Kristin, rest well. Better to be at your best when visiting.

Eek, on planes landing without half their landing gear. Scarey.

Thanks for the good wishes for the company. Since we've been told to call the "emergency" number before coming in tomorrow, I'm guessing they think they'll have it cleaned up pretty quick.

Gronk.

Wow, Sail. Fire bad.

{{{Kristin}}}

Brenda - when returning from our honeymoon many, many moons ago, we had to fly through Chicago right after a big crash there. We had been out of the news loop, so had no clue what happened, but did see the wreckage while we were waiting for our flight. Man, did I NOT want to get on the plane home.

Took K-Bug to the doc yesterday to have her ankle checked. It is just a sprain and she is supposed to take it easy at practice today and then can start running again on Thursday. She is still so new to this team and trying to earn play time, that any set-back like this is HARD. Everyone in our house is emotionally frazzled.

Restful sleep Kristin. You and your family will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

{{K-Bug and Mom}} Ankle sprains so very ouchy.

What is this with crazy plane and building emergencies? Mad!

So I've spent the day puttering around Cairo in a taxi with Mr Said (our driver of choice, a gentleman of late middle years whose style of taxi decoration is remarkably spartan [nothing more than some understated rugs as seat covers; not even anything dangling from the mirror. Not even any extra mirrors decorating the wind shield!] and whose car, whilst some 30 or 40 years old, is in reasonably good condition and is driven very carefully) and with one of the school's Security Guards, a Mr Ahmed. We have managed to get the paperwork processed by the police, fingerprints and all, and now we need to get it okayed by the relevant government office, and THEN get that translated into English by a British Consul-approved translator, and THEN get that ratified by the British Consul. But it seems to be chugging along. I also managed to sell most of the rest of my books (not the comics yet...I'm going to give them to a family whose daughter I used to teach, I think - the mum may appreciate them, because she loves Harry Potter & suchlike, and then if she thinks they're appropriate she may let Malak read them in 5 years or so. Maybe. We'll see) for the princely sum of 200LE (...er, £20). Also I had Baskin & Robbins icecream, as did Messrs Said and Ahmed (to compensate for all the waiting around we were doing).

It was a surprisingly nice day, because I've been fairly purposeful and distracted so far all day. Which is good. And now I'm home, and sorting through more of my stuff. (Managed to give Mr Ahmed a bag of things - notebooks for his 13 year old son, pencils, that kind of thing. His suggestion, with many apologies, when he saw the 2 carrier bags of books I was getting rid of. Nice bloke. Good to know that people can make use of my stuff, and good to spread it around a little, rather than giving the lion's share to the cleaning lady and the boab.)

In conclusion: Let's make out.

Sail, I hope everything gets cleaned up at work quickly, that is so awful.

Kristin, get some restful sleep and much ~ma for visiting your grandmother.

{{{K-Bug and Suzi}}}

Fay, best of luck with getting your paperwork in order and packing your stuff.

A fire! Good god, Sail, that's scary.

{{{Kristin}}} Here's hoping you're peacefully asleep by now. I know your grandmother will be happy to see you whenever, and especially if you're rested and fed.

{{{K-Bug and Suzi}}}

In conclusion: Let's make out.

This should be the conclusion to every post, I think.

It's not?

Calm and rest and no burny and quick resolution of paperwork ~ma to all.

Thanks for the weather vibes Beverly. I'm a bit worried. Yesterday, we had several torrential downpours and the weather predictions are not good for the weekend. Then again, on the March, when we stayed in Lincoln NE, we had so much rain on one site that we were flooded with 18 inches of water. Sadly, a tent is no protection from such. It was a royal mess and we had to beg big trucks off the innerstate to come tow our own trucks out of the apocalyptic mud.

If that didn't kill us, a bit of rain this weekend won't be that bad.

As the event planners among us can sympathize, I'm sure, this week, two days before the event? Not the time to a) say you are coming with no money for registration, b) make demands to have a 'tech assistant' standing by to help with your multimedia slide presentation, c) suggest that perhaps the organizers (mainly ME) rethink the arrangements because you now have a new!brilliant plan.

AAAAggghhh.

I love these people. Mean it.

I'm making biscuits for breakfast. We're all slow moving and "it's summer" around Chez Zmayhem.

After I drop Emmett off at day camp, I'm collecting his oldest god-sister, Emily, and bringing her into the city for an all day explore and sleepover tonight. She's going into her senior year of high school next fall, and is doing a program at Columbia for all of July. (Ahhh, July in NYC.)

She's one of my favorite teenagers. She's kind but snarky and has all her nerdly enthusiasms in order: theater geek (director), Shakespeare geek, wrote a Harry Potter fanfic novel when she was in middle school, loves the Venture Brothers. She's also tall and pretty and used to be on the boy's wrestling team until she got a shoulder injury.