slidergirl

Melody - nothing left in my size 😞 Lois - you will enjoy this trip! I love going up to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs. Jackson is a fun cowboy town. It's more touristy than is used to be, but so is my town. It's what happens when you get popular. There is so much to see in both NPs. I may try to get up there camping for a few days this Summer. OOTD: a day off! So, it's joggers and a long-sleeve Tshirt for home.

Yes, I did. We didn't get that much. But, the winds were howling and snow was blowing all over. Roads were a mess. 2nd gear and locked FWD down my 2-mile 10% grade on the way home. My PAX at the Lodge stayed in - fortunately none were dumb enough to try to drive!

My problem is no cheap flights to a cheap cruise. 😿 I'm not paying $1500+ for a booze cruise in an inside room!!! $1200 for a 4 day, 0 stops, cruise on Princess from Los Angeles up to Vancouver in a balcony. Been on Princess that same trip, but with a stop in Astoria, same time of year and it was cloudy and dreary. Didn't like Princess, anyway. Nope. I'll keep saving up, I guess. Yes, I'm doing this at work. No one else here but some guests. Bored out of my brain. More of the same coming tomorrow. But at least that's my Friday! OOTD: Jeans and one of my big tiedye sweaters. I usually wear leggings with it but I felt like jeans and didn't feel like any other top. Yes, it's getting to the time of year where I just don't care what I wear to work...

When I had my company insurance, I'd still buy a primary medical travel insurance plan so I didn't have to dicker with my company first then then have the travel insurance pick up the rest. When I had my accident in Italy that put me in the hospital for 4 nights before I was cleared to leave, I fortunately didn't have to show ability to pay. The bill (10,000EU) came later and my primary insurance handled it all. I won't travel any other way, especially now that I only have Medicare.

I work at a SKI lodge. For the money people paid to buy in the lodge, they definitely SKI'd 😸 I'm bored to tears tonight at the Lodge. Thank goodness I found this thread!!

I am documenting. Trust me. I've had managers terminated before, and I've also had it blow up in my face before. Unfortunate part of the "game." Man, the wind is howling today! Trees that I haven't seen move before are swaying. It's supposed to start snowing sometime around 11am. Possibly 6" in the first few hours. Nothing like the Sierras in California, but it'll really mess up travel going home. I think my Saturday S'mores are not going to happen with the wind and snow. But, I'll put out the beer and wine & charcuterie tonight. OOTD: my Woolx pants (not the leggings), a hoodie. The kind of day you want to cozy up!

I didn't hold my tongue but I did hold my hand from hauling off and slapping my boss. I was writing a email to my old boss, now the big GM, about something that happened to an owner. I was just stating my opinion on the thing. Not a big deal, I write to her all the time. Well, I guess he was looking over my shoulder when I did it. He said to not email her anymore because it undercuts him. BUT, then he went too far. He said "I know it is hard to work for a younger manager." I went off. I said "don't ever pull that age card on me." He didn't say anything back but he left the building for about an hour. One thing that really gets me mad is when a boss pulls the age card. It's not the first time. But it's the first time I gave it back. It kind of sealed the deal, though, that I won't come back and work for him. Apparently he missed management class the day they did the DEI training that included ageism... The Trader Joe's run ended up a minor one. Some crackers, some cheese, some salad, some soup. The one new thing was the Black Cherry Vanilla sparkling water in cans. Tastes really good, almost like Dr. Pepper. OOTD: jeans, my Athleta blue-ish green hoodie.

Purple - I don't speak a lick of French other than "hello" and "thank you". I didn't have any problem in Bordeaux. And, besides that wine & croissant, be sure to get a canale!!! A wonderful dessert. I also had mussels and oysters for 2 meals there - sucker for them. Heading off to my dental appointment down the mountain. Then, since I'm down there, a trip to Trader Joe's. I haven't been there in awhile. OOTD: jeans and my white flowered hoodie.

Melody - I was hoping for the best with your shoulder - a bone bruise at worst. Sorry it ends up with the rotator cuff 😿 My good luck to you and Les!! Purple - I loved Bordeaux. The museum "Cite du Vin" was interesting to me with the exhibits on all things wine, from the ground to the product and all the history. The walk along the riverfront is also very relaxing. Bored to tears yesterday and today at work. My co-worker left as soon as I arrived yesterday so she could get her broken car to the shop. That was 11am. From then until I left a 7pm there was NOTHING but refiling the coffee machine! Today, we were both here so it was double the boredom. No departures, no arrivals. Just watching the wind whip the snow outside my front desk window. We were supposed to get a good 6"+ of snow today - it's maybe 2 or 3". After 4pm, I'm the only one here. I'm playing musing on my little speaker with my iPhone. I may have to start playing online game for the next 2.5 hours!!! At least today is my "Friday" so it's OK. OOTD: Jeans (my co-worker asked if I'm still losing weight - they do look a tad loose), my white hoodie with the pink bear logo on it from the Fortress of the Bear in Sitka. Normally we aren't allowed to wear clothing with logos on them from other than the Lodge or Deer Valley. But, today, I didn't care 😸

As far as eyeliner, I've used Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Waterproof eyeliner pencil for years and years. Tons of colors, but it's not liquid. I use the Whiskey color as my everyday brown liner if I don't want to something different (I probably have 12 of their colors). It's a nice dark matte brown. They do make a liquid eyeliner, but I never had much luck putting on any liquid eyeliner. I don't use much mascara at all - only when I'm spiffing up for something really special. But, when I do, it's Thrive Liquid Lash Extensions mascara. It's water-resistant. It does tubes around your lashes and to get it off you wet your fingers and "pull" the tubes off. It's pretty easy to do and I don't pull out any lashes in the process. I've used tubing mascara since I first had Blinc mascara years ago. I hope this one helps.

Good pics, Melody! Fun time had by all despite the "oopsies". I did a "Melody" this afternoon at work - my one toe dragged at the top of the stairs and I went down. Of course, it was my "bad" shoulder. Why can't I fall in the opposite direction???? It has bothered me all day but I couldn't take any more Tylenol - the Arthritis formula is every 8 hours. So, I'm just toughing it out for the rest of the day. I did a little job for my Tuscan owner. She had a new slipcover for one of her dining room chairs delivered. I said I'd put it on the chair in my spare time. It was really tight and striped! I got it as straight as I could, but I'll let it loosen a little and go back in a few days and do some more. I sent her 2 photos of the chair to see how it came out. She sent me 3 photos back: one from the Piazza del Populo, one from a random walking street and one of a plate of tortellini al ragu alla Bolognese. I sent back "I'm so jealous" and she replied with the snarky devil meme!!! She always does a couple days in Rome before driving to her villa. Some of my owners are trying to convince me that I have to come back next year. It's going to be a really hard choice come November... OOTD: jeans, multi-plaid shirt, Olu Kai chukka boots. A beautiful day up here! But, tomorrow night comes the next storm 🙀

I've got a portable stand for my ENOS camping hammock. It's 13’9” x 4’2” x 4’8” and pretty lightweight. Would be nice (and fun) if that fit!!! Those hammocks on Virgin had me wishing I could do a trip to "nowhere" for a few days in one of those balcony cabins! I can hang in a hammock all day long - nice at night, too 😸

Sorry about the fall. I did the "catch the toe" on the carpet thing the other week, on my bad shoulder. that was the impetus to visit my ortho. Hope it is just a big bruise and nothing else! Lois - I'm so jealous of your numbers!!! Good job!

Melody - what ship/itinerary were you on? I think my hamster is racing toward something cheap as soon as my season ends and plan something else for Fall/early Winter...

I saw that one. The European ports didn't spark for me. I may try to come up with something in the Fall and just do "home work" over the summer. I have some owners coming in for month-long stays in the Summer and we've discussed maybe me doing some things for them as an "independent", not with the Lodge. It would be on an as-needed basis. Maybe yes, maybe no. OOTD: sweatshirt and joggers. Not going anywhere today. Tomorrow is hair stylist, meds and food pickup.

The hotel I stayed at was The Market Urban hotel. I loved it and will stay there again the next time I'm in Florence. A quick and easy walk from the SNM train station. A couple of blocks from Mercato Centrale and maybe a 10 minute walk to the Duomo. I walked everywhere from there, day and night.

I just run up to the buffet and get it and run back down. I'm OK with self serve 😸 If it's in the afternoon, my bottle of wine will do nicely...

Nice to see I'm not the only one with the vacation "hamster wheel" spinning!! Since I was told I didn't need surgery yet, the wheels started turning. I'll have maybe $2000 in tip money by the end of the season. I was saving it for MD bills, but... I saw some cool Transatlantics but they are 2 weeks too early for me - don't want to quit early and lose out on my "stayed the season" bonus. It's been totally cray-cray since Friday here at the Lodge. A bunch leave tomorrow and we can go back to normal. OOTD: my Lion sweatshirt, my blue jeans, and a cute little scarf to keep my neck from getting drafty. My hair is in a pony because I not supposed to put my left arm above my shoulder for a few more days and it's no fun trying to wash hair one-handed!!

That's why I got myself a balcony for Alaska - I didn't have to deal with the "railing scrum" that goes on trying to get a spot.

Woah! That is something so scary to happen out of the blue. I am glad that you did get sent to the ER and, despite the dreadful conditions, you were taken care of and are getting that cardiologist visit.

Phew! No shoulder surgery right now. Dr. took xrays and did a range-of-motion and push/pull tests on me. Said I'm pretty good on my range of motion and the rotator cuff and labrum seem OK. I do have arthritis in the joint, though. We knew that from the last time I saw him, in 2011. It's worse. My high pain threshold is sometimes a negative. BUT, he said he wouldn't do a replacement just yet. He gave me the ole' cortisone injection in the joint. Man, I hate that one! But, if it helps, I'm good with that. My shoulder hurts nasty right now from the injection. The xray procedure sure has changed. Didn't have to take off my necklaces and shirt! Dr. did say that I may be his longest patient - he did my surgery back in 2003 when he joined the practice. OOTD: jeans and my Athleta cammo Tshirt. I only would have to roll back the little bit of sleeve to do his thing.

If you are not adverse to a hotel instead of a vacation rental for Florence: I'd recommend The Market Urban Hotel. The price point is very good. The hotel is a small boutique place in location with easy and quick access to the train station and the main "tourist" attactions. There is a sister hotel, The Globus, nearby that people have mentioned on various sites that I belong to, which is also a nice boutique hotel. Driving around Tuscany was one of my favorite things to do. Of course, that meant no wine tasting. I just saved my wine time for dinners. Look on this board and maybe on that FB place for more ideas on small/private driver wine tasting tours.

The Mr. did give me a $100 when I gave him her glasses. Almost enough for another bottle of Brunello 😸 I hope you didn't have anything scheduled for the reschedule date! Now, you can at least take your time perusing the grocery store aisles. I had another "interesting" set of guests come in last night. They called me 5 times inside of the first 30 minutes of their arrival. I had the feeling they just picked a place to stay and did no research on what we offered, where we were, buy lift tickets in advance, etc. Apparently they are used to places where there are bellcarts on every floor, someone to help you with those bellcarts, someone to sell you a lift ticket, private drivers into town. They mentioned this kind of stuff every time they could inside that 30 minutes! Starting tomorrow we have the Presidents' Week crowd coming in. It'll be cray-cray. Lift tickets are already sold out at Deer Valley (where we are) so I'm anticipating some whining by a few guests they need us to get them for them. Sorry but we have no pull with DV to give us tickets. Hanging casual today. Have my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow afternoon. Honestly, I know surgery is needed. The only really bad thing would be if he tells me I can't wait until May (after the season) to get it done. That would blow my job and my bonus... OOTD: Vuori joggers and a sweatshirt. No one is going to see me today...

Well... My Tuscan Villa people left today to go home and then go to Italy. They brought down a bottle of Brunello for me. I'm drinking some now as I type! I had an email just as I was leaving tonight. She left her glasses on the kitchen counter. The Mr. is down in Salt Lake tomorrow for a meeting. She wanted to know if there was a courier service that could get the glasses to him before he flies home in the evening. I told her I could do it for her in the AM. She wanted to pay me, but I said I'd be happy with a scarf from her village in Tuscany that I can wear with my jeans (that she gave me!) and Tshirts and a bottle of seasoning salt from her friend Dario Cecchini (look him up). Those would mean more to me than some money. Example of people leaving common sense behind on vacation: A guest came by the desk tonight and yelled at me. "Who is stupid enough to run snow groomers at 3:30am in the morning??? My family has been woken up by them every morning and we can't get back to sleep. It's ruined our vacation." He was dead serious. First, our Lodge is not responsible for when the ski resort grooms their runs. Second, every resort I ever skied at has groomed at night - they can't groom in the daytime!!! Third, if you book a "slope-side" condo, expect to hear groomers grooming the run that you are next to! The guest said he's giving a 1-star review because of it to try to get the owner "to do something about it." My suggestion to him was to not book a slope-side the next time 😂 I haven't had anyone complain about groomer noise since I worked at the St. Regis 10 years ago. Gotta say - it's hard to keep a straight face and not laugh when people say things like this! OOTD: jeans, my old Switzerland zip neck shirt, my pinkish-red plaid scarf I got in Florence.

Today was a good day at work. No boss 😉 Nice people in house. Quite a few owners. I had to explain to some of them that I always work on Sundays, even Super Bowl Sunday. One owner brought down some sliders for me to eat. The couple who own the villa in Tuscany made sure I came up to their condo for awhile (brought the desk iphone and my keys) to watch the game and eat more food. The guys were talking about all the bets they made. I said I bet that Usher would take off his shirt. They thought I was crazy. Well, I proved them wrong!!! We had a good laugh over that one. They leave tomorrow to go back to the Villa until the end of March. I wish... OOTD: black jeans, my Deer Valley hockey sweater hoodie.