atolls here and there

What happened to the 24th?
Well we had a lecture on Corporate Business and the Law. There was some interesting content but I wanted the speaker to hurry up and get on with it; give us the meat of his talk. Overall it was a pretty forgettable presentation. However, I won’t miss tomorrow particularly in view of the recent Supreme Court decision about corporate “speech”. His topic is Corporations and politics.
We had lunch with others including the Captain’s Circle lady, Sandy. She was telling that their computers can only deal with two numerals for age and they had a man on who was 100 yrs and 3 mos. Since the computers had him down as 3 mos old, he couldn’t get served liquor. Well you can imagine the rest of the mischief because of that little glitch, which remains the same btw.
Then went to the reunion of the world cruise in 2008. The 2009 group were there as well. We got caught up on some gossip and had (not very good champagne) compliments of Princess. Several folks are already signed up for next year’s world cruise as are JJ and Frankie and some other staff.
We passed on the WWII talk this afternoon since we’ve about had as much of the speaker as we could deal with. Instead Ed watched Fox News (ha ha ha ha) and I read some journals while the light from the window was good.
Weather
It has been blowing fierce winds all day and it reminds me of a blizzard outside. The wind howls through the windows on the patio and is overall not very inviting. I did go to the library at one point and it was humid and warm up top but the wind would blow you over if you weren’t careful. It was waayy too hot in the library to stay up there. We are coming into areas where we’ll need to keep our curtains closed during the day to keep our room cool.
There’s much discussion about when we cross the international date line. We’ve about got it right that we cross the equator at 1:30 am and that the date line is sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Trivia
We’ve been picking up strays to complete our team as there are 4 regulars and the team size is 6. We had one very good participant this morning and another who meant well but wasn’t much help. We didn’t win. BUT this afternoon, we tied with 2 other groups. So the tie breaker question was: how many countries share a border with Brazil? There are 10. We got 7 of them---as did the other two groups! So she gave up and gave all of us winning tokens. Such a deal
Dinner
One couple were at the Chef’s dinner tonite so the 6 of us cozied up and joked about many things. Then the Brits asked us about our health care system and we asked about theirs. It was very revealing particularly since one couple is in a precarious position regarding health care reform. They are clearly Republican in leaning but they have a 40+ y/o single dtr who has been diagnosed with MS and is undergoing some very expensive treatments. She’s still working but what happens when she can’t work and is disabled. How will she get care? Like most things, the personal experience can change one’s political realities. I’m not sure they have an idea about what should be done about health care reform but they like their Medicare and don’t seen too enthused about any health care reform that’s been proposed. Nothing’s perfect. They’d better hope something breaks loose soon or they will personally know the heartbreak of our failed non-system.
Tonite’s entertainment
A singer and instrumentalist. The young woman had played Evita in a traveling version in Europe. She is originally from Texas and her voice borders on shouting. She uses low growls frequently. She won’t have a voice for long doing these things. It’s interesting how many people are reacting to singers who shout. The instrumentalist collects various unique instruments and plays them. He is Polish and leans toward the vibraphone (metal version of a xylophone). He’s clearly very talented. They met on a ship and are now married. I thought it was interesting that she said, while telling about their CDs they were selling, that they wanted to start a family soon. Coincidence?
Hoe down
They had a country and western themed night up in the Pacific Lounge so various areas on ship have cowboy decorations and the staff are in Western garb. I doubt they’ll get many takers unless they are the second seating folks who tend to lounge around the swimming pool. Others are tired from the activities all day.
February 25th
I won’t go into the details about how, why and when we lost a day but we are now ahead of all of you. There is supposed to be a King Neptune ceremony on the upper deck this afternoon weather permitting but the weather this morning still looks pretty ominous with lots of wind, overcast, and I suspect horribly humid outside. I’m surprised that I’m having trouble getting my hand washing dried overnight as I’m accustomed to. The a/c system is very drying but clearly it’s being overrun by the ambient humidity.
Photos
I finally downloaded the last of the pictures before Honolulu; I only took a few with the Elph in that cfity. Sol I’ll see about posting a few later today. Also check my gmail. ;)
Pulit’zer for the National Inquirer!
Well wonders never cease. Apparently they are being considered because of their investigation related to the John Edwards child issue. It is true that the mainstream media has been reducing the amount and quality of their investigative reporting but who would’ve thunk it?