here we go again...

my rants are on the move again. please update your bookmark to http://reflectionsofme.com/rant if you would like to keep up with my mundane natterings. if you want an easy out... ignore this post.

cruise blogging and weekend wrapup

i'm starting to post about the cruise. it'll probably take a few days to get all of it up because, while i did make sure to write up each day, typing it up and organizing pix takes time and my attention span doesn't last very long. the first five days are up but you've got to scroll down for them since posts are newest to oldest. no, i don't know how to reverse the order for a single category and i didn't want to mess with the date/time stamps to get them in ascending order.

the weekend has been restful. after work on friday, we went for a four mile walk on the beach (it counts!). saturday i woke up feeling very dizzy and the spinny-sensation persisted all day. i suppose it was probably delayed land sickness but it sure was annoying. still a bit dizzy today but not nearly as bad. we made it down to the pool a bit this morning and watched a speed boat race (pix in another post to come) in our backyard. mostly, we've been working on our respective websites. i've been organizing pix and trying to figure out the best way to post them in a blog format since i can't really do my travel logs on this pc.

cruisin' half-way (live post)

we're back in port for a few hours, marking the halfway point in our cruise. It's been a wonderful week filled with rest, relaxation, snorkeling, and way too much eating. The coolest thing was an
excursion from calica (which isn't really a town, just a port in the middle of a quarry - the nearest town is playa del carmen ten miles away). We snorkled underground in a cavern called chaak tun. I think we have some good pix of the underwater stalactites, stalagmites, collumns, and even some fishies. We also met some great people, including a girl traveling by herself from Russia (siberia to be exact). She was very interesting and we spent a lot of time hanging out with her. Of course, pix and full recap will have to wait until we're home at the end of the week and I have my computer.

cruisin' day 5

days at sea are wonderfully lazy days. i love them. we showed up to the breakfast buffet just before they shut down the line. the day consisted largely of napping, watching movies, and lounging by the pool. hubby tried to teach me chess on the massive game board on the pool deck. luckily, i didn't lose because we had to end the game to get ready for dinner. as the last night of a cruise usually goes, there was much exchanging of emails and good-bye conversations.

burrell and linda
charles and suzanne
we missed the show because they inexplicably rearranged the schedule so that the show was before dinner and we missed that part of the bulletin. however, we did make it to the late-night adult comedy show which was the same guy as two nights ago and, while i still didn't laugh as much as with the first guy, i thought his adult show was much better than the general one. i laughed quite a bit. when we got out of the show, we headed into the disco where we had agreed to meet up with anastasia (she doesn't partake of the comedy shows because, while her english is great, her slang is not and the subtleties of the comedians are hard for her to understand). we ended up hanging out, talking, and dancing with anastasia until almost 02:00.

me and anastasia
anastasia and hubby
towel animal du jour: flower

cruisin' day 4

today we ported in calica (ca-lee-ka) which sounds like a wonderfully exotic place but, in reality is just a quarry with a dock for barges. we learned that the holiday is the only cruise ship that ports there. seriously, this is not a place that you decide to just walk around town. heck, there's not even a shopping plaza - there's about six or seven merchant tents like a tiny flea market. you can catch a taxi (no complimentary shuttle provided) to playa del carmen for $13. if you are on the holiday and have a stop in calica, i seriously recommend an excursion or don't bother getting of the ship.

from this side of the ship, it looks like an inviting place


fortunately, we did have an excursion booked that we were really looking forward to. we went to the chaak tun cenote (cavern) for some underground snorkeling.

folks, the whole time we were in there, i kept saying "this is so cool!". and not just because the water was 72° either. we've been to caverns before like mammoth cave and diamond caverns but there's just something about seeing the stalactites and stalagmites and all that jazz underwater. add in some bats and cool fossils and it was just a good time. most of the time we had to wear life vests which i found annoying and nasty (i'm pretty sure they've never been cleaned and it kept scooting up into my face) but at the end, there was a thirty-something foot pool that we were allowed to take our vests off, at our own risk of course, and do some free swimming/diving.

when we were through, our guide led us out to a refreshment area where we were offered bottles of water, sodas, and cerveza. being in mexico, i figured they'd be giving out some coronas but it was some generic looking stuff called sol which the imbibers didn't seem to care for much - most switched to water or soda after the first. it was a relatively short excursion and, on the way back to the ship, the bus driver was kind enough to stop in play del carmen to drop off those that wanted to do some shopping in town. saved them one of the $13 taxi fares, right?

apparently mexico is too poor for barbed wire
as for us, we went back to the ship, got showered and changed, had lunch, walked around a bit, ran into anastasia and talked with her a while, played putt-putt (i won!), hung out by the pool and relaxed.
windy hair

fore!

when we went back to our room to get ready for dinner we were surprised to see invitations for a past-guest reception (whoohooo! i love the receptions!!!) and a couple of holiday pins. we headed to the reception, then dinner, and the show of the night was the guest talent show. there were six singers and while they weren't all *ahem* talented, it was entertaining.

towel animal du jour: bull dog!

cruisin' day 3

today was our first stop in cozumel. the engines got very loud and our room started shaking around 07:00. it wasn't too bad but i'm pretty certain that never happened on the glory (maybe, just maybe, i'll actually write up a travel log for that cruise someday, although it would probably just be pix because it's been two years and i don't remember many details). while i'm at it, i might as well review the holiday a bit. it is a noticeably smaller and older ship than the glory. it is clean and in good repair but there is not as much to do. all in all it doesn't bother me too much but it is much noisier and the motion is much more exaggerated (really, i never felt any motion on the glory at all but nobody can walk straight on this ship). i've seen many people walking around with patches behind their ears and i'm pretty sure someone like my cousin, bro-n-law, or MIL would have a rough time on it. /review

anyhow, the excursion we booked today was more of a beach break deal. it was an all day snorkeling pass at the el cid resort which included all-you-want food and drinks. we laughed a bit because it ended up being right at the end of the pier so we had a view of our ship all day (until we came up from snorkeling one time and realized that our ship had grown and changed it's name to imagination).

we lounged for a bit when we first got there before finally testing out the waters.

the snorkeling wasn't the best because the small reef that was there was very bleached. they said that wilma destroyed a lot of their reefs, which is a shame. however, there were patches of nice coral and some colorful fish, anemones, and urchins.

we snorkeled for a bit, got out to rest and enjoy refreshments, and snorkeled some more.

i think we went in about four times and snorkeled for probably an hour or so each time. i took a few dunks in the fresh water pool which was a welcome change from the salt water (i haven't even tried the pools on the ship because i remember not much caring for the salty pools). all in all, it was a great way to spend the day. after all, this trip is all about relaxing and we got to do plenty of that. the sun and swimming took its toll and we ended up taking a short nap when we got back on the ship - our wake up call being the engines as we were leaving port. our after-dinner entertainment was a juggling show followed by another comedian. the juggler was manuel zuniga who we had seen on the glory two years ago. he's good at what he does and puts on a funny show. the comedian was tim harkleroad who wasn't as funny as the other guy. i'm not sure if it was part of his act or what but he just seemed nervous and ill-prepared. tonight was also the night of the big deck party and midnight buffet (at 23:30) which was mexican food. unfortunately, i absolutely stuffed myself at dinner and had no room for midnight mexican (i'm sure my tummy thanks me for that) but we walked around a bit before coming to bed.

towel animal du jour: scorpion!

cruisin' day 2

this morning we had breakfast in the dining room with a young couple from pensacola who are moving to japan next week. we spent the rest of the morning back in our room relaxing and watching movies. we emerged for a late lunch and a round or two of putt-putt. it was an interesting day for golf since the ship was rocking quite a bit and the wind was blowing fiercely so the balls kept rolling around when we were trying to swing at them. needless to say, i won! (my blog, my version!!!)

heading into a storm
anchors aweigh!
after our cut-throat putt-putt match, we found a couple of lounge chairs by the pool and people-watched a bit. anastasia, the siberian girl from the dining room line last night, sat next to us and we had a great conversation. i am very impressed that she is traveling alone so far from home. she is my age but i would be far too chicken for that. we got so wrapped up in talking to her and comparing cultures that we barely had time to get ready for formal night and ended up being late to the captain's reception (truly a shame to be late to those). we then stopped at a couple of portrait stations to get some formal pix taken on our way to the dining room where the maître d' graciously accommodated our request for a new table on the opposite side of the dining room from the loud, obnoxious chick. we are now sitting with an older couple, burrell and linda from tx, and a couple around hubby's age, suzanne and charles from al. there was good conversation and good food and we couldn't even hear loud, obnoxious chick. when we left the dining room, we got changed into more comfortable clothes and went to walk around the promenade deck. we ran into anastasia in the disco and danced a bit before heading to the xtreme country show. it was a decent show but not my favorite. although i think hubby enjoyed the skimpy costuming. we finished up the night with the adult comedy show (same guy as last night) which we managed to get front row seats for and it was freakin' hilarious.

towel animal du jour: elephant!

cruisin' day 1

today was embarkation day on the carnival holiday. we left home around 09:30 and headed to mobile, al. we made one stop along the way to find a dress for me and some dress socks for hubby who had forgotten to pack any. we had no problem finding the cruise terminal in mobile and embarkation was much quicker at such a small port than it was at port canaveral. we were on the ship by 13:00, stopped at the excursion desk to book our excursions, and waited around a little bit to be let into the stateroom areas so that we could take our luggage to our room. by 14:00 we had dropped off our luggage and headed up to the lido deck for some much needed lunch. after eating, we walked around the ship for a while to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. before long, it was time for the muster station drill and then we stayed on deck to watch our departure.

the characteristic carnival "whale tail" with mobile in the background
hubby and me
pulling away from the dock
the uss alabama at battleship park on mobile bay
once we were out of the bay, we headed back to the room to drop off our life vests and ended up taking a nap. we woke up shortly before our scheduled dinner time. while waiting to be let into the dining room, we spoke with a nice russian girl from siberia named anastasia. we had dinner with a couple from tx, melody and mark, and a couple from mobile, felicia and larry (honeymooners). we enjoyed talking with the people at our table but it was hard to hear them over the extremely loud, obnoxious, drunk chick the next table over. i think we'll probably try to change tables for the rest of this cruise because we ran into her four more times tonight after dinner and i just can't take any more of her mouth. the show tonight was a comedian by the name of john wesley austin who is a very funny man.

towel animal du jour: mommy and baby seal!

bon voyage!

we are moments away from heading out to catch our cruise ship. since i am very excited about this cruise and getting away, i'm not even going to rant about how terrible i felt last night when i was trying to fit into my old "formal" wear. i'm not going to tell you how devastating it was to my recent exercise mentality. i won't even tell you that if i had had a half-gallon of ice cream and a bag of cheetos, they would have been gone. what matters is that i'm going on a cruise and that's something to be happy about!

balancing out the body

since we both had good lower body workouts this morning (104 flights of stairs for me, 10 mile run for him), we took the kayaks out this afternoon to give the upper body a chance too. we played around a bit and had a nice two mile paddle. it was tiring but so nice. now how about some packing?

going on a cruise (aka hurricane time!)

naturally, since we are getting ready to cruise, i have been watching the tropical activity closely. especially with all of the 'canes that have been going on in the last month or so. so i was very pleased last week when, all week, there was no clyconic activity in the atlantic or gulf (according to the nhc). then, on friday morning, there was a big yellow blob on the map indicating a low potential for tropical formation within 48 hours. that same afternoon, the blob was orange which means medium potential... yesterday was a busy day of having fun so i didn't look at it at all. but today, the blob is twice as big and red - high potential for tropical formation. fantastic!

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM LOCATED OVER THE NORTHEASTERN CARIBBEAN SEAABOUT 100 MILES SOUTH OF PUERTO RICO IS PRODUCING WIDESPREADCLOUDINESS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE LESSER ANTILLES...ANDADJACENT CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC WATERS. THIS SYSTEM IS SHOWINGSIGNS OF INCREASED ORGANIZATION...AND UPPER-LEVEL WINDS AREEXPECTED TO GRADUALLY BECOME MORE FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT TOOCCUR OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULDFORM LATER TODAY AS THE SYSTEM MOVES SLOWLY NORTH-NORTHWESTWARD. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TOINVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON. LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL ANDSTRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL AFFECT PUERTO RICO...THE VIRGIN ISLANDS...AND THE NORTHERN LEEWARD ISLAND THROUGH MONDAY. INTERESTS IN THESEAREAS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR PRODUCTS FROM THEIR LOCAL WEATHERFORECAST OFFICE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS SYSTEM.

where'd that burst of energy come from?

somehow, i woke up this morning feeling energized (makes no sense since i didn't sleep well). i got up, saw that hubby was gone, got dressed, and hit the stairs. i took a watch this time so that i could track my time a bit better. i made it down (22 floors) in four minutes flat. i made it up (24 floors) in 05:13. not too bad. i expected by time to dramatically increase on the second "lap" because i tend to be much more winded and my legs tend to protest more the second time but i made it down (all 24 floors this time) in 04:25 and up (all 24 floors) in 05:40. not too shabby, imo. anyhow, i ended up doing 104 flights (2x24, 3x10, 4x5, 3x2) in sixty-seven minutes. though i still feel like i'm dying, i am clearly getting better at this. go me. of course, when i try it again in two weeks, i'm expecting to be right back at square one again. oh well - that's a worthwhile price for vacation fun.

lunch activity

fifty-five minutes of weights. and i slightly increased weights (i purposely do low weights, high reps because i want to get fit, not bulky) on almost everything today so it was a rigorous workout. i then did the nineteen flights of stairs up to the top and two back down to our floor. it may just be my imagination since i don't wear a watch but i really felt like i did the stairs quicker and easier today. my breathing didn't become severely strained until the 21^st floor. seems like that usually happens around the 12^th. it really just felt like i maintained a better pace all the way up. and, if i had had the time, i felt as though i could have kept going.

so that completes three weeks of a good workout routine (four days a week, half weights, half cardio). now comes the tricky part: can i maintain that routine while on a cruise ship and can i jump right back into it when we come back in two weeks? this is always my weakness. i start a routine and do really good at it but then we go out of town or something interferes and i just don't get back into it. i'm going to strive to do a better job this time. i'd be happy if i can force myself to do at least three days a week for the next two weeks. i'd be thrilled if i did more. it would be so easy since there's a running track around the top deck of the ship and state of the art gym. of course, it's also much too easy for me to say "i'm on vacation" and shirk it. i'll try to keep in mind the pain that my cousin is putting herself through for a fantastic cause and maybe, just maybe, that will be enough to guilt me into some vacation activity.

marital wii-ing

last night hubby and i enjoyed some rock band and wii sports, just the two of us. we really don't play much when we don't have company but we really should make it more of a habit. it was a good way to spend a crummy tv evening. of course, hubby still kicks my butt at pretty much anything and everything but as long as we're having fun together, i won't complain.

lunch activity

forty minutes on the treadmill followed by nineteen flights of stairs (plus two down). is it naptime yet?

exploring the new seascape

yesterday was so beautiful that we decided to go snorkeling after work. the water was comfortable and clear. it was interesting to see how much the gulf-floor was changed by ike. i knew it had since you can see the difference in the sandbars from up here. not to mention that our beach itself is almost two feet higher than it was the beginning of last week (i can tell this because the first two steps of our walkway are under sand now and the showers at the foot of the walkway that used to be hip-high are now below the knee). but it was amazing how different it is under the water now. it used to gradually get semi-deep from the shore and then shallow again for the sandbar and then deep after that. now, it plunges to deep right off shore and the sandbars are pockets of shallow almost perpendicular to shore. it doesn't gradually build up to the sandbars either, there's a three or four foot wall of sand that creates each one. we found some great shells. and there were some huge crabs washed in. it was a very relaxing way to spend an hour and a half. we ended up pulling our heads out of the water just in time to see a magnificent technicolor sunset into it. and since the air is starting to get cool at night, we made a mad dash to the hottub to warm up when we got out.

it's a beautiful day

truly it is. there is a wonderfully cool breeze. the water is calm and back to normal clarity. the sandbars have been restructured significantly. our beach is higher and cleaner thanks to all of the sand that ike brought ashore. it's simply lovely out there. i adore our backyard.

lunch activity

fifty minutes of weights and seventeen flights of stairs.

today's activity

shockingly, i managed to force myself to be active after work today. i'm not good at that. i'm much more likely to be active during lunch since it's a break from work. yesterday i had the same goal and failed. today, i climbed 89 flights of stairs (2x24, 2x10, 3x5, 3x2) in seventy minutes. i then came back, got changed, and gathered my hubby. we walked thirty minutes on the beach and swam six lengths of the pool before finishing off in the hot tub. the way i see it, that's practically a triathalon. over two hours of activity. so then, time for some fresh, warm cookies, eh?

weekend wrapup

this weekend we had my dad and his wife come to visit. we had a great time and i think they did too.

they missed the really impressive storm surge that we had thursday but the waves were still plenty big on friday
dad and rhena
hubby getting pulled around by his kite
ready for liftoff!
hubby and his kite
wii rocked!
wii rolled!
wii even golfed a bit
poor dad got beat by everyone

it seemed like my dad really enjoyed the wii. especially golf and bowling. other activities included walking around the marina, driving through our favorite shopping plaza (rhena's got a bad foot and can't walk much), looking for shells on the beach, swimming, hot tubbing, pokering, and conversing. it was a fun visit but having morning persons as houseguests can be tiring. i guess it was fair though because i kept them up way past their bedtime and they woke me up way before my weekend wake time. i was happy to get a three hour nap after they headed out yesterday though.

in search of la parrilla

which is the mexican restaurant that we frequented with the office group in ga. when i say we frequented it, i'm talking pretty much every-other-friday lunch for four years. we miss it very much so we decided to start looking around here for a good mexican restaurant. in that pursuit, we stopped at a place in town last night to give it a try. it had all of the indicators of good mexican - silly name, hole-in-the-wall looks, lots of cars in the parking lot. it was such a let down, folks. the chips were too thick and chewy. the salsa had no flavor (seriously, it might as well have been water with chunks). the meat seemed to be cooked in the same taco season mix that i buy at the grocery store and make at home because i don't know any better. i ordered nachos and, instead of a thick, soupy plate of chips drowning in melty cheese sauce and meat, i got a plate of burnt chips with meat and shredded cheese sprinkled and burnt over them. needless to say, we will continue our search for another la parrilla but we WILL NOT be going back to los rancheros.

storm surge

i plurked yesterday about the surge that we are getting from ike. i'm a little surprised because it's a slightly bigger surge than we saw from gustav and gustav was much, much closer to us than ike. i didn't expect to get very much from him. anyhow, these are some pix that do not at all portray how impressive it truly is.

the waves may not look all that big in this pic but remember that it is taken from 22 floors up

that's our dunes and walkway, i couldn't catch the bigger surges that were coming up into the dunes and well under the walkway
this is between our property and the one next door, you can see in the sand how much higher it was getting
and just for reference, this is what our backyard usually looks like (i didn't have any looking straight down at the walkway and dunes but this shows the area from the above pic)