Heaven

Z and I had a very interesting and heart-warming conversation last night about Jesus, death, and the after-life, before he went to bed. The most notable highlights of our chat?

1. Z wants to know how Jesus felt knowing so many people hated him. Z said he understands if people didn't want to believe in Him, but he doesn't understand why the people thought they needed to kill him because of their own disbelief.

2. He wants to know if Jesus ever had a straight-up mustache, not a beard or goatee. (Z has had a fascination with mustaches for about two years now.)

3. Z said he thinks heaven is going to bouncy, puffy, gold, and it will smell like coffee & donuts.

Man, I hope he's right.

Always catching up

I'm home sick. (Boooo.) The only thing good about being home under-the-weather is getting the opportunity to catch up on the blog. I know I keep saying I'll be better about posting more often, but I've not really followed through on that. Maybe next week?

We have been puttering along, enduring day to day just like everyone else. We haven't yet been able to nail down an exact sail date for our next cruise, but hopefully that will happen in the next two weeks. We have to wait until Royal Caribbean posts their itineraries for the summer of 2011, so until then, we'll just keep doing what we do to kill time. Spring break has come & gone, but we didn't do much this year. Z loved being home from school, so thankfully that was enough to keep him happy through the week. He has since started up a new season of soccer, and he's very excited about that. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures of the upcoming practices & games after we get into the thick of it, around mid-April.

Otherwise, here are a few notable things that have happened & that have helped me fill in the spaces of time until our next adventure ...

One morning, driving into work, I heard on a local radio show that there is a website out there that boasts helping people have affairs. Part of me couldn't believe that might really be true, so I looked it up when I got to work. Low & behold, it really does exist.

They guarantee it, no less.

Did you catch the slogan? Classy.

This official looking stamp oughta make you feel better about forking over hundreds of dollars.

In the small print, I found that you can be refunded $249 if you don't end up having an affair. How much is this service in total, if all you get back is $249??

This was pretty disgusting, but I suppose I shouldn't be shocked. It's essentially an escort service, on a grander scale, but the fact that they're playing up the "have an affair" angle really had me nauseated. I'm not going to judge and say anything about people paying for hook-ups, but to intentionally attempt to get people to be untrue to their spouse? That seems like a new low. Isn't getting a hooker cheaper, anyway?

Continuing on with the interesting internet nuggets ...

Fun with typos. It's a soo-prise!

I didn't know dental work could "chage" lives - interesting.

Dems aren't getting violent threats, they're "geting" them.

And the last thing to "suprise" me on the internet was this girl's profile picture on Facebook:

Why was this shocking? Because she's a high-schooler. This is one of my friend's daughter's friends, and we were horrified at the fact that her parents don't care that she displays herself half-naked on a social networking site. On her page, it says she is the class of 2012, meaning she's currently a sophomore, meaning she's roughly 15-ish? Aside from the fact that I would've never had the balls to put my nearly-naked self up on a website when I was that age, my parents would have had me for dinner. Where have standards gone these days? What happened to leaving a little to the imagination? What happened to covering that up until you're of legal age? Yikes.

Aside from laughing & gasping while surfing the internet, we recently took a trip out to visit some of our favorite people. We love going out to their ranch, and watching our kids run around in wide open spaces. There's a peacefulness & tranquility out there that you can't find very many other places. We can't wait until our next trip to see them!

Our little dudes.

Their hilarious dog, Charlie.

Chuck forgets he's not a lap-dog, and climbs up in the swing with Karen.

Snuggling.

Relaxing on Momma.

Trying to give Karen kisses.

Cramming themselves into a toy car that they're way too big for. The thing only went about 2mph once they were both in there, but they were happy as can be.

Two explorers and a dog.

Their beautiful trees were getting blooms.

Wildflowers everywhere.

Mix-n-match costuming. His Zorro hat & vest, Obi-Wan Kenobi cape, Hulk hand and Wolverine claw made him quite the character.

Aaron reliving his youth, shooting a bebe gun.

Z, getting some love from Chuck.

I've also been documenting some of the yummy food we've been enjoying the past few weeks. Here are a few scrumptious examples:

Spaghetti tacos.

Bacon maple cupcakes.

(Here's a naked one - you can see the bacon in the top. Yum!)

And one of my all-time favorites - barbecue chicken on the grill.

And the last thing that has happened since my previous post - I finally broke down and got an iPhone. Yes, finally.

I know it's just a phone, but I'm a total geek and I am in love. I never, ever thought I'd actually get one, so this has been a momentous occasion for my inner-nerd. I always hated cell phones, until now. [sigh] You don't have to say it, I already know - I'm a dweeb.

I'm going to wrap this up for now, since I'm coughing so hard, I can't see straight. I really want to go lay down. Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Getting paid for being sick.

2. Losing five pounds since March 1st.

3. Yes, my phone.

Off I go, to rest and dream of Thursday night, when I get to see Anthony Bourdain at The Paramount Theatre. I'll definitely be posting soon about that. Until next time, folks ... peace & pastries to all.

Curse you, Blogger.

I spent nearly three hours on March 2nd, carefully putting pictures on this blog, writing heartfelt and funny blurbs about each one, all in an effort to share our wonderful trip with the world ...

... then Blogger malfunctioned, and it all vanished. Forever.

To redo the entire thing again seemed daunting for about a week, so I thought I might just quickly summarize about our trip and move on with my life. But, we all know that's not me, and I need to waste my time re-posting everything, because it'll nag at me if I don't. So, here we go!

And we're back! [sigh] Transitioning back into reality has really, really sucked. I think we're all finally coming around now though, so let me re-cap the big trip.

We drove to Galveston and spent the night, as to avoid any car trouble, traffic, etc on the day of embarkation. It worked out great, and we boarded during the afternoon of Valentine's Day. We left on time, had a celebratory drink on the pool deck as we pulled away from shore, and it was just as dreamy as I had remembered from our first cruise.

Because I'm the shutterbug that I am, I took roughly 372 photos during the week we were sailing. Granted, I thought that was a small number, because I took twice as many the first time around, but I will still spare you all from each & every picture. I'll just show you around the ship, a few of our stops, and some of the great people we met along the way.

Let me preface first by saying our original itinerary was Cozumel, Grand Cayman, & Jamaica. Well, we endured the weirdest crap weather ever on this trip, so the stop in Jamaica was canceled (and the Grand Cayman was almost called off, too).

Exhibit A of the crap weather -
dense fog on the day we returned home, which delayed
our docking by about six hours.


Exhibit B of the crap weather.


Exhibit C of the crap weather.
Different day, too.

Winds in the excess of 50mph kept us from docking in Jamaica, so we had to just turn around & start sailing back home. Needless to say, we were all bummed, but we'd rather be safe than sorry. And since we've come back, we've heard of a story where there was a cruise ship that encountered 60mph winds, 33 foot waves, and windows were blown in on the ship, killing two passengers. Thankfully, we just missed our stop & everyone stayed safe! :-/

The massive ship.


For scale - see how small the people look next to it?


A really loooooooooooong ship.


The adult-only pool, that we didn't step foot into. Not even once.


The everyone-pool deck, where we spent time - if it wasn't raining.


What it looks like at night ... see all the vast blackness?
Yes, that's the sea. And it scared the poopers out of me at night.


One of the first things we did was renew our vows, since our 10-year
anniversary had just passed in December. Good to see that our son was paying attention and really capturing the moment.


The mall (promenade) in the middle of the ship.


Again, for scale - my parents, Z, and Aaron on a balcony in the promenade.


Looking up from deck 3.


The entrance to the live theater.


The Café Promenade - a place that served free food & drinks
24 hours a day. And because of that, we spent a decent
amount of time here.


The other half of the café, where they had the coolest
phone-booth-turned-ATM that we've ever seen.


The entrance to the ice skating rink.


The rink itself, where you could skate for free every day.


About one-fifth of the casino, where Ken & my parents spent
oodles of their time.


The outside of the Pig & Whistle - an English themed pub.


The inside of the Pig & Whistle.


Going down in the elevator after dinner one night.


The entrance to the arcade.


These air-hockey tables got a workout from all of us.


Endless food for $4.95, and it was darn tasty.


The full diner feel, including oldies blaring through the speakers inside.


Every so often, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees would come on,
and the staff would break into a choreographed routine.
(Crappy cell phone pic, sorry.)


Aaron & I are truly old people -
we discovered our love of shuffleboard.
Zach enjoyed being "referee" & pitting us against each other.


A corner in the Champagne Bar (one of 7,000 bars on board)
where we had one of the most fun nights of the whole trip.
Drinks and laughter ... perfection.


The free buffet-style restaurant that served all three meals each day.
We spent a lot of time here, as well.


The ship even has a florist, so you can kiss-ass for blowing to much money in the casino. Or, to just be sweet, like my guys - they got me some roses from here.


And lastly, my trusty easel. Most of you know how "directionally challenged" I am, so I used this thing as a landmark to know which hallway led to our room. Thank God it never moved, all week.

So, there's the ship. There are a few things I didn't photograph, like the putt-putt golf course, and the specialty restaurants. They were cool too, promise. I wish I had taken some pictures during the 70's street party in the promenade, or at the family disco night, but I was just having too much fun. Maybe next time?

Now, for the places we stopped (minus Jamaica). We had really great weather in Cozumel and in the Grand Cayman, so we were happy Mother Nature cooperated for those two days. Here's Cozumel:

Beautiful Mexican waters.


My Dad and I did a dolphin excursion, & these were the coves
we swam in with the dolphins.








While my Dad and I played with dolphins, Aaron, Z, & my Mom
rented a Jeep and cruised around Cozumel.


A must stop for Aaron.


Happy Mommy.


Happy guys.

What a great day that was! Now, Grand Cayman:

The view from our lounge chairs.


Looking to the left.


Looking to the right. Yum.


To say he loves the beach would be the understatement of the century.


Breathtaking.

We loved the places we were able to go, but just wish we had had more time at each place! Now, on to the cool people we met along the way:

A fun group who let us take their picture for a scavenger hunt we did.
We had to have three people make silly faces - golden!


Also for the scavenger hunt - had to have two people reading the
ship's daily newsletter.


The coolest people from Texas ... wait, how did this get in here?


Z with Erhan, our waiter at dinner every night.
The coolest guy we've ever met from Turkey.


And last, but certainly not least, our stateroom attendant Omcar.
He is from the Philippines, and has a wife & two kids back home.
He and Z hit it off famously, and we were sad to say bye to him.

All in all? An amazing trip, despite the uncooperative weather! And yes, we've already booked our next adventure! That's right! Next stop - ALASKA! Bring on the glaciers, whales, and parkas ... we can't wait!! The only depressing part is we have to wait until June 2011. [sigh] And I kid you not -- "Sailing" by Christopher Cross just came on my iPod that I've had on shuffle as I've been typing. [double sigh] Time, please fly by!

While we were gone, Ken was flipping channels on his tv in his room and called us telling us to turn on CNN.

What the hell?! We couldn't believe what were seeing. It's really strange to be thousands of miles away from home, yet see home on television. So, what did we come home to? A plane crashing into an IRS building, and this:

Yes, snow. Talk about a shock back into reality. Gah! Zach was thrilled, though, because he has prayed for snow every single Christmas since he knew what snow was. Of course, the town shut down, everyone freaked, and he got out of school in plenty of time to play in it.

Hey, there wasn't that much, so we did the best we could ...

It's safe to say we're still wishing we were on the boat, and that Z, Ken and my parents had the time of their lives. It'll be a blast when we all get together to go to Alaska, but we'll have to keep ourselves really busy until then. Thankfully, Z's soccer season starts in two weeks, the end of school is right around the corner, and then comes my busy time at work in the summer. Hopefully we'll get to throw a few camping trips and day trips in there to help pass the time, too. I'm so happy the six of us were able to go as a group, and that I got to see Zach, my parents, and Ken experience a cruise for the first time. It was so special!

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. The cruise.
2. Laughter.
3. Memories.

Until next time, peace & pastries to everyone.
*crossing my fingers that Blogger doesn't eat this entry when I hit the "publish" button*