I'm starting off the morning with a bunch of interesting links that showed up in my twitterfeed this morning. I'll try to do a proper post later today, after I pack up Jonah for cruise. Yes, my son is going on a cruise. I have never been on a cruise, but my 13 year old son is going on cruise. He was invited as part of a Bah Mitzvah party. Eye roll. After that, I have two interviews scheduled for an article that I'm writing. Then I have to schedule an interview for the next article. How did I get so busy? Then it's back to housewife stuff and I have to deal with finding a plumber and buying paint for next week's painting job.
Great pictures of the storm over Manhattan yesterday.
Siva on UVa's decision to work with Coursera.
Should Mitt play the Mormon card?
Which country has the most couch potatoes?
I have a weakness for art forgers.
Interesting profile of Mona Eltahawy.
The Bloggess gives us a behind-the-scenes view of an interview for the Katie Couric show.
Apt. 11d 
My goal for today is to go through trash bags looking for the Target bag that may be holding my son’s duct tape wallet. Executive function skills are not strong in that one. *sigh*
I was just talking about cruises with my mom last night since my sister is on one now with her 2 kids (ages 3.5 and 1), husband, and ILs. I pretty much don’t see the point of cruises; they’re just buoyant hotels, if you ask me.
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Cruises are buoyant hotels, yes, that can take care of a lot of the travel tedium for you, and free you up to actually have an enjoyable, relaxing vacation. I was an ardent anti-cruise person until I went on one to Alaska with my parents, husband, 2.5 year old, and 8 month old. And it was the least stressful vacation I have ever taken.
There were no airplanes or cars involved. There were ample babysitters. There was a pool my dad could take my older kid to; there were nature presentations that struck my mom’s fancy. My husband and I had time to work out as much as we wanted. The food was excellent. We had adjoining staterooms so the kids could nap in one and we could hang out in the other. So easy. Now I completely get why cruises are so popular, although clearly, no style points may be awarded.
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We went on a cruise a few years ago and I got extremely claustrophobic. COuldn’t wait to get off the ship! It felt a bit like a plane flight that never ends to me. Wondering if I”m the only one to ave that reaction.
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My spouse and sister worry about the claustrophobia reaction. We haven’t done a cruise ’cause he’s worried he would feel trapped (even if the place is huge, you still can’t get off). It’s like being trapped in a resort hotel.
My parents like cruises for all the reasons hush lists and would love to have a family cruise but we have two who worry about being trapped on the boat. We think the solution is to take a really short cruise and see how it works out.
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The Costa Concordia had a very short cruise.
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He was invited as part of a Bah Mitzvah party.
It sounds like a nice cruise, but for the sake of balance I hope he finds at least a few Jewish friends who are more enthusiastic about coming of age.
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Not a fan of the cruise but then I’m not a fan of just hanging out in a hotel. Even the all-inclusive resort gets to feel a bit claustrophobic – I need to be able to get off the grounds and do other activities.
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My spouse and sister worry about the claustrophobia reaction. We haven’t done a cruise ’cause he’s worried he would feel trapped (even if the place is huge, you still can’t get off). It’s like being trapped in a resort hotel.
I always have a similar reaction after I watch some science fiction movie where, maybe, the Enterprise crash lands on a distant world, and Kirk is yelling, “Scotty, if you don’t get the engines back up in 12 minutes it’ll blow out and we will be trapped on this planet forever!”
For the next few days, whenever I go outside I look around and think, “I’m trapped on this planet forever!”
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The pictures have some interest, but I must admit that I really don’t care for the obvious photoshopping in most of them- making things have cartoon-like colors doesn’t make them better.
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