9 days

We are down to nine days before our departure. I'm on book tour, in ten cities in ten days and Marcelle and I talk several times a day trying to sort through the planning for the departure. Just as we think we've thought of everything, we hear that we need to pack peanut butter and sun cream and now bug spray... I'm arranging to meet with our real estate agent, and Nancy, my assistant and I struggled all week long -- once again -- to send the rent money to the landlord. Hopefully, we think we got that sorted out.

I've been working on the syllabus for my lectures, and have been buying books like mad to assist me. I'm finishing up Steel Trapp 2, hoping to have it complete before we leave. Dave and I are madly plotting and writing Peter and the Sword of Mercy -- even as Dave is on zip lines with monkeys in Costa Rica!

I talked with Mitch Albom and the family may be able to get up to Beijing to see him and Janine when he's there covering the Olympics. It's down to the wire, and I'm wired just thinking about our departure. We've planned to pack twice: once, with everything we want to take; and then unpack and try again with everything we need to take.

It's already an adventure. And we haven't left....
(Ridley)

29 Days

Twenty-nine days and counting. We're told the furniture has been installed in our lane house and that we'll need to bring sheets with us in our luggage. I've been in touch with the university to find out what the students are reading, and among the list is John Grisham. Of course! Thankfully my band-mate, Amy Tan, is on the list as well. So I can lecture on Amy's books and throw in some references to John Grisham, and hopefully we'll be on the "same page."

With a book tour coming up for me, the twenty-nine days is more like 15, so everything has taken on a shrunken, time-traveling feeling. The ticking clock beats loudly in my head. Plenty of Visine for the air pollution, one friend recommended. The pollution in Nanjing was so bad that we couldn't see down the street more than five blocks -- like a forest fire was burning nearby. We've received emails about school uniforms, and myriad other things. We hope we can keep track of it all.

Swirls and whirls and 4th of July. We love America and will miss it. There's that clock again, I'd better go...
(Ridley)