Sea Dog

Yes social comes first. Pina Coladas sound good.

Yeah you might have to carry me back to the cabin. 😜😆😁

I hope that’s the case. I belong to a knee replacement support group on that other face of a page and I’ve learned a lot of tips from others there that will help a second go around. Thanks for your comments.

Thank you! I love all my friends here. I agree. Thanks to everyone who commented on my knee situation. I hope I responded to everyone who commented. You are all the best and I can’t tell you how much you all mean to me.

Studies have shown that over 70% of patients that had the bone marrow transplant have had no problems for over 10 years. It’s meant to be a lot better than a steroid shot. Thanks for your reply. Thank you Graham so much. Thank you so much Helen. I may not be looking forward to surgery but I’ll do what I need to do. My other replacement knee is doing good. If I use that as my guide I think I can do it. I hope you are feeling better with your sciatica. Thank you for your concern. I hope so. I need to be able to get to the Schooner bar quickly. 😉 Im not going to cancel the October sailing only because it’s going to Tortola and that’s been on my list for along time. We had a cruise booked there in 2020 and then COVID hit and the cruise was cancelled. I think I’ll be ok. Maybe not 100% but hey that’s what the “Painkillers” are for at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. Thank you for your advice. No way I’m canceling Adventure in October. I wouldn’t miss it and miss you for anything.

I sure hope so. Thank you . Yeah I’m not looking forward to the pain after surgery but at least I know what I’m getting into. Thank you Pat for your comments. I hope you are well. Can’t wait to see you again. I’ll probably get another gel injection in a couple of weeks and then meet with my surgeon in August. Thanks Sue. I will say both my doctors my surgeon and the one who has been doing the injections are from the same group and are friends. They both have said they only want what’s best for me. I am really happy with their care, compassion and how much time they give to their patients. Thanks Patti for your comments. Thank you doctor for your advice. You are my favorite random dude on the internet. I do value your opinion very much.

Well I talked to my doctor brother who looked at my MRI of my left knee. His first comment was "wow, what in the hell did you do to your knee." He said the MRI showed him that I hade a extruded meniscus and is basically torn and beat to s%&t. He also thinks I may have a torn ligament plus bone spurs. I basically have no cartilage and basically a torn ACL. He's surprised I can even walk on it as it looks so bad. He then went on say a bone marrow transplant would not help me and that it might be better to just get another knee replacement. Needless to say I am very depressed but if it means doing something to get better I will do it. Here are the MRI"s. I have no idea what I'm looking at but my brother put arrows where there is something going on. Maybe the good doctor, @Ocean Boy can look at them and give me his expert opinion. MRI 1 MRI 2 MRI 3 MRI 4 Trouble is now Linda needs hand surgery to repair bone on bone by her thumb. so we need to try and schedule that before our October cruise. Then schedule me a knee replacement in November to hopefully make our April Celebrity cruise. Looks like the holidays may be a bummer around here. Thanks for letting me rant.

We are but dvr it to watch on Friday evenings. Looking forward to BD Down Under getting kinda tired of Gary. Great price. I'm glad you bought it. If it's the right price we always get it. The Chops lunch and disembark breakfast is good plus you get priority disembark and don't have to wait in line with everyone else.

Thanks for your thoughts. That’s too bad on the wind’s putting a damper on your excursions. I’m happy that it seems your overall trip was good.

Congratulations and welcome to the club! I think you will like retirement. I know I do. Stay busy though. Activity is the key to happiness. Good for you. When your job is your passion it makes it easy to keep on working.

That’s very cool!

I was surprised when I found the Smith & Cross. Most places I went to did not have it. I’m sure you can find it online. I really like it . Some tiki purists like the funkiness of it. I tried some straight and agree. It’s funky but in a good way. I was really happy how this turned out. As much rum that’s in there it’s really smooth. It drinks very well but can sneak up you after a couple. I hope you can try and let me know what you think.

Just getting caught up. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I was busy prepping and cleaning for a small tiki party last night with two of my long time coworkers and their spouses. Sorry I did not take any pictures because I was so busy getting food ready and making tiki cocktails but needless to say the party was a hit and everybody loved our tiki backyard. Food consisted of (sorry no pics) of appetizers, Crab Rangoon with mains being a Asian Salad, Hawaiian sweet roll ham and cheese sliders, fruit bowl and creamy cheese corn. The cocktail I made was a signature Mai-Tai which turned out fantastic even though it was potent. Ultimate Mai Tai Recipe½ oz Appleton Estate Rum½ oz Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum½ oz Plantation OFTD½ oz Plantation 3 star1 oz Lime Juice½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)½ oz Orange Curacao (Ferrand Dry Curacao)¼ oz Demerara Syrup (BG Reynolds) And for dessert my friend brought over rum soaked pineapple slices that we toasted on the grill. It was great evening but unfortunately my knee was really bad so walking was painful and I had a hard time getting in and out of a chair. I persevered but today I’m doing nothing. Thanks for reading.

Thanks Maryann for posting. You could probably scan those into a computer and touch them up. Nothing else scan them digitally and send them to me . I can clean them up for you.

Yes This ⬆️

Exactly what I was thinking. Most of these new refrigerators seem to have more storage space but skimp on the size of the ice maker. Every time we have people over for cocktails I have to buy a extra bag of ice to help make the frozen drinks everyone likes.

When you first get the fridge it takes about 24 hours for the first batch to drop. I think it makes 6-8 at a time. I have never run out. The regular ice maker bucket is not that big. You can run out of cubbed ice fairly quickly if you have a bunch of people over. For us it’s just right.

I feel the same way. Buy what works for you. How do you like their tv’s? I had a sumsung dvd player. It stopped working after a couple of months returned it for a new one and it broke after several weeks I said I’m done.

Everyone who I know that has the Samsung phone loves it. I have been an Apple guy since the early 80’s. I have a love/hate relationship with them but it’s like cheating on your wife. I just can’t do it.😉

Yes I can’t comment on their phones but I’m not of a fan of their appliances. I’ve always been a iPhone guy. It works for me.

I really like the craft ice maker but I wish the ice balls were a little bigger. They are about golf ball size and my other ice balls are about the size of a handball.

We’ve always had either GE or LG. We like the GE Cafe line. Every Samsung product I’ve ever owned has had either problems or quit working. I’ll never buy a Samsung product. I heard about the LG compressor problems but we went ahead and bought a new LG refrigerator. So far it’s great. I really like the craft ice maker that makes large round ice spheres for my cocktails. I know it must be hard when a beloved family member leaves the nest. At least with technology today you can zoom, FaceTime and text to stay close. Your vacation pictures look awesome. I’m so happy you got to spend some special time together.

On another note for those of you that are joining us on the Bella 2 cruise on Wonder, February 2,2025, the Wonder thread has come alive with the possibility of doing a quasi back to back out of Port Canaveral. After Bella 2 gets back on the February 9th the very next day Utopia does a 4 nighter out of PC. So guess what? I booked us. My TA who many of you know has set aside a big block of rooms. Excited to sail on this brand new ship. Who wants to join us for Bella 2 part 2?

Doctors visit revealed that I have swelling of the bone and a bakers cyst behind the knee. My options are Bone Marrow Transplant or total knee replacement. I’m going with the bone marrow treatment. Now just have to schedule it.

Thank you MJ. I think he should try and avoid surgery for as long as possible. My Sports Orthopedic Doctor brother is a huge anti surgical advocate. So much so that his first job was working for an orthopedic surgeons group. He was their primary doctor who saw patients before surgery. Because of his ground breaking discovery of using Ultrasound to diagnose injuries he was able to treat and have patients have a full recovery without surgery. This prompted the surgeons to fire him as he was taking money away from them. That’s why he opened his own practice and see’s patients who fly from all over the country to see him including several pro athletes (who he won’t name) and he speaks at conferences around the world. He has had the bone marrow transplant on both his knees and goes on two hour hikes all the time in the mountains and is a big time cross country skier. So after this long paragraph I recommend he continue what he is doing. I can handle a MRI without my head being in the tube. I just can’t handle being totally in there. Cheers!