Almost Ready

Hmmm.... Elena beat me to the punch. Usually her blogs lag mine and she uses mine as a reference to write hers. Well, I shouldn't say "usually" since she just started. Anyway, we leave tomorrow. So here's what I had to do to get ready:

• Buy travel insurance. Did that just now. Thank goodness for the internet and online insurance. $500,000 policy with a $1000 deductible for $438.
• Decide which books to take. Just my little language books and travel guides.
• See people--saw Ken and his wife Josey two nights ago. Saw my brother and his family last weekend.
• Buy a few items--nylon cord, a money belt, a compass, and a new Moleskine to start a new travel journal.
• Repack--need to reduce the amount of stuff I need.
• We also got a hostel room in Barcelona and a week in an apartment in Montpellier.
• Charge my iPod. I have 19 This American Life episodes loaded onto it.
• Figure out my passport--I'll get it renewed at the Consulate in Marseilles.
• Confirm our tickets--LOT 2 from O'Hare to Warsaw and LOT 437 from Warsaw to Barcelona.
• File taxes--hey I need my stimulus money to stimulate the French economy, right?
• Deposit a check--not so many branches of my usual bank out here.
• Laundry.
• Turn off voice mail on my cell phone so I don't spend $2 to receive a non-message that somebody left. BTW AT&T international Customer Care is 1-916-843-4685. Did you know that you can't use AT&T voicemail to have an outgoing message unless you accept voicemail? Back in 1998, I had an answering machine that let me choose between outgoing message only or outgoing message with voice mail. I can't believe I can't do that in 2008. Shame on AT&T. Also I needed my phone unlock code. Again, AT&T didn't send it to me--only a message saying that my issue was resolved successfully.
• Wash the car.