Carrie and Manford's 17th Anniversary

How quickly the years have gone by! And here we are in New Zealand of all places. We continue to stay in touch with Stateside family and friends through e-mail and the occasional telephone call (thank goodness for calling cards) and are very grateful for all who respond. We had a small anniversary celebration at Canvas, an aptly named restaurant affiliated with the local museum - artfully presented - Carrie had a tender, tasty filet of beef and Manford had tea smoked salmon - a shared glass of pinot gris and a shared creme brulee with mango at the bottom. Lovely. Manford had an interesting experience - Wednesday of last week - after overdoing it on a walk to school with Charlie dragging Emily along pretty fast so he had to move quickly (he thought - boy I am stepping out well with big steps and rapid pace)that night he experienced right knee pain that was really severe the next day and the next so went to the doctor and the doctor said no more monkeys (ooops, wrong direction there, Manford)he said hmmm, some arthritis in that knee and probably inflamed tendons or at least some stuff in that knee is irritated and inflamed go get some physio so I did and at home have been icing and heat padding and am slowly getting better - thank goodness since Carrie and I leave Friday for a two plus day trip to Wellington - a hilly place. I ain't fixed, folks, for the pain rears its ugly head at night - but am slowly getting better. Yeah, Kiwi driver at Indianapolis - the winner! Sometimes we watch netball on the telly - a game played by women, with lots of passing and no dribbling and no drives to the basket - but if the recipient of a pass is close enough to the basket she can turn and shoot. Ah,shoot I can't describe it very well but bet Wikipedia can if you are interested in learniing more about it. Rugby, of course, and football (that is Kiwi for soccer) and cricket are big over here. We get ESPN on the digital pay Sky service so have been enjoying watching some of the NBA playoffs. They also broadcast the Indy 500 live, starting at 4:30 am but I did not get up for that. Well thanks for your time and attention and tolerance for my ramblings. We wish you well. Manford