Mismatched Socks

Seattle Pics

2007-07-18T17:58:00.001-04:00

The two of us on top of the Space Needle

Shannon in front of the flagship REI store

Shannon enjoying a home brew at our friends' apartment

The two of us at dusk with Seattle in the background

Look, ma! We caught some flounder when we went salmon fishing!

Cruise Pics - Finally!

2007-01-06T08:06:00.000-05:00

Yep, I admit it. It's been two weeks, and I've been a lazy blogger. But seriously, it's been like 5 months since my last post, so getting these up in two weeks is some kind of record, right?

On to the story... On our drive to Miami, I asked Shannon to pull over at a rest stop somewhere in northern Florida. He obliges me, pulls off the interstate, stops the car, and I look up and see this sign:

As anyone who knows Shannon is aware, he hates snakes. In an Indiana Jones sort of way. So I took it as a sign that he truly loves me that he was willing to stop at a snake-infested rest stop just for me. (We didn't see any snakes there, by the way.)

One of my favorite things about this cruise was the port of St. Thomas. I'll get into more specifics later, but for now, let me tell you about the rainbows. I think we saw a half-dozen rainbows while our ship was leaving port in St. Thomas. Seriously. And they were all beautiful. This is just one of them. It's not the brightest one we saw, but it's the only one we had our picture taken with.

Here's Shannon, demonstrating on the first day what a Caribbean cruise is all about. We're lying by the pool. In the background, you can see our friend Ryan. We met Ryan and his wife Amanada on our cruise a year ago, and by sheer coincidence, we all booked the same cruise again this year. We had a ton of fun with them.

Here's me, demonstrating how not to wear a life vest during the muster drill.

And here's Shannon, playing, er, cruise elf. Yeah. Those conical things were on almost all the tables in all the dining rooms. I think they're Christmas decorations, but since we've only been on the ship during the holidays, I couldn't say for sure.

There you have it. :) Round one of our Christmas cruise pics. I'll try to get pics from our 3.5 ports of call up later. (I count the private island as half a port because we didn't actually get off the ship there - we saw it last year, and preferred to have a private pool experience by ourselves instead of a private island experience with 1,000 other people.)

More Hair...

2006-06-15T19:49:00.000-04:00

I need opinions, as Shannon and I are in disagreement about something that requires unbiased outside opinions. (Yes, I know, opinions are like *ahem* mouths, we've all got one.)

So, which way do you like my hair? (Note I said my hair, not my facial expression.) Top picture or Bottom picture? And if you can't tell the difference, feel free to say so.

Decide now, so you won't be influenced by Shannon's comment. :) Sorry about the messed up first image; it's the best I've got at the moment.

Bye-Bye, Hair

2006-06-10T14:19:00.000-04:00

Because some of you have asked for it, here's a chronological picture sequence of me getting my hair cut and donated to Locks of Love .
This is a picture of me from behind with all my hair when I arrived at Details Beauty Salon in Pekin, IL.

And this is me with Jeannie. She's tying my hair into a ponytail like the Locks of Love people request. I wanted my hair to be shoulder-length when it was dry, and since it's so curly, Jeannie left some room on my hair to play after making The Big Cut.

And here she's taking the scissors to my hair. Bye-bye, my beautiful long hair!

And here I am, with wet short hair.

And the back view. All that hair gone.

This is me on Monday morning, getting my hair ready to send in to Locks of Love. Looks kinda funny in my hand instead of on my head.

For the record, my hair is very poofy when it's dry. Shannon and I agree I may have to go back and get it layered, lest I continue to look like a cocker spaniel. But I do like my shorter hair - it's lighter and so much easier to take care of. My neck is grateful, too.

Roatan

2006-02-11T16:02:00.000-05:00

Our first port of call on our cruise was Roatan, Honduras. We'd made plans to go to the Sante Wellness Center for the day and have massages and facials and snorkel and do lunch. It was fabulous. Roatan was our favorite port of call.

The water was beautiful. I didn't get a chance to go snorkling, but Shannon did.

This is the parrot at the Wellness Center. Isn't he pretty?!

The view of the ocean from the porch of the Sante Wellness Center

Pretty Trees!
And a nice splash pool.

From the front of the Sante Wellness Center

Look! It's us!

My favorite view. :)

Invasion of the Towel Animals

2006-01-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

Um, sorry it's been almost a month. I have no excuse. I'm just lazy. But would you like to see pictures of the towel animals our steward, Winston, made us?

This is Winston with the dog that Shannon thought was a bunny. Winston and Elly, his assistant, helped me out the night he made the dog. I was feeling a bit sea-sick, but they made me laugh, which helped.

These are our love swans. Winston made them for us Tuesday night.

THIS is a bunny. Not a dog. Wednesday night's towel animal du jour.

Winston must have missed the memo that one of the big things Shannon has in common with Indiana Jones is a fear of snakes. But this was our nice snake. He behaved rather well, all things considered.

Hey, Shannon, is that an elephant on your head? Cool Sunglasses, dude!

Saturday night was mystery towel animal night. We think this guy is a frog. That's our story, anyway, unless somebody can tell me it looks like something else. :)

Anniversary Dinner

2005-12-29T19:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight's pictures are courtesy of our anniversary dinner. It wasn't really our anniversary, but it was part of the package, so we gladly took it. :)

On the Jewel, there are a few specialty restaurants in addition to the two main dining rooms, the buffet, and the 24-hour grill. One of the restaurants is Italian, one's Latin/Mexican, one's Japanese (sushi, teppenyaki, or sit-down), and then there's the French restaurant, Le Bistro, where we had our anniversary dinner.

Check out this plate! Isn't it gorgeous?

What meal at a French restaurant would be complete without the complimentary bottle of white wine and the handsome guy to drink it with?

Not to mention the French Onion soup, which was absolutely delicious. But I only ate half of it - I was saving room for the best part.

Shannon had escargot! He said it was delicious, too. Oui oui!

Check out this filet mignon. Me being the unsophisticated lady that I am, I had to ask our waiter what to do with the sauce in the yellow squash bowl over the hunk of meat. He said, "Pour it on," and so I did. But I didn't eat all of it. I was saving room for the best part.

Speaking of our waiter(s), here they are! Allan and Ashi took very good care of us at our anniversary dinner, and then even offered to sing for us! We happily let them, and as Allan was in the crew talent show the night before and stole the show, it was wonderful to be serenaded with "Let me call you sweetheart" by these two fine gentlemen. They're holding the anniversary cake we received. We asked them to send it back to our room, because I was saving room for the best part. (Are you sensing a theme?)

Here's Shannon's dessert - creme brulee. Yummy. He was a good boy and finished all of it!

Holy cow! Did he lick the plate or what?!?!

And here, finally, is the best part: Chocolate Fondue.
All for me. Just for me. :) Complete with hollowed-out pineapple filled with fruits for dipping.

Since I'd saved so much room, I finished all of my chocolate fondue. But it was gone way, way too soon. And in all honesty, I was stuffed to the gills at that point.

Our biggest regret is that we didn't try Le Bistro sooner on the cruise. It was wonderful food. Don't get me wrong - the food was great EVERYWHERE! But we had a wonderful time at Le Bistro, especially with Allan and Ashi taking care of us. They even invited us back for a private breakfast in the morning! How cool is that?! We had the whole restaurant to ourselves the next morning. It rocked.

So, today's moral is, if you're ever on a cruise in a specialty restaurant, be kind to your waiters and waitresses. Even if they don't invite you back for special private breakfasts, you'll have a great time with people you otherwise wouldn't get an opportunity to meet and socialize with. :)

The Theatah

2005-12-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

It's much more fun to blog about "The Theatah" than to talk about "the theaterrrr" in my midwestern accent, so imagine me as a really elegant lady as I give you a tour of...

"The Stahdust Theatah"

The theater is a beautiful room, with hardly an immodest seat in the house. Of course, we always opted for the balcony. Such a view from lofty heights, wouldn't you agree?

Not only was the room itself grand, but the entertainment upon the Jewel was beyond reproach. I was quite nearly faint with joy during the nightly performances. The cast was delightful and the numbers performed surpassed my wildest expectations. This is a photograph of the stage on the night of the circus performance. My, but what strong men performed such dangerous stunts.

And here we see the crew, cast, staff, and officers of the Jewel. On the next to last night, they all greeted us from stage after the circus. What a wonderful assembly of people looking after our every want and need for a whole week!

And here we have a lovely fairy guarding the doors to the theater.

And if she's a pretty fairy, what does that make this guy? In any case, I think he's one fine specimen of whatever-you-must-call-him.

That's all for tonight! Stay tuned tomorrow for.... something else. :)

The cake made me do it

2005-12-27T20:20:00.000-05:00

As part of our cruise package, I booked us a special Anniversary/Honeymoon package to add a little extra something to our vacation experience. When we arrived in our stateroom on Sunday afternoon, there was a bottle of sparkling wine chilling in the fridge. A couple hours later, chocolate-covered strawberries arrived. We got a free picture (and goodness knows we took lots of pictures with the ships photographers!), a free dinner in one of the specialty restaurants (more on that in a later post), appetizers delivered to our stateroom one evening, and a special invitation to a cake and champaign party.

Well, we went to the cake and champaign party Monday afternoon, just before the Chocoholics Buffet. Lots of couples book the anniversary/honeymoon package, but not a lot tend to show up to the cake and champaign party. So, there were probably less than 10 other couples in the room. Three couples had gotten married within the last week or were getting married in one of the ports of call later in the week. About 5 or 6 couples were celebrating their 35th to 45th wedding anniversaries. And then there was us - the odd ducks out with 4.25 years under our belts.

Our hostess, Julia, introduced us all to each other once we'd all received our champaign. Then she invited the ladies forward to cut the cake and serve our men. We all got a good laugh out of that, but we ladies went up to cut the cake anyway. :)

It just so happens that I was the last in line to cut the cake. And it was a huge cake. A full sheet cake for less than 20 people. Can you imagine? It was beautiful. And Julia instructed us to cut the cake however we wanted, and to take as much as we'd like, especially since there were so few of us and what we didn't eat would just end up in the trash. So, as the pictures below illustrate, I took Exactly What I Wanted.

Here stands the cake as I saw it when I arrived at the front of the line. Up to 18 other people had already been fed by this cake at this point in time. Notice the pretty flowers.

This is me cutting the cake. Don't I look sweet and innocent? No?

Here's Julia, helping me dish up my piece of cake. Julia was a bit shocked - she'd never seen anyone cut a cake quite like me before. Too bad, really. More people should cut cake this way. Especially if it's just going to go to waste.

This is my piece of cake. Isn't it lovely? Heart-shaped, for me and my sweetie. And look at all the pretty flowers!!

Oh, you want to see the damage? Well, since neither of us actually ate enough of the cake to cause ourselves damage (we did take it back to our cabin and munch on it the rest of the week, though), I guess I'll have to show you what I did to the sheet cake. Please keep small children and innocent pets away from the computer screen as you scroll down. It's not pretty.

Just kidding! It's still a pretty cake, and now it has a heart taken out of it. Look at that yummy raspberry filling! Yum-yum!!

One day, Shannon and I will return to the Jewel, if for no other reason than to sign up once again for the Anniversary Package and to visit Julia at the cake & champaign party.

For the record, Julia was very cool. She's from Australia and has a nifty accent. She also works about 18 hours a day but has so much energy you'd never know it. She's one of the people who made our trip on the Jewel even more enjoyable.

Drool-worthy

2005-12-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

The cruise we went on had a Chocoholic Buffet on the first day at sea. What follows is an example of chocolate art. And yes, I did get my hand slapped when I tried to take one of the little penguins. It seems you're not supposed to eat the chocolate sculptures. Sheesh, why make chocolate sculptures if they're not to be eaten??

Seen here is a rare variety of chocolate fish. Known to grow up to 18 inches in length, even its bones are edible, if you can get past the giant ice sculpture guard and the rabid waiters who freak out when you lick the fish.

Talk about beautiful music. This baby looks good enough to eat, wouldn't you say?

"Hello, Chocoholics Anonymous? I need a chocolate fix. Please send an emergency kit to the chocolate castle where I've been trapped by the chocolate gods.
P.S. If you don't hurry, I won't have a place to live soon. My palace smells good enough to eat!"

Here playest the chocolate penguins. They didn't look quite so serene when I was done with them. :)

Ding-Dong! Big Ben's here!

Chocolate Chess, anyone? Whoops, sorry about that, I think I just ate your King.

So, once we'd gone through the buffet, and I'd eaten to my heart's content (which wasn't much, considering this was the day I had a bit of motion sickness), and Shannon had inhaled all the fumes he could handle, I decided there was a moral to the story of the chocolate buffet, and it goes something like this:

When you're living on chocolate fish in a chocolate castle where you play chocolate chess with the chocolate penguins next to the chocolate piano, and the chocolate Big Ben strikes one, don't count your chocolate chickens before they hatch, and keep the number to Chocoholics Anonymous close by.

Pictures are here!

2005-12-25T18:03:00.000-05:00

So, here it is. This is the ship we went on for vacation, the Norwegian Jewel. She's beautiful, isn't she?

And while the ship was beautiful, I suffered from a little bit of Island Hair. Can't really complain about bad hair days while traveling on a ship, though, now can I? :)

Shannon was lucky enough to see me with island hair as he exited his first appointment with the ship's spa. And like always, he just smiled, shook his head, told the horrified people next to us, "It's okay, she's my wife, this happens all the time," and we went about our merry way.

And here's Shannon, mourning the death of the towel bunny. Or maybe he's mocking the death of the towel bunny. We're not totally sure. All we know is, we were both a little surprised when the bunny's head fell off. I won't subject you to the horrible images of bunny-cannibalism that took place later in our small cabin. But I will assure you that Shannon is back to himself, having successfully recovered from his week-long attack of "I must play with the towel animals now" syndrome.

That's all for now. I'll post more later. Let me know what you think of the format for viewing our cruise pics.

My Blogging Type

2005-10-28T16:11:00.000-04:00

Surprise!

Your Blogging Type Is Clever and Witty

Of all blogging types, you're the best with words.Almost every blog post you write has legendary quality.You have a perverse sense of humor and often play devil's advocate.Impatient and picky, you tend to go off on funny rants from time to time.

What's" Your Blogging Personality?

Wouldn't know it by looking at my history, would you? :)