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

[grapau27]

Good afternoon.

We had a lovely church service this morning.

It is currently 26°C 77°F and humid.

We have had some meat wraps sitting in our back garden.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all are having a great day.

 

[dpostman]

37 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

My day won’t be much different. I have to clean up Lisa’s pearl white Lexus because it’s being traded in on Tuesday. Rib steaks for dinner and some beverages to stay cool. Going to feel like 34 here today and humid. 

Very similar day indeed.  That Toyota/Lexus Pearl White is a magnet for iron spots 😕.  I don't know about you, but my "Wax ON/Wax OFF" muscles aren't what they used to be 😉

 

 "Traded in"?  Care to spill the beans?

 

I used to have a Wrangler that spent most of the summers naked. (No top, no doors).  I don't miss the jeep, but we do miss riding around on a nice day in the National and Provincial parks.  That was replaced by my current and much more reasonable Rav4 Prime.  Now that my wife has a company car for her long drives and winter driving, we are considering trading in her TLX for a Standard shift, MX-5 RF.  It's not much of a long distance or winter driving car, but as a summer fun ride...😁 Keeping our eyes open.

 

dp

Edited June 25, 2023 by dpostman

[Jimbo]

45 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Thanks for the pre reno pictures.    I couldn't remember what year they renovated.   Inside the original diner (front part) doesn't look much different.  I'm not sure about the big dining room in the back as we rarely go back there.   We prefer a booth in the front or sit at the counter for a quick breakfast.

We liked the booths along the front window. Looking across Rt 206 toward the Wawa across the street. We have never sat at the counter, though many do.

[Ocean Boy]

Somewhere beyond this fog bank there is an ocean.

 

 

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, dpostman said:

Reaaaalllly feeling it today...  Yesterday was a beautiful 30°C sunny day.  I detailed my car.  It took about 7 hours.  Luckily I was in the garage in the shade.  I did my wife's car last weekend but her car is a dark gray sedan.  Mine is a "Pearl White" SUV .  It is my first white car and it is so much more work to detail.  After all that work we had a great rib steak supper on the charcoal grill and several drinks... you know... to re-hydrate from all that work.  Also to numb the pain 😉

 

Today is overcast, windy and drizzly.  So mostly going to catch up on my streaming services.  "Netflix & chill" but the actual literal meaning of "Chill"  not what the kids call it 😉

 

And also spend time catching up on CC 😁

 

☕

dp

 

 

it seems like I had so much more time to detail cars when I was still working.  I don’t know why I have less time since retiring. 

[BonTexasNY]

I sure miss those Rockland and Bergen County diners.  The many multi-page menus always amazed me, how they could store all of that food in their kitchens.  And of course, those desserts! 😋

[dani negreanu]

😉 I've showed DH all the "wife-enabled stove" and "husband-enabled dinner" discussion 😉

 

He immediately went to one of his many notebooks, where for years he's describing his inventions, and showed me this -- a shelved fridge, on every shelf a barcoded meal. "Invented" in 2000.

 

(Hoping that I understood the mechanics ☹️....)

 

When you approach your home, you choose a meal and then push a code on your mobile. A rotating arm moves the shelf to the microwave door, opens it, pushes it inside and the microwave heats it according to the barcode...

 

The fridge is connected also to a computer (a two-ways communication???), which will alert you when it's time to replace one of the meals...

 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

Just getting caught up. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I was busy prepping and cleaning for a small tiki party last night with two of my long time coworkers and their spouses. Sorry I did not take any pictures because I was so busy getting food ready and making tiki cocktails but needless to say the party was a hit and everybody loved our tiki backyard. Food consisted of (sorry no pics) of appetizers, Crab Rangoon with mains being a Asian Salad, Hawaiian sweet roll ham and cheese sliders, fruit bowl and creamy cheese corn. The cocktail I made was a signature Mai-Tai which turned out fantastic even though it was potent.

 

Ultimate Mai Tai Recipe
½ oz Appleton Estate Rum
½ oz Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
½ oz Plantation OFTD
½ oz Plantation 3 star
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)
½ oz Orange Curacao (Ferrand Dry Curacao)
¼ oz Demerara Syrup (BG Reynolds)

And for dessert my friend brought over rum soaked pineapple slices that we toasted on the grill. 
 

It was great evening but unfortunately my knee was really bad so walking was painful and I had a hard time getting in and out of a chair. I persevered but today I’m doing nothing. 
 

Thanks for reading.

[lenquixote66]

12 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

 

 

I didn’t know it until you posted it. I was curious who the wife was of the person who died. Since it was Stockton Rush who was the founder of the company, I thought I’d post that very interesting part of the story.

Thank you for doing that.I should have in my initial post.

[lenquixote66]

TSOTD is from Lima,Peru.I was never there but my younger daughter and her husband were there a few years ago and brought me back the tee shirt.

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, BonTexasNY said:

I sure miss those Rockland and Bergen County diners.  The many multi-page menus always amazed me, how they could store all of that food in their kitchens.  And of course, those desserts! 😋

 

I'm pretty sure the New City Diner holds the record for largest & thickest diner menu. It would take 30 minutes to look thru and by the time you got to the end, you would've forgotten what was in the beginning.  Unfortunately , the original New City Diner is no longer in business having been taken over and renamed.

 

I recently went to the Stateline diner - aptly named as it sits on the border of NY/NJ - with my nephew. At 16 pages, I feel like the menu is only half the size of New City Diner menu. The Greek Specialties and Mediterranean Cuisine would have taken 1-2 pages each, here they are combined onto one page. And of course, just reading about the desserts does not do it justice, they need to be seen in the 6 foot tall rotating glass case.

 

I too, was amazed how they were able to store all the food. Every diner must've had an underground bunker the size of an Royal ship.

 

I've attached a PDF of the menu. First time attaching a PDF. Hope it works.

 

 

 

 

Stateline-Diner-dinner-menu.pdf

[dani negreanu]

5 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

I've attached a PDF of the menu. First time attaching a PDF. Hope it works.

 

It worked. Wow, so much to choose from.

 

I may be mistaken, since lastly we ate in NY in 2017 (before and after a "foliage" cruise), but it seems quite pricey? Are the portions large?

[HBE4]

7 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

It worked. Wow, so much to choose from.

 

I may be mistaken, since lastly we ate in NY in 2017 (before and after a "foliage" cruise), but it seems quite pricey? Are the portions large?

 

Prices are definitely up, especially after the last 3 years. Portions are pretty big, sometimes I take left overs home which becomes the next days lunch.

 

My nephew, even though he's in his 30's, posses the same quality as @A&L_Ont Owen in that he can inhale large quantities of food in the blink of an eye. 🙂

[DaniDanielle]

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

it seems like I had so much more time to detail cars when I was still working.  I don’t know why I have less time since retiring. 

Maybe because you are taking such good care of all your family😊

[dpostman]

Well, That didn't last as long as planned.  During the first show that I started watching, the sun peaked out and then I was feeling guilty about doing nothing.  I know I shouldn't but... that's just the way it is.  I had recently seen a few cocktail recipes that uses rhubarb.  Either concentrated rhubarb punch or rhubarb simple syrup.  So I decided to try an experiment. Looked up a few internet sites to find inspiration and a general guideline.  I'm basing off of a Ball canning recipe.

 

Went to my rhubarb patch and picked what I though I needed.   Recipe calls for 12 cups of chopped rhubarb but I wish to double the recipe. the photo below is after I picked what I needed.

 

 

Dug out my chopper

 

Ended up with 26 cups of chopped rhubarb

 

After boiling for 10 or 15 minutes, the mash is now straining for the next few hours.

 

The liquid coming out underneath is a beautiful pink. I'll post later with the results after canning and maybe a rhubarb martini... you know just to sample and for quality control 😉

 

dp

 

[BonTexasNY]

@HBE4 Thank you for another trip down memory lane.  Menu is amazing.  I remember the New City Diner was actually in Bardonia on Route 304.  When we lived in Tappan, we would frequent the Blauvelt Diner on 303 at least once a week.  Great staff and owners.  We would usually have lunch at the Forum Diner on Route 4 when we hit the malls in Paramus.  When visiting our daughter and family in March, we had breakfast in the Tom Sawyer diner also in Paramus.

 

Our favorite to go diner, smaller than the rest was Park Ridge Diner in NJ.

 

To go along with your menu, here is a picture of some of those incredible dessert offerings at Stateline Diner:

 

[Sunshine3601]

5 hours ago, h20skibum said:

it seems like I had so much more time to detail cars when I was still working.  I don’t know why I have less time since retiring. 

Eric retired while we were on vacation.  Now that we are home and I go back to work tomorrow I shall see what he accomplishes while home all day😁  

 

[lenquixote66]

11 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Eric retired while we were on vacation.  Now that we are home and I go back to work tomorrow I shall see what he accomplishes while home all day😁  

 

When will you retire ? Toby retired 4 years after I did.

[Jimbo]

13 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Eric retired while we were on vacation.  Now that we are home and I go back to work tomorrow I shall see what he accomplishes while home all day😁  

 

He should have dinner ready for one thing.......... 🙂

[Momof3gurlz]

Finally a beautiful, warm, sunny day today here in RI.  
We held a yard sale today, trying to clear out a bunch of stuff from our house and our two local daughters.  Not many people came but folks are probably doing other fun things on our first really nice day.  It didn’t help that our town is having a big food truck event at a local park with live music, fun stuff for kids, etc.  

Currently relaxing by the pool and will put some marinated London Broil steaks on the grill later.  
The gazebo is up and we love it.  Please excuse all the stuff laying around-it’s the story of my life right now 🤪.  

Edited June 25, 2023 by Momof3gurlz

[helen haywood]

If you have one of those husband enabled stoves…

[dpostman]

Done.  16 half pint jars Rhubarb syrup concentrate that have been waterbath processed + 1 Rhubarb Simple Syrup.

 

 

And for "Quality control"  Since it is Sunday, I opted for a Rhubarb Gin ? Tonic rather than a Martini 😉

 

dp

[Jimbo]

Pictures from the Iron Heart Winery we visited this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look real close at this picture, in the dead center of it is a huge beehive hanging under the vines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Jimbo

[Ocean Boy]

5 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

Finally a beautiful, warm, sunny day today here in RI.  
We held a yard sale today, trying to clear out a bunch of stuff from our house and our two local daughters.  Not many people came but folks are probably doing other fun things on our first really nice day.  It didn’t help that our town is having a big food truck event at a local park with live music, fun stuff for kids, etc.  

Currently relaxing by the pool and will put some marinated London Broil steaks on the grill later.  
The gazebo is up and we love it.  Please excuse all the stuff laying around-it’s the story of my life right now 🤪.  

Very nice back yard. The sun finally burned through the fog around 2PM here on the coast. Pretty warm here now. Good afternoon for cold beer. 🍺 

[jmh2006]

25 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

Finally a beautiful, warm, sunny day today here in RI.  
We held a yard sale today, trying to clear out a bunch of stuff from our house and our two local daughters.  Not many people came but folks are probably doing other fun things on our first really nice day.  It didn’t help that our town is having a big food truck event at a local park with live music, fun stuff for kids, etc.  

Currently relaxing by the pool and will put some marinated London Broil steaks on the grill later.  
The gazebo is up and we love it.  Please excuse all the stuff laying around-it’s the story of my life right now 🤪.  

Now that is more like it!!  I long for a blue sky day, even though we have not had bad weather, those days that should have been blue skies were impeded with wildfire smoke.  Not a big problem I know. 😆