This was the press release photo; we began the day elegantly trimming the ferns now taking over the pool.

It was more intense than anyone would think. The ferns--out of reach of the gardeners and the pool cleaners--try to take over the western edge of the pool. This is the rainy and growing season; if you don't confront nature eye-to-eye almost every day, it takes over. In this case, the ferns think they are Triffads and droop into the pool clogging up everything they can. We now use the two days off Leopoldo has to go it and kill them (or at least try to make them know who is boss). There are worse jobs.

Late in the day we went to visit Darren and Allen at their condo at The Tides. The lobby is so tasteful.

We quickly made friends with Eduardo at our cabana. He is from Ecuador and I'm glad Jeremy was not around.

The two pool bunnies, Allen and Leopoldo. There were no rampant ferns to tamed here.

And the lovely Diana; we met her last season at The Tides. She's like a casting call.

My baby. I can honestly wonder what I would have done without him during this great year of change. He has been supportive of everything I do (and I do a lot).

And--you know what? I put aside every emotion and evoked a few new ones and went to ThePalace. Allen and Darren asked me to, and I thought nothing of it. We had fun. But that was the past; it won't happen again. Oddly, for a beautiful afternoon, there were few customers.