May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!! Part 9

[EllaEnchanted]

Have to go to bed. Migraine. Goodnight all!

GoodNight Holly, sweet Mickey dreams....hope that migraine goes away!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Mr DFIL is having surgery tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 10am...if all goes as planned.

He will have open heart to replace the valve and triple bypass.

Tomorrow will be a long day.

Hang in there Lisa. Hope all goes well. Tomorrow you'll be in my thoughts all day and more prayers for your DFIL that all works out well!!!!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Been reading, not posting....I've got some sort of tummy bug and have been running to the bathroom and sleeping a lot. I think it's from the stresses of the weekend. It all caught up with me. I also feel like somebody beat me up....lots of aches and pains and no energy.

I asked John tonight if he wanted to offer to help Sandi and Joe pack over the weekend. Nope. We've opened communications again, but Joe is still a putz and we don't want to spend any more time with him than we have to. Better that they're moving to FL and we'll keep in touch my email and phone calls.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Welcome to all our newcomers!!! Me and DH will be sailing alone....Deb and John. This will be our 6th cruise....all DCL. We already have 7 and 8 booked. This will be our first time sailing with DISers and we can't wait coz we've made lots of friends who are more like family on this board.....so we're going to have a great time!

Check page one of this thread to see some planned activities onboard.

 

[Jhalkias]

Just enough time to catch up and one post before bedtime. It was Amy's birthday, and we had a little cake for her. Sophia wanted it to say Happy Birthday Mommy, and be in Christmas colors.

John, I can relate. My DH took a HUGE paycut when he went to the start up!! No bonuses period which for many years was our MAIN source of income. Let us just hope company stock will be worth it!!

Noel, at least with hard work and ingenuity he has a chance of it being worth it - good luck to you and John! Here, it seems like even hard work does not seem to pay off - nothing good on the horizon, and the more people I talk to, the more it seems like everyone is in the same boat. In the late 90's I was not working nearly as hard, with much less stress, and significantly more reward. Things have really stagnated.

Ok I can't catch up yet...have tons of things I have to do instead of what I want to do...but needed to sneak on to say.....JACK WON!!! Thanks everyone for there vote. Jack is very excited to be able to to be one of 6 fans to go on the ice on the last game (April 1) in front of 17,000 fans! We appreciate you taking to the time to vote...it was our little mini American Idol with no talent needed!

Here is the site that lists him as the winner! http://sharks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=19574

All Right Jack! I finally can say I voted for someone who won!

John's review went really well. He is the top manager as far as they are concerned and his raise was 3.5 % more than any other manager. He is a little bummed that they aren't coming to his store...he wants to show off all his hard work, but I told him it's because they know they don't need to.
My review is in Jan (at the end) the maximum raise we can get is 4.5 % but the budget for all departments is set at 3%. I;ll take whatever I can get.

Great V! Tell John to forget about Ohio . . . I doubt that many around here will get much of a raise except in certain industries that are in some demand.

John isn't home yet. They usually give away Sanibel Island stays...the owners of his store have a condo as well as a house down there. This afternoon they gave John a weekend stay in June July or August (we'll go in August) and he still has a chance to win one tonight.
They thanked him for all his hard work this year.

Cool! John must work for some good people who value their employees. Our owner has a house in Naples . . . I have not even been to his home here except when he was out of town to run keys over for the Fire dept. when his alarm went off.

John and Amy, John2 wants to know what you guys are planning to do....

Not sure we will be doing much V - you guys are all scaring me away with the talk of the cost. We are lucky and happy just to be on the cruise, and will do the jeep thing with you guys for sure. I would love to get Sophia to see some dolphins, but will have to check it out first. You know Amy is not much of a "leave the ship" or adventurous person, and I hate to do much without Amy or Sophia along with me. No time to check them out now, so I will tell Amy to take a look.

Don't let us hold you back - do what you want to do and we will see if anything looks promising.

 

[pjpoohbear]

John and Amy, John2 wants to know what you guys are planning to do....

Tell John to check the food offerings for each excrusion, that should help him.

Pj

 

[birkner]

Just enough time to catch up and one post before bedtime. It was Amy's birthday, and we had a little cake for her. Sophia wanted it to say Happy Birthday Mommy, and be in Christmas colors.



Noel, at least with hard work and ingenuity he has a chance of it being worth it - good luck to you and John! Here, it seems like even hard work does not seem to pay off - nothing good on the horizon, and the more people I talk to, the more it seems like everyone is in the same boat. In the late 90's I was not working nearly as hard, with much less stress, and significantly more reward. Things have really stagnated.



All Right Jack! I finally can say I voted for someone who won!



Great V! Tell John to forget about Ohio . . . I doubt that many around here will get much of a raise except in certain industries that are in some demand.



Cool! John must work for some good people who value their employees. Our owner has a house in Naples . . . I have not even been to his home here except when he was out of town to run keys over for the Fire dept. when his alarm went off.



Not sure we will be doing much V - you guys are all scaring me away with the talk of the cost. We are lucky and happy just to be on the cruise, and will do the jeep thing with you guys for sure. I would love to get Sophia to see some dolphins, but will have to check it out first. You know Amy is not much of a "leave the ship" or adventurous person, and I hate to do much without Amy or Sophia along with me. No time to check them out now, so I will tell Amy to take a look.

Don't let us hold you back - do what you want to do and we will see if anything looks promising.

John works very hard and if we are lucky, it will pay off again for us. Like many boomers, we got caught in the downturn in 2001 with the stock market.

What frightens me is that so many of the jobs that kept Silicon Valley humming are going to India and Asia. For example, My DH is the only Caucasian in his company. Every single other employee is either from India or Asia.

Young people just don't seem to work as hard as they did when I was young. We expected to work long hours for years before making it big. It seems like many of the younger generation expects to make it immediately or they jump ship to the next company

Now the other side of the coin is my parents generation who had good jobs, good pensions and good medical care even into old age. People no longer have those kind of jobs with so many being "at will" employees.

Americans need to take a long hard look at what is going on in this country. We are sending so much of our technology and know how into the third world who has learned to beat us at our own game.

I don't have an answer of how we can go backward but we had better figure out a way to revive some of our old tried and true work and life values or we are a doomed society.

Just my thoughts....

 

[woody73]

Home safe and sound and back at work. . .

Welcome back!

Woody

 

[katypop]

No room # for me today!

Still no room # for me either!

Have to go to bed. Migraine. Goodnight all!

Hope you have a good sleep Holly and wake up without that migraine.

Mr DFIL is having surgery tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 10am...if all goes as planned.

He will have open heart to replace the valve and triple bypass.

Tomorrow will be a long day.

Sending hugs and prayers Hope everything goes well and you manage to get some rest in for yourself too.

Been reading, not posting....I've got some sort of tummy bug and have been running to the bathroom and sleeping a lot. I think it's from the stresses of the weekend. It all caught up with me. I also feel like somebody beat me up....lots of aches and pains and no energy.

I asked John tonight if he wanted to offer to help Sandi and Joe pack over the weekend. Nope. We've opened communications again, but Joe is still a putz and we don't want to spend any more time with him than we have to. Better that they're moving to FL and we'll keep in touch my email and phone calls.

Hope you're feeling better soon Deb

I'm still having some back pain and am going for my x-rays tomorrow. It's been 3 long weeks and I've had enough! But I do feel lucky that I'm not dealing with anything worse. A co-worker of mine, she's also a friend, just found out last week her 5 yr old grandson has cancer. He has had the tumour removed, it was attached to his bladder, and they are now going to do more tests to see if it has spread. They think they got it all, but he will be having chemo treatments for the next 9-12 months. Very upsetting and scary for their family.

Kathe

 

[katypop]

Welcome back Jackie and Marilyn

 

[scottishwee35]

Here are some pics from our 2005 DCL Cruise:

The Margilante (PV), taken from the private beach they take you to...

Oh no! We're being boarded by PIRATES!!!

Pirates, during the show...

My son (in yellow) and his buddy on the way back to the ship...

CABO SAN LUCAS. These pictures were taken from the beach at "The Office"...

The beautiful Magic from the beach (DH and DS are the jet ski closest to the Magic)...

DH and DS on the jet ski (we rented it for $40 for half hour)

Oh thank you for showing the photos as Keith want to go Pirate. Maybe we should cos something different.

Your photos look superb.

Scottishwee35

 

[fourmcds]

There are a few I would love to do but don't include the girls.....and after being late back to the ship and worrying so much since Haley was in Flounders and they were closed when we got back!! I don't want to leave them again, plus it's our family time together.


Here's what I think:

V...I love how much research you have already done! I am going to take your abbreviated version and go from there! Scott has no interest in really thinking about excursions now, he thinks it is too far away, silly boy!!!! I am all for finding nice beaches to plant myself at with the kids, the sun, a nice drink and a comfy chair!

Here are some pics from our 2005 DCL Cruise:

Lisa...great pics, thanks for sharing! The "office" sounds perfect to me!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

I read all the excursions and picked my favorites. John is going to read them tomorrow and pick his favorites then we'll compare notes and pick out what we're going to do. I can't wait to hear his pics. If they're the same, no problem. If not, then we use....what I call....is the key to every good marriage.....the art of compromise. It always works well for us.

I want to add all my excursions to my wish list so that I'm ready to book when the time comes.

No OCD here! HA HA HA HA!!! It's almost time to call the car services for both sides....just waiting untill after the first of the year. Then all plans will be complete and I'll be soooooooo ready to go!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Kathe, I'm sorry I mixed you up with someone else who is staying at the Radisson and coming to Grills with us. I completely forget who asked us about it. Lisa G.....help me out here. Do you remember a while back when someone else asked about going with us? Who was it? It was someone who lived somewhere where you used to live....not PA. I believe she was also travelling alone. Maybe we should do that four letter word and make a list since there's close to 20 of us going now....I'm starting to forget everyone.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Jackie Welcome Home!!! Glad you had a great time, I saw the pics and loved how you were all laughing and having a blast!

Tell Peg I miss her posts and hope that she jumps in sometime and says hello.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Thanks to everyone who posted pics....I always love seeing them. John1 those lights at MGM were absolutely beautiful....thanks for sharing.

 

[EllaEnchanted]

Marilyn, I'm so glad you're home. We have missed you!

It was great to meet you and John. Thank you so much for the chocolates. John and I really enjoyed them.

Hope you get caught up soon!!!

 

[EllaEnchanted]

John and I are smokers....we just made an appointmet to get zapped.....a cold laser treatment.....to quit. This will be our third try at it. We're scheduled for the afternoon on New Year's Eve. So we hope to be smoke free in 08. Wish us luck!!!

 

[granmaz]

Mr DFIL is having surgery tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 10am...if all goes as planned.

He will have open heart to replace the valve and triple bypass.

Tomorrow will be a long day.

Hope all goes well Lisa.

Just enough time to catch up and one post before bedtime. It was Amy's birthday, and we had a little cake for her. Sophia wanted it to say Happy Birthday Mommy, and be in Christmas colors.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY

Not sure we will be doing much V - you guys are all scaring me away with the talk of the cost. We are lucky and happy just to be on the cruise, and will do the jeep thing with you guys for sure. I would love to get Sophia to see some dolphins, but will have to check it out first. You know Amy is not much of a "leave the ship" or adventurous person, and I hate to do much without Amy or Sophia along with me. No time to check them out now, so I will tell Amy to take a look.

I think I will find it hard to get off the ship and go far. I will be thinking of being late boarding all the time. I am not very adventurous either. However, I feel I should go and have a little investigation of the area seeing as though we have gone that far.

Don't let us hold you back - do what you want to do and we will see if anything looks promising.

Welcome back Jackie and Marilyn

Thanks. Feeling tired this morning - jet lag and all that!!

John and I are smokers....we just made an appointmet to get zapped.....a cold laser treatment.....to quit. This will be our third try at it. We're scheduled for the afternoon on New Year's Eve. So we hope to be smoke free in 08. Wish us luck!!!

Sorry you have been feeling poorly Deb. Take care. Hope you are successful with the giving up smoking.

 

[granmaz]

Still catching up here!!!

Hi gang

I just bought a new computer so now I can start getting on the boards again.

Also, just wanted to let you know I'm still hanging in there and counting the days until the cruise. Chemo is going ok, I haven't had too many side effects. Mainly extreme fatigue. I can live with that.

Hope everyone else is doing well and my thoughts and prayers go out to all going through difficult times.

I'm not going to try to catch up, since it looks like I've missed 10000 +/- pages. I'll just depend on you all to fill me in if there is something important I need to know.


Tina

So nice to hear from you and glad all is going well.

Tyler and I were walking through a parking lot this afternoon and a woman in a red car stopped her car, walked over to us, and asked me, "Is this your little boy?" When I told her yes, she said, "The Lord wants to bless you" and handed me a bill. I looked at her in shock for a second as she almost ran away, I looked down in my hand, and it was a $20 bill! By the time I could thank her, she was in her car and gone!

That is such a lovely thing to hear about.

Our friends in Germany and the UK get four weeks vacation per year. In France, its five weeks.

Here's a link to see how the U.S. compares: Wikipedia

Woody

We have mostly taken 2 weeks at a time. When we had a touring caravan and John was a teacher we had a few years of taking 3/4 weeks to the south of France in the summer hols.

So before Tyler fell asleep tonight he told me he brought a note home from school but that he hid it because he's scared for me to read it. I remember doing that in high school. We're in for a rough road if he's already doing that. He told me he hid it in the car under a box he has back there. Of course I had to go read it. Good grief! He's about to get suspended again. The note says his behavior has remained the same and they're at their wits end and that if he continues with "not following adult directions, licking items in the classrom and putting his hands on other children" he will be suspended for at least a day the next time he gets written up. I have no idea how to handle this because he's been so good for so long when I'm with him. Very frustrating. Even more frustrating knowing that no psychologist has openings to start counseling him soon. His first appointment is in January.

Sorry to hear this Holly, particularly since it seemed like Tyler was doling sol well. I hope things get sorted quickly for you both.

So DD Sandi called last night to say that she has an interview on Dec. 28 and that she and the family will not be in PA for Christmas. They will be leaving earlier to go to FL.

I can't help but think that she told Joe everything we said to her and now they don't want to share Christmas and they're leaving early intentionally.

I've got mixed emotions. I'll miss Sandi and the boys terribly. I will be so happy not to have to deal with Joe anymore and not to have to see how he treats Sandi and the boys.

I actually think it might be best for all if they just leave and then I don't have to be an actress in front of Joe. I hate being a hypocrit. I really distain him and I don't feel like that about many people. I always try to find some good in them, but I feel like he's almost "cultist" with her. She will ignore all his shortcomings and make excuses for him. She almost worships him instead of having a healthy partnership. It's 100% his way and she has to do without. Then she tells us she's extremely happy about it. Go figure. Love is blind.

So John and I will go to our hotel on Christmas eve and not rush home in the morning to see them. When we get home we'll do dinner for us and the kid and Ray and open our presents on Christmas Day, which I have never done before.

Oh Deb, how upsetting. We just can't run our children's lives can we, even though we can plainly see the problems that they can't.

Just booked this cruise today!! I am beyond excited! SO glad some rooms opened up!!!

It will be me Melissa (24) and my BF Robert (28)

Welcome. I am still a long way behind catching up.