Into February

Seems the wreaths were put away just in time for the hearts to come out!  And Mardi Gras right behind. Not a whole lot going on but we did both get dressed a bit warmer than usual for our two week “deep freeze.”  Today is 2/6 and finally it has hit 76 and sunny!  Hooray!

We had dinner and played Shanghai at the country club on our usual first Tuesday evening.  I think Ted won but I didn’t.  Ted has been shooting skeet a little bit with a new group.  It has been 1.5 years since he was hit by the truck and is just feeling enough stamina to complete a round.  Sporting clays allows him to sit in the golf cart between stations but skeet is 8 stations on one field so everyone stays close.  He puts his gun in a rack and leans on something.  However, both cause him to miss out on a lot of camaraderie with the fellows.  He still walks very slowly.

I found myself double booked on Thursday that first week in February.  I was to help at Continental Breakfast and bring a French toast casserole.  I was also signed up on a CWJF Sustainer outing!  Yikes!

I offered to make the casserole and bring it over that morning before picking up my friend Pam to go on the Sustainer outing.  It worked!

Our outing was to Houston’s historic Glenwood cemetery where many of Houston’s founders and famous residents are buried.  Our guide was excellent and told many stories about Wm. Hermann who has a hospital conglomerate named after him.  There are Memorial Hermann Hospitals all over Houston.  In fact, it is the one we use here in The Woodlands.  Hermann Park remains a very popular place in downtown Houston.  He was philanthropic and at one point accepted some useless land as payment for a cart he had built for a man.  It turned out later to be the Humble oil field.  One of the biggest finds to this day.  

There is the Rice family plot with quite a true story about Mr. Rice who funded Rice University.  Very interesting!  There was also the Allen’s, 6 brothers, 4 of which were very successful businessmen and helped settle Houston.  Allen Parkway exists to this day.  

The most popular deceased is Howard Hughes.  

It was a 4,000 step, 1 1/2 hour stroll through gorgeous gardens and many beautiful monuments.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  

Then it was off to Annabelle’s for lunch!  Such a lovely place with excellent food and service.  We were told to wear our fancy clothes.  Some did, some wore nice, and some came as they always do!  However, everyone was welcome.  

The entire ceiling is covered with silk flowers.  Two Valentine teddy bears graced the entrance.  The food was delicious but it was a long day and I was very tired when we got home.   Poor Pam had to turn around and go out again to the country club!

Boy Oh Boy!

The whole month of January has slipped by and I had little to write about.  Forefront now is doctor appointments, taxes, insurance renewals, cleaning out files, and making a trip to Destin, FL.  Ted’s brother Kevin rents a house in the Destin area each year.  They invite friends and family (in an orderly fashion) to join them.  We were offered 1/18-25.  Terry and Carol joined us from Alabama but both their Cincinnati sisters were unable to come.  

We played Shanghai the night before with our regular group before our 7:30 departure Sunday morning.  We tried a new way to go a bit north, then east, but we didn’t like it.  Taking I-45 south to pick up I-10 takes you way south to bring you back up north.  So coming home we took our normal route which is picking up 105 out of Beaumont, TX straight west across to I-45.  

We arrived a little after 4:00 as expected.  Barb had a pot of chili and hotdogs ready for dinner.  It was chilly so no beach weather all week!  We caught up on family news, played cards, took walks, sat around the pool with jackets on and ate - a lot!  Barb made breakfast each morning and put out things for lunch.  She is the Energizer Bunny!  Ted had brought 6 filets and his sousvide appliance to prepare them.  This is a French tenderizer of sorts that cooks the meat slowly to tenderize it before a final finish on a grill.  They were spectacular.  Baked potatoes, salad and garlic rolls we also brought, filled out the meal.  Barb’s peanut butter pie finished it off.  

The next three nights we ate out.  First was McGuire’s Irish pub that serves 18 cent bean soup.  The recipe is one used to make it for the Senate cafeteria at the original price from decades ago.  It was ok, I like mine better and it was not hot!  Corned beef and cabbage, fish, burgers and an Irish based salad were all enjoyed.  There are dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and estimates are $3 million is up there.  

Barb and Kevin walk 5 miles each morning.  I joined them one morning with the understanding I would go part way being sure I could make it back to the house.  I got 1.5 miles and my impinged nerve at the base of my spine had enough!  So they continued on and I walked back ok.  I used to do 3 miles three times a week with my friend Gerre until she moved!  That was before two impinged nerves became hitchhikers - the one just mentioned and one at L4.  Getting old sucks!

Second night we ate at a Mexican restaurant we visited two years ago.  I think most of us got tacos and margaritas. It was all good.  

Our last night was a fancier place The Ocean Club.  The food was very good and I think everyone had something different except Ted and I both had chicken parm which I can never finish.  So it was lunch the next day.  The strange thing was the spaghetti was served naked!  Ted asked for sauce and they brought a small bowl to the table which was enough.  Never heard of such a thing!  

We had been watching the weather and towards the end of the week we knew we had to leave two days early or stay 3-4 days longer.  We left on Friday early and drove straight through arriving just as it got dark and started to rain.  Whew!  We dodged a bullet.  The temperature tumbled and everything froze overnight.  We made it to church at 5 on Saturday while the temp was about 38 counting on it to not drop below freezing by 6!  We just made it.  Church was packed, just like at Christmas.  No place to park or sit hardly.  They said very few attended Sunday morning!  

The weather stayed below freezing every night for a week.  It is 46 today and the forecast is on the upswing.  By next week we are scheduled for high 60’s and mid 70s, our normal winter weather.  I will be able to move my succulents back on the patio table.  

They are finally scheduling depositions for Ted’s accident when the semi T-boned him a year and a half ago after the truck crossed a solid yellow line in a no passing zone and the driver was cited.  It means we cannot make travel plans until they stop moving the dates and actually do them.  

I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and are not now suffering through crazy weather!

Happy New Year

We returned 12/27 after an enjoyable week on the NCL Viva.  There is a relatively new ship.  Kids love it!  There is a race track, miniature golf, pickle ball, darts, splash pad for the little kids, two 10 story drop water tubes, escape room, arcade, etc.  We enjoyed watching the kids, deciding not to partake of anything that moved too fast!

After being disappointed (in that the specialty restaurants on the Dawn had not been any better than the Main Dining Room in our estimation), we skipped the $60 surcharge for the specialties.  There were lots of places besides the main dining room and buffet to eat and we enjoyed all of it! 

“Beetlejuice the Musical was their Broadway entertainment!  And we hated it.  No intermission so we lost 1 hour and 45 minutes of our lives that we will never get back.  However, their Icons show was fabulous!  They had two comedians, both funny but the one we saw three times (by accident) and it was the same show each time.  He performed with the other fellow two times who did different stuff so that’s how we were roped into three times of the same jokes.  Getting a good seat in the theater was never a problem.  

I had a ton of laundry when we got home, four loads and I have a huge washer!  Then there was the mail.  New Year’s Eve we went to dinner at a restaurant across from the movie theater and saw Song Sung Blue that I thought was spectacular!  Of course I am a huge Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline fan!  The music was just what I like.  But I didn’t realize it was a true story of a legend singing couple until the closing credits.  It’s a “don’t miss” in my book!

We attended Mass New Year’s Day and had breakfast at the Waterfall Cafe (complete with fresh squeezed OJ) and then after Mass on Saturday evening we had Italian at Adriatic Cafe.  

New Year’s Day evening we had neighbors in for snacks and drinks.  Enjoyable evening to end our Christmas season.

I really missed being with the kids on Christmas even though we FaceTimed Christmas Day and the following weekend when they were all together.  I am pretty sure we will go to Michigan next year unless they come here.  That would be great!

Tomorrow is Sail Away

Not too much has changed.  I am still dealing with a dry cough that won’t quit!  Saw the doctor again and he prescribed a nasal spray because my ears are plugged.  

We did play cards with 3 friends when our Shanghai Christmas party got cancelled.  I traveled to Chapell Hill with the Sustainers and visited a party venue that welcomed us with mimosas, hot cider, cookies and poppers!  

Newcomers hosted a lunch that I also attended.   We played games, bingo, gift exchange and a chicken Parmesan dish I made 3 meals out of.  Had my photo taken with Santa!

I had my annual M D Anderson Cancer Center check up and am delighted to report a Normal mammogram and all numbers looking Good!  

We have haircuts scheduled for today, are all packed and will head out tomorrow morning about 10 am and head to Galveston to board NCL Viva!  The ports are the ones we always hit out of Galveston but this is a new ship with amazing things like a race track, pickle ball, escape room, etc.  If not anything else maybe the sunshine will bake my cough out of my lungs.  And having someone do all the bed making and cooking sounds not too shabby!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

Oh My!

 it is, Thanksgiving Week and I haven’t written anything!  I can only think of two things I did.  For For CWJF, I worked at our Pavilion for a Wood Fest Program for Title One schools.  The program for the public, not free, was the weekend before.  There is an exhibit hall and stage that hosts all kinds of things throughout the year.  After our program the exhibit hall will be turned into an ice rink, not free, and the stage will be readied for “A Holly Jolly Jingle” Christmas program.  This, like several others, are free to the public. It was 5 hours of herding 80 children from the bus to the exhibit hall where they donned lab coats to do 3 science projects.  They were all so well behaved.  They ate their lunch then we took them to the pavilion to see a musical teaching performance. Afterwards we had to lead them to their buses, 3 of them.  Once we filled the buses, took a count, had everybody and gave the drivers a thumbs up. Not a bad way to get 5 hours credit without a lot of physical effort!

I also attended the general meeting of CWJF.  It has been quite a while since I attended one. I am making a concerted effort to get out of the house more.  We did play Shanghai.  I think Ted won, I came in second.  Lost at Hand and Foot and was busy on 3-13 day.

Ted has been shooting and working at Blackwood Gun Club.  That and his Bible Study, plus taking over the cooking and grocery shopping keeps him occupied.

We are on our way to the Rio Grande Valley to do a few things since we had no other plans. We are due for teeth cleaning, want our wooden outside address sign restained at the flea market and will pick up a few meds while down there.  We hardly know any one there anymore but we may have a chance to say hi to the few still there.  

Throwback Thursday.  This is Ted’s parents 39th anniversary party in 1974 (I think).  It popped up for no good reason so I decided to post it. 

December will keep me hopping.  The first two weeks are piled up one thing on top of the other!   Doctor appointments, cards, Christmas lunches. another André Rieu Christmas concert will be shown in movie theaters two days in December.  Can’t miss that!

The third week 12/20 we are sailing on NCL Viva out of Galveston.  We had just been with the kids, the plane situation was a nightmare and here we sat, 85 miles from a port with the #2 ship for NCL waiting to take us to Mexico, Honduras and Belize.  With a discount, and a $1500 credit from our fall cruise, it was about 75% of the cost of two plane tickets to Detroit or Orlando.  We are planning for Easter break to go visit. I keep reminding them the roads go both ways and the planes fly both ways!

Well things went to sh*t quickly after we returned home.  I ended up with such a cough that I pulled my back muscles.  I had so many Dr. appts. and social things that I jockeyed around like a carnival barker trying to keep all three rings in motion.  So far I have only had to skip one lunch.  I got all dressed but just ran out of steam before leaving and I just cancelled and went back to bed.

This last week I have 5 Dr. appts., all shoved into this last week before our cruise.  I may need one more round of a bit stronger antibiotic since this cough just won’t quit.

I apologize to my Christmas card list!  No card designed, no plans to send cards.  I am so behind I finally took my pumpkins down off the porch yesterday!  Put up my wreath on the front door and I am done.  

Hang in there with me!  Hopefully the sunshine of Mexico will chase these last coughs away!  See you in the new year. 

I’m Back

I guess you all wonder what happened to us after our return from our fabulous vacation.  Fabulous because it was with our children and in-laws, we spared no expense, everyone got along!  We couldn’t have been more pleased.

What I had not mentioned was that the weekend before we were to fly to Stockholm, we were going to McAllen TX to spend a weekend with Cindy and Tim!  The night before we left we were at the ER for Ted.  He had a hernia that popped out and was about 4 inches long.  After testing and normal stuff, the doctor came in, massaged it until it popped back into place.  Once we got to that point I told her of our travel plans for the weekend and then the two weeks in Europe.  She advised not doing the upcoming weekend trip but said if all stayed as is, we could go to Europe.  Absolutely no lifting, advised Ted how to coax the hernia back into place if necessary, this was not life threatening and we weren’t going where there was no modern medicine.  

So we went.  Ted absolutely did not lift anything.  We walked 11,000 steps a day and all went well.  The day after we came home he had an appointment with a surgeon.  He had pre op stuff, a date set and we didn’t do much else.  In fact, I had a terrible chest cold and didn’t go out either.  

Surgery went well.  No problems with pain, he could get up and down and was walking within 12 hours.  They were amazed how well he did for being 81.  After 23 hours they released him and I brought him home.  He rested in his recliner, slept through the night and continued on as if nothing had happened.  He didn’t drive for the 5 days as directed and by then he was carrying on normally.

Two neighbors brought dinners, one came for a visit and we eventually met Tommy and Susan for lunch.  We are just getting back to doing our routine social things and will have more to share in a week or two.

So I will just share some dinner photos from the trip and Halloween ones from the kids.

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Exploring Montmartre

We took a chance on the RER-B train to get back into the city!  Fingers crossed we could get back home on it!  We had the metro stops down pretty good and arrived at the foot of the “mount.”   Montmartre is crowned with Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Sacred Heart Basilica).

It is a lovely church with a circle of beautiful stained glass windows.  The line was fairly long but the kind that just kept moving and didn’t take long to be inside.  We spent time looking at everything and lighting candles for persons who have need of God’s blessings.  

We had taken a furuncular up the bottom part of the hill and our RER-B ticket was accepted.  It was the best bargain in Paris.  

Then there was a train to take you on an hour tour of the area.  It is a “bohemian” area so lots of colorful things to look at.  

A famous landmark is the Moulin Rouge, famous for the performance of the Can-Can.  The music is actually Orpheus in the Under World but in US is mostly identified as The CanCan.

A lively and risqué dance probably of French origin, usually performed onstage by four women. Known for its high kicks in unison that exposed both the petticoat and the leg, the cancan was popular in Parisian dance halls in the 1830s and appeared in variety shows and revues in the 1840s.

We stopped for a pizza, found a pharmacy for Ted who was starting with a cold, a luggage place for Kristin who bought too many souvenirs and a Paris bag for my neighbor who keeps an eye on things.

We were able to take the Metro and the RER-B train back without incident.  We left an order for a bellman at 7:00 and a taxi at 7:15 for the next morning. It was going to be a long ride home.  

The bellman came for our bags, the taxi arrived and luggage was stowed.  It was a nightmare of taxis 3 lanes across at the terminal but somehow he got two carts, loaded up our bags and left them on the sidewalk in front of the terminal without getting run over.  We said goodbye to Kristin as she went right while we went left.  Kara had gone home the day before and she warned us to keep passport and boarding pass handy.  We had to show them at least six times.  I got patted down to the point I thought she would charge for a massage.  Wiped everything including the bottoms of my feet!  Kelly and Pat were leaving from a different terminal.  We had time to grab breakfast at the Air France lounge then flew directly to IAH about 9 hours later.  Kristin got stuck in Boston for 5 hours.  Pat and Kelly were also delayed in Dallas.  But all arrived home safely.

Traveling to and Visiting Paris

As mentioned, we missed visiting Brugge, Belgium where we were set up to make Belgian chocolate truffles.  We could not dock due to a labor dispute leading to a work stoppage.  Ted’s comment “Whatever!”

So Saturday we spent docked in La Havre, not a hotbed of activity.  Pat and Kelly went into town, visited a museum and went to Mass after a wedding concluded!  Kristin, Bill and Kara went to a laundromat!  They saw another wedding!  We sent a bagful of clothes to the ship’s laundry but Kristin didn’t get hers out in time to get it back.  We just chilled!  

Sunday was disembarking day and as stated earlier, it apparently didn’t go too well.  I was so happy to use my purple VIP badge to get off.  The ride to Charles de Gaule airport was fine but they dropped us off at Departure Terminal One.  Except we weren’t departing!   We were going to the Hilton which was “adjacent” to Terminal 3!  So we got two carts, found the connect train to take us there.  We could see signs for Hilton but it kept running us in a circle!  Finally a man walked Kristin to the end of a corridor and pointed across the street on the other side of a bus station.

She got us seated on a bench, standing guard over our two carts so she could walk over and get info on the shuttle.  Surprise!  There is none!  She asked at the desk how we were to get to the hotel and she was told “walk.”  So here we were pushing two carts that probably should never have left the Terminal across the street, past the bus stops, around to the front of the hotel.  The doorman greeted us and I asked if businessmen actually walked over every  morning when they were flying out.   He said, “oh no, they call a taxi!”   So taxis will actually take you across the street!  A fact the desk failed to tell Kristin!  

Our room was great, terrific breakfast, key to executive lounge for snacks and drinks so I guess it turned out ok.  

We took RER-B train into Paris.  No problems.  We had read the route would be shut down on Sunday nights starting the week of 10/13, 10:45 pm for maintenance work.  No worries it was 10/12!    But we were aware because it is the only train out to the airport.  We took a Seine River cruise that was sort of hop on/hop off but we rode it all in one trip.  Then we went to a Cafe for lunch.  We saw the outside of Saint Chappell but admittance was by ticket only and there was a really long line.  So here is a photo of what we missed.

We stopped at the Gates of Justice (where Quasimodo was brought to). 

We went to Notre Dame and there were two lines, one extremely long and requiring a ticket.  The other one was short and for people attending Mass.  That’s what we were there for.  It was beautiful pomp and circumstance with amazing music but we didn’t understand a word.  You can tell by the cadence of prayers what is being said such as the Lord’s Prayer’s and the Creed. 

Afterwards we went for an ice cream and then on to a park to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle on the hour.  

We left at 9:05 to go to the Metro Stop that would take us to RER-B line back to the Hilton at the airport.  We navigated that fine but when we arrived at the RER-B line, the gates were down and locked!  We knew the next Sunday it was to close down at 10:45 pm but it was not to start until 10/13!  We were not alone in our shock.We didn’t trust reading the directions to take 3 different buses so we went back up and took an uber, the second most expensive taxi ride I have ever taken.

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Highclere Castle, Commonly Known as Downton Abbey

I mentioned previously our need for early morning departure for this trip.  David got us down first, the Brit's were a bit late, but we got off first, found our driver and took off.  It took just about two hours, the most expensive limo ride I ever took!

The countryside was beautiful and we saw many row hedges along the way.  Some roads appeared to be one way but they weren’t.  It was a matter of move over and let one pass.  No specific side to do the pulling over!  The driver said you get used to it!  We were not allowed to take photos inside.

Front Gate 

Waiting for our tour to begin

Lady Mary’s Garden Bench

High Tea

Front Doors

This was THE HIGHLIGHT for Kara and Kristin!  We enjoyed it too but not as much as those two!  

The tour was of the house included the halls and rooms that appeared in the TV series and 3 movies.  Everyone had seen all the films and series.  The downstairs kitchen scenes were shot in London but the grand hall, library, sitting room, bedrooms were all featured.  Pat and Kelly took the train into London because they had never been there.  Kara and Bill had flown over two days earlier than us stopping in London before continuing on to Stockholm.  

One thing I was unaware of was the castles connection to Egypt and King Tut’s tomb.  There was a small museum of sorts of replicas and artifacts found in the tomb in a space we would call the basement.  

Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, is now famous as the shooting location for Downton Abbey, but one of the estate's real-life lords funded the search for Tutankhamen's tomb. George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earrl of Carnarvon, was born on June 26, 1866 and inherited the title and the estate in 1890.

Like the fictional 7th Lord Grantham (and a lot of English peers in the 1880s and 1890s), the 5th Lord Carnarvon married rich to bail himself and the estate out of financial ruin. Shortly after his 1895 wedding to heiress Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell, her father, the millionaire banker Alfred de Rothschild, paid off Carnarvon's standing debts and bestowed a modest £500,000 (equivalent to about $81 million in 2019) settlement on his new son-in-law. Lady Carnarvon's fortune is, in part, how the Carnarvons funded archaeologist Howard Carter's excavations in Egypt's Valley of the Kings -- although he also spent a fair chunk of it on racehorses and fast cars, which makes it pretty easy to figure out how he got into so much debt in the first place. Arguably, several years of archaeology were a better investment than an ill-fated Canadian railroad venture.

We hit some traffic on the way back but arrived in plenty of time to make the All Aboard time.  We ate at the specialty Mexican restaurant but it didn’t come close to any  Mexican restaurant here in Texas!  

Amsterdam

The girls had set alarms for 9 am Amsterdam time six weeks before our trip to get tickets for the day we would be in The Netherlands to visit Anne Frank’s house. We stopped by there years ago when it was not such a huge complex, very well run and so sad but informative. It is the first museum where I was given an audio recorder that worked simply and correctly. No buttons to push. Tap it on the number at the door or wall and listen. Worked every time. 

The famous Anne Frank sign listing Rules for Jews.

Jews have to wear a Jewish star; Jews have to hand in their bicycles; Jews are not allowed in the tram; Jews are not allowed to ride in cars, not in private ones either; Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between 3 – 5, except in Jewish shops.

Front door of the house where the Frank family lived for two years.

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Timeline of the Frank family from 1929-1945.  It struck me as an entire lifetime as my mother was born in 1927 and I was born in 1945.

The kids were going to the Van Gogh museum but we had visited it on our previous visit.

We decided to give the HoHo bus another try.  We located the closest stop which was very near the ship.  We had taken a 10 minute taxi drive so it was not real close.  Not only not real close,  it was on the other side of the water and we had to walk to the cross over.  By that time we were closer to the ship than the bus so we just got back on board.

Next up was Highclere Castle, better known to US citizens as Downton Abbey.  THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT!  I'll give it a page all its own.  

Settling Into a Rhythm.

Riga, Latvia was up next.  This is the home of the Olympic Latvia Bob Sled team and is its training facility.  They happened to have arrived that day to begin training.  The kids were going to take a run down the training track, driven by a professional woman driver, at 85 mph through the twist and turns.  Ted, Kelly, Bill and I chose not to go.  I got stuck in a bobsled at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Sorings with my friend Eileen.  Two old ladies unable to get out and were helpless laughing our heads off. You need upper body strength to lift your body straight up because you can’t use your legs!  The four of us have enough aches and pains to chance causing more!  So we watched.  Apparently it was exhilarating according to Kara, Pat and Kristin, who went twice! 

Back in town we met our arranged guide to show us around the city center of Riga.  Such beautiful buildings with so much history.  This country was occupied by several neighboring countries at different times and they are working hard to recapture and maintain their culture and language.  We ended up quite a distance from the ship, which we could see, but knew it would take a while to be back before all aboard!  Our guide still had more to show us but we had to leave.  She sang a Happy Birthday song to me right before we left.

We had a rocking and rolling night and were advised early in the morning we were not going to be able to dock in Germany.  The seas and wind were too dangerous for the maneuvers needed for docking.  We celebrated my 80th  birthday, the reason for our trip and also a delayed salute to our April 60th wedding anniversary.  I received two birthday cakes!  

On to Copenhagen, Denmark and our only rain day!

We found Denmark delightful but very expensive for eating.  First thing we did was take a canal boat cruise to see the beautiful new buildings nestled between the ones that have been there over a century.  It wasn’t a great hair day but lots of fun anyway.  We had to stop at the Lego store to buy something you can only get in Copenhagen, and buy some treats from St. Peter’s 400 year old bakery, visit St. Frederick’s Church and a shot of the Little Mermaid from the back.  It reminded me of visitors’ first comment when seeing the Alamo, “that’s it?”

Parliament was starting that day and many dignitaries were in the city.  A motorcade flew by, horns blaring and sirens going off as the King passed by coming or going.  It enabled us to see the Changing of the Guard at Amalienborg Palace.

My comment about expensive to eat was based on our “snack” of nachos and a Coke for me and a pastry and coffee for Ted was $65!  Kara had no drink, only water, and she was charged $5!  They said Oslo is worse!