Blaise Says . . .
Jack shit.
Ami Says . . .
Yes, I am blogging before vacation begins. I bought a new machine for blogging and travel and need to test out the offline preparation of the blogs for uploading later.
New Machine?
We had to buy a new machine because, as Blaise would say, the one we used last year “shit the bed” in the form of the blue screen of death and intermittent, spontaneous, unexpected, unrequested shutdowns. Since Blaise is not blogging today (he will blog on vacation, he has reluctantly assured me), I can say why we have a new machine and why this new machine is so much better than the old one.
Blaise chose the old machine. At my request because he is more up on the techie stuff than I am these days. The Amazon reviews were mediocre but Blaise said it had all the specs we needed. We started having problems almost immediately then a couple of months ago we started having the aforementioned problems.
The one I just bought was one I did the research on without Blaise’s input mostly because I didn’t want him to talk me out of buying a new machine. It is a Samsung Chrome Plus and so far, it is fabulous. I am sure it will be far superior to the one we bought last year.
Travel Prep
Is anyone else’s vacation prep a whole thing in and of itself? While I am not a person who starts packing days before we leave, I certainly plan the packing for weeks by purchasing all types of travel essentials - new books, new clothes, new shoes, new sunglasses, new underwear (yes, underwear - don’t judge), and this year some luggage (thank you Bryan Felty for the recommendation!). I’ll have to let you know what how new Genius Pack bags perform.
Glimpse of Plans
Today marks one week before we leave on vacation. I am looking forward to nearly three weeks traveling, laughing and having fun with my husband, and not worrying about anything from work or home.
We leave the morning of Tuesday, October 17, which just so happens to be our niece’s 13th birthday which we will celebrate with her the weekend before we leave. We hop on JetBlue and head to Boston. Then we get on TAP Portugal for the overnight flight to Lisbon where we will catch our final plane to the beautiful, timeless city of Rome, for our own brief Roman Holiday. But I bet we won’t see Audrey Hepburn or Gregory Peck. It’s still one of my favorite movies of all time. You should watch it if you haven’t yet.
We did do our safety research of TAP Portugal since neither one of us had heard of it. We’re good.
We arrive in Rome about 10 AM. We are staying at Voi Donna Camilla Savelli Hotel, recommended by Guy Rodgers, which happens to be the place he and Gina were married. (Or one of the locations. I get confused as to the number and places of their wedding ceremonies. Sorry Guy.)
We will roam Rome Wednesday and then Thursday morning, we have a private tour of the Vatican. We have been to the Vatican before but the Sistine Chapel was closed that day. This time it won’t be. I am thrilled about this!
Friday around noon, we will catch a train to Civitavecchia to hop on the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship.
Saturday, the 21st we will be at sea, then we make the following stops on the following days:
Sunday October 22 Barcelona, Spain
Monday October 23 Cartagena, Spain
Tuesday October 24 Malaga, Spain
Wednesday October 25 At Sea
Thursday October 26 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
The rest of the time, we will be at sea, crossing the Atlantic, ending up in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, November 3. I am a bit concerned I will not like seven days on the ocean with zero stops. We will either float into Fort Lauderdale thinking “GET ME OFF THIS HUNK OF TIN!” or so relaxed they will have to light a fire under our asses to get us off the amazingly gorgeous and peaceful Celebrity Reflection.
After talking to Jeff Kaitcer, we decided to pay a bit more for the suite on the ship since we will spend so much time at sea. We shall see if it is worth it.
Perhaps I will blog again before we leave. Perhaps not. Either way, the plan is to blog while traveling and Blaise says he is blogging too.
Summary of Blog Shout-Outs
Silent Blogger Blaise
Bryan Felty (unfortunate for him he was mentioned in the same sentence as underwear)
Audrey Hepburn
Gregory Peck
Guy Rodgers
Gina Di Veroli
Jeff Kaitcer
I'm not prepared for this.
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