It’s been a while since we last checked in. Since we last wrote, Olivia and her family sailed from Barcelona to Lisbon. Some arrived in Barcelona early, others departed Lisbon late. Most were back in California by July 5th.
At home, John and Duke enjoyed each other’s company. So much so that John was later accused of making Duke chunky, having put him back on his previous diet consisting mostly of rotisserie chicken. Anyway… lots of walking, lots of visits to the beach, and the bay, where Duke managed to find a leopard shark, correction, a dead leopard shark on one of their walks.
These little vacation pockets with very few people in the house are a good opportunity to catch up on the smaller-and-smaller list of things we need to take care of, and Manuel and his crew were here for a week treating all the outside woodwork. The outside looks so much better and should be OK for at least five years.
Eli went to Italy to visit a friend while the rest of the family was in Spain. She had a great time on the coast (La Spezia) and even made it out on the water in a family-owned boat. She was lucky to see one of her cousins in Copenhagen during a layover on the way back.
We continue to have construction in our backyard, and the dust from digging and the winds have been rather significant. The dust is everywhere – on the side of the house, on the cars, on the pool cover, and more. We have written the city, asking them to pay for at least one cleaning a quarter. Let’s see – we don’t have a great track record with them, although they have decided to take another look at our claim from the fallen tree. Their insurance company is still recommending that they deny our claim, so we don’t have high hopes for a positive outcome. For us, anyway.
