O Rex Gentium

O King of the Gentiles and the desire thereof, Thou cornerstone that makest both one, come and deliver mankind, whom Thou didst form out of clay.

What a day! Wow, this one will live in infamy. It started out innocently enough. We all piled into the Toyota van (yes, it matters that it was the Toyota, keep reading) with the Sinitsins and their two kids, and headed for Wieselburg for Lisa's doctor's appointment (everything is going well on that front) and some shopping in the big (relative only to Gaming) Mall. After that, we would head back toward Gaming, stopping in Purgstall first and then in Scheibbs for groceries. 

Well, first there was poor little Amalia's vomiting in the car on the way to Wieselburg, then, half way through our time there we were told that someone else was coming to trade us the VW van for the Toyota; fine and good. We also learned that the VW was needed back in Gaming by 3:30, latest 4:00, so that the Ave Maria students could head for the airport for their flights home. Well that meant that we really had to hurry. 

So we finished eating lunch in Wieselburg, and headed for Purgstall where we made the van exchange. Lisa and Katie ran into Kik (something like a dollar store, but a pretty good one) for some 5 minute Christmas shopping, and we headed for Scheibbs with about 45 minutes to do serious Christmas grocery shopping for two families. We made it through one store, but on the way through the parking lot toward the next I made a turn too sharply in an excessively large van and hit a curb with the right rear tire.... which blew. 

Slawa and I spent the next 40 minutes or so (rusty screws) changing the tire, while the women made record time shopping. We pulled into the Kartause courtyard at 3:50 where we met the surprisingly calm Ave Maria students, who, hopefully, made their flights on time. We, of course, since we had to rush to get them the van, had no choice but to unload our shopping at the Kartause, with far too much to carry the kilometer or so to our homes. I had to borrow the ITI car, which since it was too small for all of us meant that we first loaded it up with the Sinitsins' groceries, and I drove them home and unloaded, and then came back to load up again with our stuff (and ourselves). 

On the bright side, before driving our stuff home, we checked out the abandoned stuff in the Ave Maria common room and made out like bandits. I think we picked up as much there as we did on our entire trip. So, that's my story.