The good and the DHL (aka all sorts of words I shouldn't use)

The good: 

1. My agency has all of the documents requested by the lawyer that the judge *might* want or rather object to sitting on her desk ready to be couriered out to Ottawa for processing (this in total takes about 2 weeks from door to door in Russia... except if... well wait for that part in a minute).  There is still a *chance* that the judge may not need any revised documents and the lawyer is being overly cautious - I can hold out a little hope but prepare for the request and another 3 weeks of waiting before setting pre trial.
2. My invitation to travel for my visa came today and my friend who will be traveling with me and I can send our passports in on Monday to get our 90 day business visa processed
3. I figured out that my medicals actually don't expire until Tuesday or Wednesday NOT Sunday.  I had my 8 doctor medical done on the 30th of December so 3 months or 90 days... that's the 30th or Tuesday or Wednesday (by my estimation...)  My dossier has already been submitted to the judge though so my medicals are current... for a moment.  If the judge requires addendums to my dossier, we will have 15 days to produce the documents OR I will have to make a 3rd trip to have my medicals updated and have a court date set.  Pray DHL (they are the only ones who do international courier I guess???) finally gets it right... 3x a charm.  No time for errors or "mishandling" on this one. 

The not so good:

1. DHL (not unlike Aerofolt) is run by a bunch of monkeys or donkeys.  This is the second time that I have EVER used DHL (you may remember the fiasco of getting my travel visa for trip one???) and they have pulled a MAJOR boner on this one.  My revised application to court was to arrive on Wednesday so I tracked it Tuesday night.  Hmmmm where is "Karachi, PK"???  I plunked it into google and.... PAKISTAN!?!?  WTF?  Seriously??? Seems as though my documents have gone on a little field trip.  Turns out I'd have had better luck tying the package to a homing pigeon than sending it with DHL.  Their customer service SUCKS and I doubt anyone will really follow up on this dispite the fact that it could end up costing me another trip to Russia.  Some day I'll look back on this and laugh... a whole hearted laugh about the follies that it took to get things done but it's not funny now.  But wait, it gets even better.  From Pakistan, it gets routed to Dubai, then to Germany then to Moscow and finally, it will arrive tonight at 9:05 in Khabarovsk for delivery on Monday.  I have not been patient nor kind to the people at DHL and this is NOT the end of the complaint that I will make with them.  Full stop.  Rant over (or I could go on for pages).

Other than that, retail therapy still helps.  I bought the most amazing little cedar play house for the back yard for him yesterday from Costco (you have to get it in store - it's not on line).  It's fantastic - a little door, 2 sets of bay windows, a kitchen, doorbell, phone and a big open window with shutters and a bench outside so he can make me ice cream cones and serve me on the bench.  I like to pass on good buys to folks so this is fantastic. Not huge but solid wood and great construction for $279!!!  I also picked up a life jacket for him as I see some lake time in his future.  So, that's it... another week down.  3 months down... hopefully only one more to go.