The countdown is on. My journey begins March 31 at 3:20pm and who knows what will happen in the two revolutions around the sun before I again return 'home'. Today I was booking hostel space for my layover in Manila and checking on similar arrangements for my arrival and first few days in Cairns, Australia. Given the amount of time I'll have in the Marshall's, I hope to get my basic SCUBA certification and if that works out, once I'm in Cairns I can do the Great Barrier Reef for a couple days.

Back to the hostels for a moment. For the past eight years I have worked in resorts in the Napa Valley, where we charged substantial rates for beautiful accommodations. Coming from that background, you develop an image of what service standards should be and expectations that follow. The trip I am taking will be a study in extremes. I booked a night in Manila that includes meals, shuttle to and from the airport and more for $6.18. Five nights with meals in Cairns will set me back $67. Now maybe I'll discover you get what you pay for, but my experiences in hostels in Europe and the feedback from others that have traveled to some of the places I am going overwhelmingly support them as clean, functional, and more than adequate for what I need. When three of my friends and I traveled through Europe, the most expensive hotel we stayed at was also the worst one we experienced. The hostels were far and away better, and only the wonderful beds at my aunt's house in Switzerland beat them. (my friends still comment on my aunts beds) I look forward to some very interesting lodging over the next two years.

I am remiss for having posted so little in the last few weeks. One little saga that went on during that time has drawn to a successful conclusion. About a month ago, the heating element in our stove decided it had had enough and self immolated. This obviously made it hard for the rest of us to cook. So a replacement element was ordered and a week passed until it arrived. The technician dutifully installed the new element and went to test it. TA DA nothing..... There was more internal damage than we had first assumed and essentially the stove was shot. Luckily, as my parents were wont to do, we had a spare stove in the garage from a previous home we had lived in. And now lugging it from place to place had rewarded us, so we thought. I hauled the stove up the stairs into the kitchen and got it connected. The next day while I was at work, my mom decided to cook. Well the dish was prepared, placed in the oven and what is that HORRIBLE SMELL emanating from the stove? Quickly, she removed the food, shut of the stove, opened the available windows, and tried to dissipate the rancid air. We surmised that mice had gotten into the stove and when we had a technician come a day later, he was able to open up the side panels and see where they had made nests in the insulation. They also had urinated throughout the insulation, thus leaving a very unpleasant surprise for us. So number two stove is shot. What to do, what to do? Craigslist came up with some very good deals, but in white and everything in our kitchen is cream/beige, so they were all nixed. Fortune still smiled on us and Sears was having a sale online. We selected a reasonably priced model similar to what we were replacing and ordered it. And had to wait eight days for it to arrive at the store, to be delivered to us. The day before it was to be delivered we got a call. Our stove had arrived, but had been damaged in the process of shipping and we would have to wait another week. There is only so much you can do with a microwave (despite what the mother in law of one of my coworkers believes) and we wanted our stove. Well yesterday it arrived, was installed, and promptly put into service baking several dishes, including a pecan desert I was enjoying this afternoon. All is right in the world if only for a few moments.

A couple more flash games I've found recently:

Chronotron and Perfect Balance