2018

It definitely was the year of the dog, as Sherlock wormed his way deeper and deeper into our hearts. By the end of the year, he was truly housebroken and obeyed commands like stay and come, sit and Machons sung like the French National Anthem. Heel isn't quite there yet. I don't want to count the number of balls thrown or stuffed animals shaken.

Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles was sent to almost 100 people including Supreme Court Justices, anti-abortion legislators and leaders with the help of my daughter. The writing of it left me drained and for the first time I felt unable to write anything but blogs. Fortunately, this passed and I reworked Murder in Edinburgh (probably my last Third Kid Culture Mystery) and Triple Decker for publication in 2019. I also began Day Care, about four single moms who help each other out.

Rick traveled more than I did, but I loved being in Stuttgart where I once lived. We lucked out in Madrid at Picasso's Guernica. Just as we arrived, there was a guide beginning an in-depth explanation of the painting.

Probably the most beautiful hotel room I've ever stayed in was Hotel Seehof du Lac in Wegis when we were doing research on the of Swiss air transportation history in Lucerne. A stop at the Payerne air museum on the way back resulted in my "flying" another simulator.

A reunion of Interskill in Neuchatel, the company that brought me to Switzerland, was fun. There were the jokes about how my reference when asked if he could say anything bad about me, got the reply, "Well, she's not very tall." Even the employees who came after me and I never met, knew the story.

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Since we were so close to Môtiers, the village of 600 people and 6000 cows where I first lived in Switzerland, we had to visit and stock up on champagne from the cave in an old monastery.

A trip to Annecy and Chamonix was fun for two reasons. Both are beautiful and we met up with two of my college friends.

During the summer in Argelès we attended over 100 social events from coffees to full dinners with friends from 20 different countries.

The fall brought us back to Geneva where the fall colors, fondue, seeing friends and just enjoying life.

We were trying to do tourist Tuesdays but didn't always make it when writing slowed us down. Our favorite stop was the Charlie Chaplain museum

At Christmas we headed back to France. We thought our summer friends wouldn't make their annual Christmas trip to Argelès. We were wrong. Almost all changed their plans. Not wanting to do a traditional Christmas day we visited Sigean, the African park. We still had our traditional tree with ornaments Llara and I made well over 40 years ago, the ones, Rick and I collected and the stockings Llara made for us.

Although we did do some wonderful things, what counted most was just being together, the quiet mornings with tea and books (or iPads) in bed. It was seeing DVDs together, or watching the dog do zoomies on the beach. It was a hug, sharing a piece of chocolate, or all the little things that make up our very good life.

Every day, I am aware of how much good has been given to me.