Norway

   

 

Ok Folks, you get photographs this round. Why? Well we were on vacay on a cruise in Norway and the scenery is unbelievably beautiful.

Also, I was writing this post on an iPad! There’s no keyboard feel so typing takes considerably longer with more typos.

Mea Culpa!

OK, so on with the show! Journey started a week ago last Saturday, flew Houston to London. 16 hours later in the evening,we met our tour guide. Checked in to the hotel and did a front leaning face plant on the bed. Awakened by a phone call. It was light out. Our son and family were in the lobby to take us to the ship. (They are going with us). Could have swore we’d only been asleep 5 minutes or so. 

Got to the ship. It was pretty easy to determine which was the Disney ship.

                                 

On board and checked in, bags unpacked and ready to sail.

Little J, LJW and Miss B got a welcome aboard from Chip and Dale. This is a Disney greats you. You might have ascertained by now. 

 

Good for a chuckle however.

Monday we spent a day at sea, overcast sky, but the North Sea was fairly calm (in North Sea terms).

 But the Fjords were AWESOME!

 

 To gain an understanding of size.  That white dot just to the right of the center of the picture is a 33 foot Sailboat about 3000' away.  The Fjord mountains are huge!

Tuesday, we arrived at our first (of 5) port, Haugesund (pronounced h aa oh j ee sz uu uu n d) At least that's how THESE folks do it.* I’ll leave it to your imagination. The ladies (4 plus a 4 yo) decided shopping was the mission of the day. It was fun and kind of cool looking as well as temp. At least until it started raining. So we flagged down a cab and RTB’d.

When we woke up Wednesday, we were docked at a medium sized town named Olden. The town wasn’t as old as its name, so we decided to visit the local aquarium.

This fine fellow was pretty old.

Not as old as Sarge, but there’s a strong resemblance!

Just kidding!

Anyhow it was a pretty interesting “kettle of fish”. No pun intended …..RiiiggggghhhhTTTT!!!

So we’re now headed to Alesund, which is down a LONG fjord. Another nice, neat, friendly town. But tonight is “Pirate Night”.  All passengers and crew are expected to be in pirate garb.

 

So the Ladies did. Lots of fun!

Last town visited was Stavenger. Unfortunately, I acquired a digestive problem requiring a close radius to a facility, so didn’t go downtown. The gang said it was nice, clean and the shopping was good.  I got to look at a sailing ship from our veranda when I wasn't.....well, you know.

So the next day we’re back on the North Sea headed to London followed closely by a run through the airport and a 16 hour flight back to Houston. Mrs J decided caution was required so reserved a hotel room in Austin for the night before we driving ourselves to finish the  RTB.

 

Although the flight home was boring, we were in Business Class which was extremely comfortable. (A reward which Mrs J had been given by her travel agent company). However, we were sitting one cubicle behind another. So not a lot of conversation.

 

Upon rising in Austin, a shuttle lift to the airport parking lot and a 1.5 hour drive home and an early to Bedtime, we're back in business.

 

What a great vacation! Friends, Family, and Wine Tasting.  Doesn't get much better than that. 

All in all, a lot of fun! Peace out y’all!

 

*For whatever reason, Haugesund was the only one sounded out on that website that I could find on the web. 

 

Cruising Norwegian Fjords

 

Ok, Campers, the juvat gang is fixin' (Texan for "getting ready") to go on another trip. (Update: our reservation is in August.) My travel agent, whom I sleep with every night, has decided the juvat family members in “Jolly Olde” need a "get together" vacation.  Given that we haven’t seen the Granddaughter in 2 years (except on video chat) and Little J is stationed in England with his family, she decided a ship cruise out of Southampton, England would be fun, and easier to keep the us all entertained.

So it is written, so it shall be!

Given the Granddaughter’s age, Mrs J decided a Disney Cruise would be fun for the group. Frankly, I enjoy Disney also.  But, then again, I've never really grown up.  "C'est la vie!" 

Source

 The Cruise is 7 nights, Southampton to Southampton, 2 days at sea and 4 ports of call.  Only one of which I've ever heard about.

Source

 

First port of call is Haugesund Norway (pronounced How' Gey Send).  Evidently they have live re-enactments of Viking History.  You know me and history.  Mrs J had my support for the vacay at that point. I'm not sure that 7 hours in port will be sufficient, but I don't want to miss the boat.

Source

 

Second port of call is Olden, Norway.  A small village in a Norwegian Fjord.  Really looking forward to visiting this Fjord and we've got 10 hours in port, so should be doable.

 

Source

 

Third port of call is one I'm sure Sarge would like.  Alesund, Norway.  I mean how bad could a town named Ale's anything be? 

 

Source

 

The last port of call, Stavanger, Norway is one I'm particularly interested in.  Holy Mackerel, look at the View!  I believe it's called Preikestolen (for us non-Norwegian speakers, Pulpit Rock). 

As an aside, I would love to take an Eagle down that valley looking up at the bystanders.  (I bet they'd love it also.). 

ANYHOW!  Expect more pictures upon return. (No, not from a cockpit!) 

Peace out, y'all! 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Manic Monday*

 Ok, Campers,  still not a lot going on at Rancho Juvat.  Weather has been beautiful, not too hot (mid 80's), not too cold (low 60's).  Just about perfect.  The good news is, my leg seems to be getting a bit better.  I can walk a bit more comfortably, most of the time.  I think I've been to virtually all the Doctor's in town, none seem to know what to do about it, but, as I said, it does seem to be getting better.  We'll see.

My favorite travel agent (AKA Mrs Juvat) is planning vacations left and right.  Mid-November, she's set up a wine cruise for the "gang" from our friend's previously owned winery.  The Husband, the winemaker had passed away.  The Wife, the Business Manager decided to sell the winery.  The folks who bought it,  well, they're not really personable.  So, the "gang" has kinda gone out on our own.  

 

This is pretty much the group going on the cruise, as I said, "The Gang"

In any case, about 14 folks are going on a riverboat cruise in Portugal on the Duoro River which runs through the Portugese Wine Country.  The boat holds about 100 passengers, so, it won't be too crowded.

And...They provide wine on the boat.  So....We've got that going for us.

This is where we'll be.

Should be a lot of fun

One of the many reasons I married Mrs J is she is a very kind hearted person and goes way out of her way to try and help folks having "difficulties".  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Little J and LJW had a miscarrage.  Mrs J and I went through a few of them between Little J's birth and MBD's, so we (especially she) understand the feelings.  So, we're sitting out on the front porch enjoying a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc a couple of evenings ago (temperature was about 75 with about 5K of wind, quite delightful), while watching Axis Deer transit our property.  (Drives the Great Pyrenees bat-shit crazy.  I like to laugh at the looks the deer give the dogs, since they're on another side of the fence.  Yes, it's a great life we live here!). 

Anyhow...we're sitting there when Mrs J, out of nowhere, asks if I'd like to go on a cruise sometime around Christmas.  Since we'll have come back from a cruise less than a month before, the cash register bells in the back of my head started going off. So, I hemmed and hawwed a bit.  Then she ran over our out of pocket expenses for the Portugal trip.   Hmmmm!  Seems our trip was covered by her commission with quite a bit left over.  

She then mentioned that since Little J, LJW and Miss B would be coming home for Christmas, it might be a good opportunity to get them in a family adventure with us, them and MBD, the Rev and their two kids.  Take their minds off of things.

She's a smart cookie, way smarter than me (not that that's too hard), so I said "Great Idea!" and gave it my blessing.  Just a 5 day cruise, get's back on Christmas Eve. It's a Disney cruise ship which pretty much ensures it'll be a very Christmas and Kid oriented cruise program.  I mean, they've even got a Pirate Knight Night.  ARRRGGGHHH, Mateys! So, it should be a blast. The whole gang is excited.  Which is good!

Beans, I think they've got room for one more (Big) kid if you want to tag along.  I'd pay big money for photo evidence of you in an elf costume.  Yes, I would!  (And I'd have subject matter for several future posts, which'll keep Sarge happy.)

So, as I said, a lot of ups and downs lately, but it looks like the more prominent vector now is a 90 degree Afterburner Climb.  Thank You, Lord!

Much like this!

 

 Damn, I miss that! And, that's with 2 external tanks,  You should try it with a clean jet!  Gotta get the landing gear up REAL fast.

Peace out, y'all!  

*Just in case you want to listen to the Bangles 

One for the Sarge!

 So...There I was*...In beautiful Sydney Australia, on board the Royal Carribbean's Ovation of the Seeas on our last day of Mrs' J's well planned/excellently executed Family Vacation

 

Capacity ~5000 Pax.  Not full on this cruise, thankfully, but a bit crowded.  Still, a nice boat. Source

We've been on board for 15 days.  Hasn't seemed that long, nor was it odious.  The usual Dweeb 14-15 YO's who think it's cool to walk down the hallways in the middle, forcing the other passengers to dodge out ot their way.  Until, one of them, whom you might be familiar with simply lower's a shoulder and turns slightly to form a wedge to move them to a side of the hall.

Never had to do that more than once.  Didn't realize I had a ship's officer behind me one time.  Went through my routine, kid flinched and got out of the way.  I got to the end of the passage way, where I was thanked by the officer that had observed the encounter.

Punks!

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the trip was fun. The Family had a great time, the grand kids got to know each other (3YO, 2YO, and 1YO) and we spent a lot of time telling old family war stories as well as new ones.

Great time was had by all.

More to follow, as the excursions were outstanding.

Peace Out, y'all!

 

Oh and by the way, anybody know an easy way to convert a posting on Sarge's Blog with the program's time code set to Eastern US time zone, but you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean traveling Eastword at 500+KPH and therefore your iPad timezone changes every hour or two, or what time it will be when this needs to go live at some time the following morning.  But, where in the world will you be at that time.  

My head started aching, very early, very sharply and with a drumming feeling that would put one of Ringo Starr's Drum riffs to shame.

So...My good friends, I ran up the white flag, texted Sarge sometime Sunday/Monday evening/morning and surrendered.  Most of my problems disappeared while sitting at a desk in my office, at home with a glass of recuperative white whine nearby.

See you next Monday!

*Yeah, I know, an old timey introduction, but.  It fills the bill on this series of tales.  I'm open to suggestions!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 A little bit of music to get all y'all into the mood.

Liked the movie back in the day.  But...

This post has nothing to do with gunslingers.  Rather, it's been a week to remember.  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly put in their appearances.  In short, it was a very tough week. 

So...To put things in the proper categories.

The Good

All in all, it was a pretty great (though tough) week.  Got to go on a little get-a-way vacation on a ship with three of my favorite ladies.  (AKA Mrs. J, MBD and Mg) .  Set sail out of Galveston on Royal Caribbean (more to follow) on a 5 day cruise to Costa Maya and Cozumel.  Been to both many (many, many) times, but time with my ladies....So, a good thing.  

First, we got some good news.

Arrived at MBD and SIL's house in College Station.  She was just pulling a sheet of Chocolate Cookies out of the oven.  Offered us one.  In addition to the chocolate chips, there was also Blue M&M's mixed in.  Me, being not overly astute, enjoyed the cookie, but did not pick up on the nuance.  Mrs. J however, did and after a punch on my shoulder conveyed the message to me.  

We are soon to have a Grandson.  Thank you, Lord!  We will share middle names.

The best part of "The Good" was "hanging with my Babes!" on the cruise.  We had a blast!

 

The Bad

So, we're on board,   Me, Mrs. J, MBD and MG.  It's June in Texas, it's hot.  Unfortunately, MG is not completely potty trained, so she can't go into the swimming pool.  I got that.  However, I don't get why other children of the same age and diaper expertise level are allowed.   Could it be...some folks play by the rules, others don't believe the rules apply to them.  Who knows? (Ok...I do. More info to follow.)

All that having been said, Mrs. J  went out of her way in making sure we all had fun.

Turns out  the deck does pretty well at having a one person pool. Yeah, we had a great time with the pool.  Unfortunately there were additional complications.

You may have noticed in the above, one of her feet is wrapped in a plastic bag.  Well..."The Bad" had put in his first appearance.  The morning we left for the Port, MG was strolling around the back yard barefoot.  You may have read that Texas is under an extreme heat wave.  Unfortunately, MG stepped on a piece of black rubberized plastic that had been solar heated by the Texas Sun.

Second degree burns on your feet are officially "Not Fun!"

Spent a couple of hours trying to decide whether to sail or not.  The decision boiled down to if MBD and MG stayed, it's MBD and SIL, so...It's just the two of them to care for MG. But, SIL has to be at work, so effectively it's MBD by herself.   If they go on the cruise, it's MBD. Mrs J and I to take care of things.  So, We went.  

Worked great, by the way.  MG did a little fussing when the bandages were changed, but...not too bad.  She did a little walking on her heels, but we changed the bandages daily and she adapted.  Win/Win.

 

First stop on the cruise was Costa Maya.  Got off the boat, headed into the VERY small town.  Found a margarita bar (Hard to believe!!!) and ordered a three some.

Folks...I have discovered the only place on Earth where Margaritas are "undrinkable".  Good Lord! Apparently, they didn't use lime and most likely not Tequila either.  We were back on the boat within an hour of leaving it.  Went to the onboard bar to refresh our palates on what a Margarita should taste like. 

But...We've got those cool palm tree glasses to remember it by.

 

Another part of "The Bad"...We've cruised a lot of different Cruise Lines and been on Royal Caribbean  quite a few times.  Top of the list of our "Best Cruise Lines" is Silver Seas for Ocean cruising and AMAWaterways for river cruising.  On the other extreme, Carnival is by far the worst.  It's target market appears to be folks that will get very drunk, very fast and stay that way for the duration of the cruise.

We will NEVER cruise on Carnival again.

Royal Caribbean has been somewhere in the middle of the top half.  However, on this particular cruise it appears that a large portion of Carnival passengers upgraded.  To quote a movie, "...Drunk and Stupid is no way to go through life."  

 

These were also the folks that took their diapered children into the big people's pool.  No, Beans, upon noticing that, I elected to not go swimming. We may be re-evaluating our allegiance to Royal Caribbean based on this cruise.

 

 However, as we're waiting for the boat to sail, we get a message from LJW asking us to call her ASAP.

 

Well...Nothing good is going to happen after that.  We call.

Apparently a VERY large storm has blown through our area.  Rainfall has flooded our road and made our normally dry wash impassable.  It's hailing, somewhere between golf ball and base ball sized hail.  

All those white spots are hail impact.  It's amazing we still have windows.

Additionally, our neighbor's fence has blown down blocking our drive.

Which wouldn't be a problem since one can't (and shouldn't) cross the (non) dry wash.  Except...Shortly thereafter we get a call from our guests.  They had gone into town and on return were in our drive when the wash flooded.  Fortunately, they stopped prior to entering it.  Right about then was when the fence blew down, trapping them.

Not being able to teleport myself to the rescue, I called our neighbor (it was his fence) and explained the situation.  He said he'd go check on it.  Meanwhile, Mrs. J is on the phone with the guests, partially relaying status updates and mostly trying to allay panic.  

She's extremely good at that sort of thing, thank goodness.

 

Apres le deluge and after the fence has been moved.  The mud line across the road is about 30" deep and water was moving quite fast.  So getting out was "sporty".

Takes about an hour, but our neighbor gets his fence clear enough that the guest can back out and head into town.  We refunded their complete stay.  

5 Days later when we got home, the rain gauge looked like this.

Story was that was in about 30 minutes.

When we got home, our normally dry stock tank looked like this.

When dry, it's about 15' below this level

And it flooded our road.  So, staying put was inconvenient, but wise.

 

Bad. but not as bad as it could have been.

The Ugly

Mrs. J did a great job organizing the cruise.  Managed to put us up in a pretty nice suite, so all of us could be together.  It was pretty high up and nicely located near, but not close, to elevators and stairs, so getting around the ship was relatively easy.

However...

Third night of the cruise, we've gotten MG settled down and sleeping.  The rest of us are getting that way, when the doorbell rings.  (Yeah, Royal Caribbean has doorbells on rooms).  I get up wondering WTF would the ship's crew need us for.

Opened the door, nobody there.  

Well, that's a piss-me-off.  Go back in the room, MBD is trying to settle a crying MG down and get her back asleep.  It takes a while.

Next night, same thing.  Now, I'm really pissed.  The next morning, I head down to look for someone to yell at inform of our displeasure.  I'm walking down the stairs as the elevators are mobbed with folks leaving the ship on excursions.  I see a crew member with shoulder braid and stop him and ask him who do I need to see to get help with this issue.

He answers "Me".  Ok, I think I got the head of security.

Nope, I got the Captain.  I explain the situation to him and that I've got a young injured Grand Daughter and a pregnant Daughter and they need their sleep.  He says he'll take care of it.

Final night aboard, around Midnight, the doorbell rings again. Again, nobody there.  Now, I'm furious.  I immediately leave the room in my gym shorts, t-shirt and bare feet (Yes, Beans, I dress up for sleeping) and head downstairs to the main lobby.  As I round the corner, I run into a security officer.  I explain the situation.  He asks me what I want done.  I mention that I'd like to see the perpetrators hanging from the yardarm in the morning.  He says "Well that probably won't happen, but they're in our office awaiting their parents arrival." 

Turns out there was a closed circuit camera about 10' from our door.

I mentioned that I hoped they and their families will be black listed by the cruise line from future travel forever.  We'll see.

Pour encourager les autres!

Hence, "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" and, in this particular case "The Good" wins!

Peace out y'all!

Addendum 1.

Miss B checked into the Hospital today for a scheduled minor surgery.  Mom and Dad and the Dr's agreed that it was time for her nasal feeding tube to be replaced with feeding tube inserted into her belly.  She had reached the point where she was fussing with the tube in her nose and managing to occasionally pull it out.  As one might suspect that could be a problem, so...She'll be in the hospital for a couple more days.  Mom is staying down in San Antonio with her.  Waking up post-op, she seems to be doing well.  Well see.  Mark this one up on the Good side.

Vacaciones en crucero

 One of the biggest moments in a fighter pilot's career (after graduating pilot training and getting qualified in his first fighter) is receiving his "tactical call sign".  Now, mere mortals would refer to this as a "nickname".  But any mere mortal can have a nickname.  Only "We Few, we proud Few, We Band of Brothers * " (brothers being an asexual descriptor now) can have a tactical call sign.  The naming committee, also sometimes referred to as a fighter squadron, will meet at a very secret location at a specified time for discussion of suitable call signs.  This secret location is generally referred to in code as "The Bar at the O'Club".  And a call sign is lifelong.  Unless said individual performs some action of aerial intrepidity or stupidity (generally the latter) that a new call sign is called for.

I received a new call sign this past Tuesday.  I had made the trip to College Station with my prototype arch to talk through the process with MBD.    In truth, the arches were just an excuse to make the trip and visit with MBD, The Rev and MG.  MG is rapidly approaching 2, is walking/running and starting to talk.  In short, she's a blast to play with.  Got a good sense of humor also, no idea where that came from. 

In any case, I got there while she was taking her afternoon nap.  MBD brought her downstairs when she woke up.  She saw me and came running.  As she was approaching, I heard her saying "Papa, Papa".  Now, The Rev is "Dada", so evidently my new Tactical Call Sign is

Papa!

You mere mortals may still refer to me as juvat, however.  The above call sign is reserved for angels. Papa was my paternal Grand Father's nickname.  Hope to live up to his example.

So, juvat, how is the arch project going?

The prototype fit perfectly.  Which is probably, almost certainly, the first time that's happened in my life.  But...  It's a good thing I went.  My vision of what the plan was and MBD's version were significantly different.  I thought existing molding would remain and the arches would be mounted behind it.  Her version, the only one that matters, had all surfaces to be on the same plane.  

So, spent a bit of time measuring and pondering.  

The new plan will take a bit more lumber and a bit more Spackle, but is doable, provided my note taking was accurate.

But the nice thing about phones with cameras, is it's easier to remember widths/lengths.  And remembering with my non-digital cranial memory device is difficult these days.

 

However, as with most changes, completion date has slipped until after we return.  If all goes as planned (Yeah, right!  I know.) we should have sailed at 1400 yesterday afternoon and are somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico as you read this.  I may even be having a medicinal Mojito right about now.  

MG of course , will be having something to sip on also.  

Comment responses may be delayed, but I have planned for them.  We'll see how that plan pans out.

¡Hasta luego, mis amigos y muchas margaritas! 

* And just because the source of that phrase raises my spirits.

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

William Shakespeare "King Henry V"
 

Got a lot of wingmen on this blog that fit that description. God Bless y'all!

Potpourri

 So...There I was...*  Flat out of Airspeed, Altitude and Ideas. (Yes, Beans, been there before, never liked it, nor the usual outcome).  Fortunately, in a comment on Sarge's post from yesterday where he had revealed his inner U-Boat driver wish, Scott the Badger had mentioned "Norwegian Forest Rescue Cats".

My first thought was "We have two of those!" But the "Forest" part threw me for a loop.  I didn't think that had been part of their breed's name.  So, I went to the source of all possible knowledge about any possible subject both in the known Universe and the unknown Universe.

Why, Beans, that would be my Wife, of course, not Google!  What a silly question to ask.

I will edit out portions of her response, because Sarge wants this to be a Family Friendly Blog.

"juvat, you **** ***** ****,  They're not Norwegian anything Cats!  They're Korats!"

Me being me, and ever curious where my brain has wandered off to, decided to confirm her answer.

Yes, Beans, after we had returned from Breakfast and I was alone in my office.

ANYHOW, and as usual, she was right.

You decide

Norwegian Forest Feline	Korat Feline
MoushKa	MooshKa
Guarding Mrs. J's Desk	This Guard Cat Thing is HARD work

So, juvat, what new and important information did you find out about Korat Cats? Well, Sarge, interestingly this site had some pretty good info about them.  Much of that, I had already learned from the cats themselves.  They are quite affectionate, vocal, playful and very friendly.  First written about in 1350 BCE, until the '60s, they were only given away as gifts as a sign of respect and affection.  There was one other statistic in the article that caught my eye.

Korat's cost between $400 and $2000.  We have two.

So,  juvat, how did you afford that much for a couple of cats?

Well, Sarge, apparently their former owners are either extraordinarily generous in "giving" them to us or they are dumber than a box of rocks. My vote is on the latter.

You see, there appears to be a program in place where city folk who have grown tired of their pets, drive out into the country and drop them off in the middle of nowhere.  The Animal Good Fairy then directs them to a suitable domicile where they will be welcomed with open arms.

Or, they starve to death, get killed by a predator, run over by a car or otherwise meet their demise.

Moushka and Mooshka showed up at our doorstep early one morning.  They were pretty dirty, very thirsty and incredibly hungry.  A bit of water, a small helping of kitty food, a wipe down with a damp rag and a successful introduction to the other adoptees all obtained from a similar situation (grand total for the family is now 7 Cats and 1 Dog, plus 2 pound puppies and 2 pasture ponies, 3 cats, 3 dogs and 2 horses are still with us).

From Front to Back: Oskar (pound puppy), Cooper (pound puppy), Annie (wandered onto the property)

 

Schmedley wandered onto the property. Based on injuries she had, the Vet believed she'd been thrown from a moving car.

Suffice it to say, if I EVER catch someone doing that dump and run crap...well, I hope the jury is composed of animal lovers.

This was done right. Breeding farm was going under.  Turned the horses over to a Vet, who advertised them.  Cabernet and Merlot (L to R) now reside on Rancho juvat

 

Oh, well, on to a happier subject.  MBD and The Rev have signed the contract for their house.  Our plan is to visit next Saturday and give it a look see.  It was a bit pricey, but doable.  Our objective is to see what Mrs. J and I can do to help and lower fixing/moving costs a bit.  Back in my caveman days, I painted my way through college, so I should be able to help there.  We'll see.  I may have to negotiate with my blogger boss as painting on the weekends with a 3 hour drive each way, may impart a slight impedance to blogging on Monday, we'll see.

Had a good time Saturday nite at our Wine Maker Friend's Winery.  They host a quarterly dinner for their wine club members.  This one's theme was Poor Man's Dinner.  It's generally held around April 15th and features Beans and Corn Bread as the menu, hence the name. It did include Wine (of course).  Surprisingly, the meal was quite tasty.  Many of the participants had gone on the Wine Cruise in March, so Mrs. J and I knew most folks there.  Mrs. J's heavily into planning another Wine Cruise from Nuremburg to Luxembourg on the Rhine,Moselle and Main Rivers in November '24.  Our Friends wanted her to give a short spiel about the trip to start generating interest.  The March Cruise was a blast, this one should be no different.

While we were sitting at the table eating, we got introduced to the Brother of one of the ladies that went on the cruise.  He'd obviously been briefed as the first thing he asked was what had I flown.  I told him and he told me that he'd been a C-130 and C-5 pilot.  He was about a year ahead of me going through pilot training, so we had a blast telling "war" stories.  All in all, it was a good time.

Finally, MBD and Little J had asked me to put together a notebook of my favorite recipes that I cook.  It's one of those on again/off again projects.  While I've typed up a lot of my recipes, I haven't had much enthusiasm about the project.  Until now.

 

This week, I happened to have been going through the closet in my office (sometimes referred to as "The Dump") when I saw a plastic box I had forgotten about quite a while ago.  It was full of my Mom's favorite (and therefore my favorite) recipes.

Well, retyping them into the computer should keep me off the streets at night for a while.  All were hand written.  Yeah, my eyes leaked a bit. Only fair...She is my Mom!

Peace out y'all!

Excitement all 'Round

 Well, Campers...It's been an excellent week at Rancho Juvat this past seven or so days. Even after a long return from our Wine Cruise down the Danube river with our Winemaker and Winedrinker friends last week.  All ramifications from a broken British Airways jet in Budapest and running through subsequent airports were cured with a 16 hour sleep session.  We have now reset our nocturnal clocks to coincide with the sun's orbit.  

Re: The Cruise, we got on the boat at Vilshofen an der Donau and cruised to Budapest.  That involved 7 Days, 3 oops 4 Countries (seems I forgot the Czech Republic in my list of Germany, Austria and Hungary), beautiful scenery, good food and great wine.  HIGHLY recommend AMAWaterways River cruises.

Yes, Beans, that's unpaid advertisement.   

British Airways was a bit of a disappointment, but they did have one feature I liked, and for some reason, used virtually the entire flight.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it do an aileron roll.  

Rats!

Got to Munich and met up with our van driver and were off to meet the boat.

As one can see, this isn't an ultra large ocean liner.  It holds a max of 162 passengers (~120 on this trip, 28 of whom were confirmed Texan wine consumers, the rest would be converted) so the atmosphere on board was quite pleasant.

Set sail and saw quite a few interesting sites.

Interesting photography courtesy of our new Friend, Nuncio Previtera.  I think it's a cool shot.

The following morning we got our wine business out of the way with our first wine tasting.  Open to all passengers, it went quite well with a lot of comments along two lines.

1. "I didn't know they made wine in Texas."

2. "Wow, this is very good wine."

Gary, the winemaker.  Mrs. J is ready for the toast

 So...Mission Accomplished.

Lots more sites to be seen as we got further south. One of the more interesting, historically, was this castle.

This castle was where King Richard I (AKA Richard the Lionheart) was imprisoned on his way home from the Crusades.  It is also the location where I updated my understanding of the difference between the word "Can" and "May".  There was a Hiking tour option with a hike up to the Castle itself.  "May" implies permission, "Can" implies ability.  

No, I didn't visit it.

Stopped at a very old abbey and inspected their wine cellar.

Did I mention "Very Old"? No, they wouldn't allow us to taste it.  (I was ok with that.)

It did have a very nice Chapel though.

So early on in the cruise, we're back on board after an exhausting day exploring castles and drinking wine and I'm sitting at a table with one of the other guys from Mrs. J's group.  Doing the usual "get to know you" routines and I mentioned that I'd been a pilot in the Air Force.  He said that so had he.  I asked the usual questions assigned to that "get to know you" track. You know..."What did you fly?" He said "F-4's"  Well, the conversation got fun after that.  I asked where he'd gone to Pilot Training.  He said "Laughlin".

Talk about coincidence.  So had I, but about 5 years before him.  Meanwhile, one of the other guys on the tour was sitting at a table nearby.  He leaned over and said he'd gone through Laughlin also.  He'd gone through a couple of years later than my new friend and had then flown C-130's in the Guard.  I asked my F-4 friend when he'd gone to Lead-In and which squadron.  He'd said 1985 and the 435TFTS.  Talk about Coincidence Squared.  I was an IP in that squadron at that time.  There's a good probability I'd flown with him.  The three of us had a great time telling flying stories (commonly referred to by mere mortals as "Tall Tales").

But it was a good time.

This picture was courtesy of Milly Young, the F-4 Driver's better half.  She showed it to me and I knew it had to put it in the post. Thanks Milly.

Per Beans Request, Panorama of Budapest taken from the Castle on the Buda Side.

On a different subject, it's been a while since I've updated Miss B's status.   Bottom Line, Up Front.  She's doing well and making progress.  The pulmonologist has given permission to start weaning her off supplemental oxygen and she's handling the reduction quite well

She also passed a couple of significant milestones this past week.  First, she's gone over 12 lbs and the fact that she's putting on weight is a very good sign. Another good sign is this.

She's able to sit up (for a short period) by herself.  You GO, Girl!

On a final note, I had to run to Austin yesterday for a Top Secret Mission.  Secrecy had to be maintained until the forces were successfully redeployed and the target maneuvered into the proper setting. 

 

Mrs J was able to distract LJW by taking her shopping for Baby Stuff.

Apparently, Little Juvat was able to align the gravitational forces of the Moon, Sun, Jupiter and Mars and teleport himself from Honk Honk to Texas.  A little quick thinking and a misdirecting comment by yours truly of LJW while He and I were RTB'ing from Austin kept the game afoot and...

Voila'!  A little Family getting re-acquainted time for a week.

Dad and Miss B reintroducing themselves.

Life is Great!  Peace out y'all!