"So Long and Thanks for All the Fish"

And they're off (almost with me too!) -- and now the house is really quiet. Sierra, Susan and I are basically left to ramble around a huge house for a week, trying to stay out of the way of the workers who are already fixing up the place for next week's "incoming!" students. Susan's smart - she's escaping to France on retreat and pilgrimage later this week. Myself, I've gone to enough places lately, so I'm just going to sit down here and catch my breath (and save my checking account).

I already miss hearing the whistling in the stairwell, the singing in the chapel, the typing in the computer room, and the refrigerator door opening and shutting and opening and shutting and opening (ok, I'll stop).

As I write this, I figure that they all must be somewhere over the Atlantic right now, closer to America than to Italy. I pray that their flight is going well and that there are no problems making that last connection from Washington DC to Minneapolis-St. Paul; please say a prayer for them too if you would!

Kara, Jon, Jordan, Nate, Tony, Huy, Jonathan and Jim: SOMEBODY had better e-mail, call, or comment so that we know you made it home ok!!