What a Week!!

I have been very active this week. I have started two different classes in the park. We now have a water exercise class and a scrapbooking class. They have both had the kickoff meeting and seem to be going well. I am excited about both of them and hope that all the participants are just as happy as I am.
We went to the Willie Nelson concert on Saturday and had Jim and Maria all day Sunday. Both of these were great. We love the Willie and the Sandviks. It is just wonderful that Maria is growing hair again and that just maybe she has this thing licked. She has a great attitude.
I have had a 1st and a2nd at bridge the last two outings (both with Jeanne) and have eaten at Jimmy T's twice.
All of these things were this week and what is really surprising is that I have had a case of shingles to fight to boot. It is the lightest case that I have ever had and I am taking an anti-virus med for it, but I have done two exercise classes and several 1/2 hour swims while fighting it and it seems to be all but gone right now.
I didn't manage to post the right link in the last blog. I hope it gets in this time. It is fun to learn how to do this. If the link is there, you can use it to check up on my bridge results.
I really like this picture that John took. We are all taking pictures of him and his sister and he is coming right back at us.
I cancelled going up to Detroit for the nationals. I had originally thought that Mac and I would just go home early and I would go to the tournament with Gargi and play some with Allan as well. I was feeling so bad about not wanting to go, but when Mac started enjoying Florida for the first time and wasn't wanting to go home, or for me to leave him, I felt that I should honor his request as he has been coming down here for me for years. What was great was that Gargi and Allan were both kind of iffy about the tournament anyway and weren't all that disappointed. We had a great time last August in Grand Rapids and we hope that we can do that again instead.
Wow--what a relief. Even Harry, who was going to attend, is now going to come to Florida during the week of the nationals as his friend's father has a birthday around that time.
We are supposed to go to the Gatlin brothers this weekend but the rest of the time we will be watching football and hockey or something. I wish that Shannon and Caleb's computor was fixed as I miss hearing from them.

You can check out my Bridge Results

Since you don't get the Lakeland Ledger and can't look for my name in the weekly bridge results column you might want to look me up online. The full names are given under the games heading. whbc stands for the "winterhavenbridgeclub". So far this year I have been mostly second or third when I play. I am looking to be #1 but it hasn't happened yet.

The After-Math

While I was doing my morning "Jumble" puzzle yesterday, the answer to--what was life for the retired Arithmetic teacher?--struct me as being a good title for all that has happened to me in the 6 years since I retired. I can't even imagine that six years have passed. It seems like the time is just flying by and I am just as lucky as I can be to have had this time to spend with my family and friends. I have had such a variety of stimulating and fun experiences.
We have so many fun things planned for this month. We had the birthday weekend with Mac's nieces and nephews last week and the dinner with our park friends. I have my two games of bridge per week planned with my girlfriends. We are scheduled to go to the shuttle launch on the 10th, but we may not be up for a 2:23 am event. We will see our friends from Seattle anyway whether at the launch or some other time. This Sat. is the Willie Nelson concert and Harry is supposed to visit after that. We have tickets to the theater in Winter Haven the following Saturday and possibly the Kenny Rogers concert the first of Feb. I need to mention the park events too, like the water exercise classes that I am helping to get started on Friday and the scrapbooking classes that I start next Tuesday. I am also running for Vice President of the assoc. today and we have a potluck this month.
Mac is as happy as he has ever been here in Florida this season and that makes me think that we will be coming down here for a number of years. He sees how much healthier he is where he can do his daily walks. He is just happier in general lately.
Yesterday I got the cutest Skype call from France. The girls have "borrowed" some guinea pigs for the time they are in France. As they had several back home, theses animals have made a huge emotional impact on the girls. Caleb kept talking about how to "roast" and eat these kind of pets to tease the girls and they were just telling him to "can it". I should include technological things on my list of blessings. Being able to see the Williams while I talk to them is very heartwarming for me. By the way, Sofie says that when she grow up she wants to have two houses and one of them will be in Florida with me. That sounds good to me too.
All for now.

No dog for now

We spent the weekend in West Palm visiting Mac's nephew John and his 6 dogs. As usual we came back with lots of dog hair and full of doggie kisses and love, but we didn't bring Foster back with us. We really love him, but he isn't potty trained. While we were there for the weekend he left at least 8 pools of urine. It broke our heart to leave him, but we couldn't adopt a dog that had such a problem. John says that he can cure him and we may reconsider at a later date.
Mac had a lovely birthday party down there so it was a good weekend anyway.

What will happen to our freedom?

This is Foster. He is an Australian Shepherd and is pure bred. He is 1 1/2 years old and he needs a home where he can get plenty of exercise and lots of attention.

We can have him for free if we want and we have to decide if we want him. I vowed that I wouldn't have another dog when Willie died, but I know that both Mac and I love living with dogs and could use another baby.

Foster is currently being cared for Mac's nephew John who already has 5 dogs of this type of his own. We love John's dog and that is another reason that we are going down to West Palm again this weekend to celebrate Mac's birthday and get to know Foster.

It would be nice to have a dog that is already trained and sweet. I got one look at this photo and I knew that I was in love. Mac has to make up his mind yet. This is dog is about 40 pounds and supposedly a bit spastic. I'll be letting you know what we do when we get back.

Christmas in West Palm

We spent Christmas Day at Joann and Sid's house. She had a great meal for us and rented tables and chairs so that we (20 odd) of us could all sit down at one long table to eat. She really went all out.
Cathy and all of her siblings were there and we took a lot of photos. Unfortunately mine weren't of a very good quality.
We stayed for three nights at John's house with his brother Gene and wife Linell. We had a lot of fun. There were 8 big dogs there. Two of these 80 plus animals thought that they were lap dogs and we got a whole lot of dog love. That did not fill our need for a dog. It just reminded us of what we were missing.
Mac is always complaining that he gets left out when the Nielsens get together. It was good for me to be on his side of that for a change. I wasn't ignored but he got a whole lot of attention from the whole family. I needed to see this scene from his side for a change. Also, a lot of people have mentioned that I might as well not be in the house at all if my grandkids are around as that is all I have attention for. Well Jo was really taken up with her two cuties--Conner and Cody. I could see myself in her hostess and grandmother behavior.
I missed going to some kind of church service. I love the carols and rites at Christmas and never got to experience them this year.
The highlight of my day was talking to Sean on the phone. He tries to call at least 3 times a year. He said that Jo is taking drugs now to try to ovulate on a timely basis, and that they had both had their fertility checked. They are going at this conception business full swing. I hope they get their wish in 2008. Sean mentioned that his book sales aren't off the wall and we discussed some publicity stunts that might help the marketing. He said the pope was coming to New York and he was thinking of sneaking in and throwing his book at him to generate some press. I suggested he do the Dali Lama and Tom Cruise as well to try to touch some other religious bases. It was a fun talk.
I loved talking to Karen as well. She was really sick with a bad cold and did not get the job in Atlanta that she had interviewed for. She wondered afterward if she would have, had she not been so sick the day of the interview. Going to Hong Kong and Japan and then going to Atlanta three days after return was too much for her. It would have been too much for anybody.
I also got to talk to Landon at length--the other boys were too busy playing in the basement with Daddy and the toys. Landon was pretty excited about his big new fire truck and his computor. He also can't wait to see our airplane when we fly in to TC in February. We shouldn't have told him that we were coming as he will be waiting for quite a while. He we soo glad that the Christmas Tree was still there even though Santa had come. He is a happy guy!!
I haven't heard from France yet about their Christmas. Maybe I should check their blogs.
Love to all. Grandma Janet