9/23/06 Let's go!!!! Who's with us???

[Euphscott]

Oh, the employees were not much to look at from a money standpoint. Frankly, my wife and I probably earn more than they do. Most of them are young folks in their first professional jobs. But the home was certainly something to take in. He is a big political contributor, so he has all the obligatory pictures with presidents and senators and so on.

My understanding of the new policy is that you split the ship down the middle and the right side is smoking, left is non (or reverse - whichever the case may be). That is a nice thing. While smokers will argue that once outside it all dissipates and harms no one, if you are in a deck chair and are down wind from a smoker that pulls up in front of you - it's not so pleasant. And conversely, those not wanting the smoke make it uncomfortable asking them not to smoke. Setting a designated area makes us all aware of our boundaries. And should everyone play by the rules, should be a terrific set-up.

We have not paid our final bill - so you could get your package anytime now. We will hold our payment until the last moment - if DCL can draw interest on my deposit, I can draw interest on my final bill!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi everyone,
i thought the new smoking boundaries were a great comprimise for everyone as long as everyone follows the rules. we dont smoke and dont like to breath it in. So we have plenty of deck space to enjoy now without having to think about it and smokers have the same amount of space to do what they want to do to.I think this is a good thing for everyone.

this is on a trial basis for now. I dont know if it is even on the Magic yet. If it goes over ok with the guests then it will become permanent and listed as policy. For now I dont believe it is even listed accept for the paper work they give you when you get on the ship and the signs around the decks.

mom x4,grandma x4

 

[Euphscott]

I've read other posts indicating they are going with that trial on the Magic as well. I can't see how it would not remain permanent. Every other cruise line we've sailed on has used this policy with success and it's not really a controversial one that too many folks could get worked up over.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,
I hope all of you are having a good Tuesday. We finally got some rain today but they say it isnt helping all the brush fires. Hwy 95 and 528 are still closed. I hope all the cruisers for this week are paying attention and will re-route and allow extra time to get to the port.
Reality has set in that I am back on dry ground. I have spent the last 2 days cleaning house, washing clothes, ironing, grocery shopping, etc.. I even had to make my own bed the last 2 days
I'm glad our cruise isnt very far away now.

I always get spoiled on a cruise and it's a tough adjustment to return to real life!!
Have a great week everyone,
Kathy

 

[brerrabbit70]

I'm still around. Things are always so crazy this time of year. DD had her 5th grade play last week. It was a Decades show and each class did 2 times. She was the 30's and the 70's. The 70's was pretty easy because most of the stuff is back in style. It's not very easy to find a flapper costume in the middle of April!!!!! It turned out so good and the kids were just adorable.

Kathy, I'm so glad you had a nice time on the cruise. You guys have been working so hard you deserved a break. We've been getting alot of rain lately. I hope it heads your way and knocks out those fires.

I got my planning kit in the mail last week. I read the whole thing, even though it was nothing I didn't already know about. It was just fun to get all excited.

I'll try not to stay gone so long this time.

 

[yazee1]

Hi, Cheri! Long time, no see. I bet it's a relief to have the play over with. Thanks for updating the "cheat sheet" for the yahoo group. I noticed a few people did. That's great.


Did everyone else but us get their package? I'm not surprised, though. Our agent is swamped. Just ask her. LOL. The office lost a couple agents and no one has taken their place as far as I know.

A friend got back from a cruise this week and she brought me a couple vanilla beans I asked for so I could make a Palo chocolate souffle. The egg whipping part will probably do me in, but I'll give it try.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi Cheri,
I was beginning to wonder about you.

I am glad to hear your ok.
Today it is pouring rain, which we really need, but we also have thunder and lightning which we Dont need, because it could start up more brush fires!!

I guess it is a good day to sit back and dream of being on a tropical island

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Good morning,
Any of you moms out there got plans for mothers day??
I dont know what we are doing, if anything. We usually dont decide until the last minute.
Saturday we are putting up wall paper borders in 2 bedrooms and the upstairs hallway. We try to do one project each weekend around the house.

Did any of you guys see the news segment on the new freedom of the Seas ship? I cant believe how HUGE it is. Too big !! Just curious what anybody thought about it. It is beautiful from what they showed.

Have a great weeknd everyone,
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Boy you guys are very quiet lately!
Any body out there??

We just finished putting up wall paper borders in 2 bedrooms and one upstairs hallway. About 1/3rd of the hallway was done before I noticed we put it upside down. So we pulled it back off and started over again. DH wasnt happy about that, but we did redo it. It is hard to explain, but the design is so that most people would not of noticed it was upside down, but I would of known and it would of bugged me!!
So our 2 hour job was closer to 4 hours by the time we cleaned up too.
We only have one bedroom and 4 1/2 bathrooms and one set of stair to go!! Although they may not all have borders, I'll decide later. These are well of in the future to do ,since I need to paint the bathrooms before I can put up the borders. I figure with what we want to do, it will be about a year from now before we finish. I just want to get a few things done before company comes out late this summer.
My strategy is to keep DH busy so he will need a cruise to destress often so he will keep booking them!! So far my strategy has worked Accept I wind up working too, guess I still need to work on my plan a little more.
Still have a blue screen on the port web cam so we cant see the ship unless we catch the two palms around 5:20 p.m.. I am usually busy and forget about it by evening.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Happy Mothers day to all you moms out there!!!
Mothers day is like being on the ship, you can let everyone wait on you today!! ENJOY!!!


Have a great day everyone!!

kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

OK everyone,
Including this one the last 5 posts were all from me???
Are we boycotting this thread and nobody told me?

It is no fun to read my own posts, i already know what they say.

I need to get some feed back from you guys and gals, I need something to read.

I know people are busy on mothers day, so I forgive you, but tomarrow there had better be a post besides my own, i'm getting bored here.

Take care everyone,
mom x4,grandma x4

 

[brerrabbit70]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!!

We stayed at the beach Saturday night. The weather was perfect! The kids had a blast and all I did was make a list of things that needed to be done. My in-laws have started renting the cottage out during the winter so we only get use of it for 3 months. I hate it, but we have to be able to pay for the insurance. Can you believe they canceled the policy that we've had for 30 years and never filed a claim on?!?!?! The only company that would give us a policy was 3 times higher that what we were paying.

We had a little cook out on the lake at my DH's grandmother's house. I was a little nervous because there were 3 baby gators watching us! She's mad at them because they ate her baby geese and ducks.

Kathy~thanks for letting me know what time to watch the Twim Palms cam. I've never been able to catch it. Like watching for a needle in a hay stack.

TTFN!!!!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Good morning,
I am so happy to have a post to read besides my own.

I now what you mean about the insurance rates. They are really hurting everyone in the state. Our home insurance went up about $400 this year and about the same the year before and we are one of the lucky ones that had SMALL increases!! We have never had a claim either. I have heard some people insurance went up 70 to 80%. That is like making an extra house payment a few times a year!!! I feel very badly for those who are having to see their homes because they cant afford the insurance.

I think those baby gators would of made me nervous too!! This is mating season and the adults go nuts for a few weeks. 3 deaths due to gator attacks in the last week here and one injury. We NEVER go in the waters here to swim!! We stick to the pools if we want to swim. I dont want to be soemones appetizer!!

On the two palms cam it varies as early as 5:20 to as late as 5:40 depending on is they get started on time.

We are one week closer to the cruise

I found out yesterday at least one and maybe two of my daughters and families are coming to visit this summer!! YIPPEE!!! They live 3500 miles away, so it is a treat to get to see them.

Have a great day everyone,
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[Euphscott]

Happy Monday gang.

It is indeed one week closer to sailing. And one week closer to hurricane season starting. This morning I heard a report from the "experts" that it will be a slower season than last year, but they believe further up the east coast will be the target for the storms. We shall see I suppose - simply not repeating the devastation from last year would be a sufficient improvement.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi Scott,
yes hurricane season is quickly approaching. That is on the news everynight here in Florida. The place we use to live got a direct hit from 2 huricanes and just a little of the eye of it on a third one. It was pretty erie. We had trees going downa ll around us, a neighbor lost part of his roof and we saw an air conditioning unit rolling down the road and a screen porch too!!
We had a guardian angel looking out for us that summer! Our neighbors had a large tree on their property that fell right at our property line, on both sides, but we had NO damage to our house.
This year we are farther north so we will see. So far this area has been spared any real damage, but that is what they said about our old address too!!!
You couldnt pay me enough to live in the Keys or the Pan Handle. DH turned down a huge promtion because we refused to live in those areas.

It will take Louisiana years ro recover. Since there isnt any way to prevent it we just prepare for it as best we can. Food, water, medicines and a generator with plenty of gas cans to fill up, just in case.
I know parts of Texas get those Tornados which to me are scarier than a hurricane. They seem to just pop up out of nowhere. I have seen a few of those in Oklahoma many years ago. Do you live near any tornado areas??
I hope not.
well, we will just have to keep our fingers crossed and blow lots of pixie dust over the entire eastern part of the US and those beautiful tropical islands we all love to visit.
Have a great week,
Kathy

 

[strawberryblonde]

Hello all

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday. My DH had to work but my kids were sweet to me. It has special meaning when they are doing something all on their own without adult hints or help. My DD (6) dressed herself (as usual) in a tshirt that says "I love Mom" and made me a card, all on her own! I spent alot of time on the phone talking with mom, mom-in-law, step-moms and grandma.

I have also been catching up on laundry now that my company has left. Every beach towel and bath towel in my house was dirty ! We did have such a great visit. The kids really enjoyed themselves. My cousin was in town for her family vacation so we all got together for a big family reunion bar-b-que on one day, filled my house right up with kids.

Weather is still not too hot. I can't believe how temperate it is here in May. Much hotter in Oct./Nov. My birthday is tomorrow but my DH has to work swing shift tomorrow. He is coming home now to take us out to eat tonight to celebrate. I think I will order the key lime pie or coconut sorbet, so good!

Have a great week everyone!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Heidi,
enjoy your early birthday dinner.

It looks like we may get some rain today. We could sure use it. More new brush fires yesterday and today. The only bad thing is our rain always has thunder and lightning. That means the possibility of more fires from the lightning.
We also have had 3 people killed by gators within the last week too! When water levels get this low the gators start moving around and it is mating season which always adjitates them, so if you are coming to Florida in the next few weeks, stay away from the water areas.

For those of you who use the Port Canaveral web cam to see the ship in port. It was finally up and running last night. NO more blue screen! YIPPEE!! Hopefully we will be able to see the ships this week. I have really missed that the past few weeks.

Have a great tuesday everyone,
Kathy

 

[Euphscott]

Good morning gang - from the office with purple water!

Yes - I went to the faucet to get my morning cup of ice water. Straight from the tap, it's PURPLE!! For a second the beer tap commercials came to mind. I figured we had Kool-Aid on tap, but umm...purple water?

Yikes!

 

[yazee1]

Purple?? Some kind of water testing going on in your municipality? Maybe a practical joke? I hope you let us know what's going on. Did you taste it?

Happy Birthday, Heidi! You don't seem too put out by having laundry to do on Mother's Day or the fact that dh had to work. That's the spirit! Focusing on the positive aspects of the day and not grumbling about what might be if he was home. For me, having a husband who is supporting the family so I can stay home with the kids and homeschool is worth the trade off that sometimes he can't be here. I have to tell you my husband, who you will all meet soon enough, has come a long way in terms of honoring my birthday, Mother's Day, or our anniversary. He used to forget all together, but I let him know how sad that made me. Now, most of the time, he does things so last minute, I'm sure he's not doing anything at all, then he'll surprise me. Sometimes, he still plain forgets. People are quick to make disparaging remarks when they ask, "what did you do for your anniversary (Valentine's Day) " and I say "nothing", but I tell them I'd rather have a husband who treats me well all the other days of the year than one who is only kind on my birthday, etc.

Kathi, that's something about the gators. I'm not surprised though. My mom and her husband have lived in Florida for the past 22 years. There are no gators in their neighborhood anymore, but there used to be. Sadly, really little kids (who shouldn't be near the water anyway) and canals don't mix! Same goes for small dogs! I see you've been just about single handedly holding up our thread this weekend. I'm glad you didn't give up. We certainly would have slipped into the oblivion of page 6 or 7, maybe 8! We were away this weekend. I went to a homeschool convention in Pennsylvania. It's always heald Mother's Day weekend which is really nice because most of us are mothers. It's not only about checking out and buying homeschool materials. It's a chance to go away overnight with the "girls", network with other homeschoolers, see friends, eat a meal without having to get up to pour someone's juice or cut up their food.

Is anyone's ticker slightly off? I think mine is. It says 4 months and one week, but that's not quite right.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Happy Birthday Heidi!!!!

Hope you had a great dinner last night.
Have an awesome day today


Scott,
Hows the water today?
You know purple is the official of WDW, maybe the water was hinting at you about your upcoming vacation??
Hope it is nice and clear today.

Well our rain was gone as quicky as it came. Not enough to ease any drought or fire problems. Going to be mid 80's today. Thank goodness the humidity is still low.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!!
Kathy