My guests are gone.  We had a great time and I wish it could have lasted longer.  We've already started to figure out when we can get together again.  I think I can convince Chef to go over there next.  One of my cats finally decided that she would grace them with her presence on their last night.  It was so divalike it was laughable.

The oak pollen is out in full force right now and I'm getting stuffy.  Just what you want before a plane trip. NOT!  So once again I'm procrastinating getting ready.  I did lay in a bunch of drugs to take with me.  It's very difficult to get meds over there.  They don't have as much OTC as we do.  And their stuff is super expensive to boot.  Anyway, back to the pollen, if it wasn't such a beautiful old tree, I'd take down the big oak at the back of our property.  'Course it's not the only oak around but it would probably help somewhat.  Then again, it would cost some big dough to have it taken down but we'd get some lovely lumber out of it.  I just hope Germany is better than here when it comes to oak pollen.  I've heard that it's hot and humid there right now.  Oh joy.

A colleague has a friend visiting from Germany.  He asked the friend to bring me Happy Hippos.  I am in Heaven!  Happy Hippos are my new favorite chocolates.  I've shared with some others at work and they all want me to bring some back from this trip.  I think I need to pack a separate bag to carry it all back with me.