I am happy

It was a great week here in Florida. Although the weather started out cool it became progressively warmer as it went on. On Tuesday I found out that I don't have osteoporosis yet, just osteopenia (its precursor). I have gone down a bunch of T-scores since 2 years ago when my bones were healthier than a young adult and I was on estrogen. Going off of it, really caused a big crash.
I had a wonderful hour long Skype session with the three Williams women that I adore on Wednesday. I followed that talk with a nice swim.
Today I played bridge and did well, went to a great Christmas party before hand at the club,and I got a new pair of Crocs that are really comfortable and cute. Mac and I got haircuts today too. I went swimming at 5:30 and the almost full moon was out, even though it was dusk, not dark and it was shining on the pool as I swam. This evening I watched 3 eplisodes of House on my computor. I have been giving in to the constant temptation of Christmas Goodies everywhere I go. I will have to get serious about a diet after the first of the year when things settle a little.
Tomorrow I am going to get the last two shots in my knees for my arthritis and maybe some cortisone in my elbow for a condition that isn't improving (I've had it since May.)
I shared with Shannon the five keys to a good vacation: 1: have some idea of what you are going to do when you get up each day, 2: be a lot more respectful of one another than usual as you will probably be living on top of each other, 3: try to do something new or different each day, 4: don't go off by yourself all of the time, but 5: try to include some alone time or space for each member of the party. I read these in the paper and they seemed like 5 good keys to living with another human being.
I am hoping to find a few woment who want to scrapbook with me on a regular basis here in the camp. I am setting up a meeting to see if I can find a kindred soul here somewhere. I think it would help me get a little more of my scrapping done, if I had a regular time to work on it. The club house would provide an excellent place to set up and work for a few hours. I hope it works out.

Things are Good Here

Saturday was a fun day. We shopped a lot in the a.m. and found smoked turkey drumsticks to bring home from the Deli for lunch. Eddie called and Evan's team won the first game of the hockey tournament they were playing in and Evan got 2 goals. We had lots of xmas cards in the mail. One, from the young Amish family that we are friends with, was just glowing about the fruit box that we had sent to them. Apparently that was one huge success.
Another Christmas Card was from a friend with breast cancer. She is feeling well enough to visit her parents in January and she and her husband are going to visit us too. They live in Seattle and we don't get to see them very often. We called them right away and they are going to a shuttle launch at Cape Kennedy and we may go with them too, on January 10th.
We went out for dinner with some friends from the park to a new restaurant and the meal was fabulous. I even ordered dessert which was called a Chocolate Slide and was of course brownies with ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. We all had a spoon and that was fun too.
Friday I had the second round of shots, and my knees are coming along fine with the treatment. I am still coughing from the cold I caught in TC or from Mac about the day after I arrived down here. Tuesday I find out what the results are on my bone density test. I am thinking that they aren't very good. At least that is what I was reading from the computor when I peeked at it after I was done. Boniva here I come.

Getting Set up in Florida

I just got out of the pool. I have done 20+ minutes of laps everyday since we arrived (Dec 2nd I think). We have had great weather and I am really glad to be swimming on a regular basis again.
It has been difficult getting everything up and running here because some nearby lightning strike this summer got into the cable line and blew out our modem and the network card in our computor. We also had some trouble with the LCD TV but it's working now and the computor fixes only came to $100. We have been grocery shopping three times. We keep making lists of things we need immediately after coming in the door with a bunch of things we thought was everything.
I didn't make any bridge dates this week so that I could help with all of the setting up. Mac and I have two huge suitcases full of clothes that we don't know what to do with. We have so many things here already that we hardly needed to bring anything and yet we did. Oh well, we will manage to find room for everything eventually.
I get my first set on knee injections on Friday. You get two shots (one in each knee) three different times-one week apart. My girl friend is going to ride up with me and we will have lunch with her daughter who lives in Claremont where my doctor is. I am really needing these shots but I did very well on the ones I got in March. I almost can forget that I have knee problems sometimes.
I want to find a yoga class but haven't gotten to that yet. I have arranged for us to go to two concerts and one play this season. We are going to hear Willie Nelson again and a few other country groups and the play is a comedy.
Speaking of Willie, we have been mourning him all over again as we keep finding his balls and leashes and poop bags and things all over this place. We got rid of all of that stuff in Gowen and then it all hits us over again. I saw a Schnauzer mutt today at Walmart and I wanted to take it home. It was brown and about Fritzy's size. I saw a Halmark Christmas special about a woman who said that her late husband had made her feel fullfilled. I thought to myself that that is what my dogs did for me. I'll get over this soon.
Next week is full of appointments and bridge. I am having a bone density test and a visit with a dermatologist. I will be playing bridge on Wed. and Thurs. and every Mon and Thursday after that I imagine. Tuesday night is the club house Christmas potluck and gift exchange.
We are going to Mac's nephews house for Christmas in West Palm Beach.
Life is seeming very good to me right now. I am even planning to go to the cypress Garden New Year's Eve Party with a water ski show and fireworks at midnight.

Starting a List of things to do in Michigan in June

I am starting a list here and I want the various Williams to add things to it as they occur to them. My first entry is that we should have a new motor for our pontoon so we can take the girls (or parents) on a much better tube ride. I hear that Sofie wants to go back to the water park at Zehnders. Do any of the rest of you have things to add?

I am hoping that the newer Harry Potter DVD's will be available then and we can rent them, but that isn't for sure. Well--I'll just watch for anything else that you think up.

Four Days in Ann Arbor

I had a wonderful time in Ann Arbor last weekend. I played bridge 3 times and came in at the top or near the top each time. I ate wonderful meals at great restaurants (eggplant and tofu curry at Tup Tim for example). I got to visit with many of my friends and spent a whole day with Karen. (She beat me at Upwords and made roasted brussel sprouts for me. We saw a great movie, "Lars and the Real Girl", and Roz made us a blue cheese fritata which was heavenly.) I did a lot of shopping between friends and even though I didn't buy much I just enjoyed being IN A BIG CITY. After living in AA for many years it is difficult for me to retire in Gowen.

We have had very mild weather for it being nearly Winter. I hope that Mac and I get to Florida before real winter sets in. I picked a handful of raspberries this week.

Mac and I are planning to buy a much bigger engine for our pontoon boat. We are saving money for it, so that we can entertain grandkids by pulling them faster in the tube. I hope they appreciate it. I never want to tube behind a fast boat again after doing it last summer. I thought I would end up paralyzed or something. I can admit when I am too old for something.

skype

I am absolutely amazed that I can talk to my family in France using the computor and that I can see them too. It seems too good to be true. I have been flabergasted by this.

Mary's Visit and Sisters Week Together

Here are the four of us. We are in a nice Italian restaurant on Columbus Street in San Francisco.

We are at the end of our week long sisters vacation together.

We had a great time. We hiked in the Redwoods, and had lunch at a gourmet restaurant in Capitola (sitting on the terrace overlooking the Pacific). We swam almost every day and shopped a bunch at both upscale stores and outlet malls. We visited Bjorn and Laura and became mesmerized by the skills of Andrew who will be 2 today. He could count and do the alphabet and recognize letters and do complicated puzzles. He was amazing. We had dinner with Peter and Tom. Peter works for Google and is a self described "Multithousandair" because his start up company was acquired by Google. Peter looked great!!

Even before we got to California we were touching bases here in Michigan. Mary came in on a Saturday and Monday Karen brought her to Lansing where I picked her up. We had dinner in Lansing at Bravo with Becky, Scott and their two kids. Tuesday Mary and I met Amy at the Blue Water Grill and she had her two with her. Wednesday night Mary, Mac and I entertained Uncle Dick and enjoyed a fire side view of the full Harvest Moon. Thursday we had lunch with an old H.S. friend and spent the evening roasting veggies and watching Grey's Anatomy. Friday Karen came up and we went to Uncle Al's, where we joined almost all of Dad's sisters and brothers and had a great time at a potluck. Sat. we visited Eddie and his boys and then went to Carin and James' house for the rest of the birthday party that she was throwing the twins. Sunday Karen, Mary and I went to Birch Run and checked in at Splash Village. We shopped on Monday and did the water park returning in the evening to Ann Arbor so that we could pack and be ready on Tues. a.m. for the flight to California.

The highlights of our sisters time together were the great big belly laughs. We were on an extended sleep over. We were doing all kinds of silly and fun things. Mary brought a "Most Popular Sister" T-shirt from England. We took turns wearing it to breakfast in the hotel.

We played games and did puzzles together. We found so many things to laugh about. That is what I remember lovingly right now. We are so close and it is so wonderful.

I got back from this trip on Oct. 8th and was able to swim in Bass Lake. I did again on the 9th but it is over for the season now. It dropped about 40 degrees overnight.