The Daily for Monday Jan 18, 2021

[richwmn]

today is Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday - celebrated on the third Monday, Elementary School Teacher Day, and Thesaurus Day

 

The intelligence of any discussion diminishes with the square of the number of participants.
        -- Adam Walinsky

Meal suggestion for today - Onion-Dijon Pork Chops

Drink of the Day - Pumpkin Spice White Russian

Wine of the day - Ruffino Pinot Grigio - Italy - White

 

at Sea Pacific off San Diego
Koningsdam
Nieuw Amsterdam
Westerdam
Zuiderdam

Los Angeles
Noordam

Freeport Bahamas
Nieuw Statendam

Portland UK
Volendam

Torquay
Eurodam
Oosterdam
Zaandam

 

 

[rafinmd]

Thank you Rich and have a great MLK day.  I haven't seen a Thesaurus in many years.  A HUGE salute to our Elementary School teachers.  I love Walinski's quote.  I'd prefer my pork chop without the onion or dijon.  My alternative is Citrus Delight, Apple Cider Brined Pork Chop with Cherry-Raisin Chutney and Cherry Crisp as served on MS Prinsendam January 18, 2019.

 

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/dishes18.jpg

 

Today's care list:

Mrs Vmax with radiation looming

Caregiver Gsel and her DH battling Alzheimers

NextOne DH with Renal Cancer

Our Nation

Master Marley awaiting test results (hooray for good vet report)

StLouisCruiser’s MIL, Sister, and 2 nephews

HAL (and other crews)

Kazu’s BIL’s mom

Those affected by Indonesia earthquake

and Krazy Kruisers and Joe

 

Today's Celebrations and Shoutouts:

Congratulations Chiefs and Buccaneers

Martin Luther King Jr.

Teachers and school workers, especially StLouisCruiser’s DD

Front Line Health Care Workers

Quick resolution of Sochi’s problem

65Gator helping with vaccinations

Mamaofami’s family visit

Buffalo Bills Mafia raising $150K for Baltimore Quarterback’s favorite charity

Sabine, HAL’s likely first female Captain(I know this is a repeat but she’s worth it)

and Come From Away reopens January 19 in Melbourne (that’s TODAY in Australia)

 

Roy

 

[puppycanducruise]

Good morning.  Thanks for the Daily Report.

Lots of appreciation for Elementary School Teachers.

What's another word for thesaurus?😉

The quote is too true.

We haven't had pork chops in a while, so that may be supper tonight.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Looking forward to reading about the drink of the day and the wine.

Thanks for the maps.

Have a great day.  Stay safe.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ..

[cat shepard]

Thank you for today’s Daily, Rich! A wonderful group of days. I will toast Martin tonight. I suspect he will be watching over Wednesday’s inauguration with great joy. I will also toast all the elementary school teachers of the world, who have had to deal with a great many more challenges this past 10 months. If I have a bit of wine left, I will toast the concept of a thesaurus. 
 

Roy, once again you have outdone yourself with our lists! Thank you for adding the shout out for the Bucs! Woo hoo! Morning Dailyites and my Sisters - I am beginning to feel abandoned. Jackie, hoping the news at your end improves. Another white wine today! It was a balmy 42 this morning, when Bindi and I headed out. Looks like a lovely day here in my neighborhood. I do not have any pork chops, so I may do chicken breast stuffed with jalapeños and cheese. And asparagus- my local Aldi had the most tender looking asparagus. Can not wait. (BTW, my autocorrect kept trying to change Aldi to Aladdin😎).

 

Prayers for all who need our support. Cheers to all we are celebrating. 
Stay well everyone.
 

*******

You might need to hunt around for this wine, but it has a very good rating & a super price. I found a couple distributors that had it in stock, and prices started at $8.00! Had to laugh at the experts “al fresco dining” suggestion. You folk on the frozen tundra may need to wait a bit.

Winemaker Notes

They source the grapes for Lumina from the Delle Venezie IGT, an appellation comprised of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Trentino. These are the top regions in Italy for the cultivation of Pinot Grigio. Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks.

WW89 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com: The 2018 Ruffino Pinot Grigio is a versatile white wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is nicely balanced and fresh. Its delicate aromas and flavors of tart fruit and savory spices pair well with appetizers and al fresco dining occasion. (Tasted: July 30, 2019, San Francisco, CA)

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2018 2-ship world cruise.  On January 18 the Crystal Serenity was at sea from Acapulco to Puerto Vallarta.

 

 

Roy

[cat shepard]

[portofrome]

Thank you for the Daily Report.

[kazu]

Thanks for the Daily, Rich and our morning smile 😄 

 

Martin Luther King Jr & teachers both are so deserving of celebration 👍 Love that quote of Walinsky’s.  No pork chops in the freezer but we do have Italian sausage so...

 

Not sure about the drink of the day but that white wine is certainly one I’m familiar with since it is offered for sale on HAL - both by the bottle and by the glass.   

 

One region here has moved to Code Red 😢 .  The rest of the province is still in Code Orange but I fear that won’t last long.

 

 

seems there is a problem in some places with vaccine distribution.  I think I found the solution:

 

 

Prayers for those on Roy’s Care list & for those who need them and a toast to those on the Celebratory / Shout Out list.

Have a good Monday everyone!  Stay safe and please don’t forget your masks 😷 and enjoy (dam, I had the letters after but CC xxx’d it out.  Guess it’s set to automatically blank out swear words even though it was swearing).
 

 

[ger_77]

Good morning, thanks for the Daily!  Definitely a good day to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. for all he did for the betterment of society.  Also YAY elementary school teachers - DH taught in the system for 32 years - and has some amazing war stories.  Interestingly, when he retired from that, he went to teaching at the university level and said the only difference was that he "didn't have to do up zippers".  LOL

 

Love the meal suggestion, but I know we don't have any Dijon mustard in the house, so will improvise with an onion, pork chop and rice casserole.  That's been a family favourite for years, and makes enough for a couple of meals for the two of us.  Adding some steamed vegetables on the side will make a nice dinner tonight.  And wine.

 

Prayers for everyone who needs them, and even for those who don't think they do.  Continued prayers for the USA over the next few days.  Raising the glasses tonight to celebrate all on the happy list *clink*.  Stay well, be safe, wash your hands and wear your mask.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Gerry

[bouhunter]

38 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

Thank you for adding the shout out for the Bucs! Woo hoo!

On to the frozen tundra in Green Bay 🙂   That should be a great game and I suspect it will be close all the way.

[cat shepard]

8 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

On to the frozen tundra in Green Bay 🙂   That should be a great game and I suspect it will be close all the way.

Yes indeed!  

[VintageGeo]

Good morning. Thank you to Rich and Roy for their work giving us the Daily, and to all who contribute to make it such an enjoyable community.

Four years ago, (why is it that our cruise from then seems like yesterday, but one from last year seems so distant?) we enjoyed a lovely sunset from the Nieuw Amsterdam as we sailed out of Port Everglades for our first time.

 

 

 

Our hope is for us all to experience sunset and a warm breeze from the deck of a blue-hulled beauty again soon.

Have a great day and may we all stay safe and healthy until that day comes.

 

Lori & George

 

 

[VMax1700]

Good afternoon all,

Cool damp and misty in Ireland this morning.

We had a chicken dish with Dijon mustard on Saturday night and it was lovely.  It was a Rick Stein recipe that was on TV, but it was for rabbit.  We have lots of rabbits in our garden, but neither DW nor myself could bring ourselves to trap and prepare one of our nibbling friends, so we substituted chicken!

 

I enjoy watching NFL "American" Football 😁, but it takes so, so, so looooooong!   I record the games and watch them during the week, with the Fast Forward button in regular use.  So I have to ignore some of the postings here as I still have one of the wild card games to watch before I even start watching this weekends games!

 

Stay safe everyone!

[VMax1700]

A family member sent me this video and it reminded me of some of the posters on the 'Daily' thread:

 

[Overhead Fred]

Surely there is a better name for Thesaurus Day...

 

We were at Half Moon Cay today in 2019. We did our standard Clamshell/sun/swim/repeat routine with the BBQ thrown in somewhere. I either forgot my camera or decided not to bother with it so I don't have any pictures. Here are a couple orchid pictures from Hawaii (near Hilo) instead -

 

 

[summer slope]

Good morning.  Celebrating MLK should be everyday.  And Elementary School Teachers, I taught K and 1 for almost 29 years.  Happy I retired before covid hit, I don't think I could teach remote.  We have a Thesaurus that we use occasionally.  I totally agree with the quote.  Will pass on the meal, having take out from our favorite Mexican place tonight.

Prayers for our care list.  Hedge of protection for our nation tomorrow.  🥤to toast our Celebration list.

Please stay safe, social distance, and please wear your mask.

 

Pumpkin Spice White Russian:

Ingredients
For the rim
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3 tbsp. crushed graham crackers

For the drink
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. Kahlua
1 1/2 oz. pumpkin spice creamer
Cinnamon stick, for garnish

Directions

Make the rim: On a shallow plate, combine pumpkin pie spice and crushed graham crackers. Dip the edge of each glass in water, then into the mixture, coating the edge of each glass.
Make the drink: Pour vodka and Kahlua into glasses filled with ice. Top with creamer. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.

 

[cruisemom42]

Happy MLK Jr day from Atlanta, his home. There is a wonderful memorial here if you ever have a chance (a long layover?) to see it. 

 

I applaud all elementary school teachers -- my mother was one for many years. I was often dragooned (there's a good word from a thesaurus) into helping her, so I know what a lot of work it was. My grandmother was a school librarian as well. Sometimes I wonder how teachers in the future are going to teach kids about COVID and what happened in 2020:

 

 

 

In my job I have a lot of use for both a thesaurus and a dictionary. 

 

I'm over pumpkin for this season, so today's drink doesn't really appeal. But the Ruffino Pinot Grigio is a reliable restaurant choice for years.

 

One thing on my to-do list today: follow up with my TA to find out if there is any way to salvage anything from my two Celebrity BTB Med cruises that were canceled last week by Celebrity.  I was hoping that by September things would be safe again -- but looks like Celebrity is hedging their bets -- they canceled two ships in the Med but are leaving at least 2 others...

 

[mamaofami]

Morning everyone. Today is certainly a good day to celebrate our elementary school teachers for all the hard work they always do and especially for working both in school and remotely during the pandemic.
 

I’m sure Martin is pleased to see Kamala will be our next Vice President. Just 2 more days now. Fingers crossed, and toes too, that we make it through inauguration peacefully.

 

I’m still on a high from yesterday’s visit. I have 5 grandsons. Three of them have been around for backyard and garage visits when the weather was warmer. So, now there’s still one more I haven’t seen since June. He’s working his LA job remotely from NY, but was at his girlfriend’s house yesterday so we didn’t get to see him.

 

Today is clean up, attack some paperwork, and approach my closet day.

 

Stay safe everyone and wear your masks.

 

Carol

[smitty34877]

Mamaofami , I  am  so  glad  you  saw  your  daughter   and  grandson  yesterday. Your  excitement  was  there  on  the  page  and  a  beautiful  thing.         Terry

[LawDog61]

Thanks to Rich and Roy for the Daily.   There is so little of interest  on CC these day during the cruise shutdown, but always interesting to read the Daily.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good morning.  Will celebrate all the days, though I think the last time I weeded out books in our bookshelves, I took the Thesaurus to the used book store.

 

We've had a string of beautiful days with clear blue skies and hardly any wind with highs in the upper 70sF.  It was 35F at 8 am today but still clear.  Starting tomorrow, the winds should pick up to the 10 -20 mph range for about ten days.  A few days ago, we had a 40% chance of rain tomorrow, but it is now down to 15-17% chance.  We really need the rain in the southwest US.

 

Saturday, started the big week here.  The Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama and the big tent (aka the Sports, Vacation and RV Show) opened.  Wednesday, the rock and gem show, the Pow Wow,  that started all the January madness opens for five days.  For these two weeks or so, this town of about 3,000 plus the winter snowbirds swells to 100,000 + each year.  No, that last number is not a typo.  While the RV parks fill up, the majority of the visitors camp in the desert on BLM land.  There are four long-term visitor areas (LTVA) and  five free two week areas.

 

This year, there are still quite a lot of people in town, and most of the vendors seem to have returned, this is still not as big a crowd as in normal years.  Even the big tent is smaller with fewer vendors set-up outside the tent.

 

Here are a few pictures from last Saturday.  The first is one row at the sell-a-rama.

 

There are always unusual vehicles around town.  This is not the weirdest I've seen.

 

A couple from the big tent, which we did not go into this year.

 

Just a very small fraction of the groups camped in the desert.

 

WOW! Page 1!

 

Lenda

Edited January 18, 2021 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[mamaofami]

33 minutes ago, smitty34877 said:

Mamaofami , I  am  so  glad  you  saw  your  daughter   and  grandson  yesterday. Your  excitement  was  there  on  the  page  and  a  beautiful  thing.         Terry

Thank you so much.

[Himself]

4 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Thank you Rich and have a great MLK day.  I haven't seen a Thesaurus in many years.  A HUGE salute to our Elementary School teachers.  I love Walinski's quote.  I'd prefer my pork chop without the onion or dijon.  My alternative is Citrus Delight, Apple Cider Brined Pork Chop with Cherry-Raisin Chutney and Cherry Crisp as served on MS Prinsendam January 18, 2019.

 

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/dishes18.jpg

 

Today's care list:

Mrs Vmax with radiation looming

Caregiver Gsel and her DH battling Alzheimers

NextOne DH with Renal Cancer

Our Nation

Master Marley awaiting test results (hooray for good vet report)

StLouisCruiser’s MIL, Sister, and 2 nephews

HAL (and other crews)

Kazu’s BIL’s mom

Those affected by Indonesia earthquake

and Krazy Kruisers and Joe

 

Today's Celebrations and Shoutouts:

Congratulations Chiefs and Buccaneers

Martin Luther King Jr.

Teachers and school workers, especially StLouisCruiser’s DD

Front Line Health Care Workers

Quick resolution of Sochi’s problem

65Gator helping with vaccinations

Mamaofami’s family visit

Buffalo Bills Mafia raising $150K for Baltimore Quarterback’s favorite charity

Sabine, HAL’s likely first female Captain(I know this is a repeat but she’s worth it)

and Come From Away reopens January 19 in Melbourne (that’s TODAY in Australia)

 

Roy

 

It sounds like a missedsome good meals by not sailing on the Princendam.

[dfish]

Good morning, everyone.  

 

Big day here.   I am having the house resided.  I am thankful for all those home renovation shows that point out that when doing renovations on an older home, there is often damage that needs to be repaired.   I knew there was a problem around the bedroom window and had several people out to look at it and determine the problem so it could be fixed.  None could find a problem and just said to keep the gutters cleaned out.  I do have them cleaned on a regular basis.  But, look what we uncovered when we took the siding off.  No, I wasn't imagining anything.

 

I hope I'm not starting something new!

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by dfish