Valentine's Day - Must Do Tuesday

[helia]

A.m. routine is still not done. But I have taken dd13 to her orthodontist appt. and then back to school, sat down with dh and contractor to discuss some issues. Since we're taking the sink out of the MBR (yes - currently the MBR sink is IN the bedroom, right by the bathroom, which has a toilet and shower only), we will redo the MBR floors. If the floor proves to be decent wood, we will refinish them and enjoy wood floors in our bedroom - with throw rugs. We may/may not do natural wood trim and new closet doors, depending on the color of the floor, etc. Our ideal is to eventually have all natural wood trim throughout the house - and all new windows, but those things are not a priority now. They are also quite expensive. I also stripped the MBR bed and have the first lol going, have caught up on some emails, updated my WW journal from yesterday, and had some lunch.

Next:
-switch laundry
-start crockpot with chili
-work in the kids bathroom; now that all 5 of us will be using it, we're noticing how grubby and cluttered it is!

Eventually, I'll work on some Hebrew.

I gave dh a giant Toblerone bar in the shape of a rose. The kids got less special chocolate, just boxes full of Hershey's candies, depending on the kid. Ds' is full of Reeses pieces since he loves them!

[Emptynester]

Just helped DH with order of lock for his pickup tail gate. He said that was his valentine present. Mine was the Jance lecture last night.

The sky is the most perfect blue today. There is a bit of breeze that makes the palo verde trees sway in front of the sky. They are an absolute chartreuse. They lose some of their leaves in winter but even the truck is the vibrant green so the leaves don't really matter. I must get out with my red spray paint and mark the branches we want out before the leaves come out so I can see the structure of the branches.

Kitchen is done - a lot of things put in the basket to go to the MH now that I have duplicates for the house. Next up will be the bedroom - many footsteps to erase there.

Then I can go play outside.

[Harmony]

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day to everybody.

(OKay) (Nancy) and spare hugs here for anyone who needs one ( ) ( ) ( ).

Helia, your schedule sounds like my DD2's. Crazy busy! Good luck with your bathroom remodel.

Elizabeth, I hate Valentines Day too. I am good at remembering to buy, bake, or do something for this day, and pick up cards, but others in my family are not, so I always end up feeling bad. I might get something at the end of the day, but I always get the feeling it is just because I did something. It was particularly bad when I worked outside the home and co-workers would all be getting flowers delivered and I didn't. I've come to wish this day didn't even exist.

sigh...sorry didn't mean to be a downer!

Was hoping for a note from Sunny about how her DH's appointment went. Maybe later.

On happier note, I did go to church today and we had about 12 people putting packages together with mailing labels, stamps, and my job was to seal about 400 envelopes. Great little invention, that little plastic bottle with sponge top!

Been puttering around cleaning up the house. It looked messy before I started. Also sewed a little bit and moved my quilt around to another new space as entire top in the rack is now done. I guess I better get back to it.

[Harriet]

Oh, Elizabeth, you worked hard and then couldn't even hear the appreciation! Oh, well. That's how it goes sometimes.

Nancy, the chance to see a comedian who is actually funny instead of embarrassing would interest me! So many comedians have nothing to do with funny, only shock value, which is worth a fraction of the value of real funny!

Don't ever try that without the sponge, Harmony! Taste aside, eventually you let your guard down and cut your tongue! Ow, ow, ow - wish I hadn't thought of it!

Our Thai friends had a teddy bear for dd13 for Valentine's Day and I have put it in her room facing her as she walks in. HRH's gift to her is a BAZINGA poster, now standing (cardboard packaging), turned backwards, in her room beside the bear. Hmmm... ... maybe I should turn it forward. Why not surprise a person fast when it's a BAZINGA in the first place... .. I'll think about it. No, maybe she should turn it around and see it. We got an insistent auto-phone call from the school last evening saying NO to any Valentine's Day gift of any kind whatsoever (they had a long list) being delivered to the school, so evidently that is a problem.

Oh another bad call - automated, frustrating because the phone # for questions was given too fast to catch. Seems my debit card has been flagged as at risk. Called the number on the back of the card (and REALLY criticized that automated non-phone-number) and they say who knows - some business somewhere at which I used my card sometime may have or may not have been compromised. Anyway, I have to have a new card and will receive it soon. The fellow who helped me said that when it happened to him he happens to know it was Amazon.

For some reason, national stories (and not even the main news) have taken too much of my time today.

[Nancy]

I used to be great at holidays such as V. day and St. Patrick's day. Now I realize that gkids get enough junk at school. I'm not a fan of this day any more with no extra $ for gifts, food, candy chocolate etc. I can't have any way I'll be glad when it's over. Last night I made up some salmon and cream cheese for dip to go on toast for us a fun pink dish! I put on a long sleeved pink shirt today.

H. is not up yet he's fighting the crud I've had; soup is ready to heat up for lunch.
Dgd will be here this afternoon so we will mix up some cookie dough that I can have too she
loves to "mix" stuff.

Harriet I've seen that guy on TV Ken Davis can't remember what channel it was on maybe insp. net work. Thinking about a foil protector for my cards they have a ten dollar one at w-mart might be worth that investment!

H. mentioned arby's for the special two fish sandwiches for $5.00 for dinner we've been talking about doing this for weeks missed it last weekend b/c I was not up to it so this is a good plan.

[Elizabeth]

So many flowcharts! I finally got an easy one to do. I will let you know when I get done with this one program and how many pages it runs and how many interconnections. It is by far the most complex thing I have diagrammed. A definite challenge. It is going ok, just long.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

We are now well underway and enjoyed a glorious Valentine's Day at sea.

I brought decorations for the cabin and the captain gave each lady a rose as she entered the dining room tonight, so the day was acknowledged properly.
It was quite rough last evening and there were rough times through the night but I managed with just some candied ginger before bed and put my sea-bands on at 4:30.

We were awake at 7 (the sun streaming into the cabin) and then to the exercise deck by 8, breakfast by 9:30.

The seas have calmed down so I don't even have the sea bands on now. The previous cruise was so rough, some passengers left the ship a port earlier and flew back to Cape Town, rather than face the rough seas for another few days. My pedicurist said that last segment was the first time she's ever been sea sick, after 14 years at sea so obviously it was rough.

I had a pedicure at 11 (cheaper than having one at home before we left and more chance that it will last a long time since it dried well before I put on open toed shoes, as opposed to having to put on socks and boots at home.)

Lunch was on the pool deck and between lunch and tea I carved out an hour for a nap.

We've discovered we don't get free laundry until after the Canary Islands. I'm glad I asked, because the small load I did this afternoon would have cost us $38! The washers and dryers are free which is a much better price, plus I know my special travel clothes will be washed in cold water and not over-dried. Many of the experienced cruisers I've met still do their own laundry because they are as particular as I am so we may not take full advantage of this option but it is nice to have.

We've met well over a dozen very interesting people so far. Far more in our age range this time (could that be because we are 5 years older than on our first SilverSea cruise?!) Last night at dinner was a couple from Tennessee, a couple from England, and two ladies, a Brit who lives in Turkey (and spent 7 years living/sailing around the world in a 14m boat), and a woman from Minnesota. I've already figured out one of the 3 other posters to Cruise Critic, Countess K (who is from Hendersonville, NC). She and her cousin (from Augusta, GA) were talking to us, she went to the cabin and things her cousin said confirmed to me her online identity. So when she came back I told her that we had to reintroduce ourselves, “Your Countess K and I'm CanadianKate.” She was tickled that I figured it out. We are now on the lookout for Duct Tape and Win-Win. There are only 220 passengers on board this segment so it isn't as daunting a task as that might seem. We'll have talked to everyone in the next few days I'm sure.

Dinner was wonderful, with two couples from England. Lots of laughter and delightful stories were shared. When our sweets tray was brought to the table it was immediately dubbed the Concordia Dish after the Costa Concordia because it was bent so was listing badly to one side.

I suppose when the sweet tray looks upright, it is time to stop drinking and head back to the cabin!

Tomorrow is an overnight in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

[Nancy]

K in C what are the bands you refer to you may have explained before but the details escape me now.

I've done my 5 mi. on the exercise bike.
Dgd's movie time is upon us.

[helia]

I enjoy hearing about your cruise, Kathryn.

WTG with the exercise, Nancy.

I need to find my mojo again. I've been decluttering the kids' bathroom cabinet. Wow. It is/was a mess in there. I need to buy some small baskets to help them keep their things organized. I just picked up dd13. Dh called and is looking at the bathroom tile w/out me and will be home soon. That is fine with me. I don't have a strong yearning to go to a tile floor. He is confirming that the color we used last time in the bathroom downstairs still looks like what we want. The sizes have changed, apparently, but dh doesn't think that is an issue. I'm not gifted in this area so I'm happy to defer to others' opinions.

Chili has been in the crockpot for a few hours. Rice should be almost done. Squash probably is ready to have sugar sprinkled on it. I didn't make the corn bread, but I think we have enough carbs as it is.

Tonight, I hope to get to the gym since I didn't get there this afternoon. I might also stop by a store to buy a new electric kettle while I'm out and about. Our old kettle died a few days ago.

[Elizabeth]

I just finished page 30 of the flowchart and am not close to done! I hope this is useful to someone later, at least me. I forgot my TADA of yesterday: I managed to get on my exercise bike, even after being sick. Back to flowcharting!