Wednesday, Feb 28

Tonight I participated in a volunteer activity facilitated by Sprint where we assembled "Buddy Dolls" to be donated to Children's Mercy Hospital. I helped cut the patterns..... "flip" the sew patterns inside-out..... and stuff the dolls.

The reason the dolls are 'blank' is because they are used whenever a child is going to have a surgery or procedure done. The doctors draw on the dolls to show the child what will be done, and then the child gets to keep the doll and decorate it however they wish. With 165 volunteers, we made 750 dolls, which should be enough dolls to last Children's Mercy for a full year!

Tuesday, Feb 27

Back to bowling league. I bowled a 413 series. Eh.

The world is still rocking... I want to go to sleep!

Monday, Feb 26

Of course I'm glad to be back from my cruise... but I still feel motion-sick! I can't concentrate at work, everything is rocking, and all I want to do is go to sleep!

I can't say I have any desire to go on another cruise....

Sunday, Feb 25

Day 7: HOME SWEET HOME
(Although apparently I need to have some tree work done.)


I was so relieved to arrive in port Sunday morning and get back on solid ground. Unfortunately, I forgot I would have to endure 2 turbulent flights to get home, and I neglected to consider the adjustment to solid ground often referred to as "sea legs" or "land sickness". I retreated into "turtle-mode" for the entire day. I was constantly either hazy, or just plain exhausted, and this picture is a good representation of how I felt all day:


Of course, it's nice to come home to someone happy to see me. :)

Saturday, Feb 24

Day 6: Another day at sea, making our way home again.

Today was the roughest day for me (motion-sickness-wise) because the waters were rougher...
We spent most of our day sitting in the casino playing poker... but the only pictures I got were just of the ocean water... because today all I wanted to see was solid, STILL ground!


I'm ready to be HOME!!!!!!!

Friday, Feb 23

Day 5: Today's port of call was Cozumel, Mexico.


I have to admit it looked like bluest, clearest water we had seen so far. (Eric is actually on the boat pictured below, returning from his snorkeling trip.)


Unfortunately, by this day of our trip my motion-sickness troubles (sickness and/or side-effect related) had become severe enough that I chickened out of our planned snorkeling trip. Fortunately for Eric, he went on the snorkeling tour without me, and got some fantastic photos of the reefs:

Eric returned from the trip as happy as ever and ready to plan our honeymoon somewhere with equally beautiful water, reefs, and wildlife. (We're thinking about Belize, but are open to suggestions... personally, I'm hoping for somewhere with excellent snorkeling that doesn't require a boat trip!)

Meanwhile, I kept an eye on the ship...


And of course, we have another towel animal to share:

Thursday, Feb 22

Day 4: Today's port of call was Grand Cayman.
Just look at the blue color of that water!


Today we took a shore excursion to swim/snorkel with sting rays as well as check out some nearby reef areas close to shore. Swimming with the sting rays at Grand Cayman is something I've wanted to do for a long time now, and I'm really glad I finally took the opportunity to do it. They are really interesting creatures, and it's quite an experience to be standing in the middle of the ocean on a sandbar with dozens of these animals gliding over your feet... it was amazing.




The snorkeling over the reefs wasn't great, but here are some pictures anyway:




And of course we got to enjoy another beautiful sunset view from our balcony:


And another night's towel animal:

Wednesday, Feb 21

Day 3: Today's port of call was Jamaica, and here was the view from our balcony when we got into port:
(I'm just learning to use the panoramic feature of my point & click camera... but I think the results came out great!)

We didn't do a whole lot in Jamaica, but Eric manajed to enjoy himself while we hung out at the local Margaritaville.


Actually, we did buy Eric a watch in Jamaica (as my engagement present to him), but I neglected to take a picture of it. :-L

Instead... I got a picture of our ship as we were returning to it...

And along the lilnes of experimenting with the panoramic pictures... This is the result of trying to take a picture of our ship when I'm standing only about 50 yards away. Kinda cool, I thought.

Another panoramic photo of a beautiful sunset over Jamaica... not the greatest photo stitched together (you can see the seams), but it's still not too bad...


And last but not least... don't forget tonight's towel animal: