Jack Aidan: I like loafing around in my Grandpa's loafers. Easy on and easy off but not so easy for walking around. But I like Grandpa and his loafers are pretty cool in a Grandpa sort of way. Now I'll say cheese and you can snap the photo Grandma.
The Mardi Gras Tree in My Living Room
Houmas House Ornament From Houmas House
Krewe Drinking Cup
Porcelain Mardi Gras Masks Around Vase.#1 I'm new and empty, fill me up with stuff and memories.
#2 I'm still pretty new but my owners are in foreclosure now.
#3 I'm still pretty new and my owners are in foreclosure but they left town and took the washer, dryer, stove, fridge, and all the light fixtures with them.
#4 I'm still pretty new and my owners are in foreclosure but I'm not lonely. Lots of folks are coming in and checking me out. Now if the banks would just give out loans, maybe I would get a new owner to love and cherish me.
#5 I'm still pretty new and my owners are in foreclosure now but too bad they couldn't hold out till Obama passed this housing stimulus package then they might have stayed with me here. I wonder what is going to happen now.
My World Tuesday
Romeo and JulietNow go visit some other My World Tuesday meme sites by clicking here: http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/
Look at this handmade Valentine Card that our 18'th month old grandson, Jack Aidan, made for us by fingrpainting and brush painting. I will have to keep this forever. I love it.
Sky Watch Friday
I can remember when all holidays were distinctive. None were this generic. Washington's Birthday was celebrated on his birthday which is February 22'nd. Lincoln's Birthday was celebrated on his birthday which is February 12'th. (Today is Lincoln's Birthday!)
Studying the congressional bailout has Jack and I hanging by our thumbs. You need to be a tax lawyer to fully understand what they are proposing in each house of congress and what they will finally work out as a compromise between the two houses. In the meantime the American citizen keeps sucking up the damage that the economy is doing to his personal finances.
Jack Aidan goes reggae in the souvenir Jamaican Tshirt Grandma bought for him on the cruise the other week. Can you dance like the Jamaicans, Jack Aidan. Grandma will have to teach you the moves that she saw. You are going to have shake that diaper to do those Jamaican dance moves. And I understand that your mommy is going to give you an art lesson in finger painting this morning. That should be a hoot. I hope she takes some photos.
Yesterday I showed you the profane on board Costa Fortuna. Today I will show you the sacred on board Costa Fortuna. I think because this ship was from Italy where most citizens practice the Roman Catholic faith we had a Catholic Church on the ship. It was small but done in an elaborate Italian style. The walls and ceiling were all in gold. It reminded me of the Sistine Chapel at St. Peters in Rome. And like Rome it came with a true Italian priest. In the second picture you see him in green up at the alter blessing the bread and wine for us. Oh, I must add that like the rest of the ship the lights on the sidewalls and on the ceiling were made of Venetian Italian glass. Very, very pretty chapel. The murals of the saints in the archways on the sidewalls were very Greek Orthodox in appearance which would make sense since the Romans conquered the Greeks who had been in Rome as well as Athens. In the above photo the couple sitting in the last row were the couple from Belgium that we had lunch with one day on the ship.
You can barely see Anna and John Smith sitting up in the front row on the left. John is Deacon John and he acted in that capacity for the priest on this cruise. And I think I mentioned that Anna and John Smith's son lives with his family right here in Haymarket in our golf course community of Piedmont. 
I'll save the sacred for Sunday. But here's the profane for Saturday. Every day when I returned to our cabin aboard the Costa Fortuna I would discover that the cabin boy would have folded up my pajama tops and bottoms into some sort of creature. In this photo my pajamas have become a Caribbean sea turtle. Now don't you think it is a little strange and profane to have someone playing animals with your personal pajamas? On our cruise to Alaska in 2007 they used the bath towels to create these creatures.
Oh, ain't she sweet,Dinner on board a cruise ship means that you may have to get up and dance with your waiter or waitress or else watch them dance on the balcony of the restaurant.
When we left Grand Cayman Island we had to again board the tender boats to take us back out in the harbor where we then reboarded the Costa Fortuna.
Here is one tender boat heading back to get more folks to take to the cruise ship. This photo has a good picture of that submarine and yacht as well as some country's naval ship in the background. How can you tell a naval ship? They are always battleship grey in color. Maybe to blend in with the sea instead of standing out like a bright white ship.
We returned to our cabin where Jack went to get us some tropical drink of the day from the ship's bar to enjoy while sitting and watching TV on our leather built-in sofa with minute coffee table. These cabins are arranged much like a house trailer with everything built-in and they are just as wide as a standard house trailer.
Friday night we had our Captain's Gala Dinner. Here the men at our table are deciding what they want to eat for each course from appetizer to dessert. Deacon John are you going to have tofu?
Jim and Jack said that they were not hungry but they kept eyeing the menu and thinking about food.
Our very last night on the Costa Fortuna we found our sheets waiting for us on our bed for us to don in some fashion to wear to dinner. This was also the night that we had to place our luggage in the hall to be picked up for transport to the ship's terminal back at Port Everglades when we landed at Fort Lauderdale. The cruise ship director reminded everyone to keep some regular clothes out for Sunday travel. He said that tonight those sheets are called togas but if you try to hail a cab tomorrow morning in that attire people are going to say you are going around Fort Lauderdale in a sheet. So look below at the various creative ways folks wore their togas to dinner on Saturday night.
Jack
Joann and Joe
Jim and Joyce
Jack and Yours Truly
People at Neighboring Dinner Table
Ingrid With Friends At Neighboring Table 
These Two Wanted Their Stuffed Animal in the Photo What does the sea look like from our cabin window? Click here to see for yourself.
Parrot Talk Video. Click to listen to Joann talking to the parrots.
Click on the video to see the fishes swimming in the Caribbean Sea.
Skywatch Friday
Look at this. You can go on a wooden pirate ship and pretend that is is 1500 in the Caribbean. We watched this pirate ship leave the dock and circle our cruise ship. Right after I snapped this still photo Jack and I heard a very loud cannon boom! Apparently they try to make this pirate cruise as authentic as possible.
This is a photo of the pirate ship from the seaside restaurant that Jack and I were visiting.
This is the Jamaican man working on Grand Cayman who gave us the commentary on our underwater sea tour that we took on a semi submersible submarine. Look below and you will see what we saw when we looked out the submarine's windows. What do you see? Lots of coral and fishes.
We really enjoyed this tour. We also got to see two shipwrecked ships lying in the waters off the coast of Grand Cayman.
And here is our deep sea diver who dived off the top of the submarine to feed the fish which allowed us to see lots and lots of fish all at once.
Jack and I saw stingrays on the ocean floor on the submarine tour but these stingrays are part of water fountain in the shopping port.
Grand Cayman is the island of bankers. Over 600 banks on this small island because they have top secret accounts. This is where Bernie Madoff was trying to ship some of his money after he finally got caught with his ponzi scheme. So what do the rich folks do here? Apparently many of them invest in jewels like diamonds, tanzanite, etc. There surely was an abundance of jewelry stores. Notice above the man rolling Cuban tobacco into cigars. You can not declare Cuban cigars legally on your customs form when you head back to U.S. soil but I bet a few folks had some Cuban cigars stashed in their luggage or else they were smoking them fast and furiously while on the island paradise. Beside our cruise ship in the Grand Cayman port was a fancy yacht. Someone on our tour suggested that maybe it was Tiger Wood's yacht since he and his wife own a home on Grand Cayman. Who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe it is Maddoff's yacht!
These are the Grand Cayman parrots.
And from our seats at this outdoor restaurant you can see our ship. If you click on the photo below you can also just make out two folks snorkeling in the water with our submarine in the distant background.
Here we are sharing a piece of Grand Cayman rum cake. Very good. We bought several to bring home for relatives and neighbors.
Grand Cayman island is a lot like Key West, Florida in that there lots of roosters crowing around the island. And where there are roosters there has got to be some little hens like this one who wanted some of our lunch.
This is a local church on the island that we toured before we reboarded the ship.
Plaques on the wall are for folks lost at sea and the mahogany ceiling beams are from ships lost at see.
Each day on Costa Fortuna we went thru the elevator doors to get to where we wanted to be aboard the ship. I became fascinated with 1940's style art murals that were on the doors. Take a look. You can see the middle lines where the doors meet. Now look at the people in the murals. I just loved their cool dressy clothes. We surely don't dress as well as folks did in the 1940's.
A lady in a white mink stole. You don't see that too often today. Today we are more animal rights conscious. Have you recently heard that Ashley Judd the actress is calling out Sarah Palin for shooting wolves while flying inside a plane? I once had a white mink collar on my good Sunday going to church coat. Today I wouldn't dare do that.
This lady in the slacks makes me think of Katherine Hepburn.
Here is a black tie affair. I can almost picture in my mind the scene in real life long ago which would have included a dry martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other. By the way, on the cruise ship I noticed that the Europeans are still into smoking big time like it is a glamorous thing to do.
I want to list once again all the members of our Italian group that arranged to go to sea together on Costa Fortuna. I left a few folks off the first posting of the list. Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa!
