Gina Visits

Gina arrived on Wednesday night for a mini visit! I expected her a little later, and when she called to let me know she was getting off I-275 on 22nd Ave N, she caught me by surprise! I was up in Clearwater at Wayne's, checking on his house and Tommy, his cat, while he was up North visiting family. Needless to say, I did make good time in getting back to my place!

Gina brought me part 2 of my Birthday gifts. She gave me a beautiful PowerPoint presentation on my Birthday, and she brought me 4 stemware glasses. Two with flamingos on them and 2 with palm trees. She knows they go great with my decor! :-)

We were both hungry, so after our usual game of "where do we eat?" we decided on The Garden on Central in downtown.

The food was excellent: gnocchi with marinara sauce, blue cheese encrusted steak, and a Moroccan chicken dish. Downside was the little bugs that kept biting our legs under the table!!!

We went for a nice walk after we got back to my place. Gina loves to walk around my neighborhood. Me too! That's why I love to live in Old NE!

I've been wanting to take a picture of this for a long time. It's right outside the entrance to the municipal pool in Northshore Park.

We started the day on Thursday with fresh nectarines and blueberries with vanilla yogurt.

Then we headed over to John's Pass over on Madeira Beach on the Gulf.

Pirates are big deal around here!

For lunch we stopped at Sculley's. Gina had a hamburger, and some great crusty fries, and I had a crab cake on a bun. YUM!!!

We stopped at Mazzaro's to pick up some stuff for dinner. I had this hazelnut encrusted chicken breast with this sauce with orange zest, and Gina had a hot italian sandwich. We had a side of tuscan beans and carrot cake for dessert. You can't go wrong with Mazzaro's!!!

Veterans Day

I'm glad that Veterans Day stayed on November 11. The credit union was closed so I decided to have a quiet, relaxing day. About mid-morning I headed over to the Gulf, to John's Pass. I browsed the shops, sort of planning to start some Christmas shopping. I had lunch and then headed over to the beach. I brought a book with me and read and napped for several hours. It was a beautiful day, around 80 degrees, but the water was chilly enough to only wade in up to my knees.

Sunset is a bit earlier!!!

I'm So Bad . . .

Last Saturday Wayne and I went to John's Pass for ice cream. Well, we had gone to the Wagon Wheel Flea Market in Pinellas Park to check it out, and after fighting off all those fleas (naturally, I had to get a greasy funnel cake), we headed over to the beaches with the idea of getting some ice cream. There's this wine store, Vino Florida, in the John's Pass Village. I had never gone in, thinking it was only wine, but I found out that there are other things there too; gifts, ice cream, frozen wine drinks, jellies, jams, hot sauces, candy, etc. I picked up some key lime jelly and a jar of creamy coconut spread.

Now, what to put it on. I tried it on some plain pita chips. Not bad. Hmmmm? I wonder? I went browsing the aisles at the NE Publix earlier tonight and grabbed a box of chocolate graham crackers. Mmm Mmm, good!!!

Oink! Oink!

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!