Cooler in El Paso?

Just spent a week in Fayetteville, NC and have decided it's cooler in El Paso - 18% humidity v. 87% even though actual temps in NC were about 8 degrees cooler that humidity just saps my energy. Don't miss it one little tiny bit.
Two more weeks and I fly to MT to spoil granddaughters. Sarah is excited for Gramma to come but Hannah doesn't remember me - last time I saw her (Aug) she had just turned one.
Then the week after I return I have surgery on my right achilles tendon to rebuild it. I've been wearing a Darth Vadar boot since March 20 and will probably be wearing it until August. NO DRIVING forever and we bought a new car days before this boot arrived into my life! Mike says we'll have the car for years so not to fret but still I want to drive. At this point I'd even settle for driving Mike's little Neon!
Mike's been travelling a lot. This week he's in Charlotteville, VA teaching at the judges course. He's looking forward to staying put over the next 4 weeks and doing his primary job - trials and motions.
Haven't heard from any of you in a long time. What's going on with the rest of you?

missing u all

dear friends,

hope all of you are doing fine, we just miss the good times we had together, god bless you all and your families.

Mimi & Andre

Ok we have grass but . . .

it's about a hundred years old - It's considered "historic" (Army code for REALLY OLD) I'm just glad it's not "quaint" and "historic" (small and really old) At least now it has a great working air conditioner - which was not true the first two weeks living here. It has beautifully silver painted NONfunctioning radiators in the living and dining rooms that can't be removed because - you guessed it -they're part of the history of the house. It's plenty big enough for just the two of us - especially since I have all of Jeremy's "good stuff" in the garage waiting for our trip to Montana in two weeks. He got an apartment and so now he's getting ALL his belongings. (Pokeman cards, virtual pets - you know really valuable stuff that takes about 15 boxes to pack up) Love reading the posts - keep them coming.

Seminar 2 (Mid)

This is our future house (mid Aug I think, Rob is less optimistic: surprised?! ). ;) At least the scenery on post is pretty. Like the rain forest! Lots of trees, bugs, and rain.

Seminar 2 (East)

We had Carol and John join us for our weekly Saturday pool party. Next time we need to get Gil and Jeff F to come. Carol is staying with us while she is house hunting in Alexandria. She is becoming quite the accomplished beer connoisseur. You all are welcome to stop by whenever in the DC area. Its more fun than the Carlisle VFW.

Day 5: Los Quetzales Trail (Hiking)

We hiked uphill for approximately 5 hours on the Los Quetzales trail that unites the two communities of Boquete and Cerro Punta. The trail offered spectacular views of the jungle, waterfalls, Mountains and the Baru Volcano (highest peak of the country at 11,400 feet/3,475 meters above sea level). We then spent the night in a less than one star hotel with a leak in the ceiling (rained all day) and we couldn’t even get a good cup of coffee.

Day 5-8: Bocas Del Toro Isla Colon (Beach & Snorkeling)

We transferred by car and boat to Bocas Del Toro. Bocas Del Toro is an archipelago of islands in the Caribbean consisting of 9 major Islands. The water is aqua blue and beaches are white sand (very different from NJ) and the beaches are set against nature-dense rainforest. At Bocas we swam, snorkeled, saw several dolphins, saw starfish at Star Beach and wondered the streets checking out/buying the handcrafts of the indigenous people.

On the afternoon of day 8 we headed back to Panama City and flew home on day 9.

Rumble In The Jungle Day 3 and 4

Yo - did you know that it rains all the time in the rain forest?

On day 3 we caught a flight to David then transfered by car to Boquete. In Boquete we are staying at a Coffee Plantation high in the mountains.

We went on a zipline adventure for a thrilling traverse on cables from platform to platform dashing through the rainforest (13 ziplines for a total of 3km). The forest is set high above a gurgling river with cascading waterfalls that drip from canyon walls.

In the afternoon, we went for a challenging hike into the mountainous highlands of Boquete. During the hike we saw a black wasp dragging a brown tarantula to its nest. We were told that theTarantula is still alive, and the wasp will lay its eggs inside it.

Day 4 White Water Rafting on the Chiriqui Viejo River. We had a full day of liquid refreshment negotiating frothy standing waves and thrilling drops for 28 km of class 3-4+ rapids. The landscape along the shoreline was beautiful with forests, exotic animals (monkeys, birds, and Iguanas) and waterfalls. This was frikin awesome!