Costco contacted us today (we’re surprised they would do so on a Sunday) about our disaster aboard Royal Catastrophe. They asked what we think is a fair settlement. So we discussed it and agreed that getting half of our money back would be appropriate. Anything under $300 would piss me off, but we don’t expect to get anything at all. You know God. If there is one, He’s going to continue to be on anyone’s side but mine.

Blogger shows the referring sites from which my visitors come. One was this weird social search site. I ran my name and that of a woman I was once friends with, but nothing that came up pertained to us at all. I don’t get it.

After a long-overdue embrace, I turned to Sarah. She looked beautiful. Her straightened hair was a deep auburn color and her makeup was applied to perfection. She was dressed casually but stylishly, though just about as big as I imagined her to be. And tall, too. It felt so good to hug her!

Tammy wore some way cool T-shirts during the few times I saw her, and her hair was styled pretty similar to the way she’s always worn it; short, though a bit lighter than I’ve ever seen it. Mine’s lighter now too, though I still qualify as a brunette. Her eyes have gone from green to a light caramel brown that matched her hair nicely.

Sarah’s eyes are a prettier, brighter shade of green than my darkish dull green ones. Then again, my eyes are neither dark nor light. I’m as stuck in the middle with that as I am caught in the riptide of periods and peri. Only peri’s winning this month so far.

I smell mice in here. Sorry to change the subject, but my bloodhound nose really does. I swear I saw what might’ve been a few turds too, but I haven’t heard or seen any mice. Thus far this has been the first place he and I had ever lived in that didn’t have mice. I swear I smell that musty odor, though, which is why I haven’t had them as pets for 15 years or so. They also don’t have the intelligence that rats do, and I honestly don’t see how such little bodies can produce turd after constant turd.

Ok, back on topic. Tammy’s house is absolutely gorgeous. Although radically different than my youthful, colorful and rather eccentric style of décor, hers is very classy and sophisticated. I personally wouldn’t choose such an open floor plan, but they love it and it’s beautiful as hell. The thing we envy most is the storeroom Mark set up so nicely. Damn is it nice compared to ours! So is their yard, too. It’s not the jungle ours is. They have just a few scattered, well-kept plants hugging their house and that’s it. The rest is all grass. We don’t have as much of a yard, but it’s jam-packed with stuff that’s been growing for 15-30 years.

They have plans to make improvements to the house and get more furniture. Loved their new washer and dryer and how it has timers on them. That and the floors will be our next upgrades.

I’m even thinking of getting a Keurig coffeemaker. A genuine one too, like Tammy’s got. They do produce delicious cups of coffee unlike anything else, and Tammy assured me the grinds don’t explode. Well, they sure did on the cheap off-brand I got and stopped using a long time ago. I’d love to get a huge sampler pack with both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee as well as teas and hot chocolate.

Anyway, Mark arrived after we did, and left about an hour later to meet his brother at the men’s retreat they meet at yearly. He is beyond wonderful! Best BIL I ever had. So glad we got to meet him before he left.

We talked about all kinds of things, and Sarah thanked me for agreeing Tammy at least used to be a rather scary driver, LOL. Tammy said mom nearly got her killed in the end as she began to lose it. I can imagine!

Sarah told me that she and Becky went to Hawaii, Mexico and I think she said Puerto Rico too, though it wasn’t with Tammy. They also went to Martinique and hated it. Said it was the worst vacation ever because they don’t like Americans there.

I was super glad to learn that she and Becky don’t smoke, but surprised to learn Sarah’s already going through menopause. I thought she was joking at first. We were talking about health issues and I was discussing how rough the onset of menopause has been on me. I guess Dad picked Tammy up some kind of estrogen thing after her hysterectomy, and that’s when the subject came up. Anyway, I made the comment to Sarah about not getting any older, and she said she was already going through menopause. It has something to do with her medication or being an epileptic.

Wow. Just wow. She definitely won’t have kids then unless she ever adopts. I wonder how she feels about that, but I’m guessing she’s okay with it since most of today’s younger women are more interested in careers than family. She has made reference to her future husband a few times, though. Well, I hope she can find one that can see past her weight, height and underlying aggressiveness because sterility would be a huge asset as far as finding a boyfriend or husband goes. Sadly, she will probably only be able to get a guy who’s immensely overweight as well and that’s unable to get anyone thinner.

Tammy asked if she was as we expected her to be, and we both agreed that she was based on pictures and what she’s told me, and of course what I’ve told Tom about her. Although Tammy has mellowed out with age, we both agreed privately that they all have an aggressive streak, especially Sarah. I would not want to piss her off and then have to face her in a dark alley, LOL.

Not sure what’s going on with Lisa. I know Tammy has spoken to her by phone and that she’s supposed to go down to Florida later in the month, but after I unblocked her, I wasn’t able to find her on Tammy or the girls’ Facebook friend list.

Sometimes I wonder if I should reach out to Lisa, but I’m not sure if that would be a good idea because I don’t know how she would react. The last thing I want is to become caught up in any family drama all over again. I was glad to hear that she’s been sober, though.

So after a few hours, since we had to wait to check into the Pirates Cove anyway, we went to Walmart to grab a power supply for the laptop.

This hotel was very nice, and like the one we stayed at in Fort Lauderdale, it was MUCH quieter than the ship was. Just a few scattered bumps and bangs anyone would hear being attached to others, but nothing that drove me batty or that kept me awake. The only real annoyance was the live band they had in their restaurant one night, but fortunately, it only went on for a couple of hours.

The room was spacious and the view was gorgeous. Boats were docked in this little inlet and it was a very lovely place. I was surprised at how dilapidated some of the homes in the surrounding area were, though.

Each bed got firmer and firmer from place to place with this being the firmest. If I were skinny I’d probably have hated it, but I could sleep on it easily enough.

A tray of snacks sat on the dresser, but you had to pay for what you ate. We indulged in some cookies, candy and Fiji bottled water along the way.

There was a private balcony, but we only spent enough time on it to take pictures and see how the weather was when we’d get up, as we were hardly in the room.

The restaurant food was good. That night I got clams in a garlic butter sauce that was delicious.