*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

 

Staci was offered 2 jobs today! :D The first one that called though was one she really didn't want so she asked for a little time before giving them an answer and they only gave her 24 hours. Then about an hour later she got another call from one of the places she liked and they made an offer. She still has her face to face interview with Groupon on the 9th though and she really wants to go to it. She was honest and told them about the interview and so they gave her until after the interview to give them an answer. So one way or another she will have a job.

 

My back is still bad today so I got someone to pick up my shift tonight. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that I was only scheduled to work 3 shifts this week. I don't work again till Sunday now. Hopefully I will be much better by then. I didn't go to the travel agency today either but I can do that work from home. They just won't give me any new clients if I am not there.

 

Have a good evening.

Edited August 6, 2013 by HeidiHo

[Cruisin Dave]

Bettie did great. She came home and went right to sleep. I went to Subway and picked up some subs for lunch so she was happy. Got her a foot long so she'll have half for supper.

Heidi, hope your back is better. Mine is still bothering me some.

Later,

Dave

[Flick]

Dave and Heidi y'all should come down here and go to my physical therapist. I haven't worn my back brace in three weeks! I swear this guy must walk on water.....He actually has a doctorate in PT and really knows what he is doing; although there is one exercize he has me trying to do that I just can't get...I call it the pat your head, rub your stomach, and chew gum all at the same time exercize...actually I have to flatten my back, raise my butt off the table, and pick up each of my legs one at a time. The other day he cracked me up when he said " I'm really amazed at how strong you are getting so that you can do that exercize wrong".

[HeidiHo]

My back isn't much better today. Funny thing is, the job that Staci is most likely going to accept is with a large Chiropractic group called Chiro One. I could probably use their services. They have offices in Illinois, Texas and either Kentucky or Tennessee.

[HeidiHo]

Good Evening!

 

My back is much better today. It still hurts but I can stand upright which is major progress. LOL

 

It looks like Staci is going to skip the interview at Groupon tomorrow and accept the job with Chiro One. Thank God she will finally be working. She still has money from her temporary teachers aide job she had this summer though so it's not like she's been sponging off us all this time. She decided against going to the Groupon interview because the offices are in down town Chicago and she really doesn't want to work there. It's a long, expensive commute and unlike many of her friends, she has no desire to live down town.

 

I am adjusting to having both kids home but it's different. They actually expect me to cook! :eek: I haven't cooked much in the last few years since I work so many nights and then Dave and I eat out about once a week. I haven't cooked yet this week though because of my back. I'm cooking tonight though.

 

Have a good night. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good Evening Cupids,

It cooled off a bit todasy. Only reached 101,:rolleyes:

Heidi, glad to hear that Staci has a job. Hope she likes it. Glad you are feeling better.

Bettie is enjoying her freedom from glasses. She will still need a pair of reading glasses for smaller print but that's better than glasses.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Dave

[Nazarushka]

Dave and Heidi y'all should come down here and go to my physical therapist. I haven't worn my back brace in three weeks! I swear this guy must walk on water.....He actually has a doctorate in PT and really knows what he is doing; although there is one exercize he has me trying to do that I just can't get...I call it the pat your head, rub your stomach, and chew gum all at the same time exercize...actually I have to flatten my back, raise my butt off the table, and pick up each of my legs one at a time. The other day he cracked me up when he said " I'm really amazed at how strong you are getting so that you can do that exercize wrong".

 

Hey, I know that exercise! They have me doing the same one! Well, okay, trying to do the same one. :D

 

Speaking of bad backs and such, my sciatica is back, again, so they finally did some testing. I have a herniated and partially fragmented disk at L5-S1 and they are recommending back surgery. Very strongly recommending it, as in, this could get really bad if we don't get the extra part cut off and stop the fragmenting. Is this anything anyone else has run in to? I know there are all sorts of back problems, I was just wondering if anyone has more information for me. :o

 

Its been cool reading about all the excursion ideas for February, but I'm still trying to get our last one set up for next month! We're going cave tubing in Belize and, no, I'm not asking my doctor if its okay. :p

 

Happy Almost Friday to all!

Edited August 8, 2013 by Nazarushka

[Cruisin Dave]

MIchelle,

Be sure to stop in the Wet Lizard. It's a great place for a cold one. I've heard that the cave tubing is allot of fun but if there has been allot of rain it can be cancelled because of flooding.

Hope your back is better soon. I have a compressed disc but no other problems, as far as I know.

Dave

[ed_k_tx]

Hey, I know that exercise! They have me doing the same one! Well, okay, trying to do the same one. :D

 

Speaking of bad backs and such, my sciatica is back, again, so they finally did some testing. I have a herniated and partially fragmented disk at L5-S1 and they are recommending back surgery. Very strongly recommending it, as in, this could get really bad if we don't get the extra part cut off and stop the fragmenting. Is this anything anyone else has run in to? I know there are all sorts of back problems, I was just wondering if anyone has more information for me. :o

 

Its been cool reading about all the excursion ideas for February, but I'm still trying to get our last one set up for next month! We're going cave tubing in Belize and, no, I'm not asking my doctor if its okay. :p

 

Happy Almost Friday to all!

 

I feel for all you guys with back problems. Just visited the doctor today. I had symptoms similar to sciatica a while back. When I finally went to the doctor he sent me for an MRI and recommended a neurologist. He said I have a synovial cyst at L4-L5 and put me on Celebrex. After a couple of weeks of little help I went in for a epidermal steroid injection. This worked fine for about 10 days and the pain is back. Not as bad as before but getting progressively worse. So today he recommended another injection. If that doesn't work the next step is surgery to remove the cyst and anything else impacting the nerve. I really would like to avoid surgery but if the pain comes back like before I won't have any choice. I couldn't stand for more than a few minutes much less walk without pain. Hope everyone gets relief from their back problems

 

Dave - Glad Bettie's surgery was a success. Give her our best.

 

Heidi - Happy that Staci got the job she wanted.

 

Sue - Speaking of smoke, we're getting hazy conditions here in Houston that's being caused by dust from the Sahara!

 

I did get a $64 credit on our October Triumph due to a price drop. That's enough for 6 Long Island Iced Teas. :D

Ed

[Flick]

Michelle you hear a lot of horror stories about back surgery and I happen to believe many of them are "old wives tales" told by those who don't have back problems. When I retired 17 years ago Kay was in a wheel chair so we moved to a warmer climate. She had already had 2 back surgeries and Mayo Clinic in Minnasota told her there was nothing they could do for her. Well, we came here, found a doctor who discovered that the bottom vertabrea had seperated from the rest of her spine, operated and fused that section and 5 days later she went shopping on St. Armands Circle sans wheel chair!!!! She loves to dance which is something I'm doing less and less of because of MY back and is just fine.Back surgery should not be such a scary thing.......

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

Sue - Dave will be ALMOST in your neck of the woods next week. He has to go to Carson City, Nevada on business so he'll fly into Reno. Don't you fly out of Reno usually? I know it's still a pretty long drive from Reno to your ranch though.

 

My back is even better today. I will go to work at the travel agency this afternoon. At least in the travel business I can work from home. I didn't go in on Tuesday like I normally would but I still sold a cruise this week.

 

Have a great weekend.

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, glad to hear you are feeling better.

 

Rick, I'll share my back surgery stories on ship. Too many to mention here.

 

Back later,

Dave

[momofzeke]

Good Afternoon!

Sue - Dave will be ALMOST in your neck of the woods next week. He has to go to Carson City, Nevada on business so he'll fly into Reno. Don't you fly out of Reno usually? I know it's still a pretty long drive from Reno to your ranch though.

 

Yes, we fly out of Reno 99% of the time. Reno is 4 hours from our house. Since we live so far in the boondocks, that isn't a bad drive for us at all. It's also a 4 hour drive to Eugene, and we do that one at least 6 or 7 times during football season. Flying in and out of the Reno airport is often pretty bumpy because of the wind, so tell Dave not to panic if it feels very bumpy landing and taking off.

 

So sorry about all the peeps with back problems! I have had back issues off and on over the years, but right now my back is fine.

 

Branding #2 tomorrow, and the kids will be here today so I get more Gramma Time with Lily!! I have all the food ready so I won't need to take any time out of snuggling to mess around with branding food.

 

Well, we STILL don't have a pivot running, but looks like it will be turned on Tuesday. The electrical panel we were waiting for is here, but before we can turn the pivot on it has to be inspected by a state electrician, so that will be Tuesday. I cannot believe how long this process has taken. I came so close to having to go into the nut house, but I think I'm going to be ok. :p

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Yes, we fly out of Reno 99% of the time. Reno is 4 hours from our house. Since we live so far in the boondocks, that isn't a bad drive for us at all. It's also a 4 hour drive to Eugene, and we do that one at least 6 or 7 times during football season. Flying in and out of the Reno airport is often pretty bumpy because of the wind, so tell Dave not to panic if it feels very bumpy landing and taking off.

 

 

Sue - I was thinking it was about 4 hours. It's too bad Dave doesn't get more advanced notice. If he had received advanced notice maybe i could have tagged along and maybe he could have taken some vacation days and we could have rented a car and made a trip out to your ranch. Like you said, 4 hours isn't really that much. I think he's going to be gone Tuesday through Thursday and just for fun, I checked to see how much flights were and YIKES! Way too much for a last minute trip.

 

My back is really good now. I can almost say it doesn't hurt at all anymore.

 

Staci starts her job on the 20th. Boy is she in for a rude awakening. For her training she needs to be there at 7:00 AM. she hasn't had to get up that early since high school. In college she almost always had later classes and none of the jobs she's had were early morning either. Once she's out in the field her hours may be different though. Her job will be going out to places like grocery stores or any event that there's lot of people (like a craft show) and setting up a little booth where she will give people a little mini evaluation or something like that and offer them a full evaluation with a chiropractor at one of their offices for only $20.00. She gets a base salary plus bonuses but the base salary is actually pretty good and she get $150.00 a month reimbursement for gas. It may not cover all of her gas but at least it's something. She has a little car that's pretty good on gas anyway.

 

Not much is going on today but I'm off today. I go back to the Olive Garden tomorrow. I missed my last 2 shifts because of my back. There's no reason I can't work now though.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Flick]

Well today is the day for our annual summer-time fundraiser for companion dogs. These are dogs trained to detect invisible disabilities such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, heart conditions,diabetes, high blood pressure etc. They accomplish this by detecting adrenelin being produced by the body during a crisis. Quite often the dog is aware of trouble before it's master.At any rate we have this fundraiser for them (there are 12 dogs in the kennel and all of them are rescue dogs!)and hope to raise between 3-4,000.00 for them.

[Flick]

Well we were successful in raising just over $4,000.00 yesterday in 4 hours for the dogs. I'll consider that a day well-spent!

[momofzeke]

Heidi, dang, that would have been so cool if you and Dave has been able to come to the ranch!! Glad your back is better! Staci's job sounds interesting.

 

Rick, nice job on the fundraiser for the pooches!

 

Branding went well, and now we're done for the year. I got lots of Lily Time, and my brother and nephew came, always fun to see them. I am sure missing the kids today! In three weeks we get to see them again at our first Duck game in Eugene, but three weeks seems like a long time to Gi Gi!!

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

 

 

Heidi, dang, that would have been so cool if you and Dave has been able to come to the ranch!! Glad your back is better! Staci's job sounds interesting.

 

 

Sue - We will get out there one of these days. Dave talks about it all the time. He wants to take a road trip across the USA. I do too. It's just that it will have to be a 2 - 3 week trip because we'll just take our time driving and stopping along the way to see stuff. One of my dream trips is a drive along the coastal highway so we could also fly to LA and rent a car and drive North and then go visit you.

 

My back is bad again. I worked a long shift last night and was just fine, no pain at all. Then in the middle of the night it started hurting. It's not as bad as it was before though so I plan to go to work tonight. I'm kind of hoping they'll see that I'm hurting and will send me home pretty early. The only thing is, one of the other hosts that is working is a girl who has cancer and is currently doing chemotherapy so she is very tired all the time. We usually let her go home 1st if she wants to. I would feel very guilty if I went home before her unless she is feeling good and wants to stay. She also might not show up at all depending on how she feels so we could be short hosts and then I'd have to stay regardless. I'm sure I'll manage, whatever happens.

 

Have a great day. :)

[momofzeke]

Oh, man, this cockamamie pivot is giving me an ulcer the size of Kansas! The state inspector was supposed to be here today for final inspection, but now he has pushed it back to tomorrow. grrrrrrrrrrr :mad: It's the last thing we need before turning on the water. This has been a frustrating and LONG process, but the end is in sight!! SIX YEARS we have been working on getting this ground into hay production. SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW! (If you weren't a Seinfeld fan, please excuse the reference)

 

Heidi, hope you and Dave make it here sometime! You'd better hurry, because we are listing the ranch for sale this week! Course, odds are it will take some years to sell it, but we are ready to scale down, not have cows to deal with, and move to Central Oregon, closer to the kids and have a much smaller place with hay only and no cows.

 

A drive to see the sights in the U.S. is on our bucket list too. There is so much of our country that we haven't seen! You have a good idea to drive up the coast from Cali. We haven't driven the entire thing to southern California, but we have driven the northern part of it, and most of the Oregon coast. The Oregon coast is absolutely gorgeous, a little more rugged than Cali which makes for some beautiful big waves breaking on rocks and such.

 

Heidi, sure hope your back gets better!!

Edited August 13, 2013 by momofzeke

[Cruisin Dave]

Good morning Cupids,

Sue, Serenity! maybe you need a nice glass of wine.:D Get Dave to bring you one. Downsizing sounds great but you will miss the little ones each spring.

Bettie and I would love to do a land vacation and that will probably happen when I retire. We may drive to SoCal next year but that will be with the grandkids and a quick trip to DL for Bettie's convention.

Rick, congrats on the fund raiser. My union supports Guide Dogs of America and we give regularly.

Heidi, sorry to hear about your back. Hope you get some relief soon. My problem comes and goes and it's part arthritis and part compressed disc.

It's another hot day here but we are promised some cooler, 90s, temps tomorrow with rain. I'm not holding my breath until it happens.:D

Dave

[ed_k_tx]

Sue,

Hope you get your pivot problems solved before Festivus. :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flick]

Sue...good luck with listing the ranch.Just a tip for those of you that want to do a road trip. When you go out West the views are so outstanding and breathtaking that you might want to consider a tour and let someone else do the driving otherwise the driver has to really concentrate on the curvy and mountainous roads. We did a tour of the National Parks out West and I was soooooo very glad someone else was driving. I would have hated to miss the scenery!

[Flick]

I regret to announce that my BIL and SIL, Jann and Ken, will not be going on this cruise. They really wanted something closer to their actual 25th. anniversary which is in July plus the high airline tickets from California just was more than they wanted to spend on airfare.I'm soooo glad we have done 2 Alaska cruises and 1 Mexican Riviera cruise so I don't have to concern myself with airfare from Florida to go cruising. Yep, for me it's just mosey down the road a piece and board the ship........

Small world time...I have been corresponding on these Boards with a lady from Tenn. for at least 10 years. Just found out she is going on the same cruise as we are in November so we will finally meet face to face. She is travelling with a group of 50 plus and we are travelling with a group of 88 BUT we will meet!!! Already exchanged cabin numbers so we can make contact.

Forgot to add my new Passport came yesterday which is approximately 4 weeks after I applied thru the mail.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Flick

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Rick - I'm sorry Jann and Ken won't be joining us.

 

That reminds me, those of you in the group who only made the $25.00 deposit, the rest of your deposit is due Aug 18th. Crucon will automatically put the final payment through on the original card used to make the $25.00 deposit and it could be up to 5 days BEFORE the actual final payment date. They will be processing those any day now if they haven't done it already. If you need to use a different card then you need to call Crucon IMMEDIATELY. I know that on one of our past group cruises booked with Crucon I had to call and give them a new card because my wallet had been stolen in between making the deposit and making the final payment. Luckily I rememberedto do it before they tried to put the payment through. Final payment is due on Nov. 2nd so if you need to change your card you should call soon just so you don't forget but on the invoice they ask that you call at least 2 weeks before final is due.

 

Wouldn't you know, as soon as Dave left town our plumbing got clogged. :mad: I'm trying to take care of it myself but I sure wish Dave was here. I don't want to call a plumber but I might have to. Dave won't be home until tomorrow night. We might be OK as long as we don't use a lot of water at once. So I won't be doing laundry or taking a shower today. Good thing it's my day off. LOL

 

Have a great day. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

 

Yea! WE GOT RAIN!!! Rained last night and we still have a slight chance for more. Also, we will only get to 91 for the high. Better that the 100+ yesterday.

 

Rick, sorry to hear about Jann and Ken. I know you were looking forward to sailing with them. I booked our airfare months ago and it is still going up. With the possible merger of AA and US Airways I anticipate the fares to skyrocket. I've been saving my miles and have enough for a couple round trips if used wisely. Bettie has enough for one trip. I may hold on to them until our retirement.

 

Heidi, hope you get the plumbing situation resolved. With a full house it can get messy.

 

Ed, Festivus, now what month does that occur. :D

 

Have a great Hump Day,

Dave