brillohead

With or without raisins for @A&L_Ont? 😂

I actually just started Wegovy (Ozempic) a couple weeks ago -- it took over three months from getting the prescription written by my PCP to receiving my first dose because of availability issues. My hospital (employer) doesn't cover it under their insurance, but our "specialties" pharmacist was able to use a federal program called 340B to get it for me at a reduced rate. It "only" costs me $176 per four-week supply through the program. I'm not having any side effects at all, so I'm planning on expediting my dose escalation schedule, going up a dose every three weeks instead of every four weeks (provided, of course, that I don't have any side effects with this method - if I do, I'll just go back to every four weeks). By only using three of the injections out of every four-pack, that makes my per-week price go from ~$45 to ~$60 per week, but it's still worth the cost to me if it works like it should. I know some European countries have put a restriction on new prescriptions for weight-loss purposes for the next several months, in order to make sure that there is enough medication available for diabetics. Now that Mounjaro has also received its "official" FDA approval to be used for weight loss, I'm hoping that the price of Wegovy will drop a little -- supply and demand work for medications like they do for cruise ship fares! Since Mounjaro is supposed to be even more effective than Wegovy, I foresee a lot of people "jumping ship" to Mounjaro now. Even more exciting are some of the drugs that are in the pipeline for future approval (still finishing clinical trials), including a once-a-day pill -- much more convenient than having to refrigerate once-a-week injections, so that will be a big draw for some patients. And the more competition there is among the different types of drugs, the lower prices will drop for the consumer!

This is SOOOOOOO accurate!!!

Oaks are notoriously slow droppers.... we still get them in January! Landlord just mows them every week -- way too many trees and way too much area to rake, and they're good for the soil if you just mulch them up and let them compost themselves. Even worse than the leaves, though, is "acorn season" -- sounds like a hailstorm 24/7 for a few weeks, and you have to run from car to door and vice versa to avoid getting pelted by the little bombs!

I can vouch for him... always available via email, even at weird hours! And often replies within 5-10 minutes!

For people wanting to keep up with threads, I created a bookmark that brings me to a page of JUST threads that I'm subscribed to that have new posts. When I click a thread link in that list, it brings me to the first unread post in that thread. This is the URL that I use -- take out the spaces and it should work for you, too: https://boards.cruisecritic .com/discover/followed-content/?&stream_include_comments=0&stream_read=unread&stream_unread_links=1 After I get caught up on my subscribed threads, if I still have time, I pop over to the Royal Caribbean forum using the "forum jump" at the bottom of any thread. But I always start with my subscribed threads first (I have my settings so that I am automatically subscribed to any thread I've commented on).

I had a neighbor who had a similar experience. His first knee replacement went very well -- he even returned to playing "old man hockey" on the ice with his pals. His second knee -- same surgeon, same hospital, etc. -- never was right. It was always swollen and sore, even years after the fact. Happy to hear that you're doing so much better with this second knee! I have bilateral knee replacements in my future (have to lose weight first.... how do you lose weight when you can't move around because your knees hurt so flippin' much???), and I'm going into it with an open mind, because literally anything can happen.

When two ships get married, which ship's captain performs the ceremony? 🤣

If you have the custody paperwork, that should say whether you have permission to take the child out of the country.

At least the bedspread can be tossed in the washer/dryer. The couch or recliner, on the other hand....

What a complete and total clusterfrick!!!!

Maybe check with your insurer, too... they may offer discounts on your premium because metal roofs are less likely to have pieces fly off in a windstorm, or catch fire if there are floating embers from a nearby fire, or have ice dams cause water damage, etc. They can probably give you an idea of whether metal or shingle roofs incur more maintenance costs, too. With the way prices are right now, I'd probably go for a metal roof unless I was going to be in the house for less than ten more years. With metal being roughly twice the cost of shingles right now, if you're going to have to pay for the next batch of shingles in 20-ish years, goodness only knows what that second batch of shingles will cost at that time, whereas the metal roof will still have 50+ years of life in it.

Surely, you're joking. 😉

I had dinner at the kids' place (my son and his GF) last weekend, and I had been asking them via text to think about what they want for Christmas / birthdays (his is in January, hers is in February). I told them that if they wanted to combine them all for a big ticket item, I was fine with that. They've only been living in the apartment for just under a year (he got out of the Army last Christmas) and they're in their early 20s, so I thought they might want a dresser/bureau for the bedroom or a couch for the living room, etc. So now that I had them in person, I asked again if they had any ideas for Christmas and birthdays... my son looked at his GF and she gave him the "go ahead" nod, and he asked if I'd be willing to use the money I was going to spend on them to get presents for his coworker's three kids... the coworker is separated from the kids' mother, and money is tight for him paying rent and child support. (They work at a landscape / lawncare business, so they're not earning the big bucks.) It was a proud momma moment, for sure. A couple decades ago, before I got disowned from my adoptive family, I had told everyone to only get presents for my son, and not to get anything for the adults... and that we wouldn't be giving presents to adults, either. In my family, I was giving presents to my mom and dad, my brother and his wife, their three (at the time) kids, my aunt and uncle on my mother's side and their two adult kids (my cousins), my aunt and uncle on my father's side and their three adult kids (my cousins) and spouses, plus the four adult kids of those cousins. It was so stupid, b/c I usually only saw these people once or twice a year (twice being if there was a funeral that year), and in most cases I hadn't even been inside the homes of my cousins. How do you get a thoughtful, meaningful gift for someone when you don't know how they like to dress / what size they wear, how they decorate their home, what hobbies and activities they like to do, etc.??? So there were a bunch of meaningless "just because" presents, like the various gift baskets they sell everywhere... the two coffee mugs with a bag of beans and a coffee grinder, or the set of perfumed hand soaps and lotions, or the hot chocolate set, or the pizza stone with a bag of dough mix and a recipe book, etc., etc., etc. Stuff that nobody actually wants, but this way you can say you "got them a gift" for Christmas. I just said enough, and told everyone that I would rather they spent the money on their own families, or made a donation to an animal shelter. I kinda thought that my brother and sister-in-law and my various cousins and aunts/uncles would all jump on the bandwagon -- it had to be just as frustrating for them to shop for and wrap a bazillion meaningless presents, right? I was still doing presents for the children, because who doesn't love watching kids open presents, right? And shopping for toys is fun! But NOBODY else in the family was on board with the idea... they all felt it necessary to get gifts for all the adults, too. They didn't even want to do a "everyone pull a name out of a hat" and only buy a present for one person type of gift exchange. Shortly after that, I ended up getting disowned, so it wasn't a problem anymore. And now, my "surrogate" parents and my newly discovered birth father all want for nothing. And I can't think of a single item that I would need someone to purchase for me, either. I think people would enjoy the holidays a heck of a lot more if they focused more on spending time with family and enjoying delicious foods/treats instead of running themselves ragged shopping for presents for people who don't need anything. I know I do!

Jade, to OB after he tries to put her in the carrier....

And the Promenade parties are over with in the evening... they don't continue all night long. So as long as you're not a super-early-to-bed type of person, the Promenade parties aren't a problem.

Compared to the cost of similar excursions in the Caribbean, the cost of the Coco Cay Beach Club is exorbitant, IMO. CCBC is about twice the cost of an all-inclusive resort, yet doesn't include alcoholic or specialty drinks. But like all over-priced extras with Royal, I enjoy having others subsidize the cost of my cruises! 😉

Between Kellogg's and Post, my hometown has breakfast cereals wrapped up. Depending on how the wind blows, you can tell if they're making Corn Flakes or Froot Loops that day!

My dogs have always felt the need to accompany me, as well.

Well, it is Norovirus season....

You can definitely change to another room in the same category for no cost. Just call whoever you booked with (travel agent or Royal Caribbean) to accomplish this. As for the service door, I never noticed it myself when in that room. Some people do, some people don't. It's not a guarantee that the room will be noisy. I think some people are just way more sensitive (or enjoy finding things to complain about) than others.

You can double-check your table assignment when you get on board. Go to your assigned dining room and find your table number. Sometimes the tables are tight together... if it doesn't look like a good fit, ask for a different table to be assigned to you for the week, explaining that you need room for a stroller. I often cruise with friends who are in wheelchairs, and so we need a table that is along a main walkway (wheelchairs won't fit between the tables in most areas). I've never had a problem getting our table moved to one that will accommodate the wheelchairs on the first afternoon after boarding and before dinnertime.

You are correct, the Diamond drinks are shareable. I rarely use all my vouchers, and regularly use them to purchase a drink for someone else. Nobody even blinks an eye.

To be honest, that bar was set pretty dang low! 😂

It blows my mind that people will actually pay those prices for Coco Cay, but they probably balk at spending that much at other places. There's an amusement park a couple hours from me that includes a decent collection of rollercoasters and other rides plus includes a water park that is probably three times the size of the one at Coco Cay, and that admission is only $40pp, or an annual pass for $105. If they charged $150+/day, they'd go out of business in a heartbeat, even though they offer *so* much more than Thrill Waterpark does. And $270 to spend maybe eight hours at the beach club, and it doesn't even include free drinks???? Don't even get me started....