I forgot a few things...

A lot happens over 10 months and I had forgotten several things.

1. We went to see Michael's Grandma on the weekend before her 88th Birthday Party. Alvina Ditton is a wonderful person and had just moved from her house to an assisted living facility in Cheney, Washington. We were lucky enough to spend 3 days with her and her son, Wilmer. Cheney is a great town. During the weekend, there was a "Rodeo Days" festival and we walked around downtown all 3 days, went to the farmers market, and even watched a parade. It was a great time. I've put some new pictures out on the website, I hope you'll check them out!

2. We also took a trip down to Mexico to spend some time with our friends Scott & Liz on Ocean Lady. We flew in and took a taxi to the town of Barra de Navidad where we met up with them and boarded the boat. We stayed with them on the boat and had everyday excursions to go surfing, walking the beach, meeting up with the fruit & veggie trucks for fresh produce, walking to the tortillaria for fresh, mmmm... my mouth is watering just thinking of it, tortillas, and of course, some shopping! :-) We stayed in Barra for a couple days then sailed a bit North to Tenacatita where we spent the rest of our 8 days. What a fabulous time! It was a great trip and fabulous to see our friends. Those pictures are already up, check them out! It was an adventure - on the way home we loaded up our bags into trash bags, put them into the dinghy, surfed some waves on the dinghy to get into the estuary where we took a 'jungle cruise' up to the town of Tenacatita. There, we found a taxi and took the ride back to the airport. Wish you were there! :-)

3. We went out to Palm Springs for some much needed R&R and while there, Rene took a Jeep tour to the San Andreas fault. Wow! What fun! I'd recommend that in a heartbeat to anyone. There's some pics out there on that too.

4. Scott & Liz came to California in the summer during their trip back to the states and we went out on Don's boat for some surfing. We went to several anchorages and had a great time. Check out those photos too!

This week was a good week. I received good news from my doctor - no cancer. I've been fighting a pre-cancer bad cell condition on my Cervix. I had a bad pap smear identified over a year ago and initially, had cryotherapy to freeze the cells on the cervix and when they grow back, they should be good. That worked initially, for 6 months but at my next pap, it came up again. Last week I had a cone biopsy which is a pretty severe surgery to remove a section of the cervix that is identified as having bad cells. That went fine, I'm recooperating now and the tests came back clean. So...I'm in wait mode again. Wait until the next 6 month pap smear to make sure it doesn't come back again. There is a new immunization that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. It's for the HPV virus and was just released this year. Insurance still doesn't pay for it, but it will prevent what I'm going through. It's recommended for girls in the age of 12-26. Please, please if you have a daughter, sister, neice, or friend in that age group, encourage them to get this immunization. I've been healthy all my life and just going through this little thing makes me appreciate it so much! I only wish I had known about it before now.

On the flip side, we participated in two Bon Voyage parties for good friends heading South! Tony & Shannon Morrelli aboard S/V Sweetie are taking off in November, and Kip & Denise Stumbough aboard S/V Adelia headed south today! Kip & Denise's website is www.adelia-sails.com. Check it out when you get a chance, it's very good! We'll miss them a lot. It's hard seeing friends taking off when we're still stuck here for a while. Send us good thoughts for a sale on the shop! ;-)

OK, enough of that. I gotta get. It's Sunday - laundry day before it's back to work. Have a good week and I'll write more later....

Rene