Thursday December 28....
Westlaco Texas

Well, I am almost caught up....scroll down to where you left off reading...

I will post the rest tomorrow...promise. Downloaded all the photos, now just have to take the time to upload all of them to yahoo photos....

dee

Sunday December 24

Christmas Eve...

We are up and around about 9. By the time we are dressed and out the door its after 10. We call Zack to wake his butt up and we will go for breakfest. We go to Charlies Family Resturant. I have eggs, grits and biscuits. Zack has biscuits and gravy and some eggs and bacon. Grandpa orders a egg sandwich. Egg sandwich. How weird is that? Paulie gets his omelete and we have a nice meal.

We hit the H.E.B. store first for groceries and stuff for the Christmas party tonight and the dinner tomorrow. I am bringing cheese and crackers and a bread dill dip bowl. Paul had picked up wine at Walmart when he stopped there last night. We get a ham for later in the week. We make a second stop at another grocery store as H.E.B. doesn't have dill dip or the right bread. I walk over to the dollar store, hoping to find a sugar and creamer to put on the dinner table tomorrow. I come up empty. Back at the rig, we sit around for a while til the Vespers service at 5:30. It is a very simple candle light service where all we did was sing Christmas songs after someone read the Christmas story. It was very nice. I sat next to a blind woman who had the biggest yellow lab guide dog I have ever seen. We talked with some folks for a while and then headed back to get the appetizers ready for the party at 7. It was a very nice party, lots of nice finger foods and the line dancing ladies did a couple of Christmas song line dances. Santa arrived to give everyone a candy cane. Then for the participants in the gift exchange got in a huge circle and passed gifts right and left while a poem was read about the Wright family. We did this one year at our Cenois club and it was hilarious. Watching these folks goof up handing things to the left and then to the right when they heard the words right and left was hysterical. Of course, thru out this whole eveing...my son was just chomping at the bit. I don't think watching old people is his bag, LOL!

After the party we go back to the rig, watch a bit of TV(nothing on..what gives? Where is Scrooge...? No Its a Wonderful Life???) Paul takes Zack back to the motel and grandpa and I hit the sack.

Merry Christmas!

later...
dee

Saturday Dec 23

Houston

We arrived in Houston about 3 am according to Zack who was still out and about I guess. Eye witness. We got up around 7 and were down in the dining room about 8. Zack joined us for the first time for breakfest. 7 days at sea and he makes one breakfest. I can't wait to see this bill. We may have made a fatal mistake giving a 21 year old a key that buys booze. Hmmmm. We shall see....

We get back to the room and wait til the green bagtag is called. They called us about 9:20 and we were off the ship in about 10 minutes. We find our luggage very quickly and grab the porter to helps us transport it to the car. We are in the car, on the highway by 9:45. Unbelieveable. No hunting for bags, waiting in line for customs (we breeze right thru...me on my scooter, grandpa being wheeled in a chair by a steward.)

Well, off to Livingston to get the rig and set it up. Zack is just a tiny bit tired so we will drop him off at the motel and then go set up. We stopped at the CVS and got more cold rememdies. Zack and I are suffering with the whole head cold thing...cough, fever, running eyes etc., etc. Grandpa slept all the way home from Houston to Livingston. We also stopped and got some Subways for lunch. Zack heads off to his room. Back at Rainbow's End, we get the rig from storage, get our new site and proceed to get our home on wheels back up and running. We are in a section called
"the hill". Grandpa and Paul have lunch outside, I try to muddle thru my email while noshing. I still can't believe its a day before Christmas (actually the day before Christmas eve...). Paulie and I rush around to get the laundry together and Paulie takes a run over to the laundry building. He comes back and picks me up for the announcements at 4. We find out that we are assigned table ten and that the only things we need to bring to the Christmas dinner is cream and sugar! I suggest we get some wine and maybe an appetizer. Steve, table ten ring leader or as he is referred to "host" of table ten nixes the appetizer as they think there is enough stuff on the list already. Alrighty then. Paul and I fold clothes and finish up the laundry. We call Zack and wake him up. There is a POKER game this evening and the boys will all be playing. Paul goes to get Zack and then he picks up grandpa and off they go. I put stuff away, straighen up the rig and watch a bit of TV. The three big losers come back about 9:45 and they are off again to take Zack back to the motel. Paul will stop at Wally world for some cream and stuff for breakfest. I hit the sack. I am still sicky from this damm cold!

later...

dee

Friday....December 22 2006

I am really wicked sick with this cold. After breakfest, I go up to the cabin and lay down.

That's what I did...all day....sleep.

The show this evening is the last of the singer/dancer extravaganzas. Can't miss this. It was a really good show and the troupe sang songs related to water....Navy songs, Broadway songs, etc. The skinny Romanians again did their thing and the acrobat from down under did some interesting moves using a curtain. I guess you hadda be there, lol!

We couldn't get reservations for Trattoria. That is the bad part of the "freestyle" crusing concept. You either have to wait forever to eat at the popular times or should I say normal dining hours. We ended up eating too late at night. We did see all the first shows but who wants to eat at 9:30 every night? I am not sure if I like this concept.

We had to have our bags outside the door by 2 a.m. No problem. We made sure Zack was aware of this. Grandpa headed back to his room to pack. Zack and Paul went off to the goodbye party. I wandered around the ship for awhile and then decided to get a cup of coffee at the sports bar. No Mexican coffee for me today...not with taking all that cold stuff...

The sports bar staff was preparing the late night buffet. I decided to stick around and see what they were serving. Hotdogs, hamburgers, finger sandwiches, salad bar. No dessert. Crap. I could have used something chocolate. I opted for a plate of fries. They tasted blah. It was the darn cold tampering with my taste buds.

Back at the room, I packed up all my stuff and Paulies stuff. We didn't buy anything anywhere so we didn't have any problems of how to get stuff in our bags. We had one full suitcase of dirty clothes. Zack and grandpa had already done their packing and their bags were already gone. Paul showed up and we got them out into the hallway. Gosh, this week went fast. Too fast. Of course, having a cold for two days sucked.

We are expected to dock in Houston about 8 a.m. We have green bag tags for our deck so we are not going to be called right away. I guess we will get off around ten and get back to the rig about noon. We won't be able to pick up the furkids as the vet is closed for the holiday.

later.

dee

Thursday December 21

At sea...

I wake up with a freaking cold. Crap. I guess I will stick near the room today. I do join grandpa and Paulie for breakfest, had some oatmeal and lots of orange juice. Back at the room I pop a couple of Dayquils. Lord, those pills are horse pill size! The sun is shinning and Paul, me and grandpa go up to 12 to get some sun. Maybe that will help me feel better. It is too hot up there for me and grandpa. We see Zack and he sits with us for awhile. They are still serving omelets and waffles down at the pool area so he heads down to get a waffle. We all sit and talk for awhile. Zack goes off on his own, and grandpa decides to go back to the room and prepare his mental state for the Texas hold'em tournment this afternoon. He is convinced he is gonna win this one intead of coming in third...

Paul and I go down to lay out in the sun on deck 8. We are in the rear (aft) and it is just beautiful. We all watch the dolphins jumping out of the water playing. They are such fun creatures to watch. After a while, the sun decides to go behind the clouds. Before we know it, it is lunch time. Paul and I go back to the Four Seasons for lunch. We are seated next to some folks we had talked to during our flotation device practice session on Saturday. They are very large folks, from Oklahoma. He eats two entree's. In addition to appetizer, and soup. They also have dessert. I had a really good skirt steak with mango salsa. Oh, I do love the flavor of skirt steak! After lunch, I retreat back to the cabin and down a couple more Dayquil horse pills. I laid down for a while and promptly fell asleep. About 5 Paul comes in to check on me and we both shower and get changed for dinner. Grandpa got bounced in the Texas hold'em first round. Awwww.... I am feeling like the last rose of summer. There are two shows...first the magician guy and later the comedian does a late act. The magic guy is really good and very funny...I ususally skip magic acts. Zack was the last audience member to get up on stage with him and practically stole the show. I guess I gave birth to a natural comedian/dancer/karaoke singer. Zack again took off after the show and the three of us went to dinner. We went back to Terraces and had a nice dinner. By the time we had finished our entree' I was really sneezing and feeling lousy. I really wanted to see the late show, but there was no way I was gonna make it. I headed back to the room, and downed some Nyquil. Ugh. Nothing worse than the onset of a cold.

later

dee

Wednesday continued....

After showering and dressing for dinner, we joined grandpa and Zack in the Showroom Lounge. The singers and dancers did a country kinda show. It was good. After the show, Zack took off for parts unknown(well, I know he is somewhere they service booze....) and the three of us went off for dinner. I mentioned earlier that we had a early dinner/very late lunch after getting back from Belize City and our Zoological adventures. We went to the Four Seasons to have a late dinner. Grandpa was fine until we finished our first course. He suddenly started gagging on something and thank god they have big napkins as he barfed into his and Paul's. OK...my dinner's done thank you very much. We left quickly to get him back to his room without more barfing. Ick. He had eaten one of Paul's brussel sprouts (see what happens when you eat that kinda stuff???) and the outter leaf had lodged in his throat which he couldn't get loose. Ick. I'm gonna lose MY dinner if I keep writing. Ick. Ick. Ick.

Paul set out to find Zack after getting the old guy settled and of course, I get ready for bed. I am not feeling all to great myself. Prolly cause I barf just HEARING someone gag.

Tomorrow and Friday are at sea...

later

dee