Go go gadget knee!

It's 12.15 and I've been to the airport and back, worked out, packed a couple of bags for the Sally Ann, cleaned my apartment and showered.  Getting up at 5.45am is fun.
We stopped into R's place on Friday night and visited with some of the book club crew.  Played a really fun game called "Apples to Apples".  I love games.  We should have game club.  I need a new Sudoku book (I've more or less given up on the "difficult" ones on account of my overall stupidity).
Michael's boss is Russian and is a pastor at a local Slavic church.  He invited Michael and I for Christmas dinner at his church on Saturday night.  Awkward.  It was going to be fundamentally Russian immigrants there, plus they don't drink or dance and also I'm atheist and, moreover, I'm tired of having to hide my atheism in a bid to be polite.  I don't care if you're Jewish or Catholic or Buddhist - I mean, I kind of have to wonder why, but it's your bag and so go ahead and run with it - and you should be equally accepting that I believe in little other than the Way of the Horseshoe.
At any rate, we showed up not quite knowing what to expect.  There was food.  There was religious Jeopardy.  There was much singing and piano playing.  It was very heavily Russian and we sat at the "English" table.  There was also a puppet show and the gentleman that wrote it gave us a copy of the script in English. 
There was no shortage of fodder in that script.  I could glean a lot of comedic material from it.  It was perplexing.  But here is what I will say about the overall experience, instead.
I was happy and grateful to have been asked to participate in another culture's celebration of Christmas.  If we are asked to go next year we would both like to go.  Everyone there made an effort to make sure we were happy and to explain what was going on even though we weren't a part of the congregation, nor did we have a shared cultural history.
Additionally, one of the fundamental reasons that I think organized religion is an utter, hypocritical crock of shit is because of places like the Vatican and all the obnoxious, showy, expensive churches that have been built throughout history.  This church was owned and maintained by the congregation.  It was very minimal and basic.  There was no cross, just some simple pews and a small baptismal pool.  They give back to the community.  They travel to other Russian churches and they hosted people that wanted to come and experience the Olympics.
I had been worried that I might be asked about my religious beliefs (Presbyterian followed by Baptist followed by agnosticism before embracing atheism) but no one asked.  It was a very fun night and I think the highlight (aside from the Russian puppet show) was when we all got little Toblerones for playing Jeopardy (our team sucked, badly) and a little boy, about five or six years old came over from playing wherever the kids were playing and, instead of taking his chocolate bar and returning to his friends, he opened it and broke off a couple of pieces and offered them to his father.  His father refused them and so the boy put them in front of his dad anyways and then ran back to his friends.
Yesterday we had a nice 12 mile run in the sun, over the Lionsgate bridge and into Stanley Park.  My knee is screaming many interesting expletives at me today.
Excellent.