Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[dpostman]

Having seen so many great food pics in this thread, I though I would pitch in.  We tried cooking up Bone Marrow Canoes for the first time.  They are hard to find around here.  I regret not thinking of taking a pic AFTER cooking, but at least, this is what they looked like before going in.

 

 

My DW loves marrow and this was one of her special requests.  Both our kids (Young adults) were home for Easter weekend, but they did not care for it as much, so we ended up finishing theirs off as well 😁

 

We had my family as well as my wife's family over for Easter dinner.  I cooked up a 14lb ham (Maple Glaze of course). sorry, no pics.  So tonight's supper... Split pea soup from the leftover ham-bone.

 

Here is a pic of the maple syrup we bottled on Friday.  But, with the warm weather forecast for the rest of the week, looks like the season might end a bit early.

 

dp

[brillohead]

18 minutes ago, dpostman said:

Here is a pic of the maple syrup we bottled on Friday.  But, with the warm weather forecast for the rest of the week, looks like the season might end a bit early.

 

dp

I can almost taste the mapley goodness through this picture!!!  

(The bone marrow, not so much!)

[h20skibum]

19 minutes ago, dpostman said:

 

 

Here is a pic of the maple syrup we bottled on Friday.  But, with the warm weather forecast for the rest of the week, looks like the season might end a bit early.

 

 

I fell behind when there was an earlier conversation about collecting sap for maple syrup.  I did that as a kid, but collected only enough to boil down to a couple bottles.  
 

One of the trails we walk, there is an elaborate collection system for the sap. 
 

 

They have some signs up where the lines cross the trail. 
 

 

Plus, they have some of the single bucket collection, and a kettle for boiling outside.  
 

 

[bobmacliberty]

55 minutes ago, dpostman said:

Having seen so many great food pics in this thread, I though I would pitch in.  We tried cooking up Bone Marrow Canoes for the first time.  They are hard to find around here.  I regret not thinking of taking a pic AFTER cooking, but at least, this is what they looked like before going in.

 

 

My DW loves marrow and this was one of her special requests.  Both our kids (Young adults) were home for Easter weekend, but they did not care for it as much, so we ended up finishing theirs off as well 😁

 

We had my family as well as my wife's family over for Easter dinner.  I cooked up a 14lb ham (Maple Glaze of course). sorry, no pics.  So tonight's supper... Split pea soup from the leftover ham-bone.

 

Here is a pic of the maple syrup we bottled on Friday.  But, with the warm weather forecast for the rest of the week, looks like the season might end a bit early.

 

dp

 

Do you need to add anything to your syrup when bottled or is it 100% syrup?  I don't remember where I was when I first had 100% pure maple syrup but wow...what I difference from the watered-down Log Cabin stuff from the grocery store that I was used to.  

[dpostman]

2 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Do you need to add anything to your syrup when bottled or is it 100% syrup?  I don't remember where I was when I first had 100% pure maple syrup but wow...what I difference from the watered-down Log Cabin stuff from the grocery store that I was used to.  

 

No, we don't need to add anything.  We bottle at about 195F and then keep in a cold room.  I have bottles from 2 and 3 years ago still good.  In fact, most maple products that we make are all just 100% syrup.  They are just boiled to different temps (Density) and then stirred (Maple butter), or left alone (Maple taffy).  We make some Maple walnut fudge that contains heavy cream and butter, we add some bits of walnut, so technically not 100% maple, 😉

 

Maple butter small batch in Cuisinart Ice cream maker (Not chilled) from 100% syrup.

 

Taffy on Snow

 

Granulated Maple sugar

 

Maple walnut fudge

 

dp

[Keksie]

2 minutes ago, dpostman said:

 

No, we don't need to add anything.  We bottle at about 195F and then keep in a cold room.  I have bottles from 2 and 3 years ago still good.  In fact, most maple products that we make are all just 100% syrup.  They are just boiled to different temps (Density) and then stirred (Maple butter), or left alone (Maple taffy).  We make some Maple walnut fudge that contains heavy cream and butter, we add some bits of walnut, so technically not 100% maple, 😉

 

Maple butter small batch in Cuisinart Ice cream maker (Not chilled) from 100% syrup.

 

Taffy on Snow

 

Granulated Maple sugar

 

Maple walnut fudge

 

dp

I love maple everything.  It all.looks so good. 

[A&L_Ont]

9 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

Here are a couple of pixies of us yesterday morning around 10AM

 

 

 

Looks amazing.  I can’t wait to see the transition photos to come. Hopefully your F250 is progressing.🤞

[bobmacliberty]

11 hours ago, jagsfan said:

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. Traditionally our parochial schools had Easter Monday off, extending the weekend. So I still think of the week as starting on Tuesday. 
I had a pretty disastrous weekend, at least Friday and Saturday. 
I got an iPhone 14 Pro, and Dick inherited my 8 Plus. 
Not being very brave about transferring data, we went to an Xfinity store for the afternoon Friday. David, a very patient guy, moved my data to the new phone and moved Dick’s to my old phone. 
it took forever, but worked beautifully. 
So Saturday mornin I was fiddling with my lovely new phone and looked at the Find My app. 
Saw that it said 8 Plus. So I clicked on it, and the next thing I knew “phone locked”. 
I couldn’t get into it. After at least 30 minutes I got “erase phone”. Not being more then .02% tech savvy I clicked on it and factory reset my new iPhone. 
My phone was blank!

Dick was waiting for an AC repairman because our air went out. 
I flew past him and out the door like the devil was after me. 
I made myself drive the speed limit back to Xfinity, where I clutched David around the knees and begged for a miracle. 
He told me I had cleared it of everything. 
After I got up off the floor I asked if some of it was in the Cloud. 

He asked if I had backed my phone up. 
I don’t think he thought a lot of my intelligence!

Long story short, he got it started uploading and sent me home. 
Got home and I couldn’t get into it. Back  to Xfinity, and  David did some more magic ; I had to sign in with my very ancient password I hadn’t used in 20 years, but it worked. 
When I got home, I went into the App Store and started reinstalling my apps as I thought of them. 
Then I started putting them in folders again, like Restaurants, Medical, Finance and Sports. 
Last was having to log back into each and every one. 
What I permanently lost:

A Voicemail from my brother Bill who died Dec 3…that is crushing. 
My Kindle Store App that let me buy Kindle books on my phone. Kindle eliminated the app. 
My Jaguars emoji keyboard. Also no longer exists. 

I got everything else back except my phone records. 
Lessons learned:

Keep everything backed up. 
Do not touch the Find My app. Ever!

My heart is way stronger than my cardiologist thinks it is. 

 

 

Mimi - So sorry to hear about your phone problems and especially losing your brother's VM.  It doesn't help you now but for future reference, you can save a voicemail message a few different ways on an iPhone.  Open the message as if you were listening to it and click on the share button in the upper right corner...the square with an arrow pointing up.  You then have the option of saving the VM to the files on your phone (which you can later find using the Files app) or sending it elsewhere via text message, email, or even airdrop.  If you email it to yourself, you can then save it on your computer.  It will be attached as a .m4a file, but all computers should be able to play that file format.  

 

Many people don't use, or even know about, the Files app on an iPhone.  You can save a lot of different file types on an iPhone and organize them in folders.  I find this useful for important attachments that are sent to me via email.  It's easier for me to find them in an organized folder structure in the Files app than to find the original email message that had the attachment. I'm sure that Android phones have the same functionality, but I don't know the details.

[bobmacliberty]

13 minutes ago, dpostman said:

 

No, we don't need to add anything.  We bottle at about 195F and then keep in a cold room.  I have bottles from 2 and 3 years ago still good.  In fact, most maple products that we make are all just 100% syrup.  They are just boiled to different temps (Density) and then stirred (Maple butter), or left alone (Maple taffy).  We make some Maple walnut fudge that contains heavy cream and butter, we add some bits of walnut, so technically not 100% maple, 😉

 

Maple butter small batch in Cuisinart Ice cream maker (Not chilled) from 100% syrup.

 

Taffy on Snow

 

Granulated Maple sugar

 

Maple walnut fudge

 

dp

 

You are making me seriously hungry!!!

[Ocean Boy]

23 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

If you have time to spare here is the video of our trip to the Grand Canyon. I cut a lot out and it is still just under 15 minutes. You can see how low Lake Mead is even though it has gone up a bit, Hover Dam, The GC Skywalk, and a return flight over the strip. The one thing I found amazing is how green and lush even the dessert was after their rains so far this year. You especially see it in along the river’s edge. 
 

If you have any question I might be able to answer them. I also added some music so please turn up your volume. 
 

 

A direct link if it doesn’t want to play.
 

https://youtu.be/Bt6CJHZ8B1o

 

Awesome video, thanks.

[A&L_Ont]

My Maroon 5 video has finally posted, but sadly isn’t shareable. I will have to post a few photos instead later today. 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by A&L_Ont

[bobmacliberty]

6 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

My Maroon 5 video has finally posted.
 

It is long, almost 30 minutes, but I only posted two full songs being Cheers and Sugar. Cheers is a song about their manager who passed away in 2017 and was their childhood friend. He was also Jonah Hill’s brother.  Maroon 5 has been together since they were in grade 9, almost 25 years.  Sugar, might be their most popular song and it was their finale. The rest is small segments of all the songs you should know. Please forgive some of my singing in advance, as you hear it upon occasion.

 

The link will take you directly to YouTube.
 

https://youtu.be/RuygGEc75L4

 

 

Looks like the video is blocked on copyright grounds. 😒

[Ocean Boy]

6 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

My Maroon 5 video has finally posted.
 

It is long, almost 30 minutes, but I only posted two full songs being Cheers and Sugar. Cheers is a song about their manager who passed away in 2017 and was their childhood friend. He was also Jonah Hill’s brother.  Maroon 5 has been together since they were in grade 9, almost 25 years.  Sugar, might be their most popular song and it was their finale. The rest is small segments of all the songs you should know. Please forgive some of my singing in advance, as you hear it upon occasion.

 

The link will take you directly to YouTube.
 

https://youtu.be/RuygGEc75L4

 

Video is blocked on copyright grounds.

[ollienbertsmum]

12 hours ago, jagsfan said:

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. Traditionally our parochial schools had Easter Monday off, extending the weekend. So I still think of the week as starting on Tuesday. 
I had a pretty disastrous weekend, at least Friday and Saturday. 
I got an iPhone 14 Pro, and Dick inherited my 8 Plus. 
Not being very brave about transferring data, we went to an Xfinity store for the afternoon Friday. David, a very patient guy, moved my data to the new phone and moved Dick’s to my old phone. 
it took forever, but worked beautifully. 
So Saturday mornin I was fiddling with my lovely new phone and looked at the Find My app. 
Saw that it said 8 Plus. So I clicked on it, and the next thing I knew “phone locked”. 
I couldn’t get into it. After at least 30 minutes I got “erase phone”. Not being more then .02% tech savvy I clicked on it and factory reset my new iPhone. 
My phone was blank!

Dick was waiting for an AC repairman because our air went out. 
I flew past him and out the door like the devil was after me. 
I made myself drive the speed limit back to Xfinity, where I clutched David around the knees and begged for a miracle. 
He told me I had cleared it of everything. 
After I got up off the floor I asked if some of it was in the Cloud. 

He asked if I had backed my phone up. 
I don’t think he thought a lot of my intelligence!

Long story short, he got it started uploading and sent me home. 
Got home and I couldn’t get into it. Back  to Xfinity, and  David did some more magic ; I had to sign in with my very ancient password I hadn’t used in 20 years, but it worked. 
When I got home, I went into the App Store and started reinstalling my apps as I thought of them. 
Then I started putting them in folders again, like Restaurants, Medical, Finance and Sports. 
Last was having to log back into each and every one. 
What I permanently lost:

A Voicemail from my brother Bill who died Dec 3…that is crushing. 
My Kindle Store App that let me buy Kindle books on my phone. Kindle eliminated the app. 
My Jaguars emoji keyboard. Also no longer exists. 

I got everything else back except my phone records. 
Lessons learned:

Keep everything backed up. 
Do not touch the Find My app. Ever!

My heart is way stronger than my cardiologist thinks it is. 

 

I am gutted for you.  The loss of precious data hurts.  I would however be cross with David for not telling you to backup before major changes were made.  That is in the 101 of technology.  

[A&L_Ont]

12 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Looks like the video is blocked on copyright grounds. 😒

 

12 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Video is blocked on copyright grounds.

I thought it might not work.  It was noted that it could not be viewed in Russia.  What I find interesting is there are other videos on YouTube that have three full songs.  They are viewable and I like those people who uploaded have a non-monetized account. 
 

Tonight I will adapt the video and see if it can posted when shortened or with some other changes. 🤷‍♂️

[grapau27]

Good afternoon.

We have had a nice picnic overlooking the beach.

[Husky1987]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

My Maroon 5 video has finally posted, but sadly isn’t shareable. I will have to post a few photos instead later today. 

 

 

Sometime, look up Adam Levine doing "Purple Rain" at the Howard Stern birthday bash on YouTube.

 

It really isn't fair being that good looking AND being able to shred a guitar like that...

[ValerieJo]

44 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

We have had a nice picnic overlooking the beach.

We often have “car picnics” at our local parks.  Sometimes in the middle of winter.  We usually spot wild turkeys and deer.  Enjoy! 

[clochette]

14 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

 

For no apparent reason, my kindle is unable to download borrowed books from the library (21 days) anymore.  I get a message that I have no kindle books registered.  I do have my kindle registered and downloaded a bunch of books from the library just before our Bella cruise.  I have been downloading library books for years. I did nothing out of the ordinary.  I'm baffled and unsure of what to do.  

 

 

you might have done that already but make sure that your kindle is on your WiFi, once in a while mine looses connection and will not download any books

[lenquixote66]

13 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

Making it even more exotic.  Lenny, Lenny, Lenny… sigh.

Yes ?

[lenquixote66]

13 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

Four more days of Passover.

Four more days of no bread, pasta, rice, cookies, corn chips, ice cream, cake and so much more.

Four more days of eating matzo which runs havoc with one's natural digestion.

Certified Passover pastries taste awful.

Every year, about this time I long for any kind of sandwich on thick crusty sourdough rye bread.

Looks up to heaven "mom, I hope you appreciate this"!

Try Almond Butter on matzoh which stuck to my front bridge and nearly pulled it off.

Gefilte fish without taste 

[dani negreanu]

15 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

I’m so sorry to read all of what happened but this is the hardest to read. 

 

+ 1 Mimi @jagsfan, it is so very sad.

 

[Lost vm from my late aunt, who was more a mother to my than my own mom. When I was low, it felt so good to hear her voice. She also had an endearing nickname for me, which only she used.😢]

[BonTexasNY]

5 hours ago, dpostman said:

Here is a pic of the maple syrup we bottled on Friday.  But, with the warm weather forecast for the rest of the week, looks like the season might end a bit early.

 

 

Goodness, what do you do with all that maple syrup?  How long a shelf life does it have?

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Husky1987 said:

 

Sometime, look up Adam Levine doing "Purple Rain" at the Howard Stern birthday bash on YouTube.

 

It really isn't fair being that good looking AND being able to shred a guitar like that...

I am a huge Adam Levine fan.I have a connection to both Purple Rain and Howard Stern .

A retired actress friend of mine auditioned for the lead female role in Purple Rain.

The daughter of one of my closest friends was dating a guy from the Howard Stern show when Private Parts was being filmed.She got me onto the set and I met and spoke to Howard and other cast members.

[BonTexasNY]

14 hours ago, brillohead said:

Bonnie, I know that just recently the "Overdrive" app was discontinued in favor of their app "Libby", and that was the service that a lot of libraries used for digital books.  Maybe your library changed their protocols with the end of the Overdrive system?  

https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/switchtolibby

 

Debi, I called the library and someone walked me through the confusing process.  I now have "Libby" on my kindle and it works!

 

I've noticed from previous posts that you are an excellent problem solver/resource maven (expert) !

Your wit and wisdom is greatly appreciated.  Looking forward to meeting you on Bella 02!