maluhia87

2 hours ago, Funsince1983 said:

I have a very important announcement to make. I have packed for 12 days in Italy and Croatia... IN A CARRY ON. That's all. I still need to get my toiletries and stuff together but 12 days worth of clothes are IN. 

While I would love to be able to do this, I have too much hair for carryon and we always take two fans with us. I was glad for the fans when there was no A/C and temps 25° above normal. 

The hair I could probably do without but used to it at this point.

4 minutes ago, atanac said:

Who have you lined up to drive you home after the procedure and nurse you back to health?

Could it be J****B?

Probably not, since she lives in a different state. 

5 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

I cooked what appeared to be a great looking ribeye, but even though I charred it to a perfect medium rare, it was still as tough as ever... I'm beginning to think I'm "cursed" in the steak department...

 

A couple of ideas regarding this since I cook a lot of steak.  Stop buying grass-fed steaks from Whole Foods, they are generally tougher meat than corn-fed.  Secondly, cook it to medium.  After reading the steak subreddit threads, I've learned a few things.  Ribeyes have more connective tissue that breaks down better when steaks are cooked to medium.  We usually do medium rare for everything but have started taking our ribeyes a bit higher with success. 

Our smoke detector randomly went off at 12:21 am.  It is hard-wired in the house and extremely loud when you are next to one of the detectors.  

8 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

I would to love to have some of those, but of course not to big. What’s the temperature there?

High temperature yesterday was 99°F. After the storm it was 90°F and the heat index was still 103°F.

This happened while we still had our car out. Luckily no damage to the vehicle. 

8 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Pricey and long. We’ve done it 3 times in the last 6 years. Not sure where you live, but from Fort Lauderdale to LAX it’s 5 hours and then to Sydney it’s about 14 hours. Ugh! Enjoy your cruise. Are you cruising around New Zealand and the South Pacific?

Our current plan is to fly Southwest to get to LAX (it will probably take about 6 hours with layovers), we have points/credits we can use for that piece and save around $1K.  Also, I'm concerned about how long it would take to clear customs coming back into LAX. 

Not doing New Zealand/South Pacific, instead doing the Great Barrier Reef version.

Booked Carnival's Fly2Fun for the first time.  We may cancel those and book directly with the airline, but I like having those as backups, which can be cancelled until 60 days before sailing or paid for.  Flights to Australia are pricey. 

1 hour ago, AmyJA said:

Was half joking.

 

I have never owned Birkenstocks.

 

And we don't have Aldi.

I'm wearing Birks today, that is my go-to footwear where there is not snow.😉

Jet lag sucks!

When in Chicago we eat Italian beef 

Final foods in Europa 

Liver dumpling soup

Pork steak with mushroom gravy and fries 

Roast duck with dumplings 

Brewery tour 

4 hours ago, mommio said:

Kansas?

This was either Hungary or Slovakia. 

8 hours ago, Funsince1983 said:

Is this like a fancy hot pocket or something?

Fried cheese

Lunch

Lunch

Dinner tonight 

It is going to be 98°F here today, and there is no air conditioning in our Airbnb. We just have to get through one day before it is back closer to 80°F and very little humidity, where no A/C is doable.

ETA: Average temps this time of year are supposed to be 72°F. I wish that were the case this year. 

Dinner 

Hello from the other side... 

Exhaustion wins tonight, but tomorrow hydro therapy tub (in the bedroom) will reign supreme. 

Ended up with a two hour delay on the first leg. Now waiting in JFK and just had some pizza 

PreTSA in Chicago took about a minute to get through. Now waiting at the gate for leg one before a 5 hour layover in JFK. 

On 6/27/2023 at 10:54 AM, odis said:

They should have a trivia contest at night in addition to the ones in the mornings or afternoons. That could really be interesting.  One ship had an 80s name that tune at 7:00 p.m. in the lobby.  It was a blast.

Some sailings used to have a pub quiz trivia in the Red Frog Pub around 9-10 pm.  Phones were not allowed, and the questions were not themed-based.  We won a few nights of that, including a tiebreaker to guess the age of the host's assistant.  Prizes included a medal and bottle of champagne or fish bowl each night.  

ETA: We used to do pub quizzes at our local bar and were winners/runner-ups most times, so we got really good at random trivia.