Florida 2009 #6

We awoke yesterday morning to the excitement of the girls spotting Easter eggs that were hidden all over the first floor of the beach house. They were really excited to find additional surprises on the dining room table, a floppy eared bunny hat for each of them, an egg collecting bag, and a baby chick that chirped when you put it in your hand. They loved all three, especially little Hannah, who wore her bunny hat all day yesterday, and held her little “palm pal” in her hand (and slept with it too…causing it to chirp intermittently throughout the night last night.
Anyhow, after having breakfast, we all did our separate things. My main objective was to make sure that I came home with some sort of a suntan. From what I can tell this morning, I think I do…but time will tell when I get to work tomorrow morning. Rudy was busy piling up a big mound of sand so that he could make a sandcastle, my mom, Mickey, and I were all laying in the sun, and the girls were down on the beach having a ball in the waves.

Later on in the afternoon, Sarah, my mom, and I decided to talk a walk down the beach. Mom had picked a landmark to which we would walk, and we headed out on our way. I should have been a little leery about this, mainly because I am not so sure what kind of judgment of distance my mom has. I recall our trip in Hong Kong where she insisted that we could walk from Kowloon to Stanley Market, though it was several miles away by road. This house that we were venturing towards was like Stanley Market from where we were staying on the beach. As we kept trying to walk closer and closer to the house, the landmark kept getting farther and farther away. Finally, I think Sarah and I had enough walking, and we decided to head back. Well, we were WAY away from the house. With mom looking for seashells, Sarah making drawings in the sand as we made our way back, and me having to go to the bathroom, it seemed like we would never get back.

After Sarah got some sand in her eye, mom and Sarah thought it would be best that they walk along the road back to the beach house instead of the beach. After all, the winds were quite gusty, whipping up sand all over the place. I, however, continued heading back on the beach. Upon making it back to the house, I was certain that for some odd reason I would see Sarah and my mom back before me. Since they were the ones with the walkie-talkies in communicado with home base (my brother), I was sure that they would ask someone to come pick them up. As I kept stewing about it more and more walking along the beach, I noticed that my walking pace had picked up quite a bit. My brother commented that he saw me walking back and that I looked like I was on a mission. And I was: to get back.

Well, knowing that Sarah didn’t have shoes on, and that I wasn’t so sure there was an easy route back to the house, I thought it best that I grab the keys to the car, and went out to pick up my mom and Sarah. They were extremely grateful for the ride, but we managed to have a good laugh, as Sarah was very concerned about having to walk in areas where it said “no trespassing” or “private property” and was sure that she was going to go to “juvie.”

As Sarah has been keeping a journal as I mentioned before, the first words out of her mouth when she got back to the house was, “I am going to have a LONG story about this….and it AIN’T gonna be pretty!”

We had supper in the evening, and as we were waiting, the girls came running back into the house saying that there were some young girls smashing their dad’s sand castle. Sarah was all about going down to the beach to give them a piece of her mind. She invited the other two girls, and Becca and Hannah were following behind. Once Becca got into the mix, she was hell bent for leather on her way down, and blew past Sarah. As they got down to the end of the boardwalk, Sarah lingered around having stopped, and Becca was determined to give these “mean girls” a little instruction. Of course, she couldn’t do it without her protector, Hannah, there for support (even though she is the littlest of the three). It ended up to be little Hannah that did all of the talking, and the other two just hung back to watch.

Well, of course the girls were all hot and bothered by the time they came back to the house, and really…the sand castle was more of a big pile of sand that had yet to be shaped into a castle. But they were irritated all of the same. My brother and I got talking about it, and started laughing. These little girls were from the South, having said “y’all” to them. Sarah thought they were from Texas and immediately proclaimed that all Texas girls are mean. I proceeded to tell her that we should just give Texas back to Mexico then. Rudy, on the other hand, said that they should have told them from their actions, “We now know why the North won.” The girls didn’t get it. I almost had wine come out my nose.

After the girls were calmed down, we had dinner, and then got ready to watch “Dancing With the Stars” before going to bed.

I had to get up earlier this morning, so that I would be able to get all of my stuff packed up in my duffle bag, so that it wasn’t all over the house, and then all of my electronics in my book bag so that I can take them home with me on my way back to Wisconsin today. This morning is very cold (probably low 40’s), and we actually had to turn on the heat in the house, as the thermostat said 61.

I have had a great time in Florida yet again, and I think for the most part I am mostly unwound. The good thing is that I only have a short week this week, with Friday being shortened by 3 hours due to it being Good Friday.

I am not so sure I am ready to go back to work, as I really have enjoyed the warm weather, the ocean, the sunshine, and Florida. But, alas, I have to pay for my house and make a living somehow.

Florida 2009 #5

It’s really amazing how when it’s a completely overcast, how one still can get an incredible amount of sun. My face and cheeks are incredibly hot, and I think my kneecaps are on fire. But yesterday, it was very sunny all morning, and then became somewhat cloudy in the afternoon. We took a long walk along the beach, and we found several different shells. We also found a crab, still alive and mostly whole, but was missing the smaller of his two claws. Most of what we’ve found over the last week and a half is dead parts of crabs, mostly back shells and claws.
Coming back to the house, after spending an entire day on the beach, we made (or I should say Grandma made) all of the stuff that one would normally make tacos. Before coming to Florida, my mom and I were talking about what we were going to have to eat when everyone was here. One of the items was to have tacos. Because tacos can be somewhat cumbersome, I suggested we have tacos in a bag.

Yes, tacos in a bag. I would have to say that whoever came up with that idea was a sheer genius. I first came across this idea at work when a co-worker sold these as a United Way fundraiser. In essence, it’s taking everything that you would normally put in a taco, and put it into an individual sized bag of Fritos, and then eat it straight out of the bag.

Anyhow, Sarah had the idea that we all needed to have a picnic dinner on the beach. Luckily with having the tacos in a bag, we were able to accomplish this. At first, Becca insisted that she didn’t want to have them, that she needed to have regular tacos, as tacos in a bag were NOT tacos, and that they would not taste as good. After a little bit of convincing (and telling her they were unconventional tacos), she finally gave in and agreed to try them. Well, they were a big success, even for the grown ups. We then had dessert: a choice of lemon or orange cake from a coffee cup.

It was “Ingenuity Supper Sunday,” as these cakes only took about a minute. Yes, you take a 1/3 cup of cake mix, 3 tablespoons of water, and nuked in a microwave for 1 minute. The cake mix can be just about anything that you want, so long as it’s completely mixed with one box of angel food cake mix. Serve it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and voila! You have dessert.
Again, it was a big hit for the girls.

By the time we got done, it was time for the girls to go to bed. After all, it was a really long day for them considering the late night arrival and beach walk the night before, coupled with the fact that they were extremely excited about being able to be out on the beach early in the morning. Before retiring for bed, my brother, sister-in-law, my mom, and I had a before bed cocktail, and then hid Easter Eggs for the girls to find when they get up tomorrow morning.

It should be really fun to see how excited they’ll get!

Florida 2009 #4

This morning I was up at about 7:15 a.m. I was watching the news on television, when all of a sudden, I was pleasantly surprised by being awoken by my niece Sarah. Of course it was time to go to the beach. So Sarah, Becca, Hannah, Grandma, and I all got ready. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t wake up my brother and sister-in-law, as they had had a long day of traveling yesterday.

We walked along the beach quite a ways. We did a lot of searching around for shells, and had a nice time enjoying walking along the shore. We were passed by a couple of overly ambitious runners, who looked extremely uncomfortable running along the beach. Perhaps it was that they felt like they were cast members of “Baywatch”. I mean, on television, it looks so easy to run along the beach. From the looks of their strained running, it looked more like death watch. No matter how much they tried to look like they were enjoying themselves, their pained faces, strained expressions, and overheated reddish-tinted skin said otherwise.

Anyhow, we were greeted once again by Buddy the Labrador Retriever puppy (the one I mentioned yesterday who had the affinity for taking his master for a walk instead of the other way around). After greeting us, his master called him back. Immediately, Buddy turned on his heel, and went back to his master. Sarah immediately said, “Dory would never do that. I don’t think we could teach her to do that.” It just struck me funny, as I know for certain that my two hounds upon seeing the beach and especially the ultra-light plane that flew overhead, would be at St. George Island in about 4 seconds flat.

I had some awesome quality time with my niece, Hannah, who has quite an imagination, and was building houses in the sand with chimneys that were about 30 feet tall. She then started telling me (by drawing) how Santa Claus was stuck in this chimney (and at thirty feet with his girth, I’m not surprised), and that Mrs. Claus had to push him out. It was adorable.

I wish I still had that kind of imagination!

Florida 2009 #3

Today we went to Apalachicola early in the morning to check out an Art Fair that happened to be going on. The only thing was that when we got there we couldn’t find exactly where we needed to be. After circling around Apalachicola (which, mind you, ended up being a very small circle), we happened to go past some unsavory parts of the city, we passed by three different cemeteries all right next to each other which I found rather strange, and we saw a group of african american people standing outside someone’s house waiting for a wedding to occur. The unusual thing about the wedding was that I felt we were passing by the staging of “Cops-Apalachicola” in that no sooner did we drive by that we saw about 3 or 4 police cars pull up. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was guessing that something more was going on than just a wedding.

Anyhow, we ended up going back into town, and stopped at the Visitor’s Center, where my mom got us a map and a listing of all of the different exhibitors. Well, it turns out that not only did we not know where to go, but we were also about 2 hours early. And no, it didn’t mean that we were two hours early because we were still on Central Time, but two hours early/same time zone. We decided to toodle around the city to check out all of the shops in the downtown area.

Apalachicola’s main downtown area is very old, and in parts reminds me of New Orleans with some of the warehouses that are lined up along the street. There are a couple of really old antebellum houses, as well as some really old bungalos. Apalachicola has a lot of artisans, and a lot of artsy type shops around it in its main downtown area. Once you get out of the main 6-7 blocks however, you get into major hicksville. Even worse, you know that something is wrong when the IGA supermarket is way nicer than the Piggly Wiggly, and the checkers have more teeth.

Anyhow, while walking from block to block, we got to see a really cool pet store complete with dog and cat outfits and costumes. I’m not one to be much fond of dogs and costumes, but I have to admit some of them were pretty darn cute. In fact, I was tempted to get the “Dogzilla” costume for Dillon, but something tells me that he’d more look like a very lithe iguana rather than a T-Rex. We then went to Tamara’s Tapas Café where we had a couple of cafes con leche and a couple of small things to eat. My mom said her dried fruit scone was ok, but that the fruit wasn’t the only thing that was dry in it. My mocho-choco-latta-ya-ya mini bundt cake, on the other hand, was fantastic. After finishing up, we were able to see an artist’s display of very intricate paper cutting and paper manipulation that was really interesting.

We then went over to an Orvis store. We had been at this same store once before, and the same lady that was working last year was working again this year. Honestly, this woman looks like a Southern Belle, but with a sour attitude. Now, my perception of a Southern Belle is that sickly sweet charming persona that always wants you to feel welcome and wants to be polite and hospitable. They are usually soft-spoken, and smile a lot, all the while leaning on their drawl like a tired and overused excuse. This woman, while soft-spoken, was quite a negative Nancy. Even when my mom was trying to pay this woman a compliment, this Southern Bomb didn’t even know how to react let along get the compliment itself. Orvis, usually being over-priced and very ordinary in their merchandise, was yet again a disappointment. So we left.

By then it was about noon, and we noticed several of the vendors were now set up.

Unfortunately, NONE of them had anything remotely close to anything that I would even consider buying. Bad photography, bad watercolor art, bad oil paintings, and spread out over a 4 block circle, it was just a disappointment. So we decided we were going to have some lunch at the Apalachicola Grill.

Lunch was fantastic, although the service was a bit slow and unremarkable. There were a lot of people in the restaurant, and there were a lot of people lined up outside waiting to get in. But, after having a delicious lunch of coconut shrimp with orange marmalade and sweet tea, I can totally see why.

We came back to the beach house and spent most of the afternoon lounging in the sun. My face feels extremely warm as do the tips of my ears. I also notice that occasionally I get the chills, even though the temperature outside is about 75. Perhaps next I’ll go into heatstroke and shock. Wouldn’t THAT be a great way to spend my vacation.

Anyhow, we took it easy the rest of the day, and then waited for my brother and his family to make it down to the beach. They arrived at about 9 p.m., and immediately it was a flurry of excitement and activity, as the girls were shrieking wanting to get out to the beach. I chuckled at the sight, as they were extremely excited. With flashlights in hand, and then the 7 of us in tow, we walked out to the shore, where it was quite starry, and the silvery moon cast its light on the beach. It was pretty incredible. I was hoping that we would see some creatures scurrying along the beach, but no luck.

After having some food, the energy level certainly dropped quite a bit. Sarah sat next to me writing in her new journal, and had me listen to everything that she’s writing. She has beautiful penmanship, and really knows how to write. She asked me how to spell computer, and I happily obliged. I asked her why she needed to know how to spell it (smiling), and then asked her if she was writing about me. Of course she denied it, and then smiled and giggled….typical woman!

We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Florida 2009 #2

So this year in Florida has been very different from the last several years in that for a good share of the week that I have been down here, we have had rain. What’s interesting is that in talking to some of the locals either at the rental office or at restaurants, is that they have had extremely unusual amounts of rain: so much so that there have been several flash flood warnings all around the county we’re in, which is Gulf County. I keep saying to myself that I’m grateful that we are not in Fargo where yet again it’s blizzarding, raining, and the north-running Red River is about 20 feet over flood stage.

We have had the opportunity to go out after a couple of the rain storms, to find many of the bayous and ditches completely filled with water. In many of the ditches, the water has turned somewhat brownish due to the tannins in a lot of the vegetation. The other thing that we’ve noticed with all of the rain is that there is a pervasive smell of sulfur every now and then. I have no idea where it comes from, as to whether it’s the actual rain itself, or the decomposing vegetation. It isn’t, I am certain, a by-product of flatulence, though it does remind me of what Detroit smells like. And GOD do I love Detroit….I keep telling myself that we should just let Canada have it, the city, all of its suburbs, and all of the people that live there.

I will say that the one thing that I love the most about being down here in Cape San Blas is the abundance of seafood that is available, either in the supermarket, roadside shacks, or restaurants. We have had shrimp we have now fixed twice ourselves, the second time was shrimp that was steamed in old bay seasoning, served with remoulade sauce. It was wonderful.
We managed to go to Boss Oyster for dinner on Wednesday night, where I had bay scallops and red snapper. When the server came out with my food, it reminded me a lot of when I had to go to Baltimore to accompany a friend of mine when she was auditioning at Peabody Conservatory. We went out for dinner and I had ordered clams (one of my favorite things). Expecting a normal serving (and somewhat startled by the inflated price of my dinner choice), I was overwhelmed to see that when the server came out with a HUGE platter, I figured it was going to be served “family style.” Well, the platter was piled high (about 4 inches to be exact) with clams. And they were all for me. I have never seen (or eaten) so many clams in my entire life. It was as if they kept multiplying on my place as I was eating. I felt as though I couldn’t get ahead. Funny, I haven’t been anywhere since where they have served clams anymore. Perhaps I ate them all…
Anyhow, at Boss Oyster, the food was fantastic (and abundant), overflowing with bay scallops (the small bite-sized ones) and with two huge red snapper fillets. Combined with the Yuengling beer, and a great view of pelicans at rest on the wharf, it was a great evening despite the soggy conditions.

On Thursday, it was VERY rainy. In fact, when my mom and I were sitting at the dining room table playing a game of Upwords, it was about 10:30 a.m. and you would have thought that it was about 10:30 p.m. The sky was almost pitch-black. As we turned on the news to see all of the dark red splotches swirling around the Cape where we were at, the sky looked like a three layered salad. The bottom layer was the brownish-white sandy beach, the second layer was the white sky on the horizon, and the top layer was the pitch-black clouds. It was really eerie. The lightning over the Gulf was pretty spectacular to watch. After trying to get a chance picture of lightning over the bay, I eventually gave up. I was feeling like I was my mother when we were traveling from Paris to Turin on the TGV. Every time my mom wants to take a picture of something, by the time she gets the camera out of her quart sized Ziploc bag camera case, gets the item in focus, the picture composed, and her finger on the trigger, she’ll take the picture, only to have completely missed what it was that she was originally trying to photograph. I always chuckle about this, because (being the smart-ass that I am) my comment to my mom was, “you may have 1000 speed film, but you have a 200 speed finger.”

On Friday, we went to the lighthouse point on the Cape, to see if we could find any interesting and different seashells that we haven’t been able to get. It really is something to find all of the different kinds, and where some types of shells are more abundant than others in different parts of the beach. I figured that with the recent severe and gusty weather, the stuff churned up and thrown on the beach may be interesting. We were not disappointed. We managed to find about 5-6 large lightning whelk shells (that I have never seen anywhere else on the beach) and many larger scallop type shells that we left for others to appreciate.

We then came back to the house and literally spent a good portion of the remainder of the day sitting in the sun, walking along the beach, and enjoying the 78 degree SUNNY weather! At least I think I have gotten some color. I was getting worried that I was going to be pasty white even after getting back home.

Last night, we then went to a brand new restaurant (brand new meaning that it wasn’t in business last year when my family was here) in Simmon’s Bayou, which is between the Cape and Port St. Joe. We walked up to Gracie O’Malley’s, and were led outside to the back, where there was a beautiful and large deck overlooking the bay. It had quite an amazing view of the bay from our tables and rocking chairs. Our server was really good, making very convincing suggestions to us about what to have on the menu. My mom ordered stuffed shrimp, and I ordered stuffed flounder.

It is really amazing to me that I would even order fish yet again. My brother would have been completely surprised. I’m not much of a fish person. However, depending on where I am, and how it’s served, I will eat fish. I just am not particularly fond of “fishy” tasting fish. This flounder was anything but. It was INCREDIBLE. While I have to admit that I was a little nervous about having to take the skin off of the fish (as well as the tail), and was feeling a little gun shy. After eating the first bite, I devoured the rest of the fish with gusto. Served with an appropriately delicate sherry creamed crab sauce, and a cornmeal and crab based stuffing, the delicate flavor of the flounder wasn’t overpowered. It was great!

We ended up ordering dessert to go, and later on in the evening (with some coffee) we were able to each enjoy a very tasty slice of peanut butter pie. I could tell that the pie was going to be rich, as my cheeks were starting to sweat.

Waking up this morning (Saturday), it’s another glorious day. The sun is shining, there is relatively little breeze, and there’s not a whole lot of people that come to this part of the Cape (called Indian Pass). We have designs on going to an art festival and farmer’s market this morning, and I am planning to spend more time trying to get a bit more color before I head home.

My brother, my sister-in-law, and my three nieces are making their way down as I write this, and I look forward to spending some time with them for a couple of days before venturing home.

Florida #1

Well, I am on vacation. We started the journey south on Friday after I had gotten done with work. I had to quick get things put together, and then throw it into the car, and then headed over to my mom’s house so that we could be on our merry way. After leaving the house, I wasn’t so sure that I had remembered everything. I find that often I feel this way any time I travel. But, I figure, so long as I have clean underwear, my contacts case, my glasses and my wallet (and my car keys…as I will need to pick up my car at the bus depot upon my return back home), I will be just fine.

Anyhow, my mom was the one that started the drive, and of course, noting that she was getting about 30 miles per gallon with a full load in her CR-V, she was quite pleased. We continued until it got dark, and then it would be my turn to drive. That was about in Effingham, Illinois. The name “Effingham” really cracks me up. I don’t know why, aside from the fact that I imagine myself being at a Thanksgiving or Easter gathering at one of my dad’s sibling’s houses (very much being in the past, I assure you). I then imagine being served with whatever mystery meat we would have (as I can remember on about 2 or 3 occasions it was supposed to be turkey or ham, but for some reason we didn’t know for certain since the meat would have a grey hue to it). I then imagine my brother asking me what it was, and wittily, I would respond, “It’s effing- HAM!).

Anyhow, we stopped at a Culver’s to at least eat something before we continued driving. We were suddenly startled by a younger man (I would say he was late teens or early twenties) who ran in front of us, and hid around a partition, and then looked in both directions. Both my mom and I looked around to see if he was hiding from some younger kids (like nieces or nephews or such), but not seeing anyone under the age of 20 in the restaurant, nor any men in uniform or lab coats donning a straight-jacket, we figured the guy was either part cat or autistic.
Anyhow, I continued driving towards Paducah, our final destination. Of course with my driving, my mom was quick to note how driving over 70 miles per hour causes the gas mileage to go down (yeah…to like 28.5 instead of 30). It was night time, and while we were driving, we were noting how the temperature would rise little by little. And I really didn’t care about the gas mileage at that point.

We got to Paducah at about 10:30 p.m. I have decided that Illinois is much better to drive through at night, when you cannot see how really flat and boring your scenery is for the 6 hours you drive through it.

When we got to the hotel, a college aged guy with really bad hair and dorky glasses was checking the reservation, and at first told my mom that they cancelled the reservation because the reservation required a 6 p.m. check-in time. I told him he had better check again. Well, upon further review, he then proceeded to over-apologize for his error. We did have a room after all. Thank god.

We got up the next morning, and checked out of the hotel and headed to the nearest Bob Evans we could find, which was right down the street. I love Bob Evans Restaurant. I had to have sausage gravy and biscuits, which (I would have to say) is my FAVORITE breakfast known to mankind. Our server was a woman by the name of Trey, who had quite a saucy attitude. So saucy was her attitude that the manager, upon checking how everything was with us, was a little shocked that she got a compliment. The food was great, and was a great way to start off the morning.

We continued our trek through Kentucky, getting to Nashville, then Brentwood (where we have stayed in the past). I would have to say that this was the first time I have ever been through Nashville where it hasn’t been a monsoon, a typhoon, a severe thunderstorm with hail, or the like. However, we were warned that all day that we would be experiencing severe thunderstorms all the way to our final stop of the day, Dothan, Alabama. We did notice, however, the mile upon mile of trees along the interstate that were snapped off at the tree trunk from a horrible ice storm that they had all along the route this past winter. Come to think of it as well, I don’t think I have ever been to or through Tennessee without the state having some extreme case of bad, extreme, or severe weather.

Well, it was sunny almost the whole way, with just a little bit of rain around Birmingham. We had planned to stop at Webb’s BBQ at mile marker 32, which was a little shack along the side of the highway right before getting to Dothan. This was a place where we were going to stop (upon the advice of a couple of friends of mine) last year but the timing was off. Well, they weren’t open. It didn’t look like they were in business either.

Well, we got to the Fairfield Inn in Dothan at about 5:30 p.m., and checked into the room. I would have to say that it was the cleanest hotel of any hotel I have been to anywhere in the U.S., and the lobby hostess and manager were probably the friendliest, most courteous people I have ever experienced. When we got to the room, it was also probably one of the cleanest, freshest smelling hotel rooms I have ever been in ANYWHERE. We were also told that had we arrived earlier, we would have gotten caught in one of the heaviest of rainstorms they have had in a LONG time. In some areas, as we saw on the news, they had up to 11 inches of rain. We were just thankful that we missed the storms altogether, and that there was no snow or ice to have to contend with.

We decided that we wanted steak for supper, so we went to the local Outback Steakhouse (yes, like Hong Kong, they had one in Dothan). Three things came out of that experience. First, I found that my favorite beer is now Yuengling Lager. Two, that my mom was very gullible in thinking that her water was her beer (and the server nervously twittered, and said “you’re joking, right?”….and NO, she wasn’t joking). And three, that we had two of the best steaks ever. I have decided that I like a bleu cheese crust on my steak, and surprise!...I like potatoes.
We went back to the hotel and were able to sleep in late. We got up, got everything ready for the final jaunt to the beach house, ate at the same Cracker Barrel we ate at before. I was able to get a really cool Alabama t-shirt (and no…NOT the country musical group….), and some cool things for the nieces for Easter. We then ventured off.

We got to the beach house at about 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised by the house. It’s newer, it’s got a HUGE kitchen, nice dining room, comfortable living room furniture, a really cool screened in porch, it is only about 50 yards to the water, and is really nice. I would have to say that it is my favorite house. The table in the dining room I haven’t been able to figure out. It’s very 70’s, and very low, with director’s style chairs on casters. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be Ginza of Tokyo or the Regal Beagle.

We went into town, and had grouper, hush puppies, and fries at the Dockside Grill in Port St. Joe, and then were able to get up late the next morning. We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon on the beach Monday. We then did some shopping at the local Piggly Wiggly, and then stopped at the Port St. Joe Shrimp Co, where we got shrimp for dinner. Mom made “beach shrimp” which was very similar to shrimp de jonghe, and the shrimp were fantastic. Of course, my duty was to devein the shrimp. I got to thinking that I should have been born in the middle ages, because I would have been a pro at disembowelment. Then, in thinking about it more, I found that thought to be very gross, and continued to devein the shrimp.

Today, we walked a long ways on the beach, ran into several different people with their dogs, a mature Irish Setter named “Mr. Bean” and a labrador puppy named “Buddy,” who was more inclined to grab hold of the leash and take his master for a walk instead. Had my greyhounds been here, they would have thought they landed on the moon and probably run back home before I knew what happened.

Anyhow, I have enjoyed my time so far at the beach. I actually get to watch television, wake up without an alarm, have multiple days in a row where my day isn’t programmed, and weather that has so far been cooperative and above 70 during the day.

What more could a guy wish for!

Florida 2009

It's been a while since I have really posted anything to my corner of the technological world, so the following are some entries I have neglected to add from my trip to Florida this past Spring. As many of you may or may not know, my family spends part of our vacation time in beautiful Cape San Blas, Florida, which is about 45 miles east of Panama City. It's an incredible place, with lots of beaches, surf, and sunshine. This year I was fortunate enough to be able to spend part of the time with my entire immediate family.

Hope you enjoy.