Sachi's brother Mark, also-known-as my brother-in-law, current roommate,  future house-sitter, Amos care-taker and all around great guy, ran the Seattle half-marathon this morning and finished in just over two hours.  Nice work Mark!

Even more impressive, he went almost directly from the half-marathon to the tailgate party for the Seahawks game today.  Oh, the kids today. ;)

I really wish I could tell this story and have it be true...

Over the weekend I was kayaking and went over a 20 foot waterfall and dislocated my left shoulder.

The problem is that the actual story of dislocating my shoulder is much much less glamorous.  Our house has a backyard and in that backyard is a shed and within that shed are various bags of fertilizer, peat moss, soil, etc.  Evidently, we have critters that enjoy scratching open the bags and spilling the innards out onto the floor, in search of food I suppose.  It bugs the hell out of me.

I recently discovered, in said shed, giant mouse traps (rat traps) left by the previous owner and spent a little while figuring out how to set it.  Upon setting it and scoping out the perfect location to place it, I bent over and carefully placed the trap onto the floor using my left arm.  Just as I let go of the trap, which could easily break a finger, SNAP!, it went off. I must have jumped a foot into the air with my arm recoiling. 

It happened instantaneously but long enough for me to hear IT happen- the removal of my humerus from the shoulder socket. 

6 months ago, when looking forward to the weeks before the trip, I would have guessed that the excitement and anticipation would be overwhelming.  My Mom wondered recently in an email if I’ve been losing sleep (which seems completely plausible at this point).

Here at the 2 week marker, we are incredibly excited, let there be no doubt.  But, are we as excited as we would have guessed?  No.  Are we losing sleep? No.  Are we at peace?  Sort of.  It's like the trip is something so different and life altering compared to what we've experienced previously that the normal excitement doesn't apply. 

We’ve been talking about how it feels right now and the basic idea is that the trip is too big to be excited about in the way that we would look forward to a 2 week vacation.  We’ve been planning and mentally preparing for so long that we’re in a kind of a “zone” where we are intently focused on finishing the long list of tasks that will finally enable us to leave our home with a clear conscience.  I don’t think that we can allow ourselves the euphoric excitement that we expect until we’re done preparing, or perhaps the moment we step on the first plane and leave it all behind. 

Until then we’ll just keep counting the days, tying the loose ends and awaiting the arrival of the biggest adventure of our lives so far.  Then, I think you'll be reading about excitement.

We’ve been working hard to make connections in the countries and cities we plan to visit.  One of major goals is to find locals and be able to learn from them about their home.  Luckily our friends have generously provided contact information for people around the world.  This is a good start.

Lately we’ve been excited about the opportunities to travel with the help of locals wherever we go.  Thanks to the Internet, we have new opportunities to make connections with people around the globe who volunteer to meet us over a beer and welcome us to their city.  I can’t think of a better introduction to a new place.

Along with this site and friends of friends, we’re starting to use a couple of web sites to make these connections.  We’re good friends with the Robot Coop guys, who created 43 Things, 43 Places and 43 People.  These sites have a global reach and offer some basic infrastructure for organizing local gatherings/meetups.  The Robots are helping us find ways to use their sites to make these connections.

We’re just getting started, but we think we could be onto something.  The Internet may offer us the ability to travel and learn about cities around the world in a more personal and localized way.  We’ll be talking about this more soon I’m sure.

 For now, check out this goal on 43Things and a question I asked on 43Places.

Tonight is a Wednesday night, but not just any Wednesday night, it’s the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  So, it’s like a Friday, but one on the verge of a 4 day weekend for most people in the US.  It’s what should be a very special sort of Wednesday night.

On a week like this, the weekend starts early. The normal cycle of the week where we work, work, work for 5 days and play for two suddenly changes.  We do love our weekends and look forward to them with great anticipation.  Two extra days- that’s a good reason to party.

Something’s missing now though.  With the trip starting in just days, the work/play schedule is losing traction.  What we call “school nights” are bleeding into weekends and the cause for weekly celebration is just not as exciting.

Of course, this is a pretty great problem to have, but one that feels strange nonetheless.  I think we’re going to have to adjust to a new schedule and one that doesn’t recognize the work week.  Wow, that does sound pretty damn good and we are very, very thankful.

We figure that less hair means less things we have to keep clean. You might enjoy this set of pictures of my haircut.

A big part of my (soon to be former) day-job is helping organizations understand the blog world and how the world of business is changing thanks to the Internet.  I write about this subject a lot on my Common Craft blog.

This morning I posted about what I call "listening" which is becoming aware of the information being shared on the Web.  Over the last few years a number of new tools and sites have made it possible to define a niche and then become aware of what is being said on the Web regarding that niche.

For TwinF, that niche is world travel and this morning's post is all about the tools I'm using to listen to what's happening in the travel world. You might find it interesting in a geeky way.

We've read that it's smart to take extra passport photos on a trip around the world, mainly because visas often require photos and having them with you can be a way to save time and money.  So, tonight we made our own passport photos. 

If you're going to make passport photos, it's important to know about the government guidelines.  This page is very helpful.  Here is a good tutorial too.

 As you can see on the left we had problem with light, or lack thereof, but in the end we were able to print them on photo paper on our home printer.

We're taking 24 pictures each, which should last us for a while.  Also, you might remember to save the file that contains the photos in an accessible place on the Web while you're on the road. 

We’re keeping a very long to-do list (actually, a ta-da list) and something that became clear to me this morning.  Throughout a year, you have to do a lot of things.  Taxes, yard work, car care, healthcare, dog care, etc. etc. etc.  Over the course of a year, these things get sprinkled over weekends and bursts of productivity. It's manageable.

What we’re finding now, is that all of these things are being compressed into the weeks and months before we leave. The to-do list is full of things that don’t need to be done today, but will need to be done in the next year. 

An example is yard work.  We love our garden and spend a significant amount of time keeping it up.  While Mark (Sachi’s bro who is living in our house) will do a LOT, we don’t expect him to tend the plants. So, this weekend is all about pruning, seeding, fertilizing and mulching for the next year.  While the garden would survive over the year, we want the peace of mind knowing that we did what we could to save the plants for our return.

I think we're getting a little stir crazy.  We have 23 days before we leave and the monetorium is in full effect, so we're not going out.  Sachi mentioned that we got a handy-dandy blender for our wedding and have some rum in the cabinet.  So, we decided to make it a dark Seattle November Friday night at home- with Boat Drinks.

 Everything we know about Boat Drinks, we learned from Stephen Gwyn's Boat Drinks page.

Boat drinks are drinks that are drunk on a boat. Or near a boat. Or while wishing you were on a boat. Or near someone who is wishing they were on a boat. They tend to be colourful, sometimes too colourful. They tend to have fruit in them. The tend to taste almost, but not quite, booze-less and they tend to pack a hidden wallop.

As a general (but not infallible) rule boat drinks have two main ingredients:  Rum and A paper umbrella.

We call tonight "practice", sans paper umbrellas.