halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[captaincrash]

Mele kalikimaka (Mel-ae Ka-leekee-kaka) !!!

... otherwise, Merry Christmas from Maui....

http://www.fialaandsmith.com/images/cmas_kalikimaka.jpg

Thanks in advance to Fiala & Smith for the unauthorized use of this image...

[kritter]

Crash,

Hopeyou and your family had a great Christmas!!!!!

[captaincrash]

Crash,

Hopeyou and your family had a great Christmas!!!!!

It's nice with the sun rising here - well... the sun has been up about 3 hours. I watched the sunrise from the back yard. Things are OK... my FIL has agreed to take theraphy and radiation... something he had been refusing for a few weeks and there is a greater then 50% chance for remission. So it's wait and see - and cherish the time we have just in case we're not lucky.

We had a sort of laid back holiday - nothing fancy. We're fixin' to go to the beach today in a few minutes - I have Wifi from the neighbors' as we're all stayin' at a vacant house of my BILs'. He's between moving from one to the other. SO - there is little furiture here and no internet service (directly)... and the neighbor has an unsecured Wifi... how convenient.

Anyone want anything DIRECTLY from Maui? Freshly ground Coffee? Or... a zip lock bag of sand and/or shells? Just let me know and PM an address and you've got it!

Hope (well... I know...) everyone has had a wonderful Christmas.

So... cheers to all for havin' a wonderful holiday week. I'll take a peek here in the next couple of days - we're gone by the 31st so if anything is requested then I need at least a day to gather it.

In advance, hot lava requests cannot he honored at this time.

[kritter]

It's nice with the sun rising here - well... the sun has been up about 3 hours. I watched the sunrise from the back yard. Things are OK... my FIL has agreed to take theraphy and radiation... something he had been refusing for a few weeks and there is a greater then 50% chance for remission. So it's wait and see - and cherish the time we have just in case we're not lucky.

We had a sort of laid back holiday - nothing fancy. We're fixin' to go to the beach today in a few minutes - I have Wifi from the neighbors' as we're all stayin' at a vacant house of my BILs'. He's between moving from one to the other. SO - there is little furiture here and no internet service (directly)... and the neighbor has an unsecured Wifi... how convenient.

Anyone want anything DIRECTLY from Maui? Freshly ground Coffee? Or... a zip lock bag of sand and/or shells? Just let me know and PM an address and you've got it!

Hope (well... I know...) everyone has had a wonderful Christmas.

So... cheers to all for havin' a wonderful holiday week. I'll take a peek here in the next couple of days - we're gone by the 31st so if anything is requested then I need at least a day to gather it.

In advance, hot lava requests cannot he honored at this time.

Crash,

Glad that you had a nice Christmas..How was the beach???

[ArmandXG]

Weare going to the farm (a friends) to ride horses, spend time with family and friends, share good food and drink (in moderation) and ring in the new year. Hopefully the weather will be good.
I hope all of you bring in the new year safely with the ones you love!
Happy New Year!!!

[captaincrash]

http://z.about.com/d/esl/1/0/7/3/prime_rib.jpg

I cooked a 12 pound prime rib roast last night...

... bone in... and had about 35% left over - and I even forgot to cook the stuiffed Salmon I bought from Costco tonight. Plus - here on Maui the local Safeway gave me resistance to my using a rain check from their sister chain Vons on the Prime Rib.... but the manager was nice about it. He made me wait about 15 minutes before he showed up - and said he was sorry about the huge delay - then added they could not match the mainland ad prices as their distribution costs were much higher on Maui - even compared to Oahu they do not typically honor rain check prices... the price per pound was $10.89 and my rain check was for $4.97 a pound. SO the potential savings was $5.92 or just shy of $72! So - he quickly responded to my polite patience with an offer to match with his best ad price - which I took. Remarkably it was only $5.97 a pound so I still saved $60!

Well... so much for the latest bit of excitement out here in the far west. We're on the rainy side of the island somewhat central. The dry side is over by Lahina. It rained pretty much all day.

2 days ago we hit the beach - and the weather was perfect. Here are a few pix from the day:

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/88/75/7A/i88757A6D-8605-4FCE-AE8D-D6B6B447D4CB.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/39/93/BA/i3993BABF-3D58-48EF-9EA6-E7F80D298137.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/DA/E9/3D/iDAE93D6A-402B-4B86-AEE7-E2DF04E0DF43.jpg
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http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/20/BA/C1/i20BAC1D3-2D38-47A4-A73F-3C7F526D6EBA.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/9B/01/EB/i9B01EBD0-BAA8-4FF8-9C32-0136DC5066C6.jpg

The top row was taken on Christmas Day - at the right is me with our newest member of the clan, a 3 month old baby boy on Maui - and the lower rows were from the 26th at a beach near the extreme end of a road on Maui. Needless o say but it is a "locals" beach.

Hope everyone elses' vacation week is going as pleasantly as ours has been.:thumbsup2

[ArmandXG]

Crash, thanks for sharing the photo's. That beach looks absolutely beautiful... the exact reason one should go away from touristy areas when on vacation. Hope you have a wonderful new year!

[kritter]

Crash,

Loved the pics. They are wonderful and look like you are having a great time with our family........Kristin

[captaincrash]

Thanks...

... its' been nice in an understated kind if way, and if it's not too early I'd like to offer our wishes for all to have a HAPPY NEW YEAR evening. We'll probably be on a flight over the Pacific (red eye) on our way home unless we get a juicy volunteering opportunity. Our flight is oversold as is the one after ours - so maybe they'll need volunteers! Woo-Hoo!

http://www.pas.k12.mn.us/animation/happy_new_year_2_lg_nwm.gif

Below is the unwrapped standing rib roast (prime rib) before and after preparation - that I made the other day. Nice, eh? :confused3 NOTICE the absence of lost juices from carving... and in the cooking tray (not shown) there was NO RED juice - just clear fatty juice. So it was prepared and served properly with all the flavorful juices locked inside even after carving!
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/36/45/F5/i3645F5C0-98FA-492F-A65B-FE03EA24FA68.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/F7/FB/74/iF7FB7461-C122-4FDA-8EB0-06526832A6D2.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/E1/33/2D/iE1332DB3-7B74-4308-AEB1-FB2FE34D7ACC.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/50/86/96/i5086961F-85A1-4038-A8CF-C7B2AE0895CF.jpg
Above is todays' beach... a nice stretch of sand in the middle of a tourist area -only it is late in the afternoon so many folks have already gone. And below is our older daughter with a SHAKKA on a Plantation tractor with the tour guide, and in the other picture below is a shot off the front street in Lahaina (misspelled?) town. We stopped to do some light souveneer shopping here as our singular concession to being tourists on this trip (so far).
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/29/E4/D9/i29E4D91C-1CED-4F4D-B630-665D9A9EF868.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/0D/DD/91/i0DDD91E8-5064-4834-8312-0D05E1DB04B8.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/58/55/16/i5855164E-54F1-4345-B3C3-7CB65EFB432F.jpg
Sunset on the 30th, yesterday

[kritter]

Crash,

Love the pictures looks like you had a great time....

Can't wait to see more pictures.....

[captaincrash]

Here are a few more that I've already selected and uploaded...

Keokie
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/ED/25/04/iED25043F-F050-4055-B0E4-204F16315A02.jpg
Below are two views left and right from a rocky out cropping dotted with tide pools.
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/4E/1D/58/i4E1D581B-E6E3-4DB9-9388-73BC99C5ED75.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/3F/18/AB/i3F18AB99-D4D1-4529-9B61-E77809983EC3.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/13/91/85/i139185B0-7C06-4723-BF49-DB9532922DCB.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/43/51/EF/i4351EF57-FAD8-490B-BFD2-459798EB94E0.jpg
Above are 3 of the kids with Uncle Kelan and Auntie Melanie in the tide pools - and on the right is a little crab in the shell... you can just barely make out the legs of the orange crab poking out.
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/9C/FD/FF/i9CFDFF06-0F3B-4542-94FD-B9D6B225D8F0.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/13/B0/67/i13B067A3-85FE-4363-AA2D-E65545561DCD.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/A5/69/22/iA569222A-2625-4C3C-9C1E-13C3EB47A62A.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/9F/0A/FA/i9F0AFAD4-6476-4B1C-814C-668884CC6BC5.jpg
Above left is the "camp" with all our gear, and on the left is Alicias' Mom and Dad with us in a last photo of the day at sunset....

[kritter]

Crash,

What great photos looks like you really had a great time with the family...

Got any more to share???
Happy New Year!!
Kristin

[captaincrash]

More photos?

Now YOU of all people should know that I take a LOT of pictures. If ya keep mentioning and askin' ... I just MIGHT post more photos! Like, I only shot maybe 1000-1200 photos last week in Maui!

We just got in from DL where we met cousins from Hawaii. With the unexpected government holiday today (for Pres Ford)... plus all the visitors for the Rose Parade and Football Games who were suddenly free... the parks were a ZOO! Very very crowded - to the extent that they actually shut the doors on admitting folks into the parks AND parking structures from 2PM until 6PM!

So - we're happy from the days' activities but throughly wacked. I'll load pix tomorrow (eve?) and post a few for chuckles.

Cheers!

Tom:thumbsup2

[kritter]

Oh crash,

Since it is just you and me here lately come on post some more....

Thanks,
Kristin

[captaincrash]

Well...

... here's about $127 in take out food from a Phillipino Market and a bucket of KFC on Maui. We found a NICKLE in one of the dishes ... which, oddly enough was given as a "freebie"! The right side picture has the nickle in it with a photoshopped BOX in NEON around it! My BIL refused to eat anymore of THAT dish after he found the nickle... while I made a point of taking more of that particular dish while he watched. Below these are photos of the MARKET (inside and out front) in case anyone visiting Maui wants a huge meal for $127 and/or a "Nickle fortified" beef dish.<chuckles>...

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/2A/64/ED/i2A64ED21-2110-4E56-B125-F0428A05F4CF.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/3D/2C/34/i3D2C34D3-A337-4694-B9A9-2C624535D4DC.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/22/3F/B5/i223FB5B6-3A89-4508-AABC-A7074FB9ECC7.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/05/31/A9/i0531A907-0D4E-4664-88BF-0C73441AC2A1.jpg

And since I'm on the general subject of good and fun FOOD... something very important to folks from Hawaii... here are some shots from Da Kitchen... a quietly fameous hot spot for "locals". It is located near the MAIN maui airport (OGG) and not the other airport. It is located near the K-Mart on the same side of the main street but about a block and a half down. It is very hard to see the sign... but think of it as being on the same side that faces the airport.

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/B5/9A/1B/iB59A1B47-6B99-4F6F-8958-2B35E2320887.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/D4/08/FB/iD408FBCB-BD5B-4C75-995D-049291C3AA7E.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/4D/DD/7F/i4DDD7FB0-DDA6-4FC9-AF20-65F4B1D91E1C.jpg
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Above at left is a Teri-Chicken plate with salad and rice, on the right is a side view of my spouses' Hawaiian plate. You can see the Kilua Pig (YUM!) and the Lau-Lua (not so YUM... It's not bad - it's just not my favorite)... along side scoops of rice and macaroni salad (not visible).

Below are photos of the kids' cups and the spot where the rest room keys are hung. It is up by the cashier.... and they're on spoons. See 'em hangin' there? And the photos are of the wait staff with friends and semi-fameous "locals". On the right is another side of the Menu. Plates run about $9-14 and specials get up to $25. Hamburgers are about $6-7 but.. that is NOT what locals generally get when here.

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/6F/82/FB/i6F82FB94-46D4-4860-8AD2-56DF4DC264E1.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/42/D7/E3/i42D7E3C3-505A-4119-A9BD-66E5E44DB67B.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/9F/D2/F5/i9FD2F593-F7AC-4B01-9507-708E98796C64.jpg


We're gonna try and visit Disneyland tomorrow afternoon... it looks like rain and if it does rain AND if it's too cold then we'll back off of it and just catch dinner with our cousins who are visiting from Hawaii. We'll just hang by their hotel and "talk story" as the Hawaiian folks call it. The kids will probably run about and raise a ruckus til security swings by! <chuckles>

So the cruise meet thread for the sailing for 9-2007 has slowed down considerably too. I guess everyone is all pooped out over the holidays. Even the degree to which our low activity threads have slowed does not knock us down to page 2 - IE - ALL of the cruise meet threads have slowed down too. SO.... on another note... with all the stuff going on with family fighting illnesses and such - we've "tabled" the plans for building an addition temporarily. Well... in some ways we also realized we had not settled on enough of the design details to move forward too. SO... we are sort of idling in some ways ... and in other ways we are creeping forward. I just bought a Monster Power 5100 current conditioner for cleaning and stabilizing the power for my home theater and audio equipment. I got a 2nd from the top of the line model for a fraction of its' typical cost via eBay! Yeah... yeah... yeah... I know it was used - but if it works then it is a flaming bargain. These things typically sell for $700-800 (refer to the chart below) or as low as $500 refurbished. I picked mine up for all of $150 + thirty bucks in shipping! Obviously, the secondary market for these things is very soft so the bargains are pretty wide spread averaging about $250 on eBay. I could not resist when I saw this one - as it ended up being the 2nd cheapest unit sold on eBay within the last 30 days (that's how much of the selling history is on record with eBay for review). And now I am prowling and investigating for more home theater equipment on the cheap! I know very few people have heard of a lot of the exotic electronic equipment whick interests me - thus creating ocassional bargains! You know I'm a happy "bottom fisher"!

http://img.nextag.com/image/Monster_Cable_Monster_Power/6/000/000/852/096/85209676.gif
http://media.zzounds.com/media/brand,zzounds/HTS5100_blue_bkrnd-231e99c8a2b016b902ac2e23a45a8e74.jpghttp://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/brands/monster/hts5100_internal.jpg

ok... I was watching Star Wars #1 on HD HBO and it just ended. I got my older daughter sleeping on my lap - she has no school this week so she got to TRY and stay up to watch it with me - but didn't quite make it. So my leg is getting compressed and I'm losing circulation here ... so I better get her off to bed.

Cheers... I'll probably check in again on friday or sunday ... we got a busy schedule of sorts in the next few days.

TTFN!

[kritter]

Crash,

Sounds like you all had a great time over the holidays..

All of the food makes me hungry...


How are the kids???

[captaincrash]

Kids are doing pretty good Kristen...

... Kalea and myself went on Zithromax to knock down the lingering cough we both had... and now we are all fit as fiddles.

... yesterdays' Disneyland visit was rather nice. Today we mostly rested and recovered. Low intensity as planned. TOmorrow we are off to overnite next to Disneyland. Got a full schedule arrayed for the next couple of days: WE got "Dim Sum" (brunch) planned with our Hawaiian cousins and a local uncle - followed by maraton shopping - and then dinner. We just booked a "3.5 star" hotel through my usual "favorite booking engine"... hotwire... and paid only $59+14 in fees for the CROWN PLAZA. Not the most fancy name - but the location is super prime and the property looks like a fresh "above average" Crown Plaza. The regular rates appear to be $92-129 + 15% tax. THEN... on Sunday we have a quadruple birthday party (inclusive of Alicia's). SO... Sunday is another busy day.

AND... tonight we just discovered a great fare to return to Honolulu in February for only $277! That includes taxes and all fees for direct flights - and NO red-eye legs! WOw! So... the reason for our return to Honolulu is to be on hand when the chemo is administered. Folks are either wacked and in need of help and loving company or they shrug it off having minimal side effects. Alicia's brother in Boston is juggling his schedule to be in Honolulu too during this first vulnerable month of chemo dosing. The local sibling - Alicias' sister already has this "big trip" her husband had planned to go to Antartica ... so they are not planning on canceling it. I'm mildy miffed at the notion they're side stepping this crucial stage... but so be it. You see.... when MY Mother was sick I had family members who deliberately stayed away because of the emotional trauma or ???? it threatened. WELL... I guess it is not quite the same in Hawaii as it was 20 or so years ago when I took care of my sick Mom. They made these travel plans a long time ago - and for ME... going to Antartica would indeed be a significant trip. However, I think I would have canceled it if it were my Dad in similar circumstances. Even so... they will be back from the trip in about a month and be on hand to help Dad for the next few months of continuing treatment... but it is usually the first month that is most criticial for managing and supporting as family members. They clearly were not avoiding this.

So... we got a bargain fare to Hawaii... and on top of this low fare - this flight would represent the 3rd qualifying round trip for a United Airlines promotion where you get 5,000 bonus miles for the first 2 qualifying flights and 15,000 miles on the 3rd flight. The cut off date is the 28th of February - and we just fit it in! So ... the $277 buys an important visit to Hawaii... + earns the normal 5200 miles + a Bonus 15,000 miles! Shoot... these 20,200 miles are nearly enough for a free 48 state saver award!

AND... on another note... we just booked for a stay in San Francisco in May. Alicias' brother and family are jetting into town for a Surgeons' convention of some sort where he is one of the speakers/presenters. So - we're gonna meet up with them and... my point (ahem) ... is we again booked using hotwire ... the deal was for $104 a nite + $18 in fees for a FOUR STAR property. Hmmm.... I was very skeptical of this as even the cheapest 1 and 2 star properties were priced at $90! So... I double checked what Hotwire was suggesting the dollar savings were (which is viewable BEFORE you click to buy it).... and Hotwire suggested the regular price for this mystery 4 star hotel was over $300. I checked alternative booking engines that conventionally displayed the hotel names with prices. AND... all of the 4 star properties were running from $300 to $480 on the nites we wanted. So... I jumped on it ... and to my very VERY pleasant SURPRISE... we got the WESTIN St. Francis on Union Square! Well... they don't even quote on the travel search engines I was referencing... so when I found rates for them on THEIR web site... the only place I found them quoting... they came back with $380-489 a nite plus an 18% tax! That comes to near $450 at a minimum if booking conventionally! Shoot... I only paid $144! So we saved $300+ a nite for a landmark hotel in MY favorite part of town. Really, the St Francis has always been one of my favorite hotels to stay at in SF aside from the four seasons a block away. And Alicia loves the location as it is just a block or so away from Macy's flagship super store! TOo bad they closed the FAO Schwartz though. At any rate... I'm quite pleased to be saving at the rate of a grand every 3 nites!

SO... we've been busy these past couple of days with hotel and travel planning for various reasons. Sunday morning we're gonna try and shoe-horn in a few hours at Disneyland again in just the morning - then run off to get to the 4 way birthday party.

Only thing I was disappointed by - was the hidden $9 resort fee the Crown Plaza had. I figure - all the nicer hotels spring that sort of nickle and dime nonsense... but it does not mean I have to LIKE it! It's just that they should bump their overall price $9 as opposed to dishonorably tapping it on when you check in. AND... the Westin St Francis wants $45 for valet parking... gads! I'm gonna park 3 blocks away at the hope street garage south of Market Street for $23 a nite. Every nite I park there buys a main entree serving at my favorite red meat joint in SF... The Prime Rib House! Yeah... I like Ruth Chris and Mortons (2nd) too... but I do like my Prime Rib too... and the Prime Rib House does a few things better.... one detail in particular I like has two parts to it: The carving chefs usually give me a bag of meaty untrimmed beef ones for my dog and #2) with proper casual conversation ... they always wheel their carts by late in the meal to offer me 2nds and 3rd servings if I can manage it! Yeah... when they take care of me "properly" at the Prime Rib House I am in HOG HEAVEN ... and easily walk past Ruth Chris and Mortons!

OK... so I've gone and spilled all the beans on our travel insanity for the next few days and month ... again. Please forgive me. :confused3

Cheers!

[kritter]

WOW!!! Crash,

Your travel plans sound like they will be taking you all over the place....

I should have you start trying to plan my trip to ST. THomas....

YOu seem to find all of the bargains... Gosh maybe you should plan and price out the next DCL for all of us.....


Did you ever get the box I sent out to you??


Hope everyone else is doing well..Terri, how are you and Rick doing????

Krisitn

[captaincrash]

Yes...

... I'm sorry have not mentioned earlier that we got the box! Thank you so much for your kind gifts - we sort of saved them for Christmas - and even then we opened everything after we returned from Maui. So it all got opened late for the holidays.

And as for St Thomas... we've stayed on the island once at the Ritz Carlton by Red Hook (the far side from the airport)... and had a rental car but essentially went nowhere once we got to the RItz - except St John for a limited foray. So... all I can say is you're gonna have a blast!

And may I ask whether you've considered San Juan, PR? We sort of like San Juan a lot too - and the hotels there can be sort of fun too. We've stayed at the Ritz there, and I think it was the Hilton in the Condado section of San Juan we visited as well. Oh yeah... I think we had a nite at a bed and breakfast there once too. The Ritz is adjacent to the Wyndham resort - a "hoppin'" nite scene at their casino for San Juan if you ask me! And... on San Juan Alicia has a little more fun shoppin' the old town section. The Condado however was a bust. It seemed as if post 9-11 the Condado dried up and blew away.

SO much for my bid at being a travel advisor. I can dredge up photos of all these places if you're interested in any of them. They will be vintage 3-6 years old. Our Ritz stay for San Juan was over the Christmas holiday - and St Thomas was an average time of the year... nothing special.

Driving on San Juan however is not supposed to be encouraged - but "I" drove it! ANd it was not that bad. You should be a little careful OR just pay for the CDW. I eschewed the CDW and I rented from a no-name local agency and got away with not eing forced to get the CDW AND I got a cut rate car. I found it through calling on a Yahoo yellow pages list. I'm a nut ... I think I had spare minutes on a cellular calling plan and figured out I was not being charged for calling PR - so I just went down the list on my cellular til I got a deal I liked. Cheap... and they gave me a nice brand new Korean car that I never heard about ... or maybe it was some other foreign make.

So... our hotel here - the Crown Plaza is actually quite nice. It easily qualifies for a near 4 star - plus we were bumped to their best available room type and floor because my dear spouse is a "priority club" member with the Holiday Inn/Crown Plaza group. I am not as I rarely if ever stayed in a holiday inn or crown plaza. <sniff> OK... enuf of that... eh? I was just foolin' 'round anyways. So... Alicias' priority club earns us a room and floor bump... we got the top floor and nicer bed arrangements then were initially offerred. Plus - breakfast buffett coupons (free), free water, free coffee, free something else (a snack) ... and late check out. And no - I am not endorsing their club - but it does fly - especially since kids eat free too! All this for a paltry $59 + 14 in fees! Just a smidgeon over the LOWEST priced 1 star in the area at $41! Well worth the upcharge given we got free breakfast and better comfort. AND that is even after considering the $9 ding for their resort fee.

So... now our plans to hit Honolulu in Feruary are thickening with complications. We have to see if we can time it all appropriately... and everyone is sort of a-buzz with conversation on a slew of issues. I'm trying to stay above it for as long as I can... for now.

And as for Disneyland tomorrow - we'll probably pass on going. I'm beat from chasing the kids today - so we're all (cousins and us) are leaning heavily against going in the morning and just hangin' at the hotel. We got the 4 way BD party at noon - and then a relaxing afternoon to do what-ever. And we've effectively shifted DL to Thursday now.

Today I brought my new Monster Power Conditioner to my friends place to audition it with a "better" quality sound system - and "A"/"B" comparisons to see if we could descern any differences in sound output. We tried boosting the silent passages to detect noise - then we introduced electrical interence with a vacume cleaner on the same power circuit - but the vacume cleaner was run outside with the power cord run inside. AND - I am annoyed to report that we could NOT generate any circumstances with any difference in sound or amplifier performance. I now am a renewed skeptic and unofficially half way towards relisting the thing on eBay to get rid of it. I'm gonna "A"/"B" a comparison with my HDTV... and I still see no difference then it's gonna get sold on eBay. Plus my buddy today emailed a link to an article criticizing power conditioners and the nonsense they claim! Heres' the link for your chuckling pleasure... http://www.psaudio.com/articles/power_conditioners.asp

At any rate, it's been an exceedingly nice afternoon and evening. We hope your days are passing as pleasantly as ours are. If you have any specific queries on St Thomas or San Juan - let me know and I'll put on my "Mr. Know it All" cap on ... and see if I can;'t dredge up a reply or photo!

Cheers!

Capt. Crash :surfweb:

[kritter]

CRaSH ,
I NEED YOUR HELP...!!!

My DH created an awesome vacation video of our latest WDW vacation and cruise in Windows Movie Maker.
Every time he goes to compile it and save it so we can share it with others on a DVD or email it to friends it crashes our computer. It is a large file and he has even tried cutting it in half and still can not get it to work. It is awesome we just need a little technical support here..
Was hoping someone on the boards could help us we have plenty of memory and a new computer too...
It is just such a bummer since whenever we want to share it we all have to sit around our computer to watch it...
Help!!!

[captaincrash]

Well...

... I may be a nut about all sorts of consumer electronics things - but one of the things I have not really started much into is digital movie editing off a computer. HOWEVER.... I am not without working thoeries on potential solutions.

Off hand I would think your memory size might (or might not) be an issue - but really NO ONE was enough memory to handle large video files as single frames. And hence no one would design software that did not work with the finite constraints of todays' computers.

What that means is memory should not be an issue IF your computer is reasonably current and moderately powerful. I think - in order for the computer to handle processing of such a large file as a video movie it has to be able to manipulate it - and the only space large enough to do that is the unused STORAGE space of your hard drive. Ask your husband to check how full your hard drive is ... he can look quick at this by selecting "my computer" from the start button... and just pointing the cursor to the "C" drive... assuming you have only ONE hard drive hooked up. A temporary window will pop up and the top line will say "free space" and the bottom line will say "total size". GENERALLY.... for routine operation you need to have about 1/3rd to 1/4 of the total drive capacity free - otherwise the whole thing begins to bog down or freeze up. I have had this problem in the past and routinely clean off unusual or underutilized files - like photos. I transfer these files to an external drive and erase the original on the primary drive... thus freeing up space. I'll bet - when he created the movie he took up a LOT of extra space onthe drive and now it has insufficient free space to manipulate the file!

At BEST BUY I saw a 160 GB external drive on sale for I believe only $79 today... after a $60 instant discount at the counter. Also, you could get an external hard drive at Costco. I was there today and they had drives from $90 up to about $200 or so. If you buy an external drive it is a simple matter of plugging it in the USB port and your computer will automatically "see and recognize" it. You want to carefully right click on the start button and select "explore". Open the file VERY CAREFULLY where the big movie file is stored... and click and VERY CAREFULLY drag it to the new external hard drive icon. SLIPPING while you do this could inadvertantly move the movie file into another folder - thus scrambling something. OR - selecting the wrong file and moving it inadvertantly could crash your computer on the spot. I know because I litterally destroyed a computer with a slipped file/folder move. I described what happened to a tech savvy friend and he just laughed... and said the thing was almost dead but HE could salvage the files. You might not want to go through what I went through.

SO... having transferred the BIG movie file - you can now ERASE the original one on the primary drive - thus restoring the main drive to it's normal working capacity. If this does not work - then I would consider moving the ENTIRE FOLDER with the big movie files he might have been accumulating and working with. Sometimes you cannot move a "BASIC" master folder - and you'll have to move the individual movie folders one by one or manually with a click and drag across the field of several movie files. I am guessing if he has been playing with editing movie files to finally create a nice big vacation one then he must have a few (or many) stored and soaking up tons storage space.
SO... you might be wise to just get a BIG external hard drive to support future movie making. The 250 GB ones are generally cheap. I bought one from Circuit City by Western Digital for $69 with a rebate on sale (not a black friday deal ... equal to the Black friday deals they ran this year). AND... if you are a real power hungry sort - the drive I WANT to get and would recommend to a POWER HUNGRY USER is a 1 TB (ONE TERA-BYTE... or 1,000 megabytes ... or a BILLION kilobytes of storage) RAID drive. These cost a little bit more - ut you can set it to RAID configuration "2" ... or the "other" setting from the one it comes with from the factory. This reconfigures the drive (when new) to operate as a RAID array. The 1TB drives are acually made of 2 seperate drives with 512 MB capacity. In configuration "1" (on a western digital RIAD drive) these two drives operate as if they were a single 1 TB drive. BUT... in RAID configuration "2" they act as two seperate 512 drives. AND anything sent to this drive letter will automatically be written IN DUPLICATE to each drive. Thus... if you were to suffer a random drive failure on ONE of the drives then you would still have a functioning drive. OLD MAIN FRAME computers boasted of incredible industiral redundency and security for business applications - and having seperate redundent storage with a wide range of other extreme data protection designs was a hallmark. THIS is a very secure method of storing precious data in mass! Provided you don't suffer a physical accident with the case holding BOTH drives in the RAID array! THAT might damage or destroy oth drives depending on the accident that occurs!

I want a RAID array because I have 6 years with 50-55MB of images and movie clips stored on it. Thats' probably about 45,000 images plus maybe 100-200 movie clips, plus lots of other critical personal files with value not measured in space occupied. AND now I store these files redundantly MANUALY split between two external drives ... ocassionally backed up. Doing the backup to two drives manually is a real PAIN. SO ... some time soon I am going to switch to a RAID array drive and retire the 250MB and 80MB drives I use now.

I paid $80 for the 80M drive a couple of years ago and $69 for the 250GB drive a few months ago. Both had rebates on them.

NOW... if I am wrong then I recommend you simply walk up to the tech window at Best Buy and talk your problem with their technicians to see if they give you any real understanding or ... practical insight into a solution utilizing their services. Also - you could ask them whether an external hard drive might help IF you use it to free up more space on the primary drive so it has free space to use for huge swap files. They might say yes... or that it would make NO difference at all.

Hope this helps. If not then I would normally call one of my best freinds to ask him about your situation - only this week is CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas... and he is there this week "working". Shoot - I would be there to hang out too if I didn't have cousins from Hawaii visiting now and doing Disneyland every other day. So... if you still don't have a solution by the weekend then I will call my pal and ask him what he would try to resolve your computer issues.

This was fun to reply on.... :surfweb: BTW... Best Buy had a nice little Pirates of the Carribean pinball machine on "advertsied" sale for only $199 today. It looks cheap enough (compared to the real ones) to try out - as my older one has recently developed an interest in pinball games. ONLY, I am not sure where I would put a full size machine - and I want something that delivers most of the pinball game experience without having to spend 2-3,000+... or at least not until I verify that her/thier interests are not merely temporary interests. $200 is an impulse decision considering the potential of the thing from the photos on the box - a display was NOT out to try unfortunately.

AND... I am having a problem with the "B" key on my keyboard - so it does not register sometimes and some words above may be misspelled because the "B" is missing. I tried editing it - but gotta run now to get the kids and go to dinner. One of our favorite restuarants is running a wednesday nite special - so I gotta run now....

Cheers,

Tom

[kritter]

Hi, Tom. Bruce here. Thanks for the very thoughtful message. I checked the harddrive space and I have 42 GB out of 71.5GB free. I've defragged and did a disk clean up. Since then, it doesn't lock u. But it gets to a dialogue box that tells me its preparing to create the movie file and how many minites are remaining. The number of minutes just keeps going up and up, but no crash. I have 1GB of RAM (running on a 3 Ghz Dell). The project fil is about 388MB. Any other ideas are welcomed.

Thanks again.

[captaincrash]

Hi, Tom. Bruce here. Thanks for the very thoughtful message. I checked the harddrive space and I have 42 GB out of 71.5GB free. I've defragged and did a disk clean up. Since then, it doesn't lock u. But it gets to a dialogue box that tells me its preparing to create the movie file and how many minites are remaining. The number of minutes just keeps going up and up, but no crash. I have 1GB of RAM (running on a 3 Ghz Dell). The project fil is about 388MB. Any other ideas are welcomed.

Thanks again.

Does not sound like a swap space issue - and as for the processor or memory - I don't know. I'll pass along the info via email to see what response I eventually get. My resource is extremely agile with computers and high tech in general. He works as one of several technology advisors to Boeing Homeland Security - formerlay he was with Boeing Aerospace in the same role. He sort of creats technology solutions and products for Boeing - and he's shown me some the creative technology devices he has wrangled. And... needless to say his computer competance is extrememly high. He works with nothing but cutting edge and beyond cutting edge technology toys.

I'll be quite busy tomorrow and actually off line for day and nite til friday. My pal returns on Friday evening ... maybe I'll tag him at home and see what he says to try.

Cheers,

Tom

[kritter]

Thanks Crash will wait for your response........

[captaincrash]

It seems my tech friend has not replied yet -

- maybe tomorrow or tuesday I'll get a reply. In the mean while - here are some pix from yesterdays' culinary shopping discovery! We went into town to meet friends for brunch then went exploring in a part of twon we don't see too often. And a large supermarket had changed hands - and was having a grand opening. THey called it the 169 Market - it was cavernous and crawling with tons of people. Among the many things we picked up - we selected a 5.4 pound Maine lobster - which they cooked for us on the spot. This puppy is huge - about the size and volume of an undersized loaf of bread! It took us an hour to get home and it was still HOT when we got there! The price was somewhat cheap too for a live lobster of this size - I think it was only $6.28 a pound and ran $34 plus tax. Alicia and the kids attacked it last nite but I only got one tiny little taste... and tonight again it is getting attention for dinner. Check out these pix from yesterday...

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/F5/7B/72/iF57B7250-3CAB-41E9-808D-799D6E3C49C0.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/91/B3/06/i91B30627-B530-4E34-BA34-7469DFFD9A84.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/0D/BB/BE/i0DBBBE5E-7B21-4E11-B682-7A52073075B2.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/6D/82/63/i6D826391-7874-4338-81B8-76BC78AB5093.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/13/4A/53/i134A53CD-FCBF-48A6-AEEE-460059BB4687.jpg

What a bargain... eh?
well, maye you lucky folks on the East coast see better deals since you're living so close to the "source"!!!

[kritter]

It seems my tech friend has not replied yet -

- maybe tomorrow or tuesday I'll get a reply. In the mean while - here are some pix from yesterdays' culinary shopping discovery! We went into town to meet friends for brunch then went exploring in a part of twon we don't see too often. And a large supermarket had changed hands - and was having a grand opening. THey called it the 169 Market - it was cavernous and crawling with tons of people. Among the many things we picked up - we selected a 5.4 pound Maine lobster - which they cooked for us on the spot. This puppy is huge - about the size and volume of an undersized loaf of bread! It took us an hour to get home and it was still HOT when we got there! The price was somewhat cheap too for a live lobster of this size - I think it was only $6.28 a pound and ran $34 plus tax. Alicia and the kids attacked it last nite but I only got one tiny little taste... and tonight again it is getting attention for dinner. Check out these pix from yesterday...

http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/F5/7B/72/iF57B7250-3CAB-41E9-808D-799D6E3C49C0.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/91/B3/06/i91B30627-B530-4E34-BA34-7469DFFD9A84.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/0D/BB/BE/i0DBBBE5E-7B21-4E11-B682-7A52073075B2.jpg
http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/6D/82/63/i6D826391-7874-4338-81B8-76BC78AB5093.jpghttp://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/13/4A/53/i134A53CD-FCBF-48A6-AEEE-460059BB4687.jpg

What a bargain... eh?
well, maye you lucky folks on the East coast see better deals since you're living so close to the "source"!!!



WOW!! What a deal that was. We live near the source but sure do not see prices like that.. I think around New Years we saw $5.99 a pound.....But they went really quick..Looks like everyone had a great meal...
YOu are the deal finder lately Tom!!!!!!

Are you planning on booking for DCL this week with the release of the 08 dates??????

[captaincrash]

Well.... actually,

We saw that folks are predicting that DCL will move a ship to the west coast in 2008 - so we just might shift our booking to a west coast departure. Personally, I could use a change from an eastern port agenda - but the kids and spouse seem to like it. AND - to be candid I am not too excited aout the west coast Mexican ports either - in particular their beaches. We just did a Mexican west coast cruise last Valentines day and had a fair time - not really an "over the top" time...

Now with Disney it would of course be "over the top"... yeah, yeah yeah.

But more then anything else - I think it is a change of pace and 2nd) we don't have to fly tus saving expense, time and energy.

So - supossedly this week they will ANNOUNCE the sailing schedule line up and at month end they will start selling.

Alicia and I are still musing it. The eastern carribean ports - although frequently visited - they are still nice places to go and the "feel" is of having gotten out of our back yard. So I suspect she still wants to go as planned. Me... I want to do something completely different - like northern europe, south america or africa (I do not fear modern day pairates like the ones who struck at the Seabourn ship last year). Or... I would go for a river boat cruise anywhere in europe or asia. The Yangzee cruise we took a decade or so ago seems to emerge as a nice memorable trip that was definately out of the ordinary. Plus it was a good value! I know you expected some kind of value remark from me - and THERE IT IS!

Oh yeah... we are also semi-suspended in any real planning efforts as we are entering a wait and see phase for my FILs' chemo regiment to see if he has any success.:confused3

So are you folks considering another Disney cruise any time soon? Are you thinking of doing anything with the 2008 sailings?

[captaincrash]

It seems my pal is working feverishly on a complicated project for work - AND - he is also juggling a complicated project at home. Or so his dear spouse sez. SO I have not been able to get the time of day from him.

And on the DD sailings versus - on mentioning it to her - she expressed initial interest for the PC voyages... with some consideration for the DD trips as an alternative. The advantage on the PC trips - is we could do the return voyage in Aug missing a little of school - but we might not be as happy with missing an entire week - as we did and then some for the 11 nite southern we took.

However, I know we have a "value" basis for decisions on everything we do. Like most folks. And our general attitude is for a 15 day voyage - we want to keep it within reason. Double a 7 nite cost is acceptable on a per day basis... but then that means it will cost about $5,000-7,000. WHich is OK... but we were thinking it might be LESS considering the prices we saw thrown out for the 1st PC voyages in 2005. Yeah... I know they sold those in 2004 and this is 3 years later... but shoot... it should NOT be as special in the sense it is not the very 1st time they're doing this.\

So - even though it is 3 years later - and even though the prices seem a bit higher then they used to be - I hold out hope the fares will be attractive. Shoot - if e felt the value was "right" we could dump 100K into a voyage - just - we better be getting A LOT of value out of it.

I have been thinking a cruise to Alaska on that Russian Ice Breaker with QUARK expeditions would be pretty cool (pun intended) - but it DOES cost about $25,000 per person... and for us - that's 100K! So - I have to compare that agsinst what a similar sum would buy... like say ... around the world on another line - or a regional voyage on a true 1st class ship like Crystal or Seabourn.

OK... who am I foolin'.... ;) certainly NOT you! It's just conjecture... and my budget is always focused firmly on being the "cheap skate"! So... we wait for the 2008 prices to emerge - and I will be speed dialing on the 31st to check for the lowest rates I can find! :thumbsup2

[kritter]

It seems my pal is working feverishly on a complicated project for work - AND - he is also juggling a complicated project at home. Or so his dear spouse sez. SO I have not been able to get the time of day from him.

And on the DD sailings versus - on mentioning it to her - she expressed initial interest for the PC voyages... with some consideration for the DD trips as an alternative. The advantage on the PC trips - is we could do the return voyage in Aug missing a little of school - but we might not be as happy with missing an entire week - as we did and then some for the 11 nite southern we took.

However, I know we have a "value" basis for decisions on everything we do. Like most folks. And our general attitude is for a 15 day voyage - we want to keep it within reason. Double a 7 nite cost is acceptable on a per day basis... but then that means it will cost about $5,000-7,000. WHich is OK... but we were thinking it might be LESS considering the prices we saw thrown out for the 1st PC voyages in 2005. Yeah... I know they sold those in 2004 and this is 3 years later... but shoot... it should NOT be as special in the sense it is not the very 1st time they're doing this.\

So - even though it is 3 years later - and even though the prices seem a bit higher then they used to be - I hold out hope the fares will be attractive. Shoot - if e felt the value was "right" we could dump 100K into a voyage - just - we better be getting A LOT of value out of it.

I have been thinking a cruise to Alaska on that Russian Ice Breaker with QUARK expeditions would be pretty cool (pun intended) - but it DOES cost about $25,000 per person... and for us - that's 100K! So - I have to compare that agsinst what a similar sum would buy... like say ... around the world on another line - or a regional voyage on a true 1st class ship like Crystal or Seabourn.

OK... who am I foolin'.... ;) certainly NOT you! It's just conjecture... and my budget is always focused firmly on being the "cheap skate"! So... we wait for the 2008 prices to emerge - and I will be speed dialing on the 31st to check for the lowest rates I can find! :thumbsup2

Crash,

So it sounds like you and Alicia are going to do the 15 nighter???? I tsounds great but I can not possibly imagine being on a ship for that long. I am really thinking about the alternative cruise. But not shook on the idea of the ports. But the double dip things does sound great to us...

Do you know what type of weather I could expect if I did the Thanksgiving saling????Also are you booking with a TA or disney direct???

We have been busy working on setting up our home theatre room this week.. Bruce just splurged and bought himeself a big TV...The kids are excited and telling everyone at schoolt hat their daddy is making them a "real" movie theatre in our house...LOL!!!!!!!!!!

[captaincrash]

Crash,

So it sounds like you and Alicia are going to do the 15 nighter???? I tsounds great but I can not possibly imagine being on a ship for that long. I am really thinking about the alternative cruise. But not shook on the idea of the ports. But the double dip things does sound great to us...

Do you know what type of weather I could expect if I did the Thanksgiving saling????Also are you booking with a TA or disney direct???

We have been busy working on setting up our home theatre room this week.. Bruce just splurged and bought himeself a big TV...The kids are excited and telling everyone at schoolt hat their daddy is making them a "real" movie theatre in our house...LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Home theater creation!!! Way cool! I've got a conventional casual layout - and am still wrangling my way to doing things "properly".

As for weather in later November... aside from the almanac - which I already posted on the main page where you posed the Q... I would stress that El Nino years throw a monkey wrench into these predictions. And - as such - I recall there were 13 days of rain and one with T-storms. On each of the last 2 visits to CC we had rain - but we were fortunate in that the rains did not materialize until the END of the day when we were actually arleady WALKING BACK to the ship!

So - th odds of rain appear to be 13/30 or a 43% chance of rain on the day you're there... and a 3.3% chance for serious rain - as in a T-storm. Temps you already have... as I recall it was ... 82 to 67 as a NOV average ... and the DEC AVG was 76 to 62. SO ... late Nov is probably something like 78 to 64 for daily highs and lows. Humidity will be (I forgot exact figures) dropping in the afternoon but as I recollect it was moderate and cozy.

Aside from that... if Bruce is curious try looking at http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/index.php? ehich is a home theater enthusiasts forum. AND, he may run across a contributor named... CaptainCrash! Yeah... you follow my antics there too if you or anyone else is so inclined. No drama though... just the usual dope and jokes.

Hoewever, I will sal if you're doing the home theater array - remember - the center channel is the most essential unit aside from the SOURCE of your viewing material. High definition service has generally been disappointing for me with a TYPICAL resolution HDTV. I have what WAS the best they made (almost) ... a 720 p (progressive scan) screen ... and you can SEE when they broadcast a real HD show that was SHOT in full HD resolution. And comparing that to the other programming on HD channels - which is often regular broadcast material that has been UP-CONVERTED into HD ... it falls short.

The only things that are truly spectacular are HD docmentaries - and the rare ocassional digital HD movie... like the recent Star Wars episodes. Of course, if you buy a HD-DVD player or a BLUE RAY HD DVD player then you WILL have high def input in full resolution... assuming the movie you're viewing is a reasonable HD one. Oh... if you're getting a HD DVD player - stay away from the Samsung as I heard (and witnessed) how it is VERY sensitive to what it can play. Maybe the one I saw was a bad machine - and then again maybe not.

Aside from that - among the more spectacular HD programming we've enjoied... the Olympics, professional sports (ahem, as in SUPERBOWL)... and some of the Discovery and PBS documentaries. This has proven to be both enriching and somewhat educational for our kids - as well as myself. Some of the better stuff (usually from Discovery) has been really impressive. Also HD Net gets some interesting stuff too. TNT HD is generally a bust. And the premium channels are hit or miss - with mostly misses. AND... HD ESPN is mostly off the mark with their stylized brackets on the left and right... being an obvious admission to its' standard definition origins.

All moaning and groaning aside... I love HD TV. It is captivating to enjoy some of the sharp new content. Frankly... it seems SHARPER then in the movie theaters!

OK... and on the cruise thing. Well... for the moment we remain comitted to sailing this september - but depending on a) how Alicias' Dad does <not good - more later>, and b) how much this PC voyage will price out for when I get through on the 31st... and c) whether we book at ALL for either PC voyage. On "C".... if the May 2007 voyage is cheaper - then we might jump ship from the Aug PC thread/sailing. But our primary target is the Aug sailing. And on her Dad... just last nite we found out why we could not reach anyone in Hawaii this past week - and that is because her Dad is refusing chemo in favor of pursuing a homeopathic route. FOlks are scrambling to see what can (and should) be done. This is after all - HIS decision and not ours. To think it is ours alone is not fair. he knows as well as anyone what is involved being a retired chest surgeon with 5 kids counted with the in-laws who are MDs (13 +boards) plus my spouse the oncology specialty rep. So - we are in a strange state today - given the shock of our discovery last nite.

My spouse and her brother in Boston were all set to fly out to cover for the vacationing sister who lives on Oahu (shes cruising Antarctica on Limblatt -for like 60K... not the pricey Russian Ice Breaker with Quark which would have run them maybe 130K). Either way... this is more then I am ready to spend for an artic cruise. Especially with 2 kids who are about 5-7 years younger then theirs (respectively). So ... maybe in 5-7 years I'll consider whether it is worth while to do something like this? At any rate - so much for my whining over not being on that cruise - and my groaning over her lack of being on site when her Dad is considering chemo.

So - things are in a suspended state today on that. I am having real mixed feelings over his resistance - while at the same time I am musing what line of conduct is appropriate on our part.

SO - resuming our musings on sailing... if we do not do the PC voyage - then we will NOT do a Mexican sailing. Been there - done that on another line and we prefer the Caribbean. So - our 2008 options will be headed by DD cruises in that case. I do not know whether it will be the late november one you are aiming for - but you reasoning is very sound. You get holiday deor and benefit from the T-day holiday. It sounds .... ideal.

OK... gotta go for now... I've heard nothing from my pal yet - the bum - he is working on setting up a private web page with secured forum and threads for our on line role playing game - where an old friend landed a job as the line developer for a major game company. And he is hosting a private game run by HIMself! But - we want to keep it mosty private since he is the line developer. And - he is more or less testing concepts with us as his guiena pigs to see if his concepts are playable... or not. Among other things - like having fun while not having to have us all drive in to meet and abandon our families!:rolleyes1

OK... gotta run -

[kritter]

Crash,

Thanks soo much for the web site for the home theatre.. How do you keep up on soo many different sites???

The furniture is coming today and the TV is getting installed on Sat. afternoon....WE can not wait to use it. The room we made into the home theatre room has always been just a mish mosh room.. Toys etc.. SO I am really happy to have the home theatre room now...

The cruise decision has been tough one for me.. I really am not sure how much we will like Mexico.. DH has been there and does not think I will enjoy it but the double dip does make it looke soo much better......

[captaincrash]

Crash,

Thanks soo much for the web site for the home theatre.. How do you keep up on soo many different sites???

The furniture is coming today and the TV is getting installed on Sat. afternoon....WE can not wait to use it. The room we made into the home theatre room has always been just a mish mosh room.. Toys etc.. SO I am really happy to have the home theatre room now...

The cruise decision has been tough one for me.. I really am not sure how much we will like Mexico.. DH has been there and does not think I will enjoy it but the double dip does make it looke soo much better......

Awwwww.....

... C'mon! Join us for the PC return voyage! It will not be all that long. Even though for Alicia and I it will be our longest one yet. AND... it engenders so much that is truly extraordinary! Cartegenia is real "Romancing the Stone" adventure... and just think how exotic it is to transit from the west coast to the east!

Plus - you should take a look at the ship load of personalities we seem to have here! They are a real LIVELY crowd! Sure to litterally double your fun. ANd - the deferrment to 2008 means you can shop for LAST MINUTE DISNEY BARGAINS. They come up every september... as they cannot sell their 4 niters. It's just a matter of whether you can swing enuf of a value flught to get down there. Or at least that is our plan. The last minute specials appear on icruise.com in mid october. I have only seen 7 nite last minute bargains ONCE and that was 4 years ago for our 1st sailing.

Alternatively... if you can snag a last minute 3 or 4 day ... then you can balance that with a WDW visit... or dare I say... sea world or US? Frankly... Alicia and I lean towards visiting DL as opposed to WDW since we have AP for DL. And ... the SW and US represent unique destinations for us... plus I have been itching to visit Cape Carnaveral... but I've been holding off til Julianna is old enough to get into the real science of aeronautical engineering and space flight.

SO tonight we opened savings accounts for the kids. The bank has a program where they award the kids play "dollars" for each deposit they make. And these play dollars represent tangible incentives for them to get into the routine of deferrment and saving to nuture an interest yield ... and eventially gain compound interest. PLUS... when the kids reach an accumulation of 100 play dollars they can turn it in for the top award... a $50 savings bond. Granted... if it is a 30 year note it might havr a present value of $17-20... but the idea is they learn to save and recognive the slow and steady benefits of such. You should have seen us (me) counting the contents of their piggy bank. We drew out something like 1/3rd and it came to $50.... and I said that was enough.

Of course.... the kids have well funded 529 plans... and lots of cash from gifts that we have set aside in a more secure place then their toy piggy banks. DId I ever tell you about our neighbors' baby sitter who stole about $600 for their kids' piggy banks? Disgusting... eh? THe money was eventually returned - but what an annoying circumstance.

So... if you can reconsider the PC Aug sailing - I think it is worth a second glance. Of course... ANY DCL voyage would be a blast! We were reduced by a hurricane from a 7 to a 5 then finally a 4... which turned out to be a modified western when we booked originally for a special eastern rotation with San Juan thrown in - PR is one of our favorite places to visit too! But it was not meant to be since the hurricane messed things up... and that voyage still turned out to be a blast in the end!

At any rate - how do I keep up... well... I am potentially setting up to withdraw from the sept sailing I have booked ... and I don't do much with the september 2006 folks... as I just drop in maybe once a week to skim a little to see how folks are doing. And on this thread it's just the two of us right now... and then I have the wild new one for the PC in August! As for anything else... most of the Theater forum folks are over my head... and on the digital photography forums I am strictly a lurker. Thise guys are real artists and professionals some of the time and me... I'm mostly a snap happy hack by comparison. So - I just read those forums.

So - once you start running your new home theater you'll have to let me know how fun and entertaining it is! Plus... maybe you should conside getting one of those new nintendo Wii game machines to use in the home theater! Nothing beats using the big screen for those games. SO - do I have a Wii? No. And that is cuz I have a certain among invested in the X-Box that I've had for some time... but I ave heard the Wii is the leader this past holiday season - and I bet it is more suited for young kids. The X-Box is better suited for teens and adults.

OK... time to wander off now... see what sort of trouble and ruckus I can stir up elsewhere... OK... just kiddin'!

[ArmandXG]

Crash, During the holidays nephew #3 brought over his Wii for everyone to play. I have had previous injuries to both rotator cuffs (Pilates) and I re-injured my right one playing the boxing game. It hasn't been right since. Apparently it was for a good cause. All the kids (ages 29 to 12) found it amusing to see their "old" Auntie kicking butt. I currently hold the highest score on boxing. None of the youngins' have yet to beat me! They also think I'm funny to watch.

[captaincrash]

Crash, During the holidays nephew #3 brought over his Wii for everyone to play. I have had previous injuries to both rotator cuffs (Pilates) and I re-injured my right one playing the boxing game. It hasn't been right since. Apparently it was for a good cause. All the kids (ages 29 to 12) found it amusing to see their "old" Auntie kicking butt. I currently hold the highest score on boxing. None of the youngins' have yet to beat me! They also think I'm funny to watch.

See???....

... us parents CAN compete with our kids on their terms after all! <chuckles>;)

[kritter]

Crash,
Do you have all your cruise plans set and ready to call DCL this week????

[captaincrash]

Not quite...

I am not sure whether we have actually defined an upper price limit... nor have I verified whether we'll cosider a 2nd cabin in lieu of paying the sort of rates they seem to have published for 3rd and 4th passengers. Because - if the 3rd and 4th PAX are $1299-2399 for ages 3-12... further varying with cabin catagory - then it might not be a lot more to have a 2nd cabin! And if that is the case - we might settle for 2 connecting INSIDE cabins. No window - but we would have an open door between two rooms - making for a lot of wild running about! ANd - if anyone (me) is snoring too loudly then my spouse can sneak into the other cabin and shut the door!

SO - the real answer is yes and no. I am ready to buy now - but there are a few critical issues - which can be handled on the spot = or I'll call in advance on monday or tuesday - if I find the time in the day.

Are you gonna consider calling in the early AM too???:confused3

[captaincrash]

BY THE WAY...

Did you see the new sticky on the cruise meet forum? It addresses a new policy for dishing out penalty points for folks who violate the DIS guidelines or who the moderators feel have been conducting themselves improperly. And when penalty points are assigned - a new thread appears in a penalty area - where the guilty ones may appeal their case = or get grilled til convicted! I love it... they've created a DIS traffic court! Too bad we didn't have this system in place when that infantile "G" was lurking about. It would have served her right to get a point or two then have a PUBLIC RECORD for all to see. Well... so much for my little rant.

I think the "G" shut down her prior identity and faded away. OR - at least the wise thing for her to do is to restart with a new identity - as her guilt has been plastered all over. She dare not show herself with that screen name while I am around .... I assure you. ;)

[kritter]

Crash,

Sounds like booking two rooms may be the way to go for you..

Looks like the Repo cruise that you are going on will be a blast. The group seems really Great!!

Not sure I would last two weeks on a cruise even if it is Disney...Dh wants to look into it but the kids and school and all.. This could really produce some problems..

So I think we will be doing a double dip or just the plain Eastern. I really like the ports on the Eastern better than the Western.. But we will spending a week in ST. Thomas that summer as well....
So I need to make up my mind asap.. Otherwise my TA is going to scream!!!

[kritter]

crash,
Were you able to book the cruise you wanted this morning???

[captaincrash]

sorry...

... distracted...

yup - got it! Plus 8 more cabins for friends and family!

Ya gotta join our sailing!

Cheers!

[kritter]

sorry...

... distracted...

yup - got it! Plus 8 more cabins for friends and family!

Ya gotta join our sailing!

Cheers!

8 More cabins!! WOW!!!

Your friends owe you BIG TIME!!

[captaincrash]

8 More cabins!! WOW!!!

Your friends owe you BIG TIME!!

I really just got 4 more (plus my own)... and one of the 5 got 3 more. SO, of the 9 total I managed just 6 of the total of 9.

I don't know about anyone oweing ME anything. If anything I owe THEM for joining my family with on our idea of a vacation. Kno what I mean? Yeah, they got what I consider to have been a good deal - relatively speaking, but in the past they have cited how Disney cost more then the average cruise line. Some of the folks coming along have never been on a cruise before. SO ... this is already a radically different experience for them compared to the other things they've done...

SO - I heard from my TA... she is following up to see what she can get. She cited that normally after the customary number of days has passed... all the cabins with TA holds expire as they usually have no money on them. And those cabins revert to inventory where we could have picked up something. That should have happened on Sunday at midnite... but this time there were NO cabins returning to inventory. Even as of today there are no cabins available for sale or transfer.

SO there is a lot of speculation as to what is going on. I can't believe all 877 cabins were actually sold with money on them for the sailing. If so - I do believe this could be a 1st... except for possibly the inaugural sailings! Well... then again,... maybe not... as I mean this could be a 1st for a 1st day of selling sellout in 8 hours. Well... actually - I know for a fact there was reshuffling of cabins that were available cuz I had purchases as late as saturday. At good prices too.

At any rate... I don't know what to expect on a cat 4... and I believe other folks were posting that the cost of a 4 was something north of $12-14K. Cat 6 was hovering at $10-11K with a rebooking 10% discount.

I don't have any idea what it would cost if we got one - and my TA was particularly skeptical in her email reply. But - as you know - stranger things have happened.

Cheers,
Tom

[kritter]

I really just got 4 more (plus my own)... and one of the 5 got 3 more. SO, of the 9 total I managed just 6 of the total of 9.

I don't know about anyone oweing ME anything. If anything I owe THEM for joining my family with on our idea of a vacation. Kno what I mean? Yeah, they got what I consider to have been a good deal - relatively speaking, but in the past they have cited how Disney cost more then the average cruise line. Some of the folks coming along have never been on a cruise before. SO ... this is already a radically different experience for them compared to the other things they've done...

SO - I heard from my TA... she is following up to see what she can get. She cited that normally after the customary number of days has passed... all the cabins with TA holds expire as they usually have no money on them. And those cabins revert to inventory where we could have picked up something. That should have happened on Sunday at midnite... but this time there were NO cabins returning to inventory. Even as of today there are no cabins available for sale or transfer.

SO there is a lot of speculation as to what is going on. I can't believe all 877 cabins were actually sold with money on them for the sailing. If so - I do believe this could be a 1st... except for possibly the inaugural sailings! Well... then again,... maybe not... as I mean this could be a 1st for a 1st day of selling sellout in 8 hours. Well... actually - I know for a fact there was reshuffling of cabins that were available cuz I had purchases as late as saturday. At good prices too.

At any rate... I don't know what to expect on a cat 4... and I believe other folks were posting that the cost of a 4 was something north of $12-14K. Cat 6 was hovering at $10-11K with a rebooking 10% discount.

I don't have any idea what it would cost if we got one - and my TA was particularly skeptical in her email reply. But - as you know - stranger things have happened.

Cheers,
Tom


Tom,

Sounds like you will have a great time sailing with your friends and family...

The cruise did sell out fast. I am sure some rooms will open up as maybe not all paid deposits when they had too....

[captaincrash]

You would expect rooms to open up ...

... but on Sunday midnite no rooms returned into the system. Curious. This implies that all of the cabins have money holding them. :confused3

[captaincrash]

I was the first to notice cat 9 cabins were available on DCLs' web site today. They were asking $9,500 for a quad for a 4+7 year old... I could not get the page to advance beyond the intital quotation though as their system was frozen. So - less insurance (which is automatically added) the quad price on a window was about $8800-8900.

[kritter]

I was the first to notice cat 9 cabins were available on DCLs' web site today. They were asking $9,500 for a quad for a 4+7 year old... I could not get the page to advance beyond the intital quotation though as their system was frozen. So - less insurance (which is automatically added) the quad price on a window was about $8800-8900.

Sounds like not tooo bad of a price....

[torontodisney]

Hello everyone. Starting to feel the need to book another Disney cruise. We are off on our NCL sailing in less than a month but I am already missing Disney. Looks like we are going to look at a fall booking. Anyone booked for the fall of 07....maybe the Halloween cruise again? Erin.

[kritter]

Hello everyone. Starting to feel the need to book another Disney cruise. We are off on our NCL sailing in less than a month but I am already missing Disney. Looks like we are going to look at a fall booking. Anyone booked for the fall of 07....maybe the Halloween cruise again? Erin.

Erin,
I think Terri had mentioned she was going to be on that cruise again.
We have been thinking about doing it again for Halloween. But we have a WDW vacation planned for 07 in Sept. for nine days. Worried how much school the kids could miss. We are booked for 08 already. Now DH wants to do another one for 07 tooo!!!!!

[captaincrash]

As you may already know...

... and I'll post it here so as not to fan the flames of discontent elsewhere... DCL took back the CAT 4 into their inventory rather than give it over to us. Oh well...

I guess they figure the $10,178 price we had was not enough for them as a quad?

[captaincrash]

Oh boy!...

... just noticed the next posting was 4300th... so I had to have it...

and here is the latest image I was posting from the PC cruise meet thread... seein' as it's already on my clipboard... Alicia is a Capricorn...

http://userimages.imvu.com/productdata/stickers_08cfc52a854ed0166809a01498bd336e.gif

[kritter]

Crash,

You are too funny,,,,

[misseulalie]

Hi everyone,

This is Jennifer. I haven't posted in while, too busy with the Med cruise. But...I need to know who ordered the green rubber bracelets for the this past cruise. I want to get them for the Med. cruise.

I need to know what company you used.

Thanks!!!!

Jennifer

[captaincrash]

Ok...

Who's hangin' out an' visitin'?

[kritter]

HI All,

Jennifer Heather ordered them.. Check with her....


HI Crash, How is everyone???

[captaincrash]

Hello...

... been busy with all kinds of things. FIL is responding to therapy... but it is not a cure, just prolongs survival. We're still waiting for the 3rd pathology report form NIH that may give us a conclusive opinion of what we're fighting.

On another note... our friend who had kidney cancer.. and last year had a kidney removed has recently had a scan where suspicious spots were discovered in her lungs. We're waiting and watching these as they may indicate te cancer has spread and the surical removal of the kidney was too late. If so then she's stage 4 and would be lucky to have half a decade. She would be survived by a 1 year old son at current age and spouse. Sad and mildly depressing to us.

Aside from that I have new ideas on how to make additons and enhancements to our home... in fact... so many new ideas I have too many good approaches too settle on any one again!

And, we did not hit the Mega Million jackpot! RATS!!! I bpught 5 picks so the net odds of a hit should have been 1 in 35,200,000 for me... and I was SOOOOoooo looking forward to winning! <chuckles> Like I need it seein' as we're already sort of semi-retired anyways. Well... we're always game for games... eh?

Oh yeah... I bought a spare HDTV a couple of days ago. Best Buy in our area had a clearnace event and I caught it as they were settin' it up. Although it was only a 30" screen... the original list price was about 899... and they last were selling it at $599. They then were clearancing this old model at $399 with a $200 Best Buy gift card. I engaged in some light negotiation and they upped the gift card to $250 making the net cost of the TV only $149. It's so cheap its' laughable. I paid for it using a $500 Best Buy gift card which Alicia's company gave us so my getting a $250 Best Buy gift card back was a non-concession. They obviously gave gift cards bundled with their deals so as to tie up more money with them. This had no effect on us though.

And is there anything new fer you and whatever is up in hour neck of the woods? Hope all is well. Are you ready to book for one of the new Disney ships? We're ready and egar for it!

Cheers...

[kritter]

:grouphug: Hello...

... been busy with all kinds of things. FIL is responding to therapy... but it is not a cure, just prolongs survival. We're still waiting for the 3rd pathology report form NIH that may give us a conclusive opinion of what we're fighting.

On another note... our friend who had kidney cancer.. and last year had a kidney removed has recently had a scan where suspicious spots were discovered in her lungs. We're waiting and watching these as they may indicate te cancer has spread and the surical removal of the kidney was too late. If so then she's stage 4 and would be lucky to have half a decade. She would be survived by a 1 year old son at current age and spouse. Sad and mildly depressing to us.

Aside from that I have new ideas on how to make additons and enhancements to our home... in fact... so many new ideas I have too many good approaches too settle on any one again!

And, we did not hit the Mega Million jackpot! RATS!!! I bpught 5 picks so the net odds of a hit should have been 1 in 35,200,000 for me... and I was SOOOOoooo looking forward to winning! <chuckles> Like I need it seein' as we're already sort of semi-retired anyways. Well... we're always game for games... eh?

Oh yeah... I bought a spare HDTV a couple of days ago. Best Buy in our area had a clearnace event and I caught it as they were settin' it up. Although it was only a 30" screen... the original list price was about 899... and they last were selling it at $599. They then were clearancing this old model at $399 with a $200 Best Buy gift card. I engaged in some light negotiation and they upped the gift card to $250 making the net cost of the TV only $149. It's so cheap its' laughable. I paid for it using a $500 Best Buy gift card which Alicia's company gave us so my getting a $250 Best Buy gift card back was a non-concession. They obviously gave gift cards bundled with their deals so as to tie up more money with them. This had no effect on us though.

And is there anything new fer you and whatever is up in hour neck of the woods? Hope all is well. Are you ready to book for one of the new Disney ships? We're ready and egar for it!

Cheers...

Tom,

Sooo sorry to hear about your friend. :grouphug: :grouphug:

Glad to hear Alicia's father is doing ok too..

I am very happy that you got the HDTV. Bruce is very happy with his home theatre room. Where did you put the TV. You always seem to find the "deals."

Have you already faxed in your request for the new ship??

Tell us more about your rennovations?

Kristin

[captaincrash]

:grouphug:

Tom,

Sooo sorry to hear about your friend. :grouphug: :grouphug:

Glad to hear Alicia's father is doing ok too..

I am very happy that you got the HDTV. Bruce is very happy with his home theatre room. Where did you put the TV. You always seem to find the "deals."

Have you already faxed in your request for the new ship??

Tell us more about your rennovations?

Kristin

Naww....

We have NOT faxed in any requests for the new ship yet. I like to have some basic "value" standards. And I suspect the new ship will cost a pretty penny. As much as I enjoy and the type of crowd it attracts (folks with kids plus conservative standards and down to earth tastes for the most part) - I am "game" for a change of port rotation (we've done 5 of the last 5 plus one future planned cruises on DCL; IE 5 of 6). SO I am very interested in new port rotations - and DCL is getting pricey enough that we can begin to compare them against the like of a "value" timed Crystal Cruise... almost <chuckles>. Certainly we can sail Celebrity - which I have never done before - and as I've posted before - the readers of Conte Naste have consistently rated the Celebrity fleet ships as top notch in most catagories. Maybe this is just convenient manipulation - since the usual Disney or Carnival enthusiast does NOT read Conde Naste Travel Magazine - IE - a survey conducted by friends and past guests of Celebrity.

At any rate, we will be interested in the new ships - but I wanna see the pricing structure 1st - and I am almost CERTAIN the new ships will have pricing that results in probable sticker shock. I can retire fully right now but not if I maintain a standard of expenditure that is not too .... excessive. The more we continue to save enables greater comfort if engages in REAL retirement... plus we're thinking of buying homes for our daughters... or earmarked for them to resell some day to apply the proceeds towards purchase of their first homes. However, if they do then they will LOSE the property tax discounts secured if they do so though if they upgrade. In California we have statutes/codes (?) which lock in our original property tax purchase points close to our purchase points - as the amount of any changes in property taxes cannot increase beyond by a certain amount annually - and that amount of change is very very small compared to the changes we've historically enjoied in appreciation. So - long ago this mechanism enables greater DEMAND for housing in California which is invisible to those outside wondering why on earth anyone would pay so much. While in other parts of the country we see folks complaining about a doubling of valuations AND of their property taxes...

Besides... I wanna sail Europe - Med and Northern routes. Never been in the north before. I wanna do river cruise in Europe too. Then I wanna sail in the Middle East and Far East ... but the only "safe" choices are the pricey cruise lines like Crystal and Regent, or Silverseas for big ship... and for small ship like Seabourne or??? I simply would not consider those big enough to be "safe". Yeah... a couple hundred multimiionaires on a small ship are easy prey for a team of terrorists... but a thousand well to do folks on a 70,000 ton ship is another matter.

As for home additions... My compromise solution would be to GIVE UP my home theater and the Master bedroom sitting room and keep the Master bath expansion, the 18x9 walk in closet, and sweeten the 10x10 4th bedroom expansion to a final size of 19x13. THAT 4th bedroom could be my home theater... but that would drop our effective bedroom number to 3... leaving the 4th as a possible convertible with recessed murphy bed for guests and maybe recessed home office stations... that would make for a 19x10 walking area... sufficient for a home theater, eh? AND the living room would get a modest 5x20 "bump out" to lengthen it - and we would defer the kitchen bump out and rennovation.

BIG permited rennovations trigger one time property tax bumps. The savings on rennovating versus moving to a 1.2M home that would have a lot of these desired changes (with probably the added benefit of superior location and age - things we CANNOT CHANGE) would add an estimated $6-7,000 a year in property taxes in PERPETUITY. That could be savings of $150-200,000 over the next 20 years alone ... enough to set aside money towards purchase of another HOME from one POV! We have the power to SAVE this money if we sacrifice the age and location of the structure - and try to change our layout with restriction to our existing lot size and so on.

I figure the revised concept adds only 400-500' - depending on whether we bump out the living room - or not. This actually avoids engineering the hillside in BACK (not the tiny slope on the SIDE of the house). And this goes a long way towards preserving the appearance of the home and the size of our back yard. Plus... I was thinking I could later build a little cabanna in back this way. It would be a detatched building of about 150 sq feet that could serve as a place for a guest to stay - or a place for the girls to play in. OR even it might serve as a home office or....??? The cabanna has to be small to escape the planning department and zoning requirements which would force me to excavate the hillside AND push the cabanna to become a physical part of my home.

At any rate... nothing is being thought about for remodeling until our health crisis resolves somewhat with family members. Or until we come to firmer terms with whats' going on. PLUS... I was beginning to think we might have an easier time of it if we simply built a 2nd story over half our home. If I enclose the central atrium and put a grand staircase in part of it this would add an easy 1500-1700' to the home and still bump out a little on the side for another 100'. The existing Master bedroom would make a for nice home theater and we would have to figure out what to do with the master bath and walk in closet. That would probably OVERBUILD it for the neighborhood... but so what? The total area of our home would be 3700-3900 feet... and the new homes in this size for the area are going for more money then I would expect to get for my home if rennovated as such and resold today. HOWEVER... what the casual observer fails to realize is that I would in fact get my money out (barely) on the step up in resale value. Simply because there ARE homes in my community which are well above the value of my 3700-3900' home - however, those homes are worth every penny as they are brand new with fresh design and the matching neighbors. Who knows... the big rennovation would be the BEST approach because it would enable almost everything while preserving all of the land as open space. It would also be the cleanest appearance out front from the street. Maybe my idea of rennovation with a 1500' addition would be the wave of the future in regentrifying the neighborhood, eh? Either that or I'd be the only fool in the zip code to overbuild. And the one thing that holds me back is we don't have a prime LOCATION within the community. We just visited with neighbors who are doing a huge remodel/addition like the one I described above - but not adding as much square footage. They have a really gorgous job being done.

Anyways... that thought on a 2nd story came about from my SPOUSE! That was unexpected.

OK... gonna go now... hope all is well for you. :rolleyes1

[kritter]

Crash,

I will be interested too in the pricing structure too but I am open to anything at this point...


Sounds the home improvements will make your house awesome.

What else have you been up to these days. Things are not quite the same without hearing from you...

[captaincrash]

Well...

... you may not like hearing this... but we are stil;l feeling kind of entrenched or threatened... because Alicia's closest cousin in Hawaii just had her Dad (our Uncle) pass. He had a brins anurism (misspelled) for no reason (no impact, no symptoms) and he just fell over and passed away. He lives alone so he had no chance for being saved. We're waiting for final arrangement info to see if we'll fly out or send one of us to attend.

Aside from that - we also just had our two mini-vacations sort of cancel out. We were gonna meet our BIL from Boston in VT at Smugglers Creek or something like that to Ski... but the season ends supossedly 2 weeks before we can get there (with our schedule). And then with the passing of our Uncle the skiing planned for Mammorth here in California with all the cousines is officially suspended. SO we are back to a year with lots of vacation time and no plans. Of course, we were planning on saving all of our vacation time to spend with her Dad if he did not respond to the medication and theraphy.

At any rate... on another note - I am installing a new mailbox out front. I am feeling somewhat "empowered" as a handy husband as a result. TOmorrow I pour this tiny little pad of cement and let it cure a couple of days - then we have a brand new - improved - more secured / locking mailbox. And... I just sold $500 in Laker tickets for $660 ... giving us a net profit of about $100... WOOoooo Hooooo.

So - it's nice of ya to suggest my conversation is missed. It makes me feel appreciated a bit. My spouse is a little bit edgy... and she gets this way when unhappy things of some significant merit occur or threaten. She was particularly edgy when we were in a state of uncertainty with her Dad.

So... what is is going on... Alicia bought 40 jars of Ragu for a $1 a jar the other day... and I am in a serious mood for going out an' gettin' a very nice meal. I need to be served and I wanna see a nice concert or play. We have Wicked coming up in about 9 weeks but it's not soon enough.

TTFN....

[kritter]

Well...

... you may not like hearing this... but we are stil;l feeling kind of entrenched or threatened... because Alicia's closest cousin in Hawaii just had her Dad (our Uncle) pass. He had a brins anurism (misspelled) for no reason (no impact, no symptoms) and he just fell over and passed away. He lives alone so he had no chance for being saved. We're waiting for final arrangement info to see if we'll fly out or send one of us to attend.

Aside from that - we also just had our two mini-vacations sort of cancel out. We were gonna meet our BIL from Boston in VT at Smugglers Creek or something like that to Ski... but the season ends supossedly 2 weeks before we can get there (with our schedule). And then with the passing of our Uncle the skiing planned for Mammorth here in California with all the cousines is officially suspended. SO we are back to a year with lots of vacation time and no plans. Of course, we were planning on saving all of our vacation time to spend with her Dad if he did not respond to the medication and theraphy.

At any rate... on another note - I am installing a new mailbox out front. I am feeling somewhat "empowered" as a handy husband as a result. TOmorrow I pour this tiny little pad of cement and let it cure a couple of days - then we have a brand new - improved - more secured / locking mailbox. And... I just sold $500 in Laker tickets for $660 ... giving us a net profit of about $100... WOOoooo Hooooo.

So - it's nice of ya to suggest my conversation is missed. It makes me feel appreciated a bit. My spouse is a little bit edgy... and she gets this way when unhappy things of some significant merit occur or threaten. She was particularly edgy when we were in a state of uncertainty with her Dad.

So... what is is going on... Alicia bought 40 jars of Ragu for a $1 a jar the other day... and I am in a serious mood for going out an' gettin' a very nice meal. I need to be served and I wanna see a nice concert or play. We have Wicked coming up in about 9 weeks but it's not soon enough.

TTFN....

Tom,

Well Alicia seems to have every right to be kind of out of sorts... Guess you will be eating a ton of pasta now...

Good luck with the mail box. Let me know how it comes out..Sure I can get you to take a few photos of it...LOL!!!!!!!

[captaincrash]

Tom,

Well Alicia seems to have every right to be kind of out of sorts... Guess you will be eating a ton of pasta now...

Good luck with the mail box. Let me know how it comes out..Sure I can get you to take a few photos of it...LOL!!!!!!!

I had an annoying computer failure. My notebook was compormised by a virus or viscious spyware program and it DIED. I then tried to get the new desktop we bought for the kids to hook up to the internet while I waited for my friend to recover some of my data before he WIPES and reimages the notebook hard drive... alas, the kids computer has an administrators password which "I" set - and "I" ... forgot! So - I have an escape route - I can reset the password on the administrators access - except I need to get a USB disc on key which I just dug up. And I am now traveling and at a hotel using my spouses' computer - and I was disrupted by a one day fever on one of the kids - AND so on. Tomorrow I hope to get around to setting up the decktop to access the wifi gateway with the antenna I have to install - once I've reset the administrators access password.

Other than that - I have not had a chance to download my mailbox photos - those shall come along shortly!

Hope all is well with your family. Had a good week - picked up an extra $12K on a personal sale. Bruce will know what I'm talking about. I should get it all on one check next week or the week after. Chuckles... with the $ on hand my friends ask me why I don't just pitch the old notebook and bu someting new and powerful. I chuckle and reaffirm that I am NOT going to relent on my frugal ways. Besides, I still hunting after another house or two to buy for my kids (even though they're only 3 and 6). I figure it'll be cheaper to preposition some real estate now then wait 15-25 years to help them with a down payment. Shoot - in 15-20 years a rental property should be paid off and throwing off cash to help with college and advanced educational expenses. Then - if necessary it can be rolled into their first home where-ever they choose to live (hopefully - not too far from Mom and Dad or a major airport with cheap airfares from LAX!).

So - I will not relent on continuing to use my old virus infected notebook computer from 2-3 years ago. I was gonna buy a new motherboard for it becaue the power plug was damaged after it was dropped - but now I may have found a technician who will change the power plug on the board for $80. Which is less then paying BEST BUYs' technician to do it for $225 or... buy a new motherboard from DeLL for $950. I could buy a motherboard on EBAY for $120-280 too - but this is a toss of the dice for a refurb board. The simplist approach is to just fix the plug at the low cost of $80. I revel in being frugal and efficient... (most of the time).... <chuckles>:laughing:

[kritter]

Crash,

You never seem to surprise or amaze me...

Computer trouble is never fun and is a major inconvience..Hoep it gets worked out sooner than later.

Congrats on the extra 12K I will have to let Bruce know...

Hope everyone is ok health wise!!!!!


I had an annoying computer failure. My notebook was compormised by a virus or viscious spyware program and it DIED. I then tried to get the new desktop we bought for the kids to hook up to the internet while I waited for my friend to recover some of my data before he WIPES and reimages the notebook hard drive... alas, the kids computer has an administrators password which "I" set - and "I" ... forgot! So - I have an escape route - I can reset the password on the administrators access - except I need to get a USB disc on key which I just dug up. And I am now traveling and at a hotel using my spouses' computer - and I was disrupted by a one day fever on one of the kids - AND so on. Tomorrow I hope to get around to setting up the decktop to access the wifi gateway with the antenna I have to install - once I've reset the administrators access password.

Other than that - I have not had a chance to download my mailbox photos - those shall come along shortly!

Hope all is well with your family. Had a good week - picked up an extra $12K on a personal sale. Bruce will know what I'm talking about. I should get it all on one check next week or the week after. Chuckles... with the $ on hand my friends ask me why I don't just pitch the old notebook and bu someting new and powerful. I chuckle and reaffirm that I am NOT going to relent on my frugal ways. Besides, I still hunting after another house or two to buy for my kids (even though they're only 3 and 6). I figure it'll be cheaper to preposition some real estate now then wait 15-25 years to help them with a down payment. Shoot - in 15-20 years a rental property should be paid off and throwing off cash to help with college and advanced educational expenses. Then - if necessary it can be rolled into their first home where-ever they choose to live (hopefully - not too far from Mom and Dad or a major airport with cheap airfares from LAX!).

So - I will not relent on continuing to use my old virus infected notebook computer from 2-3 years ago. I was gonna buy a new motherboard for it becaue the power plug was damaged after it was dropped - but now I may have found a technician who will change the power plug on the board for $80. Which is less then paying BEST BUYs' technician to do it for $225 or... buy a new motherboard from DeLL for $950. I could buy a motherboard on EBAY for $120-280 too - but this is a toss of the dice for a refurb board. The simplist approach is to just fix the plug at the low cost of $80. I revel in being frugal and efficient... (most of the time).... <chuckles>:laughing:

[captaincrash]

Crash,

You never seem to surprise or amaze me...

Computer trouble is never fun and is a major inconvience..Hoep it gets worked out sooner than later.

Congrats on the extra 12K I will have to let Bruce know...

Hope everyone is ok health wise!!!!!

Yeah...

It's like I write one sale every year or two - and this past transaction was maybe it - except I have a follow on referral that will generate another 2.5-4K (a relative). I guess I'll do it too.

Anyways... I don't know if I mentionede my latest hair brained whim... I was thiking of PERSONALLY building a cabana in our back yard. IF we were NOT gonna push off the back side of the house then I could build a tiny studio/play room for the kids. I'm gonna level with you because I invite any opinions from ANYONE reading this... but it has to be 100 square feet or less and be 12' high or less. I am suppposedly not to have any power/water/sewage or gas lines run out to it - but I intend to have at least power run out to it. I HAD been toying with the idea of pouring a concrete foundation that overflowed to a 50' front and rear patio which COULD be enclosed some day to provide for a little closet space and a bathroom. BUT this would have made it totally out of compliance - and I heard zoning and the city could force me to tear it down. I don't want that! But talking to the planning guys - they said if I did ust power it would skate by - so long as everything else fit size wise. What do you think?

[kritter]

Yeah...

It's like I write one sale every year or two - and this past transaction was maybe it - except I have a follow on referral that will generate another 2.5-4K (a relative). I guess I'll do it too.

Anyways... I don't know if I mentionede my latest hair brained whim... I was thiking of PERSONALLY building a cabana in our back yard. IF we were NOT gonna push off the back side of the house then I could build a tiny studio/play room for the kids. I'm gonna level with you because I invite any opinions from ANYONE reading this... but it has to be 100 square feet or less and be 12' high or less. I am suppposedly not to have any power/water/sewage or gas lines run out to it - but I intend to have at least power run out to it. I HAD been toying with the idea of pouring a concrete foundation that overflowed to a 50' front and rear patio which COULD be enclosed some day to provide for a little closet space and a bathroom. BUT this would have made it totally out of compliance - and I heard zoning and the city could force me to tear it down. I don't want that! But talking to the planning guys - they said if I did ust power it would skate by - so long as everything else fit size wise. What do you think?

The cabana sounds neat. Do you have a pool out back.. Well of course you do..;) ;)

I am sure there is some way you could get around compliance??
Do you have the time though to take on such a large project??
Just a few thoughts/questions..Sorry...

[captaincrash]

Well,

Actually we don't... and that is because we have a huge pool with the Homeowners' association and... we don't want the liability or upkeep. We have had homes with a pool... and we have a rental with a pool which we actually filled in. We have however considered putting in a lap pool or maybe one of those pools with an adjustable current for working out. But that's mostly talk. The cabana is more a play house and possible pocket sized office or ??? for us. It would fit under compliance with the city at 100'. That's not very large - so I was going to have a pull out wall that took a preplanned adjoining patio and overhanging roof to expand it another 40-50'. At 140-150 this would be a nice sized play area or office.

But ya know what... I think I've been scaling thins down a bit as we are still in the "think it over" stage of what direction we'll take. The cabana would ot effect any main house additions provided we did not push straight back - which is now the plan. And - this would keep me busy.

So - can I do it? I think so. How hard could it be? <fameous last words, eh>.

OK gotta go now...

[kritter]

Well,

Actually we don't... and that is because we have a huge pool with the Homeowners' association and... we don't want the liability or upkeep. We have had homes with a pool... and we have a rental with a pool which we actually filled in. We have however considered putting in a lap pool or maybe one of those pools with an adjustable current for working out. But that's mostly talk. The cabana is more a play house and possible pocket sized office or ??? for us. It would fit under compliance with the city at 100'. That's not very large - so I was going to have a pull out wall that took a preplanned adjoining patio and overhanging roof to expand it another 40-50'. At 140-150 this would be a nice sized play area or office.

But ya know what... I think I've been scaling thins down a bit as we are still in the "think it over" stage of what direction we'll take. The cabana would ot effect any main house additions provided we did not push straight back - which is now the plan. And - this would keep me busy.

So - can I do it? I think so. How hard could it be? <fameous last words, eh>.

OK gotta go now...

Sounds like you have a lot to think about like always...LOL!!!
Be glad that you don't have the upkeep of a pool. It is a ton of work..

Would you do the work for the cabana yourself or what???

[captaincrash]

Sounds like you have a lot to think about like always...LOL!!!
Be glad that you don't have the upkeep of a pool. It is a ton of work..

Would you do the work for the cabana yourself or what???

Well...

This is how it works out... toorrow I'm gonna confirm that I can get away, er - rather comply with the CC&R for the HOA out here. I already know it's gonna be OK with the city. And if so - then I could start preparing the site on Wednesday or Thursday. I would do everything except mix and pour the concrete foundation, and run the electrical and water line.

This means I plan on doing the wiring, plumbing inside the cabana and I would build the foundation forms (molds) and set up the rebarb array for the concrete. Aside from that - the only things I am a little owrried about are how to handle some of the fine craftsman details for the stair case I want to build and the telescoping wall.

So - tonight we went out for supper and a local street fair. Along the way we stopped at a couple of businesses that sold "sheds" and playground equipment. Of particular interest were a couple of cabana type structures and fair tale like play houses. I suggested so and so a building was near the scale of what I would build and this and that had design elements that I liked. The kids loved the ideas I had - as for the next 10 years it would really be for them to play in for the most part. And after 10 years passes it would revert to our use more or less.

So - tomorrow I'll pour through the CC&R contract and by-laws in detail to see what restrictions I have on making a building. If I am forbidden to do it - then I'll do it anyway. HOWEVER... it will not involve anything near the quality, size and permanence that I am thinking of employing now. IE, if I get caught and forced to tear it down then I'll just be out a couple of K at the most. However, if I build a near permanent full sized cabana then I'll committ a lot more effort and money to the structure.

But even so ... I am thinking this will be a fun little exercise that should take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month plus a little to complete. Among the minor details I've worked out are the loft will have a kid sized 46" peak and minimum of 34" at the perimeter. The main floor will have a full interior area of just 117 square feet (less roughly 12 square feet taken by a petite stairway... unless I use a pull down stairway) and the loft would have 63 square feet plus a 36 square foot balcony. Yup... in a lot of ways it is more then enough to be kid sized. And in other ways it is barely enough to serve as a cozy little cabana.

I already have about $2000 in windows on hand to install - and if I don't use 'em for this I'll be lookin' to intergrate them into ...

... I have to pause to interject now... I am watching a show that copares what you get for various dollar levels between Austin, Baltimore, and Los Angeles with a home. For 1KK you get 4,000 square feet on 1.5 acres custom full spec built home... and in Baltimore it's less ... and in LA a little less. I pause to think about a couple of homes we looked at in our neighborhood above and below 1KK and I don't have to wonder why I am thinking of doing an expansion. Only - it is such a difficult decision as to whether we kick out on one side to just add a little under 500' or cap the house with a 2nd story and near 1600-1800'. A 2n story would force us to move out while a kick out would not. We would NOT be able to do both easily. AND - regardless of which we eventually build... my cabana would NOT interfere with the planning or zoning litimtations and rules... assuming our HOA CC&Rs are OK with my plans.

Anyways... these photos give some idea of what I wanna build...

http://www.cmbaonline.org/images/Playhouse%20web2.JPGhttp://www.martinshomeandgarden.com/Playhouse%20white%20end%20porch.jpg

And here's something being sold as a kit at Costco.com for $9300... it has a 64 square foot exterior dimension with a loft of some unknown size. This would be easy to buy and build but I would have little utility for this beyond it being a playhouse. On the other hand my idea of building to the limit allowed at 100 sq feet on the exterior base (81 sq foot interior area). Add to this the additional attic/loft with approximately 63 sq feet with a 34-46" cieling and a extra 36 sq foot from the secret pull out wall which matches up under the 36 sq foot balcony extending from the loft. So... what I'm building has a total exterior area of 100-140 sq feet which translates into interior floor space of 81+36 = 117 sq feet plus the 63 sq foot loft and 36 sq foot exterior balcony. That is almost like having 180 sq feet under a roof versus 64' wih the Costco playouse for $9300. And I don't expect thatt the Costco structure is going to be finished with a concrete foundation, 6" thick insulated walls, roof and 6" thick loft floor... or regular residential grade windows and front door? Not to mention in wall power, water, TV, sound, air con & heat, plus closed circuit security alarm & monitoring. But thier design sure looks pretty...

http://content.costco.com/Images/Content/ProductLarge/166659LL.jpg

[kritter]

Well...

This is how it works out... toorrow I'm gonna confirm that I can get away, er - rather comply with the CC&R for the HOA out here. I already know it's gonna be OK with the city. And if so - then I could start preparing the site on Wednesday or Thursday. I would do everything except mix and pour the concrete foundation, and run the electrical and water line.

This means I plan on doing the wiring, plumbing inside the cabana and I would build the foundation forms (molds) and set up the rebarb array for the concrete. Aside from that - the only things I am a little owrried about are how to handle some of the fine craftsman details for the stair case I want to build and the telescoping wall.

So - tonight we went out for supper and a local street fair. Along the way we stopped at a couple of businesses that sold "sheds" and playground equipment. Of particular interest were a couple of cabana type structures and fair tale like play houses. I suggested so and so a building was near the scale of what I would build and this and that had design elements that I liked. The kids loved the ideas I had - as for the next 10 years it would really be for them to play in for the most part. And after 10 years passes it would revert to our use more or less.

So - tomorrow I'll pour through the CC&R contract and by-laws in detail to see what restrictions I have on making a building. If I am forbidden to do it - then I'll do it anyway. HOWEVER... it will not involve anything near the quality, size and permanence that I am thinking of employing now. IE, if I get caught and forced to tear it down then I'll just be out a couple of K at the most. However, if I build a near permanent full sized cabana then I'll committ a lot more effort and money to the structure.

But even so ... I am thinking this will be a fun little exercise that should take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month plus a little to complete. Among the minor details I've worked out are the loft will have a kid sized 46" peak and minimum of 34" at the perimeter. The main floor will have a full interior area of just 117 square feet (less roughly 12 square feet taken by a petite stairway... unless I use a pull down stairway) and the loft would have 63 square feet plus a 36 square foot balcony. Yup... in a lot of ways it is more then enough to be kid sized. And in other ways it is barely enough to serve as a cozy little cabana.

I already have about $2000 in windows on hand to install - and if I don't use 'em for this I'll be lookin' to intergrate them into ...

... I have to pause to interject now... I am watching a show that copares what you get for various dollar levels between Austin, Baltimore, and Los Angeles with a home. For 1KK you get 4,000 square feet on 1.5 acres custom full spec built home... and in Baltimore it's less ... and in LA a little less. I pause to think about a couple of homes we looked at in our neighborhood above and below 1KK and I don't have to wonder why I am thinking of doing an expansion. Only - it is such a difficult decision as to whether we kick out on one side to just add a little under 500' or cap the house with a 2nd story and near 1600-1800'. A 2n story would force us to move out while a kick out would not. We would NOT be able to do both easily. AND - regardless of which we eventually build... my cabana would NOT interfere with the planning or zoning litimtations and rules... assuming our HOA CC&Rs are OK with my plans.

Anyways... these photos give some idea of what I wanna build...

http://www.cmbaonline.org/images/Playhouse%20web2.JPGhttp://www.martinshomeandgarden.com/Playhouse%20white%20end%20porch.jpg

And here's something being sold as a kit at Costco.com for $9300... it has a 64 square foot exterior dimension with a loft of some unknown size. This would be easy to buy and build but I would have little utility for this beyond it being a playhouse. On the other hand my idea of building to the limit allowed at 100 sq feet on the exterior base (81 sq foot interior area). Add to this the additional attic/loft with approximately 63 sq feet with a 34-46" cieling and a extra 36 sq foot from the secret pull out wall which matches up under the 36 sq foot balcony extending from the loft. So... what I'm building has a total exterior area of 100-140 sq feet which translates into interior floor space of 81+36 = 117 sq feet plus the 63 sq foot loft and 36 sq foot exterior balcony. That is almost like having 180 sq feet under a roof versus 64' wih the Costco playouse for $9300. And I don't expect thatt the Costco structure is going to be finished with a concrete foundation, 6" thick insulated walls, roof and 6" thick loft floor... or regular residential grade windows and front door? Not to mention in wall power, water, TV, sound, air con & heat, plus closed circuit security alarm & monitoring. But thier design sure looks pretty...

http://content.costco.com/Images/Content/ProductLarge/166659LL.jpg


LOVE IT....Love how it is going to look. THe kids will love it and so will you and Alicia...

I can not believe you have the time to take to work on such a "large" construction project. Good for you..

It will bring such value to your home and years and years of enjoyment.

Keep me updated on the progress you make...

Have you decided if you will be cruising this year or not. My TA just emailed me that my onboard credit went up again... She also was able to get me and a few others in on a "group"rate so that has brought our cruise cost down and offered us a few other perks. Such as a private cocktail reception, etc.. So she has been wonderful..

Good luck on your adventure.....Kristin

[captaincrash]

LOVE IT....Love how it is going to look. THe kids will love it and so will you and Alicia...

I can not believe you have the time to take to work on such a "large" construction project. Good for you..

It will bring such value to your home and years and years of enjoyment.

Keep me updated on the progress you make...

Have you decided if you will be cruising this year or not. My TA just emailed me that my onboard credit went up again... She also was able to get me and a few others in on a "group"rate so that has brought our cruise cost down and offered us a few other perks. Such as a private cocktail reception, etc.. So she has been wonderful..

Good luck on your adventure.....Kristin

Well...

... just a few quick comments (by my verbose stamdards) cuz I gotta run some errands before 9PM...

The HOA just requires we submit our design plans for approval by the archetechtural (gross misspelling) panel.... and they generally want the look to be professional and NOT rentable or usable as a bedroom - same as the city. So - it looks like we're ON! And I have a few details to review before I draw up plans and finalize the look and layout - as well as the positioning in the yard.

HOWEVER, that said... the spouse and I are getting into a snowball situation with us NOW drawing up a coplete wish list of what to rennovate or build. And we'll choose what should be first, second and so on. So - my little cabanna/play house may slip to a secondary priority.

Aside from that - we are in the middle of schsduleing a 2 or 3 week trip to Honolulu to be near her parents. They're doing sort of OK... well, Dad is doing well considering the circumstances. And we are planning for August in Honolulu now. It starts at only $2900 for 4 on United - staying at the Queen Kapiolani for 2 weeks - and this includes a rental car for a week and transfers. Of course, we're gonna step up a little in hotel - but we're not there to really vacation - but to be near the parents for a few weeks.

As for any cruises this year... I don't know. We usually do 1 or 2 every year for the last decade and a half or so... and if we don't sail in 07 then this will be the first time we've skipped in about 13-14 years! Alicia has 6 weeks of company vacation (or 5?) plus the regular national holidays and a few flex days for being sick - which she almost never uses. So - she is flush with potential time off.

But - as you know - we're hoarding vacation time for urgent travel needs.

So - we're gonna have to wait and see how health matters evolve before we committ to anything fun this year. When were you sailing? Your TA sounds pretty impressive - maybe I should try booking with him/her. I am already committed to the Panama canal with the other TA though so out of consideration I should not transfer that res.

At any rate - so much for draftin' a short reply... <chuckles>.... I gotta run now....