We are GO for takeoff

14:42 - Mike here

The internet cafe was closed yesterday, so couldn't post until today. Sorry.

Anyway, today we took care of some of the last official business of the trip: buying Mia's ticket, taking visa photos, and getting Mia's official "send-off" medical. All of this went smoothly, and we should be leaving our apartment late tomorrow night, to catch a 2:50 AM flight. We fly through Amsterdam, to Detroit, to Greenville-Spartanburg. I'll send exact details in email.

There's really not much more to say. After a short nap today (hopefully they're sleeping now), we'll take a long stroller-walk to the RamStore to get final supplies for the journey and a map of Almaty that might be suitable for framing. Maybe even a map of Kazakhstan (though I think I can find that as easily at home). We also really need to buy a trinket or two, including a decent Kazakh flag. We'll eat at the mall, too. Then we try to get to bed early, setting us up for an early nap tomorrow, because we have final business to take care of at the US Embassy tomorrow at 4 PM.

Last time we did the embassy thing, we met a friendly face behind the window. A friend of a friend of ours from San Francisco greeted us by looking at Tucker's shoes, saying "did you get those at K-mart?" Heh. Small world.

I should say that there are still a few things that could go wrong. The pictures we took today, for instance, were for Mia's visa. The pictures, Mia's passport, and some other papers will be couriered to Astana (hours away) today to processed in time for us to receive it all back tomorrow at 4 PM. It's tense, but they have the process pretty much down to an art, and we have never heard of a problem.

There's also the one final little "t" to cross regarding Mia's plane ticket, but the KLM agent here said that this should probably not even be necessary, as it should already be done. I'll be checking with Eldo to make sure things are locked in.

Keep yer fingers crossed...