I am starting to think someone is going to make it difficult to roll dice at the craps table on this cruise. Looks like there is another hurricane coming.

Tropical Storm Fiona is supposed to follow the same path as Earl and Danielle but according to this article there seems to be a little more uncertainty about her path.

Most of what I have read on the effect to Florida at this point has been churning ocean currents. It may make for a bumpy and interesting cruise.

I’ll still bet the pass line with odds, press the six and eight for one unit and a dollar on the hard ways for the dealers. And bartender, another Blanton’s and Coke please.

Okay, I think I’m ready.

All the details are finally wrapped up. The rooms hotel and cruise are booked. Now I just need the weather to cooperate.

Today. I upgraded our rooms from inside to ocean view for an additional $60. I said rooms as Joseph and his beloved are joining us for Charliepalooza.

Since I had booked through Royal Caribbean, when you see a lower price or a different offer posted on any website, all you have to do is call them and they will match it. I had paid $199 per person for our interior room and Joseph had paid $209 for his when I saw that they were offering ocean views for $219. One simple phone call later and we were set.

We are staying at Hyatt Regency Miami once again. I pricelined it for the grand total of $87.13. Now I am just working on how to get from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to Downtown Miami for a reasonable rate.

We also booked the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale upon our return for just over $83 through priceline.

The weather is not looking too good but we are remaining positive.

On all 4 prior cruises we have been blessed with good weather. And what I mean by good weather is not a hurricane. While we have been rained on a few times, we have never missed a port of call due to weather.  I am hoping my luck holds out for Charliepalooza this year.

Other wise this is what my cruise mates will see.

I will go all Lt. Dan on them

Sign one of my managers sent to me from near her store.

Dumb as Durt I suppose

Yesterday while I was conducting a business meeting downtown there was a bomb threat across the street at the post office.

I don’t know what it is with explosions and bombs in North Georgia but we seem to get more than our fair share of them.

My brother came up on Tuesday night so we could celebrate one more time. Pictured above are the two of us with our new favorite bar owner CJ. We stopped in his bar Darwin’s Pub on Sixth Street to have a beverage or two. We liked it so much they almost had to have our mail forwarded to us there.

I believe it is best to keep the evening’s summary as brief and lacking of factual detail as possible, so I will.

I had a great time and am starting to post all pictures from trip here.

I love my company! While some companies will attempt to entertain you with a DJ or a house band, mine brought in 38 Special! I rode up the elevator with Mr. Van Zant and he was a very nice Southern Gent.

Picture of sunset from Oasis Restaurant in Austin, TX

I know Disney claims to be the happiest place on Earth. I am not in a position to disagree but I do know one thing it was not Atlanta Hartsfield Airport yesterday. With the inclement weather it was a jumbled mess of delays and canceled flights with smiles few and far between.

So yesterday I got to experience the full joy of the Atlanta Airport. I arrived at the airport for at 4 PM for my 6:59 PM flight. By the time I had parked and got through security I had already received 3 e-mails telling me the flight was delayed until almost 9 PM. The most frustrating part was while sitting at gate there was no announcements telling us there was any issue at all. In fact they never announced it was delayed at all. My blackberry got the update that the gate was changed 30 minutes before Delta announced it.

I think I had the most fun at one point watching suckers run to their gates.  I thought, what optimists. There was nothing taking off but these people were running like OJ through the airport to catch their flights which weren’t going anywhere.

I called my company’s travel company to see if there was any way I could rebook around this mess and was told that I was basically stuck as my flight which did not take off for three hours was the next available on any airline.

While I was wandering around the airport I saw I had a missed call from an 800 number and when I called it back it was Delta. This must be good news. When I finally got to a real person it was a nice gentleman from India wanting to know if I was interested in getting a Delta Sky Miles credit card. I politely explained to him in best English that he must be freaking kidding me, he apologized and I hung up.

So after a three hour delay I finally got to enjoy a cramped 2 hour flight to Houston and with no further delaying events I arrived at my parents at 12:30 AM local time.

Now if I can just find a Whataburger