Various

• I changed some things in the sidebar of my blog again. I liked the tracking widgets I was using, but they were only on a trial basis of two weeks. In order to keep the full service I had to buy them. I guess I am too cheap to fork out the money. It was interesting though to see where people were reading from. Most were not very surprising, but others were.
  
• I added another widget to reflect my larger web album and deleted my link to my Flicker site. For me, Picasa is easier for what I do.
• This past week at the hangar was probably the hardest week I have ever had in our time here in Ecuador. I was flight coordinator and therefore didn't fly much myself. The stress of this week was due to many factors which would be too long (and boring) to divulge here in the blog, but let's just say I'm glad it's the weekend. I was about ready to pop!
• After coming off the hardest week ever in my missionary career, it is nice to know that I am now basically on vacation. I have next Monday through Wednesday off for a few days away. Tomorrow we are heading to the high country (The Andes Mountains) to enjoy a few days at a hot springs resort. We are all looking forward to it. Becca is pretty wiped out with normal life as a full time mom/housewife as well. At least she will be able to leave the housewife part behind for a few days. That said, I probably will not be blogging for the next 4-6 days.
• When we get back from our short vacation, I still don't think I will be going to the hangar. We still don't have driver's licenses after being here for a year (again, another boring, frustrating, and long story) and we are going to try and take a few days to get that taken care of. Man, I thought having to wait in line for 5 hours in Costa Rica was bad, but at least I walked out with a license.
  
• Our air ambulance contract still did not get signed. A few small changes were made after the meetings, which negated another trip up to the Ivory tower for approval. That said, it still might be a few weeks before it is approved. But, even if it is signed as it is written now, we will not have enough money in it to continue flying for air ambulance. The budget allocated is basically already used up in our first 4 months of emergency flying, which leaves the rest of the year pretty lean.
  
• I mentioned last week that this past Sunday were elections here in Ecuador to decide if the Ecuadorian people wanted a new constitution/government. It was unanimously approved to draft a new constitution and government model. I can't say what this means for us as North American missionaries at this point, but we might begin to get an idea in the next 6-8 months.
  

I took a picture of the mushroom in our front yard a few days ago. Then a funny thing happened afterward; my dog Maya come right up to it and ate it.