Diary: 5/5/2002

Dear friends and family,

This note marks the second-to-last Diary entry from Switzerland. Only 12 days and a few hours left (depending on which time zone you are counting from) to go!

In America, Debbie and the kids went to see a concert with Sam Glazer at Temple on Monday. They actually got to hang out with him a bit and watch the rehearsal, and Debbie and Heather actually got to see two concerts in a row. It was a great time and everyone enjoyed it a lot. The CD is now required listening in the car.

Debbie continued to make arrangements for the house - we now have solid dates for the painter, carpet, security system, closets and we are closing in on the fencing for the back yard and Debbie's dream kitchen.

Over the weekend, Heather and Isabelle attended a girlscout campout. Isabelle just went for the day on Saturday, but Heather camped out with the rest of the troup. Everyone came home tired, relatively dirty, but very very happy.

In Switzerland, Monday was the etat de lieu on the house. To make sure this process runs smoothly, Nestle contacts a cleaning group to help put things in their best light. Leon arrived at 3:00 to find the house completely cleaned out, from the crumbs at the bottom of the bread drawer to the dust at the top of the doors.

To make a long and relatively tedius process short, everything went off without a hitch. Nobody had to buy a new oven, or had to stay late and wash windows.

On Wednesday, there was the "cadre" meeting, which is a twice-a-year meeting of all the Nestle staff. Just a small, informal gathering of 1200 Nestle employees, not counting the retired folks and "friends" who are also invited!

Other than that, the week was spent working with Martin.

Leon spent the weekend just hanging out with our friends the Ayres and doing a lot of relaxing. A welcome change from the 12 and 14 hour days during the week!

This coming week is a short one in Switzerland - Thursday is Ascension and Friday is an unofficial GLOBE holiday. Aside from that, both in America and Switzerland we'll have to see how things develop.

As always we thank you for your support, guidance, and friendship and hope that this letter finds you enjoying the Spring season (whether wet and grey or sunny and warm).

Love,
Debbie, Leon, Heather, Isabelle, and Joram