Ok, so I guess I gotta...

...go buy a pig head. What the hell is that code for you ask!? Well, here's the thing. We're going out to see Sow's family next week. Haven't ironned out the details entirely, but it's been more than a year since we've been and there are a lot of anxious village folk waiting to see the farang baby. Sow's mom happened to walk down and mention at the local spirit house that if the village spirits saw to it that we got Sow's visa, she'd get them a pig head. Anyhow, guess we're down for one pig head. (Come on, beats the dog story!? sheesh!)

So we're not entirely free and clear yet. Other than the pig head, we still have to go back to Bangkok next wednesday afternoon to pick up the actual visa. Apparently there's an additional background check they gotta run since there's a lot of variation within translations from the Thai alphabet to roman. They said, usually takes 3 days. Here's the funny thing. This weekend is the King's 60 anniversary as King (and the world's longest reigning monarch) and everything is closed from friday-tuesday. I'm not quite sure when they're planning on fitting it in, but they said to drop by at 3:00pm next wednesday.

Anyhow, long and short, ok short, of it is, looks like Sow and Ray are heading back with me Sunday June 18th! Woo-hoo!

Wow, what a long crazy run it's been. Down to the last 18 hours, we fit in: getting all our paperwork in re-order for the unpteenth time; Ray's first flight and trip outside of Chiang Mai; a night in Bangkok; me waking up at 4:00am thinking of a page that was missing from our packet; calling Steve international long distance and getting him to login and email me a pdf from my bank account; running out and finding a 24 hour internet shop to print out the page from; getting to the embassy at 6:45 and finding a line about 50 meters long; weasling our way thru them all for our 7:30(DON'T BE LATE)am appointment - the interview which actually took place at 9:30 at window #6; getting back on a plane and coming back to Chiang Mai for Ray's 2nd flight ever.

So now we got a lot of packing to do, some travel logistics to plan, and of course a pig head to buy.

So tired...

P.S. - can't start my laptop from the main drive. I think a colony of ants has made their way in. See what the good people at Apple have to recommend for that.

P.P.S. - Steve you rock!