Snickerdoodles!!!

Only took one picture this past weekend. And guess what? It's of FOOD!!!

The weather was beautiful on Sunday and we took a walk along the Bay. I wish I did have my camera to snap some pictures of an extended Italian family sitting on the beach, playing bocci and chabbering away in Italian and measuring who bocci ball was closer to the pallino. Classic!

Afterwards, we went to Chattaway restaurant. Some claim it has the best cheeseburgers in Saint Pete. It's a local favorite. It's been around for a while and has a lot of character. Below are some pics I found on the internet...not mine.

The sign reads, "Unattended Children will be given an espresso and a free puppy."

YIKES! This is supposed to be FLORIDA!!!

Omigosh! We've been having this "cold snap" with cold nights and mornings in the low 50s and 40s and even dipping into the 30s. There have been frost warnings in various counties in this area. At risk are the strawberries. Big thing here. The days have been heating up into the 50s.

When I got into my car this morning to go to work, the windows were covered with moisture, as they often are in the mornings. When I flipped on my wipers to clear them....YIKES!!! It was frost! The little display on my dashboard was displaying a little snowflake and 38 degrees! I think it was a bit colder than that for the frost to be there. I sat for a few minutes while the car heated up and the defroster cleared the windows. Also flipped on the heat in the hatchback! But, alas...by the weekend we're back up in the 70s as a high!

But, all being relative, I'm glad I didn't find my car like this one!

Dr. MLK Weekend

Well, this has been quite a weekend. My TV died just before Christmas, and I had a feeling that it was the picture tube. I bought in in November 2005. Fortunately, I took out the Geek Squad 4 year service contract. Since my old TV was a 26" screen, the repair could be done in my home. I scheduled the visit for a Saturday, and the earliest available was January 17. The Geek arrived promptly at 11:00 am, and after turning the set on, pronounced, "Well, that is quick." He told me that the set couldn't be repaired, but because of the contract I had, I need to bring in the TV and receive a credit for the purchase. YES! I did some online shopping and picked out the screen and a DVD player too (was built into the old one.) When I went to check out, they didn't have the model that I wanted, and that they had rung up, so they substituted a comparable one that was on sale for $100 more than the one I picked out, but they gave me the original price! Yes again! I made sure to get the Black Tie Geek contract again! That's a picture from the Barefoot Contessa's show.

Wayne has been sick all weekend, but was feeling OK enough on Sunday afternoon to attend the opera that we had gotten tickets for a short while ago. The matinee was sold out. And, I think we were the youngest attendees there! It was an excellent production.

Afterwards, with Wayne's help, we carried my old TV to the car and made the exchange. I'm glad to have a TV again!!!

I took these pictures when I was out this afternoon. It was in the low 70s with a little breeze. I headed over to the Bay afterwards and saw lots of buses and heard bands playing.

I walked down to the Straub Park and was able to catch some of the MLK Parade.

I liked these t-shirts. One group had shirts that had head shots of Dr. King and Barack Obama. On top it said, "I have a dream." and underneath it said, "I am the dream."

I always like hearing the drums of the marching bands. I always liked the way they made my heart vibrate!

Christmas Past

We attended a backyard Christmas party on the weekend between Christmas and New Year's Day. These pictures were recently distributed, so I'm just getting around to posting them.

One of the things that I really like about December holiday parties here in Florida, is that, barring a "cold snap", the parties are held in back yards.

Birthday in Orlando

Gina turned 18 on Friday!! On Saturday we went to Orlando to celebrate Gina's Birthday. We first went over to Park Avenue in Winter Park for lunch. It was fairly crowded with people. After walking around a short while we decided to eat at Circa, mostly because there was hardly anyone there! Kerry, our waitress was very bubbly and friendly. Our food was delicious! I was going to refrain from posting any food pictures, but, hey, can't stop that water from running downhill, now can we?

After lunch we took a ride over to "Just Puppies" to see the puppies there. Being so close to losing Luke, we thought it may be difficult, but we had fun holding the puppies and soon had our favorites.

Our plans then called for us to go shopping for a winter coat for Gina. She will be visiting Mia in Idaho in February. Did you ever try shopping for winter clothes in Florida??? There are Burlington Coat Factory stores here, so we went to one in Altamonte Springs. Problem was there were racks and racks of them and not easy to find one that you would like.

Style or substance???






There were racks of hats to try on. We could have spent hours there! Wait . . . we did spend hours there!

Only thing left to do was Birthday dessert! We first tried to go to The Cheesecake Factory in Winter Park Village, but the place was packed and it looked like the waiting line stretched all the way to Tallahassee. So we went back to Park Avenue. We ended up having a lite supper (I refrained from taking any pictures) and then went to Jeremiah's for gelati. YUMMERS!!! It was a FUN day!!!

A Trip to Venice to (What else?) Eat

Well, first off, I like to eat. I gave Wayne two Italian cookbooks for Christmas. Do you think maybe I had ulterior motives???

He asked me to pick a recipe from one of the books and we (well, he) would make it. I saw this macaroni pie, encrusted in eggplant. It looked good! So, that was dinner Saturday night...and it was GOOD!!!

Mike R invited us down to Venice for dinner. He was making these sausage balls for an open house for some friends' salon and he invited us to go along, after feeding us dinner at his place.

After the sausage balls, we had an antipasto, followed by homemade pasta with ham and mushrooms in an Alfredo sauce. After digesting that we headed over to the open house. We ate mostly the desserts there. I will be starting my diet soon.

Wayne, Gerry and Mike.

On the way home we came across the Sunshine Skyway bridge. We took a minute to drive thru the rest area before the bridge to see if I could get a shot of the span lit at night. It was not a good vantage point so we pulled back onto the roadway. I took this shot as we drove past one section of the span. Just after leaving the span and entering Pinellas county we had to come to a quick stop. No flashing red lights, nothing. The cars were just stopped there. As we merged left, we passed an SUV, sideways in the road. Then just up the road a short way, we saw a motorboat in the road. It had slipped off its trailer. We thought that maybe if we hadn't taken that quick detour, we might have been the sideways car!

In Memory of Luke

On July 3, 2004 Luke joined our family. This picture on the left was taken that night he moved in with us. I didn't want the responsibility of taking care of a pet dog, but when I first saw him, my heart melted. I can't say that all of the time living with him was pleasant for me, but he certainly did teach me some things.

On Saturday night, January 3, 2009, Luke made a quick escape from the car in the driveway and ran out into traffic on a nearby busy road. I was just purchasing a pair of shoes when I received a phone call from Mia. Crying on the other end (she's in Idaho for school), all I could make out was something about being hit by a car. I thought that she was saying she was. But then I understood what she was telling me. From what Mia said, Gina watched him get hit by a second car. She ran out onto the road to stop traffic before another car would hit him. We are all thankful that she didn't get hit by a car. They rushed him to the vet emergency room. After diagnosis and several hours passed, the vets thought it best to put him down.

The vets made paw prints and gave them to Gina with a lock of his hair. This is a very difficult time for Lucretia, Mia and especially Gina. This is the puppy that she had anxiously awaited to find in her Christmas stocking every December, or in her Easter basket every spring. Life gives us many precious blessings and along with them, the sadness of separation. I think maybe Luke is somewhere now, playing with one of his first buddies, Rocky, again.

Happy New Year 2009!

We decided to partake of the First Night activities this New Year's Eve. It was a first for both of us. I had been interested in attending one of the First Nights up in Albany, but the frigid cold was always a huge deterrent. And sadly, First Night is no more up in Albany. This is the buttons we wore.

We started off by donning our hats and horns to get us in the party spirit. Too bad we both had to work all day. We drove part way to downtown, parking on Beach Drive down around 8th Ave.

Passed this B&B on the way. It's always lit up nicely.

Our first stop was at Bay Walk. Freddy Montes y Su Son, a "root-based Cuban ensemble, blending traditional Cuban rhythms with original jazzy arrangements" was entertaining there.

Next stop was the BOA lobby. Actually, it was a mistake; we meant to head to the First Central Tower Lobby. Ooops!

Here we are at the First Central Lobby. Wayne is talking with Mark Sforzini, the Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg Opera Company. They were presenting highlights from The Merry Widow, their January production.

And look who I ran into on Central Avenue! May the Force be with you.

Next stop was on Central Avenue where the Dundu Dole Urban African Ballet was performing. They certainly "burned the stage" and got the crowd jumpin'!

There were fireworks every hour on the hour. The 9:00 pm show went off just as we were heading towards the Bay and to the Pier. There were some buildings in the way, so I figured that we would be on the Pier for the 10:00 pm show, and I was sure to get some fantastic shots.

Anyhow, we headed out to the Pier to catch the Lutheran Church of the Cross Bell Choir.

This boat was docked at the Pier. There is a wide screen TV on in the window there . . . watching Dick Clark?

The Pier building is lit with these lights that change colors thru the rainbow. I managed to miss orange and yellow.

Caught Wayne freeing up some space on his memory card. The 10:00 pm fireworks consisted of one boomer, and that was it!!! Didn't get a shot.

That's the Columbia Restaurant in the Pier building. A group from my office ate there last fall.

This is the bell choir. It was interesting how for some numbers they hit the bells with drum sticks, and sometimes just hit the table with the bells.

This was a club near Janus Landing in downtown St. Pete.

Scene in one of the condos downtown.

This was a luminary labyrinth in South Straub Park. It was put on by the Pier Aquarium, entitled "Eating Green".

I think we're getting too old for this. There is a lot of walking and after working all day, it gets a bit tiring. We had hoped to get a bite to eat somewhere along the way, but by the time we were ready, many of the kitchens were closed, and the places still serving, had lines. We had had enough by about 11:30 pm, and decided not to stay for the midnight fireworks. We headed back to my apartment and since my TV is broken, watched a countdown clock on the computer while having cheese and crackers and toasting with some Asti. Then some phone calls to the kids to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!

This is hanging in one of the windows in my living room. Helps to remind me what I left behind.

New Year's Day we took a ride to Pass-A-Grille Beach. We ate at the Hurricane restaurant. Had grouper sandwiches. It was a relaxing day; were still tired from last night!