The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Last night, Lorie, Anne, Cullen and I went to the Rolling Stones concert at the O2 in London, which used to be called the Millennium Dome. The sound wasn’t that good so we couldn’t hear the vocals all that well, at least where we were sitting. But when they play songs like Start Me Up, Sympathy for The Devil, Paint It Black, and many other hits, everyone is singing along anyway so it just doesn’t matter if you can clearly hear Mick. I have to admit, experiencing the Rolling Stones play Paint It Black is one of my best concert experiences ever! And of course, this being England and all, we had chips (french fries) and beer as we waited for the show to start.

They opened the show with Start Me Up, which made me wonder if I was back at the launch of Windows 95. Only you Microsoft geeks will understand that one.

Oddly enough, as we caught the last District Line train home from the Westminster stop, we met a TV news anchor from San Francisco that works with a guy Lorie went to high school with. He and his son had also been at the concert.

UPDATES SINCE I FIRST POSTED THIS:

1. We saw Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood light up and have a smoke on stage, but it is now illegal to smoke indoors in London. This has now hit the news and the Daily Mail in London is reporting that there will be fines to pay.
2. This is the last tour that the Rolling Stones will do (probably) and the last 3 shows at the O2 will be their final ones. They have been touring since 1962! At least this is what the Daily Telegraph in Australia is reporting.
3. The Times has a write-up of last night’s show.

Onj stage at the O2.

I am playing around with Windows Live SkyDrive and have created a folder with good photos of Milo for you to enjoy. SkyDrive offers online storage that you can lock down for just yourself, those on your list of Windows Live Messenger contacts, or everyone on the Internet. It can be used to store anything, not just photos. If you are Brian’s parents, brother, or wife, then you will see a folder just for you. You can see all of this on the right-hand side of my Windows Live Spaces page (the one you’re reading) – just scroll down a page or two and you’ll see the folders listed under "Files".

http://cid-817ed2a8693b5fc7.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/BestofMilo/

We are nearing the end of our holiday in New York, New York; Lake Pickerel, Minnesota; and Chicago, Illinois.

NY consisted of working with Hayley and others regarding Agents for Windows Live Messenger (yes Alex, all of our dreams will soon come true) , seeing friends and family, and a bit of shopping since buying clothes in NY now seems cheap compared to London. 

Minnesota was my favorite though since that’s when I got to sail (that’s me in the picture), bike 22 miles on my old recumbent bicycle with my dad (and a bit with nephew Haakon), jetski, wakeboard, kneeboard, kayak, cruise around the lake in the pontoon boat, and share some Pimms that we had brought from London. I have already posted a bunch of photos of the fun.

We are now in Chicago seeing family and friends, but mostly eating too much, such as some very tasty Giordano’s pizza, of which their deep dish spinach is the way to go.

Welcome to America.

Outside the Today Show and Rockafeller Center – both are looking down from Rob’s office building, which is a pretty sweet location.

Yes, the pile of paperwork, a pile of cash, and far too many hassles are over and we finally have the keys to our new flat in Fulham.    

We have quite a few photos uploaded – you’ll need to guess at which room is which though. Here’s some info to help understand the photos and to know more about what we just bought:

1. It is the 1st floor (2nd floor for the Americans), which means someone lives below us.
2. There is a loft, so it is a 2 story home (the main floor with the loft above it)
3. There are 3 bedrooms: 2 on the main floor plus the loft
4. The room near the road is the lounge/living-room and is the only one where you really hear any road noise
5. There are 2 bathrooms: 1 on the main floor with a tub, one in the loft with a standing shower
6. The kitchen leads to spiral stairs that go down to the garden
7. A woman lived in it during and since WWII and we bought it off of the guy who bought it from her. He gutted it, built the loft, put in a new kitchen, new garden, new carpet, and paint while also fixing all the cracks and other things that appear in a place after almost a hundred years. I think it was built in the 1920s.
8. Milo loves the carpet since he doesn’t slip on it like our current hard wood
9. It is 1313 square feet – bigger than our houseboat and our cottage that we had in the US!
10. It’s about two and a half blocks closer to the Thames, which means it’s closer to Bishops Park too.
11. It’s roughly where the A219 number appears on this map:
    
    

This one is for my dad who enjoys his WeatherBug gadget in Windows Vista: Our friend Alan summarizes our local weather and the approach to reporting it here in the UK: Alan’s Travel Tracker: The Weather

We are still waiting for final paperwork before exchanging contracts, which has to happen before we close the deal, which has to happen before we get the keys and can move in. However, we did a walk-through today with camera in hand. I will post more photos after I know we really have it, but we expect that to be within a few days though.