My alarm went off at 7am on Saturday. Since LF is transitioning to the older set, he had his right and proper breakfast (milk, fruit, yogurt, cereal bar) sitting in front of him when I came into the diningroom. We were going swimming with his "girlfriend" of 2 1/2 years now, and so he was excited about leaving. We were gone for five hours and had a splendid time. Came home and got ready for this week's party. It was nice, but I ended up being drafted to help in the kitchen. Would rather have been outside with hubby and friends. Oh well, such is life. LF came and behaved in such a spectacular way, midway through the evening, I leaned over and said "You're doing such a great job, what would you like for your reward?" "20 desserts". That's my son!!!

Father's day was spent doing car things. We started out at SCCA, watching people spin out, head around the cones and just plain enjoy talking about and driving cars. We also went to the Lane Motor museum, which I was none too happy about! It stinks like a working car garage and in a warehouse. It was the hottest day of the year yesterday, and sweltering inside a stinky warehouse is not fun. I think Ed enjoyed it, and LF seemed enamored with the Peel Trident and the Helicron. I think he's planning on driving the Peel ;)! It was an unbelieveably hot day, but ended with cool drinks in an icy building, so it wasn't all unbearable.

It was a whirlwind weekend, and I didn't get to spend enough time, just being "down" getting ready to recharge for the week. Maybe tonight.

Got up around 6:30 and went outside to do some gardening
before it got too hot.
Struggled through planting, weeding, clipping for a couple
of hours. Had to stop many times to sit and catch my
breath. I've been having severe shortness of breath this
past weekend.

Came in and showered, by then Steve the handyman was here.
Just walking through the house caused me to have to sit
and catch my breath. I got him started on the things that
needed attention. I feel blessed to have him working for me.He never lets us down.

Decided it was time to call my doctor.
I got all my ducks in a row and headed for the doctor's
office to keep my appointment.

Had an EKG, it was okay but then it always is.
They did some blood work as they call it. I'll find out
about that tomorrow. I have to have a Nucular (sp) Stress
test. They will call tomorrow to schedule it.

I need this like I need another hole in my head.

I've never had this shortness of breath this bad before.
I've lost weight and i'm not retaining fluid.
I'm taking stress meds and feel pretty calm about
stuff.

Lord luv a duck! what a day.
Think i'll go to bed and read.

(Lilo, how could I possibly mind such a thing? I'm honored!)

Greetings from Panama City! Steve is asleep after a complete day of travel and two non-stop days of tourism, and I've helped myself to his laptop and the internet connection he set up to work while he's here. The world has become an amazingly small place.

This is a very short trip for me... I go back tomorrow! But Steve had to come here for work, and my airfare cost only 35,000 of the 200,000+ frequent flier miles he had... so I couldn't say no.

For someone who doesn't speak any Spanish, I've really surprised myself (and Steve) with my ability to read menus, understand and answer questions, ask for and follow directions, and interact politely with people here. On the plane ride here, the captain announced that "for those of us who cared, the Panama-US soccer match had resulted in a 0-2 US victory" and I cheered out loud... not because I care a lick about the standing of the US in world soccer, but because he had made the announcement in Spanish, and I understood it fluently in real time. That realization has made this trip richer than I'd imagined.

So far we've gone to Gamboa, taken a boat tour to an island to see wildlife and feed monkeys, visited an orchid collection, gone to the zoo, enjoyed several walks and restaurants, toured the city ruins and the old part of the city (which is a strange combination of slums, regentrification, and one town square in particular that was bordered by no less than seven churches), gone to the canal museum, gone to an emerald museum (where Steve offered to buy me whatever I wanted, but where my practicality did not allow it... someone is sure to take away my "chick card"), and we are getting ready to go out to dinner with some important laboratory owners/managers.

Someone at work asked my why I was going to Panama the other day and her tone irked me a little so I non-chalantly replied "genital warts" and walked away as though the exchange was in no way unusual. When pressed, I explained that we were here because Steve was presenting some new HPV technology to an important lab here and giving a talk to a group of gynocologists... "so really, my trip is all about genital warts..." She shook her head and walked away, vowing that she'd spare herself my answers by asking me fewer questions. Win-win, really...

Di, I got some interesting pictures of a giant freaky bug for you... though I'm sorry to report the pics I took of the unimaginably large spiders didn't turn out so well.

Marda, thanks for the book recommendation! I bought a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma right before we left, and I've been reading it voraciously during the travel time on our trip. I should finish it up in Houston (GBI) during my five freakin hour layover tomorrow.

Sorry for the excessively rambling nature of this post, but I don't have time to proof read it! I need to hop in the shower and get ready to enjoy my last night in this city. This has been a phenomenal trip so far!

What does one do when it's evening and the temperature is still hovering in the 90s? What I did, I guess. Go outside and work a little, come inside and cool off. Go outside and work a little, come inside and cool off.

I got my incredibly filthy jeep interior cleaned out, including scrubbing the cloth seats. It just reeked for no particular reason. I am going to roll all the windows down (can you say that when they're operated by a button?) and then park it in front of the humongous greenhouse ventilator fan. She'll be dried out in an hour. I also took part of the door apart and fixed a malfunctioning door/window lock. Was lucky, the connectors had just pulled apart.

Did you know that starlings can mimic? I nearly cracked up this morning when I was out in the veggie garden. A starling was mimicking some of the calls of a mockingbird. LOL. It p.o.ed the mocker enough he flew away and then the starling did a raspberry. Kid you not.

Also found the corpse of a cecropia moth in one of my g'houses. The butterflies and moths love to come in for the nectar treats and then have a horrible time finding their way back out. I think I shall find out if I can preserve this one somehow, perhaps by pressing. He's beautiful.

I am not firing up the oven tonight. All this food talk on another thread made me hungry for spare ribs. It'll be burgers instead and perhaps I can even con mr. Calliope into cooking them on the grill.

Back outside now, it's cooled off clean down to 88!

With gusty winds this evening it wasn't too bad even though temp was 94 F so I was able to water all pots. Didn't get dark until 8:45 p.m. Supposed to rain tomorrow but lately it's been missing us even though we get lots of thunder.

Finally got all my remaining cuttings and seedlings repotted last night working on top of washer/dryer. Just too hot outside...I've decided my laundry room can double perfectly well as a potting shed for the little fiddly repottings. LOL

DS brought back my digital camera and a new tinier cellphone with camera and text-messaging so I'm reviewing the manuals for each. He's going to get us another computer ith a large monitor...just insists we'll enjoy the faster speed over our MSNTV gizmo and that it will be easier on my eyes since resolution is so much better than my tv/monitor. I may really give it an honest try this time...previously we've just let a computer sit in a backroom and he finally would give up and haul it off. I guess I would enjoy some sites that MSNTV can't access and my eyesight calls for all the help I can get. So another steep learning curve. Since we hibernate all summer inside it's a good time to learn new things...

Suzy, if you have a bell jar or an old glass cheese dome you can arrange a few twigs and place your moth with a bit of white glue. Pressing would take off some of the color on the wings ...plus they're so pretty in 3-D it would be a shame to flatten. josh