Jim and I did our round in the USA in June & July. Jim flew into Washington, DC and I into Houston in early June. I met Jim in Washington DC and we spent a lovely week in Williamsburg, VA. Then, we went to Minnesota to visit my brother, John and family. They had a nice celebration for their youngest son, Clayton who just graduated from high school. My mom flew from New Orleans to Minnesota for the celebration also. We continued on our way to Texas and visited doctors, dentists, friends & relatives. The boys are doing just fine. Mike continues to work for Denim Group in San Antonio. Craig is working this summer as a server at a retirement home in San Antonio. (Hopefully saving money for his trip to The Netherlands for New Years.) Craig will continue on with his studies at Trinity at the end of this month. He is changing his major to English! Finally!

At the end of June, Jim and I went back to Washington, DC for Jim to receive a Citation for Service Award for sharing of his knowledge and expertise in artificial lift (Gas Lift) and dedication to the American Petroleum Institute (API). A lot of hours were spent organizing different events for API. It was a very nice luncheon and award ceremony. We had the pleasure to meet the President of API and there was another Shell person there whom was also receiving an award.

July 1st, Jim flew back to Doha, and I flew back to TX. I went to Louisiana to visit my family and friends. I also went to San Antonio, TX and visited the boys again, and more family and friends. I returned back to Doha the end of July. It is very HOT and Humid.

I get up very early in the morning (5-6 AM) to get in 2 hours in the garden before it gets really HOT. It's 100F and 99.9% humidity at 5 AM! The highs are around 120-140F with 99.9% humidity. It's just like stepping out into a steam bath. But the nice thing about this place, is that we know that the weather will begin to start cooling very slowly starting in Sept. By November it will be back in the mid 70s to low 80s. It will be nice until about mid May. It's pretty much a trade off.

I will post a few photos from the summer.