427 – As Another Year Approaches

As 2010 comes to a close.. it’s my sincere hope that 2011 is a much better year for all who read my blog.

Some of my friends have gone from working to out of work, some have found jobs that are less than they wish, and some have been out of work for quite some time.

As I do every year, here’s a list of celebrities that have passed on this year:

(some bring back some old memories for me)

Art Linkletter (How many remember Art?)
Barbara Billingsley (the “Beav’s” mother)
Cory Haim
Dennis Hopper
Dino De Laurentis
Dixie Carter
Eddie Fisher
Fess Parker
Gary Coleman
George Steinbrenner
James MacArthur (Book’em Dano")
Jill Clayburgh
John Forsythe
Lena Horne
Lynn Redgrave
Merlin Olsen
Mitch Miller
Patricia Neal
Peter Graves
Robert Culp
Rue McClanahan
Tom Bosley
Tony Curtis
Peter Tork (Of the Monkees)
Teena Marie
Steve Landesberg
Blake Edwards
Leslie Nielsen

And I’m sure there’s more.

But, lets not look back, but forward. I wish you all, a Safe and Happy New Years!

Until 2011,

Dave

426 – Merry Christmas!

 

425 – Here’s to the UCONN Women’s Basketball Team!

On 12/21/2010 the UCONN Women’s Basketball Team did something no other basketball team has ever done. They won 89 games in a row, beating out the UCLA Men under Coach John Wooden. Is it the same? Maybe not. Is it an incredible achievement? Absolutely. We actually popped a bottle of Champagne after the game to celebrate. It was a wonderful thing. *Smile*

With that said, I’ll once again wish you all a very, Merry Christmas.

Until next week….

Dave

424 – Merry Christmas to All!

Well, I’m not sure if there will be another post this week, so I’ll say it now. I hope that you all have an outstanding Christmas!

This one is going to be a lot different for my wife and I, as we have no kids at home any longer. I have to admit.. it feels strange.

Christmas Day, we’ll have the whole family (minus my daughter who’s going to Maine with her boyfriend to see his parents) for a nice easy dinner.

So.. with that said, take the time to sit back for a few moments, and reflect upon the magic of Christmas…. it’s in the kids *Smile*.

See you some time next week all….!

423 – The Christmas Season & Pineapples

Yes, the Christmas Season, not “Holiday”. I’m not trying to offend anyone of any other faith, but I’m sorry, since as long as I could remember, it was the Christmas Season, and Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. That’s just me.

Enough ranting.

This has been a rough year for me, for reasons I won’t go into here in public, but suffice it to say, I truly hope 2011 is a lot better… for everyone.

More on the cruise:

Next stop, was Costa Rica where we took a tour of a Pineapple Plantation. It was a family run place, with thousands of acres of pineapples being grown mostly for Del Monte.

As soon as we arrived, they had fresh cut pineapple for us to try at the visitors center, and it was incredibly sweet and delicious.

 

 

 

To the left, are the pineapples, freshly washed, ready to ship to Del Monte.

One building packed them whole, while another building cut them into rings, chunks and even made some dehydrated pineapple!

To the right, are the women who stand all day and cut the rind off of the pineapple and make rings or chunks.

They don’t have standard “hours”, but an amount they need to produce before they can go home, so you can see if someone is out, it can create havoc in their hours!

 

More coming soon… have a wonderful weekend!

422 – It’s Really Winter!

The wind chill this morning is zero or lower this morning.. and the furnace is in full gear at home. My daughter and I did a bit of Christmas (yes, Christmas, not “holiday”) shopping last night.. and for the first year in ages, I have no clue what to get my wife.

Mike H, where are you going for New Years??

More about the Cruise: Our next stop was Panama, where we took a tour to the Miraflores Locks, which are on the Pacific side of the country though it took only about an hour to drive there.

To the right is a tanker going through the Miraflores lock. You can see there’s 2 lanes, and a large ship already passed that lock just before this one on the other side.

 

 

The next picture is of me, standing near the gate that takes you to the lock. You can get pretty close and I was glad of that!

After this, we left the locks area and headed to Old Panama City for a walking tour.

The local people make beautiful wood and cloth items as seen in the next photo. The colors are brilliant, and the workmanship outstanding.

 

Remember to click on any picture to ‘embiggen’.

The country was beautiful, but getting run down as many of the buildings that were owned by the US, are now turned back over to Panama, and don’t seem to have been taken care of.

Well, that’s it for today… more Friday!

421 – More on the Cruise..

First of all, Mike, where are you going??? I love Iguana Joe’s for the great Coconut Shrimp and Balashi beers! Nah, Carlos and Charlies doesn’t do anything for me.. been there a few times before.

In Cartagena, Columbia.. we did a city tour which included the Fort of San Felipe, which was built between 1639 and 1659.

It’s quite large, and protected an inland waterway from all who would attack this Spanish port.

The tour was a long, hard walk to begin that ended up taking us in tunnels down under the fort.

It was an interesting place to visit, then we went downtown in the old section of Cartagena for a walking tour.

 

One of my favorite pictures, is at left.

It is the Church of San Pedro Claver, a priest who tended to the slaves brought into Cartegena in the 17th century. He was later canonized in 1888, and his body rests beneath the altar in the church (visible through glass windows).

After finishing the walking tour, we got to see some Columbian folk dancers, and had time to buy some wonderful Columbian Coffee before heading back to the ship.

More later…. have a wonderful Monday all!

420 – Bitter Cold - Hot Shrimp

It was 9 degrees F when I left home Friday morning! Holy moly…. Winter is here already! Snow is predicted for Sunday. I want to go back on the cruise!

Aruba. A little piece of Walt Disney-ish looking buildings in the South Caribbean. If you think I’m kidding, look at the buildings to the right! Aruba (as well as Curacao and Bonaire) are Dutch islands, and therefore aren’t your typical Caribbean island(s).

Pastel buildings of all kinds that look straight from Disney World await. Actually, the second floor of the left side of the pink building, is a great restaurant that I always go to in Aruba, called Iguana Joe’s Caribbean Bar & Grill. They make an outstanding Coconut Shrimp dish and serve Balashi beer. Life was good as the sweet shrimp fought the coconut and Balashi for time on my tongue. We sat overlooking the main street in Oranjestad, able to see our cruise ship less than a hundred yards away.

It was in Aruba that we bought our daughter a gorgeous Alexandrite ring. Now, if you’ve never seen Alexandrite.. look it up. It’s probably the most rare gemstone on Earth. I was so excited for her, I couldn’t wait to get home to show it to her! (pics coming later)

It was Thanksgiving day, and we headed back to the ship for a sumptuous Thanksgiving meal of Turkey and all the fixings for dinner. We weren’t disappointed.

Well, time is short, so I’ll stop here and say have a great weekend everyone…!

419 – Hot & Cold

The cold part first. It hasn’t been above 32 degrees for the last 4 days! Good grief!

Vacation was wonderful, and very, very restful. I probably slept more than I have in a long time.. and I must have needed it.

The day before the cruise, we (and our friends Reggie and Sue) stayed in Fort Lauderdale, and just took it easy and browsed around town on the trolley, heading down to the beach.

It was overcast, and had sprinkled a bit during the day, but nothing could dampen our enthusiasm over this trip.

 

 

Monday morning, we boarded the Jewel of the Seas, had lunch, and explored our new home for the next 11 days.

As you can see (click on any picture to ‘embigggen’), people were already taking advantage of the pool before we even left port!

We found our dinner table for later at night, (a large one for 12 people) and by 2pm, our bags had arrived and we unpacked.

After a nice dinner that evening, we enjoyed a nice evening just exploring the ship, and walking out on deck before retiring for the evening as our ship headed to Aruba, where we’d reach in 2 days.

More later…. have a great Hump-Day!

418 – Back and Refreshed!

I’ll go into more later this week, but I’m back, and incredibly refreshed! The cruise was wonderful, and we got to see some wonderful things.

As you can imagine, I’m up to my armpits in being busy, so I hope you’ll forgive the very short post this morning.

For now, I’ll leave you a nice picture from the cruise (from Cartegena, Columbia).

(Click on the picture to ‘embiggen’)