Commencement, Germs, Good Times, and Zorbing

I retired today - let the fun commence!   I almost got weepy when I turned in my computer today, primarily because it's been my 24/7 companion for so very long - but I know the fab team at Chase knows where to find me if I can ever be of help.  (Thanks, fab team, for the nice messages and well wishes!)  In the meantime, it's so much fun and so rewarding to be able to concentrate on writing, a water-wise gardening website still in development, long-ignored personal goals, and whipping the a** out of this lymphoma stuff.

This week I feel wonderful, back to walking and biking with energy to spare through the afternoon.  But next Monday I have another big chemo, which will likely set me back again for another two weeks with those cumulative effects.  I still have to be very careful about germs (yes, pretty much confined to a sterile house), but I'm really enjoying feeling great this week. I believe that ramping up exercise and all the prayer warrior efforts are really making a HUGE difference  - good times, thank you prayer warriors!  

Check out these Down Under tips

I am amazed how many friends have been to New Zealand and Australia and sent us great suggestions over the last two weeks.  It's also obvious that we have an exceptionally fit, fun and partying group of friends!  Ideas included: climb the Sydney Harbor bridge, do a Uluru sunrise climb, snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, go Zorbing in New Zealand (which looks like crazy fun) or Schweebing, black water rafting/kayaking in caves lit only by glowworms, see a real non-soccer haka (translation:  no shirts!), get a geothermal mud bath in Rotorua, tour the fjords on the South Island, check out wineries and scenery in the Dandenong, see a game of footy, and tour the Lark single malt distillery in Hobart (ok, you obviously know at least one of the husbands going on this trip).  I have to tell you that I'm leaning to the recommendations from my daughter-in-law from Melbourne for that area, but the rest sound great!

Some more - er - interesting and sometimes dangerous suggestions included:  eat lunch with the crocs at a crocodile farm, snack on hangi and try a huhu grub in the Maori village, get a picture in Lord of the Rings garb at Hobbitown, and go to a dodgy sports bar for a handle of Tui and root for the opposing team (nah - unless our husbands have been misbehaving).

Keep the ideas coming!  We aren't going until it's summer again Down Under, and it's still fall there now.  That gives me some time to get in shape for climbing that bridge...