A Mother's Spirit Comes to Me on Vacation

The third spirit encountered while on a cruise ship last week was a very emotional one. Tom and I watched a "mind games" show on the cruise, and afterward our new friends that we call "A2" because their names both begin with A, introduced us to the mentalist and his partner. The mentalist, Bob Lawson, was amazing. When he joined us at our table, he offered to do a handwriting analysis for us, and it was pretty spot on.
When his partner came over, I sensed a lot of emotion. We all started talking about ghosts and spirits, and then the conversation topic changed. While I was sitting next to his partner, I got a couple of names, that sounded like "Adelaide" but I couldn't be sure. It was the spirit of a woman trying to communicate with me, that I knew. She showed me a cat, a color like "green," (I'm color blind, so what I see as green may be blue) a white "house" or building, and poured me full of so much love and emotion for Bob's partner that I was physically shaking. I couldn't stop either.
Bob's partner told me that he had a very strong bond with his mother who passed, but her name was Margaret. (Hmmm... so perhaps Margaret was trying to tell me about someone else in the family who had previously passed, and that she was with? I don't know). Regardless, Bob and his partner told us that when she passed, she refused to be waked in a church. Instead she wanted to be waked in a white house- a funeral home, and she was. Apparently, she was very happy that they honored her wishes.
The cat belonged to the woman's daughter (Bob's partner's sister). It was a cat she got before her mother passed. I assume that the mother loved the cat, too.

The final point was about the "color" that she showed me. Turned out to be more "aqua" or blue-green, and it was about a pen at the funeral home that mysteriously appeared. Bob said that when he and his partner went to the funeral home for his mother's services, there was no pen to sign the guest book. When they went looking for one and came back minutes later there was a pen in the holder. The pen wrote in aqua colored ink, unlike the black ink used on all the other entries in the book. They said that no one else came behind them, so they didn't know where the pen came from. They thought it very strange that the pen appeared from nowhere.
The spirit of Bob's partner's mom was there to convey that she's around him, watching over him all the time, and was so full of love that it made me shake.

Computer Woes- BAD Geek Squad

On Sunday, when we returned from vacation we spent most of the day getting the computer to run again, after buying Windows 7. Vista destroyed all the files in it for the 2nd time in 2 months, so we've had enough of that operating system to last me a lifetime. We brought the computer to Best Buy to have their Geek Squad wipe Vista off, and they gave it back to me with nothing done. They said they "did a diagnostic that costs $70 and found that the hard-drive on the 2 year old computer was fine." But didn't do what I asked them to do (wipe off Vista) so, when I got it home, the computer went haywire on me again. I somehow managed to get it to boot Windows 7 and override Vista. I will never use "Geek Squad" at Best Buy again. If you DO have a Vista operating system, BUY the Windows 7, and over-ride it. You won't regret it.

We Interrupt this Cruise Blog for Good News from NH

We were SO glad to see that NH has common sense.
NH House Rejects Gay Marriage Ban, Repeal Bills by Wide Margin
The New Hampshire House has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage in the state: Nh "CACR 28 defined marriage in this state by saying it can only be between a man and a woman. It was rejected by a wide margin, 201-135, short of a simple majority and far below the three-fifths majority -- 238 votes -- it needed to advance to the Senate. Sponsors tried to delay a vote on the bill until March 17, so local voters could weigh in on petitions at town meeting that ask for a popular vote on the amendment. "All we're trying to do here is put this on the ballot," Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, arguing voters should have their say. His effort to delay a vote fell short on a 191-148 vote." The House also rejected another bill, HB 1590, by a vote of 210-109. It would have repealed the state's marriage equality law.

Cruise to the E. Caribbean-Days #1 & 2

Just before record snowfall started on Friday, February 5, Tom and I flew to Florida. Being a meteorologist, if I didn't foresee the potential for this storm I would've never heard the end of it from friends, so on Monday we changed our flight to leave on Friday instead of Saturday. While on the runway in Baltimore, we watched the first snowflakes fly as we waited to take off.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale, FL the day before our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean was to begin. We stayed at the Red Carpet Inn, west of the city off State Road 84. There's nothing around it. We wound up walking on an overpass (that goes over Interstate 95!), to get to a small shopping center. Being afraid of heights it was scary...although the pay off was to find a Dunkin' Donuts about a mile down the road!!
The Red Carpet Inn had a great restaurant, "Diane's Restaurant" but at night you could hear lots of noise. We took the motel shuttle to the port and waited from 11:30am until 12:30pm when we boarded the Holland America "Eurodam" ship. It's a beautiful ship, and only TWO years old. We were off to a good start.

This wasn't a gay cruise. This was a regular cruise with a certain small number of cabins rented out to gay people. I loved it. The average age was between 50-80 of the passengers. People went to bed by 10pm like we do!! They were happy, conversational, friendly, and smiled at each other. WOW, what a difference from the last cruise!
It was 74F that day, and we sat on the deck getting sun for an hour (until Rob was sunburned). We took the lifeboat drill, we ate dinner in the open cafeteria and ended the evening watching a song and dance performance on one of the stages. It was a great first day!

Spirit Encounters on Vacation

Last week I took a cruise in the Eastern Caribbean (and perfectly timed it to avoid record snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic). We've been saving for a year for this cruise, and it was on a ship that was only two years old, so I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any ghosts on it. There weren't any ghosts, but there were spirits that tapped into me to give messages.
SPIRIT IN THE THEATER - During one of the evening song and dance shows, a gentleman came to me and gave me his first and last name and told me that he needed to tell Marjorie in the audience that he was around her, and he was safe. Of course, sitting in a crowded theater as one of the audience made it impossible for me to identify who Marjorie was, so I regretfully couldn't pass along the message. I assume that it was likely the spirit of a husband who was married to a woman in the audience. Most of the people on the ship averaged in age between 60-80, which is fine by me, because they all went to bed by 10pm as I do!
(PHOTO: Georgetown University)
SPIRIT IN THE OPEN CAFETERIA - A second spirit came to me while Tom and I were having lunch one day. A man called to me several times. In fact, each time a woman walked by our table (which was about 3 times as she kept getting up to get food and drink from the buffet) a man said "my name is John." He told me he was connected to that woman. He then showed me ivy, like the vine that grows up the sides of buildings, and I heard "Ivy league school." He said that the woman has a book of his that she inherited, that has a dark cover, and to look where the bookmark was in it. After finishing lunch, Tom convinced me to walk over and talk with her about it. I did. It turns out that John was her late uncle. He used to go by "Jack" and he was an attorney that graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. An "Ivy league" school. She wasn't sure about the book, but made a note of it. The following day, the woman stopped me and told me that her uncle Jack was gay, but never came out of the closet (she apparently felt comfortable telling me that after seeing me with my partner). She said she thought that's why he felt comfortable coming through me to give her the message. I agree.
I'll put the next spirit encounter on a later blog this week.

Cruising into Drama...

We took our annual vacation and took a 7 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. We've been saving up a year for it.
The cruise was fun. We visited Puerto Rico, which was nice (even though we were only there 6 hours). The islands of Grand Turk, and St. Thomas, however were poor and hurricane ravaged- so not worth it. The food on the cruise was great, and the people (mostly between 60-80) were friendly.
Weather was rough coming back last night/this morning... and there was DRAMA the last night. A VERY unusual technical incident led to a nightmare of stress. Because of operator error, the ANCHOR wouldn't come up all the way on the last night near Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, so we trolled around the Bahamas deep water for 7 hours until they finally decided to cut it off. We heard that never happens (except for when we are on the ship, apparently). The storm that brought all the snow to Atlanta slammed FL with severe weather, and churned up the waters... all that in the last 18 hours of the cruise!
So, tonight we had to get a hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale because we missed our flight out, and there were no others until tomorrow.
Once we get home tomorrow, then we can dig our pick-up truck out of 3 feet of snow in the parking lot. Thaaat's great.
I'll have photos and updates about the cruise in the coming days.

I Found a Church I Want to Visit!

I found a church I want to visit. It has been a while since I've been to a church, because my faith really let me down and used millions to fight gay marriage and promote intolerance. However, the New York Times recently reported on a "chapel" in Vermont that I would LOVE to visit. Here's the story from the Times:



Stephen Huneck, an internationally known artist, woodcarver and furniture maker whose most famous work was the Dog Chapel, a hand-built church in Vermont to which dogs and their owners can go for quiet reflection and spiritual renewal, died on Jan. 7 in Littleton, N.H.
The Dog Chapel, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, is a place for “people of any faith” to celebrate the spiritual connection they have with their dogs. The Greek Revival building is reminiscent of the area’s 1820s country churches. The Dog Chapel started construction in 1997, and has been a popular tourist attraction since it opened in 2000. It sits on Dog Mountain, a vast park-like space Huneck and his wife owned near St. Johnsbury. Dog Mountain, which is open to the public at no charge, includes a gallery, hiking trails and an agility course for dogs.
Small, modest and white, the chapel resembles a 19th-century New England church from the outside, apart from the steeple topped by a winged Labrador. A sign proclaims: “Welcome: All Creeds, All Breeds. No Dogmas Allowed.”
Inside, the four pews, handmade by Mr. Huneck, are supported by carved wooden dogs. Stained-glass windows depict dogs in various poses. The walls are almost entirely covered with handwritten notes to departed pets, placed there by grieving visitors.
Much of Mr. Huneck’s artwork centered on dogs, from life-size sculptures and woodcut prints to inexpensive items like clothing and mouse pads. (His remaining work continues to be sold through his Web site, dogmt.com.). Tragically, Mr. Huneck shot himself, his wife, Gwen, said. She said he had been despondent over having had to lay off most of the employees of his art business that week.

One of Those Days that Break the Routine... sigh!

The day hasn't really been underway a long time, but it is already "interesting." Some days, little challenges present themselves that just have to break the routine. Like our dogs, we like routine. When something happens that disrupt the routine we find ourselves getting impatient. Today has been nothing like routine.
One of our dogs woke us up at 4am this morning, when we could've slept until 5:30am. We turned on the computer to find that the updates we installed on Windows Vista crashed the entire computer, and it wouldn't boot up. In fact, it just beeped continually at us, saying part of the boot drive was missing. How could THAT happen when we only installed updates??? I don't understand computer behavior. SO, I was able to boot the system disk that led me to "reinstall Windows Vista." I hit it. It sat for an hour and did NOTHING, while saying "downloading."
I decided I couldn't work from home, so hurriedly got dressed, got the dogs together, packed their treats, grabbed by briefcase, and drove to Doggy day care. I was running low on gas, so I stopped to gas up at a Sunoco. It was so cold this morning, the buttons on the pump were frozen. So I had to keep re-entering my credit card, and pressing the same buttons until it took. In got coffee to go at Dunkin', dropped the dogs off, and headed back home to check the computer. It was beeping incessantly, so I hit every darn key I could and it stopped. I then put in the VISTA reboot disk, and waited 10 minutes. It said "loading…" all that time, so I decided to run to the office. Who knows what I find when I go home at lunch to look at it… This is the 2nd time in 45 days that I had to RE-INSTALL VISTA and wipe everything off the computer. I think it's time for a new computer... and as Tom and I always say, "Everything costs at least $1,000.00."
Anyway, You may not see blogs for awhile!

My Dad's Spirit Assists My Mom Again

Tuesday, February 2, 2010. I called my mom to check in with her, as I usually do, and she told me that my dad's spirit helped her today.
She said: I have been looking for the back plate to the replacement kitchen wall phone for a couple of months now, and today your father led me to it. What's strange is that I found it on a chair right next to the microwave oven in the downstairs kitchen. I use that microwave almost daily and I know it wasn't there before.
For some reason I asked your father to help me find that missing part of the phone today. I felt an urge to go downstairs, so I did. I happened to walk over to the microwave and was surprised to see that sitting on a chair right next to the microwave, was the missing piece of the phone! I can't believe I had not seen it over the last several months!
What happened here is an apport! My dad's spirit moved the missing phone piece to a place where my mother always goes (next to the microwave). I had a similar experience when I asked my dad to help me find something and I found myself standing in the garage. It was there I found it, too, which was odd, because it had nothing to do with the garage.
My mother also mentioned that the light in her hallway continues to flicker whenever she walks by it, and she said "I know that it's your father." It is.

Slap the Groundhog, please!

It's Groundhog's Day! Um... My enthusiasm died quickly when it was announced there's going to be six more weeks of winter. Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted it in the tiny western Pennsylvania town today.
It's actually a German tradition that says if a "hibernating animal" (groundhog, bear, etc.) sees its shadow on Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, then spring will come early.
All I can say is "DUH, Phil." Baltimore/Washington is under another Winter Storm Warning tonight for 2-5" of snow overnight. THEN, another major snow storm is shaping up for the weekend.
If I see a groundhog, I may just slap him!

Speed cameras snap almost 8,800 drivers in Maryland

This article appears in the Baltimore Sun today, and we are so HAPPY to see it. People drive incredibly recklessly around the Baltimore/Washington, DC area, and just can't follow the rules. So, the state has to treat them like children and get them to stop speeding by installing speed cameras.
Serves them right. Why is it so difficult to do the right thing?
- Yes, we've all been late for something. BUT, think about it. Is it worth taking someone else's life to get to something on time? (Can you get over that?) Is it worth losing your life? **Even if you're trying to get to a hospital to see someone before they pass away, call the police and ask them for an escort. Just think before you speed... and don't drive on a shoulder!! We've seen people using the shoulder as a lane and slamming into cars pulled over to change tires. Sigh.
(BALTIMORE SUN )- Maryland's drivers should be getting the hint right about now that speeding in highway construction zones will cost them.
Almost 8,800 drivers were given $40 tickets during a six-week period that began Nov. 16, when state officials started photographing vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 12 mph or more on three stretches of highway marked as work zones.
During the new program's first six weeks, the cameras led to 3,365 citations to vehicles traveling on Interstate 95 between White Marsh Boulevard and I-895; 4,790 around the Charles Street exit of Baltimore's Beltway; and 590 on I-95 in Prince George's County.

Love this! The Darwin Awards 2009!

Tom and I are always amazed how many truly stupid people are. Well, there are some that are so stupid they make the news. As a result we get to read the annual Darwin Awards 2009
Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us. Here is the glorious winner:

1. When his 38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach , California would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

And now, the honorable mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer... $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?]

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The
whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

[*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER] (This is Rob's Favorite!)
10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by
mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.