haallllooooo...anybody there?

i feel like have been lost...and i can't find me anywhere.

under the bed, in the back of the closet, next to the bookcase...under the rug?

hmmm, where could i be?

haallooooo...is anybody there?

Family and friends....

July is always a busy month...this year it is crazy! Camp Noonan!

the family arrives about the 30th of june...well almost the whole family. dave and kate and the kids are in the middle of moving to chicago so this year is not a good time. also, cynthia had to cancel because of work and ryan is in so korea.




but laci brought his boat to wisconsin....yikes, that was a job. they brought one of the wave runners too...more toys for the water. what a blast we had!! a whole week of fun and water and wave running, wake boarding, water skiing, kayaking, and sailing. fun at camp noonan!!



at night we had camp fires and pontoon rides and s'mores.


kelly could only come for 4 days so monday morning she heads back to LA. i so wish i could head back with her for her premiere on tuesday nite, but, the "girls" are coming on wednesday and i don't want to be late when they arrive. so, two days of laundry, and clean up...and i'm still not quite ready...

karel, dorothy, and arleen arrive and we're on our way to the cabin. we had fun in the sun. a few days of wind and cooler weather but all in all a fun time for everyone!!

friday was a little cold and windy, and took an evening pontoon ride. and the sky clouded over and the wind came up again...!! we hurried back to the cabin, put the boat away and turned on the tv to find out about the storm....tornado warning!! off to the basement we went to wait out the storm. what an exciting weekend!
we headed out for a road trip on saturday!! almost 700 miles by the time it was over....to frank lloyd wrights spring green house....amazing place, tons of history and drama!! then on to a bookstore that karel and i had heard about on cbs sunday morning. it was essentially a farmer and his book hoarding wife that had over a million books on this little farm in the middle of wisconsin...what a trip!! sweet people and very interesting story. over twelve bldgs. full of books. nothing is catagorized so there are vague catagories and lots of piles...everywhere... and we only visited two bldgs. we made it back for a late dinner and a couple of bottles of wine. whew!!

the next day wanda and her friend cindy came in from minneapolis! it was rather windy so we went down to new richmond to hear the Dweebs!! fun time...then to the bowling alley for a little knocking down of the pins...then back for a pontoon ride with lots of munchies...we kinda skipped over dinner altogether tonite...oops!!





i had to head back to LA a day early this year. that gave me time to check on mom and roger before heading out again with marty. mom is not doing too well. i can see a significant change in her in just the 3 weeks that i have been in wisconsin. roger tries to keep up with her care but elizabeth and i both think that we will have to get in more help for him/her. i will be back on the 22nd and i think that we will definitely need to make changes. she had a spell last week and needed to go to hoag hospital....then he cancelled the follow-up appointment because he felt she still was not responsive enough...news break, rog, she's only going to get less responsive....poor guy, he has to deal with it daily.

it's hard to lose your mom at any time...i'm not sure what's harder...by bits and pieces or suddenly...none of it is easy. love ya mom!

today is my bro, steve's, birthday...he is officially older than me...teehee! for ten short days, we are the same age. so i always take the time to remind him...he's OLDER! on his birthday...Yay!

love that boy!

may has literally flown by...

i accomplished a lot on my "plan" for the month...spring cleaning was my main concentration.
Dubai was in the plan as well but as plans tend to do...it changed and no Dubai...bummer.

i will go there eventually but for now i need to head to the cabin to get ready for our summer fling. i'm so excited, it will be a fabulous summer. i only wish everyone could come and have some "lake time".

i need it for sanity's sake.

focus!

Time to go!

well, our time here has come to and end. bummer...but it was great to get a taste and has just whet my appetite to come back and see more.


we had a full breakfast trying to eat up our groceries...and of course we went for a walk and to get a last view of our wonderful surroundings...and i was in search of just one more massage...


so fun. our last minute stuff was done quickly and we headed out around lunchtime...


grabbed a taxi and then got sucked into the thai check-in procedure....apparently, all the check-in counters are shared and only open two hours before the flight. so we found out which counter it was and for the first time in our recent memories, stood in line for over and hour, to wait. it paid off because things just got progressively more confusing...no problema for these experienced travelers...just kidding, it was fairly painless and we had time to relax before the flight.

after we got to Bangkok, THAT's when it got exciting for me.

i had to wait out at the check-in counter to get my seat.. they released them 8 minutes before the deadline to be at the gate. i only had to go through passport control, security and go over to another terminal to get to the gate...(heavy breathing here)

once in Hong Kong, i was sent to the transfer desk...in the E terminal...by train....once there, this lovely woman took one look at my paperwork and said i needed to go to the "staff" transfer desk in terminal A...the problem was, i had 45min. to catch my flight..unfortunately, she was unconcerned with this little detail..fortunately, another gate agent caught the panic in my eyes and said she would take care of it...which she did. unfortunately, she waited until the requisite 8min before i had to be on the flight. so i did the ole OJ run through the airport (pre-Nicole) and went through security, got on the train, went two terminals over and got out at gate 48 and only had to get to gate 80. luckily i had on my "sensible" shoes and ran like....

once at the airplane, i realized i must have gotten the last seat on the 747 and literally EVERY seat had a seat...all i can say is whew!! and 12 hours later we landed at LAX...kap kun kah!!

in the infamous words of Dorothy on her way home from Oz..."there's no place like home"....

Elephants and more...

we all decided that an elephant ride was necessary to round out our trip. so off we went friday afternoon for an elephant adventure. Siam Safari, we discovered was the most humane and took the best care of their elephants. let's suffice it to say that it was amazing, and the indian elephants were so gentle and incredibly lovely...the mottled skin on their ears shows they are older...possibly 30-35 yrs old....




we went around a pathway through the tree canopy so that it wouldn't be too hot for our big friends...our big guy was Jamjaew...
his trainer is his mahoot..and is pretty much with him for life..the elephants can live to be 60 years old...yikes




after their walk...our buddies like a little fruit snack...so cute! and speaking of cute!





Great day......

Phuket continued....Thursday 10Apr

well, it is time to catch up on our trip. thursday brought sunshine and incredible weather...again. good thing i like sunny, hot, and humid...but not too much humidity. after our excursion yesterday, we "rested"...again. i like this laying around by the pool. let me describe it briefly for those of you who missed it the first time......

yoga class at 8:10 am...followed by yogalates at 9:10am...back to the room to change, have a bite of breakfast..again...and some coffee and down to the pool. the boys are going to Phuket Town for a little sightseeing.

we get to the big pool and scope out our lounge chairs to make sure we have sufficient shade and a bit of breeze...the pool guy comes by to bring us ice water and fresh fruit...have i mentioned how i love this? so, after about an hour i wander down the beach for a massage...for $13.00 and then back to the lounge chair for more reading and my requisite sun time. karel times it so i get my 30 minutes per side and then a dip in the pool to cool off and back in the shade so i don't burn.....i can hear you groaning from here.


after ordering our chicken satay for lunch, we go for a little walk and there on the beach is Jumbo and his big bro swimming in the Andaman Sea and playing in the sand...so cool.




so after watching "the kids" for awhile we walked down the beach and got tatoos...yes, you heard me correctly...tatoos. well, yea, they are henna but it was fun and we giggled all the way back to the condo.....me and my BFF'stime for a beer....