Getting caught up on the blog from Christmas, New Years and Shirley's 80th Birthday Cruise. Darla said that I am OCD and I'm turning over a new leaf. I will work on the blog perhaps monthly, but will not let it control my life. I thought I was just disciplined, she thought I was obsessed. I'm also taking a break from golf (Hell, it's cold outside). The word of the year is "discipline" (and self-control). I get kidded by the kids because the beer in my fridge is always months old and I decided also to purge the house of all liquor in a quest for discipline. I only drink when we have guests here as Darla doesn't drink, so decided to clear out my liquor supply, It was hard to do, but I never drink it.
I started the backing off of liquor on the cruise. I didn't want to drink just because we had the drink package. My brothers looked at me like I had two heads, but my mouth is less controlled when I drink and I just want to practice discipline and self control in my life.
The cruise was a lot of fun. Seeing everyone including Cam and Sherry's kids was great. There were 22 of us on the cruise and we had cabins side by each (as the Canadians would say). Darla and I took a separate trip just by ourselves in Mazatlán and cabbed over to the Gold Zone and had a nice spot on the beach in front of a 4 star hotel. It was nice and Darla get a massage right on the beach.
It was especially nice to spend time with Wayne and Marilyn, who we have dubbed the fourth brother and his wife. I know they had a great time and the highlight of the cruise for Darla and I was the day we spent with Wayne, Marilyn, Randy and Cake in Puerto Vallarta. Great memories and a lot of laughs.
We had a nice quiet Christmas as both Darla and I returned home from the cruise with colds. I had it bad over the weekend with a sore throat and decongestion. Darla caught it Monday and we were both down for Christmas. We just spent the day alone as we were supposed to go to Don and Alicia's, but did not want to get the family sick. We did got to Dan and Becky's on Christmas Eve for a seafood boil, complete with crab, shrimp, crawdads, corn cob, sausage and cornbread. It was unique and interesting and after all of the pomp and circumstance of knives, forks and plates on the cruise the barbarism was a nice touch, We played games after dinner and tried not to sneeze on anyone.
New Years Eve was spent with the kids and Darla cooked a huge meal of Chinese food for our Chinese New Year. She fixed sweet and sour pork, Cashew chicken, Mongolian beef, won ton soup, lettuce wraps, pork fried rice and white rice. It took her all day to prepare for the dinner, but somehow she managed to pick up a new King sized bed to house the King mattress and box springs we got from Vance and TerraLee. I was home for lunch and saw the bed set up on the neighbor's yard with a price of $100. It is a nice Cherrywood and we now have room fir Samson to come up and visit in the morning. He still sleeps in his canvas crate at night.
New Years Day we went to a new restaurant in the Downtown Commons, Echo and Rig, and had a great meal with Charlie an Freida. We then went to the Kings game at Golden 1 Center which is located right next to Echo and Rig. Well, that's it for this epistle. I will be back in February with tales of my golf trip to Scottsdale and visits with Jimmy Walker and Webb Simpson. Ciao for now.
