I thought that I had posted on this but guess not. This is why you purchase travel insurance to cover this sort of thing. It's a small portion of the cost of the trip and well worth it if something happens. We started when we traveled with friends, one of whom had a long-term illness, and we never knew whether we would make the trip or not. There are any number of things that could happen that would interrupt you trip. On a trip to Greece, a woman on our tour stepped in a hole and broke her leg. She had to be transported back to Boston on a stretcher which took out several rows of seats on the plane. Her travel insurance covered that.

I have way too many hobbies and not enough time. I should cut back on some of them and just concentrate on a few. The biggest one is gardening. I love to be outside for most of the day, even if it is not so nice. I like to grow unusual plants and to propagate new plants. I have even started roses and amarylis from seeds and cross bred them. My Mom taught me all the domestic hobbies like sewing, knitting, crocheting and embroidery, both fine and crewel. I later learned macrame and weaving. I did some quiting a couple of years ago. When I was younger I taught myself couture sewing and designed my own clothes. She also taught me how to cook and bake. I love trying new recipes and techniques. I hang out on the Cooking Forum for that reason. You can always learn something new there. I bake way too many goodies. DH complains but that doesn't stop him from eating most of it. I have been interested in photography since I was 10. I even had my own darkroom, both color and B/W. Shortly after I went digital and now do all my 'darkroom' techniques in Photoshop. I don't know what I am going to do with my 12+ collection of film cameras. A lot of them are really old, over 50 - 60 years old, medium format ones that still work fine. Since I was a teenager I made jewelry, mainly beaded earrings, necklaces and bracelets. About 12 or so years ago I took classes in metalsmithing, casting and stone setting. I got hooked and loved to make jewelry from silver and set stones. Gemstones are the only thing I collect. About 5 years ago I shifted to glass and started making my own glass beads. I would like to get a kiln and learn slumping and fusing. I have tried rubber stamping, scrapbooking, embossing and other paper crafts but never got into it. I did some stenciling and painting, batiking and tye dying of fabric. Like I said, I need to narrow it down to just a few things. I find as I get older I just don't have the energy or time to do all the things I would like to do. It takes me twice as long to do half as much! LOL Clare

When my daughter and family went to Disney a couple of years ago, she wore the patch so she wouldn't get sick during some of the rides. They were there for about a week. She noticed she couldn't see very well (she's had lasix). Her vision just kept getting worse by the day. Turns out that vision impairment is one of the side effects from the motion sickness patch. It clears up after the patch is removed. With calm waters and stabilizers, I doubt you'll ever know you're on a boat. The last two Caribbean cruises we've been on, we had some pretty rough seas due to weather. Thankfully neither one of us gets seasick and actually enjoyed being "rocked" to sleep at night. It takes some big waves to rock a ship that's 3 football fields long!

1. A little 1BR brownstone overlooking the Mississippi River in St Paul -- my then-partner and I had to find a place quickly, so we didn't look at a lot of places; I stumbled upon it in a Craigslist ad. I toured the place on an autumn afternoon; it was filled with golden hour light and I instantly fell under its spell. The light was delicious and inviting. West-facing windows, with the river in view. Wood floors, kitchen built-ins. The kitchen sink was quite large but exceptionally splashy, somehow. There was zero counter space, but we opened up our dining room table (which squeezed into the kitchenette extension) and used that for prep. The whole place was maybe 650' square. 700?. The maintenance lady didn't know (she was the face of the landlord, who operates out of NY). The bedroom closet was atrociously small and awkward, but we had a big walk-in hall closet and basement storage. I loved the view and the light. One of the two cats lived almost permanently in a living room window. We had a pull-out couch in the living room for a young family member to visit, and it worked perfectly (though I later had a tough time getting rid of that couch--so heavy! It sadly ended up in a dumpster bc no one wanted to buy it and no places took those couches as donation). We even hosted a Christmas (desserts and apps only) that was amazingly fun (6 adults, 2 cats, and 1 doted-upon little boy)... It's still one of my favorite memories of adult holiday gatherings. Parking was terribly limited in the area. We ended up buying a parking spot on site for $70/month, Total rent... with parking was $925 or $950, i think. A lot for us at the time (just a couple years ago... 2013-ish). We were in our early 30s... two masters students scrounging a living and trying to put our lives together... and lived there about a year and a half. I enjoyed it! I loved that warm ombré rug! It was sold after I left the apartment after this. that radiator in the window had a marble(?) cover over it that created a great kitty window perch. Though the kitchen was tiny, I made some great meals (when there was time). to be continued with the next place...