SO YEAH... ahem... TWO MORE MONTHS!!!

I should have just stayed up writing last night, as I simply wasn't tired enough to go to sleep. I stayed up tossing and turning until about 3:30am, and I simply couldn't get out of bed at 8am. It's not so bad though, as I have a bunch of overtime hours worked, so I simply dipped into them and took today off. I slept until freakin' noon! It was so great, I could have slept all day.

Anywho, I wanted to post about all that I accomplished last month for the trip, and what's left to do for the next two months, so here goes. You all know from the recent posts that I secured the car, and both Lindsay and I found good shoes. All that was left to do was book the accommodations. Now alot of people are split on booking ahead: some think you should book everything at once; others believe you should only book the first few, and be more adventurous on the rest. I fall into the first category. It may mean that we can't doddle around, and have to get to our places on a fixed timeline, but we'll never have to worry about where we'll put our heads at night, and because there's so much to see and do it will help keep us moving I think. We'll see.

There really wasn't anything else left to do for last month, which was nice, but I also took the time to put together a few spreadsheets... I'm such a geek, lol. I have this master spreadsheet that has all the details of our trip, and I've added to it by marking which hotels have wi-fi internet, just so we know. I've also started adding a cross-reference sheet that lists a handful of restaurants that I'd like to go to at each destination, how much to expect roughly for a nice meal, and wether they'll require reservations or not. Yeah, I know, tooooooo much time on my hands. I have fun doing stuff like that, it gives my analytical mind something to chew on.

We also got our GPS navigator for Christmas from the company, and I bought the Europe maps off of Ebay and have them loaded up. As a side note, always check Ebay first for Garmin maps, they have the best prices for brand new maps compared to the rest of your options. Anywho, I've programmed a bunch of routes into for France, as it can only store ten routes at a time, but that was also alot of fun.

So that was December, now a look at what's ahead from the list I made back in May:

This month:

• Planning the luggage and what to bring
• Getting a Video Camera for the trip (which I now have, complete with extra batteries and memory cards - though I still need a case for it)
  
• Watch the exchange rate and grab some Euro's
  
• Getting a power adapter (which I got from Dan and Erin for Christmas)
  
• Ensure a method for keeping our valuables and wallets secure while out and about (apparently thieves target tourists pretty heavily in Europe, France isn't supposed to be too bad, however Italy is supposed to be terrible)
• Figure out a cell phone option overseas for staying connected in case of emergencies
  

And finally, just before leaving:

• Make photo copies of our itinerary, passports, credit cards, leaving the copies with a family member at home in case something goes missing
• PACK!!!
• Apparently it's a good idea to call your credit card company and let them know you'll be using it overseas, as they're likely to put holds on the card for security reasons otherwise (I did this back at the beginning of December when I started booking stuff)
  
• Make sure we have everything accounted for

So this month will have a few more tasks, and then it'll be so close to going! We plan to bring our laptop along so that we can post little updates and pictures during our adventure. I'll probably post most of the stuff here, but might throw a few things on Facebook as well.

Anyways, that's about it. I'm off to enjoy another day of doing absoloutely nothing, finished by a dinner at my parents place, as my brother is leaving tomorrow to go back to San Antonio. Goodtimes.