Just wait, it'll change

So I explored a bit on American Airlines' website, found out that you could reserve 330 days ahead of time on ff miles. Had no clue. Still kept putting of making reservations. After several more Opal's Evenings, we finally decided to go ahead and get reservations. I check every damn major (and some minor) European city anywhere NEAR where we were going to go, and no dice. I was too late. The only flights left were to Manchester, England.

After a bit of thinking, we decided that's not such a bad thing. We have a 10-hr. delay in Chicago going and 7 coming back, but again, not such a bad thing. We'll take the train into Chicago, Segue around, go have lunch at our favorite restaurant, etc. We might not be so happy about it on the way back, but what the hell. So we're set. June 27-July 10. Next step is to figure out where we want to go from Manchester to arrive at the starting point of the "Big Circle". Easyjet goes several places, RyanAir to Oslo, so we'll chat that up a bit.

Coincidentally, Vergard Lien contacted me on Yahoo instant messenger while we were thinking about making plans. He's an ex-student of mine from Belton HS back in the day. He was born and raised outside of Oslo, and now lives there. Two kids, and we'll make it a point to stop to see him. That's it for now.