This morning, we groggily shared a round of excellent coffee with our new friends Felix and Nadine. With a bit of caffeine to carve through the haze, Nadine departed to Däerr (an outdoors store in Munich), Felix to another day of government bureaucracy, Tara and I: to tackle our giant to-do list in preparation for a departure tomorrow.

It looked something like this:

• Buy a suitable replacement cookset/pot/pan and veggie peeler.

• Buy spices to recreate our stolen spice bag.

• Buy groceries (for dinner and the coming days' ride).

• Finish outstanding feature requests for clients (Tyler).

• Finish sorting photos from the last few days.

• Upload and name photos.

• Write/edit/publish backlog of particularly long journals (four deep).

• Configure pay-as-you-go cellular internet (vodafone).

• Write postcards for Tyler's brothers and sisters.

• Prepare package to mail home, mail said package.

• Skype with family.

• Locate missing phone charger.

• Finish "in the news" section of our website.

• Finish laundry.

• Make pizza dough, prepare toppings for dinner.

• PACK!

• Meet Felix and Nadine for beers @ 5PM.

As promised, here is a photo of Tara's completed cardigan (part of the mail a package to-do list item):

Over the course of the afternoon, Tara found time for one item not on our planned list: making a fantastic lemon rhubarb cake as a thank you for Felix and Nadine. It, along with our make-your-own-pizza dinner was a hit later that evening.

As usual, the day raced by in a flurry of activity. It felt as though only moments had passed when the hour hand of the clock was swinging dangerously close to our 5PM meeting for drinks. Thankfully, because we are both well accustomed to being awash in a sea of things to do these days, it didn't faze us too much.

To our relief, Felix was unexpectedly held up at the office. We had another hour to race around like chickens with our heads cut off! When we finally did meet, it wasn't for beers, but instead to locate and purchase new cooking gear. An hour or two after beginning our search with Felix, we walked out of a store, posessing a new non-stick pot.

Our replacement is deep enough to cook pasta in, shallow enough to work as a skillet, and unfortunately, very heavy. Lets hope this hybrid works well enough to do the job of the two pans it will take over for. By the time we were done with this hunt, it was getting late. Ready to be done with the day, we opted to head home, nixing our meeting for drinks.

Back at the apartment, Tara and I made pizza dough together, and then we all gathered around the dinner table, each decorating our own pizza with toppings Tara had prepared earlier in the day. With music playing in the background, we baked the pizzas one by one, and shared them each hot out of the oven, enjoying each other's topping combinations.

When it was time for dessert, Tara brought out her cake, and our friend Paola dropped by bearing a huge bowl of strawberries and whipped cream! The whole evening was a really nice taste of "normal" life.

After Felix and Nadine went to bed, we kept working on our to-do list. Our favorite item accomplished?

…Skyping with Gabe, my Dad, Vivian, Esther and Isaac. Thanks to Sarah (my second mom) for taking such an excellent photo of this!

Tomorrow morning we hit the road for Dachau. We're going to miss everyone so much!