<p>I got a Sonos system for birthday/Christmas, too. Still figuring out how to use it, but I love it!</p>
<p>TA/NM: I"m also using igHome. I don’t love it either: some of the gadgets are pretty crude (like weather). But at least I still have hangman.</p>
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<p>To me that sounds like the adults on the Charlie Brown specials…wa wa waaa wa wa wa wa waaa wa waaa…I have yet to put any music on my iPhone. But once I discovered that Siri can do computations, she became my friend. (I am just SO behind on technology.)</p>
<p>Anyone here a cruise expert? 
Looking to book a cruise tour package and am wondering if going up to a suite gets us better rooms for the land portion. I just don’t know and the TA that I am working with just said that she “thinks so”. No sure that she is real familar with this cuise line but she is helpful in other ways.</p>
<p>RM – I’ve more often seen where the tour package includes a certain hotel (or class of hotel) and you can pay an upcharge to move to a better hotel (or class of hotel). No idea how they assign the rooms within a given hotel. But, I’m no expert. (I will say: beware of booking into modest Athens hotels in early May, because no matter how hot the weather, the rule may be that the a/c doesn’t go on until May 15th.)</p>
<p>Siri can do math? I did not know that. Siri is my friend. Siri understands my nice, plain way of speaking. Twenty somethings are amazed, for Siri accurately captures my dictation and not theirs because my parents beat slurring out of me.</p>
<p>Believe it or not with this cold weather I’m looking to book something in Alaska for June. :)</p>
<p>RM, I cruised to Alaska in June of 2012 with my sister. It was unseasonably warm, really no rain. We were very lucky. Hope you have a great time. We are doing a cruise of the British Isles this June.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ighome suggestion. Will give it a try.</p>
<p>Yes, the bus will pick you up this Thursday afternoon. We will stay at a nice resort and have reservations at some nice looking restaurants. Will see the Follies, even though we are too young, and maybe go to Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon house (H thinks I am nuts but he is not known for “fun”). Also a hike in Joshua. I am sitting here in a new bathing suit that fits but itches. Make sure you can get yours on and there will be no judging bodies. Sorry we will only be there 4 nights and 3 days.
scratch scratch–dang, I took the tickets off. It is royal blue and I feel like a whale.
That said I love my fit bit and did 15,000 steps one day. But as I worked all day and evening not going to happen today.</p>
<p>I think I have posted this but we flew into Juneau and took a small ship to see the glaciers. Helicoptered up to one and hiked. But the interesting thing is that stayed in the family room above a really funky bakery and the room down the hall had a “Bill Gates Room” sign and this is where he and his stay(ed) when they visited.
There was an old fridge in our room covered in plastic.
It was June and had decent weather.</p>
<p>RM, we cruise quite a lot but have never had a land portion; just day expeditions, so not sure of the answer to your question. We enjoyed Alaska a lot, particularly the whales, but it was quite cold in June for us. We all got new coats out of that trip. H and I typically don’t care about where we sleep, so we are more the inner cabin with no windows type. We have had balcony rooms, but never a suite. It sounds wonderfully decadent. </p>
<p>We have a week in Myrtle Beach coming up in February because we have a time share week to exchange that we would otherwise lose. It won’t be warm, but is oceanfront and an easy enough drive. H can work in a local branch so not spending any vacation time and we figured why not have a change of scenery since it is essentially free. I hate crowds but rather like the ocean in winter.</p>
<p>H and I went to see Jersey Boys last night, which was fun to do on a random Tuesday night. We used to have season tickets to the theater when we lived in NJ and have decided we need to do that again. I think we are getting the hang of being empty nesters.</p>
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<p>Good for you! I hope H and I can.</p>
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<p>Good, I really need the break. I won’t be any trouble at all, won’t complain, won’t judge.</p>
<p>Analyst - I’m sure that if it is in the 50’s/60’s we will be just fine. H won’t go in the water at that temp – but I would! Currently dealing with below 0 so really anything above freezing will be okay. The packing for 2 weeks is really what will drive me insane. One thing that the suite gives you is the fact that they will do your laundry. May be worth it for me (although it is a BIG difference from a balcony room vs. a suite). Still trying to decide. I wish they would just have a huge sale and I could get it cheaper… :)</p>
<p>We did a land tour of Italy before our cruise we loved it, but I don’t have the info on deals.
I had to look up the wireless sound system , it sounds awesome.
We like the empty nest, we enjoy them when they are home, but its nice to focus on myself too.
o the trainer today, Saturday did yoga and could tell how much much stronger I am, took a sort of hip hop classon sunday, it was remedial,and lets ust say NOT SO MUCH. haha</p>
<p>Hip Hop? Oh, this I wish I could see, DTE. </p>
<p>The Sonos system works great – we really dithered years ago about wiring for speakers, but with lath and plaster it is a lot more complicated, so we did nothing. And now technology has come along and done it for us! It uses wi-fi, but somehow does buffering way better than you-tube or other services; the stream seems to continue without the blips I’ve gotten used to with you-tube and streaming audio on the computer. (I’m still a little weirded out at how very heavy that innocent white speaker is; there must be lots and lots of heavy guts inside.)</p>
<p>Quick follow-up to a previous post: D reported yesterday Facilities showed up with additional recycling containers for plastics and aluminum. They probably have no idea she’s a temp!</p>
<p>And the latest on the recycling drive: despite the new containers, with signs in the largest font available describing their intent, others in the office threw away other trash in the Plastics Only and Aluminum Only containers. Sigh. Recycling is really not a way of life around here.</p>
<p>H’s cousin got elected to the baseball Hall of fame today we are happy for him!</p>
<p>That’s really cool, dte! I know it’s really hard to get in. Congrats to him!</p>
<p>Wow, downtoearth! What an accomplishment! We used to live relatively close to Cooperstown and went there many times. One of my H’s favorite day trips.</p>
<p>That is fantastic, downtoearth!</p>
<p>DTE-- how cool !!!</p>
<p>Do you guys get to go to the induction ceremony?</p>