The 2024 OurWanderYears blog booklet is now available here. It is 102 pages – not huge, but not small either. Be patient if you have a slow connection.
Ooma resurfaces
I have not seen Ooma, communicated with her or even thought about her – except briefly when passing by her street on my way to softball, or during my few clandestine visits to the Buckingham Blues Bar (where I am still banned, thanks to her) – in over a year. I have not mentioned her in this blog since January 12, 2024. So imagine my surprise when I found the following comment on that blog entry yesterday (edited slightly to soften the threats):
For two years, a friend has told me that Sparky continues to malign my name on his blog. This is a warning to Sparky to leave me off his blog and not post anymore about me. Far too many of my friends know his nickname for me which is Ooma. The next time my friend tells me that my name has been mentioned on this blog, I will post on this site again and I will post the reason that I ended my relationship with him. I choose not to post it here now because I’m a better person than he is and I will give him a third chance to leave me alone. I will not be lied about any longer in any fashion. So Sparky here is your third warning to leave me alone.
Quite an attack considering I have not mentioned Ooma in more than a year. Indeed, I was leaving her alone. So why message me now? Like the rest of my brief relationship with her, this message baffles me. I have no idea what is running through her strange brain.
She obviously doesn’t know me very well if she thinks I would respond positively to this kind of threat. So, Ooma, here it is – your nickname in my blog once again. Do your worst. Prove what I already know – I am a better person than you. How will I respond if you attack me? I don’t know. Do you want to find out?
I must correct one error in this message: she did NOT end our relationship unilaterally. It ended in July, 2022, in MA, by mutual agreement. Neither of us wanted to continue a relationship that had become toxic. We finished the trip back from New England on good terms, I thought (see my TS8 summary), visiting some nice places along the way and even seeing her sister in Alabama. She even sent me a thank-you note that called it “the road trip of a lifetime.”
My many reasons for ending our relationship were documented in a blog post in March, 2023.
She tried to rekindle our relationship in November, 2022, but when I rejected that attempt, she turned hostile and absurdly tried to obtain a restraining order for stalking based on a single chance encounter we had in downtown Ft Myers in October 2022 – a month before she tried to get me back! Yes, she tried to rekindle a relationship with a guy that she later said had been stalking her! Does that make any kind of sense? It didn’t to me. I resolved to never see her again, never talk to her again. I have moved on; apparently, she is unable to do the same.
By posting a comment like this on my blog she reinforces my opinion that she is the most despicable person I have ever known. Ooma: please go away and stop harassing me.
Categories: Uncategorized
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My second Norwegian Cruise Line trip (NCL2)
I was on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship many years ago, with Jett and her son. It went from Boston to Bermuda and back again. A short trip, if I recall – probably 5 days. Not very exciting and not a great ship – very old. But many people speak highly of Norwegian and when Marlene and I saw the 25-night trip from Tampa to Anchorage, we jumped at it. It would knock two big items off of both our bucket lists – the Panama Canal and Alaska. And the many other ports were very attractive as well. So we dug deep and paid for what was, for Marlene, her most expensive cruise ever. And for me, the most expensive cruise since Jett and I took the ill-fated TC1 which ended in Spain rather than in Venice, as it was supposed to.
That first Norwegian cruise predated the start of this blog, so I can’t reference it. But because this will be my second Norwegian cruise I will designate the trip as NCL2.
NCL2 will start in Tampa FL and will end in Anchorage AK. It will have 14 ports of call, only 3 of which are in the continental US (LA, San Francisco and Astoria OR). There is one port in South America (Cartagena Columbia), 4 in Central America (Colon Panama, Puntarenas Costa Rica, San Juan del Sur Nicaragua, Puerto Quetzal Guatemala) plus the Panama Canal transit, 2 in Mexico (Cabo San Lucas and Acapulco) and 3 in Alaska (Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway) plus a transit of the Hubbard Glacier. That is 13 ports and 2 very interesting transits. We will also spend a few days in Anchorage before flying home. The entire trip, start to finish, will take exactly one month: April 3 to May 3.
It will be epic. Not as epic as the one to come later in 2025, but our most epic yet.
Categories: Cruise, NCL2, Preparation/Planning
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“The King of Torts” by John Grisham
I go back and forth… Is Harlan Coben my favorite author? Or is it John Grisham? They are both terrific writers. They always keep me interested. Grisham, of course, writes about the legal profession while Coben is more of a mainstream mystery writer. How to choose, how to choose.
Why choose? Why not enjoy both?
This Grisham offering is about the rise and fall of Clay Carter, a lowly DC public defender who stumbles into a series of seemingly random murders committed by people with no prior history of violence. He is pondering the odd cases when he is approached by Max Pace, a self-described “fixer” employed by a large pharmaceutical company that has realized that a drug being tested using the city’s poor as guinea pigs, causes this unprovoked violence. The drug has been withdrawn but Pace, representing the unnamed company, wants to nip any nasty lawsuits in the bud. He offers Carter a lucrative deal to sign the parents of the young murderers to contracts that give them $5 million each to forfeit their right to sue.. They all take the deal – why wouldn’t they? – and Carter gets a hefty multi-million dollar payment and financing to start his own firm. He also gets the inside track on another bad drug, Dyloft, which is causing bladder tumors. He launches a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer and is soon neck-deep in the cutthroat world of mass torts. He is spectacularly successful and collects $100 million in legal fees. From legal defender to the King of Torts in just 6 months! It was a spectacular rise. And, of course, it leads to a spectacular fall.
How it all falls apart is fascinating. The plot is helped along by a interesting group of employees and romantic interests. And it gave me an opportunity to imagine, for a few hours, what life would be like if I became spectacularly wealthy.
It will never happen but it was fun to imagine.
8 out of 10.
Categories: Books
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“The Last Grudge” by Max Seeck
Copyright 2021 by Max Seeck. Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
This edition was translated from the original Finnish. This is a problem because, as with most translations, the names of character and locations were not translated. So the main character is Yusuf Pepple. One of the murder victims is Eliel Zetterborg who lives on Laivasillankatu. Pepple’s colleagues are Jessica Niemi, Nina Ruska, Rasmus Susikoski and Jami Harjula. One of the suspects is Camilla Adlerkreutz. You get the idea – names in this book are a problem. Reading involves a constant struggle to mentally pronounce or to at least figure out who is being referenced as some of the names are very similar to someone who speaks English. Books that involve struggle are not fun.
The first murder – with several to follow – is the stabbing of Eliel Zetterborg, the fabulously rich CEO of RealEst, a Finnish manufacturing conglomerate – in his palatial condo in Helsinki. There are many suspects initially as he was widely despised, but the murderer was waiting for him inside his condo, with the alarm set, which narrows the suspect list greatly. Soon some clues appear that were clearly left by the murderer to taunt the police. Those clues lead to a deaf mute, the son of one of Zetterborg’s lieutenants. How he became a deaf mute eventually becomes a central question in the plot. It involves an incident that occurred 30 years earlier in a remote Finnish hunting lodge.
It is a well-crafted plot and there are several subplots that are also interesting. But I couldn’t get past the struggle in reading it.
3 out of 10.
Categories: Books
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Carnival Venezia wrapup
We have been back a few days now, so it is a good time to summarize the cruise.
Highlights:
- The shows. These three musical productions were, simply put, some of the best either of us has ever seen on a ship. The last one in particular – “Vintage Pop” – was simply spectacular.
- The Venezia Rockband. Arguably the best band either of us has heard on a ship. Our memory of the excellent Luminosa Rockband has faded, but I think if we heard them side-by-side the Venezia band would win.
- The ship. It was larger and newer than I expected. And very beautiful.
- The food. The fare, both in the dining room and the buffet, was generally better than average. My birthday dinner failed due to horrible beef barley soup that had no beef and little barley, and a prime rib that was so undercooked that it looked raw and had to be sent back – something I almost never do. But the second offering of prime rib was excellent and the other meals were consistently very good.
Lowlights:
- Embarkation. The not-so-smart elevators made a difficult process even more difficult. And our inability to find our muster station – even after asking 6 different crew members – was a major, intolerable fail in crew training. Plus I would like someone to explain to me why Muster Station D3 was location on Deck 4. Does that make any kind of sense at all?
- Guy’s Burgers. I have had some great hamburgers on ships but the “pepperoni pizza burger” that I had at Guy’s was a hot mess. Literally. Maybe the other items on the menu were better but after this burger I had no interest in trying the others.
- The pizza shop hours. We like having pizza late at night. On the Venezia the pizza place closed at midnight (instead of 4am as on the Luminosa). I did not have any pizza on this trip. A minor disappointment but a disappointment.
The highlights greatly outweighed the lowlights. It was a very good cruise.
Categories: Cruise
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Carnival Venezia Day 8 – Disembarkation
We set the alarm for 7am, got up, got packed and went to breakfast. Everything was going fine… until we realized that Marlene had left the bottom portion of her dentures on the table, wrapped in a napkin, at the late night buffet. I went to the buffet and spoke to the manager. No dentures, but check with Guest Services he said. Checked there, no dentures. Was advised to file a lost item report with carnival.com.
We left the ship without the bottom dentures.
We stopped at a couple of yard sales on the way home, but bought only a couple of $1 items. We tried to stop at the new Brighton Bay casino too but it was not yet open. We did stop at the casino in Immokolee. Marlene recovered a small portion of what she had lost on the ship and I lost another $100. Still, a cheap trip in spite of the casino losses.
We then drove to our friend’s house to pick up Becky. She was happy to see us.
Categories: Cruise, FL
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Carnival Venezia Day 7 – At sea
A final day at sea. We had breakfast in the buffet and lunch at La Strada Grill – a small BBQ place outside on Deck 5. Pretty good jerk chicken and pulled pork.
We happened across the “World Works Here” show in the theater. This was basically a celebration of the diversity of the crew – over 50 countries are represented in the 1,400 crew members. It featured some songs by the very talented entertainment staff.
I read for a couple of hours, then we had dinner in the buffet. After dinner we visited the casino one last time. And I lost another $95 – down $195 for the cruise. Not bad, really, for a 7-night cruise, but disappointing after being ahead for 5 days. Marlene lost a bundle.
We danced to the Venezia Rockband – a terrific band. Arguably better than the Luminosa Rockband that made our transpacific cruise so pleasant. After dancing we had a late night snack and had a nice chat with another young couple who stopped by to compliment us for being “so full of life.”
In bed before 2am.
Categories: Caribbean, Cruise
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Carnival Venezia Day 6 – Cozumel, Mexico
I rose early and went up to Deck 10 to do some blogging. I left text messages for Marlene telling her where I was and what I was doing. But she didn’t get them and was pretty miffed that I would walk off without communicating. A minor tempest that soon blew over.
We had breakfast then left the ship to roam the port area. We did some shopping at the Margaritaville complex near the pier. Marlene found a $50 dress that she liked, a liter of vanilla for $10 and a $3 magnet. I found a $15 pina colada that was arguably the worst I have ever tasted. What a waste of $15!
We reboarded the ship for lunch and I did some more blogging while Marlene napped. The nap seemed like a good idea so I napped for about an hour too. We went to the casino before dinner and my luck ran out – I lost $200 (down $100 for the cruise). Dinner was good, but not spectacular. We went to 2 shows after dinner – a musical show, “Classic Pop” that was simply wonderful. Great voices and dancing, along with beautiful costumes and lighting. This may have been the best show I have ever seen aboard a ship.
Then we caught the late night X-rated comedy show. Two very funny guys who ventured into topics that can’t be mentioned here.
Categories: Cruise, Mexico
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Carnival Venezia Day 5 – Belize
Belize is a great place for snorkeling, scuba diving and jungle excursions. But the city is a third-world mess and all of those activities involve expensive excursions and a 30-minute ferry shuttle ride to shore. We were not interested in doing any of those things so we stayed on the ship.
We had some minimal internet at breakfast (we were, after all, a mile from shore) and were able to catch up on messages and email. But I was not able to blog. It was a nice day and we decided to spend an hour wandering about the Venezia. It is pretty typical in what it offers but everything is done with style. We like this ship very much. I will try to show you why.
The atrium lobby is beautiful, with glass staircases and golden griffins. The pool may be the most beautiful that I have seen on any cruise ship – you feel like you are in the middle of an Italian plaza.
The interior staircases are decorated with scenes of Venice and paintings of people in masks. Very tasteful.
The Lido buffet is very attractive and there are a number of specialty grills available, including a Guy’s Burger.
The ship has a JavaBlue coffee cafe where, for a price, you can get some really good coffee. But the coffee in the buffet is pretty good too.
The Serenity adults-only area is beautiful.
If you want to be active, the ship has some very nice water slides, a basketball/pickleball court, minigolf, a ropes course and some exercise equipment. There is also a small pool at the stern which offers a nice view of the ocean.
Today was my 76th birthday. The ship apparently knew that and put Beef Wellington on the menu. Delicious. However, the rest of the meal was terrible. I started with a beef barley soup that was supposed to have beef and ham. There was none. And very little barley. It was like a bland potato soup. Blah. The salad arrived with no dressing at all. We had to request some. And the desserts were blah also. The worst meal we have had on board. But saved by the terrific Beef Wellington. Marlene had swordfish which she said was quite good.
The day was also spoiled by the air disaster in DC. Terrible news.
We attended the show after dinner – Color My World. Very colorful production. Very good voices. A treat.
Marlene also got a photo op with TJ, the Cruise Director.
We went to the casino after the show. I lost $60 (but still up $100 for the cruise). Marlene didn’t play – she is still smarting from her losses earlier in the trip.
Categories: Caribbean, Cruise, Uncategorized
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