Life Irregardless: January 2008

Job related:
So, I was supposed to start a new job on Sunday as a sales assistant for Kaleido, which are lovely condos going up on the Westside. I was going to be filling in for 3 weeks for the sales people who were going away on holidays. Friday night (two days before I was to start) I got an e-mail from the gal who'd hired me saying that she'd quit -- acutally 4 of the 5 people who are working at the 3 sites quit-- so she felt terrible, but I was not longer needed to replace people who no longer worked there, (they were hiring me, not the company.) So I was kinda bummed about that... it was a 3-week opportunity to try project sales and a nice way to get one extra paycheck!

So, I decided to re-apply for the job, knowing that there was one person scrambling to do the job of 5 people, and since I'd been trained already and was available, I thought I might be appealing. I was.
I'm meeting the remaining salesperson on Sat and will probably start on Monday. Yes, I'm going in with my eyes open---there is usually a reason 4 out of 5 will quit a job on the same day.

Baby related:
Our great friends Chris & Julie have been expecting their 4th baby any day. Two days ago I decided it was a girl and they would name her Kenya.

Why Kenya?
So far we have Shalaya, Dezmond & Terrell... Kenya just seemed like a fit to me.

Well who do you think was born last night? None other than Kenya Loeppky, a beautiful baby girl. Freaky, huh? I had no prior knowledge. And actually, I guessed Terrell on the second try... when he was born, Joel went over to spend the night with the kids (it was a middle of the night hospital trip), and when he got home at 4am he said, "It's a boy!" and I said, "Is his name Tyrone?" Joel said, no, but it started with a T... "Is it Terrell?" And yes, it was.

So there are my two tales of weirdness this week.
Everything else around here is just the usual variety of weird.

Well, we're back!

Short Version:
It rocked. The ship was great, the food was great, the service was great, the weather was perfect, we completely relaxed and enjoyed our own company. I got a little sun, Joel got a lot of sun, the boys had a great time and it was good to see them again today.

Long, Babbling Version:
We got out of dodge on a lovely afternoon flight to Vancouver then on to LA. From LA we "red eyed" it to Fort Lauderdale, which was nice because it saved a day of traveling and a night in a hotel, but would have been problematic because we arrived at 6 am but couldn't head to the terminal until 11ish. We wanted to see a little of Fort Lauderdale, but thought it would be a pain to haul our luggage with us. However, Delta convenientley temporarily lost all our luggage, so we were free of that burden until 11:45! We took a cab to Los Olas Blvd, which was a very cool little shopping area, and had breakfast at an outdoor cafe... wandered around for a few hours, then back to the airport to get our luggage, and off to the ship!

It was the fastest check in ever! I don't think it took 10 minutes from getting out of the cab to being onboard. Our room was ready for us, we met our Cabin steward, SUNARYA, (who was on the last week of his contract after working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for a full year... he was heading home to Indonesia after our week with him for a 3 month break.) We had lunch and hit the pool deck. It was a gorgeous sunset sailaway from Port Everglades. Florida is a really beautiful place. We like it. Florida good.

That night we headed to our late dinner seating at 8:30. You can ask for a table for 2 if you want, but we thought we'd engage in a little fresh conversation during the week, not that we would ever get bored of each other's sparkling conversation or anything...

It's a bit of a risk, the whole table mates thing... (we've had a bad experience with a couple who started fighting on day two. By day 4 she started showing up loaded at dinner, and we didn't see either of them on the last day or two. Awkward!!) So, it can be dicey, especially when you're in the minority when it comes to age groups. I'd venture to say the average age of passengers was 65. Fine folks like these...

There were a couple of young families, a few families with teens, and about a dozen 20 somethings that seem to all know each other. I'm terrible at guessing the size of crowds, but I would guess maybe 40 people who looked to be in their late 30's.

Out of 1800.

So, we were a little apprehensive about who we'd be sitting with--nothing against seniors.

Then we met Joe & Tracy... they were on "either side of 40", from Indiana, former coaches (volleyball & football)... have 3 kids our kids ages, great sense of humor, great stories... Holland America could not have given us better table mates.

JOE AND TRACY... SHOULD YOU EVER VENTURE HERE (Joe, I know you will!) THANKS AGAIN FOR A GREAT TIME! YOU TWO really were one of the highlights.

And that was our first day.

Day Two... we spend that day at sea, checking out the ship, (which was the same size as the Mercury, which I sailed on with Marcie last fall... about 1800 passengers and smaller than the other two ships we've been on together, which have around 2400 passengers) and we found our "spot" on deck 10, away from the pool and the noise and the crowd... we lounged our little hearts out all day! Enjoyed another great dinner with J & T... called it a night.

Day Three... our first port of call -- Grand Turk. We've always wanted to go to Turks & Caicos, and it was truly beautiful. There didn't seem to be much to the island of Grand Turk... we just enjoyed the quiet beach that was RIGHT THERE where the ship docked, and "Marguaritaville" is a Restaurant/Bar/Pool/Shopping area... of course, we had to sample the Marguaritas... Joel loved his and I remembered why I don't drink them. But, it was a must do!

Day Four... Tortola, BVI

A lesser known island, but a cool one just the same. We arrived a little later than planned, needed to check in at an internet cafe, so we didn't have time to go to Josiah's bay for surfing like we'd planned. Instead, we went to Cane Garden Bay, and again really enjoyed a quiet stretch of beach and a beautiful late afternoon of basking. The taxi ride to the beach was an adventure in itself with major climbs and twists and turns. A couple of the people in our van were really freaking out... we chose to blindly trust "Miss Kitty", our taxi driver.

I had the VERY BEST PINA COLADA I have ever tasted there. We had a great couple of hours there on our own little stretch of beach.

Day Five... ST. THOMAS, US Virgin Islands. We had been there 5 years ago and remembered the mountains and lush landscape... we did a little shopping, went to Coki Beach, which was nice, but a little more crowded than we would normally like... however there were 6 ships in port that day, so that's what happens when an island of 70,000 people grows by 15,000 shoppers/beach goers in one day. We still had a great spot on the front row of the beach.

Day Six... at sea again... sigh... more relaxing, more sipping, more sudoku, reading, crib, snoozing...

Day Seven... our last day, blissfully baking on Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island. I think this may be the most beautiful beach I have ever seen--and I've seen a few.

Day Eight... they disembarked our asses around 9:30. By 11:00 we were in our rental car and heading to Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall for 8, count 'em 8, hours of shopping madness, with Joel "Clotheshorse" Kern... I bought 2 pairs of shoes, 2 bathingsuits and one bathingsuit skirt. Mr. Shopaholic walked out of there with a couple of pairs of shoes, couple of pants, about 63 shirts... you know, the usual.
We had a great dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe... got lost finding our hotel (which I got on priceline for $90 and could not find elsewhere for under $229!)

Other Highlights:

Quoting Joel Kern on the ethical debate of Veal. "You know what, Veal is really worth it. It's delicious."

Joel Mason... a 36 year old entertainer from Oregon... he's an Elton John impersonator/tribute artist and so much more. Oh, my goodness, was he hilarious... and extremely talented. If he ever comes here, we're all going. Yes we are.

Realizing on the last day that the group of 20 somethings were not passengers, but the singers and dancers for the evening shows (we'd skipped them all).

Sweet Sudoku Victory... Dawn 50 wins, Joel 36 wins. Yes, we are that big of dorks.

Reading Reading Reading... brace yourselves: Joel finally finished the book he's been nursing for the last 3 years and almost finised a new John Grisham book. He's a regular bookworm. I myself, am almost finished "The Tenth Circle"... which my friend Louise passed on for me to take... Jodi Picult... very interesting.

Our First Professional Photo in 16 years... we usually pass on the ship's portraits... they are too traditional and formal for us... but one night they had a black and white studio set up with a funky chair so I twisted Joel's arm and we now have an actual professional photos of the two of us. I had to get the indivitual of Joel too, because it was soooo great. I'll see if I can scan them and post them. Don't tell anyone.

Did I mention Waffle cones?

Did I mention the amazing food? This is breakfast.

Hand sanitizers at every turn!

Did I mention that I got to see my husband every day, all day for 9 days!

Did I mention that we still like hanging out together after all these 18+ years??

The boyzos had a great time with Uncle Mark & Auntie Cara and Grandma & Grandpa.
Here is the first e-mail we got from Adam... just to give you some context for their weekends without us, with Uncle Mark in charge:

Hi momzie and diddy-o I hope i could've come with you but I didn't receive any SURPRISE YOU'RE GOING ON A TRIP TO MEXICO!!!!!stuff so ya, today I had my first cross country field trip and it was awsome!!! Brodie has a headache so he's having a nap right now. He took some advil and should feel better later. We miss you guys so much!!!! when we went to tube town I got spun so fast my toque flew off!! inthe moning uncle mark and us created a big o'l bowl of diabeties with fruit loops and chocolate lucky charms. Brodie didn't like it so he gave it to me. That's right I had two big o'l bowls of diabeties it tastes so sugar loaded that if you have to much you'll get diabeties.

Your Son,
adam

It was fabulous... so glad we made it happen... and I now have an empty travel folder in my brain... that won't last long... I'm sure I'll find myself researching something else soon enough!

Now for the laundry... such a sad end to such a perfect week!

Where do I keep my kitchen?