Dear Tonia,<br /><br />I am paid for the Feb cruise and, though I have a subpoena for a big court case around that time,  I think the DA will have me testify before or after the cruise.  It would be fun to meet you for lunch...two forensic nurses that do adult sexual assual exams for San Diego may join us ( they do ages 14 and older ) but, since you&#39;re getting into the forensic field, I&#39;m sure you&#39;ll enjoy them.  Joey&#39;s already met Claire and Madeline on our cruise in December.  <br /><br />And you&#39;re right, cruising is one way I&#39;ve been able to deal with the difficulty of the work I do.  It is such sad work, often with very poor outcomes.  I, frankly, will be happy to retire.  Twenty years is a long time in this field...and forty years of nursing is plenty as well.  I&#39;m wanting to write a novel....right now, and for the last fifty five years, all I can manage is poetry&#33;&#33;&#33;<br /><br />My boys are complaining that I haven&#39;t baked a thing this Christmas....I&#39;m turning into a bit of a scrooge, I guess.  I have over five hundred cookbooks myself and used to do some catering years ago.  With spinal stenosis and chronic back problems for the last 25 years ( had extensive back surgery after a fall in the operating room when I was a surgical nurse - slipped on hydraulic fluid that leaked from an oerating room table, unbeknown to us all ), it&#39;s not as easy to stand for hours in the kitchen.  I can almost smell the wonderful aromas, though, from your wonderful narratives.<br /><br />