Sunday morning report: I'm feeling pretty good.  Bone pain is gone, and aches are minimal.  Definitely the direction I wanted to be heading.  Last Sunday was my low point... outlook for today MUCH BETTER!
I'm calling it a sunny forecast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom had offered to take me out to dinner on Friday, but I just wasn't up to it.  However, last night we went 'out' to dinner at Patti & Gary's house. At first Patti had offered to bring dinner to our place, but it really was nice to get out of here for a while. Does not bode well that I am already experiencing symptoms of Cabin Fever one week into my chemo.... but on the plus side, MY temperature still has not reached 98.6, so no overt signs of infection.  :-)

 Patti had whipped up a batch of her wonderful lasagna and garlic bread (and a big pot of asparagus and broccoli that I also pigged out on) and after dinner we laughed ourselves silly with a new game called "Would You Rather".  The choices were beyond absurd (obviously the whole point of the game is to foster discussions) and more than once Tom 'accused' Gary of making them up. 

Although the boys' friendship has waxed and waned over the years, Patti & I have remained BFFs.  One spring break our two families vacationed together in Rocky Point.  We had rented a place after seeing a picture on the internet, but once we arrived it turned out that the water was not in the backyard (the photo must have been snapped during a high-water event), but a mile (or two) away!  The next morning we went to the rental office, and convinced them to switch us to another place right on the water.  We were given the top floor of the main house (two bedrooms) and the accompanying 2-bedroom guest house. (Some unknown renters had dibs on the bottom floor of the main house.) The new place sounded great on paper, and also looked great when we drove up.

However (doesn't it seem like there's often a 'however' in my stories?) while we were waiting to move in (while it was being cleaned) what seemed like endless carloads of Spring Breakers from NAU pulled up.  They certainly came prepared... it looked like the only 'luggage' they were unloading from their vehicles were cases and cases of beer.  So we made an instant change in rooming arrangements - to avoid too much fraternization between the kids we adults took the top floor of the main house, and our four kids were demoted to the guest house.

This picture shows the main house (with Joel, Lisa, Zach & Alex on the wall) with the guest house partly visible on the right, and a few of 'our' college students sunning themselves on the beach.  The downstairs of the main house had about 8 bedrooms.

I'm happy to say that the college students were not a problem - the week went smoothly, and we actually got sleep at night.  Our kids, of course, were smitten with the college kids, and hung out with them on occasion - but there were no issues.  It was a great week.

Gary & Patti

Tom & Bobbi

Joel and Alex spent most of their time on the beach finding critters,
like this squid

 and whatever's in the bucket Alex is holding
that the boys brought back to show everyone.

Once they found a baby octopus.

I am very happy to report that
ALL LIVE CREATURES WERE PROMPTLY RETURNED TO THE OCEAN
after a brief show and tell.

Lisa walked the beach

helped with construction

did some writing
(the beer bottle was forced on her for the photo shoot - don't all great writers drink?)

and some beading.

Tom got Gary hooked on flintknapping.

Here's Gary proudly showing off one of his points - Zach is not impressed.

What's a trip to the ocean without a ride on a banana boat?
Alex and Lisa flagged them down.

No surprise that Alex snagged the front seat for the primo ride experience.

Patti with her crew of 4

Home again!

We made forays into town to the aquariam where the official trip photographer actually made it into one of the pix - see me on the left, then Zach, Joel, Alex & Lisa.

Here's Alex getting ready to feed a new friend

who REALLY was interested in what Alex has in his hand!

There was also the requsite shopping trip, where Tom contemplated this outfit

Alex, Joel, Zach & Lisa modeled these hats

Hard choice between those and these, on Joel, Lisa and Alex

And, of course, the official Group Photo on our balcony.
Now I see why Alex sticks out on virtually every photo these days....

That was a fun trip down Memory Lane, and pretty much the only trip I get to take (except for Lisa's graduation in May) for the foreseeable future.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.