New York, New Sailboats, New Beginnings!

We're busy. And recording it here, helps with my memory issues. When I'm old and have my house by the sea, like Miss Rumphius, I'll use these blog posts to write my memoirs.  Maybe.

So, since last we talked, a few things happened....
We'll start with ME!

Sue
I did fib a little, when I posted the last family update. I had written most of it before I made the last-minute decision to go see Katie in New York. She finally confided in me that she hadn't given a lot of thought to the idea of my coming for her end-of-the-year stuff, because she thought the flights would be too expensive. But the more I heard about it, the more I realized it was a real graduation. And, since she had never graduated from anything before - I needed to be there! I got online on Friday, the 11th, booked a flight, and flew to NYC - La Guardia at 7 a.m. the next day. I was happy that I didn't have to use my seat extender that Michael picked up on one of our last flights. When I got to Charlotte, NC, I decided I should probably tell Katie, in case she made other plans. She was pretty excited to hear I was only a couple of hours away! I met her at her dorm, and we went to lunch at our traditional restaurant, The Barking Dog. It was the first place we went to eat when she first moved there. Mother's Day was far from typical, as I spent it in NYC.
Healthwise, I'm still working on it. While we did lots of walking in New York, we did lots of eating too! It was so good! But now I'm back on track. Kinda.

Katie
Katie finished up her year at NYFA and graduated on May 12th. She was so surprised that I flew in. She had a lot of fun with her friends in their last days in NYC. She has a couple of friends who are going to move in with her in an apartment in Los Angeles - which is where she'll do her second year with NYFA. She really didn't enjoy the NY winters, so I'm sure LA will be better in that regard. Several of her instructors told me that she could stay in NY and start working right away - and who knows, maybe she'll go back and do that. It's good to know they think she's good enough for it! Lots of compliments as to how driven and passionate she is about acting. I wish I could have seen her Scene Study that her group did the night before I got there. They all said she was incredible in that. Sean, one of the tech people, said he will upload it so we can see it. Here's more about Katie's graduation.
After I helped her pack up her dorm, she came back to my hotel to sleep in comfy bed. Dorm beds aren't that great. We ate breakfast and parted ways at the airport. She got the rest of her stuff organized, hung out with friends, and hopped on the plane for Austin on Thursday. The layover in Orlando was too short, evidently, because Jet Blue lost her huge suitcase. Actually, this worked in our favor - we didn't have to lug it in the Prius - with Alyssa, Grandma, Katie and me. They delivered it to our door the next day. Katie's enjoying open skies and lots of room in the house. She'll be looking for a job this summer.
Katie wrote her own blogpost about the highlights of this past semester in Birthday, Sick, Final Performances, and Home for the Time Being. 

Alyssa 
While I was in NYC, Alyssa got her call back on one of the interviews: Milk + Honey Salon in the Arboretum. They're working on an Apprentice program and are willing to start her as a Shampoo Tech/Salon Assistant.  She'll move into the Stylist role as soon as possible. For now, she's happy to have a job at a really pretty new salon. She gives a great head massage during a shampoo, so I expect she'll make great tips! Since she's only working 3 days/week right now, she's spending a lot of time fishing with Josh - and having great luck! This will be the first summer that she isn't booked solid with classes since 2008! She is definitely relieved to be done with all that!

The Magazine Cover!

Michael

Kathya's Graduation Festivities!

Michael has several new blogposts up at his blog, In the Nica Time. His Tumblr blog was too unwieldy for him - especially with his limited internet access. But the articles are still up there until he can get them all moved over to the new blog. So now he's at Blogger.  One of the really cool things that has happened is that he's been published in the Peace Corps Magazine for Nicaragua. His articles, Motorboats, Mansions, and Monkeys: las Islets de Granada as well as The Great Volcan Masaya, were both in the March issue. And one of his pictures of Muelle de los Bueyes was published on the cover of that issue! Glad that degree in Journalism is getting some use!
His girlfriend, Kathya, graduated from college with a degree in Engineering. He was able to get back to La Paz for the graduation and did a little more sightseeing. I'll keep you posted as he puts up more articles/pictures.



Ron

Ron's still motorcycling over to the train station and catching the train to work. Most of the time, he likes this little trek - reading his Kindle while people get on and off the train. He's looking forward to UT's Spring semester finishing up - much fewer people on the bus, no bicycles squeezed into aisles, etc.

Ron's big news, though, is the sailboat he purchased on Mother's Day Weekend. Here's the update on Ron's "New" Boat. He's taking lots of trips up to Lake Texoma, 4.5 hours away. The boat is actually 44 years old - something great about that!! I'm happy to say that the air conditioner he ordered from Amazon just arrived today, so I might be able to brave the Texas heat overnight on the boat. I expect the cabin will cool down quickly with that!


Grandma
Did I tell you that after taking her car from her last Fall, my mom went out with a friend and bought another? A clunker with 130, 000 miles on it! She barely drove it, but desperately hated the idea that I was preventing her from driving. Last weekend, she threw her back out, so I ended up with the car keys. I've decided that much of this depends on the "presentation" of the info. So, for now, we are "sharing" the car.  She takes it for Mass on Saturday night when the parking lots aren't so crowded.  Going cold turkey on the car issue was just too much for her.

Ron's "New" Boat

So... I leave for NYC for Katie's Graduation, and what does Ron do?
He races off to the lake and buys a sailboat! 

That's a little exaggerated for effect, even though it is factually correct.  We had talked about it and decided that if everything was okay with this one, this would be the one to get. It's not like I'm that knowledgeable about boat-buying, so I didn't really need to be there. I care about things like lighting in the cabin, how much air circulation goes through there, or if the cushions look nice. Ron only cares about "how she sails." So he went on up to Lake Texoma, where he looked at 3-4 boats he had been studying online.  After testing a few, he decided on this one. The name was already chosen long ago, Venus.

The Venus is 29 ft. 11 inches long, with a beam (the inner cabin part - very important to me/not so important to Ron)  is 10 feet, 2 inches wide.  It has a 13 HP inboard Volvo diesel engine. It has 3 single berths and 2 double berths. So we can sleep a few people. It really looks like a pretty sailboat.

While the 4.5 hr. drive from our house to the lake is quite a bit longer than I wanted, Lake Texoma is a fun lake. We've had lots of camping fun with friends there - we used to go in the summer with friends from Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls.  Even though I would have preferred Lake Belton, Texoma is a really good choice for a sailboat. Lots of wide open water and even some islands to explore.

Josh and Alyssa have already explored the fishing situation at Lake Texoma. It's an odd lake, in that more than half of it is in Oklahoma and the other half is still in Texas - it's right along the Red River. The lake has a surface area of 74, 686 acres! If you find Lake Texoma on Google Maps, you'll see how the state border is all over the place. In some places, it's right off the Texas shore. Fortunately, they offer special Lake Texoma fishing licenses because it's difficult to determine whether you're in  Texas or Oklahoma!

The Venus was actually built 40 years ago! In 1968 - I was only 7!  With most purchases, this would not be a good sign. But not a Bristol sailboat! Ron is so excited. He says that the newer boats just aren't built as well as this one. With all the boats he looked at, this was the only one that the bilge was dry. The owner took great care of the Venus.

We've had other boats, more of Project Boats, needing lots of work. Michael and Ron would work on them together, and we'd take them out on the weekends and swim off the side. This one is bigger than anything we've had before. Plus, it's already in really nice shape.

Katie and Alyssa are both excited for a sleepover at the boat! I think it will be a lot of fun this summer. Katie likes the quiet that sailboats bring, listening to the squeaking and the rigging. Alyssa, on the other hand, likes a little more adventure. I'm sure it won't be long before she wants to tie a Jet Ski to the side, so she can speed around!

The camera lens they used really distorts the cabin in the photos here. It makes the galley area look much longer than it really is. Still, it's plenty of room for us.

I've grown up on lakes: Lake of the Ozarks as a child, Lake Ray Hubbard outside Dallas - I love boats. I have to confess, though, I've not really been a sailor. It's a lot of work, and honestly, sometimes when the boat tilts, I get a little nervous. Ron thinks I should run down to Corpus Christi and take a couple sailing courses, just so I'll know what to do. That's probably a good idea. What would I do if he got knocked overboard? Don't ask me, I haven't taken the course yet!

Ron is hoping to retire in a couple of years, and he can really see himself puttering around on this boat. He's had to let hockey and horses go, so this is a nice retirement hobby! So if you can't find him, he'll probably be on the boat!