Tap. Tap. Is Anyone There?

So, yeah.

My final farewell turned out to be not quite so final.

I hope some of you are still reading. I know a few of you are because I still have people who are subscribed. I don't know if that's because you are too lazy to remove me from your reader or you have been living with the faint and wistful hope that someday I will start writing again.

I'm sure it's the latter.

I'm still toiling away at the travel blog and a tough gig it is, too. I have to do things like sample wine on river cruise ships and stroll the streets of Paris but hey. Somebody's got to do it. But the newspaper blog kind of slowly faded away until it became almost non-existent and I find that I need an outlet where I can express my thoughts which are vitally important to the world but I can't really share on the travel blog like the fact that one of the best things about coming home from a month-long trip to Europe is the fact that I have several People magazines AT ONCE to read.

What a wealth of information about the world! The divorces! The weight-loss stories! The...wait.

Does anyone else find that they only know about half the people who are actually IN People magazine? I hope it's not just me.

I shared all kinds of great and fascinating stories about our wine tasting river cruise on the travel blog and I'll wait while you go and read all that.

OK.

All finished?

Good.

Now let me share with you what was truly the most interesting thing about our trip. Hotels have gone insane with their showers.

Hear me out.

Every hotel we stayed at had these really weird new showers with a piece of glass halfway across and that was it. No door. Nothing. Just that piece of glass halfway across.

This meant that not only were you freezing every time you took a shower because there was a big empty spot between you and the rest of the bathroom, but water went flying into the bathroom and got all over the floor. Seriously, at one hotel, it actually flew out into the hall of our room if you left the bathroom door slightly open. It was lucky they gave us plenty of towels because we had to use the extra towels to sop up all the water on the floor.

So.

Fancy new hotels and their truly weird showers.

This is the kind of fascinating and insightful posts you can expect from this blog.

I know you can't wait for the next post.

So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye

So, I've been mulling over what to do with my little blog here. My posts have become few and far between as I spend most of my time writing for my travel blog and my Lexington Herald-Leader blog. The travel blog takes a big chunk of time and, although I used to reserve this blog for more personal information, once I was "outed" as a blogger, I began using the Herald-Leader blog more for personal stories. I just don't have that much to write on here anymore.

I got an email from BlogHer today saying that they were pulling their ads because I haven't written in more than two weeks. I didn't realize it had been that long. Time flies when you are retired. I wonder how I ever had time to work, I stay so busy now.

So. I guess I'm closing up shop here. It makes me a little sad. I have written 663 posts here. Uh. 664 now. I started writing here on January 11, 2007. And I'm stopping on August 20, 2009. That's a lot of writing. And it quite literally changed my life.

I would have never dreamed of becoming a travel writer on January 11, 2007. A travel writer who is traveling the world and writing about it. I would never have dreamed about writing for the newspaper. But that happened too. All because I learned, honed, polished and improved my writing on this blog.

I appreciate you reading. All of you. Your hits, your comments - they all kept me writing. Thanks.

If you want to keep up with my life, you can subscribe to the travel blog. There's no way to subscribe to the newspaper blog, but if you friend me on Facebook (Jan Shepherd Ross), you can keep up with those as well.

Thanks again. Have a good life.

I certainly plan to.

Take A Cruise Or Read About My UnFabulous Hair

One of the amenities we enjoy most on a cruise is a balcony or, at the very least, an ocean view cabin. We like to be able to see the water and we enjoy sitting out on our balcony when we are at sea or even when we are docked, just relishing the fresh air and the views. That said, it's also nice to save money with an inside cabin because you get to enjoy everything the ocean view residents do such as wonderful food and exotic locations at a bargain price. But the best possible situation is when you PAY the inside cabin price but actually get to STAY in an ocean view cabin. And that is an option you can enjoy on Norwegian Cruise Line's cruise from Boston to Bermuda on August 28th. Read more on my travel blog HERE.

So I was just looking over my blog posts for the last few days so I could try to cadge some ideas from them to make sure I didn't bore you with the same information - like that would EVER HAPPEN. Please. I would never write about the same topics like shorts and shorts or purses and purses and I won't even try to link to all the posts about shoes because that would be an EXERCISE IN FUTILITY and, speaking of exercise, I noticed that I wrote a couple of blog posts about exercise class so I won't talk about that again. This has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't actually BEEN to exercise class because that is TOTALLY not my fault because I have been very busy because y'all. Read more at my Herald-Leader blog HERE.

Head To St. Kitts

I'm going to be honest here and tell you that, before researching and writing this post, I had no idea where St. Kitts was located. But now that I know all about it? I am SO ready to head there for vacation. St. Kitts is an Eastern Caribbean island located in the West Indies, about 45 minutes by plane from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read the rest on my travel blog HERE.

For Fun Friday: July 31, 2009

Can't wait for this. It looks better than the first one.

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=newmoon

Wow, that took a lot of work.

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/07/19/camouflage-photography-by-desiree-palmen/

No wonder we have so many issues.

http://www.beautifulperth.com/dumbenglish.html

Just The Links, Ma'am

Check out my travel blog post today about a great condo or house at the gulf for half price. HERE
And then commiserate with me on my quest to find the perfect exercise class on my Herald-Leader blog HERE.

If you want keep up with all my blogging and other exciting minutiae of my life, add me as a friend in Facebook. It's Jan Shepherd Ross.

You May Still Have Time...

...to fit in a cruise before school starts, depending on where you live and when school starts. Check out information about a great deal on a Disney cruise on my travel blog here: http://bit.ly/oeBK2

News Flash

I have a news flash for you all and I'm sure you are going to be SUPREMELY interested in this.

My butt is KILLING ME.

Read why at my Herald-Leader blog HERE.

For Fun Friday: July 24, 2009

Time travel is a premise that fascinates me. I can't imagine being in this woman's situation, though.

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=timetravelerswife

I guess you really can buy anything on the Internet.

http://www.daddyos.com/

And last. A picture that struck so close to home, I had to share.

If you are thinking about a destination wedding, check out my travel blog post about Couples San Souci. Fabulous place! http://thetravelauthority.blogspot.com/2009/07/destination-wedding-couples-resort-in.html

I Want To Be More Gorgeous On Facebook Than I Am In Real Life

I actually started to write about Facebook the other day and then I got distracted by the whole iPhone debacle and my post degenerated into a diatribe about iPhone use and I'm really pleased with the resonance of all those "d" words in this sentence and this is exactly how I got distracted the last time so here I am back to talking about Facebook. Read more about my desire for gorgeous photos of myself HERE on my Herald-Leader blog.