Taking a deep breath...

While we were in Europe, Natalie felt the tug of the West Coast and paid her way out there to go interview for a position or two. The results were positive; Natalie gave notice and is happily enjoying life somewhere some 70 miles north of San Francisco. However, this leaves her with an empty house in Houston, thus giving Galina—who holds a Texas real estate license—the opportunity to put the place on the rental market.

But not without fixing a few things that need fixing, first.

There are a lot of twists and turns to the story, of interest to none but us, but the bottom line is this: both of us will be going to Houston in the near future. From there, Galina will be flying to New York to pick up her sister, who is coming to visit. Everyone will then hit the road from their respective venues and rendez-vous back in Pagosa.

Sounds like a plan.

* * *Back on June 11, Galina and I shared a Paris bus with a group of young women who seemed to be having a pretty good time in costume.


I asked if I could take a picture or two, and offered the results copies by email, providing my email address on my business card. It took a while for the request to arrive in my inbox, but I received it today.

As a happy side-effect, the email supplied some much-needed background for me, as I had not been able to understand what the women were celebrating when they answered my question, asked on the bus. Within the spoken response, I heard the word "enterrement," but since that word basically means "funeral" or "burial" (and they were having wa-a-y too much fun for that to be the case), I was sure I had completely misheard the reply.

I hadn't.

The event was a "enterrement de vie de jeune fille," better known in these parts as a "bachelorette party" (i.e., a funeral for the single life, for a woman).

* * *I still have quite a bit to relate of our last few days in France. And as le mieux est l'ennemi du bien, I should probably get to it soon, before the memories start to fade.

But not today.

Cheers...