HELLO From San Diego

We are in San Diego at our hotel and I'm sitting on the balcony overlooking the bay and 2 cruise ships that are in port (we will board our ship tomorrow morning - it's still on it's way from Seattle). Our flight in, was uneventful and San Diego is warmer than what I found was a forecast online but I'm not complaining as there is nary a cloud in the sky and there is a slight breeze and ooooooh my gosh it's gorgeous here!!!
No pictures yet but I'm sure there will be some posted later this evening. We're going to get ready and head out to purchase some wine and bloody mary mixers for our cruise tomorrow and then get a bite to eat.
Stay tuned, my plan is to post at least every few days from the cruise ship.

Isn't Rudy Precious?

I just had to share this photo of my grandson Rudy. He attended his first Houston Astros Game on Saturday and look how much joy it gave him. He is the apple of this grandma's eye.

SMOKE FREE FOR 1 YEAR

As you can see, I've made it to my 1 Year mark without a cigarette thanks to the quit smoking medication Chantix.
I started smoking steadily when I turned 16 but I started in the 5th grade sneaking them with a girl friend. My parents were both heavy smokers so it's probably almost natural that I picked up the nasty habit (I'm the oldest of 7 children, only 3 of us smoke(d), both girls and one brother). I was allowed to smoke in the house in the open as a teen and then when I went into the Army way back when, the Army put cigarettes into our C-Rations and made a pack of cigarettes 17 cents - yes you read that right, 17 cents.
Is it any wonder that I turned into a pack a day plus smoker? I smoked 36 years with no hope of ever quitting. I half heartedly tried to quit a couple of times and the anxiety I felt, made me pick it right back up.
Last year my son and his wife told us they were expecting their first child and also told me that they would not allow this child to be around me if I smoked..............and then my breathing worsened, my health was deteriorating, my doctor said "You have to quit or risk an imminent heart attack and/or stroke."
I QUIT
The quit wasn't easy but taking the Chantix made it possible to carry through with my quit this time.
I have a beautiful grandson Rudy that is 6 months old and he has never smelled his Nana with cigarettes on her breath or clothes, and his Nana's (Me) health is slowly but surely improving and hopefully I will be around to see my Rudy fall in love and have a baby of his own.

If you are a smoker and you've thought about wanting to quit or you have health issues that would improve if you didn't smoke, call your doctor and ask him/her about whether Chantix is an option for you.
The side effects I encountered were gas, some insomnia, vivid dreams (not nightmares but dreams that were 3 dimensional and in technicolor), dry mouth. These side effects lessened over time (three and a half months on the Chantix). All this without putting more nicotine in my body.

I still have days, sometimes a few days in a row where I think I'd like to smoke a cigarette but I haven't, I just change gears and the urge goes away. I also have family and friends that have supported and encouraged me throughout this year - y'all have been awesome!!!!
I've learned that smoking was more of a habit, a ritual, than it was an addiction. I can see that I wove smoking into everything that happened to me during that 36 years, happy events, sad events, it was my constant companion and the one thing I always turned to...........this was the most difficult aspect of quitting, changing how I handled everything I did in my life.

I QUIT SMOKING 365 DAYS AGO - YIPPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why My Posting Has Been Erratic

We will be leaving for our long awaited Panama Canal Transit coming up here next week and I've been busy getting things done so we can be gone more than 2 weeks.
I'm going to try to post at least a few times from the ship but internet connections onboard are expensive and traditionally very slow.
I hope you will check back often and see where we are and what we're doing.
In the meantime I'm trying to drop but sometimes it gets late before it's all finished. I will not be able to drop at all during the 2+ weeks we are gone, I hope I don't loose you all.

The Devastation Left By Hurricane Ike In Houston Texas

My daughter-in-law just sent us these photos of some of the devastation caused by Ike in the Houston and Galveston area (you can click on these photos to get a larger look).

My son and his family still are without power and they have some landscape damage but it's nothing in comparison to these photos. They will be without power until at least this next Monday (which will be 11 days after the storm IF they get it then).
They said that things are slowly returning to normal in Houston with gasoline becoming easier to find, more food in grocery stores and such.

Cool Front

This morning we awoke to temperatures in the low 60's!!  We hardly ever see temperatures this low in September.  The forecast has us noticeably cooler both during the day and in the mornings all week and this is certainly welcome.  It's overcast today but they aren't calling for rain - hey, we'll take the cooler weather!!!

I wish this cooler weather would somehow make it's way down to Houston because without power these people are really uncomfortable.
We are hoping that power will be restored for most of Houston by the end of this week.  My Son (in Houston) seems to think they could possibly have power at their house as quick as today or tomorrow (I'm crossing my fingers Son).

Houston & Hurricane Ike

My Son, his lovely wife, and my Grandson Rudy live in Houston and they have decided to stay in Houston. We are not thrilled with this decision but we have no choice but to accept their decision. My son is a doctor and is essential medical personnel, my DIL and Rudy don't want to leave him there alone.............
The scariest part of this is that they have a concrete waterway behind their home and their street becomes a raging river when they have simple heavy rain.
Please pray for the safety of those anywhere near the coasts that will/are being affected by IKE.

This hurricane is huge at almost 1,000 miles large.

I'm in SA and although we may get some wind and rain, we won't get anything close to what people in other places of Texas and the coast in general will sustain.

New Photos of Rudy

Rudy loves his exersaucer and now at 6 months old his hand-eye coordination is better and he's able to really play.
Look at those gorgeous eyes!!!




This is Rudy on an airplane headed to San Francisco with his Mommy & Daddy for a friend's wedding. Rudy has now been coast to coast and visited both the Atlantic Ocean(his other Grandma & Grandpa live there) and the Pacific Ocean, and lives pretty near the coast in Houston. His Mommy tells me he's a great traveler...........I'm glad cause this Grandma wants to take Rudy on his first cruise in the next 18-24 months (Disney).

STOP WITH THE MUSIC!!!!!!

Lately there have been way too many drops by sites with music - STOP THE MUSIC!!! I will not reciprocate your drops if you have music on your site, it annoys the living hell out of me - can you tell that I'm screaming?!!!
This morning as I was opening sites (I open 10 at a time) there were 4 sites in one 10 blog block playing music at the same time, all different, all horrible.

I've also run across sites that have something that's keeping their site from loading quick enough for me and who's Entrecard is way down their site or is so mixed in with other advertisements that I can't locate it quick enough.

In all these cases I will just shut off your site, I will not drop. I know I'm not the only EC dropper that feels this way so if you want to have a following, STOP THE MUSIC!!!

Do You Fart In Front of Your Spouse?

My husband couldn't believe I would write a post about this topic but I'd really like to know...........
I do, in fact, I have a gas problem and just let em rip (although I try my best to take Gas X when I'm in a public forum).  My sister on the other hand does not fart in front of her husband and the joke is that she just doesn't fart which of course is utter BS since she's my sister and I "know."

Inquiring minds want to know..............Do you fart in front of your spouse?

I Need Your Help Finding Sheets

I know this sounds like a strange request and you are undoubtedly wondering why I don't just do the research myself BUT this is more difficult than that, I have done research and it's wrong, I want to know from my blogging friends.
The sheets I'm looking for need to be smooth yet crisp and cold to the touch - I don't like to sleep on warm/hot sheets. I know I'm looking for percale but all percales must not be the same because I've bought some that just aren't what I used to buy.

HELP PLEASE!!!

Exchanged My Dream Bed

We exchanged our (my) dream bed to a box spring with a lower profile, and a mattress with less loft (can't you hear my sobs) that cost more - go figure!!!
I'll admit that the mattress of the first purchase had a great deal of loft that made the "set" high enough to need to climb in and you couldn't sit on the side of the bed and have your feet touch the ground (yes I'm 5'3" but husband is 5'8" and his didn't touch either). The loft of the mattress cradled my tired aging body but it did take some effort to shift in bed and DH didn't like it one little bit.
The special option we purchased required us to live with our purchase for 60 days before they would exchange the set for something else. Well, I listened to DH bitch and moan for 60+ frigging nights and finally tonight he got his wish.
I'll make the adjustment but it may take a week or so ;)

Sweet Dreams!

**EDIT**
Saturday, Sept 6, 2008 6:15pm

We called and requested my dream mattress back, they were able to locate it at the warehouse and will return it to us this Wednesday (I hope it's not dirty or damaged).
I don't mind telling you that I cried last night when I got into bed because it was so uncomfortable, I slept on our bedroom sofa and DH got up and fretted. He was the one that called today and managed to talk them into finding it for us.
I can look forward to a decent nights sleep come Wednesday.