Saved the best for last

I've been such a slacker with taking pictures of Ari lately. I actually attempted some last night, because she had her baby doll laying in her lap and was giving her the sippy cup, but as soon as I appeared with the camera, she stopped. So instead, here's a picture of her from almost exactly a year ago.



I remember how I always used to think she was such a skinny baby, but compared to what she looks like now, she was actually kinda of chubby. I love her little smirk--it's so typical of her personality.

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I stopped at Kohl's on my way home last night to look for some new black pants, and came home with 3 pairs of pants (black, dark brown, and black with pinstripes) and this shirt:



Gotta love "buy one, get one free" sales. And the best thing is that I got my pants in the Petites section, which means they are the perfect length on me. And if you must know, they are all size 8, which I am totally OK with. Like I said before, I know the size 4 thing was a fluke. The size 6 fit me, but was just too tight. You can get away with pants being a little too tight when they're a nice, thick material (like jeans), but it's not so easy to hide your flaws in the flimsy material of dressy pants. The size 8 was perfect--fitted without being too tight, and they're "stretch" too, which makes them even more comfortable. I'm wearing the brown ones today, and it feels so nice to wear pants that fit.

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Got this info in an e-mail forward, and I thought it was interesting. I knew Easter was early this year, but I didn't know all this other stuff. (I added one small correction, thanks to snopes.com.) I am a fabulous source of useless information.

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see. Only the most elderly (95 or older) of our population have seen it this early and none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2160 (152 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913, so if you're 95 or older you were around for that.

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

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Just look at this picture...



*sigh*

I am dying to start planning this cruise. Hopefully Tony will have time today to contact AAA and set up an appointment or something for us to talk with a travel agent. There are just so many options, so many choices--I really feel like we need a professional to help us out so we don't miss anything important.

Here's what I do know...

* We want to go to the Caribbean. I was all settled on Eastern Caribbean, but now the more I research, Western Caribbean sounds better and better. Southern Caribbean sounds good too.

* We want to be gone somewhere between 4 and 7 nights. 3 nights seems too short, and anything longer than a week is going to be too long, especially if we decide to do an overnight stay on either end of the trip (i.e., staying overnight in whatever city the ship departs from).

* We're pretty settled on going with either Royal Caribbean or Carnival, since those are 2 big names in the cruising world, and we know people who have traveled with both and spoken highly of them. Of course, I'm still holding on to the idea of a Disney cruise, but I'll have to convince Tony of that one...

* We don't really care where the ship takes off from, so it's more a matter of choosing a city where we can get a cheap flight. Yes, there are cruises that take off from NYC, but they tend to be 8 nights or more, so we're not sure we want to go that route. But we could take off from Baltimore, which is also within driving distance. Anywhere in Florida is fine, and I also love the idea of taking off from New Orleans--I miss that city. And if we take off from someplace like that, that only confirms the idea that we'd want to spend a night in that city either before or after the cruise.

So, see, we have some ideas of what we want to do. Our dates are fairly flexible, so that should help with the planning.

OK, just one more picture. I can't believe that in a few months, I'll be in a place as gorgeous as this...



And speaking of the Caribbean...



You see what I did there? I am so clever.