h20skibum

13 hours ago, Vibe said:

The trending color is Agreeable Gray from Sherwin Williams. 

We found Agreeable gray not so agreeable for our master bath repaint. We had to find the perfect new wallpaper border to go around the room about an inch from the ceiling. And all the colors had to go with other accent pieces. So our color choice is Opal Silk

That is my task today.  To paint.  Taping and covering is done. 

 Why is it that taping and covering things takes longer than it actually takes to paint?

Our squatters are back. 
 

4 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We will be doing the opposite in April.  I will need to figure out how to get from Southampton to downtown London.  We’ll have too many bags I think to take a train. We actually will get off in Portsmouth, then I want to spend a couple of nights there or Southampton, taking the train to bath and maybe Cotswold? Then we’ll spend a week in London before flying home. We’ll skip Stonehenge but will do a day trip out to Windsor.

Look in to International Friends.  We booked a post cruise tour with them that took us from the ship and dropped us at our hotel in London.  It included stops at Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Windsor.  It was a small, 15 passenger van, but I think we only had 8 people which was nice.  You may be able to coordinate a pickup with them. They do have stops at some of the places you list. 
 

This is their current pricing. 
 

The sun came out yesterday, after several days of heavy rain.  We are still under a flood watch thru tomorrow with a few roads closed due to high water. 
 

We were able to walk to this part of the campground, but water level is up another 1 foot + this morning, so the access road we used to get to this point would be under water this morning. 

Our water levels are up, since they are trying to reduce the amount of water reaching Pittsburgh. 
 

@dani negreanu and @BonTexasNY I was watching the news this morning, and was glad to see the defenses were 99% effective.  
 

Continued prayers for you and your families that are in harms way.  Hopefully things will be resolved soon.  

5 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

@dani negreanu, just saw the breaking news. Praying for the safety of all in Israel, especially your family. Much love to you. 
 

May the evil leadership of Iran be removed.  I know the women of Iran are standing fearless and strong against them. 😢

@dani negreanu +2

1 hour ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said:

I was wishing we had a dome for our home opener.  Snow squalls and baseball just don’t go together.  We’re headed to the Pens game later.  Bruins are always tough.

I hope you are bringing them luck for a win.  They are in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot.  All they have to do is win their final 3, but all three are good teams. 

3 hours ago, MJSailors said:

Happy Friday, all!

I have a question for our posters who live in Australia, Canada,England and Israel. A report on TV this AM caused me to be curious.

Is the production of electric cars being promoted in your countries?

According to the report, there has been a great demand for such vehicles in the US.

Thank you- @aussielozzie18, @A&L_Ont, @grapau27, and @dani negreanu

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

 

 

 

Demand may be a regional thing, but we certainly are not seeing it in our area.  My guess is that it will be 10 to 15 years before the technology is refined to the point where the average consumer would consider them.

3 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Electric cars and Hybrid cars are being heavily promoted in England.

The lack of Electric chargers,increased cost of Electric cars and the short driving distances of 250-350 miles between charges means I am unlikely to buy an Electric car.

47 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 In Israel, the electric cars are heavily promoted, mainly by cheap Chinese manufacturers, which compete with Tesla.

 

However, people who waited months at a time for a Tesla delivery are hugely disappointed and many are returning/selling almost brand new cars.

 

On top of Graham's valid points, think a small and densely populated country, with traffic worse than LA and very sparse charges....

We didn’t even consider electric when we bought a new car last month.  My son in California has had two electric vehicles, a BMW i3 that had a very limited range, and a Tesla Model X that he has had for six years now.  California has a better network of charging stations, but all I see are trade offs and downsides.  He has a charger in his garage, and is able to charge for his daily commute, without waiting in line.  
 

He has taken it on a longer trip, They are just returning from a trip to LA (about 400 miles).  They had three stops for charging, with charging times of 1-1.5 hours each.  Two of those you could combine charging with meal time, but the other is wasted time, in my opinion.

The one Tesla charging stop has a ton of chargers, but the electric grid can’t handle that many, so they supplement with diesel generators to power the chargers.  Not seeing how that makes sense.

I am fairly confident I will never have one in what remains of my life.

Sorry, I am not from those countries you asked about, but just thought I would add my 2 cents.

13 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I installed this frameless shower door in the downstairs in-law suite's bathroom this past June. Pretty easy install if you take your time and double check all measurements and cuts.

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/MAAX-Aura-71-in-H-x-55-in-to-59-in-W-Semi-Frameless-Bypass-Sliding-Chrome-Shower-Door/50150142

 

 

 

 

That looks like a semi-frameless. 
 

Why the shower curtain and the doors?

I had to use my PC to change the password this morning.  It now works for both the browser and the IOS app.  I did find that I could not use the same password for the Celebrity app as I do for Royal.  It would tell me I couldn’t reuse passwords when I tried to set it to the new one I use for Royal. 

Made final payment for our cruise this morning.  And also just this morning, Southwest sent an email changing our flights before that cruise.  Batting 1000 on flight changes. 

7 hours ago, Coralc said:

Good question! And just to make it more confusing, we are going with semi-frameless. Part of the termite work requires disassembling the guest bathroom and replacing the subfloor, so we are going to replace the tub/shower door. This might be a super long link: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Delta-Simplicity-60-in-x-58-1-8-in-Semi-Frameless-Traditional-Sliding-Bathtub-Door-in-White-and-Chrome-with-Transition-Glass-2435591/206288469

We went with a semi frameless when we remodeled.  No problem with leakage, and it is easy to clean.  But then, we wipe our shower down after every use.  

Today is National Pet Day. 

A Ricky update.  I took him to the vet this week for a blood test.  He wasn’t happy they had to stick him 3 times to get blood.  Everything looks good so far. His blood count is up.  Still looks a little funny with short leg hairs. 
 

I will have to take him again next week, so hopefully his counts will still be up.  

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Great minds, etc. Waited a day to see the reviews....

 

 

I was surprised how quickly I got it.  I put a reserve on it when it showed up on our library website.  The next day they called and said it was ready for pickup.  

New reading material picked up from the library.  Sandford’s new Prey book. 
 

Yesterday, I read an article about a proposed change in Pennsylvania’s cell phone use in a vehicle.  No texting or talking, which isn’t bad, but they would expand to not permit you to have a cell phone in your lap or hand for any reason.  That includes snapping a picture, or taking a video.  

Now I have been known to snap a picture or two, so I am not pleased with that part. 

And speaking of snapping a photo, I encountered an odd phenomenon in our new vehicle.  If I open the camera app, it will automatically shut off Sirius radio, and the time on the infotainment screen will be surrounded by a red bubble. 

As soon as you close the camera app, the music returns.  Not sure if this is something new and unique to Toyota, or if others see this. 

Still getting familiar with Apple CarPlay, plus all the new symbols.  

Anyone know why I get the ref signaling touchdown, when I shift in reverse?

Susan thinks it means she backed into the garage without hitting anything. 😁

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The only things you can't use a TA for are to make payments or make a name change / modification or change dining times

You may want to edit the way this reads. 

4 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I have a question for those of you who have booked with TAs before. When check in time comes are you able to do everything yourself or do you need your TA to do it? The reason I ask is because yesterday I got an email from RCI advising to make sure that all the information in my reservation is correct as it will expedite checkin. However, when I pull up the reservation all I can see is my name and a message that the reservation cannot be serviced online and to contact the creator of the reservation.

 

I am not new to cruising but very new to using a TA. Thanks in advance for your replies.

We got that same email, and I think it was to remind you to book dining and excursions and other things. 
 

You still do your check in as normal. No need to go through a TA for that. 

Those scheduling people at Southwest have been busy trying to annoy me.  
 

Yesterday, they made two changes to our flight to San Francisco.  The first change, they moved our departure time up by about 10 minutes.  I thought, ok, I can live with that.  Then, about 2 hours later, they send this.  
 

New times, new plane, new flight!  So now, instead of a change in Chicago, we have one in Denver.  And that new departure time got moved to 5am, which would mean getting up at 2am to be ready for a drive to the airport.  Not happening, so we booked a hotel at the airport.  
 

Now, I wake up this morning to see that our flights to and from Myrtle Beach this summer were changed. Differences of 10 minutes to 1.5 hours.  Can’t wait to see if they change again later today. 
 

I am fairly confident they will change our flights to and from our Utopia cruise. 
 

Maybe they are reshuffling the fleet to find planes that haven’t had parts fall off. 

7 hours ago, Luckynana said:

 

So yesterday, our youngest grandchild, William, became a teenager, since he celebrated his 13th Birthday!🎈

Adding my Happy Birthday wishes to William. 🎂🎂🎉

Still hard at work, collecting ducks.  
 

43 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

"Breaking" the long drive is very clever.

 

Our "standard procedure" is to arrive at least 2 days before a cruise sailing from Europe and at least 3 days from US.

 

For the Bella 2.0, we aim to book a direct flight which will land us early morning of January 30th, for the February 2nd sailing date 🤞

I don’t think 315 miles for a one day drive is bad.  When we make our drive to Florida each winter, we break it into three 400 mile segments. 
 

Of course, depending on how bad traffic is, even short distances could take a long time.  I was just reading about the 12 hour traffic backups on the interstate in New Hampshire after the eclipse.  Sounded like people faced some challenges with that.   

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

RIP Bella.

 

Condolences to John and Laura.  The fond memories will be with you forever.

Sorry to read that about Bella.  Condolences to John and Laura.  

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I prefer smooth finishes that are easy to clean and paint

Smooth finishes seem to show imperfections.   Our house, built in 1970 has plaster walls with a swirl finish.  
 

What I didn’t know, until we did a full kitchen remodel in the 90’s, was that the kitchen designer could tell who did the plaster work by looking at the swirl pattern.  We dropped the ceilings over the new cabinets and put in can lights.  We said we wanted the dropped part to have the same swirl pattern as the rest of the house.  They said “Oh, so and so is still working, so we can have him in to match it.”

When we had a guy redo our small bath a couple years ago. We had him do the same finish. 
 

Our next project is just a repainting of our master bath.  Took the wallpaper border off last week, and the new one arrived yesterday.  New curtains are here, so now we are looking at paint colors to go with all of it. 
 

This is the swirl pattern that will get a new color. 
 

33 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Mark - Have you guys been to Hocking Hills in OH?  It's a couple of hours south of Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park so I'm guessing a good 3 hours from you.  They have great hiking with lots of caves and waterfalls.  Hard to believe it's actually in OH given how flat and boring most of the OH landscape is.  Definitely worth staying a night or 2 there, especially in the fall.

That looks like a nice park we may be interested in.  Thanks for the info.

It would definitely be an overnighter for us.  Waze says it is just under 4 hours, but maybe the time estimates are being impacted by eclipse traffic at the moment.