*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[Roe95695]

Good evening breeze buddies. It has been so busy since july 1 for us, I haven't been home a weekend in so long... Back in eugene with.the.family as my nephew and his family.are here and.I haven't gotten to see them for to long..we had.a great day just hanging out. Tomorrow we are going.to the lake I think so that will help with.the.temps.outside. although I am enjoying my time here I keep thinking once we get home on wednesday I get to relax until labor day when we go camping for a week over in florence for crabing and salmon fishing. Our high today was 101 which is HOT for here.

 

Enjoy your weekend everyone..

[MarkASparks]

Had a great day yesterday, had a get together with my fellow Budd / Bosch retirees and had a really good time seeing all my old freinds.

 

Been so busy canning corn, tomatoes, pickles, sauerkraut, beans, whew a lot of work.

[Flick]

Good mornin'! Busy day today...after Church we will spending the afternoon buying up to 40 backpacks for our program beginning this Fall. Today is the last day for "tax-free school purchases" and although we are a non-profit tax free organization, we want to take advantage of any sales that may be happening today.For instance, Family Dollar has backpacks for $5.00 today. Now it is entirely possible that they are too skimpy for us to use since the kids tend to drag the bags home because of the weight (approximately 5-6 pounds per bag) but it behooves us to check them out since our only resource is precious food money. Tonight we will have dinner with friends down from Michigan. They own a house here but only use it 3-5 weeks a year! The rest of the time we take care of the house for them.

[momofzeke]

Morning!

 

Had a fun time at the wedding, it was a gorgeous evening here and not too hot. Lots of friends to talk to and great food and a live band which was pretty darn good. Hardly ever see a live band any more!

 

Haven't heard from The Movers (Brian, Staci & Greg) to find out how it went yesterday. They were trying to get done in time to go camp out last night and boat today with my brother and his family. I know Greg probably made it, but not sure whether Brian & Staci got to or not, since they had to have their rental all cleaned out by today.

 

Heidi ~ cool video! Sorry to hear Eric is lonely, but hope he can make some new friends over there. Who does he live with? Do you think he will want to come home sooner than expected?

 

Robin ~ glad you're enjoying time with the fam!

 

Renee ~ a set-up that turned into marriage! That's pretty cool, glad you had fun at the wedding. Now you need to have them find a great guy and set YOU up. ;)

 

Mark ~ do you grow your own vegies to can? That does sound like a lot of work!

 

Rick ~ here in Oregon, we have no sales tax. Whenever we are out of state and I go to buy something, it always takes me by surprise when the tab is more than the pricetag. No sales tax is pretty darn cool. ;)

 

Cat ~ hope you enjoyed the hot wings!

 

A little windy here today...hope it doesn't blow in a lot of smoke, although I think they are slowly getting that big fire under control. So far it doesn't seem too bad outside. Might be bringing in a storm, though. Possible thunder showers in the forecast. Now that the hay's up, bring on the rain!

[walkswife]

Renee ~ a set-up that turned into marriage! That's pretty cool, glad you had fun at the wedding. Now you need to have them find a great guy and set YOU up. ;)

 

!

 

Sue they are the perfect couple..... for their wedding I bought them a picture frame that says.... "Sometimes in an ordinary life love throws you a fairy tale"...... it is so them:D

 

I cried several times today during the ceremony and then the groom walked up to me and said I will owe you for the rest of my life and I will love you always and gave me a kiss..... can you say waterfalls.....LOL

[HeidiHo]

Good morning!

 

The storms we had yesterday brought much cooler weather. We had been beck up into the 90's but today should be in the 80's and I think it's going to stay cooler for a few days anyway.

 

 

Heidi ~ cool video! Sorry to hear Eric is lonely, but hope he can make some new friends over there. Who does he live with? Do you think he will want to come home sooner than expected?

 

 

Sue - Eric originally said he'd be gone 6 months to a year. I seriously doubt he'll stay a year. His room mate is a guy from Poland and he speaks English so that's good. They don't work together though. His room mate works at a hotel. All the other teachers at the school are Vietnamese and only a couple speak English. I know I mentioned that the son of a another friend of mine went to Vietnam to teach too but it turned out that he's in Ho Chi Minh City and that is quite far from Hanoi where Eric is. He would only get to see Michael if he traveled there.

 

I think there is a girl back here too that he is missing. We didn't know about her until the day before Eric left. All of a sudden on the day before he left these 2 girls showed up here with Eric when he returned from his going away party in the city. They both lived in Champaign and worked at the restaurant with him. I was curious but didn't ask any questions at the time. The girls were supposed to stay with another friend in the city that night but at around midnight Eric came and told me that their plans fell through and they would be staying at our house. OK, no problem. The next day one of the girls (Cheslyn) sat in Eric's room and helped him pack while the other one watched TV in the family room. Up till that morning I wasn't even sure which girl Eric liked. LOL. Eventually the other girl left when someone picked her up but Cheslyn stayed until we were almost ready to leave for the airport. I'm glad she didn't go to the airport with us. She seems like a very nice girl but it would have been awkward saying our goodbyes together considering we didn't even know the girl. Anyway, I didn't hear anything else about this girl until yesterday because Staci talked to Eric and he told her more. He told her that if he was home that he and Cheslyn would be seeing each other and that she might go visit him in in Vietnam in November during her Thanksgiving break. He also told Staci that they Skype every day. So unless Cheslyn doesn't want to wait for him I suspect that when he comes home we'll be getting to know her a little better. Especially since he probably won't be going back to Champaign to live.

 

Depending on how long Eric stays in Vietnam, weMAY go visit him. Airfare is very high though (the cheapest I have seen was around $1200.00 round trip) but once we get there it would be very cheap. I checked prices of hotels and we could stay in a very nice one for less than $50.00 a night. In the end it probably wouldn't be much more expensive than a cruise would be. I've been watching the airfare for November but Staci couldn't go then so just Dave and I would go but I'm also watching airfare for right after Christmas during Staci's winter break so she could go. She's thinking she'd like the trip as an early graduation present. If Cheslyn goes in November we wouldn't want to be there when she is there though. Again, it would just be awkward since we barely know her and she might resent us interfering on their time together.

 

Not much else is going on. I have to work tonight. Have a great day. :)

[Cathy p]

Good afternoon, Breeze buddies!

I spent 3 hours shopping today and got some really good deals. I bought myself a really nice 2 piece bathing suite it was orginally $110 and I got it for $45 with $10.oo off coupon I had. We bought Kenny a new pair of New Balance Tennis shoes for $39.99 along with new Polo socks and with both of those I used 2 $10 gift cards I got for some bank reward and $10 coupon. Then they had Prevacid at CVS and I had $6.00 reward and $3 coupon. So I got that for $41 with a $10 register reward which I used to buy my mints for work. So grand total $227 worth of stuff for $100. Yea me!

In the Kitchen with David on got to go.

[AKB10]

Hello Cupid's!!!

 

Looks like everyone is doing good.

I am glad you are finally doing good Cat. :D

I also had a bad sinus infection, but after 1 week of it I went to the Dr and started antibiotics and a Medrol dose pack, after 48 hours I felt so much better.

 

Sue and Rene - Glad the weddings went good.

 

Heidi, they talked about the storms in Chicago on our weather report. We wont get your rain, but some of the cooler temps are heading this way.

 

Dave, I hope Bettie's weekend with her Dad went good.

 

Heidi, saw the video of Eric teaching, thanks for sharing it. i hope you can find the time to go visit him.

 

Mark, we do not have a garden, but I sure have been enjoying going to the farmers market and getting fresh grown veggies and fruit. The peaches and corn have been my favorites the last few weeks.

 

Rick, good luck on finding good backpacks today.

I wish I could afford to shop this weekend (see below). There are loads of back to school sales this weekend and also tax free weekend here.

 

Robin, enjoy the lake!

 

We are hot, hot, hot here in OKC. On Friday we tied the all time high temp in OKC - 113 degrees. All last week it was 108 or higher. We met or broke several high temp records last week. Of course on Friday morning our air conditioner was working ok. By 10:00 when DS got up to go to work it was hot in the house and the A/C was blowing 104 degree air through the vents. Luckily our A/C guy came out that evening, however it was bad news.

We have been babying our A/C the last 3 to 4 years and it seems this time was it. So we spent Fri night in a hotel and Saturday morning the A/C guy came back with a new A/C unit and installed it. (We elected not to change out the heater at this time, we luckily have never had any trouble with the heater.) So $3,400 later we are finally cooling down. By the time we went to bed the temp was in the high 70's vs the mid 90's we were in before the new A/C was installed.

 

We also have had several wildfires here in OK. The closest to us was about 25 miles away. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed this weekend from the fires. Several small towns have had major damage. No rain is in the forecast and at least next week the temps will just be high 90's and low 100's.

 

 

[roudy1]

Hello Cupids...

Been a busy week and then of course we come home and watch the Olympics...been fun.

I haven't gone back to read all that I have missed...but looks like everyone is doing okay. :)

Well can't stay long...we are headed out for a late lunch/early dinner. Hope all of you have had a good week-end and that the week starts easy for you.

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

 

Kathy, we've been watching all the news from OK concerning the wildfires and te heat. It was terrible news to hear about some of the fires being arson. Some people just don't have any morals. Glad to hear that you got your AC fixed quickly.

 

Char, not much happening here. Trying to stay cool and out of trouble.

 

Heidi, don't work too hard.

 

Watching the Lord of the Rings this weekend. That is keeping me home and occupied.

 

Later,

Dave

[Cathy p]

Char, nice to see you back with us, I missed you.

Heidi, enjoyed the video. What a handsome guy Eric is. I know you are proud.

Everyone else, I am sorry I just skimmed thru the post. So in other words I have not read them.:( I went and set up the bills to be paid next week and cleaned off my desk.:eek:

Chat later and have a happy evening.

[HeidiHo]

We are hot, hot, hot here in OKC. On Friday we tied the all time high temp in OKC - 113 degrees. All last week it was 108 or higher. We met or broke several high temp records last week. Of course on Friday morning our air conditioner was working ok. By 10:00 when DS got up to go to work it was hot in the house and the A/C was blowing 104 degree air through the vents. Luckily our A/C guy came out that evening, however it was bad news.

We have been babying our A/C the last 3 to 4 years and it seems this time was it. So we spent Fri night in a hotel and Saturday morning the A/C guy came back with a new A/C unit and installed it. (We elected not to change out the heater at this time, we luckily have never had any trouble with the heater.) So $3,400 later we are finally cooling down. By the time we went to bed the temp was in the high 70's vs the mid 90's we were in before the new A/C was installed.

 

 

 

 

I came home from work tonight and Dave informed me that our A/C isn't working. Not surprising since it's 23 years old and it has been really working hard this summer. Right now we are OK because it has cooled off (it's only 67 degrees outside right now). He's going to make some calls tomorrow. The problem is it won't cycle on and off, it just stays on so we've turned it off completely for now. I guess if it got real hot again we could use it. It runs constantly when it's real hot anyway. We had planned on getting a new one anyway. We were told a couple of years ago that we really need a new furnace so we were going to do it all at once. Dave has been procrastinating having it done though. It's just so dang expensive. Maybe this is just what he needed to get it done. It's not like he's going to do it himself but he's the one who has to pay for it so he keeps putting it off.

[Flick]

Heidi it's about time you guys up there cooled off! I was getting embarassed about our pleasant and cool weather down here in Paradise while you guys were roasting. Well, perhaps "embarassed" is not the right word....let's try "gleefully cheering"....no, let's go with "awwww". Sorry to hear 'bout the a/c but 23 years is pushing it. We could never hope to get that kind of service from ours because they literally run 24/7 for several months at a time.

[HeidiHo]

Good morning!

 

Today it's only supposed to get up to the low 80's so we should be fine without the A/C. Then tomorrow it's supposed to be around 91 so it will probably be a bit uncomfortable but we should be able to handle it. After tomorrow the temps go back into the 80's for a few days. If we can't get it fixed or replaced soon we should still be OK but I'd like to get it done ASAP in case we have another heat wave. it;s only Aug. 6th and we could still have a lot of hot weather.

 

I gave away my shift tonight so that Staci and I can spend the day together. She Heads back to Normal on Wednesday. I thought she was going to be home another week or so but she has to be back for a recruitment meeting for her sorority on Wednesday night. We're going to get pedicures, do some shopping and go out for either lunch or dinner. I just hope our day isn't spoiled by Dave calling me and telling me I have to stay home and wait for an A/C repair guy. :rolleyes:

 

Have a wonderful day. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good morning Cupids,

Heidi, sorry to hear about your AC. We were in the same situation a few years back. The furness/air handler had played out. The AC was 25 years old so I bit the bullet and had the whole thing replaced. Hope Dave acts on it quickly.

It will hit 100 here again today. The is no relief in sight. Can't wait for fall to get here.

Dave

[momofzeke]

Morning!

 

Sorry to hear about all the HOT temps and air conditioning probs! I have to say, having central air conditioning is the greatest thing since sliced bread! We had it installed when we did our remodel last year, along with the new heating system. Our old furnace was 60-plus years old and our "air conditioning" was a swamp cooler in the living room and a small window air conditioner in the kitchen.

 

I don't believe we have topped 100 degrees this summer. Maybe one day back in July, but right now it has been in the upper 80's mostly. It cools down to the 40's at night though, which is one of the great things about where we live. Even when it gets super hot during the day, it always cools down at night.

 

Brian & Staci got all moved in. They didn't get to go to the lake and camp Saturday night, cause they worked on cleaning the rental they moved out of until midnight. But they did go out yesterday for the day on the lake with my brother, sis-in-law, nephew and Greg & Mal.

 

We shipped a load of calves and cull cows yesterday. We had about 30 calves that didn't go on the trucks when we shipped the weaners, some were too small...others too big...the buyers like to have a nice, uniform set of calves...all pretty much the same size and weight. We also had some cows that needed to go down the road..old, bad bags, bad feet, etc.

 

There were 3 cows in that sale load that calved back in June. Dave said we would sell them as pairs (a cow and a calf is a pair). Well, he made the mistake of putting them in the field right by our house...so each evening, they would all come up here to graze and eat grass clippings from our lawn that Dave puts outside the fence. The 3 baby calves are SO CUTE!! They would run and play and come up on the driveway to sniff around. I got very attached to them and the thought of selling them was making me cry my eyes out every day. I finally told Dave how upset I was...I had named them "Little Blackie" (from the movie True Grit...that was the girls horse), "Little Brownie" and "Little Black Bally" (a black bally is black with a white face).

 

So, after I cried to Dave and told him how upset it was making me, he decided we could keep the 3 pairs through the winter and sell the cows after we wean the calves off them in March. So they got to go out with the main herd yesterday. I was so HAPPY!! If one of those old bitches up and dies on us this winter, I'm going to be in deep doo-doo with my husband, though. :rolleyes:

 

Heidi ~ that's so funny about Eric and the girl. Maybe that will get him home sooner, though. Hope the airfare comes down so you can go visit him. I'm sure that would be quite an experience!

 

I guess I'm lucky, cause my boys talk to us about pretty much everything. Sometimes more than we want to know!! (not so much now, but in Greg's college days....sometimes it was TMI!!) We knew immediately about Mallory, in fact, Greg brought her to a branding after they'd only been dating for a couple of weeks! :eek: I was nervous cause she was from the city (Portland) and I was afraid she would be totally freaked out by the roping, burning, cutting, etc. But she took it in stride like a trooper and never looked back! Brian told us about Staci when he was interested in her, and it took those two a while to get going...they both worked at the TV station and were a little reserved about dating since they were coworkers. But he would keep us updated on what was going on.

 

When the boys left for college, their dad threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't call their mother (ME) every day...cause I was having SUCH a hard time with them leaving the nest. They have been calling pretty much every day ever since! I love it! There will be days when they don't call if they are really busy or something, but most days they do...usually while they are driving to or from work.

[Cathy p]

I came home from work tonight and Dave informed me that our A/C isn't working. Not surprising since it's 23 years old and it has been really working hard this summer. Right now we are OK because it has cooled off (it's only 67 degrees outside right now). He's going to make some calls tomorrow. The problem is it won't cycle on and off, it just stays on so we've turned it off completely for now. I guess if it got real hot again we could use it. It runs constantly when it's real hot anyway. We had planned on getting a new one anyway. We were told a couple of years ago that we really need a new furnace so we were going to do it all at once. Dave has been procrastinating having it done though. It's just so dang expensive. Maybe this is just what he needed to get it done. It's not like he's going to do it himself but he's the one who has to pay for it so he keeps putting it off.

 

I know what you mean, we had to do that with our air conditioner heat pump at our condo in Virginia. A mere $1800 if I remember right. Good luck with finding someone that will look out for you.

[Cathy p]

Good morning Cupids,

 

Heidi, sorry to hear about your AC. We were in the same situation a few years back. The furness/air handler had played out. The AC was 25 years old so I bit the bullet and had the whole thing replaced. Hope Dave acts on it quickly.

 

It will hit 100 here again today. The is no relief in sight. Can't wait for fall to get here.

 

Dave

 

Dave, sorry about your heat. When do you start getting some relief? We are like Rick here in beautiful Florida. Although the humidity creeps up there.

[Cathy p]

Morning!

 

Sorry to hear about all the HOT temps and air conditioning probs! I have to say, having central air conditioning is the greatest thing since sliced bread! We had it installed when we did our remodel last year, along with the new heating system. Our old furnace was 60-plus years old and our "air conditioning" was a swamp cooler in the living room and a small window air conditioner in the kitchen.

 

I don't believe we have topped 100 degrees this summer. Maybe one day back in July, but right now it has been in the upper 80's mostly. It cools down to the 40's at night though, which is one of the great things about where we live. Even when it gets super hot during the day, it always cools down at night.

 

Brian & Staci got all moved in. They didn't get to go to the lake and camp Saturday night, cause they worked on cleaning the rental they moved out of until midnight. But they did go out yesterday for the day on the lake with my brother, sis-in-law, nephew and Greg & Mal.

 

We shipped a load of calves and cull cows yesterday. We had about 30 calves that didn't go on the trucks when we shipped the weaners, some were too small...others too big...the buyers like to have a nice, uniform set of calves...all pretty much the same size and weight. We also had some cows that needed to go down the road..old, bad bags, bad feet, etc.

 

There were 3 cows in that sale load that calved back in June. Dave said we would sell them as pairs (a cow and a calf is a pair). Well, he made the mistake of putting them in the field right by our house...so each evening, they would all come up here to graze and eat grass clippings from our lawn that Dave puts outside the fence. The 3 baby calves are SO CUTE!! They would run and play and come up on the driveway to sniff around. I got very attached to them and the thought of selling them was making me cry my eyes out every day. I finally told Dave how upset I was...I had named them "Little Blackie" (from the movie True Grit...that was the girls horse), "Little Brownie" and "Little Black Bally" (a black bally is black with a white face).

 

So, after I cried to Dave and told him how upset it was making me, he decided we could keep the 3 pairs through the winter and sell the cows after we wean the calves off them in March. So they got to go out with the main herd yesterday. I was so HAPPY!! If one of those old bitches up and dies on us this winter, I'm going to be in deep doo-doo with my husband, though. :rolleyes:

 

Heidi ~ that's so funny about Eric and the girl. Maybe that will get him home sooner, though. Hope the airfare comes down so you can go visit him. I'm sure that would be quite an experience!

 

I guess I'm lucky, cause my boys talk to us about pretty much everything. Sometimes more than we want to know!! (not so much now, but in Greg's college days....sometimes it was TMI!!) We knew immediately about Mallory, in fact, Greg brought her to a branding after they'd only been dating for a couple of weeks! :eek: I was nervous cause she was from the city (Portland) and I was afraid she would be totally freaked out by the roping, burning, cutting, etc. But she took it in stride like a trooper and never looked back! Brian told us about Staci when he was interested in her, and it took those two a while to get going...they both worked at the TV station and were a little reserved about dating since they were coworkers. But he would keep us updated on what was going on.

 

When the boys left for college, their dad threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't call their mother (ME) every day...cause I was having SUCH a hard time with them leaving the nest. They have been calling pretty much every day ever since! I love it! There will be days when they don't call if they are really busy or something, but most days they do...usually while they are driving to or from work.

 

I loved those stories. I would get so attached. I hope the bitches hang on for you.:D

My son calls me every day and if there is a reason he is not going to call. He either tells me the day before or calls my cell phone. I love him and he loves his mommy. My grandchildren are a different story, they call after I sent them something to thank me. Sometimes my grandson will call if he is upset with the little woman. Bless their heart. I do read about them on FB so that helps.

[Cathy p]

Hi, breeze buddies!

I got my scooter delivered today so that will really help me on my cruises. It is great and makes the world of difference.

Went to donate some clothes, to the vet for meds and then to the store to pick up lunchmeat for this week.

 

Kenny. is massaging my neck and back as I type and it feels wonderful. What a guy. He is making Stroganoff for dinner tonight. YUM!!!

 

Well that is it for now. Chat later.:)

[lisag66]

Hi I'm Lisa and will be traveling with Renee aka walkswife. I am new to this so please bear with me. Very excited to be going in 2014 but it seems sooooo far away.

[Cruisin Dave]

Hi I'm Lisa and will be traveling with Renee aka walkswife. I am new to this so please bear with me. Very excited to be going in 2014 but it seems sooooo far away.

Lisa, welcome to the thread. Renee is a veteran at cruising and you could not have picked someone better to sail with. I agree about the length of time. We started Cupids III even earlier. Just hope we don't get allot of drop outs between now and sailing day.

Hope every one has a great day.

Dave

[Cathy p]

Welcome, Lisa, I know that you will have a wonderful time.

Dave, I think it is great to have this so far out. Really gives everyone to save up for spending money and do it up right. Yea!!!!

[walkswife]

Lisa, welcome to the thread. Renee is a veteran at cruising and you could not have picked someone better to sail with. I agree about the length of time. We started Cupids III even earlier. Just hope we don't get allot of drop outs between now and sailing day.

 

Hope every one has a great day.

 

Dave

 

 

Well thank you Dave.... I am getting her all kinds of cranked up for this cruise..... we have done the 360 virtual tour and checked out ports and I hooked her up on here to get to chat and figure out who everyone is..... We were practicing laying in the sun today :D Oh and cocktails......

[MarkASparks]

Morning!

 

 

Mark ~ do you grow your own vegies to can? That does sound like a lot of work!

 

 

 

 

Yes, I grow my own veggies. It is a lot of work but the food is so good.

 

We had a terrible flood here last night, it washed some houses completely off of foundations and across the road. We were not hit but we know some that were. So sad.