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Friday, May 03, 2024
Houston, We Have A Problem
Okay, it was not Houston it was Dallas.
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Are yearly cruise was wonderful and we enjoyed every second!
Getting home, not so much. Right from rolling our luggage to the transfer bus on, there were issues of the major kind.
First: as usual, my body was in full rebellion. So pushing luggage bordered on torturous.
Then the driver kept hounding everyone for ttips. If that wasn't enough he emptied all the baggage a quarter of a mile away from the arrival terminals!
We all had to push our stuff to another area for a shuttle bus to take us to the departure terminals -2 miles away!
Needless to say when we finally got there Steve was on the phone and complained about this and they did give us back our $70 fee. To their credit, Celebrity did apologize profusely.
Southwest left on time. That is where our travel day home became a very trying experience.
Dallas was having a severe storm with heavy air congestion. So they asked the pilot to circle. We were about to land 15 minutes early. The storm not only made it so we would only be 15 minutes late. But later they told us to go and divert to Austin.
Our plane did not have enough fuel to keep circling. No one was allowed to get off the plane. We had to wait for the weather to clear, as well as refuel. What we originally were told was that we would be on the ground 25 minutes and then it would be a 28 minute flight back to Dallas. By then the storm would have had passed.
Instead we were stuck there on the tarmac for almost 3 hours because now the storm had hit Austin.
Eventually , we did get up in the air and back to Dallas.
We have to say —Southwest airlines was wonderful! Through the entire thing they just kept on updating Steve as to what our new flights would be and when we would eventually get back home to Phoenix.
The airport in Dallas was a complete zoo. The storm had either made all the flights delayed indefinitely or canceled. There were so many people trying to get other flights. Thanks to Southwest we had what we needed so we proceeded to go try to get something to eat.
What wound up happening was we finally got on a flight at around 10:30 PM. But not to Phoenix. We were re-routed to Ontario, CA! Then we all had to get off the plane because it was a different number And then walked back on.
We finally touch down at Sky Harbor at 2:30 AM. Our original landing time was 6:15 PM the night before.
We then had to find a Southwest Baggage person because our luggage had somehow arrived on time and was now locked up. Again only compliments for how well Southwest helped us out.
Next was to get the shuttle back to the parking lot for our car and the 45 minute trip home.
Obviously, the girls did not get to come home until Sunday morning. We crawled into bed at 4:00 AM, knowing we had to be up to get the girls home before leaving to celebrate Adam's 40th birthday.
Neither of us really slept.
All in all, we can't complain to much. All these years travelling back and forth to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, this was the only time weather conditions made getting home a whole blog entry.
Now you know that next week I will have to talk about the fact that somehow I am the mom to a 42 and 40 year old..
Thursday, April 25, 2024
And Just Like That
Every year we wind up thinking the very same thing!
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We spent approximately 2 years paying off our anniversary cruise. It gives us something to look forward to while regular everyday life happens.
Then the "time comes", we leave and, all to soon we're back home.
This year was no different in that sense.
We travelled unceremoniously on our 43rd anniversary to the port city and checked in to our hotel. I won't lie-I arrived with a back, knees, neck and hands that made me wonder about our choice.
Thankfully, the property had a great workout room for both of us to get the kinks out. Also, plenty of choices for walking, window shopping, etc...
We boarded the beautiful Celebrity Apex for our first back-to-back. We were pampered, great food, lovely crew and other passengers. Our cabin was not only comfortable, it was nicely decorated.
Our entertainment was top-notch as well.
I was very proud of Steve! He did his thing on the treadmill, while I did my stationary bike, most of the 14 days!
Even though we had the most marvelous time, after 16 days we were missing our kids (both 2 and 4 legged!) and were looking forward to getting home.
Therein lied quite the story to tell! But that debacle is best left for me to tell in next week's blog...
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Daisy, Daisy Give Me Your Answer True
This week we had quite the happy event. Please welcome our latest grandpup, Daisy!
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Tell me truthfully, you started singing the song if you're around my age of over 60!
This is her first meeting with her older brother, Dex!
Since our beloved Lily's passing last year. Not even a week with our dogs could bring him out of his depression. But upon meeting. Daisy, he has become his jovial self and is actually smiling from ear to ear.
Adam, Sam and the kids went to a couple of shelters and the pound and then they found this young lady. She was through the Maricopa county animal shelter.
She is a husky mix with the most beautiful white eyes. Her demeanor is so sweet that she reminds all of us of our first Sunshine.
We did have a walk yesterday with our girls. We figured we better start because we're about to leave on our anniversary trip and they will be spending a lot of time together.
Daisy wanted to play. Lucky did her usual barking but was very interested and smelling her. Sunshine was going back and forth between smelling her and booping her nose and then barking at her. Daisy did her husky howl.
For a first meeting and walk together it went very well.
What we wish is that Daisy and gives her new family as much love and joy as they will be giving her.
Welcome to the Family, Daisy!
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Friday, March 15, 2024
Don't Believe the Commercials
Seven weeks. Seven very long weeks.
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Truly, not exactly a problem most of us think of as being earth shattering-this no microwave thing. But when you have no real hand power/abilities, it isn't easy.
Most people wouldn't think about some of the things that add wear and tear to their every day lives from this situation. Things such as:
I can't just pop my luke warm coffee in for 30 seconds. Now I have to pour it into a sauce pan, heat it on the stove and pour it back into the cup. All without breaking the cup, screaming "OW" from the pain from wrist to finger tips, freezing up and burning myself!
My twice daily "Chef Ramsey" imitation while warming Sunshine's meal now entails scrapping II into a small frying pan, stirring it up and then scrapping it back into her dish. Again, using my limited abilities without having to deal with the obvious pain.
Warming up tortillas in my warmer? Nope. Back to old school usage of my little pan.
Steve wanted to heat up soup for lunch the other day. He realized he would have to pur it into a sauce pan and then into his bowl. Evidently he didn't want it that bad. Because of my lack of abilities, my rule is: you use it, you clean up the stove/pan.
The ads on TV promoting our warranty company aren't really holding true! It took us two months to get them to give us an allowance for a new dishwasher. It's been seven weeks and counting on the microwave.
We've been waiting for the "escalation team" for two days to call us back to get them to do the right thing on the microwave!
Plus, I personally have spent over an hour on the phone repeating myself about the situation.
My favorite part? When they ask me to stay on the line and rate my satisfaction with their customer service!
Friday, March 08, 2024
The "Fun" Continues
We still don't have a microwave! The part and the technician arrived, on time. But the repair couldn't happen because the other major part blew up when it was time to test it!
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He tried 4 suppliers and was told the part was discontinued. Wow! What a surprise, NOT!
He informed our home warranty who supposedly did find the part. Sounds exactly like the story we were told about our dishwasher. Pointed out this fact and said, "This is a stall tactic! You and I both know you're going to call me on the due date of the party's arrival and inform me that it will now take 8-12 weeks! Then give me an allowance to buy a new one! Let's stop the madness and do that now!"
Nope, didn't go for the practical.
"We have to trust the process. We understand how inconvenient this is but we have to follow our rules"
Wow! Far be it for me to be a rule breaker.
First world problems are a real thing people.
Saturday, March 02, 2024
You'll Miss Me...
It's inevitable-old things breakdown.
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Our 10-year-old microwave allowed me the honor of warming up Sunshine's food Monday morning and then let out a cracking noise.
A cracking noise is never a good sign job appliances or people. At least that's my personal perspective.
Anyway, I persisted in my plight of warming things-mainly my first cup of coffee. It always seems to get cold way too quickly.
Nothing happened. It made all the right sounds and sights! Turnplate spun, lights on, humming (after the cracking noise)-but no warming of the coffee!
We have a home warranty policy-$100 to come out and "assess" the latest situation. They couldn't come out until Wednesday. Okay, I am old school. I can figure out what to do for two days.
Let's see:
Coffee situation-sauce pan to reheat and I had to be less temperature picky.
Warming of tortillas for taco Tuesday? Omelet pan
Sunshine's food? Omelet pan was really fast for this as well. Also, our picky eater seemed to be enjoying my added chef Ramsey impression!
Reheating my baked oatmeal and heating up my overnight oats (I make a couple for during the week, as well as the overnight oats): air fryer for one, back to the sauce pan for the other.
Wednesday came. The nice repairman informed me that if this were a 10-year-old car, he'd be informing me that the engine died. The part was also discontinued. Grrr...
He struck gold on his third try. If all goes well, he'll be back early next week and get it to work. Of course, he said at this age my "transmission" could go out (or not). Home warranty gives us 30 days before we have to pay another $100, so there's that little annoyance.
I pleaded my case, but they won't budge on giving us an allowance to buy a new one until they have no choice.
Part of this has to do with our policy giving us some funds toward both the new HVAC system and the dishwasher.
Just lucky I was born before the microwave was created and I'm able to improvise.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Checking in
Despite the medically obvious, we did have some good things. It's the time of year when we are able to "check-in" for what has become our yearly anniversary cruise!
This will be our first time back on Celebrity since before the pandemic! A few firsts: we're doing a back-to-back and on their new Edge class ship, Apex. We'll be returning to some of our favourite ports, as well as a new one. We're also staying in one of those new type of veranda cabins guy at have the weird openings.
We've heard the "good, bad and the ugly" on this, so we're hoping we like it. Otherwise, we're on a countdown with 210 others in our Facebook group. We'll be checking in for the second cruise in a few days.
Another plus-we were able to book our pre-cruise hotel at the same place as last year. Great venue, great service, brand spanking new and a gorgeous entertainment/restaurant complex literally outside the lobby door!
At this point I'm not sure about my knees. I've been scheduled for an MRI. For the moment, I'm not feeling so positive about anything being accomplished before we go. I still haven't been able to use my stationary bike. I did attempt to walk the girls-completely failed. Besides only managing about a half mile, most of it included me seeing stars and cursing at myself about being that stupid.
And now, it's time for me to hobble to the kitchen for the rest of my medical morning requirements.
