bobmacliberty

I agree. We liked both versions of The Gentleman...the Netflix series and the Matthew McConaughey movie. We've just started watching Slow Horses and are hooked. I can't tell if I like or hate the Gary Oldman role at this point. I'd add Bodies to your list of British shows that we enjoyed. It's a Sci-Fi mystery. The other show that we're hooked on now is Bad Monkey. It's pure Vince Vaughn entertainment.

I love the Aquatheater shows. They are a little bit like Cirque du Soleil shows in that there's a small thread of a story throughout, but it's really more about the acrobatics/diving/dancing. Strike that...there isn't even a small thread of a story. Just pure visual entertainment. The other unique entertainment venue on Royal ships is Sudio B. Definitely go to one of the ice shows and I'd highly recommend the late night adult Quest game held there. It's a lot of fun.

This website has a lot of good information: Amelia Island, Florida If you're into history, the Amelia Island Museum of History is an interesting place to go for a couple of hours: Amelia Island Museum of History - Amelia Island

It uses technology called passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). There are small RFID "tags" attached to each product. It's called passive because the tags have no batteries and don't normally send out any sort of signal, as opposed to active tags that are powered and constantly send out a signal (and are a lot more expensive). There is an RFID tag reader in the arch that you push your cart through. The reader sends out an electric signal which gives the passive tags enough power to "wake up" and send a radio signal...typically the UPC code. It's therefore similar to scanning each item's barcode, but an entire cart can be done at once. The reader should have no problem with a full cart, unless you have a lot of really dense materials packed tightly in the cart, like several cases of liquid laundry detergent. That could attenuate the signal so that items in the middle of the cart get missed. That applies more to a large pallet of tightly stacked product though rather than a shopping cart. Scanning items as you put them in the cart is more about making the customer feel comfortable that the RFID scan through the arch is accurate so that they aren't being over charged, and to discourage people from trying to steal something. The store really just needs the RFID scan to accurately see what you're buying.

I hope you enjoyed it and the thunderstorms didn't impact you too badly.

Adding to the drink tips question...you probably know that a gratuity (18% I think?) is automatically added to both individual drinks and the drink package. Most people probably feel that's enough of a tip already. Tipping an additional $1 is a good way to get remembered for good future service and/or to further help your bartender/wait staff. I'm sure they DO appreciate, even if they seem surprised. Royal often has some great bartenders...I'm sure you will find your favorite within a day or 2. He or she will remember your additional tip. 😉

You were young. Rub some dirt on it and get back out there. 😁

Happy sailing day! Bon voyage.

Bathrooms are HUGE and incredibly clean. Without exaggeration, they will often have more than 100 gas spots. If you need gas and a bathroom break, it's highly recommended. They also have great jerky. Buc-ee's has been expanding beyond Texas with many new locations being built throughout the south.

I think @Luckynana may be right about your storage. From your condo's website: Have a great time with your friend. I love being with people who laugh easily, especially if you've known them forever. Getting into trouble together tends to make for a better friendship. 😁

@firefly333 - Could you do a quick test to satisfy my curiosity? Take a picture of the view outside of your window while holding your phone literally against your window screen. You'll probably need to open the window to get close enough to the screen. Since regular cameras can't focus that close to the lens, the screen could end up being "invisible". Here are two pictures through one of our windows. The first is holding the camera a couple of inches away from the window, and you can obviously see the screen. The second is with the window open and the camera right against the screen. As you can see, the screen "disappears". As I got the camera lens closer to the window screen, I could see on the phone screen when the window screen disappears. This might work for you also.

We went through this with our pool in Cincinnati. My nightmare scenario was that there was a leak in a pipe going to/from the filter, which were all underground beneath the concrete around the pool. The pool company looked for leaks around the underwater lights, all of the penetrations into the pool, all of the filter and heater connections. They used a small amount of dye in the pool to see if it was being drawn where it shouldn't be...kinda like a smoke test for water. They isolated it to one of the 2 return lines, but also decided that it was largely evaporation from the heat. The pool level dropped very slowly when it wasn't hot but faster when it was. Worst case was that we had to toss the hose in the pool for a little bit to add water every couple of weeks. We'd have to do that maybe 4 or 5 times throughout the summer. We decided that was a better solution than ripping up concrete to get to the pipes. Hopefully, they find something more specific to fix for your pool, but don't be surprised if it's at least partly due to evaporation.

Is the Chop Steakhouse new? We checked into the Pan Pacific in the fall of 2022 before a cruise and went looking for lunch along the water. I don't recall seeing it, but we might have walked right past it. We ended up at Mahony's Tavern which was OK, but the Chop Steakhouse sounds better.

There's a small rotary switch on the base of the globe. The wiring runs from the basement below up through the inside of the newel.

Happy Anniversary Graham! Wishing you many more happy years together.

Looking forward to this. We really enjoyed Harmony. It's great that you got a 10:30 check-in time but Royal doesn't really enforce those times. Also as a warning, the adult comedy show is truly adult oriented. I don't know if that reservation includes your kids but if so...beware. @john bowtie touched on the Aquatheater show scheduling. The show is outdoors and involves high diving. If the seas are a little rough or the weather is bad, the show will get cancelled. It's best to book Aquatheater shows early in the cruise in case yours gets cancelled. That gives you a chance to catch a show later in the cruise. If you have one of the last shows booked and it gets cancelled, you could be out of luck. Have a great cruise!

Yeah...I'd never seen anything like that before. It looks cool, but it's located right where I want to place my hand when grabbing the handrail to go upstairs. 🤷‍♂️

Oops...wrong words. Should have said closet rods rather than curtain rods. 😁 I was actually thinking about using curtain rods for a little bit. The closet is only 10 inches deep and clothes won't fit hanging sideways like they normally do, so I had to get a little creative. I ended up using black iron pipe fittings to create 3 separate short rods that run front to back rather than one long rod that runs side to side. It's in the guest bedroom so guests will at least have room to hang 5-6 items on each of the 3 rods. My daughter just sent a couple of pictures. She got new bulbs for her "new" chandelier, and she gave us an "after" shot of cleaning her stained-glass window. She found the chandelier at a thrift store, and it needed a lot of cleaning and a little rewiring. Looks great in her foyer. You can't really tell from the picture, but a couple of the stained-glass panes are cracked and some of the panes are loose from missing lead. She'll need to find someone who fixes stained-glass windows. That's well beyond my skill set. I did however build a new wooden frame with a plexiglass insert that's mounted and sealed outside of the stained-glass window. It lets in light but my daughter won't need to worry about bugs or cold air coming in from the cracks.

We didn't see any active critters, although there are plenty of mole trails. It's hard to tell if the moles are still there. We did see quite a bit of poison ivy hiding among the wintercreeper. 😬 I don't do nearly as much work on my own house, unless it's either something that should be fairly easy (meaning should only take one trip to the store 🙂) or is something that I have a personal interest in (like installing audio/video/networking/smart home devices). It seems like everyone in Florida uses a landscaping service. We have a good (and also fairly cheap) lawn guy, and we have both a great painter and a great handyman. Our labor is much cheaper though than if our daughter hired someone, and it's a great opportunity to teach her many of the little things involved in owning a house. We unstuck and reset a garbage disposal, hung curtain rods in closets, hung a TV mount to the plaster wall over her fireplace, filled open spaces in her basement with spray foam, changed the chandelier hanging in her foyer, removed and cleaned the trap below her bathroom sink, etc. Most of that is not difficult but does sometimes require a little knowledge and the right tools. I did have to draw the line on a few things that would have involved heavy lifting and being on the roof. Younger me would have no problem with those things but older me is smart enough to know better.

We're finally back home in Florida. It was great seeing our daughters in Cincinnati, and we got a lot done on my older daughter's 130-year-old house, but we're exhausted. I think a couple of days of doing nothing is in order. Although my daughter loves her old Victorian house, I much prefer our modern house with a lot more space. There's still a lot more to do, especially with her landscaping. We cleared out a lot of garbage trees and shrubs around her yard, that likely grew as weeds for years. We kept and significantly trimmed a few other larger trees that were in good shape. We also got rid of most of the wintercreeper that had overgrown and was tangled in her chain link fence. Someone years ago planted it for ground cover, and possibly as cover for her fence, but I doubt if it was ever maintained. There were many wintercreeper roots that were 3-4 inches thick that we couldn't remove from the fence. We cut it off at the ground and will need to wait for it to die and then cut/chop/scrap to remove it from the fence. That will probably be next summer. She now has mostly a blank slate from which to build a new landscaping plan.

We can see night launches from our beach, about 150 miles away.

Get back to me in about 6 months. 😁

I don’t mind summer ending. Fall (and Spring) means the perfect weather for us, away from the summer heat and humidity. Plus, FOOTBALL! This is the year. Go Bills!

Has anyone ever figured out why cats love boxes? Warmth? Safety somehow? I don’t know if I’ve ever met a cat that didn’t like a box, including Merlin.

It’s a standard part of the Hibachi experience in the US.