Guess who's coming to dinner?

I thought I was getting up really early since it's still dark outside, with just a hint of light on the horizon. But when I opened my computer it informed me it's actually after 7 a.m. So I'm not feeling as virtuous as I had been ten minutes ago.

This means the days are getting shorter which makes me sad. School starts Monday so I knew summer was about over, but it's a whole 'nother thing to have it confirmed by the sun. Or lack thereof.

Anyway, this has been a crazy busy week with different folks arriving from hither and yon.

[Why did we ever do away with that phrase? Hither and yon rolls off the tongue so easily and describes so succinctly what we'd otherwise need a whole slew of words to say.]

Our area director and his wife arrived in Santa Rosa on Monday morning. Not only were we NOT at the bus station to meet them, we weren't answering our phone either. LOL The phone had turned itself off. Our area director said that was a likely story. But the hubby had told them about our friends who own a gomería just across from the bus terminal so they hauled their suitcases over there and our friends brought them out to the house. (In our defense, we didn't know what time their bus would get in.)

Our field leader and his family made it later in the day, pulling up at the house somewhat in awe of the fact that our directions actually got them there ☺ Exhausted (parents) and stir crazy (kids) after a twelve plus hour drive, they headed down to the river for a little exercise. And almost wept at the beauty. The poor things live in a dusty city in the far north of Argentina. The boys couldn't resist the lure of the water and were soaked -- and chilled -- when they made it back to the house in need of towels. It had been 105° the day before in Resistencia. I think it was probably 70° in Santa Rosa when they arrived.

We were back in Carlos Paz for a couple days in the middle of the week because I had to finish the calendar, get it printed and have the hubby deliver it to a nearby store to be bound. To say I miss having PageMaker is like saying southerners drink their tea sweet. You.Have.No.Idea. Trying to finish that calendar made me want to reach through the computer and strangle whoever invented iPages. It is SO NOT WYSIWYG! (trying very hard to get a handle on my emotions and calm down) But it's done, and I plan on never again offering to do anything requiring the use of such a program.

Then it was back to Santa Rosa for a day. A very long day. We left at 8 a.m. and returned around midnight. Our co-workers went also and we each met with the area director and field leader (and spouses) for The Dreaded Annual Review. Oh, I kid. If all companies handled their annual evaluations like this, there'd be multitudes of happy employees in the world. We pulled our lawn chairs up under a tree, sat in a cirlce and laughed ourselves silly for a couple of hours. Okay, okay, some of it was serious. For us it wasn't so much an evaluation (since we just got here) as a time of getting to know the other couples better and having them explain what's expected at future evaluations.

We also enjoyed a fabulous asado prepared by my female co-worker. Normally the asado is a man's job here in Argentina but the men were occupied with a meeting regarding serious issues and so the job was entrusted into the capable hands of A. She grilled the chicken and chorizos to perfection! We also feasted on tossed salad, potato salad, fresh bakery bread, and ice cream cake for dessert. Oh my, it was good.

Friday flew by in a frenzy of cleaning. Although we'd been gone most of the previous week, the house had accumulated a surprising amount of dust. I just don't get it. We don't live on a dirt road. Or even near a dirt road. So why does the dust pour in and settle everywhere as if we did? We swept and mopped the entire house, cleaned the bathroom, moved some furniture, mowed the lawn, did a lot of laundry... I say "we" when of course you know I did NOT mow nor did hubby do any laundry. It's simply a figure of speech. Because we DID do most of the work together.

And now we're ready for a crazy busy weekend. Our area director and his wife will be with us today. We're going to give them some sight seeing options and see what they'd prefer to do. Our co-workers will be hosting the field leader and his family, and later on picking up the general director of our mission when his plane lands in Cordoba this evening. Around 9 p.m. we'll all gather here at our house for asado. Sixteen of us.

More folks arrive tomorrow, still more on Monday, and on Tuesday the conference begins!

So I will probably be MIA most of the coming week, too. I doubt we'll have high speed internet at the hotel because it's up the valley in a wee little town. We'll have our 3G thingy but that is iffy, depending on cell reception. To say nothing of how busy they'll keep us through the week, leaving me no time to actually get online even if I could.

But like this past week, eventually I'll be back and catch up. I wasn't able to read many blogs in Sta. Rosa...talk about SLOW! -- some pages just would not load and kept timing out. That just means when I do get back, I'll have a veritable feast of funnies and heartwarming stories to read. I know y'all won't disappoint ☺