We are in task overload.  We love that we are getting support but it seems like everybody who checks in to help us get ready has a long list of To-Do's.  Some of them are surprising.  We can't set up our bank accounts until our passport gets back from the State Dept.  Who knew?  Our passports are perfectly good for now, but they expire in about a year, so we need to get new ones that won't expire while we're over there.  And of course there are the not-surprising things like applying for a visa, which requires the new passport number.
  We were awakened this morning by the couple who are serving in the position in Croatia we will be taking in February.  We reached out to them back in August and they have been great.  A couple days ago Liz expressed to them that we have a list of questions.  So they kindly spent over 2 hours with us explaining how to get around, how the car will work, how much time we'll spend on audits versus doing missionary work, what they'll leave in the apartment, etc. 
Good news:  there is a nice queen bed in the apartment.  Bad news:  We are totally spoiled with our PUFFY King bed with electric lifts and vibrator. 
Liz is excited they are leaving the 220 volt hair dryer.  I might be too, if I had enough hair to blow.
  We are surprised that we won't be where we thought and instead will be in an area reminiscent of Nebraska in that it is flat, with a lovely river running through it.  I'll be able to bicycle for pleasure, which it was too hilly in the other place for that.
  I was checking out the country on Google Earth today and noticed that a big river runs through Croatia and joins with the beautiful blue Danube.  The river has black water, and you can see which water is which when it joins the Danube.  The Danube is green and miles downstream they stay separate until finally the green slowly overwhelms the black water until it is gone except for a few big swirls.
  We are signed up for a language program, and will talk to our tutor next week.  I have been re-learning the alphabet.  It is mostly like ours, but there are flavors of letters.  Letter C has three flavors, for example, denoted by carots and up-arrows and stuff on the character.  In English you just learn which flavor C is in each word.  Everybody knows English is a crazy quilt of a language.