A very warm December day

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

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......

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!