April 30, 2005
Aruba
I think these pictures pretty well sum up my day in Aruba. We went to see the natural rock formation, which was... somewhat less than we expected, but interesting. From there straight to the beach, since it's the Queen's birthday and everything else was closed. We sampled the local beer (picture 1). The water here does indeed rival Tahiti, except it's a little colder, and something squishy swam out from under my foot and took five years off my life, but it was lovely and clear. As to the bus... well, it was parked where we were hoping to find a taxi.
April 29, 2005
On the Coral
So I was all worried that I wouldn't know anyone on this ship, but I hadn't even gotten out of the shuttle from the hotel before I ran into a friend from my first contract. Now it's like reunion week from the Tahitian Princess and to a lesser extent, every other ship I've ever been on. The transition has been pretty smooth. Day two and I haven't eaten alone yet. Even the people I don't know have been really friendly. It's strange getting used to a new size ship, but I like the Sun class - it's a great compromise between the big ships and the tiny. Even the food is a little different, which is a great change. Tomorrow is Aruba - where I'm told there are beaches to rival even Tahiti. Wherever, it's a welcome change from two sea days.
April 25, 2005
Last of the Halcyon Hilton Days
In four days, I lose my much coveted Diamond status with Hilton. No more will I graciously be swept up to the Dean Martin suite, no longer can I have lesser mortals booted from their reservation because I want a free stay when it's convenient for me. (Not that I ever did that, mind you). They've already sent me my Silver card (one giant leap down from Diamond). But in the meantime, I'm enjoying my last two days at the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale. Working on the high speed wireless, eagerly anticipating the free cooked breakfast tomorrow. (Not to mention the happy hour). Oh well, it's been a fun ride, and lasted far longer than I ever expected it to.
Oh, and I can't really say I recommend America West. And try to buy food before you get on the plane if you DO fly with them because it really hurts to pay $5 for an airplane grade turkey sandwich, complete with slimy lettuce.
April 20, 2005
Attacking the My Documents Beast
I'm rapidly counting down my last few days of sloth before it's time to go back to "work". I spent yesterday in Portland with my nieces again. I had intended to bring my new computer with me and load it up with software, but ran into such issues that it became clear I was going to need to reinstall the operating system (partly because it came out of the factory with a ridiculously small c: drive partition). So I gave up in disgust and went out to watch my niece play in the back yard. It was a glorious hot sunny day, and before long it became clear to me that sitting up was no longer an option, and I stretched out on the grass and fell asleep, like a cat napping in the sun.
Today, now that I'm faced with backing up all my data from the laptop prior to the great disk re-organization, I decided to tackle the "My Documents" folder on my big computer, where I discovered to my horror, not just duplicates of files, but quadricates and quinticates of files, all safely tucked away in folders bearing names that had no relation to their contents. Anyway, I think the beast has been tamed, and I'm just crossing my fingers that I haven't tossed anything of merit. I did find some nice Windows Haiku buried away though, that must have been circulating on the internet a while ago.
April 17, 2005
Back to Work
For those of you who are interested in my movements for the next four months, I've finally (after three weeks of utter sloth) updated my calendar let me know if you see any glaring errors. And no, I'm not entirely certain where Flaam is.
April 15, 2005
Susie's Big Day out
Today I got up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 (earlier than I've seen the light of day in about 3 weeks) to drive all the way up to Portland to get my hair cut (KB, I meant to call you for dinner, but my sister-in-law and the girls got prior claim). I've been going to the same guy since I was a teenager, and my mother pointed out to me, that of all the appointments I had to make (eye doctor, dentist, etc) this vacation, the only one that came to pass was with my hairdresser.
Anyway, it was an excuse to get out of sweats and put on real clothes, drive a car (another thing I haven't done much of lately), listen to my own music, and I ate at McDonalds and Starbucks. (Since I try not to eat at those places when I'm out of the country AND I knew my sister in law would be feeding me whole grain rice noodles for dinner), and when I got my coffee, the girl behind the counter wished me happy Friday, and I realized it's been almost two years since weekends had any meaning for me at all. Funny life.
April 11, 2005
Flowers
This is my favorite time of year to come home, and here's why.....(incidentally, I resized these pictures with Picasa - way less labor intensive than Adobe...)
April 10, 2005
The Quiet Life
I use this term loosely, since the weekend involved three of my nieces, all under 10, visiting for the weekend. It was really a lot of fun to see them, and it broke up the routine a little. I spent most of the weekend cooking really elaborate dinners, since it means I get excused from all sorts of chores that I don't like. Chicken and dumplings (starting with a whole chicken carcass), Shrimp Scampi, (peeled and deveined 3 pounds of shrimp, and we ate it ALL) and today the crowning glory: Lamb Korma, Naan, Saffron Rice, Chana Dal and Potato Saag. I think I used an entire head of garlic today....but it was yummy. Though I must say, making the Naan was a bit of an adventure, which required a fully hot oven PLUS a fully hot broiler, and me slapping dough onto hot trays and moving them between the ovens. Add in three little girls scampering around the kitchen... well, it was an adventure.
April 07, 2005
Gems from the past
As I write, I'm working on my big computer, the monster workhorse that is now (gasp) over two years old and starting to hum a bit. Next to it sits my brand new laptop, shiny and pretty and sooo lightweight. It's also on, because I'm transferring all the pictures I took last contract to the big monster. Not sure why exactly, they both have roughly the same hard drive space. The desktop just SEEMS bigger. Meanwhile, tucked in a box in the corner is my first ever laptop, which I bought in 1991, and somehow, through 10 different addresses, I still have the manuals. It contains such gems as "Using DOS commands", and "What is a Directory?". The computer itself has a blazing 16MHz processor, and 640KB of RAM (upgradeable to 1MB!) and an inconceivable 20 MB hard drive. Unfortunately, I've lost the power cord, so all the mystery and nostalgia buried therein are lost to me. Not that I remember the DOS commands anyway.
April 04, 2005
Sloth Continued...
Well, not utter sloth, since my parents had booked tickets for Ashland this weekend. Still suffering from jet lag, I poured myself into the car at 7:45 on a Friday morning, grabbed a pillow and blanket, and slept blissfully throughout the 4 hour drive. We arrived just in time for the first play (The Philanderer - Shaw) which was good, though some of the characters suffered from overacting... a nap followed, and a very nice Italian dinner (Il Giardino), and immediately on to another play (Room Service ... very well acted). The next day was really the perfect day - up not too early for breakfast, then a nice quiet morning in the bookstore, followed by a lunch of tapas, and another play (this one an experimental one written precisely for the two actors who played in it - interesting, very well acted, but the script, well, was a little lacking). Naptime again, lovely french dinner with good wine, followed by an August Wilson play which was by far the best of the lot. Well acted, good script, not conducive to good and restful sleep, but I caught up on the long and rainy drive home. All in all, what more could one ask from a weekend?
Oh, and in the spirit of KB my motel had - not free wireless - but free high speed internet nonetheless. Pretty impressive for your standard, run of the mill, outside corridor motor hotel from the 70's.