trinacriabob

She was making her mark on the comedy scene in Austin, Texas. This budding talent was taken away from us too soon by cancer ... she was in her early forties. When I need to be put in a good mood with some good sass, I listen to her from time to time. RIP, Lashonda Lester

I didn't know about this. I know that he did one year at NYU in New York City and it wasn't the greatest experience for him so he transferred to some kind of satellite campus or program of it in DC. It is the only First Family that I've seen in my lifetime that has such questionable people. Most of the time, the extended family just stays out of the picture ... like they should.

I'm trying to be realistic and I have to say that I feel bad for Barron Trump. Like any other kid, rich or poor, he was probably hoping for a normal childhood, yet his parents are both so controversial and getting increasingly raked over in the media. It has turned into a circus, and this kid is smack in the middle of his college education.

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 does the crossing from April through December. From January up to April, she is on a world cruise to keep her mostly in the southern hemisphere. At other times, the crossing takes 7 days. She goes from New York to Southampton UK. She obviously has to do the journey in the other direction, too. That's quite a few crossings. Interspersed might be some cruises to the Norwegian fjords, the Mediterranean, and New England with Eastern Canada. This is the only ship dedicated to doing the transatlantic crossing most of the year. Most of the other cruise lines do repositioning transatlantic twice a year. They go from mostly Florida to the Mediterranean in April and they come back in November. For that, it is a limited window, but there are a lot of lines doing it with at least one of their ships: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Carnival, etc. It's a great experience, and you might get to stop at Bermuda, the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and/or Gibraltar. The ships run quite a bit slower at ~16 knots, and those crossings take about 14 days. You do not want to be accosted by overweight older women who are Trumpers and might even attend a Bible study or two. They will not make your day. However, there will be some interesting people aboard. If you choose to ignore just about everything around you, the experience can be incredibly relaxing.

So now there's a "cruise addiction:" I like traveling by ship (realistically ocean liner) and I've now done 2 repositioning crossings. I went from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona on a transatlantic repositioning (sadly not on Cunard) in April. The ports of call were the Azores, Madeira, and Gibraltar. I'd been to Gibraltar before. The cable car up to the top was being refurbished, so I didn't get off the ship. It's really interesting, but it can wear on you. Port days are great but you have to pace things. I prefer sea days, where you've got the whole day to relax. There is too much food, and most of it is good. You will gain 5+pounds. Some of the people on board are weird. There are a lot of single older women, by being widowed, divorced, or never married. Some are way too friendly and you have to balance being polite and conveying being unavailable. If they didn't get their act together when they were younger, they shouldn't be putting this burden on someone now. You do ship travel with a significant other, if you have one. You should not do it expecting to meet someone because it's probably not going to happen, especially when someone has hit the wall. Some of these people are crazy - they go on one cruise right after another. I've come to realize it's an escape for some people. If you're always at sea, or in ports, or going to the dining room, shows, and planned events, you don't have to face anything you should be dealing with psychologically. You get assigned to a dinner table and, because it's 6 to 8 people, you have to be a little guarded ... I can't tell most of my jokes and make most of the comments I'd ordinarily make with friends. Everyone is usually likable enough, but, toward the end, you have to stiffen up a little bit as you disengage from any of these groups. They all have to make sure that as they go on to their next cruise, and the next one, they haven't exchanged contact information with anyone. I've done so with only a few people and that's because they'd be the kind of people you'd probably socialize with anyway. https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/21-signs-youre-a-cruise-addict I have 7 of these 21, and some aren't even that pronounced: 2 - my desktop wallpaper is indeed a ship 5 - it's not so much post cruise "blues" as it is adjusting to a different schedule and having to make or buy food 7 - I have rank with just one line and that's Cunard (which operates Queen Mary 2) 8 - people don't come to me for advice about cruises; people I know approach me for all kinds of travel advice ... I don't have a sign on my head, but people know I like to travel 9 - I have bought exactly one item on each trip, so less than 10 items total 11 - I've memorized the layout of a few ships, but that's also what most of my jobs have required doing, and it wasn't about the layout of ships 15 - I could spend hours on cruise sites, but I could also spend hours on many travel and transportation sites I had November 2026 booked (Europe to the States) and am not going to go, so I will lose a small deposit. I redeemed frequent flyer miles and will be flying. But I'm keeping a reservation for a U.S. to Europe crossing for spring 2027. I only go transatlantic - it's to go from point A to point B. If you choose a basic cabin, t's not much more than the combination of a one way air ticket, lodging, and restaurant costs. The last true ocean liner - Queen Mary 2 - so they had to make it beautiful and not have it look like a floating condominium tower. I stay in the black hull area and in a simple cabin. I love this ship.

Both the A350 and the B787 are 3-3-3 in economy, which would be a nightmare for 22 hours. I can't even stand the 11 or 12 hour flights from Europe to the West Coast of the U.S. I would deliberately pick an itinerary with a change of planes on the East Coast or in Toronto to make the transoceanic flight last 8 hours. Long flights are even bad for peoples' health and circulation. They've messed up some forty year-olds who might have been a little bit out of shape and didn't do leg exercises or walk around the cabin. Southeast Asia and Australia, which is where these flights go, don't even interest me, so I won't be aboard such a flight.

ITA does not have a 747. This is just a mock up if they did. That's a good looking bird. Alitalia had eight 747s and pulled them shortly after 9/11 because of the drop in air traffic and to cut costs. ITA uses the newer A350 and the updated A330-900neo for long haul flights. I have only flown on them domestically and was real excited to learn that they have added a seasonal Rome to Houston nonstop. This is all because they have joined Star Alliance as a function of being picked up by Lufthansa.

When cars had personality ... ... 1978 Cadillac Couple de Ville A lady I knew - Velma - when I was a teenager had one of these with a Cerise Firemist Metallic exterior - sort of a light grapefruit color popular in those years. She knew I loved her car.

The front 2/3 of the car are attractive enough. I don't know much else about it.

I would not get a Super. Find one with the normally aspirated 3800 V6. Toward its final year, they may have gone to a Chevy sourced 3900 V6 or 3500 V6. I guess those are ok if lower mileage, but the Buick 3800 V6 tends to be stellar. I just saw this or would have responded earlier.

I think "the coast is clear," thus, no olive branch ... also, greetings from Sicily - - - - - Q: An Italian, a Greek and a Spaniard go to a bar. Who pays? A: A German.

Good morning

I've learned a few choice phrases in German. Recently, a few buses quarreled with each other by extended honking at a Sicilian airport. There will always be a German or two or three on the shuttle buses leaving the airport, so I turned to one and said, "Die Sizilien ist unterhaltsam." That means "Sicily is entertaining." One of the first things I learned is "die Sieben-vier-sieben ist sehr gut." That means "the 747 is very good."

I have no clue about current American music and I don't like what I hear. I think it really peaked in the seventies, eighties and nineties ... and younger people who come to know that music also come to admit that same thing.

I didn't even know this existed. It was the background music for a photo montage on YouTube. I know next to nothing her except that she was in "A View to a Kill," the last 007 film for Roger Moore. I did not know about her music. She's not really easy on the eyes with her severe look. But this particular cut is easy on the ears and good for interstate driving.

Does anyone know of or have any experience with cardboard wardrobe boxes made for moving? The ones from Home Depot are not that good. With the metal hanger rod extended across the top, it does not prevent torsion in the box and the folding side flap, which is meant to give you a look into the box, is flimsy ... and if you even put small things on top of this tall box, it tends to sink in. Someone out there has to have some good solid wardrobe boxes in their available inventory of moving supplies. Help and ideas, please ...

Some of these famous buildings are hideous, some are interesting with decent parts to them, and a rare few are really nice. The hideous ones include the newer architecture building at University of Washington, Wurster Hall (also architecture) at UC Berkeley, and perhaps the Salk Institute in San Diego. These buildings are cold and soul sucking, so they're hard to be in. They also come from a fairly ugly (on various levels) sixties and seventies granola period. One of these buildings would be a "hybrid" and it's fine. That would be Campbell Hall (again ... architecture) at the University of Virginia, which is definitely brutalist reinforced concrete at the first taller level or two, with an exposed waffle slab at levels above you. However, they soften it up by using brick on the upper floors' exterior, as well as lower floor to ceiling heights. The one brutalist gem would have to be the main library at University of California San Diego. They definitely did not do this to reduce costs because it's a complicated building. However, it's probably a nice space to be inside because of the floor to ceiling windows all around. It's just that there was a wave of putting up these buildings on West Coast campuses, surrounded by eucalyptus or fir and hemlock, and it was usually at hippieish campuses and their atmospheres don't gel with me.

Happy Mother's Day to the mothers in our lives - family, friends, coworkers She came to mind, so I looked for a gif on her. She is originally from Buffalo! Most people have doubles. I don't think she does. Happy Sunday.

Interesting day, this 25th of April! It's a holiday in Italy, as in Festa della Liberazione - that means they liberated themselves from Mussolini ... either in 1945 or 1946 Then, I thought a little bit more and something else popped into my head: it might also be a holiday in Portugal ... this is the day that they got rid of dictator Antonio Salazar ... in 1974. It's almost impossible to forget that if you've been there because they renamed their large harbor suspension bridge from Ponte Salazar to Ponte 25 de Abril. A high functioning democracy is a beautiful thing. Cheers everyone!

This one weirds me out. Everywhere I go, I meet Germans! In grad school ... on vacation ... on this ship. I now have a new German friend who lives in the greater Houston area. I don't have any signs on my head! They're friendlier to me than Italians.

About a week at sea after departing the Atlantic Seaboard and on schedule to dock in the Azores tomorrow. I've always been curious about these islands. I'm looking forward to this ... a lush, volcanic archipelago 900 miles from the coast of Portugal. You could definitely hang out by the pool at the beginning of the voyage. Now, it's cool and comfortable, so no one is out by the pools, unless it's the one that's covered by the dome. I'm hoping that pool weather will come back once we enter the Mediterranean. There are a lot of nice people aboard, but a few oddballls stand out. I do not include myself in that latter group.

What I was really going to say: If you celebrate it, Happy Easter. If not, enjoy the weekend.

I was referring more to the demographics. I was driving around the Stone Mountain suburb of Atlanta, which a few people have tried to push toward a comeback, given that it has a little bohemian village at its center, and it hasn't worked. Some of the junior sized McMansions look nice, but there are metal doors over the front doors. Some of them also look neglected and they're not that old. It might have been redneck at some point, hence the gun toting, but this is clearly a majority African-American neighborhood at this point and has been for a while.

If you drive around an area and the houses look nice, but they all seem to have wrought iron or metal doors in front of their front doors, it's probably best to move along and keep looking.

Based on what I last read, today is the first day of operation for Sound Transit's new light rail line connecting Seattle to the East Side, meaning Bellevue and Redmond, home of Microsoft. It's going to cross on the I-90 floating bridge across Lake Washington. I'll eventually get to the area and take a ride on it. Something like this was a long time coming and needed. When I lived on the East Side and would go out of town via the airport, I would to take the miserable 340 (?) bus connecting Bellevue to SEA Airport. It was a milk train and would go through Renton, which I had nicknamed "rent to own." I lived diagonally across the metro area from the airport. I'm glad that Line 2 is finally here.