Author: Doris

On Tuesday, Katherine’s cough is not much better, so she goes to the doctor for a chest x-ray. Has a lung infection and gets stronger antibiotics. Jeremy takes 6 trips into town, mostly for food. We ride the venicular rail-way up and down the hill of Evian. Pretty slow day. Vince is better, Edda developes a pretty high fever which we control through Motrin, although it worries us. By morning, she is all better. Quite a trooper.

Eating a delicious lunch on the patio of Clara’s house in Thonon-les-Bains. She had the most wonderful fruit from the local market. We were all jet-lagged at this point but we had the most wonderful meal. Cheese, bread, fruit, chicken, Clara and Colette really were very nice. They made a dentist appointment for Emy in the afternoon, the rest of us headed to the hotel in Evian-les-Bains. The hotel is very rustic, our room has a bunk bed and two single beds. Everyone tries to nap, but it’s unsuccessful. Jeremy and I and the kids explore Evian, Ben picks up Johanna at the airport at 6 pm.

Thanks for the phone calls and a bottle of wine for Father’s Day. Donald, I was up in the air flying when you called. I tried to call you when I was on the ground but you were not there.

Mom almost bought me a Ford F150 truck at Washougal for Father’s Day. Well, I suggested that, may be, we can postpone it for a while. Or otherwise, you are going to have 5 cars for 2 people.

Coming Wednesday is Mom/Dad’s 37th engagement annivesary. Since I will not be there with Mom, I bought Mom dozen roses for this occasion to say “Thanks a lot, Mom”. Mom, she is always very great to me 🙂 and I am very fortunate. Oh, time is really passing by very fast. Our engagement was just like yesterday.

Doris, hope you and your family have a wonderful stay in France. Say hello to Bob & Katherine for us. Donald, how is your bike riding and collar bones?

Mom & Dad look forwarding to seeing you all on the weekend of July 4th.

At the Geneva airport – about 3 am New York time. We are all grumpy. Emily had a toothache that flared up the day before she left for France. Katherine was battling a persistent cought. I forgot to mention that on Saturday, Vince got the sickest I have ever seen him. His throat was hurting incredibly and he had developed a fever and we went to the doctor on Saturday who thought it might be strep and picked up a presciption of antibiotics and getting him to take his dose was not fun. His throat was very irritated and now once in Geneva, he was tired and sick. We thought we were to be met at the airport, but it turned out that we were to drive to Clara’s house. So we rented our cars and headed to Thonon-les -Bains.

So our France vacation begins, we are on our red eye (Swiss air) to Geneva. On the flight are Ben, Jeremy, Doris, Katherine, Bob, Vincent and Edda. Ben and Emy arrived at JFK via the subway. Bob and Katherine arrive together and the four of us take the trusty Volvo down the Taconic freeway to JFK. Jeremy and I are driving along the Hutchinson freeway, which is just north of NYC, when Vince announces that he has to go potty. Now we are in the heart of NYC traffic. If we get off at an exit, they only lead to other freeways or else into the city where we are bound to get lost. Jeremy pulls over to the side of the Hutch and tells Vince firmly, “Pee only, no poop.” Vince looks at Jeremy and says, “I gotta poop, no pee.” So there we are on the side of the Hutch, a million cars whizzzing by and there is my son, crouching and making a turd as large as Ruby’s on the side of the freeway. Jeremy insists on picking up the poop, so we wrap it in a diaper and shove it into an empty Kleenex box.

Speaking of Ruby, we left her at this place, Professional Pet People in Rhinebeck, NY. She was excited to see the other doggies there (it’s a completely cageless boarding place), but once she realized that we were leaving her there, she jumped over the 3.5 foot high fence, they had to put her in the back where the yard had a higher fence. She was pretty sad to be left there.

Three couples went to Washougal home and we had crab and rost duck dinner with the wine. Test of this wine is very good. All my friends love it. Thanks to Jeremy and doris.

All ladies helped to cook and wash the dishes. So my job was much easier. One of them bought a home about 10 miles away from us. We are trying to convince the other to buy one. We also had “Den Sin” today too. There is a newly opened place in Portland.

We went to rose garden too. It is very pretty this time.

Hmmm, he’s not logged into Yahoo.

So we have been agonizing over the flights because of Ruby. Ruby has the most complicated paperwork, with proof of vaccinations and treatments within specific time frames, a USDA certificate of export from Albany and an import license issued from SGP. I was hoping to take a non-stop flight from NYC, so we could be assured once on the plane in NYC, no paperwork glitch was going to stop us from reaching Singapore with Ruby. But the non-stop flight is 20 hours, pretty much guarenteeing that Ruby would poop/pee in her crate after holding it as much as she could and also we found out this flight is weight restricted and Ruby would not be allowed on the plane. They use every extra bit of weight capacity for fuel, so nothing extra. So we were looking a two flights, both stopping in Frankfurt. We were assured that the folks in Frankfurt were quite good at dog handling and that there would be a vet to look after Ruby. The two flights were one with an 80 minute layover and one with a 12 hour layover. The critical thing was to figure out if Ruby would be able to get out of her crate to pee and walk around a little bit. I was disparing that we would never find out exactly what happens in the cargo area of the Frankfurt airport and inclined to go as quickly as possible to SGP via the short layover, but my sweet husband, Jeremy found out (after about 50 calls and emails) that the dogs get to get out of the crate and walk around starting one hour after the plane lands and then they get back into their crates one hour before the flight takes off. Ruby will get to walk around and get food and water. So we are doing the long layover. It’s crazy, but this is the thing that is worrying me most about moving. I just invision us stopped in Frankfurt with the Germans not allowing Ruby on the flight to SGP. Then we would be screwed. But our vet is preparing paperwork for import into Germany, just in case something weird happens. I guess worse could happen, it would only be a paperwork snafu, and not really anything terrible. We would just have to work with a German vet to get the German paperwork ready.

Vince is going to miss his school a lot. He really enjoys it so much. Ms. Pat, his teacher, really does a good job. Today they came home with handmade Father’s Day Gifts! (I’m glad you got the wine dad, sorry it was a hassle, I thought the apt complex could do it. It is from Jeremy’s favorite winery – maybe he can tell you the story…)) I hope his new school will be just as much fun for him.

Jeremy took the day off today and we all went up to Bard. Actually, we went to Bard last night. Today was a full day, it started off slowly, but we all went to the dentist, then Ruby had an appointment and then Vince and Edda had a playdate with Andrew and finally a dinner party at Bob and Katherine’s place.

Vince’s portrait of me. Notice the Thomas the Tank engine placemat.

Since we don’t have a TV, we watch the washer.