Sprinter Life Family Letters #4

Dear lover, 

Here's a picture of Veronica and I from last week's School of the World field trip- the kayak and snorkel tour. The tour company had one giant canoe but only had two kayaks, one double and one single. Faced with competition, I had to rochambeau for the double. You'll never believe this (because whenever we play you always win) but this time,  I WON.  See, unbeknownst to you, I've been studying your strategy (which I will not disclose here on the blog) of which comes first- the rock, the paper, or the scissors- and I applied it against Mackenzie, my unsuspecting opponent. We opted for 2 out of 3, and I scored the victory on shake 2.  Shah-bam! My only lament is that your method doesn't work against you. 

You really have taught me so much in the past six years. I've always been passionate about life, but you have given me even more things to love- like sleeping under the stars, surfing in warm water, rafting the Colorado, traveling the world- and most of all, YOU. 

On Saturday, after Veronica left, Kiki and the SOTW ladies and I hiked a couple of miles up a mountain outside of Jaco to an abandoned half-built structure overlooking the ocean.  I have no idea what it was doing there or who built it or when, but it was there, and we seized the moment. Renee led an absolutely amazing yoga class that blew us all away. It was the perfect way to end the week. 

In regard to your  letter last week.... I, too, learned proper pee etiquette

    

And I also wanted to let you know that I am so happy that you are drinking amazing red wine and eating gourmet food without me.  I'm not bothered at all that you've been wine tasting in the gorge, that you went to Pomodoros and ate the lamb and mint cannelloni- my favorite dish in the whole world- or that you went to Celilo and had an exquisite local grown organic meal accompanied by a bottle of L'ecole no.41, a bottle of Frog's Leap, and, oh wait you can't remember the THIRD one because you had soooooo much delicious wine. No, no, I'm not bitter about any of that stuff. 

Likewise, even though you've been suffering in the cold and rainy northwest for the past two weeks,  I bet you're really happy that I've been surfing every day in the hot Costa Rican sun...

                                                                   with Geudy....

                                                                  

Carlos.....

And Rodrigo!

(Ohhhh, calm down every one, I kid, I kid.  These guys are just the surf instructors at SOTW. Carlos, the guy in the middle, is actually a friend of Tree's, and he protested heavily about participating in the joke. He did not think it was funny, as evidenced by the look on his face)

On a not so funny note, Kiki has been having a tough time.  She's had two vet appointments since you've been gone. The first one was to have a CBC done to see how she's recovering from the Ehrichliosis (tick fever), to get a Bordetella vaccination, and to get an updated health certificate. Her blood test came back mostly fine; her platelets are still a little low, but her red and white blood cells are normal, as is her renal function. All in all, the vet was super impressed by how well she's doing for a twelve year old dog (that's 84 in people years!).  I bought her some special vitamins to boost up her blood, and the vet said to get her retested in a month. 

The second appointment was for her teeth cleaning. Here she is being consoled by two vet techs while a third one prepped her for her anesthesia. When I snuck in to give her one last kiss,  I expected to see her being held down with brute force and screaming for mercy--but no, not our Kiki. There she was, sitting pretty and polite in a circle of nurses, as if she'd somehow convinced them that playing a quick game of bridge would be far more fun than cleaning her teeth. 

Only a few more days lover. Your girls miss you madly and forever- STEVIE

ps. I still HEART you!