We paid a king's ransom for Internet access whilst on board The Bliss - it's a fixed cost of vacationing on a ship in the middle of nowhere. The same amount per day that we're paying to board sweet Chloe.
It was worth every penny to see the face of our oldest son who we haven't seen or talked to in a few weeks. His hair was so long, he was wearing a Beanie - he doesn't report to work again until Wednesday so he'll get a haircut before that day. It was great to see him. He asked 'how are you doing?' and we said 'It sucks. Really. We have no idea why we pay a fortune to be on a ship in the middle of nowhere for days on end'.
He knew we were completely joking. We were sitting on a deck looking out on the never ending ocean. I was reading a super great book - I decided to try the monthly Kindle library deal and it's free for 4 weeks - $9.99 a month after and cancel anytime. It's fun to read and I can't wait to enjoy reading more in retirement. I've always loved a good book and miss really getting into the story - once retired, I'll have plenty of time for reading.
We saw two ladies working on jigsaw puzzles at a table on the deck today - that also sounds like a great cruise idea. Next time! (Which is in 5 months - Alaska!).
We just enjoyed a delicious dinner at Le Bistro - the French restaurant on board. As good as the Le Bistro on the Escape this time last year. We ordered a bottle of wine with dinner and finished it...we both feel pleasantly relaxed. J. is heading to a Beatles tribute band show and I'm not sure what I'm doing. I may just head to bed early and let the wine work it's magic for a great night's sleep.
The gentle rocking also helps but a twin bed is hard to get used to. I don't know how couple's sleep in a double on cruises. We try to mitigate that by just each having a twin (next to each other) but wow - it's sure a different experience. I feel like one wrong roll over and I'm going to land on the floor!
We have another sea day tomorrow - we'll head to a new area to sit and take in the expansive ocean and then I'm going to head for the hot tub. There are Jacuzzi's in the spa but now that I've found hot tubs available, I'll opt for those - no charge! I think soaking in hot water will really help my hips which are both paining me - lots of walking and adjusting to a narrow bed.
I have a bit of the cold that J. had last week - I'm coughing a bit. Throat is super scratchy. It will pass, I hope. Glad for sea days without a lot of walking.
On Tuesday, we head to Cartegena, Columbia for the day. We were supposed to take a catamaran from the ship to 'Old Town' but that excursion was cancelled - so instead, we'll take a bus to the town from the port and then get on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour - which we've taken all over Europe. Just get on and ride the full loop around and then change to another line or head back to the port.
There was a casino card waiting in our cabin - I moved up a level and got a $100 credit on our account! Earlier today, they delivered a bunch of hand made chocolates to the cabin - also courtesy of the casino. J. says I'm a whale...but judging by some of the people I've played around, not so much. I'm sticking to a pretty strict budget but so far, it's been OK. I've been mostly putting back wins but that's OK 'cuz I'm trying for big jackpots. If I win one of THOSE, I will pay off J.'s car!
J. just headed to his show and I'm debating. Sleep sounds like a great idea....sleep? or casino?
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Friday, March 29, 2019
Airport Hotel
We're at the lovely Holiday Inn Express in Burlingame with a view of the runways coming out towards the bay. There are periodic low rumbles as jets take to the skies. I still slept like a rock - for 7 hours. I went to bed at 6:30. J. (bless his heart) went and read books and watched TV on his phone in the lobby. I never heard him come in to the room - I was wiped out.
We're vertical and showered and will be on the shuttle to the airport in 45 minutes or so. 7:10AM departure for Atlanta - one and a half hour layover there then onward to Miami. Our boarding instructions for the cruise tell us to not arrive at the port terminal before noon - and we're grateful to comply. No alarm needed tomorrow and we'll be boarding the Bliss and settling in to our cabin.
The days counter on our phone is finally at zero for this adventure!!
We left H. with clear instructions and his fervent promise(s) that all will be well. I feel pretty confident that he will stick to the rules and I've expressed how nice it will be to actually go on a cruise and not have a lot of drama surrounding the trip. First time in a few years, fingers crossed. He has an appointment at the Arco gas station near our house today and will hopefully be working next week? We'll see. In the mean time, he has his tax refund and a couple weeks of unemployment to keep him going - though he says 'I have some money but I'm pretending I don't'. Good plan. We gave him a bit of grocery money - he and J. did a stock up trip before we left but he will run out of milk and bananas - and gave him 21 one dollar bills so he could try riding the city bus - $3 a day for unlimited rides. I told him 'if you're bored and getting stir crazy, get on the bus and ride around town. It's inexpensive and gets you places and once you know the routes, you can plan to get wherever you want to go'.
When J. and I are in new places, we ride the bus! Best way to explore. Or the subway. But Tracy doesn't have a subway. :-)
Work this week was fast and super swamped. I left feeling things are mostly 'done' but things are never really done so there's always a sense of dis-ease surrounding being gone for weeks. I comforted myself with internal reminders of 'this is the last paid vacation you're ever going to have to fret about the work part - so just get through it'.
I've had stomach stuff happening for three days and am pretty afraid to eat at the moment. Likely trip stress?
We have two 'at sea' days Sunday and Monday and will spend time exploring the ship. Playing miniature golf. And riding go-carts. It's a pretty amazing ship, to say the least.
I'd better sign off to re-pack and get ready to catch the shuttle. I also feel compelled to put on makeup and be as presentable as possible. We're flying first class today! What a treat!
We're vertical and showered and will be on the shuttle to the airport in 45 minutes or so. 7:10AM departure for Atlanta - one and a half hour layover there then onward to Miami. Our boarding instructions for the cruise tell us to not arrive at the port terminal before noon - and we're grateful to comply. No alarm needed tomorrow and we'll be boarding the Bliss and settling in to our cabin.
The days counter on our phone is finally at zero for this adventure!!
We left H. with clear instructions and his fervent promise(s) that all will be well. I feel pretty confident that he will stick to the rules and I've expressed how nice it will be to actually go on a cruise and not have a lot of drama surrounding the trip. First time in a few years, fingers crossed. He has an appointment at the Arco gas station near our house today and will hopefully be working next week? We'll see. In the mean time, he has his tax refund and a couple weeks of unemployment to keep him going - though he says 'I have some money but I'm pretending I don't'. Good plan. We gave him a bit of grocery money - he and J. did a stock up trip before we left but he will run out of milk and bananas - and gave him 21 one dollar bills so he could try riding the city bus - $3 a day for unlimited rides. I told him 'if you're bored and getting stir crazy, get on the bus and ride around town. It's inexpensive and gets you places and once you know the routes, you can plan to get wherever you want to go'.
When J. and I are in new places, we ride the bus! Best way to explore. Or the subway. But Tracy doesn't have a subway. :-)
Work this week was fast and super swamped. I left feeling things are mostly 'done' but things are never really done so there's always a sense of dis-ease surrounding being gone for weeks. I comforted myself with internal reminders of 'this is the last paid vacation you're ever going to have to fret about the work part - so just get through it'.
I've had stomach stuff happening for three days and am pretty afraid to eat at the moment. Likely trip stress?
We have two 'at sea' days Sunday and Monday and will spend time exploring the ship. Playing miniature golf. And riding go-carts. It's a pretty amazing ship, to say the least.
I'd better sign off to re-pack and get ready to catch the shuttle. I also feel compelled to put on makeup and be as presentable as possible. We're flying first class today! What a treat!
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Designing Our Home
What a week it's been....two days of work and then we FINALLY made it to Nevada.
We loaded up both of our cars with stuff we've packed up - grateful to have H. who helped a lot. We made the drive up easily - J. waited in the parking lot of the hotel keeping an eye on both cars and I headed in to check in. Got our keys. Checked out my favorite machine (which was very near the entrance we were using) and there was a Major of $3800. OH if only I had been arriving solo, I would have sat down and played. 'Cuz when we did finally head up to our room a couple of hours later, someone had hit that major. DANG IT!
Instead, we drove to Carson City and went to the storage place. Filled out all the paperwork for the rental, then unloaded everything into the space. There is gobs of room left and we will start doing a lot more packing in the weeks to come.
Spent Thursday with the Cabinet people, then the builders purchasing manager who went over the specs, then the door people. We are picking out every single thing in the house, right down to every handle or knob, lock or door....it's mind boggling - and very fun. We figure we spent $70K over the course of those couple days - all of which will be in the price of the house - and we still have a bathroom to pick tile for as well as the stonework for our fireplace. We spent Friday with the design person, who was so, so helpful - gently making alternate suggestions when she needed to. For example, I'd been thinking we'd use the same paint color and carpet as our current house - we love it, after all. But she stepped in and nudged towards other options - since our lower cabinets in the kitchen, the entire kitchen island and 2.5 bathrooms are a deep blue-ish grey. Yellow paint - no matter how subtle - would look awful with grey. She was really great at her job, made the process so smooth and relatively easy and we picked out really beautiful counter tops, tile, plank vinyl flooring, carpet and paint. Well, we've at least talked about paint - J. and I are going to go to Kelly Moore this coming weekend to get some ideas.
We made a change to the fireplace in location and type - and while the purchasing person at the builder's office was irritated about the change, the builder seemed ambivalent about the revelation that we were making a change. We're only doing this once - and it's been quite a process - but no way we can let it be built with something we've decided we don't want. And we're pretty far away from building anyway so....the plans need a slight change again.
It's been a whirlwind trip. We were planning to head home today but....I wanted a day of sleeping in and play. The sleeping in didn't work too well - the hotel clock alarm on our nightstand went off around 6. I pressed the snooze (since I had no idea how to shut it off), so it went off again 8 minutes later. Followed at 6:30 by my phone - because I had an alarm set last Saturday and forgot to turn it off. Did go back to sleep and slept until close to 8 which is sort of 'late' - but felt great!
J. decided to trek home today - he's had a cold pretty much from day one and bless his heart, sitting in a hotel room isn't his idea of fun.
I hope to be up fairly early and hit the road. I'd like to have part of the day at home, at least.
The Board approved hiring my replacement last week and the anticipated start date is May 1st. Possibly earlier - she has to move from San Diego so that will take a bit of time. I'm looking forward to having another person to help with the budget.
We're already planning multiple trips back up here and somehow, someway, I want to make those trips. It will involve a lot of days out of the office which will be covered by working weekends but I'm OK with doing that. J. and I are super excited about the house and keeping up with it all and bouncing ideas off each other is a team effort -
Sleep is needed. I had a super fun day - not ending profitably but ending down an amount it's easy to live with. I met some REALLY great people and love it when we're all pulling for each other and cheering each other on as we attempt to hit the Grand or Major. Such fun people here - can't wait to be local. Budget won't have me here daily or even weekly - but when I do want to get here, it's going to be so nice to not have to drive 3.5 hours - just 30 minutes. Atlantis will be super close!!
Maybe we will come weekly 'cuz we each get a free buffet a week - so we could eat out weekly on the casino!
We loaded up both of our cars with stuff we've packed up - grateful to have H. who helped a lot. We made the drive up easily - J. waited in the parking lot of the hotel keeping an eye on both cars and I headed in to check in. Got our keys. Checked out my favorite machine (which was very near the entrance we were using) and there was a Major of $3800. OH if only I had been arriving solo, I would have sat down and played. 'Cuz when we did finally head up to our room a couple of hours later, someone had hit that major. DANG IT!
Instead, we drove to Carson City and went to the storage place. Filled out all the paperwork for the rental, then unloaded everything into the space. There is gobs of room left and we will start doing a lot more packing in the weeks to come.
Spent Thursday with the Cabinet people, then the builders purchasing manager who went over the specs, then the door people. We are picking out every single thing in the house, right down to every handle or knob, lock or door....it's mind boggling - and very fun. We figure we spent $70K over the course of those couple days - all of which will be in the price of the house - and we still have a bathroom to pick tile for as well as the stonework for our fireplace. We spent Friday with the design person, who was so, so helpful - gently making alternate suggestions when she needed to. For example, I'd been thinking we'd use the same paint color and carpet as our current house - we love it, after all. But she stepped in and nudged towards other options - since our lower cabinets in the kitchen, the entire kitchen island and 2.5 bathrooms are a deep blue-ish grey. Yellow paint - no matter how subtle - would look awful with grey. She was really great at her job, made the process so smooth and relatively easy and we picked out really beautiful counter tops, tile, plank vinyl flooring, carpet and paint. Well, we've at least talked about paint - J. and I are going to go to Kelly Moore this coming weekend to get some ideas.
We made a change to the fireplace in location and type - and while the purchasing person at the builder's office was irritated about the change, the builder seemed ambivalent about the revelation that we were making a change. We're only doing this once - and it's been quite a process - but no way we can let it be built with something we've decided we don't want. And we're pretty far away from building anyway so....the plans need a slight change again.
It's been a whirlwind trip. We were planning to head home today but....I wanted a day of sleeping in and play. The sleeping in didn't work too well - the hotel clock alarm on our nightstand went off around 6. I pressed the snooze (since I had no idea how to shut it off), so it went off again 8 minutes later. Followed at 6:30 by my phone - because I had an alarm set last Saturday and forgot to turn it off. Did go back to sleep and slept until close to 8 which is sort of 'late' - but felt great!
J. decided to trek home today - he's had a cold pretty much from day one and bless his heart, sitting in a hotel room isn't his idea of fun.
I hope to be up fairly early and hit the road. I'd like to have part of the day at home, at least.
The Board approved hiring my replacement last week and the anticipated start date is May 1st. Possibly earlier - she has to move from San Diego so that will take a bit of time. I'm looking forward to having another person to help with the budget.
We're already planning multiple trips back up here and somehow, someway, I want to make those trips. It will involve a lot of days out of the office which will be covered by working weekends but I'm OK with doing that. J. and I are super excited about the house and keeping up with it all and bouncing ideas off each other is a team effort -
Sleep is needed. I had a super fun day - not ending profitably but ending down an amount it's easy to live with. I met some REALLY great people and love it when we're all pulling for each other and cheering each other on as we attempt to hit the Grand or Major. Such fun people here - can't wait to be local. Budget won't have me here daily or even weekly - but when I do want to get here, it's going to be so nice to not have to drive 3.5 hours - just 30 minutes. Atlantis will be super close!!
Maybe we will come weekly 'cuz we each get a free buffet a week - so we could eat out weekly on the casino!
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Out of the Woodwork
It's amazing to me how many friends are suddenly intent on getting together before I move out of state. I'm being contacted by people I haven't worked with in over 20 years who have lived in Tracy for decades and now is the time they've decided it would be super great to reconnect. Really. When I send them my (very limited) available dates (which frankly I provide with trepidation because honestly, I feel pretty overwhelmed just on the natural at the moment and adding in a ton of social stuff to my over-taxed psyche and my calendar does not seem wise), we go back and forth trying to wedge in time in a very limited amount of remaining weeks. Doesn't really seem like a good thing to do - but I'm trying. I've lived here 18+ years....and other than running into these people at the grocery store now and then, I've not heard a word from any of them. Facebook friendship - it's the new normal. Little to no contact until physical contact and any chance of seeing each other goes out the window as we move to Nevada. Suddenly, time with me is the 'E' ticket - I'd be flattered except...I'm not. But it will be nice to see friends - even friends with whom there's been little contact. Renewal is good, I guess.
I spent yesterday at Thunder Valley with a friend - we usually lunch in Lodi but decided to do a change of pace. I always have issues gambling with other people - and as expected, it wasn't a ton of fun. She's what I call a 'bouncer'. $20 in, lose or win, move to another machine. For me, that's a sure fire way to put in a ton of $20s and walk away with nothing - which is pretty much what happened. Only then I got the great idea of 'playing solo' for a bit - thinking some 'long haul' machine effort might put me back to even - and that didn't happen at all, either. I came home down and gloomy.
Ahh...the life of a gambler.
The sun is shining today - a very rare occurrence in the past month - but I'm feeling low having lost an hour - stupid time change.
I should be at the office toiling away but I'm not. I have more to do that I can even wrap my head around and only two days in the office this week - but oh well. It will keep.
We are (fingers crossed) set to head up to Carson City on Wednesday - two fully loaded cars. Appointments all day Thursday and Friday with a lot of house choices to work on. We are super excited! We're also dropping off the rather large check required for our builder to start digging dirt on our lot - so we're another step closer!
I had lunch this week with my former boss and it's always a joy to spend time with him. But I have to say that he really hurt my feelings - he asked about B. but not a word about H. - and I wonder why? I mean - H. has done things that are awful - and there is still a tremendous amount of heartache, stress, sadness, anxiety - you name it, we're (still) living it. But he's my son - and if you ask about the well being and status of one of my kids, I really think you should ask about both. Otherwise, don't ask about either? It bugs me so much - I'm sure he just doesn't know what to say at times? But...really. Ask. Or just don't bring up either of my sons.
And, insult to injury - he had a horrible cold. And I woke up this morning with a super bad sore throat, headache and general malaise. Might/could be the time change? But...I think it's a cold. Dang it!
OK - off to the garage to pack up a couple boxes of stuff in preparation for our trip to our storage unit! We've had it reserved for over a month and we are finally going to get there - at least, I sure hope we will!!
I spent yesterday at Thunder Valley with a friend - we usually lunch in Lodi but decided to do a change of pace. I always have issues gambling with other people - and as expected, it wasn't a ton of fun. She's what I call a 'bouncer'. $20 in, lose or win, move to another machine. For me, that's a sure fire way to put in a ton of $20s and walk away with nothing - which is pretty much what happened. Only then I got the great idea of 'playing solo' for a bit - thinking some 'long haul' machine effort might put me back to even - and that didn't happen at all, either. I came home down and gloomy.
Ahh...the life of a gambler.
The sun is shining today - a very rare occurrence in the past month - but I'm feeling low having lost an hour - stupid time change.
I should be at the office toiling away but I'm not. I have more to do that I can even wrap my head around and only two days in the office this week - but oh well. It will keep.
We are (fingers crossed) set to head up to Carson City on Wednesday - two fully loaded cars. Appointments all day Thursday and Friday with a lot of house choices to work on. We are super excited! We're also dropping off the rather large check required for our builder to start digging dirt on our lot - so we're another step closer!
I had lunch this week with my former boss and it's always a joy to spend time with him. But I have to say that he really hurt my feelings - he asked about B. but not a word about H. - and I wonder why? I mean - H. has done things that are awful - and there is still a tremendous amount of heartache, stress, sadness, anxiety - you name it, we're (still) living it. But he's my son - and if you ask about the well being and status of one of my kids, I really think you should ask about both. Otherwise, don't ask about either? It bugs me so much - I'm sure he just doesn't know what to say at times? But...really. Ask. Or just don't bring up either of my sons.
And, insult to injury - he had a horrible cold. And I woke up this morning with a super bad sore throat, headache and general malaise. Might/could be the time change? But...I think it's a cold. Dang it!
OK - off to the garage to pack up a couple boxes of stuff in preparation for our trip to our storage unit! We've had it reserved for over a month and we are finally going to get there - at least, I sure hope we will!!
Friday, March 01, 2019
Road Closure
Scheduled to once again trek to Nevada this weekend, we watched the weather forecasts hourly for days. We were determined and J. even practiced putting cables on the wheels of my car to be ready for 'chains required'. On Tuesday, he sent an email with an 'Re' of Shoot! and included this:
We're staying home.
We're staying home.
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Our cleaning lady D. is here today - she wears earbuds and chats on the phone while she works. She is the third cleaning 'person(s)'...
