2004-01-31 - 10:23 a.m.

The laundy is done. Of course, by *done* I mean washed and dried and sitting in a big lumpy pile in a basket, getting all wrinkly 'cause I was too lasy to fold it and put it away.... Well, at least it's clean!

I accidently gave hubby my cold, so now he's miserable. Not in the way sissy men get miserable, but in the way someone who has lung problems that are made much worst by colds. I feel bad. Also, it worries me. When we have kids, they'll bring home all kinds of germs. One of my nieces has had permanent sniffles since she was 2. How are we going to keep him from getting sick all the time? I guess we'll have to implement Princess Cruises Dining Room policy and get one of those industrial size Purel dispensers to disinfect our hands 25 times a day!!!

My mother, who bless her heart came to work during record colds while we were off galavanting, invited us to dinner Sunday night so we could show them our pictures and souvernirs and stuff. Of course, I accepted. Then I realise I commited a terrible wife offense... Sunday is the SuperBowl.... My dear hubby insists that it's no big deal and that we can still go, but I don't know. Grant it, the SuperBowl is not such a big deal here, and hubby does watch it, but not in a big party sort of way, but still, I feel bad. Plus, I gotta make sure we're back in time for the Survivor All Stars Premiere!!!!!

Anything to add? 0

2004-01-30 - 10:03 a.m.

well, slowly getting back into the swing of things.... two loads of laundy done, a couple more to go (we wear a lot of clothes!!!). we're about half-way caught up on the tv shows we taped while we were away (our PVR screwed up on a couple of things, but we got most of them), I've uploaded the pictures from the card to my laptop, so here are a couple for you:

that would be me, kissing the two month old baby Guanaca, which is one of 4 types of llamas they have in Chile. Guanacas are wild. They are sort of a cross between what you think of as a standard llama and a baby deer. Very Soft (alpaca wool comes from llamas).

This would be hubby and I, bundled up at the penguin colony. We spent part of our trip bundled up like that, with jackets and hoods. It wasn't really that cold (I mean, it was -40 at home!!!!), but the wind was so strong, you needed to hood to cut out the noise, and to keep my hair from flyig all over the place. I made French-Braids everyday, i looked like I was 5, but it helped keep me from looking like Cousin It!

It would be too long to recap the actual trip, but here are some highlights:

- average age on the boat: 85. lots of walkers, earing aids, and several signs posted throughout the ship indicating that a seat had just been washed and might still be wet.... lots of incontinence I'm guessing.....

- we met a lovely family from Brasil, who took there 6 year old boy and 9 year old girl not only the cruise, but also on our 5 day overland excursion. I have a new friend and penpal! It's funny, she didn't know what a penpal was. She only wanted to email and instant message! I told her I would, but that I also wanted to send her real letters. She was thrilled!

- Argentina is totally stylish! Too bad the bags were full to the brim, I would have shopped more!

- We bought our first baby clothes. Up until now, the adoption seemed so unreal and far away, we haven't bought a thing, haven't started the room. But in Ushwaia, at the bottom of the worl, we bought a cute little sweatshirt with penguins on it and an absolutely adorable polar fleece jacket with a funny pointy hood. We bought both big since we have no idea how old the baby will be... It feels great to actually have something physical of hers now.

- Of course, I got my period while we were away. After the last failed IVF, I didn't get my period as scheduled. I was even supposed to call the clinic upon my return to have it started with medication, but it came on it's own. It wasn't too bad, lots of cramps, made it hard to enjoy to of the days on the trip, but luckily, it didn't really keep me from seing anything. I just had to skip the "shows" in the evening, but they were sooooo cheesy anyways, it wasn't a big deal.

- I played Bingo. I was influenced by all the blue-haired ladies on the ship... It was fun, but I was very disapointed that this waws push-through cards, I really wanted to use one of those ink-stamped thingys!

- We succombed to the art auction again. We were very reasonable, only bought one small piece by the artist we bought on previous cruises. We did get to watch someone plunk down 24K on a big original... Imagine their ship-board account!!!

- this was our 4th cruise. We met a lovely couple form britain who were on the 22nd cruise! And they were 2nd runner up in the "most cruised passengers" contest! we plan on winning this in the future. as a matter of fact, we've booked our next one, with a larger cabin, under hubby and my names, with TBA as a third passenger. That's it. Our child will no longer be referred to as "the little chinees baby" or "the little dumpling", but now, she will be "TBA"!!!

Anything to add? 2

2004-01-29 - 8:59 a.m.

I'm tired. I caught a cold (that's right, go to sunny south america, come back with a cold!). I have about 10 loads of laundry to do. Grumpy much????

It was a great trip, We saw unbelievable places and things, met some really nice people. But 17 days away, including a 24 hour return trip that had to be shuffled around because of the snow in NY, is long and exhausting.

I'll write a longer, more dtailed post later when I have time to catch my breath, but here are a few random thoughts that I wanted to post right away:

Argentinian fashion is incredibly cool, stylish, Euro-inspired, and dirt cheap! The collaps of their economy sucks for them, but boy, I did my part to help! Shoes, skirts, tops, funky jewelry, I bought it all!!! And the shows are mint green, not PINK!

Kissing a baby Guanaca is too cool! I'll upload pictures later on to give you more details, but that was one of the top 5 moments of the trip!

You think you've eaten good lamb. ha ha! little do you know! Nothing tastes like a gaucho bbq, lamb roasted outside on a bbq of red-wood.... I wish I has smellovision on this blog to give you a hint!!!!!

I haven't knitted in a while, but I will, with the hand-spun, hand-dyed wool I collected throughout the trip, including several places in Chile, the Falklands and Argentina.

Finally, the Falklands. I pictured it dark and gray and wet. But it was green, the people were so friendly, it was totally lovely there! Who knew!

more later!

Anything to add? 4

Last Entry ~ Next Entry

��