January 18, 2020



At Sea



I worked on my Linus blanket trim before going to bed last night.  I was doing the crab stitch (for the crocheters out there) and when I was finished about three-quarters around, I decided I didn’t like the look so I ripped it out and decided to do a plain single crochet to finish the edge.  I did that during our Sit and Stitch this morning and was much happier with it.  We had a young lady (Alina) join us.  She is a guest of one of the young officers and will be with us until early February.  She is from Belem, Brazil and has just learned to crochet and is working on a Linus blanket.



After finishing my blanket, I went down to the Explorer’s Lounge to turn it in and get some yarn for the next one.  There were at least 25 people there making blankets.



All six of us were present for trivia.  We seemed to have had our peak at the start of the cruise and have been doing fair to middling since.  Today was no exception.  We had 7 out of 15 and three teams tied for the win with 10.

1.Where would you find a “crossbuck”?

2.What is “pub” short for?

3.Culrophobia is the fear of what?

4.How deep is a fathom in feet?

5.On what island is King Arthur buried?

6.Who is the Roman god of fire?

7.How old is the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio – 98 years, 72 years, 104 years?



After trivia I returned to my cabin to sort the yarn for the Linus blanket.  I had decided to get small balls of yarn and do one of the “stash buster” patterns I have done before.  I also used a random stripe generator to determine how many rows of each color to use and where to put them.  I also used my ball winder (doesn’t everyone travel with one???) to make “cakes” out of some of the yarn that was in skeins.



I arrived a little later to lunch than usual (1:15 instead of 1:00) and found few places to sit in the section used for arts & crafts.  Luckily, Kathy and Mike were finishing their lunch and let me have their table.



We made a birthday card in arts & crafts.  After Rio we will have a number of jewelry projects.



I changed for dinner before going to trivia because my travel agency was having a cocktail party.  In the past they had two – on for early sitting and one for main – but they combined them and held it in the Mainstage this year. 

Trivia was one of the strangest I have played.  Usually there are a number of questions where at least one person in the team is fairly confident they know the answer.  Today there was only one question we were confident on.  Sherita was at the cocktail party and Marilyn had to leave early for Mass (Margaret never plays in the afternoon) so we invited Ruth, Cathy, and Bruce to join us.  We ended up with 10 out of 17 and were please we got that many right but the winners had 14.

1.In 1865, which city had the first pay toilets?

2.What unit was designed to be 1/40millionith of the Earth’s circumference?

3.Which European republic is encircled with a 900-mile ring road?

4.What does “pdf” stand for?

5.Where is the highest point in China?

6.In 1933, what activity that involves dancing was banned in the U.S.?

7.Valentina Tereshkova became famous for doing what?



The cocktail party was winding down when I got there at about 5:15 (it ran from 4:30-5:30).  I did get a chance to talk with Stephanie and Linc with whom I ate for half the 2018 world cruise.



After the party I still had over two hours before dinner so I worked some on the blog and started my next Linus blanket.

The usual four were present for dinner.  Billy (our dining room steward) keeps us laughing throughout the meal.



I skipped the show because I needed to finish the blog, go through e-mail (tons and tons of junk), and then go to bed early because I need to be off the ship by 8:30 a.m.  I have a ten-hour tour tomorrow so don’t be surprised if my post for tomorrow is delayed.









Morning trivia



1.railroad

2.Public House

3.clowns

4.6 feet

5.Avalon

6.Vulcan

7.98 years



Afternoon trivia



1.London

2.meter

3.Iceland

4.portable document format

5.Mt. Everest (evidently part of Mount Everest’s peak is above Chinese land even though the base is not)

6.marathon dancing

7.first woman in space

my seventh Linus blanket (I brought six with me that I made at home)

the card we made

Smooth sailing until next time!

Not sure why this did not post yesterday.  Sorry!