Feb. 21, 2004 Eastern Cruise

[woody64]

Hello again,

Survived the big WI "campout", ya hey der. It was cold but warm in the water park. I forgot how noisy 8 boys from K- 3rd grade could be. Thank goodness I'm home and hiding in the den.

Did some Outlet shopping for Alex. Boy is it hard to find dress pants for tall skinny almost 9 yr olds. His 8's are to short and the 10's he looks like a rapper with his pants hanging down around his knees. Think I found some though. Had to explain we are "dad" shopping not "mom" shopping. That means look only at things on the list. We hit Nike, Polo, Gap, and Tommy Hilfiger in an hour. Not bad and that includes driving between 2 of the stops. *pats self on back*

Only a few more Sat.'s and we're boarding. When is everyone going to arrive at PC? Gayl, are you taking the DCL shuttle? Anyone else?

woody

 

[christinou]

Bruce, glad that you survived the week-end.

We will be at the port the night before staying at the Radison, so we will be at the port at soon as it opens, already there in my mind.

Christine

 

[bassoongirl]

Ms. Linda,

Alligators on your farm sounds interesting! The most exotic animals we have in our yard are raccoons and rabbits! Watch your step!

Woody,

Nice job shopping! We are taking Happy Limo to the port instead of the DCL bus. Our flight home is at 11:45 am on the Saturday we return, so we wanted to be sure we could get to the airport in time to get through security and catch our flight. We didn't want have to wait for a DCL bus to fill up. Also, by my calculations, we will save about $50! I love a good deal!

Gayl

 

[PhotoLisa]

Gayl:

We're using Happy Limo for our group of 7 also. Our return flight isn't until late in the afternoon though. We haven't decided what we'll do with the extra time we have on our hands.

Lisa

 

[bassoongirl]

Hi everybody!

I worked on our DIS name tags yesterday and ran into a few problems. I printed our names, etc. directly on the Home Depot paint chips. They looked good until the ink smeared on them. Ugh! I stopped at Home Depot this morning to get more paint chips, and out of feeling guilty for stealing their paint chips, I bought a new snow shovel and windshield washer! Anyway, my new idea is to try printing the name tag information on clear labels that I can stick to the paint chips. Meanwhile, my husband worked on DIS name tags using Lisa's example. The only problem with those is they didn't look that great when he printed them. Our printer didn't fill in all the areas that well. We will keep trying!

My family is worried that I expect them to wear the name tags the whole time we are on the cruise! I assured them that I don't want them to do that! I really only want you guys to to know who we are - not anybody else! So, we will only wear them at the port and at the DIS meets.

Have a good day!
Gayl

 

[woody64]

Hello All,

I will be working on name tags soon and was going to use clear labels and then laminate with the sheet stuff you can buy at Office Depot or whatever. I also will only wear them at PC and the meets. My DW still thinks I'm nuts but likes all the info I've learned. In fact after watching the Christmas Parade at WDW on tv we noticed the trees in front of the castle by the statue were missing. She had me ask on another board what happened(they were blocking the new fireworks and have now been replaced with small magnolias) as she knows the wealth of info on these boards. It must be her IT background(Gayl, Lisa am I right?).

Anyway, more snow today and tommorrow so be ready those east of me.

whytcrysatl:Have you met any candidates yet and are you ready for them to move on?

woody

 

[bassoongirl]

Woody,

I know what you mean about your wife's IT background! My husband will be glad when our cruise is over so my obsession with the DIS boards might diminish. However, I am surprised that my husband has remembered so many of the facts and details I have spewing! In fact, he joined a discussion forum for hikers because of all the useful information I have learned from the DIS boards!

Here is another example of my husband's IT background - he spent about two hours playing around with our door sign after we agreed on how I wanted it to look, trying to "improve it". He downloaded all kinds of clipart and played with fonts and colors. In addition, he spent about an hour last night making four different versions of our DIS name tags. This time, he added clipart to Mickey's ears and changed fonts. He just can't leave well enough alone! It must be the CPA in me, but I like things kept simple. Luckily, our kids agreed with the versions I liked the best. I tried to explain to my husband that just because he has the capablity to use all those artsy, designing features on his computer programs, it doesn't mean he has to!
Good luck with your name tags!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Okay, you guys are going to have all these professional-looking nametags, and all I did was affix the cut-out paint chip to green foam backing and take to it with a Sharpie. LOL Oh well, it still says DIS and our names and is lime green -- that's the important part.

-gina-

 

[christinou]

Gina, your name tags sound great, that is what I was planning on doing.....

Gayl, my husband is also an IT guy, and sounds just like my husband, I ask him to just print pictures for me, 4 hours later I might have something, as he would have to update the entire system, print it a cerain way, you get the idea
We are supposed a big snow storm again...
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE CRUISE.....

 

[PhotoLisa]

All you IT people sound as bad as me!

Since I photograph everything digitally for my studio, I am always on the computer using Photoshop to edit all the images. I have to stop myself from spending tons of time on perfecting images. Time is money when you're doing it for a living.

What is worse is the perfectionist in me attempting to work on images of my grandbaby. I could do that all day! More isn't always better -- most times less is best!

I'll be cramming all those fun things ya'll are all doing in preparation into my schedule the week before we leave.

I'm up to my ears in work for the time being. I love reading what everyone else is up to though! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be using my degree and working as an IT professional for someone else . . . . nah . . . on secong thought . . . I love what I'm doing!

Lisa

 

[whytcrystal]

Hi All-

Can you believe only a bit more than 3 weeks??

My name tags won't be perfect. I am going to copy the image from the site and then put it on a foam backing with a pin. Then I am using our label make for the names. My writting is terrible.

Woody- Yes. I have met Dean, Clark and Edwards and the Lieberman campaign calls me twice EVERY Sunday. I decided early in the campaign that I would vote for the candidate who called me the least. I guess you now know one who didn't get my vote! It will be nice to see them go. My only fear is we have a storm coming and they may be hear another day. Being the first in the nation isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Last weekend 12 families were burned out of their homes (no lives lost thankfully) and there was no space in the hotels to put them up. The radio stations were asking canidates to have staff double up and give up some rooms. Nothing was said if it happened or not.

 

[woody64]

whytcrystal:you should do like we do in Chicago, vote early and often. That way you can vote for a few of your favorites.

I'm warning those east of me that more snow and cold is on its way. It's snowed all day but is a balmy 28. By Sat. the high is supposed to be 8.

ms. Linda, do you need help finding that alligator this weekend?

woody

 

[whytcrystal]

Well - it's finally over. Kerry got 39% of the vote with Dean getting just over 25%. Clark and Edwards are tied for 3rd. I guess it's still anybody's game. Bush ran uncontested but 15% of the voting republicans voted against him.

We were supposed to get 5-10 inches of snow starting last night and into today. When I woke up this AM there was nothing. Hurray!! DH is in Atlantic City at a Hot Tub convention so if it snowed I would have to figure out how to plaw. (That could have been interesting!)

Just a few short weeks and we will be together. My friend Missy that is going with us talked to her Dad in Daytona yesterday. It was 83 at sunset. In St.Thomas it is averaging in the low 80's. Just think, For what some of us have been going through lately that is a 60-100 degree difference!!

Christy

 

[christinou]

Christy, I think that we got your snow, the roads were really poor this morning, and I even got stuck in the driveway...
83 sounds just wonderful.
Christine

 

[woody64]

Christy:sounds like I need a job like your husbands...I think I could go to a hot tub convention,especially in Jan.

The weather should be nice on the cruise. We went this same week last year. It was warm on Sat. but rained during the sailaway so it was moved to the atrium. Sunday was warm(80's) but overcast so you had to watch sunscreen. Monday thru the rest of the week was great, 80's and sunny. We did luck out at CC as storms split and went around us and it was a perfect sunny day. The good thing about tropical showers are they only last a little while and then it clears up.

It's nice thinking about warm weather when the wind chill is -18.

woody

 

[Gina]

24 more days!!!!

And would you believe it is cold here?? HERE. It was 31 this morning, which I know is a heat wave for some of you, but I'm pretty sure we're all about to die here. LOL Luckily it will be in the 70's again by the weekend. Brrrrr...

I decided that we're going to also go on the Paradise Point Tramway in St. Thomas. Did I post that already?? I swear I can't remember if I did or not, and I am too sleepy yet this morning to go search through posts.

Anyways, we didn't do that last time, because Ty was a lot younger and I was afraid it would scare him, but I showed him the photos on their website and he pronounced it "Cool, Mom!!" So we're going to do that first so I can get some pretty morning pictures of the harbor, then we'll head off to Coral World and maybe Coki Beach if we're not wore out.

I have packed a lot now at this point... now I'm just waiting on my tax refund so I can finish shopping. And it looks like no upgrade for me, so it looks like we will have no excuse this time to not get out and have real breakfast this cruise.

The dog now has her shots updated for her stay at the kennel, I have checked and rechecked all my reservations for everything, the maps and driving directions from MCO to the port are all printed out (no, I cannot remember from one time to the next how to get someplace LOL)... I just need to finish shopping.

Hope everyone warms up a bit!!

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

Hi Everybody!

I finished our DIS name tags this morning. Yesterday, I printed out our names on clear labels and stuck them to the Home Depot paint chips. Today, I got the paint chips laminated at Kinko's. I have to say the name tags look pretty good! I showed them to my husband last night and he was a little disappointed that I went ahead and did them myself. Oh well!

I filed our income taxes today, so we should be getting our refund shortly. I like to file early and be the guinea pig for changes in the tax code each year before I start working on my clients' taxes. I suggested to my husband that we use our tax refund on the cruise to pay for fun stuff like drinks and souvenirs. He thought we should spend the refund on bills we owe. What a spoil-sport!

Whytcrystal,

I like your thinking! Going to places where the temperature is 60 to 80 degrees warmer than we are dealing with now sounds wonderful!

Gina,

Try to stay warm! Did you read on the big board about a woman who is going on our cruise and got an upgrade from Category 10 to Category 9 for $40? She then got a free upgrade to Category 7! I thought upgrades cost a lot of money! What do you think about that?

Edit: Oops! The woman who posted about the upgrade did mention that she gets a military discount. That might explain the cheap upgrade.

Gayl

 

[whytcrystal]

Hi All-
You are making me jealous talking about refunds. I am still waiting for 2 W'2. I thought I had heard that they now have to be 'In hand" by Feb 1st. Gayl?
I finished Timothy's on Sat. and I wouldn't be surprised if it already in his account. I did mine on my last paychecks so am just waiting to verify the figures to hit transmit.
We are going to buy me a piece of jewlery on the cruise with a small bit of it.

Bruce- My husband's company is hiring. :0)

Oh, I got an email from someone the other day, he says he is going on the cruise with us and he lives in the same town as me! He saw my name on the boards. I know I sound a bit excited but I just marvel over what a 'small world' this really is. We live in a TOWN, not a city. Our population is a bit more than 10K and the town is only 35 sq. miles.

 

[bassoongirl]

Christy,

You are correct - your employer should have your W-2 to you by January 31. Technically, there are penalties that can be assessed against employers who don't comply with that rule, but I have never heard of the IRS ever inforcing it. What a great idea to buy some jewelry with part of your tax refund! My mother always says that if you come into some unexpected money, you should spend it on something that will last.

It is a small world, isn't it? (Que the music!!) What are the chances of someone from your town going on our cruise? Pretty small, I would guess! It never fails that when we are at WDW, we always run into someone we know!

Note to all the Northerners: Stay warm!!

Gayl

 

[christinou]

Re: It is a small world.
There are also 2 families from Ithaca NY, which is not exactly a big metropolis......
It really is amazing...