After the small hike, I conned the local rosewood carver into selling me a chunk of rosewood to take back to mom for use in inlays. Yes, she appreciated it and was all excited....

We headed back down to the beautiful beach, where we watched wildlife and wild dogs and cats, and had some beverages as we relaxed for an hour or so before reboarding our boat for the ride back to Puerto Vallarta.

The Oosterdam whilst in dock in Puerto Vallarta

After our tour, we reboarded the ship to shower and refresh, then headed back out into town for dinner and drinks and some generalized wandering and investigation. It turns out that, even though this is our third time in Puerto Vallarta, Ethan and I had never actually set foot in the town--we land at the airport, then head north to Nuevo Vallarta, where we have always stayed in the past. Huh. But PV is awesome, and we enjoyed the sculptures and sand creations we saw as we moseyed the boardalk area.

We finally decided on a restaurant and had a light dinner and drinks watching the sun set over the ocean. Then it was time to head back to the ship once again, where a towel elephant awaited us in our stateroom.....

I will eventually finish my cruise postings...

Just sidetracked by cats and cat issues and life in general. I did finally resize the pro pics so I can post them. Here is one, check out the others on my facebook profile....

Guilty as charged

After consulting with a surgeon, internist and my regular veterinarian, we have reached the conclusion that there is nothing I can do for the Shadow Man other than supportive SQ fluids and potassium replacement (his K+ levels are low).

At first, I was at peace with this. Then I learned that there is actually a veterinary hospital in New York that has successfully treated many, many cats with ureteral stenting, and also ureteral bypass for the past 5 years. With an extremely successful postop success rate. According to one of the vets there, they have had cats die since they had this surgery, but none from kidney/surgery related issues. Shadow is a perfect candidate. They actually consider the surgery pretty minor, and will even do it in very sickly cats, but Shadow is very young and healthy and perfect. He could live another 10+ years after this minor surgery.


Except......


Except I can't afford it. So now I feel really guilty. They estimate $6-8K for the surgery and hospital stay in total, maybe as low as $5k because Shadow is so healthy and would likely be able to leave the hospital sooner. I don't have $6-8K plus travel expenses. We can't do this. I feel guilty. If his owner had oodles of cash, he would/could live a long and healthy life after stenting or bypassing this obstruction. But we can't afford that, so his life span is now unknown, but likely to be quite limited. Sucks. I almost wish I hadn't heard about this, because I was feeling OK with the idea that we were doing everything possible for Shadow, within the guidelines of keeping his quality of life as our determining factor for what we will or won't do. To know that there is a minimally invasive surgery with a permanent solution for him, that I simply cannot do for him because of my own financial status is crappy. The combination of tripling what we owed the IRS as compared to last year, and paying off all of Boo's vet bills and our spendy cruise vacation before Shadow was sick and now all of Shadow's current bills means that we are already in some credit card debt, and can't really go that much further in.

Anyway. Supportive fluids and potassium supplementation. He doesn't mind the fluids as much has he does that nasty potassium. I tasted it--smells sickly sweet, but tastes like gluey gaggy nothingness. I sure wouldn't want it smeared in my mouth twice a day. But, he forgives me a few minutes afterwards, so we are doing OK.

If it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all

Boo: After several thousands of dollars worth of tests and diagnostics and treatment, we now know that he has congenitally deformed kidneys, which are now barely functioning. He will be on every-other-day subcutaneous fluids and twice weekly calcitriol for the rest of his life.

Boo is currently thriving. His weight is up, he is happy and healthy and extremely energetic. His chronic renal failure is not holding him back at all.

Shadow: After XRays and ultrasounds and bloodwork, we now know that his left kidney is full of stones and all shrivelled up and not working. Probably been that way for several years now. No biggie, since you get two kidneys. Well, usually. His good (and now only) kidney is all dilated, and the ureter leading to the bladder is all dilated, up until some sort of blockage. It is not a stone--maybe some sort of infective process or hematoma or a tumor or god knows what. He does have a stone in his bladder, which could have come through his ureter and scratched it up, leading to any of the above. We don't know.

Within the next week, Shadow will either build up enough urine pressure behind the blockage (a little urine is getting through, so it is not a *complete* blockage at this time) to force it through, into the bladder, or the antibiotics we are giving him will shrink it, or he will have surgery to rotoroot it out, or surgery will show that whatever is there is not mobile and therefore not fixable, and Shadow will die.

Two random kidney problems in two genetically unrelated cats. Both congenital sort of problems, both diagnosed within a 6 month period. Both in kidney failure (one hopefully just acutely). Both living in my house, both holding a piece of my heart. This is really, really not fair.

The beautiful Swarovski crystal globe hanging over the atrium, as seen from the Pinnacle Grill



My steak (had to cook it a bit more because juiciness and blood scare me, but it was good)


Baked Alaska for dinner. We all 4 shared one serving. It had Cherry Garcia ice cream in the middle.


A towel swan awaited us in our room when we got back

Oh yeah--since we were all dressed up, we got formal pictures taken, and paid several arms, legs and a torso to bring them home. I will have to get Kim's versions and scan them as well. I totally forgot to post pictures from the previous night. We had formal pics taken then, also. And, now that I think of it--Monday wasn't a formal night. It was a fancy restaurant, and *that* is why we dressed up. And Kim's birthday and all that. Anyway. Pictures.

Nevermind. Formal pictures scanned so big, they are freezing up my computer. I will fix and try again. Here are pics of our dinner and the restaurant.

Ethan's seafood appetizer


French Onion soup for me. Not as good as the same soup in the main dining room, but still delicious.



Seafood amuse-bouche that I gave to Ethan. Apparantly it was delicious.


The beautiful china and chairs of the Pinnacle Grill

Since this was Kim's birthday, and one of the two formal nights on board, Kim and I decided to have our hair done. I got a fancy updo with crystals and 54 bobby pins (I counted as I took them out....), and Kim got curls for the evening






They weren't quite ready for us when we got to the Pinnacle Grill, so we headed to the nearby Pinnacle Bar for some pre-dinner cocktails while we awaited our table.

After our wanders, we headed up to the aft pool for some more lazing around. Scored a table right next to the pool which was convenient. Another warm, sunny day with a slight breeze to keep you from overheating.

You can just see Ethan and Justin on the back right corner of the pool in this pic. Random guest Steve in his purple shirt is just walking away from them (odd, odd guy who wanders around and gets very chatty with other passengers--we thought he worked for the cruise line, since he has on a shirt and tie. But he was a bit drunk, so I guess that should have been my first clue)

Cruise: Monday (at sea and scenic cruising)

Monday was our second sea day. It was also Kim's birthday. A little note: We seem to all (Ethan and I included) know that Kim likes the occasional glass of champagne. I think she had 5 or 6 total bottles of champagne gifted to her throughout this cruise. We need to branch out a bit =)

This morning, we got up bright and early (I think it was 8am), and headed up to the Crow's nest to see the scenic cruising of Bahia Magdelena. We were looking for whales and other sea life. As you can see by this photo, it was extremely foggy. I don't think the blaring foghorn on the ship was helpful in attracting wildlife, but we did manage to see a few whales in the bay, and the coastline was beautiful as the fog lifted a bit.



After our hour of scenic cruising, we moseyed back to our room, putzed a bit then headed down to the promenade deck to walk around a bit. We found this interesting patch of grass tucked away for the guide and service dogs on board. Never thought about it before....but they have to go somewhere!

Oosterdam, Day 1 (Saturday)

We just recently returned home from our cruise on the Holland America Line's Oosterdam (rhymes with toasterdam). I guess I
should preface these remarks by saying that we cruised on Holland America Cruiselines, and we got a screaming deal through our friend Kim, who works for the company in the Seattle office.

Our cruise left from San Diego, and travelled to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo san Lucas before returning to San Diego. We had a total of three days at sea as well. Maybe three and a half. We left San Diego Saturday afternoon, stayed at sea on Sunday, did some scenic cruising along a bay on Monday (but did not stop anywhere), then to PV on Tuesday, Mazatlan Wednesday, Cabo on Thursday, at sea on Friday and back to San Diego early Saturday morning.

Cruising is a lot of fun. Tons of things to see and do on the ship, and if you are blessed with a balcony (as we were), you can sit back and relax there and listen to the sounds of the ocean as the ship steams along.


Here is the Oosterdam at dock in San Diego. Picture taken from our room at the W Hotel where we stayed the night before the cruise.



After a leisurely morning, we gathered aaaaaaaall of our bags and took a taxi the 7 or 8 blocks to the ship. We breezed through the check-in process, and were able to head straight to our rooms. Ethan and I were impressed. Last cruise we took, we stayed in a shoebox with a porthole. Not so much, here.

View of the bed from the doorway to our balcony



Our bathroom--double sinks, a full tub and a walk-in shower so tiny I seriously got claustrophobic the one time I used it, despite the solid glass walls.




You can just see the couch and the door to the balcony here.

While I wait for this next set of picture to upload, here is a little bit about my thoughts on cruising....

Cruising can be spendy. Yes, your meals are all included in you fare.....but that is about it. Drinks (alcoholic, carbonated and juices) are not included. All those fancy pictures they take of you when you get off the ship?? Not included (but you don't have to pay to have the picture taken--just if you want to take it home when you see it later). The fancy steak restaurant on board?? Costs extra. They also try to entice you with art auctions and a casino.

There are exceptions to the charges above. At breakfast, you can get as much juice as you like for no charge. They had tons of different kinds of fruit juices in the main Lido buffet, and we also had several choices for room service. Room service is also free. They put a big card in your room at night with a list of breakfast choices, and you check the ones that you want, and pick what time you want your breakfast to be delivered. Ethan and I had Eggbeater ham and cheese omelets and OJ and bagels and cream cheese and English muffins and sausage and potatoes. Not all in the same breakfast, of course. Throughout our stay. Good food, delivered at a time
convenient to us.

If you drink alcohol, you can save some money in a few ways. HAL allows you to bring aboard as much wine or champagne as you want. If you drink it in your room (they provide wineglasses), there is no charge. If you want to bring a bottle to dinner, there is an $18 corkage fee. A few times on our trip, the corkage fee was changed to
a 'purchase' of some Holland America shot glasses, so we essentially were not charged.

Another money saving idea for alcohol is to pre-purchase a bottle of alcohol on board. We bought a bottle of Vodka for I think $27 for a 1L bottle-not a bad deal! We purchased a 50% discounted soda card (paid $25 for $50 worth of beverages), and bought sodas along the trip as mixers.

Probably the best money saving idea is not to drink alcohol at all. That is my plan for the next trip. I have offically stopped drinking alcohol. Forever. For a wide variety of reasons. It will definitely make vacationing cheaper.

One of the drawbacks (in my opinion) of cruising is the dress code. On a 7 night cruise, there are two formal nights. To eat in the main dining room, men must have on a jacket of some sorts. Many have tuxes and go all out. Women wear formal dresses. Well, most women. Ethan and I winged it as best we could. I really don't like the idea of being forced into fancy clothes. We don't own fancy clothes. We have to buy fancy clothes. And that gets spendy. Yes, you can get
around it by eating at the buffet instead, but I would much rather have the clothing relaxed. I am OK with the 'smart casual' nights (every night that is not formal), where men must wear long pants, and women are just forbidden from shorts. I have capris galore, and Ethan has a wide variety of short sleeved silk button down shirts (I love shopping at Coscto!!)


Ahh...the pictures are ready.

Justin and Kim and a bucket of Coronas as we leave San Diego. The waiters get your name that first day, and they will remember your name AND your preferred beverages the entire trip. They also come around and open the beers for you as you need them. Excellent service.


Ethan and I as we leave San Diego


A skywriter plane was writing a message as we left. I think it ended up as 'we love you XXX Love XXX'. I don't remember the exact names. It was cool to watch the plane, though!



The Lido pool midships (kiddie pool). We used the aft pool (adult pool) instead...


Ethan and I with beverages in hand....

Sunset, day one....

Probably the best sunset of the trip

Sunday--Sea Day

For our first full day on the ship, we lazed around a bit. Slept in, then meandered over to the aft pool for some more lazing outside. Found a table and a few lounge chairs, and I got a book from the ship's library (yes, they have a library!! Lots of books to choose from--probably over 1000 all together, with new releases, classics, nonfiction, etc. I got Rounding with Oscar, about a nursing home cat who seemed to know the day a patient was going to die, and how that affected the staff and family members). Anyway. Book. Got terribly overheated, so we got into the pool and relaxed there, too. This was the night we were heading to the Italian restaurant for dinner. Good food, excellent service, as always.


A fruit and cheese plate with champagne on our adjoining balconies before dinner


Another sunset


First towel creature of the cruise--a lobster

It's a hard knock life....

Yes, it's a tough life.....but someone's gotta do it...


Having a wonderful time in Mexico. Only slightly sunburned, and no Norwalk for any of us. Did not mention the date we were leaving on Facebook because some of y'all are not trustworthy and we want all of our valuables to be intact when we come home. Special thanks to Jobie for looking after our kitties. They are our babies and we have thought of them often. I found a white kitty in Yelapa yesterday who was loving and gave me a bit of a cat fix to tide me over.

Off to Cabo tonight, and a whale watching tour tomorrow. Oh, it is the rough life!!!