Back from Gull Lake and as anticipated, lots of laughs and good fun!  I love these girls!  We have been friends since we were twelve years old when we played badminton together and just played together in general!!!  Colleen and I arrived on Monday afternoon.  Long weekends at Gull Lake are traditionally full of fun events and Kathy and Barb in particular were both in recovery mode from a weekend of sailing races, horse shoes and assorted other activities involving 8 oz. weights!  It was gloriously hot so we headed down to the beach to enjoy the day.  Kathy decided we should go out in a “floatilla” so we hauled the floaties out and began the long hike out to find water deeper than knee deep.  Boomer was in heaven and went ahead with Kathy.  As you know though, Boomer does not believe people belong in the water and panics when he sees people he cares about in the water.  He will ignore strangers but his people belong on shore.  Well, I guess Kathy qualifies as someone he cares about because by the time Colleen and I got out there she was screaming, “Going down, going down!!”  She was semi submerged on her floaty with Boomer stretched across her looking quite comfortable.  Where is the camera when you need it?  Unfortunately we missed getting this on camera!  It would have been a prize winner in a contest I’m sure.  On the down side, poor Kath was sporting some dandy bruises the next day as Boomer was not very gentle in his attempts to join her on her floatie.

Had a fun evening but were all in bed by 10:30.  A little different from our younger days that’s for sure!!!  Up in the morning and off to Lacombe to play golf!  Nobody was stellar but it was tons of fun.  Back to the lake for more visiting and catching up!  Next day we headed off to Riverbend in Red Deer.  We had played this course a few years back and I remember really enjoying it.  Again.....the golf for all of us was a little sub par but the fun was not.  On the very first hole Kathy and I are tooting along in our cart when we came across a ball just lying in plane view on the side of the fairway.  We stopped, looked around in every direction and could not see anyone whom the ball might belong to.  After a short discussion we decided to lay claim to it so I hopped out and picked it up.  We drove another 6 feet and low and behold a second ball.  Same thing....no one in sight so we staked our claim once again wondering how anyone could miss such obvious balls.  Well.......we are sitting there waiting for Colleen to hit and Kathy looks back over her shoulder and says “oh, oh.....someone’s headed this way for those balls.” I didn’t even look back.  I just took one of the balls and tossed it backwards over my shoulder and then asked Kathy if she thought the guy had seen me do it.  “Oh yah....he saw you alright...”  We are both sitting there dying of embarrassment because we both know better than to pick up another players ball like this.  Well, the guy came over to us and asked about the second ball.  We paused momentarily wondering what would be the best approach here and Kathy asked what kind of ball it was.  Sure enough it was the titiilist that was sitting right in front of me in the cart.  Soo.....we apologized profusely and returned the ball.  Lucky for us he was pleasant about it!  Not every golfer would have been.  Then we drove off and once out of earshot had a good laugh about it!  I’m certain that guy returned to his group to tell them about the “dumb broads” on hole one!   On we continued.....Kathy managed to nail her sister, Barb with a ball.....a miraculous shot really.  Not everyone is capable of hitting the ball at a ninety degree angle but Kathy is a talented player and did just that!  There was a moment of shocked surprise from all of us and then gales of laughter once we realized Barb was OK.  Then there’s Colleen who won on day 2 but wasn’t above cheating to do so!  I asked her to tend the flag on one hole and while I was looking down she moved the flag over so it wasn’t even over the hole!!!  Funny girl!!!  At least she thought so!!!

Boomer also had a great weekend.  Barb has a golden lab named Walter and the two of them hit it off famously.  Poor Walter had had a weekend of young rambunctious dogs so was more than happy to have a guest who was a little more sedate.  Both boys are starting to get a little arthritic in the joints so we decided to take a run to the Elk Farm to pick up Elk Velvet pills.  These are supposed to be miracle workers with respect to arthritis.  I actually felt like we were buying contraband.  We pulled into the yard of the ranch and were met by the owner.  He took our $40 (cash only...) and disappeared into the house, returning with two bottles of the miracle pills.  Don’t know if we have been duped but we are going to give it a try!  I have become much more open to various health claims.....both for myself and everyone around me.  I’m eating more organic, drinking filtered water, cutting out sugar.....etc. etc.  I would really like to do more but you have to be careful with supplements etc. as many of them will counteract the effect of the chemotherapy.  We tried to talk Kathy into trying the Elk Velvet pills but she has decided to wait and see how the dogs do before she tries it!!!

Had my hydration today.  Nurse was not good at getting an IV started.  I had to chuckle because last week I had a male nurse that was amazing.  He started the IV without any problem and when I mentioned that some of the nurses had problems and said that I was dehydrated he just laughed and said that nurses love to blame the patient!   After a couple of pokes and good bruise on my hand the nurse went and got someone else who had no issues at all.  Makes you wonder!

Tomorrow off to Windermere for a bit.  Looking forward to playing some golf and kicking back in the valley for a bit!

THANKYOU KATHY!!!  You are a marvellous hostess.  I have so many happy memories of times at Gull Lake!!!  A weekend with you is always one to look forward to and remember!  Here’s to 46 years of solid friendship!!!  Love you girl!!

Ditto Colleen!!!  Love spending time with you!  You have the wickedest laugh in the world!