Road Trip again!

Well, this time it's a flying trip. Going to see my Twinkies.

Biggest concern right now is the tropical storm that is headed this way. I will be in Miami right about the time this rain and wind storm will be hitting the coast. This is a typical Florida August storm. No different than any other rain we have had in the past year. How I manage to make trips that coincide with storms is beyond me.

Glad I don't live on the Baja...

The media, as usual, has made a mountain out of a molehill regarding weather (and other things too, latest one being the casey anthony fiasco). This regular tropical storm - doesn't even have an organized center but does have a NAME (oh but they are watching it ever so closely for the slightest, miniscule increase in wind), with winds that are less than the last storm that flew by here, is making all the headlines and being described in hurricane terms.

If you describe something in "words" here you can bet it will be taken at face value. In other words, the public is very concrete and this results in a big rush to the supermarket to "be prepared" and "stock up." On my menu is wine, cheese, crackers...they will always last you through any windstorms, tropical storms, rain, hail, drizzle, cloudy skies, sunny skies - you get the picture.

Needless to say, I am full steam ahead for my trip to NJ. Can't wait to see the Twinks and fam.

Back to doing the clothing routine. Not only doing the NJ one, but also preparing for my Europe trip coming up.

What to bring???? What do I NOT want to carry with me? I feel like a packhorse. Wouldn't it be great to travel with JUST a credit card? Maybe a change of underwear, and of course my camera equipment. What else does one need?

Golden SkyBridge of St. Pete

The Everglades has it all.

On the way to the Everglades however, Brenda and I headed out from Orlando towards Tampa and then south along the Bay coast.

Beeeeyooootiful day!!

First stop: Sarasota. Of course we had to do the museums and get in a little circus stuff too. Managed a quick trip over to the Ringling mansion that must have been awesome in its heyday. I felt like F. Scott Fitzgerald's girlfriend, visiting...what opulence, what glamor, what elegance even for circus folk. They were the "nouveau riche" of their time and managed to pull it off with the aplomb of a king and queen. No clowns in this mansion!

A Worthy Quote

About the past:

"There comes a point in your life when you realize:

Who matters,

Who never did,

Who won't anymore,

And who always will!

So don't worry about people from your past,

There's a reason why they didn't make it to your future."

Road Trip!

Brenda arrived Orlando on Saturday...

Sunday we left for our Road Trip heading West toward Gulf.

First stop was Sarasota. Museums, clown stuff, good art stuff. We were headed for Naples next.

Met up with Allison and Steve. Had not seen Allison in years! They are back from Brazil and now settling in Naples. Fun people!

Monday was our field trip around Naples. Took the Trolley Tour. We were the only ones on it! Great. Had lunch at Turtle Cove on the beach. WONDERFUL!

Weather hot but still bearable. Talked with Cindi who just bought house nearby. Planned a visit after they get settled. Naples is New England all over...

Tuesday we drove across Alligator Alley - no alligators to be seen. Too hot for them. Smart gators.

Arrived Delray Beach at Bren's cousin Bobby's house. He is away and left the house for us to use. Met up with Susie and had dinner at Boston's - one of our all time favorites.

Wednesday, Thurs. - beach, galleries, eat, eat, visit with Susie and Glenn -

I left on Friday to come back home - Bren is there for the week and will eventually get to Melbourne and then back to Orlando. Plans are to see Harry Potter on Saturday.

For some reason, can't access the above photos to write descriptions:

Top: Ft. Lauderdale at night - The FLO, resto that Susie and Glenn took us to. Fab.

The Third Rainbow: really, there were two more but didn't get them in this shot.

Stained glass: Bren's house that she grew up in Mt. Tabor, NJ. She made this piece. Exquisite.

Inside trolley: the guy was in his glory telling us so much about Naples. He recommended the Turtle cove for lunch. It was great! Had oysters...

Last photo: I took this a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. It was at the Disney church (actually Mary of the universe shrine in Orlando)

Great trip. Will try to put more pix on here too!

Kimono Party

What a wonderful evening at Izumi's house with Sartomi-san as the guest presenter. She is a kimono expert and guided us through an evening of kimono history and tradition. Her kimono were beautiful which included the bridal kimono that was all embroidered on red silk. The garment is typically worn over another kimono during the ceremony. All other members of the close family wear black kimono. White is considered a "death" color although many Japanese girls today are having Western style weddings with a white gown.

We had a chance to try on any of the kimono that Satomi-san brought to show.

We also had some delicious refreshments of bamboo tea, sushi, fruit salad, Japanese rice and red bean sweet - Truly a treat!

A most enjoyable evening!

Hotter than Hades

Still HOT.

Went to Tallahassee and had a wonderful day there. Stayed at a Hampton Inn and I think it's better than the Mariott Residences I usually go to. Car all fixed, detailed, beautiful. Of course 2 hrs. after retrieving the car, it rained and hailed. Nice. Coming out of Tallahassee for the trek home it was very smoky and the acrid air was not pleasant at all. It cleared about 100 mi. south of Tallahassee.

Went to the Ritz Carlton last night to see some friends playing in the Hotel Lobby area. Jonita and Butch and Randy - violin, bass, piano - nice music, very relaxing. Met up with Jonita's niece, Rachel, who is just adorable. She goes to Vanderbilt Univ. in TN and just finished her first year. VEry interesting person - at age 22 she can hold her own in conversation. Also plays violin, piano, among other things. Very Independent person too.

Other than that...it is now Saturday and I really don't want to go out. It's hot again and the traffic will be horrendous I'm sure. The only place to go would be the mall where it is cool at least. Might do that.

Saw "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. Excellent movie. At least it had some intellectual level to it. Photography was also interesting and reflected "old timey" style with movie color from the early 50's. The fashion was impressive also. Very true to the timeframe. The photos taken in Paris made me want to go back even though I never really liked Paris - too city. Too many dogs. Too much dog poop on the sidewalks even though they did wash them every morning. Did enjoy Paris though, the last time I was there - rode a bike through Paris at night - THAT was an experience.

Stay cool....

Hot in the South

Yes, well, you would expect it to be HOT here. But not this early in the "summer." It has been in the 90's every day for the past two weeks. Very little rain - We could use a good tropical storm right now. Not that I am fond of all that wind and torrential downpours where you can't see 2 ft. in front of the windshield. But a little rain is definitely a need right now. Florida relies on an aquifer that runs beneath the state. When that aquifer gets low, we are in "drought" with no other source of water except the ocean. And I really don't know of any desalinization places along the coast here, do you?

I will be taking a little trek to Tallahassee tomorrow to have my car serviced by the people I bought it from. Seems that Orlando Acura can't be bothered to have me as a customer. I've only gone to them for the past 5 yrs and been a loyal customer there. Really burns me. They can't afford to turn away customers.

THis trek by the way is a four hour drive one way. So I just might make it a little vacation for moi and enjoy the northern part of the state for a change. I really do like Tallahassee. If I were to move, that is where I would go. Lot of hills, big trees, better climate and a university right there. I miss that university city feel. Certainly don't get it here in Mickey Land.

HEre is my little video on a volcano. I did it as a demo for a presentation to the company that I was going to work for as a professional educator presenter. Fun.

Planning

I love it when I rediscover a blog.

So here it is, AGAIN. I seem to find this blog every 6 mos. or so.

Just to catch you up on stuff:
I am planning another trip to Switzerland to see Christopher and spend more time exploring Europe.

We will be taking a cruise from Venice (new place to discover!) that will go south in the Adriatic Sea to Ravenna, then east to Croatia and Dubrovnik. We will be stopping at other places as well, just can't remember.

Never been on a cruise. Should be interesting. Christopher persuaded me to do this. He has been on a gazillion cruises.

Very excited about my upcoming trip. Leaving Sept. 17 and coming back Dec. 13. I will be gone for 3 months, the longest I have ever gone on a "vacation."

This is a drawing on a Greek amphora (jar) - it is a "muse" and I like her a lot. Actually she is one of three muses. For some reason, they hang out in threes. Put this in here because...I like it. What better reason...

Time to post some news...

OK OK it's been awhile, but look at it this way: I have more blogs on here and this one just happened to show up here while I was cruising around (i.e. procrastinating cleaning the house). It is probably my worst blog as I haven't put much thought into the design or even added any of my artwork. I did put in videos of Absolutely Fabulous which is a roaring funny sitcom that I discovered while staying in Switzerland and was in bed for two days with a terrible case of food poisoning. All better now. But Ab Fab is just too funny and these two vids aren't even the best ones. They're on YOUTUBE if you are really interested.
Time to get some work done...
So until I meander again...ta!

Absolutely Fabulous

I had to delete the photo that represented Absolutely Fabulous because the BBC put a block on all of their videos. So it was literally useless here on my blog. But if you should ever come across this sitcom, UK style, and you like Brit humor, this is hilarious. I watched full day of AF when I was recovering from whatever it was that I had in Switzerland that time. It was definitely "laughter is the best medicine" for me. Thanks Christopher! He set it up in the morning and just let it go all day for me. Narceese and me just chilled out all day in bed...me being sick and Narceese loving the company.

I think it was a reaction to the cheese we had the night before. This has happened before when I was in Paris once. Had a creamy sauce on something the night before...

New Blog

So here it is, my very own Blog. I only have about ten more of them somewhere on the internet and this is my latest. LEt's hope I can find it when I'm done.

I am making Italian sausage soup, recipe from Olive Garden. Should be good and nutritious.

....some time later... June 2011 to be exact.
It WAS good. It WAS nutritious. I ate it all. Sometimes I just amaze myself with what I can actually cook.

Having a blog or blogS can be very time consuming when you need to catch up on things and rearrange what you already have too. I'm just never happy with how my blog looks. Or what it says. Most of the time I leave what I have written, unless there is a gross grammatical error or bad spelling. Other than that, you are reading what is really on my mind. Which isn't much half the time.

Enjoy the blog - I'll try to put in interesting info and not go on and on like some blogs I have read. They are totally boring. So this is the last of boring entries right now. The rest of the blog should be trés intéressante!