10-14-2006 Cruisetoberfest IV

[Twinave]

Hi Everyone!
Happy cruiseing to the lucky ones.
Sorry about the terrible situation at CC. Jeff, thank you for reminding us about our manners.
Great new pictures from everyone! Amy, the girls are beautiful!

I am off to watch DD "graduate" from Middle School. DS gets home early, so I'm thinking of taking part of the day off.

Later, Avé

 

[Laurarn]

Hi Everyone, just checking in, I've been lurking for a long time, just not too much new to post. The end of the school year is quickly approaching, so lots of testing, and parties, etc. I've also been taxi-mom for soccer and hockey tournaments the past few months. It's great to hear from fellow cruisetoberfest folks who are sailing right now!
Traffic is starting to pick up here in Mooresville as "Race Week" begins. (There's two weekends in a row of Nascar racing here). The Walmart parking lot will be filling up with motorhomes soon. There are many race shops less than a mile from my home, so alot of folks riding through. My DH got tickets for the box seats through business, so we're going next weekend.

Other than that. I booked a 4 day trip on the Wonder with my sisters in September. (I needed a fix). Then I'll be looking forward to next October. The only thing I'm nervous about is taking the kids out of school for the week. They used to have fall break then, now they changed our calendars and we don't have one. Is anyone else taking their kids out, or is everyone on Fall break? Just wondering. I'll have one in high school, one in middle, and one in 3rd grade. I spoke with all the principals already and they seemed okay with it. I need to talk with the teachers at the high school. He can miss up to 6 days in one semester (he'll miss 5 that trip). Anyway, that's the llatest here.
Best wishes to everyone and I'll write again soon (promise).
Laura

 

[jeanneg]

Rosemary: Very well said......you did an excellent job of explaining what we're all about.
Funny thing is when John and I chose to sail last October it was months before any of you guys had done Cruistoberfest #2 and so no date for #3 was established. Since we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and sailing without other family members, I made a conscious decision NOT to post since I didn't want to "burden" hubby with organized events like cruisemeets and the like. Well, once the thread for C#3 got going, I realized what a really great group of folks they were and very cautiously stepped in. It was one of the best decisions I ever made......and even though I've only met these guys once, they truly feel like family. Best of all, my husband had a really fabulous time and is not only looking forward to C#4 but also trying to meet up with fellow DISers outside of the cruise.
So Judy, don't worry about the little details......by the time we sail you'll know exactly what everyone else is doing and then it's your decision to pick and choose the events/traditions you'd like to participate in and nobody will think any more or less of you whatever you decide.

 

[papa]

Laurarn good to hear from you.

Our daughter Stacey (Katie's mom) did a pen and ink drawing of union station here in Nashville with a passenger engine leaving circa mid 1950's for the fund raising dinner on the 5th. It sold and then the person who bought it has commissioned her to do several more. His friend has also commissioned her for some drawings of trains also.

Have to run, babies to see and dishes to do. Mike

 

[alikat99]

Hey Mike & Kathy - I must have spaced out, because I forgot that you guys were in Nashville. I'll be coming up to Nashville June 8 - 12, but sadly, I don't think that I'll have time to meet you guys. I'm going for a scrapbooking convention at the Gaylord Opryland, and I'll be crazy, busy from the time that I arrive on Wednesday afternoon. But, I'll be thinking about you guys!!!

 

[papa]

Amy we live 3 miles from the gaylord opryland hotel. If you have a little time in the evening give us a call and we will meet you at the cracker barrel across the street from there.

Once again we send our condolences to the family onboard that suffered the loss on castaway cay. Hope that our fellow diser's are ok and doing well.

Peter is Jenn still doing her laps around deck 4? I know that as long as I have a lounge chair I can sit and watch them go round for hours Also Peter are you the head server for your table?

Mike

 

[@GoofyNut]

Rosemary ... You are going to be camping in Hamlin? When? We're really close and I'd love to try and meet up. You may want to try Lake Wallenpaupack for a picnic (I'm trying to remember if they are dog friendly .. I know the boating dock areas you can have dogs ON A LEASH) Loved your explanation of our nutty group!

BTW .... It was a nice daydream while it lasted!

 

[@GoofyNut]

JeanneG ... I'm having a senior moment, were you with us at Pineapple Beach?
That had to be one of the BEST times ever on our cruises. Wonder how many baby turtles there are now!

 

[Viking]

I'm back from a two hour plus treatment at my dentist's .
I had a bridge and two crowns removed, which will be replaced in two weeks. The anesthesia worked fine, but those horrible sounds It was like the demolition of a real bridge
Fortunately the numbness is gone now so that we can have dinner in a few minutes

 

[papa]

Eric enjoy your dinner. Hope that you get to feeling better.

Cathy I think that she was with us on pineapple beach. Although my memories after looking at the bare chested beach birds is somewhat hazy.

Trying to straighten up the sewing room a little as the dishnetwork dude is coming this afternoon to install new receivers in the house. Mike

 

[Viking]

Although my memories after looking at the bare chested beach birds is somewhat hazy.

So you better never go to a public park in Germany in summer - Or your memory will be gone for ever Not to speak of public beaches

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Love the new picture Mike & Kathy. Wish we could have seen the Mickeys.

Looks like it's going to rain outside here and it's not very warm. Had to go out to the parking lot as another lawyer in the office needed a boost -- his batteries were dead. Luckily there was a sweater in my car since it's actually gotten colder since I left for work. Can't believe it's the middle of May. We have a long weekend this weekend but so far the weather doesn't look like it's going to be that great.

Thought that it was a great explanation of the group. Jim and I both agree that it made a huge difference to us cruising with people that we had 'met' online before the cruise.

Am looking forward to karoake on the next cruise -- Andy and Marianne were great! The tipsy lady was something else!

Fiona

 

[@GoofyNut]

Hi FIona and Jim ... give each other a hug from us. As I recall you first met us all at our Mini Lunch Cruise in Baltimore. So nice to hear that we aren't axe murderers and we come off as a fun bunch.

Eric ... Hey if your lips are still numb just wear a bib! I know what you mean about the sounds ... why can't they numb our ears too, all those power tools so close to us and all! Hope the choppers re better soon.

BTW ... they are having a sale on some pins at this site ...
Disneydirect.com [Disneydirect@disneydirect.com] and there was a German Mickey that you may be interested in. I was going to place an order BUT when I went to check out the one pin I realllllllllly wanted ... Official Member of the Goofy Club was sold out so I gave up.

BTW ... Just love to take 5 and daydream on this thread!

 

[JJsmama]

Laura,
I'll be taking my kids out of school as well. DSs will be in 2nd and Kindergarten at the time and I will be teaching. It bothers me a little, but I still think it is a good thing for my family. If you've talked to the principals and they are ok with it, don't sweat it. Go ahead and tell the teachers at the beginning of the year so they are not surprised by it though.

We're also planning to take them out in January for WDW. The thing that makes this seem ok to me is that even though both trips are 2006, they are different school years.

By the way, I used to be up your way a good bit at Lake Norman. Alas, no longer. I miss it.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Hey Cathy - yup met you for the first time in Baltimore. Rosemary and Rich had no trouble finding us as Jim had hurt his toe just before we went to Baltimore and was noticably limping.

Had a great time at that mini-meet even though Mapquest was a little off in the time it takes to get from Toronto to Baltimore.

We are all waiting for Thursday to see if we are going to have an election in June -- there is supposed to be a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons and it's a bit iffy if the government can win it. One opposition MP just switched parties though so it's even more up in the air. Politics is such fun. (Not) The only interesting thing is that if there was an election it would be the first one that my DS is older enough to vote in.

Fiona

 

[Viking]

Cathy,
if you could get the German Mickey it would be great. Although we're not collecting, this one would be special Perhaps when you order from them the next time you can add the Mickey. The lip is OK, but as dinner consisted of a large pretzel only tonight, the 'dentist-aftermath' didn't really bother me We're doing a kind of dinner-cancelling for some weeks now as we want to shed some kilos - especially me
I've got that race through Downtown Frankfurt again on 06/02/05 and each kilo less means precious seconds. I did 27:30 last year and my goal for this year is to improve that time by something between 30 and 90 seconds. Although this may prove impossible as this year 58,467 people will participate. This is another 7,000 more than last year. We calculated that the course just offers sufficient room for all runners to stand on it But I heard that they will send us on our way in packs of 3,000 each from two different starting points. On the treadmill I already beat my time, so it should be OK.

Mike,
I just saw that you tried to Skype me. Sorry, I didn't hear it, we were in the living room watching a movie (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) while the puter in 'my office' (Anja calls it my playroom) downloaded some files. Perhaps we can try it again tomorrow

 

[papa]

That is ok Eric. Have a great race and I hope that you beat your time. If I went to a public park in Germany is there a place to rent a seeing eye dog after the park visit?

Fiona hope that everyone there in Toronto are doing well. Did you replace the transmission yet? If not you could park it in the yard and rent out the inside to backpackers or other travelers. Extra income never hurts

Mike

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

We too, will be taking our boys out of school. In the past few years, they have given them a small fall break...have school Monday and Tuesday, be off the rest of the week. The calendar for the coming school year, they don't have that break, but we do get the entire week of Thanksgiving off..which we normally don't. Each year the teachers are given 2 calendars to vote on. HOPEFULLY, they will vote on the calendar with the short week in October for the next school year! If not, then we too, will be missing 5 days, and we are only allowed 6 for the year. Our boys will be in 6th and 4th grades at that time. I imagine there will be some homework to do onboard!

 

[Tulirose]

Yes. If you opt for a headset, make sure it is not one for a cell phone or regular phone as it will not work. It needs to have two jacks, one for the headset jack on the computer and one for the microphone jack.

I'll have to check out CompUSA sometime soon. Probably go by way of microphone instead of headset. This way hubby could add his two cents too during conversation?

 

[Tulirose]

Congratulations to TwinAve's Mary on her Middle School graduation!! Before you know it, she will soon be going off to college.

Laurarn - Fortunately, the days of taking our son out of school are long gone. We have him booked for this cruise but totally don't plan on him going with us. He will have just graduated college a few months earlier and will be in the real world working a REAL job, hopefully, and planning his own vacation cruises.

Way to go Stacey! That daughter of Papa and Kathy has real talent. Keep up the good work! Doing something you love like that and getting paid for it too...how neat is that!