10-14-2006 Cruisetoberfest IV

[Laurarn]

My DH went to my son's Band Boosters Mtg. last night at the High School to see what's going on for the upcoming year. The kids have been preparing for their big trip this coming New Year's to ...where else....New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl (which I believe is at the Superdome). DH brought the paperwork home on it and they are staying at the Hyatt (the hotel they've shown on TV with all the windows blown out).
It's hard to even think about this trip after watching all the news. All those poor folks. I've been praying for them.

 

[Viking]

Laura,
don't change those plans. Knowing the American Spirit I'm sure that the South will be up and going again very quickly - and then the can need that money kids will bring into town.
We did the same with Thailand: Apart from donating money for the tsunami victims we traveled there in April to bring money into the region.

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

Jeanne and John....hope you have a wonderful trip to Alaska and hope you enjoy it as much as we did....I found it to be a beautiful state....we combined that with a trip to Washington State and were gone for 21 days and came home broke!! Thank God that we took the trips that we did when Sam was working!

Those poor people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama....Sam's cousin has gone through several hurricanes living in South Florida...Katrina actually came in as a Category 1 at Hollywood Beach right where they live....they however, spend the summer here in PA but their son said they didn't have any damage. She said even with Andrew, it was a dry hurricane and did alot/tons of damage but they didn't have the widespread flooding. Most people have lost everything and some didn't have very much to begin with...makes you stop and think how really fortunate we are.

Rainy and gloomy here yesterday and today but no high winds from Katrina...we actually would welcome the rain since we need it desperately.

 

[padisneyfan]

Fiona--- Did you go to the Jay's game yesterday? I read that the Jay's fans loudly booed Rafael Palmeiro that he had to put earplugs in his ears.

Hi MaryJo.

Nancy

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

Gas is getting ready to skyrocket here! One station raised to 3.09 and the others are still at 2.52 and 2.59. 50 cents is a HECK of a jump. The News at Noon said it's only time before the others raise too. We topped off both trucks this morning, having to wait in line to get a pump. Steve said there were people with containers filling those up too. I think that is a bit extreme, but people have to do what they have to do. We don't have plans to travel this weekend....we usually go home to see the Cleveland Air Show, but my Mom has the house under renovation, Daisy is still a mess at night and we are going to stain our fence! I wonder how many people will cancel this weekend due to the raise in prices? I know I wouldn't. We are lucky though. Steve only works ONE mile from the house and I am a SAHM, so I don't HAVE to go anywhere that isn't necessary. My friend and I even talked about carpooling to walmart!
Have a great day ya'll!

 

[Viking]

Over here they raised it by 4 Eurocents yesterday and another 8 today - per liter , of course!!
Converted into gallons and Dollar this means: 50 US Cents!!!
So a gallon of premium gas is now $6.55

 

[bettemom]

Eric,
Kudos to you and your countrymen !

As near as I can tell Germany is the first country to offer aid for this horrid gulf coast disaster...THANK-YOU !!!!!

See you soon

Bette & Kim

 

[usetheforceluke]

Fiona--- Did you go to the Jay's game yesterday?

No. I was there at 5:00 p.m. to pick her up and at 7:00 p.m. she said that we were leaving... at that point it wasn't really worth going downtown for. I did, however, get a free supper out of it at our regular greek food restaurant. They don't have a problem with us changing the tv channels and upping the volume, so we watched a lot of the game from there.

The booing was fairly loud, for Jays fans. The last time they booed like that was for Billy Koch (a former Jays pitcher) coming back first time after making some really nasty comments about the club and the fans. They booed Koch the whole time he was on the field (one and a third innings). I had to admit I wasn't quite as pleasant as I should have been.

As for Palmiero, it was just as bad, if not worse at times. You could hear the undercurrent start when he was on deck, and didn't stop until he was in the dugout. The first time he was up he obviously heard the crowd because the next three times he was up he wore ear plugs... there's a really large picture of them in this morning's sports section. The fact he struck out twice, wussy infield fly and a grounder that a Little Leaguer would have no problem with set the fans off even more.

Considering this type of booing rarely happens here, when it does, it's front page news.

One station raised to 3.09

Saw a CNN report that said the price is expected to stabilize 'somewhere' around $3.50 for the cheap stuff. Our gas hasn't taken any massive upswings because our refineries are still working, but I'd expect another $0.10 or $0.15 increase here to 'around' $1.10 to $1.15/liter.

The other news is Southwest is having a seat sale for the December trip. We can go from Buffalo/Baltimore/Orlando for $37USD each one way. We had to book a later time going down though, but it basically saved us about $350USD, all things considered. How you Americans can charge this low a fare is totally beyond me. Geeze.... it would cost $37CAD just to get to the airport from here, and that doesn't include the tip and a Red Cap.

Jim.

Edited to fix tyops.

 

[Viking]

Eric,
Kudos to you and your countrymen !

As near as I can tell Germany is the first country to offer aid for this horrid gulf coast disaster...THANK-YOU !!!!!

See you soon

Bette & Kim

Bette & Kim,
you see me blushing
I have an appointment with my CEO on Friday. We will go to our local branch of the German Red Cross to make a donation for their new ambulance station. I already decided to ask him for an authorization to collect money from our employees to give to the disaster victims. Usually my company then gives another Euro for every Euro collected. I'll keep you posted about the outcome.

 

[Viking]

JIm,
in Germany you can fly for as little €.99 from Frankfurt to London return - they only have five seats or so for that price in every plane, but when you're quick you can get it. The next 10 seats are 9.99, then they have 30 seats for 19.99 and so on. Unfortunately we have to pay taxes and airportfees on those prices which add another €30, but nevertheless it is a good deal.

 

[usetheforceluke]

but nevertheless it is a good deal.

Oh, I'd think cheap airfares in Canada are a thing of the past. We could take Tango (an Air Canada subsidiary) on equivalent days (not times) for a mere $1,171CAD round trip. Southwest is charging us $221USD, so even if you included $50USD for the exchange, it's still some $900CAD or so cheaper to go from Buffalo.

I guess we really should be patriotic and fly the National Airline, but there's a limit, if you know what I mean.

Jim.

 

[Viking]

I guess we really should be patriotic and fly the National Airline, but there's a limit, if you know what I mean.

Jim.

That's why I drive a Renault and not a Volkswagen, a Beemer or a Mercedes
Fortunately as Europeans we nowadays have an extended patriotism. My car must be from the European Union.
And I usually use Aemrican Airlines going to the States as they are far cheaper than Lufthansa, our flag carrier.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Couldn't believe it when the DING fare came up on my computer yesterday afternoon -- closed my office door and booked it!! It was the only great thing that happened yesterday at work. Not a great day -- too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I'm also starting to feel the stress of the job which isn't unusual since it's been a really long, busy summer. Feel guilty about feeling stressed though because really it's nothing compared to those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Can't believe the pictures and imagine how absolutely horrible it would be to have everything gone. It would be one thing to be flooded but to have your entire city almost gone along with everything else would just be awful. The Canadian Red Cross is sending volunteers down to help and is taking donations as are other organizations. Prayers to all affected.

Fiona

 

[papa]

Hang in there Fiona.

The governor announced last night that any student displaced by Katrina who are in the state will be enrolled in our schools asap. College students that are already paid will be enrolled in local colleges at no charge and students that have not paid will be allowed to enroll her at instate rates which are cheaper.

Mike

 

[padisneyfan]

Fiona and Jim--- what a great price for Southwest. I haven't found any dings from BWI to MCO for any of my trips. But even with AirTran or Southwest most expensive fares of $79 one way (which is the usual from BWI) you still save alot of money. It is only an hour drive for us to BWI minus traffic. So we either try to do the last flight out or early am to avoid the traffic. Is it a 2 hr drive to Buffalo for you? We also have the option of flying from Philly which would be 2 hr drive for us. I prefer BWI since it is easier to get to that airport than Phillys.

Jim---Thanks for all the information on Palmiero's warm reception from the Jay's fans. Baltimore was planning to have a special event to mark his 3000 hits but since his suspension and return the cermony has not been discussed. I think they would like him to leave town quietly. I doubt he will be in the Baltimore lineup next year. Currently he is the DH when they play him.


Mike--- What a wonderful thing your state is doing for all the displaced students. One of Norm's coworkers son's goes to Tulane and just had moved in a few days prior to Katrina. He is currently staying with friends in Houston. They are unsure at this point what there plans will be for this semester.


Hi Bette and Kim

Nancy

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Mike - Heard what your state was doing and thought that it was a really, really nice thing to do. Also that Texas is going to allow any and all children from the affected states to enroll in the public schools immediately.

Back to work.

Fiona

 

[Hygiene99]

We have a Friend who owns a Station .. and he is payying $3.12 per gallon for the next load... I just got a bargin at $2.99 a gallon..

 

[wendym]

Cannot believe the devastation over there - hoping they get help through soon.
Wendy

 

[usetheforceluke]

Nancy:

It's two hours (more or less) to Buffalo airport from our front door. A lot of people won't drive that far or have a lot of difficulty with crossing the border, but we don't mind either and the $$$ saving is a huge incentive for us.

As for Palmiero, there was another front page spread about him today (even though he didn't play yesterday) highlighting the ear plug issue and how all he wanted to do was to help his team. We've heard both the radio and tv commentators express the opinion that he won't be back next year; the radio guys a lot more forceful than the girlie-man tv announcers. The local press hasn't been overly nice to him for a while; they're even worse than the radio guys.


Gas:

Big picture in the paper this morning about stations selling cheap stuff at $1.20/liter... if I'm not misteaken, that equates to a cost of roughly $3.80USD/US gallon. The real problem is the $.20/liter jump from yesterday, some 20%.

Jim.

 

[Viking]

Just testing ug: ug: