Photos of our trip to the Colombo zoo with Dick and Pat have been posted.

www.rtsla.photofreeway.com

It’s been a while since we posted but we have been busy with company. First we had our in laws from Japan/Maine. The day they left, Larry and Susan arrived from Portland. Tomorrow all four of us take off for Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, returning on Tuesday. So today I am running errands, shopping for gifts for our African family and packing. In the afternoon, I have my career development group. We will go out for dinner, which will make my life sane! We are in good spirits and thoroughly enjoying our company. Both Dick and Pat and Larry and Susan have been the world’s easiest guests. Very laid back and willing to go with the flow. It will seem very quiet when they leave on Tuesday but then we leave the next Saturday, March 18^th for Johannesburg, South Africa. Ron has a meeting with the International Advisory group (he’s the chair, YEAH!) for ICMA, his professional association. While in Africa we decided we would go to Cape Town to see our South African family who hosted us in 2000 when Ron did a professional exchange with the city manager in Paarl, just out of Cape Town. We are so excited to be going back!!!

Ron has had a super week at work with very few people in the office so he has gotten caught up with work and feels he can leave for Africa in a week with no problems. We have reached the point in this adventure where things are clicking along and we are having a grand time. The stress has abated and we are enjoying the experience in a way that we didn’t/couldn’t initially due to all the adjusting and work pressure for Ron. It has been five months already. We can hardly believe it and the next month will fly by with the trip to Africa and a trip to India in April when there is a long weekend due to religious holidays and the New Year here.

Financially this has been a bonanza. In addition to paying off the mortgage we were able to send our financial planner a big check this month for two IRAs. We will have some travel expenses this month but will be able to send Bob, the Ameriprise rep, more money at the first of the month. Ron is much more relaxed about retirement now that we are adding to our nest egg instead of drawing it down. Our only expenses are transportation, food, Geetha and the gardener. We will start to take short trips on long weekends to India or Thailand or other nearby places.

Yesterday while I was gift shopping for our South African family I saw a Sri Lankan painter’s art exhibit and talked Ron into coming to see it with me during lunch. We bought one of the paintings and will bring it home after the show ends in April. Traditionally for many years we have bought a piece of artwork for our anniversary each year. This practice began fairly early in our marriage. Initially, we gave each other gifts such a shirts or sweaters but Sonia, Ron’s mom, told us we were way too boring! She was 100% right and thus began the idea of purchasing and collecting art. Yesterday, Ron was a little taken aback by buying art when it wasn’t our anniversary but recovered quickly. What a guy! We have a lot of bare walls here so it will be great to have something to hang on the empty space. I also will have a piece of hand loomed fabric made into a wall hanging and that will probably hold us until we leave. I thought we could take these things to the house in Thailand when it is ready. Our dear friend Nattawan is building a house in Phetchaburi just a couple of hours south of Bangkok and has invited us to live there for a few months every year. I think I have mentioned this before as we plan to ship all our furniture and household goods we purchased here to Thailand when we leave. The construction should be finished about the same time.

This is a brief posting but I thought better than none. I gotta go!