Cruise Ship Tracker

Came across this tracking tool for cruise ships last week when I was looking for the Coral Princess ship in real time. We have booked a ten day excursion on this ship in March. Kinda cool to be able to see which port she is in or the map of her position if between ports of call. Give it a try!

Here's the link. If you can't click it, copy it and paste into your browser. Enjoy!  

http://www.seascanner.com/schiffsposition.php?schiff=Coral+Princess

Hearts and Flowers

Had to have this red glass clearance lamp from Pier 1! Knew it would look great in my foyer. Next, I was on the hunt for some red tulips. Nothing says Valentine's Day like red tulips. Found this water garden arrangement at HomeGoods for under $40! Had the plate -- and picked up the conversation heart candles from Michael's for $5. Now the house is ready for St. Valentine's Day!

Allan brought me roses the other day!

It's here!

The call came before 8 a.m. this morning. The geek squad was on its way. We had the mount and cables, and they had the plasma set and everything else. We had a flawless installation and a friendly crew. Now we just need to learn how to switch it on!

The before ...

Our geek squad crew, Chris and Matt ...

Learning what button to push!

Finished and even found the Christmas music channel!!!
Merry Christmas!

New Television

We purchased our new TV yesterday from Best Buy - a 51" Panasonic Plasma HD set. It will be installed by the Geek Squad next week. Yesterday I contacted Bright House about adding cable TV. So it looks we are on our way ... stay tuned!

UPDATE: 12-13-2012 .Geek squad shows up this morning to install our new TV - sans wall mount. Seems the newbie salesman did not sell us the wall mount we had picked out at the store with all the other equipment and services. Allan and I are on our way back to the store this morning. Allan is not happy.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: 12-13-2012 We are now rescheduled to be installed on Wed., Dec 19th.
We now have our new wall mount PLUS miles of new cable, blue-ray disc player and proper surge protector. All thanks to Maxie at the Tyrone Blvd. store!

Christmas in Florida 2012

Decorating for Christmas means using what I have and only adding the necessities. Like lights! Lots of lights!

Mom gave this to Allan one year!

My cherished ornament collection

My Santa table

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Our Piano

 

This piano has been in our family for 55 years. My mother bought it from our landlord when we lived in England. The lady had been a concert pianist living in India. When the British occupation suddenly ended, the only thing rescued was this piano. It ended up in our cottage on Valley Road.

It moved all over the world with us. I was lucky enough to have custody of it for 12 years. Yesterday it moved back to Mom and Dad's place. It will remain there until Kate has a permanent home.

Allan and I will now have space for a wall mounted television in our living room. We have not had a TV in this home since moving here. We plan on spending a few weeks looking at and researching all the popular sets and features. We hope to have it installed before Christmas.

This is currently were we plan on hanging the new set.

 

My Thanksgiving table display

 The sofa is now where the piano was. McGee likes lying in the sunshine.

Our new living space!

Allan's Birthday

Allan got the surprise of his life on Thursday night - his birthday. After shooting pictures all night at The Bronze Lady boutique at John's Pass, Bill called us inside and surprised Allan with a beautiful dark chocolate cake with everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him!

Now it was his turn to be on the other side of the camera! He secretly loved it, I'm sure. Even though he seemed a little embarrassed and blushed bright red! The cake was delicious, by the way, and the left over is in the fridge!