Off to Epcot today.

Epcot is running its Art Festival now.  This is an event we have never attended before, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect.  There will be food kiosks, concerts, a scavenger hunt type game involving Figment, and a lot of art scattered around.  Should be fun, and the weather is warming up.  While we are out today, the temperatures should range between 65 and 73.  Nice.

Yesterday we watched TV all day until 6:30 when we drove up to the Bob Carr Center to hear a concert by the Orlando Philharmonic.  Wow!  It was amazing.  Our friend Alice had given us her two tickets because they were going to be out of town and couldn't use them.  We heard the premiere of a brand new piece composed by a professor from the University of Central Florida, a violin concerto by Mendelssohn with an amazing female soloists, and a Bartok concerto.  The music was fabulous and the conductor was vibrant and fun to watch.  Our balcony seats were terrific with a wonderful view of the entire orchestra.  Mark didn't really want to go, but he was very glad he did.  He was afraid he'd just fall asleep, but the performance was riveting.  No sleeping!

And the cherry on top was that we ran into three other couples that we new.  One from the Cove, one from Solivita, and one from the synagogue.  That never used to happen to us when we went out in Baltimore.  This whole area is kind of like a large small town.  We love it.

I never finished posting pictures from our NYE cruise on the NCL Epic.  So here are some more pictures from that cruise, days three and four.

Mark standing along the side of deck 5.  It's a beautiful Sea Day.

Susie found another lady to play Mah Jongg with us.  We played every sea day.  She also taught us a way to pay with two people called Siamese Mah Jongg.  Very fun!

That afternoon we sat in the bow in the buffet area up on deck 11 to look out over the bow and read.

What a view!

Me ad Susie with the Drink of the Day!  

We joined a '70s Line Dane class.

Then we listened to a solo guitarist sing and play a lot of Frank Sinatra music in one of the lounge areas.

The morning of Day four, Mark is ordering his Bloody Mary at this bar outside the Lido deck buffet.

This is on deck five alongside the life boats.

The track was packed the day after New Year's Eve, but today we are docked in Jamaica so almost everybody is off the ship.

We are staying on board all day, so we had time to play Shuffleboard.

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This was the first time we ever played Shuffleboard on a ship.  We are terrible at it.  The final score was a tie, 0-0.

For some reason the last four pictures would not let me post a caption like normal.  The first two are of the Shanghai Chinese restaurant and Noodle Bar where we had dinner on night four.  Then there is a carve watermelon, part of the Seafood Buffet theme night in the Buffet.  Mark and I went up there for some fish after the Noodle Bar dinner since there wasn't really any protein for us in that dinner.  The last pictures is of the Beatles playing in the Cavern Club.  It was standing room only, so we stood for awhile.  Unfortunately, they were repeating songs from the big show they did the first night, so we didn't stay too long.

Tomorrow I'll mostly post pictures from our day today at the Epcot Art Festival, but eventually I'll get back to the rest of the trip on the Epic.

Another week is gone.

I'll start with the Weigh-in Wednesday report.  I'm 267.6, which is reasonable.  It's one pound down from the official report of three weeks ago.  In between, I have fluctuated up as much as 3 pounds and down one lower than this.  It's fine considering all the events, travel, and eating out that has occurred.

Cove Singers choir rehearsals started yesterday for me and Mark.  I had a blast.  They are such nice people and starting to sound pretty good together!  They are definitely doing harder music now than they ever did before.  I'm proud of them and happy to be their director.

Today we are going to the Outback in Plant City to meet Mark's cousin (by marriage) for lunch.  Mindy was Mark's cousin Robert's wife.  Robert died of brain cancer a few years ago.  Now their daughter, a lawyer, is fighting breast cancer.  She is only 29 and just had a double mastectomy and is now undergoing chemo.  This is so tough for Mindy to bear.  Her mother, who lives in Boca Raton, is also fighting a rare form of cancer.  Her son, Craig, is a doctor.  He's the one who had his wedding in the Disney Wedding Pavilion a few years ago, unfortunately it was shortly after his dad passed away.

Craig is a doctor in the Clearwater/Tampa area, so Mindy and her daughter have moved into that same area.  They used to live on Long Island.  We have been wanting to get together with her for a long time, and today it's finally happening!

We had a good time at the funeral, if that's possible.  Flyn and I had some good times together.  We even found the old boatyard where Daddy had his boat for most of our teen years.  We had a lot of good memories at the boatyard, so as we realized that it was close to the house where we were going for lunch after the funeral, we made a detour to the boat yard on the way.  Here are a few pictures of that day.

Mark and I sent a flower basket that was placed right next to the  casket.

Me with two of Irene's granddaughters, Heather Duke on the left and Loretta Burdette on the right.  These are two awesome ladies.

Me and my sister Flyn.

At the boatyard!  I put this one on Facebook and labeled it "Two old ladies reliving their childhood memories."

At Seasons 52 with Emily and Lowell.

We have been to SeaWorld since the last time I posted a blog, so here are a few pictures from that day.  We had a half price Dining with Shamu package that included a private whale show.  I never finished putting up pictures from our cruise, but I'll put some more of them up tomorrow.  i promise.

Mark with Al and Barbara entering the buffet.

We had great seats right next to this tank.

This tank holds four pilot whales that were rescued and cannot go back into the wild.

Each of the four whales has a personal trainer, so they fed them and talked about their care.

After that, we were all moved into the Shamu theater for a private show right up close!

The four of us only three rows back from the show area!  We usually don't sit here because it's the  Splash Zone!

Such big, beautiful animals.

Demonstrating how they let the the doctors take blood from their tail flukes.

Demonstrating how they breathe out hard on command to test their lungs.

Then we had fun at the Pets Ahoy show, which we all love.

Posing on the way out.

Car died.

It's always something!

I went to back my car out of the garage to load up for the trip, but it was dead as a doornail.

Mark predicted it because yesterday I took the car out to go the Minute Clinic and the sync system wouldn't make a call.  That's what happened to Mark's, and it burned out the battery.  As soon as I couldn't make that call yesterday, he said it would be dead the next day.  He was right.

I have a extended warranty MaxCare policy bought from CarMax when we got the car.  I am hoping that if I go up to CarMax next week, I can just get a whole new sync system installed.  In any case, we will now take Mark's car up to Maryland and take my car to CarMax next week.  Both of our cars have had this problem, but Mark's just got reset and it seems that the sync doesn't work but it doesn't discharge the battery anymore.  We have read about many incidents like this on the internet, and even the guy who fixed Mark's system said his wife's car had the same problem.  Seems like there should be a recall on this!

Meanwhile, I have lost that one pound from the cruise, so I'm back to where I was two weeks ago.  That's nice, although before Thanksgiving, I was ten pounds less than this.  That's the goal now, ten more pounds at least.  In two and a half weeks there is another cruise, lasting two weeks, followed by a six day trip to a resort in the Fort Lauderdale area.  I am hoping not to gain weight during those three weeks either!

I am not taking my computer this time to MD, so there will be no more blogs until Saturday night at the earliest.

Here are some pictures from the first two days of the cruise.

Inside cabin 11135

Beautiful LED chandelier hanging over Taste, one of the two main dining rooms.

Beatles cover band was the show the first night.

Looking at the beach at the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau, where we will spend the afternoon.

Morning Bloody Mary for Mark.

Hope to see the "Beatles" perform in here later during the cruise.  

Gorgeous lobby in the British Colonial Hilton

View of the ships from the Hilton beach.

That night it was New Year's Eve.

Susie and me in the Manhattan dining room.

2018