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Good morning. An interesting group of days and a thought provoking quote. Time has quickly passed since Queen Elizabeth II a year ago. Thanks for our Daily Reports @richwmn. I will pass on the salmon and the hot toddy but an Oregon Pinot noir sounds like a good one. I have not been to Norway. Prayers for Baby Murphy and her parents who are going through so much. Prayers that Lou gets out of the hospital soon. Prayers for all on our Care list, the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. Yesterday I got nothing done outside other than cooking a nice beef roast on the grill. I got a lot more organizing and storing done inside. Two very busy days ahead. Have a nice Friday. Nancy Not the last Daylily yesterday but a beautiful one.

Good morning everyone. An interesting group of days again. I am afraid we will have more rain today. I like Grandma Moses' paintings , we usually have a lot of salami but we are out because we are leaving soon. A good quote and happy independence day to Brazil. We have been to St. Maarten one time on the Nieuw Statendam in February 2022. We didn't do a tour because of laying low due to just coming out of the COVID catastrophe. I think we return in the winter on the Eurodam. Pass on the salad, the cocktail looks really tasty and I like the Stump Jump a lot, a good value wine. Prayers for all on our Care list especially Baby Murphy and her family and @smitty34877 and her DH Lou. Prayers for Maui and Ukraine. I had planned for a day of raking but it is cool, wet and windy. I guess it will be more inside work. At least stuff is cut back so it will be easier to just rake it rather than cutting back and raking in the spring. Right now it is 49. I am cooking a medium sized rib roast on the Big Green Egg today. At least with the weather I will have time to pull a nice dinner tonight. My sister is coming over. Have a nice Thursday. We are excited because the NFL season kicks off tonight. Have a lovely day. Nancy

@marshhawk saddened to hear of your DBILs stroke. I pray he can recover from it. 🙏

@RMLincoln Bon Voyage! 🍾🛳️ @Crazy For Cats thanks for the update on your DM. I hope she continues to improve. Enjoy your cruise. Good morning everyone. Thanks for the Daily reports @richwmn. I give to charity yearly at the end of the year as needed for other appeals. The only thing I can be late for is finishing cooking dinner today. I hope our boat guy is not late today. We are pulling it out of the lake and he is shrink wrapping it. We are also getting our rolling dock out of the lake for season. In lieu of the pizza we will have a salad of tomatoes with Mozzarella. A very good quote by Gandhi. No pizza for us pass on the bitter cocktail and the wine. Looking forward to photos of Trieste. Thanks @JazzyVfor keeping our cares list updated. Continued prayers for Baby Murphy and her family that are going through very tough times, @marshhawk prayers for your husband as he battles cancer, @smitty34877 prayers for your DH. Prayers for everyone needing them and the people of Ukraine and Maui. Vanessa you mentioned yesterday about my workload. It is this way at the end of our season here every year. I could start all the cleanup earlier but we are cutting blooming plants right now and I hate to take them down so early. I leave a lot, more so this year because there is so much insect activity on them. The Monarchs remained here as of yesterday. As I was hand cutting back Daylilies yesterday in the 90 degree heat it made it easier to think about our upcoming long voyage on the Eurodam next January. It will be here before we know it. Have a nice day everyone. Nancy

Thanks everyone for the photos of Sitka, a place to stop when we take an Alaska cruise. I try to use good manners all the time. I used to have a newspaper carrier but he quit and the replacements never delivered my paper. I went to digital but their billing practices are nuts so now it is the NYT for me. Pass on chicken patties, the cocktail but today's chardonnay looks good. Thanks to @dfish, @summer slope and @cat shepard for researching these for us. Prayers for all on our Care list. Prayers for the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. @Lady Hudson I pray Jalen Alexander will do just fine and be released tomorrow. We went fishing for the final time yesterday. I caught a walleye and a small perch. My family didn't have much luck either but they fish into the evening and were treated to the Northern lights. More cut back of my plants today and I'll rake some cut last week. I stowed all my potting mix and pots. I am bringing a load of plant sale 2024 plants and my DS will bring a load too. I am going to divide a bunch of iris and Daylilies, label them and take them home bare root to save space. Happy Labor Day! Nancy

The ones that are here in my garden will catch a wind and head south over Wisconsin. When we drive home next Sunday we may see a lot of them that all gather on the Garden Peninsula on Lake Michigan to wait for a favorable southerly wind to push them across the lake. They are still busily feeding here this afternoon.

@Haljo1935 no problem. I got some better ones today but pretty pooped at the end of this day. I loved it when we had our Grand South America Facebook group and everyone was ok with sharing photos as long as we weren't publishing it for profit. We couldn't get everywhere and or get great photos. Please feel free to save them.

@luvteaching Bon Voyage! 🍾🛳️ @Crazy For Cats Bon Voyage! So happy you made it after the scare with the flight delays. 🛳️🍾 @kazu looks like Ivan loves his new lamb. Good morning. No skyscrapers to see here. Our cinema visits are on hold until we return home. A fun quote by Milton Berle. Pass on the meal, the cocktail looks tasty and I wouldn't touch a 2012 vintage of a $9.99 wine with a ten foot pole. A very important day in American history. Thanks for keeping us updated on the Cares and Celebrations Vanessa. It takes a lot of work to keep up with the detail of everyone's comments to help us all out. Prayers for all on the list and for those needing them. Prayers for Ukraine and Maui and the hurricane victims in Florida. We got the west side stained in no time. The stain had to be stowed until the south side was no longer sunny so I will do that this morning since it is cloudy. Two more really hot days after today then a cold front moves through bringing us rain and a high of 59 on Monday. We have had some strange years up here, we have had decent weather for the most part. The poor fishing and the tomatoes not ripening well is frustrating. We had a couple of Monarch butterflies in the yard. This time of year this is the generation that migrates to Mexico. They were nectaring on my flowers all day loading up for the long flight.

We began our day with a beautiful sunrise on February 27, 2023 on our Grand South America on the Volendam. My pictures somehow loaded out of order. The water view is Icoaraci. The other water view was a fish market in Belem. We took a HA tour to a basilica, a botanical garden next door, then a market then walked to a nearby cathedral. By the time we reached it it had begun to storm so we didn't want to tour the inside. Other than too much time in the market determined by our guide we would recommend this tour because we saw so much in the city and the "suburban" areas in between. We topped it off with a dinner at a Rudi's pop up that was the best we had ever had. To top it off our waiter Agus presented the slip and let us know we got our 4* Mariner discount, that made the dinner even better. Apologies for the weird photo load. Have a nice Saturday.

@Quartzsite Cruiser Happy Anniversary Lenda! 🍾 @RMLincoln Happy birthday Maureen! 🎂🍾 Thanks for the Daily reports! John has a beard and we are celebrating Bacon day with BLTs for dinner. We will celebrate tailgating today by watching college football. Great quote by Emerson. Pass on the lamb and the cocktail but I love Catena but have never have had their Cabernet Franc. We have been to today's port this year. Thanks for keeping us updated on all the events and celebrations @JazzyV. Prayers for baby Murphy, @marshhawkfor your DHs health and for your health. Prayers for everyone needing them, citizens of Maui, the people of Ukraine and for those who had their homes and businesses destroyed by Idalia. We are staining today. By the time I had all my dinner prep done for our family dinner last night it was 11 and sun was beginning to hit the west side of the cabin. John and I are going to take it on today. I did get more plants cut back with my hedge trimmer. They will be easier to rake later when they dry some. And dry they will with the high 80s and high 90s for the next three days. We will start early as I think the heat will drive us indoors to sit with fans running. Our family dinner was fun. John's walleye tacos (grocery store kind) were excellent, he made homemade tartar sauce with fresh dill and I pickled red onions and that all went together well. We had fun and laughed a lot. I will try to locate my photos of Belem and will try to figure out some different ones from what I posted in February.

@1ANGELCAT thank you for the update on Barb. Prayers for her healing and for the chemo to do its' job. @marshhawk prayers for your DH.

Happy birthday @Cruzin Terri! 🍾🎂 Good morning and thanks for the Daily reports @richwmn. I love ginger cats but never owned one, cherry turnovers are tasty and tofu is good in hot and sour soup. It is also write a letter day. Goofy quote. The Paloma looks like a wonderful drink, pass on the curry fish, we are having fish tacos as a starter for a family dinner this afternoon. Will wait on the Chardonnay. I cannot imagine the anguish Baby Murphy's family is going through, they must be exhausted. Prayers for her and her family. Prayers for all needing them, the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. Prayers for those on the FL coast who lost so much. It is 49 degrees but the cool weather ends today with 3 days in the 90s and nights in the 70s, not much help on cooling the cabin off at night. I hope to stain today. I have the west side and a little of the south side. I just sanded where the stain peeled so I will just stain the bare spots. It won't look the best but it will protect the wood from moisture. We are having my sister, her son from Colorado and her daughter and fiance over for prime rib. I will cook it on the big green egg but the planned scalloped potatoes will require the oven. When we have a heat wave we try to avoid it. The propane refrigerator adds enough as it is. We leave for home on the 10 th so much to get done. We went fishing and we fished for 2 hours just to have an undersized walleye to show for it. Have a good Friday! Nancy

We overnighted in Manaus on March 2 and 3, 2023. We wanted to see the Amazon close up so we booked a river tour up the Black River tributary. First we took a multi level river boat to the confluence then went to a summer flood plain in smaller boats. We had a celestial event with Venus and Mars during the overnight and were blessed with a beautiful sunrise. There is a shared photo from the GSA Facebook group that allowed to be shared which is a close up of the pink dolphins which was a HA shorex. Have a nice day everyone.

Good morning everyone. Thanks for the daily reports to start us off each day. We won't be eating outside today but will enjoy Broasted Chicken during our final trip to the big city for groceries. I will pass on the corn salad, when we rarely eat it it is on the cob. Pass on the Martini but I like Nebbiolo, hope today's isn't too pricey. We were in Manaus in March this year. Thanks for keeping our Cares list for us Vanessa. Lots of people in our group going through trials. Prayers for them. Prayers for the people in Florida who were damaged by Idalia, in addition to those damaged in GA and SC. Prayers for the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. John solved the mystery of the animal that looked like a housecat in the wee hours of this morning. The bright lights came on and John was awake. He said it was an extremely thin fox that walked all the sidewalks and even came up on the front porch. Mystery solved. I will try to find my Manaus photos.

Good morning everyone. Every day is a good day to be kind. No beach day here, no beach on the lake and it will only be in the 60s. Comforting people going through grief is important and it goes on for a very long time for many people. A true quote. I like fish tacos, the drink would be a good drink package drink for dessert but I think I will pass the Harvester, I think I have had it before. Thanks for the photos of Haifa @StLouisCruisers. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. Prayers for those in Florida who Idalia is bearing down on. John watches the Weather Channel nonstop during hurricanes. Lots of water coming ashore one in many areas. Continued prayers for the people of Maui. My sister made it up to the cabin in good time. It was 38 when I got up this morning but we will be up in the 90s with the warm up starting on Friday. I will finish my sanding and then start cutting back the plants. I hate to do it when they are in gorgeous bloom still. Sometimes I think about leaving them until we arrive in spring but it is depressing seeing the plants trying to come back to life through all the dead material from the previous year. @Haljo1935 I hope your shoulder is going to get better. I have RA and when my shoulder used to act up I would get a cortisone shot and it would fix for sometimes a year or two. Once I started on Enbrel for it my shoulder problems abated. What is your Avatar? Is that your pup? It looks charming. I am happy to see that Enbrel is on the list of drugs to be negotiated for pricing through Medicare. Even though I have Medicare Part D through United Health Care I pay $385 a month for my meds. It has been out since 1999. It is a complicated process to make it but I think there should be some leeway to adjust the price down somewhat. Have a wonderful day! Nancy A few photos from Yucatan MX which is known for great beaches. Cancun 2010.bmp

Good morning everyone. 🚫 to bats. Now every strange sound in the evening I think one is coming in. I use a lot of herb blends from Penzey's many of which are salt free, I try to be a patient driver, it is much easier here in Michigan than it was living near Baltimore. Don't agree with the quote. We used to have an elderly financial advisor on our Sunday morning news in MD. He was philosophical about taxes, "if you are paying taxes, it means you made money". Several large lottery winners in MD went straight to the tax advisor Julius Westheimer. I learned a lot from his segments on TV. The kebabs will probably be tasty, today's drink minus the mint would be nice and it looks like a great value SB. Very few days do I see a port I don't want to visit, mostly those are in Asia. Thanks for sharing your photos. Thanks to all our daily contributors each day. I hope we can get some better news about baby Murphy today, continued prayers for her and her family. Prayers for all in the path of Idalia, especially if you are in one of the counties that have mandatory evacuations. Prayers for Lou and Tana. Prayers for everyone needing them, the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. @kazu I hope your gasket installation goes more smoothly than our replacement sink hose from Kohler. It was free because of lifetime warranty, just email a few photos. Their directions sounded easy, just remove the old one and push the hose down the tube. John tried a long time, for a while even the old one wouldn't go back down. Finally he got the old one put back in place. At least it works, it just leaked. I guess it will get installed when we get a plumber out here, hopefully not for many years. @StLouisCruisers congratulations on your 5 star status. I am getting close due to profligate spending and staying in suites. Enjoy the upcoming specialty dinners going forward. Apologies to denisr can't remove your bubble. @DenisR It is a gray and windy day. If I didn't have necessities coming in from Amazon to the post office on Thursday we would be going to town. My sister is due here today for an extended stay. She had been expecting her son from Colorado but unforseen circumstances ended that. She will have dinner with us daily. I have a little more sanding on the front of the cabin but I have a feeling I will be inside all day so housecleaning for me. @Denise T your problem sounds something like Debbie dealt with for a long time. I hope they can get a resolution. Simple dinner of BLTs. Have a good day and stay safe everyone. Nancy

@Haljo1935 welcome to our group. I enjoy reading your comments on other posts on HA threads. @cruising sister I am so sad to read about baby Murphy. Prayers that she will get through this. Thanks for all the photos of today's port. My sanding went well today. My sister gave me a box of electric Sanders and the second one I tried was perfect. Some reason CC is capitalizing my word to fried chicken.

Good Monday morning. I think of my two kitties who we lost 3 and 4 years ago a lot. The home seems a little empty without them. We chased a flying mouse around the house a few days ago not icons though. Red wine is usually on the menu each day here, it is our favorite. A great quote. Lobster sounds like a winner but will pass on the two beverages. Today's port looks like a beautiful place to visit, thank you for the lovely photos @StLouisCruisers and @Quartzsite Cruiser. Prayers for all on our Care list. Prayers for the families in Maui who have lost a family member or their homes. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. @smitty34877 prayers for a better day today for Lou and Tana. I finally got all my mulch spread yesterday. John went fishing and caught two tiny Bluegill I am glad I stayed on land. I think I will start on sanding the cabin wall today. We had a painter committed to come this year and we haven't heard anything in 6 weeks. Several areas of peeling stain need to be painted with stain to protect the logs. I will do it all I will need John to do is stir the stain. It was 43 when I got up but it is supposed to get back up to the 80s this weekend. Yesterday we hauled the pontoon trailer up to our neighbors and we picked up fallen maples limbs that we will cut up for good kindling wood for next spring's wood stove fires. I hope we don't have to fire it up before we leave on the 10th. Very strange year, my Viburnum has bloomed for 6 weeks, my pink hydrangea the same and my panicle hydrangea is just started to bloom. Some Daylilies still going. Happy red wine day!

@lobsternight Bon Voyage! 🍾🛳️ @Cruzin Terri so happy to hear your PMR is improving. It sounds like a wonderful trip you are planning in Italy. @richwmn thanks for the Daily and Fleet updates. No music on the porch through John enjoys listening to the radio on the porch. Every day should be a day to speak kind words. Poe had a strange mind for sure. Shrimp pasta sounds good, the cocktail would be so good but I would drink it too fast. Pass on South African wine, they never have done anything for me. Great photos of American Samoa. A beautiful spot. Prayers for all on our Care list, the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. We slept late this morning as it was only 38 degrees when I got up, not getting outside really early today. Yesterday it felt like late fall all day. I rolled my 2 big tomato plants in containers under our shade sail and after hearing the late news I got three sheets we use to cover our furniture in the winter and covered them too. After all the babying all summer we are finally getting our first tomatoes. We will get a lot all at once soon. Have a lovely Sunday. Nancy

Good morning everyone. My last dog passed away January 1, 1990. Women's equality has made strides but more to do. TP is a good thing. ZZ had a good wit and it is a good quote. Thanks for the photos of Copenhagen. It looks like a beautiful city. All three comestibles look good if shrimp with Angel Hair pasta instead. Penicillin looks tasty, I usually have my Laphroaig neat. The Semillon wine sounds wonderful, thanks for researching these for us everyday. Bon Voyage @Oceansaway17! 🛳️🍾 Prayers for all on our Care list, those living with the devastation in Maui and the people of Ukraine. Yesterday afternoon the bat that got in 2 days ago presented itself right before dinner. John got it with a weapon we had on the wall, my late DHs lacrosse goalie stick. We both think the source of entry is through the range vent fan outlet. We will be trying various things today to see if we can stop them from coming in. It is 60 degrees right now and will get no warmer today with winds. Going into the 30s tonight. We had a wonderful 3 hour break with sunshine and warmth yesterday midday, it is back to gray and overcast. I won't feel bad sitting inside watching Travers day from Saratoga if it stays like this. Have a lovely day! Nancy

Good morning. I hope we don't have to kiss and make up today. No bananas for me. The Park Service provides a lot of joy to our citizens. Strange quote. Pass on the lasagna roll ups and the cocktail but the wine might be a good one. Looking forward to photos of today's port. @marshhawk I hope your husband's pain has improved. Prayers for everyone on our Care list, the citizens of Maui and the people of Ukraine. I woke to a strange sound this morning. The generator started a bit after 5. We need sunlight for the solar panels to provide energy to the batteries and we had 4 days straight with no sun. Last time it ran was in mid July when we had a get together and there was a lot of water usage and the well is the biggest energy draw on our system. Another partly rainy day here today. Have a lovely Friday. Nancy

Good morning. This is day 3 of gloomy weather with rain off and on. I got one bag of mulch spread yesterday. Today I will complete the hand written labels for all the plants we are bringing home for my garden club's plant sale next May. I am doing ribs in the oven today so a good meal for a house bound day. Thanks for the Daily @richwmn. We try to visit iconic restaurants whenever we travel as long as they aren't chain restaurants. Only weird music I hear is that terrible background music on Facebook videos that John enjoys watching. Would like to visit the Vesuvius site someday. A good quote from Twain. We have been to Salvador de Bahia on the Volendam this year. Thanks to @summer slope @cat shepard and @0106for today's comestibles. Will pass on all three today. @StLouisCruisers thanks for the port photos today. You got a lot deeper into the city than we did and you had sunny weather. We were warned by returning passengers the amount of crime taking place so we had a brief walk around. We were there Tuesday February 21. Our MDR dinner that evening, John's fish with clams and my pot roast with a bottle of package 3 Cote du Rhone. That basically was our red wine for the last third of the cruise because they ran out of our favorite Meiomi Pinot noir in three weeks.

Happy birthday @Vict0riann! 🎂🍾 Bon Voyage @HAL4NOW! 🛳️🍾 @marshhawk prayers for your DHs eye surgery today. @Denise T great news on your blood sugar! @richwmn thanks for today's Daily and Fleet Reports. I guess the are really celebrating Daffodil Day in the southern hemisphere. I hope we are aren't riding the wind today but I am sure those school kids in Pakistan that their ride is over safely. I will hug my sweetheart today. A crazy quote. Thanks to our early riser @Quartzsite Cruiser for her double set of our Q port photos today. I will pass on the punch, the Shawarma photos look tasty, the wine sounds wonderful also. Thanks for finding these for us each day. Prayers for the people of Maui going through homelessness and the missing loved ones. Prayers for baby Murphy that she can be weaned off the ventilator this week. Prayers for those needing them and the people of Ukraine. Thanks for all the messages yesterday about the passing of our friend Frank. His wife is doing well. They married on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas about 4 years ago. They had been together for 9 years after Frank's wife passed away after a long illness. Elaine helped him live to 98, she knew she probably wasn't going to have long with him. We had a nice trip into town and dodged all the rain. We have basically a gray day here today. Not without excitement last night. Just as I was getting into bed I heard scratching at the back door. I told John I guess it sounded like a mouse. Just as I got into bed and the hall nightlight hadn't yet timed out I said, "cover up, it's a bat". I turned on the light and it flew out. I shut the bedroom door and turned on the hall light. Our bathroom door was already closed so we had two clear spaces for the night. We live in a log cabin full of furniture and nooks and crannies. No way we can find it until it presents itself. That was not the end of strangeness. No sooner than we were about to fall asleep the very bright solar lights came on so I sat up and I swore I spotted a full sized house cat trotting down the sidewalk. Nothing wild trots like that or has a long, thin tail. We saw small vehicle tire tracks on the logging road about 2 miles away. I sure hope no one dumped a cat so far out in the woods. I can't imagine where it came from. Enough excitement I hope today is calm with the bat laying low. I think the generator may come on today for the first time in a month. Too much cloud cover for too many days. We are beginning to see bits of red colors in the maples already. Have a great day. Nancy

Good morning everyone. I hope to be an angel today remaining here on Earth. Hoodie Hoo what is that? I hope my days for the tooth fairy are over. Both the shrimp taco salads today look tasty. I look forward to photos of Halibut Point. CS Lewis quote is perfect for today's rainy day. We are heading in to town today. Thanks for the care list @jazz @JazzyV. Prayers for everyone going through the wildfire devastation and chaos. Prayers for those needing them and the people of Ukraine. It was a sad day for all of us on the lake as our elder statesman who sold his property in 2021 passed away. Our friend Frank was 98 years old. He was due to have a heart valve replacement tomorrow at the VA but COVID had other plans. He and his wife caught COVID on a road trip to South Dakota when they both caught it. They were vaccine refusers but I doubt a vaccine would have saved him at his age. He lived a good, long life and active until a week before his passing. Have a nice Tuesday. Nancy

@grapau27 Happy Anniversary to you and Pauline! 🍾🎂