Quickie

My men made it safely to Almaty.  There was no driver to meet them, but always efficient David still had the cell phone number for Gulnara, our facilitator in October, in his address book.  A quick call to her (catching her on the way to Taldy Korgan for court) and our wonderful friend and driver, Emil, showed up to whisk them to their hotel.  The airport in Almaty has installed an automated pay parking system that apparently was on the fritz today, and it took them nearly an hour to get out of the &^*#% parking lot!!  As Emil said, it took longer to get out of there than it took to drive to the hotel!!  They are staying at the Hotel Almaty or Almaty Hotel (can't remember) and amazingly I was able to punch in a few numbers and have David on the phone .. with no delay or echo!  Quentin is doing great; he got lots of sleep on the flights; David can't sleep on planes.  They bought the British version of "Harry Potter" in London, but David is being cruel and making Quentin finish his summer reading book for school before he can have HP.  Tough love!  I think today was pretty much rest and recuperate day.  The rest of the team should arrive in Almaty late tonight.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm packing boxes ... packing ... and packing ... and sweltering.  It's supposed to be 101 tomorrow ...