Update from Vince and Cathy

Hello, everyone! First of all, "Happy Birthday" to Julia! I believe that she and Sandy are in the midst of their Alaska cruise -- can't wait to hear a report, and hopefully, see some photos!

Most of you may have heard our news, but in case you haven't......Vince has accepted an air traffic control job at the naval air station on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (aka Gitmo). He leaves September 6th, and I will join him later in the month. We re also planning on taking our dog with us.

We'll live in base housing that is being provided for us -- we've seen some photos and from what we've seen, the housing certainly looks adequate. At this point, we are not sure how long we will be there -- we are planning on a year, but since there is no employment contract, it could be more or less than that.

We're busy trying to make all the arrangements that need to happen for us to be gone for that period of time, plus just trying to learn as much as we can about Gitmo.

As we find out more, we'll keep you posted. Phone service is very costly there, so we will likely be relying on e-mail and Skype (or something like it) if I can figure it out.

Never thought I would end up on an island for a year -- shouldn't be too bad!

Dear Sibs,

This might not be news for you, because Dad has probably called all of us, but I got a message on the answering machine yesterday. Dad wanted me to know that Jean has had another heart attack, or some such, and is in the hospital now for "major surgery", which I am guessing is a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), pronounced cabbage by us weird medicine types.

Interesting that she wanted him to call us.

Word for the day: schadenfreude.

The B. of Treebling

The oven is functional!

Last night was the debut of the WFO being used for pizza -- and it was very exciting!  We started by making some pita bread, which was delicious.  We then assembled pizzas and got them in the oven.  We had to make the pizzas in an oblong shape since we don't have the proper size pizza peel yet, but it worked fine, as you can see from the photos.

After the fire died down, we then baked a loaf of hearth bread.  And, that also came out pretty well.  Vince has worked so hard on this project -- and yesterday, naturally, when we decided to have our first official firing, it was 100 degrees outside.  So, Vince probably lost about 2 quarts of body fluids in perspiration while he was firing the oven.

We're looking forward to trying pizza again soon, along with some sourdough bread.