the june cocktail hour: home again after a year away

June 30, 2026: Welcome to our June cocktail hour. Let’s have a nice summer cocktail like a Hugo Spritz, which takes me back to memories of Italy and the Via Francigena. If we’re lucky, we can venture outdoors as the weather has been warm, humid and mostly sunny with some clouds tossed in. We’ve arrived back home right in time for the typical miserable Virginia summer, so if it’s too sticky and uncomfortable outdoors, we can easily wander inside into air-conditioning. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see the Strawberry Moon on the 29th. Sunset in Virginia is at around 8:35 in June and we can mingle on our screened-in porch and sip our drinks.

I have a variety of soda or seltzer water for those of you who don’t drink.

June marked our first of two months back in the U.S. before we leave again, hopefully this time for Europe. However, Adam has developed a serious infection and is being moved today (June 30) from a “hospital” in Moyogalpa, on the island of Ometepe, to a hospital in Managua. We are very concerned about this infection, so Mike got a flight from D.C. to Managua and will arrive there at 7:30 p.m. tonight, the last day of June. (see below under Family Matters for more details).

Returning home from Costa Rica

We made it through steps 1-4 of departing from Costa Rica on Monday morning, June 1. Mike moved our Mitsubishi up to Edificio 2 at Lake Arenal Condos, where our buyer Suzanne will arrive at the end of July to take possession of the car and live for 1-2 years. We vacated the condo (except for things we were told we could leave behind), and then squeezed our 6 suitcases into Chuli’s car. Chuli drove us safely 1 1/2 hours to the Liberia Airport, where we checked 4 of our bags and went through security. Finally, we took our 12:35 American Airlines flight to Miami.

Somehow a toucan stowed away in Mike’s backpack. I think it wanted to meet little Allie.

We flew to Miami and made it there by about 5:20 EST, with just enough time to go through immigration (luckily we have Global Entry), unload our luggage and then recheck it to go onward to Reagan in DC. We only had a 1 hr 40 minute window to do all that so I was worried we wouldn’t make our next flight. Our flight was at 7:17, but sadly because of thunderstorms in Miami we got in a traffic jam that held up our departure until 8:05.

We took a very expensive taxi to our house from Reagan National, and arrived at the house at 11:45, well after the family had gone to sleep. We quickly zonked out ourselves. We were happy to be home!

Here is the final wrap-up for our year in Costa Rica: costa rica wrap-up: final thoughts.

Homebody stuff

As usual when we return home from a long time abroad, we have to take care of a lot of business. We knew there was a problem with our garage door before we left Costa Rica; Alex had informed us that it wasn’t working and when Academy Garage Door came out to look at it, they told us that the problem wasn’t with the door itself. It wasn’t working because the ceiling drywall was falling down on the garage door mechanism. Mike had been talking about drywalling our garage for probably 10-20 years, but we had never done it. So, he arranged for our contractor José to drywall the entire garage on June 8.

When the contractors were working on the drywall, they tried to close the garage door and it somehow came off the track and came crashing down; coming to a stop, partway to the ground, in a lopsided manner. Then, a piece of the glass in the upper part of the door came crashing to the ground. This time Academy Garage Door had some fixing to do. Somehow the repairman singlehandedly managed to replace the track and reset the garage door to straighten it out.

Finally the drywall was finished and Alex and Mike were pleased with the results. Mike spent a lot of time cleaning out junk from the garage and now there is a lot of space there. Alex uses it as a gym for now. We haven’t used it to actually store our cars in decades. We can consider parking our cars inside only after Alex and Jandira move out.

Besides that house project, we had a big mess in the living and dining rooms where Alex and Jandira had moved a lot of our stuff when they moved their household into ours. Our house is not big enough to store two households’ worth of stuff, so we tried to organize as best we could to clear out the clutter from the main level. That meant of course that a lot of stuff went into the basement, and much went to Goodwill or the dump.

Then of course were the medical appointments. I found out immediately, when I went to see my dermatologist on June 4 that I had two Actinic Keratoses (rough scaly patches caused by sun damage), one on the end of my nose and one on my upper lip. The doctor froze those two off. These are precancerous lesions found on the skin, and many experts believe they are an early form of Squamous Cell Carcinoma. In addition, the doctor did a biopsy on a spot on the bridge of my nose; the biopsy showed it was Squamous Cell Carcinoma. We scheduled a Mohs surgery on June 24 to have the cancer removed. I was stressed for almost three weeks as I had to wait for the procedure; I had no idea how extensive it would be.

On the 24th, I showed up in the office, preparing myself mentally for a long stay. I wore a “GOOD GOOD VIBES” t-shirt, trying to visualize a positive outcome. The doctor Jeffrey Scott, who looked like a very young Ed Sheeran with a buzz cut, cut out the cancerous piece of skin and sent it to the lab. I waited in the waiting area for the results, which they had told me could take 1-2 hours. If any area on the edge of the piece they cut had cancer cells, they would map and follow the cancer, cutting more skin until no more showed on the edges. They had told me to schedule the whole day in case I had to go in multiple times.

I was lucky that in a half-hour they called me back and said they had gotten all the cancer on the first cut. It turned out to be a small spot. The doctor, after jabbing me with more local anesthesia, put in internal stitches, which would dissolve, and external stitches, which I’d return to have removed on July 1.

The day after the first dermatology appointment, I went to renew my driver’s license/Real ID, and my face was swollen and askew from all the things the dermatologist had done. That was before the Mohs surgery, which was more disfiguring.

I went to see a new doctor for my Annual Wellness Check because I had so much trouble with the billing last year from my old doctor. One of the things they did was to give me three words to remember. Then they had me draw a time, 11:10, on a blank circle. After drawing the clock, I had to repeat the three words back. The words were village, kitchen and baby. After drawing the clock successfully, I only remembered two of the words: village and baby. The nurse said, “That was good!” I said, “That was good?? I only got two words right.” She said, “Most people have trouble drawing the clock face!” It’s funny that now, almost three weeks after the appointment, I can still remember the three words, but I couldn’t immediately after drawing the clock face.

We babysat Allie on Saturday, June 6, taking her to the pool where she showed no fear and bounced around happily in the pool in the midst of older boys playing war with water guns.

On the 15th, Mike and I both had appointments with the ENT doctor. They cleaned out our ears and did hearing tests. I have mild-to-moderate hearing loss and the doctor recommended I get hearing aids. But when I found that the cost isn’t covered by insurance and can be anywhere from $2,000-$7,000, depending on the model, I decided my hearing is not impacting my life enough to warrant those just yet. I’ll wait to return to the doctor in two years and see if the deterioration warrants hearing aids at that time.

One night we played Code Names. Alex treated us to some homemade bread. I made snack plates for lunch inspired by a Substack post and bowls with kale, salmon, chick peas and farro. We spent a lot of time simply hanging around the house with the family and little Allie. Allie is talking up a storm, although we can’t always understand what she’s saying. But she is so easily entertained, especially by her silly Dido (what she calls Mike). Allie has a tendency to put food into her cheeks like a chipmunk and simply hold it there for a while before chewing and swallowing. One day she helped Dido in the yard, using a small toy earth-mover. On Sunday afternoon, the 28th, we played a game of Ticket to Ride and I won!

I finished 7 books in June bringing my total to 34/48. I especially enjoyed Something Wild by Hanna Halperin; The Dinosaur Feather by Sissel-Jo Gazan; and The Searcher (Cal Hooper #1) by Tana French. I also enjoyed The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson. We watched three movies: the idiotic film The Breadwinner (what a waste!), The Travellers, and Hamnet, which was excellent. We started watching a couple of new series or new seasons of old series: The Four Seasons (S2); Alice and Steve; AnotherSelf (Zeytin Ağacı) (S3); When Life Gives You Tangerines; The Bear (S5); Sommerdahl (S1); and Marriage. We finished watching Finding Ola (S2); Made with Love (Luka, Makan, Cinta) (S1); Grantchester (S5); Paradise (S2); and Virgin River (S7). We continued watching Thank You Next (Kimler Geldi Kimler Geçti) (S3); Imperfect Women; Your Friends and Neighbors (S2); Grantchester (S6); Wallander (S2); Love Life (S2); and The New Adventures of Old Christine (S3).

Dining Out

We took the family to Artie’s on June 3. It was fun to go back to the place where we took them while Jandira was pregnant with Allie on August 12 of 2023. Below are the pictures from our earlier visit, while Allie was still inside of her mom.

We sat in a booth right next to the one we sat at the first time; this time 2 1/2 year-old Allie was bopping about in the booth. We enjoyed our fabulous meals at Artie’s; the food is dependably delicious.

Mike and I went by ourselves to eat at Yama Chen’s Sushi after seeing the horrible movie The Breadwinner on the 10th. The sushi was just as bad as the movie, and we definitely won’t be returning there.

On Friday the 12th, we took the family to Enatye Ethiopian Restaurant, where Allie had a grand time chasing and being chased by two other little girls in the restaurant. There was a lot of screaming and squealing. I’m sure the patrons in the restaurant weren’t too happy with all that screeching!

Mike and I enjoyed a Thai lunch at Saao Thai and Sushi after our ENT appointment on the 15th. We hadn’t been able to get Thai food in Costa Rica, so it was a real treat.

On Sunday, June 28, we met Mike’s sister Barbara for dinner at Sweet Ginger in Vienna. We hadn’t seen Barbara since we were home in October. Since then she had taken a nasty fall off her patio step, but she seemed mostly healed from that. It was good to catch up and of course we had to commiserate about the degraded condition of our country under the orange goon.

Walks

I took up my old walks upon returning home. Some days were miserably hot and humid and definitely NOT enjoyable, especially a few days when the temps were in the high 90s and very humid. At least some of the walks are flatter than what we encountered in Costa Rica. I was trying to make a goal of walking 91 miles from April 1-June 30, but I missed the goal, only walking 84.6 miles by June 30.

Father’s Day

On Saturday the 20th, which coincided with the first day of summer, we took the two dads, Mike and Alex, out to Flying Ace Distillery & Brewery in Loudoun County. It was a beautiful day, in the 80s and not humid. We had fun watching Allie play on the playground and enjoyed drinks and delicious food. It was a great celebration of two wonderful fathers.

On Sunday, we babysat Allie while Jandira and Alex went out to a movie and dinner on Father’s Day.

Finishing up my Spring BINGO card

This month, I completed a few more things on my Spring BINGO card.

• Book Sweden: Stockholm ✓, Gothenburg ✓, Malmō ✓
• Annual wellness check appointment ✓
• Pale pink pedicure “Mod About You” ✓
• Go for bike rides x4: 1 x ✓
• Renew Real ID/Driver’s License ✓ Received ✓
• Tony Tenorio meeting ✓
• Spring playlist: Spring in Costa Rica ✓
• Read one book:  Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas ✓

Starting my Summer BINGO card

I checked off a few things on my new Summer BINGO card.

• Father’s Day with Alex and Mike (and family) at Flying Ace Distillery & Brewery ✓
• Book Norway: Oslo ✓
• Mohs surgery ✓
• Game nights with family: Ticket to Ride ✓
• Farmer’s Market ✓
• Read 6 books: The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margaret Magnusson; Something Wild by Hanna Halperin; The Dinosaur Feather by Sissel-Jo Gazan; The Searcher (Cal Hooper, #1) by Tana French; All Fours by Miranda July; Travel with Style: Master the Art of Stylish and Functional Travel Capsules by Anastasia Pash. ✓

Family Happenings

We found out Adam and his friend John fenced in his entire farm so the animals can’t escape.

On June 21, Adam got a splinter in his left hand that got horribly infected; he eventually saw a doctor to have the hand drained (twice) and was put on a course of antibiotics. He seemed to be improving and went with the family to Managua for a gymnastics competition for the girls on the last weekend in June. While he was in Managua, Adam started having pain in his hip and femur and brushed it off thinking it was just some pulled muscles. But by Monday afternoon, he was in severe pain, had developed a fever and was having trouble breathing. Someone came to his home to give him an IV with antibiotics and painkillers; before long, he and Maria took a taxi to the hospital in Moyogalpa because he was having trouble breathing. We were extremely worried about him because the facility in Moyogalpa seemed rather ramshackle; it ran out of water in the middle of the night Monday. When Adam called us on Tuesday morning, his breathing sounded labored and he was upset because the doctors said, according to the pulsometer, he didn’t need oxygen. He felt he definitely needed oxygen. They hooked him up to an IV with antibiotics and pain killers.

We are panicked over this situation, of course, and began to push for them to arrange transport for Adam to a hospital in Managua. Maria and Adam’s friend Clinton rented a car to take Adam to Hospital Militar Escuela in Managua. Of course this involved taking the ferry and Clinton driving them two hours to Managua. Adam was taken off of the IV to be transported and was given an oral antibiotic. We got a message that he had slept for two hours in the car and his body hurt all over. He arrived at the hospital in Managua at about 5:30 Managua time, was admitted to a room, and the doctor began tests on him by 6:30 p.m.

We worried that he was in sepsis due to the original wound on his hand that had never fully healed.

Mike decided to take a flight this afternoon to Managua; because of a 2-hour delay in Miami, he arrived in Managua at 9:30 p.m. (Managua time) today, the 30th. By then Adam was settled into the Managua hospital and was on painkillers and antibiotics. The doctors scheduled an MRI and believed the infection had settled into his hip, but they wanted to confirm that with the MRI. If it was confirmed, they would take him into surgery to drain the infection in the hip and proactively clean up any other spots where the infection had spread.

I couldn’t travel because I was told I was not to travel for 2 weeks after my Mohs surgery; I am due to have the stitches removed on Wednesday, July 1. I also have another medical appointment on Thursday that I had to wait nearly a month to book. I will see how things go in Managua and will decide if I should travel down there later this week.

While Adam and Maria were making their way to the hospital in Managua on Tuesday June 30, Cristy and her siblings and friends were busy celebrating her 15th birthday, known as Quinceañera, a significant cultural celebration in Latin America which marks a girl’s transition from childhood to womanhood. I hope she’ll get a more formal celebration once her family is back together.

Most of the pictures below of Allie are from outings to the bookstore and the mall with her mom.

*********

I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the summer.

How did your June go? Did you have any special family gatherings? Have you welcomed any new additions to your family?  Did you celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries? Have you read any good books that can inform your worldview, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any winter or holiday getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Have you gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you created a Winter Bingo Card or dream list? Have you made any new friends? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests? Have you been battered, or alternately, uplifted by any news?

Please share your June with me by giving me the plot below, or a link to a post in your blog that tells about your month.