Journal

FINALLY!!!  And Bear is lucky to be alive.  Long story and I won't go into it all, but he topped it off yesterday by getting me into Palm Springs (about a 45 minute drive) to go and look at some furniture a friend had and was getting rid of AND THEN telling me he didn't know where the guy lived.  He called several times and got no answer or return call.  He finally called and was in Yucaipa...another hour north and would be home in about an hour and a half.  He turns to me and asks if I have some shopping I want to do.  WTF???  I just got through spending 2 weeks cleaning my house from top to bottom, hosted several out of town guests for 2 days, fed them all and cleaned up after them and then spent a day setting my tipi up for 400 3rd graders.  Oh yeah....I wanna hang out and go shopping waiting for your buddy to get his ass back home.

Today I am making corn bread dressing for tomorrows turkey.  And then tomorrow we are going to Mom's for Thanksgiving.  Not quite sure who will be there...it might be a small portion of the family.  One sister is pissed off at Mom and the rest of us, the other one has to work.  Oh well...we will have plenty of food and lots of fun....as always.

Bear and I were sitting here last night and trying to figure out all that we had to do today and tomorrow.  He looked at me and said "Let's get a hotel somewhere for the weekend."  So we are going to stay in the Cadillac Hotel right on Venice Beach...leaving here Friday and coming home on Sunday.  And guess what....we don't have to hurry home for shit!!!  There is nothing looming over our heads when we get home....with the exception of looking for a car.  So hopefully this relaxing get away will last a little longer than our last get away did.

OK....once this world stops and I can get off for a while, I will be back posting on the board, etc.  Just don't have a lot of time to do that right now.

The dragon is still grinning.  He's having to beat me up on the run because I just can't slow down just yet.    

....things were so stress free there.  Already planning another cruise with Jon and Sue for 2011...this time to Bermuda.  Figured they flew out here this time, next time it's our turn to go across country.

I'm trying to unpack and and catch up on the laundry.  Got all but one bag unpacked and most of that is dry clean stuff or still clean.  Also trying to get Halloween back in its boxes and clean the house.  This house has not been really cleaned since before my surgery earlier this year.  So I have had to drag out the "shovels" to do the dusting.  And all that dust is so good for my nose with this blasted cold I'm fighting.

Darrel's sister is supposed to be here today and tomorrow to get the final plans made for his service this next Saturday.  She wanted to come down yesterday but she's had the flu and the last thing I need is to be exposed to the flu while I have this damned cold.  Jeeezzz....some people just don't think.  Then on Weds, I am taking my Mom out for her birthday lunch.  Her b-day was last week but since I was still running a fever, I figured she didn't need to be exposed to me so postponed our lunch.  Then Thursday and Friday will be cooking and getting the house ready for the service itself.  Still not sure where we are gonna put the people, but Bear says "Don't worry!"....so I'm trying not too.

And somewhere between all of this, I have to get ready to take my tipi to one of the elementary schools on Monday.  We will have about 300 kids through out tipi that day.  Tuesday is an "off" day and then on Weds, we start Thanksgiving dinner preps and I'm supposed to go to Mom's to spend the night so I can help her getting the house ready for everyone.

Then we really have some time off.  Thank goodness because I am really gonna need it by then.  I have an uncle who is not doing well and his docs don't look for him to be around come Christmas and my cousin has arranged a dinner for him in the mountains the day after Thanksgiving.  As much as I love my uncle...I did spend a day with him a couple of weeks ago....so I told my cousin that I just couldn't do it.

2011 can't come soon enough!  Oh how I wish to be pampered and waited on....someone cleaning up after us, etc.  LOL  How quickly we can get spoiled.

Dragon is having to do his work on the run because I don't have time to stop.  BUT he's still doing a number on me.      

We had such a good time...and so relaxing.  BUT Bear and I almost missed the boat....literally.  We had a blow out on the way to the ship and he hadn't bothered to make sure we had all the pieces to the jack and that there was air in the spare.  So we sat and waited for over an hour for AAA to find us.  If not for Sue and Jon, they would not have let us board, I'm quite sure.  We were about 5 minutes late and there was no one in front of the terminal and the doors were closed.  Sue and Jon talked to the crew and they managed to get them to let us board.  Thank God....I was in tears when we pulled up and Bear was fixin' to be a rug in my tipi.  LOL

Anyway, we got into our stateroom and after all the stress, we just called for room service and called it a day.  We met Sue and Jon for breakfast the next morning.  Sue and I hugged like we were old friends.  We parted company for the day...both having different agendas for the day.  And met back up for dinner that evening.  We just happened to be assigned to the same table as Sue and Jon and the other couple at our table had also booked their cruise through the NFA.  So it made for a pleasant evening on the evenings that we ate in the dining rooms.  There were a few buffet nights and room service nights for all of us.   

The ship was fantastic.  Our steward was great...EVERY time we left our stateroom, we would come back to having everything picked up, straightened up and a different towel animal in the room.  I bought the book that tells how to make them.  

And food....OMG!!!  Any kind of food your wanted from hot dogs to lobster.  And a lot of it available 24 hrs a day.

The third evening was "cruise elegant" and we all managed to get the boys to dress up so we could wear our fancy clothes.  (Pictures are posted in my photos)  It was fun BUT on the second "cruise elegant" evening, none of us went.  We had spent the last 3 days in Mexico....that day walking around Cabo San Lucas....and were just too tired to put out the effort of dressing up.

Our first port was in Puerto Vallarta.  One of the first things I see is 2 Federales walking along the street with rifles.  Sue, Jon, Bear and I all had booked a tour of 2 tequila "factories"....to put it loosely.  More of a back yard operation...BUT once you drink their tequila, you'll never want to drink Jose Cuervo again!!  We came home with 4 bottles....2 from each of the places.  One is an aged tequila....very smooth.  One peach flavored, one madarin orange flavor and one almond.  After tasting all the different types of tequila they had....about 6 shots at each place.....we had a pretty good buzz going.  So they take us shopping.  LOL  AND they serve you free beer, margaritas or water.  Of course, everyone has a "special deal" for us because we came off the cruise ship.  I got a beautiful silver choker with a silver and turquoise pendant.  Several pieces of Huichol art work (I'll post pictures today or tomorrow)...beautiful pieces of beadwork.  I also picked up a beautiful cream colored dress with hand made lace on the yoke and at the bottom with hand embroidery work.  We left port that night and headed to Mazatlan.

In Mazatlan, we went in 3 different directions.  Bear went fishing, Sue and Jon went on a tours into the Sierra Madre mountains and some of the small villages.  I chose a tour of town and shopping.  I saw several beautiful and very different thing....learned a lot about Mazatlan.  We saw the second tallest lighthouse....sitting up on the top of a little mountain island.  Takes 5 hours to climb to the top.  2 men man it....7 days on, 7 off.  Then we went downtown and saw a beautiful, eclectic cathedral (will post pics), a shrimp market, a flower market, a cliff diver and some of the local Indians doing some dances....very interesting.  Bear didn't catch a thing but enjoyed his trip.

Next port was Cabo San Lucas.  Every place that Bear and wanted to go see were within walking distance of the pier.  The port that is so small that the ship anchors and then smaller tender boats take you to shore.  We went to the Cabo Wabo bar...Sammy Hagar's bar.  And of course....more tequila.  LOL  We went to a shop called Del Sol that sells color changing items.  I bought 3 t-shirts that are black and white indoors but when you go outside, colors appear.  They are so cool.  AND because I came off the cruise ship they had this special deal....buy 2 t-shirts and get a tote bag for free.  When I got to the counter, it was "oh if you buy one more shirt, I will give you another tote bag"....like I didn't have enough stuff to carry.  LOL

After we left Cabo it was sailing home full speed.  On Saturday the seas turned a bit rough.  All the pools were slopping and it was a little difficult to walk around.  Thank god for my walker.  I would have fallen on my butt.  Sue did manage to make a mis-step and smacked her elbow pretty good.  I was so sore by the end of the day and I think it was all the trying to keep my balance...even when you were sitting...that did it to me.  

Sunday morning, we met up with Sue and Jon for one last time and spent all the time we could together....and talking about the "next" cruise.  LOL  

This was such a relaxing trip for all of us.  Doing nothing that we didn't WANT to do.  Everything that we noramlly HAVE to do, was done for us.  It was great!!!

OK....that's a general overview of the cruise.  You will see pictures pop up for the next few days.  I have what seems like a million of them and need to sort through to see which ones to post.  

Good to be back home....the dragon stll lurking about.  I feel his breath on my neck and shoulder.