The Fleet Report and Daily for Tuesday March 21st, 2023

[StLouisCruisers]

33 minutes ago, dfish said:

Good morning, everyone!

 

I think I'll take the meal, the drink, and the wine!   I love crab and @0106 Tina's recipe sounds good to me.  I'd resort to the canned stuff if I was camping.   I could have used the drink and wine yesterday.  Spectrum decided I didn't need my email account and terminated it.  No notice or anything like that.  It worked just fine on Saturday and wouldn't work at all on Sunday.  Just having it in Outlook was bogging things down.  When I moved and transferred the account from Ohio to Michigan they told me I could keep my email.  Turns out that wasn't the case.  It is an Ohio email and has a different footprint than Michigan.  So, I spent yesterday changing my email on all my accounts and notifying people of the change.  What fun!

 

I don't find out what time my surgery is until later this afternoon.  This hospital makes  you wait until the afternoon before surgery.  Makes it so easy to arrange rides, etc.  I have a provision in my health insurance for 24 rides to medical appointments, but that has to be arranged 48 hours in advance.  The hospital says they couldn't possibly figure out any sooner when surgery would be.  Some might get cancelled and then, horror of all horrors, they would have to call people on the phone. We wouldn't want them to have to talk to people.  I'm hoping for the second slot so we don't have to be there at 5:00 am.  

 

Today I am going to try to finish up my taxes.  Yes, I'll need the drink and the wine.  The first time through the Michigan tax return said I owed $1084.  Really?  I only received one pension payment in Michigan in 2022.  Second time around it said I was getting $21 back.  I'll take that, but don't understand how that was figured.  They have this subtraction thing where you subtract a portion of your pension from the amount brought over from the Federal return.  But, that amount is incorrect for Michigan.  And, I'm not allowed to subtract enough to get to the right figure.  I need to call someone.  

 

I'm hoping the rest of you have a less frustrating day than I will have.  

 

Debbie, I hope you get a good time slot for your surgery and all goes smoothly.  I have a question about your hospital.  In 1973-74 I worked at what was then called Midland Hospital Center in the hospital administrator's office and I believe the location was on Orchard Drive.  My son was born there in Nov. 1974.  Is this the same hospital you will be going to?  I'm sure it's huge compared to then.  It was a nice small hospital back in those days.  

 

[0106]

22 minutes ago, richwmn said:

Unfortunately it was canned crab and we didn't know how to prepare it so it was not good

I believe this is a common problem for people who try crab for the first time.  The MDR has an appetizer called Baltimore crab cake; it is horrible, mostly filler, no old bay, not blue crab.  It is so bad that in my post cruise survey I ask them to remove the word Baltimore from the description.

 

Also, I was talking to the Pinnacle Grill chef on the Oosterdam last November.  I asked him what to order because I don't eat red meat.  He said have the crab cake.  I said, I'm from Baltimore.  He said, don't have the crab cake.  He told me that it was made with Pacific crab (I think Dungeness) which is very different from MD blue crab.  I know that many people enjoy the PG crab cakes but they have never tasted a true Baltimore crab cake made with fresh crab meat.

[aliaschief]

Good morning! Nice clear sunny day out there but a cool 46 degrees. Per DW’s request I called Hal Ship Services yesterday only to find out the cabanas are sold out. Twenty five minutes on hold to find that out!

Made some Panko crusted pork chops last night with sweet potato and sweet peas. I’m enjoying my culinary time in the kitchen. Though I’m pretty sure today’s dish of the day will not be on tonight’s menu.

Need to start getting ready for a scheduled dental cleaning this morning. Seems like I just had a cleaning. Time flys.

Thanks for the report, recipes and humor. Bruce

 

 

 

 

[dfish]

13 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

Debbie, I hope you get a good time slot for your surgery and all goes smoothly.  I have a question about your hospital.  In 1973-74 I worked at what was then called Midland Hospital Center in the hospital administrator's office and I believe the location was on Orchard Drive.  My son was born there in Nov. 1974.  Is this the same hospital you will be going to?  I'm sure it's huge compared to then.  It was a nice small hospital back in those days.  

 

 

That's the one!  It has gone through several iterations since then.  For a while it was Mid-Michigan Regional Health Center with outposts in Clare, Alma and Gladwin.  Now it is MyMichigan.  It is affiliated with U of M Medical but also has ties to MSU and CMU.  When my parents were patients, I thought they received excellent care there.  I also did when I broke my hip in December of 2016.  I do take issue with their billing department.  I made a payment that they sent back because they said it had the wrong account number on it.  Not according to what they have posted in MyChart.  They did this before during the hip experience and then would immediately turn me over to collections.  I fought them for over a  year.  

[cruising sister]

Good morning,

It is another gray rainy day in Kansas. Poor Molly hates to go out in the rain. She is a Diva. 
 

I will pass on the meal. I am allergic. Shellfish allergies really limits a lot of the menu choices on a cruise. Especially since I don’t like fish. 
 

Prayers for those having medical procedures this week. I know it must be hard to wait for your surgery time Debbie. The early times are hardest on those taking us to the procedure since the patient gets to go back to sleep. 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Well here goes the broken record.  Good morning from a very cloudy and windy central Texas.  The forecast for the temperatures for the next ten days has changed -- again.  Today the high will be 75F and it will be in the 70s and 80s in the coming days with the exception on one day at 69F.  Not a bad forecast, but we will still have wind.  After all, it's spring in Texas.  

 

Not much on the agenda today, except to continue to work on various projects.  The big event will be a haircut this afternoon.  It's been six weeks, which is way too long.  Somehow, my stylist did not get my text two weeks ago about needing an appointment.  By the time I got through to her, she was book until today.  I'll be glad to get rid of this shaggy look.

 

I will salute Credit Card Reduction day.  About twenty years ago, we closed most of our credit card accounts, but over the years we've added two because of their perks.  With a couple of exceptions, we have always paid our credit card bills on time.  I do wear my favorite fragrance everyday, but I only put on a light spray.  I enjoy a few poems, but poetry have never really been a big part of my life.

 

The Thoreau quote is interesting.

 

We might try the meal if we could get fresh crabs in landlocked central Texas.  When we lived in Corpus Christi in the early 1970s, we lived in an area called Flour Bluff on a canal with access to the Laguna Madre, which is the area between the mainland and Padre Island.  Once when we took our boat down the Intercoastal Waterway which is part of Laguna Madre, we noticed a great many blue crabs in the water.   Tina, @0106  probably can verify, that is not a place you'd expect to find blue crabs.  It was a very rare event to have them in the Gulf of Mexico.  Sadly, at the time, we did not know how good they are or how to fix them, and we never saw them in the area again.

 

We'll also pass on the drink and the wine.

 

We were in Cairns on November 4, 2002 on Volendam.  I knew this would happen the other day when I shared my pictures of Kuranda and Port Douglas, but I never expected Cairns to be the port of the day so soon.  I'll post pictures of Cairns in a few minutes.

 

@dfish  Debbie, sending positive thoughts for tomorrow that your surgery is the second slot, that it goes well and the surgical team is on top of their game.

@grapau27  Graham, I hope you can get the shots in your other knee and hips.  The steroid shots helped DH for years until it was time for surgery.

@Lady Hudson  Katherine, I'm glad your DH's leg injury is healing nicely.  I also over pack for cruises, but I hate wearing the same few clothes for several weeks when we're on a long cruise.

@seagarsmoker  Enjoy your day in Grand Cayman.  We usually visit Kirk Freeport and go snorkeling off the shore there.  We've also rented cars and toured the island a few times.

@ger_77  Gerry, thanks for the picture of the rabbit circles.

@lindaler  Linda, I hope your luggage arrives tomorrow and is in good condition.

@aliaschief  Great memes today, Bruce.

 

Lenda

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[travelingbums]

Thank you everyone for sharing.

 

Have a great day.

[StLouisCruisers]

14 minutes ago, dfish said:

 

That's the one!  It has gone through several iterations since then.  For a while it was Mid-Michigan Regional Health Center with outposts in Clare, Alma and Gladwin.  Now it is MyMichigan.  It is affiliated with U of M Medical but also has ties to MSU and CMU.  When my parents were patients, I thought they received excellent care there.  I also did when I broke my hip in December of 2016.  I do take issue with their billing department.  I made a payment that they sent back because they said it had the wrong account number on it.  Not according to what they have posted in MyChart.  They did this before during the hip experience and then would immediately turn me over to collections.  I fought them for over a  year.  

 

Billing issues are infuriating!  At the end of 2022 we were fighting with our doctor's office who had billed my insurance for my leg ultrasound last July.  Only problem was they didn't do my ultrasound, the imaging business a block away did (not affilitated to the doctor's office).  My insurance paid the doctor's office and when the bill from the actual imaging center came in they denied it.  Over and over again!  We called everybody from A to Z, wrote letters, had conference calls with our insurance company and the doctor's office.  It's taken a very long time to convince billing departments to do what they were supposed to have done in the first place.

 

One memory of being in Midland Hospital in 1974 is walking out of my room and to the big window at the end of the hallway.  Beautiful view of the wooded landscape around the hospital.  There was a light snow and deer prints on what was the first day of deer hunting season.  I was rooting for the deer, not the hunters!

[ocean sounds]

4 hours ago, summer slope said:

Fire Apple cocktail:

Ingredients
1 part Jim Beam® Kentucky Fire™
1 part DeKuyper® Red Apple Schnapps Liqueur

Instructions
Shake with ice and strain into a shot glass.

 

I think this is the winner for the simplest cocktail yet!  
 

@summer slope, Thank you for always sharing these liquid gems with us 🙏🏻🍷

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by ocean sounds

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

We were in Cairns once in 2002 on the APEC cruise on the Volendam.  As per our usual habit, we rented a car.  We drove north to Kuranda and then further north to Port Douglas.  Since I posted pictures from our drive a few days ago, I'll stick with pictures of Cairns  I do have a few more pictures than I posted before, but most of them were taken from the ship as we sailed in and sailed out both times.  

 

There is a narrow channel ships must transit to reach the dock.  We left Cairns on time, but were only about a quarter mile or so from the pier when the Captain learned there was a medical emergency and a passenger needed to be disembarked.  Captain Peter Harris backed the ship the quarter mile to the pier.  He told us later it was easier and quicker to back up than to try to turn the ship around and sail forward.

 

These pictures were taken as we approached Cairns.  In those days, we got up early and were some of the first people off the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

We did not spend much time in Cairns, but we did stop at Target.  These are the scenes when we drove through Cairns.

 

 

Volendam in the background.

 

The dock and the view from the other end of the street.

 

The small boat harbor

 

Cairns as we sailed headed to Sydney.  The large boats are not yachts, but tour boats that take passengers to the Great Barrier Reef.

 

 

Sail away views

 

 

 

 

Sunset behind Cairns

 

Lenda

 

[Heartgrove]

Good Morning! Thank you Sandi, thank you Vanessa, thank you Tina, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for your contributions to the Daily Report. And thank you all for being here!

 

@dfish Debbie, praying that your surgery goes well tomorrow. Sue thanks you for the tip on using the crockpot for cooking a chicken. We had it for Sunday dinner. Very good!!!

 

@kochleffel Sorry for the loss of your cat, Sasha.

 

@0106 Tina, we really miss having Maryland blue crab here in VA. Just about everytime we made a trip to Baltimore we would time it that we could eat at Nick's Fish House in the Port Covington area. Although I really enjoyed in-season having a Soft Shell crab sandwich at the Tidewater Grille in Havre de Grace.

 

Stay Safe!

 

- Jack

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Heartgrove

[JazzyV]

Good morning. Thanks for the Fleet Report/Daily.

Good days. I pay off balances monthly and have reduced the number of cards I have. But I'm tempted by changing to one with better rewards. I used to wear fragrance, but rarely do any more. I confess I don't read much poetry. I'll pass on the meal (fish/seafood), the drink and the wine.

I haven't been to Cairns, although I have been to Australia.

 

The weather should be nice today, going into the 50's and sunny. But rain the rest of the week. I have a haircut this afternoon. Other than that, just more sorting of stuff in this house to try to get rid of things I don't use.

 

@StLouisCruisers Thanks for starting us up, and your Cairns photos. 

@Cruzin Terri Safe travels to Jacksonville today.

@rafinmd I think as the weather improves we will all feel more energized.

@0106 Thanks for the recipes.

@Lady Hudson It's always tough coming back from vacation. I need to think about laying out clothes for my trip, and trying not to pack too much. I'm glad to hear DH is healing; great of the kids to pitch in and help out.

@kazu Thanks for the memes (that last one is me!).

@seagarsmoker Enjoy Grand Cayman.

@dfish Ugh on the email snafu. And I hope the taxes work out to your benefit. Prayers for an easy surgery tomorrow and quick recovery. 

@ger_77 Thanks for the reminder about changing info if you've gotten a new passport (which I just did). 

@lindaler I hope your luggage arrives intact tomorrow.

@Quartzsite Cruiser Great pictures from Cairns.

 

Prayers for the Care List and Cheers for the Celebration List.

Be well everyone.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Sunday night was one of the clearest nights we've had here.  DH had his small telescope out and captured these pictures.

 

Spider Nebula

 

Sunflower Galaxy

 

Leo Triplets -- galaxies

 

Lenda

[durangoscots]

Good morning. It is snowing, again. Fortunately most of what fell yesterday melted in the late afternoon. Dogs have been out and in and are now back in bed. Sounds like a winner to me. We have 2 more days of this. The downside is that with all the moisture the powers that be have now started piling sand and sandbags at the Fairgrounds and other locations. People in the upper valley are a bit worried.

 

Still not feeling really well.... so I am off to join the dogs for an hour or so.

 

Susan

 

 

[0106]

48 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Once when we took our boat down the Intercoastal Waterway which is part of Laguna Madre, we noticed a great many blue crabs in the water.   Tina, @0106  probably can verify, that is not a place you'd expect to find blue crabs.  It was a very rare event to have them in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Md blue crab season runs from April 1 to December 15.  MD crabs are "fatter" in the Fall, and taste better.  Early in the season and in the off season, crab house get there blue crabs from the Gulf of Mexico, particularly the area around Louisiana. 

 

Oh my... those telescope pictures!  Beautiful.

 

@Heartgrove  Nick's is good, for a change, next time you are in Baltimore, try LP Steamers for crabs.  I love fresh soft crabs too.  Havre de Grace is a quaint small town that I encourage everyone to visit if in the area.

Edited March 21, 2023 by 0106

[sailingdutchy]

Few pictures of our Cairns visit in 2015 , on the way up to Kuranda we took that nice train ride and on the way back we chose the Skyrail over the rainforest which was wonderful .

 

Sorry  (……. yes I am a polite Canadian ) I have not posted much lately , busy  getting ready for one cruise already leaving next week and three other ones for the near future , but I usually do read quickly the Daily . Thanks to all contributors and in particular the people who keep this day in day out going , thank you very much, you know who ! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is proof we were Down Under 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great day everybody ! Please take care and stay safe ! 

 

Tony😄

[dfish]

1 hour ago, cruising sister said:

Good morning,

It is another gray rainy day in Kansas. Poor Molly hates to go out in the rain. She is a Diva. 
 

I will pass on the meal. I am allergic. Shellfish allergies really limits a lot of the menu choices on a cruise. Especially since I don’t like fish. 

 

Oh my!  I think I would rather fight with the hospital billing department than have an allergy to shell fish.   I like meat and do eat it, but most of the time I eat fish.  That is my normal diet.  Meat is for company.

 

1 hour ago, cruising sister said:

Prayers for those having medical procedures this week. I know it must be hard to wait for your surgery time Debbie. The early times are hardest on those taking us to the procedure since the patient gets to go back to sleep. 

 

Yes, I do get to go back to sleep.  The biggest benefit of being the early slot is that no one ahead of you has a complication and sets the schedule back.  Once my dad had an 11:30 slot.  He didn't get taken to surgery  until 5:30 pm.

 

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

Billing issues are infuriating!  At the end of 2022 we were fighting with our doctor's office who had billed my insurance for my leg ultrasound last July.  Only problem was they didn't do my ultrasound, the imaging business a block away did (not affilitated to the doctor's office).  My insurance paid the doctor's office and when the bill from the actual imaging center came in they denied it.  Over and over again!  We called everybody from A to Z, wrote letters, had conference calls with our insurance company and the doctor's office.  It's taken a very long time to convince billing departments to do what they were supposed to have done in the first place.

 

This billing department still doesn't get it.  They change account numbers like the rest of us do underwear.  Or most of us.  They won't take a check from my bill pay at the credit union and they won't take the debit card from the credit union.  I can only use another credit card.  I didn't want to put this on a credit card because it then becomes credit card debt, not medical debt.  

 

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

One memory of being in Midland Hospital in 1974 is walking out of my room and to the big window at the end of the hallway.  Beautiful view of the wooded landscape around the hospital.  There was a light snow and deer prints on what was the first day of deer hunting season.  I was rooting for the deer, not the hunters!

 Back when it was Midland Hospital we used to make regular trips out to see the babies in the nursery.  They had a wonderful set up so big brothers and sisters could see their new sibling.  I think the deer around the hospital were pretty safe.

[NextOne]

Good morning, friends! It was a bit chilly this morning (27F), so the fuzzy freeloaders (aka Thumper & Lola) volunteered to warm my chair up for me. So considerate!

 

 

[Cruising-along]

Good morning all!

Another cool, drizzly day here in the PNW.  The forecast shows sunshine tomorrow, so that's a nice surprise.

 

We pay off our credit cards every month.  We do use them for every purchase to add up those points.  No fragrances for me, not anymore.  There are too many folks who are sensitive to scents and also this gardener is allergic to all bee stings so I really don't want to attract the critters to me. Just stay on the flowers. 😉    I'm terrible at poetry.

 

I like the quote, have had this (local) wine before and liked it, and know I would love the meal.  I prefer crab over lobster.  And sorry Tina @0106but this NW gal loves our Dungeness crab. 😂 I do need to try some Baltimore crab.  I'll pass on the drink, and Cairns is on our Grand Australia itinerary.  Thank you Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser, Sandi @StLouisCruisersand Tony @sailingdutchyfor the great photos.  Also Lenda please thank your DH for the always amazing photos!!

 

Susan @durangoscotsI really wonder if you have the same thing I had in December.  It took me a month to feel "normal" and was very, very sick for 2 weeks.  Lost 10+ pounds and it was the worst flu I've had since the 70's. Hope you're 100% soon!

 

This morning I have my bone density test, nothing else on the agenda today.

 

[RMLincoln]

Sunny, cool day in Maryland. No crabs in sight!  But I do keep some Phillips crab cakes in the freezer 😉

Blessings for all the medical appts happening. We look forward to good reports!  

We won’t get a time for DH’s eye surgery till next Monday for Tuesday. Waiting on a call about the extra payments for the cataract lens, no replies from the office. Haven’t gotten word of the prescriptions he’s supposed to start before the surgery, sometime this week. My lessons are to be calm (sometimes hard for me) and accept that there are things out of my control (always very hard for me). You all help me along by your sharing about how things don’t always go easily but you all somehow seem to manage, and you give me hope that we will to!  Thank you all!  
 

Blessings to all in need of healing, comfort or hope. Cheers to those celebrating joys of Life! And smooth, happy sailing to all the cruisers!  
 

We were in Cairnes in October 2013 on our Oz 6-week land trip after cruising Volendam LA to Sydney. We stayed a few days with each of two sets of friends(Newcastle and Arundal) that we met on a T-A on Ruby Princess in 2010 and kept in touch with - even hosted some of them and their friends in New Mexico.  The photos bring back grand memories. We took a taxi from our hotel to the tour boat to get to the Great Barrier Reef, had a magnificent day, then slowly walked back to hotel from the harbour in the heat of the later afternoon. The next day we took the scenic train to Kuanda, cable car down. I never imagined I would see such sights! As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, the dream of seeing Disneyland as pictured in my fourth-grade geography book was as far away as those stunning galaxies pictured above. Life is good!  On days when I feel the burdens more than the blessings, I work on my list of, What’s good right now!  So much! even on the tough days. 
Maureen 

[grapau27]

Debbie @dfish.

Good wishes for tomorrow.

Graham xx.

[RedneckBob]

Thanks for the Fleet Update and General Info SLC. 
And now for World Poetry Day, hear is a poem for the Misses.

 

Collards is green, my dog’s name is Blue

Am I’m so lucky to have a sweet thing like you

Your hair is like corn silk a flapping in the breeze

Softer than Blue’s and without all them fleas

You move like a Bass which excites me in May

You ain’t got no scales but a luv you anyway.

 

Luv, RNB

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

1 hour ago, durangoscots said:

Good morning. It is snowing, again. Fortunately most of what fell yesterday melted in the late afternoon. Dogs have been out and in and are now back in bed. Sounds like a winner to me. We have 2 more days of this. The downside is that with all the moisture the powers that be have now started piling sand and sandbags at the Fairgrounds and other locations. People in the upper valley are a bit worried.

 

Still not feeling really well.... so I am off to join the dogs for an hour or so.

 

Susan

 

 

 

Susan, I'm sorry your are still not feeling 100 percent, and glad to know you are getting much needed rest.

 

1 hour ago, 0106 said:

Md blue crab season runs from April 1 to December 15.  MD crabs are "fatter" in the Fall, and taste better.  Early in the season and in the off season, crab house get there blue crabs from the Gulf of Mexico, particularly the area around Louisiana. 

 

Oh my... those telescope pictures!  Beautiful.

 

 

Tina, thanks for the information about the blue crabs.  I didn't know there were blue crabs in Louisiana.  That makes sense about the crabs being in Corpus Christi, but that's still a long ways from Louisiana.

 

30 minutes ago, dfish said:

This billing department still doesn't get it.  They change account numbers like the rest of us do underwear.  Or most of us.  They won't take a check from my bill pay at the credit union and they won't take the debit card from the credit union.  I can only use another credit card.  I didn't want to put this on a credit card because it then becomes credit card debt, not medical debt.  

 

 Back when it was Midland Hospital we used to make regular trips out to see the babies in the nursery.  They had a wonderful set up so big brothers and sisters could see their new sibling.  I think the deer around the hospital were pretty safe.

 

Debbie, I hope you get the hospital bill straightened out, and that you can still count it as a medical debt.  I also hope you can get the taxes straightened out too.

 

3 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:

Thanks for the Fleet Update and General Info SLC. 
And now for World Poetry Day, hear is a poem for the Misses.

 

Collards is green, my dog’s name is Blue

Am I’m so lucky to have a sweet thing like you

Your hair is like corn silk a flapping in the breeze

Softer than Blue’s and without all them fleas

You move like a Bass which excites me in May

You ain’t got no scales but a luv you anyway.

 

Luv, RNB

 

RNB, like I said earlier, I'm not much into poetry, but the redneck poem was one of the exceptions. 👍

 

@kochleffel  Paul, I just saw an article in the Washington Post about the couple with the pet Nutria in Louisiana.  The state backed down and issued them a permit to keep Neuty with certain conditions.  I don't have the link to the article on my computer.

 

Lenda

[grapau27]

Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser.

Thank you for your amazing photos of Cairns and for your reassuring words on Steroid injections in my knee and hips.

Both hips are painful when moving and both have on a couple of occasions given way.

Graham x

[grapau27]

Tony @sailingdutchy.

Thank you for your collection of Cairn photos.

A nice photo of your dear wife too.

Graham.