brillohead

South Beach only had a Snack Shack the last I knew, not a full buffet.

I highly recommend booking through a TA who is familiar with RCI's rules and who has access to group rates. As @Ourusualbeach mentioned, sometimes knowing who to call at Corporate can work in your favor. As for why you're seeing higher rates for solos, that's likely for GTY fares, which usually aren't available to solo cruisers. If you compare non-GTY fares for two with non-GTY fares for one with single supplement, you'll probably find that they are the same price. Again, this is a situation where having a knowledgeable TA can make all the difference. My "usual" TA 😉 is able to give me all kinds of guidance for ways to get group rates that I didn't have access to otherwise.

I saw a guy in the MDR of Explorer on formal night wearing denim bib overalls, no shirt, and a cowboy hat. Wear what you want. As long as you're not in a wet swimsuit and all your private bits are covered, you'll be fine.

My son was the same way....strep throat on a Saturday evening!!!

I learned how to water-ski and drive a boat with my dad's Chris-Craft that he built himself in 1955. We spent a lot of quality time in that boat, either on the water or working on it in the yard, especially painting and varnishing the wood. Back when I was still in my family's life, my parents rewrote their will and asked my adoptive brother and me if there were any items that we wanted to be left to us individually... the only thing I cared about was I wanted the boat. My dad died a couple years ago, but I have no idea what ever happened to the boat. He'd been disabled for a while before he died, so my mother probably made him sell or give away the boat years ago. And I can guarantee that the first thing she did after he was buried was went to the lawyer and had me written completely out of the will. I didn't want their money anyway... all I ever wanted was for them to love me. Fortunately, I now have my biological father and his family, and they all welcomed me with open arms. The family reunion was yesterday in Alabama, and I got soooooo many big hugs! And everyone who met me for the first time said that they didn't need a DNA test to know that I was Bill's daughter! LOL

You and your DH do the coolest adventures!

The thing with an Emergency Department is you WANT to wait a long time. If we rush you back quickly, it means that you're in danger of dying! Next time try to find an Urgent Care clinic instead... the wait is likely to be less.

I arrived safely at my bio-dad's house in Alabama last night. And look what just got built about twenty minutes before I got there: I met my half-sister and her husband and son last night. Then today, Bill and I spent part of the day dealing with the VA. He was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, and the VA is supposed to be covering his medical expenses, but in typical governmental bureaucratic fashion, you have to jump through certain hoops in a certain order. He was hospitalized last week, and he's been trying for a week to get the VA to cover his new meds ($800/month). We got him switched over to a new primary care VA doctor in a different clinic, and that doc is writing the referral to the gastroenterologist so the GI doc can write the scrips so the VA will cover the meds. This new clinic is an extra 20 minutes' drive for him (almost an hour one way now), but the staff is much kinder and willing/able to communicate with him. It just stinks that he has to drive a longer distance just to be treated with respect -- our veterans deserve better! (It's also only two weeks to get an appt as a new patient in this new clinic -- the rude clinic had a four month wait for an appt!) Tonight we went to an aunt's house, and cousins from Texas and Florida arrived. Tomorrow is the big family reunion. I'm heading back to Michigan on Tuesday... and I'll be stopping at Buc-ee's on my way out of town!

Midwesterners go outside during tornado watches/warnings to see if they can see a twister. Our neighborhood has lots of mature trees, so my son and I would drive over by the airport where we had better sight lines. We really love it when the sky turns a greenish color, because that's our best chance of seeing some dangerous weather!

Recommendations for people buying something online from a company you've never dealt with before: --Always use a credit card (not a debit card) and use a "special" card that you don't normally use. Credit vs debit is because you have more consumer fraud protections with a credit card than with a debit card. Using a "non-normal" card is because if something does go wrong, you don't have to cancel and resubscribe all your auto-pay bills to your regular card when you get it replaced.

Saw this on FB today, and HAD to come share it here!

Now I want to eat at Fat Bastard Burrito!!! I wonder if they could get away with opening a location in the USA with that name? We have a locally owned restaurant here called The Big Burrito. They have a menu item called the "Don't even think about it!" burrito, and they mean it -- you get your picture on the wall if you finish it by yourself in under an hour, and there aren't many pictures on their wall! I think it's about 24" (61cm) long, and about 5" (13cm) wide. As a result, the restaurant has always been called "Big Effing Burrito" in our house!

I love watching this guy's videos for some odd reason... he seems like a super sweet person who really cares about his customers, and his accent is lovely to listen to as well. They use a variety of different tools, from "tweezers" to "scoops" to "vacuum tubes", and the before and after shots are really amazing. I think I would really love doing this job, if this was a thing here in the USA (without having to go to medical school and specializing in ENT, etc.). Something very satisfying about it, kinda like draining pus from an abscess.

Right? Who knew? That was one of my "bonus freebie traits" a couple months ago.... gee, thanks a lot! LOL I never know what kind of "gem" I'll find in my inbox each week! 🤣 Earwax Type There are two kinds of earwax -- dry and wet. The former is common in East Asians while the latter is frequently seen in European and African populations. Recently, a SNP that acts as the determinant of earwax type was identified in the ABCC11 gene. Interestingly, axillary osmidrosis -- the clinical term for intense armpit odor -- is associated with the wet earwax genotype at the identified SNP in ABCC11.

You can also set up a credit card when you check in, then stop and put cash down at Guest Services during the week so that only a minimal amount will be charged to the card at the end of the cruise. By doing this, you can avoid having to wait in the long line at Guest Services to pay off your account at the end of the cruise. You can stop by at any time (or multiple times) during the cruise to put cash down on your account, stopping at any time you notice there is no line.

Different companies offer different services for an extra fee that can tell health information, etc. I was able to upload my Ancestry.com data to another company's site, and they offer a "free trait" every week. It's not a guarantee, but a "likelihood" of something, and it's a wide range of traits that they track. Things like athleticism, intelligence, food preferences or allergies, tendency towards wrinkles or freckles, even type of ear wax! LOL I think I'm going to have to find something that is audio-recording rather than written word. My bio-dad isn't much for writing things down, but he loves to tell a story verbally.

I'm not sure what it matters... if using the iPads, they take a pic with the tablet. If at the counter, they take a pic at the counter.

I think I'm going to get Storyworth or something similar for my biological father... so much history there!

I just got the call that she passed this afternoon. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories at the reunion this month. And yes, one of the DNA services actually said that my genes have longevity in them... they got that one right!

Samsung has their version, SmartTag. Like with AirTags, it requires compatible phones in the area with Bluetooth enabled to create a network.

I just got caught up on the last ten days of posts (I really need to cut back on my work hours -- it's interfering with my internetting habit!). Offering sincere sympathies to those who have lost loved ones (human and pets alike) or received bad news. My biological father called me on Saturday to tell me that my great-aunt is in the hospital and not expected to survive. I just chatted with her on FB a week ago, and we were both looking forward to meeting at the family reunion in Alabama in two weeks' time. At 95yo, she's the last of her generation. I'm still kicking myself for not doing the DNA search years ago -- I could have met my grandmother (d. 2016) and another great-aunt who actually lived locally and just passed away earlier this year. Pretty much all of those siblings lived well into their 90s and remained sharp as a tack right up to the end.

When I read this, I thought it said BBQ division... as in "shoot the critter and then grill it up"! 🤣

Giving my perspective here.... if your mom has mobility issues and enjoys meeting people, IMO the smaller ships are better for that. I have a bad knee and a worse knee with a hip that's on the way out as well, so smaller ships involve less pain in getting from Point A to Point B. I personally prefer at least Voyager class, with the Royal Promenade and the skating show, but I'm certainly able to enjoy the smaller ships as well. In my experience, the larger ships seem to be harder to meet people on, especially if you're hoping to meet up with the same people throughout the duration of the cruise. It's kind of like the difference between living in a small town versus a big city. With fewer bells and whistles and activities on a smaller ship, people tend to slow down and just enjoy the view, "smell the roses" if you will, plus with fewer places to congregate, you have a better likelihood of seeing the same people throughout the cruise. With that being said, I've never been on a Quantum-class ship, so I can't give an apples-to-apples comparison. And in general, the larger the ship, the higher quality evening entertainment is offered, if that's a factor in the decision making. But if lounging on deck and chatting with fellow cruisers are the main draws, IMO the smaller ships are perfect for that.

You aren't crazy AT ALL for tracking your BP. Your blood pressure can vary based on hormones, activity level, emotional situations, dietary issues, pain level, etc. My surrogate mother has a complicated medical history, with a traumatic brain injury, a stroke, COPD, pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and multiple heart attacks. Her previous PCP totally mismanaged her hypertension and caused significant kidney damage, too. She's now on multiple medications for her heart and blood pressure, and it took ages and ages to figure out how exactly each medication affected her and for how long. She kept a log of what time she took each med and what her blood pressure was before the med and throughout the day after taking each med, and we figured out which ones she has to take at what times of the day to keep her BP and heartrate within acceptable ranges at all times of the day. I keep the list on my phone, too, so if she's ever admitted to the hospital I can make sure that they time her medications appropriately so they don't kill her! LOL Her cardiologist is associated with the hospital that she goes to, but the computer system only has a list of what meds/doses she takes and how many times a day, but not the timing of each med. She has certain meds she takes first thing in the morning, others at mid-day, others at dinnertime, and others in the evening. Some are once a day, some are twice a day. Taking them at different times than the ones we have dialed in can result in a dangerously low heartrate, a dangerously low blood pressure, or both. Every body is unique, so it makes sense to track your BP meds and your BP readings to find out what method will keep your BP in an acceptable range throughout the day, without it going too low or too high.