My Toesies.

This morning I am going to whine about my big toes.  They hurt.  A lot.

Every two weeks for the last 15 years, I have been getting a manicure and a pedicure.  The toe nails, on my big toes especially, will curl inwards and grown down in and cause pain if not trimmed properly. They've always been that way.  I have horrifying memories of my mother cutting away at them, making them hurt even more.  It's scary being held down as a child and having your toes dug into.   In fact, I never wanted anybody to ever touch my feet again because of those memories, so I spent years cutting my own toe nails and usually just making them worse.  I remember causing several bad infections in my toes from my own ineptitude.

Finally, I decided to have a professional pedicure, along with a manicure, for Evey's Bat Mitzvah in the year 2000.  Since I always bit my nails terribly and also kept them short to play piano and guitar, I had decided it would be cool to have long nails for the bat mitzvah day.  I got the nails lengthened with the acrylic product that was as hard as rocks.  I loved it and I was hooked.  I started going regularly to the same salon in Maryland every two weeks until we moved to Florida.  Even there I never really liked the pedicures.  It still hurt.  The nail tech always seemed to dig around in there and cut a lot of stuff, and it always hurt.  She even made my hands and toes bleed sometimes, cutting too much on the toes or grinding the nails with the electric grinder on the fingers.  But I kept going back!

Then we came to Florida.  Pedicures got much better here because Nicole, my nail tech, really knows how to do them right.  She trims them just right.  It never hurts and they look great.  She also got me off the acrylics and on to the gel nails, which is much nicer as well.  There is no grinding involved anymore.  There are no "oops" moments when the grinder catches the tender skin instead o the hard nail.

Occasionally, I have had my nails done somewhere else, like in Maryland before Lowell's wedding or on a cruise ship, when I can't get to Nicole.  That doesn't always work so well for me.  In fact, the salon in Maryland before the wedding did a real butcher job. I got an infection in my toes, and Nicole had her skills tested to the max trying to get me back to normal.

Well, now something else is wrong.  Nicole did her usually great job on my regularly scheduled appointment this past Tuesday.  They look great, all ready for the cruise that starts Saturday.  But I woke up Wednesday morning and realized that both big toes hurt.  I couldn't stand to have the sheet on the bed touch the top of my toes.  My bedroom slippers even hurt as they touched the tops of the toes.  I looked at them and the nails seem not to be growing in.  So I just let it go and as the day went on, they hurt less.  Then Thursday morning I woke up the same way....and Friday morning....and Saturday and today.  This morning I looked at them again and decided that the right toe is starting to look red and swollen.  I am fearing some kind of infection, and yet the nail still looks fine.

I have no idea what is going on.  It almost seems like there is some infection starting under the nail.  Weird.

So this morning I sent a private FB message to Nicole and asked her if I could come in either Monday or Wednesday morning to have her take the polish off so we can see under it and to have her look at what I'm seeing.  Maybe she can see something I don't.  Then I think I might try to see a doctor before the cruise in case I need to get an antibiotic.  The last thing I need right now is to have an infection in my toes while at sea.  Geez.  Ridiculous timing.

Meanwhile, today we are meeting Susie and Ed at 10:45 this morning to drive up to Winter Garden, stroll around the picturesque old downtown area, pick a restaurant from the many there for lunch, and then go to the 2 p.m  live performance of a Broadway musical called Hands on a Hardbody.  We had never heard of it before, but it got a few Tony nominations, although no wins.  It's about people in Texas trying to win a truck by keeping their hands on the body of the truck.  Whoever lasts the longest wins the truck.  We'll probably enjoy it no matter what.

TURANDOT....magnificent

I just love opera!  Back in the mid-'80s to early '90s, Baltimore County music teachers used to get complimentary tickets to all of the operas at the Lyric Theater.  Then the NEA grants got cut, so the teachers didn't get tickets anymore.  Then the Baltimore Opera company folded.  We also used to go to operas by the Annapolis Opera company, but little by little we just stopped going.  We had not been to a live performance for a long time.  Now that we've discovered the Live from the Met in HD at the movie theaters, we are in heaven.

Today's production was Puccini's Turandot.  I confess I didn't know anything about it, but it was spectacular.  Neither Mark nor I nodded off at all today, unlike two weeks ago for the Pearl Fishers.  The costumes, sets, and vocal performances were just amazing.  I think if I had not become a music teacher and married Mark, settling into our routine in Laurel, my dream job would have been to be a member of the Met opera chorus.  That just looks like SO MUCH FUN!!!  I am always watching those chorus members.  They sing so many wonderful chorus moments, get to wear great costumes, perform with all the finest singers and musicians in the world....what's not to like!

Now we are home and will soon be watching our Disney movie of the week. We started this project back in the fall of 2011 with the first full length Disney film, Snow White, released in 1938, and have watched every Disney movie made up through 1985 so far.  Tonight's movie is the first one released in 1985, Down and Out in Beverly Hills with Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss, and Nick Nolte.  I remember seeing this one back then, but I don't remember much about it.  I think it's going to be fun.

And now it's Friday

I haven't written since Monday night, but there's not a lot of excuse for that.  I had some down time on almost every day, but I just never wrote a blog.  C'est la vie.

On Tuesday, Mark and Ron spent the day doing free things at WDW.  They rode the MK monorail, checked out all of those resorts, ate lunch at Gasparillo's in the Grand Floridian, and rode the Epcot monorail.  When they got home, Ron treated us to a Chinese dinner at our favorite local place.  While they were doing that, I had a mani/pedi at the Cove and a Cove Singers rehearsal for the April performance.  It wasn't too busy a day for me, but it was a lot of fun.

Wednesday was a little more relaxing.  We had our morning rehearsal, but in the afternoon I finished the autobiography of Sonia Sottomayor that Cindy gave me for Hanukkah and then started Mark's book, The Rosie Project.  I also took a nap!  Wednesday was Ron's last full day here, and he spent all day working on his laptop.  He is lucky to have a job where he can work from anywhere.  That night Mark and I went to the SOJC rehearsal while Ron had some time to visit a childhood friend who lives right here on my street.

Thursday was my last rehearsal doing props with the show.  I went up and had a training session with my replacement, Hedy.  She will do a great job with Donna.  After the rehearsal, Hedy and I both played Mah Jongg at Donna's house.  Mark made a great dinner, and then the two of us went up to the Thursday movie, No Escape.

Today I am going to be doing some work for both the Cove Singers and the SOJC choir before we head over to the Cove for our library work.  An easy, relaxing Shabbat dinner at home with just the two of us will be nice.  Tomorrow we are going to the Live from the Met performance of Turandot, which I am really looking forward to.

So that's the week.

Weight wise, I am around 279.  I didn't weigh myself this morning, but I bought five boxes of Girl Scout cookies that I picked up on Tuesday.  From Tuesday afternoon to Thursday night, I ate three whole boxes all by myself.  Yeah, no weight loss going on here.

Very Severe Ptosis

After the morning's rehearsal, lunch on the road, a stop at the library to finish a newsletter article and take some photos for it, I finally saw the eye surgeon about my ptosis, also called droopy eyelid.  The appointment was about two hours long.  During it they did an eye exam, pressure test (all fine}), took photos from every possible angle, and did a field of vision test.  I pretty much failed the field of vision test completely in the right eye, but I was surprised at how little I saw in the left as well.  I have virtually no peripheral vision at all.  I have no vision about half way up the eye range.  They did call my condition very severe.

So....I am scheduled for laser surgery on the morning of March 1.  Medicare covered today's tests and visit.  They will cover the ptosis surgery, but I was talked into paying a ridiculous amount out of pocket to fix the skin folds over the eyes and remove about a dozen skin tags.  Although the skin folds are considered cosmetic by Medicare, the eye surgeon said the ptosis surgery prognosis is much better if she fixes both at the same time.  I agreed, but I am now out of a large sum of money.  Oh, well....

The surgery will be done under a light general anesthesia and leave me with stitches that will be removed 8 days later.  I'll look pretty black and blue and swollen for about three or four weeks afterward.  My activities will be curtailed for about 10-14 days. I won't be able to lift more than 10 pounds, bend over so that my head is too low, or do anything that might raise my heart rate.  That means I'm most likely going to drop out of doing the props for the play.  There's a lot of carrying and moving around for that.  If I have to stop it for two weeks right at the end of the rehearsals and we'll be gone for 10 days in the middle of February for a cruise, I might as well turn the props job over to someone else right now.  I sent an email to the director and told her.  Now it's her decision.

Meanwhile, we had a great Tu B'Shevat seder Sunday night with Jonathan and Susan and cousin Ron.  Mark's white chicken chili was spectacular.  The fruits were so beautiful and fresh.  I posted most of the pictures on Facebook today, but I'll post a few here, too.

Finally off the treadmill

I haven't written a blog since Tuesday because I have felt as if I was on a non-stop treadmill!  No time to even sit down and breathe.  Today I am finally not moving.  Mark and I are staying home all day, and I don't plan to get out of my robe and slippers.  Of course, tomorrow the treadmill starts up again.

So what has been happening since Tuesday's blog...

On Tuesday, we did not actually have much time at the Osceola Historical Museum because dropping off the family tree at Staples took a lot longer than we expected plus we got a much later start on the day.  We also found a new kosher restaurant right in Kissimmee, so of course we had to eat there.  Delicious kosher beef pastrami sandwich and chicken soup!  We spent about an hour in the free portion of the museum after lunch, but then we had to run home, eat something quick (not the chicken chili) and run off to a Travel Club meeting.  Here are some pictures from that museum.

On Wednesday I had my morning rehearsal, which was fun although doing props is always a lot of work that is mostly hurry up and wait, then we grabbed a fast lunch and headed to the lawyer's office to sign the trust and will papers.  From there we went back to the Ford dealer, which took forever.  I got my car back, but they had only done two out of three recalls because they needed a part.  Coming home from there, which should have been about 45 minutes, took 90 because it was rush hour.  UGH.  We were exhausted.   Now I am expecting a call sometime this upcoming week when the part arrives, and I have to make another appointment to go up and back twice.  Not thrilled about that.

Thursday started off with another morning rehearsal that ran over by nearly 40 minutes.  Then I rushed to grab a little lunch and rushed to pay Mah Jongg at Donna's house.  I won two games, so that was fun.  Then Mark picked me up, and we rushed to the Cove to a Meet and Greet of Solivita/Cove members.  Mark and I were two of the six featured speakers at the meeting.  When that ended at 6, eight of us went into the restaurant next to it, Lakeside, and had a lovely dinner together.  We got home after 9 p.m.  At least dinner was relaxing.

Friday started off with cleaning up for the cleaning lady and doing laundry before rushing over to the Cove for an 11 a.m. general membership meeting followed by eating lunch in the library, working on the newsletter for it, and doing my usual volunteer work from 1-4.  We then rushed home, made Shabbat dinner, and rushed out to the synagogue because my little choir was singing three Tu B'Shevat songs at services.  Services ran a bit longer than usual plus we had to drop Susan off at her house, so we got home, totally exhausted, at 10 p.m.

And THAT'S why I am doing NOTHING today except watching TV, reading, and playing on the computer!  Maybe some day Mark and I will retire!  LOL!

Tomorrow, Mark's cousin Ron arrives for a week's visit.  I have to go up to Staples to pick up the family trees.  They should look great.  I made 8 copies with a heavier front and back page as well as a spiral binding along the top.  Cost a FORTUNE just to make and then more to send it out.  OUCH.  After that I need to pick up some things, including Mark's meds, at Publix.  At 5:30 we have Susan and Jonathan joining Ron and us for a Tu B'Shevat seder.  Mark is finally making the white chicken chili for that dinner.  We did a seder like that about four years ago, and Jonathan and Susan attended then, too.  They are bringing 10 of the 15 fruits and seem very happy to be attending.  I plan to take some pictures of it to post.

I doubt if I will be writing another blog throughout most of the upcoming week because it's going to be a lot like this one.  I might have some time Tuesday night, so if I do, I'll post the seder pictures.

Monday I have rehearsal followed by the two hour appointment in Winter Park (about an 80 minute drive each way) to see the eyelid surgeon about the droopy eyelid.  I hope it's covered by Medicare. So far, I have not had much luck in getting things covered. I always seem to hit the doctors that SAY they accept Medicare, but then they don't send it in properly, or send it in with coding that gets things denied, or don't send it in at all.  Ridiculous.  I had much better health coverage BEFORE Medicare, and I had a much clearer idea of what would or would not be covered.  I am completely underwhelmed by Medicare so far.

Tourist Tuesday for the first time in awhile.

This morning it is really, really cold out. I realize that those up north would disagree with me, but it was in the upper 30s over night and only going to a high of 57 today.  I'm wearing a flannel nightgown and long, fleecy robe with fleecy slippers this morning as I sip my hot coffee.  Mark and I slept in until 8 a.m.  Wow.

Last night we took my car up to one of the local Ford dealerships to have three recalls done on my car.  Then this morning we will go to Staples to drop off the Meese Family Tree for professional copying. My dad's brother, Irving, had this created a long, LONG time ago and gave a copy to my dad.  At some point, someone must have copied it and sent it to Flyn with a letter on it asking her to copy it for me. The letter was unsigned and we did not recognize the handwriting.  We suspect it might have been one of our dad's sisters.

Flyn has since lost her copy, but I recently found mine.  So I'm making copies for everyone who might care and will mail them out.  This document went back to the 1700s and showed that an ancestor, Balthazar Meese, age 17, carried the flag at the Battle of Bunker Hill and is buried in Somerset County, PA.  Then it leads from him to my grandfather, Hugh Meese, my father, and me. I have since added my kids.  I always suspected that Irving, who was married many times, did this to see if his one of his four daughters or one of his wives could be in the DAR.  I don't really know though.  Back in the '60s when this was made, there was no Ancestry.com either. I'm sure he paid a pretty penny to have some research service do this for him.

Once I drop the document off at Staples, we are going to the Osceola County Welcome Center, History Museum. and Pioneer Village.  This is a pretty building on Vine Street in Kissimmee, not far from WDW.  We drive by it often and always say we should go.  Finally, we realized we never do anything that isn't on the calendar, so we put it on the calendar for today.  It opens at 10 a.m.  We plan to spend 2-3 hours visiting, have lunch out at Subway, and then be home early enough in the afternoon for Mark to make us a white chicken chili for dinner.

I dropped another pound yesterday. I did eat correctly and all meals at home.  Plus I went to the gym for five weight machines and was just generally fairly active all day.  Yay.  Hopefully, today will be the same.

Wonderful weekend. Happy MLK day.

Mark and I really enjoyed our work day at home yesterday.  We really needed it.  We also had long, wonderful conversations with both Lowell and Evey.  Life is good.

This morning Mark and I are starting the adventure of rehearsals for the March play.  I don't like getting up at 6:30 and rushing out around 8:30, but once we are there, it's fun seeing and working with everyone.

I felt like I ate too much yesterday, but my Monday morning weigh-in showed that I'm down two and a half pounds from 280 to 277.5.  I guess a lot of that sodium water weight is gone. Now if I can only behave myself today because all my meals will be at home, and I'll be out for rehearsal then out for Mah Jong and then out to drop off my car for some service (recall repairs), so there won't be any time for grazing in the kitchen!

Chores at home. Haven't had THAT day in a while.

Usually we go to movies on Sunday morning, but not today.  We decided we really needed to stay home and do some chores.  Mark has a lot of NARFE work on his plate, and he needs to work on memorizing his lines for the play.   We both start our rehearsals for Arsenic and Old Lace tomorrow.

Rudy left on Saturday.  Ironically, it was a warm, sunny day!  As he was leaving the house around 9 a.m. to go to the airport and fly back to Maryland, he said, "The weather gods are laughing at me!"  Probably true.  It was cold or rainy every day that he was here. Maybe it will be nicer when he returns on March 11.

Yesterday we had a lovely, but busy day.  We went to the synagogue, and then we went to the Met Live opera performance at AMC Disney Springs.  This time it was Bizet's Pearl Fishers, which has not been produced at the Met in 100 years.  We can only surmise that that was why the place was PACKED!  Usually there are maybe a dozen or two people at these operas, so we walked in just a minute before show time.  We were barely able to find two seats together.  We could not believe it.  Then we both promptly slept through almost all of the first act!  Sadly, I also slept through the middle of act two and the end of act three.  I was ashamed of myself

When we got home, we headed over to Marilyn and Larry's house for a fabulous dinner party for eight. Marilyn plays Broadway hits on the piano, so after dinner, she played some songs and I sang along. I also played a few and we all sang along.  That was so much fun.  I haven't done anything like that in decades!

My weight is 280 this morning.  I continued to eat too much sodium and too many calories for the last few days.  This week I am eating lunch out on Tuesday and dinner out on Thursday.  That's it.  There is a good opportunity this week for eating right and also exercising. If I'm smart, I will take advantage of that opportunity.

Hosting Mah Jongg for the last time until April

First let me report that my appointment with the retina specialist went well.  My retina is hanging in there with the usual amount of floaters.  My budding cataracts did not bud much this year.  I said to him, "Well, that's good news that they didn't change."  And he responded, "They will. They always do."  Yay for future cataract surgery, I guess.  My pressure is perfect, so no signs of glaucoma.  He agreed with me that my eyelids, especially the right one, droops too much. It's most likely a condition called Ptosis. He has referred me to a lady doctor in Winter Park who specializes in eyelids.  Never knew anyone did that!  I am going to call today to set up an initial consultation, but I do want that surgery.  Dr. Membreno said that it's a three week recovery waiting for swelling to go down, but that most people get excellent results.  I am really bothered by it, especially on the right eye where I can see the eyelid all the time. Unfortunately, my ridiculous schedule is making it hard to even find three consecutive weeks where I could just recover and then have a follow up appointment.  Maybe in November....

We had an excellent rehearsal at the synagogue last night, so that was nice.

This morning I will have 11-12 ladies here playing Mahj.  I set up three tables for it because I thought we were going to be 12-13.  One cancelled, unfortunately that was Debbie, the lady who taught me.  She's going to Universal Studios today, I think.  Now one other lady forgot she had a hair appointment this morning.  She may or may not come after the hair appointment.

 Anyway because of play rehearsals and cruising, I can't host Mah Jongg here again until mid-April, so I'm happy that nearly a dozen ladies are going to be here playing this morning. I love it. Next week Mark and I start three-mornings-a-week rehearsals for Arsenic and Old Lace.

My weight is down that extra pound from the sodium on Tuesday. I had a great day yesterday, eating all my meals at home and doing some small amount of walking around in stores.  The only indulgence was after the rehearsal.  We have been driving our friends Jonathan and Susan to rehearsal with us, and it has become our tradition to stop at Twistee Treat on the way home.  I had a caramel milkshake.  So yummy.  Even so, I was about 276, so I am not upset.  Today I will eat all my meals at home; tomorrow, too, probably.  Our next meal out should be dinner Saturday night at a friend's house.  She's having a dinner party for 8, and I'm bringing the salad.

Ophthalmology

At 10 a.m I have my annual check up with the ophthalmologist because of that retina that peeled off in 2012.  For the first year I went every few months, and then every nine months, and last time he put me on an annual basis.  Hopefully, all is well with that; it always has been. He also assesses the cataracts that are just starting to form.  I don't find much problem with night driving, so I don't think the cataracts have changed much.  I also plan to ask him about my drooping eyelid.  Sometimes on my right eye, I can barely keep it home and not from sleepiness!  It is really distracting sometimes.

I ate a lot at Cape May Monday night, but I actually lost a bit by Tuesday morning.  I was actually 275.6 yesterday morning, but I'm up a pound this morning.  I had a LOT of sodium yesterday.  We had the Big Catch Salad at Beef O'Brady's at our NARFE Board meeting yesterday, and it was very, very salty.  I had dinner at home, an excellent dinner under 300 calories.  Unfortunately, there was only a small bowl of the main dish that Mark made with nothing to go with it.  He always supplements his dinner calories with some walnuts and a glass of wine, but I prefer a salad and green veggie on the side. Unfortunately, we didn't have those.  And even more unfortunately then, I grazed the rest of the night.  I ate the rest of the bag of walnuts, half a bag of ancient and stale ballpark peanuts, a banana, and 4 little cups of sugar free jello plus hot tea with honey.  I have no idea how many calories were in the nuts, but I always eat a banana at night and the jello had almost nothing in it.  The worst part about the day was the sodium in the lunch salad and on the peanuts. I even licked the shells for extra salty goodness.  So I was not surprised to be up one pound today.  In fact, I was glad it was only one pound.

Today I plan to eat breakfast and lunch at home.  Dinner is still up in the air, but if we end up eating out then it will only be at Denny's, which always works well for me.

 The only other thing on my calendar for today, besides the morning eye doctor appointment, is a rehearsal at the synagogue tonight.  That should be great.  We did get some potentially bad news from the synagogue yesterday.  Our fabulous young rabbi, Hillel Skolnik, is probably leaving soon. He has the opportunity to take the position in Cleveland at his wife's childhood synagogue.  Her family is still in Cleveland at that shul, so all they travel a lot back and forth.  I'm sure they'd love to just live closer to her family.  Still, it is very sad for the rest of us because he is outstanding and he sings in my choir!  I shall miss him very much.

A good report

This morning I am happy to report that my weight is only 276.6.  I am thrilled that I dropped from 280 since Friday morning when I weighed in after the cruise.  I behaved pretty well every one of those days since, although I doubt if my calories were any less that 1500 to 1800, certainly not stringent.  Still, I bet there was plenty of water weight that I just lost, and now it will get harder.

Our friend Rudy arrived yesterday evening about 5 p.m.  He apparently brought the cold weather from up north with him.  It's going to be in the forties over night and the low sixties every day while he's here.  That's so sad because he likes to swim in the pools when he gets here.

I had expected to eat out only six times in the month before the next cruise, hoping that I could drop about eight pounds by then.  Of course, I also said that we had two sets of company in there and who knows what will happen.  So dinner out tonight just happened.  We made a reservation for dinner at the Cape May buffet at Disney's Beach Club Resort.  Rudy wants to take us out to dinner somewhere at Disney, and he has not been there before.  We were surprised at how many of the restaurants in all of the parks and the resorts were available only 24 hours in advance.  Must be a real slow time this week over there.  We love Cape May and have been there a lot.  It will be nice for him. Maybe I'll behave myself there.  The last time we went was with the Solivita Disney Fan Club, and I did pretty well that day.  I really did not overeat, plus we walked a lot that day, too.  If I'm smart, we will walk around over there today, too, although it's going to be pretty darn cold by the time we get there.

Meanwhile, this morning we have an appointment with a lawyer to talk about setting up a trust instead of a traditional will.  Then in the afternoon I am playing Mah Jongg with my neighbors.  That's all followed by dinner out, so it should be a wonderful day!  Hope anyone reading this blog is also going to have a wonderful day.

Nice day.

Yesterday went as planned.  I ate right, went to the gym for the first time in about a year to lift weights, and walked 40 minutes past some ponds.  We actually saw a big gator on the bank enjoying some warmth.  The rest of the day we just watched TV.  

This afternoon Rudy arrives about 3 p.m. for a week.  We need to go shopping for a few things in advance of his arrival.  Our other activity today is to gather all of our important papers together because tomorrow morning we finally have an appointment with a lawyer to create a trust to help the kids inherit without hassle some day.  

Great dinner last night with friends

We were so busy yesterday that we felt like our vacation was truly over!  LOL!

After doing chores like paying bills, doing laundry, and generally catching up on work all morning in the house, we went to the Cove for our three hours of volunteering in the library from 1-4 p.m., did some quick shopping at Loewe's and Publix for things we needed immediately, and then dinner with MD friends Debbie and Ed.  Mark made a slow-cooker recipe, spaghetti soup, for dinner.  I added hummus and pita chips and mini-franks in blankets for appetizers followed by the soup, salad, and challah for Shabbat dinner, and cookies and fruit for dessert.  The traffic was horrible, so Debbie and Ed were about half an hour later than planned for dinner, but everything was fine anyway.  We sat and talked and talked until 11 p.m. when they finally decided they had better head back to their timeshare.  What a wonderful evening!

Also this morning I am happy to report that I did not gain any weight yesterday.  I ate a very small breakfast and lunch and saved all my calories for dinner. I didn't worry about what I ate for dinner, so I was pleased to be the same this morning.  Actually I was down about half a pound!  Very nice.

Since we didn't go to bed until nearly 2 a.m., we both slept in until 8 a.m.  We had already decided we couldn't get ourselves to shut this morning, so we just didn't bother setting the alarm.  Today we will go to the gym, take a walk, and then play catch up on TV shows that we missed on the cruise.

Tomorrow afternoon Rudy comes for a week!

Also, here are some pictures from our second, three-day cruise that we added on to the Travel Club New Year's Eve cruise.

Waiting to be escorted off the first cruise and back on the for the second one.

We were given a complimentary lunch at Bistro on Five as back-to-backers.

We got to the Thalassotherapy pool right after lunch, before anyone else had  discovered it.

Sailing away from Fort Lauderdale again.

Sunset leaving Fort Lauderdale

First night of the new cruise and we had a table for two in the dining room.

On the Nassau day I had a mani/pedi.  We did not go onshore, which was fine because it was cold, blustery, and rainy all day.

Leaving Nassau was very rough.  

We never had a day in Nassau like this before.

Evening chic, formerly formal night.

The next day we were in Key West, which was cold and rainy until after lunch.  The ship gave out blankets on deck!

After lunch, it was still quite breezy, but the rain stopped and it was in the low 70s.  Very nice.  We walked off the ship and went here.

Me and my new friend at the aquarium.

It's a mini-miracle

I did not gain any weight on this cruise.  I'm not sure how that was possible.  I didn't feel that I was doing anything in particular to make that happen.  I ate what I wanted and drank lots of fruity alcoholic drinks all day.  I didn't even go to the gym or even feel like I walked that much.  That makes it a miracle!

I left for the cruise at an even 280 and returned the same.  Wow!  Now I admit that 280 is a HORRIBLE weight, so now I'm going to try really hard to lose about eight pounds before going on the next cruise, which is February 6.  I just looked at our calendar, and this month there are only six times when we should be eating either a lunch or dinner out.  Most all of the meals will be at home, and we will also be busy with appointments or rehearsals three mornings a week for about 3-4 hours. That's a lot of busy activity, which means less time to eat! On the other hand we have Rudy here for a week followed by Mark's cousin Ron for the next week.  Although we have not planned any meals out, sometimes company insists, especially Rudy!  We shall see.  It would be great if I ate mostly at home.

Our cruise was excellent.  We really enjoyed hanging out with Susie and Ed and occasionally running into other people from Solivita on the cruise.  We didn't even leave the ship in Nassau, so that was a great day of fun on the ship with not many people on board.  We always like that.  The second three day cruise was calm and low-key for us because we didn't know anybody.  We enjoy the back-to-back experience because it's relaxed in the morning while everyone else is worrying about getting off.  Then once we get back on, no one else is on board yet, so you get the run of the ship for awhile.  There were 11 of us doing back-to-back this time.  For the first time they gave us a complimentary lunch at the small specialty restaurant, Bistro on Five.  That was a $20 lunch, very nice.  We were in  Concierge Class this time, which gave us a bottle of champagne on the first day of each cruise, apples in the room all the time, nice tubes of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and lotion in the bathroom. There was priority boarding the first time, too.  I loved the balcony and the slightly bigger room.  It was surprising to me how much I actually used the balcony.  It's way too expensive to book Concierge Class or even a regular balcony very often, so I made the most of it this time.

Here are a few pictures from the first cruise.

Spillway party 

Mark brought us the bottle of champagne and glasses from our room to drink at the New Year's Eve deck party.  We drank the whole bottle!

Susie, Carol, and me at the Solivita Meet and Greet party.

We have never done room service before, but we had it for breakfast on this cruise.

Breakfast on the balcony in Nassau.

Susie and Ed in the Rendezvous before dinner on the last night of the cruise.