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We finally did it!

No, I’m not talking about getting married. We already did that. And we had a very nice wedding night as well, so that’s not it either.

No, I’m talking about taking out boat out sailing. We originally had asked Mark to come along (but he was nowhere to be found) and have a look at the engine, because I suspected that it wouldn’t just work. And I was right. My guess is water in the carburettor, because it starts good and runs fine until you try to put it in idle, even after some warm-up time. Long  before it hits idle it just dies. A bit of throttle and a pull on the starter rope has it going again, but it makes it so difficult to get the gears in when you have to do it at above idle.

Just when we were about to give up one of our boat neighbors, Greg, asked if we needed to borrow an engine. He had two extra, one 2 hp and one 8 hp. Although the 8 was more equal to what we have I opted for the 2 hp, simply because the weight. Greg brought it over in his dinghy, and we were ready to go.

Denice turned out to be a great sailor, Denice at the helmalthough this was her first outing with a sailboat. The rather small engine meant that we set sails pretty early, and she turned out to be a natural at the helm. Probably better than me. We only sailed out to Hat Island and then turned around, but that ws still a few hours under sail. It was a great feeling.

 I found a ripped seam in the foresail that need to get fixed, and the engine needs to be repaired as well, but the first week-end of summer we were on the water. Yay!

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Video of the wedding ceremony

We captured our wedding on video tape, and although I know that most people will find this incredibly boring, I also suspect that there are a few people who might be interested in seeing it. If you continue and view the entire article (by clicking the read more link, or clicking on the article title above) you will be able to see it. Be aware that it’s almost 30 minutes long, though.

Continue reading “Video of the wedding ceremony”

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No more Kiwi

It’s a sad day when you have to put an animal down. Yesterday was one of those sad days here in our household. Kiwi, our old blue heeler, started being a bit subdued and preferred to lay outside and look at the grass growing. That was a big departure even from Sunday, when she was jumping up at me as usual when I got home. By Monday evening she was not eating, and only drinking limited amounts of water.

Tuesday morning when I woke up early there was foamy dog puke in at least six or seven places indoors, and I could tell she’d been outside as well. She was definitively subdued, but she managed to get in and out through the doggie door herself. By nine-ish she was just lying outside panting. We got a time with the vet at 11, but at 10 she started whining a bit, so we just got in the car, Denice driving and me in the back holding and looking after Kiwi. Traffic was bad and Denice was a bit stressed, and when we got close to the vet Kiwi started making noises of serious pain. Denice stepped on the accelerator and exited I-5, only to take the wrong exit.

At the vets’ Kiwi was almost completely unresponsive, and I carried her in, which gave her immediate access to the treatment room. They x-rayed here and Dr. McGill came and gave us the bad news that it looked like Kiwi had several growths on her liver, and that it had probably packed up altogether. Denice, as Kiwi’s mommy for about fifteen years, had to make the difficult decision to put Kiwi to sleep, but it was the right thing to do. Even if we had had surgery she would most likely never recover, and that would just prolong her suffering, assuming she even survived the surgery. Instead she was given some morphine to remove the pain, and then she was put down. It was sad to stand there and see her go, but at least she got to live a long happy life, and didn’t have to suffer for a long time.

After that the staff put her in the car, and I drove to Bill’s house with Denice in the back still holding Kiwi. As we arrived Bill was already digging a hole next to where Kiwi’s old friends Rocky, Kitty Boy and Aurora are already resting. We buried her draped in her favorite blanket, and after that Denice and I went downtown for our improvised wake, Indian buffet and a beer.

We’ll miss her.

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Mystery post cards

There is something mystical going on in the mail, and I’m not sure who is responsible. It all started about a week ago when I received 2 postcards from France, in French, saying something along the lines “wish you were here”, but with no name. I racked my brain, until I realized that I have a friend who recently got married, and who loves France. Maybe they thought I actually speak French. So mystery solved. I thought…

That is until more postcards started to drop in from Isabella in Lille, France, Sabrine in Brussels, Belgium and Mary in Copenhagen, Denmark. People I have never met, or even talked to. Denice looked at me with this “yeah, right” look inn her eye when i told here I didn’t know who these people are.

On closer scrutiny I realized that they all have a hand written number on them. Unfortunately there are still too many gaps in the number series for me to figure out if there is some hidden message in this or something. Coming to think of it, since it’s post cards and anybody can read it, maybe I should check with NSA if they have discovered a pattern. Anyway, now every day is a day I look forward to the latest postcard. Today’s one was from Finland.

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Crown Room

This afternoon we met Michelle, with our event coordinator, at the Swedish Cultural Center. We went over the placement of people and tables and general layout of the Crown Room. That took a bit of time but Michelle was a great help. We picked out linen colors and food and drinks. Yum!

We hope you’ll enjoy yourselves!

On the way home we talked about going to Sweden in May/June. And Mazamarama in May, the annual tennis tournament of friends held at the Mazama Country Inn in Mazama. We went last May and people thought it was funny that we only knew each other for 13 days. That does sound pretty funny now. I’m thinking of going back to Zihuatanejo this winter. Our honeymoon will be postponed until 2008. We’ll save more money and travel Southern Europe like gypsies. I can’t wait to buy leather in Italy. What does one by in Spain? We’ll drink wines in France. Hmm … what does one buy in Spain? And Henrik has a fancy for visiting Prague. I guess I’ll have to buy one of those terrific big fur hats in Prague.