An open letter to my blog

Dear Blog:

I am so sorry I have neglected you for over a week. My life has been a bit chaotic with RT's crazy bachelorette party and my insane work schedule. I promise to get better about writing since I know you are lost without me. I thought about hiring someone to write for me, since I seem to be outsourcing a lot of things nowadays, but that didn't seem fair to either of us.

At any rate, thanks for not abandoning me and for your understanding. I will get better about this, I promise.

Love always,
Ellen

Lessons from London

Wow, this has been an intense 24 hours! I cannot believe I've only been here one day.

Chelli and I got in yesterday a.m. and checked into the hotel. We then took the "tube" downtown and walked around. We went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey before taking the train back. It was rainy and chilly -- fall is definitely here! I got some great pics, too.

Last night I had a dinner with a bunch of UK online retail execs in the Reading Room at the Savoy hotel. It was my first real London meal. A few things I learned:

• QuACK: I do not like duck. It's fatty. I also did not like the white cabbage or the weird little potato thing that they served with it. (And I'm not a picky eater!)
• People here have no problem picking their teeth at the dinner table. Seriously, I saw three different men do it!
• We had a six-course meal and three of the courses were dessert. Chocolate and ice cream, then cheeses and then coffee and more chocolate. That made up for the duck.
• Each entree had its own wine served with it. A white wine for the salmon appetizer, a red wine with the duck and a port with the chocolate. I'm quite lucky that I didn't have a splitting headache this morning. Plus we had an hour-long champagne reception beforehand. These people really like to drink.