These are three of our Student Services secretaries at the retirement party held a few weeks ago. This was a candid picture. I probably could have taken a better posed picture, but two of these women are extremely camera shy, so I did the best that I could. Jean, who is closest to the camera and wearing black and white, has been my secretary for years------I hate to tell you how many!!! She is an unbelievable typist!!! In fact, she is probably the best typist in the United States of America. Jan, in the middle, is the lead student services secretary and we are always bothering her with all kinds of administrative questions like "where is that meeting being held?"or "can you order me a new dictaphone?"or better yet" remind me, how do I fill out this form?"Thanks for putting up with us, Jan. Jennie who is the furthest from the camera and wearing black with blue flowers is a relative newcomer to our staff. I think she has been with us for less than two years. She does a great job and we are happy to have her. She is extremely camera shy, and I can't figure out why. She looks great in this picture!!! We really appreciate you guys!!! We'd be nowhere without you.

Here I am with my colleague and fellow school psychologist, Kathy Haugan at the end-of-the-year lunch. I planned the lunch this year ( and every year). I thought Derek's would be a great choice, and fortunately it was a success. Everyone liked the food, the service and the atmosphere. Any suggestions for next year?

Who would have ever thought that this mother duck would choose the courtyard at Kinnan Elementary School for the nesting and birth of her little duckings!!! What an unusual venue. Kids everywhere----noise everywhere. Her nest was situated right outside the window of our speech pathologists room. I must give the Kinnan students a lot of credit. They left mother duck and her babies alone. I took this picture one afternoon after the school year was over. Mommy duck decided to take the ducklings for a walk in order to explore the grounds. I guess things had quieted down a bit now that the kids were on summer vacation. Our gifted teacher, Kathy, took the ducks home with her to live on her farm.The ducks couldn't be luckier. Now they have lots of land and a big pond to call all of their own. We'll miss you at Kinnan!!!

Can you believe we have three people retiring from our staff this year? We rarely have anyone leave because this job is so great!! ( We are school psychologists in Bradenton Florida. Who could ask for more?) Len, Pat, and Ray, have decided to call it quits and move on to bigger and better things. We had a great time at their retirement party at the Mangrove Grill on the Manatee River. To the right is our great leader and supervisor, Pat Bernhart, roasting all three of them. The food was great as was the company. Best of luck to all of you and have a happy and exciting retirement!!!

Here we are at Brad and Michelle's wedding. We had a great time at Laurel Oaks Country Club and the food was great. So was the company at the table.

We bought a new refrigerator last week and I really love it. I think the last time we bought a refrigerator was in 1974 and we got it at an auction house in St. Louis. I guess the homes that we have bought or the apartments we have lived in before, all came with refrigerators. The one we bought in 1974 had a bottom freezer just like the one you see in the above picture. I really liked that model. It's silly to get all excited about a refrigerator, but I have to tell you that the french door model is far superior to the side by side. The refrigerator looks brown in the picture for some reason, but its really stainless steel.

Some Comments about Las Vegas

Since I have been able to put some time between my Las Vegas trip and the present time, I feel I need to add a short post script to my ranting and raving that can be found in the posts below. I was sick when I was in Las Vegas and couldn't really do the things that I wanted to do. I was mainly interested in hanging out at the spa and going to the shows. I was too sick to do either. Now that I feel healthy, I can see that I wasn't very objective and was in no position to evaluated the Las Vegas experience. I probably would have had an OK time if I had been feeling well and the weather wasn't so cold. I'm not much of a gambler, so I probably won't be returning any time soon, but I'm sure I'll give it another try sometime. If anyone out there would like to post some comments on Las Vegas, be my guest!!