The fun never ends

Future suggestions to everyone who does this, and everyone should try it. 1. Do not have your entire family over right before you leave. 2. Your children will break down when the family dog leaves, (my daughter is a mess right now) 3. You will NEVER finish everything so do not try. It is very weird because you are simultaneously packing for a trip, moving from your house and getting your house ready for someone else to live in it. It probably would have helped if I was not away for half the summer, but hey that will never change. I would love to hear from people it would probably make me feel better. As Roger Waters would say "Is anybody out there?" Shipped our last bag to Scotland today, had our house made completely wireless, and saved three small children from a burning castle. Actually, that last one probably did not happen. We actually are getting into a pretty good position, but we still have lots of the little things to do over the next three days. I know this part is not very exciting, but once I get to Scotland hopefully we can all learn a little about the country. I did speak to my partner Jane today and she is doing many of the same crazy things getting ready to come over here. She has to leave on Sunday so she has two less days to get ready. If I am not going to see you please call and say goodbye before we leave or fire an email.

Cheers

Jeff

Murphy's Law

Well, in the category of what can go wrong will go wrong the last 24 hours have been a winning combination. We have not been able to do anything that we need to in order to get ready to leave and in addition to that my brother who was being wonderful by helping us replace a broken faucet on our tub accidently flooded our bathroom which dripped down into our kitchen ceiling and now we have eighty more things to do. Stress is not something I am used to in combination with travel. Right now I just wish I were back in Germany or Spain with good people having fun. On the plus side, we just sold our second car, so now we are officially carless. That is a very strange feeling for an American, although I guess I must see myself as a European for the next year. I am excited by the prosepct of walking to work next year, I just do not know how we will get around when I return next summer. Anyway the fun continues. I know that alot of you have seen the blog, but I would love if people would leave some comments, that is part of the joy of doing something like this, plus I know that alot of my old friends probably cannot wait to bust me out. Actually, probably true of my new friends too. I will add some more pictures today, be sure to keep going down on the blog if I add new ones. Paul Kelly said he appreciated all the pictures of Dave, since it dressed up the site a little.

Cheers

Tales of Travel Woe

One of our colleagues from the Germany trip just emailed and had a horrible tale of woe on his return trip from Germany. He landed with us in D.C. at 3:30 on Saturday and did not make it back to Florida until Sunday afternoon, by way of the Greenville S.C. airport. These are the things one worries about as they send half their belongings overseas. That is the bizarre process we are in right now. What do we bring, what do we leave, and what do we give away. We have given away like half our stuff. It makes you wonder why you buy so much sometime. Maybe after Scotland I will sell the rest and take a slow boat to the South Pacific. (just kidding Debbie--if your reading this) (My Boss). A new friend recently put travel in perspective and I have a lot to think about. I hope Dennis, my Florida colleague is recovering. Time to go pack some more and move A to B.

Welcome to my site

I have just returned from Germany and I have some serious jet lag. However, I am leaving for my Scottish adventure in nine days, so I thought that I would begin my blog. This is a new experience for me so I apologize in advance for anyone who is logging on during the first couple of months. Hopefully I will learn as I go. The summer has been busy as I have been to Spain and Germany as a warm-up for Scotland and I hope to add some pictures of two very tremendous trips. I have met a lot of wonderful people this summer and I have really enjoyed myself. I think this is great preparation for all the great people I am bound to meet this year. We are in the last stages of cleaning the house and getting the house ready for the Bonnars' who will be moving in on August ninth. We have lots of loose ends to tie up, but other than that we should be ready to leave on August 5th. We will be in Washington DC on August 5,6,7 and 8th and leaving that evening for Musselburgh. The attached pictures will be from my earlier summer trips. To prevent all the early criticism, I realize the cover is from Machu Pichu, but I do not have pictures from Scotland, YET

Cheers

Jeff