I just finished reading the book Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. It was written by two ladies who played the Letter Game and decided to publish it into a book. And what is the Letter Game? This is what it says on Wikipedia:
"A letter game involves the exchange of written letters, or e-mails, between two or more participants. The first player writes a letter in the voice of a newly created character; in this first letter, the writer should establish her own identity and that of her correspondent, should set the scene, and should explain why she and her correspondent must communicate in written fashion. In subsequent letters, plot and character can be developed, but the writers should not talk about plot outside of the letters and the characters should never meet."
After reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, I really wanted someone to write letters to. Not just emails or the occasional blog post, but real through the mail on paper letters. But I couldn't think of anything worth writing about. My life is really not that exciting and there wasn't anyone I could think of who cared to hear about my day to day activities who doesn't already read my blog.
But after reading Sorcery & Cecelia, I realized I could pretend to be someone else and then I would have all sorts of things to write about!! My sister says this sounds weird, but I think it sounds like tons of fun! So, do any of you want to start a letter game with me? I can't guarantee that I have any sort of creative imagination to make this any fun, but I'm willing to try. If multiple people wanted to play, we could make up different characters, I'm just not sure how that would work. I was thinking I would start a new blog to post the letters on so others could read along. Any takers? Please? I think getting mail and writing a story at the same time would be so fun! If you want to play, make sure you leave your email in the comments so we can swap addresses.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Needing to Rant
I woke up in a bad mood today. I am the epitome of cantankerous today. Then I finished reading a book that did nothing to add to my mood. So in order to appease my seething soul, I need to rant. So please bear with me.
I just finished reading two books by Kristin Cashore, Graceling and Fire. There is a third book in the series in progress right now too. These books are marketed as young adult and the heroines of the books are in their late teens. So now let me tell you some of the content of these books. In Graceling the heroine speaks quite adamantly about how she will never get married because that's giving away her freedoms and her right to independence. Of course the solution to this is to have a lover with no strings attached. So that's what she does. Teenager. With a lover. And they have sex in the book. It's decribed. Multiple times. Not graphically, but described nonetheless. And that's not all. The bad guy? Yeah, he likes to cut up small animals and young girls for pleasure, and it's implied that he does other things with those young girls as well. So I wasn't a fan of these things in the first book, and I sure wouldn't let any young adult girl I know read it, but they were somewhat minor plot points, so I figured I'd read the second one.
It was worse. The heroine of the second book has been having casual sex with her best friend, who is a guy, since the age of 15. This same best friend goes on to impregnated a member of the royal family and the heroine's body guard, who is 15. The hero of the book, who is a prince, got a stable girl pregnant at the age of 16, and he goes on to have sex with the heroine in the book. There is sex left and right. And again we have older men taking pleasure in younger girls, women having affairs and getting pregnant with other men's children and so on and so on. I was ready to throw the book across the room multiple times.
And you know what's so sad about all this? The stories in this book are very imaginative and creative. The author is a good writer. It's just too bad that she feels the need to shove her feminist viewpoints down the throats of young teenage girls. I don't need a bitter female with obvious father figure issues (all the dads in the books are really messed up) teaching my daughters about how she thinks love and marriage (or the lack thereof) should work. I'm disgusted and appalled that she feels she has the right to market these books as young adult. I wouldn't have any problems if they were shelved in the adult section. But they're not. They are there for the taking by young teenage girls with pliable, impressionable minds. It makes me sick.
So for those you with daughters, please don't let them read these books. And if there was any way I could tell the author how sick I think she is, I probably would. Unfortunately, the type of woman I imagine her to be, she'll just say that I'm the type of person she's writing the book about, the type of woman all these young girls need to avoid becoming at all costs. I'm married (gasp!!) and didn't have sex until I was married (double gasp!!). Do you think I could get the library to re-shelve her books as adult fiction? It's worth a try, I guess.
But I feel better having ranted and raved, and I hope that maybe this keeps at least one young girl away from these trashy books!!
I just finished reading two books by Kristin Cashore, Graceling and Fire. There is a third book in the series in progress right now too. These books are marketed as young adult and the heroines of the books are in their late teens. So now let me tell you some of the content of these books. In Graceling the heroine speaks quite adamantly about how she will never get married because that's giving away her freedoms and her right to independence. Of course the solution to this is to have a lover with no strings attached. So that's what she does. Teenager. With a lover. And they have sex in the book. It's decribed. Multiple times. Not graphically, but described nonetheless. And that's not all. The bad guy? Yeah, he likes to cut up small animals and young girls for pleasure, and it's implied that he does other things with those young girls as well. So I wasn't a fan of these things in the first book, and I sure wouldn't let any young adult girl I know read it, but they were somewhat minor plot points, so I figured I'd read the second one.
It was worse. The heroine of the second book has been having casual sex with her best friend, who is a guy, since the age of 15. This same best friend goes on to impregnated a member of the royal family and the heroine's body guard, who is 15. The hero of the book, who is a prince, got a stable girl pregnant at the age of 16, and he goes on to have sex with the heroine in the book. There is sex left and right. And again we have older men taking pleasure in younger girls, women having affairs and getting pregnant with other men's children and so on and so on. I was ready to throw the book across the room multiple times.
And you know what's so sad about all this? The stories in this book are very imaginative and creative. The author is a good writer. It's just too bad that she feels the need to shove her feminist viewpoints down the throats of young teenage girls. I don't need a bitter female with obvious father figure issues (all the dads in the books are really messed up) teaching my daughters about how she thinks love and marriage (or the lack thereof) should work. I'm disgusted and appalled that she feels she has the right to market these books as young adult. I wouldn't have any problems if they were shelved in the adult section. But they're not. They are there for the taking by young teenage girls with pliable, impressionable minds. It makes me sick.
So for those you with daughters, please don't let them read these books. And if there was any way I could tell the author how sick I think she is, I probably would. Unfortunately, the type of woman I imagine her to be, she'll just say that I'm the type of person she's writing the book about, the type of woman all these young girls need to avoid becoming at all costs. I'm married (gasp!!) and didn't have sex until I was married (double gasp!!). Do you think I could get the library to re-shelve her books as adult fiction? It's worth a try, I guess.
But I feel better having ranted and raved, and I hope that maybe this keeps at least one young girl away from these trashy books!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Let them eat cake!
I'm behind on my cake blogging. I have four cakes I haven't blogged about! So let's get to it.
First, back in January we celebrated my oldest sister's and my borther-in-law's birthdays. My sis is a HUGE Twilight fan, so even though she requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, I still decorated it.
She got the Cullen crest. It's cut out of candy clay. It was somewhat difficult to cut out all those little pieces, but I think it turned out pretty good.
Next up was my bro-in-law. He's a fan of all things sci-fi/fantasy.
So stormtrooper it is. That was one giant piece of marshmallow fondant. He looked a bit like he ran face first into a wall before landing on the cake, but at least you can tell what it is, right? His was a Darn Good Chocolate Cake with chocolate ganache icing. VERY rich, and yummy.
Then in February we celebrated my Dad's birthday. He had proposed a fun cake idea to me previously, so I wanted to try it out on him.
You cut a regular cake on an angle and then flip it up on itself to form a slope. And since he's so "old," I had to write an appropriate down the hill statement on it. He's way past over the hill. He's going down the back side. :) The cake was a chocolate mint one with chocolate mint frosting. It's an old Pillsbury recipe that doesn't work well in this altitude so I had to tweak it. It was better than previous years, but still needs some work. The frosting was hard to spread too, so the cake looked really rough. But it was tasty.
And then yesterday we celebrated two of my nieces' birthdays. Since one was having a horse birthday and one a Dora birthday, I decided not to try and meld those two together. I went generic girly instead.
But for this cake I tried something new. I messed with the inside of the cake. It was a rainbow cake in all aspects.
How fun is that?!? It was a white cake that I dyed six different colors, then you put spoonfuls of each color in the middle of the pan over and over and it pushes the other colors out to form a rainbow! You can also do this with chocolate and white cake to make a zebra cake, which is the original form of this cake. I love it and will probably do this more often to make the inside of the cake match the outside. Plus I messed with this recipe too and it came out better than it ever has. Yum.
So there you have it. There will be another cake at the end of this month for Anton, then after that I think there will be a break until June?? I don't keep the best track of family birthdays, so I'm sure one will pop up to surprise me. Go eat some cake!
First, back in January we celebrated my oldest sister's and my borther-in-law's birthdays. My sis is a HUGE Twilight fan, so even though she requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, I still decorated it.
She got the Cullen crest. It's cut out of candy clay. It was somewhat difficult to cut out all those little pieces, but I think it turned out pretty good.
Next up was my bro-in-law. He's a fan of all things sci-fi/fantasy.
So stormtrooper it is. That was one giant piece of marshmallow fondant. He looked a bit like he ran face first into a wall before landing on the cake, but at least you can tell what it is, right? His was a Darn Good Chocolate Cake with chocolate ganache icing. VERY rich, and yummy.
Then in February we celebrated my Dad's birthday. He had proposed a fun cake idea to me previously, so I wanted to try it out on him.
You cut a regular cake on an angle and then flip it up on itself to form a slope. And since he's so "old," I had to write an appropriate down the hill statement on it. He's way past over the hill. He's going down the back side. :) The cake was a chocolate mint one with chocolate mint frosting. It's an old Pillsbury recipe that doesn't work well in this altitude so I had to tweak it. It was better than previous years, but still needs some work. The frosting was hard to spread too, so the cake looked really rough. But it was tasty.
And then yesterday we celebrated two of my nieces' birthdays. Since one was having a horse birthday and one a Dora birthday, I decided not to try and meld those two together. I went generic girly instead.
But for this cake I tried something new. I messed with the inside of the cake. It was a rainbow cake in all aspects.
How fun is that?!? It was a white cake that I dyed six different colors, then you put spoonfuls of each color in the middle of the pan over and over and it pushes the other colors out to form a rainbow! You can also do this with chocolate and white cake to make a zebra cake, which is the original form of this cake. I love it and will probably do this more often to make the inside of the cake match the outside. Plus I messed with this recipe too and it came out better than it ever has. Yum.
So there you have it. There will be another cake at the end of this month for Anton, then after that I think there will be a break until June?? I don't keep the best track of family birthdays, so I'm sure one will pop up to surprise me. Go eat some cake!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Brain Plan
So here's what I've some up with so far in my attempt to salvage what brain cells I have left. Per Monique's suggestion, I'm going to brush up on my French. I took a few years of it in high school, and I have always wanted to be fluent in a second language. And since French is the language I know the most of, I figured I'd start there. Allez! I'm going to use the free language software available through the local library. It's called Mango Languages. It's not my favorite, but it's free. If I finish all 100 lessons they have and decide I want more, I may splurge for the Rosetta Stone. I'm trying to do a lesson per day. It only takes me about 15 minutes to do each one at this point, but it's all stuff I know already.
Step 2 in the brain plan is to read more intelligent books. This isn't exactly the same as less brainless fiction, mind you. I'll just cram a few intelligent ones in between. So right now I'm reading a book about a guy who is going around to the happiest countries in the world and trying to figure out what makes them that way. Good stuff. Next in line is a biography on Marie Antoinette. But there will be fiction in between. I can't take that much seriousness all at once.
Step 3, play the piano every day. I play the piano at church, so I was kind of doing this anyway, since the only way I can play decently in public is to practice, practice, practice. But I find playing the piano to be therapeutic. There is a song for any mood I may be in. I may even splurge and take piano lessons. There are a couple ladies in the neighborhood who teach, I just need to find out what they charge. It would be nice to have something else to play besides church hymns, and taking lessons would force me to play these other things. But I'm cheap, so the lessons may not happen.
And so far that's all I've come up with. I would like a creative outlet of some sort, but I tend to get all engrossed in any hobby I take up, so I need to be careful with that one. And I really need to throw some physical element into this all. Ideally I would have an indoor pool in my house so I could swim every day. But alas, my parents never installed one. So between the kids and having to go to a gym and pay money to swim, this one is going to need some further planning and analysis. If I can figure out those two things, creativity and exercise, I think I'll be doing pretty good. So wish me bon chance, as the French would say, that I can bring the brain leakage to a halt.
Step 2 in the brain plan is to read more intelligent books. This isn't exactly the same as less brainless fiction, mind you. I'll just cram a few intelligent ones in between. So right now I'm reading a book about a guy who is going around to the happiest countries in the world and trying to figure out what makes them that way. Good stuff. Next in line is a biography on Marie Antoinette. But there will be fiction in between. I can't take that much seriousness all at once.
Step 3, play the piano every day. I play the piano at church, so I was kind of doing this anyway, since the only way I can play decently in public is to practice, practice, practice. But I find playing the piano to be therapeutic. There is a song for any mood I may be in. I may even splurge and take piano lessons. There are a couple ladies in the neighborhood who teach, I just need to find out what they charge. It would be nice to have something else to play besides church hymns, and taking lessons would force me to play these other things. But I'm cheap, so the lessons may not happen.
And so far that's all I've come up with. I would like a creative outlet of some sort, but I tend to get all engrossed in any hobby I take up, so I need to be careful with that one. And I really need to throw some physical element into this all. Ideally I would have an indoor pool in my house so I could swim every day. But alas, my parents never installed one. So between the kids and having to go to a gym and pay money to swim, this one is going to need some further planning and analysis. If I can figure out those two things, creativity and exercise, I think I'll be doing pretty good. So wish me bon chance, as the French would say, that I can bring the brain leakage to a halt.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Save My Brain!
I am getting dumber. More and more often I find myself unable to think of a word I want to say even though I know I used to know said word. It's really frustrating. And it's not like I'm not putting all sorts of words into my head. I read court transcripts almost daily, full of their legalese and such. I've read over 28 books since the new year. (Though granted only one of them has been nonfiction and the rest were completely brainless fiction.) So why does it feel like my intelligence is leaking out of my head like water from a sieve? I used to be smart and witty, once upon a time. There hasn't been any pregnancy or childbirth in over 3 years, so I should have been able to make up for anything the two I had caused me to lose. I'm sure my kids continually suck the life from my cerebrum, but it can't be faster than I'm putting it in, can it?
So I'm beginning Project Save My Brain. Unfortunately, I don't know where to start. That's the problem with a broken brain, it can't think up how to fix itself. Do I need to read more intellectual books? Take a class? Interact more with people with vocabularies larger than a kindergartener? Meditate? Help! I'm sending out an S.O.S. And since my blog readers are the smartest people I know (and also the only people I know) I turn to you. How do you keep your brain in shape? How many sets and reps do you do each day? I need the secret to a strong, unleaky brain!
So I'm beginning Project Save My Brain. Unfortunately, I don't know where to start. That's the problem with a broken brain, it can't think up how to fix itself. Do I need to read more intellectual books? Take a class? Interact more with people with vocabularies larger than a kindergartener? Meditate? Help! I'm sending out an S.O.S. And since my blog readers are the smartest people I know (and also the only people I know) I turn to you. How do you keep your brain in shape? How many sets and reps do you do each day? I need the secret to a strong, unleaky brain!
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Super Deluxe Weekend of Magnificence Recap
So I got home from my super relaxing cruise and got slammed with work and life. I've finally caught up on work, so now I can catch up on blogging. Life can never be caught up on.
So here goes. I'm just going to hit the highlights. If you want a blow by blow, you can read about it on my sister's blog here and here and here. She has LOTS more pictures and more witty commentary.
I flew into New Orleans where my sister Andrea picked me up from the airport and we crashed in a hotel for the night. And what's the best thing to do at a hotel when you aren't having to set a good example for your kids? Jump on the beds of course!!
That's my double 9 that I perfected in cheerleading in high school. We tried really hard to get a picture with both of us jumping, but no luck. We just couldn't time the camera right.
The next morning we boarded the ship and watched as it pulled a 180 in the Mississippi River.
We also called home just to make sure our kids were alive before we were out of cell phone range.
We spent the evening exploring the boat, getting to know our table mates at dinner, and best of all, karaokeing.
We karaoked every night. We got to be famous by the end of the cruise. People would stop us everywhere we went and say, "Hey! You're the karaoke girls! We love you!" Someone even said this to us while we were in Cozumel. It was crazy. We sang everything from Killing Me Softly to Dancing Queen to Summer Nights (our personal best we think). I also sang I Will Survive and Eternal Flame. And there were more that I'm just not remembering. This was my second favorite thing we did on this cruise. Karaokeing with my sister was WAY more fun than with Anton (but I still love you!).
The next day was a day at sea. We claimed a couple of beach chairs on deck and spent the day sunning and reading.
We were entertained both by the gay vampire book reading guy next to us and the effects of the very strong wind blowing across the deck. We were sitting right at a corner where lots of people walked by, and the wind caused all sorts of things to fly our way. Andrea got pelted in the chest with a pineapple and almost got a cocktail umbrella to the eye. I got an eyeful of parmesean cheese. And the guy two over got his chair doused with a drink. Luckily he wasn't sitting in it at the time. It was good fun.
That night was formal night. Andrea did my hair. I ended up with a southern poof the height of which I haven't seen on my head since probably junior high.
But she said I looked good, so I'll take her word for it.
The next day was the one day I'd been looking forward to for weeks! Our ship stopped in Cozumel and we reserved a spot at the private beach club of Nachi Cocom.
For a flat price we got our own umbrella and beach chairs:
And all we could eat and drink (virgin of course).
I didn't photoshop any of these pictures. The water really was that blue and Andrea really was that pink. :)
We lounged on our chairs.
We wandered the beach and found all sorts of huge conch shells and coral and cool things you never find on a normal beach.
Andrea decided she wanted to jet ski, so I tagged along.
Good thing I did because she was a sissy, so I ended up driving. Though the salt water was so salty neither of us could see very well because of our contacts.
We made sure to also float in the water for a bit afterwards since we were already wet.
There I am blissfully floating away.
Then it was time for food. We got chips and guacamole. We got fajitas. And before we left we got us some flan that was divine!
We ate in the restaurant for a change of scenery.
And it was nice scenery. Off to the side there is the pool and hot tub and swim up bar. That's where all the drunks hung out. Thankfully our beach chairs were far enough down the beach that we didn't have to listen to them too much.
The grub. Yum.
Right after we finished eating, I headed over and got me a massage.
I was in heaven, except for the cannon ball contest that went on at the pool in the middle of my massage. The rest was a dream. I wish I had done the whole hour rather than just half an hour.
Then it was back to the umbrella and more relaxing.
I managed to finish four books on this trip.
Look at the hot mamas! Sadly our day had to come to an end. After hitting up the shops so Andrea could spend lots of money (she's good at that), we went back to the boat.
We had to get some obligatory boat railing shots.
We had the best group for dinner. I don't know how the cruise lines do it, but they do an amazing job pairing up like groups of people for dinner. We had a pair of brothers and a pair of friends who were escaping their husbands and kids just like us!! The fourth pair never showed. They knew they weren't cool enough for us.
Niki, Andrea, Me, Kip, Andrew, and Kim.
We had the coolest waiter too.
Coco on the left and Wyan on the right. Coco was our waiter and he sang and danced and told stupid jokes and was just a blast.
The next day was our last full day on the ship. And of course it was cold and windy outside. So we claimed a booth in the cafeteria and spent the morning reading.
Well, I read and Andrea took lots of pictures. That afternoon we went and saw an ice carving demonstration.
He did that in 25 minutes. Then we also did a photo scavenger hunt, which was super fun, even though we didn't win.
And that's about it. We went to a couple of the shows, but they were even worse than my last cruise. Andrea actually fell asleep in one and we left before it was over. They were really bad. The comedians were okay. Nothing great. The food was adequate. It didn't make me feel sick, which was a plus.
And of course we had to spice up our off time on the boat a little bit. On night we were getting ready for bed at 1 a.m. after a long night of karaoke, and when I turned off the water in the bathroom, I felt my feet getting wet. I looked down, and sure enough, there was water all over the floor. The water pipe under the sink had busted. We had to call and wake up the maintenance guy, who spent 15 minutes banging on the pipe (because a hammer fixes all problems) only to say he had to go get another part. Thirty minutes later he finally comes back, bangs around some more and says he can't finish fixing it until the next day. Sheesh. Andrea slept through it all. Lucky her.
The next night as we were getting ready for dinner, we started hearing a weird beeping sound. We turned off our music, and sure enough, we had set off the heat detector in the ceiling with our flat iron. Now, you would hope that all sorts of people would come running to make sure there wasn't a real fire on the boat, but no. We had to call.
Again, maintenance had to come and turn it off. I'm sure we were on their black books for this cruise.
The final day of the cruise was just debarking, and then Andrea and I wandered around the French Quarter in New Orleans. But we were cold and tired, so after grabbing some beignets and eating cajun food for lunch, we headed out.
We stopped at a drug store on the way to the airport to get me some meds for a headache, and when we walked by a freezer I saw they had BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!! That stuff is the best in the world. I bemoaned the fact that I couldn't eat an entire half gallon before my flight, when Andrea pointed out that they had pints! I grabbed me some cookie dough, and that made the perfect ending to a perfect vacation. (Even though they wouldn't let me take it through the security checkpoint at the airport. They claimed it was a liquid. Trust me, I ate it far too fast for it ever to become a liquid.)
This cruise was everything I wanted it to be: relaxing, fun, adventurous, and a great get-away. However, I came home and felt really ripped off. Nothing had changed!! I didn't feel any more patient with my kids. I still had the same problems to deal with. And I had more work to do than I had in ages. Aren't you supposed to come back from vacation renewed and full of energy? I didn't. But that's okay. The cruise was still the best thing I'd done in a long time.
So here goes. I'm just going to hit the highlights. If you want a blow by blow, you can read about it on my sister's blog here and here and here. She has LOTS more pictures and more witty commentary.
I flew into New Orleans where my sister Andrea picked me up from the airport and we crashed in a hotel for the night. And what's the best thing to do at a hotel when you aren't having to set a good example for your kids? Jump on the beds of course!!
That's my double 9 that I perfected in cheerleading in high school. We tried really hard to get a picture with both of us jumping, but no luck. We just couldn't time the camera right.
The next morning we boarded the ship and watched as it pulled a 180 in the Mississippi River.
We also called home just to make sure our kids were alive before we were out of cell phone range.
We spent the evening exploring the boat, getting to know our table mates at dinner, and best of all, karaokeing.
We karaoked every night. We got to be famous by the end of the cruise. People would stop us everywhere we went and say, "Hey! You're the karaoke girls! We love you!" Someone even said this to us while we were in Cozumel. It was crazy. We sang everything from Killing Me Softly to Dancing Queen to Summer Nights (our personal best we think). I also sang I Will Survive and Eternal Flame. And there were more that I'm just not remembering. This was my second favorite thing we did on this cruise. Karaokeing with my sister was WAY more fun than with Anton (but I still love you!).
The next day was a day at sea. We claimed a couple of beach chairs on deck and spent the day sunning and reading.
We were entertained both by the gay vampire book reading guy next to us and the effects of the very strong wind blowing across the deck. We were sitting right at a corner where lots of people walked by, and the wind caused all sorts of things to fly our way. Andrea got pelted in the chest with a pineapple and almost got a cocktail umbrella to the eye. I got an eyeful of parmesean cheese. And the guy two over got his chair doused with a drink. Luckily he wasn't sitting in it at the time. It was good fun.
That night was formal night. Andrea did my hair. I ended up with a southern poof the height of which I haven't seen on my head since probably junior high.
But she said I looked good, so I'll take her word for it.
The next day was the one day I'd been looking forward to for weeks! Our ship stopped in Cozumel and we reserved a spot at the private beach club of Nachi Cocom.
For a flat price we got our own umbrella and beach chairs:
And all we could eat and drink (virgin of course).
I didn't photoshop any of these pictures. The water really was that blue and Andrea really was that pink. :)
We lounged on our chairs.
We wandered the beach and found all sorts of huge conch shells and coral and cool things you never find on a normal beach.
Andrea decided she wanted to jet ski, so I tagged along.
Good thing I did because she was a sissy, so I ended up driving. Though the salt water was so salty neither of us could see very well because of our contacts.
We made sure to also float in the water for a bit afterwards since we were already wet.
There I am blissfully floating away.
Then it was time for food. We got chips and guacamole. We got fajitas. And before we left we got us some flan that was divine!
We ate in the restaurant for a change of scenery.
And it was nice scenery. Off to the side there is the pool and hot tub and swim up bar. That's where all the drunks hung out. Thankfully our beach chairs were far enough down the beach that we didn't have to listen to them too much.
The grub. Yum.
Right after we finished eating, I headed over and got me a massage.
I was in heaven, except for the cannon ball contest that went on at the pool in the middle of my massage. The rest was a dream. I wish I had done the whole hour rather than just half an hour.
Then it was back to the umbrella and more relaxing.
I managed to finish four books on this trip.
Look at the hot mamas! Sadly our day had to come to an end. After hitting up the shops so Andrea could spend lots of money (she's good at that), we went back to the boat.
We had to get some obligatory boat railing shots.
We had the best group for dinner. I don't know how the cruise lines do it, but they do an amazing job pairing up like groups of people for dinner. We had a pair of brothers and a pair of friends who were escaping their husbands and kids just like us!! The fourth pair never showed. They knew they weren't cool enough for us.
Niki, Andrea, Me, Kip, Andrew, and Kim.
We had the coolest waiter too.
Coco on the left and Wyan on the right. Coco was our waiter and he sang and danced and told stupid jokes and was just a blast.
The next day was our last full day on the ship. And of course it was cold and windy outside. So we claimed a booth in the cafeteria and spent the morning reading.
Well, I read and Andrea took lots of pictures. That afternoon we went and saw an ice carving demonstration.
He did that in 25 minutes. Then we also did a photo scavenger hunt, which was super fun, even though we didn't win.
And that's about it. We went to a couple of the shows, but they were even worse than my last cruise. Andrea actually fell asleep in one and we left before it was over. They were really bad. The comedians were okay. Nothing great. The food was adequate. It didn't make me feel sick, which was a plus.
And of course we had to spice up our off time on the boat a little bit. On night we were getting ready for bed at 1 a.m. after a long night of karaoke, and when I turned off the water in the bathroom, I felt my feet getting wet. I looked down, and sure enough, there was water all over the floor. The water pipe under the sink had busted. We had to call and wake up the maintenance guy, who spent 15 minutes banging on the pipe (because a hammer fixes all problems) only to say he had to go get another part. Thirty minutes later he finally comes back, bangs around some more and says he can't finish fixing it until the next day. Sheesh. Andrea slept through it all. Lucky her.
The next night as we were getting ready for dinner, we started hearing a weird beeping sound. We turned off our music, and sure enough, we had set off the heat detector in the ceiling with our flat iron. Now, you would hope that all sorts of people would come running to make sure there wasn't a real fire on the boat, but no. We had to call.
Again, maintenance had to come and turn it off. I'm sure we were on their black books for this cruise.
The final day of the cruise was just debarking, and then Andrea and I wandered around the French Quarter in New Orleans. But we were cold and tired, so after grabbing some beignets and eating cajun food for lunch, we headed out.
We stopped at a drug store on the way to the airport to get me some meds for a headache, and when we walked by a freezer I saw they had BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!! That stuff is the best in the world. I bemoaned the fact that I couldn't eat an entire half gallon before my flight, when Andrea pointed out that they had pints! I grabbed me some cookie dough, and that made the perfect ending to a perfect vacation. (Even though they wouldn't let me take it through the security checkpoint at the airport. They claimed it was a liquid. Trust me, I ate it far too fast for it ever to become a liquid.)
This cruise was everything I wanted it to be: relaxing, fun, adventurous, and a great get-away. However, I came home and felt really ripped off. Nothing had changed!! I didn't feel any more patient with my kids. I still had the same problems to deal with. And I had more work to do than I had in ages. Aren't you supposed to come back from vacation renewed and full of energy? I didn't. But that's okay. The cruise was still the best thing I'd done in a long time.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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