Thanks, all, for the good wishes.

Gary's been dangling long underwear and warm gloves in my face for the past few days. Umm .. this is not getting my toes tingling about packing. I took a deep breath, tore myself away from Mafia Wars, cleared out part of my closet and left while he magically shrunk the clothing into suitcases.

Olivia, we definitely need your Norwegian woods "isn't it good?" weather juju. A few days ago, we were looking at 5 days of snow and sleet near Longyearbyen for next week.

We are doing a charity walk for cancer on Saturday morning, followed by a 'neighbor meet my neighbor' brunch. half the team is from our PA neighborhood; the other half from our beach house. We take off late 7/31 and will be landing in Tromsoe at the Radisson Blu. Meanwhile, I have picked up a congested hack that would rival any lifelong smoker. I got the Sudafed from behind the counter as it helps crowd out the congestion.

I hear we will get to celebrate Jim's birthday with Pat. Can't wait to get there.

Cheers, Anne