Coco View - August 9-16

Moon over ... cabana


Post check-out dive parade



Hawksbill Cay from the bar



The lovely and talented Miss Chiquita



Seas are finally calm. Must be Friday!






This dance had quite a story, which started with these two young ladies doing laundry.








I flew "second seat" on the seaplane

All my bags are packed...

Not!

However, those who know me will be surprised that I've already packed most of my stuff for our August trip. The big challenge will be fitting everything into one checked bag. Continental now charges for the second checked bag, and we plan to avoid that. My really big bag is just within the size limits, but it weighs nearly 30 pounds already and is only a little more than half full. My goal is to have it weigh around 40 pounds, so there's 10 pounds leeway for souvenirs and such. And dirty clothes do weigh more than clean!

I've got to measure my little rolling bags to see if any of them fit within the dimensions for a carry-on, so I can bring one instead of my usual backpack.

P.S. Big anniversary today: On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

Life Stinks

Terrific Mel Brooks movie! I'd never even heard of it, but stumbled on it in cable's "free movies" section. We split it over two evenings, because we're lightweights when it comes to staying up late.

Change of season

Cat & I visited Alex & Jem last weekend. It's a totally different season there! Lovely, lovely cool weather was a pleasant change from our mid 90s. And whoever did that survey on most expensive gasoline missed a town - we paid $4.79 for regular! Ouch!

Being out of town was a good thing. Got back Sunday evening and heard there'd been a shooting IN OUR PARKING SPACE Saturday night. Nice.

June flowers

There were enough to fill TWO vases. WOW!

We're number 1!

And it's quite the dubious distinction:

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/A_NEWS/80609022

New Trick

Lucy just came over and shut off my computer. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

We had a power outage this morning at work, and my PC was a casualty. Never came back up. It was quite sad.

I must be death on hard drives -- I had one die last year, as well.

Notice how calm I am? 90% of my files are stored on the server. Fool me once...!

I did lose a bunch of images, and I'm sure I'll discover more that's missing as time goes by. Life will go on!

Cold Panic...

One of our facilities was selected for a random wall-to-wall by Cal/OSHA earlier this week (lucky us!), and the inspector gave us quite the laundry list of documents he wants to see. One of the many things my manager asked me to pull together was the Forms 300 and 300A, current year and previous four years.

I pulled out our trusty Form 300 binder, which goes clear back to 1987, and I DIDN'T HAVE 2004 or 2005 for that facility. So, of course, I went through the binder over and over and over, page by page by page, hoping they'd just been misfiled. Then I started going through every piece of paper in my office, all the while thinking "ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod..." And I kept waking up last night with the same thing running through my head, over and over and over.

Finally, this morning, I turned to my manager and said, "We may have a problem. I can't find 2004 or 2005." And he says...

"Oh, yeah! Glenn was taking care of those, then. They should have them over there."

Jeez Louis. I think I just aged about 10 years in the past two days.

Why is it...

...dogs act like they're being beaten when we give them baths?

Poor Lucy had her first bath of the season today. She crouched down on her belly and looked terriby abused!

I took her on a walk immediately following, so I am forgiven!

Dog's diary vs. Cat's diary

Big Changes at Lincoln El

There's major construction at Lincoln El. I expect those of you who went to school there won't recognize much of it next time you visit.

Take me out to the ball game...

Our insurance folks took us to a River Cats game. They've got a suite! It's totally the best way ever to watch a baseball game. We had an air-conditioned room full of food and drinks, then were able to go out on our own private (shaded!) balcony to watch the game.

And the icing on the cake?: the River Cats beat Salt Lake City, 7 to 4.

Slots of fun!

For the first time in a long, long time, the slot machines were friendly to me! I actually left Reno with more money than I arrived with. Of course, we all do realize that ultimately ... The House Always Wins!

I think I might brave a Blackjack table next time. A very low limit one.

Most of the table games are a complete mystery to me.





We had dinner Friday evening at Louis' Basque Corner. It was delicious and delightful, and I highly recommend it!

Saturday night we had dinner at Sterling's and enjoyed it so much, we returned on Sunday for their Mothers' Day brunch.

Also saw FloorPlay on Saturday night. If you like watching ballroom dancing and enjoy performances with inhumanly crazy levels of energy, you'll love it, too!

C-Squared Do Disneyland

How cool to stumble upon the Dapper Dans - definitely on our Disneyland favorites list! We went to the music shop on Main Street to ask about getting one of their CDs, and had to paste really polite expressions on our faces as the lady there explained to us, quite long-windedly, that it's not always the same four people. Well, duh! I've only been seeing them since I was a little girl. They must have quite a painting in their attic...


Proof positive that we're at the happiest place on Earth!


Okay. It's a lousy picture. Great subject, though! The only thing better than enjoying Billy Hill and the Hillbillies is enjoying them over a couple of bowls of ice cream!


These garbage guys were absolute animals with drumsticks! Trash Can Trio.


Quick sidetrip to Arizona...

Our Cruise

Itinerary
1 Los Angeles
2 At Sea
3 At Sea
4 Acapulco - Noon to Midnight
5 Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa - 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM
6 Puerto Vallarta - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
7 Cabo San Lucas - 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
8 At Sea
9 Los Angeles 7:00 AM


Leaving the Port of Los Angeles - loved the tall ships!


I was amazed to see so much space on a ship.


Ships passing in the ... morning?


Can you believe it? Glass elevators on a cruise ship!?!


This is the ceiling above Gatsby's lounge, where we discovered champagne martinis (just add about a teaspoon of orange liqueur to your champagne - really excellent with Delicato's raspberry sparkling wine, by the way).


My little turtle buddy - took his picture from our mini-suite as we were entering the port in Acapulco.


Can you find all three divers in this photo?


Capilla de la Paz

View of the Fort of San Diego from our balcony.


A tender moment.




Zihuatanejo


Now I've seen everything. A single-wide VW bug.


Lost in translation...


Why we had to take tenders in to Puerto Vallarta...


ATVito Bandito!


First of two delightful margaritas - in hand-crafted souvenir mugs! Cups...whatever.


Ask me about our $183 bar tab. Not bloggable!


The sort of picture one just MUST get after four (or so) margaritas and a couple of shots of fine tequila.




"Let me explain you." It was so cute how a couple of tour guides used this phrase. Our guide for our trip to Todos Santos was surprised that we wanted to spend as much time as we did in the museum.

We can shop anytime, but how many chances does one have to see an original Frida Kahlo, I ask you?







Another shot one simply MUST get after having too many margaritas! (see Hotel California Bar sign, above)! This is the view from the toilet in the bus station restroom in Cabo San Lucas.


Another view from our balcony.


The last tender from Cabo. We ended up leaving a half hour late and one passenger short.


This was one of the funniest things I've seen in my life. The large man in the toga was our cruise director. I believe they called it "fountains," and they took turns artistically spitting streams of water at each other. All very straight faced and totally hilarious! I found a similar performance on youtube, for your enjoyment.


The ship was rocking and rolling so much our last evening, it was impossible to get a focused shot. No margaritas involved this time!


Our final (and cutest) towel critter.

Cruisin'

I'm leaving on my first ever cruise on Friday (unless the Jungle Cruise counts, in which case I've cruised lots of times!). Right now, I've got enough stuff together for about three cruises, so I'm trying to weed things down. Way down. I always pack too much. I think it runs in the family...

Speaking of the Jungle Cruise, Cat and I are planning a trip to Disneyland on Easter weekend. I know it's going to be crazy crowded, but we are the queens of the fast pass! I expect we'll just do one day there, since she's got a final Friday morning, and we'll be driving down after.

I'm saving all my PTO for our next trips. We'll be doing our annual week at "summer camp for adults" (Coco View in Honduras) in August, and Cat and I are going to Cape Cod for a week sometime in September. Lizzie's been there, but we haven't. We'll probably revisit some of the places we saw on our New England trip 12 years ago and also visit some of the places we missed. We may just take a bus or train or ferry or something to New York City. Who knows?

No more septic

For those who may have sentimental memories of it, the septic tank is gone.

The last wrap-up bit I've got to have taken care of is a leak in the backflow, so the water's not back on yet. I turned it on yesterday, and what my septic guy had described as a "small drip" is actually a steady stream of water. When we thought it was a small drip, my backflow guy and I decided to just wait to fix it until the annual inspection in May. It can't wait that long.

I found a place that makes fake rocks to go over plumbing. I'm probably going to get one to hide (and protect) the whole backflow assembly. Now that the fence is gone, there's nothing to keep it from being hit by a wayward car. Besides that, it's downright ugly.

Long Week

The problem with having had so many holidays in a row is one gets spoilt! I worked only three days each of the last two weeks, so having to work five days this week feels like forever. Is it Friday yet?

It's been a quiet week with no crises. I've been putting together the training schedule for the year. The biggest challenge there is coordinating with all the other events.

We're watching all the Harry Potter movies -- just finished the first one last night. Since there's not much going on on TV, thanks to the writers' strike, this is a pleasant alternative which should take us through a couple of months, anyway.

Outstanding Older Worker

In case you haven't heard: Bess was selected as New Mexico's Outstanding Older Worker for 2007.

Tummy Tuck Jeans

I just tried on a pair of Tummy Tuck Jeans, and they really do look good. Two things are holding me back from buying them, though:

1. The ones I tried on cost $100!!!
2. I've just gone down a size and am planning to go down another, so would rather wait until I've done so to even THINK about spending that much for jeans.

So I bought a couple of $30 pairs of another brand, instead. They're fine. Got colored ones (brown and dark brown), so they'll look dressier than blue for work. And a really adorable top.

Cat and I spent New Year's Eve in the city - just until around 4:30, or so. We walked to Fisherman's Wharf, had a divine lunch at Scoma's, then walked back to Macy's and shopped for an hour or two. We were feeling a bit punk, so didn't do our usual stroll up Lombard Street, and we also skipped Ghirardelli Square. As it was, we walked about 5.4 miles (I wore my pedometer). Cat found a COSMIC dress at Macy's. Which she bought. It was getting crazy crowded on Powell Street - like Disneyland in the summer - by the time we headed for BART.