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

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you Lenny.

I hope your Parkinson's support group meeting helps you and you are okay.

Graham.

 

It is a small group,10 people .It helps in the sense that we have people dealing with the same problems and we can discuss it.I was feeling pretty good today.The past few days ,not that good.Thanks for your concern.

I hope Sarah is doing okay.

 

Lenny

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, Luckynana said:

@bobmacliberty The only zoos I've been to are the Bronx Zoo (biggest),  Turtleback Zoo in NJ,(much smaller),  and the Staten Island Zoo.  (smallest)😁  Oh, and Disney's  Animal Kingdom....but that doesn't count!!  Your pictures really are beautiful from your day at the Zoo.

 

 

I have been to the Bronx Zoo,Prospect Park Zoo but most of all the Staten Island Zoo.I was just on the phone with a guy that I know since 1959.We lost touch in 1962 and reconnected in 1980.We both were living in Brooklyn and both had two daughters .I used to drive to his house with my daughters,leave my car on his block and we would go in his car to the SI Zoo.

[Sea Dog]

14 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I'm going to take a guess right  now that you are going to be 1 of the 5  elected inaugural HOF.

Maybe some day but not this inaugural class. Len Dawson Football Hall of Famer who was one of the first professional football players to do broadcast television as our sports anchor who died last year will obviously be a first ballot. One of our longtime anchors who anchored with Lenny in the 1960’s will also be first ballot. People have said I’ll be added but since I’m on the nominating committee I don’t think it will happen for awhile.I’m good with that. It was an honor to be considered for the committee.

[A&L_Ont]

With hockey done this is now our after school activities. Owen’s first rugby game is next week and it is an exhibition game. No games are scheduled for baseball yet. 
 

[jmh2006]

2 hours ago, Luckynana said:

@bobmacliberty The only zoos I've been to are the Bronx Zoo (biggest),  Turtleback Zoo in NJ,(much smaller),  and the Staten Island Zoo.  (smallest)😁  Oh, and Disney's  Animal Kingdom....but that doesn't count!!  Your pictures really are beautiful from your day at the Zoo.

 

 

Maryann I loved the Turtle Back Zoo!!  There are pictures of me as a youngster riding the back of one the giant turtles!  Bring back the memories!

[DaniDanielle]

I have one of the plastic keys they gave out at the Turtle Back Zoo.  I will have to try and find it.

I used to walk to the Staten Island Zoo all the time when I was still living in my childhood home. I had a crush on one of the workers there!

[akcruz]

We have been to all the Bronx zoo, Turtle Back Zoo and most recently the Wahington DC zoo.  Took our kids years ago but now go with the grandkids, they have a season pass (for the parking and merry go round access) so go about once a year.

[Tree_skier]

28 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Owen’s first rugby game is next week

 

This is the first time I have noticed you mention rugby with Owen... Is this his first year playing?  It is a fabulous sport, I've played and coached.  I was involved in the sport from the age of 13 right up until 51.  I finally hung both the cleats and the whistle when we started considering our move to the US.  

[Luckynana]

16 minutes ago, jmh2006 said:

Maryann I loved the Turtle Back Zoo!!  There are pictures of me as a youngster riding the back of one the giant turtles!  Bring back the memories!

 

9 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

I have one of the plastic keys they gave out at the Turtle Back Zoo.  I will have to try and find it.

I used to walk to the Staten Island Zoo all the time when I was still living in my childhood home. I had a crush on one of the workers there!

Back in the '60's, I had taken my 2 young nieces to Turtle Back, and a camel began delivering her baby.  The workers tried to get everyone away, but we all stayed and watched the birth.  Amazing experience!

[BonTexasNY]

5 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I never lost my Brooklyn accent.Whenever people meet me for the first time they know I am from NY.If they ever lived in NYC they can tell that I lived in Brooklyn.The classic story about a Brooklyn accent is my friend Ira who lived in a small town in Georgia for 50 years.He taught English in a HS with his Brooklyn accent.

____________________________________________________________________________

My response to Lenny's post got messed up and I have to post a reply within his post:

At my daughter's TX HS parent/teacher math conference, I asked the teacher if he knew what famous actor he sounded like.  He smiled and said "yeah, yeah, yeah, I wish I had his money:. Shades of My Cousin Vinny. BTW the teacher was from Brooklyn.

5 hours ago, Jimbo said:

It's because of the kind of ticket you bought. "Basic Economy"

 

If you were to check a carry on at the gate, it will cost you the standard bag fee plus $25.00

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/baggage/carry-on.html#basic-economy

 

Regular tickets, the carry-on is included in less it's an oversize carry-on.

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/baggage/carry-on.html#size-limits

Thanks for the info.  Yes, I knew it was Basic Economy.  First checked bag is $35. No need to pay an additional $120 round trip.

 

5 hours ago, George C said:

We never pack light , for a week cruise we used to take two large suitcases , two garment bags and two carry ons . We were able to eliminate one large suitcase on last cruise but still will check 3 bags for our 7 day New York City, Buffalo vacation next month , but we fly first so no extra charge and I get to drink Bloody Mary or scotch for the entire flight. 

Packing light for a 7 night cruise is almost impossible.  I've learned to downsize on the packing but not to "light" standards.  I used to pack a large duffel bag filled with my shoes.  What was I thinking?

 

Packing for a trip to visit the kids in NJ is really light.

 

Packing for our trip to FL to visit friends and then the Bella cruise took some planning.  One very large tote for the 3 day car trip to FL, then a small suitcase for the 4 day visit with our FL friends, then the cruise, then the 3 day car drive back home.  No matter where I go, my down pillow comes with me.

[taznremmy]

I never get tired of this view…..

[brillohead]

 

 

[sgmn]

15 hours ago, grapau27 said:

All right.

L is pronounced.

Or slang, aw rite. 

Lots of dialects and slang in the UK.

Innit at the end of a sentence is more inner London I would say. 

Cornwall, North of uk,  Wales and East England have lots of burrs and dialects and sayings. London you have cockney

[sgmn]

13 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I can't believe it takes a year to get a replacement done.

The NHS is still suffering from build up of delays in ops from covid.  A lot of private hospitals are being paid by NHS to do a lot of ops to try and bring the waiting lists down. 

Things aren't helped by lots of industry unrest in all sectors including strikes by junior doctors and nurses.  This has been going on for months on and off and no end in sight 

[grapau27]

9 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

It is a small group,10 people .It helps in the sense that we have people dealing with the same problems and we can discuss it.I was feeling pretty good today.The past few days ,not that good.Thanks for your concern.

I hope Sarah is doing okay.

 

Lenny

She is fine thanks Lenny although being epileptic there is always a chance of injury during a fit.

[A&L_Ont]

10 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

This is the first time I have noticed you mention rugby with Owen... Is this his first year playing?  It is a fabulous sport, I've played and coached.  I was involved in the sport from the age of 13 right up until 51.  I finally hung both the cleats and the whistle when we started considering our move to the US.  

 

It is his first year.  His football coach who coaches the rugby team and other players suggested he try out. Owen's position is fly-half and will most likely do the kicks for conversion.  

 

I just read your comment to him and he was impressed that you were involved for as long as you were.  He commented that it says a lot about the sport.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by A&L_Ont

[reallyitsmema]

11 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

This is the first time I have noticed you mention rugby with Owen... Is this his first year playing?  It is a fabulous sport, I've played and coached.  I was involved in the sport from the age of 13 right up until 51.  I finally hung both the cleats and the whistle when we started considering our move to the US.  

My son has been playing rugby since his freshman year in high school and is still playing at 32. He played one year in the MLR for a team that was in its provisional year before joining the league. I wish he would start playing for the old boys but he isn’t ready to step back just yet. He currently is playing prop but played hooker in high school and college. 

[jagsfan]

22 hours ago, Luckynana said:

@bobmaclibertyGreat pictures of the Jacksonville Zoo.  Is the zoo small, or is it in a huge area?

I’m not Bob, but I’ve been going to the zoo for 80 years! We grew up together. 

There are 2,000 animals  on 115 acres. 
Very natural surroundings for the animals, giving them a little feeling of home. 
The zoo is a breeding zoo for many of the species, so we see babies born and sent to other zoos when they’re old enough. 
 

Edited April 21, 2023 by jagsfan

[Ocean Boy]

[Momof3gurlz]

16 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Short answer: I use Lightroom Mobile to take most pictures instead of the built in camera app.  I then click on the LR auto adjust button before saving that picture to the phone's camera roll.  That typically adds a little bit of vibrance to the colors, among other things.

 

Long answer: Within Lightroom Mobile, I take all pictures in RAW format.  RAW captures all of the data straight from the camera sensors so that you have the most flexibility to edit the photos later.  Any camera app that saves files in a .jpg format will automatically do some adjustments to color, lighting, sharpness, etc. and then compress it to make it a smaller file.  Each phone/camera company has their own "secret recipe" for how to turn the raw data from the sensor into a .jpg file.  If you save a photo using the RAW format, none of those adjustments are made automatically and you need to make them yourself somehow (a RAW file itself looks pretty flat and boring).  I will typically just click on the auto button within the editing portion of Lightroom Mobile and then save it as a .jpg file to the camera roll.  If there's a photo that I really want to look good, I'll manually adjust various lighting, color, contrast, sharpening, etc. settings within LR before saving as a .jpg.  This gives me more precise, creative control instead of just accepting what the auto button does.  There were two exceptions to what I just said.  For the long exposure waterfall shot, I used an app called Slow Shutter and saved the file as a .jpg from within that app.  It looks like that app cranked up the color saturation when saving as a .jpg.  For the flamingo picture, I used the iPhone's built in portrait setting, and the color is exactly what the iPhone saved.

 

 

 

Thanks Bob!  Which one of these apps do you use? Or is there another one?

[George C]

We went to a wine tasting yesterday, wine was really good , pours were not , looking forward to a wine tasting at Ruth Chris featuring Stags Leap there wine dinners are normally excellent . 
    Haven’t been to the zoo in a while but Fort Worth has a excellent one , grew up like many going to the Bronx Zoo and have been to a few others .

[grapau27]

[mo&fran]

@A&L_Ont I saw  a 77 F250 4wd on Restoration Garage on Motor Trend channel, and thought of your truck.  I wondered if it was yours.  They really only showed a small segment about it . It was season 6, episode 10.

[grapau27]

[bobmacliberty]

34 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

Thanks Bob!  Which one of these apps do you use? Or is there another one?

 

I use the second one...Lightroom Photo & Video Editor.  Note that I have a monthly Adobe subscription that gives me Lightroom and Photoshop on my computer.  Although LR is a free app, there may be some features that require a subscription, in case you run into that.  Also, Adobe's version of a RAW format is called DNG.  When you go into the camera part of LR Mobile, you'll see either DNG or JPG at the top.  If you touch that, you can switch between the 2 formats.  I always leave it on DNG.  If I want to take a quick JPG picture without doing any editing, I use the built in iPhone camera app.

 

You may see several apps that are presets for Lightroom.  A preset is a predefined group of settings (exposure, contrast, color, etc.) that give a picture a certain "look".  Rather than making all of those settings adjustments manually on multiple photos, you apply the preset to multiple photos at once (kind of like a macro).  You can create presets yourself, or you can buy them from people who are professional photographers and can edit better than we can (at least in theory).