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Ciao,

Pat

Aborted Trip

I was supposed to be in China this week, flying on Saturday.  On Friday, I started feeling terrible--achy, very very tired, stomach uneasy, that sort of thing. When I talked to my direct manager, he said he had changed his mind the day before and he was making the trip too. Well, between my health and cost savings, I agreed to stay home. 


A good thing too, I spent Friday afternoon and most of Saturday being a lump. It would have been terrible to have flown to China like that.   


I can report that Shauna continues to defy all rational expectation and you can find her dancing, running and playing with white dog for a rather lengthy session on a daily basis.  That dog is amazing! 


My picture library is a real mess so I have started a project to get it all cleaned up. This involved buying a 2T network hard drive at Costco and uploading all the pictures from all of my computers on to it.  I am still uploading. Once there, I have purchased a program that seeks and kills duplicate files.  Then I can reorganize by date, etc. and get them all in order. 


In the process of doing this, I found this iPhone picture that I took somewhere along the line. The wine is immaterial, its the handwriting that is so poignant. When we remodeled the kitchen, we put in two wine coolers with a collective storage of well over 200 bottles. We then joined several vintner's wine clubs and selectively added wine to the coolers.  


With each shipment, Mary would carefully read the vintner's notes and write the "best years to consume" date on the bottles before she laid them down (as the expression is used out here.)

This is a picture of two of the bottles with Mary's handwriting declaring she'd like to drink  the one on the right between 2012 and 2014 and the one on the left beginning in 2016. 


Maybe it was because I was so down and out this weekend, but I sure felt her absence big time these last few days.  


Ciao, 


P

Whirlwind

What a whirlwind of activity since my last posting!  


I've been to Denver to visit my son, daughter in law and two grand kiddies. That was a blast!  I'll be posting pictures later. 


Last weekend I hoped to get to Arizona to visit Mary's son and grand daughter but that didn't work out. I hope I can get see them before the end of the year.  


Last night I hosted a potluck for a group of 8 friends.  Our terrible weather (50 degrees and a sprinkle of rain) caused horrible traffic jams last night so no one managed to arrive at 7, but everyone was there by 8.  We had the herb roasted chicken from Lundardi's plus salad, veggies and fruit to make a very nice meal.  There was lots of laughter and it was a very good time.  


Two of my dearest friends are fighting cancer.  Both had surgery within the past couple of months (September and October) and both are doing radiation as a follow up.  One is almost done with her radiation sequence while the other will be starting her radiation treatment soon. The prognosis for both friends is very good, but cancer is cancer and it can be a sneaky, nasty bastard.  


All in all, stumbling towards the end of the year and the holidays. 


Ciao! 


p

Cardio Report

Just in case you were wondering, I do regularly see my doctors. 


Today, was my cardiologist.  Her report was very nice to hear. All in all, she was very positive about my health. 


Blood Pressure: 115/72
Liver enzymes: Very Good
Cholesterol: Extremely good.
Actually, all blood metrics were good or better than good. One reading was borderline.

She did have a recommendation for me:

1. Need to exercise regularly to full sweat. 
2. Need to lose 30 lbs (I am sure she wouldn't object if I lost more). 

If I really do exercise and lose weight, she expects all of my metrics to easily arrive well into the very good (or better) range which is gonzo for an old fart like me.

She doesn't want me to start heavy exercise until after stress test on Nov 5.

The weight and exercise are consistent with what I want to do. I want to make this my kick start so it really happens! 


Ciao, 


p

Pictures from Tahiti

Well, this is a quick photo set from the Tahiti trip, taken a the end of September.  The sailing was done on a 42 foot catamaran with Captain Kent at the helm. His spouse and First Mate, Nancy, was a great crew organizer and made us all feel at home. Nancy's brother, Bob, and his wife Linda joined the crew and the last couple were Laura and me. 

In this picture, from the left are Laura, Captain Kent, Bob, Linda, Pat and First Mate Nancy. 

 We stayed in an overwater bungalow before and after the sail and this was the mooring ball, a short swim from our unit. 

One of our on shore events was a dinner at Chez Louise on Raiatea. This is our boat at sunset from the restaurant. 

Getting ready for a snorkel session. 

We toured a pearl farm and this was the harvesting procedure. 

Bloody Mary's on Bora Bora. 

A series of shot using my underwater point and shoot camera. 

As we sailed from Bora Bora to Taha'a, a mother whale and her offspring joined us. 

Relaxing on the deck. 

We ate well, thanks to First Mate Nancy's planning. This was our spaghetti lunch. 

Another wonderful sunset. 

Entertainment at the Hotel Hawaiki Nui on Raiatea. 

Pat and Laura on the Dim Sum in the waters of Tahiti. 

Higher resolution pictures of these and many of the pictures from the Tahiti trip (a selected 300 or so) can be seen by clicking here.

Inquiring Minds...

Shawna's birthday has escaped me as you know. So, I contacted the breeder and asked if there was an easy way to determine when Shawna was born. 


Sandy sent back the data from the AKC registry.  And, Shawna is slightly younger than I thought!  

Name:        Dawnglow Return To Sender

Sex:         Female

Breed:       Spaniel (English Cocker)

Color:       Red

Birth Date:  09/14/1994

Sire:        Hobbithill McMurphys Optimum

Dam:         Dawnglow Demoiselle

Breeder:     Sandra L LaFlamme

Instead of Shawna approaching her 18th birthday next month, she passed her 17th birthday last month.  Well, 17 is nothing to sneeze at for a dog, and she is still doing very well.  I just checked the web for conversion of dog years to human years. It depends on a bunch of stuff but basically, Shawna is the equivalent of 82-94 years old now.  In other words, she is a really old dog! 

Ciao, 

p

Where has he been?

On vacation again. This time to Tahiti with five friends.  I left on the 21st late in the day and returned today, arriving SFO about 3PM.  


As is my practice, I do not post about my travel while I am gone. I will be posting stories and pictures over the next week or so as I catch up with the real world. 


What a second, didn't you just get back from Peru?  Well, yes, but that was the beginning of August...almost two months ago!  It just turned out that two different sets of friends picked August and September for great vacations.  And, my prior vacation was November last year when I took Reenie and Tom to Hawaii. It really is not excessive, only the timing was a bit too close but I made it work out.  


And Shawna and Wiggles did fine during my absence with Courtney doing the house and dog sitting.  I cannot find the original documents from Sandy LaFlamme at Dawnglow Kennels but I think Shawna turns 18 in November. That is one "Methusala" dog!  Courtney was recommended by our vet and, in fact, works in the vets office so that made it very comforting and easy to leave Shawna with her.  


More later!  


Ciao! 


p