I just sent out holiday letters and thought I would post it here along with
the cruise story.
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January 2006 –
Since I didn’t get around
to sending out Christmas cards, and we received a bunch, I figured I would send
out a January card!
2005 was full of
events. Dan graduated from ITT with an associates degree in
Computer Engineering and Electronics. He graduated top of his
class. To celebrate, we went on our first cruise to the Western
Caribbean! That’s a story in itself.
Let me know if you’d like to hear it and I’ll send it to you!
Babe is still alive and
kicking – she turned 17 this year and still acts like a kitten sometimes.
In February, we had a little scare with her. I noticed that
she was losing weight and had a large cyst. She ended up having
surgery to remove the cyst and some of her usual warts (yes, warts).
The blood work came back that she has an overactive thyroid.
The option was medicine or surgery – we’ve opted for medicine, which she
will be on for the rest of her life, but it’s working fine AND she’s VERY good
at taking it (what a surprise).
Dan still works for the
government and works the 4pm to midnight shift. Needless to say,
we see each other on the weekends and keep those days free to spend time with
each other.
Work is going well for
me. I’m still getting used to my “new” position as Assistant
General Manager, Retail. It’s been a year and a half in the
position, but it continues to be a challenge and I continue to enjoy
it.
During the week, when Dan
is working, I try to keep busy. I continue to volunteer at the
county animal shelter as a “cat cuddler” or administrative help. I
really enjoy doing it and visit with the other animals (dogs, rabbits, etc.)
while I’m there.
I’ve started working more
on our anniversary scrapbook. I’m currently on year 3 and we’ve
been married for 7 years! I first started scrapbooking about a
year ago for a gift for my Aunt Helen and then started one for our
anniversaries. A couple of months ago, I started going to a local
scrapbooking club that meets once or twice a month. Just a group
of people getting together to work on their projects.
I also started my own
blog. It’s a private blog and only invitees can join.
If you are interested, let me know and I’ll send you an
invite.
The cruise wasn’t the only
traveling we did this year. Besides going to NY to see my family,
we went to Ohio at Thanksgiving to see Dan’s grandmother. In
September, we spent a week in Outer Banks, NC. This was the week
when Ophelia was heading straight for the Outer Banks. Luckily, we
didn’t have to be evacuated. I got to travel to Miami for a couple
of days for work. I went a day early so I could hang out.
Great place to be if you are into partying all night.
Unfortunately, I’m not into that anymore! We had visitors
this year also – my two nieces, Chrissy & Mae. They came down
for 2 weeks during the summer. We had fun. Dan had
enough after one week! Not that they were bad or anything – we’re
just used to it being the two of us (ok – the three of us including
Babe).
Hope you’re holidays were
great and 2006 is a good year for you and your family.
THE CRUISE -
On March 11 through 20, we took our first
cruise to the Western Caribbean on Celebrity Cruises. We left out
of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and went down a day early to relax and not have to
rush around the next day.
On the way down, there was a
row between us and a guy in the row between us passed out – I mean really passed
out. I thought we were going to have to make an emergency landing. Dan thought
the guy was dead. He was totally white and eyes wide open and rolled into the
back of his head! They made an announcement asking for any medical personnel on
the flight, gave the guy oxygen and tried to figure out what was wrong. I think
they mentioned something about him taking meds and not having that much to
eat.
Hung out in Ft. Lauderdale on Friday. The
hotel we stayed at was on the beach and within walking distance of places to eat
and shop.
The ship was great – did a lot of shopping
on the ship along with getting a facial peel. I went to a makeup seminar and
was picked to be the model. Dan played darts and won a Celebrity Cruise visor
(side note – Dan always had this visor on until December 22, when he left it at
a concert we went to). We purchased several of the portraits that they took
before dinner. We haven’t had any professional pictures since getting
married.
The people we sat with at dinner were really
nice. At first we thought we wouldn’t have much in common with them to talk
about, but once the cruise got going, we just talked about things we did during
the day. We skipped the first formal night and had dinner at one of the
restaurants (which we really enjoyed). The second formal night, every one at
our table encouraged us to come. Even our waitress said, don’t worry about the
dress code.
Jamaica was fun. We did the Dolphin touch and Dunn’s River
Falls. The dolphin touch was too short, but really cool and Dan walked up the
falls while I took video. We were warned about the bombarding of questions from
the natives. Dan got asked a million times if he wanted something “special” and
the ladies were all over him to get his hair braided! The only bad part was no
Diet Coke – they have something called Coca-Cola Light which tasted
horrible!
Grand Cayman was really nice (had the real diet coke J). Went to the Sea Turtle farm, the rum cake factory
and on a glass bottom boat ride. It was amazing how much devastation they still
have from the hurricane last year.
The cruise was smooth up until Wednesday
night when we were headed to Mexico. I woke up in the middle of the night
because of the rocking! No seasickness for either one of us though (or sunburns
– I made sure we had 30 SFP sunscreen on at all times). Dan did end up with a
sinus infection on the trip and just dealt with it the whole time, and I got one
after we got back.
Mexico was an experience. It was one thing after another.
We did a “Mayan ruins and jungle” excursion. It definitely was NOT what we
expected. The day started off with waiting about 45 minutes before we could
ferry off Cozmel to another section of Mexico. We finally got started, the
waves were terrible! People were getting seasick. I had to keep looking out so
I wouldn’t. When we finally got to land, we had to wait to dock – probably
another 30 minutes. We met our tour guide and walked about 3 blocks to the
van. As we started out, they handed us boxed lunches and then when we got to
the van, they found out they had given us the wrong lunches and handed us
another lunch (bonus – 2 lunches each!).
We started driving and the guide tried to
use the speaker in the van and it was horrible, so they pulled over and brought
us another van. We started off again, and the guide started going into the deep
history of the Mayans. After about 30 minutes of driving, we stopped at a gift
shop/rest area and he kept saying this is the last bathroom, we are going into
the jungle. Got back on the van and drove another 30 minutes to this deserted
area. On the way there, I was thinking where the heck are we going – I kept
seeing shacks on the side of the road that people were living in. We thought
these ruins would be some commercialized place. There were only about 30 people
there (11 in our group). The guide started going into the deep, deep history of
the Mayans and after about the first 15-20 minutes could tell we weren’t really
interested and stopped talking to us. Yes, stopped talking to us. He said “I
don’t want to waste your time, so just ask me questions if you have any”. We
could tell he was not happy with us. He led us through the “jungle”, which
reminded me of the parks they have in the everglades wetland. The trail was
wooden with just trees around – didn’t see any wild life. When I asked the
guide what animals were in the area all he kept saying was snakes, even when I
asked what the snakes ate. Like I said, he was very unhappy with us and stopped
talking to us. When we got though the jungle, someone in our group said to the
guide, ok, we’re ready to go and they drove us back. When we finally got back
to the dock, to take the ferry, we only had about 1 hour to walk around. We
finally got back to the ship at 7:15 p.m/7:30 p.m. – the ship was waiting for us
– we were supposed to leave the port at 7 p.m. Mexico was just crazy. We
might want to go back to Cancun just to spend some time to sight see.
Key West was nice. We just walked around and shopped. I
think we might want to go back there. We did make a major purchase there – Dan
bought me a 1 ct. diamond eternity ring for my birthday! I LOVE IT! He even
picked it out (he’s got an eye for jewelry)!
Saturday, we hung out in Ft. Lauderdale
again and basically slept all day in the hotel. I’m glad we did that extra
day. We didn’t have to rush around. Oh – the ship was all confused with our
flight out. They thought we were going to leave at 9 a.m on Saturday instead of
Sunday, so we were in the first group to get off. Luckily, the hotel let us
check in early, and we went right to sleep.
I think that’s all of the stories! Like I
told you – what an adventure! Dan’s ready to take another cruise already. I
told him we have to pay off this one first!
