Hi Everyone --

It's been another slow week, but that's ok. We like it when it's boring!

Our house is getting worked on. The people on the other side of our duplex moved out and the owner is renovating and decided he could help us out too. So far we have had the pest control come and drill holes in all the marble and tile floors, inject bug killer, and then fill in the holes with putty. This left a HUGE dusty mess for the weekend. Today it got cleaned up a bit, but probably needs more and additional moppings. The dust is all over the furniture and everything. I started wiping that up today, since I was sick of it being everywhere. They also started painting the outside of our bungalow. They make such a mess -- just let it drip where it may and leave it. It does look nicer than the moldy and mildewed walls we usually have. No work on the waterproofing yet!

We are nearly ready for our trip to Italy. We finished our hotel reservations today. We only need train reservations from Rome to Florence and back. We should be able to handle that when we get there. We are within walking distance of most things in Rome and in Florence, so that shouldn't be a problem. We know when and where church is for Sunday. Doug thinks the meetings will be in Italian. That's ok, we should be able to handle it. We do need to pack tomorrow, then off we go!

Doug is off work tomorrow for the Indian holiday Diwali. It is called the festival of lights and lots of people have put out "Christmas" lights. This is also the festival of a zillion fireworks. Doug went and bought some on the way home from work today and spent 500 rupees. That's a ton of fireworks. He has large fountains, small fountains, rockets, sparklers, the small crackers, and really large boom crackers. The police department decided today that no crackers can go off after 10 p.m. and before 6 a.m. That sounds ok to me, since I expect the place to sound like a war zone for quite a while.

We gave all our help their Diwali gifts last week. Of course, Feroz is Muslim, Mary is Christian, and Sham is Hindu, along with 2 guards and the gardener. So I told them "Happy Eid," "Merry Christmas," and "Happy Diwali"!

We had 4 for church yesterday, and we finished watching October General Conference. It was great.

We hope everyone is well and happy this holiday season! Happy Diwali!
Love, Lucinda