Two weeks and counting

Two weeks from today, we fly to Germany. OK, it's only a 1-night layover at Frankfurt before getting the plane to Chicago the next afternoon, but as short as the stay may be, it will still be our first visit to Germany. (Actually, not. We did attend a church in Germany across the border from Salzburg, Austria, back in 1991, but that was just for a few hours, so this still counts as our first real visit to Germany.)

We've been trying to sort out our travel plans for the month we'll be in the US, fitting in the two or three "non-negotiable" dates during that time. One of them is a family reunion with Abbie's folks and some of the family down in Arkansas (where our stateside journey begins) the first weekend of August. August 17 is another one, when Mom will turn 90...but the party will be on Saturday, the 19th, as her birthday falls on Thursday. You'd've thought with all these 90 years getting ready for this birthday, she could have planned it to fall on Saturday. Aunt Easter, Mom's last surviving sister, will be there from Houston. She's only 93 and she loves parties, so much so, that someone is going to have to drive her up to Colorado (1500 miles?) so she won't miss it.

In preparation for our being away, I've just finished installing a watering system for our yard. If it works the way I think it's supposed to, it will automatically water the plants while we're away. A good test will be to see if it keeps them watered the two weeks we're still here, since I figure we're going to have plenty of other things to do besides water the flowers between now and the time we leave.