OMG I'm OLD!

I don't know how, but overnight my life flashed before my eyes and when I woke up I was OLD!

Today is my birthday. No foolin'. I'm six five. I wish I waz foolin'!

Sixty five years of age.

Ouch.

Medicare.

Depends.

Social Security.

Old lady jokes.

Cobweb coochie.

Wrinkles getting wrinkled!

Gray hair covered with harsh red highlit chemicals.

Okay, enough of that. That's the bad.... NOW for the good...

I woke up this morning!!!

The first thing I saw was NOT, repeat NOT, a white satin lining!

I got nine birthday cards and NOT one said anything about my age. Most were about how sex would be a distant memory, but, hey, I'm used to that kind of talk. I STILL own the key to the candy store even if the lock is rusty! But enough about that, don't want to gross anyone out.

Another good thing about six five is....

Wait. Don't tell me...I'll think of something...

I don't have to worry about getting pregnant.

NOW I get my senior citizen discount without asking.

I can flip people off and be rude and they chalk it up to senility.

I can get some cats.

I can get cool handles on either side of my toilet.

I can get one of those Help I've Fallen buttons.

Gosh now that I think about it. The possibilities are endless. If 40 is the new 30 and 50 is the new 40 then surely sixty five is the new 55 which as I recall didn't suck overly much.

AND if I look ahead I can see where 75 is probably the new 65 and so on and so on.

When all else fails I remember that....

Getting old is not for sissies.
Bette Davis
US movie actress (1908 - 1989)

Hugs...

NCL Pride Of Aloha Cruise Pictures Online

I'm hard at work uploading my vacation photos to....

http://picasaweb.google.com/TxGoodie

I ended up having to buy more space! Google is just too cool though. They don't want an arm and a leg for 40 gigs like you'd expect them to. I use and prefer my Picasa account even though I like SmugMug a lot. Picasa allows for the entire album to be downloaded with the original size and that's not only a great way to backup, it's a great way for my family and other interested parties to get the pictures they want.

SmugMug lets you change the theme of the albums and do other cool stuff, but you can only download full size photos from them one at a painful time.

If *I* was a webgod I'd have something called PiUg that would combine the best of both! Or CasaMug. Or SmugPic. Or...well.... it'd be great, honest!

I Couldn't Of Said It Better!

Pat Condell: Too Good Not To Share!

Thanks, Mercer, for sending me the link to this Pat Condell video!

I Need A Vacation After My Vacation!

I'm baaaaack. Did you miss me?

I've been cruisin'. My sister-in-law and I went on a 2 week vacation to HAWAII! I know, it's a thankless job but someone has to do it. We took it upon ourselves to try and help the economy in the islands. Lord knows there's a gift/souvenir shop every 6 yards every where we went and we hit 'em all and did a fair to partly cloudy job of helping to get Hawaii out of their financial slump!

We flew to Oahu first and stayed a couple of days with my cousin and her husband. They were the best host/hostess imaginable! As a rule I go out of my way to keep from "bothering" friends or family....I prefer to get a room so as not to impose. It was pointed out to me recently that sometimes people might really want to show you a good time and you should allow them to do so. I told them the day that we left that they might never get rid of me now they were so gracious!

Both my cousins (I have two cousins that make their home on Oahu) made sure we went everywhere on Oahu that we wanted to go. They also keep hydrating me so I wouldn't have a "Vegas" episode and end up in one of their hospitals.

We boarded the NCL's Pride Of Aloha on the 15th and sailed on the 16th until the 27th. More about the boat later. During that 11-day cruise we visited Honolulu, Hilo, Lahaina (Maui), Kona, Kahului (Maui) and Nawiliwili (Kauai). We had two day of cruising where we saw the islands of Molokai and Oahu's Napali coasts. We had an excursion to the island of Lanai. During the cruise days we were all onboard and fought for every available deck chair and crust of bread! More about THAT later too!

We had a wonderful time. We expected to have a wonderful time. We had some speedbumps along the way, but how could anyone be upset for long when you're in Hawaii!? We saw Kilauea's active lava flow at night from the deck of the ship and our own balcony. It was truly the highlight of the trip. All your school life you read about volcanoes and see pictures, but it's not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. Nature and Madame Pele showing off for the tourists... it just doesn't get any more exciting than that!

I'm in the process of 1) getting my laundry done, 2) getting 10 GIGS of pictures sorted, 3) trying to catch up with my e-mail and blog reading and 4) trying to get used to being back in my rut with the five hour difference in sleep and appetite. I managed to lose weight on the trip and that wasn't from not having an oppourtunity to eat non-stop for 24 hours a day....it was from walking and climbing every day and burning up those extra calories.

I'll be back with more on the cruise and provide the link to my photos.

For now, it's good to be home. I love to travel. I love the Hawaiian islands. I love my sister-in-law and my cousins, but I sure did miss my own bed and my kids and my little dog.

Hugs.....