Last day of 2011

I reread my blog from the last day of 2010. I was sitting in Cindy's house in Baltimore, still in chemotherapy. It was cold, and I recapped the whole year. 2010 had a lot of very high highs and a lot of very low lows.

Now it's the same time again, the last day of 2011. I'm sitting in my own house in Poinciana, no longer in any active cancer therapy. It's warm and sunny outside, and I don't have the time to recap the whole year! In just a few minutes, Mark and I will be driving up to the airport to pick up my girlfriend, Barb K., and bring her here. She's going to see our community for the first time, bask in the warm Florida sunshine (It should hit 81 today and be very different from Buffalo!), swim in the pool, and go to a New Year's Eve party tonight with me and Mark.

What a difference a year makes!

2011 had highs and lows, but none were as high or as low as 2010. For the most part I enjoyed 2011 very much, especially getting to live in this house and see my daughter get married to her best friend! I got to see Lowell and Emily get together as a serious couple. I'm so happy for them, too. I still have my own fantastic husband, best friend, confidant, and butler! Mark, you are awesome, as always, and I shall miss you this upcoming week. Best of all, as far as I know, I am cancer-free! It doesn't get any better than that.

Tomorrow Barb and I are driving to Fort Lauderdale to meet her sister and brother-in-law, and Monday we are boarding the Niuew Amsterdam for a seven day cruise. Oh, yeah, life is good and 2012 is starting off very well.

Enjoy your celebrations tonight and be safe driving home if you are out. I hope everyone has a great end to 2011, and I wish all of you a fantastic 2012!

Happy New Year!

Penultimate Day of the Year!

Enjoy your day today wherever you may be. I'm going to do some errands, get a mani/pedi, and end up at a Friday evening dinner at our synagogue followed by services. It's going to be in the low 70s and sunny all day. I'm definitely going to enjoy it.

We digitized another home movie of our WDW vacation from 1993. This was the long one when we brought Grandma B with us and stayed in the Treehouse Villa. The kids looked adorable, as always, but we were especially struck by how much taller and skinnier Lowell looked in the two years since the '91 vacation. We also noticed that Evey was already exhibiting many of the traits that she still has today. Her love of order and keeping things neat and tidy at age 6 was frequently evident on the video. A-n-d....then there's Grandma B. First of all, she was 69 at the time. Wow! I should look so good, have so much energy, and be able to walk around the parks all day for 10 days with two kids when I am that age. She was remarkable. Second of all, we had to laugh out loud several times because she gave Mark "the look" on the camera that clearly said, "I'm sick of having my picture taken." We had just finished digitizing Mark's old family home movies, and we sure did see Mark's father get that look many times! Third, she retained her beauty throughout her life. Evey resembles her more and more each day. I predict that Evey will retain her beauty throughout her life, too. Then there's me and Mark. Ha Ha!! Let's don't go THERE! It was another fun night of watching home movies!

My friend Barbara K. arrives from Buffalo tomorrow around 10:30 a.m.! Whoee!! It's so exciting anticipating her arrival, her chance to look at the house, see our community, hang out at the pool with us, and party the night away for New Year's Eve. Then, off we go to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday for the cruise. I am not taking my laptop on this cruise to keep it simple. I will, of course, take a lot of pictures, but I won't be uploading or sending any until January 11. There will be no blogs until then either. Sorry! I will have my iPhone, so there might be a few things posted on Facebook while we are still in the U.S., but once we pull out of port Monday night, that will be shut down as well. If I can't stand it, I can always go to the ship's computer room and buy a little time to send a brief blog, email, or picture but not much. With any luck, I can at least post a little blog with a picture of me and Barb before we head out Sunday.

Just in case I do not have time tomorrow to post another blog, let me wish each and every one of you a wonderful new year. Let's all hope and pray that 2012 is full of health, happiness, peace, friends and family for everyone. Happy New Year!

Toojay's

Last night we had a marvelous time with our new friends Barbara and Al. We met them at a restaurant, Toojay's, which is a kosher-style deli. Mark and I found it somewhat frustrating to see all those delicious deli sandwiches and matzo ball soup on the menu and not be able to order it because it's not kosher. On the other hand, we did order a fantastic tilapia that came with potato pancakes and green beans. Spectacular. We ordered the complete dinner so we also got a salad, rye bread, coffee, and dessert. Mark had three sugar-free rugelach, which he said were so good he couldn't believe they were sugar free. I had their signature dessert, Killer Cake. It kills you with it's ooey-gooey chocolatey goodness.

Then Barb and Al invited us back to their house. Normally that would be a delightful occasion to go to the home of new friends for some wine and talk, but when Barb and Al invite you to their house, you know you are in for a very special treat! They are known for their extreme love of Disney and their huge collection of Disney memorabilia. If you thought Mark was a fan, you are wrong, wrong, wrong, as Evey used to say. He is NOTHING compared to Barbara and Al.

We had such a good time as guests in their home for a few hours. We started off with an amazing close up look at their lawn decorations for the holidays. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I actually didn't have my camera, so the few pictures you see here were taken with the cell phone. Then we stepped into the house and were just in awe! Every inch of wall space, floor space, furniture space, cabinet space, it's ALL filled with fantastic Disney items. I was like a kid in a candy store; I simply didn't know where to look next. This has taken them years to amass, and it's all lovingly and beautifully displayed. The few pictures I have posted here do NOT do it justice. All I can say is WOW and thanks for sharing it with us.

Hanukkah is ending.

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah. It was amazing, as all the nights have been. A big box of presents from Cindy appeared. Wow! She always does such a fantastic job. I have included pictures of Mark's loot and mine. She sent us these really cool "matching" mugs. Nice. Lowell gave Mark a very interesting looking bottle of whiskey. He is hoping to open it Friday night for the first taste. Mark gave me a fantastic necklace, made in the USA!

I spent this morning putting everything away, including cleaning the wax out of the menorahs and putting all presents and decorations away. My cleaning lady is coming tomorrow, and I didn't want her to have to work around all that stuff. Even though we spent the holiday alone, we had a fantastic first Hanukkah in this new house. Thanks everybody who sent cards, presents, emails, and calls.

I didn't report a weight last week for Weigh-In Wednesday because I knew it was bad. The week before, when we were in California, I had reported a two pound gain from 258 to 260. Sadly this week I am not reporting any loss; no, it's another gain. I am up another two pounds this morning to 262. I can't even remember now what it was last week. I didn't write it down anywhere. I think it was about the same.

This morning I realized that I am hardly eating any lunches or dinner at home until January 10. I will have some breakfasts at home until January 2, but then I'm on the cruise with Barbara. Today we are having lunch out doing errands and then meeting some friends at a really cool looking restaurant called Toojays for dinner. Tomorrow I am having lunch out because we are staying out of the house for the cleaning lady and then we always have dinner out on Thursdays. Friday I have a mani/pedi at 12:30, so my plan has been to eat lunch out doing some errands and then end up at the mani/pedi. This Friday is really unusual in that we almost never go out Friday nights, but this Friday our synagogue is having one of their periodic family dinners before Friday service. Naturally, we sent our money in for that. Then it's Saturday when Barb arrives. We are taking her out for lunch and then it's New Year's Eve. We have already bought tickets to a buffet dinner/Eagles tribute band/dance/party thing. Should be fun, but will include eating and drinking. I'm hoping to dance some of it off! New Year's Day Barb and I will grab breakfast at home and possibly lunch, but we are heading off to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with her twin sister and husband. Dinner that night is at a restaurant in or near the hotel that her sister has planned. The next day we board the Holland America ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam, for a week long cruise.

That's all going to be lots of fun, but I can feel the pounds piling on just typing.

I am enjoying retirement, enjoying all the activities we do, enjoying our friends, enjoying eating. I'm not working at all on weight loss. Kind of sad. Last time I whined about this, Evey sent me a scathing email that just put me in my place, and rightly so. Still, I guess it didn't sink in yet. Barb asked me if she should fuss at me about what I eat on the cruise. I know she would be happy to do it and be good at it. I know she loves me and will do what is best for me. Still, she gave me the choice. I said NO! Who wants to go on a cruise and think that someone is watching every bite and fussing about it? Part of the fun of cruising is cutting loose and enjoying everything. After all, you pay a bundle for the privilege. I told her I'd try to compensate by walking more. I could even go to the gym and do weight routines. Maybe I'll even give up a few drinks and desserts. I guess that could happen.

Mark and I overslept again today. Is that a sign of aging? LOL! So we are already feeling behind the count. We have weights to lift, walking to do, errands to run, shopping to do, and finally ending up at Toojay's at 6:30 to meet our friends for dinner. Another great day heading our way.

Got to go get it all started. Happy last day of Hanukkah to everyone!

The gadget worked!

After a few false starts, Mark's VHS to Digital Converter WORKED as advertised. We converted a vacation tape from 1991. Evey was four; Lowell was twelve. It was so cute to watch! Mark was 40, and I was just shy of turning 41. Wow! That was scary to watch. One thing I learned was that my perm that everyone said they hated didn't look so bad after all. I kind of liked my 1991 hair-do.

The vacation was 10 days, starting at Busch Gardens, Virginia Beach, and Water Country USA, and ending at the Caribbean Beach Resort in WDW. A twenty year old video was just about right to watch and not remember any of the details. Sure, I remembered that we took that vacation, but I certainly didn't remember everything we did or how the inside of that hotel looked. The video ran about two hours and 15 minutes, and it was a blast from the past. Now it's on a memory card that can be copied and shared with our kids. Ha ha! Whether they want it or not!

We also spent a lot of time looking for the old tapes. I located 15 VHS tapes clearly marked as home movies, another 20 unmarked VHS tapes, as well as dozens of small tapes and old VHS-C formats. We hope to convert one tape each day until we are done, if possible. It is possible to watch the tape at the same time that it is being converted, so that's a nice feature as well. Mark swears the quality of the digital recording looks a lot better than just watching it straight from the VCR. I think he's right!

More problematic are the many BETA tapes I found. Originally we had a beta-format video camera and machine, before moving to VHS. We now have 10 labeled BETA tapes and 7 unmarked BETA tapes. Although this converter could do a BETA to Digital conversion, our old BETA machine has been dead for years and years. We are trying to research online whether or not it's possible (and maybe cheaper and/or better) to repair the BETA machine and do our own conversions or ship them to some out-of-state company that will do it for us. Meanwhile, at least all the BETA tapes are together in one box, clearly labeled, and sitting in the family room where they won't get lost!

Today we will be heading out relatively early in the day to put some mail in the box before the 1 p.m. pickup up in the village. While we are out there, we are going to take a walk, maybe outside or maybe in the indoor track. We haven't been in the indoor track for a very long time. Since it's going to rain this afternoon, it should be a good day to convert another home movie!

It's still Hanukkah! Day Seven today, and the last night will be tonight. I've included a few pictures of last night's festivities. Thanks, Evey, for the fabulous electric pencil sharpener. We hadn't realized until we moved here that we didn't have even a little hand-operated sharpener, so we have lots of unsharpened and dull pencils! Today I plan to sharpen a few up to have on hand. Mark gave me $25 Amazon money for Kindle books. Trust me, that money was spent almost immediately. I bought three full length novels and two short novellos. I think I have a nickel left on the account. LOL! I gave Mark the same amount on an iTunes card. He got three cards all together, one from Evey and two from me, so he can buy lots of music and videos for his iPad. And Rudy once again trumped us all. He gave Mark a fantastic t-shirt. Words would not do it justice, so check out the picture! It's perfect for Mark. Thanks, Rudy and Georganne.

The Day After is Day Six.

For most people the main event is over. Christmas has come and gone; now it's the day after Christmas, good for returning unwanted items and searching for post-Christmas bargains. For us, it's Day Six of Hanukkah, and I wouldn't be caught DEAD near any mall or store!

Our plans today are again low-key. Mark got a gadget that converts VHS tapes to digital, so we want to find some of the old home movies and start turning them into digital chips to preserve and share. There are so many old videos of our kids and our family vacations that we haven't seen in years! Now we are worried about two things: we won't be able to find them, or they won't play anymore when we do. It's definitely time to get started on that.

Last night our friend Rudy gave us a Panama Mola cloth. It's a traditional art form in Panama made by the Kuna Indians. I'm going to use mine for a challah cover. It's gorgeous and in my favorite colors. Fantastic. Thanks, Rudy.

Mark was happy to get his annual Star Trek calendar, and he gave me a cover for my Kindle Fire. Very nice all around.

We still have two more nights of presents to do. That's exciting. Over the years, I really appreciated having eight nights of unwrapping gifts. I thought for kids it's a good lesson in delayed gratification. They would see the big pile of presents on the table and only be allowed to open one or two each night. That also meant they devoted hours of attention and play to each item. Every present got a full 24 hours to be special and new before the next new thing was unwrapped. I think that's a good thing.

Finally, we did enjoy the Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. It's now called Asian Diner and has been open only five months. They are much better than their predecessor. Mark and I were not the only ones in there. There was a Hispanic family that included a grandmother, parents, and several children, including one in a stroller. There was another couple that Mark and I felt sure were Jewish, and there was us. At least two different people came in to pick up carry-out orders while we there, too. Next week they are getting their liquor license, so it will be even more fun to go there in the future. Mark got a tofu and vegetables in spicy brown sauce which was fantastic. I will definitely get that next time we go. Of course, Chinese food is not good for weight loss, so I'm up two and a half pounds today. It's probably the sodium content. We do plan to go to the gym for weight routines and do some walking today, and I hope to see those extra pounds gone by tomorrow. Still, it's not looking too good for weigh-in Wednesday this week. I bet I'm going to have to say I'm staying the same, and that's not good! OY! In just one week from today I get on the cruise ship with my friend Barbara. I'm still carrying the ten pounds from the cruise in October and the five pounds from the trip up north for Thanksgiving and out west to visit Eric and Evey. Sigh. I'm not doing well at all with weight loss. There's been no weight lost in a long time! LOL!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.

Mark and I are having a very lazy Christmas/Day Five of Hanukkah so far. He almost NEVER sleeps in, but he did not set the alarm. I got up about 9:15, but he didn't crawl out of bed until 11:40 a.m. Ha ha! That's SO not like Mark. I figured he must have really needed the sleep.

Last night, I opened this absolutely gorgeous necklace from Lowell and Emily. They got it at a store called Fire and Ice. I am overewhelmed. Plus the chain length is perfect for me. I may wear it all the time now! Thanks, Lowell and Emily! I adore it

We are watching the Disney Christmas parade, which in the Orlando area didn't come on until noon. So, he made us low-carb pancakes and scrambled eggs for lunch, and we are enjoying the two parades, broadcast from CA and FL until 2 p.m. We plan to shower and get dressed after that, and then watch a Disney movie, Melody Time, before going to our local Chinese restaurant for dinner. We gave them a try in August of 2010 and were not impressed, but they are under new management now and just so close that we can't resist giving them another try. I guess I'll let you know how it turns out.

We get to light six candles tonight and have some more presents. That's going to be fun. Hanukkah has been bittersweet without any family to share it in person, but we've made the most of it anyway with just ourselves. Our kids have kept in touch with emails and phone calls, so that's been nice. Evey and Eric had a great time this morning at Eric's family home. They both opened a lot more presents and are having a big dinner tonight with extended family. Lowell is spending the day at Emily's parents' house. They are probably having their big noon day meal right about now while I'm typing. I hope they are both having a great time! I'm happy for them both that they have these families to embrace them and make them feel at home. My love and thanks go to the Gaertner and Stackhouse families for that.

Lovely Days

We spent some part of each of the last two days at the pool. I actually swam 9 laps, about 20 minutes, each time. OK, I lied. I swam 4, "ran" two because the pool is never over my head, then swam one more. Yesterday, I then swam around for another 20 minutes while Mark did his water aerobic routine. I also did my weight routine Wednesday and Friday. That's the good news, and more good news is that I felt really good while doing all this and enjoyed it. The bad news is that my weight is still up. Sigh. I won't report it because it's not Wednesday.

Today we are going to shul where Mark will read the Haftarah for Shabbat Hanukkah. Nice. He always does a good job. In the afternoon we might go swimming again.

Yesterday the heat broke a 45 year old record. We hit 85. Amazingly nice. Today it's only going to hit 80. LOL! Tomorrow maybe up to 81. Honestly, I can't tell the difference between those numbers. They all seem wonderful to me. My friend Barb is arriving a week from today. I'm just watching the temps closely and hoping it stays nice and warm like this for her sake so she can swim, too. Everyone here says this is amount of warmth is unusual for this time of year. I'm not complaining!

Evey and Eric are flying east today to spend the holidays with his family. I wish them safe travels and a wonderful time with the relatives. Much of my extended family got together at Kip and Denise's house for presents and dinner yesterday. On Sunday, they will all be dispersed to separate little family groups. I hope they had an awesome get-together yesterday and enjoy their Christmas day wherever and with whomever they may be. Mark and I plan to spend Christmas watching the Disney Very Merry Christmas Parade on TV, then go to a movie at Downtown Disney, and finish up with a Chinese food dinner. Is that a Jewish Christmas or what? LOL!

I wish everyone who reads this blog a Happy Hanukkah (night five tonight!), a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Of course, the most important things are to have your health, your family and friends, and be surrounded by the warmth and love of all. Enjoy! Love!

Hanukkah Presents

We had a lovely day yesterday. After going to my cancer support group in the morning, I went to the pool for the rest of the day. It was 82 and sunny! Mark did some chores and shopping before meeting me at the pool around 4 p.m. We had dinner out and then returned home for Hanukkah candles and presents.

Whoee! We hit the jackpot last night in presents. Mark got me a Kindle Fire! I had a regular Kindle for a few years and loved it, but it broke last February for some reason. I just did without since then, but now I have all my books back! I even downloaded the newest Jonathan Kellerman novel and spent several hours reading about a third of that book last night. I had a great time.

Also Leslie, Evey's mother-in-law, gave us a fantastic calendar full of wedding pictures. It is an amazing work of art, and obviously, when 2012 is over, we will NOT be throwing this calendar away. I LOVE it. I'm including some of the pictures from it here. Thanks so very much, Leslie. It is a beautiful, thoughtful Hanukkah present!

December 21, 1975

Yes, today is our 36th wedding anniversary. Wow! I think that's quite an accomplishment.

Mark and I had decided that since it came on the first day of Hanukkah and so near Christmas, we would not spend money on ourselves right now. Instead we postponed our celebration until mid-January when we are treating ourselves to a night at the Polynesian Resort at WDW. We have been in there for dinners, luaus, and breakfasts many times over the years, but we never actually stayed overnight in a room. Well, that will change in January.

So imagine my immense surprise when I came out to the kitchen this morning and found a gift from Mark laying on my laptop. He bought us two tickets to the 6:30 show tonight at the AMC Downtown Disney theaters for the MET Holiday Encore performance of The Magic Flute! So nice. We've been wanting to go to one of these video presentations of a MET opera for a long time, but we never got around to it. I know our friends Sara and Jeff, big opera buffs, go to them all the time and say it's great. We used to go to live opera in Baltimore and Annapolis all the time, but it's been decades since we did that either. We will really enjoy this tonight.

Then I had an attack of guilt at not buying him anything, so I will buy him dinner. I made reservations for 5 p.m. at The House of Blues in Downtown Disney, a very short walk from the theater. The plan now is to go to Downtown Disney around 3:30, take a long walk all the way from one end to the other for exercise, stop in to World of Disney to replace my broken iPhone case, and end up at 5 at the restaurant. It's 80 degrees and sunny today. I LOVE IT!!

In honor of our anniversary, Mark agreed to scan in some of our old photos to include. If you never knew us back in 1975, this should give you a good laugh over how much I have changed and Mark has stayed the same! Also, I included the picture of Mark singing to me at the reception. You all know that he sang "I Loved Her First" at Evey's wedding, but he wrote a song for me and performed it at our wedding. The song was called "You are my Angel." I don't remember the whole thing, but I remember one couplet, "You are my Angel, now you're my wife. Now and forever, you are my life." Aw....does it get any sweeter than that?

BTW, it's also weigh-in Wednesday. Let me just say it's so BAD that I'm not even going to print it. Maybe next week will be better.

End of Vacation; Start of Hanukkah

Today Rudy will be heading home. His flight is in the early evening, so we are just having a relaxing day around the house until he heads out around 3:30. We might go out to lunch, but it will be low key other than that.

It's been enjoyable having him here. We had some good times. Last night we went to one of our favorite buffet restaurants, Boma's in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food is just fantastic, but it's a buffet! We all ate too much; we drank too much; what else is new!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. To all my friends and family who might read this blog, I wish you a wonderful Hanukkah. I hope you have a fantastic time, light candles, have presents, and eat lots of latkes and donuts. Mark and I are considering skipping the donuts this year. LOL! Seriously, neither of us needs them.

We decorated the house as well as we good with the few things I found. I cleaned the wax off of the Disney menorah and wrapped Mark's presents. Things are starting to look like a holiday is happening. At 7 p.m. tonight the Solivita Shalom Club has a rabbi coming out here to light the community giant menorah on the village lawn next to the Christmas tree and creche. We are going to go and also partake of the free refreshments afterwards.

In a few minutes we are going out to lunch with Rudy at the Solivita Stonegate Grille. A new chef is there now, and we are thinking they might have a new menu to try. Then it will be time for Rudy to head on up to the airport and his trip back to Maryland. It's been a blast hosting him this week. We really do enjoy having people use our guest room.

Congratulations, Evey!

Evey decided she wanted the degree of Masters in Applied Nutrition before she even got her B. S. in Athletic Training. By the time she was ready for the undergrad degree, she had already applied to Northeastern University in Boston for the Masters degree. She didn't know at the time that she would be moving to Santa Clara, CA. Fortunately for her, Northeastern offered this degree completely ONLINE. Unbelievable. So she went for it.

She worked very hard. As she worked on the degree, she was also involved in planning her wedding and honeymoon, setting up their new apartment, and working in a Physical Therapy clinic. Despite all of that, she completed the program in just five straight semesters, taking only a year and a half. She is finished!! The school only has a commencement service once a year in May, but she has no plans to go to it. The diploma will be mailed to her after that date, but meanwhile she is DONE. She does officially have a Masters Degree now!

Congratulations, Evey! Your dad and I are very, very proud of you.

Now for equal time, let me say that I'm also very proud of Lowell. He has been in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of Baltimore for two and a half years. He is getting a Masters in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts. He has only three more semesters to finish. He is also working full time, so his degree is going like mine did, two classes at a time. In fact, most semesters, I only took one class at a time and took five years to do it. He is on track to finish in just four years by taking two classes every semester as well as full time work. Exhausting! He should be graduating in May of 2013.

I hope he chooses to go to his actual commencement ceremony. His dad and I will definitely go up to Baltimore for that! Lowell, like me, chose not to go to the undergrad graduation from the U. of Maryland. It was just too many people and felt sort of meaningless. When I got my masters twenty years later from Loyola College in Baltimore, I felt strongly that it was the right time to walk across the stage. Cindy and Mark attended, and I was quite happy about that. I would love to see Lowell go to a college graduation. Evey, on the other hand, did go to her undergrad commencement at Northeastern, so she does not feel that it is necessary to fly across the country to do it a second time. I totally agree with her.

Both of my kids are AWESOME, and I love them very much. I have included a picture of each of them here today since the blog is mostly about them.

Today we are planning another low-key day at the pool, assuming the weather gets warm enough this afternoon. We had quite a cold night last night; in fact, they said it was the coldest night of the season so far. It should get to 75 today and be sunny, so I hope that makes the pool a go. I also plan to go buy a box of Christmas cards and try to get them in the mail today. I'm way behind on that little chore.

Great Weekend

We spent a lazy Saturday by the pool, but we made up for that today. Busy, busy, busy!! Rudy treated us to breakfast at Denny's. Then we dropped him off at Downtown Disney for a few hours of strolling around on his own while Mark and I attended a read-through of a Purim shpiel at shul. We met up with Rudy at the AMC Fork and Screen theaters to have lunch and see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. It was great. I'm glad that we watched the first one again last night because I really didn't remember it.

After lunch, we went to the Grand Floridian and the Yacht and Beach Club hotels to see the holiday decorations. They put up the most amazing gingerbread house and gingerbread carousel. We got home about 7:30 after leaving at 8 a.m. It was a long, but fabulous day! I hope everyone else had a great day, too.

Forgot the camera for once.

Yesterday we had a great time on the cruise in Clearwater, but I forgot my camera. That rarely happens. In fact, all our neighbors went as well. We had dinner at a table for 10 that included four other couples from our block. No one had remembered their cameras, but one of the ladies had said, "Oh, don't worry. Becky always has her camera!" Well, this time I had to disappoint them.

The cruise in Clearwater Bay on the Calypso Queen was beautiful, and the food was delicious. There was unlimited rum punch, several kinds of wine, sodas, coffee and tea. I had two rum punches, and I think Mark had two glasses of burgundy. Yum. They had a buffet which included a delicious spicy white fish. There was caesar salad, rice, black beans, corn, baked veggie/cheese ziti, and German chocolate cake for dessert. We all ate and drank plenty! The weather was warm; the water was calm; the houses along the banks were beautifully decorated. It was a fantastic trip.

Today we went to play miniature golf at Blizzard Beach at the Winter Summerland park. Since it's winter, we chose the summer side. It was a lot of fun! I remember going there with the kids when they were little, but I think we only did the winter side that year. Anyway, I ended up being the winner, much to my surprise. I got a 47 out of the par 56; Mark had 48; Rudy had 50. I actually shot a hole in one on the 17th hole as well as the final 18th hole. Nice. Afterwards, we took Rudy to the bar at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for drinks. He had never been there, and it's a very impressive resort just to look around in. While there, we decided to have dinner there Monday night at the buffet, Boma, so we made a reservation. We didn't remember that next week is the week before Christmas, so the dinner reservation is for 8:50. That was the best we could do.

Now Mark has just finished making steaks and baked potatoes for dinner with salad and brussel sprouts with a fresh challah. He is ready to serve, so time to go! Have a good Shabbat!!

Some pictures of our trip!

Yesterday was fun even though it was full of chores. The caroling by the pool was lovely. Today I'm going to the cancer support group for the first time in a very long time, then this afternoon Mark and I are taking a bus to Clearwater for a Holiday Lights Dinner Cruise, along with 150 other Solivita travel club folks. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of our trip to California.