Remember my progress update? All we need are the State Police clearance and the FBI clearance in terms of the things we have to generate? I wasn’t worried about the State Police. I sent them a short but very specific letter with the following things in bold: need it to be notarized, notary must sign name as it appears on stamp, sign legibly, and DO NOT STAPLE THE CLEARANCE TO THIS LETTER. Apparently bold and in all caps doesn’t work – do I need to take out a billboard? Slip an extra $50 in the envelope? We received both of our clearances yesterday. Mine was stapled to the letter. I know that seems like a small thing but apparently when Guatemala sees empty staple holes they start wondering what was removed and if it was information they want to have. Steve’s wasn’t stapled, but it also wasn’t notarized at all.

I was rather agitated by the inability of the State Police to follow directions (because you know if I didn’t follow their directions I would end up in jail). Steve was playing poker with the guys so I decided to have a self-indulgent night at home. I ran down to the grocery store and liquor store (in this nazi state you can’t buy any alcohol in the grocery store and if you want beer and wine you have to visit 2 different stores – the beer distributor and the liquor store – because if they were sold together chaos would result). I returned home with shrimp, a loaf of crusty bread and the makings for appletinis. I ate, drank, and watched TiVo (it’s been hard not hearing what happened on the Grey’s Anatomy finale!) Steve returned to find his wife much less tense than when he left.