend we went to the National Gallery (of Art), which I haven't been to all year. And it was really nice. It's a real privilege to be able to go to an art museum and just look at the paintings, without worrying about being a tourist and having to make sure you see the most famous ones. I got sick of looking at art after about 90 minutes so, we just left. Easy as that. No guilt about only looking at half the museum. We'll go back later if we want to see more.

Anyway, tomorrow we hope to do more of the same. Not sure which gallery we'll go visit though.

And last night, for a late birthday gift from my parents, we went to see the epic Lord of the Rings stage musical, here in London. Trying to do all three shows in one night is just too much! You have TWO intermissions! But, it has amazing special effects (it cost $25 million to make). There's a giant spider, the balrog, tons of smoke, black riders, acrobatic orcs, people on 25 foot stilts and disappearing hobbits. And the guy who played Gollum was amazing. He comes on the set crawling straight down a 100 foot wall upside down. And he's super flexible and gymnastic and spastic and crazy. You really have to see it to believe it. He was just really, really good. In fact, you could say he stole the show. When everyone took bows at the end, people started cheering when he came out, but then STOPPED cheering when Frodo and Gandalf and all the leads came out! He was just better than everyone else.

They did have to rush things a bit, as they told the whole story in 3 hours, with extended song sequences. Mainly, they cut out... the entire second book! There is no rohan, no battle at Helm's deep, none of that stuff! Instead, when everyone splits up at the end of the first movie, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli just say, "Well, I hope the little hobbits did not get captured! (They didn't) I guess we should just go to the city of men, eh?" And then they do!

One more funny thing about it, was how fast they talked. I assume they had to, because they had so much to get through, but still, it's weird to hear this:

Gandalf: Frodo! Let me see that ring! Put it in the fire! Here it is! What does it say!
Frodo: Wow, there are markings here! I wonder what they say!
Gandalf: They are in the language of Mordor which I will not utter here but they say in the common tongue one ring to rule them all one ring to bind them one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them! This confirms it beyond all doubt! It is the one ring! And Bilbo found it! Imagine that! He always did seem quite fond of it! Well, what should we do?!
Frodo: You take it!
Gandalf: No! Don't Tempt Me! You will have to take it to Rivendell!
Frodo: Elves?!
Gandalf: Yes! Oh look, it's Sam! He can go too!