Last week was most unusual. I felt a great emptiness as most of our family was out of town. No problem....it just felt weird.

     Paul and Liz were down at Long Beach. They stayed in a nice place right on the beach and did some lighthouse prowling and took some great pictures, which they shared with us on Saturday.

     Hildy and Dan were at Birch Bay in a condo with a view out over the water and a pool available. Dan's cousins George and Glennis drove up from Bellingham to visit and have lunch with them at a seafood place called Stephani's. They had stopped in Stanwood to visit Brian, who is recovering from a liver transplant and doing well, I'm glad to hear.

     John and Nan spent almost a week on a 40' cruiser with her Uncle Paul and Aunt Eleanor and cousins Kathy and Bruce.
Morning on Sucia Island

    They cruised the San Juans and the Canadian Gulf Islands and made connection with Lois (Nan's step-Mom) in Friday Harbor. Didn't catch any fish, but ate well in spite of that. They explored Chemainus on Vancouver Island. That place has a wealth of murals....fun to check out. They took pictures, too, which we will see soon on John's laptop. Everyone has digital cameras these days.

     Dave wasn't out of town, but was busy getting used to being retired from Boeing by being very busy doing his own testing on someone's Lear Jet. He called a couple of times while on the fly from one place to another. Dave and Ryan came over last Saturday morning and we had breakfast at the Blue Star and celebrated Ryan's birthday, as he was at school in Pullman on the real day.

     Vern and I started our exercise program at Northwest Hospital's Rehab. Clinic this morning. I think we will both benefit. The program is run by a physical therapist and three RNs. There is a defibrillator right there and it is within a few yards of the hospital emergency room, so I feel very comfortable putting us old folks through some much needed activity. Today was all evaluation and the real stuff begins tomorrow. We will be going Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. Sure hope this gets us out of the sedentary rut.

     News from Heather says she is enrolled as a special student in some classes to eventually lead to an M.A. in education. Looks like she wants to be a teacher. She told me when she was eleven that she wanted to be a teacher, an artist, or a writer. I'll bet she can find a way to combine all three. An M.A. will prepare her to teach in either a hearing or a deaf school.

     Jeremy and his group, "Siamese", dropped in on Heather and Thomas at the same time they were hosting Thomas' brother, Dale, and his five kids from Dallas. Dale was there to get his daughter, Jamie, set up at Model Secondary School for the Deaf (the high school on the Gallaudet campus). I'd say the newlyweds sure had a house full. "Siamese" is on a month-long tour all in the northeast corner of the country. Should be a lot easier than the one they did before, when they were traveling most days with a gig in another town the next night.

     Gotta share this with you: Last night, my bossy cat, Princess, got tired of yowling at me to get my attention while I was on the computer, so she jumped onto the open drawer of my filing cabinet and started clawing papers out of the files and tossing them onto the floor. Sure got my attention! Filing is not my favorite thing, as anyone can tell by looking at my cluttered desk. I grabbed her and dumped her on the floor, shut the drawer, picked up the papers from the floor..... and now there is a "new" pile on my desk. (sigh) Turned off computer and lights and we went to bed.

Dixie/Dorothea, Senior Editor