ottahand7

Good Sunday morning! It is 45 degrees here and it is already blowing. If we didn't have a planned visit to town today I would have started the woodstove. Instead the propane lamps are on and warming the place up nicely. John wants to go to our little nearby town for a pallet auction that they are going to do in the street in front of our favorite dining place. He isn't out of bed yet so I think he took a look outside at the winds and is deciding to stay home. He wants a wood splitter but the chances of one of them being in a pallet are slim. We have a neighbor who will loan us his. @richwmn thanks for today's Daily and Fleet Reports. An interesting quote, lots of both in life. Cousteau had great documentaries we liked to watch before the days of cable TV with too many options. Pass on salmon, the cocktail and the wine but thank you @cat shepard for suggesting a substitute we all can find. @0106 Thank you for the gorgeous photos of Seville. @JazzyV thank you for keeping us informed of illnesses, challenges and celebrations. Prayers for all on our care list and for the people of Ukraine. @kazu Thanks for letting us know the good news that the NS fires are almost out. Yesterday I tried to work outside between the horse races and got a lot done but even with the winds at a steady 15 the mosquitoes were very pesky. Have a great Sunday! Nancy

Happy Birthday @Denise T!

Good Saturday morning. Thanks for the Daily Reports each day Rich. I like ball point pens though I prefer Sharpies. Yesterday I spent a lot of time using a red ballpoint to mark up 38 pages of the Belmont Stakes Daily Racing Form for today's Belmont Stakes races. I don't know what I will do for the big race. I use a lot of herbs and spices from Penzey's they make especially good blends for grilling and roasting meat. I will pass on today's dish but the Bourbon sour looks tasty and I know the Hanzell Pinot will be a good one. I haven't been to today's port. Vanessa thank you for our Cares and Celebrations lists. Prayers for those in our group that need them and the people of Ukraine. @Nickelpenny Bon voyage! 🍾 Have a wonderful cruise celebrating your recent retirement. We ran the sprinklers yesterday for two hours. Since they are oscillating they really don't water deeply. Rain in the forecast for Monday. My DS and DBIL are due up here to their cabin on Tuesday. Hopefully our road work begins Monday so we can get our boat in the lake. Have a great weekend! Nancy

Good morning everyone! We had a beautiful drive yesterday and had an enjoyable road trip. It is 40 degrees now and 66 in the cabin again but we will open the windows when it warms up to the 80s today. Rain in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday. Thanks for the Daily reports @richwmn. I like Donald Duck. A wonderful quote by Lincoln. Pass on the salmon and the sweet drink and my guess the wine is from SA, if so not a favorite. I never could "get" their wines. @JazzyVThanks for compiling our Cares and Celebrations reports. Lots of things to keep track of for us on the Daily. Prayers for everyone needing them and the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful Friday. Nancy Last night's wing dinner at our local restaurant - 40 minutes away.

@smitty34877 I am sorry about your husband's test results and needing more chemo. Praying for him and your family.

Good morning. We dodged the frost. It was 38 when I woke but 66 inside. I lit up the backup propane lamps because they throw a lot of heat to take the edge off. I had moved my tender plants I could next to the cabin but I never covered my Tithonia. Just when I was thinking about it yesterday afternoon Iooked out the window and there was first what I thought was a large dog in the driveway. That thought lasted all of one second. No shaggy looking dogs here, it was a Wolf. About 30' from my potting bench. As usual for a Wolf it was on the move, probably looking for fawns. No sign of deer in the yard at all this year. @OceanSounds Bon voyage! 🛳️🍾 Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. Today's quote is a good one. Today's Ocean Day is appropriate for all of us cruise lovers. I look forward to photos of today's port. We will be there in 2025. Thanks Vanessa for the Cares and Celebrations reports! Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. We are off to town today. Since our boat isn't in and John has all his cabin work caught up, he is getting "cabin fever". A pretty drive through the country to Watersmeet, probably to Wisconsin lake country and back to a grocery store. Have a lovely day! Nancy

Who do you call? HA general phone line, your PCC or your travel agent? I have gotten them through my TA but now I work through HA.

Good morning! The heat wave is broken and it is 41 degrees. We have frost warnings for tonight. I'll have to figure out how to cover my Tithonia - Mexican Sunflowers that are now 12" tall and not sturdy. I think it will involve stakes and a sheet. @richwmn and @JazzyV thanks for the reports to start us off each day. Last VCR I had was a tape copier VCR which I sold on eBay while I was preparing for a lifetime move to Michigan. I have something almost as obsolete, an iPod. It works with my headphones but it will not communicate with my truck. Thankfully no need for today's "window shopping". @summer slope today's fruity drink looks like a great one on a BHB but I know I would drink it too fast. The tacos will probably be good but another unheard of wine. A lot of the Kiwi wines never make it to the US. Prayers for all on our Care list, Pope Francis and the people of Ukraine. Lots of gardening today. Have a lovely day. Nancy

@smitty34877 thanks for the picture of cutie Camilla. @JazzyV thank you for the Cares and Celebrations reports!

Good morning. We are having more cool weather and it was great doing my garden exercise in mid 70s with a strong breeze every few minutes. I got a lot done. More of the same with extreme fire danger today. Rich, thanks for the Daily Report. After seeing a moving tribute to the Point du Hoc Army Rangers on PBS I pulled Steven Ambrose's D-Day out of the bookcase and started reading it anew. We visited the battlefields in 2003 and Point du Hoc still had the massive craters created by the massive shelling. I think I will pass on the Fajitas and the Apple cocktail but I have had Dr. Thanisch Reisling before and it was excellent. Thanks for the Care and Celebrations list Eva. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine, especially the people suffering after the burst dam on the Dnipro River. Have a great day. Lots of gardening ahead for me trying to get ahead so I will be ready to fish when the road repairs happen. Have a wonderful Tuesday. Nancy My first Iris bloom and a frequent visitor in my garden.

@Seasick Sailor your first photo had one of my favorite waiters in Canaletto, Rika. We always take photos with our favorite staff members. We are Facebook friends with three men who took care of us, 2 waiters and Assistant Wine Steward, we had so much fun with them every day. I use the Navigator app a lot, good and bad. We had no Laphroaig whisky on the Volendam and I commented how can they advertise a specialty cocktail Penicillin in their list if they don't have it on board. The bartender said they substituted. Next leg of the cruise they had it onboard. Much of my praise on the Volendam GSA was for food service. We had some of the best food in the Lido and MDR as we have ever had on a ship. It is always a mix of personal recognition, Navigator recognition and tips. One comment above was the $11 recognition for the room Steward. It is not a pittance for the hard working people on ship. We gave our Lido waiter Eleanor a $10 tip during a long voyage and she was thrilled and said "A day's wages in my country". The more we cruise the more we choose to recognize the humanity of our crew rather than just employees we deal with and it has made our cruises more enjoyable.

The seafood soup was my husband's favorite and the carpaccio was mine. We ate there weekly on the Grand SA. We'll give the new menu a try.

Good morning everyone. An interesting group of days which only the environment is the only one I truly care about. The quote is very true IMHO. Total pass on the salmon and the cocktail but the wine sounds good. I have been to Nassau but not in recent history. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. I look forward to everyone's photos of Nassau. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

@StLouisCruisers thinking of you on this sad day.

Good morning everyone. @Seasick Sailor Morbier is a favorite of mine too. I had it at a restaurant and had to order it by mail order. I don't recall our Wegmans stocking it either. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports. I miss my cats, one loved hugs the other didn't. I will pass on the scallops, withhold judgement on the cocktail and another rare wine I am fairly sure. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. We got our badly needed rain yesterday. I had just planted marigolds and zinnia seeds and the rain started. It really cooled things off too. A few garden visitors yesterday and a volunteer Jack in the Pulpit next to my Hosta. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

@danogg thanks for starting this thread. We booked this in March when we we returned from the Grand South America. We love sea days. Thanks everyone for all the great information.

We have another couple of hot days ahead of us but it will cool off for next week. We got a little bit of rain Thursday but it appears the dry weather will continue. Our trip to town went well and our food was excellent but the fried fish for first meal of the day upset my stomach. I hope they get the road fixed soon because fishing is good when it is really hot and the bugs don't follow us out there. Have a wonderful Saturday. Nancy

@1ANGELCAT I am so sorry your black kitty failed to make it. I really feel for you with two going so quickly and the empty house feeling. @marshhawk I hope that you and your DH are beginning to feel better. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports @richwmn. On the quote sleeping late isn't going to make it go away unless it is a hangover. Total pass on the comestibles. Melon drink, high carbs and I bet another hard to find vino. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. @Suslorand @aliaschief Bon voyage! 🍾🛳️

Good Friday morning! We are heading into town which is an all day activity. Post office, then the hour long drive to Iron Mountain. Walgreens, Walmart and Home Depot with long lists for the last two. We will stop for Friday fish fry on the long drive back into the woods. Prayers for all on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful day. Nancy

I am sorry that Ninja is doing poorly. When I lost Tiny at age 17 her pal Lydia looked for her for weeks and laid near the stairs where Tiny's bed was. She never missed a meal though until her thyroid disease and kidney failure got her at age 19. 😿

Good morning. Another hot day expected here. We ran the lake pump yesterday and I used a hose attached to water what the sprinklers don't reach or super water the Japanese Iris and Astilbe. We got the wiring for the exterior Starlink done indoors. Neighbors arrived yesterday. Lots of walleye fishing in order for them. They are also going to work on smoothing the washed out road between us. Maybe a break in the heat on Sunday. Tomorrow is a trip to Iron Mountain for groceries and home maintenance supplies. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports @richwmn. I have used the Heimlich Maneuver on my father and had a colleague save me in a Morton's Steak House in Atlanta. I would imagine that action saves many thousands of people per month worldwide. Pass on the Tilapia, I would have the Tom Collins with sugar free syrup and I bet the wine is a good one. Thanks for all the time our member do to research these. Welcome back @JazzyV. I am glad your knee is not broken and thank you for resuming the Cares and Celebrations reports. I hope your cruise and vacation were wonderful. Prayers for everyone needing them. @superoma I hope you get a good result with the realtor today. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. Some wildflowers blooming in the woods, Nodding Trillium and Star Flower. Have a lovely Thursday! Nancy

@marshhawk I hope you and your DH get over COVID quickly.

@smitty34877 Prayers that all goes well with your DHs surgery today. 🙏

Good morning. We are going to turn the lake pump on again. Yesterday we were near 90 with 15 mph winds. It dried everything out. Thanks Rich for starting our mornings off each day. A nice quote that are great words to live by. Pass on the cocktail and today's meal but the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay will be a nice wine. Thanks Eva for keeping our daily cares and celebrations lists for us. Prayers for all needing them and the people of Ukraine. Yesterday we smoked a fully cooked pork picnic and it turned out wonderfully. That cut has more fat and bone so it smoked well and stayed moist. Have a great Wednesday. Nancy

Happy Birthday Jacqui! 🍾🎂🍷