update (originally sent aug 9th, '07)

we've now been in guam 2 weeks and it's still hot. ithink it's rained every day (tis the rainy season,june-dec). it only rains in short bursts though.most of our time here has been spent in the hell knownas house hunting on guam. everything is superinflated--our house in tacoma would probably rent forat least $4500/mo here. most nice places we've seenare >$3000/mo. we finally found a decent house in agood location with enough room for all our crap onmonday--and it was _only_ $2450/mo! i think our offerwent through...we do a walk through on monday andpending no more obstacles we move in aug 16th. it's ahalf block from the guam hospital and a 1/2 mile fromthe beach and a nice park. our stuff doesn't arrivetill sept 12th or so, but i guess we can rentfurniture for free from the navy until then. wepicked up my car today which is fortunate as we'lllose our rental car when we move into our house. leslie's car gets here after labor day. not sure whatwe'll do until then. i guess leslie will walk.gordon got out of quarantine last saturday (a few daysearlier than expected somehow). we moved into a newhotel (the days inn) where the bastard has managed toscratch up the door each time we leave him in the roomalone. he's had diarrhea since leaving quarantineuntil today when he shit solid. solid work, gordon. i managed to get some on my thumb while picking it upwith a too-small poop bag. again, solid work gordon. we visited gordon everyday in quarantine and he seemedto weather the whole process relatively well. he'sbeen enjoying swimming after tennis balls in theocean, practically every day.leslie had to check in this week at the hospital andstarts working for real on monday. her first call istuesday. she's already been dumped on and given theduty of making the work/call schedule for the doctors,which is a time-consuming, thankless job.i have had 2 job interviews so far and had 2 offers. i have another interview setup for monday andhopefully will set up 1 or 2 more before i decide. all the clinics are in tamuning (the _big_ town inguam) which is where our rental house is too, so mycommute will be significantly shorter thantacoma-renton, probably no more than 5 min.i got scuba certified already and we hope to take theharbor tour from the navy marina soon so we can getcertified to take out 19ft whalers to go fish, etc. at some point we'll take sailing lessons too, ifthey're offered.i think we're going to a wine tasting at some wineshop tomorrow night. hopefully it won't disappoint. i'm playing in a tennis tourney on the navy base atthe end of the month and will surely stink it up withmy reliable serve.... notsure if we'll get a mailbox at our rental house (iguess theft from mailboxes can be an issue)...we'llsee.no cell phones yet either. maybe this weekend.mom, send this to betsy...for some reason i don't haveher current email address.hope everyone is well,mike