Moving On Monday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Keep moving ladies! The movement of the air will keep clutter and dust from settling in one spot!

(At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I'm moving onto the ship today. And I'm at sea for a full day before we arrive in Namibia so I don't want you to worry if I drop out of sight. I have no idea how good the internet will be. It has certainly been poor here at the hotel, I couldn't upload pictures of yesterday's adventures for you guys.

Here's my itinerary for the first cruise:

Feb 14 Day at Sea
Feb 15 Walvis Bay, Namibia arrive at 12:00 PM
Feb 16 Walvis Bay, Namibia leave at 1:00 PM
Feb 17, 18, 19, 20 Days at Sea
Feb 21 Takoradi, Ghana from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Feb 22, 23, 24 Days at Sea
Feb 25 Dakar, Senegal from 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Feb 26 Day at Sea
Feb 27 Praia (Cape Verde) from 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Feb 28 Porto Novo (Cape Verde) from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Feb 29, Mar 1 Days at Sea
Mar 02, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain arrive at 7:00 AM

[Twins' Mom]

Moving back into the week here. Better Monday than the last two; I have to keep Sundays as simple as possible. Today I have a big chunk out of my day getting dmom to PT.

[bittersweet]

One of these days, Kathryn, you're going to be such an organized packer that there will be room for ME in your suitcase! LOL

Today is day three of four at payroll for me, followed by a crafting get together with some friends. DD and DGD will be coming with me to that.

Downstairs critter care is done....time to move on to the upstairs kittens. One of them already has the run of the house, and the three girls will be ready to try exploring outside their room in a couple of days.

Off I go!

[Nancy]

I'm up and moving on this Monday morning and I'm doing better. bs is awesome this morning all the rest I did this weekend is paying off I think.
H. sounds like he is getting what I had bummer. Some good news I got the dishes and all but one load of laundry done last night and the last load of laundry is in the washer now.

I have granny duty all day today glad I rested up for it.
Don't know if we would be able to cruise hubby's family is all prone to motion ills hope you and hubby are free from that K in C .

Did any one see the grammy's? I caught some of it Glen Campbell was not so good, some of the new singers were not either, Jennifer H. did great in the tribute of Whitney's song.

[Twins' Mom]

Frustrating morning at work as I got there at 8:30 ready to work and my computer wouldn't log into my profile. IT guy was still working on it when I left to go p/u dmom. He set me up to use a comPuter that is used in our training room but it is quite slow.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

On the ship and up on Internet although that took quite a while. Dh's wireless modem isn't strong enough for the signal so keeps dropping the signal. My computer is fine, so my computer is feeding the router which feeds dh's computer and we can both be online at the same time.

Just walked around this morning. Bought some earrings from the second hand store, had a nice picnic lunch in a park and walked back to the hotel. Thirty minutes from arriving at the hotel we were stepping onto the ship. Nice and easy.

We don't like our butler. Hopefully things will settle down but for now it is frustrating.

No other news from here. We are to leave port in a few minutes so I'm getting off-line and heading up onto the deck.

[Emptynester]

Monday morning and park beautification committee. We had a good turn out today and got a lot done. After coffee with the group, DH and I came home and worked on the cacti bed at the end of our driveway. We trimmed up agave until the battery went dead on the saw. Got 1 1/2 done out of 3. We also dug and then tied a chain to a mesquite sapling and pulled it out of the bed. All in all - so far - we have hauled 6 loads of prickly pear and two loads of agave swords out of there. It looks like we will have at least one load of rocks, too. Keep in mind that these are small Rhino loads - not truck loads.

After we get it all cleaned, I'll rebuild the wall and transplant a big golden barrel cactus and some creeping rosemary. I also have a big pink and a big white quartz rocks to add to that bed. With just those plants in front of the 3 big agave - I think it will look great. After we trim them up, the agave look like huge pineapples.
It looks cleaner and there are no places for the bunnies to hide. Nor the snakes!

This afternoon we are going to a lecture at the Wickenburg Library by one of my favorite authors, J. A. Jance. She writes mystery stories - some set in Arizona. This will be such fun.

Now I'm going to rest my back and hydrate for a while. I was able to borrow a 4 book set via Amazon Prime so I think I will get into them.

[Nancy]

So K in C I'm wondering how they treat Valentines day on the cruise.

H. is up and around now I think he is fighting what I had this weekend sigh oh well I'm just glad
I'm better throat is not sore and I have my energy back yea! I've been able to do a decent morning routine so that helps.

I have meal plans for today veggies are thawing to go with lunch and dinner.

Do you have anything special you ware for val. day?

[Lilac]

Rant ahead! I just received a call from L ifelock that someone was opening a new account, or blah, blah, blah. They gave a number to call so I checked on the internet to make sure it was a legitimate phone number. When I called they wanted to know if I was authorized. Well I don't really know but could they check. They couldn't even get into the acct until they were talking with who was authorized. I called dh and left a message on voice mail. Then I called his cell in case he could hear it. He did and so now he is calling them. I told him to make sure that he told them I was authorized in the future and to do whatever it takes to do it. A few years ago, one of the employees was out of town with a company computer. He left it in his vehicle and it was stolen. It had everyones info on it. We were encouraged to get L ifelock and we did. Until now, as far as we know, no one has been compromised. Everyone agreed that if they had an issue, they would notify HR, so that everyone could be on the alert. I have always felt like whoever stole it, would just sit on it for a few years and then they would start using the info.

I have called the appraiser twice today and no return call. I noticed on my cell phone on Saturday that they had called on Wednesday. I was home and they didn't call the house phone. Well if they left a message, I can't retrieve it, because I don't have a password to use it. I just use my cell phone for basic communication. It has been a week. I should have known better than to use someone that could do it that day. There is a reason for that and now I know why. Anyway we were suppose to have it in 5 days. Even if that was business days, today is 5 days. We want that appraisal, so we can start advertising and to set up an open house for next weekend. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! End of rant!

I have to pick up dgd15 from the orthodontist and take her to the dentist. Dd1 is already there for her dentist appt.

Well I better get ready to head out when dgd15 calls.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Nancy: Valentine's evening will be formal night. I've brought the red dress I wore to dd's birthday and dh will be in his tux pants and dinner jacket with red bow tie.

Dinner was interesting. A couple near to Twins, a couple from England, and two single women, one Brit who lives in Turkey and a woman from Minneapolis.

The service was poor, though, and we were the second last table in the dining room when I finally flagged down a waiter to ask if they still served coffee in the dining room. They had brought the sweet course that goes with the coffee but never offered it to us. It was another 10 minutes before the coffee arrived so we were the last table to leave at 10:20 p.m.

Our cabin is smaller than on the larger ships but they've taken about 27 square feet of it from the living area and the remaining 20 square feet from the bathroom which is now a 'one-person-at-a-time' bathroom and has a combined shower and tub, rather than one of each. Still, we'll manage, just in 340 square feet instead of 387.

The smaller ship makes it easier to get from place to place. We are rolling a lot tonight so shorter distances are much appreciated, especially in heels. The previous cruise (on the east coast of South Africa, was so rough, some people got off before it ended and took a plane back to Cape Town.

We don't like our butler and one of our dinner companions who shares him had the same impression of him. Not that we need a butler, we can circumvent him for most things (i.e. I booked my pedicure directly.)

I'm really disappointed that there are no hypo-allergenic toiletries on board as advertised, another cut back (along with no cheese trolley or fresh fruit in the suites.) I didn't bring all the things I needed because the ship has had it on previous cruises. Only it doesn't, so now I need to figure out what I'll do for soap, conditioner and lotion (although I have a good portion of Lubriderm with me that will do in a pinch but isn't as thick as their lotion.)

I'm off to bed now so I can get going early in the morning and still make my 11 a.m. pedicure.