10-14-2006 Cruisetoberfest IV

[bettemom]

Kim,

A DISers name was mentioned as the one who is preselling pins from the Westbound cruise. Some of the eastbounders are unhappy that Disney is only releasing pins on the Westbound cruise (a rumor, not sure if it is true). They were upset that someone was preselling when we may not even get an opportunity to buy direct. There wasn't any bashing of another DISer, but a name was mentioned in context with basically bashing Disney and the mods removed the post. Can I come with you guys?

Tracy

Sure Tracy,

Get those bags packed...

Bye, Kim

 

[winotracy]

I'm a little busy now Kim, but I should have them packed by May 26. Do you think I'll make it See you in CA!!

Tracy

 

[@GoofyNut]

Fiona ... Hope your son makes out OK from his accident.

Hope all the women had a nice "Mom's Day".

Bette ... I'll do your packing if you want...one of the suitcases may be rather large tho (hehe) with air holes! Have a great trip.

BTW (BackToWork)

 

[Viking]

Then Sat night get the call "Mom I've been in an accident". I've discovered that when woken up (or even not) I don't react well to this situation. Anyway he got hit in an intersection by a Mercedes (company car no less). Luckily he wasn't hurt and only the bumper on the car is hurt but the police estimated the damage at $1200 so we'll see. Now have to call the insurance company and see about that as well.

Fiona

Fiona,
tell your DS 'Welcome to the club': The lady who hit our car also drove a Mercedes, and it was a company car, too.
In Germany we have a saying' The smallest part of a Mercedes is the driver's brain.' If the driver is male you can alternatively call another part of HIS anatomy the smallest part

 

[jeanneg]

Fiona,
tell your DS 'Welcome to the club': The lady who hit our car also drove a Mercedes, and it was a company car, too.
In Germany we have a saying' The smallest part of a Mercedes is the driver's brain.' If the driver is male you can alternatively call another part of HIS anatomy the smallest part

......and they censor me for typing B-O-O-B-I-E!!!!!!!!!
Anyhow, after all that test driving it sounds like your new car should be sold to you as a used car, Eric!
Fiona: also been there, done that.....several times unfortunately! The main thing is that nobody was injured, so try to keep that in mind when you're dealing with the bills. Kids can cause so much grief.....
Speaking of which, I hope all the moms had a wonderful Mother's Day. We kinda postponed it a week since I had no kids home yesterday but will have 3 of the 4 next weekend. Besides, the restaurants won't be nearly so crowded.
Rosemary: wow, great success with your yard sale! Way to go....
Renee:Thanks for posting the photos of Haley in her MM outfit.....she looks adorable! Then again, I've never seen a photo of her where she didn't look cute as pie! What a little sweetie she is!
Newsflash: I GOT MY TICKETS FOR STAR WARS.......12:01 a.m.!!!!! I am so psyched!
Nancy: don't you have a graduation and big trip to WDW coming up?

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

I forgot all about getting our Star Wars Tickets! I bought them almost 2 weeks ago for Friday at 4. With the boys in school, it was the best time to go since Steve will be off that Friday. Colton wanted to go to the Midnight showing, but they are having state wide testing that week, and the teacher counts on the kids doing well. He would have a heart attack if I took Colton to the Midnight movie! Besides, Connor and I would fall asleep...Steve and Colton would make it, but be useless the next day. We'll just wait!

Eric, I forgot to mention that I looked at that website! SWEET CAR!! I like all the glass. My only concern would be...what would happen in the event of a roll-over? Or even a good collision? I know you have the roll bars in the back..but all that glass! YIKES! I hope you get the new car you want!

 

[usetheforceluke]

>>promptly downloaded a virus onto the home computer

Well, I stopped writing them down after cleaning off Virus Number 22. I told him to be more circumspect with what he was downloading, then he went and downloaded another swack of them on Sunday when we were at The Game.

The problem was (as I see it) is that one of the viruses toggled the firewall switches before deleting/mucking up the firewall software/settings (a fairly common occurance). A firewall is just a software filter that allows/disallows access to something. (Think of it as like a parent who can hear someone crying in a crowded area and recognize the voice as their offspring.) Mostly firewalls run between an internet connection and a computer; typically you don't need them active on a network if there's a firewall in place because they slow things down.

But because you need two access points on a computer to run a home network, one with a firewall and one without, when the virus toggled the firewall switches, it then allowed unchecked access from the Internet and turned on the firewall to the home network which meant nobody could access the Internet or the main computer files. It's virtually impossible to fix when this happens without advanced help or wiping off your disk drive.

I fixed it after about 30 hours of reading, restoring, rebooting and changing software. And it's the last time I intend doing that.

I did find out a couple of things though.

If you're having problems with spyware, pop-ups, hijacks and stuff, you should seriously look at Microsoft's Antispyware software. Surprisingly, it's FREE and found like 280 items on the main computer that Ad-Aware, HijackThis and Spybot didn't find. You can set it up to run automatically at, say, 4:00 a.m. and it'll keep track of all of the junk that it finds. I'd actually pay for this software, which is saying something I guess.

If you haven't got a decent firewall, or installed Service Pack 2 on your Window's XP, get McAfee's firewall. In the last 16 hours, the firewall has blocked 327 different attempts to access the main computer. Most of these attempts are coming from China, Japan, Korea and so forth, but I didn't have a clue that the volume was this high. The computer's disk drive isn't running all of the time now.

Jim.

 

[papa]

Jim gotta love my mac. It has such a small slice of the computer market that people haven't written too many viruses for it yet.

Good to talk with you this afternoon Rosemary. Good luck finding an unbooked RV park for the memorial day weekend. Mike

 

[Twinave]

Hi Everyone,
Been lurking lately.
Reneé...Great pic of "The Kid" So sorry your thread was ended. But you still have us!
Anyone heard from Rae lately?
Eric, your new car sounds great.

Just under 6 weeks until our trip to Washington, DC!!!!!! Doing the White House Tour with Rosemary and Rich! Rosemary, ignore the PM I sent you, I got the info.

The building permit has been issued for our new house. And the builder's sign is now posted on the lot! And the builder now has 150 days to complete the house.

Bye for now,
Avé

 

[papa]

Hi Mary and family great news about your house. The metro in Washington no longer takes cash at their parking facilities. You get a smart trip card to exit the lot from the fare machines. Parking is $3.75 per day Monday through Friday. Weekends are free. One day passes on the metro is $6.50 per day after 9:30am est. Ride the ducks while you are there they are a hoot. You get the tickets at Union Station which you can reach by the red line. Mike

 

[Viking]

Eric, I forgot to mention that I looked at that website! SWEET CAR!! I like all the glass. My only concern would be...what would happen in the event of a roll-over? Or even a good collision? I know you have the roll bars in the back..but all that glass! YIKES! I hope you get the new car you want!

Michelle,
it is reinforced safety-glass, which doesnt't shatter, but disintegrates into tiny blunt pieces, which are held together by a layer of plastic. The car is the only convertible so far which scored 5 Stars in the EuroNCAP-test, which is the highest rating for crash-safety in Europe.

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

Michelle,
it is reinforced safety-glass, which doesnt't shatter, but disintegrates into tiny blunt pieces, which are held together by a layer of plastic. The car is the only convertible so far which scored 5 Stars in the EuroNCAP-test, which is the highest rating for crash-safety in Europe.

I guess they really thought of everything then, didn't they? Sounds like a wonderful car! I have often thought about getting a small run-around town car, but I like, I NEED my bus too! Maybe once the boys have their own car, then we can get us a little two seater convertable.

 

[Viking]

I guess they really thought of everything then, didn't they? Sounds like a wonderful car! I have often thought about getting a small run-around town car, but I like, I NEED my bus too! Maybe once the boys have their own car, then we can get us a little two seater convertable.

It is a four seater convertible, and BTW at 14.22 feet overall length its isn't considered a small car over here. Our present convertible, which is a 2+2 at 12.5 feet is considered small. The new one is medium-sized. You always have to imagine that a) we have less space over here, and b) the average European requires less space inside a car (But that may change sooner or later) My DW is 5 feet at 100lbs, and I'm 5.11 at 190lbs, so we are quite satisfied with a comparatively small car. But even friends of ours with kids usually drive vans, which would be considered micro-vans in the US. And a Tahoe or a Suburban wouldn't fit into a standard garage, and at $6-7 per gallon no-one wants to have a car like that. The Mercedes ML SUV is very popular over here, but is usually ordered with a diesel-engine.

 

[dan and scott]

Hey guys,

Just stopping in to say hello! I have no where else to post since our Panama thread got shut!

See ya all soon!

Dan

 

[Viking]

Hey guys,

Just stopping in to say hello! I have no where else to post since our Panama thread got shut!

See ya all soon!

Dan

Hi Dan,
good to hear from you, but please behave yourself - We don't want our thread closed too

Ave,
congrats on your building progress. Anja and I will go paddling on the River Main tomorrow. It cost me some time to convince her to get into such a boat after our adventures on Ecofina Creek But I'm also working on her to go canoeing again with you -and this time the Jagers also have to accompany us.

 

[Twinave]

Mike, Thanks for the info on the Metro. We will not have to pay to park since we will not have a car. There is a Metro station within walking distance from my sister's house. We do plan on getting the pay one price tickets since this will be our main form of transport.
Eric, You silly man, DON'T tell Anja we are going canoeing. With the Jager's along it is sure to be a blast.
Had another meeting with Casey's teacher today. And he is ......GOING INTO THE SECOND GRADE! He will be in a small class again, which is good for him. We are all very happy about his progress.
Hi to Dan! Sorry about your thread.
Got to run.
Later,
Avé

 

[Viking]

Ave,
congrats to Casey on his 'promotion'

 

[bettemom]

Mike, Thanks for the info on the Metro. We will not have to pay to park since we will not have a car. There is a Metro station within walking distance from my sister's house. We do plan on getting the pay one price tickets since this will be our main form of transport.
Eric, You silly man, DON'T tell Anja we are going canoeing. With the Jager's along it is sure to be a blast.
Had another meeting with Casey's teacher today. And he is ......GOING INTO THE SECOND GRADE! He will be in a small class again, which is good for him. We are all very happy about his progress.
Hi to Dan! Sorry about your thread.
Got to run.
Later,
Avé

Hi Ave'...

Great news for Casey, I'm sure he is happy... Make sure you take lots of pictures as they start building your new house. We would love to see them...

Bye, Kim

 

[JJsmama]

Congrats Ave on your son's progress. Mine is going into First grade and we just met the teachers Monday. It is going to be a big change from Kindergarten.

Did you all see the post about Whether it is crazy to book a cruise in September? Someone said that she would not put her children in danger that way and equated it to playing 'chicken' on the interstate. I think that is a little over the top.

Believe me, if there is a major hurricane in the path, I'm not getting on that ship but I don't think that just booking a cruise for hurricane season is risky. You have a choice whether or not to sail at cruise time.

Hey, do I need to rush to get my trip insurance before it has been two weeks since booking? We are very healthy so we don't have any pre-existing conditions. I was planning to go with Travel Guard from Insuremytrip.com. It is $76 for the 4 of us compared to DCL's $316. I read the reviews and ratings and that company gets the highest possible rating.

Jennifer

 

[Hygiene99]

Hi Guy's would anyone Like a Jennifer Free to a good Home ?????

She is so excited For our upcoming Cruise she is going to POP..


Will do some posting to this thread ...

Before we post anywhere else..

Hi Laura ... See you At the pool....

Tracy will also post some picture she will Be Recieviing ..


Before She leaves for her Trip..

Witch includes meeting us at The Magic in Ca. and going to the "Happiest Celebration On Earth.."

Tracy get happy...Now.... Your Package will be there tomorrow..


We leave thursday at noon..



And would just like to say We Are Some of The luckiest people on the planet to Be part of This Trip...