September 19, a day after our 45th anniversary, and the packing begins in earnest, Sandra is off to the local jeweler to pick up a beaded necklace that she's had for years but that came all unstrung just last week, She thought she would restring it herself until she realized that there is a knot after each bead. Dane is tasked with trips to the attic for suitcases, backpacks and the like, then there's the printing out of our boarding passes and cabin identifiers. It's hard to pack for all the different weather zones we'll pass through, Seattle and Vancouver will likely be chilly, Hawaii will be warm, then the various islands may be warm or maybe not exactly warm, Sydney will be cool in October, Melbourne and Tasmania cooler still and then New Zealand will warm up a bit, until we finally come back to Florida in November.

Yesterday (Sept 18) was our anniversary, and we celebrated it with a great dinner at the Wine Bistro (near the Tom Adams bridge) and we were joined by Larry and Susan Smart, our former next-door neighbors who now live in a beautiful condo, they moved from a 3 BR house with the idea of simplifying their lives. When I think about it, I still badger the lawn guy and the gardener and the pool guy and the gal who pressure-washes the place--Larry says he did the math and it was worth the monthly fee to not have to chase Florida workers to find out why they hadn't come this week...

The night before (Sept 17) we had enjoyed LaStanza with another couple, Jean and Barrie Youngblut, It was their anniversary too (49 years for them). To commemorate, I had balloons made that said married 94 years.  People asked about that and we told them--they are married 49 years and we are married 45, that's 94.  One bonus we have, this week is a restaurant promotion week here in town called Let's Eat, Englewood, All the restaurants have special prix fix menus to show off their specials, it played right into our hands. Last year they called it "Let's Eat Englewood", I prefer it with the comma. We are planning to try one more called Farlow's later in the week, More on that later.