The sweet life

I am pleased to report that we made it through the Fort Lauderdale airport without incident.

We started our vacation with the traditional martinis at The Wreck Bar ...

... though I must admit to being quite tempted by the other offerings on the bar menu.

Dinner came with orchids ...

... and, a nice surprise this morning - we have been upgraded to a suite on our cruise!

Flat Stanley

There is a children's story about a boy who gets squished when a bulletin board falls on him .  Poor Flat Stanley makes the best of the situation by sliding under locked doors to enter rooms, and visiting friends by being mailed in an envelope.

The Flat Stanley story turned into a literary project in many schools, sending Flat Stanley off to different parts of the world and connecting with his friends.

We first met Flat Stanley on a cruise in 2010 when Bill and Sabine Stewart brought him along for the ride.  He had his picture taken at every port!

This trip, we're taking our own version of Flat Stanley.

Allison and the kidlets have made us a banner to hang on our balcony as we transit the Panama Canal.  With any luck ... you may be able to see it, and us, if you check out the Panama Canal webcams <https://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html> on Jan 24th.  We'll try to get you a more specific time as the cruise progresses.

Hi, Hudson and Quinn!

Follow me

I am so done with winter.  This latest arctic blast may be normal in central Canada, but not here.  Give me back my 10C winter weather!

I was thinking about winter last summer when I had the foresight to book a Panama cruise in mid-January.  Two weeks to go and we'll be hot, HOT!

You can follow our trip south by clicking the FOLLOW button underneath my picture on the blog.

The twelve days of Christmas

In the twelve days of Christmas, friends and family gave to me ...

Twelve Mandarin oranges
Eleven Welsh cakes
Ten mince tarts
Nine bottles of wine
Eight frozen grapes
Seven kinds of cheese
Six dinners out
Five dryer balls
Four Rogers' chocolates
Three different patés
Two pairs of socks
And a cold from Napanee.

Happy New Year!

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas.

You see, it snowed here on Monday night.  Now, we do get snow on occasion in Victoria, but it's usually just a brief, laughable visit.  This time, though, Mother Nature sent a blast of cold Arctic air after the 2 cm of snow, just to wipe the smug look off the faces of us Wet Coasters.  That means that the sanded, salted, plowed, shovelled, partly-shovelled, or not-shovelled-at-all snow froze into a crunchy slippery mess.  And it stayed!

This state of affairs was not uncommon when we lived Back East.  However, life is different for us here: we walk everywhere. Rain may be an irritant at times, but it's easy to deal with - up pops the umbrella and on our way we go.  If it gets particularly heavy, on go the yellow rubber boots.  Singing in the rain ...

But snow!  As bonafide west coasters, we no longer own winter boots.  And walkers don't come with snow tires.  I had to take the bus to the grocery store!

So, bring on the rain. Lots of it.  Wash that nasty white stuff of the streets and sidewalks and bring back the lawnmowers. Enough of winter already.  Bah, humbug.

Light my fire

I made lamb chops for dinner last week and set off the smoke alarm three times.  Harrumph ...  Now, anytime I cook anything in the oven, the smoke alarm goes off.  Every time I use the oven now, I open all the windows, just in case ...  Not that it does any good ....  Harrumph, again.

I guess I'm going to have clean the oven ...

New tricks 2

I have been going to exercise classes at the Y the last two weeks.  This is the first time ever in my life that I have gone to exercise classes.  They call it Senior Cardio,  but I'd like to know how they expect this senior to move feet,  move hands, smile, and breathe, all at the same time.

Maybe if I had some cool exercise duds ....