Gretchen and I are healthy, all things considered. I await knee replacement but prefer to play with pain as long as I can. Gretchen, the smoker, walks the dog every monrning before work. In my eyes she still looks good.

Her annual evaluation at CitiBank was outstanding. She is in fraud detection, on the phone all the time. For the year she has had only two missed fraud cases. She handles about 180 calls a day, never misses work in 47 weeks of toiling. Do the math. It is an outstanding record. She got praise, but no raise. CitiBank can’t be frivolous these days.

News from the our Theta Chi Fraternity Reunion Committee (Vern, Pete and Tom B plus Tom Termite) is that we will stage another reunion, this time in fall of 2010. Probably in Santa Cruz mountains again. They plan to eliminate the Sunday brunch. Other than that, same basic format.

My limited PR work continues, but I took a big hit on my favorite client, Placer Valley Tourism. I had a budget (all for me) of $16,000 last year, and it was cut to $6,000 as hotel rooms are not being booked here. Hotels pay a special tax to support tourism. Tourism in South Placer County is an oxymoron anyway. We have a big tourism deficit. No one comes here for tourism. ‘Nuf sed.

Once again I am active in Stein Collectors International, the group I started in 1965. As vice president of the Nor Cal chapter, I will help host our annual convention in Las Vegas. That will be October, the end of a frantic summer of travel.

I’m joining my sister Norma from Connecticut on a 14-day Crystal Cruise from Rome to London. Crystal is the No. 1 cruise line. I’m already packing my bags for the July sojourn. One suitcase is all I will take, and in it I will cram one tuxedo, one suit, my obnoxious Palm Beach jacket, plus whatever else may come in handy: a pair of underwear, sneakers for walking, baggy bathing suit for use in the Crystal pool, assorted dosages of daily drugs needed by an old man, etc. I will fly to Hartford to visit Norma before departing for Rome. Gretchen will stay home looking for identity theft while I loll about such ports of call as Barcelona, Tangier, Bordeaux, Lisbon and Monte Carlo. Loving wife that she is, she encouraged me to go. “You have worked all your life,” says Gretch. “Go!”

When I gave a surprise party for Gretch’s 65th b-day, I presented her with a prize: 3 weeks in Europe, one of them to be in Paris. Since then the stock market took a little tumble. Paris became Montreal as we found ways to cut back. Last week Montreal was OUT. We decided to do the 3 weeks by driving to Minnesota.

Our good friend Tom Stanford (I worked for him a dozen years) had us over for dinner last week. His other guests included the author of a two volume set on Leland Stanford. Friend Tom is the most visible (or last standing) relative of Leland. As a survivor, he is being courted as the books are being published. He even went to have his picture taken with Gov. Arnold recently.

While Gretchen works the daily crosswords, I am busy into Sudoku puzzles. Today I got a new puzzle book: Ken Ken. They are Sodoku-like Japanese puzzles similar to the originals but involving more thinking and some math. They keep my dirty mind active.

I’ll end this now. Oh, yes, I am going to see granddaughter Emily in a play Tuesday night. She is a harem girl in Aladdin. A couple of weeks back, I talked to the classes of Carson (first grade) and Kate (preschool) in their St. Albans School library. It was a challenge—all those restless youngsters sitting on the floor. I ended their squirming by pulling out the ukulele.

Gretchen and I had breakfast at Awful Annie’s in nearby Lincoln. Then we went shopping. She got some new sneakers. I got a can opener. That’s a long story, so I will tell it anyway. Yesterday I decided to do some cooking. I got everything ready for my broccoli casserole, well, almost everything. I had to open two cans of creamed soup. Alas, the can opener fizzled. Dead. So my cold casserole went into the fridge until we got a new opener.

I can’t wait to watch women play basketball later today. Stanford again UCONN. I go for the Left Coast, but it is a long shot.

Cheers,

Tom (and Gretchen too)