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

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

You sprinkle a layer of pecans & coconut on the bottom of the pan. Pour chocolate cake batter over those layers. Spoon on dollops of cheesecake mixture and swirl together with the chocolate cake mix, then bake. It's called earthquake cake because the cream cheese swirls make craters in the top of the cake. It's kind of ugly, but it's delicious! Brian often asks for that for his birthday.

 

Thank you Bethany. It sounds wonderful. I will have to bake this as I am a chocoholic.

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Happy Anniversary wishes to you and Pauline. Your love for one another is a great inspiration for us all. Cheers to you two on your special day.

Thank you so much Greg for your kind words.

[ReneeFLL]

Leaving Amsterdam and going thru the locks. Very windy so we are tying up till the water levels come up.

 

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Today is my husband Brian's 50th birthday. He was a surprise 2nd-born twin that no one knew about until his arrival. His birth was difficult, involved forceps, and resulted in a brain bleed and cerebral palsy on his right side. He never let it stop him. He is the happiest, most encouraging, positive person. The very best person I know. I'm so thankful that he is here and that we get to share life together. 

 

I think it's unfair that he looks younger than 50! (I am 51, so it's doubly unfair!)

 

Happy birthday Brian.

[ReneeFLL]

@Ocean Boy We need our partner in crime aka bad influence 😆 jk to keep us from doing the wrong thing. Our cocktails for the night. 🫣  Ok, we are at least having a bottle of champagne on the balcony. 🍾🥂

 

[Luckynana]

On 8/21/2024 at 9:26 AM, Vibe said:

Older me has realized that it is better to hire someone to do risky home repairs because it’s a lot cheaper than the cost of the inevitable hospital emergency room visit.

We paid a bundle, after hiring someone to glue one shingle back onto our roof.  Mind you, Jim had put an entire roof by himself years ago on our over 100 year old, 3 story home.  In the house we live in now, about 3 years ago, a shingle came off the roof.  Jim insisted on going up and securing it.  I was beside myself.  Jim was now about 75 and was having his knee replaced.  Our daughter followed him up, since we both were worried about this stubborn man!  Then the following year, another shingle came off, and I put my foot down.  I hired a company that was charging $300 to fix the one shingle.  I didn't care, it was worth it to keep Jim off of the roof.  So, the guy came and put the shingle back on.  He then came down and told us our chimney was in very bad shape, and could possibly crumble down.  (I think I may have told this story last year🤔).  Long story short, this one shingle wound up costing us $28,000.  

 

ps  We had all the roofs on our house, garage, 3 season room, and apartment replaced this Spring when we got home from Naples..

[h20skibum]

One bad thing about getting old. Is we sometimes forget how bad some of the trails are that we have hiked, or even if we hiked them before.  
 

After driving to a trail that starts in the little town of Volant, PA, I kept saying I remembered hiking it, and it wasn’t that great.  As soon as I parked at the trailhead, I knew.  The trail was not impressive, and it was in much worse shape than it was a few years ago.  
 

It started out okay. 

 

The trail bridges were in horrible shape, and I spent some time looking for timbers that looked solid. 
 

 

It did parallel a stream that gave an occasional view. 
 

 

I was disappointed when this was closed when we finished 5.5 miles

 

 

I guess my spirits were derailed. 

 

Edited August 22 by h20skibum

[Luckynana]

On 8/21/2024 at 11:41 AM, Coralc said:

 

Movers are coming on Aug. 30. Hopefully I can drive by then. I am getting around with the walker and short walks with a cane. 

Great news that you are getting around with the walker, Patti!  Please be careful and don't do anything to hurt yourself again with the Movers coming.  Let them do everything;  you just sit and supervise!!

 

@bobmacliberty  What a great dad you are, Bob!

I love your daughter's banister, it reminds me of our old home on Staten Island.  I have never seen a globe light on the top of a banister before.  How does she turn it on, and where does the wiring go??

We had two beautiful stained glass windows going up the stairs, one at the bottom of the stairs, and the second one at the stair landing.

[Luckynana]

6 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

It is 62°F and sunny here at 11.24am.

It is our 43rd wedding anniversary today.

We had a family meal last night to celebrate.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all have a nice day.

 

Happy 43rd Anniversary, Pauline and Graham!  Enjoy your Special Day!

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

 

Happy 43rd Anniversary, Pauline and Graham!  Enjoy your Special Day!

Thank you Maryann.

[Luckynana]

3 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Today is my husband Brian's 50th birthday. He was a surprise 2nd-born twin that no one knew about until his arrival. His birth was difficult, involved forceps, and resulted in a brain bleed and cerebral palsy on his right side. He never let it stop him. He is the happiest, most encouraging, positive person. The very best person I know. I'm so thankful that he is here and that we get to share life together. 

 

I think it's unfair that he looks younger than 50! (I am 51, so it's doubly unfair!)

 

 

Happy Birthday to your dear husband Brian!  50 is sure a special birthday to celebrate with his twin!

The cake sounds wonderful and delicious!!

 

 

(Our daughter Judy was our "surprise" 2nd-born twin...not one of our 3 doctors knew we were having twins until after Melanie's birth.  Talk about surprises...the doctor was pretty shocked!)

[voyager70]

@grapau27Adding my Happy Anniversary wishes to you and Pauline 🎉 

[StanleyandGus]

@grapau27 happy anniversary to a lovely couple!

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, ReneeFLL said:

@Ocean Boy We need our partner in crime aka bad influence 😆 jk to keep us from doing the wrong thing. Our cocktails for the night. 🫣  Ok, we are at least having a bottle of champagne on the balcony. 🍾🥂

 

I thought I trained you two better.

[Ozark_Kid]

8 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

It is 62°F and sunny here at 11.24am.

It is our 43rd wedding anniversary today.

We had a family meal last night to celebrate.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all have a nice day.

Happy Anniversary! 

[Lionesss]

5 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Today is my husband Brian's 50th birthday. He was a surprise 2nd-born twin that no one knew about until his arrival. His birth was difficult, involved forceps, and resulted in a brain bleed and cerebral palsy on his right side. He never let it stop him. He is the happiest, most encouraging, positive person. The very best person I know. I'm so thankful that he is here and that we get to share life together. 

 

I think it's unfair that he looks younger than 50! (I am 51, so it's doubly unfair!)

 

Happy birthday!!!!

[bobmacliberty]

2 hours ago, Luckynana said:

I love your daughter's banister, it reminds me of our old home on Staten Island.  I have never seen a globe light on the top of a banister before.  How does she turn it on, and where does the wiring go??

 

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. 

[Luckynana]

51 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

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. 

Interesting!!   Thank you, Bob!😉

[Ozark_Kid]

@h20skibum

Was thinking of you in the kitchen again.   This is on the dishwasher. 

 

When dishes are clean,  this side shows.

 

when dirty, this side.

 

BTW, the dishes were clean when I thought of you!

[Luckynana]

 

I feed my Koi fish koi food that promotes vibrancy.  I've been feeding them this for years.  Three of my fish are in the white family, and two of them have begun to show a somewhat orangey color on parts of their body.  One of them had a black spot or two on it's body, and I thought...I guess that's a new color, appearing as small dots.  I then saw a black dot on two of my other koi.  I have 10 fish.  7 koi of various sizes, and 3 huge goldfish.  

I googled koi and black spots, and read that there could be parasites.  Oh no!!  The next day, I took a water sample to the Koi place to have it tested, and I was told it was very toxic.  I was told to empty most of the pond and refill it with water, and to come back the next day.  I did just that, and brought another water sample.  Still toxic!  I have now made 5 trips to the Koi place, and we're almost there!  Each day, the water was a little better, but not quite there yet.  I've been filling the pond all day (we can only have the hose on little more than dribbling, so it's been taking 8 hours or so each filling, so as not to stress the fish)  The woman at the store said that this should do it!  I was told not to feed the fish until this gets resolved.  The fish are pretty mad at me....they no longer swim up to me, since they've come to realize that so far, I'm only there to drain their home!!  I have one more visit to the store, with my water sample, before I can feed them again.  I was told to go back on Saturday. 🤞  I've never had this problem before, so here's hoping!!

 

Onto the next wonderful project tomorrow.  Our pool has been loosing water, and the pool guy told us what we have to do starting tomorrow.  Mark the water level.  Wait 12 hours, then mark the water level and measure how much we've lost.  Wait another 12 hours, then turn on the filter and mark the water level, keep the filter on for another 12 hours, and mark the water.......

[derorim]

8 hours ago, grapau27 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you friends for your lovely anniversary wishes.

Such a cute couple. Happy anniversary!

[derorim]

8 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Today is my husband Brian's 50th birthday… He is the happiest, most encouraging, positive person. The very best person I know. I'm so thankful that he is here and that we get to share life together.

 

 

6 hours ago, George C said:

… I can barely remember 50 😁

Happy 50th Birthday, Brian!  He sounds like a real keeper!

 

George, you took the words right out of my mouth!

[MancGirl21]

11 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

It is 62°F and sunny here at 11.24am.

It is our 43rd wedding anniversary today.

We had a family meal last night to celebrate.

I hope everyone is safe and well and y'all have a nice day.

Happy Anniversary!

[MancGirl21]

8 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Today is my husband Brian's 50th birthday. He was a surprise 2nd-born twin that no one knew about until his arrival. His birth was difficult, involved forceps, and resulted in a brain bleed and cerebral palsy on his right side. He never let it stop him. He is the happiest, most encouraging, positive person. The very best person I know. I'm so thankful that he is here and that we get to share life together. 

 

I think it's unfair that he looks younger than 50! (I am 51, so it's doubly unfair!)

 

Happy Birthday 🥳 to Brian!

[Momof3gurlz]

1 hour ago, Luckynana said:

 

I feed my Koi fish koi food that promotes vibrancy.  I've been feeding them this for years.  Three of my fish are in the white family, and two of them have begun to show a somewhat orangey color on parts of their body.  One of them had a black spot or two on it's body, and I thought...I guess that's a new color, appearing as small dots.  I then saw a black dot on two of my other koi.  I have 10 fish.  7 koi of various sizes, and 3 huge goldfish.  

I googled koi and black spots, and read that there could be parasites.  Oh no!!  The next day, I took a water sample to the Koi place to have it tested, and I was told it was very toxic.  I was told to empty most of the pond and refill it with water, and to come back the next day.  I did just that, and brought another water sample.  Still toxic!  I have now made 5 trips to the Koi place, and we're almost there!  Each day, the water was a little better, but not quite there yet.  I've been filling the pond all day (we can only have the hose on little more than dribbling, so it's been taking 8 hours or so each filling, so as not to stress the fish)  The woman at the store said that this should do it!  I was told not to feed the fish until this gets resolved.  The fish are pretty mad at me....they no longer swim up to me, since they've come to realize that so far, I'm only there to drain their home!!  I have one more visit to the store, with my water sample, before I can feed them again.  I was told to go back on Saturday. 🤞  I've never had this problem before, so here's hoping!!

 

Onto the next wonderful project tomorrow.  Our pool has been loosing water, and the pool guy told us what we have to do starting tomorrow.  Mark the water level.  Wait 12 hours, then mark the water level and measure how much we've lost.  Wait another 12 hours, then turn on the filter and mark the water level, keep the filter on for another 12 hours, and mark the water.......

Are you dreaming about water and water levels yet 😉😂?!