Phew!

Okay, so I've narrowly escaped publishing an uber-negative missive on here, focused mostly on just. Exactly. How. Stinkin'. Hot it is in Europe. And it is. Stinkin' hot. With no air conditioning. Anywhere. But ANYWAY, something good has happened today that has distracted me from the opressive heat and humidity that has descended on pretty much the whole of Northern Europe at the moment...and what is that, you might ask? Yes! After much deliberation, long-distance phone calling and what seems like a million emails back and forth, I went to the dealership today and ordered the new car! Phew! And finally, finally I can check that off the 'to do' list, and it's an exciting one! Now it's time to wait for the order confirmation in a couple of weeks, and with any luck, the new car will be here just about the time that M. makes his homecoming! Sweeet! And what if it doesn't get here in time? No worries: M. has already picked out the car that he'd like to rent (or NOT!) And that is...(drumroll, please!)

The Renault Modus! It seems like M. has gotten stuck with this rental model more times than he'd care to recount (even if it was just that once last year...) So, hopefully the Volvo factory will be full steam ahead this summer. If not, though, it might be Modus time, baby!

Italia!

The World Cup is finally over, and Italy has just won! I'm more than secretly happy, as most of us had been rooting for Italy in the FIFA final...thanks to the many residents of my 'burb who are of Italian descent. And I'm happy for them! (And happy that, so far, they're celebrating rather quietly!) But then again, it's just a little before 11:00 PM here on Sunday night, so who knows what the rest of the night will bring... Germany's victory in last night's third place match was also a relatively quiet celebration around here...the match was in Stuttgart, which is a good 2 hour drive away. So you might be wondering, exactly how am I following all of this sans TV? Since it's summer, all of the windows are open and every World Cup goal has been met with collective screams from basically every house surrounding mine! So, when I hear the screaming, I click "FIFA World Cup" on Google.com and voila: I get real time scores: so handy! Plus, we've been able to get the highlights (as well as a few of the actual games) on American TV here, so when I'm in a public place, I can usually see the recap. And, one of my patients has tickets for tonight's final in Berlin, so hopefully I'll be getting a first-person review here soon. Anyway, it's been an amazing 4 weeks...but I think we're all ready to be getting more sleep at night on a regular basis!

Wrap it Up

The Tour d'Iraq is 75% of the way finished. M. and I think it's time to wrap this baby up. Only 90 more days to go...

Radio Silencia

I'm still here! I swear! I've been distracted by: A) the wedding planning monster (I know! Already! And you'd think I'd know what I'm doing by now, but noooo....!), B) the weary of Iraq funk that has settled squarely upon us, and C) the fantastic weather that has FINALLY arrived in Germany! I promise that as soon as the clouds cover the fantastic sunshine here, I will hole up in front of the computer to regale you with the wildness that was the World Cup, and how very, very glad we all are that Germany was defeated by Italy earlier this week, as we may now finally be able to get a good night's sleep on game nights! And, thanks again for enduring this portion of Radio Silencia programming!