10,000th visit

Sometime late last night/early this morning, this blog has its 10,000th visit in 19 months. My web site, which has been going since December 2001, has had 98,000+ visits and will likely hit six digits in early 2007. It's still surprising how the Internet allows people from around the world to stay connected.

Today I went with Anne to Frédéric and Kheira's apartment to pick up the loft bed that they are giving us. I spent 3 hours on Wednesday disassembling it. Moving it from their place to ours wasn't easy. For one thing, there are some wide and some long places that weren't easy to squeeze into our hatchback. Fortunately, they all did. Secondly, parking around them is horrific, so finding a close parking spot was difficult. Thirdly, there is all sorts of work on roads being done in Paris, so finding one's way around was sometimes difficult.

Despite the obstacles, we were able to move 20+ pieces made of wood for their 3rd floor apartment to our hatchback and drive it home. From our basement, I carried the pieces to a large elevator (thankfully) that lifted us up to the 4th floor. I then moved a wooden bookshelf from the office to the porch. My wife has now filled it with her planting paraphanelia, so she's thrilled.

Tomorrow I attack trying to put the bed back together. Hopefully God will help me remember where and how all the pieces go together.

I'm currently on guard duty at the photo exhibition at le Pavé d'Orsay. With daylight savings time, it's been dark since nearly 5:00 p.m. Our first visitor of tongith just walked through. Others have been peering through the outside window. One benefit of being here when it is dark is that it is more obvious that the exhibit is open.

After dropping Joel and Emma at school this morning, I dropped Moise and Elizabeth at an RER stop so they could catch their train for Germany.

I've also had a stop at our bank to pick up some papers to sign. Our personal banker, Mme. Gautier, is really on the ball. She gives us much better service than the workers at our former bank. She seems to be one of the "persons of peace" that God has put in our lives to help bring order in the midst of the chaos of life today.