Happy Birthday, Sheri ...a glass of Port to toast, and welcome to the club. And a Happy Birthday to Judy ...who's joining a new one.

I've decided to try going back to work in April for a limited schedule of two or three trips. I'll see how it goes, and if the back, hip, and leg don't cooperate, I'll sign up for the diskectomy at the end of April using vacation time at the beginning of May to recuperate. It's been just over a year since I was diagnosed with the slipped disc. In that time I've tried a number of therapies thinking that I could achieve the same level of comfort surgery would provide ...ain't gonna happen. If this is as good as it gets, It's not good enough. And as the handsome Dr. King told me, I'm too young (thaz right) and active to just settle for a lifetime of pain management.

Wiesbaden celebrated its Easter Market over the weekend, and for us that always means buying wine. Not that we don't buy wine the rest of the year, it's just that this particular occasion is especially fun. At every Easter Market for the past nine years the Hochschule in Geisenheim has sold 1000 boxes of wine, at 20 Euro a box, to raise money for their student exchange program. The wines are from all over the world, the selection of the six bottles in each box varies, and you don't get to open the box before you buy it. When we opened our boxes at home they included wines from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, California, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece, Slovenia, and Macedonia. A worthy cause at 3.33 Euro a bottle.

I can highly recommend the last three books I read. "The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay", by Michael Chabon, won the Pulitzer Prize, is truly a great American novel, and if you like it, I can also recommend his latest, "The Yiddish Policeman's Union". Erik Larson's "The Devil In The White City" is the true story of a serial killer, and the logistics of putting together the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. And Leif Enger's "So Brave, Young, and Handsome", which is beautifully written and just as good as his first book "Peace Like A River".