Vain

I have a free night tonight. Well, not a whole free night, but a bunch of free hours in a row anyway. I got home from work at 4:30 and I don't have soccer until 9:00. I would really have liked to go to bed early since I've been up before 5:00 am two days in a row (flights to and from Albuquerque), but I don't want to miss soccer. I thought about a nap, but if I start that, there is no way I'll get up and go play.

So, with four consecutive hours of free time, I could have done so many things on my to-do list, such as: input all my receipts and payments into my Town Treks budget worksheet, read The Godfather for book club, read Home for the other book club, take the dogs for a much-needed walk or take myself for a much-needed run (CitySolve and Great Urban Race nationals are next weekend and the weekend after!) or even (gasp!) update my sadly neglected blog.

But no. None of that got accomplished. Why? Because I got on facebook and got stuck there ....for a really long time!! I did some cyberstalking of people, read lots of posts (my cousin is selling both Gopher football tickets and her house...anyone interested??), tried to interpret the vague ones (why exactly do suppose that Elizabeth's day did a 180?) and looked at pictures of my roommate's trip to the Grand Canyon and Elaine's baby.

And here's where the vanity part comes in. I checked out my own profile page, too. Cuz I'm vain. And cuz it's fun to read people's comments on my postings and my pictures. This is my current profile picture - taken last week while Travel Troupe was cruising the Caribbean:
I am vainly proud of the comments that my facebook friends have posted. One comment: "You should take on a second career of doing fitness competitions. I think you could bring in some cash. Just don't tell them what you eat." Another: "Like a fitness model!" Awww...so nice. Keep 'em coming, people! I do love a good compliment. :) And with less than a year before I am no longer in my 30's (oh my god, how I hate getting old!!!), compliments on my looks are more pleasing than they were 10 years ago.

Someone also asked me if this picture was photoshopped. Come on! You don't believe that a 39 year old whose main (only?) food group is Tootsie Rolls and KitKats can take a decent photo? But I have to admit - that yes - I did edit it a bit...but only because that woman who is perfectly framed between my legs is a little off-putting. :)
Ok then...vain girl checking out. I've got some sushi waiting for me and some Coyotes hockey to watch for an hour before I go play soccer.

Happy Birthday, Elaine

Happy Birthday, Elaine!

For your birthday photo montage, we're going back to Brazil, baby!

Here's to another year of singing... ...and dancing...

...and siding with those of us who are right (well...left maybe)......instead of with those who are wrong (or right, maybe)......and traveling with Travel Troupe!
(Don't you wish we really were going back to Brazil??)

More and More Stuff About a Cruise Ship

Alternate Post Title: Pat's B-day Cruise, The Finale Episode

Are you sick of hearing about the frickin' cruise? You'll be glad to know that this is it - the last post about the cruise. It's actually four postings in one, but I want to be done blogging about this, so I've combined them into one extra-long post.

PART ONE - Travel Troupe's Competitive Spirit

There are a lot of contests and games on a cruise. We participated in most of them - probably not a surprise as many of my friends share my competitive-to-the-core gene. We won a lot of them, too. As already documented, we won the first Trivia Contest. Woo hoo! The next night our group won the title of Loudest/Rowdiest Team during the trivia game. Look at these nuts! Are you in any way surprised that they won?

On another night, Brian and Irene were chosen to participate in the Marriage Game, which was a version of the Newlywed game. Yet again, Travel Troupers were the victors!

We competed in a bunch of ping pong tournaments and won those, too. Ok, that's a lie. We sucked at them. So we hosted a TTOT (Travel Troupe Only Tournament) to get one of ours into the gold. Way to go, Jamie!

There was a water volleyball, too, but I don't think there were any actual winners announced. I'm pretty sure (with the exception of our 3 players) that the teams were too drunk to even care and I'm definitely sure that the cruise dude was too busy collecting room numbers from bikini-clad co-eds to notice.

There was also a Wii Mario Kart contest. I sucked at this.But Laura and the NFBF rocked and won first and second place!!! Go Travel Troupe! Woot Woot!

PART TWO - Travel Troupe and Games: Synonymous.

It's not surprising that we played a lot of games while on the cruise. It's what we do. Most vacations include an extra suitcase just for games. This one was no exception.

Mexican Train:
Quirkle at night:

Quirkle in the day:
Formal Clue:
Daytime House on the Hill:
Nighttime House on the Hill:
PART THREE - We Clean Up Well

Cruises always host formal nights. I think this is to make packing difficult and to increase the amount of luggage you have to bring. Or maybe because they know that it is kind of fun to dress up. And damn we look good dressed up!

The first formal night:

We didn't plan for it to be little black dress night - it just ended up that way. Poor Laura is new to Travel Troupe so she is not yet in the mind meld.

The second formal night (ah, there is Laura's little black dress!):


PART FOUR - Patrick Stevenson, the 40 Year Old Version

It's a pun. It's funny. Special thanks to Kiri for the shirt idea and the artwork creation. We wore these shirts on the last day at sea.

A closer look:
I don't think Pat liked these as much as the "I Heart Pat" ones. Plus he really likes dressing up for dinner, so he wore a suit instead of the Team Pat shirt.
Go Team Pat! (Christy put her shirt in her purse and at the last minute decided she didn't need her purse on the trip. Oops.)

And one final picture from Pat's B-Day Cruise. Pat is such a player! Wooooooo!

The Funniest Place on a Cruise Ship

Alternate Post Title: Pat's B-Day Cruise, Part VI

It turns out that the funniest place on the Sapphire Princess was the hallway on the Caribe Deck outside room #237 right about midnight. Maybe this can be chalked up to late night slap-happiness. I prefer to think it's because I have the most hilarious friends ever!

(Caveat: I understand that many times humor is situational and this is probably one of those times. But this blog is my diary and I want to remember how much fun the Caribe Deck hallway was, so please excuse me if the humor does not translate. I know...you probably had to be there.)

Pat's wasn't the only birthday we celebrated while on the cruise. Irene's birthday was on March 11th. NFBF, Christy and I undertook the mandatory task of decorating her door the night before her birthday, late after she had already gone to bed. We met in the NFBF's room to strategize. There aren't too many things to do when you only have leis (given to us by the cruise staff) and hockey tape (why did NFBF bring hockey tape on a cruise?) to work with. We decided to spell out Irene's name on the door. We layed (lei'd) everything out on the bed first so we wouldn't have to do any talking in the hallway. The doors were decidedly NOT soundproof!

When we were all set, we very, very quietly went into the hallway and started decorating. NFBF handed me leis, Christy cut the tape and I silently taped them in place. Doing anything clandestine in the middle of the night always brings about the giggles, but we were being quite successful at giggling silently. Taping. Giggling. Cutting. Taping. I lean in to tape another lei and the door opens! Irene is standing there with dirty plates to set out in the hall. I scare the shit out of her, she scares the shit out of me. We look at each other - mirror images of surprise, her holding plates, me holding a taped lei high in the air. I quickly shut the door. NFBF then just as quickly reopens the door, takes the plates out of her hand and shuts the door, leaving her still standing in her entryway in shock.

And this is all it takes for us to break down in hysterics. I would like to apologize to the Fabigs and anyone else with rooms in our hall that night who may have been trying to sleep. I'm sure our uncontrollable laughter was very annoying.

We were almost under control when an older lady came by. She LOVED our work! SO creative! Where did we get the materials? She would LOVE to do this for her travel companions. To this NFBF replied "It's not as easy at it looks. We are trained professionals!" which started us in again with the hysterics. We laughed until we cried and then laughed some more. (Like I said, you probably had to be there.) Trained professionals! Ha! More like punch-drunk goofballs with an unusually high thumb to finger ratio! Yeah, it's not as easy at it looks to create this artistic masterpiece!

We gave the inhabitants of the hall a night off, but the following evening the giggles again hit the Caribe hall around midnight. It started out with the giggles hitting in Jamie and Laura's room. I don't know how exactly it started, but it looked like this:
After we figured out how much stuff we could stack on a game board balanced on our noggins while sitting on the bed, we tried to stand up and walk.

Laura was the best stacker.
It was impossible to do this without laughing.
Frick! I laughed too hard and lost it all right before I made it out the door. For some reason the chivalry of Jamie holding the door for me while I balanced deodorant on my head struck me as incredibly funny.
Turns out that Jamie's bald head was the best for balancing. He made it out the door....

And down the hallway. Some frat boys walked by and were VERY impressed. Then one of us commented that Jamie could work as a room service delivery guy. Knock, knock. "Pardon me sir, but did you order some sunblock?" And next thing you know, we are again laughing like lunatics outside room #237, this time with the added bonus of crashing deodorants and lotions. Again, my apologies to those of you who were trying to sleep!

After that, the kids had nothing left with which to entertain me (and really what could top that?), so it was time to pack up all my toys and walk back to my room...

More Funny....though it didn't happen in our hallway in the middle of the night, it was pretty funny to come across a sleeping Pat and Steven and take pictures of them without them waking up.These boys sure know how to relax!

The Best Part of a Cruise Ship is Getting Off a Cruise Ship - Cabo San Lucas

Alternate Post Title: Pat's B-Day Cruise, Part V

Our last stop was Cabo San Lucas. So pretty. I've been to Cabo a few times, but I've never gotten out to this beach. The cruise ship doesn't dock in Cabo- you have to take little boats to get to shore. It makes things a lot more difficult and there is a lot more waiting. We had to be back on board the cruise by 2:00 pm (last shuttle left at 1:00), so it was a very short day. Therefore there wasn't time to do my excursion and go the beach. Sad.

On the shuttle boat on our way to our excursions:Elaine, Jamie, Laura and I were off to swim with the dolphins (on my list of things to do before I die) and NFBF, Christy and Pat were off to learn to sail aboard an America's Cup yacht. Steven was supposed to do that one, too, but he was ill and in bed, poor guy.

The excursions involved a whole lot of hurry up and wait. We were rushed onto a shuttle, cutting in front of lots of waiting people, to make sure we didn't miss our activities. But when we got ashore we were forced to wait a long time before our groups left.

Waiting... Waiting...
Waiting...(It looks like Craig might have some competition for the coveted position of Pat's boyfriend)Finally our groups were taken to the dolphins and the yachts at Cabo Adventures. They offered us wetsuits. They told us it was optional, in case we might get cold. It's a good thing we chose the wetsuit option as the water was super chilly! Or maybe it's a bad thing we chose the wetsuit option because it led to this picture:

Our dolphin group:
Our introduction to our dolphin, Risho. He splashed us and squeaked hello.

After the introduction, we all got to pet Risho. Dolphins feel very much like a rubber spatula - a VERY muscular rubber spatula.
Dolphin kisses (awww, he loves me!):
Dolphin poses (isn't Risho a sweetie??):
Dolphin rides (this was actually kind of strange and not as fun as it looks):

Then we took turns dancing with Risho. When you spin in a circle, he spins in a circle, too.
Yay for swimming with dolphins! I am now one step closer to dying happy!