I get to play Mah Jongg again today!

On Monday I played in my neighbor's house.  I won FOUR games!  I won't be able to play there again for a month, but after winning four times, including two in a row, they probably are happy about that.  This morning I get to play with my Thursday group up at one of the club houses.  I never know who will be there, and I haven't been there in several weeks.  There are some new names on the list, so I hope to meet a few of them today.   Maybe I'll even win a game.

Seeing Newsies last night was amazing!  The theater was sold out, and people applauded along with the live audience on the screen.  We are so glad we decided to go.  I'm hoping that it will be available to buy on DVD eventually!

I ate too much yesterday, both at lunch at home and at Sweet Tomatoes, but I am still down half a pound today to an even 288.  That's seven pounds down in four days.  It won't continue at that speed, of course, but if I could drop about six in the next 8 days....Hm.  No, you say?  You're probably right. I am eating out tomorrow night and all meals on Saturday are out, as well as lunch on Sunday at the Thai restaurant.  None of this is conducive to a large weight loss in a short amount of time.  If I'm lucky, I'll stay the same, which will be tragic to start a cruise at 288.  Ugh.

This is the last cruise until October, so I can try to undo some of this damage then.  I have no idea what my calendar is like after we get back from the cruise on March 13.  I know Rudy is here from March 15 to the 31st.  Passover starts on the evening of April 10, so that's usually a week of weight gain for me.  Yikes.  Losing weight has always been hard for me, but doing it at an older age and during retirement is W-A-Y harder than younger and going to work.  At least that is how it seems to me.

Today I have just eaten a perfectly acceptable breakfast of 240 calories, and soon I'll leave to play Mahj until noon.  I plan to eat a decent lunch, and then Mark and I will go shopping at BJs and some other stores to get a bunch of stuff we need.  That brings me up to dinner.  We are eating leftovers from the freezer of something Mark cooked that is low carb and low calorie.  So unless I blow it watching TV tonight, today should be an excellent, low sodium, low calorie, high activity day. Yay!  I need more of these.

Newsies

This evening Mark and I are going to see a filmed version of a stage production of Newsies, a Disney failed movie that eventually became a huge Broadway hit.  We went to see it live on Broadway with Evey a few summers ago.  We will eat dinner out first at either Perkins or Sweet Tomatoes because we have good coupons for both.  Whichever we don't use tonight we will use Friday evening.

During the day today, Mark is getting a hair cut while I work on four part harmony to teach some guys at the Cove Singers.  We worked for an hour yesterday, but they need much more work.  We will be working Friday afternoon and Monday morning.  Hopefully, they can then work on their own.  The show is the end of March.

My weight was 288.6 this morning, which is down from the 291 yesterday.  I logged my calories in to the Lose It! program.  I had 1186 for the day.  I also drank a lot of water and was very active for two hours directing the Cove Singers rehearsal from 3-5 p.m.  I had my mani/pedi and a hair cut.  My hair was getting quite long and shaggy, so now it's trimmed up pretty good now.  Much easier to deal with.

Here are pictures from the five day cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

13 people stayed on board to do the B2B experience.  Relaxing with the complimentary champagne after we returned and before anyone else arrived.

One of the three pools on deck 9.

The beautiful aft pool area.

Dancing at Sail Away!

First drink of the second cruise at Sail Away.

Never took pictures of our room on the first cruise, so I did it on the first day of this cruise.

Very nice inside room, the first we ever had with two chairs as well as the ottoman at the desk.

YAY!  We got our Platinum cards on this cruise, meaning we have sailed 75 days on Carnival.

Inside the Butterflies Lounge, which was the Comedy Club as well as used for other lectures and things.

Q and A with he Cruise Director.

Towel Invasion day again.  Amazing.

Yesterday I posed a picture by the Red Frog Rum Bar.  Today here's a picture from the Blue Iguana Tequila bar.

Going to Cozumel with the t-shirt Cindy got him.

At our favorite dock, Puerta Maya, so we went to Pancho's for lunch.

Biggest margarita I ever had!  Mango and delicious.

Back from two weeks on the Carnival Pride

We returned from our two weeks on the Pride on Sunday afternoon.  After unpacking and eating lunch, we took naps. Mark's was an epic three hour nap.  Cruising is exhausting apparently.

The first nine days were with many friends, followed by a five day cruise by ourselves with 2300 strangers.  The Pride is a really great ship.  We enjoyed her very much.

My weight gain on this two weeks was absurd.  I got on the scale Sunday evening and topped out at 294.8, which is virtually what I weighed in April of 2009 when the doctor told me to lose weight for a hernia surgery or die.  I went from 295 to 220 by November of that year and had the surgery.  After the surgery, I lost another 15 pounds before retiring on Feb. 28 or 2010.

Basically, I've done nothing but gain weight back ever since.  I gained 15 pounds on our 7 week vacation starting in March of 2010.  Then the cancer diagnosis in July and the subsequent treatment brought another 30 pounds back.  By the spring of 2011, I was 250.  I have fluctuated up and down, but mostly up, ever since.  And now it's all back.  How depressing that is!

Well, at least six of those pounds were just water weight.  I lost six pounds by Monday morning, weighing in at 289.  I ate perfectly well, all meals at home, on Monday, but then there was a party, with delicious snacks and free-flowing champagne.  Boom.  Just like that I am up two pounds this morning to 291.

Well, I ate all my meals at home today and had no party to attend.  Hopefully, those two pounds will be gone tomorrow.  I'll be eating many meals out between now and March 3 when we board the Celebrity Equinox for a ten day cruise.  Sigh.  If I could only control restaurants, parties, and cruise buffets....

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the first nine days on the Pride.

Great inside cabin with our cool magnet on display.

Waiting for the Sail Away party.

Sailing out of Tampa in beautiful weather.  This was Super Bowl Sunday.

Gorgeous area that walks around the bow of the ship indoors.  Very few ships have a nice space like this.

At Key West, we played mini-golf before going on shore.

Mark was on a roll and won with one under par!

Our Key West destination

View of our ship from the top of the Shipwreck tower.

Visiting our friend Andrea K at her shop, The Blue Cat, in the mall on Key West.

We didn't sail away until after sun set.  Beautiful.

This was our first time at this private island.  It's the BEST.

The water was so clear and clean that even Mark went in pretty far out.

Next morning was Towel Invasion day.  Wow.  Always amazing.

This ship really outdid all the others.

Reading on Grand Turk.

Playing in the pool at Margaritaville on Grand Turk.

Our last port of cal for the first cruise.

Ken, the maitre'd, sang a song every night.  He is a awesome singer.  I complimented him and told him that we would be doing Back to Back cruises and that I hoped I had a good table where we could see him sing each night.  He took care of it right away!

Dinner on the last night with good friends Alice and Mark ad Ed and Barbara

Off we go a-cruisin' again.

We went to a delightful Shabbat service last night at the Reform synagogue in Kissimmee, about 25 minutes down the road.  The congregation consists of a lot of people from Solivita and our friends Jonathan and Susan from the Cove.  It was warm and welcoming.  Even Mark enjoyed it!

I had been working with Susan and Jonathan on their voices at their house Friday afternoon.  Jonathan was playing several songs on his flute for the services, and he invited us to attend.  We are very glad we did.

Today we watched TV all day, which is always something we both like to do on Saturdays. After our afternoon nap, we packed most of our stuff for the suitcase.  It's getting exciting that we have another two weeks on another ship starting tomorrow.  This morning I was 282 again, like yesterday.  I won't be writing a blog tomorrow morning, so I'll be judging this cruise's weight gain from 282, a half pound higher than when we left on the family cruise and three pounds higher than a month ago leaving for the Carnival Magic.  Oh, well.

This time we are taking a 9 day cruise with Bare Necessities and lots of our friends.  We sail on the Carnival Pride out of Tampa for Key West, Grand Turk, Amber Cove (Dominican Republic) and Half  Moon Cay (private island in the Bahamas) plus five sea days.  It will be fantastic.  We didn't need to buy any shore excursions for any of those ports!  Nice and cheap.  Then we are staying on board for a back to back five day cruise that goes to Cozumel and Grand Cayman and two sea days.  Grand Cayman is a tender port, and we've already done everything we want to do there.  We plan to stay on board and play mini-golf and just relax.  Cozumel is good for just walking around this time.  I might buy another ceramic wall hanging if we go to the dock that I like, Puerto Maya.

So there will be no blogs for two weeks after this one today.  I'll share some pictures on Facebook occasionally, but mostly there won't be any more updates on here or pictures here until we return on February 19. I should have plenty of time on President's Day, the 20th, to write a blog and upload some pictures.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy during the two weeks that I'm gone.

Feeling much better

Monday through Wednesday I really felt like crap.  Thursday I had some new meds, Sudafed and Flonase again, which helped tremendously.  This morning I almost feel like myself, minus a decent speaking voice and non-existent singing voice.

Mark and I did something really fun this morning.  We bought season tickets in very cheap seats for seven shows for the 2017-18 season at the Doctor Phillips Center in downtown Orlando BECAUSE that will give us first crack at getting seats to HAMILTON in the 2018-19 season.  The seven shows are all very good.  We have the Sunday matinee package, which is cheapest.  Two of the seven dates didn't work for us, but apparently there's an easy exchange policy.  I think when we are ready we can pay a little more to exchange those two for another date.  Both of them conflict with cruising!  What else?

Today I have a mani/pedi appointment at 11.  Then around 1:30 I'll have lunch at Cheeks followed up by giving a voice lesson to a friend who lives just down the street from there.  I had her scheduled for Wednesday but canceled because I was too sick.  I am glad I could reschedule it for today!

This morning I weighed 282, not a good weight by any stretch, BUT down four since I weighed myself Tuesday morning after the cruise.  I hope to drop another one or two by Sunday morning when we drive off to Tampa to start the next two weeks on the Carnival Pride.

Two days off

Yesterday I cancelled all my plans for two days in a row so that I can stay in my bathrobe and rest.  The intense congestion in my head is causing a pounding headache.  Mark is currently out doing errands and will bring back some Sudafeds and more Hall's.  Even though I mostly slept all day yesterday and did very little other than sleep (2-6 p.m. in my chair), I still lost two pounds of mostly fluid, 284 this morning.  Today will be similar, but I'm going to try to eat less snacks than yesterday. As soon as I write this blog, I'm going to the chair and going to sleep!

Meanwhile, Picasa finally did upload all of my vacation pictures to the web.  Now I can share them on the blog.

Boarding on Thursday, Jan. 26.

At Sail Away

The ten of us in our matching t-shirts as soon as we boarded.  L-R: Denise, Cindy, Ken, Jim, Kip, Flyn, elephant, Mark W, me, Mark S, Carol

On the very last day, 8 of us played Trivial Pursuit, one of 7 teams.  We tied with another team and WON the ship on a stick after several tie breaker questions!  Yay.  

i now have six ships in my fleet in the living room.

First lunch on the Lido Deck

We remembered to bring our cruising magnet for the door this time.

First dinner in the main dining room

Playing Farkle with Kip and Denise in the library after dinner.

Denise and I both ordered the same drink at Sloppy Joe's in Key West.

Oh, Denise! LOL

Cindy loves Harry.

After our time on Key West, we played Trivia: One Hit Wonders.  Cindy tied with another lady and won a medal.

That evening we played Trivial Pursuit.  Our team came in second of the three teams.  But the last day we all won it and got our ship statues.

Grooving for St. Jude again.

Carol joined us and got the t-shirts for her and Mark W.

Heading to the catamaran on Cozumel

Relaxing for the day on Passion Island.

At first the water felt cold, but we all quickly got used to it.

Mark climbed up on all the playthings in the water!

Carol enjoyed the slide on this piece.

Later Denise and Kip climbed up on this one.

The Wyatts: Cindy, Kip, and Mark

Denise enjoyed her time in the sun.

After dinner we all played mini-golf while the ship was still docked.  Kip was a good big brother and helped Mark get through the course.

The three best players posed before having a play off on the first three holes.

Denise was the final winner!

Mark S and I were the only two that went to the late night deck party and Mexican buffet.

The last day was a sea day and very rough.  Cindy and Ken did their backstage tour of the ship, but Jim had to cancel due to seasickness.

After the last dinner in the dining room, we all posed on the steps.

Monday morning Kip and Denise were the last ones off with us.  Denise enjoyed her last moments in the sun.