Wow, He is a fantastic Orator, I mean he has that great catch phrase Yes We Can, and it gets people pumped up. Look how pumped up he got this guy

Okay here is a recap of my family Cruise. In case you didn't know me an my family were cruisin' the high seas.

Day 1, Saturday June 28, 2008- I went to my Grandma's house which was the meeting place for all the family and the place where we would get picked up by the Limo and van. Eventually the Limo and Limo Van came,I rode in the Limo (all us kids did, the adults got the van). I thought our Limo driver look a bit like a mafioso. During the ride there my cousin kept saying he was going topee his pants. There was a tiny tv in the limo and my cousins flipped channels, all I remember being on was a show with two Power Ranger looking guys (maybe it was Power Rangers) fighting near a tree. Finally we arrived in New York (and my uncle took my cousin to the bathroom at the port so he could finally pee). While waiting in line at the port building before boarding the ship, my father noticedDanny, a friend of my father anduncles, with his family. Then we boarded the Norwegian Spirit ( we boarded at the seventh deck, so we had to go up this big huge ramp thing that looks like a big twisting glass enclosed tunnel, and I was quite worried it would collapse). Upon boardingI had lunch at Raffles Buffet. I Remember eating asandwhich and looking out the window: there was a pier or something with vehicles driving and thewater was black and rather rough,I noticed a squarewooden plank floating on the water, rising and falling with the waves.A short while after boarding, we did a mandatory lifeboat/safety drill during which my uncle noticed that an elderly black woman seemed ill (after the drill we would later pass her and a relative at thestairway, she was moaning and security and medics were on there, somehow we found out that she had a heart attack and was transported to a hospital off the ship)and then went to our small rooms, or as my uncle called them "sardine rooms". My grandma had a larger room with a balcony, that at first I was afraid to go near. We passed the statue of Liberty (at which point my cousin thought she saw the twin towers, so my uncle told her they were knocked down and my other cousin said she saw the "San Francisco Bridge"- I think she meant the Brooklyn bridge.) and then sailed down the Hudson to the Atlantic, as we waved to the statue my uncle tried to scare us saying we won't wave to it on the way back and singing "the weather started getting rough, the Norwegian ship was tossed". At dinner time, we ate at Windows (a restaurant withbig glass windows which is where the name probablycomes from - it doesn't come from Microsoft-. My Unclesaid the windowsremind him of thescenefrom the Titanic when the water came bursting through the windows).While we ate boat was speeding (my uncle said it was because theelderly woman had delayed the ship from leaving and Capt.Evans Hoyt was speeding to makeup for the delayand hitting rough water. We ordered shrimp cocktails, but the shrimp cocktail was tiny with no sauce and looked like it came from a can, they even put it in a little glass (and it was too salty if remember correctly). One of my cousins and two of my aunts got sick.

Day 2, Sunday June 29, 2008- After eating breakfast (which was lackluster) at Windows, two more of my cousins became sick. While eating breakfast the Captain came on the public announce system and said some stuff about the ship's speed and the weather, all I remember was that he said we were passing cape Hatteras (which we couldn't see because we were too far out at sea).

Day 3, Monday June 30, 2008- At sea for the third day in a row.

Day 4, Tuesday July 1, 2008- Arrival at San Juan. It was pretty cool to watch the boat pull into the harbor, first I watched it on the tv in my stateroom and then my mother and I watched it through the windows of the Galaxy of the Stars (At which point the ship's radio in the Galaxy of the stars was playing the song "Carribean Queen" which I recognized as being on the "Scarface: The World is Yours" game, and I think she took some pictures. It finally docked when we were eating lunch in Raffles buffet, and looking out the window I could see many small boats as well as big seagulls that reminded me of bats, I even saw one of those hydroplanes that makes me think of Vice City (my cousin took a picture of it). My family and I went shopping in San Juan and to do so got off at the fourth deck and climbed over a little ramp onto the dock (I got nervous doing this). My opinion on San Juan: Interesting Architecture and pretty water , nice skyline, nice coblestone streets. Water smells like a wet dog (it reminds me of that time two years ago when i was down my uncle's house and they were giving their bichons frises a bath) when you first arrive at the port. The city itself is dirty (my dad even found a cockroach in one of the clothing stores) and crowded. The cars are everywhere and the traffic lights are nowhere. In short San Juan looks better at a distance than it does up close. Docked right next to our boat (the Norwegian spirit, which I have mentioned multiple times in this blog so I have no real need to tell you, but just in case you forgot or weren't paying attention, I told you again) was another cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Sees, it was massive far bigger than our boat (My Grandma, as well as my Father's friend who was coincidentally on the same cruise as us have been on multiple cruises and say Royal Caribbean is the best cruise line). Later that night after supper and watching a the tale end of a show at the Stardust theater, we sat in the lobby and watched the Royal Carribean boat leave (it left before we did, we left at midnight), it was night time and the boat was lit up and looked so pretty. Then we sat in the Galaxy of the Stars and listened to music as we looked out the windows and watched the boat leave Puerto Rico.

Day 5, Wednesday July 2, 2008- Arrival at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Aunt and I all went shopping at these little tent shops in Tortola and got some nice stuff. We had to be back on the boat by 2:00. Anyways, the people there were very nice and reminded me of Jamaicans (I had thougt, that since we were in the British Virgin Islands the people would be more like British folk). we met this nice lady at an indoor store who said she used to be afraid of the water. I ended up getting a sunburn on my neck and shoulders, which is now peeling. For dinner we ate at La Trattoria Italian restaurant, where we saw John Melendez from Jay Leno'sThe Tonight Show and my aunt Annayelled at him as hewas about to enter the men's room, he replies " I thought I would flood the ship if I opened the door" after my aunt told him my cousin Samantha was in there and forgot to lock the door.

Day 6, Thursday July 3, 2008- We arrivedat Samana in the Dominican Republic and left later that evening. We went shopping around there and got some things. The Boat couldn't fit at the dock, so we had to have small transport boats hook up to the cruise ship and we took those to and fro the island of Samana. Boy those boats were a blast! I was getting kinda nervous because my dad kept trying to open the window and get some air and I was afraid it might upset the airpressure of the boat or let in water and sink it. It was also quite a doozy (reminds me of Venom telling Spider-man"watch that first step, Parker, it's a doozy" in the Spider-man Playstation game) getting on those little boats which rocked like hell, luckily the crew guys were there using their feet to minimize the rocking and holding your hand as you get on and off. The Island was beautiful, but the people were poor and everywhere you walk you have people trying to sell you seashells or drinks (my dad bought a bottled Dasani water from one family that was playing music, sitting under a tree with a drink cooler), or even shine your shoes. We shopped in some little tent shops. As we arrived the people came asking us if we needed a taxi ride (the place was only a short walk away) and they gave us a price ($40 there and back for all four of us), we said it was too much so they kept giving us the same price in different ways: "$20 one way" "$10 a person there and back" "$5 a person one way" "$20 there and back for two people", etc. Then after shopping we took the little boat again and road it to the cruise ship, some guy tried to open the window and one of the boat crew guys yelled at him, saying "sir, we will get water in there soon". On the way back to the ship we hit big waves and the boat was jumping, it was pretty fun.

Day 7, Friday July 4, 2008- At sea on way back home. Cruise starts to get same old. I get a sunburn on my knees. We were expecting fireworks, but they didn't do any (I think it's illegal to do fireworks on a cruiseship). They did hang some USA flags up in the restaurants. Also they had a "chocoholic buffet" that I was excited for, but once I got there found it overcrowded and overrated. Then when we came back to the room, my uncle looked into his room and said "that's obscene"- the cleaning guys had left him a towel wrapped in a funny shape- at first we thought it was a Minga (not sure how to spell it, but it's a private part of the anatomy), but then we figured out it was a cobra. Then we found another one of those ding-dong looking towels in our room.

Day 8, Saturday July 5, 2008- At sea on my way home. I think that is the day my cousin befriended one of the waitresses and took a picture with her, they even have each other's email addresses and the waitress invited my cousin to visit her and her husband in the Philippines (the waitress was pregnant and I think the child was due in December). As my family and I walked back to our room at night, we saw people's suitcases lining the hallway outside the rooms, my dad and my uncle Rich said it was depressing.

Day 9, Sunday July 6, 2008- Last day. I wake up early and go down into the Galaxy of the Stars and go down the spiral stairs to the Captain's lounge. At this time the boat is already docked in NYC, and I could see into the navigation room from the Captain's lounge window. My mom took some pictures, and then noticed a sign saying "no flash cameras", oops too late now. During this time my cousin meets her waitress friend who shows her a picture of her husband, my cousin says she said the husband was handsome, but she told us in the limo that he's actually quite ugly. Anyway we got to NY ( Docked next to us at the port was the Norwegian Dawn, a huge boat that someone aboard the Spirit said he had been on and said it was much nicer than the Spirit). and took the Limo home, same as when we arrived. On the Limo i heard one of my cousin's say we were in Meriden, and i thought close to home, I knew we were real close when we passed the Cromwell Dairy Queen, another of my cousins remarked "back to boring Connecticut". Our driver actually took a bit of the long way (must be unfamiliar with our town), really we entered the town by the same road we left. Upon arrival at my Grandma's house, we noticed that one of the bags of luggage we brought didn't belong to us, luckily it had a tag with the owner's name and phone number on it (the owner was from NY) and it had all sorts of stuff in it, hangers, pocketbooks. We noticed then my uncles garden, and his plants had grown bigtime. Unfortunately my cousin noticed that some of the flowers on my other uncle's porch had died. As I went home with the luggage I finally saw my dog whom my Grandma and Grandpa had been going to my house to take care of (he crapped in the house the first couple of days, and they hired the animal control officer to dog-sit on July 4th because they went to a picnic.

Day 10, Monday July 7, 2008- My aunt calls the people in New York and they come all the way to my Grandma's house and pick up the luggage. Later on in the day, we all go up to my Grandma's and my aunt cooks for us, the main meals were spaghetti with seafood sauce and penne with vodka sauce.

Random notes:

- My Father's friend coincidentally happened to be on the same ship, we first saw him on line to board the ship on the first day and he waved to my father and my uncle. I later met him and his family, and my cousin and I played checkers in the card room with his son.

- We saw shows by a mediocre comedian and a Guiness record holding Magician/illusionist. I later saw the comedian at the buffet.

-At Easter my uncle revised the "Gilligan's Island" song to be sung "the weather started getting rough, the Norwegian ship was tossed, if not for the courage of triplips, the Norwegian would be lost". We also found out that the itinerary had been slightly changed, we were supposed to go to St. Thomas, but the cruiseline changed it to San Juan (my family was upset about that).

- They had daily art auctions, and the art guy would make announcements over the ship's announce system and he sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger. My cousin and I would make fun of him (we never saw him though).

- They charge for soda as well as alcohol.One day my dad was walking through the hallway pertending to be Arnold Schwarzenegger and saw a tray of room service outside someone's room and said "that is my room service snack" (in Arnold's accent) and then saw they had a soda and said "never mind, that can't be mine, they have a soda pop, I can't afford soda pop".

- The tv tells the height of the waves, and one time it said 5 ft. And my cousin thought the water was 5 ft. deep.

The Bad:

- I thought we would get free lemonade, free juice and free ice tea. I come to find out that the juice is only in the morning, the iced tea was unsweetened and the lemonade was only free if you're under 12 years old. Most of drank unsweetened iced tea (which was free) during the day and juice in the morning, some of my cousins did splurge on Soda (I think my cousin stole one soda can by grabbing it off the bar when nobody was looking)

- The rooms were small.

- The pool was so crowded, I couldn't go in it. So my cousins and I had to go into the kiddie pool and the kiddie hot tub and we all looked like a bunch of goobers going down the little kiddie waterslide.

- We thought we would have lobster eveyday, but they only had lobster a couple days, and some of the lobsters were rock (rocky cocky) lobsters.

Overall, I would say that the cruise was a Fantastic Voyage

My Cousin told me this story about somebody that someone we know knows. Anyway,this person had a cat and liked to sleep naked. One night, while sleeping this guy heard a noise in his kitchen, so he got out of bed and walked (still naked) to the kitchen and heard the noise in the drawer under his sink. The guy then opened up the drawer under the sink and stuck his head in. To his surprise, the cat was in there and he must have startled it because it jumped up and scratched him in the privates, he instinctively reacted by standing up quickly and banged his head on the sink. If that wasn't bad enough, he had to call an ambulance and then, here comes another funny part.... the medic was carrying the guy down the stairs on a stretcher and asked what had happened, so the guy explained the whole story to the medic and the medic laughed so much he dropped the stretcher with the guy on it. Man this story is funny and it seems to just keep getting funnier as the story progresses.

Sunday, while leaving from our family cruise in to the Carribean ( the boat returned us home to the port in New York), the porter must have accidentally placed somebody else's luggage on our luggage cart. Well, when we arrived in Connecticut and got to my Grandma's house, we noticed that we accidentally had a piece of luggage that belonged to someone else. The person was from New York, luckily the piece of luggage had a tag on it with the people's telephone number. My aunt gave them a call, and yesterday the drove all the way from New York to the middle of CT to my Grandma's house and got the luggage back. They were very appreciative. I know you may say, NY to CT is just one state away, not a big deal, but it is when you consider finding a specific house in a different state

Yeah, last week i was on a cruise on the Norwegian Spirit and one day we went to eat at La Trattoria (an Italian restaurant) and that guy, Melendez or whatever from Jay Leno's tonight show was there, celebrating his birthday and his anniversary. Anyway, he went to go to the bathroom and opened the bathroom door when my aunt came yelling at him, because my cousin was in there and forgot to lock the door (my cousin tried to get into the women's room, but it was closed because it was being cleaned, so she had to use the men's room). Melendez was surprised at first, but we explained it to him and he was pretty nice about it. I didn't know it was him, until my other aunt told us the next day. It was pretty funny.

Georgie Boy has just turned 62. Happy Birthday! Anyone else upset that Congress cut his secret service protection- Presidents are normally protected for Life, Bush will be the first president to be only covered for 10 years after leaving the white house, anyone else have a feeling that if Barack wins, Congress will bring back the lifelong protection clause.

Happy Fourth of July, anyways I know it's a little late but I was on a Cruise on July 4th (I thought they would do fireworks on the boat, but they didn't). And Didn't have access to the internet- they had the internet on the ship, but I would've had to pay to use it, so that's that.

Just like Cruisin' USA , 1996 . I'll be leaving on a cruise tomorrow. I'll be going to Tortola, San Juan, and Semana (in the Dominican Republic, which i heard is having a revolt, so i'm a little scared. Also I wounder if the Dominicans will eventually lead the Dominican Republic.).

More weapons caches turning up in Iraq

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 19, 7:49 PM ET

BAGHDAD - Weapons caches are turning up with increasing frequency in public places in Iraq - from a bakery to a fish farm - as recent security gains embolden more civilians to come forward with tips, U.S. and Iraqi military officials say.

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The odd locations of many of the discoveries reflect the fine line separating civilians from the Shiite and Sunni extremists who don't wear uniforms and often live among them. Many would-be tipsters had previously looked the other way because of intimidation or because they sought protection from local militias.

"These are people who in the past weren't willing to come forth because of the threats from militias," said Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, the top commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad. "Now they're telling the Iraqi army they've had it with the militia. 'Don't leave. We want you to stay here.'"

The chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, Gen. Abboud Qanbar, said the quality of the tips also has improved.

"Now we are given accurate information and this has enabled us to discover large caches," he told reporters Wednesday. "Now the citizens are cooperating with us. Thus our work is getting better."

Cash rewards are another motivation for tipsters. For the military, it's money well spent: So far this year, U.S. and Iraqi forces have cleared and found 4,950 caches, compared with 6,963 in all of 2007, according to U.S. military figures.

Skeptics, however, warn the weapons found to date are likely a small portion of the overall arsenal. They point out that insurgents on both sides of the sectarian divide have proven adept at getting new arms.

"It seems to me that the amount that has been confiscated is small relative to the amount that might be out there," says John Pike, a military and security analyst who runs the respected Web site GlobalSecurity.org.

"It is an essential part of a counterinsurgency strategy," he said in a telephone interview. "But I just don't see that it has the potential to materially contribute to victory ... because it's just so easy to resupply."

But U.S. military officials point to growing public confidence in recent military successes in Shiite militia strongholds. A U.S.-funded Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq, in which former fighters joined forces with the Americans, also has provided troops with more information about hiding places.

The trend is particularly evident in Sadr City, a sprawling district in northeastern Baghdad that houses 2.5 million people and has long been dominated by the Mahdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Fierce fighting broke out in the area after the U.S.-backed government launched a crackdown in late March, but the clashes ebbed after al-Sadr called for a cease-fire.

Usually acting on tips, Iraqi soldiers have rounded up rockets, grenades and other explosive devices from mosques, hospitals and schoolhouses in the aftermath.

Many of those weapons were laid out for reporters at the former Iraqi air base in southeastern Baghdad on Wednesday as the U.S. and Iraqi military showed off their recent gains but warned there was more work to be done.

Iraqi soldiers, with U.S. troops staying on the outskirts of the district, have discovered 51 caches containing 7,820 weapons and other munitions in Sadr City between the start of the operation and June 16, according to figures provided by the U.S. military.

"I don't think it's the bulk of it, but I think it put a big dent in their destructive power," U.S. Maj. Mark Cheadle said, gesturing to the rows of rusty grenade launchers and shiny copper plates used to make powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which allegedly come from Iran.

Also lined up were an ambulance, buses and several other vehicles that the Iraqi military said had been used to transport weapons and stage kidnappings and other violence before they were confiscated.

But it is the bizarre locations of some of the discoveries that are attracting the most attention.

One recent tip led U.S. soldiers to a bakery in a Shiite militia stronghold in eastern Baghdad. The troops had to fight their way into the storefront, where they found what the military called an "EFP-making factory."

In a feed warehouse in another Shiite area of Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers found 90 122 mm rockets, EFP components, mortar shells and an American unmanned drone that apparently had been downed by mechanical failure.

And in a mainly Sunni area about 20 miles southwest of the capital, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers pulled six 120 mm mortar rounds from the murky waters of a fish farm

Syria, NKorea helped Iran develop nuclear programme: German report

Sat Jun 21, 1:57 PM ET

BERLIN (AFP) - Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported.

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But the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is considering withdrawing his support for the Iranian programme, added the German newsweekly in its next edition out Monday, quoting German secret service reports.

According to those intelligence reports, it said, a joint plan by Syria, North Korea and Iran for a nuclear reactor for military use was to have been developed at the Al-Kibar site in the east of Syria.

The site -- to be inspected next week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- was destroyed by Israeli warplanes with Washington's support. Syria denied it has military purposes.

The reports cited by Der Speigel claimed that North Korea was to help Iranian scientists to advance their nuclear programme, and that Al-Kibar was to have been used as a temporary site for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb until it was able to do so on its own territory.

The plan was discussed during a visit by Iranian President Mamhoud Ahmadinejad to Syria in 2006, according to the magazine.

The three countries also cooperated in the production of chemical weapons, said Der Speigel, quoting the same source. At the time of an explosion at a chemical site in July 2007, 15 Syrian soldiers, 12 Iranian engineers and three North Koreans were among the victims.

Ten months after the destruction of the Al-Kibar site, on the basis of allegations that a nuclear reactor was being built there with the aid of North Korea, the IAEA said it was sending experts to Syria to investigate.

Documents and detailed photographs supplied in April by Washington to the IAEA backed up the suspicions, but Syria rejected the allegations describing them as "ridiculous."

Iran and Syria, both parties to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, signed a memorandum of cooperation at the end of May on the two countries' "independence and territorial integrity."

The alliance between the two regional neighbours, which goes back to the 1979 Iranian revolution, was strengthened in 2006 with the signing of an agreement on military cooperation