Karl’s Korner

Good evening, friends and family.
Yes, “Hello” to someone we’ve noticed visiting the website from Ireland several times in the past two weeks. We hope you’ll take the time to tell us where you are from and how you enjoy the website and blog. Just leave a comment in the block below. Please!!
I also hope you’ve been enjoying the jokes and will order my novels.
I’m a little rushed for tonight, so will just give you my latest joke for the day before we call it a day.

Here it is:

One day a family of tomatoes was walking downtown when the little baby tomato began to lag behind.
“Stay with us, Cherry,” the mother said several times, but the baby ignored her.
Finally, the big father tomato had enough. He walked back to the baby tomato and stomped on her, squashing her into a thick red paste.
“You heard your mother,” he commanded. “Catch up!”

A little “corny” perhaps, but what do you expect?

Take care, see you next time,
until then,
Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl

Good afternoon, friends and family,
We’re still in Oregon, just returned from an Indian Casino, where we made a donation less than $100, but not much less - $99.50. No, we did not win, but we had fun, which is part of the price you pay.
We’ve noticed new friends from Ireland visiting the website and hopefully the blog, so I thought I’d tell you one of the jokes I told on the ship:
A man stumbles up to the only customer in a pub in Dublin and asks if he can buy the strangr a drink.
“Of course,” He says, but only if I can buy you one in return.”
They drink to each other’s health, and then the first man asks, “Where are you from?
“Ireland,” replies the second.
“Fancy that,” says the first. “I’m from Ireland too. Let’s have another drink to Ireland.”
“Of course.”
“Where abouts in Ireland?” Asks the first man.
“Dublin.”
“Fancy that, I’m from Dublin too. Let’s have a drink to Dublin.”
“Of course.”
Then the first asks, “When were you born?”
“March 16th, 1962,” replies the second man.
“What a coincidence. I was born the same day.”
Just then a regular customer walks in and asks the bartender, “What’s new, Grady?”
“Nothing much, Sean,” Grady replies.
“The O’Rielly twins are drunk again.”

Hope you enjoyed that one.

We’ve also had several new viewers and hopefully readers from Germany, England and even Viet Nam.
It’s good to know my name and work are being seen and read all over the world. Thank you all.
We’re heading home on Wednesday, hopefully. It all depends on when we get to the airport and if they will let us go “stand-by” on the first aircraft out to DFW. I hope we don’t have to stay overnight in the airport, but if so, we’ll read a new book by WEB Griffin, my favorite author.
It’s a beautiful day out, must be in the high 70s with sunny skies, after a cloudy start. Breakfast this morning at the local hospital cafeteria- a great place to eat cheaply - $3.00 for both of us, with free coffee.
Won’t be long and we’ll be back to What a burgers. We have REALLY missed them on this trip. For those of you not fortunate enough to have tasted their product, you should see about opening a franchise in your home town - great burgers!
Time for another glass of wine, a chocolate chip cookie, and perhaps a trip to the Coopertown Pub nearby, where we may partake of a bottle of Irish beer.
Please stop by again, and PLEASE, take the time to scroll on down to the bottom of this entry and leave me a note. It’s fun writing, but it would be even better to know what you think of my entries and my books.
An author has feelings too!
But, for now, thanks for dropping by. Don’t be a stranger. I think I may begin putting on a joke a day to keep you entertained.
Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl & Carol

Good morning, friends and family,
Yes, I knocked ‘em dead at the passenger talent show. I did standup comedy and told 6 or 7 jokes. Got a lot of laughs and some groans at the “groaners”. We had a lot of fun and then drank a bottle of champaign to celebrate afterward.
We had our final book signing in the atrium, again in competition with the disembarking talk, but we did sell five more books.
Now, we are safe in Newburg. Thought we’d never get off the ship, but finally did about 10 a.m. Then Enterprize came and picked us up at the dock and we got our rental car - nice easy drive down here - aboutt 4 hours. Then met our friends, Pete and Mary Ann Peters, (featured in “From China with Love”), who led us to their home.
A good night’s sleep after a long day, and we are “up and at ‘em” this morning.
Breakfast at the local hospital cafteria, (no What A Burgers here, yet).
We plan to rest up and relax for the next few days, catch up with Pete and Mary Ann on what’s been going on, and take it easy. Then we drive back up to Seattle, (I’m not looking forward to that), and try to talk the airlines into letting us go standby on any flight heading for DFW on the afternoon of the 17th, as we have to have the car back there before 5 p.m., which leaves us until 0740 the next morning to spend at the airport. Pray that they let us get out early.
So, that’s about the end of the news on the cruise.
Lots of fun, great to fantastic weather, more wonderful sights than we could tell you about in a year, new friends from all over, 20 more books out in the world, from Austrailia to England and all across the USA.
Not bad for a first try. I’ll be more prepared for the next cruise, with four lectures this time, and I’ll attempt to get a time assigned when no one else is competing with me. The next cruise is from Rome across the Atlantic to the Amazon in November - January time frame. 35 days is a long time and we should sell a lot of books, (hopefully).
Looking forward to getting home and finding many, many orders.
I’m thinking of doing a special on the last two books at a reduced rate. So come back and visit soon to see what a deal I may make.
Until then, don’t be a stranger.
Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl & Carol

Good afternoon, friends and family,
Well, they scheduled my lecture at the same time the Alaskan adventure film was showing, so I only had ten attendees and sold a whopping one book, but tomorrow promises to be better, with me in the atrium by myself for a few hours, (I hope).
Tonight is our last formal - tux for me - nice dress for Carol - then after the show, we will pack most of our stuff. We already have one suitcase nearly full.
The sea has been as smooth as a billiard ball today, all day, no wind and around 60 degrees. We see a few mountains way off in the distance, but low lying clouds have hidden them most of the day. Still no rain on this trip - great. Carol was sick this morning - probably from raisins we put in her oatmeal, but she is doing fine now. I ate the same things she did, (except OF COURSE not the raisins) - hate those dead grapes.
So, we’ll cut this short for today. Really doubt that I’ll get back on the computer tomorrow to tell you how successful (or not) the book signing was, as time is short. We arrive in Victoria at 5pm and leave at midnight - then Seattle in the morning. Almost threw our airport transfer tickets in the trash, as we aren’t going there, but decided at the last moment to take them to the tour office and see if we needed different colored bag tags, as we are on our own. Good thing, as we got $24 each refunded for those tickets.
Don’t think we charged much, except the train trip and a few glasses of wine and a bottle one night in the dining room, so the fare shouldn’t be overwhelming - and we should have $200 on board credit to take off - we shall see tomorrow night.
So, for now, Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl & Carol

Good afternoon, friends and family,
Yes, we’re in the capital of Alaska, Juneau, for most of the day, sailing away at 3 pm. There are three other cruise ships here, so the streets are crowded with shoppers. We tendered in and toured the “Red Dog Saloon”, sawdust on the floor, dollar bills nailed to the walls and everywhere. Then up the hill to the capital building, where, alas, Sarah was not in town. The building does not have a rotunda, and is a rather unimposing oblong structure for such a large state, (yes, they have told us Alaska is 2 and 1/3 times as large as TEXAS)…
There was much renovation going on, so we couldn’t see all of the building, but what we did tour was impressive.
Juneau is the only captial not accessible by road. The only way in is by ship or plane. They thought of moving it to Anchorage, but the cost was too high, and since half of the population here is employed by the government, it would put a lot of people out of work, so here it remains, in Juneau for the time being.
We didn’t do much else, the day was overcast, with a cool wind, but in the high 50s. Our only purchases were our usual hat pin for me and a magnet for Carol, a long walk around the town, and then back to the ship just in time for lunch - yes, eating AGAIN!
Good news, Sean, the assistant cruise director stopped by our table to tell me they are setting up anothe book signing in the atrium for 9:45 on Wednesday. I give my final lecture tomorrow at 10:30 - hopefully a bigger crowd this time, as the only competition is a culinary show.
For the remainder of the day, it’s time to rest and regenerate our legs. Only two more days and the next we get off in Seattle. The time has flown by, but it’s been a great trip. Glad we came.
Will donate a copy of each of my books to the library to see that they get read world wide. Wanted to give Sarah one, but oh, well.
For now, thanks for dropping by. See you soon,
Via con Dias my friends,
Karl & Carol