Found

Ever since I returned from Hawaii in January, I've been unable to find the charger and USB cable for my digital camera. I knew I packed them and got them back to Saipan, but the day after opening my suitcase, they were no where to be found. I looked everywhere, and finally just decided they must have slipped out of the suitcase when TSA was doing their inspection, or just disappeared into that black hole that seems to exist in every home, maintained by the hands of small children. Today, Mara found the black hole. Some small child had taken the plastic bag full of these gizmos straight out of the suitcase and carried them into the family room, opened the cabinet of videos, and stuffed the bag behind them.

So, here are some pictures that I never got to post.

This is Dr. Salofi, whom I met at the Hawaiian Eye conference and who is now working at my old stomping grounds -- the eye clinic at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center in Pago Pago. (Why do they call it "stomping grounds"?)

Here is our team at the conference. Emilly Taitano, me, Russ Quinn, and Melonie Norita.

Me in Cairns, Australia, from February when Mara and I went. I'm taking my Beautify CNMI t-shirt around the world with me.

With old friends and new friends in Cairns. Dinner at the Zadeh's with the Bolton-Bound family.

Home from Australia

Mara and I spent the weekend in Cairns. It was the first time we've taken a trip without the kids. It was beautiful. We did a lot of that thing that parents with four young children rarely get a chance to do. Yep, that's right. We talked. We talked in complete sentences. We talked without interruptions, carefree, like when we were young and had the house to ourselves. We talked everywhere. We talked lying on the bed. We talked on the couch. We even talked on the balcony. It was hot.

Cairns is a great city, and having been there a couple of times before, we felt no pressure to see anything. We just spent our time walking around and eating lots of great food. But ouch, the declining dollar was painful. In the past you could buy an Australian dollar for sixty cents. Now, it costs pretty much a whole US dollar.

We spent one evening with old friends from Saipan, Jane and Glenn Bolton-Bound. Glenn is still making a living jumping out of airplanes with a tourist strapped to him. The next time we go down there, I think I'll jump with him. I trust him to get me down alive.

I'd post some pictures, but I can't find the cable to download them from the camera.