Bon Voyage, Donna

Had Donna's official going-away party this past Tuesday night.

Had a houseful of guests, a mountain of chow... Call it the Feeding Frenzy Special for 20. I rotissed a filet on the grill, oh man that's the way to go. Get it spinning for just a little while, darken the outside, cut the steaks while it's still mooing... then finish on the grill to each person's specific liking.

Aug 25 is the BIG DAY... so think of Donna at 5:50 p.m. eastern as her plane pulls away from the gate at Newark, bound for Frankfurt, a turn to Gay Pareee, then a ride to Tours. We know she's excited about that, as she has departure pegged to the minute on her Google countdown calendar. I think as the days-to-go count dipped below 30, it really started to sink in for all of us... she'll be outta here for 11 months. We'll hit single digits here real soon, and that's when the pulse will really rise...

Donna will be keeping a journal, and Rotary Youth Exchange requires posting to their own page once every month, I think... so we'll be able to keep track of what's going on, even though we're usually the last to know, well, everything. In the OLDEN DAYS, Rotary would tell the kid to give a call once they arrived in-country, then NOTHING for a month, so they could get settled in. Nowadays, of course, there's int'l texting, IM, webcams, Facebook, and of course stodgy old email. So v. little chance of her losing touch. I think this way's better...