Friday, November 11 – Talking to the children

Stardate 1112.16 – Our communications systems are down.  We are either in a dead zone for radio reception or the Klingons are jamming our signals.  We have not been able to contact Starfleet Command not have we received updates from them.  We will try again.

The Rotterdam is in Barcelona, so, by extension, are we even though we never went ashore.  We had scheduled a Skype conversation with Harper Jane and Emily for 8 a.m. Baltimore time which was 2 p.m. for us.  Going into town and returning in time to make the call would have been too rushed.  We slept in and loafed around the ship until it was time to call.

Conversations with HJ are not really conversations; they are shouting festivals.  The girl has yet to develop an “inside voice” and exhibits a great deal of enthusiasm.  Mostly, she told us she had a surprise to tell us which was that we were an assortment animals.  It was fun and funny and we are sure that she stayed excited all the way to school.  We hope to talk to The Boys tomorrow.

We invited a new couple to dinner tonight.  They sit practically beside us in the MDR and we have seen and spoken with them often in the past 2 weeks.  They are from Cleveland, so we gave them grief over yesterday’s loss to the Ravens.  Other than that, we swapped stories about cruising before heading back to the cabin to read and write.

TOMMOROW – On the Way to Florence