Which LOST Character are you?

Which Lost Character Are You?

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Thanks to Y-O-Y How could I resist?

A View From the Laundry Room

Shortly after watching American Idol, I was just channel surfing when I heard all of these louds booms. Sounded a little like gun shots. But it kept on. Fireworks? What for? I looked out the windows in my living room and saw nothing. The booms continued, getting closer together and louder. I went out to the balcony outside my laundry room and got a nice view of the fireworks coming from the downtown area. I've been in this apartment for almost 5 months and this is the first I learned of this benefit! Sweet!

Pirates, Grouper or a Home Made Mouthwatering Meal

Wayne is an avid cook. He has been getting me interested in the Food Network (in addition to HGTV). Last week we were watching a couple of shows on the Food Network, Paula's Home Cooking and Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. Several of the recipes sounded great to both of us.

I had to work on Saturday morning and this weekend the pirates were invading Tampa as part of the Gasparilla pirate party. We were thinking about going over in the afternoon but the weather threatened a bit of rain, and the parking and crowds seemed a bit too much, so instead we were going to go to Frenchy's restaurant in Clearwater Beach to have grouper sandwiches. But those plans changed too as Wayne decided to try out the recipes from last weeks shows. He treated me to a homemade dinner of Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf from Paula Dean's Country Comfort episode and Garlicky Green Beans from Sandra Lee's Comfort Food Zone episode. YUM! Then a chaser of his homemade gelato. Triple YUM!

Craig and Craig Do St Pete

Craig and Craig from Albany are here in St. Pete for the week. That's Craig on the left and Craig next to him. Wayne and I round out the foursome. Their first day here was cloudy and cool. A big torrential rainstorm was their welcome. Sunday was sunny, but cooler, but a heck of a lot warmer than up in Albany. They are staying in St. Pete Beach. I got to show them my new surroundings and they even got to ride in my Rabbit! Craig (second from the left Craig) expressed a bit of doubt as to how the two of them (both around 6 ft tall) would fit in that back seat... Now, it wasn't that difficult for them to squeeze into the back seat of my two door ride! We didn't even have to break out a can opener to get them out! VW comes thru again!

Had a great time! Maybe they'll be moving down here next? Let's see . . . 54 degrees vs. 15 degrees? Hmmmmm?

Edge of Seventeen

I went to Orlando today to celebrate Gina's 17th Birthday. She turned 17 last week. It was very foggy this morning on the entire drive. Fortunately, visibility was good, the fog being up above the surface. It was a little scary though, thinking about the huge pileup on this highway (I-4) last week.

I made good time; not running into any backed up traffic passing by the Disney area. I arrived around 11:00 am. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Gina had her chicken salad and I had my favorite Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp. We had the Tex Mex egg rolls for our appetizer. For dessert, Gina had the Peanut Butter Cookie dough Cheesecake and I had the Pistachio Cheesecake. We ended up with doggie bags for our dinners and our desserts!

Then we went to the Regal theaters in the same Winter Park Village complex. We saw 27 Dresses. It was a cute romantic comedy. I was surprised that the audience was so responsive, cheering at one scene and applauding at the end. It was fun! We snuck in our candy that we bought at Albertson's.

Then we did some shopping at Target and then back to drop Gina home. I left around 6:45 pm and ran into a torrential downpour driving on the highway thru Orlando. I never have driven in such a heavy rain . . . instant lack of visibility. Almost all of the cars slowed to a crawl and put on their flashers. Many drivers pulled off on the side of the road. It rained all the way to just east of Tampa where it slowed to a misty drizzle. By the time I hit the Howard Franklin Bridge across Tampa Bay, it had stopped completely. It was a fun day, but good to be back home!

No Alibi for These Crocs in Florida

So Sunday night Gavin and I were meeting Otto for dinner at the Alibi. It all started when Otto got a glimpse of these crocs. He ended up taking my camera and following this guy out to the patio. As I looked on, he proceeded to pretend he was trying to figure out how to take a picture, aimed the camera at the offending peds and *FLASH!* It was downhill from here.



Well, it couldn't stop there! Oh no!

Next! The guy sporting these wasn't that tall. I'll bet his toes maybe ended somewhere around the middle. Snap!

The comment upon seeing these sandaled feet: "His toenails look like ram's horns."

Next day our stomachs still hurt from laughing.

Not an SNL Weekend Update

It has been a busy weekend! Friday night Janet and Jack came to visit. I used to work with Janet before retirement. She and Jack moved to Indianapolis a couple of years ago. They are down here visiting family. It's been a while since we last saw each other. I'm a bit upset that I didn't take a photo while they were here. We had a nice visit. Wayne came over too and we had a good time catching up and telling stories. Janet and Jack used to dress up as their alter egos, Fritz and Lulu.

On Saturday morning Gavin arrived from Albany (OK, Troy!). Too bad I was having a senior moment and thought he was arriving around 2:00 pm. I got a call shortly before 11:00 am. It was Gavin, "Where are you?" (he thinking I was on the airport grounds). All I could say was, "Where are you?" to which Gavin replied, "at the Tampa airport." YIKES! "I'll be right there!!!!!"

It is so nice to see Gavin again. Although we stay connected regularly through our blogs (see Y-O-Y ), it's great to chat in person. This getaway for Gavin has been much needed. He is caregiver to his Mom who has Alzheimer's and writes about that part of his world on his blog Alzheimer's Moments. He is always "on" so this gives him a chance to relax, but that is easier said than done. We were going to go to a "post holiday" party, but Gavin needed the time to rest, so Wayne and I went without him. What a terrible host I am!

This morning we went to breakfast at the Frog Pond . What a treat! The home fries and bacon were done just the way I like them, even without asking! I asked our waitress if there was a "Froggy the Gremlin" in the collection, but she didn't think there was, although she said there were some in storage. After breakfast we drove along the beaches and took some time to walk along Madeira Beach. The fog had rolled in, but it was refreshing to walk along the sand, see and hear the waves hitting the shore and feel the breeze. We then stopped at John's Pass to browse thru the stores there, stopping for an ice cream chaser. "Hold the fudge sauce and whipped cream please!" There were these huge pelicans sitting on the dock posts. One of them had some yellow on his head. And, my camera was back in the apartment.

It has now started to rain, the first in a while here. Much needed, so a good time to nap!

Monday 77 Degrees

Lucky me.... I got out of work at 1:30 pm! The gauge in the VW read 77 degrees. Hmmm? An afternoon at the beach? Alas, I had a few phone calls to make, changing my auto insurance to cover the Rabbit instead of the Jeep. I thought I'd take a walk along North Shore Park on Tampa Bay instead. Wayne called and he was on his way, so we went for a nice long walk. I didn't bring my camera but wish I had. I saw a fish jumping up out of the water. Then a short ways on, we saw a dolphin surfacing as it was swimming not far from the sidewalk.

Here's a picture of the chili we had on Saturday night. Also a few other random pics. One is of a section of my Christmas tree, just before I took it down on Sunday afternoon. The prism rainbow was in my kitchen. I have this "shell" Swarovski crystal hanging in my window and there are lots of little rainbows when the sun hits it.

A Saturday in January

The weekend wasn't off to a good start. On Friday our computers at work went down around 11:00 am and we had to handle all the transactions manually, writing down detailed receipts and limiting the amount of money that could go out. This lasted all day up to closing. We were on call after that. We were called back in when the system was back up, so entered all the transactions into the computer from around 9:00 pm till just after midnight.

Wayne called me on Saturday morning to see if I wanted to go to the Art Fair that was going on this weekend at Bay Walk in downtown St. Pete. The weather has warmed up after being a chilly 50s and 60s during the day for a couple days this past week, so I jumped at the chance to spend time outside again! I saw on the Weather Channel that one night our wind chill here in the Tampa Bay area was 19 degrees! So to my northern brothers, "I feel your pain." :-)

The Art Fair was really nice. It was set up for two blocks bordering Bay Walk. There was a super variety of art work and crafts and nice quality pieces.


At the end of one block there were all of these giant animal sculptures that had moving heads. No, not the old head bobbing Kewpie dolls!

We then headed over a couple blocks to the Saturday Morning Market. We had some gelato from the Paciugo Gelato Cafe booth. Wayne had to compare it to the gelato he made for New Year's. I think his takes the prize!

We went to the Tampa airport at mid afternoon to pick up Andi, a co-worker of Wayne's. Her car has been parked in Wayne's driveway since just before Christmas when she left to visit family and friends up North. She wanted to take us out for a drink afterwards, so we headed over to the Blue Martini in Tampa. We sat at the outside cafe and talked over martinis. One Black Cherry, one Triple Chocolate and one Cookies and Cream. Are we sure these weren't milkshakes? Then we all went over to Wayne's for chili, garlic bread and more gelato...the good stuff!

Now, time to take the Christmas decorations down. Quite a different January this year!

Happy New Year 2008!

Just for kicks I read my first post of 2007. In it I was speculating as to what the new year may bring and what 2006 had brought. A couple things in my ramblings stuck out. One was a huge snowstorm in March, and the other was enjoying my part time job. The snowstorm did happen on St. Patrick's Day, and that same day was my last day with my part time job.

A new year certainly brings many things . . . another year older, new friends, the moving on of others and new challenges.

I ended 2007 in a whole new world. My first holiday season in Florida was amazing! I must say I am enjoying this climate, what with outdoor holiday parties and all! Our weather here has dipped down into the 30s at night for the next couple of days. It does feel cold! But, all things being relative, I just checked out the sky cams located around the highways in the Albany area, and see the traffic all backed up in the falling snow. I think I'll take my driving into work in 49 degrees on dry roads, thank you.

So far 2008 has been very nice. I had a fantastic dinner on New Year's Eve at Wayne's. He made lasagna, cheeder cheese biscuits and chocolate hazelnut gelato. Fantastic! We watched the ball drop in NYC and wished that maybe Dick Clark had recorded a message instead of being live, and watched a little of the Kathy Griffin marathon, like Sean and Jeffrey and crew.

On New Year's Day I attended a party at a friends house. Had a great time...plenty of good food and conversation. Today I go into work at 11:00 am. I'm hoping to ease on back into work, but will probably be busy with pension and government checks and all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!