July 2, 2013 - Pre-trip Tasks

Its the day before the trip, 10:42pm and I am not packed ... Ugh ... I guess I have my work cut out for me tonight! I have a pile of clothes and things that need to go with on the bed.

Today I worked, charged batteries, went out to buy muffins and get my mail temporarily suspended.

Once that was done I set up my UPS battery surge protector and printer. My old surge protector was very old and had no juice left in it.

Flight tomorrow is not until 4:25pm out of Philadelphia. Mom is flying Toronto -> Philadelphia and then we travel together on the Philadelphia -> Frankfurt leg of the trip. Mom's flight was cheaper than mine - go figure. They tell me its because I have a direct flight, and mom has to transfer - so its an inconvenience to her, not to me - so mine costs more than hers. Hmmmm.

I used to think flights out of Canada would cost more due to HST. Not this time. Last time with Karen to Lisbon I flew Philadelphia -> Toronto -> Amsterdam -> Lisbon; and my flight was cheaper than Karen's!

Angela helped us book this flight again this time around which makes life a lot easier ... she can get us seats together, and she did all the legwork comparing costs which was a bonus. :)  For trips on my own I have to do all that legwork on my own.

Trip is from July 3rd through 26th. 3 weeks and 1 day! I have the feeling people at work will miss me ;-)  and appreciate some of what I do when I am there!  The week of July 22nd will be tough - a lot of people will be out that week - except for Tom ... hopefully it will be an easy week for him ... but its tough when lots of people are out.

Annika's wedding is on July 13th. Our travel plans are very rough. We arrive and stay at T Roswitha's the first couple of days, to help get over jet lag. Then on to T Mechthild for her birthday celebration. Then back to Wiesbaden for the wedding, to O Martin to visit with him and maybe visit one or both of his daughters. Sabine has 6 kids - yikes. Then back to T Roswitha's before our flight home again. Its a rough plan with us probably spending about a week in each place.

We will stick to the north of Germany this time around. We will see O Gerhard from Titisee at the wedding.

I got all the items done on my todo list ... including buying muffins from Giant for afternoon tea on the first day. I bought 8 ... which may be more than enough. Not sure how many of us there will be on day 1.

We arrive at 6:15am. I think we are going to be throwing some people out of bed early tomorrow ;-) We will all be taking afternoon naps!

I've checked in for the flight - using my new printer ... everything worked fine!

Will work 1/2 day tomorrow and then leave to take trains, planes and automobiles!

Flight leaves Philadelphia at 4:25pm and arrives at 6:15am the following day.

Lets hope I can sleep (doubtful, but we will see). Both mom and I are taking our IPADs ...

Still need to figure out what dress to take for the wedding ... doing Facetime with mom to figure that out shortly!

I bought things for the Silversea cruise last year, that will hopefully get some usage again ... Wearing dresses rarely happens in my routine daily life! What am I forgetting ... Don't know ... whatever it is - it can probably be bought in Germany too!

Its now 11:22 and Facetime has happened - its the white flowery dress for the wedding and this other colorful one for "Sunday" - we'll see if that 2nd one gets pulled out!  Also taking a short white jacket in case its cold.  Ok ... now I know everything that is going!!! Now, will it fit in the suitcase.  That's my next mission.

I still have one work project to do before I leave (I will work in the am - and hopefully get it done!)

Time is ticking by!