Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Project for the day (or next week)…

Willie (our SF Giants bear) will be travelling with us but he doesn’t have a name on his back. I plan to remedy that! So, I need the SF Giants’ logo font (for Willie Mays’ number) AND a way to put it on his back. Plus his name, of course!

Enter Avery labels, the answer to many, many problems, including how to put the number on the back of Willie! Avery makes, among their (probably) thousands of other labels, “DIY Fabric Transfers.” I have found the font, I F C Hardball, with which I will make Willie Mays’ number.  

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it on the teeny tiny jersey that Willie (bear) wears. Plus, of course, the name Willie. Onward to research!

I did it, I did it, I did it!!! (Nevermind the Willie (the REAL Willie!) never had his name on his back.

Is that the cutest bear ever???

OK, on to more important things. Like what's for dinner!

The MOST important thing today is that our favorite son, Greg, is 54 years old today! Happy birthday, Greg! Wish we could have celebrated it with you!

To Do, What To Do!

Friday, May 3, 2024

Today is “Doing-a-bunch-of-‘to-do’items-Day” including making a list of “to do” items. How did I live without Evernote?

Met a friend of Kathy’s who is a genius at creating drinks so one of my (many) Evernote notes is recipes for his drink creations. Such as a Paper Plane (mainly bourbon), a Poet’s Dream (mainly gin), and a Jungle Bird (mainly rum). Then there are the drinks that folks on Seabourn cruises have had created for them (84 at latest count—we’ll be hard pressed to get to all those drinks in one 12-day cruise and one 46-day cruise) such as: Test Pilot, Jet Pilot, Upper East Side (a New Yorker and a pilot as is Randy HAS to try those three!), Sakerinha, Sex on the Beach, Caipiroska, Bahama Momma, and a Black Martini, plus 76 others. At last count.

About the only thing I’ve done on my to-do list is buy airplane tickets to YUL (aka Montreal International Airport). I still have to: get a hotel in Montreal, get a hotel in Los Angeles, get airplane tickets back from NY (where the Montreal cruise ends), get a hotel in Australia for Australia Day (not until Jan 26, 2025, so I still have a bit of time!). Randy and I need to shop for summer clothes (the LA – SYD cruise will be summer but trying to buy summer clothes in September or October will be impossible).

One thing I really wanted to do, I have actually done! We will be taking Willie (a SF Giants Build-a-Bear) with us on both cruises. We’re hoping he will have some interesting experiences both on board the ship and on tours. I named him for Willie Mays (of course) but also for Willie, one of Kathy’s Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies who were born on my birthday.

Now I’m exhausted thinking about all I have to do in the next several months!

Cruising again!

It's been a long time since we cruised, about 2019, I think. We made the decision to try cruising again mostly because we really love cruising and also because the Covid scare is more or less over. Well, it's not over-OVER, it's just that we no longer seem to think we need to wear masks and the people we know who have gone on cruises (including long ones, as we like doing) are not getting sick.

So, we're crossing our fingers and signing up for a 46-day cruise from Los Angeles (LAX-you're going to have to get used to my using the airline codes for cities. You can google them!) to SYD, November 27 to January 13. 

And just to be gluttons for punishment, we're going on a second cruise---well, it will really be first, but we chose it second---from Montreal (YUL) to New York (EWR) in September.

Both are on the Seabourn Quest (Ships (seabourn.com) and Seabourn Quest) a line we chose entirely because of the itinerary from LAX to SYD. It has a great reputation (both the line and the ship) so we're looking forward to our next adventure on a cruise line we've never been on before.

Now the planning starts: we (that is the Royal "We" as I will be doing the planning and Randy will be doing the "Yes, dear."). We have to get airplane tickets to and from YUL and EWR, a rental car to LAX, hotels before and after, and most important of all, what to do in Australia when we get there other than see our friends in SYD and our son and DIL in Ulladulla (no airport code for Ulladulla as the closest is 43 miles away, Moruya, MYA).

In Australia, aside from the above desires, we want to go to the Gold Coast and Brisbane and MAYBE the Daintree. We have been to both before but one of our goals is to go places we've not been to. We have spent oodles (a non-quantifiable time period over the past 40 years) of time in Australia. I kept journals (paper in the old days) and one trip is chronicled at Australia Grand Adventure (pamryan.blogspot.com)  and a longer cruise at World Cruise 2012 Sydney to Sydney (worldcruise12.blogspot.com).

On to the planning!

Already thinking ahead to dining on board the Quest! This is a menu from another Seabourn ship, but I'm sure Quest will be equally great! And they have unlimited caviar! Yes, indeedy, unlimited caviar!