Seems like the year went by in a flash. I have no complaints for 2018.  I prayed for the health to spend the year learning what it's like to live in a different place with a different language. As is obvious now, my prayer was answered.  I've collected what photos I could with some of the events of the year below.  Here's a recap that I hope adds some context for the photos.

First things first, we finished basic work on the house to make it comfortable.   But January started on a sad note. We lost our good buddy "Dudelette" aka The Beast, of the last 13 years. He was a pussycat with a sweet soul. 

We happily spend a fair amount of time in Cabarete, home to Kite Beach, Velero's Resort, and any number of nice restaurants along with a nice beach. Estie started making dog toys that are virtually indestructible.  Whenever she sells any, all proceeds go to our friends Tauny and Len at CocoMutt Shak dog/cat rescue. And she's now added custom greeting cards to her repertoire at Pawesome Products Inc.

We were happy to visit our friends Saskia and Marc, owners of Casa Veintiuno, for an always predictably spectacular meal.  We also found a new great place, Crazy Ranch, that has Memphis-style BBQ of the highest order. I'm sure the fact that one of the owners, Danny, grew up in Memphis helped.

Our closest beach is Playa Sosua which is typically a very serene place to swim, snorkel, etc. In the early Spring however, it was a warning sign of a bad Nor'easter that hit the U.S. East coast. Posed no problems for us but hit the northeast pretty hard.

Early in the year, before our first trip back to the U.S., we visited Juana (we met her at Casa Veintiuno in 2011) along with daughter and grand-daughter ("Crazy Kid") who live in Montellano (about 20 minutes away). Then it was back to the U.S. for doctor and family visits. On the plane ride to the U.S. we began the somewhat regular practice of ferrying dominican critters from Tauny and Len, to adopting U.S. parents who meet us in Newark airport. On this day we also had the surprise of meeting Jhony (Juana's other daughter) at our local airport and found out that she works there. She even managed to save us $50 by fixing an error they made in DR Customs. And we didn't know anything about it until we returned form the U.S. Nice to have good friends.  We have been fortunate to meet nice folks and connect with them regularly for good food and conversation.

An unexpectedly difficult hurdle was getting a new refrigerator. It seems like a simple task, and I'll spare you the details, but it was a bit of an ordeal that worked out in the end.

I found that I fit it quite well with the local clothes shop's mannequins. We both had the same pasty white complexion with blank expressions. I think my complexion is a bit healthier looking now. Don't know about my expression :-)

May was graduation season, so we visited Benito for his son's, who is Estie's godson,  graduation from kindergarten. It was a celebration of epic proportions! Frangi definitely played his part well. Benito has struggled many months with his injuries from a Moto accident and some bad work from one particular doc. But we hope he has now turned a corner and can rehab quickly.

Found a friendly church but am still struggling with recognizing enough Spanish to enjoy the masses. Have been enjoying visits from our neighbor's son Victor, when he is not in "jail" in his playpen in the doorway across the street. He also loves water beyond any normal human. So he is always at our outdoor faucet getting wet.  We also had a few exotic visitors, a small tarantula, various flying things and even hermit crabs. But the geckos are fun and they are everywhere.

Mom (87), Dad (93), me and Estie all had birthdays and continue to meet the day to day challenges with grace. I got a delicious birthday surprise of almond lemon cake from our neighbor.

We enjoy all of our critters, 1 dog - Penny and 4 cats - Chiclet, QiQi, Boo, and my "son" Timba, the Baby Black Beast. The moon and the stars are always a wonder, but most of all the almost constant breeze and nice weather is a real blessing.

I was accepted as assistant coach for the neighbor's son's basketball team and had a full schedule of practices and road games in October and November. It's a good way to keep fit or a way to kill myself, not sure which it will be :-)

On our November trip back to the U.S. we had the pleasure of good fall weather and a nice ride along the Route 202 Parkway in Bucks County. That was a whole lot better than the 2 significant snowstorms we encountered back in April.

Although the house is working out well we decided to get a whole house water purification system. So far it's been really good and convenient.

Had the honor of helping in the basketball team's Christmas tradition of playing games with the local boys and girls teams and then giving each opposing player food baskets and new sneakers.

Mom & Dad spent Christmas day with Joe and we had dinner with friends to close out a really good year.

Here's wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year in 2019.

Estie & Bill

Here's how long it takes to get from our house to the center of town for any sort of activity you would like

I added some before and after photos of DR House #2 now that the outside painting is done.  Yeah, that's right, I now live in a purple house.  But the neighbors haven't complained yet, so it must be alright :-)

Go to Our Story to see our full saga (currently 5 parts for those of you who have been keeping up).