Sometimes you really do get what you pay for..

I got my free ginormous Tower of Treats today courtesy of Staples. Just look how it towers over that can of Diet Coke! Wow! When I opened the box and saw it, it did give me a good laugh though. And if anyone in this house besides me thinks they are going to get their hands on that huge truffle box (it's stuffed with not one but TWO truffles), they have another thing coming.

10 years ago today.....I joined ebay

and then was too chicken to do anything with it until the summer of '99 when I made my first ebay sale. It was an Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me Heinkein beer t-shirt. Man, that was before Jacob was even born. I remember getting the t-shirt (free of course). I won tickets to a premiere showing of the movie thru a Washington DC radio station. I think some other prizes may have come with it. Cuz DH and I went up to DC for the day and rode the Metro around and found the radio station and got the tickets, then took a Metro to where the theatre was.

Now with Jacob, I can't imagine doing all that running around just for free movie tickets. I remember the theatre was near the headquarters of the Fannie May and Freddie Mac Foundations since we had to walk right past the signs.

I also got a bunch of free Austin Powers movie posters. One of which is inches away from my mountain of clutter next to my computer desk here as I type.

Yardsale Taillights

I did run out to a few yardsales this morning, two yardsales to be exact. I don't think I've ever seen a tail-light at a yardsale before. Until today. Then boom, two yardsales, two sets of taillights. Each yardsale had a set of tail-lights for sale. weird. I am just happy they wouldn't have fit my car. That would have been frustrating.

I did buy a little $8 DVD player and a $15 pool cue. Also for $5 I bought two shelf storage units that should be a lot of fun to put together.

My free Harry & David Tower of Treats

As if my house is not already chockful of 75% off Halloween candy along with other miscellaneous candy that I bought when Walgreens was clearancing a bunch of stuff, I'll be getting a free Harry & David Tower of Treats soon (a $19.95 value) courtesy of Staples. It was a coupon that came in the mail a while ago and since it is expiring at the end of the month, I used it today. More stuff I need to eat before I start my diet.

Because I spent so much at Staples last year - (I recycled hundreds of inkjet cartridges at $3 a piece), I'm considered a "premier" customer and get free shipping on all my orders at Staples.com Doesn't matter if I order a single sharpie or a computer desk, I get it shipped free. I think that premier status will be going away though since in order to maintain that status, you have to spend $1000 every year at Staples. Haven't done that this year.

I bought a .99 item today at Staples.com and used the coupon code for the free Harry & David Tower of Treats. My total came to $1.05 with tax.

Been rainy here in Maryland. Supposed to be windy and rainy tomorrow. I haven't checked the newspaper yet, but I may actually stay home and not go to yardsales tomorrow. Less than 2 weeks til the in-laws arrive so I got some major cleaning to do.

Guess what my tail light costs?

Ok, so I had to recently go do some car tail-light shopping. I just decided that I wanted to replace the driver's side tailight just for the heck of it. I wish. Somehow my car accidently backed itself into something it shouldn't have. Naughty bad car. No one was hurt or injured except the cheesy expensive plastic taillight. I took it to a local place that does autobody repair and I was given a quote of $354.00 (installed) for a hunk of plastic. It was something like $320 with no installation.

So....instead I went to handy dandy eBay and a new one is in the mail to me for a grand total of $125. Dh will install it. Like he should. I'm old fashioned that way - I believe the guy should be in charge of all automotive maintenance, repair and also all preventative car maintenance. Dh is lacking in the whole preventative maintenance deal. He expects me to know when I should take my car for an oil change. The guy at the autobody place said installation would only take a few minutes so I'm sure DH can figure it out. And if not, I will just say my usual "hey, you can describe in detail how a nuclear power plant works, you should be able to figure this out". I'm sure he likes it when I say that.

Anyhow, see the big difference in prices? Autobody repair places really mark stuff up.

On a bright note, I did win a $50 gift certificate tonight to a local seafood restaurant. I won it thru a new freebie newspaper that had a "guess where this picture was taken" contest. My DH hates seafood - if it swims, he won't eat it. But the place does have a steak or two on the menu.

Bermuda Cruise Vacation Re-Cap Part 2

When I wrote Part 1 yesterday, it look a long time to upload all the photos and then figure out what to say. So today to finish it up, I just put up a ton of pics all at once and will write up as I go....so the pics are definitely out of order, but hey, I saved a lot of time.

Near where the ship is parked in Bermuda, there is a bunch of shops and artists (pottery, glass blowing, etc). This was at the glassware studio. High prices but beautiful stuff.



This vase cost $195. I did not buy it. But it sorta reminded me of my .25 pink FTD vase bought at a yardsale.


My .25 pink vase:



Another grocery store pic:



At one of the midnight buffets, there was this weird mermaid/mer-man??? that they must drag out every week. Take a look at those man-hands! And the 5 o'clock shadow.


This was cute though:


I tried to remember to take a pic of my dinner food everynight (using my cellphone so the lighting/focusing isn't that great:













It was a 2 story dining room:


The first day when they said I had won a Crown & Anchor Society prize, I thought for sure they were going to give me this crown that they had enclosed in glass at one of the lounges. Mousepad shmousepad - don't they know who I am? But now that I think about it, I do prefer crowns that have more diamonds.


Me, wearing a bathsuit at the beach. Yes I was, but trust me, you don't want to see it.


Thursday morning, the day we got off the ship, I woke up at 5:30am and took this pic - so you'd better appreciate it. It happens to be a picture of *the* best nuclear power plant in Maryland - all lit up at night. Picture was taken with my cellphone. Had a nice conversation with a bathroom cleaner from the Phillipines who held the door open for me so I could get the picture. It was very windy and I couldn't go out on the deck. I do find it kinda cool that here there are cruise ships passing practically by my house and I've never seen them (since the Chesapeake Bay is pretty darn big).


Inside the cabin:


Baltimore bridge:


Last night at dinnertime - the waiters/busboys/cooks sang a song.


One of the many towel animals that our cabin steward - Wanda from Nicaragua made for us:


Playing the adult scavenger hunt - Quest. My sister and I played with another couple - the guy was very into it. We had never played it before - and people are secretive about it so I didn't know what to expect. Our team # was #17. He's wearing my bra and purse, and lipstick.


I asked Tom if he wanted me to email him the pictures. He said no. He didn't want his adult aged sons to see it. I wonder if his family ever go to yardsales....or yardsale websites...


Tried taking a picture of the menu's one night:


Bermuda is so pretty they don't even have garbage. They have litter.


I may still add some pictures/videos later on sometime. I haven't seen the pics my sister has taken. And I really haven't looked at the videos that I took with my cellphone.

All of my previous cruises were out of Miami or San Juan so it was different leaving from Baltimore. Most people were from Maryland and Virginia so it wasn't a big mix of people. Too many people wearing Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens attire. When you cruise out of from Miami etc, you get people from all over. I wasn't impressed with the Port of Baltimore - it was raining when we had to drop our luggage off, but it took 1.5 hours to drive from one side of the parking lot to the other due to the low number of baggage handlers they had working (in the rain). You couldn't park your car and walk the luggage to the drop off area, you had to drive to it and it took a ridiculously long time. I'm thinking the luggage handlers all called in sick due to the rain.

I think the next time I cruise, I will go get a prescription strength patch thing to wear behind my ear. I tell you, that first day at sea was really bad. Never been on a cruise ship with such rough seas and rockiness.

But other than that, it was a great time. I'm hoping the next time I go to Bermuda, the Salvation Army will be open. I could have gone back the following day, but we had other things to do and had to be back on the ship by a certain time or else they would have left without me.

Finally - Bermuda Cruise Vacation Re-cap Part 1

Ok, as promised, finally here is a re-cap of my cruise vacation to Bermuda that I took a few weeks ago. Was a 5 night cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean. Paid $715.23 (including taxes, fuel service charges, insurance). I really don't think that's a lot of money if you consider if you were to fly to Bermuda, you'd probably pay at least $400 or more for just a round trip plane ticket. Tips for the cabin stewart, waiter and bus boy was an additional $50.

Saturday morning - picked up my sister at the airport, since she was flying down to Baltimore from NY. We had a little bit of time to kill so we went to that big enclosed place that has many stores under one roof which is near the airport. Trying to remember the name.....yes, I remember now. It's called a shopping mall. Arundel Mills Mall to be exact. Bought a clearanced shirt at the Bass outlet for $4.44.

Then had my first experience inside a Costco. Didn't buy anything. But now I can say that I've at least been in a Costco. We're members of BJ's Warehouse but don't have a Costco nearby.

It was a beautiful day in Baltimore, so we headed to the boat. Just look at the gorgeous weather we were having.

\

People at the muster drill. On the first day on the cruise ship, you have to attend the muster drill, where you put on your life jacket and stand too close to people.



Going under some bridge outside Baltimore:


Here's a picture of our waiter, Reynold Pipe from Trinidad.



The ship was beautiful inside.








When we got on board the ship, they had informational booths set up to tell all about the different programs they had on board. Like if you wanted to do a tuxedo rental. Order flowers for your room. yeah right. Anyhow they had some raffle drawings and both my sister and I won prizes. I won an exclusive Crown & Anchor Society prize. Sounds swanky, doesn't it? I had to go to the Crown & Anchor office on one of the other decks to receive it. It was a mousepad. My sister won Ben & Jerry's ice cream for two. They had a small Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlor on the ship (that you had to pay for).

Monday - a full day at sea. A very rocky sea. It was bad. Really bad. Nearly everyone on the boat was sick. I was very glad I didn't have Jacob with me. I didn't even feel like eating or drinking any of the liquor I had smuggled onboard (nothing major - just a few mini bottles). I tried walking around in the morning and even tried the line dancing class thinking that maybe moving around would help. Saw people vomiting in the restaurant.

In the afternoon we went to an art auction since they were giving away some artwork and we had gotten free raffle tix the previous day. So we found a spot and just relaxed and closed our eye lids and tried not to be sick. My sister ended up winning one of the pieces of artwork, supposedly some $500 value. Art auctions on cruise ships are such a racket. They've been doing them for years and they must be some big money maker for the cruiselines since they keep having them. My sister had to pay $35 to have the artwork shipped to her house. Not original artwork, but a numbered copied of one.

In the evening we did go to the show - the place was nearly empty since everyone was sick. Did see a very entertaining juggling show by Mark and Marlo and also saw a comedian who was pretty good. I give Mark & Marlo credit for their performance, it looked hard enough to do what they did on land, but to do it on a very rocky ship is something else. The following day, I met them both when we were taking a ferry ride in Bermuda. Somehow I managed to turn the conversation to yardsales and ebay. It's doesn't matter who I talk to, somehow I always manage to work "yardsales" into the conversation. I guess it's a talent I have. haha. Mark and Marlo were very nice and later on in the cruise, I went to their juggling class.

Tueday - yeah! We made it to Bermuda. So nice to get off the ship. Kinda weird how immediately you feel better when the ship stops rocking. Ate a huge breakfast (on the ship of course). We bought a 2 day bus/ferry pass for $20, so we didn't use taxis or go on special tours or "excursions".

Took the ferry to Hamilton - the main city in Bermuda. I was hoping to see something, anything, that made me remember my first trip to Bermuda back in 1986, when I spent a week there. But it didn't happen, didn't really recognize anything, except the second day we went to one of the same beaches I had been to before and we also went to an historic church that I had been to before. Of course the look of Bermuda was the same, picturesque pastel colored houses everywhere you went.

We browsed the stores, bought some postcards and went to the Salvation Army. But it was closed. Did peek inside though (since the door was open) but they weren't open to customers.



Salvation Army from above:



We met Bermuda shorts, knee sock wearing Carl, who gave us directions to Fort Hamilton, which had a nice view of the area.



We still got lost, and ended up near some really nice houses that had great views:



Finally found the overlook:


Bermuda is full of beautifully colored houses, churches, etc. You could take pics like this all day long.







I am kind of disappointed in my pictures since I'm using this new camera that I am not totally used to. And the videos from my cellphone are in some weird format that I need to convert to a mpg or avi file, so I may still have some other videos to put on Youtube.

Took a harrowing bus ride to St. George and saw the historic church that I remember seeing back in the 80's. I think all the bus rides are harrowing....one minute you are overlooking a gorgeous harbor, and then the next you are inches away from a wall of rock.



Oh almost forgot to mention some of the stores we browsed were grocery stores. If you think food prices in the USA are high, go live in Bermuda for a while and then you'll realize how cheap prices are here.








The prices are in Bermuda dollars, which equals American dollars. So $5.05 for a package of Oreos in Bermuda, equals $5.05 USA money. I think I would have to kick my diet soda addiction if I lived in Bermuda.

Took the ferry back to the boat in the early evening. Not much nightlife in Bermuda on a Monday night in October. After dinner, we went to the party on the pool deck for a while.






Not the ferry:





Tuesday - Still in Bermuda. Hopped a bus and went to Horseshoe Beach. Beautiful beach with the big rugged rocks in the water. Water was on the cool side. Bermuda is known for the famous pink sand beaches but it's not pink pink like you would think. Just certain granules of the sand are pink. Super super soft sand.







The thing in the sky is a guy who is kite surfing:



Wow - this blog post is taking me longer than I expected it to. So.....I will continue this later.