Palm trees, blue sky, & warm weather

This shot was taken thru the windshield of our cab on the way to the
hotel. Now we've eaten and we're ready for some sleep. We only got
about 3 hours of sleep last night and have been up since 3:00am.
Tomorrow we board the ship and start our cruise. I can't wait to get
inboard and start relaxing.....not that we haven't started already.
Good night!

7:00 pm - Out to dinner

We're eating dinner at Ikakos in San Juan. The picture almost looks
like our last supper, but in fact it's first. And we're not even on
the cruise yet.

A quick trip to the beach

Yes, a quick trip to the beach; over to a small liquor store; back to
the hotel to the pool for a few brews before we go to dinner. It's
nice and warm here. Love it!

Ah.....a cold brew

Some Medela (so?) beer. Now to the beach.....

The line for taxis

We're here! All checked in to our hotel and about to head to the
beach. I'm already on my 2nd beer.

1:40 pm - It's a long flight . . .

I'm already on San Juan time - or is it Caribbean time? This is a
long flight and I'm ready for it to end. The picture is of Terry
sitting in his seat and wishing we were there. Well, another hour to
go.

On the plane!

It's a full flight.

6:56 am - At the airport.

Up at 3:00 am; limo at 4:30am; breakfast at McDonalds . . . Mmmm.
About a half hour 'till we board the big bird and head to San Juan!

. . . And one to go!

8:05 am - Yup, only one day to go! We'll be going from snow and cold to sun and warmth. I can't wait. ■ My wife had to go downtown for a marketing kickoff meeting. I hope she can get home somewhat early. We still need to pack. At any rate I took her to the train station about 7:30 am and then swung by Walgreens to pick up a couple of those 7-day pill boxes. Next step is to fill 'em up. ■ My cousin Tom called me this morning. It was great to hear his voice, catch up with the news, and reminisce. A nice little break in the midst of packing and getting the house ready for our house sitter. Back to work! ■ 10:05 pm - all packed; the bags are downstairs by the door and I'm ready for bed. We'll be up early at 3:00 am. Ooo, that's early! Good night!

Testing and much to do . . .

9:30 am - I've been busy this morning do some of the little things to get ready for the cruise. Still lots of stuff to do. ■ Our daughter left this morning to go back to Louisville. It was great having her here for a few days. I wish both of our children lived closer. I've envious of those of you that do. ■ One of the things I did this morning was the testing of the posting from my iphone as well as testing the formatting that I'm using for the blog. It appears that when I post from my pc that the font will be formatted correctly - font type, size, etc. - but when I post from my iphone it disregards the format that I've set. So, in the future if you see a different text type then you'll know if was posted from my iphone. And I'll probably tell you that anyway. ■ Ok, back to work . . . . . 4:55 pm - Lots done today. Bought new walking shoes, picked up a couple of miscellaneous items like salt blocks for the water softener, a med referral, light bulbs (oops, got to replace one of the garage light bulbs!), and installed a new smoke/carbon monoxide detector. Better change the light bulb while it's still light out. ■ 10:05 pm - Ah, didn't get that light bulb changed yet. Got to do that tomorrow. Our house sitter came over tonight and we went over all of the stuff for the dogs and so forth. We're lucky to get such a nice person (yes, that's you Heather) to house sit for us. I know our dogs are looking forward to seeing you. Well, it's late and time for bed. Good night . . .

More snow! Can't wait to go!

7:25 am - Snow! We've had enough! To the left is a picture of our patio. You can see the new snowfall. We probably only received about 3 inches, but it still means I need to get out and shovel this morning. ■ Still lots to do to get ready for the cruise. I've got to take down the old smoke alarm and install a new smoke/carbon monoxide alarm. That's a project for this afternoon - after shoveling snow, of course. More later on . . . 8:20 am - Bless his heart - my great neighbor, Steve (yes, we share the same first name), has taken his snowblower and done my driveway and sidewalks. It looks like we received about 4 inches. ■ We have a funeral to go to this morning. It's always a sad occasion, but going helps support the family and that's always needed.

Pen & Ink Drawings - some are do-overs!

This is a drawing I finished a couple of weeks ago. Actually I finished it for the second time, as I wasn't satisfied with my first rendition. That happens sometimes - well, actually too many times. I draw someone's home - look at it and decide that it's not "right", so then I have to start all over again. With this drawing I had put in each individual brick and the overall effect was that it made the drawing look muddy. So I drew it again. It came out much better this time around. And I learned something. Each drawing teaches me something. ■ There's a laundry list of thing to get done before our cruise and one of them is that I desperately need to get a haircut. This ol' gray hair continues to grow! ■ Went and got a haircut. It was badly needed. When I left the house it was sleeting; when I drove home it was raining; and now it's snowing. Snow, snow, snow! I'm tired of it. I want warmth. I want spring . . .
6:45 pm - And look at the radar picture on the right --> look at all of that precipitation. We may get between 5 and 7 inches of snow! I'm tired of shoveling.

Posting from my iPhone

It's still cold outside. All I can think about is some warm weather!
Soooon . . . I wish our house was looking like this picture.
Instead it's covered with snow. However, I can dream of warm, gentle
breezes and cold boat drinks. And that dream will be a reality in a
few short days!

02/23/08 - First Post on the new Blog

10:50 am - I decided to try blogging on an actual blog platform. We'll see how this works. ■ Just got a call from our daughter. She's coming directly home rather than stopping at her best friend's home. She wasn't sure what she'd be doing and now I know. And so I've got a couple of errands to run and it might be wise to get at them before she gets here. ■ Took a picture this morning of our dog Mollie. That's her laying on the snow on the patio in the shade. 23 degrees out and she's trying to find shade!