May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves...May 2008 Repo Thread...Part 7

[taysmom]

Oh yea..who's doing the coke points. I have a bunch of codes and I can't remember who to pm them.

 

[LiserAnn]

Oh yea..who's doing the coke points. I have a bunch of codes and I can't remember who to pm them.

Lisa/Disneylover5 was the person....

 

[taysmom]

Also, can anyone tell me if I can use my Aunt's Disney Visa Rewards on my Onboard account. She didn't get to spend it when we were down cause her card wasn't working properly. I told her I'd buy it off her if I can put it on my account...anyone have a suggestion?

 

[tigger137]

Angie

Happy Belated Birthday for yesterday!

 

[tigger137]

We know what you mean - can't hide an Aussie accent anywhere or from anyone !!! (but a lot of people mistake us for Canadian or English - very different to my ears, but go figure!!)

For some reason, whenever we're in Colorado people think we're Australian!

 

[HollyTyler]

I'm going T/Th/Sat (she also has M/W/F) and it's one hour. I'm taking the 12 week one but she offers 4, 8 and 12 week sessions. 12 weeks was a better deal and also comes with the option to sign up for maintenance at a great reduced fee.

Awesome! Great job for starting something like that. I hope I can find one here. Off to look right now.

 

[tigger137]

Nope... We're the weird ones!!! We adopted them and lord only knows what they're getting themselves into!!!

Oh well, we'll just have to be someone else's weird tablemates.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Did I read correctly that some people have started packing already for a vacation in May? Or, is that buying things in preparation?

How about I'm packed for May because I never unpacked from my halloween cruise.....just have to send the clothes to the laundry and throw them back in the suitcase. I live in the mountains.....it's not tropical here so I don't wear my cruise clothes at home.....they can stay in the suitcase until the next cruise....and I'm packed and ready to go.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

I am willing to do the boards again. I did 5 last time because we didn't have many people on deck 1. Do we have people on deck 1 this time? Have people volunteered yet to host one of the boards? Mid deck is probably the best location.

For the new to dis cruisers on here, yes I'm one of them, please tell us what you do so that we can know how this works. Thanks.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Good morning everyone! Well, today was the day...I started a fitness boot camp...and that it was. At one point, I almost threw up-it passed but it was my first time and she said that does happen to many people. Thursday should be much better. I can tell this will get me back into shape. I may not be in perfect shape by sailing but a lot better than where I'm at today. My arms already hurt. Walking tomorrow should prove to be interesting...

Good for you Lisa.....that will get you in shape to do that zipline. You Go Girl!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Oh yea..who's doing the coke points. I have a bunch of codes and I can't remember who to pm them.

PM to Lisa/disneylover5

 

[Tink rules]

that's Molly's bday too

Cool!!! Can she party with the other Leos??? (I promise... Virgin drinks all around... well for her at least... wait... I'm not driving this boat!!!)

What -- I can get Mrs. Woody to pack for me!?!

Woody

UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....no...........

MARCH 30th just add to my OBC please and thank you

I will try... I really will....

Still haven't replaced my stash...I thougth you were sending me some????

Note to self... don't eat all the Smarties...Nan needs some...

DOD.

Woody

that should be first right?

You mean they don't hand these suckers out as you get on the ship??????

Not quite. Babyboomers were born between 1946 and 1964.

Woody

I don't want to be a boomer... then I have to be like my boring siblings...

 

[MrsMork]

Not one of mine but I remembered this from his posting it at the "Rivervet" sight some time back.

Published Thursday, November 11, 1999 © Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Commentary: The selfless work that brought an orphan to the U.S.

Eric Strauss / Allentown Morning Call

ALLENTOWN, PA. -- The circumstances of my first few months of life aren't something I like to talk about.

I don't initiate that conversation. I don't even remember what took place.

I am adopted. A Vietnamese orphan, I was brought to America near the end of the war as part of the historic Operation Baby Lift. That's something I've always known, but its significance is something I haven't always understood.

My parents, Gerald and Elizabeth Strauss, are loving, intelligent and compassionate. As I grew up in Bloomsburg, Pa., they raised me with an awareness of their Jewish culture, and my own. But the miracles of my first 10 weeks -- from the day I was born in February 1975 until the day in April when I was placed in my mother's arms for the first time -- were not something I truly appreciated until I was a teenager.

Operation Baby Lift flew children out of Saigon as the Communists from North Vietnam closed in during the first two weeks of April 1975. For the 1,400 children brought out through the eight-day American airlift, and hundreds of others taken out through other efforts, it meant new lives and a world of opportunity.

For many of those children, mostly infants to 10-year-olds, the rite of passage was a harrowing flight across the Pacific Ocean, wedged into seats and even carried in boxes. The children who arrived in Pennsylvania had traveled from Vietnam to California, then on to Fort Benning, Ga., and finally up the East Coast.

The Baby Lift had many heroes, most notably Betty Tisdale, who earned the name "Angel of Saigon" for her efforts to evacuate hundreds of children from the American-sponsored An Lac orphanage. With the help of Madame Vu Thi Ngai, the head of the orphanage, Tisdale did everything she could to get as many of its 400 children as possible out of the country.

At barely 2 months of age, I was among the 219 orphans from An Lac whom Tisdale saved.

The airlift had other heroes. World Airways pilot Ken Healy took off despite an air traffic controller's "stop" order, and brought the first planeload of children to America on April 3. Ed Daly, president of World Airways, sent plane after plane to Saigon, including the one April 12 that brought me to America.

Many volunteers tragically gave their lives when the first official flight of the Baby Lift, a C-5A cargo jet loaded with more than 300 people, mostly orphans, crashed minutes after takeoff April 4. Two-thirds of the passengers died.

And there are the American soldiers who fought in Vietnam, who shed blood in a war that even today many people don't care about, or disparage. But to me, those soldiers did not fight and die in vain. Their sacrifices paved the way for the children of An Lac and the other orphanages to live the American dream. In many ways, the soldiers are the most underappreciated of those who helped the children.

I really began to understand the sacrifices of America's soldiers when I was 15. That summer, I traveled to France with my high school French club. Part of that trip was a visit to Normandy beach, the site of the D-Day invasion. Normandy is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, with white sand, blue water and clear sky.

There, standing on the beach, I tried to imagine that white sand and blue water running red with blood during World War II. And I began to think about what my life would be like if those men hadn't fought on that beach, if men like them hadn't fought in the jungles of Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s.

Even today, that is a sobering thought.

Now that I'm in my 20s, old enough to hold down a job as an editor at the Morning Call, have a place of my own, I can't imagine what it was like for those soldiers who went to Vietnam, to leave this comfort and risk their lives for something they might not have understood, for people they didn't know.

I had a conversation with a co-worker whose cousin was killed in a training accident at Chu Lai, and he called it "a throwaway death in a throwaway war." And I suppose to most people, it was.

But not to me. The men who fought and died in Vietnam helped save my life.

Having realized that, how do I go on, in what fashion do I live my life, knowing the price these strangers paid? Maybe the best answer comes from "Saving Private Ryan," the movie that featured the assault on that very beach I stood on in France. Near the end of the film, after Capt. John Miller and his men have found Pvt. James Ryan, Miller tells the young man to earn his salvation, to make good on the sacrifice others made.

I owe my country and its heroes a debt of gratitude that I don't know if I can ever repay. But I can try. And being a journalist is part of that. Journalism is a public service. Newspapers help keep people informed, help keep people free.

I hope my work is a way to earn my salvation. I hope this story is a way to pay tribute to the brave men and women who have given so much for so many.

To the men and women of Operation Baby Lift, to the soldiers who fought in Vietnam, to all those who have given their lives for our country:

Thank you.

So, I'm sitting here at work just about to get another phone call from yet another veteran who did not get his/her meds, or an appt, or someone treated badly, with tears streaming. Thank you for posting this and refreshing for me why I come to work.

 

[granmaz]

HELP!

What time should I have the shuttle pick us up at the Port in LA??

Any ideas??? I'm completely lost.

I want to know too and I asked last week I think. Nobody came back to me so I guess nobody knows!

 

[luv2cruzsus]

Did I read correctly that some people have started packing already for a vacation in May? Or, is that buying things in preparation?

I believe that is the case; I, however, won't pack until the night before we leave.

 

[scottishwee35]

I believe that is the case; I, however, won't pack until the night before we leave.

I wish I do that one night before but for me two weeks before as I have to pack my two children's baggage then myself. My husband maybe pack one night before!!!

Scottishwee35

 

[Tink rules]

If you got wet -- and it wasn't your beer -- it must be one the pools.

Woody

Hopefully....

Was this the 3/1 sailing?? I want to know the story?? (Can you tell I do not have a life right now?????)

Well Lisa...you did say you needed a break!!!

I think the Magic Cruise couldn't park in CC, lots of people fuming about it. Due to bad weather well. Somebody said that one engine was not working and also some people want money back?

Scottishwee35

Wow....you got it in one paragraph... they took 13 nasty pages!!! I don't think many of them will be back to cruise and I think Disney will be glad for it...

Oh but Leos are so much FUN! I just love to sit back and watch them (I make a very good audience).
.

Jackie... you have front row!!! Want a drink while you're watching????

 

[LisaG520]

there is now coffee all over my monitor THANKS

You're very welcome!

 

[Making_Memories]

Well, Tyler did comment this morning on how happy that bunny was to see him. He said, "Mom, he just kept waving at me, he was so silly!"

That's cute.

 

[Making_Memories]

Well, Tyler did tell him not to poop in our yard!

and that is a visual of the costumed easter bunny I didn't need