UMTravels

After a long sleep there are piles of things to do.

• Mail
• Bills
• Laundry
• Pick up packages
• Get teeth cleaned
• Work
• Groceries

Well, the house is still a mess, but three loads of laundry are done. By the time I go to bed the new sheets will be on (the bamboo ones from Shirts of Bamboo). Hell, the new microwave/toaster is installed in SOB — but the DVD player/Bluetooth stereo will take through the weekend to get in. Who knows, I might take it to poker this month and see how it does on the road (and see what sort of gas mileage it gets.

Here is the shot of the new microwave/toaster, so I finally got to see how it works:

All this is just mixed in with bits and pieces of work. Just feeling out of sorts a bit. Maybe it was the nitrous.

[215.8 — who goes on a 10-day holiday and loses weight]

3:30am is really too damn early.

Luckily I did all the packing last night and even made sandwiches for the road. Swanda has even said it’s OK to just go back to sleep while he drives. The things that he will do for a Disney fix!

We do have one stop before dropping off the rental car at the airport… and I even said it was OK if we didn’t make it — to the spot where Gino Versace was gunned down by a crazed gay gunman. Do you suppose I should use this as my Christmas card?

Or maybe this one from yesterday at the condo?

It didn’t come out quite like I wanted — I wasn’t thinking Sumo Wrestler but I couldn’t get back to the lounger quick enough.

 Got to the airport my usual two hours early — but check-in didn’t go totally smooth. My bag — MY BAG — was over-weight (it was Swanda’s on the way out) and I had to remove a set of sheets to gt to the 50# limit. And, no, being an MVP and having paid for First Class doesn’t help.

Nice flight home — though I was totally exhausted. Nice lunch of wild Alaskan salmon with all the fixings.  Got back about 1:30 in the afternoon, and decided to have a quick drink in the Alaska Board Room while our luggage was delivered. Lynne was ready to pick us up and drop at home — I’ll miss that service when she moves back to the island in a couple of weeks.

Swanda stayed for a bit — then headed home. I laid down on the couch — woke up at 8pm and went to bed.

[tomorrow is the big weigh-in]

It is soooo nice to have a day off. Even Swanda decided to bag Mickey and relax.

During my morning shower I had an epiphany — since we had the day off, why not invite Dan and Lisa for dinner. It’s an hour and a half drive each way, but then I’d get my new bamboo sheets delivered personally.

After a little phone tag — we are set for dinner at six with them arriving early to hang out…. then it was just a matter of getting supplies like food and liquor. Checked the liquor store closest to the really bad Publix market close to the resort… WAY too expensive and nothing on sale.

Our rental car (Ford Exlporer) came with a built-in GPS unit — so, hit yellow pages, spell liqour, hit closest. Bingo — ABC Liquors. Big, cheap, lots of sale items.

Dinner was pork loin on top of roasted root vegetables, salad, and wine that Dan and Lisa brought. Yummy!

The kids headed back since work calls in the morning. Speaking of morning, it’s going to come too early. We are scheduled to leave the condo at 3:30am to make our flight out of Miami. Ick.

[who knows — but the stick of butter in the root vegetbles probably didn’t help]

Odd, odd culture shock to spend one evening off the waters of the Caribbean, and spend the next night on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World.

But that was our Sunday. Off the boat a little before nine after breakfast with Kate and Eric, and into the mad house that was disembarkation. Eric’s comments from an email later in the day were:

Hey, Dudes………..

We finally got off of that damned boat. Was that a goat rope or what? We’ve cruised many times, but have never experienced a back up like that;……….glad it’s behind us.

We’re in Gainesville, FL tonight, plan to make it as far as Atlanta tomorrow……..No news here, except that we’re waiting for the Chinese delivery……Don’t know whether the delivery person will be Chinese, but maybe the food will be…………

Enjoyed hanging with you, lads. Take care.

That clusterfuck was followed by the clusterfuck of getting a rental car from Hertz. No mid-size, so we are in a Ford Explorer at a few dollars less. Luckily, we’ll be returning it to the airport rather than the cramped, seedy downtown Miami location.

Next stop — Orlando. Yes, it’s four hours north. Swanda drives, I hold on and occasionally try to sleep.

Got checked in early at the WorldMark Orlando with groceries in hand for an early dinner as tonight’s big deal is “Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2008” complete with parade, castle lighting and fireworks. Think free cocoa and cookies and kids high on sugar.

Now, I’m not that big a Disney junkie (read: Swanda and Spiral), but I actually had a good time. It was my first time at Disney World and was truly amazed by the shear SIZE of the place between Disney Worldwhich includes EPCOT, and everything else they had to offer.

Here is a little snippet of the fireworks show over the castle:

Didn’t get bed until after 1am — with extra blankets over me since I didn’t have a jacket and was pretty frozen by the time I got back to the car. Of course, there were TONS of people trying to leave at the same time (party ran from 7pm-midnight) and I was shocked at the number of strollers going back the parking lot at 11:30 at night.

Highlights were two back-to-back rides on the Pirates of the Caribbean (for me), and the Haunted House and It’s A Small World for the big guy.

If you want to update yourself on ALL the photos from the Caribbean/DisneyWorld trip, here is the standard scrollbar y’all’re used to by now.

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Feeling a little better, actually got out of bed for breakfast this morning — Eggs Benedict in the Summer Palace. I got to the restaurant about the same time as the boat got anchored off

Norwegian Cruise Lines private island (more like a pile of rocks and some sand).

After a laid back morning of reading New Yorkers, I headed off on the tender to “fantasy island” to see what the BBQ lunch was like. The answer? Hot dogs, hamburgers, maybe some chicken — all grill items, not BBQ.

Here is a decent shot of “fantasy island”:

Toured the shops and got back on the same boat as I arrived on. It wasn’t really hell — if what you wanted to do was lay on the beach and sun yourself, it would have been heaven. At the tail end of a head cold, sweating and drinking wasn’t what I had in mind — or maybe I’m just ready to be away from 2,000 other people.

Lunch in the Blue Lagoon and back to the room for more reading.

The plan for this evening has finally settled onto Indigo for our last night’s dinner. Swanda was

thinking French for more snails, but decided a dozen and a half was enough for one trip.

Might do some duty free shopping after dinner, or not.

Might just come back to the room and collapse.

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A quiet day at sea fighting my head cold.

I finally broke down and went to the sundries store and picked up some NyQuil. $9.99 a box. At least the fingernail clippers were cheap at $1.50.

I thought about bowling a couple of couple of lanes in the Bliss Lounge….

Decided against it at $7.50 a pop.

Did make the staff talent show at 3pm… the finale was “Fountains” which they the crew also did on Wonderful and mys trip around the Hawaiian islands a couple of Januaries ago.

Spent lots of today sleeping lounging around. Makes me really glad to have the balconey cabin.

Tried doing cocktails and dinner, got through one cocktail, and about half of dinner (yes, I left wine behind) before bagging it and going back to bed.

Missed the staff stripper show at 11:30, but Swanda was there to deposit my money in “fountain boys” shorts.

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Today’s early excursion is to the Tulum Mayan Ruins. And early it is — 7:45am boarding time. Ick.

Today, we are docked in Cozumel — an island off the Mexican Coast. So the play is, disembark, head to the high-speed ferry, ride for 30 minutes, and arrive is Playa del Carman.

I know I said no new photos, but here are two that I really have to upload:

Now how long is THAT bus going to take to get there…. that was actually from the Ruins of Altun Ha yesterday.

And from the ruins today, who knew the Mayans had ATM’s.

Tonight I am reluctantly joining the gang for dinner. My head cold isn’t getting better, and being out in the sun for chunks of today probably didn’t help — but when one of the appetizers is marinated octopus, I have to go down and sample it.

[off Ali today because of the cold]

Happy Wednesday to all… and greetings from Belize.

Today’s adventure is the Ruins of Altun Ha (no relation to BBHa). Sorry, but the pictures probably won’t be posted until Sunday afternoon. It just sucks up too much bandwidth and time (at .40 a minute) to keep uploading them all. That, and I’ve been a little camera crazy, and Swanda has contributed some from the ship’s staff doing a life boat drill while I was on shore — and managing to bang up the boat pretty good (and hence, the painting crew working on it when I returned).

A VERY long tender ride into Belize City. We are anchored with Holland America’s Veedam what feels like miles off the coast. Basically it’s half an hour to get to shore. On shore it is a cluster fuck of passengers headed on either just the ruins tour, or the ruins and the city.

I might point out at this point that the 60-90 minute bus ride was on roads of ruins — free massage with each tour — no pedicure though.

I quote Eric when I pass along his phrase about the ruins. “Nice pile of rocks.” It was slightly more than that — and rumor has it that tomorrow’s Mayan Ruin tour in Cozumel will be more spectacular. RiverSong keeps going on and on about the ruins — hence me signing up for both ruins related tours.

Dinner tonight with Kate and Eric at Indigo — and what ever Chris and I had the same, had the same effect, a wee bit of stomach troubles…. was it the corn and bean salad? the slightly overcooked pork chops or the glaze they were in. Who knows. The one thing I do know is that I’m not taking Ali in the morning to add to the problem.

Missed another “Friends of Dorothy” meeting because they put them at 8:30 in the evening — smack dab in the middle of the dining hour — should move the damn things to cocktail hour, maybe at the same time as the “Friends of Bill W.” — but that wouldn’t work because there would be too much overlap.

Off to bed.

Today’s stop is Rouatan, Honduras. When I first thought about going ashore, it was overcast — by the time I got to the gangway, it was raining. Went back to the room for reading time. Here is a great shot of the “folklorico” band that greeted us:

I spent about an hour wandering the streets — dodging  snarled traffic and vendors trying to sell me anything and everything with the exception of drugs and prostitutes — maybe it was becasue all the cops around. I got some interesting “mood” pictures of the town.

By the time I returned to the ship, it was raining again. A fresh shirt and a glass of bourbon took the chill off.

Lunch back in the Summer Palace — as it’s the only sit down choice for lunch unless you want to fight the masses and go to the buffet.

Dinner tonight is again in the Summer Palace — the fault of reservations with the Gowins. Tomorrow Swanda and I are headed to Cagney’s Steak House for a steak dinner (though I did have steak last night in the french resaturant — in a peppercorn sauce).

Here is the latest scroller bar:

[who cares]

Well, now I can say that I’ve seen Cuba. Here it is:

But in reality, we are at least ten miles off the coast so I don’t get to add it to my “countries list” which I have yet to make up. Tomorrow we arrive in Roatan, Honduras, and that IS a new country for the list.

While it is tempting to engage in all-day-drinking, I’m afraid it would cost me a mint. Today’s selection of specials and tastings:

• $4.25 Bloody Mary special until 11
• Art of Making Sushi and Sake Tasting ($15 at 11am)
• French Wine and Cheese Tasting ($15 at 2pm)
• Global Beer Tasting ($15 at 4pm)
• Martini Tasting ($15 at 4:45pm)

Me — I’m going for the martini tasting at 4pm since that’s about cocktail hour (somewhere). But before that happens Swanda shoes up with most of a bottle of Prosecco from one of the bars. He reminded me that I’d totally missed the Latitudes party — sounds like I didn’t miss much. Oh well.

Lunch was at the Summer Palace (a Russian themed place) for Shrimp and Crab Gumbo followed by Gnocchi with Arugula with a Gorgonzola Sauce.

Tonight’s dinner is at Le Bistro — the French restaurant with escargot for Swanda, and pate for me. Swanda is planning on making a p i g of himself — his words, not mine.

More photos if you check out yesterday’s entry — they all scroll when you click on them.

[? ? ?]

Well, the Days Inn Airport North doesn’t have much to recommend it other that a free airport shuttle and being under $100 a night. The promised shuttle to the port was full by the time we checked in, and wouldn’t have gotten us there early enough for my taste (no lines, quick check-in. board at 11:30, ask for an upgraded suite, have lunch.

News on the beer belly bladder system…

Holds two liters of whiskey (or I suppose beer, but why). I got through the metal detector with no problems as it’s all Velcro holding it together. Not very flattering, and definitely sweat producing, but it’s cheaper than buying drinks all week at $7 a pop. Actually, pop is $1.75 a can or $1.25 fountain.

Here is a shot of Chris calling to make reservations for dinner tonight at Indigo (no up-charge) and tomorrow at the French Bistro ($15 up-charge).

So far so good. We will know about upgrading to a Penthouse by 7pm this evening. Our friends Kate and Eric are in a penthouse, and they have a butler and a welcome bottle of champagne that we plan on drinking after the lifeboat drill.

And speaking of champagne, that’s what they welcomed us on-board with — and Swanda and I immediately went to the atrium bar and drank a bottle and a half of Prosecco (with the help of Kate and Eric).

Here’s the pictures so far, but this will hopefully be updated through the week. Check out the two story tall video monitor doing WII Golf!

[no clue for 7 days]

Yes, in the air, again. 1:20pm flight to Miami with Swanda, and tomorrow morning we board the mv Nowegian Pearl for a seven day cruise of the Western Caribbean. We have a veranda suite booked — $1049 per person for the 7-days…. not a bad deal, but we could have saved $500 between us had we waited until today to book:

Brochure Inside $1,539 Our Inside $249 You Save 84%	Brochure Oceanview $1,639 Our Oceanview $329 You Save 80%
Brochure Balcony $2,039 Our Balcony $549 You Save 73%	Brochure Suite $2,439 Our Suite $749 You Save 69%

Oh well. Still think it’s a great deal. Here is the layout:

The balcony doesn’t look as big as the one on the Oosterdam of the birthday cruise, but it’s a balcony. Destination are Belize, Honduras, Cozamal, Bahamas, and probably some other place I’ve forgotten about.

After the cruise we are off to DisneyWorld for two days before heading home on the 9th.

Maybe more later it I can find the time.

[219.4]

Sleeping late — I love it.

Except when it means I have to rush packing, breakfast, and booze shopping.

Flights running on time today (again). One of my big worries was that today’s flights would be a mess — since I have to be on a plane tomorrow for Miami for the Caribbean trip. This is the one time there isn’t much flexibility in the plan.

On the way to the airport we swung by one of the big liquor stores (one, of many) so that I could get the 12-year-old Macallan for $39.99 and and interesting $20.99 small batch bourbon from Corner Creek in Bardstown, Kentucky. It being Bardstown, that means that it is some sort of Jim Beam product. Want to learn more? http://www.cornercreekbourbon.com/home.html

All the flight running early — gotta love that.

Lunch = the pasta, spinach, artichoke heart dish I missed on the way down, roll, fruit plate, brownie

Dinner = beef teriyaki over angel hair noodles, side salad, roll, caramel cheesecake fruit plate

I saved the brownies for Lynne — at 15 grams of fat — too much for me. On the second leg I managed to drink first class out of scotch (again) — and that was the crappy Dewar’s that they were serving.

And speaking of crappy — Northwest Airlines first class seats. Cloth, no padding — every time somebody puts something in the seat pocket behind you, you feel. On the upside, the non-bulkhead rows got foot rests. Oh well — I could have been in the back.

Lynne is back in morning at 11:45am to take Swanda and I to the airport. More adventures await. Yee Haw!

[? ? ?]

Happy Thanksgiving — and you know what that means for the male version of Imelda Marcos — it’s the annual shoe sale at Vans — 25% off and free shipping, but today only. Use code THXINSTOCK08 for in-stock shoes and stuff, and code THXCUSTOMS08 for those custom shoes. But remember, it’s TODAY only.

Here is a sample of the wild stock shoes they have:

And here are examples of the two new custom pairs that I’m ordering this year:

We (Dan, Lisa, and I) are off to Eric and Holly’s for the big Turkey Day feast, but I thought I’d get this out so you all could get your shopping done. Headed back to Seattle tomorrow so I can fly to Miami on Saturday. Good thing that bag is already packed!

[? ? ?]

A couple of hours at the Shirts of Bamboo warehouse this morning. Dan and Lisa dealing with SOB stuff, and me dealing with E&A stuff. Nice to be able to see the staff on this visit, totally missed them my last time through.

Lunch back at the house and then it was nap time for everyone — sort of a pre-Thanksgiving slow down.

Late afternoon and into evening was errands — Circuit City looking for bargains on car electronics (none — which is surprising since they are in bankruptcy, WalMart for returns (and me to look at their electronics — $388 for in-dash DVD player with GPS), and an early sushi dinner at Osaka in Maderia Beach.

And a damn fine sushi dinner it was. The three of us stuff ourselves, had a split of Nigori Sake, and the bill was $115 with generous tip. The do some amazingly bizarre rolls there — like the summer roll which is done like a Vietnamese summer roll in a wonton skins with all the shredded stuff, and add tamago (egg), the usual shrimp, a little Krab, roll up, slice into pinwheels, top with red and black roe…. yum. $12.95 and it’s almost a meal in itself.

We were home by 7:30 so it was time to return to on-line shopping for electronics for Bob, Jr. — or is that soon to be black little Bob. Something like that.

This is where project creep comes in. I finally made up my mind to “double down” on what I was thinking of spending on the cheap end and at least spring for the blue-tooth. GPS navigation is an option if I want to “double down” over my “double down”. For $299 (free shipping) this is what is going in:

It had the most inputs and outputs of any of them — enough that I think I can get both a backup camera and a HDTV tuner hooked in as well.

And then you start thinking (well, I do) about the crappy light switches the Itasca has, and how I need under valance lighting… like I said, project creep.

Think:

 and

I much prefer mid-day flights. The food in first is better, I’m better, life is better.

Left for the airport at nine so I could be on a conference call at ten. Forty-five minutes of E&A discussions. More things for my to-do list. Nice to have a meeting with a bloody mary in front of you. Bad Mark!

Breakfast was basically a couple of bagels with cream cheese in the Board Room at Alaska. The lunch options on the flight to Minneapolis were a pastrami sandwich on swirled rye bread or an artichoke and spinach pasta dish. I went for the pastrami, but the pasta looked really good. Maybe on the way home that will be an option.

Flights were running on time — pray for that on my return when it’s far more important. I even had a half an hour in Minneapolis to snag a drink in the Northwest club and ring up Dave the Builder. Sounds like his business has fallen off — he even entertained the possibility of coming west to work on the new house. Not very exciting projects — roof and painting and a roof extension for the porch. That surprised me, but I guess it’s the economy, stupid.

The flight to Tampa was a dinner flight — another pasta dish, this time with a marinara sauce which I passed on in favor of the chicken quesadilla. It being Northwest, there was no working entertainment system but I’d brought my mp3 player and the noise cancelling headphones so it wasn’t a problem.

Arrived Tampa fifteen minutes early and my bag was the third off — the priority tag (for being in First Class) actually worked this time! Dan was in the cell phone lot so it was a quick pickup and go.

Nothing like a hot tub after a long day of flying. Thanks Dan for cleaning and filling the tub! 

[218.5]

Events and Adventures work in the morning, then off to the bank, Trader Joes, car-wash, Fry’s, IKEA, Harbor Freight and then home to install the last two curtains. Now I just need to buy and stain a bunch of oak for valences over all the curtains. The one in the bathroom will hopefully have a bit of a “plate rail”.

While I was at Fry’s I was checking out in-dash DVD players. My delima is which features I want/need:

• AM/FM
• DVD/CD/MP3
• Bluetooth
• Navigation

An amusing thing about taking stuff back to IKEA — they have a parking area for returns that has a fifteen minute limit. Like you can get through the return line in fifteen minutes!

By cocktail and dinner time at Swanda’s place, all the E&A print jobs have been signed off of so we can eat dinner without work drama.

Was home by eight and shopping on-line for auto electronics, but with still no decision.

[216.3]

The challenges for today:

• Pack for the next two trips
• Install the new curtains in SOB (Son of Bob)
• Trim down chopping block to make sink cover (think about replacing other cover since the particle board is dieing)
• Try backing a loaf of sour dough bread using the machine to kneed and the oven in the garage to bake
• Cook dinner for Lynne and talk about her South Park shuttle service.

And the result?

Not sure if you can see my destination tags on my bags — TPA for Tampa/St. Pete, and MIA for Miami.

As for SOB (Son of Bob), look at this shot:

New curtains, a new chopping block — ignore the stove on the right, the top is in the dishwasher to get years of grime off of it. And now I want to replace that faucet with a goose neck, and change out the valance for solid oak (and in the bedroom, bath, dinette as well).

Here is the scroller bar for the whole SOB series:

Looking forward to Lynne’s steaks and featuring out a sourdough recipe….

[217.6]

Nothing like spending the whole day (or so it seemed) shopping. Needed salad and scotch for dinner (no — that wasn’t the whole dinner, just what I was out of), a letter sitting on the bench at my old house (permit renewal that I need to mail to the new folks), needed to drop off clippings at Jimmie and Swandas (where I also picked up a wine shipment from Ridge), then off to IKEA (yes, on a Saturday — it takes a Zen-like patience) for new curtains for SOB (Son of Bob, not Shirts of Bamboo). Whew!

The curtains for SOB weren’t what I was originally planning, but they caught my eye — and turns out that they are exactly the same color as the upholstery (and damn near the same material).

I was originally going for wood slats but they didn’t have all the ones I needed in stock AND I thought about all that clattering going down the road. Of course, when you change plans in the middle of IKEA it means you have to return one item and pick up two smaller ones to combine. Monday, and I’ll combine it with a trip to Fry’s to check out in-dash DVD players and see if they have any deals.

And since I was shopping for blinds for SOB, why not a new microwave that would fill the entire space rather than the pint size one that was in there. And why not have it be a microwave/toaster combination — who knew such things were possible.

Guess this means that in addition to packing for both the Tampa/St. Pete trip and the Caribbean Cruise that I’m going to be installing curtains.

Dinner was a healthy Chicken Marsala with a sauce from Trader Joes that I had bought months ago and not tried. Damn tasty, damn quick.

[217.7]

Checked out at 11:30. After a check of our maps — we are off on a different route home. The new route goes right past Whitaker’s place (but unable to raise him on the phone) and doesn’t go through all the clear-cut that we saw on the way down. It added about 15-30 minutes to the trip, but it’s a prettier drive, and an easier one — less winding roads.

It seems that I can’t get away from work these days… I didn’t get more than 10 pages read in a magazine that was in a stack an inch high. Money, reading, OK, I’ll go for the money.

But the drive did take four prime emailing hours out of my schedule.

The weekend is schedule-less. I may even wait to send out a clipping to the E&A crew (yeah, right).

For my upcoming trips, this is what I’ve learned about T-Mobile roaming in the Caribbean:

• Honduras – $1.99 a minute, no Internet on the phone – 1900 MHz
• Bahamas = $2.99 a minute, Internet available ($15.36 per MB) – no frequency given
• Belize = $2.99 a minute, no Internet on phone – 1900 MHz
• Mexico (Cozumel) = $1.49 a minute, internet available ($15.35 per MB) 1900 mhz
• Seems like text messages are .35 to send, and .20 to receive any of the above

Finally, a quiet dinner at home of leftover steak sliced, heated up, and served over salad with a little heart helping wine to wash it down.

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