A Life Well Lived

My new blogs

2011-12-17T12:59:00.001-05:00

http://jane-thejourneyisthereward.tumblr.com/

and
http://jane-thejourneyisthereward.blogspot.com/

Lovin' the cooler weather

2011-10-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

The little house's windows are all wide open and the cooler air is streaming in. No need for any AC and no need for the heater yet. This would be Chamber of Commerce fall weather in Georgia! It's so easy to talk long walks now - my five mile trek to/from the QuikTrip is two hours of wonderful weather and sing-along-out-loud great music (oh yes - and good exercise, too).

Surprisingly, all this crisp air makes me actually want to cook. I'm thinking about tummy-warming soups and stews - black bean and sweet potato chili, broccoli cheese soup, creamy corn and chicken soup, white bean and chicken chili, french onion soup with bacon and sherry, mexican taco vegetable soup, beef stew - all with crusty bread or sweet cornbread. Yum! Now if I just had someone to cook for.....

Oh say does tha-at star spangled ban-ner-er yet wa-ave!

2011-09-13T17:13:00.008-04:00

Early mornings are crisp this time of year, so walking outside is wonderful and today included a short hike up Kennesaw Mountain. The best part of my hike was the joy of seeing the thousands of flags that, in remembrance of all those souls lost ten years ago, have blanketed the battlefield since last Saturday. I just had to take a picture of that beautiful sight!

I'm always proud to see our flag displayed and take time to snap pictures in places where others are just as proud to see her flying. I took these next pictures while on a road trip through Montana and Idaho. I love these pictures and the everyday nature of our common patriotism. Seeing my flag never gets old!

Ten years ago

2011-09-11T10:53:00.011-04:00

I left home about 8am ten years ago, ready to begin the long drive to our Orangeburg office. One of our employees there had been murdered by her boyfriend several days earlier, leaving a bewildered 3 year old son, an overwhelmed family and a host of grieving friends and co-workers. Her funeral was on 9/11 and I was on my way to her service. I was listening to Capt Herb voice the traffic conditions on 285 when the first news of the first airplane came on WSB. My first reaction, as it always still is when anything happens, was to call Bob. He was at work at Lockheed when I called and we initially talked about how it was probably a very errant small plane with a likely incapacitated pilot. Incredible and incomprehensible new information poured out over the next few hours and Bob and I spent those first hours talking together on the phone.

It was a tiny church packed with loved ones and co-workers, huge bouquets of flowers on the altar and even more carried in by mourners, and words and music that lifted the heart. With all the unspeakable turmoil that was happening at that very same time in three places northeast of us, all of us in that church were united in glorious song to honor one single life – but we were also fully aware of the other events, so our prayers were also in honor of all the other lives being lost that very day.

I tried to be strong, for her family, for myself, but began to feel the enormity of it all and tears fell as one glorious voice began this spiritual -

Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I am weak I am worn
Through the storm, through the night lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near
When my life is almost gone
Hear my cry,hear my call, hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When the darkness appears and the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand, guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

About three hours after it had begun, the beautiful service ended with everyone standing, clapping and singing this joyful, hopeful gospel song together -

Oh, bye and bye bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home beyond the sky
Far from the land of worry and pain sickness will never come again
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

Bye and bye, oh. bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home byeond the sky
Livin' in sunshine of his love thinkin' of the wonder from above
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

When I reach that city, city so bright and fair
All of my friends and loved ones are gonna welcome me up there
I'm gonna sit down, put on my long white robe ,sit down beside my Lord
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

On Monday - I'm gonna tell a story
On Tuesday - 'bout those saints of glory
On Wednesday - take a walk in the Garden of Eden, I just want in on the land of freedom
On Thursday - be free from pain and misery
On Friday - gonna sit out and rest with the weary
On Saturday - gonna look up John and Job and Enoch, I got sins to prophecize
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye!

Oh, bye and bye bye and bye
Oh, when I reach that home beyond the sky
Far from the land of worry and pain sickness will never come again
And every day will be Sunday bye and bye.

All in all, I cannot think of sadder, happier, better, more powerful place to have been on 9/11/2001.

I write this as I’m watching the 9/11 tribute live from New York City. Paul Simon has just started singing The Sound of Silence. Beautiful, appropriate, haunting. Tears begin to fall again.

Bob and I had many years together, wonderful years with many conversations, and I can’t remember any of them anymore. But I do remember distinctly, very distinctly, talking with him, at this exact time ten years ago. And on this very sad day, that makes me happy.

May God bless all our loved ones, present and passed.

A day in the life

2011-04-20T16:10:00.005-04:00

Clean up storm damage - done!

Sort through large tub of three weeks of held mail - done!

Have calm conversation w/contractors who break through bedroom ceiling while insulating the attic - done!

Place new wrought iron armadillo on front patio - done!

Return to better dining habits after three weeks of gonzo-eating - done!

Repair newly corrupted iTunes Library - frustratingly not done!

"Supermoon" rises over Marietta on 19 March 2011

2011-03-19T22:26:00.001-04:00

Georgia

A song of you

Comes as sweet and clear

As moonlight through the pines

I feel like Snow White!

2011-03-16T19:12:00.001-04:00

Little gray screech owl, Olivia, sunning at her front door around 630pm EDT today.

And as I take her picture, she drops down into her box --- and a bluebird flys over to see what's going on. Can you see him perched on the branch up in the top left corner of this photo?

A season of renewal

2011-03-16T13:30:00.002-04:00

Many months have passed since my last post. Life interrupted my blogging - I hiked in gorgeous autumn-leafed Gatlinburg with my wonderful sister and celebrated Christmas with loving family. Sadly I lost both The Helens within days of each other, but I have been thrilled to help my parents fill in some of the blanks in their past family histories. Now I am reveling in the joy of rust colored Oscar and grayish Olivia Owl nesting in the box just outside my kitchen window, planning the Cajun Roots Road Trip, the July Alaska Cruise and the September Switzerland hike - all while enjoying the beauty that is Georgia in the spring. My yoshino cherry, weeping cherry and tulip magnolia trees are all in bloom, as is the forsythia. Soon the dogwoods and azaleas will join in. I couldn't ask for more!

Molly The Barn Owl

2010-08-16T19:37:00.001-04:00

Here's the overview article that ran in Febrary 2010 in San Diego's "North County Times". Currently, Molly is raising her second clutch of owlets. Come join with me, and 15,000,000 other viewers, to watch live streaming video of Molly and her newest three little owlets at http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox.

_____

One of San Marcos' newest residents is keeping thousands of people around the world glued to their computer monitors this week. "Molly" is a cute barn owl that moved into an owl barn in San Marcos residents Carlos and Donna Royal's back yard last month.

Molly's careful tending of the nestful of eggs she laid inside the barn since then has captured the hearts of people watching the bird live via a 24/7 feed the Royals are broadcasting over the Internet. The Royals, who watched the eggs being laid, said they expect the five eggs to begin hatching at any moment. In the meantime, viewers can watch Molly as she sits on her nest, getting up every 15 minutes to roll each egg and shift her position to make sure they stay equally warm. When she's not doing that, the mother owl is sleeping, grooming herself, or tearing apart and eating the rodents her faithful mate McGee brings her each night.

The "show" ---- which includes Molly's soothing chirps and coos ---- had just 10 viewers when it started about a month ago. As word about the live feed has spread, the number of people who have logged on has jumped to more than 360,000. Thousands are also following Molly on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter and "her" online blog. The bird seems oblivious to the small camera, which Carlos Royal mounted inside the owl barn before Molly moved into the pole-mounted structure that looks like a large birdhouse.

Sitting at a computer from which he controls the camera, Royal said Thursday that he and his wife started the live feed for fun and with no idea that it would "go viral." Self-described bird-lovers, the two said they installed the owl barn in their Twin Oaks Valley yard with high hopes two years ago, only to see the barn sit empty. On Jan. 21, however, a major windstorm blew down a fence between the couple's yard and a neighbor's. Carlos Royal said the two men were discussing repairs when the neighbor mentioned seeing two owls fly inside the owl barn during the wind storm.

The barn's camera was already connected to cable leading to a television in the Royals' family room. "I immediately went into the house and plugged it in, and there was Molly sitting there," Carlos Royal said. "We started jumping up and down."

His 17-year-old grandson, Austin Faure, helped him set up a live broadcast of the camera's images through a live-streaming company called Ustream. E-mails and calls began pouring in as more and more people found the feed and told friends.Teachers were among the first to contact the Royals, and Carlos Royal has been using Internet-based telephone service Skype to conduct live chats with students as they watch Molly.

Donna Royal said some viewers reported that watching the owl helped soothe loved ones who are ill. She and her husband said they are getting as much of an education in owls as viewers. Some of the lessons ---- including watching Molly eat an egg that went bad and tear into the small animals McGee brings for dinner ---- are hard ones, the Royals said.

Nonetheless, they said they are committed to letting nature take its course without human interference. That includes watching Molly, McGee and the owlets fly away when the time comes, even though the Royals already know that will be difficult.

"Oh yeah. We watched a hummingbird with her babies as they grew up," Donna Royal said. "And I cried when they left."

Home Administrivia

2010-08-09T14:45:00.003-04:00

It's way too hot to do anything outside past about 8:30am, and those of you who know me know that I'm not alert at that time of day.......so I have spent the last few days mired in the joys of home administrivia. Fun projects have included my annual alteration of passwords, cleaning out the fireplace, hanging a birdhouse (the one thing I did before 8:30am), sorting though all the cookbooks you all know I never use, reconfiguring the wireless printer to recognize the new router password, cleaning out/combining storage baskets in the catch-all closet, creating a new coupon holder for my purse, and clipping the very few recipies that I have found interesting along the way. Somehow, however, there is great satisfaction in organization!

Life returns to the slow lane

2010-08-03T12:37:00.000-04:00

Gatlinburg in the fall

I have been home from Norway for about a week, have finally unpacked the suitcase and done the laundry, but have yet to hang up all the clothes. I'm just enjoying the downtime and the return to a regular, boring, hum-drum routine. It should be a leisurely next six months. On tap are prep for the big neighborhood yard sale in mid-October, a two week visit from Mom, a week in Gatlinburg to view fall colors with Cindy, deciding what to do for Thanksgiving and prep for the family to come for Christmas. I love the normality of it all - even today's chores of scrubbing out the garbage can (yuck!), cleaning out the bird houses to get ready for the winter, and cleaning/refilling the bird bath fountain were enjoyable!

Not a Van Gogh or a Monet......but beautiful, none the less!

2010-07-29T14:31:00.005-04:00

I am not an Apple iPhone paid spokesperson, but lemme tell ya, this thing sure does take some great photos! These pictures were taken about 9:30pm, just as the sun was setting over Stockholm!

And here is the magic that was Stockholm - a warm summer evening, a beautiful sky, the shimmering harbor, a tall ship, a yacht, Stockholm's oldtown skyline and five hot air balloons! You couldn't order that if you tried!

Bergen

2010-07-29T14:20:00.000-04:00

I'm O.D.-ing on beautiful scenery --- add Bergen to the list! Yet one more gorgeous sunny summer day in Norway. Cindy and I ventured out on our own to explore the town and took the funnicular up Mt. Floyen and then walked back down (about a 45 minute walk). Just as we got back to the bottom of the little train, we were mistaken for locals (!!!) and asked questions (in Norwegian!) by a visitor. Too funny! I suppose tourists just don't do any walking on their own. Lots of tall, thin, blonde folks were on the trail with us, goodness knows, I didn't fit that mold! But here's me at the top of Mt. Floyen. (The smile is because we hadn't started walking yet!)

Even the McDonalds is too cute to believe!

Once we got down from Mt. Floyen, we walked around town. Here's a picture looking across the fountain back up to where we had walked down from.

Vikings ahoy!

Folks enjoying a picnic in the park -

I love the mix of old and new in this picture!

I heart Flam

2010-07-29T14:10:00.001-04:00

Flam sits at the end of one of the Aurlansfjord, just off the Sognefjord (say that fast five times!). It's just one of the most beautiful place ever created ---- the epitome of "so cute you could just pinch its little cheeks"! We took the Flamsbana train up the mountain to Myrdahl and back. Picturesque just doesn't quite cover it! This is just one of the many waterfalls along the train route, and the hiking trail that was well used!

A "just a bit bigger"waterfall -

White birches, yellow wildflowers, green mountains, white snow, blue sky.......

The Vintage Room

2010-07-29T14:00:00.005-04:00

Twelve strangers

Six courses

Six 1990 vintage wines

Four hours of eating and drinking

One priceless evening!

First course -

Farm-raised White Sturgeon Osetra Caviar

Served with a Chive Creme Fraiche Cannoli

Champagne, Krug, Brut, Reims, France 1990

Second course -

Lemon-Poached Maine Lobster Medallions

And warm Asparagras Salad with Truffle Vinaigrette

Reisling, Auslese, "Ockfener Bockstein", Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Mosel, Germany, 1990

Third Course -

Broiled Halibut Filet

Served on Oven-braised Vine Ripened Tomoto Compote and

Fresh Sauteed Garden Spinach

Barbaresco, Angelo Gaja, Piedmont, Italy 1990

Fourth course -

Italian-Style Porcini Risotto

With Bergola Parmesan Cheese and Gold Leaf

Dominus, Napa Valley, California 1990

Fifth course -

Black Angus Cote de Boeuf

Served with Oven-Roasted Root Vegetables, Chateau Potatoes and

Sauce Bordelaise

Chateau Mouton Rothchild, Bordeaux, France 1990

Dessert -

Strawberry Grand Marnier Flambe

With White Chocolate Ice Cream

Chateau Rieussec Sauternes, Bordeaux, France 1990

Our sommelier, Birgitte

Symphony's Executive Chef Manfred Schaller

Longyearbyen

2010-07-23T08:16:00.005-04:00

It's still cold, but we are in the swing of things now and well dressed for visiting the thriving metropolis of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, a little archipelago really far up in the north Arctic Ocean. (78'N)

Very soft and pretty flowers neither Cindy nor I had ever seen anywhere else....

We were given fair warning to beware of the polar bears!

We saw a bear.....but it very rudely bit the hand that fed it....

And then devoured us up!

Is this packaging made to purposefully scare children away from the chocolate?

Then there are all the choices of what to have for dinner.....

Reindeer?

Whale steak?

Or the dried cod (where the packaging lets you know that this can be stored indefinitely!)

And then, this delicacy for dessert....

It's licorice! (bleagh!)

Two interesting tidbits about Longyearbyen.....Cindy noticed there was no cat food available for sale in the grocery store. Turns out, cats are forbidden on the island of Svalbard! Rabies, we were told. All dogs must be in a cage or on a leash; hamsters, etc are allowed in cages, as well. "But over on the Russian island, they are allowed to have cats," advised the clerk at the grocery store!

The other tidbit had to do with weapons. We're advised...."don't walk through Longyearbyen like John Wayne. You must have a weapon to walk around here safely and you must know how to use your weapon. You are not allowed to carry a weapon with you inside any public building such as the supermarket, restaurants and others. Sometimes, you may leave your weapon in a safe for a short while (supermarket in Longyearbyen). If you can't avoid carrying a weapon in a settlement, make sure it is obviously unloaded (take the bolt out of the rifle) and take the shortest route from A to B (from whereever you pick up the weapon to where you start your tour).

All that heavy weaponry must be for protection agains the pillaging gangs of unlawful cats!

Trivia

2010-07-23T08:01:00.000-04:00

So you all know what a trivia buff I am, well every sea day is Trivia Day here onboard Symphony. Cindy and I are teammates with The Barefoot Contessa and her consort and the Trivia Snob and her patient husband. We initially worried about just how difficult this trivia would be, as TS seemed overly concerned that one team had 7 members (including 2 young children) and six was the “official maximum number allowed on a team. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981? What comic strip character leaped from the page to the silver screen in 1920? What plant does vanilla come from? Who is the youngest Beatle? Who directed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? We got a million of ‘em!! We have played every sea day, and our team is always, and I mean always, one correct answer short of winning – always the bridesmaid and never the bride.

Separately, and much more importantly, because Crystal is celebrating their 20th anniversary, the night of July 20 was a super-duper-big-deal-of-the-century trivia contest. Subject matter would be Crystal Cruises history and First Prize for the entire winning team would be an Executive Chef specially prepared six course meal in Symphony’s Vintage Room, complete with vintage wine pairings from 1990 (20 years ago, get it?). The oenophiles were drooling ala Pavlovian dogs. (Me, I think one can of Diet Coke tastes about the same as the next.) Printed rules included the role of official monitors, the warning that PDAs and books would be confiscated, the instruction that if you left the room (for any reason) during the question period you’d not be able to return, etc. Good grief! Two of our table mates, Mary and Jim (10 cruises), really wanted to form a team. They scouted the ship and discovered Dr. and Mrs Arturo Fortuna. Dr, JD, PhD (of Buenas Aires and Sao Paulo) ( 49 cruises) – join us, they pled! Then came the difficulty of finding others to form their official team of no less than five, no more than six. I (6 cruises) was enlisted (to provide comic relief, I suppose), Cindy demurred. The first seating final game was due to begin in 10 minutes. Cindy had glanced through the brochure in our cabin and at the very last minute decided she’d join us as our sixth member. That ½ a cruise she now had under her belt was making her feel like one of the crowd!

We were escorted to our official table as Team 3 (of 14 for that final round). Our official monitored hovered over us, making certain we did not have crib notes, books, or iPads handy. The questions began:

1. Who is the Godmother of the Symphony? We knew that!
2. Where was the Symphony built? The brain hamsters begin their run in our brain wheels - Harmony was built in Japan and christened in San Francisco; Serenity was built in France and christened in New York; Symphony was christened in London and WAS BUILT IN FINLAND the brain yells out.
3. What is the cruising speed of the Symphony? Cindy quickly scribbles down a number for us.
4. What year was Crystal Cruises Inc formed? Tricky question, as we are all here celebrating the 20th anniversary, but wasn’t the company formed before the first ship sailed?
5. Who is the President of Crystal Cruises? Correct spelling required! Yikes – is it one g or two?
6. What year did the Symphony have her maiden voyage? Yuck – was that 1996 or 1995?
7. Where are Crystal ships registered? Ahhh. An easy one.
8. Of the following, who has NOT appeared on board as a guest lecturer – Barbara Walters, Caspar Weinberger, Walter Cronkeit, Gerald Ford? Good grief! Who even knows this? Take an educated guess.
9. My pea-sized brain cannot remember what this question was!!
10. What two magazines consistently list Crystal Cruises as the number one cruise line in the world? I got it, I think I got it.

OMG! We were done with the questioning and we think we did well, but, as the monitor snatched our answer sheet from us, we were prepared to sit back and wait as to whether we placed or showed.

The questions are reviewed as the answers are given….

1. Who is the Symphony’s Godmother? Angela Lansbury. Hooray!

2. Where was Symphony built? Finland! 2 for 2.

3. What is Symphony’s cruising speed? Cindy’s scribbled 20 knots/hour was exactly right on!

4. What year was Crystal Cruises Inc founded? We had had some conversation about this, but eventually wrote down 1988. Woo – we are correct and are now 4 for 4.

5. Who is President of Crystal Cruises? We had the correct number of g’s – 3. Gregg Michel.

6. What year did the Symphony have her maiden voyage? Gosh, we had argued about 1996 or 1995, but eventually went with Jim’s guess of 1995. A great guess, as it turned out.

7. Where are the Crystal ships registered? Easy, peasy – the Bahamas!

8. Of Barbara Walters, Caspar Weinberger, Walter Cronkeit or Gerald Ford, who has NOT appeared as a guest lecturer? Things that make you go “hmmmmm”. Aloud, I said I didn’t think a former President would appear as a cruise ship lecturer, so we wrote down Ford. Turns out that no President has ever lectured about a Crystal ship!

9. Who knows what the question was….but we got the answer right!

10. What two magazines consistently list Crystal as the number one cruise line in the world? It’s all I can do to rapidly scribble out Conde Nast and Travel & Leisure. I’m sure of it!

My teammates and I stare at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare. Did we really just get all those answers correct? Is this possible? Well, if we did, that means the answers were really easy and all the other teams got them right, as well. We look at our monitor. He looks at us. He walks to the Cruise Director with a question, returns to us and gives us a thumbs up. For some reason, the team seated directly behind us begins to realize that we are 10 for 10 and begins to raise a dispute. (After all, vintage wine is involved here.) One woman is so upset she is having kittens, but our monitor reaffirms our 10 for 10! We are the champions! Congratulations abound! Bring on the wine! (I feel like I have been granted admission to Yale with exceedingly low SAT scores!)

The Crystal Cruises 20th Anniversary Vintage Room Executive Chef Prepared Dinner With Specially Paired 1990 Wines is ours! (What a waste on my poor uninformed palate (They sell this dinner for $499 a head – let’s just see if it’s worth those big bucks!)

So the big dinner is tomorrow night! Wait til you see what we ate and drank!

Going where no man has gone before

2010-07-23T07:52:00.000-04:00

We have finally seen our first iceberg and the edge of the polar ice cap! We are past 80' north latitude! Yikes it's cold! The air temp is about 31 and the water temp is about 32. Don't fall in is what they tell us!

And here is the evidence that we were here....

The North Cape

2010-07-23T07:43:00.001-04:00

So we've finally reached the most northern point on the European continent, but we can't see it! Our first inclement weather has arrived and we can barely see our nose in front of our face.

Here's what the end of the world looks like on a beautiful day.....

Here's what our view was .....

And here we are doing our best imitation of drowned rats!

Trondheim

2010-07-23T07:33:00.001-04:00

We are blessed with beautiful weather yet again -- and we walked all over the gorgeous little town of Trondheim. Both Cindy and I agreed that we could live here!

But they do have some very weird artwork!

Geraingerfiord beautiful!

2010-07-22T11:12:00.000-04:00

Out to sea - out to lunch

2010-07-14T05:09:00.002-04:00

We are on our first day at sea out of Copenhagen, Sailed up between Sweden and Denmark and are now alongside the Norwegian coast. Cooler, much cooler than the hot days in Copenhagen. We have already started eating - tea with scones yesterday and veal chops and creme brulee (Cindy) and grilled chicken salad and peanut butter chocolate dessert (me) for dinner last night. This morning we had a very light breakfast delivered to the cabin at 645am (!!) and then walked the deck for an hour and worked out with weights at the gym. We'll just see how long this routine lasts. Then a great lecture about the formation of fjords and now on to lunch. Then team trivia and then another lecture, reading time, tea and our first formal night,

We can both hardly wait to see Gerainger. As the lecturer said today, it's a town so cute you could just pinch it's cheecks!

We've been told that we will have no internet, cell, or satellite reception for the next seven to ten days. Beginning tomorrow, we will be too far north to receive any satellite feed, so the techies on board are already experiencing withdrawals symptoms. The DTs will be well evident in about four days, I'm sure. Some will probably just take out their Huckleberries and stare plaintively; the iPad users will rue the day they spent all that money.

More as I'm able to reach out to you via the magic that is technology....

Live is good out on the waves!

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!

2010-07-12T08:42:00.001-04:00

So you come to Copenhagen to see The Little Mermaid, right? Well, she's not here right now - she's visiting Shanghai for a 6 month World Expo. A big thank you to technology, however, allows you to see her anyway. A huge flat screen monitor has been erected in the water above her little rock and the screen shows live streaming video of her in China! Unbelieveable!

So we walked CPH old town for several hours, ate Italian, and visited a local department store. Lots of Danish modern stuff!

Back in our hotel palace now, overlooking the water and all the boats. Life is good! Love being here with Cindy!

Copenhagen

2010-07-11T13:50:00.002-04:00

Seats in coach are cramped, you're charged for a piece of TP and the food tastes bad, but airplanes sure do take you to some great places! Cindy and I are in Copenhagen where the first thing we did on arrival this morning was find a busy bakery and get a Danish...get it? Danish? Then did a tour of viking boats that had been pulled out of the sea and partially refurbished. Long, flat, shallow boats -
no wonder folks got seasick!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,

O'er the Land of the free, and the home of the brave?

From the top of the world (Everest) to the top of the world (The North Cape)

2010-06-29T13:15:00.000-04:00

Much to Muffin's dismay, the suitcases are out yet once again, this time for 18 days in the Arctic Ocean. My one and only favorite sister will join me for this cruise from Copenhagen, north around Norway all the way up to the North Cape, then across to Spitzbergen and the Polar Ice Cap, then back to Stockholm.

I'm excited to see -----

Geraingerfjord -

the North Cape (the most northern point of land on the European continent) -

and Polar Bears in Spitzbergen,

See why I can hardly wait to get there?

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times

2010-06-23T16:13:00.001-04:00

I have been home from a magical trip to Nepal and Bhutan for well over a month now, but the words required to describe the experience continue to escape me. April 2010 was so incredibly physically, emotionally and visually exhausting that I am still regrouping. I look back at the pictures I took and I reread my journal entries from those four weeks and I still cannot believe I did it. I DID IT!!

I’ve long been fascinated by the really high mountains. High school and college in Colorado initially fueled the interest, but a trip to the Tetons, Yellowstone and Banff/Lake Louise several summers ago really rekindled the love. Now I knew I had to see Mt. Everest with my own eyes, without an airplane window between me and her. Small detail that I was a 60 year old overweight Krispy Kreme loving coach potato who’s major physical activity was bidding one spade at bridge or changing the channel on her remote control. I was also just rejoining the real world after having lost my husband of 28 years in an airplane crash a few years ago. In a nutshell, I was a total mess with a heavy heart.

After two years sitting of in my house, waiting to magically feel better about my personal tragedy (but secretly knowing full well that it would take me kicking my own butt), I finally took just a bit of control, lost 75 pounds (goodbye Krispy Kremes, hello Greek yogurt) and I reconnected with adventure -- I swam with dolphins in Acapulco, rode a camel in Morocco, petted llama at Machu Picchu and zip-lined in Belize.

Then came that trip to the Rockies. While in Banff, I happened to meet an Elderhostel/Exploritas/Road Scholar group who were coincidentally staying at our hotel. A casual chat with one happy camper gave me the resolve to try a short, domestic US trip with them to see if I’d like their program style. But I never seem to do things the normal way. Instead, the resulting 17 day (!) Exploritas /Above The Clouds program to Nepal (!) with a personal 11 day extension (!) in Nepal and to Bhutan seemed absolutely the right thing to do. Crazy.

I called, I booked, I paid. Then I crossed the do-or-die threshold by telling friends and family what I was going to do, so now I actually had to go through with it.

Kathmandu

Two of my initial journal entries --

".....March 29 -- We are finally here! Beautiful weather, although very hazy. The mountains are all hiding. We’re exhausted. We have no idea if its 3am or 3pm or if it’s Tuesday or August.

.....Impressions of Kathmandu so far – chaotic, welcoming, poor, friendly, noisy, aromatic with incenses, non-existent traffic lanes, cows in the street. Off to unpack and drink bottled water.

.....April 1 -- Exhausted, exhilarated, everything hurts…but a joyous heart at the personal accomplishment yesterday. It was our “shakedown” trek – 8 miles uphill from 4800’ to 7000’ in 90 degree heat and took from 11am to 430pm, including the 30 minutes break for lunchbox sandwiches. There were times I thought I was gonna die, but the pleasure at finishing was tremendous. Tomorrow we fly to 9000’ and begin 5 days of trekking in Kagbeni.

......So far – abject poverty, an incomprehensibly difficult day to day existence, tons of garbage everywhere, dead (and living) rats, a very large military presence carrying very large guns, more small cars and motorcycles and trucks and honking than you can imagine, so much smog that you can’t breathe and your eyes itch….but I have yet to meet any Nepali who wasn’t gracious, gentle, kind, calm and smiling."

For 17 days I thoroughly enjoyed western Nepal with the most interesting and interested group of world travelers, ages 65 – 82, who climbed everything, ate everything and took part in everything to the hilt! We enjoyed informative instructors and guides, wonderfully cozy lodges, and absolutely delicious food.

Lukla to Monju

When the group left to return home, I was suddenly on my own…..to climb up to where I could see Mt Everest, with my own eyes, without an airplane window between me and her. I woke up at 4am that first morning alone, grabbed my bag, and met up with my guide, Chitra. The domestic airport in KTM was swamped with all sorts of folks waiting on that infamous Lukla flight – serious summiters with serious gear, intrepid trekkers with heavy high topped mountain boots and lightweight walking poles, and me, in jeans and tennis shoes with my bogus North Face duffel bag. Geez.

The flight was much easier than I had expected, we had a cup of tea, and we were off. I cannot come up with the right words to explain my joy at being on THAT trail, the one that every south face summiter walks. It almost made me feel as one with them --- for about the first 20 minutes (which was all downhill!). Chitra and I fell into a fairly steady pace, chatting every now and then, me mostly constantly worrying about those dreaded steps, from the Hilary Bridge to Namche, that I’d have to face the next day. I kept my head down and kept worrying. I made it to Monju in seven hours, had some of the best chicken soup in the world and fell into bed, still worrying about what tomorrow would bring.

Monju to Namche Bazaar

Nepali flat versus American flat – I woke up worried. As we trudged along toward the Hilary Bridge, I’d keep asking Chitra to describe the next part of the trail. “Is it uphill or flat?” “Oh, it’s pretty flat, Jane”, would be his reply, just as I saw a steep hill in front of me. There must be a big difference between his definition of flat and my definition of flat! And there was – if the trail starts and finishes at approximately the same altitude, the Nepali call it a flat trail. The fact that you climb a steep 1,000’ and then descend a steep 1,500’ and then climb another impossible 500’ (not my American definition of flat) has absolutely no bearing!

Goodbye to Bob – we reached the Hilary Bridge and Chitra helped me hang a Prayer Flag along this incredible span. I loved the fact that it was really high up in the mountains, high above the river and that the tradition is that prayer flags are never taken down. This was the best place in the world to say Rest In Peace to Bob – he’ll always be flying high!

You can do it, Jane – we finally began those infamous steps. This part of the trail’s reputation is well earned. I’d climb 40 paces and stop, climb 25 steps and sit, climb 10 paces and wonder how in the world I’d ever make it to Namche. Chitra was more than patient and more than encouraging. He’d quietly stop ahead of me, turn around to see me struggling, and would, in the most uplifiting tone imaginable, say “You can do it, Jane.”

Enjoy the downhill – the final hours of this part of the trail stretched on, but thanks to Chitra’s constant encouragement, my mood began to lift. Even though the trail continued up, up, always up, there were portions that were indeed (American) flat, and some parts, albeit very short parts, were even downhill. At this point in the climb, I was so tired, so exhausted, so consumed by the task of climbing, but it dawned on me that I didn’t even have the energy to worry about the what if’s or tomorrows any more – all I could do was be actively engaged in what I was doing that very minute. I was actually living in the now! What an emotional change of direction! With Chitra’s steady, quiet assistance, those five intense hours on the trail that day served to wonderfully, positively and permanently change me. Even after being home for many weeks, I’m different, my mood and outlook have been raised forever!

Never give up; no matter what is going on around you, never give up (The Dalai Lama) - I met my personal goal of reaching Namche Bazaar, I spoke with many, surprisingly humble, Everest summiters, I enjoyed the most amazingly warm camaraderie of other similarly minding nature lovers who were just as appreciative as I was of the incredible personal sacrifice it takes to reach 29,000’, I saw Mt. Everest with my own eyes, without an airplane window between me and her, and I absolutely loved every minute of the overwhelming emotion, incredible exhaustion and life-altering personal change that this adventure brought me.

Go! Try! Never give up! You can do it!

A time to remember

2010-04-28T13:14:00.001-04:00

While my sleep patterns are now slowly returning to Eastern Daylight Time, I have had much opportunity to revisit all the wonderful memories created over the last month while in Nepal and Bhutan. This picture above seems to really capture the very best of my recollections - those very high mountains and the glorious freedom of pushing past my own fears and insecurities. Those of you who know me well will certainly be surprised to see me in this teeny-tiny ultra light!

Then there were the mountains! They were gorgeous, but getting up there was excrutiatingly difficult for me. Here are some views of the trail from Lukla to Namche Bazaar -- a total of 21 hours of climbing and descending and climbing again over a five day period.

What was I thinking?

Yaks and trekkers on the trail............

My gosh, that trail was very steep every now and then!

Just deciding where to put your foot required every brain cell!

And it kept going up and up (I spent a lot of time turning around to see how far I'd come!).

This is me, having climbed up to just about 12,500', with Mt. Everest just to the left of my head, Lhotse just behind my head and Ama Dablun to the right of me. All I can say is I really, truly appreciate the effort it takes for summiters to slog another six days from this location just to get to Everest Base Camp and the additional thirty days or so after that that it takes acclimatizing in preparation for attempting the Everest summit at over 29,000'.

My second goal was seeing beautiful Bhutan and the incredible Taksang Monastery.

Here is a view of the monastery from halfway up the mountain.

Don't look out or around....just look down at your feet, place one foot in front of the other and try to keep your balance!

Almost there.....

A chance to rest......

Finally ---- I'm there. I just haven't thought about the trip back down and up and down again yet!

Again and again I realize just how lucky I am to be able to travel like this! I'll be sharing more of my pictures as recollections as my pea-sized brain recaptures normal function. Get ready for the complete travelogue!

Nepal and Bhutan Preparations

2010-03-18T22:00:00.002-04:00

Yes, this would be the fabulous Mt. Everest! I will finally get to see her with my very own eyes (why is she a she?) I have been hiking up and down Kennesaw Mountain (it's only about 1,200' elevation), but I somehow think that just won't be enough. I have my trekking poles, my broken-in shoes, my waterproof jacket, my bandaids and all my meds.

This would be part of the trail.

And this is the Taksang Monastery in Bhutan.

It's just a short hike up a shear cliff!

You may start saying your prayers for me at any time!

Yak. Yak. Yak.

I am so excited to have the chance to see all this, up close and personal. It will definitely be a big, grand adventure! And I get to spend most of it with my one and only usually favorite son! Hooray!

The cats are glad I'm home for a while

2010-02-26T14:48:00.009-05:00

Muffin was very unhappy when I left home.

Lucy, spending time helping me recover the dining room chairs

Muffin, making certain I don't pack again any time soon!

I have been back in Georgia since Valentine's Day, but was home for only four days when I packed to go to Lake Lanier for the weekend. I had a great time with all the bridge ladies at Sheryl's lake house. Bridge is usually one of the only times during the month that I feel compelled to act like an adult, but our twice a year bridge weekends are a lot like a slumber party....eight gals, lots of chatter and lots of food and wine. A fabulous group!

Well I went hiking alone Tuesday morning. I now carry a picture of Everest and of the Taksang Monastery in Bhutan, just so I have a constant reminder of why I continue exercising, even when I really hate it. So....I drove to the Visitors Center at Kennesaw Battlefield and then hiked the wood trail up the mountain, a 657' elevation climb about a mile in distance. (Certainly nothing equaling what I'll be up against in Nepal!) I then climbed down the steeper back slope, caught the main road and walked the 1.5 miles back down. I met one young gal who made that hike twice a day, four times a week. Good grief! I should send her to Nepal instead of going myself. I was truly huffing and puffing all the way up that climb. I cannot begin to imagine what April 12th will be like for me. That's the day I make the steep climb from Monjo to Namche (various blogs say that hike takes anywhere from two to nine hours --- shoot me now and say a prayer for me on that date!

Yesterday Marcia and Sheryl took me to Mimi's Cafe for a birthday lunch - delish. Then we walked through Perimeter Mall, just like all the other "ladies who lunch." How "Real Housewives of Atlanta" can you get?

Today is tax prep day. I have to get it all done and sent in to the accountant tomorrow so that they can do their magic and I can get the whole thing done by the time I leave on March 23. I fly to LAX that day to spend three days there with Steve, then we begin the slog to Kathmandu....18 hours non-stop LAX-Bangkok, 3 hour layover, then another 5 hours to Kathmandu. (Sounds like a three ambien kind of day!) Steve flies back on April 11, I stay on in the mountains until April 22, have one day to regroup in LAX and then home to ATL on April 24. Consider me sleeping for the next week after that!

Again and again I say how lucky I am to be able to live like this. I am so appreciative of all the emotional support my friends and family give me. I feel I am indeed finally able to be regret-free happy again - and as you often hear me say, I think I have finally grown into the person Bob thought he had married! I'm pleased to have made such strides in my physical and emotional health. He took great care of me when he was alive, and took great care of me when he died. And now I have a full 17 days to spend with my one and only usually favorite son. I am so looking foward to spending that time with him, as we both push ourselves past our usual boundaries.

The 1099s are calling.

S

Just another day in paradise

2010-02-09T20:57:00.001-05:00

We docked in St Lucia today. Holland America’s Noordam was here, along with the German vessel, Mein Schiff Valetta. So that meant there were only 7,000 additional folks in town today! I was up past 9pm last night, so I actually slept in this morning, didn’t get out of my cabin until 1130am and actually missed breakfast! I’m surprised they didn’t throw me off the ship for that infraction!

The entertainment tonight was terrific – Michel Bell, one of the guys from The 5th Dimension. He was nominated for a Tony for Showboat and brought down the house this evening with Ole Man River. I think that’s one of the things that separates Crystal from other cruise lines – we haven’t had magicians or ventriloquists, but real Broadway and London West End stars every evening...that and the food and the service and the pillows and the mahogany and everything else!

I’m so lucky to get to do this!

The arms dealer

2010-02-08T23:31:00.003-05:00

You meet such interesting people on board a cruise ship. 80 members of the Sundance Film Festival boarded in Aruba yesterday. They will be screening new films in the ship’s movie theater all week. I’ve met several cardiologists, dentists and oral surgeons, horse farmers, psychologists, and my personal favorite, the arms dealer – yes, as in “I buy and sell weapons systems internationally”. Yikes!

Tonight was formal night and time for the escargot and frog legs (neither for me), and my favorite dessert, the Grand Marnier souffle. Needless to say, any plans for using these past few weeks to get in shape for Nepal stayed on shore the first time we hit Tortola 14 days ago! I’m certain I will need serious liposuction on all limbs (or a large wheelbarrow) by the time this cruise is over. Thank goodness Delta charges only for extra checked luggage and not for extra body weight!

Everyone does dress pretty spiffy on formal night. Most men actually wear their own personal tuxedo and the ladies wear lots of sparkles (on their dresses and on their throats, ears , fingers and wrists). Here are some pictures from dinner tonight.

(Oh, I got an invitation to join Captain Zander for cocktails in his cabin tomorrow evening, as well. I’m certain that same invitation went out to all 600 of his close personal friends on board.) He is German, and I visited with him in his very own language earlier this evening during a meet and greet for repeat Crystal cruisers. One lady who has 113 cruises was introduced and celebrated, and another lady who is currently on the sister ship, Serenity, is now on her 233rd Crystal cruise (these ladies must have more money that Bill Gates!). One woman on board our ship now is here for nine months. I suppose when I need to go to an assisted living home, this is where I want to come - room, board, entertainment, medical care, including drugs, constant personal attention – definitely not a bad deal!

I think I’m ready to come home. My tan is just about brown enough and I miss my furry felines. I’ve already begun to think about all the paperwork and get-into-shape work I have to do when I get home – but I’ll be home, in my own little bed, with my own little cats and my own fireplace and my own greek yogurt and cole slaw and baked chicken and no Grand Marnier soufflé, no peanut butter and chocolate milk shakes with warm oatmeal raisin cookies and no freshly baked croissants or scones with Austrian strawberry jam and fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

One of the 5th Dimension gets on tomorrow to do his show tomorrow evening. Tony nominated, his bio says. Ought to be good, but everything here is just that way anyway.

A contented cat (or cow)

2010-02-03T19:47:00.003-05:00

Great contentment, like great art, I suppose, is difficult to describe. You just know it when you see it. Yesterday was one of those days - a pacific ocean worthy of its peaceful name, a line of dolphins jumping through our wake waves, just the slightest of breezes and a warm sunny sky. Nothing to do but to soak it all in.

The day before was all canal all day long. We had a speaker/historian on board who droned on from 7am until well past 6pm, usually informative, but not a very good public speaker. His cadence would have put pit bulls to sleep. I did learn a lot from him, however, especially about the widening that is in progress now. We saw lots of deforestation and lots of dredging taking place. And I counted over 20 ships waiting to enter the canal from the west. Lots of tankers and auto carriers this time, not quite so many container ships.

Entering the first lock.....

One lane over, the lock doors opening....

Lots of deforestation....sad.

I was very surprised how large Panama City has become - a gorgeous skyline!

I’m attempting to rearrange my daily schedule for the cruise back to Miami by taking part in the late seating for dinner. Those of you who know me well will understand why this is such a departure for me – second seating for dinner begins at 830pm and I usually begin yawning at 9pm, so this ought to prove interesting.

Yes, genuine Hermes!

2010-01-30T15:51:00.004-05:00

There can be too much of a good thing.

Last night’s escargot and frog legs were too French, the béarnaise sauce on the ribeye the night before was too rich, the cashmere sweaters and the St John knits in the onboard gift shop are too expensive, and the rum raisin ice cream with warm white chocolate macadamia cookies is too delicious. There can be too much Burberry plaid, too many Rolex watches and hair that is coiffed just too perfectly. The swimming pool water is too salty, the Jacuzzi too hot and the Perrier too carbonated. The cabin stewardess is too quick to replace any damp towels, the deck staff are too mindful of your preferences in drinks and this ship’s Master is too visible. The movie theater seats are too comfortable, the movies too new and the popcorn too fresh. The blackjack table is too welcoming, the ocean is too turquoise and the sun is too bright.

And I miss my cats!

The St Lucia Excess

2010-01-28T14:46:00.004-05:00

There’s enough Kindle-ing on this ship to set the place on fire! I cannot image how the Bookbinders Guild of America, if there is such an animal, will make a profit this year. I think I am the only person on board who is actually reading a real book. Everyone else seems to have their nose firmly fixated seven inches from an electronic pad, pausing every few seconds to press a little button to “turn” the page.

Somehow, I still thoroughly enjoy actually holding a real book, balancing the weight of the hard cover heft, feeling the page between my thumb and forefinger. I have finished three books the past four days – The Commoner (Mom, you would like this one), a thinly veiled fictionalized account of the commoner who married into the Japanese royal family; The Help (Brenda, this one made me think of you), a thought-provoking story about privileged young white women and the “help” who actually raised them; and finally, “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”, a novel about a wealthy woman whose husband divorces her the day of his IPO. Now I’ve started in on the serious reading, the first titled The End of Influence, What happens when other countries have all the money”. The prologue alone gives a pause for thought. Thank goodness I have Kurt in the family to explain the whole mess to me!

The ambassador hosts on board, there are three, absolutely remind me of those men from the movie Out To Sea! Most gratifying to watch, however, are those couples who have been married a while, who obviously love the music, and who engage in that quiet, calm, dance-of-a-lifetime-of-memories. Lovely. Inspiring. Wistful.

Speaking of dance, the ballet of the buffets continues each day. Yesterday was the Neptune Buffet – a compilation of every delicious food ever served on any cruise ship. The only think I’m ready to admit is that I have not stepped into an elevator, yet, but climb stairs every day (that hike from 5 to 11 is not getting any easier, why is that?). I am not ready to admit that I have exercised any part of my body except my jaw muscles. How is it that we become so lazy and care-less on board a cruise ship?

Caviar by the ton....

Sushi for every possible tiny taste bud....

Think of all the lobster scurry-ing around, tail-less.....

and of all those crab on crutches........

We are anchored off St Lucia today, three other ships already at the pier in Castries when we arrived at 8am this morning. I didn’t go into town today, I’m saving myself for next time I pass through here (in about 10 days). I can only look at so many island t-shirts or so many women offering to braid my hair or so many boxes of Authentic Caribbean Rum Cake. We have a day at sea tomorrow and I’ll be playing mah-jongg in the afternoon (no bridge yet – these folks take their bridge waaaay too seriously). Then comes Aruba – maybe I’ll price watches for Steve there, maybe not.....

Life on the lazy line continues…..

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-01-25T15:19:00.005-05:00

Just like peanut butter and jelly, peaches and cream, and boiled shrimp and hush puppies, no two words go together quite as wonderfully as cruises and food. My birthday has been no exception. Although I have been following my planned itinerary of salad and yogurt on this cruise, I completely fell off my good intentioned wagon today -- and it's not my fault. I awoke to find a Happy Birthday banner strung across my cabin door and an inviation to breakfast in the Crystal Dining Room. What followed was culinary extravagance. Those of you who know me well will appreciate the fact that I actually chewed things I normally eschew.

This would be my peach nectar, cointreau, and champagne Bellini, the mini bagel with smoked salmon and wasabi cream cheese, the waffle cone with lemon cottage cheese and marinated strawberries, the small doughnut filled with cointreau flavored vanilla custard and the raspberry and chocolate corflake crunch. Appetizer course!

This would be the creamed spinach and creme fraiche with caviar that was the side dish and topping for.........

the truffle omelet, the grilled beef filet tournedo and the little brioche and prosciutto "Monte Cristo" sandwich.

Yes --- breakfast!

Needless to say, I was much too full to think of having lunch....so I just had dessert for lunch! Lemon curd with meringue, creme brulee with blueberries and strawberry, fresh berries, kiwi sponge cake with mandarin oranges and a vanilla custard swan shaped cream puff......and another Bellini.

After "lunch", I returned to my cabin to find a birthday card from the Symphony's Master (not called the Captain, I've learned) and this request to join some crew at dinner.

I'm resting up.......

Life is good. Tomorrow is another day to think about returning to my diet!

2010-01-23T22:42:00.007-05:00

January 23, 2010 – Leaving Miami

"Dorothy is not in Kansas anymore"

Got on Delta and sat in the very front row. Nice seatmates who were going on a five day Royal Caribbean Cruise (I was marginally sad for them, knowing what I had in from of me!) Once in Miami, I was personally met by a Crystal Cruises person who knew me by name (her name was Sabine), she retrieved my luggage and we were off to the transfer bus. It was only half full (rumor has it the ship is only 65% full – about 650 guests and 535 crew ). Our ship was a quick 20 minutes away. Check in happened right away and we were guided to the boarding tunnel. The real world is behind you and the Emerald City of Oz appears before you. 3 minutes later I was on my way to my room, guided by a ship's officer, My cabin is 8056 on deck 8 - queensize bed, duvet, bathtub and shower, fancy bowls on cabinets as sinks, Aveda hair products, flat screen TV with channels from Japan, China, Germany and Italy (along with CNN and Fox News), the fridge is filled with Diet Coke, Diet Sprint and water. I have a bowl of pears and apples here, along with some fresh flowers.

She's a beauty! While the afternoon slid buy, I stopped in at the Palm Court for a spot of tea, steeped in a small silver pot and poured into a Villeroy and Boch cup and saucer. No scones, clotted cream or small salmon sandwiches for me. Then comes dinner at 6 at a table for 8. I have folks from Mystic, Connecticut and Toronto and Phoenix at my dinner table and it’s the first Crystal Cruise for them – poor babies. I had grilled shrimp with a grilled salad, followed by a veal chop with grilled zucchini and Portobello mushrooms. Dessert was a sugar free mango pannacotta with strawberry slices. Delish all.

The entry foyer, complete with waterfall and piano player tickling his ivories.

Tea time table setting in the Palm Court.

My last order of business for today was to get the computer attached to their internet, Feel free to email me at my normal thudbear account. So far, everything is just fabulous. I have already received a $500 credit to my onboard credit from Crystal and another credit as a birthday gift from Dad and Joan, I’m using the Edmonds’ money to pay for the kayak adventure in Tortola. I took a few pictures today. I hope you enjoy them all as the days go buy.

So far, I think I would be the arm candy for most of the men on board. Average age is probably 80-85. There is one group of about 7 gals who are celebrating one of them having a 50th birthday and another pair of gals who are celebrating the divorce of one of them,. Me, I’m just celebrating how lucky I am that my physical and fiscal health is such that I have the opportunity to do this in the first place! Life is good!

Interesting reading matter on this ship!

I’m off to check out my bed pillow menu. After testing about 10 different pillows, we get to select the one we like best, I wonder if they have those pillows that are shaped like a man………

Acclimating nicely to a wider comfort zone

2009-08-14T08:19:00.019-04:00

During the majority of my adulthood, roughing it meant the non-concierge level of the Ritz Carlton. Safely married, gainfully employed, relatively successfully balancing professional life with motherhood, I happily languished under down duvets in balcony cabins on luxury cruise ships. My husband and son, however, were always much more adventurous - the father active with ski patrol and volunteer emergency medical care; the son in soccer, baseball, marching band. Both, individually, willingly, left their “comfort zones” to complete multiple weeks at Outward Bound. I could not imagine anything more absurd.

My son graduated college and, ever intrepid, drove 3000 miles away (what does that say about my mothering skills?) to begin his first real job off our payroll. I continued my life of minor luxury and major comfort, exchanging gifts like pricey vintage port, personal cooking lessons with noted chefs, and trans-Atlantic cruises with my loving husband.

I was jerked out of that comfort zone at 11:36 one morning in June 2005. Sudden disasters are called disasters because that’s just what they are. Life crumbled, literally and figuratively. I remember asking my friend Elaine, the first person to my house, “what will I do now”, realizing even then that I meant more than “how do I handle this immediate crisis”. I already knew I did not have the tools to begin to cope with anything outside my comfort zone.

What I’ve discovered since then, however, and exactly because I no longer had that comfort zone, is that I was no longer encircled by my routine conventional comfort fences. Broken through, I have now been swimming with dolphins and sting rays, camped on the Sahara in Bedouin tents and risen at 5:00 am to ride a camel to the top of the dune to view the sunrise, climbed Machu Picchu, and just five days ago, I, willingly, hiked to the bottom of a deep gorge, climbed over river boulders, and slid down a waterfall on my butt. Talk about outside your comfort zone!

Being forced to play the cards we are dealt – financial crisis, medical emergency, personal disaster – sometimes allows us to free ourselves of what we thought were comfort zones. Listening to that still, small voice telling you “no, you don’t want to do that” may or may not always be beneficial. I suppose the true test of mettle is understanding when to know difference.

A Matter of Honor

2009-08-13T00:56:00.002-04:00

He was born in Koenigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), in 1896; his father, a strict Prussian General. By 1915, he had found his way to Marburg University to follow a less violent branch of the family tree by studying medicine. He joined Hasso-Nassovia, a Protestant fraternity, and via the fraternity, was introduced to the finer points of Mensurfechten - fencing in a small, confined space.

The fencers were allowed to wear protective eyepieces, a chest guard and a heavy scarf. Each wielding a heavy saber-like Schlager, two fraternity "brothers" faced each other and took turns at slash and parry, aiming for the only unprotected body part - the face. They were not allowed to flinch or move further away than arm's reach. They fought like this until first blood was drawn. The resulting facial scars were worn as a badge of honor, a symbol of higher education, Protestant religion and courage in adversity.

He eventually became a pediatrician and, in part because of his very visible scars and what everyone knew they meant, was embraced by those in horrendous power in 1930s Berlin. The scars, they knew, were proof that he was a true German, a Protestant, an educated Aryan.

I have only recently embarked on researching more of my grandfather's history during that war. What I've uncovered has sometimes been less than flattering and has sometimes bordered on troubling. His own memoirs end with statements of personal remorse and contrition.

My lesson? While it may be reputation building at the time, surviving the seemingly noble duel does not always guarantee character. We are always a work in progress. Sometimes conscience and responsibility are the very best lesson to teach.

Life changes in the instant

2009-08-12T15:29:00.002-04:00

I continue to love a man who appreciated Mahler and Bob Jovi, relished world travel and his own basement "cave", but who was also a quiet, good and decent human being. He was a fighter pilot who flew 126 missions over North VietNam and who continued to love to fly vintage aircraft and teach flying, almost daily, long after he retired from active military duty.

He and a 30 year veteran captain of an international air carrier lifted off in a vintage plane a few years ago. I'm told it was a long, slow take-off roll that hot, humid midday. They cleared the first set of trees at the end of the grass strip, but did not clear the thirty foot dead pecan tree. Both died on impact. We had been married 28 years.

I clearly remember brushing our teeth together that morning, discussing what we were doing that day. I had a routine doctors appointment. He was so excited about his morning flight in that WWII plane and the student pilot he was to instruct later that day. I also clearly remember standing alone in my living room that afternoon as I watched the local breaking news about the crash and the promise for "film at 11".

I have never had one moment of anger. Grief, yes, regret, yes, but always about little personal details and never about his flying. I thinking that most wives of these adventurous spirits feel the same way. We love them and want them to be and do what fills their hearts.

Our son, then 25, spoke at his dad's service. He was amazed at the standing room only crowd that numbered over 500, amazed at the number of people his father had impacted even though, throughout his own life, his dad had not seemed to be anything special - just a regular dad who loved to fly. He let us all know that his only wish was to grow to be a man his father would have been proud of.

Don't be sad for those of us who remain. We glory in his life well lived. We should all be so lucky!

It was just her cup of tea (my first attempt at fiction)

2009-08-08T15:51:00.003-04:00

She boarded the old steam powered train in Siliguri and settled in to her seat by the window, the once plush green velvet cushion now frayed and resembling a poorly constructed bale of wheat. She knew what lay ahead and prepared for the long nine hour journey, secreting her weathered satchel behind the small of her back. The climb began in earnestness near Sukna, the old steam locomotive laboring over the steep gradient and around the treachorous traverses.

May, she knew, was the very best month to be visiting Darjeeling again. The air would be clear and the chilling, biting cold would have subsided by now. The rich soil and hilly terrain of the tiny Narbada Majhua Tea Estate would be bustling with activity, the pickers selecting only the finest two leaves and buds from each of the young bushes so that the Muscatel flavor of the best tea in the world would become more pronounced with the spring flush.

She allowed herself a small snack of Aloo Dum, delighting in the sharp sensation of the chili peppers on her lips, quickly followed by that smooth suggestion of perfectly boiled new potatoes. Sleep followed.

The bleak sound of tapping on the outside of her window, woke her from her slumber. She had known Phulmani Ramesh for most of the young girl’s 19 years on the tea plantation, first as a toddler, following her mother in the tea fields, and then nurturing her formative years by teaching her how a real lady conducted herself. Phulmani was now a beautiful young woman, who quickly scooped up her belongings and brightly escorted her to the waiting taxi.

It would be a short drive to Narbada Majhua, the road passing over Tiger Hill, with its stunning view of the Himalaya range. They played their usual game of “name that mountain” – Lhotse, Makalu, Everest, Khangchendzonga, Kabru, Janu – as they rounded that last corner to arrive at the main house. The best cup of tea in the world would be waiting. The perfect brew was one level teaspoon of pure Darjeeling tea in her favorite Wedgewood cup, with the spring water, seconds after a furious boil, poured over the fragrant little leaves and buds. Exactly four minutes of glorious flavor melding later, the tiniest bit of milk and sugar added, and she was sipping heaven.

Summer gives way to a gorgeous autumn

2008-11-11T17:02:00.007-05:00

The view from my back deck is beautiful. After our horrible drought I didn't think there'd be any fall color, just shriveled up leaves, but I've been proven wrong.

I've started the fall chores, so I'm busy clearing out all the underbrush (an acre is a big piece of property when there are leaves and brush to clear!) and cutting some of the smaller branches into firewood sized pieces. I've cleaned out the owl house, too, hoping for a return visit from the little screech owl.

Two friends have had daughters get married recently. The weddings were wonderfully warm family filled events. Watching the mothers made me think ahead to how I will ever possibly handle it when my own Chickie-boy gets married. I don't think there will be enough Kleenex in the world to handle my emotions that day!

Matt dancing

2008-07-21T18:46:00.007-04:00

I love this guy!

When younger, Matt Harding just wanted to play and make video games. In 2003, he quit his job and took all his savings to use to travel around Asia, making a video blog for his family and friends back home to see. One of his friends suggested the videos might be a little more interesting if Matt did something in the videos - like do that little jig dance he had liked to do at work.

And so it began. After that first complete video appeared in 2004, Stride chewing gum offered to pay Matt to travel around the world and video his dancing in all sorts of places. He sometimes travels with one friend, but usually it's just him and his video cameria.

He used to dance alone, but now, via the Internet, he lets folks know where he is going to be and people (who have access to the Internet) join him in dancing. His favorite time, however, is when the children in small villages and out of the way places, who would not have any way to even know what the Internet is, spontaneously join him just for the unabashed fun of it all.

His 2008 video is out now....and it's more than great. Have a look.

(I need to start traveling again!)

He was Cajun before Cajun was "cool"

2008-07-10T09:05:00.003-04:00

Today is Daddy's 80th birthday and we all just got home from a big celebration reunion with all my cousins deep in Cajun country, Louisiana.

We stayed at the L'Acadie Inn (http://www.hotboudin.com/), ate at DI's Cajun Lounge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWrYS1oCscI) and listened to the music jam at Savoy's (pronounced Sawv-wah)Music Center on Saturday morning. Here is a great video to give you a sample of the music and people of half of my roots ---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhj09TvF8zE.

And then we ate -- hot boudin, chicken sauce picant, grilled catfish, jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, brisket, and meat pies. Waaay too much incredible food!

I really loved reconnecting with the cousins and aunts and uncles of my youth! Lots of memories --- Christmas with a silver aluminum tree and rotating colored lighting at Aunt Nelma's, MawMaw Pearl's house at 111 Prairie Street with the chickens and fig trees in the back yard and walking to buy grape Nehi sodas at the gas station, T Roy using bacon at the end of a stick to catch crawfish in a mud puddle, Halloween when we children could run around in the dark to our hearts delight, firework poppers on the sidewalk, the Christmas gift of two live (freshly captured in the Lousiana woods) flying squirrels that were expected to take up new residence with us in North Dakota (!), being awakened at my grandmothers house with hot, strong coffee with lots of milk and sugar, the goats in GrandMaw Tia's front yard, and everyone for miles around being a relative.

A rich, strong heritage to be proud of! Happy birthday, Dad!

32 years in 32 lines

2008-06-21T11:32:00.002-04:00

They knew the same songs.
The unfamiliar, they taught each other.
He seemed calm, loyal, trustworthy.
She seemed active, social, worldly.

They each played their game well.
“Years later, they still loved each other but wished it were different.”
He wanted her to be weaker.
She wanted him to be stronger.

His growing disappointment and sadness make him seem even weaker.
Her all encompassing work made her seem even stronger.
He withheld. He worked and was away volunteering.
She withdrew. She worked and was away traveling.

“They loved each other better apart.”
When apart, they could each imagine the other the way they wanted them to be.
How would it continue?
How could it continue?

God, the Fates, Karma, eased him into Death,
To a place where he is prepared, trained, and always “good enough”,
And forcing her to do grief’s work, learn grief’s lessons.
Years later, she finally understood she loved him more now because they would be always apart.
She has, very slowly, crawled back into life.
Guilt has absolved into the easier regret.
She knows now that they spent too much time waiting for the change in the other
That they really needed to make in themselves.

Those changes she had wanted in him, she needed in herself.
She was the one who needed to be stronger, in spirit and in confidence.
She was shown a new path. Thank you, Ilene.
The seeds of new ideas were planted. Thank you, Nicole.

She will continue telling everyone she loves, every day, that she loves them,
But she will live in each moment.
She will allow herself to be present in every conversation and in every emotion,
But she will continue dreaming.

Blue star creepers

2008-05-05T12:48:00.006-04:00

I love the week that the blue star creepers are in full bloom on the flagstone patio just at the bottom of my front steps. And that seems to be this week. They just look so friendly!

I just got home from a week in Pensacola visiting Mom and Brenda and Dad and Joan. I'll be back there in just three weeks for mom's knee surgery. Lovely to see the ocean (and only a quick hour flight away).

A quick review of the yard this morning revealed that the five chickadees have fledged - only the mossy nest remained in the birdhouse. So I cleaned that out and it's all ready for the next occupant.

The owl is still poking her head out of the front door of her home. Here is a very bad picture -- you can just see the sunlight glinting off the top of her head in the middle of the picture.

I have no idea if she has babies in there -- there was some hooting going on when I got home at 10pm last night. Was it "baby talk"?

I'm getting close to the date of the big neighborhood yard sale extravaganza. I volunteered to head it up this year and we now have 30 families - each having a yard sale on May 16 and 17. I hope we have good weather and that someone shows up to buy our junque!

Steve is still in Hong Kong. I am suffering withdrawal from not being able to talk to him every week. He has been gone since 23April and finally returns 9May. I missed a call from him, but the voicemail he left made it sound like he is having a great time - working hard, eating lots of good food, watched the Olympic Torch run through Hong Kong, and was just leaving for a run along Repulse Bay. So cosmopolitan and worldly!

Of owls, crows, moms, sons, and mothers-in-law

2008-04-05T15:40:00.010-04:00

I am very excited to share that a little gray Eastern Screech Owl has succeed in evicting the squirrels from "his" house and has moved in him(her)self. Hooray! I"m having so much fun watching it through my binoculars as it peers out its front door. It's only been there for four days, but I hope it's already hung up pictures, placed all the furniture to it's liking and feels at home.

My yard has also recently become home to a "murder" of crows. Smart birds, those crows. I often put out raw peanuts for the squirrels, and the crows have now taken to following the squirrels as they bury the peanuts. The crows then dig up the peanuts and rebury them where they want them. All done, of course, very caw-tiously.

I'm also following the habits of a small (for now) family of bunny rabbits. I saw Mom, Peter and Flopsy out hopping around yesterday afternoon. (No wonder the owl has moved into the neighborhood!)

March was spent with family. I visited Bob's mom and sister in Tampa for a week in early March. Both are in great shape and happy with their day-to-day lives. They love visiting flea markets and walking on the beach. I also spent a week in Pensacola with my mom and Brenda. Cindy joined me there for Mom's birthday and we had a absolutely wonderful time with several of Mom's friends at Bonefish Grill for a birthday dinner.

My one and only usually terrific son came for a quick visit with his girlfriend last weekend. What wonderful people they both are! They ran a half-marathon through the tornado debris in downtown Atlanta. I love, love, love having him sleeping under my roof. I don't think that feeling will ever go away.

Spring is in full bloom in northern Georgia. Here is a picture of the Weeping Cherry tree just off my back deck. All of us who have lived through the drought of the past year are thrilled that it has been raining the past few days.

The white dogwoods in the front yeard are in full bloom; the later blooming pink dogwoods are just starting to flower.

Beautiful!

I end with a special prayer for Betsy and her loving husband Kevin. He is in ICU after a horrific bicycle/car accident. I say a prayer for him and all his care-givers many times a day!

Pike Nursery

2008-03-06T15:52:00.003-05:00

The weather was so warm and sunny today that I just had to make the trip to Pike Nursery. As usual, my plans were expansive and included masses of colorful pansies and whatever other spring flowers sucked me in on the spur of the moment. I was surprised at how empty the place was! The drought has done in much of the landscaping here in Georgia, and has done in many of the landscapers at the same time. Pike, a decades old family business, was forced to declare bankruptcy several months ago, but even knowing that didn't prepare me for what I saw at Pike's. So little inventory - no pansies, no rows and rows of spring flowers to choose from. I did find some precious primroses and bought a flat of 18 little plants. Only four flats remained. The young lady at the checkout was so upbeat. After I commented on how sad their situation had become, she cheerfully shared how this location has now been bought "by another grower, not a corporation" and how she just knew it was all going to be ok. They were beginning to bring in more inventory and the spring planting season looked promising. After all, we are now allowed to handwater, with a single hose, for 25 minutes three days a week.

My primroses are all in their new homes in my yard now. All are a reminder of a bright promise for my spring and for Pike Nursery's future!

Family ties

2008-02-24T13:43:00.005-05:00

The internet, even though some say just a phase, is a wonderful thing. So much information, so little time.

One nugget that caught my attention yesterday was this headline "Japan Crown Prince to try to visit parents more." (http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUST287520080223?rpc=401) It just struck me as strange to have to publicly commit to visiting your parents.

Spring is in the air. My walk around the yard this morning revealed buds on the iris bushes and the hydrangea. The azalea bushes that have survived the drought are also full of buds. I can hardly wait for the explosion of color that spring in the Southeast brings. I remember when we lived in dry Las Vegas and we would watch the Masters Golf Tournament on television. I had never seen any landscaping so beautiful in my life. And now I get to live here among it all and see it all up close and personal. Spring in Georgia does not disappoint. My blooming yard has a tulip magnolia tree, a weeping cherry tree, both pink and white dogwood trees, azaleas bushes, a bradford pear tree, forsythia bushes, pink and red camellia bushes, several leatherleaf mahonia, in addition to the afrementioned iris bushes and both blue and oak-leaf hydrangea. There will be a true riot of color in about a month or so.

I just watched squirrels carrying mouthfuls of dried leaves into the owl house they have claimed as their own via squatters rights. I wonder if the soon-to-be baby squirrels will have to publicly commit to visiting their parents?

Happy Birthday, Chickie!

2008-02-17T15:23:00.006-05:00

Today is my one and only favorite son's birthday.

28 years ago, Bob and I were living at George AFB, just outside Victorville, California. I had gone into labor Friday afternoon, just after my regularly scheduled OB visit earlier that morning. Bob and I had gone to Lamaze classes and thought we were prepared for the long haul. Just how long a haul it would be was a huge surprise to us both. Stephen finally made his entrance around 8am on Sunday morning, after over 40 hours of labor. Just a few months ago, while going through a box of Bob's papers, I came across a log book where Bob had noted all the times and durations of my contractions. Amazing.

Stephen was a long and thin jaundiced bundle of joy who spent the first week in an incubator under bright lights. His eyes were covered with gauze patches to protect them from the lights and he looked like a little orange fly. We called him our little Chiclet gumball and that soon became just Chickie.

He has continued growing tall and has, through a personal discipline reminiscent of his father's, maintained his thin physique. He eats well and takes good care of himself. He has already run one full marathon and will be running the Los Angeles Marathon on March 2.

He is determined, calm, compassionate, self-assured, content. And like his dad, he never lets me forget that I am loved.

His Daddy would be proud of him.

Shirley and Marty

2008-02-14T09:46:00.011-05:00

Shirley Jones and Marty Ingalls were on a morning television program today (talking about love and a long marriage) and on a cruise ship with Bob and me in 1994. Dad had come to stay with Stephen while Bob and I flew to London to take a 16 day cruise back to New York, via Rouen, Brugges, Waterford, Rekyavik, Halifax, and Newport.

Shirley became our "close personal friend" the day the tour bus burned to the ground (yikes!) on the way to the Waterford crystal factory. We had been on separate buses, excitedly wending our way down the very skinny twisty turny road in Ireland. Our lilty red-haired very Irish tour guide was explaining why the roads were so twisty turny. "The roads are like this so that the evil spirits cannot follow us. Oh, look! There's a mockingbird! We Irish believe that lone mockingbirds are bad luck, so every time we see one, we..........." Suddenly there was no more microphone on our bus! From our mid-bus seat, Bob and I could see her and the bus driver trying to get the sound system to work again. Then he stopped the bus to give the problem a bit more attention. (I suppose he knew we had all paid very dearly for this cruise and all the tours, so we deserved his full attention.) The bus in front of us (with Shirley on board) stopped when we did, and our driver got out to go ahead to explain to the other driver what was going on. As he turned to walk back to us, his eyes widened and he began to race back onto our bus. "Out the back, out the back," he yelled. "Fire, move quickly!" We all sat like frozen fish, waiting for further instructions. All of us, except Bob. He leapt out of his seat and followed the driver to the back of the bus where both pushed open the emergency exit and jumped to the ground....all the while yelling, "Move to the back of the bus!" Slowly, the rest of us gathered our senses and began to roust ourselves out of our seats and turn toward the back of the bus.

I now know how people can die of smoke inhalation. Thick black smoke began to rise from the bus floor as we all shuffled to the back. "Jane! Jane!" I could hear Bob yelling from the back door. We were all moving so slowly. What I soon found out was that there was a six foot drop from the emergency exit to the ground outside, and the little ladies (the average age on our ship was probably 85) were sitting down on the high ledge, "scooching" forward and then being pulled out by Bob and the bus driver. That sitting down and inching forward took up a lot of time, but even I wasn't a fan of just jumping out. That ground was a long way down! Finally, we full bus load of tourists all emerged safely, all raced (hobbled) about 100 yards away and then all turned to watch our bus burn to the ground! Thank goodness we were on our way TO the Waterford factory and not FROM it. We could have lost all our crystal!

As it turns out, there was an electrical short that caused the microphone to cut out, that caused a small fire, that caused all the smoke, and that caused the bus to become a smoldering shell of its former self.

Plucky tourist we, we all boarded other tour buses - Bob and I onto Shirley's bus, sitting squashed, right next to her. We completed the tour as "close personal friends" together, bought crystal, and made it back to the ship in good order. I have to admit, we all drank a stiff hot toddy that night!

It seems that the lone mockingbird is indeed bad luck. And when you see one, you must whistle! That's what we had all failed to hear to do and what we had all failed to do. Now you know.

To get back to Marty and Shirley --- they were lovely, funny, chatty, real people. They were such different personalities -- he off his rocker hysterical, she calm and poised all the time. They made us all realize how laughter needs to invade every long-lasting relationship. I, your unlicensed, unprofessional marriage counselor, have decided that laughter, along with just being politely nice, will help sustain a good marriage. I'm so lucky to have experienced both the laughter and the love in my own life.

Tell everyone you love, every day, that you love them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Super Tuesday

2008-02-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

Five am comes very early in the morning for those of us who go to bed early and get up late, but that's what time the alarm went off Tuesday morning. Out I roll, to step into the clothes I had set out the before. There was just time to let the kitties outside with fresh water and their bowl of food. Into the little car and I was off. A short drive later and I was there, ready to begin......begin my day as a poll worker on Super Tuesday.

I have always found the political process interesting. Civics and government classes were my favorite in college and my degree is in Political Science (how convenient!). I read newspapers, I surf news web sites, I watch CNN and Fox, I read political blogs. The interesting thing, however, is that I seem to enjoy observing the process much more than I seem to be interested in who wins the election.

I continue to be amazed that, unlike many countries, we in the US luxuriate in a safe political process. There is constant debate, over issues public and private, over issues political and not. Anyone can say most anything about any candidate. Agree with it all or not, there is a wonderfully consistant normalcy to the set term limits, the transition from one president to another, from one party to another. We never worry that some army general will storm the White House and take over military junta style. And we are all allowed to freely wait in long, calm lines and freely stand in front of a screen to make our meaningful personal selections in private.

A super Tuesday was had by all.

Camaraderie

2008-02-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon some old audio cassette tapes Saturday morning. Bob had recorded several of his missions while flying out of Korat, Thailand in 1971/72,, and here they were, right in my hand. Each labeled with date and mission in his perfect printing. One was a Mayday call response (was the person saved?), one a Search and Rescue (SAR) mission, where he conveniently noted "SAR successful". Three others missions to places I can't pronounce. So the questions began - Do I listen? Can I listen? What should I do with them? Would information from the Mayday mission or the SAR mission fill in a blank for anyone?

Thanks to all the notations on the tapes, I was able to cross reference the dates with the "rest of the story" from his old Navigator log books from that time -- pilot in command, time spent in the air, take-off point, destination. A bit of "google-ing" later, and I had phone numbers and contact information for folks who may have in interest in the tapes. First I spoke to the FAC Association, tthe group to whom the Mayday call pilot belonged. Their president, was gracious, engaging, and so interested. We both wondered if the pilot in trouble had been rescued. After he said he wanted each of the tapes, he suggested that the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH, might also be interested in them.

Yesterday I emailed the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association. Those fabulous Wild Weasels. They were so quick to respond, with kind words about Bob, and further contact points for me. Next thing I knew, I had an email from Bob's front-seater during the Mayday response mission. Such a nice email. He wanted that tape, and remembered "meeting the safely rescued pilot a day or two later" -- (hooray for the positive conclusion to that story!).

So today, I sat in the little Z car, and plunked in each of the cassettes. Voices - some clear, some garbled, lots of static and, mostly, unfamiliar noises. All of which, I'm sure, will be perfectly understandable to military pilots, but all of which sound to me like the garbled meal order playback through a bad McDonald's drive-thru speaker. I then took the tapes in to have them all transferred to CD. I'll keep the originals (and one CD for technological posterity) and send other CDs out to those to whom they seem important.

What continues to be so heartwarming to me is the incredible sense of comaraderie, still these many years later, that is embraced by the airmen who shared those harrowing, yet exhilarating times together. They, like Bob, all loved their airplanes and their flying.

Frrrr-eeeezing

2008-01-20T13:28:00.000-05:00

What a bitterly cold day for Atlanta today. We are such softies here, complaining when it is 22 degrees outside! How do folks in North Dakota do it?

However, the little house does look so cute in the snow...

The ever-voracious squirrels are nibbling at the sunflower seeds....

My kitties still refuse to spend much time outside......

Lucy prefers to remain in her favorite position in her favorite place.....

Muffin remains, as usual, alert for any activity that may present itself....

I do need to get out to gather more firewood today. Even that will be an adventure! Time to go bundle up!

It's a Robert Frost-y day

2008-01-19T11:52:00.000-05:00

A rare snowfall is blanketing my little part of the woods today. Soft, silent, beautiful.

All the local television stations are in 24/7 weather report mode, letting us all know that it's snowing outside.

The cats are unsure. Muffin ventured out, but Lucy remained firmly attached to the front door's Welcome mat!

I am toasty, warmly wrapped in my old-faithful soft gray cashmere cardigan, fireplace blazing, extra wood at the ready. They tell us the snow will continue falling much of the day, so it sounds like it would be a great day to finish reading Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth!

They eat like birds

2008-01-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

There is something about waking up to the lilt of songbirds.

The air was absolutely crisp and clear after the rain this morning. Just beautiful! I am watching the birds at the sunflower seed buffet I've set out for them. I go so far as to offer pre-shelled seeds for the very spoiled avian crew. I'm surprised any of these eating machines can get off the ground after devouring all the seeds. Whoever said "they eat like birds" obviously never visited with this crowd!

The variety of birds that come to my back deck easily makes up for any expense, though. Just today I've seen chickadees, titmice, a red-bellied woodpecker, goldfinches, and white-bellied and brown-head nuthatches. This past week I've seen a Cooper's hawk, blue birds (my favorite!), red finches, a downy woodpecker, dark-eyed junco, and Carolina wrens. Over the years, we've identified over 28 varieties of birds in our backyard. One Christmas Day, we even had a wild turkey strolling around back there! And all this in the middle of a residential subdivision!

Oh - the cookies are ready. Time for a glass of milk and warm sugar cookies!

The curtain falls....and time passes

2008-01-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

There is something wonderful about having your children sleeping under your own roof, so matter how old they are. The joy of being around Steve for the past two weeks was huge. Of course I see him through very biased Mom eyes, but he is mostly usually terrific.

The wonderful holiday time with all my family came to a screeching halt as real life reared its ugly head late New Years Eve. My beloved old fat girl Siamese kitty, Kimmee, died suddenly around 1130pm. She had been on my bed, watching the New Year festivities with me and purring appreciatively as I'd pet her. She hopped off the bed, probably to get a snack. I followed her about 15 minutes later to get a glass of water and found her lifeless body in the hallway. Shocking to have her house-filling presence gone so quickly. I am so sad at her loss. I could wax poetic about handling the unexpected death of loved ones, loving pets and people, mourning Bobber all over again through this current loss, trying unsuccessfully to not wallow in the what-ifs.

If only life were like the movies - the curtain falls, time passes and the next scene is full of new resolve and promise. But real life insists you fill that void in between, so that's what I'm doing now.

Again I thank goodness for my family, friends, Muffin and Lucy, and the very compassionate folks at the Animal Emergency Hospital.

And it came to pass...it did not come to stay.

A very warm December day

2007-12-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Christmas decorations are slowly sneaking out of their closet. I've put up the manger scene and Santa Bunny has found his way onto the front porch (along with a poinsietta and some evergreen branches).

Since the weather has included some 76 degree days, the cats have all enjoyed time lazing around on the back deck. Muffin has especially liked tracking the very active squirrels. Here he is lurking over the side of the deck.

Now that the leaves have left the trees and piled all over the few remaining blades of lawn, I can see that it looks like something has started nesting in the owl box. I'm sure I'm not lucky enough to have a real owl there -- the rowdy squirrels have probably taken it over, but here is my view of the owl house from my house.

There's a fungus among us

2007-11-27T21:23:00.000-05:00

The day dawned cool and clear, just the right weather for a stealthy trip into my computor, I suppose. It seems that a Trojan Horse containing a multitude of viruses has entered the bowels of my little black technology box and is after my credit card numbers and my bank account number, among other things. I called The Geek Squad to my rescue at 901am EST this morning and got off the fone at 809pm this evening. I never realized how much stuff was loaded on this thing and how much information is out there - yowza!

Things I have learned today -- have a active anti-virus software running at all times, and call the credit card company, bank and all the stock companies to verify that they have seen no inordinant activity and have saved all my dwindling assets.

I'm exhausted. Who knew that interacting with Geeks all day would be so invigorating? The were all wonderfully intelligent people who seem to have solved my dilemma. I have five days to fool around in a virus free atmosphere before they let me go. Nice to know they are just a call away!

Love them geeks!

Giving thanks today for......

2007-11-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

My glorious Stephen
My best ever Cindy and her very terrific family
Parents who cling just closely enough
Joan and Brenda who care lovingly
The Helens who continue to share memories
Wonderful friends, old and new, who remain steadfast
The contented purring of Kimberly, Muffin and Lucy
My comfy home in the woods
The courage and freedom to see and enjoy the world
Bobber - who remains forever in my daily consciousness

The Blue Men

2007-11-18T12:33:00.001-05:00

My niece, Jessica, came to visit last Friday from UVA in Charlottesville, VA. She is 18, gorgeous, intelligent and very fun to have around and be around. I did have some difficulty deciding how she'd want to be entertained - and determined that shopping and mani/pedis would fit the bill. The real reason for her visit was so that she could attend the Blue Man Group concert with me last night (more about that in a minute). I, who hate to shop, had a great time shopping with and for her. I think I mostly enjoyed shopping for Size 2 clothes -- amazing that there are actual people who fit into the S instead of having to look for the 1X! I learned there is more to Bloomingdale's than The Women's Place shop, that there are very cute styles, and that someone ought to make more stylish clothes for we more mature, more zaftig women!

Blue Man Group --- a full on, fully loud, full immersion rock concert, with more sillyness, intelligence, technology and spectacle than you can imagine. I loved it! Heart pounding music, incredible musicians, great voices, intricate percussion understandable even for those didn't think they were "into" it. All in all a fabulous experience. A big thanks to PBS for the center-stage row 12 seats and the very small group (about 20 of us) that attended the catered (drinks, fruit, cheese and crackers, brownies, etc) meet and greet with all three Blue Men afterwards. We were able to have actual one-on-one interaction with the Men and their own personal way of signing autographs (a blue lip smack on one of their ad pieces or on you, if you preferred) and took lots of up-close-and-personal pictures. If that's the way PBS treats all their donors, this is a testimonial "shout-out" to them. PBS and the Blue Men rock!

Home Sweet Home

2007-10-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

I am home.

A short simple sentence, but a profoundly comforting one. I am knee deep in the hum-drum of re-immersing myself in day-to-day real world life. The cats are all thriving and each has welcomed me home in their own way --- Lucy pooped in my slippers, Kimberly slept at my head and purred all night and Muffin actually allowed me to touch him under his chin. I am amazed at how much mail accumulates over one months time - I have spent over an hour just tossing the catalogues! Now I have to sort through all the bills. Real life does come at you fast!

The wait for the weight

2007-10-23T12:32:00.000-04:00

The time for this cruise to be over must be close - there seems to be nothing but Brussel sprouts on the menu for the last few days. Those of you who know me well, know that the dreaded sprout is the top thing on my "food I absolutely hate" list.

I'm wondering just how much weight I've gained. Even though I've eaten more fruit and vegetables (except the dreaded brussel sprout) on this trip, I know that souffles with vanilla sauce for dessert every day have quietly added to the caloric intake! Maybe that treadmill in my basement will need to have daily use when I return home!

Random thoughts for the past month -
-- there are a heap of things to see in this world, but some things remain the same --- everyone does laundry and many cultures hang it out their windows to dry
-- home is where you make it...even a cruise ship cabin can become a cozy safe haven
-- at least 80% of all men over 50 have had some kind of surgery....and are proud to display their resulting scars
-- nausea is bad no matter where you are; worse when you are away from your own surroundings
-- the suitcase always contains more clothes than you will ever wear and is always hard to zip up at the end of the vacation
-- many women can be very mean to their husbands. I have seen and heard some snippy things things that astound me. They can also be pretty domineering...just this afternoon I overheard a woman direct her husbands afternoon agenda --- "you'll go to the casino for a while and will then go take a nap." (The husband was well over 12 years old!) If I am ever lucky enough to enjoy another relationship, I have learned well what to do and not do, what to say and not say!
-- there can be "too much" food
-- good entertainment is hard to come by. That has been the one consistenly bad thing on all three of the cruises I've been on over the past month --- all have had mediocre to poor live entertainment.
-- I can watch "Sleepless in Seattle" over and over without tiring of it
-- I really miss keeping up with the news
-- some women should not be seen wearing a bathing suit in public
-- napkin folding is a universal cruise ship itinerary item

I just reviewed all the pictures I've taken over the past 30 days and have thereby been reminded of all that I have been able to do since late September. Amazing! I can hardly wait to share them with you all. (I will try to learn how to load the pictures onto the blog for my next trip, I promise!)

As a review, I've seen --
-- Venice's Grand Canal, St Mark's Square, Bridge of Sighs, glass blowing in Murano and the quaint colorful island village of Burano
-- The picturesque walled city of Dubrovnik
-- The columns of Olympia and Ephesus and Lindos
-- Istanbul and the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia and the Bazaar
-- The tiny mountaintop towns on Santorini
-- Pompeii and the adjoining dirty, graffiti-covered city of Naples
-- Rome, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museums, the Pope (!), St Peter's basilica (and the absolutely overwhelmingly achingly beautifully serene Pieta) and the Coliseum
-- Original Picasso drawings, etchings and oil paintings in his family museum in Barcelona, along with the Casa Mila apartment building designed by Gaudi
-- Vasco de Gama's tomb in Lisbon
-- the surprisingly floral and tropical Azores
-- miles and miles of endless blue Atlantic

I have loved every minute of it all! I await the weight damage.

Laurentian Abyss

2007-10-21T12:59:00.000-04:00

I remain mystified that I can remain in touch virtually when I should be out of touch geographically! I am literally on the high seas - we crossed the Atlantic Ridge yesterday and the disembodied "voice from the Bridge" told us all that we had reached the exact mid-point of the Atlantic ocean. That made me think of The Hunt for Red October and that thought led me to think of the deepest part of the Atlantic - the Laurentian Abyss. Three more days of nothing but water, water everywhere before we reach Ft Lauderdale.

Life has been far from abysmal here on board. We were in Punta Delgada, Azores, two days ago. I was very very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a desert-y rock-like wind swept island and instead got a gorgeous, green, tropical oasis. A bus trip in the afternoon took us up to the volcano crater on the western=most tip of the island. The lakes inside the crater were beautifully blue, the air was crisp, the breeze just cool enough. The island had thousands of flowers in bloom - hordes of blue hydrangeas, enoumors patches of yellow calla lilies, and great masses of pink Naked Ladies...get your mids out of the gutter....they are so named because they are a lovely pink flower high on a single stem with no foliage. The main business on this island is Dairy, so there were fields and fields of black and white Holstein dairy cows, all munching on the greenest grass ever. Quaint, clean, no graffiti, sparkling white washed homes and buildings.

Night before last, I was up being seasick at 3am -- bleagh! I moseyed to the doctor yesterday morning, got an injection and some tablets and am back to my fighting self again today. The weather continues to be spectacular - folks are suntbathing as we speak -- and the seas remain calm.

I continue to have a fabulous time. My Trivia team is in first place!

Lazy days

2007-10-18T10:42:00.000-04:00

Lazy days. I cannot imagine being back at home, making my own bed, doing my own dishes, cooking my own food (not that I do that anyway!)

Princess cruise notes --
-- right now, a live string quartet is playing Handel's Watermusic in the seven story atrium plaza
-- this ship has 19 decks...I haven't visted all of them yet. The ship is HUGE!
-- I attended "Movies Under the Stars" last night. There is a huge plasma screen on deck 16, and there are deck chairs set up all around it. The deck stewards come around with blankets for everyone. Then, once the movie starts (last night it was Ratatouille), they come around again with bags of popcorn. The ultimate was when they actually came around with warm cookies and glasses of milk
-- I am even at the casino. The 6 deck constant automatic shuffler machines keep everyone off count!

I loved Barcelona and will have to go back to see everything I want to see there. Our tour visited one of the Gaudi apartment buildings -- all curvy and ornate, but really lovely. Then we spent the afternoon at the Picasso museum and saw more Picasso's than I know existed in the world. His mom must have saved every picture she had attached to the fridge! There were sketches from when he was a child all the way through his blue and red periods. His early portraits were absolutely gorgeous. I still don't understand the cubist stuff.

Lisbon underwhelmed me. Very 1950's architecture, very cold seeming and inhospitable. Lots of monuments to explorers and the "New World." I must admit, I had forgotten just how much those Portuguese got around.

We had our first rocky evening last night --- Force 9 (Gale) winds which really smacked up hard against the 19 decks. Thank goodness the seas were fairly calm or it could have been a really rough night! All is smooth and calm today - sun is shining and I actually have a little tan.

I decided not to play bridge today - taking the day off. The only activity planned for today was Team Trivia. My team is in second place overall. This morning's topic was Movies.....we knew which year Gone With the Wind premiered (1939), but couldnt get the date correct (it was December 15, we guess December 25th, but they wouldn't give it to us!). This afternoon is General Knowledge again - who knows what the questions will be like.

Tomorrow is our last land until we get home -- my tour for the Azores will include one blue lake and one green lake. Too funny!

I started this trip thinking it would be never-ending. There was one day, a few days ago, that was a little lonely. Today I'm sorry the whole adventure comes to an end in a week. The entire month has been a blur, and I'm looking forward to reliving it all by sharing more tales with all of you and reviewing the pictures I've taken. I'm so lucky to be able to do this!

Monument-al overload

2007-10-12T13:11:00.000-04:00

Superlatives cannot begin to describe what I've taken in over the past two days or the thoughts and emotions that accompanied what I saw.

Pompeii was much bigger and more spread out than I imagined. Again I was flooded with the thoughts that I was walking on the same stone roadways and entering the same homes and stores of people who lived 2,000 years ago. Public parks, bakeries, banks, fast food restaurants, vinegar and oil emporiums, vegetable stands, roadways with steps in place to walk across the certainly accumulating day-to-day muck. And the homes - gorgeous entry archways, central gardens, generous living rooms....and the mosaics, oh my goodness, the mosaics! We saw reproductions of the originals in their original settings - on the floor, and then saw the original 2,000 year old mosaics in the Archeological museum in Naples. Each one is absolutely breathtakingly detailed with subjects that range from "beware of the dog in this home" to "we sell fish in this store" to reenactments of great battles to inctricate geometric designs.

Then today was the grandeur of Rome - the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and the Coliseum. I am awestruck at the intelligence and inventive nature of those Romans. Breathtaking to actually see those two fingers just barely touching each other on that ceiling, to take in the stunning Bernini altar.....and, by complete and total surprise, to see the Pope in person!!!!! By mere happenstance, he was getting out of his car in a motorcade and entering his apartments just as we walked by. So many people were screaming his name and taking his picture. There are two simply huge TV screens permanently erected in St Peters square to capture his every move when he is in the public areas and everyone was transfixed.

Tidbits -- there are very strict rules regarding living and working in Vatican City. Tour guides have to be Catholic (of course), baptised, married, never divorced. Normal everyday people are allowed to live in Vatican City, but apartments and homes are very expensive. One of the perks to living there is that there are no taxes, including on gasoline. While outsiders pay the normal 1.30 Euros per liter (approx $8.00 per gallon (!!!)), Vatican City residents pay much much less.

I came full circle at the Coliseum -- While in Morocco in April, I saw the replica where The Gladiator movie was made and today I saw the real, real thing.

I've thought a lot about Bob these last two days. He was so much a fan of history and military history in particular. He would have loved Pompeii and the Coliseum. I know his catholic upbringing would have made the visit to the Vatican extra special, too. I bought his mom, Helen, a Peace Cross, commemorating John Paul II. Her 93rd birthday was October 1.

Tomorrow is Monaco and Monte Carlo. They tell me the table games (roulette and blackjack, my favorite) are only open at night, so I'll have to place my Monte Carlo bet at the slots. Wish me luck!

Night and day

2007-10-10T06:34:00.000-04:00

This Emerald Princess is above and beyond any superlative description I can think of. The transition from Costa has been so wonderful - I even met lovely people in the ship terminal during check-in (and was called "delightful" by one older lady). I have a stunning cabin, D109, a kingsize bed, huge three cushion sofa with coffee table and side chair, more walk-on closet space than I know what to do with, two plasma screen TVs, a bathtub and a balcony that has a table a four chairs - gee whiz, waaaay over my head! The bed has a down duvet and lots of pillows. What incredible comfort! The transition from Costa to Princess has been like going from darkest night to brightest day!

My dinner table (set for 7 people) has only had me and one other couple for the first two nights, but the maitre'd says he's going to add two couples to us as the cruise progresses. My table mates now are simply wonderful people from Kansas City, where the gentleman was the President of Park University for 14 years. There is terrific, intelligent conversation (I try to keep up). They have traveled extensively and have been sharing their adventures while on an African Safari. They are going again in 2009 and say I should think about that trip. Too much!

Today is a sea day before our arrival in Naples and my tour of Pompeii tomorrow. I went to the bridge lecture this morning at 10am, played Mah Jongg at 10:30 (won two games (my favorite hand of 2 flowers, NEWS, and two kongs of dragons)), joined a team trivia competition at 11:15am (we got 15 of 20 answers right) and then broke away to come update the blog. Duplicate bridge begins at 1:30 this afternoon. There were so many at the lecture this morning, there will probably be over 16 tables!

Everyone is very friendly and nice, although there are indeed a few "travel snobs" who love to let you know every little detail of how fabulous thier travels have been. I still consider myself very lucky to be out here doing this at all. I thank you all for your support of me and for your continued encouragement in all that I do. I miss you all --- it's indeed a long time to be away from home!

All Rhodes lead to Rome

2007-10-07T01:53:00.001-04:00

Those early Romans were everywhere! While docked in Rhodes several days ago, I took the tour to Lindos. On the way, we of course passed by the Roman ruins of the old walled city. I'm beginning to be able to use that one college semester of Art and Architecture History now. You remember me reminding you of the three different Greek column types in an earlier blog, well now I can pick out an ancient Roman fort with the best of them!

Lindos was by far the highlight of the Rhodes visit. Those early Greeks sure know how to pick a site for a temple! We must have climbed 8,000 steps (none of them the same size as the next, no hand rails, great drops to the sea, and lots of tourists trying to get both up and down at the same time -- yikes!) to get to the top acropolis, but once up there, it was stunning! Both the front and rear columns (Doric) of this small temple remain, along with the altar stone. All of this reminds me that my own home, built in the early 1980's, can hardly be considered old!

Some general observations I've noted over the past 11 days --
-the Turkish cabs are spelled Taksi
-some yogurt flavors are universal (black cherry, mixed berry, vanilla)
-those wacky plastic Croc shoes are everywhere! Even the old Greek ladies hawking embroidered tablecloths to the tourists in Lindos were wearing them!
-older Japanese couples are probably the most well dressed tourists....Chanel suits, gorgeous subdued REAL gold jewelry, perfect leather shoes and bags, walking slowly and regally, never seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere
-Barbra Steisand, George Gershwin and Frank Sinatra are universal
-the Italians have a different line dance for every song - mambo, samba, even polka. The really enjoyable watching is when two different groups, one at each end of the dance floor, start their own little group. It's kind of like watching the Sharks and the Jets have a "dance-off"
-every time this ship, the Mediterranea, leaves a port, we hear Andrea Bocelli sing "Time to Say Goodbye" over the ship's loudspeakers. It never gets old.
-Bridge really is an international card game. Yesterday I played with two French ladies and a Belgian man (really old, but sharp as a tack!). They all were very serious about their game and played like they had 17,000 Master points! You can imagine how distressed they were that they had to play with me! Thank goodness Stayman, Jacoby transfers, and other normal rules of play are used everywhere. (And thank you to all my bridge friends at home for having taught me the etiquette of duplicate bridge!)

It's raining in Dubovnik today. Tomorrow is Venice and my transfer to the Emerald Princess. As much as I feel like a duck out of water as an American surrounded by so many international others on the Costa ships, I'm sad to leave this atmosphere. Every now and then it's good to be reminded that we Americans are not the only people in the world. Sometimes another point of view is worth listening to.

I'm the "weakest link" on the Italian Weakest Link

2007-10-04T09:48:00.000-04:00

So hard to believe that I was in Santorini this morning -- and really difficult to understand just how those Greeks built those little towns on top of that volcanic cliff! Wow. But it was just as beautiful as all the pictures that you've ever seen - whitewashed homes, Greek orthodox churches, blue domes. The ancient volcanic caldera held four cruise cruise ships at anchor this morning creating a traffic jam of tenders to the little port and the cable car. Adding 10,000 tourists to the 8,000 already living here made for more lines for everything!

I've had a bit of time to watch international TV over the past 10 days and have discovered that it's a lot like American TV. I've seen the Italian version of Dancing With the Stars, The Bachelor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Weakest Link. It's really scary that I could actually figure out one or two of the questions during the game shows and know which was the correct answer! But I only made it to the 50 Euro level before the language got away from me!

I played bridge for the first time today. We knew we were in trouble when an Italian man, who spoke absolutely no English whatsoever, seemed to have no idea of the concept of No Trump! I ended up playing one rubber of party bridge with an American honeymoon couple from Richmond, VA, and a British lady. The new groom and I won. We're playing again at 2:30pm on our day at sea, whenever that is. I seem to have lost all track of time!

Well, they're announcing our arrival into the Mykonos harbor now. This trip we get all the announcements in seven languages - they've added Japanese and Portuguese to the now normal Italian, German, Spanish, French and English! I'm off to join the lines for the shuttle buses into town!

Alone again, naturally

2007-10-02T07:03:00.000-04:00

I'm back in Bari today, on the second leg of my three cruise adventure. This time I'm without my favorite sister, Mom and Brenda. I waved goodbye to them yesterday in Venice after an exceptionally internationally cosmopolitan afternoon. We four were having lunch on the Campo San Polo (I just love the whole idea of being able to say that!) when Brenda's cell phone rang. It was my cousin Bernhard from Germany. He and his wife Marion were in Venice, we told them where we were eating and they arrived at our table about 25 minutes later. Now the conversation began to include some German, along with our normal American. After about an hour, Brenda's cell phone rang again. This time it was her friend, Christina, from Pensacola, who happens to be Italian and had been visiting her mom in Genova. The two of them (Christine and her mom) were now in Venice, so Brenda told them where we all were and they soon arrived to join our little international club. Christina's mom speaks only Italian, so a great time of charades was had by all as we spent the afternoon chatting away (in various levels of American, German, Italian and universal sign language) in a little outdoor restaurant on a plaza in Venice. Amazing!

This Costa ship is a little smaller than the last - I think it only has 1750 Italians on board instead of the over 2000 on the last ship. This group either doesn't seem quite as pushy or I've just gotten used to it all. I woke up about 7am this morning, got dressed and went upstairs for coffee (I'm in a tiny little inside cabin hovel this trip. I thought it would be dreadful, but it's not too horrible afterall), then back to my cave to change into a swimsuit (thank you Brenda) and upstairs to lay in the sun and people-watch until noon. I've just finished lunch and now I'm off to find a quiet place to get in some good reading.

It's a rough life, but someone has to do it!

Bingo, Super Bingo

2007-09-28T14:21:00.000-04:00

Bingo is on every ship, but here on a ship with over 2,000 Italians, 100 Americans, 300 Spaniards, 150 Germans, 250 French, and a smattering of Brits, Japanese and South Africans, nothing is easy. Every announcement, and I mean every announcement, is translated into five languages -- and this makes for a very long Bingo game.

First, the musical soundtrack to Bingo is the theme song from the Flintstones (as in...Flintstones, meet the Flintstones), only they all sing Bingo, Super Bingo, followed by lots of Italian. Then come the instructions for the game which take at least 20 minutes because of all the translations -- it seems there is always someone from each language who has never played the game before. The actual game playing goes something like this: B-Bingo undici, onze, once, elf, eleven......G- Genova sieben und funfzig, cinque cinquante, cinco cinquenta, ciq cinquante, fifty seven....B Bingo eins, elf, un, uno, uno, one. It took at least 45 minutes to play one straight line game. But fun anyway. Mom won 200 Euros in the coverall bingo!

Istanbul, much to my surprise, is a city of over 11 million people, with the smog to prove it. But that smog made for gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. With over 3,000 mosques you can very easily hear the calls to prayer from everywhere. Our dock was exactly opposity the Golden Horn, where the view from our balcony included the dainty Blue Mosque with its six minarets, the ancient Hagia Sophia with its four minarets and the Topkapi Palace fortress - absolutely amazing! We visited the Blue Mosque (a working mosque, where worshipers wash their feet before entering and where we all had to remove our shoes and carry them around in a plastic bag while we were inside), then it was a short walk to the Hagia Sophia, a former Christian church transformed into a mosque and now displayed as a museum with incredibly intricate mosaics. We also spent several hours in the Grand Bazaar and bargained with the best of them for spices, scarves and pottery. Brenda, Cindy and I then bravely took a taxi from the Bazaar back to the ship. It seems that street lane markers exist just for looks in Istanbul! Yikes!

Today was a very lazy day at sea. Tomorrow is Dubrovnik. It's so hard to take it all in. But I'm doing my best.

It's all Greek to me

2007-09-26T08:15:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you that swimming pool etiquette is different than I am used to onboard the Costa Serena. I have traveled all over and know that sensibilities are more relaxed in Europe, but it is still a surprise to the system when you are faced with public nudity. I was minding my own business, sitting at a back table in the shade, near the smaller of the three pools on the 9th deck. A mother, in her 40's, was there (along with about 400 other people) with her family - husband and son (about 14-ish maybe) an they were enjoying the sun and water. I have enjoyed the people watching on this trip and they caught my eye as they were actually interacting with each other in a friendly familial way. It seems that most families on the ship are multi-generational tribes, all in a great hurry to get past you, each member seeming to be in charge of each of the other members of their own group, and all are yelling at each other from different points across very crowded rooms. (Have you gotten the idea that this ship is full? I have never seen so many people in my life! We are packed to the gills - the sun worshipers are literally cheek to jowl on at least 5 outside sundecks!) But I digress. The afrementioned mom gets out of the pool, towels off and begins to then remove her wet two piece suit. She not only begins to remove it, she succeeds in removing it, right there, in front of God and everyone, and then calmly digs around in her carry-on for a dry suit. She leant a whole to meaning to "air drying". All parts, seen and unseen, were being air-dried. She finally found what she was looking for, put on her dry suit, oiled up with sun-block and began her tanning. Amazing!

Our tour of Olympia included lots of columns. I refreshed my memory of Doric (plain and square), Ionic (rounded at the sides like ram's horns) and Corinthian (leafy and ornate designs). We saw all of them. The overwhelming sense I've had yesterday and today is that I cannot imagine how it must be to be here in the summer, with all the tourists. It could just not be any more crowded than it is now. Lines to get off the boat, lines to board the tenders, lines of buses, lines to get on the buses, lines to get in the Olympic site, lines to listen to the tour guide, lines to the potties, lines to pay for the necessary tourist trap postcards, lines to reboard the buses, lines to board the tenders to the ship, lines to have your Costa card swiped, lines to have all your personal possessions x-rayed, lines for both the stairs and elevators to get to your cabin. Whew!

The pizza on board is fabulous - the best I have ever eaten anywhere - and it's available, right out of the brick oven, constantly, every day, from 10am until midnight. Sadly, the pizza is only one floor above us (way to convenient!). The chocolate souffle with vanilla sauce for desert last night was to die for, too.

Today was Ephesus. Much larger than I expected. A stunning city layout and amazing to comprehend that I walked on the same marble roadway, touched the same columns, climbed the same uneven amphitheater steps, saw the same statuary and walked under the same arches as people did 2000 years ago. The sublime feelings that brought about were quickly wiped away by the frenzy of activity at the next stop on our tour today -- the "state run, non-tourist, good deal today only, cooperative" oriental rug emporium where "we hand make everything following all the original patterns." I successfully fought the urge to buy a rug. Cindy and Brenda were not so successful and will find their pruchases delivered to their doorsteps in the US in 6-8 weeks.

Tomorrow is Istanbul, but for now, I'm going to go find a quiet place (there has to be one somewhere on this ship) to sip a champagne and contemplate the fact that I am lucky enough to be able to do all this in the first place. Life is indeed good!

Well. Dorothy. We're not in Kansas anymore!

2007-09-24T03:51:00.000-04:00

OMG! The odyessey has begun! I flew from Atlanta to Yorktown (thanks for the ride to the airport, Marcia!), overnighted there and then flew with my sister, Cindy, to JFK (5 hour layover) then to Paris (3 hour layover) then to Venice. A long walk to the water taxi and then an hour boat ride to the island of Venice. Mom and Brenda were at the hotel (stunning, new money, marble, high-falutin') when we got there. Brenda and Cindy went on the walking tour of Venice, I began to collapse. By the next morning, we all felt much better and started in on Venice.

What a gorgeous city! Quaint old houses with overflowing flowerboxes clingling to wrought iron balconies - and a Dolce and Gabanna store housed on the first level. What shopping -- every big brand name you can think of is here. Cindy bought some stunning red leather gloves at a very foo-foo store and then completed her ensemble by buying a "real" red leather Prada bag from the display set up on the steps of one of the bridges! Too much fun! The city is very easy to walk - lots of signs. We walked to St. Marks Square, fed the pigeons and ate gelato (yum!). Then we walked to the Rialto Bridge and back to the square. The morning was over too soon.

The bag drag and slog to the ship began at 230pm. We finally were in our cabins at 5:30pm. We have lovely balcony cabins and had the cabin steward unlock the balcony partition.....so we have one huge balcony adjoining both our cabins.

Cruise ships in Europe are not quite like US cruise ships --- this one has so so many people and all the announcements and introductions are made in five languages - Italian, English, Spanish, French and German. The food is OK so far - I had Sea Bass for dinner. Cindy had Prime Rib, Mom had Smoked Salmon with Salmon Roe and Quail. (Not Waffle House at all!) The ship seems somehow noiser and livlier than I am used to. The dancing was no Frank Sinatra, but great Italian polka tarantala type music had them all out on the floor. This week will make for great people watching, that's for sure! The evening's entertainment in the grand salon was horrible --- an acrobatic magic act that would not have made it to the Motel 5 in Las Vegas. I suppose it's hard to cater to such a diverse crowd. What's funny for some, just isn't funny to others, I suppose.

Today is Bari, Italy - Cindy and Brenda are going ashore. I'm going to check out the card room at 3pm and then there's bingo tonight (some things are the same on every ship!)

My hearfelt thoughts go out to Sheryl and Carolyn! I'm thinking good thoughts for both of you!

Preparing for life

2007-09-16T15:19:00.001-04:00

This past week has been a lesson in continuity, the ebb and flow of my life's calendar. Even though I'm preparing for my somewhat scary month long sea odyssey, the hum-drum of daily routine serves to comfort and calm me. Pay bills (even plan to have them paid while I'm gone), read the paper, attend bible study Wednesday night, play bridge on Friday. The more time I spend alone, the more I seem to be happier with myself. It must not be time for me to be in a new relationship just yet. But I will continue to try new things. A fulfilling outcome in anything is all in the preparation.

Biting off more than you can chew

2007-09-10T08:19:00.001-04:00

I have already told you about the vicious feral cat that continues to stalk my yard, well, he again cornered one of my cats on the back deck yesterday afternoon! Mother frenzy went into overload. I grabbed a fresh can of Fancy Feast, raced outside and popped the top. No matter where a cat may be from, they know that sound. It was enough to break the kitty-tension and and Muffin, tail and back all puffed out, raced into the house. I closed the door behind him and flung a few forkfuls of Fancy Feast out onto the deck. The thug sniffed around and ate it. I then went in through the kitchen and out the front where I already had the capture cage at the ready. I clinked the can with the fork and waited for the kitty Pavlovian response to take effect. As the cat turned the corner of the house, I place more food at the entrance to the cage, leading to more food in the back of the cage. I set the trap and went inside,

Watching through the front window was an exercise in being on both sides of a fence -- I really need this horrible cat out of our lives (he has beaten up on both Muffin and Lucy on their own deck and has attacked and scratched me, as well), but I know his fate will lead him to the farm you cannot visit and I am very sad about that. But in he finally went, and down came the trap door. Animal Control has been called. They'll be here this morning. I did not sleep well last night. (Update - Animal Control just came to take him away. I cried like a baby.)

From the horrible and scary (the thug cat) to the exciting and scary --- my waitlisted cruise cleared yesterday afternoon and I am now officially on the high seas, back-to-back on three different cruise ships, for total of 31 days! YIKES! But the lure of Venice, Dubrovnik, Olympia, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Ephesus, Istanbul, Naples/Pompeii, Rome, Monaco, Barcelona, Seville, Lisbon, the Azores, and Ft. Lauderdale was too great. I'm on. I'm trying to learn how to blog from afar with pictures so that I can share the trip with everyone.

I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

A traitor in the stadium

2007-09-04T17:09:00.000-04:00

There's nothing quite like college football in the South and I had my first full immersion into this tradition this last weekend. Dear friends from Oklahoma came to Georgia for the OSU v UGA game Saturday night and the whole experience almost (almost) made me want to go back to college.

I did feel like Benedict Arnold, though. After spending six (!?!) wonderful (?!?) years with a Georgia Tech student, I knew that even saying the word "Athens" out loud may be cause for excommunication from the GaTech parent ranks.....and now I was actually going to that "other Georgia school" campus for a football game. My only saving grace was that I was cheering against Georgia - not necessarily for Oklahoma State, but certainly against Georgia.

Red was everywhere as we drove onto the campus - tents and tailgaters everywhere on every square inch of grass and parking lot. Coeds in cute little summer dresses, every guy wearing a UGA red shirt; satellite dishes, TVs, music, bar-b-que pits, fried chicken, guacamole; the "Dog Walk" where everyone watches UGA, the bulldog mascot, walk into the stadium; cheerleaders executing incredibly precise routines; the "Salute to Mayonnaise" half-time show; the fourth quarter chant; everyone singing the UGA alma mater.

UGA won the game, but that's ok because those boys at Georgia Tech womped up on Notre Dame. All is right with the world.

Go Jackets!

Fauna haiku

2007-08-28T12:20:00.000-04:00

Raccoon in the trap
Set free to wander again.
Dappled leaves hide him.

Is giving back all that it’s cracked up to be?

2007-08-26T15:42:00.000-04:00

I’ve never been the volunteering type. That was Bob’s world. Maybe his Catholic upbringing instilled in him the desire to “do good works” to ensure salvation. I, however, have always been much less religious and much more selfish. Until now.

I volunteered to help with the Wednesday Family Supper at my church this week. I though it would be another good way to assist others while helping me “get out there”. I had no idea what I was expecting, but it didn’t turn out however I expected.

I arrived at the church hall to find five lovely ladies, average age 80, already rolling silverware in paper napkins. I can do this. Later, we began to cut brownies and coconut and chocolate cake. I can do this, too. The church ladies then became very specific about how to arrange the cake plates and even more specific about how to fill the iced tea cups with ice. (I wasn’t doing it just right, I suppose, but under their eagle-eyed supervision, I was a quick learner.)

The real fun began with the arrival of the hot food – steaming noodles, beef stroganoff, baked chicken, rice, brussel sprouts (my favorite (NOT!)), corn, mixed vegetables, a full salad bar, and the aforementioned desserts. The church ladies all neatly moved over to the ice laden iced tea table, leaving me to assist the kitchen staff with the food service.

I need to now say that the temperature this week has hovered right around 100 degrees every afternoon, this day being no different. With the arrival of about 350 hungry parishioners, the temperature in the dining hall, rose there, as well. There I stood, noodle grabbers in one plastic gloved hand, stroganoff ladle in the other; hordes of hungry people of all ages standing at the doors. I was ready to meet them all. I can do this – meet strangers, smile and chit chat, make new friends. The wonderful anticipation of meaningful friendly interactions lasted about three minutes. That’s how long it took for the steam from the steaming noodles to begin to make me feel like I was in a Finnish sauna. The sweat began slowly at the back of my neck and soon flowed down my back; began springing out all over my now red-flushed face, beads dripping off my nose. My plastic covered hands were of no help and only served to assist me in getting more and more moist. The utter insanity of me sweating into the noodles and stroganoff continued for the long, hot, humid, full hour that I served food.

Finally, it was over. I was soaked from my shirt to my skin. My hair hung limp and frizzy. I felt like a deboned chicken. I had met no one, but I’m sure I made a huge, albeit poor, impression on the poor souls trying to eat.

I don’t think I have the stomach to continue to be a good volunteer for future Wednesday Night Church Suppers.

What, Lassie? Timmy's in the well?

2007-08-22T12:11:00.000-04:00

You need to know I have been attempting to bring a neighborhood thug cat to its knees. He's been lurking around for over a year and has gotten increasingly more aggressive. I bought a trap at Home Depot and put some Jack Mackerel (awful smelly stuff that I found out about on the internet and bought at Publix) in a plastic dish at the back, and set it again last night. (Ever since I got the trap last Saturday, the feline delinquent has only made one very brief appearance, and not in my trap! I suppose it has been so hot, that even he has been lounging supine all day and all night.) I have slowly progressed from cat food, to tuna, to the incredibly smelly mackerel in my attempt to lure him in, though. (Just like the commercial, I set it ..... and forget it.) I'm such a wussy animal lover, though, that even though I'm trying to catch him to send him up the river, after I've baited the trap each morning to catch the little creep, I do place it in the shade so that he won't die of heatstroke if he were captured in it.)

Well, when I went out to get the paper this morning, I noticed that the trap had been sprung! I've made my first capture! Hooray! Boo immediately followed that hooray when I realized that it was a little opossum in the cage and that he had pooped all over everything around him! (Scared the %#@& out of him, I guess.) Bleagh!! But now what to do? Do I call animal control to come get him? He's so cute. Can I get him out of there myself? Will he bite me? Do possums have rabies? Are they mean? He's so cute. What will Animal Control do if they take him? How long will it be til they get here?

Bravery and a heightened sense of independence overcame me, I got a pair of heavy gloves and slowly, quietly, approached the caged animal. With an unusually calm determination, I unlocked the trap and set the door open and stepped back, waaaay back. Lucy hovered in the background. Muffin hid under the bed. Kimmy, as usual, continued sleeping on the couch. (All of us with our own individual elevated senses of anticipation, I guess.)

The little thing scooted out immediately and waddled its way out into the woods to safety. Peace in the valley reigned supreme once again.

I now have to hose down the cage and the surrounding area (remember all the %#@&) and try this all over again. Hopefully, the smelly mackerel will eventually lure the vicious thug into the cage. Or I can just keep the cage out and it, even empty, serves as a signal to the beast that I mean business! Either get into the cage or stay completely away!