My vacation is beginning without me. Again.

Lynn Kolb just emailed me, asking why it's been a week since I blogged. No good reason really. I'm just busy juggling the kids, the husband and work.

We're heading out of town soon. But some of our vacation peeps have already left. This happened two years ago, too! The first family left the Bay today. Two more leave Saturday. The fourth leaves Tuesday and then we finally leave.

Neeracha did a post about all the electronics they are taking. I then challenged my Facebook friends to guess how many Internet-enabled devices five families will have in total. Even though neither Dave nor I are taking computers, it's going to be a healthy number as a few of our friends have jobs that don't lend themselves to unplugging or are doing business trips before or after this vacation. That's one of the reasons we always rent a house with reliable wifi. Paris may bring her netbook, which will be good for looking up random phone numbers, mapping, modifying travel plans, banking.

Here are some of the things I need to do before we depart:

1. Mani/pedi
2. Laundry, pack
3. Arrange transport to and from SFO
4. Buy children's Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl
5. Buy snacks for plane
6. Pack carryons for 9-year-olds
7. Take 9-year-olds to dollar store to let them buy $5 in in-flight entertainment
8. Narrow down books to bring, both travel and general reading
9. Load up iPhones, iTouch and Nano with movies, music and books on tape
10. Call credit card companies and make sure they know we are leaving the country
11. Eat everything perishable in the fridge
12. Finish editing childhood friend's book and mail the manuscript back to him