Getting Ready for Christmas

I'm back from Egypt and had a wonderful time. When I get around to downloading my pics I'll post some of my favorites and write a short review. But now it's time to get ready for Christmas.

We got the yard scene out of the garage yesterday and set it up. Three pieces (manger scene) so that was easy. Brought out the Christmas tree that stays decorated and covered all year in the garage. The lights work, but it doesn't rotate any more. We've had it for eight or nine years, so I think we've gotten our money back.

We aren't doing much in the way of presents this year but are putting money toward the cruise instead. We are getting a few things and I got most of Marcia's stuff today, though I'm still looking for that Gator polo shirt she wants. Mom and dad will get stuff from Omaha Steaks (already ordered) and the boys will get a gift card to the Outback.

Now I have to start cooking. I need to make blueberry jam tomorrow and start the Christmas cookies. I have the list of stuff ready for the Christmas Open House, but I need to make a shopping list of ingredients. Then I need to get the ingredients for the dishes for the Christmas dinner at Linda and Elaine's.

Then we add in a Christmas play, at least two, maybe three choir performances, a movie or two out, a drive to see the lights, a trip to NFRMC to see the pond all lit up, a Christmas party at Curves, shopping with Armando, and a couple of basketball games. All of that is ON TOP of our normal crazy schedule.

I might complain a bit, but I do love the holidays. I just plan on sleeping when they are over.

Getting Ready for Egypt, Final Edition

Three days to go!!! It really came a lot quicker than I thought. I've been busy this last week to get those little items taken care of and marked off the list.

First, do you know how hard it is to find a small brush nowdays? I want to take 2 little brushes with me--one for the toiletry kit and one for the carry-on bag. Took me weeks to finally find something close to what I was looking for.

Second, if I'm 5'10" and have a 30" inseam, why did the scrub pants I ordered in average length need to be taken up 4 inches just to get off the ground? I couldn't believe how long they were. I got some of that tape you iron under hems to shorten the pants, but there was a problem: neither one of us knew where the iron was (yes, it has been a long time since it has been used). I had to go borrow one from our neighbors.

Third, why is the backpack for daytrips heavier than what is in the suitcase? It's amazing what goes in there: sunscreen, bug spray, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pens, a snack bag, a water bottle lanyard, a clip on flashlight, a hat, sunglasses, a first aid kit, extra medicines...it really is quite a production.

Anyway, the last load of clothes is in the washer right now and I can finish packing when it is done (socks). My ipod is loaded and charged, the camera batteries charged and ready, all memory cards clear, the adaptor packed, all addresses written down, the car was washed and vacuumed out today (don't want Elaine to have to ride down to Orlando in a smelly heap), wallet packed (!), passport ready.

At 115pm on Thursday I'll pick up Elaine and we head out to the airport. When I get back I'll figure out how to post pictures. Back after Thanksgiving!!!

HALLOWEEN

I'm not a big fan of Halloween. I just can't resist the candy. I don't like to pass out treats (pretzels this year) to the kids that ring the doorbell. It drives the dogs and cats crazy and Marcia isn't here this time to hand the treats out. She likes to see the little kids in their costumes.

When I was a kid I never really liked to dress up for Halloween either. We used to have to do it for school and have a parade around the playground. My mom was pretty creative in coming up with costumes, but I've never really liked to wear them.

Going trick or treat was okay, but we were only allowed to go to the homes of people we knew. Since we lived overseas (on base) when I was this age, that was pretty easy to do and mom and dad knew a LOT of people.

Going through the candy at the end of the night was interesting. Mom would get most of the ones with coconut (I never liked Almond Joy or Mounds) and she would steal a few of the Snickers. My brother and I would trade some of our candy with each other. Candy corn was (and still is) my favorite. I, of course, would eat my candy fairly quickly. My brother would parcel his out slowly and then when mine was gone he would bribe me with candy to play with him. I would take the candy and find a way to get out of playing as fast as possible. We were both bad.

Not my favorite time of the year, but always good memories. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

SINGLE MOTHERHOOD

Marcia left at 4am to catch a plane to head to Boston to visit her mother. Yes, I get along just fine with Marcia's family, but I leave in two weeks for Egypt and can't afford any more time off.

So I'm a single mother to seven babies for the next five days. The whole week before she left Marcia was giving me reminders about their feeding schedules, their medicines, their treats, their potty times, etc. Makes it sound like I never do anything with the babies doesn't it? I do things like buy the food, keep the food containers full, and keep us in a steady supply of kitty litter. I don't usually deal with all of these other items.

I had to set my alarm thirty minutes earlier so I can take care of the kitty feedings, get the dogs outside, pass out doggie medicine and treats, and give Grayson his medicine. Pee pee pads for the dogs are changed, one cat put on the patio to take care of her business, Tigger takes care of whatever the kitties left on their plates.

I just did the dinner run. Feed the dogs (with appropriate meds), clean the litter boxes while they are eating, and then take them outside separately to take care of business. Then the kitties wanted some treats and Joel is pestering his sister Bindi.

I really don't think we pay Laurel enough when she stays here and takes care of them when we are gone.

I still have the bedtime routine to do tonight as well--another potty run, fresh water, treats, more medicine for Grayson.

Marcia is sure I'm going to forget something, so I had to run down and list everything I did today to make sure I had it all covered.

Sigh, four more days to myself (sort of)...

Friday

What a beautiful day today in Gainesville!!! Sunny but not hot, nice breeze. I'll take it.

I'm spending my afternoon being a domestic goddess. Don't laugh!! I'm on the third load of laundry and I made a triple batch of spaghetti sauce that is being canned in pints as I write. Makes for some easy dinners when we are busy.

Under 4 weeks until we leave for Egypt. I am so ready to go. The documents came by email yesterday and caused about 20 hours of anxiety. The flight to Frankfurt had been changed to three hours later than originally planned and there was very little chance we would make the connection to Cairo in only 30 minutes of layover. There was no way our luggage would have made it. We would have been put on a later Egypt Air flight and would have arrived in Cairo at 5am, after travelling for two days.

I get an email today telling me of a schedule change, but a different one than the one I discovered last night. Either Gate 1 or Lufthansa changed us to United and we leave at the same time and arrive at the same time (pretty much), but going through Dulles. We didn't want to have to change planes, as every time you change a plane your luggage has a higher likelihood of getting lost. I'm just going to pack a bigger carry-on to cover that possibility and think good thoughts instead.

The next problem was that the new reservation didn't have assigned seating. I took care of that by phone but all of the good seats (2 seats instead of the 5 across) were already taken. I owe Elaine big now as she will let me have the aisle seat and she will be the one squished next up to someone else on the other side.

Let's pray they don't change anything else!!

Now, for my Friday night...Marcia is going to an awards banquet and I'm staying home and doing research for the trip. I'm watching "The Mummy". I claim it is for research, but Marcia knows it is because I like to look at Rachel Weis for 2 hours. The things I have to sacrifice in order to be prepared for this trip! A bottle or two of the hard cider I found will also be available for my sustenance. Good thing I get to sleep late in the morning!

Life is Expensive

Just a recap of our last week or so. Last Wednesday my car battery died. Tuesday we took Marcia's truck in for a tune-up and minor repairs. Then on Thursday we found that the washing machine was dead. I think the lightening from the storm on Monday fried the motherboard. It would be more to repair an 8 year old washer than to replace it, so we bought another one. While I was trying to call Marcia to tell her the news and get her approval, she was trying to call me because the "check engine" light came on in the truck. That turned out to only be a loose gas cap and they didn't charge us the $80 for the diagnostic. Then when they delivered the washer on Friday the drains backed up so we had to call a plumber. Since we had to pay him for a whole hour anyway we put him to work on some smaller stuff as well.

We are now officially broke for the month and it is only the 3rd. I look at the children and tell them they better not get sick because vet visits are expensive too. They don't really take me seriously for some reason....

Getting Ready for Egypt, Part 2

Sorry Elaine, but we are at 6 weeks and counting now until we leave. It's getting closer :) I'm doing some more research to cheer myself up after a very nasty headache today and a dead washing machine that meant we had to go buy a new washing machine. Oh well...

The first thing I did to research this trip was to find threads on Cruisecritic.com and on TripAdvisors.com that pertained to similar trips. Luckily I found a VERY long thread on each site that covered the exact trip we ended up choosing. I learned interesting things like the custom of "baksheesh" (tipping for everything) and what to use for the "mummy tummy". There were many links on the threads to different blogs with thousands and thousands of pictures of the different temples, pyramids, street sights, etc. There was information on what to buy and where to buy it and what to avoid, what we absolutely HAD to see and what we could safely skip if we are too tired, what food to try, where to find a McDonalds (for the souveniers), what the hotels were like, and hints on what to do to prepare and what to pack. I took pages and pages of notes.

Second step was to get a guidebook. I chose the Lonely Planet guide. I still have to study it some more and compare to my notes so I can see which tombs I need to try to see in the Valley of the Kings and where I need to head to in the Egyptian Museum. You have to have a gameplan for those places or you might end up missing something that you would have loved seeing. There are also helpful hints like the fact that some tombs have tons of stairs and some require you to climb a ladder. That's not going to work for me, so I'll make sure to avoid that one.

Next step was to get visual. Since Cathy and Evelyn talked us into joining NetFlix I ordered DVD's to be delivered to the house. The first ones were really pretty good--they were re-enactments of 3 different stories. Then another set that put me to sleep; I guess I need some of the drama and not just narration. Another set I watched on the computer and it was okay. I have three more to watch online and maybe one or two more to order. Most of them cover the same materials: the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, King Tut, and Rameses the Great. Good stuff, but I don't need to go over it and over it again.

Then there is just the general reading. I have websites that I need to visit, including an interactive one designed for kids on being an Egyptologist and one on all of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. I've dusted off the coffee table books and have started to tackle them.

I don't think I can be over-prepared. We are covering a couple of thousand years, twenty or so dynasties, so there is a LOT to cover. I just don't want to be ignorant. I hate those tourists that end up somewhere and ask really stupid questions that show they don't have a clue about the history or culture of the place they are visiting. Research allows you to ask the more intelligent questions and fill in the gaps in your knowledge and tie it all together.

If you want to see our itinerary, go to www.gate1travel.com and click on Africa, then Egypt, then choose the 15 day Egpyt, Red Sea and 7 day Nile Cruise, and that will show you where we are going.

Getting Ready for Egypt, Part 1

Just a little over 7 weeks to go until Elaine and I get on a plane in Orlando and head to Egypt for a two week trip. Pyramids, mummies, King Tut, the Nile, hieroglyphics, tombs...all of these things say "Egypt". Egyptology was not offered as a class when I was in college so I never officially studied it. I have studied it on my own for many years now. I have coffee table type books on Egypt that I've had since high school. I've been to a lot of museums throughout Europe that have very good Egyptian collections, including the British Museum. (We will forget for the moment that most of their collection was stolen from the Egyptian people in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.)

Since I've already seen mummies and other archaeological finds, why am I going to Egypt? Mainly becase I can. I was reading a copy of "Budget Travel" magazine shortly before my birthday last year. I ran across a trip to Egypt that was described in the "DEALS" section and couldn't believe the price was so low. I showed it to Marcia, but she wasn't interested. I told Elaine about it at my birthday dinner shortly afterwards, and she was interested. Now, in all fairness, I did ask other people if they wanted to go with us, but everyone else that expressed an early interest changed their minds.

With an interested person to go with, I started to research. I looked at several companies and we ended up choosing Gate 1 Travel. We ended up saving a good chunk of money over the other company I originally was interested in. Then we had to pick a date. That's not as easy as it sounds. I could go just about any time, but Elaine has work and family responsibilities. October sounded like a good month, but it didn't quite work, so we ended up picking November 11 as a start date. We return on Thanksgiving evening two weeks later. A phone call to the travel company, a credit card number and other info and we were booked on a non-refundable airline ticket. Guess we are going! Final payment was made about six weeks later. My bank account looks pitiful by now, but this is a dream trip for me. I'll worry about starving later.

More info about the trip itself in the next entry...

Want to Join Us on a Trip to Hawaii?

Everybody knows that I love to travel and will go just about anywhere if I can afford to make the trip. I'll write about my upcoming trip to Egypt soon, but I want to tell you about another trip we are planning.

Several years ago Marcia and I sat down and wrote out separate "Bucket Lists" and then compared notes. About 75% of the ideas were comparable, a few were our own unique ones (hence the reason I'm going to Egypt with Elaine and not Marcia). We ranked them and I went about making plans to get as many done as quickly as possible. You get to a certain age and you start to realize that you won't always be able to go back to someplace you have already visited, so you might as well do as much as you can when you are visiting someplace new.

One of the things on the list was Hawaii. That might seem a little surprising since neither of us are beach type people, but there were things we wanted to see there and we both love to cruise. An idea began to form...

Our favorite cruise line is Holland America. We've been on three cruises with them in the past and have always had a wonderful time. They have a 14 day roundtrip cruise to Hawaii that leaves out of San Diego. We were going to take this trip in February of 2011, but Social Security wanted some money back so we postponed it.

Our new date is Oct 22, 2011. This link http://www.hollandamerica.com/find-cruise-vacation/CruiseDetails.action?noOfFlexibleMonths=1&flexibleMonths=false&pageNumber=3&voyageCode=O170&destCode=H takes you to the specifics of the cruise. It is currently $1799 per person for an obstructed view room (on the upper promenade behind the lifeboats) with a tax of $84.19 per person. That is not a bad deal for a 14 day cruise. It is 5 days to get there, 4 days in Hawaii, and 5 days to get back. We happen to like the lazy sea days so this is perfect for us. We will also be going to San Diego on the Monday or Tuesday before the Saturday departure so we have a few days to explore the area as neither of us have ever been to San Diego before.

I like to research and plan, but I'm not a travel agent. If anyone wants to join us on this trip, let me know. We picked open dining and have an idea of what shore excursions we want to do. Marcia would enjoy the company--I think she is worried that I would have her all to myself for fourteen days :) The more the merrier on a cruise---everyone can do what they want and meet for meals or drinks and compare notes. We hope you can join us!!!

The Colors of our Lives

I love getting catalogs in the mail and 'tis the season now that there are just over 3 months until Christmas. I look through them all and marvel at how I am able to live without all of those wonderful (or not so wonderful) things advertised. My favorite thing about catalogs, though, is the names of the colors they use. And my favorite catalog for this is L.L. Bean.

Have you ever looked closely at the colors of the clothes offered? It's not enough to be blue or brown, but it has a fancy name. It's like going to the paint store and trying to find a color. Who knew there were hundreds of shades of blue?

From Wikipedia, we get this tidbit about color: In fashion and automotive colors the objective of naming is to enhance the perception of color through appropriate naming to fit the emotional context desired. Thus the same "poppy yellow" can become either the hot blooded and active "amber rage", the cozy and peaceful "late afternoon sunshine", or the wealth evoking "sierra gold".

I just know that somewhere in some little room is a person whose sole job is to think of color names. To honor that person who provides me with so much entertainment, here are my favorites from the L.L.Bean catalog this year:

tidal blue
golden cider
treeline
sycamore
baked clay
night sky
black currant
sail orange
rainforest
beeswax
blue chalk
tuscan olive
solar yellow
aegean blue
grass
deep wisteria
lily pond
canoe green
cobalt sea
thicket
sweet pea
blue reef
dark fern
orange spice
beechnut
purple crocus
and,
snapdragon

There are tons more, but you get the idea. These are apparently the hot colors of winter 2010-2011.

The Monster in the Bedroom

There is a monster in our bedroom. At least that is what Buttons thinks. She likes to snuggle up on my head/shoulder area and it drives me nuts. Now she won't come near me, or at least any closer than my lap.

The reason is my new CPAP machine. I did a sleep study a couple of weeks ago. I had complained to my doctor that I always feel tired even though I get enough sleep. My thyroid is fine and so is everything else, so time for the sleep study. I did a split study, which means that if I managed to hit certain criteria for sleep apnea by the end of my first sleep cycle they would wake me up and put me on the machine to see how I would do. I hit the markers and at 2am they woke me up for the mask and I was told the next morning that I did much better with it on.

I haven't seen the sleep doctor yet but I got my machine on Friday afternoon. It takes up a lot of space on the nightstand and makes kind of a white noise that doesn't bother Marcia too much. Then the mask goes on. I feel kind of like an astronaut or pilot wearing it as it goes over my nose and has all of these straps and things on it, then the long hose.

Buttons can't decide if it is a monster that is going to eat my face off (kind of like in "Aliens") or if I'm really okay under all of that. As soon as I take it off she is all lovey-dovey and comes for pets and love. I'm told she will get used to it and then I will have to deal with the mask AND the cat. Great. Wait until winter when three other cats join us on the bed...

Sunday Date Night

Many moons ago we bowled in a bowling league on Sunday nights. When the league fell apart we started having Sunday date nights. We can be pretty much homebodies, so Sunday date nights have turned into Sunday movie, pizza and margarita nights.

It goes like this: at 6 pm I call the folks for our weekly chat. Marcia either goes and picks up the pizza or I put one in the oven. When the phone call is over the blender comes out and the frozen margaritas get made. I tell Marcia that the margaritas are the reason she married me and she doesn't totally deny it :) Then we watch a movie. We usually alternate who gets to pick. We now have Netflix (getting up to date with technology again) so have watched some new movies the past few weeks: "It's Complicated", "Whip It" (after we went to the roller derby, so it made more sense), and last week, "Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief".

This week we have other things out from Netflix, so I picked a movie from our library---"Mulan". It's a Disney cartoon and is one of my absolute favorites. A young girl who doesn't feel she fits in runs away and joins the Chinese army in her father's place after the Huns invade China. She eventually becomes a hero and saves the whole country. The best part is Eddie Murphy as Mushu, the guardian. He is HYSTERICAL!! We have most of his dialog memorized. Then there is Cricky, the lucky cricket who never talks but chirps and is just too cute. Who cares if I am 47 years old? I like cartoons! And spending the evening with Marcia (and the frozen margaritas) is a lot of fun. Our friends know not to call after 6 pm on Sunday unless it is an emergency and we rarely schedule anything else on a Sunday night. Date nights are a good thing.

Volleyball

We follow the Gator Women's Vollyeball and Basketball teams and attend as many games as we are able to get to. Went to one tonight and it was the first home game of the season. The team looked good and won pretty easily in front of a nice-sized crowd.

I want to know who designs volleyball uniforms. Could those shorts be any shorter and tighter? Now I am not against seeing athletic girls with long legs wearing shorts like that, but I think it sends a rather sexist message to people. I'm sure they could play just as well with slightly longer and looser shorts.

Also, I wonder about the names people give their kids. Do they even think about the fact that the name they give their little bundle of joy will follow that kid his or her whole life? One of UF's players (who had a very good night tonight) is named TANGERINE. Arrrggghhh!!! It sounds weird whenever the announcer says her name after a play. Feel sorry for the kid. One of my favorite names (?) belonged to a girl who came to the Florida Bookstore Vol 2 to get her books for Santa Fe every semester. Her name? CANDY APPLE. No, I am not kidding. Glad my parents had some sense.

Books

I love books. That's probably not a surprise to most people. I learned to read very young and I remember spending my allowance on books (and a few comic books and "Tiger Beats" as well). Then I went to college as a history major--lots of books. Then grad school came along---a WHOLE LOT MORE books. What to do with all of these books? Many were kept at my parents' house in San Antonio until they moved. I went through and picked out my absolute favorites to bring with me and later had some shipped to me. Now Marcia wants to know what we are going to do with all of these books.

I don't believe in letting go of my favorite books. I read them over and over again. They stay on the shelves or somewhere else in the house (hence the problem with Marcia). I am discriminating when it comes to the books I like and the books I buy. They are so expensive nowdays that you just don't pick a couple up on a whim unless you are at the Friends of the Library book sale.

I just ordered a couple of books from Amazon---"Bad Boys of the Bible" for Bible study and "You: The Owner's Manual" by Dr. Oz. As I get older and more of me starts to fall apart or not work as well, I decided it was time to get better educated. The book was a lot cheaper than a health insurance payment.

Recent books I've read include a travel guide to Egypt and a book on 14th century England. I'm currently reading "The Dome" by Stephen King. I don't like many of his novels, but "The Stand" is an all time favorite of mine. This new one makes you think---what happens to a town when they are completely cut off from the outside world? The personalities and egos come out in full force with some tragic consequences. I did cheat and read the end, though I'm only a third of the way through the book. It's like a thousand pages long and even though I read fast it is going to take me a while to get through.

A New Chapter

My friends will find it funny that I am finally doing something to join the 21st century, though I still refuse to own a cell phone.  I wanted to record my thoughts, experiences, opinions and daily life, but decided I was too lazy to keep a written journal or diary as people used to do.  This blog will be my substitute.

I am what some people call a "scanner". I read about it in a book a long time ago.  Don't remember the book, but the description fits me to a "T"---"Scanners want to taste everything.  The universe is a treasure house full of a million works of art, and life is hardly long enough to see them all."

I search for things that interest me, learn all I want to know about them, then move on to the next interest.  I will come back to those different interests at different times in my life.  Sometimes I will delve deeply, sometimes I will just skim the surface.  I'm interested in a great many subjects----history, travel, geography, art, music, astronomy, gardening, self-sufficiency, archaeology, sociology, and more---kind of like most of the liberal arts with a smattering of fine arts and science.  I guess I am just curious about the world around me and how people live in it now and how they lived in it in the past.

For me, knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a goal unto itself.  Experiencing as many things as possible is my ultimate goal.  Life is to be lived, enjoyed, experienced, and felt, in all forms, both good and bad.  I never know where this "muse" will take me, so join me on my journey as I wander thru my life.