First 2 of 7 Sea Days

She Said . . .

This is the beginning of our third day at sea.  With two of the seven behind us, I am finding it quite relaxing so far - the Atlantic Ocean as far as the eye can see.  We have seen no land and no other ships since late Thursday night.

It is a bit ironic, as someone who does not know how to swim, looking out at the ocean and listening to the water is so very soothing.  I suppose it would not be as soothing if we had some sort of catastrophe in which I found myself in the water.

Time Management

No such thing here on the ocean.

We do whatever the hell we want.  I’ve sat on our balcony the last two mornings watching the sunrise.  We eat some breakfast then find a spot to sit and read.  The past couple days it has been on 4 in Cellar Masters.  We tried outside in the morning but with the wind in the morning, it is a bit chilly.  Just a small chill but enough for Blaise to say no. At some point, we may wander around, Blaise will do his thing, I will do mine.  We spend a chunk of time sitting on our balcony.  I have made my way to the fitness center too.  

Two days ago we watched a presentation on Celebrity’s 2018 and 2019 European cruises.  While we are looking at China for next year, in 2019, we are thinking of a Baltic cruise which includes the Norwegian Fjords and St. Petersburg Russia.  Is anyone with is? Towards the end of the presentation, an older guy went to leave and fell down the three stairs leading to the exit.  The falling down the stairs takes on a whole new meaning for me after last year.  People were staring at him entirely too long and I finally said to the people around me “Quit staring at him.”  My thought is let the people around him tend to him and let’s not embarrass him further by staring and making a spectacle of it.  Not that I’ve been a spectacle in a similar manner or anything.

Today, I will attend an Around The World Wine Tasting.  Blaise will sit this one out.

Books

It occurred to me, I didn’t tell you what The Rosie Project was about.  It is about a Ph.D geneticist, who teaches at a university in Melbourne Australia.  He has Aspergers but, while he realizes he is different than everyone else, he doesn’t seem to get he has Aspergers.  Anyway, he is 39 years old and sets about finding a wife.  “The Wife Project” includes women completing an extensive quiz which he uses to filter out unsuitable mates.  In the course of this, he meets a woman Rosie, who according to his criteria, is completely wrong for him in every way, but whose company he enjoys immensely.  It really is a charming book.

From there I went to The Winner by David Baldacci which I finished reading yesterday.  It is about a 20-year-old single mother who is quite poor living in an extremely poor county in Georgia.  I think my token Georgia friend, Dana, is now taking notice.  Anyway, a stranger approaches her and says he can guarantee she wins the lottery.  After she decided not to take up the offer, a series of unfortunate events occur leaving her feeling as though she has no choice but to take up the offer by the stranger.  Loved it!  But I love just about anything from David Baldacci.

Now, I have to figure out what to read next.

Blaise is more of the non-fiction reader.  He often brings technical manuals with him on vacation.  I always download a few novels for him in hopes he will relax with a good story.  He finished reading his The Number book early on and then started reading a book on “love languages.”  I appreciate that he is always working to make sure our marriage is strong.  The turn of events here is that he made ME take a test so we could determine what my “love language” is.  A love language is really just what I feel is important for my partner to do to show me his love..  I have a combo of “Words of Appreciation” and “Acts of Service.” Of course I had to make him take the quiz too.  HIs were 3 “Acts of Service,” “Physical Touch,” and “Quality Time.”  I guess I have my work cut out trying to keep him a happy husband.  There is a fifth love language “Gifts” which neither of us scored high in.

But now he is reading the sequel to LIncoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly.  I have succeeded in getting him to read a novel.  Perhaps all the free time had something to do with it.

Events on Boat

Apparently we had an event yesterday on the boat that caused the Captain to get on the loudspeaker and update the entire ship.  There was a slight flood on deck 3; a broken pipe as it turned out.  Unfortunately some guests on the ship thought we were sinking.  I suppose I can see how you would get there.  The Captain is quite the comedian.  He told us the first thing you do when there is water free flowing on a ship is to test the origin of the water.  If the water is salty, then you could be going down.  If it is potable water, then you are not sinking - you just have to find the cause of the water.

The other day, I went to use one of the public restrooms.  An older lady was standing at the beginning of the line of stalls and told me they were all in use.  I dutifully stood there behind the woman waiting my turn.  A worker who was cleaning the sinks kindly pointed out there were most certainly stalls available and opens a couple doors.  Turns out ALL the stalls were open.  I’m not sure what planet that woman was on; all the doors freely opened.  That will teach me to trust someone in that situation again.  I’ll check for myself from now on.

Also the other day, I got into the elevator and we started moving.  The elevator had glass on 3 sides and you could see the elevators across  from us - always have been able to see it - it hasn’t changed during the cruise. Eight days into the cruise a woman commented to her friend “Wow! It’s really cool you can watch the other elevators go up and down!”  As if she had not seen it before.  Where has she been all this time?  Not in an elevator I guess.  Now we take the stairs as much as we can, but especially when I am wearing heels, we use the elevators.

Dana’s Food Watch

Friday’s Dinner:  We ate dinner at one of the specialty restaurants, The Tuscan Grille.  I made this reservation because October 27 (Friday) marked the day Blaise is eligible for retirement.  Earlier this year, he reached that point if he were to cash in all of his vacation and personal days, but Friday was the day he could do so without cashing in any time.  To reach eligibility, his time in service at Verizon and his age must equal 75.  I thought this was cause for a bit of celebration, so I made the reservation.  Early Friday, Blaise started thinking and said, “hey, I think my day of retirement eligibility was actually September 27.”  He said he thought he remembered the guy wanting to onboard him before the start of the 4th quarter so he would be eligible for the 4th quarter bonus.  A bit anti-climatic, but still a lovely dinner.

Blaise and I both had the crab cake appetizer which was even better than the one I had a few days earlier.  Blaise had the ceasar salad and I had the arugula and goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  For our entrees Blaise had the filet mignon and I had the lasagna, in my continued search for the best lasagna.  While this lasagna was great, it was not even near the lasagna at Marco G’s in Rome.  Blaise had no dessert but I felt I needed to order some even though I was full given we paid $45 each for the meal.  I had spumoni donuts, which, sadly were a bit chewy.

Dinner Saturday:  Our little bite before the appetizer was a duck liver mousse which neither of us liked at all.  Blaise’s comment is “it was dog shit.”  It really was.  Blaise has seared prawns and arugula.  Blaise says they were “tasty.”  I had the heirloom tomato salad with a pistachio dressing which was also very tasty.  For the entree’ Blaise had wild mushroom pot pie which although dry, he seemed to enjoy.  I had the lobster minus the bed of fava beans they wanted to put it on.  For dessert I had the Bailey’s Irish ice cream sundae.  Yummy!

The only other food to note were the scones Blaise turned me onto yesterday.  At 3:30 every day the Oceanview Cafe’ (the buffet restaurant on 14) has afternoon tea items.  He had had one of these delicious scones a few days earlier and couldn’t get it off his mind, so I had to try it out.  It was a cinnamon raisin scone with raspberry jam and clotted cream.  The scone was warm and so delicious, I can’t stop thinking about it either.

Injury Watch

No injuries.  Almost 2 weeks into this vacation and 9 nights into the cruise and we are all good!

He Said . . .

The problem with writing about sea days is they’re supposed be about like Saturday mornings at home, sleep in a bit, grab breakfast, at Dove Creek if possible, and run the week’s errands.  Well that’s about the extent of it most of the time, but yesterday we had some excitement.  We hear an ill timed announcement from the Captain about 11 or 12 about if you see a water leak and it’s fresh water it’s all good, if it’s salt water it’s bad.  Then he went on to say that this was fresh water from a burst pipe and that all was just fine, I saw the containment area a few hours later, it must have been pretty bad, they even had to move the artwork that was on display to avoid it getting soaked.  BTW, there was a third option concerning the water that I considered when he enumerated the first two but thought if it’s option three they better not taste it…

Otherwise there has been lots of reading, I think Ami mentioned what our love languages turned on to be and that was helpful, if you haven’t read it give it a shot, it’s a quick read and could be helpful to know what your spouse/significant other is and how/why they react the way they do to your displays of love.  

I have moved on to the second or third Lincoln Lawyer and am about 55% complete with it, it’s heating up nicely at this point.  I will probably be done with it tomorrow is my hope.

I am definitely jonesing to get back online so I can catch up on the record breaking run-up in the market, and the musing of the Trump Dossier and tax cuts.  I would like to see what we might see as I hear good things on the small business front may help Ami somewhat.  

Lastly, I’m quite surprised at how calm the seas are at 20 knots, it’s typically 3-6 foot swells with most of it trending toward 3 feet, it’s beautiful for 25 hours a day, yes about every other day we cross another time zone and have to move the clocks back another hour.  It’s been great for sleeping for the creaking that once plagued Ami’s sleep has now crept into my psyche, I think she did that on purpose if I know her.  I’m not sure you guys play little mind games on each other, but we do, every morning I get up and think of a new song to sing while in the bathroom/shower, then I go to town, I even play the old videos on youtube on occasion, why, to plant the song seed to see if Ami will come home and be mad about me planting “that” song seed.  I’ve had her stuck on a song for a few days to a week or two; it’s great fun!!!  First world problems as Brandon would say!!!  That’s it, resting, relaxing, sleeping and watching the rolling waves.  

I will say the best thing about vacations this long are that you lose track of the day of the week; geez I so look forward to that.

Oh and one final note, we ran into a retired Canadian couple that I asked what do you do now that you’re retired, his comment, I’m so busy I can’t figure out when I actually had time to work.  Not sure I’m there yet but we are making plans for China in 2018, Baltic back to back for 2019 and Machu Picchu for 2020, I need to be done by then…