March 31, 2004
Birthday in Maztlan
Got an early start on my birthday last night up in the nightclub after Island Night. Suzie made sure everyone knew it was my birthday, so it was well into the wee hours when we got to bed. Was woken at seven by the now weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) morning power outage, followed by lots of announcements from the bridge about how we shouldn't panic, but we won't be able to use our hair dryers or the elevators for a while. Managed to stay abed until 9, but it was no use after that, as my cabin steward was outside impatiently rustling garbage bags in an attempt to dislodge my do not disturb sign.
Have since had a lovely lunch ashore, before which we took very dodgy looking boats out to an island where there was a nice beach, but rather suspect looking food. An hour of sunning on the deck now, then drinks at sailaway, and I suspect my birthday will count itself well celebrated.
March 30, 2004
Sunny Internet
I've found the most fantastic internet cafe in Puerto Vallarta - right off the ship, and I can bring my wireless laptop in and sit in the shade with a cool breeze and a view of the ocean, and access the high speed internet. Unfortunately, still running into problems with my server, so I still can't seem to post the pictures from LA. Nonetheless, it's a beautiful day here, and I shouldn't waste it on the computer.
March 28, 2004
Round 3
I had a fantastic internet connection yesterday in LA and was going to post pictures of our fireboat escort and Louie on the beach with a Corona, but I couldn't get to my site for some reason. So you all will just have to imagine them.
I was crazy busy today. 33 people all told in the day - with about 11 for photoshop. That's all to the good, because the office was beginning to complain about me only breaking even during the last two cruises. My voice is completely shot, largely because one man who came to two of my classes was both completely deaf and had never used a computer before, so I spent a lot of time shouting at him. Which made me feel awful. Now for a nice walk around the jogging track, dinner and bed.
March 25, 2004
Almost Famous
I was invited to the press cocktail party this evening (since all the other staff were too busy to make it apparently), and one of the journalists came up and asked me if he could photograph me for his article. (I'm pretty sure it's because I was the only woman there not in a purser's uniform). So anyway, we ran off to the Wakeview Bar, where he had me going up and down this spiral staircase, and claims he got the perfect picture to sell his article. So look for me in the cruise press. I must say, they get better hors d'ouvres on this ship than we got on the Tahitian. The executive chef himself came out with pans of lobster tail on toast, rabbit skewered on a tiny carrot stick (rather grimly ironic I think), little rounds of surf and turf (also on toast) - all beautifully presented. No sausage rolls and mini quiches here. A shame dinner will find me in the buffet tonight.
March 22, 2004
Sea Days
So my days have been crazy with mismatched schedules this cruise, and I never set foot on shore in LA, but tomorrow begins my three easy days so I can't wait. I still don't really have a voice, but now it's mellowed from a croak to a sort of Kathleen Turner voice, so I can live with it. Puerto Vallarta tomorrow, and I'm planning on finally getting out in the sun.
March 19, 2004
End of Cruise 1
So my voice was all better after 3 days of resting it, and then today - 8 straight hours of talking. Ouch. I can barely croak - but it was a fun day - all photoshop and web design and full classes. Tomorrow we get into LA, but it doesn't look good for me going ashore, as it's a VIP and Press cruise, and they want me sitting at a table all day (with lunch breaks). It's cold now that we're heading north again. Brrr.
March 18, 2004
Mazatlan & Cabo
Finally made it ashore yesterday in Mazatlan for a good couple hours. Our plans were to go for lunch, and somehow we ended up at Senor Frogs - we were about to walk out, as we weren't really up for the wild raucous bar scene at 11 am, but there was really nowhere else to go in the immediate vicinity, so we reluctantly took a back table, and waved away all the whistle blowing shot guys while we ate our lunch. Needless to say, a couple margaritas later and we were dancing on the tables with the best of them. Fortunately, Mazatlan days are my day off.
Today is Cabo, our first tender port day, and the day I discovered that my cabin is in the near vicinity of the anchor. I was fairly sure the ship was breaking up into chunks over my head when they dropped anchor at 6 this morning. I'm sure I'll adjust to it. Anyway, I seem to have my voice back today, after two full days of hoarse croaking. Just in time for a full day of teaching tomorrow.
March 16, 2004
Puerto Vallarta
Made our first port today, and it looks just like Mexico. I find I'm much busier here on the big ship, which is nice because my day goes by a little faster. I wish I could regale you all with tales of spa nights and parties, but I've had a monster cold since we sailed, and I've been holed up in my cabin every night by eight. I am right now appreciating all the time I spent working with the Spanish computer in my last job, as I'm finding the Spanish keyboard here a little tricky (but nothing like the french ones in Polynesia). More from Mazatlan tomorrow.
March 12, 2004
Ensenada
Two days on board, and I've seen so many people I know from the Tahitian it's crazy. The ship is huge, and I STILL have not seen all of it, but I've spent a great deal of time in the storekeeper's office looking for my computers and supplies. I have a fantastic cabin (officer's cabin) with two portholes and a big fat double bed and no split down the middle. I further have a team of guys to help me set up and break down my tables in the Wedding Chapel, and a beautiful projector. Everything's still kind of crazy as it's a brand new ship and we're still getting the kinks worked out, but it looks like fun.
March 08, 2004
On my Way
All my bags are packed.... have spent the day trawling Target for the last items I can't live without for the next two months ( and somehow a sparkly lava lamp night light snuck into the basket amongst the other essentials). At any rate, here's the link to the bridge cam for the Diamond, and, as I'm to be teaching in the chapel, here's the chapel cam I have my private, and wholly unfounded, doubts as to how "live" the wedding cam really is, but there's the link anyway. So, goodbye to high speed internet for the moment.
March 07, 2004
New Pages
Okay - countless hours and one pair of strained eyes later, I have added two new pages: French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, Marquesas and Sunsets I've also added to the Louie page, so you can see him and Bob at play in Bora Bora and on the ship. I hope KB will forgive me that I have not yet fully embraced CSS, but rather just customized the HTML I already had in place. But now, of course, I'm burning to improve upon the existing site, and find a better way to display the pictures, as I'm finding the current system a little cumbersome. However, in three days I get on another ship and will have limited internet access. So for now - here it is. KB will further be pleased that I have buried my DHTML deeper in the site, so you no longer come upon it involuntarily.
March 05, 2004
Busy week
Oh, this doesn't bode well for keeping up with my blog on the ship. I'm not even there yet and already I've let 5 days go by. I plead lots of babysitting sick children, and I'm working on getting a page of Tahiti photos together (and Kris, I'm maybe going to try to use CSS for this) before I go. If anyone knows a better way to resize 67 pictures into thumbnails than one at a time in photoshop, I would love to know it. I know, there's automate batch, but that makes thumbnails that are 20k. It will be too late to help me now (the pictures are already resized) but it would be useful for future reference.
Spent a long and glorious day shopping with my sister, now I have to completely repack my suitcases for next week. 4 days and counting.
March 01, 2004
Goodbye Corvallis!
I was supposed to be on my way to Seattle today, but it's such a glorious day here (and I wasn't near packed) that I decided to stay an extra day. Here are my favorite pictures from the week. The two from Bald Hill are from a bird watching walk I did with my parents (they watch birds, I take pictures of moss) and it's also my favorite running path. The deer were visiting my neighbor's yard today, enjoying a little salad of fresh crocus and daffodils.
