Thursday Another day started with a trip to the Docs. Jackie got almost all of the stitches removed and looks pretty much back to normal. Except she looks like a teenager. I hope he did not misunderstand me when I told him in my poor Portuguese that I wanted her to look like when I met her. Maybe he thought we went to the same high school. Anyway, we walked back from the clinic to the hotel. The weather here is wonderful. Each day starts about 66 degrees and heats up to about 85. And the humidity is low. There is usually a slight breeze making it ideal. For lunch Maria picked us up and drove us to her condo. We got to see her empregada (maid), Vera. She is the sister of ours, Gloria. We ... read more

Monday-Tuesday We started today early. Jackie was to be at Doctor’s office at 7:00am for her “tune up.” We got up at 5:45am and discovered that it was already daylight. This gave us time to get dressed and for me to get some breakfast before catching taxi for the ride. It costs about $10 reais or about $6.00 for the ride across town to the office. The surgery went well and Jackie is pleased with the results so far. We will take it easy for a couple of more days. Jackie is sleeping well without the need for pain killers. We went back on Tuesday for check up and removal of a few stitches. Since Jackie will not allow me to take her photo, I took a couple of shots of the staff working on taking ... read more

Saturday This is a repeat blog with new photos. When we went to Maria's birthday party on Saturday, September 12, I discovered that I had left the battery for my camera back in the hotel in its charger. So, I then decided to use my iPhone camera only to discover that its battery was very low and, of course, I did not bring the charger. So, I depended on the use of another camera that a family member brought to the party. It took a while to get a copy of the digital photos. I have them now and will share these with you. We arrived at the club Campestre about 1:00pm. Guests were expected to arrive from that time until later in the afternoon. We were here most of the day. Some of my family ... read more

Thursday, September 10 We slept late today. Jackie and I went to the breakfast bar at the hotel and were very pleased with the choices. If I eat breakfast there every day I will gain a ton of weight. After breakfast, we went for a walk in Savassi. This area is the equivalent of Buckhead with lots of shops and restaurants. Most shops are modern and chic. Our plan was to set up the operation of a cell phone for use while we are here. On Wednesday evening, Ester Maria gave us a Vivo cellular sim card. We tried it in a cell phone that we carried down with us. When we tried to buy minutes for it at the Vivo office, we discovered that the phone was blocked by ATT. So, we went to an ... read more

Our summer was mostly spent at our condo in Dunwoody, Georgia. We did make a few nearby trips, however. On July 28th, we returned to Virginia with Christi and helped her move back to Georgia. She found a nice house to rent in Gainesville. It is near Lakeview Academy, where Christi and Jennifer’s kids attend. On August 27th, we joined Dianne and John to watch the Braves play the San Diego Padres at Turner Field and then met his cousin's boyfriend, Will Venable. He plays right field for the Padres and had a great game against the Braves batting .600 and scoring a couple of runs. The Padres upset the Braves. Later, on August 29th, Jackie and I joined Gail and Larry on a road trip to North Carolina to see John and Kathy Kirts. Kathy ... read more