Good morning!
Honestly, you'd think Suzie was fibbing about being here since I haven't posted a thing since she arrived! How sad is that? (Thank goodness for the great pic she posted last nite!)
We've been having fun, though. First day was a looooong one for her, since we went to my kids' spring program that night and finally left after 9 pm (12 am for her!), but it was a great show, Emma had her first solo, Mike was the lead stagehand (too cool to sing, of course) and the Uganda Children's Choir was there and did opening and closing numbers, including "God Bless America" which was a real lump-in-your-throat song. First time both kids listed individually in the program and Emma center stage and no camera. BAD MOM BAD MOM!!! Suzie and Tori were troopers though and we went home to sleepy sleep.
Yesterday was the infamous West Coast

Mini-Meet/

Strategy Session (
CG! ) and that was THE BEST! Such perfect timing for our man
Tom, the great and venerable Banana Hammock Fan Club Prez

, to sacrificially set down his drink for a few moments in order to hold his phone up high enough to catch the sail-away notes from the Mother Ship! You never saw so many people devoted to one cell phone speaker before. Awesome moment!! Only after 'wishing on a star' did we learn of Tom's great sacrifice. Thankfully, nothing spilled in the excitement and he was able to again imbibe.
So WONDERFUL to meet
The Roses, who are every bit as wacky and fun as you all think they are...actually more! See that little twinkle of mischief in Sue's eye? Be very afraid...Just ask her about the Siamese twin story...and Jon is only faking that innocent grin...a truer pirate I ne'er met...ARRRRGGH! And after a few wrong turns by
ulittletinker (aided by a few wrong-turn directions from me-SORRY, Miss V!!) we gathered her into the fold.

Suzie told Tori we were going to meet the

and all the way to Olympia she kept asking "Are we going to meet the pirate?" and when we got there Jon had to give her an ARRRRGGGGH! (you'd 'ave been so proud Tom

) which was sufficiently convincing. Then she needed a sword made from her placemat, which Sue deftly (okay, maybe it took a little tweaking

)converted to a tricornered hat and Tori wore it proudly. We had a blast conversing on a variety of topics, cruise-related and not, before parting ways, except that we dragged our newfound scrapbook buddy ulittletinker off to my favorite scrapbook store in Olympia where we found lots of fun stuff. I think we all got out of there without losing our shirts--good thing too!
I'm sure Suzie will be able to share more specifics as she was not drinking

but I'm pretty sure that a fabu time was had by all and we were only sorry more of you couldn't have been there!
Yes,
Maria, that's me on the left, with the HUGE and EMPTY plate. Just for the record, it was a salad, and everyone else DID eat too!

And please break the sad news to Barry that we none of us are loaded (at least not with $$$$$$)

or at least if we were before, we aren't now that we've paid for our cruise, lol! ...In explanation, both kids had soccer games back home and both kids scored goals, first of the season, and mom wasn't there! Again, BAD MOM BAD MOM!! DH had the camcorder, though, thank goodness!
Just want to say a bit THANK YOU to Exec VP
Pango for holding down the fort while Mr. T is away, and also to Mrs. T for going above and beyond the call of duty posting the countdown while on vacation!! You are awesome,
Julie!
And don't you worry, honey, it wasn't even 27 yet on the west coast, but we won't tell the VP, k?
WELCOME SNOOPYTO!!! You'll absolutely love this bunch!
And one more thing...I'm sure I'm missing something (shocking I know) but there's something going on about you
SUEEGG...you fit in here like an egg in a nest

and there's more to the story, I'm sure!

Things sometimes move a bit slower over here near the Pacific Ocean (including our brains) so help me out and do tell!