Diamonds, Booze, and a Cruise MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Mooom, great op! I love cruising. Hubby & I have been on 8. My favs have been from Vancouver BC to Hawaii. We’ve done that twice, once on RCL and the other on Princess.
If you do decide to do an Alaska and it happens to be out of Seattle, let me know. We can meet for a quick cuppa. I live about 15 minutes from either of the cruise docks.

I have to hang around the house today to, hopefully, meet the carpet measurer guy. he was supposed to be here last week, but we’ve only played phone tag so far. We’ve already paid a $55 deposit for the estimate, so he better show.

I’m sending the stuff to the accountant today for our taxes. I’ll be glad to get past that!

22

With all those rocks you picked up along the way (remember the old Lucy/Desi movie, “The Long Trailer”?) I am surprised your ship didn’t flip over.

Sounds like you had a good time.

We have never gone on a cruise, but figure living in Las Vegas and going to the locals’ casinos is the same thing, just on land: buffets, floor shows, gambling and lots of odd characters roaming around in funny clothes.

23

DMARK I’ve never been to Vegas but what you described is exactly what I would expect. :smiley: I think it’d be fun.

Havin’ N.O.L.. Ham 'n swiss cheese on rye bread with brown mustard. YUM!!! I make some good sammiches!

Isuppose I should get back to irkstuff alas.

Laterz!

24

Speaking of odd characters in funny clothes, we decided at breakfast on the last day that most of the people on that ship looked better with clothes on! Yes, us included. This is not said snarkily or judgmentally, but we were truly not on a ship full of “beautiful people” - nothing at all like you see on TV or the movies. There were sags and scars and bellies and thunder thighs and tattoos that called attention to things better ignored and bathing suits that appeared to be a size or 3 too small. And we were at home among them.

We were told that Carnival Cruise Lines tends to cater to the young, hip, fit crowd, so I’m glad we did Royal Caribbean! :smiley:

Oh yeah, and the casino… My husband played the slots. It took him less than 10 minutes to lose $6, and he immediately checked into rehab after. :stuck_out_tongue: He was watching chips of huge denominations sliding about at the various tables, but like me, he’s not a gambler. I hate to think how much some people lost there. My sis, on the other hand, came out about $200 ahead - she had a lucky cruise!

25

I’ve decided to give up on taijitsu. I just don’t want to spend the $1000 it would take to finish. So now I need to 1) pay off my credit card 2) save up money for the deposit on an apartment and 3) find an apartment.

26

Welcome home Mooooooooooom. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. The MMP wasn’t the same without you, though!

27

Pearl, I know - when I’m not here, all the troublemakers come out of the woodwork. I blame **swampy **- he’s such an instigator!

Off to pull load #3 out of the dryer and toss #4 in! I’m so happy to be back off vacation… :stuck_out_tongue:

28

Afternoon!

Glad you had a swell time fcm and yous guys scrub up good!

I am having another one of those…I am grateful to be employed but really really hate my job days. This is now a constant feeling or so it seems. I will try and think happy thoughts.

On the plus side no snow in fact it is 65 and sunny!

I get to leave early today to go and (hopefully) get the screen on my i-phone replaced at the Apple Store. 2 more hours to go!

29

And why don’t we tell phoukaroo? Because phoukaroo would hold you and squeeze you and pet you and call you George. That’s why.

See doctor. Feel better. Kisses for the boobooknee.

30

PhoukaMom got word yesterday that her sister had died a bit before noon of congestive heart failure and respiratory failure. The tiny bit of detail shared - she was on both morphine and an anti-anxiety medication, never awoke from her coma, but “struggled” (I guess, to breathe) - makes it clear that she didn’t just drift off, which is a pity.

Grief’s a funny thing. PhoukaMom’s been grieving for her big sister for around three years now. First it was learning that Auntie had Alzheimers and had been going to church inappropriately dressed. Then it was getting her into a nursing home. Then it was family drama with Auntie’s daughter. Then it was the rapid eroding of Auntie into this creature that evoked both pity and disgust. Then it was the fight to discontinue useless measures like dialysis when there was no person left inside. And now, finally, the biological death has occurred. You’d think the grief of all the prior heartaches would have been a down payment on the grief of death, but no. Not for my mom, at any rate.

I didn’t see Auntie at all in this period. Mostly, that was because if Mom went out to visit, I needed to be home with Dad. I’m relieved and guilty and really wishing I could go with her to the service, but where Dad probably could have managed on his own three years ago, he really can’t today.

Mom has said that she’s wearing her Stoic Pioneer Woman persona. She watched her mother die (I was eight at the time), and has always been amazed at how brave and stoic Grandma was. She’s trying to be that way about her sister dying, and - I realized this JUST NOW while typing - she’s got the equation backwards. If you can be brave and stoic while dying, that’s great. It really helps the survivors. Once the loved on is gone, though, it’s time to grieve, and stoicism doesn’t help. (I need to tell her this when she gets back.)

I wish there were some way I could go with her, dammit. At least phoukabro minor will be there. I wish I had a magic wand to make her grief more bearable. It’s especially tough, because Dad can’t track current events. Mom has to keep reminding him that Auntie died, that she’s going to the service, and that I’ll be staying with him.

And the puppy knows something is wrong. She will not leave Mom’s side. Mom said she woke up in the middle of the night, crying. The puppy woke her by leaving Dad, coming to her, licking her face, and then cuddling and licking her for the rest of the night. Yep, even the puppy knows how much she’s hurting. :frowning:

31

Moom, that sounds like fun. I think I’d like cruising. Anyone want to pay for us to go? :smiley:
The results today from the testing weren’t very good- one of the babies isn’t getting enough blood flow. I’m going back in tomorrow, and we’re looking at a possible c-section tomorrow or in the next couple of days. They only let me come home instead of admitting me because I promised to lie down a lot and not do anything.

We’re a bit scared, because the babies are only 34 weeks, but we’re hoping that everything will go smoothly and that the babies won’t be in NICU long or at all. Prayers and good thoughts appreciated.

And now I should go back to bed.

32

34 weeks is practically good to go these days, and twins rarely make it to the 40 week mark. It just gets too crowded.

Hang in there, Lissla. You’ll be holding them in your arms in no time at all.

33

We had an office birth over the weekend. A woman who is across the hall from me had a 9 lb. 8 oz. baby boy Friday afternoon. Child #5, BTW.

Mother and linebacker are doing fine. :cool: :slight_smile: My officemate won the pool :frowning:

34

{{{LiLi}}} - good thoughts coming your way.

**BBBobbio **- #5?? Haven’t they figured out what’s causing it?? :smiley:

I’m done with laundry for the day. Only 2 more loads to go, I think, so I quit. I also vacuumed the Miata and wiped down the inside. We may be trading it before the week is out. It’s supposed to get into the 60s tomorrow, so I’ll back it out into the driveway and wash it. **FCD **test drove a Sonata today and he really liked it. I don’t know if I’ll bother with a test drive - I’ve got a feeling I’ll like it too. Meanwhile, my Scion had its 100K service today - we’ll pick it up as soon as my sweetie gets home from work.

Dunno what I’m going to do for supper. I had considered making N.O.T. soup, and I still might. Or we might have sammiches. We shall see…

35

I’m a little late to the party, I know, but screw it

FCM - as good a time as you had, how could you not have taken any photos? especially of the $500 worth of snails?

I’d join y’all on an Alaskan Cruise - then afterward, we could hang at kai’s house for a week or so to reacclimate to life on land, right?

36

Mooooom,** Swampy** was espically Bad while you were gone, but you didin’t hear that from me.

((('roo & roomom))) Grief is an odd thing’ init’it? Hope y’all find peace.

Lili – Hope Everything goes well, & praying for healthy babbies for you!

Got some work done on my bedroom this AM, but it’s SUCH a sty. I need a crowbar to pry me off the internets and get back to it.

37

rosie, when we went to Maine last year, we took tons of photos. I sorted them, edited them, put them in folders according to when and where they were taken, and we haven’t looked at them since. So we didn’t even bother taking a camera with us this time - it seemed like one more thing to worry about losing.

38

We don’t tell phoukaroo because as a member of the hypochondriacs-who-know-they-are-and-therefore-don’t-go-to-the-doctor-club I just broke our cardinal rule!

And, that’s pretty much how it played out. Although, I am glad that I went. She basically gave me some exercises to do to help to get rid of the swelling and reassured me that I hadn’t done irreparable damage by not following the instructions on the papers that they sent home with me that said I shouldn’t be putting any weight on it at all. Unfortunately, I didn’t read those papers until just this Saturday. (Oops). In my defense, though, the last time that I sprained something and wasn’t allowed to put any weight on it, I was given crutches at the hospital. This time they neither gave me crutches nor even verbally mentioned that I would need them.

phoukaroo, I’m so sorry for your loss and for having to deal with everything else on top of it.

Li-Li, hugs for you. And did you know that I think of you every time that I read a book by Robin McKinley? :slight_smile: Which, of course, is quite often as I seem to be a chronic re-reader of The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.

39

for all who need 'em
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{hugz}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

40

I’m glad to hear this. You haven’t sounded like you’ve been enjoying taijitsu for a while. Less stress on you.

{{{phoukaFam}}}

LiLi, you need to lie down immediately missy! Don’t let me catch you on that computer again until you’ve lost weight equivalent to twins! I mean it. looks stern

Culinary Boy and I went to price replacement sensors today. Fixing both of them would be about $200 for just the sensors. :eek: He’s going to call a local Subaru place about defining the codes on the failed inspection sheet and find out exactly what we need (one might just be a bad spark plug) and how involved replacing them would be. The one we know is bad is an O2 sensor and that’s the pricey one.