Life on the Vine

The first week of September Tom and I embarked on a vacation we had been planning for nearly a year and talking about for probably close to ten -- a Greek cruise.  Doing a cruise around the Greek islands has always been high on my vacation Wish List.  Tom was in Athens years ago for a work trip but I had never been to Greece.  Over the years we researched and requested literature on different cruise options.  We did start first with large cruise companies and then looked at the smaller "sail" boats that carry about 150-200 people.  We then learned through one of Tom's former co-workers that it's possible to charter a sailboat in Greece and it's actually fairly reasonably priced.  He pointed us in the direction of Sea Trips of Greece. All the credit for making this trip happen goes to Tom.  He did all the coordination with Sea Trips, reserved our boat and crew, took care of the pre-trip payments, and pulled out all the Euro cash we needed to pay ou...

I figured it was time to hop on and just do a random update on things.  I'm starting to settle into life here in southern Arizona.  When I arrived on August 1st I had a week and a half off before starting work, so, fortunately, I was able to arrange for our household goods (HHG) that had been in long-term storage to be delivered while I was on leave.  That gave Tom and I some time to sort through the stuff we'd forgotten we owned before the stuff from Germany arrived.  My father-in-law Jack and I have made three trips to Goodwill so far and we might just have enough stuff for one more trip. It wasn't until October 5th that the stuff from Germany got delivered.  So far there has only been one casualty and thank goodness it wasn't the wine!  Six crates arrived safe and sound Jack has been great about hosting us and helping us get settled into our new house, which we are affectionately calling the 'Temp House' because we hope to sta...