bobmacliberty

Any drink with just an alcohol and a mixer (Jack and Ginger, Dark and Stormy, G&T, etc.) I free pour everything. I use pour spouts and have gotten pretty good at measuring by counting. Any drinks that involve multiple ingredients, I will still measure to ensure consistent taste. Sometimes, making the drink is as much fun as drinking the drink. 😉😏

We were billed separately for water and sewer in Ohio but did not have separate meters. They automatically gave us a sewer credit when we filled our pool (based on typical usage) and gave us a credit somehow during the summer to reflect watering the lawn. Made sense to me.

We get rid of all of our winter stuff.

Interesting. First 3 must be NY, Florida, and California. What's the 4th? Illinois because of Chicago?

I don't use simple syrup in my Mojitos. I muddle a cut up lime, a tablespoon of powdered sugar, and 12 mint leaves (mint leaves at the bottom so that they don't break up). Fill glass with crushed ice and then add 2 oz rum. Top with club soda. Probably less minty than using the mint syrup that you made.

A few seconds (literally) after I hit the submit button on my last post, the A/C kicked on. Who knows what's happening. 🤷‍♂️

Soooo...my A/C fix did not "stick". It worked for a few hours this morning but now back to the same problem. Not sure if it's the thermostat or an issue with the heat pump compressor. A/C repair guy will be here tomorrow. Until then, all ceiling fans are on full blast. High ceilings also help keeping the heat up above us. Currently 82F outside and 79F inside. Warm but not intolerable.

We had what is hopefully just a minor air conditioning scare yesterday. We were watching TV after dinner when Micheline complained (ahem...commented) that it was warm in the house. If I am a little cold in the house, she's comfortable. If I'm comfortable, she's warm. Since I was comfortable, I checked the Nest app on my phone and it was 76 degrees. I got up to look at the thermostat itself and there was an error message saying no voltage on the Rc wire. After a minute, it then said that the backup battery is almost dead and it needed to shut down. I checked what I could in the breaker panel and out at the compressor (in the dark with a flashlight) but everything looked OK. The common wire in the thermostat backplate was not all the way under the C terminal block, so I was guessing that the Nest was not charging properly (it charges from the common wire when the heat or A/C is not running) and that the low battery may have been the reason for the error message. I took the Nest off the wall and plugged it into an outlet overnight to fully charge the battery. The house was 78 when we woke up but when I put the Nest back on the wall and turned it on, the A/C started working. Good thing because today is supposed to hit 91. I'm not sure that I've really solved the problem so I'll need to keep an eye on it. I think I'll also have the HVAC people come out and do a full check on the system. If there is a hidden problem somewhere, it will almost certainly show up on a 90+ degree day.

I forgot about these little things? small things? Can't remember what they're called. Allure was our first Oasis class ship and I remember enjoying finding them around the ship. I don't recall seeing them in Harmony or Symphony. Did they stop doing this after Allure?

I hope they get some feedback that people like the show better without the drama. I would watch it if it's just about traveling to beautiful places in style, with a behind the scenes look at running a super yacht. I can't handle the drama though. I'm guessing that more people prefer the show with the drama rather than without.

Scary stuff. It's great that your nephew was there and knew how to respond. Hopefully Jim is home and sleeping comfortably now.

Our daughter, who is getting married next fall and just moved into a condo, decided that the first thing her condo needed is a kitten. Meet Goose. It took Goose less than a day to make himself at home and cuddle with his new parents. They were going to name him Maverick until they found out that Maverick would be the name of friend's baby if it's a boy. It's purely coincidental that he is a Grey Goose. 😉

Thanks for the confirmation. The cheaper flights are either too early in the morning or too late in the evening. A mid-day flight will cost $500 or more with luggage. Looks we'll be sitting on a bus for several hours. Joy. Now to decide between the Quick Shuttle that goes almost literally door to door but involves sitting on a bus for 4:50, or taking an Amtrak bus that "only" takes 3:30 but needs taxis to/from the train stations. I think we'll choose Amtrak just for the shorter bus ride.

Disney Springs is the new name for the area that was formerly called Downtown Disney. It has a lot of shops, restaurants, bars, and few extra pay items like a tethered balloon ride (similar to the one at Coco Cay) and bowling. It's a glorified outdoor shopping area but it does have a few things that you won't easily find elsewhere like a huge Disney store, a cool Lego store, and "immersive" restaurants like Rainforest Cafe and T-rex Cafe. It's just off I-4 and has its own large, free parking area, so no need to go to the transportation hub. Ubering that far might be expensive. More info here.

One other thing to be aware of...queues to get on the rides can be very long. I'm not sure how the fast pass works now, but I'd guess that you will only be able to ride 2-4 of the popular rides in a 4 hour window in the summer when crowds are at their greatest.

A little more info on 5G that might explain the different speeds that people are seeing. 5G is really a marketing term used as a general name for the 5th generation of cellular communication. There are a few different flavors of 5G, and each mobile phone company has different strategies on how they will deploy various 5G flavors. "High band" 5G uses high frequency radio signals. This gives the really fast speeds and low latency that is the dream of 5G, but also means that the signal cannot travel as far. Lower frequency signals travel further distances than high frequency signals. This is why AM radio stations can be received hundreds of miles away while FM radio stations are much more limited. These high band 5G signals are also more susceptible to interference from objects, walls, even rain. For high band 5G to work consistently well, mobile companies need to install many, many nodes (the things installed on a tower or building). This is very expensive and deployment of high band 5G is limited to more populated areas, varying by mobile provider. Verizon calls this 5G Ultra Wideband. AT&T calls this 5G+. T-Mobile calls this Ultra Capacity 5G. "Mid band" and "Low band" 5G use lower frequency signals. Low band is in the same frequency range as current 4G/LTE and provides only a slight improvement in speed over 4G/LTE, based on some behind the scenes ways that 5G better utilizes the radio waves. Low band signals however can travel farther than high band 5G and have less concerns about signal interference. Your user experience on low band 5G will be a lot like current 4G/LTE, only a touch faster. You will however see 5G on your phone's status bar rather than LTE. Low band 5G is cheaper to deploy because you need many fewer nodes than high band 5G. Mid band is a compromise between low and high band for both speed and signal distance. If you are lucky to have a high band 5G node VERY near where you live, you might experience very fast 5G speeds (possibly what OB has). Most of us however will first see low band 5G and won't see much improvement. Here a few videos (from 2020 so a little bit dated) that go through this in more detail ranging from least technical to most technical Marques Brownlee - 5G: Explained! The Verge - How 5G Works: the pros and cons Real Engineering - The Truth About 5G

Looks like June Gloom may have ended??

Thanks. Sounds like we'll need to decide between the bus and a plane.

One other data point. I turned Wifi back on and ran the speed test again. I've got 1GB AT&T fiber in my house. Download was 592, upload was 606, and ping was 21. Lots of bandwidth so we can stream to multiple devices at the same time with no problem.

Here is another reference point. I just turned off Wifi on my phone so that I'm connected via LTE. No 5G near my house yet. I ran the speed test and ended with download speed of 39, upload of 1.1, and ping of 65 ms. You are significantly faster. Beware that 5G can drain your battery faster, although I'm not sure how much. You may need to watch that over the next few days. My iPhone has a setting called 5G Auto which will only enable 5G if there is a "noticeably better experience". If not, it will stay on LTE to save battery. You probably have a similar option. 5G is VERY fast when you are near a tower, but speeds drop off quickly with distance. For 5G to truly deliver its promise, providers need a denser deployment of towers. That's why it's taking longer to get 5G everywhere.

We end our Alaska cruise in Seattle on Sept 26 this fall and then 3 days later begin a cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii. I'm looking at options to get from Seattle to Vancouver. We'd ideally Uber from Pier 91 to the Seattle train station and then take an Amtrak train, but it's not clear when that train will start running again. Anyone have any local knowledge about when those trains might start running? Plan B would be to rent a car and drive ourselves. That way, we could keep the car for a day or 2 in Vancouver. Every web site that I've used to search for cars tells me that there are none available. Are rental cars still not able to drive into Canada? Flying is an option but it's both expensive (including getting to/from the airports), has the hassle of getting to/from airports, and doesn't really save a lot of time since I'd book a mid-day flight to be safe. That leaves buses. The Quick Shuttle looks convenient since it would pick us up at Pier 91 and drop us literally at the curb of our hotel in Vancouver (Pan Pacific). I'm not excited about sitting on a bus for almost 5 hours. How long are the stops at the Tulalip Premium Outlets and the Bellingham Airport? Do you have enough time to go to the bathroom and stretch your legs? Does the bus stop at all of the Vancouver locations (River Rock Casino, Holiday Inn, etc.)? I can't find a detailed itinerary on their web site. The Amtrak bus is only 3.5 hours and gets us there 30 minutes early but we'd have to add taxis to/from the train stations. Is there any significant difference in comfort between the 2 bus options? Sorry for such a long winded question. I'm essentially looking for anyone with insight into Amtrak trains running again, one-way rental cars, or the Quick Shuttle, plus any and all opinions on what you would do. Thanks!

Like many things in life, it depends on how much time and money you have. It takes about an hour to drive in each direction, although could be longer if you run into traffic. I'd leave myself plenty of time for the return trip. If there is a problem on the Beeline Expressway, there are not many alternate routes and you could get stuck in traffic. A single day pass for a Disney park is also VERY expensive now...especially if you're only there for part of a day. There are some free things that you can do, like Disney Springs with shops and restaurants.

Just now seeing this thread. Must have been a weird experience walking across the street from the ship to your condo, doing a little work from home, running a load of laundry, saying hi to the dog, and then walking back to the ship. Enjoy the rest of your cruises!

That looks very tasty. Do you plan to do a live thread? Some occasional posts here? Nothing until you are done and get home? A normal person would probably enjoy their holiday and then think about posting online later. Many of us here are not normal in that way.

Greg - Did you see a more detailed recipe related to the frozen Dark 'n Stormy? I couldn't find this one online. I tried 1 oz fresh lime juice, 1 oz ginger syrup, 2 oz Goslings rum, and 2 cups ice in a blender. It initially looked slushy but then liquid settled out. Maybe more ice? The taste was good though.