Now Boarding...

Lufthansa flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Scheduled arrival---9pm local time (which is about noon CST today!) I spoke to the boys before they boarded their plane in the middle of the night (here) last night. They were doing fine minus the German tendency to anal-retentiven perfectioness, I mean, careful attention to detail. It seems that the rental car people uber-inspected the car upon return and found a tiny scratch UNDER the passenger door (really people, who looks THERE?) and had an intial damage estimate of about 500 Euros!!! (for those who are inclined, please pray about this unexpected expense) My first phone call this morning (actually, second after the pediatricin's office--I think N has a bit of croup) will be to the rental car agency here in the states to see what can be done about this. In the meanwhile, the carpet cleaners are coming to clean every.single.spot. out of the carpeting in the house. This will be great to have everything so clean. What was not great, was staying up to the wee hours of the morning ensuring that all dusting and cleaning was done and everything was off the floor (it was a half-hour alone to remove all the Polly Pocket paraphenalia from the recesses of the family room), but it is finished and soon the carpets will be, too. My plan is to run N out to the doctors as the carpets are finishing, perhaps make a stop or two on the way home to give the carpets some drying time and then make my first ever call to Ethiopia this afternoon!