Sea Days - Wednesday & Thursday

I came home to an empty apartment. Both my roommates are out of town (one in Boston, one in D.C.) till the weekend. Everyone else I know is studying for finals.

So with that in mind, here is my second cruise post for the day. Our days at sea. There is plenty to do on the ship. And for two days, we visited the pool deck (it was pretty disappointing pool actually - and cold!), we played basketball, board games, ate food, played a free game of bingo, learned some line dances, and went to some shows. Every night there was a different show and they were all pretty entertaining. And the ones that weren't so entertaining, I took a little snooze. They had a dress up night and pictures with the captain. Those stinkin pictures cost $25 and they don't let you take any of course. Well lucky day for the photographers, our guys were so excited about pictures with the captain that many of them bought one. But it's all about the memories right?

The view for what seemed like days and days and days.

The pool deck. Complete with sunbathers, swimmers, a tiny pool, some hot tubs and junky waterslides.

Lounging on the pool deck trying to decide what to do for the day. The weather was cool as it was overcast for the morning.

They have windows that you can look down and see the navigators at work.

Steve and I waiting for a show to begin. I'm pretty sure I snoozed through it.

On Friday at noon we finally arrived in our first stop, Acapulco. More coming soon!

Cruisin in Mexico!

Well, I'm back from my cruise to the Mexican Riviera. I still feel like I'm on the boat, like the ground is rocking. It was a work cruise so we had 15 participants and 3 staff and it was quite the adventure. But everyone had a great time. I came back with 3 postcards for dad, a tan, and peeling skin from being burned on my arms. Other than that, I didn't buy any souvenirs. What would I do with them? Anyway, I think I'm going to have to do some separate posts of all the stops on the cruise so you and I don't get overwhelmed with this blog.

Here is the view of the ship as we approached it to embark. We were on the Norweigan Star, going out of LA.

Here is the view of the ship and the port as we're just getting on.

Here is the view outside as we ate lunch waiting to start sailing.

Before sailing, they do a safety drill where you have to get your life jackets and then come out to your assigned deck and they do a roll call to make sure you're there. Lucky us, no emergencies the whole cruise! Here's our crew of 15. It was a chore herding our whole group around everywhere but everyone was super friendly to us.

This is miserable me. On the first day after we started sailing, I felt so sick. And the motion sickness drugs I brought were not helping. I went to lie down at dinner time and a few hours later, vomitted- several times- and then I felt much better after that. The reception desk on the boat provided meclizine (a pill) which made the rest of my trip enjoyable. I don't know why I thought to take a gross picture of myself after throwing up, but it was all for the sake of the blog. Weird thought when you're sick isn't it?

Here is the view of the atrium area from a few decks up. Also our mini bar in our room, and what our cabin looks like, with a debut of my foot in the bottom right picture!

Later I will post some pictures of our first 2 full days at sea. We sailed that long before reaching our first port!

An Island Named... Clarence?!

Just when you thought the name Clarence was becoming obsolete... you discover an island called Clarence. Random.

So there's this large map on the wall of our eating area that's been up since we moved in to this apartment in September. The other day, I was eating my cereal for breakfast like normal, and I happened to glance up at the map and thought, "what the...."

I did a double take, blinked, rubbed my eyes, and stood up for an even closer look. Could it be? Does that teeny little island really bear the name, Clarence?! Oh boy, does it ever! And then I had to laugh because the island next to it is Elephant. (i'm still chuckling.) Anyway, for those of you who want to know, see here for the little known information about the island. Clarence Island is located in the Antarctic area. No wonder our Clarence has a cold heart.

Hahahaha. I'm just playin'. The world would be so dull without Clarence (the person, who cares about the island). But still so cool that an island exists with your name! Bet the rest of you wish you had an island too! At least there is a city called Nancy in France - though probably not pronounced the same way... Loves to you Clarence! Love, me!

Who Says We're Not Domestic!

In order to refine ourselves, enhance our skills and do something productive with our time, Alyssa and I decided we wanted to make a quilt together. Alyssa's sister, Bethany, had some fabric she bought a few years ago, which she left at their mom's house in Arizona. So when Alyssa went home, she retrieved the fabric and we decided to surpise Bethany and make the quilt for her birthday, which was this last Saturday. It was perfect since she is now married with 2 small kids and not only had forgotten about the fabric, but would never have time to make a quilt.

So one evening, Alyssa and I planned out a pattern - it took us forever to come up with one, but we did it... when you look at the quilt it seems like it would be a no brainer... but Alyssa and I have recently discovered that when we are together, we seem to have less smarts. Two brains are not always better than one. Anyway, we drew up this pattern and then went to work on a Saturday ironing the fabric, tracing out 8x8 inch squares, and cutting out all 187 squares (while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark).

The next Saturday we headed to Jenna's house (another of Alyssa's sisters), and sewed the squares together by rows. 17 squares per row, 11 rows. It took us quite a while. I'm pretty sure Jenna was unimpressed with our lack of sewing ability (her face said it all, hahaha) but oh well, we did it! Then on Tuesday, Alyssa was at Jenna's again and started sewing the rows together (I was at work). On Wednesday, we went over and finished sewing the rows together and then found that the quilt was really big, and we didn't have enough fabric for the back. So we cut off about a foot or so from each end, and it looked better shorter anyway. So it became 13 squares per row, and still 11 rows. On Thursday, Alyssa borrowed the Cox's quilting frame and set up the quilt and it's insides (while I was at work and then visiting teaching), and started tying the quilt. I contributed 3 ties. Then we went to work pinning the edges getting ready for the final sew. We were going to blind stitch it by hand on Friday evening but then I was emergency called into work and Alyssa got lazy - ok fine, she actually had other things to do and Jenna convinced her that sewing it would be faster and sturdier (I agree). So Saturday morning, Alyssa headed to Jenna's to complete our project and turn it right over to Bethany that afternoon as her birthday gift. Thanks to Jenna for letting us invade her house and use her machine all week!

And that is the story of our quilting abilities. I think we are going to make another one sometime. I was impressed with us when we were finished. Isn't it preeeeeetty!

Utah Flash

According to wikipedia.org, the Utah Flash "are a team of the NBA Development League that began playing in 2007... The Utah Flash is the affiliate team for the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics."

So naturally, one of our RAH activities was going to one of their games since they play in the UVSC McKay Events Center. I wouldn't think that the Flash would play there, but they are relatively new and the attendance for games are pretty low still. But they'll probably grow over time.

They hooked our guys up with those noise maker things that you bang together, as well as a bunch of free shirts. Not everyone got a shirt unfortunately, but the majority of the 35 participants in attendance got one, so not too shabby! We also won a pizza... too bad a 12 slice pizza doesn't exactly feed 40 people (that's 35 + 5 staff). Anyway, it was a pretty intense and close game... With 1.7 seconds left the score was 100-99 in favor of Idaho. The Flash has possession of the ball, the Flash player shoots... and... and... aiiiiiir baaaaall. The buzzard blows. (Did I really write buzzard? Um, I meant buzzer... thank you, Alyssa). Idaho wins by 1. Sad day. It's also sad that I can't name any of the players. But not that sad because even if I did know any of their names, YOU probably wouldn't know who I was talking about... am i right?

Anyway, we had fun, and our seats were relatively close (that's part of our group pictured below), and so overall it was a pretty exciting activity.

The Circus Came to Town!

My friend Andrea and I decided to go to the circus last Saturday night. It was the Jordan World Circus (I'd never heard of them however) and they were performing at the UVSC McKay Events Center.... which to me is a very unlikely place to host a circus. Of course, they host a lot of things in that building that I wouldn't think would be there... Anyway, it wasn't just the two of us, there was actually a small group of us... including a couple of kids even!

I don't think I've ever been to a circus before... well not that I can remember so this was very exciting for me. They advertised lions to be at this event and yet that was such a lie. No lions anywhere to be found. The elephants were pretty sweet though. It was adorable when they hung onto each others tails! People could pay to ride the elephants, small horses, or camels before, at intermission, and after the show.

The show consisted of the typical circus things... a tight rope walker (one pictured above doing a back handspring), unique talents (like the lady pictured above hula hooping like 25 hula hoops), flexibility, acrobatics, trick horse riders, animals doing human things.... and after the show, I decided that the circus is really a completely random event that displays super human strength, unbelievable human tricks and talents, and animal training that might be borderline animal cruelty...

This is the aeronaut people who displayed their super human strength. The picture on the right is the guy holding the girl on a rope thing by his teeth... hey Clarence, how do you get teeth that strong?! There were lots of other acts that happened, like one girl was swung around and around on a pole super fast by her neck somehow, and animals -like poodles and camels and horses-trained to do interesting things, oh and clowns that were really obnoxious... but for some reason clowns and circuses go together, and several other things that you just have to see for yourself.

I would have to say that the best part of the show were the trick horse riders, and the elephants. Of course, the elephants were only adorable until you see them up close... and then the only thing that I could think to say was, "they're so.... WRINKLY." Hahahahaha.

Chillaxin' with Ashlyn

Heather and Ashlyn came to Utah for Taylor's wedding and it was great to see them! While Heather was busy doing wedding related stuff on Friday evening, I got to play with Ashlyn for an afternoon. She was loads of fun. We explored the parking lot of my apartment complex for about an hour - it was mostly stair climbing - before heading inside to play with toys and eat some food and read some books. Here are some pics and videos of the cutie patootie. She's such a funny little cheeseball but she knows exactly what to do when that camera comes out!

Alyssa has this toy for when her nephews come over and Ashlyn played with it most of the time she was here. Jason also mentioned that she likes Ramen so I decided to feed her some... to entertain myself if nothing else.