Things to do before I leave

1. Clean the house (I know it seems counter-intuitive, but I can't imagine anything worse than coming home in August to a previously uncleaned house plus 2 months of dust...)
2. Go to Trader Joe's to get cake mixes for my sister.
3. Go to Busch's to get Reese's peanut butter for my granddad (don't ask me why- it's the only thing he ever wants me to bring back. It *is* really good peanut butter though, and oddly only available at Busch's.)
4. Go to Zingerman's to get their crazy delicious graham crackers for our parents.
5. Do laundry (see 1. except with unwashed clothes)
6. Weed the garden. We have a lovely neighbor who waters our plants and flowers for us even when we're not traveling, but I would never ask her to go on her knees and pull out the weeds that have been thriving from neglect...)
7. Make sure I have enough reading material for the 21-hour long flight. I can't seem to read books on the plane, so it's usually the NYT magazines, Entertainment Weekly and whatever random magazines we have lying around the house.
8. Try to squeeze in one more run tomorrow. I'm still contemplating whether to do the Detroit half marathon in Oct. (for no other reason that the fact that you actually run across the bridge to Canada, and through the tunnel back, which is kinda exciting...), but if I am, I'm going to have to keep up the running in the heat and humidity of sunny Singapore. I'm getting stronger, but I'm not sure if I'm that strong...
9. Clear the fridge of anything that might turn bad, like milk or fruits (i.e. if there are, my Meals for One tomorrow are going to be made up of whatever's perishable in the fridge...)
10. Oh right, and of course, P-A-C-K, which I haven't done a whit of yet...