Xmas in Liberia.

Low key, having only been back a week or so after our traveling about...

Our Spartan, yet fully functional decorations & presents.

Me with my super-cool and mega-awesome Kindle Fire, gifted to me by my wife earlier this month, since we can't ship lithium batteries via post here to Liberia.  

I have overly thoughtful and generous friends, as well.

Xmas gift haul.

 Xmas dinner was a relatively quiet gathering at a house on the Embassy grounds with a handful of folks.  Sandy made some awesome cookies to take over, that unfortunately we forgot to snap a pic of.  But they were similar to the ones below.

Pic via 

Instead, Sandy met her needs for cooking up Xmas food and having plenty of leftovers by whipping up a turkey and a bunch of sides on the day after the holiday, which we did indeed, and continue to, enjoy.

She cooks a mean turkey.

First plate of awesome.

Aftermath.

Second plate of awesome...

...till next time.

"This [alcohol] is going to help me for a very long time" - Charles Bukowski.

You and me both, Winston.

Three Weeks in North Carolina and London.

Three weeks abroad, back to NC for a family wedding, and then a week in London on the way back.  Photobombing it all in one post.  Good times.

The things I do for a taste of familial love, I swear.

Super Happy Fun Play Time!

Fine craft beers. Rogue Chocolate Stout, Rogue Double Chocolate Stout [now maybe one of my favorite beers ever] and finally - wait for it - the utterly indulgent Rogue Bacon Maple Ale. Yes, you could taste the bacon, and yes, it was awesome. It's things like this that ensure that either - 1. America Wins at Everything, or 2. America is Doomed. [Special super secret bonus points for unintentionally color coordinating my Fight Club tshirt with my pink bottle of beer. Because I am unstoppable.]

Old friends.

Random Afternoon Double Chocolate Stout Beer Battle Throwdown!!!! The winner? Well, me, clearly. Of the beers, however, I'm going with the Rogue as the bolder, thicker, richer and more robust drinking experience. Though the Young's was pretty good as well.

Nuptial Success!

Any wedding with virtually inexhaustable supplies of Asahi Super Dry portends a long and lasting relationship.

Big Ben in old Londinium.

First shopping stop in London, England? - The Japanese Store. I kid you not.

The Sherlockian Mecca.

The tobacco in the slipper, correspondence affixed to the mantle with a knife, as God himself intended.

Post Sherlock Holmes Museum, why the Sherlock Holmes Pub, naturally.

Sherlock Holmes + Alcohol! It could only be better if there were a 7% Solution of Cocaine, taken intravenously...

The Full English Breakfast = Awesome.

The Mrs @ Buckingham Palace.

At the Churchill War Rooms, the Japanese Peace Sign doubles as a 'V for Victory!' True Story.

Churchill judges you.

She's the bomb!

Kaitenzushi is glorious.

Big Ben from the London Eye.

Fish and Chips.  How could we not?

At Windsor Castle.

Stonehenge, obviously.

Bus trip!  [It's the Adachi-Gene.]

The hot springs in Bath.

Base Ops in London.

Shopping at Harrods.

The Globe.

Where better to catch the new Holmes film than in London, I ask you?

Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen was a worthy reminder of just how good well crafted food can be.

Before and after the show "Noises Off!" @The Old Vic Theatre. Funny show, cool theatre.

Perhaps my favorite flying tradition.