Top DVDs from Netflex in the Last Two Years

My daughters conspired  a couple of years ago in getting me a gift certificate membership in Netflix DVD division for my birthday.  They pondered long and hard as to whether I would be receptive to a one or a two or even a three at time disc membership. They settled on two at a time.  When I am through watching two DVD movies and have returned them in their spritely red return postage return envelopes, a new set selected from my cue is dispatched from West Sacarmento or San Jose to my mailbox. It has worked out beautifully for me.  Some weeks when all of the stars align, I will get as many as 6 new movies to watch during the week.  The usual is 4 and sometimes as few as two will grace my computer top.  I supplement the group on order with some redbox gems that I may order on my computer and pick up at the grocery store nearby. I try to save these choices for the blockbusters that would require a "short wait" from the netfix cue. This "short wait" could be as long as a month.

Favorites of the Last two Years

Now mind you, this is in no way an Oscar list. This list is a group of movies that I have found interesting to watch over the last couple of years using the method of checkout noted above.  Some are ancient. Some are fairly new.  I offer these as a conversational starting point and an idea of my cinematic interest.  Recognize that that I have some prejudice in that I usually go for some rather sappy emotional romantic comedies, or action shoot them ups with some decent stuntwork rather than just CGI.

The following is meant as a descriptor for these movies and does not give them justice.

The Choice- A Nicholas Sparks Story set in the south with the romance centered around a choice that had to be made to sustain life.

Birdman- A oscar winning story about a actor that thought that he could fly
Boyhood- An amazing movie where the camera and the plot traces that maturity of a small boy into manhood
Bridge of Spies- In cold war times our country relied on a secret private industry "ordinary" salesman to secure the trading of Gary Powers our spy and one other American for one of the Soviet Union's top spy.

Brooklyn- The story of an Irish immigrant girl that leaves her home for a new one in America
Celeste and Jessie forever- Love and life in LA
Concussion-The story of brain injury and the doctor that discovered what was causing many NFL players to retire with strange effects
Flipped- Neighborhood girl from across the street at 7 goes crazy of the boy that moves in across the street. Era 1962
Grandma- Jane Fonda plays the grandparent of Lindsay Loein in Idaho. Lindsay is sent to live with Grandma before heading  off to college

Hector and the Search for Happiness- A psychiatrist flips out in his practice and heads for a around the world research as to what makes people happy in various cultures.

Infinitely Polar Bear- Father tries to become the responsible part despite his clinical state
 Joan Baez 75th Birthday- She sings all of the old ones and does a great job
Joe and the Volcano- Man verses his fate.. The modern allegory movie
Joy- She made it on Qvc despite her family's lack of faith
MI-5-- Mission Impossible 5 Tom Cruise and all
King of California- You will never look at Costco's floors the same. Hidden gold in California
Leap of Faith- Steve Martin squeezing the Oklahoma farmers for their last dime in the drought
Our Brand is Crisis- Joy and competition with American political advisors in the country of Boliva
Point Break- The latest with more than just surfing- infiltration of the off road criminals
The Five Year Engagement- A move to the midwest (Wisconsin) sends this gourmet chef and his fiancee  through issues
The Intern- Robert DeNario as an intern that supports a start up company in the same building as his old business

Nostalgia building a "Fort"

I grew up in a tract home outside San Francisco.  We lived at the bottom of a very steep hill.  A gigantic steep wild backyard complete with yearly washout of the ancient dune soil that started out with out a stalk of vegetation was common. As a "kid" community we had many friends from all over the community. Most of them came from working/ lower middle class families.  We were safe and our families had no fear that we would head into the wrong direction with our choices of friends or their activities. Out only admonishment was be home before the streetlights came on.

At eight years old we had such a chance to explore and and have fun with our neighbors and friends that we brought into the neighborhood.  At dusk we played street softball with whipple balls that had huge holes in them so that they would not go very far.  We played hide and seek among the parked cars (very few cars every drove down our block because it was so steep and most people without business in one of the houses didn't want to challenge their brakes or their sanity).

Almost all the houses on the block were were occupied by people that owned the homes. Many were bought with VA loans and many of the occupants were the same age range of my "Greatest Generation" parents. We were the boomer kids.  We didn't know it then or even knew that we were the biggest spike in population growth that the country had known for generations.  Business was booming. Houses could not be erected fast enough and certainly schools and school buildings had to constructed quickly to accommodate us.

We had a great time growing up in this community.  My friends and I had ongoing floating monopoly games within a quarter mile radius that introduced us to all kinds of kids with all kinds of families. A few families were a little richer than others.  I think that sad to say, they were richer in wealth because they had fewer kids to raise.  Those that brought more kids into the family had a tougher time in government or wage stabilized environments.

A family moved in eight houses away from us on our little street.  They were family that was Dutch. They had only one daughter.  Their house was neat as a pin.  They were so happy to have this daughter.  They want to give her everything that she wanted. She was not a thin girl and had a bobbed haircut. What she wanted has was to build a gigantic fort. A fort in a kids mind was ultimate realization of  independence in their world. A place to be home, their home and not have to deal with the vagaries of home ownership. To this end her father found a way to bring left over pieces of wood of all sorts to the backyard. He may have been a carpenter or maybe just a construction site scavenger. As kids we never asked where we were just happy to have them. As neighborhood kids we looked at this project as a great adventure.  If she liked you, you could help her build. Nails and hammers were provided and buckets of bright latex blue paint.  Oh my.

No planning, no quality control, just get out their and build with the wood and nails and paint.  Did it ever become a viable clubhouse... well no.  Was she or us ever happy with the results? No not really.  Did we have fun building... oh yeah.

Our community was a transitional community.  Maybe all of them were in that era.  Dad's got better jobs and moved to bigger homes or to somewhere the weather was better.  Her family moved out within a year and a family from Fuji moved in.I always wondered what became of the "fort" when they people moved in.

I was reminded of this world this week when I was making raised beds for my tomatoes and vegetables.  I made 3 raised containers 12 inches deep. They are 8 feet long and 4 feet wide.  I used number 10 screws that were 3 inches long to secure the ends to the lengths.  Grabbing up the wood and attaching the screws brought me back to the 50's era fort construction site and the kid that had unlimited wood, nails and blue paint.  : ) Pat

Spring Delights in the Central Valley

There are a couple of things that I really look forward to in each spring season.  One of them is the emergence of the beautiful flowers on the fruit trees in front.  The other is the amazing smell of the orange trees in blossom.

February is the month that the fruit trees flower.  Bees seek out my yard when there is no wind and the sun warms the air to the degree that no sweater or jacket is needed. My mom always said that bees have a great union.  They do not work when there is not great conditions.  We often get wayward bees in the beginning of the season as the almond groves around us have bees in place and are waiting for the almond trees to blossom.  During the height of their blossom, our fruit trees may be in great position but will not get the bee attention because of the readiness of the almond trees to fulfill the bee's pollination needs.  The almond season is not very long.  My friend the beekeeper is busy transporting bees almost every evening during this time.  He starts with bees transported to Bakersfield 150 miles away in early January.  He ends up in the Northern Sacramento valley in late March. The trees reach their height of blossom for only a couple of weeks each year in February. Peach trees are in blossom for about 3 weeks.  The blossom season starts out with the pulots and ends with the pomegranate trees in May and early June. Pomegranate trees blossom after the trees get their leaves.  All of the other trees have blossoms before their green leaves arrive.

This time of the year, March headed to April, is the time that the citrus, particularly the orange and lemon trees produce their blossoms. First the oranges are in blossom.  Next will come the lemons into blossom with their amazing smell. This phenomenon seems to always be around Easter.  In the central valley, we are in prime position for navel oranges.  Our region is region is 9.  In many years we may be in region 8. Region 8 allows of for temperatures to be no lower than 30 degrees.  Region 9  has temperatures that may reach 26 for a couple of hours. 26 degrees could result in damage to citrus  trees. This low number occurs only once or twice in every 3 or four years.

The spring is also a time for starting the garden in the backyard.  Last year we had a great season of tomatoes and Italian sweet peppers.  A portion of the backyard was rototiller and I planted in the grooves the little plants that I grew from seeds in January,  The big issue last year was to get enough of the garden watered in the correct proportion to its needs.  Last year was a drought year.  Young tomatoes and peppers need to be watered more often than our water restriction allowed.  So I hand watered the garden with big orange bucket.  I was a little late in getting the seeds planted in their peat pods.  I supplemented my little Burpee seed tomatoes and peppers with 6 tomato plants that I bought in Costco. Theses plants were considerably bigger than my little seedlings.

This year I started the Burpee seeds on Super Bowl Sunday.  The first week of February is just a little late to start seeds in our area. The last average frost date is February 15.  The tomato seeds take 10 days to sprout.  They are no where near transplanting time until their second leaves are well established.  I think that they need at least a month to get to a stage that they can be considered a success. I used really big peat pods to start the seed. This allows them to stay in their peat a little longer without having to be transplanted into an intermediate pot. They are ready to get into their Summer spot.  I am making 3 elevated gardening beds this year.  There are 12 inches tall, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.  They are made with redwood boards. I need to put a little stain/finish on the wood before they are filled with great soil.

Onward and upward to a great garden this year! :  ) Pat

A New Folder on the Mac Desktop

New Folder

One of the great things about being in the Mac interface is working with what other systems call the directory. Basic to working on the Desktop (what you see when you trun your computer on) is making a new folder for the stuff that you will be creating.

Make sure that the name in the right hand corner says Finder. You can command Q the program if it does not show finder. It might say Safari in the upper right corner or Firefox. You can click and drag down the drag down the column to Quit if you do not want to command Q.

With Finder visible in the upper left hand corner, click and drag down the choices until you see new folder. When this is visible and highlighted, let go. A new Folder will appear on your desktop. Find this new folder and change the name to something that you want.

Once this is done you are ready to drag files into it that you want to organize in this category. So click and hold on the name of the file and drag it into the new folder.

You can have many new folders and use them to organize your computer documents. Just repeat the procedure as outlined above and you can have as many as you have hard drive space.
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Alaskan Cruise: Tips on things to Tag Along

Alaskan Cruise: What to Bring with you

Many of these tag a longs apply to travel in general and certainly most cruising situations.

Electrical Bar and an Extension Cord

Many cabins have just one electrical plug. Having an electric bar that allows you to plug multiple plugs into electric plug. An extension cord is needed as the plug may be way across the cabin. An extension cord will allow you to bring the power to where you need it. We allows need this as the power chair needs a place to be charged. If you have multiple electronics you will also need this handy convenience.

Sometimes the only  power outlet is in the bathroom only. We have forgotten this once and had to "borrow one" from the front desk for a 14 dollar deposit.

Night light 

If you have an interior room, it gets really dark in a cabin. A night light may save your toes or your head.

Laundry Pods and Quarters

Laundry soap comes in small plastic pills. These are great for cruise travel. A small baggie of these come in handy when laundry needs to be done. This stuff is highly priced when you get on the ship. Quarters are handy to run the machines. I have heard that some of the machines are now taking cruise cards... but again a baggie of quarters is pretty good insurance.

Your Own Soda

My wife is sensitive to sugar and caffeine. We always pack a cube of diet caffeine free  cube in our check in bags (using the platform collapsible roll on). Sometimes this will result in you appearing on the bad boy list and having to explain yourself but liquid is critical on the ship. When ever you go onshore I have never been turned back bringing on additional soda to replenish the supply.

Drug Store supplies

While the ship store has a ton of things to buy, it is pretty thin on items that you would normally buy in a drug store, particularly personal care items. They only care one kind of deodorant, and just one kind of toothpaste. A quick stop to Target or Walgreens will add comfort to your trip.

Cash

Cash is handy for buying items on shore and will work really nicely in the casino slots or tables. Ship casinos will also use your cruise card. When using your cruise card for casinos, a numeric password for that use is generated. Any winnings go on your cruise card or may be cashed at the cage the day before you leave the ship. The debarkation morning has no staff working the casino and no way to trade in your winnings for cash in your pocket.

Don't for get the tips for the various people that help you on the ship.  All drinks come with an automatic 15 percent tip included. 

Paperback books

Even though many people will love their kindles or their kindle apps on ship, a paperback book or two is pretty nice to have in your hand when you have time to sit and watch the water go by. Bring some new ones and pass them on to others in the library trade section. 

Sunglasses and Skin Care

Sunglasses are must up on the glaciers. Don't forget some lip balm and some sunblock. While most of days in Alaska are filled with rain in the summer, when the sun comes out it will burn everything in sight. If you are off hiking, mosquito protection is also comforting.

Snacks

It might seem odd, but we always bring along a box of crackers and cheese comb kits. They are the ones with the little plastic stick in them. They always come in handy when you just don't want to get up and face the crowd or for whatever.  They also go great with the fruit you will order for your room. Don't forget to order a pear, an apple and a kiwi if you like them delivered free to your room every day.  That is one cool thing about Princess Cruises. Don't forget to have high tea at least once on every cruise... its special and included in your cruise package. 

Water Bottle

Off the ship it is great to bring ship's water with you. If your have your own water bottle, you can save yourself some grief worrying about the safety of the water you drink.

Misc

I am sure I have forgotten one thing or another... you will too.  The list above I hope will not be in that category.

The Dreaded Last Night and Debarcation

Getting it all back in the suitcases

The last night of the cruise can be pretty hectic. Your bags except what you will wear the next day are expected to be in the hall before you head off to dinner that night.

Prior to this night you will find in the the Princess Patter or the other newspaper that the cruise line publishes, a list of colors of baggage tags. This is used to store your bags in a particular spot prior to you leaving. You will be issued a series of tags that bear this color in your communication slot outside your room. If you need more of your color they may be obtained at the pursers desk. The pursers desk is also the place that if your feel that you have been categorized with a time that will not allow you to meet your connections, you can plead your case. We are nearly always the last to leave the ship since we go out and get in our car to drive home.

Bags are tagged and but out at dinner the night before so that the crew members can hustle them down to the cargo hold and get them to a particular area so that you can find them the next day. An airline may have as many as 200 passengers, a cruise line will have over 3000. This is the way you can get to your bags without looking through 10,000 bags. Because of this huge effort, elevator use is somewhat slow during this time.

The Last Night in the Ship

The coast of Northern California is nothing to sneeze about regarding its intensity. The last night of the cruise will probably be the roughest. When the ship finally makes it around the bend in the predawn morning it all calms down. The sight of the Golden Gate Bridge in the premorning fog is pretty cool. Bring a coat and enjoy the lights of the city.

On some cruises depending on the nationalities of the crew and the passengers, an immigration check is made the minute the ship reaches dock. If this occurs, a member of each cabin must cue and carry the passports of all that are in the cabin. This can be pretty crazy especially since no one can get off the ship until the sweep is made. This can occur between 6 and 7:30 am. Those that are not complying are targeted with an all call. Luckily this has not happened in the last several cruises we have made.

Tips for the Disembark

Many people run for the buffet the morning of the disembarkation. As there as so many people that need to get off the ship not everyone should be running to the exits all at once. Having a nice made to order breakfast will help your transition to the real world. A cautionary note: The bar tags are all completed so if you plan to buy a drink before you leave, it will not happen. This is even true in regard to a soda. Coffee is provided at some of the waiting stations and water and some juice. But my first suggestion is to bring your walk off bags and go for a nice breakfast. It could be along time before you see your lunch. I really don't plan on being on solid ground until 11:00.

Be sure to pack your cellphone with your in your carryout bags. You will be close enough to call your land world on your trusty plan. You will be able to upload the photos you took for free as you wait for you color to be call of finish that book you started. There may be up to three hours to wait before you can get off the ship. Some folks find a spot to sleep a little longer. 

You will be out of your cabin by 9 am. Those without immediate colors will be relaxing in one of the assigned public areas. This is a good time to fill out your comment cards. Give some kudos to the people who have been working for you. The biggest comment card will occur when you get home and are asked to take a survey of your opinion of the various aspects of the cruise. On the day of your departure, you will not see your room steward or your table waiters. If you plan to tip the room steward in person, or the table steward, it is best to do it on the afternoon before your last night. A tip is included in your daily cruise card tab. It will be forwarded to you the night before you leave. Be sure to look it over a day or two before it gets published to your room. This will allow you to clear up any discrepancies. The pursers desk will print you an itemized total at anytime during the cruise. Your cruise card tag will be charged to your credit card on midnight of the night before leaving. Your liability for the card you posted will be checked several times on cruise to make sure that your card has room to cover your charges.

The people that come it to clean the rooms are from shore and they power through each room and collect all the junk that will left behind in big paper trash bags.  You must to a very careful job of getting your stuff out of your room in the morning. There is no recovery of found items like you would have in a normal hotel room. The classic thing left behind is electronic chargers. By the way, charge your electronic devices that night before.  Make sure everything is out of your mini safe.

When your luggage tag color is called you will head to the 4th deck with your cruise card and all of your walk out bags. We usually have a backpack for this stuff. Your curisecard will be checked and you will head down the gangplank to the dock. Sometimes you might be on the 5th deck instead of the 4th because of tides.

There is often a line along the gangplank as the customs and the immigrations people and the department of agriculture give you and your bags a look over.  If you ordered extra booze from the duty free stores you it will be delivered to your cabin the day before. You will have to hustle it out with you as you depart. On some cruises people are required to pay some duty on the booze they bought.  If you plan to do this you may consider packing you your bag a collapsible dolly. It is not recommended you pack your duty free booze in your big bags.

Retrieving your Bags

It is critical to know how many bags you set out the night before. To retrieve the bags you will go to that color of your disembarkation and search for your bags laid out on the ground. Once your have gathered your bags, I always get a porter to take the bags to the curb. Be sure to have a 20 dollar tip ready for this people. They will pick up your bags including your carry off bags and select a spot that your can have your driver partner (if you are working that way) pick you up. It is pretty much chaos on the streets so having a good spot is important. It is also nice to have them in one place and everything lifted and put on a cart. People without bags are usually able to walk right off the ship without having to go through this step. Unless you are really light dressers and strong muscled people, this is not a good objective for a 10 day Alaskan cruise.

Best Advice

I think that the best advice of all is to have fun and let the little things go. Princess is great at knowing that you are on vacation and are adept at getting the most of the little things done. Don't be the old lady that returns her banana 5 times because it is not ripe enough or that it has too many spots on it. Go with the flow and smile often.

Alaskan Cruise: Idle Time

Ship Life

Some passengers get perplexed by the relaxing nature of the cruise. There is time to devote to nothing to do at all. To those that are working so hard to make a living this seems like nirvana. To others agony. It can me both or none of that depending upon your emotional make up or your planning.

Day to Day:

Some people think that they will stay in bed all day and get nothing but sleep in. This can be done but daily cabin service would love to make sure that you are up and out sometime in the morning hours. They need to get in and change your bed and clean your bathroom and straighten up your cabin for you. They often leave a towel animal to let you know they care. There is also a turn down service in the the evening when you go to dinner where they make sure everything is ok in your room and make you sure it is neat for you you to get into at night. They leave a couple of chocolates. If there is a change in the routine or if your would like to order free fruit for your room you need to contact your room stewart and let them know the changes. They will be in the hall and soon in the 10 cruise you will know their name. It is often posted on a little card in your room when you first arrive.

Personal Activities

My wife and I participate in some activities together and some in a group. A deck of cards is always welcome in playing a game of rummy or gin rummy among ourselves. My wife loves to do word search puzzles... so there is a stockpile that we bring along to do some of that. A list of fairly current movies is broadcasted on your TV. Some of these are cruise centric, such as the old move North to Alaska and Disney sleddog movies and others are just current HBO types. On recent cruises there has been a movie night or two where a big blockbuster movie is shown in the theatre or the secondary night club spot. The movies or sports events of the day are also shown on the big screen outdoors. Seating in the outdoor movie theater can be somewhat limited for big sporting events and pretty darn cold on the Alaskan curise. Woolen blankets are supplied but often people opt for warmer venues. There are always kids that want to hot tub and head for the wool blankets.

Triva is a team event that happens throughout the day on ship. It becomes a mixer as the 6 member groups often require members from other groups than your own group to participate. Some cutesy prizes are awarded to the winning teams. These triva contests are run by the ship's social crew.

The library is open at certain hours of the day. Books may be checked out and returned. Many ships have very nice literature collections. Some have reference books that you peruse while you are there. I love some of the big art books that are contained in the library. The library is not open all the time as it requires staff to staff it. When it is not open, all the shelves are locked up. There are areas in the library which house books that they have brought on ship and have read and don't mind passing them on to others. These are free and you are welcome to take one and leave one too. Some people bring pretty current paperback books to this area. A cruise is a perfect place to bring a Ipad or a kindle full of books that you want to read. Download them before your get on the ship.

Lectures of all sorts

Various experts or speakers offer free lectures on various historical or scientific topics that are fun to hear.  Princess calls this the scholarship at sea program. Every day at sea a naturalist will give a lecture with slides in one of the big venues. There are also chances to learn how to line dance or zumba. On some cruises there are craft people that will use one of the nightclub venues to teach and have you participate in a free craft activity that takes about an hour or an hour and a half.  All the materials are supplied and it is kind of fun. Most of these are free. The Hawaiian cruise has a lei making seminar with all the materials. It was so popular that they offered it 4 days in a row and even then, some people not in line to get a reservations were not included. We signed up for that after missing out this activity the first Hawaiian cruise.

Contests and cruiser supported Activites

Bingo, even knowing the odds against winning is very popular among a certain demographic. Cards are bought and numbers are drawn with the usual patter. Some people love to participate.

A battle of sexes contest is often held on board. A cocktail contest with the professional bartenders overseeing is a fun spectator event. There is sometimes a group float em contest where bits of this and that become fodder for a raft contest across the swimming pool.

If you like wine at all, the wine tasting on the ship are a must. The usual wine tasting event costs about 10-15 dollars and you will hear about and taste around 6 different wines.  For the wine expert aficionado the premium wine tasting at 25-30 per person is also highly recommended. The wine expert on the ship walks you through each of the ones tasted and will talk about the way to appreciate wines. The tickets for these events are available through your table steward.  Again, provide you ship card and you are signed up. Appropriate appetizers are provided to go with the various wines. It might be a good idea to bring a little notebook to jot down the wines you really like and some notes. Wine that you taste might work out well when you get home and would like to get another bottle at a substantial savings in the grocery store or Costco. These wine tasting only occur a couple of times on the ship and usually during at at sea day.

A field trip through the backstage of the theater used to be a common activity. It was cool to see that costume vaults of the broadway shows presented. A cast member or two from the Princess show would escort a small group of people for the backstage tour.  These cast members coincidentally are also the people behind the library openings, triva management and some of the craft stations.

A tour of the cooking area used to be a free event. In recent cruises, it cost extra to do this. It is an amazing chance to see where all of the food is made. A free on stage demonstration of the chefs best quick dish is always a fun event. The head chef in all his tall white hat area chefs demonstrate on the big stage something that they are proud to show off.

There are ice craving demos by the pool on every cruise. In 25 minutes seahorses or dolphins apear from a solid block of ice. 

Music to Listen to and to Watch

Every night on the big stage a quality act or broadway/Las Vegas show event is provided after your dinner. This means that there are shows pretty late as the late dinners start dinner at 8 o'clock.  The singers and dancers perform on stage to a medley of popular broadway songs about half of the nights. There other half are comedians and or small groups of musical performers. All through the ship there is karoke and nightclub acts going on too.  A popular piano bar plays sing a longs and people are drawn to this venue to do a Mitch Miller kind of thing.

Commercial Part Lecture

 Day before reaching a port, a member of the ships crew provides a lecture in the main theater to talk about buying possibilies a the port that your are approaching. A map is handed out that gives the shopper the layout for the cruise supported businesses. The map is great, the cruise supported businesses that is another thing. Diamonds International is a common cruise supported business. Look with a jaundice eye at the "fee" things offered by the supported businesses. 

The Princess Patter

With all of these things going on throughout the ship, how to you keep track? The ship will put in your communication slot right beside your room door a printed daily newspaper for the next day. It is usually in that spot before you go to dinner. In it will be a captain's blurb and a couple of advertising pieces too. Most of it is a blow by blow of what is going to happen the next day. It is vital to hang on to this as you plan your day. Additional copies of this may be obtained at the purser's desk.