15 Days Till Spring Monday PWYC

[Elizabeth]

Good morning! I had a mostly productive weekend. I did not do any pick up in the sewing room, but I did get some de-sealing of the bathtub done. DD10 surprised me Friday by wanting to clean my bathrooms. I let her of course. I think she likes Scrubbing Bubbles. I got DD earlier than usual Friday so XDH could go to a play (probably a date). Saturday, DD and I went to a Girl Scout cookie booth for two hours. That is hard on your feet! I cooked on Saturday so I would have food to take to work. Last night I fixed a leg on Bug-A-Boo and paid bills and updated Quicken. Tonight I need to do more on Bug-A-Boo and do some clean up in the sewing room (the dungeon!). At payroll, there are more flowcharts awaiting my attention.

Harriet: Friday's doctor visit was just a meds check, nothing serious.

[Harriet]

As usual, bittersweet is way informative. I remember the MASH episode in which Klinger realizes the local children play at hooping with some ordinary hoops of some type around the camp and tries to get Winchester to see that it is a potential money-maker and invest with him, but Winchester won't. LOL I think way back when that episode was new, there was talk that the story was based on true events. Dd had put her hula-hoop on the wall lately in favor of dr-ordered bike riding while her knee hurt so bad, but when I tell her this I know she will take it down for commemorative spins!

Btw, we got the bill for the MRI. Good gravy. BCBS does not seem to see this as much of their responsibility, either.

In all the talk about the amazing storms, I failed to notice that it was Indiana's area that was very hard-hit. The children I had mentioned who were sucked out of their home are going to be all right. I wanted to link to the photo today in the regional paper that shows the eerie-looking intact lower level of their home standing alone, but I can't find it online.

You have seen the last of that raccoon, Twins Mom. He had a very uncomfortable visit.

My "to do" list looks strangely like yesterday's. - Kally

I have a similar feeling since last evening was lost to me with my ddad's inability to rest. I was telling a lady who called from church this a.m. that sometimes I get more done after my ddad gets to sleep at 7 or so than I do the rest of the day! I get used to that system and really feel it when there's interruption.

Right now his sheets are almost finished drying and ready to go back onto his bed. I had a good fruit breakfast and then a good egg/veggie brunch. HRH was headed out to Tractor Supply this a.m. and took my ddad with him, so I can be sure he's had some walking and some input/interest today.

[Nancy]

I've made some progress bathrooms x is kit 90% done still need to do sinks and top of fridge and exhaust fan. I did get to the bedrooms w/ h.'s help so that's spiffed and I"m counting it as done now. Dust tall surfaces under way thought I was done until I got to the kitchen. Trash detail h. is on that now.

Next up I'll be heading to the basement in a few min. some fabric to put away it is mostly okay however so that won't take very long yea!

I looked at the photos on line of the place and it reminded me to use the nicer white table cloth some things have been moved out of the way already so that was good. This afternoon we will work on getting the patio stuff out cushions on the patio swing etc. h. said he would work on it hoping it's warmer this afternoon for that. As I'm hoping to get to the rose bush planting.

I have some things rounded up to be loaded in to the car h. said he would do that.

[Emptynester]

Realtor is here talking to our friends. So we came in the house to let them talk.

Saw our first snake yesterday so I will really have to keep a watch on all our over grown beds. I think it was a "good" snake - but in my mind there ain't any such!!

I need to do something but I'm not sure what. Oh! yeah! I have a load of clothes in the dryer to fold. YUCK!

Catch ya later.

[Elizabeth]

I have found no flowchart symbols to correspond to hierarchy iterate, darnit!

[Harmony]

Harriet, there must be a couple families of children injured in the storm; I'd heard today one who was found in a far field has been taken off life support. Very sad.

Bittersweet, has your gas always been that high or is it climbing like ours is?

Speaking of gas, I had to fill up the car today. Yikes, it is $3.78 here. I figured out I use practically a gallon with my extra trip into church to pick up DH after youth group. Seriously considering waiting for him... though sometimes I do run up to the store and that is only half-way back home.

Did a bit of puttering around yesterday and today, things are looking better. I cleaned up a bunch of stuff at my desk, including a long search for my check register page which had a months' worth of checks / deposits listed.... finally found it plopped in the wrong place. Paid bills, went to 3 banks today. So, chores march on.

Kathryn, I am very glad they were able to restart the engines (hope 2nd one is going now) and you're not stalled out there like that other ship.

[Kally]

Lunch has been ingested and one load of laundry has been folded. Additional laundry has not been processed, however.

Gas here is $3.599 and rising almost daily it seems.

A nap sounds so good, fighting it......

[Nancy]

Gas is $3.44 here now I just asked h. He is back said it was a waste of time checking on that job lead. ~sigh~ But at least I had the house to myself for a morning and got some cleaning done I did not have any one in my way or have to ask them to move before I vacume iykwim!

Lunch is done. Laundry is going. I mended a bit sewed a button back on one of my fav. blue jean shirts. Hand wash did some. I have another puppet ready for the mouth.

Sun is trying to show through clouds just in time for my out side stuff.

S2s is done I washed my hair it's drying now takes a while, glad the bathrooms have been spiffed. I can clean the tub now as well.

[Dove]

Today is one of the last chilly days in my forecast for this week. The sun is shining and I can hear an optimistic bird singing . I'm looking forward to longer days after the time change next week, but at the same time I'm feeling wistful that we got so little snow this year. Makes me curious what kind of summer, temperature-wise, we'll have in 2012.

Vacuuming is supposed to be happening now but dh felt like napping. I had no problem postponing that task & coming here for a visit instead . I've been working & puttering in the office. After setting up the 15 cubby storage box I had to deal with the misc stuff that had been on top of that cabinet. This then led to decluttering the bookshelves next to it & changing the height of the shelves to accomodate a new arrangement of books & some storage boxes in pretty colors. Still working on that. I've also cleaned out the top desk drawer & a box that was in the office closet. Yesterday I took a big legal pad & all the misc pens, markers & highlighters I had gathered up & tried them all. Tossed the duds, put away the rest.

I'll be stopping by T arget again in a day or two with my receipts as the cubbies & cloth baskets I bought are on sale this week. Hopefully I can get credited for the difference in price. Need to put together the white cubby for shoes in the hall closet before stopping there just in case it is damaged or missing parts.

I have lots of leftover mashed potatos & decided to make Salisbury steak in mushroom gravy tonight. I have lots of ground turkey in the freezer so am trying it with that instead of beef. On my last grocery run I bought more avacados to make guacamole & use up the rest of the Roma tomatos. Must remember to do that tonight or tomorrow at the lastest.

Kally, so funny you mentioned fighting a nap as I'm doing the same ! Often when dh takes one I'm not tired but by the time he gets up I am.

I'm off to take a load of laundry out of the dryer & then start some dinner prep. Thinking of OKay & family so much today ...

Waving ~~~~~ to everyone!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

This is from Saturday:

On this cruise the first stop was on Tenerife.
We docked in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and took a bus tour over to Puerto de la Cruz. The drive was only about 45 minutes directly and the roads here are excellent.

Our first stop was to a scenic viewpoint overlooking the Orotava Valley to enjoy the spectacular panorama. You'll note the words scenic viewpoint, panorama and overlooking, which are supposed to be warning words for me. But this was the most tame of the tours, since the Canaries are also volcanic islands so have steep hills leading to panoramic views to the sea. I actually swapped tours, originally we were booked on a tour that included the words highest, rises, gale force winds, and, winding roads!

I had been on the inside of the bus so didn't mind the driving. The roads are much better here and we were on a full size bus, not a mini bus so that limited where we could go.

The view was lovely. For those staring at the hillside, the view was just as interesting. There was a herd of goats, with their herder moving carefully along the slope after having been milked.

From the vista point we went down into the valley and had a delightful walk around the Risco Bello Gardens which were built by a Belgian for his wife who had cancer. He wanted a peaceful place for her and gardens are built on the side of a hill with water features that pour from one level to the next down. It was all beautifully done and very tranquil in spots. It had a very healing energy to it. Plus we got to see some canaries (but they were flitting around too much for us to get a picture.)

After that stop we were taken to the waterfront of Puerto de la Cruz and given 2 hours of free time. What a luxury! Dh and I headed off to the tourist info place to get a map but ended up only walking 3.5 km because there was so much to see, the views kept stopping us in our tracks.

At one point we were walking along a garden lined pathway and could hear the lizards rustling in the garden next to us. We'd spot one or two and then all of a sudden realize we were standing right next to one we hadn't seen on the rock wall. There were dozens there, once we stopped and really looked.

Our goal was to walk to this 'black sand' beach which is basalt volcanic sand. At the beach, we sat on a wall and I had my morning snack while listening to a classical guitarist busker. We bought his CD to have as our souvenir of the day.

The town was completely geared to tourists but it was fun to wander around. After our two hours (and some gelato!) we headed back to the ship.

I had lunch and then we headed out again on the shuttle bus which was supposed to take us to town but dropped us only at the entrance of the port. While that cut about a kilometre of walk off the walk into town, it didn't take us all the way. We walked around for a short while, found all the shops closed because it was now Saturday afternoon, and so walked back to the bus stop and then 'raced' the bus back to the ship (it was no contest, the bus never passed us, despite us stopping to talk to our favourite waiter along the way.)

One of the things I like about travel by ship is the vignettes into the lives of the crew. Today, Adrian, our favourite waiter, noted the ship ahead of us at the pier belonged to the cruiseline Aida. From our ship, he could not see her name so asked a passenger who informed him it was the Sol. Adrian has several friends from his town in India on the Sol, so when lunch was over, he headed over to the other ship, had their crew at the gangplank call up his friends and he met up with two of them on the pier.

He's having a good few days right now. First he hates sea days and our sea days are over now (he likes to look out and see land.) Secondly, he's been trying to buy an iPhone4 and finally got one yesterday. It was more than if he had been able to get to the US but his US work visa didn't come through so he was assigned to our ship instead. Thus, he had to buy it in the Canaries. He still saved $200 over buying it in India and although the phones here are locked, he's been here 7 or 8 times and knew someone who would unlock it for him. So he was pleased about that last night. Finally, today he meets up with friends from home.

In the evening a new session of trivia started. I have a team of 5 Americans and two Brits. One of the women is incredibly intense so this will be interesting. Since there are only three teams this time, I'm guaranteed a cruise point each time I show up and will definitely get the bookmark I have my eye on!

The formal dinner with the Captain went very well. We knew both of the other couples and liked them.

We chose to go with the sari and Mandarin jacket on the green side for Ken as our formal outfits and it was a good choice. The Captain loved the sari and commented on it multiple times in the evening. I'll feel underdressed on the rest of the formal nights because the sari is tough to top. I got comments from a lot of passengers (because most haven't seen it already.)