HBE4

He posted yesterday in the thread about The Atlantic article about a writers first time cruising.

That oh so adorable Bella head tilt!! For some reason, pets always look so much cuter when they tilt their heads.

I thought the same thing at first as well. I thought it was a bit extreme to knock down a house just because you don't like the texture of the ceiling. Maybe they meant knocking down the walls and/or ceiling? I now know that it's a special knife/trowel called a knockdown knife used to create the texture.

Thank you both for posting this here. I had not been over on the FOB thread in a long time & had no idea what was happening.

After reading the article, I still consider it to be satire or as someone else said, dark humor. I found myself chuckling out loud a few times and he very creatively seemed to nail a few topics that are frequent CC subjects. I'm also pretty sure some the people he met might be fellow posters here. LOL. Having said all that, some of his comments about his fellow passengers did have a very sharp edge to them. The author definitely knows his audience. I can see & understand how someone might be offended if they consider this article to be a serious cruise review. I do not. But on the whole, I considered a very enjoyably read. Special shout out to thank @NorthStarStateCruiser for the link so I didn't have to sign-up for the free trial

Thank you both for the question and answer. This whole time I was thinking knocking down the ceiling seems pretty extreme, not to mention messy & labor intensive. I was having a nitwit moment. I blame the earthquake & solar eclipse.

No, the line was strictly for those buying solar eclipse glasses. It was an impulse purchase for me as I had every intention of viewing the eclipse on TV. I was in an Irish pub where I caught the beginning of the women NCAA championship game, the topic of conversation in the place was the eclipse, where to watch it and where to buy glasses. Someone mention B&H and as luck would have it, I'd be walking right past the store on the way to the hockey game. Silly me thought I could just run in & grab a pair. But everything turned out just fine. I had an hour to kill after the Auto Show & before the doors opened at Madison Square Garden & i had some interesting conversation with my fellow line mates so the time passed quickly.

We're you "over the moon" with excitement? 😃 I forgot to play a special Playlist. "Here Comes the Sun", "Paint it Black", "Total Eclipse of the Heart"...

It was pretty exciting! Glad you got to see it. It started slow but then you could see a little dent in the sun that grew into a pac-man and then a very thin crescent moom. And the crescent shifted, first just the top of the sun, the left side & finally bottom. Looked like a big smiley face except the nose & eyes were missing. Lol Temperature did drop a bit & the lighting got weird, not dark but ominous. I took a few pictures but they did come out. I can share a picture of the long line at B&H. I meant to post it earlier. This is about 1/4 of the line.

They really do! At first, I thought I got scammed as they looked like cheap 3-D movie glasses. Then when I put then on inside the house, I couldn't see a thing. I thought maybe the lens was covered & needed to be peeled off. But when I looked at the sun, wow. I'm guessing maybe 25% coverage.

Eclipse is set to start now. So far, nothing. A few high level clouds moving in but can still see the sun through them It's going to peak @ 3:25 ,ET . About am 1 hour, 10 minutes from now. Should get 90% totality

And the weather was a perfect sunny & warm April in NY day! Got 25,000 steps in.

I love Succession. Didn't care for the ending at first but in retrospect, as absurd as it was, it really was the only way to end the series. But otherwise, a very well-written and perfectly cast show. Now that I know the author of the article was a writing on that show, I'm definitely going to read the entire article. . I knew all along it was satire but now I know it'll be enjoyable satire. I'll reserve final judgement until I read the whole article but I'm going into it with the expectation that it's like being in the front row of a Don Rickles show or the "honored" guest of a Dean Martin roast. You'll need to be able to laugh at the insults coming at you. As long as it's not too mean-spirited, I don't mind being on the receiving end of a joke.

Busy day yesterday. Took the train into the city. BTW, trains in and out of the city are also the beneficiary of the 3/4 of one cent per gallon of gas tax so figured I should get my moneys worth.😀 Plus, I hate driving & parking in the city. Anyways, festivities included attending the New York Auto Show with my nephew to begin the day and ended with attending the New York Ranger game. Final game of my regular season package, an impressive 5-2 win over Montreal. Next game for me will be playoff, sometime after April 20th. In between, I spent an hour waiting on line to buy a 4 pack of Solar Eclipse glasses from B&H Video. No exaggeration, the line stretched an entire city block, around the corner, down another city block to the end. As long as you got on the line before the stores 6:00 pm closing time, they would let you in. Once inside, the line zig-zagged up and down every aisle until it finally divided into two, for those that pre-ordered online and those (like me) that did not. The pre-order pickup line was 10 times longer than mine so I lucked out there. Of course, good old American capitalism was alive and well as some people would buy a few 10 packs, step outside & then sell the individual glasses to those waiting on line for $10 for one pair of glasses that cost $1. And people were buying them!!! Someone told me he was heading over to Time Square where he knows he could get $20 per pair. And in between all that, I found time to grab 2 beers at an Irish Pub and watch the beginning of the Catlin Clark show. I know very little of basketball and even less of college basketball but she looked like a pretty good player. 🙂

I thought for sure New York would have been number 2 behind California but after a bit of some confusing research, we are actually ranked 9th (all taxes including local sales tax) or 13th (just state tax) in the nation. And because I live so close to NYC, there is an additional tax to support mass transit but that's minimal, 3/4 per one cent on the gallon. Why not just round it up to a penny per gallon? The one good thing is that - with the exception of the sales tax - most of the other taxes are based on per gallon, not price, so as prices rise, we don't pay more tax. I grew up in Rockland County, NY which borders NJ. Back then, New Jersey gas was significantly cheaper so it was worth the drive to get "Jersey gas" as we called it. This was back when driving big old American cars with big engines and big gas tanks, getting 15 MPG. Plus it was an excuse to visit some of our favorite diners such as Park Ridge Diner @BonTXNY

It looks like from the balcony above, you can look down into the balcony below as well as the promenade. Not my cup of tea but I guess if someone likes people watching or meeting new people as they stroll the promenade, this is the balcony cabins for them. Or if they are an exhibitionist! 😲

Agree! Considering how hard he plays, its amazing he still is playing. I guess as long as he's productive & enjoying the game, I can see him playing a few more years. Part of me wants Gretzky goal scoring record to remain his and part of me wants to see Ovechkin break record. As noted above, The Great One has plenty of other records that should/may be untouchable for years to come.

Looks like St, Martin & Antigua identify with both Eastern and Southern. Does that make them itinerary-fluid? 😁 Hope that joke isn't to edgy🤪

Around 6:00 pm, I felt an aftershock. This time, it felt like a sonic boon from a jet. Or dynamite blasting way off in the distance. House trembled for a few seconds & that was it. If it wasn't for this morning quake, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. Someone mentioned it was a 4.0 magnitude.

Hilarious! When my step-daughter came home, she noticed one of the pictures hanging in her bedroom wall was askew. As she straighten it, she declared "We Will Rebuild!"

That is quite an accomplishment, it speaks to his consistency. Just bought my Ranger playoff tickets for rounds 1 & (hopefully) 2. Fingers-crossed, I don't see Sid the Kid. He's a Ranger-killer. Alex Ovechkin is 46 goals away from breaking Gretzky records for career regular season goals. If he can keep up his current pace, that's about a 1 1/2 seasons away. I wonder if he's going to play into his 40's to set a new record?

A few people on the news have likened it to a low flying plane/helicopter or a train or large tractor trailer passing by. It did at first but - not to sound like an attention-getting drama queen - towards the last few seconds, there was some very sharp & abrupt shaking of the house. More than just vibration. I'm mildly surprised there are no cracks in the wall or foundation.

You're right. I guess I was quoting something I heard from NJ media. 🙂 https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/10/07/A-moderate-earthquake-shook-a-large-area-of-northeastern/8000434347200/ In fact, today would rank #3 since 1957, after the 1983 noted above and a 1992 quake that was out in the Atlantic. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/05/us/earthquake-new-york

All good here! They are saying it's the worst earthquake in 240 years in this area.

I think the earthquake scrambled my brain. I read it 3 times before it sunk in. My brain must be like quicksand. 😄