Leonard Family Around the World Adventure

I got this free VOIP code for Yahoo Voice – it is only worth a dollar but still feel free to use it! I made a few more online orders - we need a new battery for the Fuji Film Z1 camera – the original battery is not holding a charge – I just discovered it Monday and immediately ordered replacement batteries from a couple of sites using overnight delivery to make sure at least one arrives in time – fingers crossed! (I paid $35 in shipping for$ 20 worth of batteries- ouch) Finally – although I am mostly happy with my notebook – I think the Bluetooth drivers are unstable – I get occasional BSOD and my darn Bluetooth mouse becomes slooooowww to respond sometimes. I am actually considering bringing a USB wireless mouse in its stead(I have enough of them lol). Only …5 …MORE… DAYS!

Got a quick call this morning from Shonne (our travel agent) to make sure everything was in order – it was nice hearing from her – she knows how hard this has been to plan since she had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. It was comforting to speak with her for a few minutes. Thanks Shonne!

Last week Pam picked up a travel guide for Croatia – up till now we had been using DK Travel Guides – they were ok and had pretty pictures but lacked real meaty content and were very difficult to find information in. There was also a significant learning curve for their symbols and icons – and my final pet peeve all temperatures were in Celsius – I still cannot convert Celsius to Fahrenheit in my mind. For the Croatia guide she picked up a Lonely Planet guide and she loved it. I read it today in the Dr.s office and I too loved it. Yesterday she decided to try to exchange our DK guides for the Lonely planet series – all we had was the summary AMEX receipt – not the line item but how I love our local bookstore – the Bookshop Santa Cruz. Even through some of the books were less than pristine they exchanged each and every one – that is fantastic customer service in a day and age where that is fast becoming a low priority. Thanks Bookshop Santa Cruz! I will never shop at Border's

Well – went to the Dr. today – I called this morning because I was in so much pain in both feet I can barely walk to the bathroom. I have been living in the downstairs sofa bed- the good news – getting lots of work done, the bad - duhhh - I can't walk – tremendous pain. So I was able to move my Friday appointment to today in between my conference calls and meetings – So the final diagnosis is …… Rheumatoid Arthritis ! I got a steroid shot in the rump – it should help with the pain for the next month – got a prescription for Prednisone for on the road if I have a bad flare up and am starting a new drug similar to methotrexate but not as strong – the advantage is the chance of side effects is lessened (but so is efficacy) and it does not require complete abstinence from alcohol which is not realistic after all I am visiting Italy! I will need to get blood work done every couple of weeks on the road to make sure the drug is not having disastrous side effects. I hope this works. I

I spent quite a few hours figuring out how this will be achieved -for those that are interested here is how we are doing it. The Nokia N73 Phones were selected for their quality camera - and will be used for photographs by Aria and Allysha (as well as music and GSM unlocked phones) in addition to 2 Fuji cameras our trusty FinePix Z1 and a newly acquired FinePix Z10fd will be used to capture pictures. Nothing special needs to be done except for ensuring the clocks on all of these devices are synchronized to GPS time - the phones are but the cameras require some work. Next using a GPS receiver which is synced with one of the cell phones we will simply simply start tracking our movement in the morning using a free program from Nokia called Sports Tracker installed on the phones. This program uses the GPS to track speed and distance over time - it was designed as a work-out tracking device but fits our needs as well. At the end of the day we will export the track as GSX (it can also be

It is getting close - but still the impending trip feels surreal -I do not feel the excitement I expected of being this close to leaving on such an adventure - I do however feel the pressure. The TTD list grows as quickly as we can work items from it. Went to pay the car registration due in January and found a SMOG certificate was required. Tonight Pam and I started a regime of homeopathic organic treatments. A liver/kidney flush, cherry extract and an Oil Blend . I was in pain again this weekend knee and now my ankle -I am hoping there might be some relief here. I made another appointment - Friday at 3:10pm with my Rheumatologist - I am afraid he might take off early and I will not see him until next year - but that was the first available appointment. I got my lab results back - it is Rheumatoid Arthritis - he does not think it is gout even though my uric acid levels are high. One more week to get rid of this pain. It was strange working today - I felt like I should be doing so