Ping: jackiepatti - footwarmers

I saw this post over in the cycling newsgroup and thought of you (I hope
memory serves here):

http://www.hotronic.com/products/footwarmers/index.htm

Can't say if they work, but this might be of some use to you.

Thanks for thinking of me!

I'm leaving on a cruise first thing in the morning. I am hoping
Bermuda warms my toes.

I'll check into these when I get home. Thanks!

Have a great trip. :-)

--
Cheri

wrote in message
. com...
Thanks for thinking of me!

I'm leaving on a cruise first thing in the morning. I am hoping
Bermuda warms my toes.

I'll check into these when I get home. Thanks!

Yeah, I need a trip to Bermuda too!

Cheri wrote:
:: Have a great trip. :-)
::
:: --
:: Cheri
::
:: wrote in message
:: . com...
::: Thanks for thinking of me!
:::
::: I'm leaving on a cruise first thing in the morning. I am hoping
::: Bermuda warms my toes.
:::
::: I'll check into these when I get home. Thanks!

Damn, me too. Just think about how all that warm sand would warm your
feet. ;-)

--
Cheri
Roger Zoul wrote in message ...
Yeah, I need a trip to Bermuda too!

Cheri wrote:
Damn, me too. Just think about how all that warm sand would warm your
feet. ;-)

I can report that my toes stayed warm throughout.

I can also report that a cruise ship is not the place to be if you are
on any sort of diet at all.

wrote:
:: Cheri wrote:
::: Damn, me too. Just think about how all that warm sand would warm
::: your feet. ;-)
::
:: I can report that my toes stayed warm throughout.
::
:: I can also report that a cruise ship is not the place to be if you
:: are on any sort of diet at all.

haha. You didn't seriously expect to diet while on your cruise, did you?

If I were going on a cruise, I'd do a PSMF two weeks before and then enjoy
the hell out of myself while on the cruise (including exercsing everyday).

Did you have a good time, jackie? I've never been on a cruise and I feel my
time has come.

Roger Zoul wrote:
haha. You didn't seriously expect to diet while on your cruise, did you?

If I were going on a cruise, I'd do a PSMF two weeks before and then enjoy
the hell out of myself while on the cruise (including exercsing everyday).

Did you have a good time, jackie? I've never been on a cruise and I feel my
time has come.

Sorry, I missed this reply so am late responding.

My plan was to eat as much as I wanted, but try to stick to low-carb.
This plan lasted one day, then everything went to hell.

Which is OK - it was a one shot deal. We are not cruise kind of
people, we are camping kind of people. We did the cruise cause it was
a family type of thing, all my inlaw families werre going (though my
FIL cancelled cause his wife was ill and my BIL canceleld cause his
wife was too far along in her pregnancy).

It *must* be a one shot deal. Even if we could financially afford it,
if I cruised regularly, I'd be Jabba the Hut. Yes, there was a fine
fitness center and a track and such, but the only facility of the sort
I used was to get a sweidish massage. My bg was just under 300 right
before we left the ship - took a few days to get back to normal!

Here's some posts I made elsewhere about it, with names replaced by
initials:

************************************************** ***************************************
cast of characters:

me, S (my husband) and C (my daughter) in a cabin

M (S's sister), her husband R, and their twin baby boys, J and A in
another cabin

E (S's aunt) and her granddaughter Ja (S's cousin's daughter) in a
third cabin

setting: Explorer of the Seas ship cruising from NJ to Bermuda

C, whom is 23, hit it off majorly with Ja, who is 7. Ja greatly admired
C... the tatoo behind the ear, the piercing through the tongue and
eyebrow, all the black eyeliner, black lace dresses with incredible
cleavage and such, the many umbrealls C saved her from $10 drinks, etc.
And C adores kids so adored being adored by this kid.

Anyways, we had cruised to Bermuda, done all the Bermuda stuff, and
were crusing back on Wednesday night when the events in our drama took
place.

So they had noticed that "The Chamber", a sorta semi-gothic bar on the
ship, had a "family disco" thang happenning from 9-10 PM (normally,
it's an adult-only bar). So C took Ja dancing and when they were done
with that, they decided to go hot tubbing up on deck 11. We had all
figured out that hitting the hot tubs after 8 or 9 PM was kewl... the
whole deck was deserted, the bars were closed, it was just a handful of
people, if anyone at all. Great place to de-stress and get away from
the crowds. So Ja went with E to their cabin to get suited up, and C
came back to our cabin to do the same.

Meanwhile... ya'll may remember S recently posted what a
pain-in-the-butt he is with all his "rules" needed to sleep. With the 3
of us sharing a stateroom (which, as is traditional, barely has room to
turn around), S's rules were broken repeatedly and he hadn't gotten
much sleep. We had decided after dinner to go lie down, S cause he was
exhausted and me cause I had a touch of seasickness. I had told S he
was not allowed to be grouchy at interruptions; it was freaking 8 PM
when we went to lie down after all. He didn't manage it though!

So C came in to get suited up... this woke us up. Then E called
wondering where C was, this woke us up also. Then 2 minutes later, the
phone rang again, and S screamed into it, "WHAT?!?!"

I later heard the story of how the entire call went...

C: "I'm on deck 11. I think I broke my ankle. They're taking me to the
infirmary on deck 1. Tell my mom to meet me."

S: "Who is this?"

C eventually got it through S's head what she was saying, his body
language changed to "crisis mode" instead of "seriously annoyed mode,"
which woke me up more fully, we got up and got dressed and made it to
the infirmary before C arrived. There were around 5 or 6 people
scuttling around... everyone got there before C.

The really ironic thing was because C's date for the evening was 7
years old, it was the only evening she'd done zero drinking.
Apparently, walking sober was a tad difficult for her.

She fell and realized she was badly hurt and also that she was alone. A
bit later, a lady walked by and C called her. The lady reported the
problem, then went back and stayed with C until help arrived. She told
C that she should squeeze her hand to take her mind off the pain, that
she was a tough lady, she had 5 kids. Eventually, help arrived, a
wheelchair, some ice, and a phone with which she called us.

A ship's "hospital" is both impressive and unimpressive simultaneously.
There are 5 or 6 different rooms, including an ICU. There is one
primary MD, a nurse anesthesiologist, and several aides. There is an
informality that is interesting... they let me back there right away
and I remained most of the time, except for x-rays. When I first saw
her, I was shocked, a "growth" the size of a baseball was sticking out
of her ankle (though the skin wasn't broken). The x-ray guy asked me to
leave so they could take some pics and see if it was broken; I pointed
at that lump and said, "Look. It's *broken*" Heh.

The nurse anesthesiologist wasn't there yet, so the MD put the IV in. I
was surprised, I didn't know they even knew how to do that. Well, turns
out... they don't. C got poked several times and was a bloody mess
before the thing was in and later had a rather huge bruise.

Meanwhile, I'm just trying to get hold of myself, cause I'm kinda
freaked out, but need to be comforting. I sat down on a chair out of
everyone's way and petted her and talked to her soothingly, while
trying to calm myself down. C asked S to go find E and Ja and let them
know what happened, and I remained there trying to be comforting.

The x-rays are hanging on the wall by now, and I can clearly see two
breaks myself. The one, the smaller, thinner bone, is fractured, but
mostly lined up. The other is completly dislocated and not where it's
supposed to be at all. It makes me cringe almost as bad as seeing her
ankle does.

And as I am murmuring and making soothing noises, the doctor and his
aide are trying to find a pulse in C's foot and can't. And it's really,
really cold. And they are discussing this and I am overhearing them. C
is kinda out of it with pain, so she is missing the conversation, but I
suddenly realized why they don't usually let you back there when they
are treating someone in normal hospitals. I am having a very difficult
time not freaking out and only the thought that the *only* thing I can
do useful right now is pet and soothe C is allowing me to maintain at
all.

And I *did* maintain then, but writing this, I'm finding myself kinda
freaking out here. I'm all shaky and kinda spazzing.

So, the nurse anesthesiologist showed up, asked when she'd last eaten
(it's a *cruise* - you eat *continually* for *days*) and decided she
couldn't have general. He set up a continuous blood-pressure reader, a
continuous pule thingy, put her on oxygen, and then pulled the
defbrillator over in easy reach. And I started saying this mantra to
myself, "I may not freak out. I must simply soothe and stay out of the
way. No matter what happens, I must not freak out."

So he gave her "something to relax" then shot some Demerol into the IV.
Then the MD on the other end gave her a shot of local into her ankle
and she screamed and cried and the anesthesiologist gave her another
shot of Demerol and I petted her and told her it was OK to just breathe
deep, take a deep breath, and started doing it with her... they set her
ankle in one shot, causing a new round of screaming and crying, and
soothing sounds and petting, etc.

Afterwards, they asked her about her pain level, and she said on a
scale of 1-10, it was a 3 1/2 and they asked what it was when she came
in and she said 25, and they decided it was still too much, and gave
her another shot of Demerol.

But they decided it was likely set properly and began putting her in a
very thin cast. The MD was literally telling his aide exactly what to
do, open one of those packages, soak it in water there, lay it out on
this table... and I realized this assistant had no clue what he was
doing.

They got her bandaged up and she said her pain level was only 1/2 now.
S arrived and said M, E and Ja were outside and wanted to see C. In
fact, when Ja heard what happened, she *demanded* to be taken to the
hospital right away and wouldn't hear anything else. R was upstairs
with the twins who were asleep, but the whole rest of the family was
here.

So they decided to do x-rays so we all had to leave the room for a few
minutes. I told C I'd be a while cause I needed a freaking cigarette,
and S was back to stand in for parenting duties.

M came with me and I told her what had happened. When we got back,
they'd let E and Ja in to see her, so we waited outside until they were
done so the room wouldn't be too crowded. Then we went back in. M did
her visiting and the doctor spoke to me and S.

They needed to keep her there a few hours to monitor her circulation
(but she *had* some again, so...). The set was temporary, she needed to
get to an ER as soon as we got to port. She needed surgery. The
ligaments were completly disconnected from the large bone in her foot.

By the way, the ship hospital takes *no* insurance. They give you forms
for reimbursement, but you have to pay now. And... you have no choice.
Because when you got on, you attach a credit card to your ship card,
which is used for all onboard purchases. You *thought* this was about
$10 drinks with lots of umbrelals where you get to keep the glass, but
they've now just added $2K to your bill.

And... I hadn't given them a credit card, but my bank card. So... they
just grabbed $2K out of my checking account. This just after S quit his
job! ARGH!

C's injury cost more than the cruise. We will get reimbursed
eventually, but she's got Medicaid, so it'll be months.

Eventually they discharged her, gave her some Percocet, and then stuck
her in a wheelchair (too wide to go into our non-accessible stateroom)
and let us go. Those bathrooms are too small for one person to use
comfortably, with one trying to help the other, and neither of us
skinny chicks, it was a mess. I spent the last day of the cruise
basically getting C dressed and undressed, in-and-out of bathrooms, and
fetching things for her. Got her to a couple shows and dinner too, but
most of the day was in the stateroom.

We had to be packed by midnight, so we got that done, and I awoke
during the night with her crying beside me a few times... the pain meds
weren't cutting it (she was sleeping with me in the double bed since
thr break, S got relegated to the bunk).

Then the next day... getting her dressed, fed, to the meeting place for
disembarking, disembarked, onto a bus, off the bus, to our luggage,
through customs, on to a van, back to the hotel where we'd left the
car, inside to have lunch, to the airport, into a wheelchair, got her
ticket, her luggage checked, and gave custody to an airline employee.
All this with multiple bathroom trips...

I spoke to her roommate a few hours ago, she'd been picked up and they
were on their way to the ER. I don't know anything else just yet; I
suspect they're not calling cause it's so late.

************************************************** ***************************************
This is about our cruise. S is writing a web site with a few hundred
pics, but I get to get my two cents in too.

It is a weird thing to go on vacation and at various spots throughout,
find you are writing posts in your head.

The primary reason we did this cruise was because it was a family
thing. We're not really cruise-type people ourselves; we're more
camping kind of people. As noted elsewhere, we had 3 staterooms of
family. We were supposed to have 5, but S's stepmother was too ill to
go and his brother's wife was in her third trimester so wasn't allowed,
so we were down to 3 staterooms.

The ship itself has 11 main decks, plus 3 partial decks, for a total of
14 decks. Here's some pics I googled (I was not allowed custody of the
camera):
http://www.ship-technology.com/proje...3_explorer.jpg

There entire fifth deck is just of shops and clubs, a bit of a "mall".
This pic shows about 1/4 of it:
http://www.cruisemates.com/images/kuk-int-2.jpg

On the 11th deck, there is both an open pool area with the main pool, 5
or 6 hot tubs, multiple showers and a bar. Separately, there is a
solarium with a giant jacuzzi, wading pool, and surrounded by
sculptures.

The pools are all filled with sea water, so you float no matter how
much buffet you partake of.

At one end of the 11th deck, there is a buffet that is open nearly 24
hours, plus a couple small restraunts, at the other end is the fitness
center, which has all the exercise equipment you could ever want, plus
classes, plus another jacuzzi, saunas and steam rooms.

Above the fitness center is the spa, where there's a bazillion types of
massages, facials, pedicures and manicures one can have in utterly
decadent surroundings.

On the 12th deck, a track circles the entire pool area for joggers. In
addition, on the 12th-14th decks, besides the giant circular jazz club,
there's also a miniature golf course, basketball court, shuffleboard
courts, inline skating rink, and the kid's club, which includes another
pool with a slide.

There's also a rock-climbing wall:
http://www.cruiseweb.com/RCIIMAGES/R...KCLIMBING1.JPG

There's also an ice skating rink, open both for passenger skating and
for fullblown musical extravaganza ice shows.

The main shows are in a two-story theatre and include singing, dancing,
acrobatics and comedy shows.

Oh, and there's also a casino.

There's about 10 restraunts, plus the main dining room, where you have
a head waiter, main waiter and assistant waiter for each table. And if
you can't get your butt up and out to any of those restraunts, there's
also free room service.

In short, you are not going to diet on a cruise. "I'm hungry" on a
cruise means "my stomach doesn't actually hurt right now and probably
has a good 2-3 TB empty space in it.

HUGE amounts of food are wasted. I said I thought they should have a
farm deck and raise chickens and hogs as they'd likely raise enough for
the next cruise each time out.

There's "themed" bars... everything from a jazz club to a goth club to
a cigar club. Probably about ten to fifteen bars total. But... you
don't have to get off your lazy ass to get a drink, they are offered to
you constantly. On the deck, in the restraunts, just walking around...
people are trying to give you things where "you get to keep the glass"
with lotsa umbrellas in them. They *just* stop short of following you
into the restrooms to give you drinks.

In short, don't go on a cruise if you're an alcoholic either. Though
they *did* have AA meetings on board!

And that is another thing, there are activities constantly. You get a
daily printout of all the activities. If you spent no time eating or
drinking and just ran from one activity to another all day, you
wouldn't do half of them.

I didn't even *see* half the public areas of the ship. We just weren't
gone long enough.

Just looking at pictures of the thing, it's a disgustingly decadent
display of conspicuous consumption. Everything in me utterly
disapproves of the entire thing... it's gaudy and ugly and wasteful...

And I utterly loved it!

************************************************** ***************************************

On the one hand, I was relatively pleased we were going to Bermuda.
Bermuda is a relatively rich country, and I would've been mortifed had
we been pulling into some poverty-stricken place with this disgustingly
decadent ship.

But on the other hand, I felt apologetic regardless. I lived in Florida
for 12 years. We *hated* tourists. They were stupid, in your way all
the time, and drove prices up. I was just utterly embarassed to *be* a
tourist.

Bermuda is about 21 square miles. There's two main towns, Hamilton and
St George. Cruise ships dock right in town, there's usually 2 or 3
docked in each town. However, we were in a ship too large to dock in
town, so we docked at the naval dockyard.

We were in Bermuda two days. The first day, S and C were booked on an
excursion to do an introductory scuba lesson, so I was on my own. I
bought the $12 transportation pass which allows you all the buses and
ferries you want for a day.

I walked around the dockyard, bought some Diet Pepsi at a convenient
store (none on the ship!), then caught a ferry to Hamilton, which was
about a 20 minute ride.

The cruise ships were docked on Front Street, which is a road filled
with pastel-covered shops. The road was as cleaned and sterile as
Disneyworld.

The roads are *very* narrow, sometimes walled on both sides also. The
cars were all small, boxy, European things. And they drive on the left,
which I discovered is more confusing than you think, even though I
never drove. Just riding in a bus was weird. Bermuda wisely does not
allow car rentals, but they have not yet outlawed moped and scooter
rentals and I saw a near-accident every 5 minutes or so cause by a dumb
tourist.

I walked down the main road, stopping once for more Diet Pepsi, then
got to the end where a dock full of containers was. I had figured out
by then that there is almost no industry in Bermuda and everything is
hauled in. All the shopping provided for tourists is stuff that had to
be shipped in and therefore costs much more than if you just bought it
at home. I was interested in how they got the stuff in the containers
around given that the roads were so narrow. So I hung out for a while
and saw what they did... a day cab truck pulled out with a short
flatbed just long enough for a signle container. While much smaller
than the trucks we drove, it still looked darned difficult to drive on
those tiny roads.

After that, I got off the tourist strip and explored Hamilton a bit.
The rest of it wasn't so Disney-like. I spoke to a few folks here and
there and stopped at the real post office to buy stamps. I saw a small
kid with the most *gorgeous* dreads and stopped him to compliment him
on his hair. I also saw businessmen with the long-sleeve collared shirt
and tie, dress shoes and knee socks, and bermuda shorts - which looks
so ridiculous to my eye.

I eventually walked to the main transportation terminal and caught a
bus back to the dockyard. The bus ride was about an hour long, but I
got off a few times to visit beaches along the way.

At one point, there was an annoying tourist sitting beside me
discussing how much better buses were in NJ. I was sitting with a local
and just cringing in embarassment. The tourists later asked the local
how to get places, and the local was quite polite, which surprised me.
I'd have told them to go the **** back to NJ if they wanted to go to
the beach.

Generally, Bermuda reminded me of Florida, very similar flora and
fauna, and bermuda grass of course. There were a handful of unfamiliar
plants around also, but mostly it all looked like Florida. There were
entirely different ants too, the kind that accidentally sitting on at
the beach didn't cause me severe pain as it would in FL.

But the water is an entirely different color. And not just *one*
different color, but several different colors. I am not good with
colors so can't describe the shades, but it was gorgeous.

Bermuda is basically a bunch of sedimented coral on top of a dormant
volcano. Because the ground is porous, rivers and streams don't
develop, so the water doesn't get filled with sediment from runoff.
Also, there is really no industry there, so little pollution. So the
water is basically completly clear everywhere.

October was a good time to go as it wasn't unbearably hot. It was hot
cause I was doing so much unaccustomed exercise walking all over the
place, but not too bad. My first day out, I never even put sunscreen on
and only got a very mild sunburn, just a bit of redness with no pain at
all.

I was watching for farms during the bus ride and saw a few very small
cultivated fields (like a half acre or so), one even had a couple goats
on it. I also saw one larger farm (maybe 5 acres) that actually had a
tractor. If there's any cows, I don't know where they hide them. As far
as I can tell, they pretty much import everything and their only real
industry is tourism.

Eventually, I got back to the dockyard, hit the convenience store for
some more Diet Pepsi and stamps and got back on the ship to meet up
with everyone for dinner.

The next day, S and I were scheduled to go on a kayaking/snorkeling
excursion. The tour guides picked us up at the dock in a small boat and
we left. The one tour guide was talking over a microphone during it,
and he was basically doing standup comedy during the boat ride. He was
kewl.

Then we got to our beach, and discovered they weren't *really* kayaks,
but these molded plastic things you sit on two to a "kayak". We went
all over the place and stuck very closely to our other tour guide, who
turned out to be the interesting one as he knew all sorts of kewl
stuff, biology, ecology, etc. He answered questions, stopped whenever
there was something kewl to look at, etc. We saw all kinds of crabs and
fishes and such.

S rescued a glass bottle during a stop, using both our paddles to fish
it off the bottom. He later rescued a plastic bag too.

We arrived at another beach, docked the "kayaks" and went snorkeling.
The water and air was *just* a tad too cool, but when we finished up
and got back into the kayaks to return, we were comfortable enough,
though I expected it to be cold cause it was windy and overcast.

On the boat ride back, there were coolers of bottled water, soda and
beer. Overall, I really enjoyed it, they treated us like people, not
like tourists. And I'd wisely slathered myself with sunscreen before we
left, so got a bit of color, but no further burning.

We went back to the ship for a quick lunch and then wandered around the
dockyard. There's an entire mall there, so we bought a few touristy
t-shirts. Mailed our postcards. Basically, acted exactly like tourists
after all, though hopefully not stupid and obnoxious ones!

So that was our second day and I'd say we could easily have spent
another week or two; Bermuda is pretty cool.

************************************************** ***************************************

Cruising can be surprisingly cheap for what you get.

M (my SIL) is into it. She got married on a cruise ship... they flew
the whole family out to BC, got married, then they took an Alaskan
glacier cruise for their honeymoon.

She's cruised a number of times with her husband various places. And
she did an all-chick cruise before S's mom died, her and S's mom, his
aunt and one cousin, where they flew to Asia and cruised with stops in
China, Japan and Korea.

Anyway, she is good at finding deals. She hangs out on cruise forums
and knows when the seasons are and all that. And since she wanted to
make it a fmaily cruise, she found a *really* cheap deal for us.

This was an "end of season" deal, being that the tourist season for
Bermuda is almost over. However, it was gorgeous in Bermuda and I doubt
I'd have liked it much hotter anyways.

We boarded the ship on Saturday morning and began eating and drinking
immediatly! Our staterooms were ready at 1 PM and then the ship left
dock that evening. We got to Bermuda Monday morning and left Tuesday
night, arriving back in NJ yesterday morning and disembarking just
before noon. So basically, it was 6 days total.

The cruise itself for the three of us S cost us around $1500. Course,
we had a crappy stateroom, but there's no point in paying for a nice
one as you generally don't do anything but sleep and shower there
(unless you break a leg!).

C got a roundtrip flight from Houston for $250. We got a hotel in NJ
the night before, and including parking for a week and transportation
to and from the port, it was under $200.

I budgeted an additional $250 each for excursions and spending money. C
went scuba diving, I went kayaking/snorkeling, S went on both. Most of
the spending money beyond excursions went for drinks. I also spent
another $140 or so on tipping.

We spent a bit on t-shirts and postcards and such, and another bit on
buying some duty-free liquor the last night to bring home. And I bought
some of the pics the professional photographers take of you like crazy
all over the ship.

The whole thing came in at less than $3000 for the 3 of us. You *could*
spend a lot more if you are into shopping, gambling, drinking more
seriously than we do, etc.

Course, C's broken leg nearly doubled that cost on us, but if you
*don't* break a leg, this can be a pretty good deal.

On the other hand, we could go camping for *months* for $3000, so...

************************************************** ***************************************

I wasn't very enthusiastic either.

And S was downright not wanting to go, he informed me of this the week
before, after everything was paid for and all.

We figured we weren't "cruise kind of people" and that this was a
one-time deal we were doing just cause it was a family event.

But it turned out awesome!

************************************************** ***************************************