and we're off

well, almost.  we leave for Japan in about 15 hours.  we are pretty much all packed and are probably about to fall into a dead sleep after all the running around this week.

this is the first real vacation that we've taken together since...i think since we spent a few days in southern California in 2008 after i worked at a conference in San Diego.  plus the eight and a half months in Syria in 2008-09 which technically wasn't vacation but, you know.