January 3, 2011

The sea swells are coming from the side today so the ship is rolling a bit more than the last two days. Skies are partly cloudy and I can see rains squalls in the distance. We’re about 500 miles west of Ensenada, traveling at 19 knots. My nose is plugged up more as the cold runs its course. Started reading Deception Point by Dan Brown. Hard to put down. Just kind of lounging around today. There’s a backstage tour this afternoon and I want to see the Orange Bowl. I’ll be rooting for Stanford. I’m not that interested in the evening show, so I’ll got to the theater and watch “The Expendables”. Finally, Happy Birthday Bobby!

January 2, 2011

Another full day at sea – we’re about halfway between Hawaii and Ensenada with mostly sunny skies and fairly smooth seas. Former ambassador Mark Ginsberg’s talk about Wikileaks – very interesting stuff. In the evening we again were entertained by Jimmy Travis. He is a lot funnier than whe we first saw him in 2006. My cold still hasn’t changed much, but being plugged up at sea isn’t much fun. Finished off the book Jawbreaker by Gary Berntsen. Very good read about the whole Tora Bora situation in Afghanistan. Thank you Jon for getting it for me.

January 1, 2011

Happy New Year! I awoke feeling a bit better than yesterday. Breakfast was very sparsely attended due to the New Year’s Eve party. I guess the night club went on until after 3am. My plan last night was to do laundry and I guessed right – we had the place to ourselves.

Claudia had a morning and afternoon music teaching session. Lunch was another big buffet – for me I had prime rib, lobster, salmon, snapper, beets, artichokes, a couple of cold salads, and a brownie to top it all off.
More activities aboard ship today and smooth sailing. Watched the Rose Bowl (TCU vs Wisconsin) on the big screen in the night club. I was one of three people rooting for TCU. Great game and a win. Now the Big-10 is 0-4 in bowl games. Remember I am a USC / PAC-10 fan, so that’s where my allegiance remains.

After dinner, there was Liar’s Club – two of the shipboard entertainers and the Rabii (one of three clergymen aboard the cruise) defined very obscure words and the audience teams had to guess who was lying. The entertainers were Jimmy Travis, a comedian/singer from Nashville, and Mark Merchant, the ventriloquist. Lots of laughs and the most guests I have seen at one time on the ship – standing room only.
The worst news is we have to set the clocks forward as we will be back on Pacific time tomorrow.