LJ Idol Season 6 - Week 3 - Smile

A while back, our transformation pastor taught on the Fruit of the Spirit, as detailed in Galatians 5:22-23. When she taught about Joy, she taught us that we can Choose Joy. Well, backing up, the overall point of the series is that as we remain in Christ, and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, these traits will become more and more evident in our lives. So it's not just some conscious effort to always look on the bright side, but as we remain more and more in Christ, we Choose Joy more and more.

I identify as a cry baby. I was marked by tears throughout my very happy childhood. No really. No beatings, no abuse, no hardships. I grew up in a loving family, with comfortable homes (we moved a lot, being a Navy family). School came easily for me. I have no childhood traumas. But I cried over just about anything. I was an active child, so I got to cry over cuts and bruises and scrapes and even a broken bone. I had an older brother, so I got to cry over teasing. I have clear memories of just about anyone trying to get me to stop crying. My mom's most successful method was the tiny bud vase she had for collecting my tears. By the time she got the vase to me, my tears were always dried up.

I still cry very easily. I cried during Astro Boy; I cried during the Christmas episode of Bones, I cried when the little cartoon toaster threw himself into that nasty compacter! I cry for happiness, for grief, in anger. I cry.

But.

I very clearly remember a time, when I was 8, that I cried and cried and cried. I didn't know why.

In 2004, I went through enough stress, from about four different sources, that I ran through any of my own resources and hit bottom. I did everything I could to point to circumstances instead of myself, but the circumstances pointed out that I needed help. And I got it. I started taking Lexapro; I shed (unwillingly, for the most part) most of the stressors, and I fled back to God. The uncontrollable tears slowly stopped. The anxiety softened. Where I had been spiraling downwards, more and more desperately grasping at what I thought I needed to be happy, I started to meet people who had true happiness without effort. In the process, I reexamined my belief that I was a Christian. I had prayed when I was two years old, and I'd come to look at it as a sort of checked-off box that would apply much later - after death. At Quest, I came to learn that there is more to this Christian stuff. That there is a real relationship possible, while we're still on this imperfect world. That there were people around me filled with Jesus, experiencing that relationship. And I wanted the whole deal, not just some childhood plea for salvation, but an adult agreement to lay down my own control and let Him take over. That prayer came in 2006.

My life changed. Not the circumstances of it, but my attitude and perspective and emotional state.

It got easier to laugh, to not sweat the little stuff, to assume the best - all the ways of expressing Choose Joy.

But I wondered. I hear this story over and over from so many, I know I'm not unusual. I was taking an anti-depressant, and I desperately wanted to believe I didn't really need it. My scientist brain rebelled at the faulty test conditions. Changing three factors at once? How could I know which to credit the change? Was it the drugs, or taking away the stressors, or was it Jesus? The drugs were pricey and brand-names aren't covered by my prescription plan, and that probably played into the wishful thinking. And then in 2008, my prescription expired before my annual exam, and the office called in one month for me, but the appointment had to be postponed... The upshot was two weeks, maybe three where I ended up cold-turkey without the Lexapro. There was some initial withdrawal dizziness, but that seemed to be it. My doctor okayed my suggestion to stay off it, and that was that.

Uh no. Flar tried to get me to go back. He said I was more irritable. I resisted. I felt fine. Mind you, we were going through a tough time again - money was tight, there was stress - we were fighting and I "was entitled to be mad." I gave in and went to a psychiatrist. Heh - the Lexapro was prescribed by my Gyn. for "pre-menapausal mood-swings." I figured I didn't need any stinking mind drugs unless a mind doctor told me so. One conversation. She mentioned the possibility of Dysthymia (I think that was the term she used), but she made the idea of drugs seem optional and up to me. She did say that Lexapro is not for treating irritability, so I came home "vindicated."

But there was more going on than irritability. I was draining out. I stopped working with the two-year olds, because I was wrapped up so much in my own pain that I couldn't put it aside and be there for the kids. I let worry over money and our marriage consume me.

Then the Really Bad Weekend™ came. I'd been feeling more and more miserable. I went to the mat that night and my leader and I were the only ones in our group, by chance. She asked me how my week had been, and I started to tell her how hopeless I felt. We talked and talked, and as she was telling me that she thought I sounded depressed, I could feel this palpable disconnection. If I could be that disconnected from the people physically around me, how could I possibly feel God's presence in my life? I came home and told Flar. Somehow, though, admitting the depression made me act even more bratty and self-centered. I lashed out and hurt everyone within reach, then melted down into a helpless puddle. I really didn't feel worthy to continue.

That Wednesday I went back to the psychiatrist and told her I was wrong. That I needed help. I asked her whether there was a generic drug that would take away the money stress that came with the Lexapro, and she prescribed Celesta, from the $4 list. It didn't do anything dramatic overnight. I spent a lot of time not trusting myself. Walking on eggshells around myself.

But I can feel again. I don't feel disconnected.

Sometimes I still wrap up into frightened kitten mode. It happened this week. Hide in the comfy chair; turn off the brain with TV; eat junk food and just hide. But it didn't last. And when I told Flar how I was feeling, he didn't chide me for my feelings - he didn't tell me to smile; he just gave the frightened kitten a hug. And he told me it would get better.

Circumstances aren't great this week. But I can Choose Joy.

I haven't worked in three weeks - more time to spend with Flar. Flar's construction company is winding down - more time for him to rest, which he dearly needs these days. For everything that is bad or scary, there's another side to it. I can look back and see how much God has done for us, all the ways He has already protected and provided, and I can rest in His assurances now.

It'll get even better.

--

This entry was written for inclusion in The Real LJ Idol writing competition on Live Journal, Topic 3: Smile.

location: Bed mood: happy Tags: depression, idol 6

Critter came out for a visit tonight. He drove CuppyKate to work and hung out here, which is closer to the mall than campus is. He left with a small tin of cookies, and our french press set. The dorm rules specifically forbid coffee makers, but microwaves are okay, so he can make coffee without breaking the rules. :)

I caught up with a lot of TV this weekend, and got the kitchen cleaned with the exception of half the table. We bought material and a costume for Tigger for Halloween. Tigger is helping make the robe (in orange, not black): he put the fabric in the wash - I moved it to the dryer. He cleared off half the jacuzzi top and cut out the pattern pieces. Critter sat and transcribed class notes while I ironed the material and pattern for Tigger's Halloween costume. I was going to cut it out tonight, but Flar talked me into coming to bed with him. I brought receipts to enter into Quicken, but I've thus far successfully found other distractions before buckling down to work.

I fixed hamburger stroganoff for dinner (the Sunday dinner kind, which happens midday, and is followed up later by a small supper - in this case, two chocolate chip cookies) tonight. Flar's nutritionist prefers for me to use Cream of Mushroom soup over sour cream, so that made it easy. I made cheese quesadillas for snacketizers for Critter and me, as well.

Flar has decided he likes my seltzer water. I generally drink it a liter at a time, so it's a bit weird to share, but it's fun that he "gets" why I like it. :)

Kidcare was busy this morning. There were 21 kids in the 11:30 service, and they were all great at lining up and sitting around the table and going to big group. Except for one boy who was pushing and hitting, and even once bit. The great thing about the way we do kidcare, is that if there a serious behavior problem, we get to pass the buck to our team leader, who isn't in the room with the kids and can give one on one time to the problem child. I'll be praying for L. I've seen such great changes over the years in kids who just couldn't seem to get along with other children and have learned to share and offer toys to comfort children crying for their parents, etc.

Yesterday I threw together a tasty casserole from ingredients we had on hand. I found a nifty recipe search site that helped with that. It has an input field for your ingredients, will let you emphasize some, exclude ingredients, etc. It finds recipes that only use what you've listed, as well as others - and tells you in the results summary if you have all the ingredients, or what else you need.

Tigger had a birthday party/sleepover Friday night, so I got up Saturday in time to drive him home, then when Grace and T brought TT over here, I showed Grace cruise pictures while T worked on the heating system.

We have heat now, yay! Grace read in my facebook comments that we didn't have the heat on yet, and offered her hubby to fix it. There was nothing broken, but Flar prefers a professional to check out the works before we fire up the boiler. T was happy to take a look at it for us, declared everything to be shipshape, and now we have heat. Tigger is hermitting upstairs in the cold more, but Flar is more comfortable out in the family room now. We've got four zones/air handlers in the house, and keep them all on different temps. Our bedroom is on compromise-high (78°F), the family room on compromise-low (currently 70°F, but Tigger and I may sneak it down to 68°F), Flar cranks it up in his office and then back down when he goes back downstairs (if he remembers), and Tigger's got the thermostat officially changed from cool to heat, with the setting pegged low (the point is to keep the upstairs temp just warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing). It's weird, but it seems to work.

We watched the pilot for White Collar today. Total eye candy and amusing situations. I think I'm going to like it. :)

I was a little disappointed in the latest Stargate: Universe. I totally guessed what the ship was up to, as soon as they said it was headed into the star. But I did like Math Boy getting to: (1) show Rush the ship's exterior; (2) hold hands with his crush and (3) figure out Rush's idea and solve the math first.

location: bed mood: lazy Tags: bibble, critter, halloween, heat, tigger

The LJ Idol polls are open for voting on Topic 1: Empty Gestures. Please read the entries, comment for the writers, and vote! The players are currently divided into six tribes, for purposes of voting: each tribe has a separate poll. I'm in the fourth tribe, named littlebit1988.

The polls will be open until Monday October 26th at 8pm EDT.



For the visually impaired: The graphic displayed is an animated GIF with 6 frames: 1st is a woman on a ladder peering at a large pile of manuscripts; 2nd is the word READ!; 3rd is a finger jabbing a keyboard; 4th is the word Comment!; 5th is a large check mark in a clicky box; 6th is the word VOTE!

location: Bed mood: sleepy Tags: idol 6, polls

LJ Idol Season 6 - Week 1 - Empty Gestures

I got a "clean" bill of health from my ear doctor yesterday. Yay! No more drops. And a follow-up appointment for April.

My ear doctor has his own definition of satisfaction with my ears, and I believe when he was dictating the note to be sent to my family doctor he said something about both ears being clean and dry. Mind you, the right ear was only clean because he popped out the ear candle embryo. It wasn't long enough to anchor a wick, but it made an audible pop when it came out. I can tell my left ear is doing as well as it does, because when I clear my ears in the afternoon, I can feel the warm breath coming out my left ear canal. I know better than to do so in the morning, because the best I'll get is a whistle and the worst is that I'll have enough sleepy goo to stopper it up from the inside for a few days.

Uh, yeah. I have a hole flap in my left eardrum. It's from years of earaches, when the internal pressure built up enough to perforate the eardrum. Eventually, it just healed open. Only a bit -- I still test well in hearing tests. Backup a bit. I was the second child. My older brother was a Very Active Toddler™ when I was born, and my mom chose the bottle over the teat for me. She didn't think she could chase after him if she were nursing me. Back then, it was called formula, because your doctor handed you a recipe formula for mixing it up. Mine included corn syrup and it seems that I was allergic to it. I threw up most of every feeding, and I cried. A lot. When you've got a baby that cries all the time, the only way you know she's crying from the pain of an earache is after the eardrum bursts and the blood shows up. She says I was two something - weeks? months? - the first time I had an earache. If I'd been the first child, I'd be an only child. ;)

I was a teen when a doctor first told us about my eardrum; I'm not sure how long it had been healed that way. His concern was that it could somehow cause a skin ball (you know, like a hair ball, only made out of dead skin cells?) to form and adversely affect my tympanic bone, causing deafness. He recommended yearly observation. My reaction at the time was heavily influenced by the Bionic Woman - I figured I'd be a candidate for a Better, Keener Ear™. But yeah, the doctor was preparing us for the possibility that I would lose my hearing.

Over the years, I've been pretty lax about seeing the ear doctor. Oh, the intense pain of an earache will drive me there. After moving around a bit, I've got a regular ear doctor here in Lexington. And he's caught on -- he hasn't mentioned any bugaboo about bones, but he knows I need regular observation. His office fit me with a customized earplug -- filled my left ear with a quick-hardening rubbery substance -- but I'm more comfortable using the soft silicone ball plugs. I've figured out they are one time use; after that they're not sticky enough to stand up to ear-jiggling during a shampoo. I keep my ear dry and after four years of allergy shots, I don't generate nearly as much internal growth medium for itty bugs. The last time I had an ear infection, it hardly hurt -- but I knew to see the doctor because I couldn't blow through my ear anymore, and I was tiring of the hearing blockage.

I've taken sign language classes three times. All three times, I took the beginner level. I can remember most of the alphabet; I can sign "I was born in Key West." Each time, I retain a little bit more. But I've no one to practice with, and I seem to have lost the urgency over contemplating eventual deafness. I've noticed a woman signing at the front of the church, but I don't know if she's there for every service or just occasionally. Either way, all those intricate movements remain empty gestures to me.

--

This entry was written for inclusion in The Real LJ Idol writing competition on Live Journal, Topic 1: Empty Gestures.

location: In the almost toasty warm bedroom mood: happy Tags: ear, idol 6

Last Day of Vacation

We woke up before my alarm went off at 8am. It's funny really. Every time we've been particular about when we had to wake up, we set my alarm, chose a ringtone that would be loud enough, etc. And every time, at least one of us was awake before the alarm sounded.

We each got dressed for the day, then we packed up the morning bits, and swept the room for left-behinds. We had paid a service charge per day but decided that our housekeeper deserved more, and by definition our butler and concierge were not included in the shared tips. We found Tita to give her a present personally, then went up to breakfast with the other tip money, in case the concierge was still there. He was already arranging debarkation, so we enjoyed our last breakfast on ship. I had my favorite fruits & yogurt, and ordered steak and eggs. Flar had the same entrée along with his grapefruit half and grapes. Every time we ate at Cagney's for breakfast, lunch or dinner, we were always greeted by one particular server who remembered our names after our first meal. She noticed when we chose to eat breakfast elsewhere, and seemed to look forward to seeing us. She was the one server I wanted to tip additionally, so Flar gave me money for that.

After breakfast, I filled out our customs form and wrote thank you letters to our butler and concierge to put into envelopes with their tips. Then we saddled up our carry-on luggage and moved on out. Our cabin was an aft balcony, and the VIP debarkation took place next to the Stardust Theater, nearly all the way forward. At first we attempted the promenade deck, but the regular debarkation line completely blocked passage from aft to mid. So we rode up to the deck above ours, and wound our way past all the service carts in the endless passenger hallways. The housekeeping staff was very busy turning over the ship for the next set of passengers, yet each one stopped and wished us safe travels, thanked us for sailing with them, and hoped to see us soon.

Once we made it to the front of the ship, we simply walked out, through the guest card swiping and onto the gangway. Our longest wait was in the line for customs, which was really not too long. The Miami terminal was much nicer today than two years ago, when we went from the ship to the Big Room of All Luggage and had to locate ours, find the customs agent, then walk out into the Florida sun to guard our bags while Flar got his car. Today, we went to customs straight from the gangway, then down an escalator to carousels that were clearly marked according to baggage category. Porters found us, packed our bags up on a cart, and then hailed us a cab. Amazingly, the standard shaped cab held all our luggage. That trunk had to have a tesseract in it.

Throughout the morning, we kept seeing other passengers that we had met during our cruise. I got to introduce Flar to both of the couples who teamed with me for the Quest Game Show, and we stood in line for customs behind a couple who went into the mud volcano with me. It was almost like everyone on the ship knew me. ;)

Our cab whisked us to The Savoy South Beach, right on the corner of Ocean and 5. It's a great location, since we both love just walking up and down the sidewalk in front of all the cafés along Ocean. After we cooled off a bit in the room, and made phone calls home, Flar went off to the beach and I took a bubble bath. When he came back, he cooled off a bit, and then we went to Ocean Drive to select a restaurant for lunch. We picked Lazio's, a member of the Bongos chain of Cuban restaurants. I had a great sandwich, and Flar had a spicy looking shrimp dish. We lingered over our food and watched the passing parade.

When we got back, Flar napped and wrote my LJ Idol entry. After that, we went swimming together, then dressed for dinner. We ate at Prime One Twelve. The place was packed with people, but we got a table after only 45 minutes at the bar. You would think that 14 days on a cruise ship would have put us in shape, but oh my those portions were huge! Matt treated me to chocolate martinis while we were waiting, and the combination of yummy drink and delicious was absolutely soporific.

Tomorrow morning, we fly home to Kentucky.

location: The Savoy Hotel South Beach mood: sleepy Tags: vacation

LJ Idol Season 6 - Intro

I just returned from my best vacation ever. We sailed from LA the day after my 48th birthday, and docked in Miami this morning.  I wrote about it as it was happening, but really the very best part of my vacation was the time I spent with my husband, Flar. We have been married over 28 years now, and celebrated our 31st sexiversary during the cruise. In the past few years, our relationship has been pretty rocky, but during the trip we really got to enjoy each other and in 15 days, we didn't have a single fight. This was a vacation first for us. 

Flar is a kidney patient, currently in peritoneal dialysis. Our vacation was almost "ruined" by an offer of a transplant the Monday before we left. If you've type O blood and feeling a bit of a Seven Pounds itch, message me. 

We have two sons. Critter is almost 20, and Tigger is 15 and a half. Critter is a sophomore at UK, studying mechanical engineering for an aerospace certificate. He lives on campus, but we get to see him at least every other week, when he comes home to use our washer/dryer.  Tigger is a freshman in high school, and he just showed that he could survive two weeks "on his own" with our friends roina_arwen and knightaudit looking in on him for us.  Both of my sons are the best you could ever hope for: loving and kind-hearted, each with their own unique personalities, interests and goals for their lives. 

I was born and raised a Navy brat with born-again Christian parents from Houston, TX and one older brother. He was born in the Phillipines; I was born in Key West. I am a wholehearted follower of Jesus, although my path has been a kind of messy one, from praying for forgiveness and salvation at 2, to fully offering my life to Him at 44. If that builds a specific picture of me in your mind, you might be surprised.
  
My church community is at Quest Community Church, in Lexington, KY. We live in Nicholasville, just south of Lexington. 

I earned a BA in computer science a year after Flar and I married, and I worked as a systems programmer until Critter was born. I retained my fascination with technology, but not currency in the industry over the years  Now that I'm interested in reentering the job market fulltime, I'd rather find a comfortable job as a computer savvy administrative support type, than tackle the current programming world. Currently I have a parttime second shift job in data imaging. 

When I write in my journal, it tends to be the dear diary stuff of daily activities, or events of note. Occasionally I write about deep thinking or just silly stuff. Until my vacation, I hadn't been updating very frequently. I tend to cycle between too much time on the net and ignoring it almost completely.

Nearly all my journal is public, and I welcome friends but also feel no insult if you drop me from your reading list. I tend to respond to LJ friendings in kind, and then once or twice a year trim away people that have dropped me.  I rarely stay up-to-date with my friends-list reading, but I tend to be responsive to comments, inbox messages and email.  I'm also on facebook & Twitter, and wordy me actually likes the shorter format for updates. I especially appreciate the "like" option on busy days. :)

This will be my third season of LJ Idol, and I'm looking forward to the social interaction it brings. 

Good luck everybody!

--

This entry was written for inclusion in The Real LJ Idol writing competition on Live Journal, Season 6, Topic 0: Introduction.

location: South Beach mood: happy Tags: idol 6

This morning, I woke "early," determined to milk the last day for all its worth. We ate breakfast in the Blue Lagoon Café. It was the first time we ate in the limited-menu restaurant which happens to be closest to our room. I had a cinnamon roll, apple juice and an egg croissant. Flar had an omelet, white toast and orange juice.

I had dressed ready to spend the day at the pool, after a few detours: I hadn't tackled the rock wall yet, and I had a bit of shopping I wanted to finish. Flar went with me to the rock wall with his trusty camcorder. A family had just gotten there, so I settled back to watch before I signed up for the climb. The first to attempt the wall was a teenager, who couldn't quite hang on tight enough with his hands to find higher grips for his toes. Uh oh. The more I watched him struggle, the more I questioned my ability to tackle the wall. He actually gave up, and then his father had a go at it. He made it all the way to the top and rang the bell, but when he got done, he was sweating and commenting on what a work-out it was. This was a guy who was lean, and obviously in good physical condition. That's when I decided that the rock wall would be something for me to tackle on the next cruise.

Aside from my not-so-stellar hand strength, the other reason I wimped out was the after-effects of the volcano. Wednesday night, I was mostly foot sore, and the oil and gel took away the pain. Thursday morning, I woke up with very stiff quads and pecs from my exertions, and I was still feeling the burn this morning. I actually had rubbery legs, as my left quad would threaten to fold up my leg for me when I put weight on it. I'm slowly walking it out, but elevators were definitely my friend today.

Flar was really sweet about me wimping out on the wall. He went poolside to find a nice place to sit, and I went on my other errands. The most important was gathering up Norwegian Pearl souvenirs in the shop. I took those on up to the room, then met Flar poolside. He had put his stuff at a table in the shade, and he was dangling his feet in one of the pools. I joined him in the pool, after adding my stuff to the table. I tread water and paddled about at his feet. It felt wonderful. Eventually we moved to the tble for drinks, and when lunch was served I helped myself to a hamburger.

Flar decided he didn't like his suit clinging to him, so we went back up to the room. I got my book, and showed him the souvenirs that I'd found, then decided to get a dry change of clothes for the afternoon, so I wouldn't have to head back to the room. Flar changed out of his suit, and then returned to the pool. He sat in the shade for a bit, while I splashed in the water and read in the jacuzzi awhile. When I got out of the jacuzzi to lay out in the shade, I meandered over to Flar's seat and got him to stand up and hold my hands while I danced to the Calypso beat. It's our version of dancing together, since he generally doesn't like to dance these days. But he humored me, and then went off to have his own fun on the ship while I spent more time poolside.

I alternated between reading, and dancing behind the bandstand. The bandstand backs up to the overflow tiling of one of the pools. They keep enough water in the pool that the overflow tiling is covered with about 2 inches of water, which is perfect for sloshing through while dancing. When the Calypso Band took a break, it was time for pool games. Only this game wasn't in the pool, it was poolside, and involved clapping in a circle. The idea was to clap, then point to someone else in the circle, who would clap and point, etc. We practiced a few rounds, then he started eliminated people who missed their cue. Then he added in counting. It turns out counting to 10 is a lot harder when you're already concentrating on looking for your cue and clapping, etc. It was lots of fun, and I stayed in until there were four of us, so that felt pretty great. Interestingly, the two winners were one of the youngest and one of the oldest.

There are a lot of retired folk who cruise, so the average age, especially on a long cruise, is kinda up there. I actually find it kind of encouraging, because we saw lots and lots of people in their later years being very active and alert and involved. It's a pretty uplifting view of the future, looking from my "young" 48 years. :)

I stayed at the pool another half an hour, then I went up to the Spinnaker Lounge for a question and answer session with Sharkbait. I got there early, so the Country Line Dancing class was still going on. They had just finished one dance, so I watched them all learn, and then dance to, a Canadian stomping song. When the next dance was announced as NCL's version of the Cotton Eyed Joe, I decided to join in. The dance was similar, but there was no kick and familiar yell.

Sharkbait are the juggling team that added the greatest fun energy to the entertainment lineup. The question and answer session was intended to be able Clown College and the circus, but they pretty much fielded any questions thrown at them. After the talk, I bought some juggling balls -- which are way easier than socks. I'm getting pretty good at two; I need to get my "stupid sissy hand" throwing more accurately, then I think I'll be ready to add the third ball. :)

The Q&A ran long, so I missed the Crew Talent Show. Instead I meandered by the half-price sale for jewelry and found a tiny pair of emerald studs that I could actually afford. Woot! And Flar was pleased and everything. :) When I was entering stuff in my calendar last night, I included "Find Star Bar" and "Find Shabu Shabu." I was determined to have seen everything there was on the ship. It turns out that the Star Bar is the bar outside Cagney's, also known as the Concierge Lounge. I finally asked at the dining reservations desk about Shabu Shabu. It turns out that Shabu Shabu is a style of cooking. The Asian fusion restaurant, Lotus Garden has a few tables with cooking elements built into the center, for Mongolian Hot Pots, which are kind of an asian fondue.

We decided to got to an early dinner at Shabu Shabu, then go to the Comedy show. Shabu Shabu is a sort of drawn out affair, so we missed the early show. The food was delicious, and I even found a kind of sashimi that I like: fruit sashimi, served for dessert. It's thinly sliced fruit, served with a mango sauce and coconut syrup for dipping. I liked it so much that asked for seconds.

Since we missed the early show, we had time to start our packing before leaving for the late show. Flar directed me, while I packed. We never argued about where anything would go, just kind of talked through what we'd be using in South Beach, and what could be checked. We're staying one night in the hotel before flying home, and we wanted to reduce the number of bags that we open in the hotel to a minimum.

The show tonight was James Stevens III, a very talented man. His act was part stand-up, part impersonator, part musical. He heckled late-comers, interacted with the most of the front row, and pulled a couple of guys up on stage with him. He sang, he played the piano, and he alternately made us laugh and amazed us with his broad range of musical repertoire. He raises money to provide laptops and other educational aid to disadvantaged kids, and I was going to just donate some toward that, but I decided I really wanted to get a copy of his DVD (all proceeds go to the money raising). He is also a minister, who led services the last couple of days. Which explains why I didn't notice church services in the morning before he got on the ship. :)

After we got back from the show, Flar helped lead me through packing all the rest of our stuff, and we got our bags out into the hall before the deadline. They move luggage all night - they don't wait until the 2am deadline to start. I had put three suitcases in the hall, and when I came out with the fourth, two of them were already gone. I looked down the hallway, and there he was - the suitcase fairy, carting away our suitcases. :)

Sleep time. Tomorrow we dock in Miami and find our way to South Beach.

location: The Norwegian Pearl, heading to Miami mood: tired Tags: vacation

Wednesday Night

After we recovered from our excursion, we went to the Emerald Reception. The jewelry store onboard, Colombian Emeralds International, took on a huge shipment of emeralds at Cartagena, and they had some of them on display for a private party for the suites guest. I wanted to go because my bowling partner worked in the shop, and because they were serving green champagne. They had also decorated with green balloons; it was very festive. But the emeralds were all totally beyond our current pocketbook, so we looked and then went out to dinner.

We ate dinner at Indigo, where we were seated in a completely different part of the dining room. It turns out that the Indigo is much bigger than we had imagined. After looking at the menu, we decided that the appetizers looked the most appealing, so we each had a four course dinner of appetizers. We started with fried shrimp wontons, then melon and prosciutto that included watermelon in addition to the usual cantaloupe. For our third course, I had island fruits with vanilla bean and rosemary. The rosemary added at strange note to the fruits, but when I stirred the vanilla bean around in the juice, it released its seeds and flavored the fruits wonderfully. I don't usually like honeydew, but it tastes wonderful with vanilla. Flar had a Thai soup dish while I ate the fruit; I don't remember the name of it, but it was a dish he'd eaten before and he said the flavor was a bit different. We both finished with New England clam chowder. I'd had clam chowder at Cagney's, which was richer, but this one was nice.

For dessert, we order the strawberry Napoleon with Grand Marnier and a cheese plate. The cheese was yummy, but the Napoleon was yet another not-a-Napoleon, yet good tasting dessert. I swear, I'm going to see if there is a Cordon Bleu definition of Napoleon and learn to make it for Flar.

After dinner, we went by the casino, but there was no action at the tables Flar like to play. I asked if he'd mind if I tried the quarters game that pushes coins forward until they drop off into the payment bin. It's mesmerizing to watch, but I stopped after I used up all the five dollars I started with. Later, I dreamed that I played again and it took all my money. I've decided it's more fun to watch than play.

We went back the room to get Flar settled in bed, and I ended up deciding to blow off the late shows I'd been interested in, in favor of puttering. First, I entered activities from the Daily Freestyle into my calendar. We decided to order breakfast in the room in the morning, so after we made our order, I cleaned off the table. Then, because one of the activities in which I was interested was the juggling workshop, I sorted the laundry and washed out my bamboo socks. Finally, before I went to sleep for the night, I gave Flar a nice foot-and-ankle rub with the oil and gel from the spa. It's supposed to help with muscle ache and with swelling, and his feet were swollen from the day's activities.

Our Fifth Day at Sea

This morning, we had breakfast in the room at 8am. Along with our breakfast, we opened the complimentary champagne that came with the room, and made mimosas. After we'd both eaten, we were ready to go back sleep. I didn't wake up again until 1:15! That put the kibosh on any poolside plans, since the juggling class was at 2:45, and we were planning to go by the cruise planning office beforehand. We bought three "cruise rewards" memberships, which act in lieu of deposit on a cabin and can be used anytime in the next four years. The plan is for Knight & Ro to use one of them, and Bébé & Scarlett to use the other, and for all of us to go on the Epic next year.

Then I set off to the Spinnaker Lounge by way of the internet café to attempt to return the ethernet cable I'd gotten at the beginning of the cruise (no-one at the desk: their hours are 10-noon and 7-9pm), and the photo gallery, where I didn't see any more pictures I wanted to buy.

The juggling workshop was informative, but I've got a lot of practice ahead of me before I'd go so far as to claim I can juggle. I can throw them middling well, but I can't catch worth a darn. They said socks are harder than balls, because socks are lighter, so I may try at home with balls.

After the workshop, I sat and read awhile in a chair that faced out to sea. Once, the ship hit a wave just right, and there was a huge white spray on our side. A few seconds after that, I saw a clear rainbow right outside my window. I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife now. I like the way it kind of jumps around and just writes in important vignettes. It makes sense to me that a book about a time traveler wouldn't be quite linear.

My next activity was the Martini Tasting in Bar City. Our bartender/instructor was a hoot. Besides educating us about martinis and telling us the recipes as he made each drink, he also told jokes, and even taught us one bar trick. We got five shot glasses with martinis in them, and a bonus vodka slammer - made by dropping a shot glass of vodka straight into a beer mug of Sierra Mist. He lined up all the beer mugs side-by-side, then balanced the shot glasses between each pair of beer mugs, then knocked them all in domino-style by hitting one end with the last shot glass. I sat next to a couple from southern California, who are born-again Christians and Harley riders. They were very fun. By the time I went back up to the room, I was very very looped.

We went to the Captain's VIP Farewell Party before dinner at La Cucina. We talked with a women who has been on 28 cruises. When I told her my late evening plans to play the Quest game, she told me it was a scavenger hunt, and advised me to bring my purse. We had a very nice dinner at La Cucina. Last time, there was way too much food if we had antipasti, pasta, AND an entrée. This time, we both had antipasti, then Flar had spaghetti with meat sauce, and I ordered a sausage, ham, onion & mushroom pizza. With extra cheese. Flar really wanted to try the lobster ravioli, but he didn't have enough appetite for a full plate, and they were sweet enough to bring him one ravioli. I had a cheesecake for dessert that had a wonderful hard caramel decoration on top.

After dinner, we went back to the room and had a nice time sitting and chatting on the balcony. I set up Flar's bags and sat down to putter around on the computer a bit, and then I went out to the Liar's Club show and the Quest game show. Sharkbait was in both of them, and they have become my favorite comedy act on the ship. They even told the truth about the definitions of trion and pissonia.

The Quest game show was a hoot. I had moved down closer to the front to find a likely team, and a found a couple from Australia and one from Britain sitting around one of the couches, who were glad to include me. We had a ball! The game involved bringing up our team number and whatever object they called out. At first, the objects were ordinary, like a Daily Freestyle, a business card or money. I haven't been carrying money on ship, but tonight was the first night I had left my personal cards back in the room. ah well. Then things started getting fun, when they asked for a full set of dentures, and then started to ask for actions. By the end of the show, I'd done 10 sit-ups and a really bad rendition of The Worm, kissed one of the other women, dumped out my purse and wriggled out of my sports bra for one of the men to go up shirtless, pantsless, wearing my bra and the other couple's wife's lipstick and shoes. It was a hilarious show - we spent the whole time laughing and just had great fun.

Now it's time to enter activities for our last day at sea in my calendar and toddle off to bed.

location: The Norwegian Pearl, somewhere in the Caribbean Sea mood: happy Tags: vacation

We interrupt our regularly scheduled cruise journalling to announce that yes, I will be writing again this season. That is all. :)

location: The Norwegian Pearl, somewhere in the Caribbean Sea mood: happy Tags: idol 6

Our ship was scheduled to be cleared by 10am, so there was time for me to have a leisurely breakfast before getting ready for the Big Adventure™. Flar slept in, to store up energy. The going ashore guidelines for Cartagena recommended bug spray as well as the normal sunscreen, so one Flar and I were all ready to go, we took turns spraying each other. I used the DEET-free Buggs Spray that I have, since I didn't expect to encounter clouds of biting menaces. Buggs Spray smells of peppermint and other herbs, so it's not unpleasant to wear all day. Flar's spray from Brazil doesn't smell too bad, either.

We had our pick of seats on the bus, so we decided to sit on the raised back seat. We were joined by a trio from Brazil, and Flar enjoyed brushing off his Portuguese. I could even converse a little -- especially since they were all fluent in English. :)

Cartagena is a walled city that was founded in 1533 by Don Pedro de Heredia. The walls were constructed in reaction to sieges; the most famous was led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. The Spaniards used Cartagena to store gold and emeralds from the interior of Colombia, which was the target of the sieges. Drake accepted a 10 million peso ransom for not burning the city. King Felipe II ordered the wall to be built, and it was finished in 1686. The first stop on our tour was the fortress of San Felipe.

We then drove and drove and drove to reach the Mud Volcano. It is a natural formation, formed just like the cone of a lava volcano. But, instead of molten rock, the mound is formed from dried mound that bloops up over time. The approaching road has tiny versions of the mud volcano forming along one side. The volcano has been domesticated by the addition of two staircases, and a wood structure capping the crater, to provide ladders and footing for getting in and out of the mud. The steps leading up the volcano where carved out of the natural slope, and look to have been helped out with some concrete here and there. The railings look rickety, but they are quite sturdy, and a comfort, since the volcano is about 50 feet high. The higher steps are quite steep, but Flar and I both made it up them.

Flar only came up the mound to be my cameraman. This was my favorite excursion from all the ones offered through NCL, and he was a true hero to accompany me. He didn't get into the mud because of his catheter. Even aside from the mud itself, he's been cautioned against swimming in fresh water lakes -- which is where the rinsing is done.

The mud itself was wonderful. It was a dull grey color, but the texture was rich and smooth. The mud is thick enough that it is very difficult to sink down into it. Another lady and I were trying to get down past our shoulders -- I tried doing reverse pull-ups using one of the railings, but I wasn't strong enough to force myself that far down. Most people were turned all the way onto their backs, but I was working on keeping my ears out of the mud. I managed to develop a kind of mud-paddle, similar to pedaling an upright bicycle. I found I could even steer my way around in the mud.

Going back down the mound was a greater adventure for me than climbing up. Even though I'd sloughed off most of the excess mud, I was very aware of the risk of slipping. I relied on the railings, especially the vertical supports, almost like walking canes. Once I got down to the ground level, the soil was very very hot. We had turned in our shoes and towels at the foot of the mound, and rather than return them there, they had carried them down to the fresh water lake for us. I couldn't take the heat, and could barely take the pebbles, when I wimped out and limped over to stand on a porch in the shade. A very generous man who worked there loaned me his sandals to walk down to the lake.

At the lake, there were ladies with bowls who helped us down to the water and then rinsed us. They had us sit down, and then used the bowls to pour rinsing water over us while we wiped the mud away. My lady even peeled down my bathing suit top to get to the mud that was under it, and to rinse out the suit. A man on the bus said his lady had him hand her his suit to rinse while he rinsed himself. Once we were all rinsed off, our shoes and towels were in the shade, and a lady next to the shoes would rinse off our feet before we donned our shoes.

After all was said and done, we ha a nice bus ride back into town, where we stopped at a souvenir shopping area. I found some bags decorated with the cutwork style that Flar had found in Panama, so I was very pleased to buy myself a new wallet/purse while I picked out souvenirs for the boys and Mom. Flar stayed on the bus for a short siesta while I shopped.

We arrived back at the ship around 2:30 or so. Flar let me shower first to get the missed mud out of my hair, and then he showered to get the mud spatter off of his legs. When I had my 20-20-20 at the spa the other day, I'd bought a bottle of oil and a tube of gel that work together to do wonder for achy muscles, and I treated myself to a foot rub.

Now I'm all refreshed for our evening onboard.

location: The Norwegian Pearl, docked in Cartagena, Columbia mood: happy Tags: vacation

Written on Tuesday night -

This morning, Flar was up with the dawn. I know, because he pointed out the sunrise over the Pacific. There's this kink in the continent that make the ship actually travel in an easterly direction to cross from the Pacific to the Caribbean. I took a picture of sunrise, but I was too sleepy to get enrobed and sit outside to watch the workings of the locks. Flar recorded much of it on his video camera, and I watched the ship channel on the TV while I was half drowsing in bed. A team of pilots came aboard the ship before we approached the first lock. They took over control of maneuvering the ship, and they also provided narrative about what was happening.

After we were through the first lock, Flar and I headed up to breakfast in Cagney's. The buffet was already closed down, but our server was kind enough to bring us the fruit we would have gotten from it, along with our menu orders.

After breakfast, Flar relaxed in the sun while I stood in the line for Canal souvenirs. There was a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale on the t-shirts, so I picked out three, then I also picked out a photo album, key chain and nail file. We came back to the room and lazed a bit, then Flar lay down for a nap while I went to the pool. I got one of the airbrush tattoos that they've been offering poolside, sloshed around in the pool and then read in the sun for about 45 minutes.

Then I went to Bar City to participate in the indoor putting and bocci games. For putting, our target was a foam soda can holder, and it was hard enough to get the ball into it without either moving the whole target or have the ball roll back out. Our champion was a sweet lady from the Big Island in Hawaii.

I'd never played Bocci before, so I was really looking forward to it. The ball rolls fast on carpet, but I kind of got the hang of how much to put into the roll. Our team played pretty well, but at the end of it, the winning team was made up of an older woman who'd played Bocci in her youth and the Australian crewman running the game. Apparently lawn bowling is a family sport in Australia.

Flar and I met in the Great Outdoors for a late lunch, and watched as the ship cleared the last lock and sailed away from Panama. Then we went back to the cabin to relax and nap. Once we got all dressed for dinner, we went first to the casino. Flar handed me one of his $100 chips from his first night of gambling, and we sat down at the Roulette Table. I got mine in dollar chips, to spread out over the numbers, and Flar got his in $5 chips, to bet around the outside. I started out betting the 5-6-8-9 corner, the 16 and the 25, for our wedding anniversary and my birthday, and the very first roll was 25. Whee! As time went on I varied my numbers a bit. First to 2-5. 9-12, 16, 25, adding in Flar's birthday, then to 2-5, 9-12. 16. 25-26-28-29, adding in our first date, and finally 2-3-5-6. 8-9-11-12, 16 & 25-26-28-29, adding in the boy's birthdays. I hit on everything but the 16 (well, duh - but that's a different tale). But when I say I hit on the rest, I mean, I was winning more often than I was losing. When I got about $29 ahead, and I'd won several in a row, Flar suggested we call it an evening, so we did. It turned out I won about $8 more than Flar lost, so we more than broke even as a pair for the night.

I learned something on the cruise that I've never understood before about why Flar likes to gamble. For him, it's about the people energy surrounding the table. The more people that are playing, the more he enjoy the game, because he's participating in a group cheering and railing etc. about the roll of the dice or the wheel. Several times now, he's passed by the craps or roulette tables when they were open, but there was no one playing. He says it's no fun to be the only player at the table. It turns out that the enjoyment that Flar gets out of gambling is very similar to the enjoyment I get out of bowling or the silly games I've been playing in Bar City. It's all about social camaraderie.

We sat in Bar City awhile before dinner. Flar had a scotch and I tried the Neon martini. It had vodka, blue curacao and white creme de menthe in it, and it tasted like spearmint, a very icy minty flavor. We sipped and we talked and we just enjoyed being with each other.

We ate dinner in the Garden Café tonight. Their dinner offerings include the simple and the elaborate. The food I had was quite tasty and I barely scouted out a quarter of the buffet. For dessert, I got a fresh strawberry crepe with whipped cream. Yummmm.

We returned to the cabin for an early evening. Tomorrow, we're docking in Cartegena, where I'm going to throw myself into a bubbling volcano. In the evening, I'm looking forward to the reception to celebrate taking onboard Colombian emeralds. My bowling partner Danni, who works in the ship store, tells me there will be green champagne at the reception. Who can resist?

location: The Norwegian Pearl, docked in Cartagena, Columbia mood: happy Tags: vacation

Oh my goodness, I've really let journalling slip.

Friday night

At the beginning of the cruise, we signed up to participate in the Murder Mystery Dinner. Friday night, we started in the Stardust Theater, where they showed us dramatisations of the character introductions. The murder victim was Chase Diamond, a private investigator. I received the character Leilani, a hula dancer, and Flar was Chief Wiki Wiki, the manager of the Hawaiian Cultural Museum. We started out a bit slow on understanding how to use the little script booklets and clues, but eventually we all got into the swing of things. There were two Leilanis at our table, so I got to take turns with the other Leilani, played by a fellow who reminded me of Nathan Lane.

Flar says I really got into my part. I decided the best way to imitate a hula dancer was to constantly move my hands, and occasionally I put in hand movements to illustrate the dialog as people were talking. I was among the four of us that solved the mystery. The surfer dude, who was friends and partners with Chase, killed him to coverup the fact that he, the surfer dude, had been blackmailing their clients. We had a lot of fun livening up the suggested dialogue and making sure that all the accusations and defenses and clues were revealed.

The action took place in the Summer Palace, so we've gotten to eat there without dressing more formally than we would for the other dining rooms - very fun.

Saturday

Saturday was our third day at sea, and it was a busy day for me. I started out with the behind the scenes tour of the ship. I took 216 pictures, as we toured the galleys, learned about waste processing onboard, toured the laundry, saw the backstage areas of the Stardust Theater, and finished by seeing the bridge.

We were not treated to empty spaces - each of these places had people busy at work, especially the galleys, laundry and bridge. We only toured the main galley, room service headquarters, pastry, vegetable prep, meat cutting, fridge and freezer. There are many more galleys onboard, and the description of the path of a typical room service order more than explained the 30-45 minute average wait. The sauce chefs, soup chefs, and others were all busily scurrying around while the executive sous chef explained what we were seeing. The bakery chefs, pastry chefs, and meat cutters all gave us demonstrations as they went about their regular tasks.

In the laundry, they showed us the dry cleaning machines and spot-treatment board, and demonstrated the steam presses, mannequin steamers, 275 lb. capacity washers, smaller front loaders for passenger laundry, dryers and manglers. The manglers were fascinating to me - they pressed, dried and folded tablecloths & sheets, pillow cases & napkins, and towels at three sizes of manglers.

The environmental officer was hard to hear as she had a soft voice, but it seems that the ship has a complete waste treatment plant. What food waste that is safe for fish gets ground up and pressed into one-inch cubes to put to sea. The ship incinerates as much of the other food waste and solids from water treatment as is possible. The ash leftover from incineration is stored for removal at the home port. Many of the dry waste products are recyclable, and the ship has facilities for crushing and baling glass, papers, plastics, cardboards and metals. Most of these are sorted into finer categories before baling. We got to walk through the garbage storage fridge - it's kept cool to reduce odor and bacterial growth, and the room smelled only very faintly like stale beer. Flar speculates it was a fermentation smell. The metal cubes looked like a scene out of Wall-E. :)

The cruise director toured us through the backstage areas, and told us details about how the Jean Ann Ryan dance company puts together their dancers for 6 month contracts. We got to take close-up looks at the costumes and wigs, as she explained how the dancers lay out their costumes backstage for those 10 second quick-changes.

For our final segment of the tour, we saw the bridge, and one of the officers explained all of the controls to us. He covered the maneuvering controls, the emergency monitoring station, the communications desk, the navigation desk and the weather station. A lot of the communications and information for the ship uses the internet, but there are also radio-based backups in case the internet connection is down. There is even a tiny little ship's wheel mounted on a stanchion in the middle of the bridge, that is ordinarily controled by the computer but can be turned over for manual control.

After my tour of the ship, I met Flar for lunch in Cagney's Steakhouse. I think we headed back to the room after that, where I finished my Dan Brown novel. I decided I'd had enough exercise, walking the length of the ship serpentine-style, and climbing up and down stairs in the innards of the ship, that I didn't check out the Caribbean Line Dancing class. Instead, we rested up and then dressed up for our dinner in Le Bistro with other members of the forum Flar joined on Cruise Critics. The food was lovely, and we handed in the card that had been placed in our cabin at the beginning of the cruise. Norwegian Cruise Lines treated me to a small birthday cake, since my birthday was the day before we sailed. We shared the cake around with the rest of the Cruise Critics. Since it was my birthday, I ordered two other desserts to try, along with the birthday cake.

The busy day wasn't over yet though -- the second round of the Celebrity Bowling tournament started at 10:30pm. I decided to bowl in my pretty tie-dye dress that I'd worn to Le Bistro, without the embroidered wrap. I managed a much better showing than the first night in my first game; I bowled 121. My second game was a much less impressive 75. But our team bowled well enough together to escape the cut of another 4 teams, which meant that we would go on to the final rounds.

Sunday

On Sunday, the ship docked in Costa Rica, and Flar had purchased an excursion that started at 8:10am. Whew! The only reason I managed after my late night of bowling, was that the excursion was a bus tour. We started out with a longish drive to the Costa Rican equivalent of a Stucky's. It was a large souvenir shop with rows and rows and rows of shelves, covered with handcrafts. Flar helped me to exercise restraint: we only bought a feather picture to add to the one we have and create a collection; a thimble for my mom, and an enormous bottle of vanilla.

The tour guide kept us entertained with lots of interesting information about Costa Rica as we rode, telling about the areas that we were passing, the geography of Costa Rica, as well as political and economic information. Our next stop was a short visit to a church in San Ramone. Flar actually got me a trip to a church on a Sunday. :) We had 10 minutes to tour the outside, but they were holding service, so we didn't tour inside. We could hear the worship music from outside the church, however, and it was beautiful. The church was constructed in the late 1800s out of stones carved from the Poas volcano. The stones were transported to the church site via oxcart, and assembled using a glue made from egg whites and lime. Since Costa Rica experiences many earthquakes each year, the egg white mortar has in many places been bolstered by cement.

After we got back on the bus, we rode about 30 minutes to the Doka Estate, a coffee plantation whose largest customer is Star Bucks. Our tour guide took us through the estate, showing us first how the coffee plants are planted and cultivated, then how the beans are picked. He showed us what the beans look like inside the outer shell, and what a pea berry is. The coffee beans are generally in two halves inside the shell, similar to each of the peanuts in a peanut shell. About 6% of the beans are "deformed" and the bean inside is whole, rather than in two parts. These beans are called pea berries and are used to make the Pea Berry blend of coffee, our host's favorite.

We got to eat raw coffee beans, which taste most like a green plant-type substance, kind of sweet. It was more like chewing on sugar cane than on a coffee bean. He led us through the various steps of coffee production, from picking, to collection, shelling, fermenting (to remove the sugar), drying, peeling and roasting. There are three grades of beans, and only the first grade is exported. These beans are pale in color, while the darker colors are relegated to the second and third grades and kept for domestic consumption. The darker grades are dried in a rotating dryer. The premium grade is dried in the sun on a big patio, where a worker used a tool similar to a rake to turn the beans so that they dry evenly.

After the beans are dried, they are stored. The customers order beans either dried or roasted, and beans are roasted to order. The different kinds of coffee depend mostly on the amount of time they are roasted. Espresso is roasted the longest. It is during the roasting process that the beans acquire the familiar coffee smell and the rich, dark color.

We went from the tour to eat lunch. Our tour included a buffet meal at the coffee plantation, served on wooden trenchers with banana leaf liners. The food was quite tasty, and the dessert was a crunchy candy made from toasted coconut that Flar has had before in Brazil. Next we visited the gift shop, where we selected coffee for ourselves and for gifts, and picked up a few other gifts, as well.

Our last stop of the day was at a Botanical Gardens that had rescue birds: Scarlet Macaws, a yellow crested cockatoo, some green parrots, and a yellow parrot. There was also a peacock wandering the grounds. They had many beautiful plants, but their main event were the orchids. There are over 1500 varieties of orchids growing in Costa Rica. I didn't know, until we toured the garden, that vanilla is an orchid. We bought a pair of vanilla beans that are twice the length I can usually find in the states.

The bus ride home was very long, and our tour guide put on a video of Costa Rica for us to watch. The images were pretty, but the music was hypnotic. I was starting to wilt by then, so the bus ride back to port probably seemed longer than it really was. We got to the ship shortly before the all aboard time.

After all the beautiful flowers we saw at the Botanical Gardens, we arrived back to our room to see that our butler had delivered a new flower arrangement to replace the one that he had delivered on embarkation day. It's a beautiful arrangement incorporating birds of prey and tiger lilies and bright orange and yellow asters(?) and other flowers I can't name.

Flar and I were both pretty worn out from our long day, and he suggested that we order room service. We had just come to the conclusion that we'd love to have the menus from the main restaurant and the chinese restaurant to help us decide, when our butler showed up at the door with our evening goodies. One of the perks of the suite is our very own butler. Among other things, he brings us a different collection of sweet or savory bites each evening. That night, the plate was antipasti. I ate the melon, and Flar ate the salami and the bell pepper slices, leaving the fish on the plate.

We asked our butler if he could bring us menus from the restaurants, and he was happy to help. He brought us the Indigo and Lotus Garden menus, and told us to call him when we where ready to order. He personally delivered all of our food, complete with a tablecloth for our dining table and silver flatware. He also filled our champagne bucket with ice to chill my bottle of Pellegrino. He then brought our dessert about 45 minutes later, and cleared away our dinner plates. He even stopped me from putting a tip on the dinner bill (Lotus Garden is one of the extra-fee restaurants), since the tip wouldn't come to him. We've absolutely loved having our butler, he is very friendly and eager to help in any way he can.

By the time we'd finished our desserts, we were so tired we both dropped off to sleep. Fortunately it was only 11:30 pm when Flar woke up to the realization that we hadn't hooked up his cycler before bed.

Monday

This was the first morning that we officially slept through breakfast. It didn't help that we had to set our clocks forward last night. We decided to start our day with a poolside lunch instead. I brought my laptop with me, to work on the kidcare payroll spreadsheet after I ate. We found a table in the shade, and I decided to go down the water slide and dunk in the pool while we waited for our drinks. My hotdog was nothing special, but the roast chicken was perfect. It literally fell off the bone, and yet it was still juicy. Yummm. I worked on my spreadsheet until Flar had finished his lunch and his beer, and then decided to return to the room with him.

I finished up my spreadsheet while Flar napped, and then left to go back poolside. On my way down, I got entranced by the Del Sol sales. I had decide to let the salt water pool style my hair today, and they were selling butterfly clips that are perfect for sun-drying curls into hair. I also got a bottle of nail polish. Then I headed to the pool deck. I painted my toenails and fingernails to the pleasant sounds of the rasta band. I will never hear Who Let the Dogs Out the same way now that I've heard it rastafied.

After my nails were dry, I swam a few laps, then I read my Esther Friesner short story collection Witch Way to the Mall until it was time to go up to the room and dress for dinner. Flar and I passed each other in the hallways, because he was gone (looking for me) when I got to the room. I decided my hair wasn't completely dry, so I blew it dry, then decided to sparkle for the night. I added sparkle hair spray and my green feather clip. I put sparkle powder on, then choose the tiger-stripes shirt that mom gave me, when paired nicely with green slinky leggings. The only makeup I needed was a bit of lip gloss, but then I felt beautiful for dinner. Flar remarked on how nicely I'd dressed up more than once tonight.

I was heading to Bar City to look for Flar, when I found it him at the elevator, still in his bathing suit. After he didn't find me earlier, he'd spotted an open bed on the pool deck, and napped for a bit. Under the shade on one side of the pool deck, are these great lounge beds. They are roughly the size of a king-sized bed, with a large pad laid over a faux-rattan base. There sides are surrounded to about the hight of a chair-back, and there are a couple of pillows. Most of the time that I've been picking a spot by the pool, all of the beds have been taken, so I can understand how they drew Flar in...

Once we hooked up together, we went back to the room, where I started typing this huge catchup post, while he dressed for dinner. On our way back to the cabin we decided to see if could eat at Cagney's tonight, since I was nice and dressy. We called the concierge (our other suite perk), who easily found us a table after the early show.

Tonight's show was a comedy juggling act called "Sharkbait." The guys in the show were both in the bowling tournament, so I especially wanted to catch their act. They were very talented, very high energy, and very funny. I both a copy of their DVD on the way out of the theater.

We got to the restaurant just on time for our reservation, and had a nice relaxing steak dinner. Flar had the T-Bone and I had the filet. He had onion rings and sautéed mushrooms, and I had the gratin asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. After dinner, Flar had a french press of coffee, and I had the cheese plate, which came with mashed figs and grapes and honey.

We headed back to the room to prepare for the bowling tournament. I stripped off my necklace and put my card key back around my neck (I keep it in my evening purse for dress up dinners) and got my socks. Flar put a tee shirt on under his sweater for another layer of warmth. Then we headed down to the Bliss Ultra Lounge.

My partner was not on him game tonight, and I was only bowling middling myself. I bowled a 91, and he added 109, but it wasn't enough to make the cut on the first game. Instead of cutting teams after two games, since this was the final night, they cut four teams after the first game. So I didn't make it to the final game, but I did make it to the final night, so I'm pretty darned pleased with myself. And hey, it's really something to have not merely bowled on a cruise ship, but to have bowled in a tournament on a cruise ship. :)

Flar and I headed up to the cabin after that, and I decided to get this journal up-to-date before in bed.

Tomorrow is a big day: we are crossing the Panama Canal tomorrow. You can even watch for us, on the Panama Canal webcam! Look for the Norwegian Pearl. It has nifty blue piping around the stacks, and a swirl of colorful pearls that look like bubbles on the sides and bow. We are expecting to enter the canal around 6am and exit the last of the locks around 4:10pm, all in Eastern Standard Time, which is an hour behind Eastern Daylight Time. Check us out!

location: The Norwegian Pearl, en route to the Panama Canal mood: happy Tags: vacation

Written on Thursday -

Flar blew off the fishing excursion in Hualtulco, and we slept in. We ate breakfast in the Great Outdoors, which is completely shaded. I had an everything omelet And a sticky bun, and a couple of figs with apple juice. I'm getting really spoiled by the figs. :)

After breakfast, Flar went back to the cabin to turn it into his cave, and I went poolside. I swam a couple of laps and then listened to UAsked4It: How Can I Hear God's Voice? The sun started to encroach my lounge, so I went back to the room to updat LJ and check email, facebook, etc.

Then it was time for the basic Salsa class. 30 minutes of salsa class more than replaced my morning walk!

I had to bow out before we partnered up, but I think I can remember salsa now just by hearing 1-2-3 5-6-7.

After I worked up a sweat in the Spinnaker lounge, I meandered slowly through the shops (yes, there is a Christmas ornament, and thimbles and key chains. Does a model of the ship fit into Critter's miniature building collection? I didn't see any lapel pins..) to cool off, then settled into a window seat in bar city to sip on a Godiva Truffletini and read the latest Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol.

Written on Friday -

Last night, I met Flar before dinner on our room and we ate dinner in the Indigo Dining Room. We shared a table with a couple from Louisville. Possibly the only other couple from Kentucky on the ship!

I had a Corvinna filet for my entrée -doubling the number of fish dinners on the trip - how healthy. :) I joined the true spirit of cruise dining by ordering two desserts instead of choosing between them: a banana soufflé with amaretto sauce and an almond panna cotta. Very compatible flavors, and I only ate half of each.

After dinner, Flar headed to the Casino and I followed him by way of the photo gallery and our cabin. I picked up the folio I'd purchased with a picture of the Norwegian Pearl on one side and our portrait with the captain on the other. The portrait came with four wallet photos to share.

By the time I joined Flar in the casino, he'd doubled his evening stake of $100, so he was ready to leave. He says it's time to go when either he doubles his money or loses it all.

We retired early, without going to the show. I took a cool bubblebath & Flar went straight to sleep. When I input information in my calendar from the Friday schedule. I found that it was time to set our clocks back an hour -- we've set our clocks forward two nights, so that puts us back in mountain time for the moment.

This morning, we woke really early because of the time change. Even with all the time I spent washing, dressing, lotioning, and packing my purse, we were out of the room by 8 am. We ate breakfast in the Summer Palace on a whim. It's the fancier of the two dining rooms, and we haven't gone there for dinner yet. I had apple juice, a chocolate croissant, melon, eggs benedict and french toast.

After breakfast, we strolled off the shop over to the marketplace. There were beautiful handcrafts. We bought a belt and pouch for Tigger, who has mentioned wanting them. I found a really pretty hairband, and Flar haggled a great price for a hand embroidered table runner. We both picked out postcards, and then wrote on them to mail from Puerto Quetzal.

When we returned to the ship, it was only 10am. Plenty of time to take a nice morning nap. I decided to wander on my own for lunch, and ate at Cagny's. The strip was good, but the fries were excellent. I had a nice meal at a table by the window, where I had a view of Puerto Quetzal and the Tahitian Poolside. I'm reading Dan Brown's The List Symbol, which is a quick read. I moved down to Bar City after my meal to read with cool jazz playing in the background.

I took a break from reading to playing the trivia game, which was British trivia. My fellow teammates were from Texas, and I'm afraid we made a poor showing: 4 correct out of 18. We might have guessed correctly on two that were thrown out - the official answer was contested by too many of the Brits.

We wrote that Tom Jones was the first Welsh singer with a number one hit, and that George Lazenby was the first James Bond. The official answers were Engelbert Humperdink(sp?), whom the Brits claimed wasn't Welsh, and Sean Connery. The host speculated that Casino Royale doesn't count as part of the series?

Tonight we are participating in the Murder Mystery Dinner.

location: The Norwegian Pearl, docked in Puerto Quetzal mood: happy Tags: vacation

Or, wow, who knew it was so big/developed/modern? :)

We decided to stay aboard ship in Acapulco, but we enjoyed the view from the ship.

The spa offers special pricing for in-port days, so I made an appointment for a 20-20-20: 20 minutes each: body scrub, neck massage and foot massage.

Flar and I ate breakfast in the Garden Café, which has a very nice breakfast buffet. I chose the eggs benedict, and I think I continued a plan of moderate eating. It's hard to judge on a cruise ship! I'm afraid I wore Flar out after breakfast, taking him with me on the jogging track. We walked at a leisurely rate, but he really doesn't have his usual energy level these days. He settled into a chaise lounge to cheer me on through the rest of my walking, after he walked a lap with me.

I wandered the ship a little, found a shady chair available, and read until the sun moved onto me. Then I went back up to the cabin, where I updated Live Journal and lay down for a nap. The spa called me for my appointment - I'd messed up the time on my iPhone, so it was an hour behind. I've got it fixed, for now. :) My body scrub and massage were very nice - leaving my skin very happy and my muscles as relaxed as they get. I got a nice smelling oil and refreshing gel to use myself, and share with Flar.

When I came back to the room, I read and relaxed for the prescribed hour that I was to leave the oil to soak into my skin. Then Flar and I went out together. We ate an early dinner at poolside and then swam and soaked in the hot tub. We were ready to go just in time to see the early showing by the magician.

I am such an easy target for magicians. I know all about misdirection and all that, but I still miss the "how," which makes magic shows wonderful for me to watch. This one included levitation, a lady shut into an increasingly smaller box, then poked with swords, an appearing & disappearing cabinet, from which the magician produced two beautiful girls and himself under three silk covers. He did some funny audience interaction bits, and finished up with Houdini's tranformation trick.

We went back to the cabin to rest up, but on the way I picked out our picture with Captain and arranged to buy it, and then signed up for the celebrity bowling tournament. Flar tired to "nap up" enough energy to go watch me, but it just put him to sleep for the night. No wonder -- the tournament started at 10:30pm. The tournament was open to 16 guests, who would be paired with 16 officers from the ship. I was paired with a really cute guy who works in one of the boutiques. We played two games last night (four teams to a lane made for a long night), and the lowest four teams were eliminated.

My partner started out with a strike and scored a solid 148 for the first game -- high for these lanes. I only bowled 92, but that made up the high team on our lane. We both bowled much worse in the second game - he bowled 92 and only made 57! Occasionally the rolling of the ship would directly affect the path of the ball, but I think we were all affected by the no-sliding approach and what seemed like a shorter lane. Anyway, I went back to the cabin at 2am all jazzed that my team gets to play in the next level of the tournament. There are two more nights in the tournament. The second night, there will be two more games before more teams are eliminated, and the final night there will be eliminations after one game, and the final game will determine the winning teams. I don't think there's a prize, but by advancing to the next level of the tournament, I'll already be getting one more game of bowling than the fee of $15 would get me if I were just playing games on my own. :)

Cinder once sent me a card that said essentially: Let's go to Canada and go bowling, then when we're old, we can remind each other about that one time, when we went to Canada, to go bowling. When Flar had gotten the cruise decision down to two ships, my choice was determined by the fact that this ship had bowling lanes. So when Flar and I are old, we can remind that one time, when we went on a cruise to go bowling. :)

Oh, and Ro! Your icon with the pretty lady and the red cover is on one of the walls in the Bliss Ultra Lounge, where the lanes are. You and Knight have GOT to go on the Epic with us next year! It's got to be seen to be believed. :)

Other fun stuff. Our Cruise Director's name is Julie. That was the name of the CD on Love Boat, right?

Also, on the first morning onboard, while we were eating breakfast, the sound system started playing Iris. It was like Critter was with us, and CuppyKate was calling him. :)

Totally loving the cruise. Flar is working on getting more sleep. :)

location: The Norwegian Pearl, sailing away from Huatulco mood: happy Tags: vacation

We started our day with breakfast at Cagney's after a long snooze. There was a thunderstorm Monday night, with pretty lightning and distant rolling thunder, which served only to make sleeping more inviting. I had steak and eggs for breakfast, along with fruit from the buffet and hot chocolate with whipped cream. Flar had the french toast. We found out there are berries, if you ask for them. I had some whipped cream left over from my hot chocolate, so I had berries and cream. Yummy!

When we got back to our room, my plan was to take advantage of the "get half your minutes back" special. However, we'd forgotten to set our clocks forward an hour, so I missed the window by 4 minutes. Or so I thought. It turns out that the special was 8a-10PM, not am as I'd thought. I ended up getting 30 minutes back. Whee. :)

After updating Live Journal, I took a turn around the jogging track while Matt napped. There was quite a wind yesterday, so I did the bare minimum of 5 laps to get my mile in. So far, I've been keeping my commitment to myself to walk the track every day that we aren't on an excursion. I haven't been using C25K, since I'm really not up to the jogging yet. Instead, I've been fast-walking through the sunny parts of the track, and slow walking in the shade.

After my walk, I had a nice lunch in the Garden Café. After I ate, I made up a tray to bring Flar - just a light sandwich and some iced tea. He was still asleep when I got back to the cabin, but he ate his lunch like a good boy. ;)

On Monday night, I'd decided to put into my calendar all the events that interested me, with a five minute alarm. These are the events I skipped on Tuesday: Pastry Demo at 10:30 am (we'd just awakened), Lightning Fast Art Auction (I think I was eating lunch), Cruise Critic's Cabin Crawl (I'd lain down for a nap and just gotten comfy when it would have been time to go), and Tagalog language lesson. So far, I know how to say Tita, which means Auntie. Our butler told me that it would be a term of endearment for our housekeeper from the Phillipines.

We woke in time to dress up for Cocktails with the Captain at 5:15. I wore a rhinestone clip in my hair, and a seed pearl necklace with dangly butterfly earrings. I even stuck one of my sticky rhinestone designs on my back right shoulder. I wore my black halter dress and a wrap made from my white embroidered sarong. I even wore kitten heels. Flar wore a black dress shirt and his white jacket -- very much the southern gentleman. We met the chief engineer, who talked about his ship like it was his baby (just like Scotty!), and got to have our picture taken with the Captain. The reception was in Family Cabin of the Courtyard Suites. The living room of the family cabin is quite spacious, and it has its own private courtyard with seating and a hot tub. The Courtyard is much larger, with a small pool, hot tub and lots of comfortable seating. The courtyard is surrounded on all sides - open to the sky, with a moving ceiling in case of weather. It didn't have nearly the breeze that the rest of the ship had yesterday, and seemed to be much warmer than the other outside decks.

After the reception, we had cocktails in bar city before our dinner at La Cucina. As we were waiting to be seated at La Cucina, two sisters were asking to taste the meat sauce. The hostess came to tell us that we would be sitting at a larger table rather than a table for two, so we invited the sisters to share our table. They didn't have a reservation, so it meant they could be seated right away. The table was a six-top, so we were seated with chairs separating us, as if we were at two tables. The portions at La Cucina are quite generous. We had antipasti, then ordered pasta with our meals. The waiter suggested small portions of pasta, but he didn't warn us how large the entrée portions were. I left quite a lot on my plate so that I could order dessert, which was delicious. A trio of custards: vanilla, chocolate & citrus.

We had originally planned to go from dinner at 7pm to the 8pm comedy show in the lounge, before the Second City Comedy show in the theater. The concierge alerted the restaurant staff to our plans when he made our reservation, but we decided to forgo the warm-up show and let the staff know they didn't need to rush. I enjoyed being able to linger longer over the entrée and dessert.

The Second City Comedy troupe was very entertaining. Before the show started, there was a slide show of trivia about Second City. So much of the show was improv, that we're looking forward to seeing more performances of SC later in the cruise. The last time I cruised, I missed out on the shows. I'm really enjoying getting to see the shows on the cruise.

After dinner, we were both ready to fall into bed and sleep right away. The room was quite warm, so we turned down the thermostat, and activated the quick-cool option, but opened the balcony door to keep it from being too chilly for Flar. So far, we've had an easy time of making the room a good compromise temperature for both of us.

The butler brings us snackies each evening. Last night, the snacks were chocolate-covered strawberries. Very yummy. Each morning, Tita refills our ice bucket. I'm really enjoying the luxury of Suite Life. :)

location: The Norwegian Pearl, docked in Acapulco mood: happy Tags: vacation

Yesterday the ship docked in Cabo San Lucas at 10 am. We had pre-booked an excursion: the Nikki Beach Escape, and met in the Stardust Theater at 11am prior to boarding a tender for the shore. When we arrived in Cabo, we gathered around the man holding the Nikki Beach sign, and then trooped over to the travel agency's bus loading area. We rode a bus over to a Melia hotel, whose private beach access was reserved for our excursion.

We had our own large mattress, two chaise lounges and a bean bag, with a large beach umbrella for shade. We brought our own beach towels from the ship, and towels were also provided for us by Nikki. They served iced tea and lemonade throughout the day, and for lunch we had a plate of chicken and beef fajitas with pico de gallo, guacamole and two quesadilla wedges. The water was a perfect temperature to cool down without shivering. It was clear and the waves were strong. After my first day submerging in the wave pool onboard ship, I'm trying to keep my head out of salt-water. The taste is disorienting. ;) We baked and bathed until 3pm, reading and waving off the beach vendors. Eventually I did talk Flar into a colorful rug for our family room.

We returned to the ship before 4pm and lay down for a short nap. I think Flar woke up a few times, but once the ship started up, I was out like a light until 10pm. We've been sleeping with the balcony door open, and the sound of the waves is better than any sleep machine I've ever heard. We ordered room service to have a bit of a bedtime snack, and then I went out for drinks before "real" bedtime: a bottle of water for Flar, and a glass of club soda and a glass of diet Pepsi for me. I drank some of the club soda getting ready to sleep, but all of the diet Pepsi was there for me in the morning. We slept through the night with the waves crashing and a short thunderstorm adding flashes and rumbles sometime in the middle of the night.

While we were on the beach, Flar helped me keep track of whether I was properly shaded. I turn bright red with the heat, but once we were back in the room, we could see that I had avoided getting any sunburn. Yay for Mary Kay and beach umbrellas!

location: The Norwegian Pearl, off the coast of Mexico mood: happy Tags: vacation

(written last night - "today" refers to Sunday)
A Day at Sea

Today we breakfasted in Cagny's Steakhouse, which serves breakfast and lunch to the suite guests. There is a small buffet with everything from creamed herring to figs to danish to croissant to cantaloupe and all things in between, with apple juice and orange juice to drink. That is for starters, but breakfast includes table service as well. Flar had steak and eggs with coffee and orange juice and a plate of goodies from the buffet. I started with figs and cantaloupe and an almond danish, then ordered eggs benedict made with a crab cake instead of ham, and dill in the hollandaise, with hot chocolate & whipped cream and apple juice to drink.

After breakfast, Flar napped while I walked the jogging track. I ran the first day of my C25K program, but jogging was beyond me, much less running, so I switched between fast and slow walking for my exercise. I like the C25K app on my iPhone. It let me listen to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" on my iPod and just gave reminders for Warm Up, Walk/Run & Cool Down. The jogging track runs around the aft tower, circling Cagny's, shuffleboard, driving range golfer's cage, basketball court, tanning beds (the natural sunlight variety), a giant chess set and shady beds (the same kind of chaise lounges, just under cover). There is a nice view of the ocean, the wake of the boat, and the pool deck during the walk. There's another feature on the sport deck that might have been the base for setting up horse shoes or a similar aiming/throwing game.

I came back to the room to find Flar on the balcony enjoying the view. I invited him to join me at the pool. We swam in the wave pool, which has a waterfall at one end, then dried out in the sun before we had lunch on the pool deck. I covered up halfway through drying off, because I'd neglected sunscreen on anything but my face, but I still managed a mild sunburn on my shoulders and chest. My beach outfit tomorrow will include the coverup with the higher neckline. ;)

I'm still managing to exercise some restraint in eating. I didn't fill up my plate at breakfast, and my lunch plate was about one-third veggies. I actually like veggies when someone else takes the time to make them taste yummy. ;)

After lunch, we went back to the room and napped. I got up for a bubble bath at one point, then wrote up my journal entry about yesterday. By the time I'd written it and gotten online for a few minutes to upload the post, download email and respond to some LJ and facebook comments, it was time to get ready for dinner. Today they were having a two-for-one special in one of the extra-cost restaurants, so we'd made reservations at Mambo's, the tex-mex restaurant.

The meal included a complimentary margarita, which tempted me into having a full-sized frozen one. Our waitress overheard us discussing the desserts, and offered to serve us our meal in reverse order. So we started with our desserts, progressed to dinner, and ended with appetizers. It was quite fun. I had Mexican chocolate cake with a caramel glaze (sort of like a dolce de leche gel), then skewers of swordfish and shrimp (fish that I liked, woot!) with plantains and spanish rice, and finally a bowl of black bean soup doctored with Flar's unappreciated guacamole. In a continuation of restraint, I left most of the cake behind (but I peeled off the caramel to eat all of it), half of one of the skewers and the plantains and all of the rice. I ate only part of the soup, but I took my margarita with me and finished it off during the comedy show.

We were late to the Spinnaker Lounge where the comic was performing, so our seats were not ideal, but we didn't miss much of the show. He was pretty funny, and even did a pretty good rendition of the drum solo from Inna Gadda Vida, or In a Garden of Eden as I learned tonight was the original title.

The comic finished up in time for us to scurry over to the Stardust Theater to watch the Sea Legs showgirl revue. The music was good; the lead female singer was especially nice. In addition to a troop of long legged beauties, there were two male dancers and a male-female ballet couple. Their parts in the revue began as simply dances with lifts and sculpture-style movements, but the male dancer stepped it up in his next bit with a beautiful display on a hanging ring. The final bit featuring these two was an impressive duet with hanging ropes that really showed off their strength and grace. The Jean Ann Ryan company will be performing again during the cruise and I'm looking forward to their next show.

We've come back to the room now, and it's time to rest up for an excursion to Cabo San Lucas tomorrow for the Nikki Beach Bash.

location: The Norwegian Pearl, approaching Cabo mood: happy Tags: vacation

Cruise Vacation - Embarkation

Saturday morning, I woke up minutes before my alarm sounded. I love the extra hours that come from traveling west. :)

Auntie Mame

My aunt lives in Long Beach, and it occurred to me, only moments before we boarded the plane to LA, that I should see her while we were in her town. As a sad commentary on how well I've kept up with my extended family, my call to Mom started with "is Auntie Mame still alive?" Mom was pleased to call and get in touch with her, since I wasn't sure how much longer I could use my phone after we boarded. Mom had a nice conversation with her, and she texted me her current phone number, along with her invitation for us to stay the night.

When we landed in LA, I couldn't reach Auntie Mame. The number just rang and rang == who doesn't have voicemail in California, the heart of technology? Flar wanted to stay in the hotel anyway; he felt it was simpler for using his cycler, etc. Mom eventually returned my voicemail about not getting Auntie Mame and checked the number she had against what she texted me. There were a 6 and 8 reversed, aha!

I called Auntie Mame before my shower, and we got to spend the morning together. She drove to the hotel to pick us up, and took us to her apartment building. She and her Mom built it way back when, and they both moved into one of the units when Mame's second husband passed away. I call her Auntie Mame, because she is an actress, and that is one of the more interesting roles she played in her heyday.

Mame's apartment is beautiful. It's like stepping into a different world, to enter first the garden and then the apartment. In her garden, she has beautiful huge trees and palms and fountains and humming birds and doves and cats and itty dogs with curly tails (whom I think belong to one of the tenants). There are twining vines and leaves decorating the outside stairs, and everywhere you look are angels or plants or flowers. Inside, the walls are covered with artwork and pictures and there is more foliage and blossoms. She has a plush white rug that looked like fur in the center of her sitting area, and a grand piano separating that room from the dining table. Upstairs, the feeling of plush continues. She's turned her dressing room into a small office, with jewelry and paperwork commingling in what seems a perfectly natural style.

We had a mission of replacing the sync cable for my iPhone, so after a time admiring her home, we set off. She took us to Best Buy, where I found a cable marked for use by iPod touch that seems to work fine. Then she took us to some of her favorite haunts. Signal Hill is a little township next to Long Beach that is built on oil. There are little "dunking bird" pumps scattered about behind fences, in the midst of a typical California suburban area. She drove us uphill to a park that marks the significance of oil in the origin of the town. It had a poetry walk up to an art installation featuring a central metal sculpture representing a gusher, surrounded by wall segments showing "shadows of the past," then by benchs, then a low wall circling the edge of the small hill. From there we could view the surrounding towns and city. She says she goes there every Sunday after church.

The park had a sign listing the restrictions, such as "please clean up after your dog," which including among the proscriptions against skate boarding and bike riding "no golfing." I don't recall ever seeing "no golfing" signs anywhere, but I could see both the strong temptation and the foolishness of driving a golf ball off that height over the houses below.

Next Auntie Mame drove us to the community theatre where she's been involved for so long. At her house, she had told us about her last play. She was to reprise a character she'd played before, who literally jabbered almost stream of consciousness level of prose. It was in the first script-down rehearsal that Mame released she could no longer rattle off such long passages without help, and decided to step out of the role rather than face embarrassment on stage. Theatre has been such a huge part of her life for so long. She says she is still able to keep her hand in, in smaller roles, to keep sane. :)

The Norwegian Pearl

Auntie Mame dropped us back at the hotel in plenty of time for us to pack up, check out, and wait for our taxi. We had to call Baxter to get the delivery information for Flar's dialysate, but everything else went as smoothly as expected. We boarded swiftly, with no lines. In the enormous embarkation room, we went through old-style airport screening (no getting the laptops out or restriction of liquids, that is), then we were escorted to the first open computer to check in. We filled out health statements - no flu symptoms, no exposure to flu patients, handed over a credit card to fund our shipboard account, and received our silver card keys. We're staying in a Penthouse Suite, so next we met our concierge, and then we were escorted into the ship.

The Norwegian Pearl is beautiful. The stateroom hallways are paneled with teak, and the doors are bright aqua. There are signs mounted by the doors which can be dialed between Welcome / Please Make up the Room / Do Not Disturb / Please Turn Down the Room. The states are color coded: yellow / green / red / blue. I even discovered the doorbell right away - rather than finding out we had one by hearing it ring. ;) There is colorful art everywhere, even hanging in the stateroom hallways. The public areas are filled with art and color and light and comfort. The Crystal Atrium has a inviting velvet couches and an enormous Wii Screen. One of the crew was describing to me how he's able to play even from the balconies, and that when they were still using Guitar Hero (since withdrawn due to not being a single household playing environment), he could run up and down the stairs while playing.

There is an over-the-top elegant dining room, the Summer Palace, for those who really want to DRESS for dinner, then a more contemporary dining room, the Indigo, which allows for the resort casual code that is common for the rest of the ship. The Garden Cafe even allows shorts at dinner, for those whose definition of casual doesn't include pants. ;)

We had to wait for Flar's dialysate to be delivered to the room before we could truly feel comfortable, so I brought a burger and chicken sandwich down from the Garden Café for us to eat in the room. I've gotten the soda card, which gives me any drink out of the bar guns for free (Pepsi products, soda water, ginger ale, etc.). Flar is sticking with water and iced tea, since he doesn't drink nearly as much as I do. We're really close to the nearest bar, so it's no trouble for me to pop out for a drink. :)

After the boxes were delivered, we wandered the ship. We sat in the Martini Bar together, where I had a Raspberry Torte (it's a martini, really!), and Flar had a scotch that he declared to be properly stinky, er, I mean fragrant. Then we ate dinner in the Indigo. We asked for a group table and ate with two other couples. One of the women and I carried 75% of the conversation, with Flar and her husband taking up most of the slack. When the other husband spoke up, it seems he had pretty interesting stories, but he seemed content to merely listen.

The food here is delicious, but I've promised myself to be restrained. While we were out last night, our butler "call me J" dropped by with a plate of hors d'oeuvres and a silver bowl (? it's really almost a footed colander, I'm sure there's a proper name for it) of fruit.

We stopped in the internet café on the way back to our room so that I could purchase the 250 minute package in time to get 20 bonus minutes. When I tried out the signal last night, I found that the wireless reaches our room just fine, so I won't need to use an ethernet cable or wander the ship for a hotspot. Our luggage was in our room when we returned from dinner, and by the time I'd unpacked mine, I decided I wasn't up to going back out for the comedy show. Instead, we watched "The Proposal" on the in-room TV.

Yesterday I learned that the Suite Life is indeed sweet, and that a martini really enhances the rolling of a ship on the high seas. :)

Time to wake sleeping beauty in time for tonight's dinner, so I shall pop online for a few minutes and post this.

location: Norwegian Pearl, off the coast of Mexico mood: happy Tags: auntie mame, vacation

I had a wonderful birthday.

I was wide awake once my alarm reminded me to wake up Tigger. He fixed orange sweet rolls for us breakfast, then asked me to drive him to school today. I deposited a check on the way home, then scurried around cleaning up various parts of the house preparatory to leaving town.

Knight took me out for an early lunch at Cracker Barrel, then drove Flar and I to the airport. I almost managed to leave our passports on the scanner, but I remembered them in time. whew!

We had plenty of time in Atlanta, where we hung out in the Delta Crown Room. There was a pretty nice buffet spread, and free internet to mooch.

Then Flar worked his persuasion mojo, and sweet-talked the gate agents into upgrading me along with him for the flight to LA. We got to fly in Business Elite on a 777 - pretty swank. :) lie flat beds oriented diagonal to the direction of travel,
USB power availability and an individual LCD screen with movies, TV, music and games on demand. I had shortribs, mashed potatoes, salad and a roll for dinner, with chocolate cake for dessert. I had a small glass of wine with my meal, then tasted a mojito. I didn't care for the mojito - I can do without lime in my sugary, mint drink, and I'd just as soon the alcohol be bourbon -- yes, I prefer a mint julip to a mojito. :)

I watched episodes of CSI and CSI NY, then Imagine That, which I hadn't seen yet. I got a little rest, but the lay-flat bench bed is a far cry from tempur-pedic at home. The only downside of the flight was one: discovering that my iPhone USB cable was fraying at one end, then two: managing to lose it, probably somewhere around my seat. The front desk guy here at the hotel says there's a radshack across the street, but I may have to try an ATT store. The nearest Apple store is not close.

Mom found my Aunt Kathy's phone number for me, but when I tried to call, I got neither answer nor voicemail. I'm going to try again in the morning.

It was a great day, with lots of nice treats.

location: Long Beach CA mood: happy Tags: birthday, vacation