A Blog Friend Visits!

This weekend is the first time one of my blog friends is visiting. How exciting! He brought me malt powder and chili powder and mint extract. He brought books and DVD's for all of us and a t-shirt for Greg.

When he saw our "library" and my desk and laptop he asked, "Is that were it happens?" More than once in conversation he mentioned something I'd written about in a post. He even confessed that ever since he read about our most excellent washing machine he's been searching for any means to get to Poland so he could try it out!

Well, really he just says those things because he's funny and nice. I loved when he first got here last night and he said something about seeing a blog friend in real life. The truth is, he knew Greg (briefly) before I had ever met him (Greg). He was a missionary in Poland when Greg was a new member. Then, he and his lovely wife and their first little newborn moved to Poland for a year soon after we moved here. We stayed in their home sometimes on weekends because they lived in Krakow where we went to church. His wife helped me through my pregnancy and taught Ewelina in nursery.

So we did actually know each other before. And the food was actually from his wife (who will hopefully be able to come with him on one of his trips soon!). Still, last year when he came for a visit we were trying to catch up on each other for much of the time we spent together. Then, later on, we both started blogging and now I feel completely caught up on his family and it's wonderful to meet when we know just what's going on in each other's lives.

And one other thing I might want to mention, briefly. He was invited to give a talk at a university in Budapest on Thanksgiving day. Then he gave one at a university in Vienna; and finally he has come to Poland and given one at the Jagiellonian university in Krakow, all while he gets in as much research as he can. So I suppose there may have been a tiny bit of motivation besides our washing machine, but I think it really was a, "Oh! While I'm in Europe to see The Washing Machine, maybe I can get some scholarly stuff done, too." kind of thing. Smart people do that, the whole roasting-two-hot-dogs-on-one-stick thing. And he's smart.