Blue Nettles

Happy fourth of July!

We are going bowling this morning. Have you ever tried bumper bowling? It is quite fun and I have a better score!

No running around in the heat tonight in search of fireworks. We like to watch the Capitol Fourth. Very exciting. Cooler seats and we can see!

We leave Saturday, July 8, for a two week vacation. We will travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a night and then to Colorado Springs for a few days. We will be staying at George Sr's cabin. Hazel will come for the day to visit and we will visit her in the nursing home one day. Then we drive through Denver and Wyoming to Wanship and then to Salt Lake City. We will drive home through Las Vegas for a night to be home by July 15.

So, lots of visits, lots of miles. I'm bringing home more stuff from Salt Lake (smile). It will be soooo nice to get out of the heat. I love the Rocky Mountains.

See you soon.
Love,
Ellie

Larry- that is a hilarious recap of your starting new job- keep your sense of humor about it!
Yeah- Max and Whitey- celebrate!
Kay

Hi Larry:

That is very funny, Larry. I thought you were starting next week with the new job. Although I'm sure the first week wasn't fun for you it does sound humorous. Hopefully once things settle down I'm sure you will start to enjoy it. Just don't get any of the badges confused.

Our house closed yesterday. Yee hah! Of course the 'settlement' was done on Friday in Australia at 2:30 so we won't see it in our account until Monday. But we still celebrated with a nice dinner out last night. We are walking around singing 'She's a rich girl' (or boy) :)

We're going away on the sailboat overnight tonight. It'll be a little adventure.

Hope all have a safe and happy 4th.

Love Max and Whitey

I got through the first week of my new job. It had the usual indignities and traumas of going to a new job. Of course the federal government has to add a few special twists to it.

On monday I reported for work at USAID and spent most of the day in orientation and security briefings where they admonished us not to talk to foriegners and not email top secret documents to our friends. At the end of the day I went to find my boss - but she and the office I was to work in had been shipped off to the State Department building so they parked me in a cubicle for a few hours but by the end of the day it had been decided and I was to report to State the next day.

So Tuesday I reported to State and was issued more stinkin' badges. Now I have 3 badges. One from USAID for the Reagan building, one for the new part of State's building (it is under renovation) that I have to insert and put in a pin number to get in the front door and then insert to get in my office door and a third badge for the old parts of the building. So I have all these badges hanging around my neck all day long - very irritating.

I am now employed in Office F at the State Department. We are in a frantic attempt to reorganize how the US decides how and where its foreign assistance is spent. It is not going to be pretty and suspect I'll regret my decision to take this job.

And to top off the week, we had torrential rain storms flooding the city. The biggest impact on most of people is that if you look on the back of the $20 bill, the tree on right side of the White House fell down. So your $20 bills are no longer valid.