What product/service are people in need of? Is there something out there you wish could be done better? I am not looking for anything real specific here, but probably something that could be done online. Any comments are welcome.
Category: Randomness
Eerie Fog
Last night Chuck and I went to run a couple errands and grab dinner. As we were leaving our island, there was so much fog we could hardly see where the curb was or the lines in the road. A couple times we had to just stop because we couldn't see anything in front of the car. It was so strange and eerie. With all the warm weather, the rain, the ice on the lake….they just made it impossible to see at times. As you drove to it, it was just a sheet you drove into….so creepy. In some places it really felt like a Halloween night. Neither of us ever remember seeing fog that heavy before. I'm just glad I didn't try to go out driving myself.
Silly Kitty
This silly kitty of ours was sleeping under Chuck's desk between a couple computers. She just looked so funny I had to take a picture of her. Of course after I did that, she thought I wanted to play and moved from the spot. So I couldn't take any more of her. 🙂
For those of you that don't know, Sadie also likes to play fetch. The yellow ball of string in this picture is her favorite toy. (Second in line is twine.) I just had to put a picture of her up here with the string in her mouth. It always makes me laugh!
She also has a thing with sleeping upside down. I just think she's adorable, so I share these pictures with all of you! Enjoy the silliness of our kitty!
Curtains
I finally got around to putting curtains up in the rest of the house. I have been meaning to do that since we moved in. I decided I only wanted sheer panels up and I think I like the result.
Here's the dining room:
The curtains make it look a bit more like a dining room. I think it makes much more finished looking in there.
And here's the bedroom:
I love the dark walls in our room, but they can look a little too dark at times and I think the sheers help lighten them up. I think I am going to buy an other panel or two for the large window in the bedroom. But I am so happy I finally got something and hung them. It's about time!
New Jacket
I bought this cute little jacket from Old Navy that I found on the clearance rack. I don't usually like anything with gold, but the buttons were ok. I could always change them someday if I wanted to. 🙂 I am just excited about my new jacket, so I thought I would share it with you! But I imagine you won't be nearly as excited as I am. 🙂
Cruise
I am a little late getting this posted, but late is better than never, right?
We went on our second cruise with Chuck's dad's family this year. Our group was even bigger than last year since Paige and Brian could come with us. We went on Royal Caribbean this time and it was a wonderful time! Click on the titles of the days to see the pictures!
Day 1 * San Juan, Puerto Rico
We first arrived in San Juan. We took a direct flight there. That was the way to go. It was a very drastic weather change when we got there, that's for sure. We couldn't wait to get our luggage and shorts…..but first….find the buffet on the ship. We were starving!
We spent the day looking around the ship, unpacked and had dinner in the dining room later that night. We were tired from traveling and had an excursion the following day, so we went to bed.
DAY 2 * St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
I was very excited for our excursion….Helmet Dive. It was like our personal SUBs we went on last year. Unfortunately is was canceled, so Chuck and I walked around St. Thomas. As we were walking into town, I got really excited…”Look, Chuck! Coral!” His reply was (after laughing a bit) “That's an orange street cone!” I guess I was a little excited to be in the Caribbean and thought I was seeing coral….Oops! 🙂 I did find a watch I had been wanting for a long time there. I was very excited. We had a pretty relaxing day. A little shopping and a lot of eating!
DAY 3 * Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
Today we took a shuttle with Chuck and Jean to the other side of the Island for some power snorkeling. It was a lot of fun. You use a device with a propeller on it to move you along in the water. You don't even need flippers. They took us out to the snorkeling site on a huge banana ride pulled behind a boat. I saw a stingray and Jean saw a turtle, but not too many fish here.
After the snorkeling, Chuck and his dad wanted to go on the jet skis for a while. So we rented some of them and went cruising around. It was a lot of fun. And there were some huge waves and swells to play on.
Chuck and I went on a fishing excursion in Antigua. It was a lot of fun. We caught all sorts of weird little fish. We debated between shallow fishing and the deep sea fishing, and chose this because we wanted to be sure we would catch some fish. We weren't sure we would get anything deep sea fishing. I did catch one of the ugliest fish I have ever seen, though. he had a little body and HUGE eyes. The first thing they said when I pulled it out of the water was “DON'T TOUCH IT!” I thought it was because it was so ugly, but it was really because he had some spiky bones in his back that can really hurt. We had a great time.
We went with Chuck and Jean again to an interesting excursion. We went Aerial Trekking. Which really means, they stick you in a harness, tell you to lean back and pick up your feet and then push you on your way across a zip line in the canopy of the rain forest. Don't get me wrong, it was TONS of fun, but I was a little more than nervous when I saw this. I did find a couple videos of other people doing it online. HERE is a video of some people going on the zip line. It's not the best video, but you will get the idea. 🙂 It was definitely a new experience!
Later we went into town with Jean because we were told there was a fish market there. I was picturing what you see on tv, with people throwing fish around, so I wanted to take a look. Turns out it was really just a fish store…or more a fish freezer. It did feel nice in there from the hot, humid air, but it didn't smell very good. We walked around and I think Chuck was asked if he wanted to buy some drugs and when he said no, the guy thought it was just because I was with him and wouldn't approve. It was a bit strange.
Paige and Brian went on a Pirates of the Caribbean excursion and got to go on one of the ships they used in the movie. I guess it was just one of the smaller ones they used, though and not the main one. There are a lot of pictures of it in the gallery. It looked really cool even it wasn't the main ship!
We went on a group excursion in Barbados. It was lots of fun to do something with everyone….all 15 of us. We went on a tiami sailboat and went snorkeling with turtles. It was so cool. They were just swimming around for you to touch them! I didn't get many pictures, but I think some other people did. I will have all their pictures at the end as soon as they get them added.
The crew of the sailboat were very amusing. The Captain wanted people to try to guess who sang his favorite song and if we guess it, we got a free t-shirt. So he plays THIS SONG…. Of course, no one guesses the artist and gets a free t-shirt. So he plays it probably 5 more times during the course of the excursion. It starts to grow on you after you hear it 5 times or so. So much so, that we were sitting at dinner and someone would start singing….”blahblahblahblah” just like in the song. It's a horrible song, but I promise it will be stuck in your head. 🙂
After our excursion…and lunch…Chuck, Jean, Paige, Chuck and I went to wander around town. There wasn't a whole lot to see. So we found a cab driver to give us a tour. It was a good tour overall. There were a couple delays along the way. First to pick up his daughter from school and bring her somewhere. Then he stopped somewhere and was gone for 5-10 minutes with us just sitting in the car. But he came back and it was a good tour. He told us they had green monkeys there. Of course I wanted to see one. So he took me to a monkey. It happened to be someone's pet, but it was still a monkey. I was the only one that let it sit on my arm….I probably have some monkey parasite now, but it was fun. I took off my earrings and sunglasses because Tiko (the monkey) likes them. So he sits on my arm….good. Starts to reach for and play with my small earrings….not so good. Then starts pulling on my hair….Enough of that. 🙂 He was cute, though. Chuck's dad gave him a dollar and he yanked it out of his hand and the owner quickly came to retrieve it because Tiko apparently likes to rip them into little pieces instead of putting them in the “TIPS” box like he is supposed to. 🙂
At night, there was an extravagant display of food. It was so amazing, they give you an hour before the buffet opens just to take pictures. HERE is the gallery with the pictures of the display.
Chuck and Brian entered a Dodgeball Tournament while we were on our day at sea. Their team won and they got medals. It was fun. Paige and I took a towel folding class (I have been making them for meals, and showing them to everyone I know) and an art class which was really just a coloring class. I gave my picture to Emmanuel, the room attendant. Later we went to an ice sculpting demonstration and then relaxed the rest of the day.
HERE is the gallery of all the towel animals we got. I even learned how to make a sea turtle. (I have yet to be able to make it well at home.)
Before we went to the airport, we went on a tour of San Juan and saw the city. I took a ton of pictures. We got into San Juan too late the first day to do this, so we did it on the way out. It looked a lot like Florida to me. 🙂
We had a great time and I can't wait to see if we go on another one. Or something like it next year. My fingers are crossed and Chuck's dad was talking about it before we even got off the ship this year!
Gift From Japan
Paige and Brian went to Japan recently for a vacation before she starts her new job when we get back from our cruise. She brought back some really cool things and they had some good stories to tell. They said they were very glad they knew some people there. And if you ever go to Japan, they recommend looking up the symbols for the Men's and Women's bathrooms…it can be hard to determine in some places.
This is the beautiful vase they brought back for me.
She told me that you stick the flowers in one side of it and the greenery is supposed to come out the other side. The part at the top looks like a handle from the side. It's very pretty!
A Sad Day
After a lot of thinking and a long time of deliberation, we decided to bring Sam and Dax to the humane society. We did decide to keep Sadie. So we aren't completely cat-less. As far as we know, Dax has already been adopted. We don't know about Sam yet, but I like to think she has been adopted already as well.
Here are a couple pictures from my last day with them….I was a little sad. But it was the right choice and everyone will be much happier.
Busy Busy Busy
It's been quite a while since I have posted on here, so I'll try to catch up a bit.
Christmas was great and really busy. It was great to see everyone, but we're always a little worn out after the holidays. HERE is the link to all the Christmas events if you are interested. Note that Chuck and I got a fake tree this year. And we may have gotten on a little bigger than we needed….it's 9 feet tall and pre-lit with 1200 lights. That's right, 1200! I think we could communicate with Mars with that thing. It's beautiful, just maybe a little bigger than we needed. It was deceptively small in side the store!
We went to Ben & Trisha Fisher's house for New Year's. I also surprised Chuck with a huge cake for his birthday. There are pictures HERE of Chuck's cake and from hanging out with our friends. I was surprised by the turnout they had on New Year's considering the horrible weather we got that day. But I am glad so many people made it. It was a good time!
The following weekend we went to Lutsen and stayed at Bluefin Bay with our friends Kelly & Andy. We had a great time. Lots of skiing, lots of eating, and lots of fun just hanging out. We got to do a little ice skating as well. I just got some hockey gloves…in pink! I am excited to do more skating and try them out some more. 🙂 Pictures from this weekend are HERE if you want to take a look. I do have some videos of skiing, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I will try to get them on here.
Now in a couple weeks, we are headed to the Caribbean for another cruise. I am very excited! Stay tuned for pictures from that! Hope everyone had a great holiday!
Will It Blend? — Round 2
Here's another batch of these funny clips! 🙂
Here's the first batch of them in case you missed it the first time or just want some more laughs. 🙂