Go here to see some pictures!

So I've figured out that Picasa is really quite wonderful. (Thanks Dana! your posting your England pics on Picasa made me curious, and lo- there on my Programs Menu was a Picasa option! It is wonderful and easy to use and my new best friend. well, you know what i mean.)

so there are some pictures on my picasa web album that you may see by clicking the link or entering the address http://picasaweb.google.com/leinbacker in the future. There are only a few pictures there right now. I will add some more tomorrow. but as i'm writing this, a video clip is uploading (17% done). this is exciting because i've tried several different ways to post some video, and this one seems to actually be working. we'll see. (18% done)

WARNING: the video may not be for the motion-sick-inclined (Melissa!). Although, it is pretty short, so prolly won't be a vomit-inducing event. The 6 minute video we have of take-off from Ft. Lauderdale on the other hand, well- Lis should never watch that. (It's WAY too big to post though, so you won't have to worry!)

We are still not up and running with our telephone. I spent some time on it tonight and realized that the power lights weren't even coming on. (on the Vonage router) I think it's because the transformer we'd been using is not good- it was left by a former teacher and pulled out of a drawer the first day we were here. i'd never really looked at it, and Katie (our roommate) says that she thinks she remembers that it didn't always work well. oy. So, my next move is to go and shell out some cash for a transformer (sorry, Kris, the one you gave me isn't big enough for the router) and then try the installation/hook-up again. Don't know when that will happen.

BUT- if you call the phone numbers, YOU CAN LEAVE US MESSAGES AND WE GET THEM VIA EMAIL! Vonage sends us your messages as email attachments, so that we hear your voices coming right out of our computer! SO- i know you would love to hear from us, and believe me we'd love to call you all! BUT you CAN call and leave messages and we'd get to hear your voices! and that would be groovy! So far we have amessage from Dana (yes, you were the FIRST message on our new phone!) and Kris. So, please, feel free to call! (If you don't have the numbers, email me- i don't want to post them.)

Don't let the scary-sounding man on the greeting scare you- it's just Kris. He recorded a little greeting for us since we can't do it ourselves. (Now the video is 25% done!)

Okay, so i am really tired (what's new?) and cindy and i are planning on going into the school around nine tomorrow (yes, a saturday) to do some work, so i should have been in bed an hour ago. i just got so excited about sharing pictures, i couldn't go to bed without uploading some!

I love you all, and even though i'm too busy to always consciously think about missing you, my soul is missing all of my friends and family every day. when we stop and think about it, we miss everyone too much to stop and think about it! not being able to talk via telephone has really made that worse. thank you, God, for giving us the email we've got! (And i did sort of "talk" to Lisa Martin tonight- read an email, replied, and minutes later read her reply. nice to know she's there with me in the moment.)

(29% uploaded. I'm leaving it to it's uploading and going to bed.)

Buenes noches! (i *think* that's spelled correctly.)
emily