Today we ran some errands. Nothing I love more than running errands. But it's Katherine's last weekend in town before Bangkok, so errands we ran.

First stop was Caruso, a local shop that sells very nice and pricey wood products. Katherine likes this place. And Ari and Jennine, your bowl will be on the way this week.

Next stop was a framing shop to pick up some artwork from Burma that we finally had framed. After that it was off to Lao Magic carpet to check on our carpet's progress. As we were getting out of the car, Katherine asked whether I had her little hmong purse that held the $600 or so that she'd brought along to put a down payment on the carpet and to pay for a piece of furniture we are going to buy elsewhere.

Why no, I didn't. But I paid for the stuff at Caruso with money from the little purse, right?

Indeed I did. So after a frantic search of pockets (cargo shorts suck sometimes) and the car, we made a tense drive back to Caruso. And there it was, on the floor right where I left it.

So, feeling slightly better, it was back to check on the carpet..

It's coming along nicely.

Now, I don't profess to be an expert in carpets or anything, but I have to say that we picked a nice one. And the process is unbelievable. Individual threads of silk are woven in, then tamped down. Four women sit side by side working. When they get to a certain point, one woman cuts the shag down and they continue (note the shears). They said they should be close to done when we return to Vientiane in mid-December.

After the drama and tension of the missing $600, I felt I needed to relax a bit. Luckily for us, LV City is just around the corner from our carpet place. So we skipped the furniture place and got a massage.

Katherine decided one wasn't enough, and made plans for 90 minutes at LV tomorrow.