bobmacliberty

Would one of those photographers be Peter McKinnon? He's taken some amazing Iceland photos.

Wow. I had to click through to even be sure that I was looking at people rather than rocks. The upper falls must be huge.

Oops. Sorry for leaking it early. Everyone else will have something to look forward to. 😁

For those interested in Greg's video:

@Sea Dog Greg - I just watched your preview video for your October cruise. Outstanding! I love how you have the little 3D things traveling across the map, of course including the sailboat to the Soggy Dollar bar. Very well done!

Sorry to hear this Greg. I know the recovery of your other knee was difficult. The good news, I guess, is that full replacement is more likely a better long term answer?? I can't remember if bone marrow transplant was temporary (like a steroid shot but better) or intended to be a more permanent fix.

There's also this view from 1997, which is one of the only times that I've seen the Unisphere. The other times are as background shots from either the US Open (tennis) or a Mets game at Shea. For the record, I was also 3 for the 1964 World's Fair.

I think those husband enabled stoves are like Samsung refrigerator ice makers. If you're lucky, you'll get one that works well, but you're equally likely to get one that doesn't work at all. 😁

In my never-ending search for the perfect Mai Tai recipe, I'll need to give this a shot. My only problem is that I can't find Smith & Cross around here. Time either for an online order or a trip to the Total Wine store by the big shopping area in Jacksonville.

You're barely 2 days into your cruise and you've already sold me on Edge class. Eden looks like a must do and the theater looks great.

Sneaking in some Kacey Musgraves. 😉

That's one of the problems with in-door ice makers. The bins are very small so they don't take up space in the fridge.

Never had a problem with a Samsung Smart TV. We have 4 in our house right now...all 4K. We are used to their interface for switching between YouTube TV, Netflix, etc. I put the oldest one out on our lanai (covered so not exposed to rain) to see how long it lasts in the coastal environment. Still trying to decide if I should put an expensive outdoor TV there or put entry level 50" models out there and replace them every few years if/when they fail. I'm leaning toward the later since we don't watch a lot of TV outside. I'd imagine that LG TVs are very similar, as they are priced about the same. Different user interface but just like phones, you get used to the interface that you have.

I'm the same way with Apple phones/iPads. I'm a Windows guy though when it comes to computers. I've never quite understood the heated debate over Apple products and their competitors. Use whatever works best for you. My psychology majored daughter calls it choice supportive bias...making yourself feel good about a decision by making your choice seem better (than it really is) or by making the alternate choice seem worse (than it really is). Competition is actually good for us consumers. As for Samsung, I won't buy another one of their refrigerators, but I haven't written off the entire brand. I've got a houseful of their TVs.

Dani - Greg is so right about using Facetime for remote distances. Micheline Facetimes with my daughters almost daily...sometimes one at a time and sometimes both together. They put their phones on a stand and then go about their business, sometimes not even talking to each other for a minute or two. I've come home, put my stuff away, talked to Micheline for a minute, and then find out that one of my daughters was "virtually" in the room on FT the whole time. They say it's almost like being in the same room together while doing separate things. I don't know if your son/DIL/DH would enjoy doing this (it's not really my style since I'm not a "chit chat" person), but it might be worth a try.

The LG craft ice maker really intrigues me, especially since I "manually" make large rock ice. One of the videos that I watched (maybe the one that I posted?) said that they believe LG has changed their compressor design after the lawsuit, and that hopefully their compressor issues are now behind them. The video wasn't ready to declare them problem free quite yet. Fingers crossed for your new LG fridge.

Kerli? Or is that a little too Indie for this contest? I've transferred through Schipol a couple of times (and have the little KLM houses to prove it) but have never left the airport. That needs to change!

Thanks for the link. Looks I'll get lost in that YouTube channel for a few hours. I watched the video about the plane named Draco and recognized the guy who built that plane. He also has an interesting channel focused on experimental aircraft, but where he's also building a pretty spectacular house. His name is Mike Patey. (498) Mike Patey - YouTube Warning though that he likes to talk. 🙂

We've been loyal to Royal but are ready to "upgrade" to Celebrity. You, good sir, will be my first X review! You are setting the bar high. To ease our transition, we're looking at Edge class, so this review is perfect timing.

Just got back from dropping off Micheline at the airport. She's headed back to Cincinnati for my younger daughter's bridal shower and my older daughter's birthday. They have lots of mother/daughters stuff planned. I'm a bachelor for the next 5 days. I'm not sure what I'll do here all by myself, other than go where I want, eat what I want, drink what I want, watch what I want, do what I want...all when I want. Who am I kidding...I'll be lost in a couple of days. 😁

We've had no problems with temps in the 80s, but we've had a lot of rain with more thunderstorms predicted every day for the coming week (except currently Sunday). In Florida, that often just means a brief passing storm in the afternoon, but it's been rainier than that. Where do I go to get my money back? Does Florida offer some sort of OBC? 🤣

Dishwashers - We recently purchased the 3 rack KitchenAid. Absolutely love it. Very easy to load all 3 racks, including glasses in the top rack which frees up middle rack space. We previously had a Bosch and liked it as well. Appliances in general - If you can find the Miele brand, I'd highly consider it. It's a European brand that has mostly made its way to the US, so our European (and UK 😉) friends here can better comment on the brand than I can. We have a Miele vacuum cleaner and it's far and away the best vacuum cleaner we've ever had. No comparison. If their dishwashers and refrigerators are half as good, they are still great.

I'm also an anti-Samsung fridge guy. Last two we've had both had big ice maker issues. No reliability issues with the fridge itself though. The ice maker in our current Samsung fridge is toast, but we still like the 4-door model with an adjustable section, since we don't need much freezer space. We're back to manually filling ice trays with water and dumping cubes into a bin in the freezer. I've done research on what new fridge to get and no brand with an ice make in the refrigerator section seems to do well. That's the weakest point in today's models. If you can survive with an ice maker in the freezer, you'll do better from a reliability standpoint. Here's a video that I found that supposedly discusses which brands are most preferred by appliance technicians who repair them: We're probably going to choose a model with a large side by side fridge section on top, an adjustable drawer section below that, and a freezer section with ice maker in the bottom. Not sure what brand yet. We're also considering doing a minor remodel to our bar/coffee area to install a stand alone undercounter ice maker. If we do that, we'll skip the ice maker in the fridge completely.

There is an optimistic scenario where the sub would have released a weight when it ran into trouble, causing it to float to the surface, where it could be bobbing in the waves and waiting to be found. I don't know how realistic this scenario is, but I'm hoping that it will be the case.

Definitely a sign that it's time to go home!