Now I'm Finished

So now I am really finished with it. I painted the Buda. Never been much on spray painting but he turned out pretty good.

Our New Front Yard

After my first husband died and subsequently moving out of my big house in Riverview into a small apartment I finely bought my house in Strawberry Ridge in the Year of 2002. It was a pre-owned house so the landscaping that came with it was what I got. It was OK but the people who did my yard had once suggested I should pull out all that stuff and do something new. Well I really thought the old stuff looked OK to me so I resisted. That is UNTIL one day toward the last of March when Lee and I were in Kerby’s nursery looking around. I shall digress a bit here. Originally we had decided to DO NOTHING to our yard this year since we will be spending most of the summer away from it. But you know “Stuff invariably happens!” So we started out slow.

We bought a weeping bottle brush tree. Then a few annuals for our butterfly garden. BUT while at Kerby’s I happened to notice this really “cool” Coolie statue. He was standing in an area with a bunch of what I call Bonzi plants but I think they are more correctly called topiary shrubs. I couldn’t get this out of my mind. So on the way home I grabbed a napkin out of the console of our car and sketched out a Japanese Garden. I had seen one in Thailand and also in San Francisco and really liked the look. First thing I had to find was this palm that I liked. It was shaped like a palmetto but much larger fronds and they are silvery grey. I didn’t even know the name of it. Upon asking around I found two of them here in the park and asked the owners of each of them where they could be bought. One said Kerby’s who didn’t have any at the time but would have some in August. Perfect! We could do the garden when

we come home.The next person we talked to said theycould be found right up the road so off we went and bingo here was our palm. So we bought it. Then in Home Depot we found a silver Juniper tree. Boy this would fit right in. So we bought it. Then we talked to our neighbors John and Marlene about possibly doing the work for us. They had done their yard and another neighbor’s yard and did a beautiful job so we contracted with them. So off we went to buy the topiary. The big search was the bridge we wanted. We looked everywhere called everywhere and looked online. Finely we found just what we wanted at a cement statuary place in Largo. Only problem the bridge weighed 250 pounds. I called Jamie to see if he could round up some help to unload this thing from John’s truck which he could. So Tuesday Lee & I, John & Marlene took off for Largo to get the bridge. Monday, Lee and I had gone to Kerby’s and bought the Coolie and the Pagoda. At the cement place we also found the cutest little Buda (or Hoi Toi the cement place calls him.) Yesterday was the big day. The last details were set in place. John and Marlene took my dream and turned it into reality and it is just lovely. Thanks John and Marlene and thanks Jamie and Doug for the muscle power. They also unloaded the Coolie from our car. He also weighs some 200+ pounds.

See My Facebook page for more photos.

The Florida Gator

What a beautiful morning it is after a rainy stormy day yesterday. We were lazy yesterday it just seemed like a good day to stay in and stay dry. So I got up this morning and decided to go to the workout center and do a little walking and biking. Been trying to do a bit of it lately. Back home looking at all my new plants I noticed several golf carts in front of the neighbors house. Teresa and Kathy from the office were out so I shouted a cheerful good morning to them. They replied then told me they caught the "Gator" in the pond in our back yard. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera and headed for the pond. Sure enough there the maintenance men had a gator I would judge to be about 4 to 4.5 feet long. Just a little guy. They will call the trappers to come get him and take him away. But here is his (or her) picture. There is still a large one in the pond but I haven't seen him/her. Seems to be a never ending thing in that pond. Always gators gators gators. This is the first one I have actually seen but the neighbors have seen them several times. Once while we were away for the day they people who did our yard told us a gator walked right through our carport. Another time, while we were away for the day our neighbor left a note on our door and told us a 7 foot gator had been walking through our back yard. Oh well just another day in Florida. Soon we will be up in Alaska where we will have to worry about bears.

Wednesday Mystery Dinner

Another Wednesday Night and another adventure.

We heard about this restaurant from our neighbors that was "Way out in the Boonies!" Name of said restaurant is Cherry Pocket. And they are right it is indeed way out in the Boonies. We plugged in our trusty "new" GPS, Jill and off we went. Since it was going to be a long trip we started out earlier than our usual. Well Jill took us on roads even Jim and not heard of and Jim knows all the Florida back roads. We got there and found a dismal looking "shack." Well that is what it is called Cherry Pocket Steak & Fish Shack. It has a beautiful setting on a lake. And while it didn't look like much it was a delightful evening. Really good food and lots of it. Everything looked so good I couldn't resist it. We ordered all sorts of things meaning full well to take home supper for the next night and that we did. After Lee and I splitting an appetizer of various nuggets (including gator) then Lee got Peel and Eat Shrimp and I a Gumbo that would set you on fire. For our main course I had crab cakes and Lee had a steak. We brought a lot home. Having had enough adventure for the evening we took a more straight foward route home and ignored Jill. By then we had changed her over to Jack. This new GPS has many personalities.

Back home for round two of the evening.

Our Wed night bowling. The Guys against the Girls!

Well for a

change the Girls rocked we ruled the night. Still have to figure out how to kick "Smiling Jim" out that

first place spot.

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Coming soon!

North to Alaska Starring Lee and Jeannie. May 16th. Wish us luck! This will be my 5th attempt to see Mount Rushmore.

Please Pass the Salt!

Seems Like I have to eat some crow here. When I first moved into Strawberry Ridge I noticed many many people had golf carts. I said in my snooty manner that I can conjure up from time to time "What in the world do I need a golf cart for? I have a car and if I want to go somewhere here in the park I will just get in my car and go. Also it is just too much trouble pulling the car out and getting the golf cart out every time we want to use it. Well a good friend let us cart sit with her cart while she is out of town and we found we really had fun be-bopping around the park in the golf cart so guess what folks? We went out and bought our own. Not only that we have taken out bushes beside our house and plan to put in cement to extend our driveway so we can just drive the golf cart right into the side of the carport up in front of our car. Not having to move the car at all. So thank you very much I would like my crow deep southern fried and plenty of salt please.

And seems like some folks (lots of them as a mater of fact) have little doggies they take for rides in their carts. Well we've been there done that (Shades of Hannibal the Horrible) so Lee said he can be my little Doggie. The cart is mine and the car is his. So I ride him around the park. Cute little doggie isn't he!

Trip coming up soon

Been really busy this week getting ready for our trip. Spent most of the week booking hotels through Hotels.com. If I stay 10 nights I get one free. Usually don't book ahead when we do road trips. So far our road trips have just been cross country with plenty of Motel 6's along the way and have not had trouble getting rooms on the fly. Never wanted to be tied to a schedule in the past. However there are certain things we want to do in Alaska and had to book them in advance so to insure we had a place to stay when we get there I decided to just book those places in advance. Well I got wrapped up in this and decided to book the entire trip. So far I have booked 45 out of 70 days we are scheduled to be on the road. Have booked an Arctic Circle bus tour up Dalton Highway, The ferry down the inside passage, and a train ride over White pass from Whitehorse to Skagway and back again. Still need to book a whale watching trip somewhere along the way. Good thing I started booking early. Had trouble getting rooms at Yellowstone and Denali NP's And the people at the Marine Highway (Ferry) said if you don't book a cabin some time in Oct or Nov there wouldn't be cabins available in May. Sure don't want to spend 3 nights stretched out in a recliner chair sleeping.

Next I have been creating a really neat workbook in Excel. Using the snipping tool that is furnished with Windows I have been snipping pictures and booking information and creating a sheet for each stop we make. On the sheet I used the insert shapes tool to create "sticky notes" with little comments etc. Each sheet in the workbook has a different colored tab. It is pretty cool.

Also have started my packing list of everything we want to take with us. Gee, hope the car is big enough. We may just have to buy a box van to put all this stuff in it, LOL.