Now - about our group. There is a forum very similar to the Garden Web forums; Cruise Critic is a forum for folks who cruise or want to cruise. It has several categories, but the most popular one is the Message Boards. That is where you can find out about or ask questions about ports of call, information about specific cruise lines, reviews, and the most popular one - Roll Calls. A roll call is where folks "gather" to meet each other prior to a specific cruise. Each cruise line and each ship has its spot. When someone wants to meet others, you look for your sailing; or if not there, then create a roll call. There is a lot of chatting about where you are from, whether you have been on that itinerary, what plans there might be in each port, etc. I have been a member there since December, 2003. I don't post a lot, for I have posted less than 2,000 times through the years. However, there are some posters who are posting almost daily and have tens of thousands of posts. For this 42-day cruise, we had a lot of messages. Counting traveling companions, there were more than 100 people involved on our Roll Call. We had never been to Europe and Africa and wanted to take advantage of our time there, Karen got online and lined up at least 10 shore excursions. Then she posted all the important bits of information and asked if anyone on the roll call wanted to join us. On a couple of them, the response was huge and the original plan of one small bus, became one very large bus. After many months of planning, we still needed to put names and faces together. A meet and greet was planned for the first full sea day. We met in The Crow's Nest, and since we were such a large group, beverages and breakfast treats were supplied by Holland America. (Holland America also hosted their own Facebook meeting.) This group was wonderful, since we would be travel companions for a long trip and we would go ashore with several of the group many times, it was the perfect opportunity to make friends. It was great! No one person was in charge, there was one person who had contacted Holland America prior to sailing to ask for a reserved time and place. Not everyone who was on the roll call came to this meeting, but there was a decent size group. We had been on other cruises when fewer than 10 people were on the roll call and the connections were not as good. If you want to look at some of what Cruise Critic is, there is a link. Here is a link that might be useful: Cruise Critic

We renewed our vows on our 20th anniversary. My DH surprised me with it. I had always teased him that he never proposed to me. He didn't. We just always talked about getting married and then we did. Never the down on one knee thing. So on our 20th, it was a Wed. Kids home after school. Had a band concert that night.... I am mopping the kitchen floor, he comes in and in front of the kids asks me to marry him, again. I laughed and said of course. He said, great! Can you be ready in an hour? I said.... what????? I had ONE dress I could still squeeze into, put on that. Had no time to do nails or other such stuff. The kids scrambled into nice clothes and we went off to Tahoe. We live 30 minutes from there. He had it all set up with a cute little chapel there. My son, who was 15 at the time, just kept shaking his head and saying this is so lame. I have a concert tonight.... He really was put out about it. My DD was so excited. Well, we get to the chapel and we go in. They have us pick out some music. My husband says, wait! he goes out to the car, has a bouquet for me and one for DD. He has boutineers for him and son. My son is shaking his head this is so lame....... We are all laughing. So son walks me down the aisle and DD is waiting there and DH. We say a few words from our hearts and we are all teary eyed, I look over DH's shoulder at my son and he is weepy too..... I laugh, in the middle of it I stop and ask him if it is still lame. He says No.... and wipes some tears away. We are all laughing about it. Then when it comes time to exchange rings, husband asks for mine back and gives it to the lady performing the ceremony and she adds another ring to my set. He had it custom made, not sure how he did that cause mine is all twisty and it matches up perfectly. I was shocked. It had more stones in it and makes my ring look totally different. Anyway, we did all that, went to an early dinner in Tahoe and made it back for the concert. Now here we sit at 32 years. Maybe we will do it again someday. I still tell him that ceremony meant more to me than the first one. This one came from his heart. We could have gone to dinner or had something on the weekend like we usually do/did. But he went to all this trouble to plan it and surprise me with it meant that he really would do it all over again!

We understand that the structural damage was mostly to very old stone buildings in downtown Napa. His favorite spot to stay is in Yountville, just north of there. No mention of any obvious damage. Napa is open for business again. A great get away destination and wedding location too. My daughter celebrates her DHs birthday there every year with his parents, who fly in for the week. But I do believe some wineries had extensive damage to their stored barrels.But all of them are open for business. The vineyards are still going strong.

The Mr. prefers windows on both north and east sides, but isn't sure how that could work... We both like no uppers as much as possible. We could do a secretary desk, but I need a place for home office materials. I don't feel comfortable using the den/classroom/ guest room as guests will be staying in that space and as much as I trust our guests -I wouldn't want to leave our personal documents there. So the desk space could surely be removed. I don't like the countertop running into the cabinets in the dead corner, not a fan, it feels awkward to me. So no fridge in the corner...But I'm open to moving it, though it would only leave the desk space aND I'm not thinking that's a good option. And thank you for sharing your parents' junk! Lol! They've got nothing on us! We once had 4 junk drawers! I would greatly prefer to have an organized home office space. The thing there has been that the hubs works from home, this using the home office. But it'snot a home office, it's a work office in our home. So we need space for his work office AND our home office. The mudroom area in the house is a hallway and I'd MUCH prefer an actual ROOM where I could put the home office space, we have that on the list to discuss with the designer. So the desk is a temporary fix...a backup. Here is the broader layout. Not exactly to scale, and things are in flux still...need to straighten so of these corners out. The kitchen is off the screened porch, adjacent to the dining and living room. We have a very large dining table, that will be turned to extend for gatherings. The stairs are not at all acurate, other than start and finish points. There are stacked stairs from basement to 2nd story. Thinking on switching the sink/cook top. .. Appreciate the photo links! We both liked the kitchen with slate? floor and 5 chairs at the island. I don't care for the upper on the far side though. Is that neseccary to ballance the look? Hmmm... Really appreciate all the thoughts!