Cruise-ing into April

We're going on a cruise.  To Baja.  Cabo San Lucas, to be specific.  We leave out of Phoenix next Saturday, very early if Donald has his way.  Mom is coming with us and we're meeting up with my Aunt Dottie in San Diego, who will also be sharing a cabin on the ship with my mom.  We're trying to make this a full vacation, so we're headed to San Diego the day before the ship departs and we'll hang out with family.  We cruise for 5 days and when we get back we're staying an extra night so we have more time on the back end of the cruise to hang with family again.  I want every single minute of this vacation.   We have certainly earned it.  We will be doing whale watching, kayaking, snorkeling, shopping and eating!  Breakfast on our balcony (according to Christian the best thing about getting a balcony cabin!), I will have access to gluten-free foods on board and in Cabo I have a card that advises the servers of my dietary restrictions.  And hey... tequila is already gluten-free, so Cabo Wabo, here I come!

But until it's time to leave for our much earned and desired vacation, there is still stuff to take care of here at home.  My dad is going to house/dog sit for us and he's agreed to help out with some honey-do's.  He's agreed to do things like build a raised garden box for the backyard so I can plant veggies when we get back.  We bought a ceiling fan for the back patio but never installed it, so he's going to see if he and Jack can put it up without a) frying themselves and b) frying the circuits in the house.  There is still a full week's worth of work at work, housework at home, sorting clothes for packing - determining we are taking WAY too much and resorting and repacking.  What can I say?  We girls love our shoes!

A brief update on a few housekeeping items:

• Me: I didn't get the fraud investigator job. They decided not to fill any of the open positions BUT had they not made that decision, I would have been offered the job.  Small consolation perhaps, but just knowing I was good enough for that job is a huge boost to my confidence.  Especially after the hags at HP beat me down so far I didn't think I was capable of typing a friggin memo.  I am doing very well at my current job, which is also great for my confidence.  I had an awesome annual review, on my one year anniversary with American Express.  They have a great culture and opportunities, which is completely opposite of HP and was hard to get accustomed to, but I really do like working for this company and I'm going to stick around a while.
• Christian: he's doing really well.  He got a little lazy last quarter and his grades showed - not good.  We had a chat and we are doing a few things here to help him mentally look forward and they are working.  His grades are much, much better - he is so smart!  He also seems to be much happier, relaxed and normal. 
• Donald: He's still doing well at work but sometimes the same old crap we encountered at HP seems to creep in.  I think it's just the nature of the business.  Insight really isn't that much different than HP; they just sell other brands.  Donald works directly with HP and only supports sales for HP products, so that makes sense that there would be similarities.  But he is still doing really well and setting the bar pretty high. 
• Mom: just about retired.  Rock is shutting down the office and she's just doing whatever needs to be done to close up cases or transfer clients to other attorneys.  She's excited about her first cruise but may decide to look for work once we get back.  We'll see... she's kinda liking retirement.
• Eric: still driving, eating healthy, trying to decide if he wants to buy a house, move to Casa Grande, quit driving altogether, etc.  He'll figure some of this out eventually, but he's doing fine for now.