Algorithms astray

I don't buy much stuff online so the omniscient algorithmers have a hard time figuring out what kind of ads to pop up for me.  So on the rare occasions when I do visit a retail site, they sure do glom onto it and smack me in the face.  For example, when I wrote about my failures as a Kentucky Derby fashion plate, I grabbed a photo of some doodads for your shoes from a website to illustrate the blog post.  Ever since I have been seeing ads for that company's products.  Little do they know that every time I see their ad I give thanks that I'm not in the market for that kind of junk.  (My solution for preventing your spike heels from sinking into the grass?  Don't wear spike heels to grassy places.)

Earlier in the year we went to New Orleans on an ill-fated vacation (the paralyzing ice storm arrived just about the same time we did) and for weeks and weeks I kept seeing ads for the hotel where we had stayed.  Apparently they think we had such a fine time that we're going to go back, again and again.

But here's the latest -- the day before we were about to leave on our trip-of-a-lifetime to the tiny islands around Britain and Ireland, here's what I found on my morning sudoku.

Apparently the algorithmers noted that I had visited the travel company's website to get a link to our itinerary, which I wanted to send to my family.

This was an ad for the same cruise that we were already booked on! Maybe they thought we would be likely to book a second stateroom on the same ship, so we wouldn't have quite so much togetherness.  Nice try.