The Daily for Thursday December 16, 2021

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

@Horizon chaser 1957

 

🎂 HAPPY 64TH BIRTHDAY!  🍷

 

Lenda

[dfish]

@ger_77 Thank you for the update on Jacqui and Jose and for relaying our thoughts and prayers to them.  

 

@Horizon chaser 1957

 

[Vict0riann]

Good afternoon!  It has taken me an age to get all this thread read... Happy Birthday, @Horizon chaser 1957,  and many happy returns of the day!  We are continuing to pray for those on the Care List, especially Jacqui @kazu and Jose, and Father @Himself.  

 

"Real" tilapia is a lake fish, native  to Africa, and when we lived in Nairobi, far from the ocean and with not much electricity, tilapia was our go-to fish, lovely when freshly caught.   I do like white fish, but my favourite in the whole world is plaice.    Yum.  Also in (South) Africa, their Truth and Reconciliation was a precursor of our Canadian one, which we are working on at the moment.  I think it needs that "Truth" part first, before the Reconciliation.

 

Unfortunately, yesterday we finished our chocolate-covered raisins that we bought at Costco in Bellingham.   And now, I think, we will not  be returning any time soon.  

[AncientWanderer]

4 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

Good morning, all! Chocolate Covered Anything is a great day! I may celebrate it by dipping some of the candied orange peel I made in chocolate. Reconciliation Day and The Boston Tea Party are both important.

I won’t be having tilapia tonight, because it’s my birthday and DH is taking me out for dinner. No idea what lol order, but I promise you it won’t be tilapia!

Remember back when the The Beatles first sang ‘When I’m 64’? At that time, 64 seemed so old and impossibly far away. Suddenly, 64:is here, but being old still seems far away! LOL

Sending continued strength and prayers for @kazu Jacqui, Jose, and Jose’s medical team; @HimselfFather with COVID, @rafinmdRoy and his treatment, and all else in our Dailyite family needing extra strength right now.

We have not been to today’s port, but look forward to pictures!

Happy Thursday, everyone. I wish tonight’s celebration was in the Pinnacle Grill of a BHB!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Laura!  We share the same birth year.  I thought that might be the case, from your "handle."  Have a great evening out!  🚫 Tilapia

 

                                         🎁    🎂  🎈   🎊

[lazey1]

9 hours ago, ger_77 said:

I ask that you continue to keep Jacqui, Jose, and the medical specialists working for them in your prayers as we go through our days ahead. 

 

Thank you,

Gerry

I will certainly do that. Thank you for posting.

 

[lazey1]

I love chocolate in almost any formand chocolate covered anything is wonderful. I will give a miss to tilipia as I don't like fresh water fish; now sea food is a different story. The alternate drink of the day seems like it would be very good.

I haven't been to the post of the day; the photos are lovely.

Just found out that my BIL has tested positive for Covid. He is 79 and has COPD but fortunately he is fully vaccinated so I am praying that he has a mild case.

Like a lot of you I am also anxious to hear fro Himself and Roy please let us know how your radiation therapy is going.

Jane 

[smitty34877]

@lazey1,I am so sorry to hear about your BIL.It is a  greater worry with his COPD but as you said,hopefully  it will be a mild case.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

21 minutes ago, lazey1 said:

I love chocolate in almost any formand chocolate covered anything is wonderful. I will give a miss to tilipia as I don't like fresh water fish; now sea food is a different story. The alternate drink of the day seems like it would be very good.

I haven't been to the post of the day; the photos are lovely.

Just found out that my BIL has tested positive for Covid. He is 79 and has COPD but fortunately he is fully vaccinated so I am praying that he has a mild case.

Like a lot of you I am also anxious to hear fro Himself and Roy please let us know how your radiation therapy is going.

Jane 

 

Jane, so sorry your BIL has tested positive, especially with COPD.  Sending good thoughts that he will have a mild case since he is fully vaccinated.

 

Lenda

[rafinmd]

13 minutes ago, lazey1 said:

Roy please let us know how your radiation therapy is going.

It's going about as well as can be expected.  I saw 2 doctors today, the Radiologist after my treatment and my primary for my annual physical.  No big surprises from the physical but I am having a couple of issues at night (excessive bathroom trips and cramps) and we agreed to discontinue one of my meds to see if that makes a difference.  My radiology visits are quick, less than an hour with about 10-15 minutes on the table.  I feel absolutely nothing during the treatment, and the only perceptible side effects are less energy and especially drowsiness.  I am essentially useless after 7PM.  My last treatment is December 29 but the doctor is off that week so the last time I see him will be next Thursday.  After that we will wait about 3 months for things to "settle down" before doing blood tests and perhaps scans to assess the result. 

 

As part of my physical labs I had a PSA test.  It was 1.56 in mid-October and 1.40 December 11, so there has been some reduction so far that can be attributed to the procedure.  That's about all I have right now.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Happy Birthday @Horizon chaser 1957.

 

Roy

[JazzyV]

50 minutes ago, lazey1 said:

Just found out that my BIL has tested positive for Covid. He is 79 and has COPD but fortunately he is fully vaccinated so I am praying that he has a mild case.

Jane 

 

Jane, I'm sorry to hear about your BIL's diagnosis, especially with his COPD. Praying for a mild case also.

[ger_77]

@Horizon chaser 1957 a very Happy Birthday to you Laura, with many more returns of the day!

 

@lazey1Jane, I'm sorry to hear of your BIL's diagnosis.  Let's hope because of his vaccinations, the symptoms will be mild and he'll be feeling as well as he can very soon.

 

@rafinmd thanks for your update; when one of our family is ill or undergoing treatment, the rest of us are anxious until we hear something.  Your results sounds very good, so it sounds like the treatments are working.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Gerry

[jimgev]

6 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

I won’t be having tilapia tonight, because it’s my birthday and DH is taking me out for dinner. No idea what lol order, but I promise you it won’t be tilapia!

Happy Birthday!

[arzz]

We were in Kanazawa in 2015 due to an itinerary change as we dodged a hurricane. 

Slow Boat to China - Day 14 - October 5

Kanazawa, Japan

 

Kanazawa was really a great port.  Easily manageable independently if one chose, with just enough to see for one day.  We elected the half day highlights tour.  We left the ship at 8:30 - temperatures were moderate - in the sixties with some wind.  Our tour guide said that we were very lucky as big rains were due in this evening.

 

We rode about a half hour from the Tomizu Pier to the Kanazawa Castle Park and the Kenrokuen Garden.  The castle is a typical white medieval Japanese castle mounted on top and behind sloping stone walls.  The outside of the building is maintained but the castle itself is empty and not open to the public - from the outside it could be the castle in Tokyo or Osaka.

 

We spent our time, however, in the Japanese garden.  We viewed Japanese maples and black pine trees - tall grasses and short grasses, ponds, streams and bridges all laid out carefully with attention to the aesthetics of every detail.  The trees have been sculpted by the gardeners to have long branches that reach well out to the sides and roots that seem to wind and twist well above ground level - in fact I think I have seen a few of these trees in the forests outside Hogwarts.

 

Since this side of Honshu receives a lot of winter show the gardeners have begun to erect winter poles to support the largest and most vulnerable limbs on many of the trees from the damage of the weight of snow and ice.  There were some fall colors visible among the green.

 

One interesting feature was a round, flat donut of a rock in the center of one small pond with a tall spouting stream of water coming straight up from its center.  This is the oldest fountain in Japan and the water comes from the natural pressures caused by the differences in pond heights.   

 

Our next stop was at a very old neighborhood with narrow streets lined with very old wooden tea houses where the geishas used to entertain.  There are still some geishas here but many of the tea houses are now tourist shops.  This street allowed us a peek at what Japan used to look like before World War Two.

 

The Kanazawa area produces much of the gold leaf used all over Japan as decorations for all manner of objects - so, of course, there was an obligatory stop at a gold store where one could purchase small jars filled with gold leaf, pastries frosted in gold leaf, bottles of plum wine with flecks of gold leaf in them as well as the expected items made out of gold and decorated with gold.

 

The last stop on the tour was at the Omicho Market - a 300 year old market place that sells seafood, fruits, vegetables and all things necessary to Japanese cooking.  Today the market is covered and rambles on through a maze of food stalls and narrow passageways where the air is filled with the sounds of the food sellers calling out to get the attention of the shoppers.  Unlike the markets that we saw in our first trip to Japan 37 years ago, most foods now being sold are prepackaged just like the food we buy at home.  Though more sanitary - packaging does cut down on the odor as well as the exotic nature of their content.  This trip I was able to recognize a lot more of the items than I did in 1977 when I was entirely unfamiliar with Japanese cooking.  I found it interesting that the proprietors of many of the stalls offer tastes of their products to the local shoppers.  I viewed one woman receive a taste of some green stringy vegetable mixture by having a small amount of it placed, using chopsticks, on the back of her hand (not the palm) - another woman received a taste of a small, raw shrimp in a similar manner.

 

We would have loved to continue to wander here - and find a nice Japanese meal but we admit - we were a little timid today in the face of the weather forecast.  Earlier in the morning, from the Garden, we could see the surrounding mountains and mists - by mid-day it was starting to rain and the sky was heavily overcast.  The mountains were gone.  We were just plain concerned that if the rain got too fierce we would have a tough time returning to the ship on time.  So at the end of the tour we returned home to the Amsterdam.

 

As compensation for once again missing that Japanese lunch, DH was able to stuff his face with scones, jam and cream at afternoon tea in the Crow's nest.

 

Just before leaving port Captain Eversen warned that we should prepare for winds of about 30 knots and 15 foot seas.   He has altered our course to go west for a while rather than immediately south to Fukuoka in order to move away from the reach of Typhoon Phanfone.  He also either said that the typhoon was downgraded to a category 3 from a category 4 ... or he said it was upgraded to a 4 from a 3.  DH and I have different versions of what we heard.  Either way I am very glad to head west right now.

 

As we left port a group of local dancers performed for us with traditional costumes and dance which included very large colorful flags (I mean VERY large, maybe 10 feet or more high and longer in width) which despite the fact that they performed for us in the rain, and certainly the flags were getting wet and heavy, they lifted and waved them with the music.

 

And for the record -- I have seen more Tully's Coffee shops in both of our Japanese ports than Starbucks.

 

 

 

[dfish]

@lazey1  Ad me to the group wishing your BIL a mild case that resolves quickly.  

 

@rafinmd  From your update it sounds like things are progressing as they should.  Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

[mamaofami]

10 hours ago, ger_77 said:

Good morning to our Daily Family.

 

I had a long conversation with @kazu last night and she has agreed to let me post on her behalf today.  She is so grateful for the outpouring of love, care, and prayers that everyone has expressed for her and Jose, and asks for continued prayers.  

 

For the next little while she will not be posting on our Daily, as she will be spending her time at the hospital, focusing on Jose and his medical needs.  I know she will not have the energy to provide updates on a regular basis, but I can assure you I will certainly post something when I hear from her.

 

I ask that you continue to keep Jacqui, Jose, and the medical specialists working for them in your prayers as we go through our days ahead. 

 

Thank you,

Gerry

Have been praying for them both every day.

[dobiemom]

11 hours ago, dfish said:

Today's meal is an easy one to fix.  There is much controversy over Tilapia, but according to Healthline, you are ok if you stay away from Tilapia sourced in China: 

 

Because of the concerning farming practices involving tilapia in China, it is best to avoid tilapia from China and look for tilapia from other parts of the world.

When shopping for farmed tilapia, the best sources include fish from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Ecuador or Peru (14).

Ideally, wild-caught tilapia are preferable to farmed fish. But wild tilapia is very hard to find. The vast majority of tilapia available to consumers is farmed.

Alternatively, other types of fish may be healthier and safer to consume. Fish like salmon, trout and herring have much more omega-3 fatty acids per serving than tilapia.

Additionally, these fish are easier to find wild-caught, which will help avoid some of the banned chemicals used in some tilapia farming.

Thank you for the info on tilapia.

 

10 hours ago, cat shepard said:

To be sung to the tune of “On the Road Again”….

On my phone again,

I’m posting on my phone again,

The gremlins struck my iPad,

So my fat fingers are on my phone again!  

Love it! 😄

 

10 hours ago, aliaschief said:

Good morning! Just a quick thanks. Will read later. Getting ready to drive for 5 hours.

 

We’re headed to daughters house. Daughter and granddaughter birthday weekend.

1-10 across Fla. has to be one the most boring drives in USA.Gives me lots of praying time for those on  care list.

 

10 hours ago, StLouisCruisers said:

We need to prepare for our quick trip to St. Louis for Saturday's funeral.  Our flight tomorrow is an evening one and we will be back Saturday night.  I'm sure I won't be able to post Saturday but will try to catch up on Sunday.  I will miss you all!😘

Safe travels to you both.

 

8 hours ago, summer slope said:

Drink of the day.

Mexican Mocha:

1.5 oz Patron XO Cafe
.15 or Aromatic bitters
Chocolate Hazelnut Syrup
Method
Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice.
Using a bar spoon stir to chill and dilute.
Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.
Garnish with an orange twist.

You can add all of the above into a cup of strong coffee.

I just found a bottle of Patron XO Cafe (I think my mom gave it to me).  Perfect timing to make this drink. 😋

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

2 hours ago, rafinmd said:

It's going about as well as can be expected.  I saw 2 doctors today, the Radiologist after my treatment and my primary for my annual physical.  No big surprises from the physical but I am having a couple of issues at night (excessive bathroom trips and cramps) and we agreed to discontinue one of my meds to see if that makes a difference.  My radiology visits are quick, less than an hour with about 10-15 minutes on the table.  I feel absolutely nothing during the treatment, and the only perceptible side effects are less energy and especially drowsiness.  I am essentially useless after 7PM.  My last treatment is December 29 but the doctor is off that week so the last time I see him will be next Thursday.  After that we will wait about 3 months for things to "settle down" before doing blood tests and perhaps scans to assess the result. 

 

As part of my physical labs I had a PSA test.  It was 1.56 in mid-October and 1.40 December 11, so there has been some reduction so far that can be attributed to the procedure.  That's about all I have right now.

 

Roy

 Roy, that's good news that the PSA numbers are going down and that the treatments are working.  I imagine you have 5he 29th circled in red. 

 

Lenda

[bdrcole]

2 hours ago, rafinmd said:

It was 1.56 in mid-October and 1.40 December 11,

Roy, it is good to see that your PSA is heading in the right direction. I'm 6 weeks post my radiation treatments and my tiredness/fatigue is pretty well done.  The radiation technicians warned me that it would take 2 weeks after my treatments finished for me to start feeling better and they were correct.  All the best for your remaining treatments.

[Tbay]

@Horizon chaser 1957Happy Birthday!

@rafinmdGlad you are nearing the end of your treatment. Be kind to yourself.

Prayers for Jacqui and Jose. And @Himself

[erewhon]

@ger_77 thank you for communicating with @kazu I appreciate you updating us of the situation. She and Jose are frequently in my thoughts.

Thanks for all the daily news, the gardens featured in the  photos of today's port are lovely.

@lazey1sorry that your BIL has covid, hopefully it will be mild and he recovers quickly.

@Horizon chaser 1957Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, and a splendid dinner with your DH to celebrate.

@rafinmd Roy, good that your PSA is heading down, do you have a snooze  during the day to help deal with the tiredness?. 

Recently the house next door  was sold, today the new neighbours arrived in town, they called in to introduce themselves and tell us that they will remove the large maple tree, which overhangs onto our deck, 2 hours after the conversation, the tree no longer exists!!. Very efficient.

 

Stay safe, take care everyone.

[Sharon in AZ]

9 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

I won’t be having tilapia tonight, because it’s my birthday and DH is taking me out for dinner. No idea what lol order, but I promise you it won’t be tilapia!

Happy Birthday!!!!  
 

[rafinmd]

2 hours ago, erewhon said:

do you have a snooze  during the day to help deal with the tiredness?. 

Actually, I don't.  I am fairly productive in the afternoon.

 

Roy

[erewhon]

4 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Actually, I don't.  I am fairly productive in the afternoon.

 

Roy

 

@rafinmd Roy, try not to be too busy in the afternoon,  do you usually have the treatment during the morning?

Edited December 17, 2021 by erewhon

[rafinmd]

2 hours ago, erewhon said:

 

@rafinmd Roy, try not to be too busy in the afternoon,  do you usually have the treatment during the morning?

Always in the morning.

 

Roy