bobmacliberty

I remember being woken up in bed by an earthquake while in college. This was 1982 or 1983 outside of Albany, NY. I think it was in the 5s on the Richter scale. It was felt across much of the northeast.

I'm the same with Sailing Doodles. Loved the early days where he actually had 2 Labradoodles (hence the name) sailing with him. Cool dogs. That's when they usually found the cheapest food possible and he usually anchored wherever he went so that he didn't have to pay for a mooring ball. Things have definitely changed. He now has a deal with Navigare Yachting and you can join one of his flotillas (multiple yachts cruising together, which looks like a lot of fun) by getting a cabin on one of the boats for $3K a week.

The trade saves the Bills some salary money, but doesn't really help their cap. They'll still take a $31M dead money cap hit. I agree though that he's on the downside of his career and that he's a locker room problem. The Bills are following the Patriots model of letting him go maybe a year early rather than a year late. Like many Bills fans, my first response was shock, and wondering why they could only get a 2nd rounder for next year in return. Seems like the rest of the league doesn't want to pay much for him and other teams probably have similar concerns. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. You don't just dump your WR1 for next to nothing without a plan. I don't know if that's another trade (Tee Higgins?) or maybe moving up in the draft for one of the top WRs (although they don't have much draft capital). They picked up Curtis Samuel in free agency so at a minimum, he should replace Diggs in the lineup and pair nicely with Shakir. This will be a test for Josh. It never seemed like it mattered to Tom Brady who was at WR...he made them look good. We'll see if Josh can do the same.

I completely agree with wishing that we had better public transportation in the US. I understand though why we'll never really have a broad, national train system (beyond what Amtrak already has). Too many reasons why there isn't enough demand. In addition to being clean, I remember the Japan trains being quiet. Other than an occasional "Moshi moshi" when someone answered their phone, any talking was very quiet. I was with a group of about 10 people from the US who were always talking and laughing. I could see it on the faces of the Japanese people on the train...we were the "ugly Americans".

I love your photos! I visited the Himeji Castle several years ago (maybe 2005??) on a business trip. Beautiful place...the castle itself, the outbuildings, and the surrounding area. I remember there being some unusual (to me at least) flavors in the food that we sampled in that street food area. We also used the trains to travel. The engineer in me loved it. Everything was so precise. You looked at a message board to see when your train would arrive, how many cars long the train was, and where the train doors would be according to symbols on the platform. People would politely line up by the appropriate symbol. At exactly the right time, the train would arrive and stopped exactly lined up with the symbols. People getting on would wait until everyone got off, and then board. Everything was so organized.

Yup. $4100 for 6 hours on CocoCay is more than our balcony cabin for the week.

I wasn't sure if you were serious or joking, so I checked out our upcoming Wonder cruise. Still $4100 for a Coco Beach Club overwater cabana. 😵🥴🤣 Happy Easter everyone!

Looks about right to me. Multiple courses with a little time and a little wine between courses means I'd be full. Besides, I don't have the self-control to NOT overeat when they put huge portions in front of me. Huge portion sizes are a part of the reason that we've got such an obesity problem in the US, and all of the other medical issues that go with that.

Looks fanatastic. I wish we had a CIA near us.

I went to Japan a couple of times on business to visit a manufacturing plant. For lunch, we sat at the VIP table in the cafeteria (because we were from "headquarters") with the local people in charge. They served whole fish which we ate by picking out pieces of the "meat" with chopsticks. It looked quite a bit better than what everyone else was eating at the other tables. Different, but when in Rome...

Same here. I don't remember where we stopped watching but we never made it to the end of the series.

Great photos and a spectacular view from the top!

Is that Anne Burrell? I've seen her Worst Cooks show a few times.

Looks like Amber Cove is Carnival built. No Royal ships scheduled there. https://www.ambercove.com/Port-Schedule.aspx Guessing that you're going to Taino Bay: https://puertoplatacruiseport.com/ Edit: You can virtually walk through the Taino Bay shops and pool area. Looks very nice, although definitely another man made area for cruise passengers. https://maps.app.goo.gl/J9zbjsVmeffAefE1A

My 70-200 2.8 is my favorite lens, and my most hated lens. It's big and heavy so I never want to take it with me when traveling. If I was still using my DSLR enough, I'd love to switch to mirrorless. I was drooling over the R5 for a while. Doesn't make sense for me to spend the money though. There are a lot of other toys that I can buy instead. 😎

That's impressive for any age, especially a third grader. She's got talent.

Or both. 😜

I have to believe that the show's producers knew what they were getting from Bhanu when they put him on the show. Probably drama that they wanted. Glad he's gone. Not sure how you can call yourself a super fan and have less than zero clue how to play the game. 🤷‍♂️

I've almost completely stopped bringing my big Canon and lenses with me and shoot almost always using my phone (in RAW using Lightroom Mobile). It's much less to carry and still gives me good control over post processing. I'll still use my Canon if I want to blow something up to hang on a wall, if I want shallow depth of field (i.e. like John's monkey pics), if I want to precisely control shutter speed, or if I want to use a regular flash. For other shots, especially typical "snap shots" when posting on social media in a small size, I don't think you can tell the difference.

So I decided to check out the "Bella 3.75" cruise on the Celebrity web site. I'd heard about the infinite veranda cabins (some good, some bad) but figured that I'd opt for a regular balcony. Other than a few aft balconies and a few porthole balconies, it looks like that doesn't exist. I like being on the balcony for morning coffee, for an afternoon cocktail while Micheline is getting ready for dinner, watching sunrise/sunset, looking at the stars, etc. In short, I spend a fair amount of time out there. The biggest knock on the infinite veranda cabin seems to be that the AC shuts off when the veranda window is lowered. In humid areas like the Caribbean, the room quickly gets warm and humid. I think I'd end up using it as a floor to ceiling window rather than as an open balcony for that reason. Not ideal. I know that this has been discussed ad infinitum on the Celebrity board but I'm looking for some quick input from those here who have experienced an infinite veranda cabin. I guess the Retreat is an option but for Retreat pricing, we'd probably do a land trip somewhere or try one of the luxury lines. The Bella 3.75 trip looks appealing to meet and cruise with some of you on a good itinerary, at reasonable group pricing (that's not available for suites). Am I being overly concerned with the infinite veranda?

Double hmmmmmmmm..... Been interested in trying Celebrity.

We are 4 episodes in and love it. It reminded me a lot of a Matthew McConaughey movie from a few years ago that I liked with a similar underground "gardening" setup. Duh...that movie was also called The Gentlemen and was also directed by Guy Ritchie. They loosely used the movie plot to make the TV series. I love the smart humor and the witty dialog between Eddie and Susie Glass. I recognized Theo James (Eddie) but couldn't remember where. IMDB told me that he played "Four" in the Divergent movies. I concur with your recommendation Lenny. I recommend closed captioning 😉

Yes. We've got one from every ship we've been on, including a Disney Wonder (our first) hiding with the Royal ships. We'll be adding Wonder of the Seas this fall but the cabinet is full. I'll need to figure something out...a good problem to have.

Dani - That food all looks absolutely delicious...especially the squid pasta with shrimps. Yum.

Business Class is often a 1-2-1 configuration. Depending on the plane and the airline, the middle 2 seats may be right next to each other. Sometimes the middle seats are angled (like Andrew's picture) so that even though they are technically next to each other, you're not really that close to the person next to you. They do strange things with BC configuration so that there is room to put your feet with the seat flat for a bed, while maximizing the number of seats.