Portland

We sailed to and from Hawaii on the Holland America ship "Zaandam." The Pacific wasn't very peaceful. Our first day we had seas of 12 to 17 feet with gale force winds. Hubby and I were both a little seasick. It rained everyday that we were in Hawaii, some of the excursions on Maui were canceled because of flash flood fears. We really enjoyed the big island of Hawaii and would love to go back there. We went up on the Kilauea crater. It was pouring rain but it cleared long enough for us to see. The crater has become more active in the last few years and you can no longer drive around it. We also saw the volcano at night from he ship. That was spectacular. Another neat thing we saw was the grand canyon of the Pacific on Kauai. Well worth seeing. The seas were rough on the way back and cold so that on a trip to Hawaii I never got into my bathing suit. But a cruise is always fun with the great shows and wonderful food.
Now we are in Portland and Sammy is terrific. This morning I played with him and he smiled and wiggled and made all sorts of cooing sounds to me. I am hopelessly in love with him.

Almost Ready

I have my suitcases packed except for my make up. I have one suitcase with warm weather clothes for Hawaii and another with cooler weather clothes for Portland. Hubby hasn't started packing yet. He likes to wait until the last moment. I had my hair cut and colored today(it is not naturally brown). Tomorrow I go to lunch with Mom and Thursday I have an appointment to have a pedicure and manicure. I am really looking forward to a relaxing cruise. That almost seems silly because I am retired and relax most of the time.

Fish City

One of my sadistic children gave me a counted cross stitch pattern for Christmas three years ago. It is called "Fish City." The directions alone take 15 pages and the finished project is 29 by 21 inches. I manage to get three pages a year done so I am on the 5 year plan. Right now I am pushing it to finish my third page this year. I don't know why I even start things like that. When I was first married I embroidered curtains for the bathroom to match the plastic shower curtain.

So Much to Do

We leave for San Diego on Friday and then Hawaii on Saturday. There is a lot of packing to do. Because we are going up to Portland Oregon for Thanksgiving( to see Sammy) Christmas will be fast upon us when we get home. I have been addressing all my Christmas cards so I can mail them when we get home. I am still working on Kameren's dress. I took all my scraps of light weight corduroy and am making a patchwork dress for her. So far I am still sewing the patchwork together and haven't started on the dress. I am making it a size larger in case I don't finish it. I hope she doesn't find it itchy and won't wear it.

A Quiet Saturday

Today, I spent most of the day working on a dress for Kameren. I also baked two pumpkin pies and an apple pie. Mary is having her "Giving Thanks" dinner tomorrow and I am bringing pie. Tonight Austin will be here so I can give him his quilt. I sure hope he likes it. Hubby is making a pot roast for dinner and the house smells just wonderful. The moving van with Sandi and Jerry left about noon.

Farewell dinner

Tonight we took Sandi and Jerry out to dinner. The moving van comes tomorrow morning. Sandi was upset because her cat, Tiger, got out while they were going in and out. Even though it is cold and raining he hasn't come home yet. We promised that if he does come home after they are gone we will take care of him until we can get him to them. Jerry travels a lot with his job and so Tiger is a lot of company for Sandi. Cats who like to get outside even when they are not outside cats can be a pain in the butt.

Book Club

Today my book club met. The club is made up of 8 women I have known a long time. The shortest being 20 years and the longest being 54 years. We choose a book and then meet on the fourth Thursday of the month. We rarely discuss the book but we talk for several hours. Good friends are real treasures. Unfortunately one of the group, Sandi, is moving to Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday. We will miss her a lot.