On The Mend

Well I made it to Canasta, didn't sneeze or cough on anyone, and was able to play all four games. I had decent cards but came out in the middle. Since we only play for $1, winning isn't what we gather for. This is a great group of ladies and we all just have a good time.

By that evening my flu/cold headed to my chest. I started on antibiotics before it could take a strong hold and started using Nyquil Cough at night. Needless to say I didn't do much on Tuesday or Wednesday other than make a pot of taco soup. It makes life so much easier when either of us can just grab a bowl of soup when I'm not up to making a full dinner.

By Thursday I was feeling better and went to the neighborhood luncheon. October has the most birthdays and I walked into a stack of cards and gifts at my place in the restaurant. It was a second birthday celebration. Jeanette made Halloween cupcakes with candles for the birthday girls and pumpkins on the others' cupcakes. Today I need to write out thank you notes to my wonderful neighbors.

I now sound worse than I feel and I think I'm pretty far down the road to recovery. But while I was hacking and sneezing I was productive!

I have a brand new 2011 white with Arizona beige trim Expedition in the garage. It was driven home, put into the garage and has never been out yet. My 2003 is sold to my niece Vicki in North Carolina and will be picked up next week. She has three kids and is so excited to be getting a big SUV. I normally would hesitate to sell a used car to someone I know but this has been the best car and right now I know of nothing wrong with it. I hope she gets another 75,000 trouble free miles out of it. I'll post a picture of the new car when I get it out of the garage and take one.

I've also done all I can on the April France trip. Our air came with the riverboat cruise and is all in order. So only the three days on our own at the end of the cruise needed work. We now have a hotel in the Left Bank area, a group contact for train tickets to Normandy when we get within 90 days and a guide for our Normandy day trip booked and deposit made. We have three nights in Paris with the tour so we'll decide during that time what we want to do when we are on our own. We won't be alone, there are 12 in our group.

LeAnne and I burned up the keyboards back and forth with Caron in Rome about the days before our trans-Atlantic cruise next November. We want to go in several days before the cruise to see some of Italy. We have put together a package of transportation, hotel, tours and some meals that the 23 in our group can join in or not. Some are arriving later, some have been there before so hopefully they can pick and choose any or all of what we've put together to make their trip enjoyable.

If all goes as we hope, we will have transportation to our hotel from the airport, a nice hotel with buffet breakfast for the duration, three days of tours including a day in Capri, Pompeii and Naples using hydrofoils. The last day we will be transported to the ship with a stop at ruins along the way. We have stops in France, Spain, the Canary Islands, six days at sea, the Bahamas and finally Galveston. I'm really looking forward to both of these trips. Add in a month in the Rio Grande Valley in February, Morgan's 1st Communion in May, Ally's graduation in June and anything else added to our summer and you can see why Chris is looking forward to being "lord of this manor" in 2012.

We hope to go to Gerre & Barry's new lake house tonight to see it. They bought a different one than the one she and I had looked at. We left before they made the deal so we never did see it except in pictures. It looks spectacular. We'll go out to eat at a new Mexican restaurant in the area.

We have no big plans for the weekend but I have bunco here on Monday so I have some preparations to make. After I go to the store I'll make whatever food I can beforehand (washing my hands constantly!). Monday morning will be busy as I get the food out, the tables ready and myself ready. They come at 10 a.m. so I have to start early. Maybe by then I'll be all better. Let's hope so.

When an illness knocks you on your *ss, you should stay down and relax for a while before trying to get back up. ~ Candea Core-Starke