UpstateJan

On 2/11/2020 at 4:28 PM, Lois R said:

Hi Jan, nice to see you and glad whatever health issues you were dealing with are now better

Thanks Lois, and same to you.  I was happy to read that you were diagnosed at stage 0, not that radiation is a fun thing.  Here's to your continuing travel, enjoy your retirement.

Greetings coolers!  I love catching up on all the exciting travel & trips everyone has been upto these last couple of months.  I was sidelined with a medical issue starting back in November, but am happily back amongst the living.  Even started back to work last week, albeit part time.  Just need to be in good enough traveling shape for our May Alaska/Canadian Rockies adventure.   Keep all the trip reports coming, and great pics ... still working on my bucket list.

4 hours ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

Lois, sorry we will not meet you on the Seabourn Quest TA. We will have to celebrate your retirement another time.

 

Jan, we return from Greece on Thursday, and may try to get to Exit 9 this weekend. Maybe we can meet you before the big NYS tasting. 

 

JP, if you get to Pinhão on the Douro, we recommend The Vintage House hotel. 

 

Welcome "almost home"!   Hope you have had a great adventure in Greece.  I'd love to meet up, things at the house of slowed up finally, with the exception of the new roommate, who will be starting puppy school on Saturday at Petco across from Exit 9.  Perhaps JP & Chris will join?

9 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Once we get to Madrid, we drop the car off immediately, and then go tapas crawling for two days. That part, I'm eagerly anticipating!

TAPAS!!!!!!   That sounds like a great vacation.

On 10/20/2019 at 8:36 PM, jpalbny said:

Jan, he's a cutie! Just to be clear, I was talking about the puppy, but all of you look adorable in the family photo. 😍🐕

lol... they are both pretty cute.  Ironically Jeremy does have poodle hair, so we suspect Wynne thinks he really is his father.  We're now at day 4, and we had a good night sleep - no crying, whining, or barking from any of us.  House breaking is going well - just one incident yesterday (I think it was Jeremy), and meal times are amusing.   This is the easiest puppy I've ever been around.

21 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

 

Jilly, enjoy every minute while he’s this age. My little terror is 5 1/2 months now and has turned into an absolute monster. Adorable, but a monster none the less. 

 

 

A monster?  Well, Halloween is right around the corner, so we know what he's going as....   

52 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

Awww congratulations Jan. He looks a real sweety 🙂

He's a very good boy.  Wynn is 11 weeks old on Monday, and he is mostly housebroken!!!!  What a sweet, goofy little guy, my husband has fallen hard for him, and Jeremy was not on TeamDog, but I've caught them napping outside together several times this weekend.

Greeting folks, sorry I've been so crazy between house stuff, work stuff, and other stuff.   Then this happened on Friday night - 

On 10/18/2019 at 9:44 PM, jpalbny said:

Glad to hear from you, Lois! And happy that you are enjoying the cruise. We will have to do this itinerary some day.

 

We booked the Ponant sailing, from Singapore to Darwin, for next November. Looking forward to Orangutans in Borneo, and Komodo dragons too.

 

We are at a local production of Sweeney Todd tonight, enjoying it very much. Dinner a few blocks down the street beforehand. They had Schweinshaxe on the menu!

 

 

No meat pies, though.... 😉

 

Hope everyone else has a great weekend too!

YAY Borneo!!!  Enjoy the orangutans, so spectacular to see them swing in for a meal.  Will you get to see the Proboscis or Gibbons?   I hope you do!!!!  Also, interested in hearing your impressions of Ponant, we've considered that for Madagascar/Seychelles.

On 9/30/2019 at 10:04 AM, Jimmyke said:

Funny..., we were cruising the Caribbean as well in March, not SilverSea but Oceania. Our mother joined us. We have an Antarctica cruise planned with Silver Explorer, very much looking forward to that! 

NICE!!!!  I would love to do an expedition again.  We did the Galapagos with Celebrity years ago on their 96 pax ship, which was amazing.  A few years ago we did the Amazon on a 36 pax, and fell in love with Peru.  We just missed out on the last SS sailings to Madagascar, but I keep stalking the site like a wild woman.  Antarctica or the Arctic is appealing, as is the South Pacific.  So many places to see, so few vacation days.

On 10/1/2019 at 7:20 AM, Lois R said:

Good morning, yes!!!!!!!! It is OCTOBER!!!!!!!  And I leave a week from Friday!!!!

Tick tock, tick tock!  Lucky you, I'm ready for a vacation, but that won't be until May.  You're heading to Venice, right? *sigh*

10 hours ago, Lois R said:

Hi Jan, glad you had a good cruise. I didn't realize what ship you were sailing......I sailed her 2 years ago. 

Lois, did you enjoy it?  It is a really nice smaller Big ship.  We honestly had a great time, and didn't mind the "extra folks", because .... the staff was happy, helpful, engaging, and really made us feel like we were on a much smaller exclusive ship.  May I be so bold to say, it seems like we were getting Silversea treatment on an RCCL ship.   A few hardcore RCCL cruisers even mentioned the really great vibe on the ship, but they attributed it to the itinerary .... whatever it was, we were digging it!

With the sibling-in-laws down visiting for the first time since their Mom passed, talk came up about a yearly vacation to keep everyone together.  We have our plans set for 2020, and no one seemed too interested in Alaska  (sorry Ellen, Toronto is not remotely Alaska...), it's looking like Mediterranean for 2021.  Of the four factions, we are the only ones that have done bits & pieces of the Med (and loved it all, would repeat).  Any recommendations for you well traveled folks for first time Med ports "must sees"?   I was thinking Adriatic (little bit if Italy, Croatia, Greece),  or more on the Spain side.  Recommendations are most appreciated.   We will most likely be sailing a more mainstream line (Celebrity or RCCL) as Silversea may be a bit too expensive for most of our companions (especially the 30 year olds).

16 hours ago, mysty said:

Update on critically disabled teak wall unit.  She survived the surgery and is in stable condition thanks to L brackets and multiple screws.  And yes, this piece of furniture does age us!  🙂  She does match the teak table and chairs nicely though.

 

So happy to hear that she is stable, and recovering.  Teak is such a beautiful wood.  We moved our glider from the old house to the new - out on the front porch.  I cleaned it up, and used Murphy's Oil Soap - looks so fresh and happy in it's new surroundings.  Perhaps I need to be "Murphy'd"  😆

On 10/1/2019 at 2:53 AM, FlyingScotSailors said:

JP, we have not been to Tara's Kitchen for a while, but Ann took a cooking class there and now cooks in our tangine at home.

 

Jan, we are on the not so alien West coast, so good that you did not need us to even the odds with your in laws. 

 

Jan and JP, the Exit 9 annual NYS tasting is November 9. We usually have a group of friends there, with supper after at our house. Are you available then, or are you in Portugal? 

 

To any other Coolers celebrating Rosh Hashanah,  L'Shanah Tovah.

 

Shana Tova!  I'll celebrate anything, anytime, anywhere, especially if there's good food involved.    We were thinking about going to the 11/9 event, we're in for the Cider event later this month.  We'd love to meet up with you some time, perhaps sooner than later?

On 9/30/2019 at 8:41 AM, jpalbny said:

That's awesome. A marine version of the Tasmanian Devil in the plumbing system. What could possibly go wrong with that? 

 

Your cruise sounds like it was great! Glad to hear that you enjoyed yourselves so much.

Oh my goodness, can you imagine that getting into the Albany sewer system, forget alligators in the sewer ......  it would be something out of Men In Black!

21 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Yesterday we were finally home for the whole day. But I had to snake out the drain for the laundry room sink again. The washer backed up. That's getting a little old. Think I need something better than a drain snake, to really clean out that pipe. Or a plumber.

JP, perhaps you should have kept that little critter you pulled from the fish tank last week, and put that down the drain instead of a snake?   Then again, I'm not sure I would have wanted to use that sink again.

Just wanted to let you know, we're back from our "big ship who shall remain nameless cruise" of New England/Maritimes.  I have to say, we had a phenomenal time, for the price we paid it far exceeded our expectations.  The food was shockingly really good, not what I remembered from the only other time we sailed on this line.  It was a great group of passengers, we had a lot of fun meeting folks from CC as well as just fun people on the ship.  The staff was super friendly, we had a singing bartender in the Diamond Lounge who was probably better than the entertainers, and was a true delight to spend a bit of time with each evening.  And Mother Nature was thoughtful enough to cooperate, not only in weather, but it amazing vistas, and fabulous critters.  We went on a whale watch in Portland, ME, and were treated to a bevy of sea creatures.  Then, we were treated to seeing whales from our balcony for the next 4 days as well.  Folks that went on the whale watch from Bar Harbor and Halifax were not as lucky as us.   I have to say, Bay of Fundy Trail is just beyond gorgeous, we will go back as there are many more miles to trek.  And yes, Jeremy got to play hero by "tossing" a couple of women across the quickly forming river as the tide started coming in fast & furious.  And then there was lobster ......

On 9/28/2019 at 7:09 AM, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

A move update....

We survived!  The move wemt mostly smoothly.  There was a fatality though.  We have a teak wall unit (8 feet long) that we bought in 1978.  It holds our stereo system.  The movers bundled it up and taped it together.  When the bundling was removed the poor wall unit could barely stand up on its own.  We are going to try to resuscitate it with L brackets and screws at the corners.  Hopefully that will work.

 

We've been busy unpacking and after almost 4 days I can see the floor in places.  The big challenge is finding space to put things.  The storage room in the parking garage is already almost full and there are still things that need to go in there.  I am now thinking I did not get rid of enough things.

 

Today's funny.....(spoiler alert: it's a groaner!)

 

 

Have a great day all!

Oh Mysty, sorry to hear about the dire condition of your teak entertainment center, I will keep it in my prayers for recovery.  We also had a fatality - my Big Green Egg smoker .... shattered in a million little green pieces.  Have not had a chance to consider replacement.  I have also not had the heart to wander downstairs to start unearthing and setting up my sewing & weaving studio, it is an overwhelming chaos of boxes - which I believe may also contain some items we haven't found since we left the old house.   My suggestion, go slow, and drink wine...

On 9/27/2019 at 2:41 PM, FlyingScotSailors said:

Davey, they say that timing is everything. 

 

Your BOD comment left me scratching my head. I could not figure out who the board would want to string up. Another example of two countries divided by a common language!

Good morning fellow Saratoga County cruisers.  I just left the house (and house guests) - yep, I enjoyed a weekend of cultural "huh?".  It's amazing how different my Canadian inlaws understand what I say.  I was so outnumbered (4 to 1), that I had to run down to Mechanicville to grab my brother & SIL to level the playing field a bit - and it was level, we brought the dog too, and he only speaks mid-American 😉.    I If I had thought quick enough, I could have borrowed you & JP/Chris, we could have had them outnumbered, eh?  😆    We did take them to the Exit 9 liquor warehouse, that settled them down a bit....

19 hours ago, Jimmyke said:

 

Yes we remember you as well. Did you do some nice SilverSea cruises or made plans for the future?

We had a nice Caribbean cruise this past March on Silver Wind, which is a lovely ship, hitting all the small islands that were devastated during the 2017 hurricane season.  As usual, the staff was lovely, and we were lucky to be sailing with Keegan from the entertainment squad.  He ran up to us on the pier at check-in, and it was like seeing a dear old friend.  We were surprised he recognized us!  Lucky for us, we had the chance to have dinner with him one night, such a lively, funny, and sincerely sweet man.

Alas, we booked a week up the east coast of US/Canada, which we just returned from, on another line, a BIG ship.  I have to say, we had a great time, met lovely people, but we are investigating our next Silversea adventure.  What do you have planned?  Perhaps we can join you on another amazing voyage like Borneo.

Jan

On 9/24/2019 at 8:36 PM, jpalbny said:

 

But that one doesn't go to Borneo or Komodo...

Oh.... loved Borneo, that was our first SS cruise last April.  Sandakan offers a lot to see!!!!

54 minutes ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great day all!

Love this Mysty!  As I was working late yesterday, gazing out of the window of my new home office .... the maple leaves out front seem very yellow, and then I noticed another tree was not green anymore either,  I believe autumn is upon us!   We have 90% of our unpacking/putting away done (well for the stuff people will see, let us not discuss the basement).  My heart goes out to you for what is upon you.    

Happy to report, we are going to depart for our next adventure on Sunday morning, to cruise with 2500 of our closest friends up the coast from Boston to Halifax & Bay of Fundy.  That jerk Dorian decided to visit just ahead of us, and of course caused some damage, still power outages as well.  So far, it looks like our planned hikes at Acadia NP and Fundy Trail are still on.  

Enjoy Burlington this coming weekend JP & Chris. if you need a good grocery be sure to check out Healthy Living, or need gardening supplies, Gardeners Supply is up there as well.   Plus, depending on the route you drive, most adorable miniature donkey farm on the way, around Essex I think?  

Have a great day everyone!

2 hours ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

Have a great day all!

 

And we shall name him Pepe le Pew

11 hours ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

 

We leave for Alaska tomorrow, for a Seabourn Sojourn cruise.  We then have a few days at home, a trip, a few days at home, and another trip.  We will be home in November, so we should be able to meet with JP and Chris, and Jan (and hubby) at the Exit 9 big annual NYS tasting.  We have not seen a date yet, but it usually is at the beginning of November.

 

Ann & Peter

 

 

Bon voyage Ann & Peter.  I'll be looking for you on the Northway as I make my way down to Albany, can hardly wait to see the traffic on the way home this evening.  We're just over 2 weeks from our sojourn up the coast from Boston, bags packed, some of the few clothes I know where they are!   The new floors are being installed Tuesday-Wednesday, and then I can put everything back, and the rest of the boxes can be put away .... yay!   I'll be so happy not to be living out of boxes.

Have a great day everyone, I need to boogie a bit early today, lots going on in the office, and I need to jump on a call at 8:30 for my friend's business (she's going out for more funding, very exciting).  I was going to ask "is it Friday yet?", but I remembered, IT IS!!!!!!

2 hours ago, rosepark said:

Do you get to do a Melania, Jan, and snog that rather pretty Mr Trudeau?

Rp

Oh, no ... Mr. Trudeau is not my type, I'll stick with my very own Canadian cutie.  Of course, if I was Melania, Bernie Sanders may be looking like an upgrade 🤣

2 hours ago, rosepark said:

Spam, spam , spam, spam, spam wonderful spam....

We had spam fritters at school and the memory is not a good one.

Lois, do consider staying on the Ile St Louis when you visit Paris, it is so central but has a village atmosphere, with far friendlier Parisians than elsewhere in the city, also the best ice cream shop in the entire world, Berthillon.

If you have time to visit more obscure places when you are there, do consider the Musee du Cluny/Musee du Moyen Age, which houses the most wonderful set of tapestries , The lady and the unicorn.

The planning will be as much fun as the visiting

Rp

The Cluny is my FAVORITE!!!!!  I am not ashamed to admit I visited it 3 times in the week we were there in 2017.  We studied some of the holdings back in the post Middle Ages (when I was in high school) - and specifically the tapestries.  So incredible to see up close, and being that I'm a weaver now, breath-taking.  The stained glass and limoges work was also worth the admission, and if you are feeling extra spunky you can join the tour of the old Roman baths in the subbasement - it was in French only, but I was able to understand most of what she was covering.  Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk to the Cluny, so I took full advantage.   Also, Sainte Chapelle for the stained glass windows - really gorgeous.

I'm jealous Lois.  Do you need a travel companion for Paris?  I offer myself as tribute.....