Officially, the cutest!

I'll admit to an itsy, bitsy bit of bias, but c'mon! Who wouldn't be charmed by this adorable bundle of joy? Rich and I have been a bit preoccupied this week with his charming, smiling grandson...

Sunshine? What's that?

This little bundle of joy was born at the cusp of winter in New York and he found the bright Florida sunshine unusual. He has grown accustomed however...

Enduring popularity

Rich has been honored with the visit of his daughter, her partner and his *grandson*! All I can say is that suddenly in the dead of winter we have become mightily popular. It is a good thing. I couldn't be happier to have a 3-month-old baby with parents in tow come and visit us. It's all been very validating actually.

You see, I adore babies, but it has become quite clear to me that I adore them more when they have their own parents. And this precious babe is no exception. Yes, he is hours of entertainment and completely and irrevocably lovable, but there are those diapers and there is that bit of fussiness. Grandparenting is definitely where I'm at!

Flea market shinanigans

We upped and done it! Rich and I have divested ourselves of the majority of our worldly possessions. IT FEELS GOOD! We rented a spot at the Mustang Flea Market in Pinellas, Florida and sold out. No unreasonable offer refused!

I'll admit there was some left when we closed shop this afternoon, but it all went directly to the Goodwill located a couple of blocks away from the flea market. Geographic coincidence? Maybe not.

We arrived in the dark this morning and as soon as we began unloading we were swarmed by strangers with flashlights. I do believe some jewelry disappeared. There are "those" vendors who prey upon new arrivals to buy low and re-sell. Stealing? Well I guess it's irresistable for some. Other vendors were most amiable and helpful. And the buyers? Very heavy and friendly foot traffic today.

Chatting at Chattaway

It's moments like these that just take my breath away! Chattaway is a local outdoor beer garden in St. Petersburg. Sounds European right? But then just LOOK! Tee hee. It is soooo Florida. My fundraising colleague, Nina, whom I met for lunch told me to look for the pink bathtubs. Oh yes, the entire back of the garden is lined with pink bathtubs. Somehow they pull it off brilliantly. And what a lovely respite this lunch was from a week filled with long commutes on highway and penguin suited meetings. In fact, the person in my morning meeting was wearing jeans! What an auspicious beginning to any weekend...

Highway blues

I have been hitting the highway - hard! Today instead of north I went south to Sarasota. This was a much shorter ride, which is good because in the car is NOT my favorite place to be.

So after a long day of smiling and shaking hands and then smiling via follow-up e-mails, we headed off to the Angry Pepper on Duhme Road in Madeira Beach (and no, my brother, that is not "dumb" road it is "doom-ay"!!). Rich was a bit, well, overwhelmed, by the truck's artwork.

The most special thing about the Angry Pepper is that they have a Czech beer on tap - Krusovice (sounds like "crew-show-veetsah") and I enjoy it. Truly amazing!

Conferencing

I've decided that if I don't have billable work then I must be out meeting people and making friends. So today I went up to Winter Park to visit a chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The meeting was held at the Winter Park Civic Center. It is a peaceful and lovely place, even with temperatures dipping into the upper thirties.

Walt'z Fish Shak

I took my brother and his family to Walt'z Fish Shak for dinner last Saturday night. Rich and I had been there before at the recommendation of our neighbors (Florida natives). Once again the flavors of fresh fish and real cooking came through. Yum! Besides that the place is fraught with fun! It's small and sometimes a bit sticky, but it is very, very tasty. Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Busy Birds

My brother and his family were visiting us from Chicago this past weekend. They escaped the -12 degrees and enjoyed sunshine and fall-like temperatures here in Redington Beach, Florida. While out for a walk my brother and I happened across a fisher man. He had a bird following because he kept catching these little sunfish and throwing them back into the water. In other words, doing all the work for the birds! Do you see the white bird in flight? That was a great white egret.
When I got back to my computer and looked at my pictures, I couldn't believe I actually caught a picture of the pelican catching the fish. He's the one at the bottom of the picture and he has a sunfish in his beak. The two brown pelicans are in front and you can see the great blue heron bringing up the rear.


We got a kick out of this fisher man's mobile equipment. It's no stroller to sneeze at and I suppose he figured he spent all that money on a fine carriage, he might as well continue using it long past his child's needs. Either that or his wife is searching the property high and low for a stroller she thinks is too big to have gotten lost.

Mahuffer's - wurst place on the beach

There is a fabulous dive bar just up the street from us in Indian Shores. Mahuffer's aka Sloppy Joe's is a SCREAM! You either scream and run the other way or scream for fun. Considering the relaxed blues music, we decided to scream for fun.

As we arrived a biker (beautiful Harley) was just pulling into the lot and parked in two spots. Mahuffer's cultivates a bit of attitude. Check out all of the crab trap floats hanging from the ceiling. You'll notice the bras hanging in the upper right corner. Yup. And lots of the usual - various individually inscribed currencies and lots of business cards tacked up everywhere. We really enjoyed ourselves. We will definitely go back.

It's beginning to look like Christmas...

Okay, maybe it's not the Christmas of the crooners, but I'm quite tickled to be here for the winter. Temps have dropped to the 60's but we had a good spell of the 80's and Rich and I actually went into the Gulf with our bathing suits on! Do you see the pirate ship? They take families out on it. We've heard the pirate calls when we've been out on our boat and witnessed subsequent children in pirates hats...

A Monster on Gulf Boulevard

The Monster and I were both agreeing on how wonderful Florida is in winter. Temps have been extraordinarily kind recently.

After a bit of casual chat however I discovered that this Monster was merely a clever marketing ploy.

It's the colors I just can't get enough of!

Honeymoon Island

On New Year's Day we took a drive up to Honeymoon Island with a stop in the cute town of Dunedin on the way home. We saw a nesting owl and the beach was littered with small shells being kissed by frothy waves. We don't have to drive that far for natural beauty though. Today we watched the dolphins swimming in our inlet as we ate our dinner!

First Night in St. Petersburg

We didn't have any trouble deciding what to do for New Year's Eve 2008. St. Petersburg has a nonprofit dedicated to bringing us entertainment and revelry as we greet the new year -First Night. It's true. It was no spectacular, but it was fun and walkable and kept us busy. The button with flashing lights meant we were supportive $$. Williams Park had shadow-light-show partitions where one could display personal interpretations of the music and so of course I did.

Live music was everywhere inside and out. We visited two churches. Watching people move in and out was as interesting as our morning beach walks. The tide came in, the tide went out, and throughout we witnessed not a menagerie of shells, plants and animals, but instead all sorts of people dressed all sorts of ways and in all sorts of moods.

Rich took this fabulous picture of the band. There was a blues band playing complete with a blind, black vocalist. That man sure did like to pose for pictures!