Lots of Fun Things Going On

Rebecca and I are really working hard to get things settled before I leave the country. Still, I know there are things we are going to "miss", and others we are just not going to be able to get around to. This week, I have a business conference in Houston on Monday, several projects to bring to a close, a couple to make significant progress on, and 2 that must be started and taken as far as possible. I also still need to take care of seeing a doctor before packing my bags.

I've heard from Leo via email on a pretty regular basis, but also got a phone call from him this week, which was really nice. The company that pays the company he works for was having a little difficulty in paying their bills, which had me worried, but a corporate bailout (of sorts) calmed us all down (okay, calmed ME down, that is) and we are assured that Leo will keep getting those paychecks.

School activities are ramped up a bit as I have begun digging into some projects that require significant time and effort. In Grants and Proposals, I am making contacts, filling out forms, and preparing a very large project proposal for two different activities. One of these is my pet project of providing some inexpensive laptops to technical workers/students in PNG, and the other is newer and involves providing donated books to children on a remote island to the west of PNG. In Teaching Technical Communications I am getting prepared to observe a college instructor to discover what class prep activities could be important to me in my teaching. We also read a LOT of a wide variety of material for that class. My Publications Management class may be the most demanding of all as I am scheduled to create, implement, and provide training for a new database for use by my company, Herries-ETS. This project is costing me a lot in valuable time, but I'm definitely hoping the final product will make it worth my while.

The refrigerator issue is still one that has me baffled. I paid for a unit on October 14, and not only have we not received it, we continue to get reports that it will come "on the next shipment". That's simply amazing. The problem is, I don't have time to deal with this problem! But...it has to be dealt with, so it is also on my list for the week. In other house news, the loft is finished except for the painting, as is true of most of the other odds-and-ends items on our list. It is entirely possible that by the time I leave for PNG, there will be no outstanding items at all.

Hope everyone is doing fine. I'll do my best to check in again before I board that flight in Houston on the 19th to head for "the land of the unexpected".