The Daily for Sunday 01/02/2022

[NextOne]

Thanks to everyone who have contributed to today's thread, and especially to Rich to get the ball rolling and to Roy for the lists. I prayed for all those on the concerns list at church this morning. We still mark Epiphany as Jan. 6, and celebrate the closest Sunday to it -- so next Sunday.  Our choir rehearsed "Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning" for next week.

Carol, Happy Birthday to Sam, and condolences to you on your friend's death. May his memory be a blessing to you.

Sadly, my sister & I decided to postpone our Hawaii cruise scheduled for next month on NCL's Pride of America. It's become too nerve-wracking trying to guess how things will go - takes away all the fun of planning!  Unless Hawaii shuts down & the cruise is cancelled, we'll take the FCC and go later in the year. The FCC has to be used by 12/31/22.

Edi

[summer slope]

On board having lunch by the pool. 

[sailingdutchy]

Good morning all ! Last month , I believe I posted a few pictures of our last visit to Kaohsiung from our memorable Westerdam cruise in 2020 so today I will post some pictures from our cruise on the Volendam in 2017 when we visited a number of very nice places from in and around Kaohsiung .

 

- Lianch Lotus Pond and the Dragon Tiger Pagoda 

- Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center

- Dome of light 

- and a few other nice spots we toured on our mini bus .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about a 40 minute drive we arrived at the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Center and Museum . After 9 years of construction the Center opened to the public in 2011 on Christmas Day. ( It is over 100 hectares in size )

 

Entrance to the Site 

 

 

There are the 8 Pagodas and at the end of the walk the Big Buddha , the museum and the worship area . 

 

 

Inside one of the Pagodas 

 

 

 

 

Big Buddha 

 

 

Just to show you the size of the Buddha a picture with some people 

 

 

To be continued on my next post ……...

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good morning from sunny and breezy Quartzsite.  Our highs today and tomorrow are supposed be about 54F.  By the weekend and into next week, our highs will be more normal -- high 60s to low 70s.  If the sun is out it is comfortable in the mid 60s.

 

I'm late this morning as we slept in and didn't get up until about 9 am.

 

Another interesting collection of days.  Spam should be stopped, but that is a really big job.  

 

We'll pass on the meal of the day.  I do not like meatballs, and while SH does, the subs are just too messy.  I also often find myself wearing what I cooked or ate.  Around the house that is not too bad, but in the MDR it can be embarrassing at times.  We'll also pass on the drink and the wine.  

 

The only port we've been to in Taiwan is Keelung where we took a taxi to Taipei.  We visited the Taipei 101 Tower and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial before taking the train back to Keelung and walking through the night market.  

 

@kazu  Jacqui, I can sympathize with you about getting pets to take pills.  When our dachshunds needed a pill, we would wrap it in part of a cheese slice.  They loved cheese and swallowed it so fast, I don't think they noticed the pills, just thought that was the way cheese was supposed to be.  🤣

 

@bdrcole  Love your meme with the dachshund.  

 

@summer slope Dixie, safe travels today and have a great cruise.

 

@richwmn  Rich and @Sharon in AZ  Sharon, safe travels home.  Thank you for taking us on your cruise too.

 

@dfish  Debbie, congratulations on the lottery win.  👋

 

@mamaofami  Carol, I'm glad you are going ahead with Sam''s birthday celebration, socially distanced of course.  🎈 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM!  🎂   Today will be bittersweet with the zoom funeral for you dear friend, but hope it gives you a chance to say goodbye.

 

@aliaschief  Bruce, sorry your DW's twin sister is in the hospital.  Hope she is home soon.  The idea of being quarantined in Cancun and not getting home easily, would make me think twice about going.

 

@rafinmd  Sorry your pastor tested positive.  Hope it continues to be a mild case and she is better soon.

 

@Vict0riann  Ann, thanks for the pictures of the baby eagles.

 

@NextOne  Sorry you have decided to cancel you Hawaii cruise, but with the way things are going, it is probably better to be safe than sorry.

 

Lenda

 

 

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, NextOne said:

Sadly, my sister & I decided to postpone our Hawaii cruise scheduled for next month on NCL's Pride of America. It's become too nerve-wracking trying to guess how things will go - takes away all the fun of planning!  Unless Hawaii shuts down & the cruise is cancelled, we'll take the FCC and go later in the year. The FCC has to be used by 12/31/22.

Edi

 

So sorry you had to cancel, Edi 😔 But i honestly don’t blame you one bit.  I’m sure you will make good use of that FCC - at least, I hope you can 🤞 

 

4 minutes ago, summer slope said:

On board having lunch by the pool. 

 

YAY!  enjoy 🙂 

 

2 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

@kazu  Jacqui, I can sympathize with you about getting pets to take pills.  When our dachshunds needed a pill, we would wrap it in part of a cheese slice.  They loved cheese and swallowed it so fast, I don't think they noticed the pills, just thought that was the way cheese was supposed to be.  🤣

 

Glad that works for you.  It worked with our lab (kazu) but had never worked with our Mountain Dogs, sadly - neither the white one we had nor Marley.  It’s not for lack of trying, believe me 😉 

 

@dfishjust realized I lost one of my multi quotes.  Congrats on striking it richer rather than pooorer on your lottery win 👍 

[sailingdutchy]

Kaohsiung Tour Part II 

Some art in the museum 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying a fifteen coarse vegetarian lunch in the Center  we had no idea what was what , but is was just amazing !

 

 

 

 

Leaving the Center going back to the City 

 

Going into one of the subway stations to see the Dome of Light 

 

 

 

An old  RC church 

 

 

Observation hill near the Port checking if the Volendam was still there 

 

I arranged this tour with Andy the Best Cab Driver from Kaohsiung 

 

 

Our guide chased the mini bus because one on my group forgot her parcel on the bus 

Happy Ending ......

 

 

Leaving the port after a wonderful day 

 

 Celebrating in the Pinnacle Grill with our friend Ramsy we saw him again on the Eurodam in October and hope to see once more on one of the Pinnacle ships this year .

 

 

Cheers to you all we wish you a Happy New Year in Good Health and Fortune .

 

( Hope I did not drag this out to long there were too many pictures to choose from , Thank You Rich for the repeat Kaohsiung where we have such nice memories from ) 

 

Tony 😁😁

[bennybear]

Good morning and thanks all!  
Loving the discussion of hiding pills for dogs and the old holding their mouths shut while stroking their throat.   Brought back some memories, lol!  
Not  sure if that port has been changed.  We’ve been to Dominica, Gorgeous waterfalls.   
 

Happy birthday to Sam!  

3 hours ago, ottahand7 said:

A nice cold morning here in SW Michigan. 21 degrees F and three inches of snow overnight.   Many birds at the feeders this morning including my "topless" Blue Jay.  Probably due to a predator attack and escaping with his life his crest is missing.    He can still gorge himself like the rest of his gang.  We had a lone Snow Goose fly over in a flight of Canada Geese.     Thinking of everyone on cruises and warm climates -  counting down to our NS cruise next month.   Meatballs sound good for a cold day! 

Poor guy!   Glad he’s doing ok, 

1 hour ago, Overhead Fred said:

Yesterday's giant pot of Hoppin' John was good as always -

 

 

I think we will be having leftovers for quite awhile!

That looks really good, is it kind of like peas soup? 

2 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

 It was easy giving pills all the years we had two dogs. I made four treats, one doctored and three plain. With both sitting together, the dog needing the pill was given a plain treat, which they checked out carefully. The second dog was given a plain treat. The second dog was given the third plain treat, which the first dog KNEW was unfair. The doctored treat was then offered to the second dog, but corrected and switched to the highly indignant first dog at the last second. Not once did either of them question what was in the fourth treat. (This does not work with cats.)

Very clever!   Gotta outthink them, which isn’t easy! 

Edited January 2, 2022 by bennybear

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, grapau27 said:

We have just had lunch.

Graham

We have just got home after 3 nights in the English Lake District.

Graham.

[Norseh2o]

Our DS was born on January 6, Epiphany Sunday.  With his birth, we started a tradition of leaving all holiday decorations in place, particularly the lights, until January 6.  We reasoned that our lights would help the Wise Men find their way to Bethlehem.  Most years, we do take care of un-decorating on or right after Epiphany Sunday, altho there have a been a few years that the outside lights have hung around until Spring... Happy New Year! 🎉

[AncientWanderer]

45 minutes ago, summer slope said:

On board having lunch by the pool. 

 

Ahhh....the Good Life!   Have a wonderful cruise!  😊

[Vict0riann]

Lots going on in Fort Lauderdale, it looks like Noordam is accepting sick crew members from Rotterdam and Caribbean Princess.   

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, garlictown said:

😉Here's a photo from the New Year's Eve Celebration ! 🥂

Dennis, Katie and Aunt Viviane 

Nice photo.

[rafinmd]

2 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

Lots going on in Fort Lauderdale, it looks like Noordam is accepting sick crew members from Rotterdam and Caribbean Princess.   

I wonder if that could be why she came over to the Atlantic.

 

Roy

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, marshhawk said:

Good morning Dailyites!

 

@Cruzin Terri  Thanks for the info on the date change of the Epiphany.  I was holding out til the 6th (not knowing that it had been changed), so the tree is still up.  I guess they changed the date so that Christmas is out of the way and put away until next Halloween.

 

@grapau27  Did the restaurant know that your name is Graham, so they put a G in the middle of your soup?  How great is that.

 

HMC is one of my favorite places.  I would book a cruise just because it went there.  The first time we went we had great waves for body surfing.  The second time we were there, and the three times after that, the water has been as flat as a pond.  Still to me, heaven on earth.

 

I too watched Don't Look Up (on Christmas Eve)  I did find it humorous in a sick sort of way, to me it a was a parody of the pandemic.  The cast is pretty incredible.  I also loved Death to 2020, but was only mildly amused with Death to 2021.

 

We are watching the temperatures in Atlanta take a nose dive today.  When we went to bed at 11 last night, it was 68 degrees, tomorrow morning it will be 32.  Temperatures to fall all day, and rain is expected to fall all day.  I have two orders of shoes that i have been waiting for that would be perfect to go hiking with,  both orders are now a week late, and just as well, as when the weather is wicked, i do have to think twice about hiking alone in the woods. So, so far my resolutions this year have gone-

 

 

👍

[AncientWanderer]

Good afternoon/evening, Everyone.  Like @ger_77, I always stay in jammies and do absolutely nothing on January 1.  Mission accomplished there.

 

For the new year, DD and I are doing something new -- the reading challenge on GoodReads.  I've been getting my reading lists together and setting my goal.  I started at 50 books for 2022, but DD thinks that is too ambitious, because we both tend to read longer books.  I finally settled on 36 books.  Do any of the other Dailyites use GoodReads to find books and keep track of reading?  🤓  📚

 

I was surprised to find that Feast of the Epiphany is today.  Typically we do as the New Orleaneans do  -- January 6 and then be wild until Lent.  Any excuse to keep eating cake, right?  But after two years of unchained eating and drinking, it is time to cut it out.  Dry January for sure.  And the "D" word.   ☹️

 

@dfishDebbie, way to start the New Year with your lottery win!  That has to bode well for the coming year.  😍

 

For those heading home after holiday cruises, safe travels!  It looked like you had so much fun!

 

To all, enjoy the rest of this nice Sunday.  Sending hugs and prayers and thanks.

 

 

[Vict0riann]

14 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I wonder if that could be why she came over to the Atlantic.

 

Roy

 

The new hospital ship?

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Suslor said:

@grapau27Graham, I thought you said you were going to start your diet today. what happened  🤪? If you do I’ll miss your photos of Pauline and your meals. I put on a pound just looking at them. 
 

Cheers to all celebrating today and comfort for those in need. The new year has started whether we are ready for it or not. Guess we’ll just have to roll with the punches - again. 

Thank you Suslor I will still post photos when we eat out.

We will start our diets tomorrow because we have been away in the English Lake District the past 3 nights and just got home.

A few of Pauline's friends have suggested their diet which is 2 days a week they eat 500 calories only and the other 5 days they eat normally and they have lost a lot of weight and it has stayed lost.

Graham.

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

24 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We have just got home after 3 nights in the English Lake District.

Graham.

 

Glad you are home safely.  Several of us suspected you were somewhere other than home.

 

Lenda

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, summer slope said:

On board having lunch by the pool. 

Sounds exciting.

I hope you have an amazing cruise.

Graham.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, sailingdutchy said:

Good morning all ! Last month , I believe I posted a few pictures of our last visit to Kaohsiung from our memorable Westerdam cruise in 2020 so today I will post some pictures from our cruise on the Volendam in 2017 when we visited a number of very nice places from in and around Kaohsiung .

 

- Lianch Lotus Pond and the Dragon Tiger Pagoda 

- Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center

- Dome of light 

- and a few other nice spots we toured on our mini bus .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about a 40 minute drive we arrived at the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Center and Museum . After 9 years of construction the Center opened to the public in 2011 on Christmas Day. ( It is over 100 hectares in size )

 

Entrance to the Site 

 

 

 

 

There are the 8 Pagodas and at the end of the walk the Big Buddha , the museum and the worship area . 

 

 

 

 

Inside one of the Pagodas 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Buddha 

 

 

Just to show you the size of the Buddha a picture with some people 

 

 

 

To be continued on my next post ……...

Amazing photos.

Thanks for posting.

Graham.

[JazzyV]

Good afternoon. Thanks for the Daily.

Interesting days. I'm all for stopping all spam! Somehow I'm now getting all these porn email in my spam on the PC. I suspect when I bought something online my email address got sold. I'm hoping that just deleting them wholesale makes them give up.

Good quote.

I'll take the meatballs without the bun. I'll pass on the gin tonic and wine. I have the pork and sauerkraut in the slow cooker, but it won't be done until around 8PM. And lots of leftover black-eyed peas.

I haven't been to today's destination.

 

I think my throat feels a little better today. I made my way to the drive thru testing site, with the aid of directions from my phone. It was in an out of the way industrial park. Not much of a line or wait. They said results in 1-2 days. The temps have dropped here; hanging in the low 30's for now.

 

Safe travels to those embarking and disembarking ships.

 

@kazu Prayers for Jose and you.

@rafinmd Sorry to hear of your pastor's positive test, but good that she is doing well.

@dfish Congrats on the lottery ticket win!

@mamaofami HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Sam. A happy and sad day for you.

@aliaschief Sorry to hear about SIL's afib issues and hospitalization. 

@NextOne Sorry you had to cancel your cruise, but definitely understandable with all the uncertainty.

@sailingdutchy Thanks for the great pictures!

@grapau27 It seems you had a lovely time in the Lake district.

 

Prayers for the Care List and Cheers for the Celebration List.

Stay safe everyone, and wear you mask. 

 

 

[grapau27]

13 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

 

Glad you are home safely.  Several of us suspected you were somewhere other than home.

 

Lenda

Thank you Lenda.

Graham.

[StLouisCruisers]

Tony @sailingdutchy thanks for the nice assortment of photos from your visit to Kaohsiung.  I wondered if @tjcox9 would post some new ones too.

 

Graham, good to hear you and Pauline are safely home after your great New Years trip.  Good luck on the upcoming diet!  🙂

[Overhead Fred]

59 minutes ago, bennybear said:

2 hours ago, Overhead Fred said:

Yesterday's giant pot of Hoppin' John was good as always -

 

 

I think we will be having leftovers for quite awhile!

Expand  

That looks really good, is it kind of like peas soup? 

 

There are many different versions of Hoppin' John and much "discussion" regarding the origin of the name and which version is the most authentic. 

 

For my northernized version this year, I made a stock by simmering 2 smoked ham shanks, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaf, whole allspice, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce for several hours in enough water to cover. I then pulled out the meat and bones, strained the stock, and let it cool overnight in the fridge to make it easy to pull off the layer of fat. On New Year's Day, I sautéed a couple of chopped onions in olive oil until they were a bit caramelized and then added the defatted stock (about 3 quarts). Once it was simmering, I added the black-eyed peas (1 lb bag which had been soaked in warm water for a couple of hours and rinsed) and let it simmer for about an hour. About 1 1/2 cups of rice (a mix of medium grain white and jasmine since I forgot to buy long-grain) and it simmers for about 30 minutes. The meat (pulled off the bones and chopped) was then added and simmered for another 15-20 minutes. I then took the lid off and let it stand over the lowest flame possible while the cornbread baked. This allows the mix to "dry-out" a tad. You end up with kind of a cross between a soup and a stew, sometimes called a perlo (or purloo or pilau). I serve it in a bowl and add hot sauce (Crystal) at the table. Cornbread and greens are typical sides. 

 

Here are a couple interesting links discussing the dish -

https://www.seriouseats.com/hoppin-john

https://www.seriouseats.com/southern-hoppin-john-new-years-tradition

[grapau27]

15 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Tony @sailingdutchy thanks for the nice assortment of photos from your visit to Kaohsiung.  I wondered if @tjcox9 would post some new ones too.

 

Graham, good to hear you and Pauline are safely home after your great New Years trip.  Good luck on the upcoming diet!  🙂

Thank you Sandi.

Pauline also said thank you.

Graham.

Edited January 2, 2022 by grapau27