Where did October go?

Oh that's right... October dissolved into a series of plane flights and car trips...  fortunately there were some highlights along the way!

The first week of October I flew to New York City for about 24 hours for a meeting in Manhatten.  The afternoon I arrived, I was able to squeak in a very brief visit to the American Museum of Natural History and this time my highlight was the giant stone head from Easter Island (although I think it might have been a replica?). 

However, the dinosaurs and gemstones are always some of my favorites.  The next day after the meeting, Whitney and I hopped in a cab and headed for Penn Station - on the way we passed "The Naked Cowboy" giving the Times Square crowd a show, and a Home Depot that defied logic for me - it looked like the store front for a Neiman Marcus or something (see below)?!  

After our quick sightseeing, we caught a 3.5 hr train back to DC  - it was only the 2nd train ride I've ever taken - and it was pretty fun!  Sharing the ride with Whitney helped pass the time and it was nice to not have to deal with airport security.  Once I got to DC I worked for a couple of days before coming home Friday night.  We immediately packed up the car and the pets and drove out to the island to spend the 3 day holiday weekend relaxing at the beach house which was just lovely, but a bit rainy.  So we improvised and enjoyed the hot tub in the rain. :)

The following week I was home before hopping a 6am plane to San Jose, CA for a meeting in Santa Cruz.  I was only in Santa Cruz for 36 hours, but I got to room with Whitney again, so that made it fun.  We also had a little expedition to the Patagonia outlet in town for some shopping which was also fun and a welcome break from the meeting.  The second night I left straight from dinner for the airport and caught a red-eye back to Florida.  Thank heaven my flights were on time - I landed in the morning and as soon as Wade picked me up we tossed our bags in the car and headed to St. Augustine for Kellyn and Conrad's wedding.  Wade was kind enough to drive the whole way over so I was able to sleep the entire way.  I usually can't sleep through my flights back from CA, so I had been awake since 3:30am, and the chance to nap was a welcome one.  We got to St. Augustine in time to clean up and change and made it to the wedding rehearsal only a few minutes late.  Afterwards we had a lovely rehearsal dinner at the Lightner Museum, then headed back to the hotel to crash into a delicious king-sized bed.  The next morning we slept in a bit, then enjoyed a great breakfast at a local cafe before heading over to pick up Kellyn to take her to the salon.  Wade chauffeured us and went to check out the fort in St. Augustine while Kellyn had her hair done.  After the hair appointment, Wade and I squeaked in a quick lunch at Aunt Kate's just up the road on the river and had some wonderful Florida-style southern food before I headed back to spend time with Kellyn.   We had a fun afternoon of the ladies hanging out while Wade was able to relax before the wedding.  We had perfect weather for the beachside wedding, including wind strong enough to blow bubbles from the little wedding bubble wands (which Wade discovered) :).  To see how lovely the bride looked, you can check out our Picasa site here. After the ceremony there was a great reception at a huge beautiful beach house just across the street.  We were treated to an incredible sunset over the saltmarshes and river behind the house and it was pretty incredible.  We finally called it a night and crashed in bed before trying to repack some of our stuff which mysteriously had spread itself all over our hotel room.  Sunday morning we had another good breakfast at the nearby cafe before heading home.  Four hours later we were home and I was repacking my suitcase for another trip to DC.


Monday morning I left for DC again and was there for the week.  Work was the usual, but I was able to catch up with friends which was great.  I'm so grateful for the friends I have made in DC who treat me like family, so it really helps keep the loneliness and homesickness at bay when I travel.  I arrived home Friday night to tidy up the house and prep for our Halloween dinner on Sunday night.  We had a great group of people, good "freaky" Halloween themed food, and a lot of fun.  It was the perfect way to end all the travel since I was so thankful to be home and see our friends who I missed quite a bit.  You can check out the pictures here.


Halloween night we biked down to Mark and Annette's house that's about 13 blocks south of us.  They are in the "heart" of our neighborhood where the insanity takes place on Halloween and this year we made a point to check it out.  We hung with Mark and Annette and the kids for a while and handed out candy before venturing over to the madness.  The streets were so packed it was difficult to walk in some places - particularly in front of the one house that had a huge scaffolding and acrobats with a creepy circus theme and the occasional pyrotechnic fireball that lit up the entire street.  There were a number of other super decorated houses - Night of the Living Apps (a haunted Angry Birds house), the Mad Scientist Lab complete with blood spurting guillotine and electric chair, the morbid Curl and Die salon, the Titanic, a funeral home that fooled us, and some other generally fun spooky halloween decor.  It was a lot of fun to see people so into it and making a party atmosphere out of it.  We meant to go after our dinner party the night before, but we got done too late and went on Halloween instead.  Next year though, we'll go on the dress rehearsal night in hopes of the crowd being smaller (they do a neighborhood house decorating contest and the night before Halloween they have everyone put on their shows for judging and for folks to enjoy an extra night of fun).


Well, I hope everyone else had a great October and a spooktacular Halloween!

After photos

So, yeah, it has been almost a year now that we've been in the house and I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't posted the "After" photos of Miss Magnolia!? In all honesty, there are so many projects that we still have to do that taking "after" photos just doesn't seem right, but it's starting to feel ridiculous that we have nothing up, so I'm just going to do it anyway. Oh, and I haven't even started on the outside shots yet... yikes.  But here's a sneak peak - the new stained-glass window panel that I made for one of our kitchen windows:

The day after I got back from Atlanta, Megan and Jimmy brought the boys over for a visit. Wade being the wonderful husband he is, cleaned the house while I was gone in preparation for their visit. So, it seemed like a waste to not take advantage of our clean and tidy house. The winter sun is slowly returning which means that lighting for pictures is much better now, particularly in the parts of the house we remodeled. So I took an afternoon to capture as much as I could as best as possible with my small point and shoot camera.


You can see the pictures, here on our Picasa site. Hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I enjoyed taking them!  And in case you don't remember, we went down to the studs in the kitchen, some of the guest bathroom, the entire master bathroom, half the master bedroom, and all of the master closet, which now contains a laundry nook.  We also had to sand and refinish the wood floors in the whole house and put down new travertine floors in the kitchen, guest and master baths, and in the master closet/laundry nook. In the finished attic, we ripped out old carpet, laid new cottage-style painted plywood floors, and painted the walls.  Have fun looking at the before and after pictures to see if you can recognize the house! :)

Fall is in the air

The last weekend of September brought the first hint that fall was around the corner and that the season of lovely weather, festivals, and fun were rapidly approaching.  On Saturday morning Wade and I went on the annual Native Plant Garden Tour which gave us a lot of inspiration last year for our yard, and continued to give us good idea this year.  It was also nice to see how many people are promoting the use of beautiful but environmentally-friendly landscaping that conserves water and feeds and protects wildlife.  It's a bit like a treasure hunt following the tour map, so each year we learn more about new parts of St. Pete we haven't seen before. 


That evening we joined Dustin, Katie, John, and Melissa for Beerfest at the Old Northeast Tavern in our neighborhood to celebrate Dustin's birthday.  They served all you can drink beer, and german food for 4 hours... dangerous.  We had so much fun and passed the evening playing Uno, counting down the beer list, and burning our mouths on steaming hot pizza.

Katie and the birthday boy, Dustin.

I brought my camp mug to drink out of so I wouldn't waste a plastic cup - it was perfect!

Dustin's Beer Boot Mug and the infamous drinking Uno deck. 

We completed The List!  But paid for it the next morning...

AZA Conference

After DC, I headed to Atlanta for a work conference.  I went to meet with a number of public aquariums we're trying to partner with for my work so I thought it would be a good idea to meet them on their turf, so to speak, at the Annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference.  I attended a number of panels to learn more about the role of science and conservation in public aquariums, had many productive conversations, then the day I was due to leave I looked forward to the part of the trip I could have some fun at: zoo day field trip.  


In particular, I was almost as giddy as a school girl at the prospect of seeing two baby tigers.  They were born at Zoo Atlanta on July 5th and recently were available for public viewing.  And my lord they didn't disappoint.  There was a nearly insane amount of cuteness on display as they played hide and seek, pounced, stalked, and rolled around the grass with their mother.  And to the zoo's credit, it was one of the better tiger enclosures I've seen with lots of real vegetation, natural features and water, and plenty of room to romp.  If I've ever thought of committing a crime, it would have been to get behind the scenes to pet one of the cubs because they were a whole new level of adorable.  

I stood and watched them for a half hour, before finally moving on for behind the scenes tours of the lions, birds and lemurs, and elephants.  On the lion tour I was treated to face time with a lioness and her mate (who was not thrilled to see the tour like she was).  The lioness was hand raised and genuinely enjoyed being scratched and loved on by her keeper and it was pretty incredible.  The male however liked to "guard" her and was known for spraying unwanted guests!  So we all took a giant step back as soon as we heard that.  We did however get some great shots, but it was difficult to see them sitting behind the chain-link fence looking bored while they weren't out for the public (the old male was out at that moment and he couldn't be mixed with the younger couple).  Check out more photos here on our Picasa site.


After the tours and group dinner, I headed right to the airport with my luggage to find my late flight was made even later.  Despite the delay it was good to finally be home for a long stretch after so much work travel and vacation.

North Carolina

The end of August brought a much anticipate event for us: VACATION. We were finally going to do it - head out on a real family vacation for longer than a 3 day weekend. I was so excited I started packing a whole week early. And well frankly, I had to. I was in DC up until the night before our vacation, then again the day after our vacation so I had to pack for DC twice and for North Carolina to ensure I didn't forget anything for any of the 3 trips. To add to the mix, we were driving to NC so we could take the "kids" with us - yep, all 4 of them came along which made for an adventure, but also made it more fun since we didn't have to worry about leaving them behind. We also wanted to drive so we could go camping for the first time in NC so we also had to round up our camping gear as well. Given that the 'ole Civic is really starting to show her years, we decided to give her a vacation too and rent a slightly larger car to fit us, our stuff, and the kids and their stuff for the long haul. Despite the extra room, we still had to be judicious about what we packed to ensure it would fit in a "regular SUV" given that we had no idea what to expect from the car rental company.

Friday morning of our trip dawned and Wade headed to work for a half day while I packed, met a colleague for lunch, and prepped the house for our departure. We headed to the airport to grad the rental car before dinner and nearly stroked out when they tried to give us a cracker jack box sized "SUV".

Me: "Well, sir, we have A LOT of stuff to take with us, so we're definitely going to need something bigger than that thing because that is definitely not a "regular SUV"

Rental car dude: "Hmm, ok, go check this one out then..." (Sound of Wade running out to check the car, then running back in, sweating and not looking pleased...)

Me: Yeeeeaahhh, that's not going to cut it either sir. We paid for the bigger car for a reason so I'd like the larger car I was promised (and I don't want to explain that we're cramming 4 animals in your rental car)

Rental car dude: Well, I can borrow a mini-van from the other rental place and give it to you for the same price if you think that'll do it? (Sound of Wade's eyes lighting up)

Me: Well, if you think it can still handle mountains and terrain and stuff...?

Wade: Yes, that'll be great, where do we sign?!

I still had reservations about a mini-van's ability to handle gravelly mountain roads (and my ability to drive a mini-van without vomiting at the image), but when Wade saw that the seats in the van folded into the floor to create more storage that could fit a queen-sized bed he never looked back. Our chariot awaits:

We had a quick dinner, packed up the car, tossed the kids in and hit the road with high spirits. We only had a 5 hours drive to Georgia before spending the night so we were feeling pretty high on life... until Hilo began to have a nervous breakdown and spew out of every end. To his credit, he did most of his business in his litter box (yes, we had so much space we traveled with a litter box for the cats), but once he was empty, he proceeded to foam at the mouth for most of the drive. So I dove into the back of the van for damage control and ended up staying for the rest of the trip with the cats sleeping on me. Oh, right, that all happened at the 30 minute mark. Suuuuuper. We crashed at our usual stopover point in Tifton, GA (thank you Hampton Inn for taking pets!) and spent the evening watching hurricane Irene to see if it was going to screw up our driving plans.

The next day we rounded everyone up back into the car - all of us in a varying state of grouchiness and crustiness - and made the last push for North Carolina. This leg took a little longer so Wade enjoyed the scenery while I slept in the back with the cats covered in drool. We were all relieved when we pulled into Waynesville, NC where my Mom and Larry live so we could let the kids adjust and we could take in the fresh mountain air. It had been a few years since we had been up to visit them and everything was perfectly in bloom so it was great to see them and their mountain retreat.

For the next 10 days we enjoyed their gardens, went camping and hiking, swimming, celebrated Mom's birthday in style, celebrated Samuel's 2nd birthday with Janis and Miles, and went 'tooning with Kellyn and Conrad. We also spent many nights just catching up and cooking at their house (I packed a bunch of cook books that we had fun experimenting with). It was a great vacation and wonderful to see so many friends and family, and so much nature. Check out our pictures on Picasa for more details. :) Happily, some of the time was a bit of a blur from sleeping in and peaceful reading on the deck listening to the hummingbirds and other birds chase each other around the feeders. Just like a vacation should be in my book!

On the way home we had to contend with tropical storm Lee which caused quite a bit of stress with the rain and wind. We were fortunate enough to make it through Atlanta just before a few tornadoes blew through town, but still ended up in some pretty nasty traffic jams that didn't sit well with the pets. However, Wade was our dependable chauffeur for the trip and got us all home safely (and I was only covered in a little cat drool on the way back). The next morning, it was off to DC again which almost made it feel like the vacation was a figment of my imagination...

Oh, and the mini-van? She performed admirably and Wade was actually a little sad to have to turn her back in. ;)  I, however, am still dreaming of a new car someday, one that can tote us and our stuff everywhere, perhaps a Subaru??

Mini-vacay

At the end of July we were able to squeeze in a little mini-vacation with our friends from DC, Glynnis and Nathan. All of us were sorely overdue for a vacation so we were all looking forward to some fun in the Florida sun.

They arrived on a Thursday morning in time for us to pick up supplies for the week before heading into downtown St Pete to take in the sights. We got some iced teas at our favorite tea place, Hooker Tea, and sipped them while strolling down the street. We eventually made it to Ceviche, a great Spanish tapas place for a late lunch and early drinks - our favorite being the Sangria they make with cava, the Spanish sparkling white wine. I usually hate sangria (and wine), but these are divine and impossible to resist.
After a lovely meal we strolled back to the car in time to meet Wade at home after work. That night we made some more sangria while Nathan made us savory plantains. Salty sweet goodness topped with sharp cheddar cheese - magical. Also perfect drinking food. :)

On Friday, Wade took the day off too and we drove the 1:15hr up to the world famous (seriously) Weeki Wachee Springs State Park to see the mermaid show and swim in the cool freshwater springs. We missed the main show, but got to see a practice show which was pretty funny. Glynnis and I were half-expecting the mermaids to be swimming around the spring as if they were in a public aquarium display or something, but instead they put on performances and shows of The Little Mermaid. We also discovered that the main spring was really crowded and not exactly what we had in mind, so after asking around we figured out where we might be able to get in the river at the local county park. So we headed up to Rogers Park, had a picnic lunch, people watched (it was the local swimmin' hole after all), and finally rented some kayaks to paddle up river to look for a quieter place to swim. And right here is the exact moment I will forever shoot myself for not taking the camera.

We paddled up river - the put in was only about 2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico - so we were against the current a bit as the tide seemed to be slacking or going out with the river. After a little ways up river we came to a cove of sorts and stashed the kayaks to get in for a swim. We used our life preservers as floaties and broke out the trusty Tervis Tumblers and frosty beverages to enjoy cooling off in the river. We watched a parade of people, young and old, go by in the river and the guys debated using the nearby rope swing (there was lots of rope swinging and tree-jumping to be had in the river). Despite the cooling and blissful relaxation, we finally wondered what else lay up river and decided to find out. Apparently just in time because a few small boats of people stopped in the cove to see the small cave at the bottom. Apparently we were floating above a hidden 140ft deep sinkhole known as Hospital Hole! We shoved on and enjoyed the scenery but definitely felt like we were baking in the sun. Eventually, the river started to clear as we left the Gulf tidal influence behind, and the water started getting even cooler. We explored a little side channel and marveled at the huge mullet in the river, but largely the river seemed too busy to be really "wild". We pulled out again where you could really feel the current of the spring outflow and swam in the 72 degree water - chilly, but so very refreshing. Finally, as we were turning around to head back a girl paddling up stream announced "The manatees are coming!" as if she were a parade marshall. The whole afternoon we'd seen signs about manatees on all the docks and had heard from folks this was a place to see them, but we hadn't had any luck at all. So we slowly drifted down river with the current until Glynnis and Nathan suddenly turned around and excitedly, but quietly, signaled "Manatees!!". The four of us were treated to watching a mother and baby manatee (no bigger than one of our dogs) feeding on a shallow bank in the clear river. We gave them some space, but stuck around to watch for a while - this was the first time Nathan had seen manatees in the wild before. Once the baby realized we were sticking around, he zoomed over to check us out, snuffling the air around us and nuzzling the kayak. We were beside ourselves with an intense desire to pet him and get in the water to swim, but it's a federal/state offense to disturb endangered manatees, so we had to keep ourselves in check. (The more people interact with manatees, the more comfortable they get with people - and boats. Which means manatees lose their fear of people, or worse are attracted to people for food, and become more likely to get hit and killed by boats.) The baby manatee took turns checking us out and checking out Glynnis and Nathan, then he would come along and bump up against or rub on the kayak like he was trying to play with us. It was amazing how playful and curious the baby was, even when we tried to retreat from him. Eventually his mom was ready to move up river, so we continued the other way, passing more manatees and people trailing them.

We had a perfect day in the cool water and streaming sunshine so after turning in our kayaks, we stopped at the restaurant next door for snacks and drinks . We led Nathan on a culinary tour of Florida with fried spicy pickles, smoked fish dip, and fried gator tail. :) Just before we left, a flotilla of manatees came cruising down the river - a call went up around the park and the restaurant and people came out to watch over a dozen manatees heading back out to the Gulf. We finally got in the car feeling fully satisfied with our day and headed home to grill up some veggies for dinner then crashed into bed early.

Day three saw us heading down to Anna Maria for a beach day. We stopped at our favorite Mexican place on the island, Tortilla Bay, for the best queso before heading out to our usual spot on the beach. We parked at Mom and Larry's house then toted everything down for an afternoon of baking in the Florida sun. And baking we were - it was blazing hot and bright out and the water didn't feel all that much cooler. We took turns with the floaties, relaxing with our trusty Tervis Tumbler mugs again to keep us cool. Nathan and I started a round of paddleball, but eventually gave up when we were so tired we just couldn't keep it up any longer. After a few hours we were all hot enough that we packed up and went back to Mom and Larry's to make more rum punch and float in the pool. Eventually Mom, Larry, Wendi, Aaron, Ashli, and Tyler came back to the house to join us in the pool. We had fun playing paddle ball with everyone in the pool but then had to get cleaned up quickly for a dinner reservation at our favorite sushi place, Ocean Star. There we consumed an absurd amount of sushi, but after baking in the sun all day and playing paddleball we were ready to eat just about everything in sight.

Sunday morning we took Nathan and Glynnis back to the airport and it was sad to see them go - we always have so much fun with them. And it was so great having them come here to visit for fun, since I usually only get to see them when I'm in DC for work.

That afternoon we headed back to the island to spend some more time with family while they were in town. We had a great afternoon hanging around the pool with Mom, Larry, Wendi, Aaron, Ashli, and Tyler.

You can see our pictures here on our Picasa site. Thanks to Glynnis for being better about taking pictures than I was - most of those on the site are hers.

Fire and belly dancers...

Yes, that should get your attention. :) It definitely got ours! Wade's birthday was, by request, a very low-key affair this year and was to not include celebration. Which as you might have guessed, goes against every fiber of my celebratory being (see exhibit A: our garage is full of 20 bins of decor for a year's worth of holidays). Despite the clamp-down this year, I broke out the birthday tub and bought a few more decorations to ensure the house was bannered and streamered to the hilt when he awoke on his birthday. Heh-heh, mission accomplished: Wade's birthday celebrated. I made him cinnamon rolls and he opened cards and presents over breakfast. Then I was promptly at a loss as to what to do. The other decree of the birthday man was to have no plan at all, a plan-less day in fact... which made it incredibly difficult for me to comprehend.

We journeyed out to the beach house to clean the pool and lounge a bit before lunch, then enjoyed the best queso for a late lunch. After which we headed to the outlet mall to get the birthday man a few more clothes for work. Then we headed home to settle in for a bit. He didn't even want to go out to dinner and didn't want me to bother making a cake. At this point I think I was visibly loosing my cool. No birthday dinner?! No birthday cake?! What the hell?!

Finally, he was up for getting gelato so we headed downtown for a little ice cream night cap. To our complete surprise, we encountered the 1 year anniversary party of the Chihuly Museum downtown. So we grabbed gelato and headed over to watch - they were celebrating in the park with an African drum and dance show which was pretty awesome. Once that ended, it was almost dusk, and out came a woman with a fire pot and dressed like a belly dancer - and we were officially intrigued. At that point Wade pushed up towards the front for a better look - and he was not disappointed. Three belly dancers proceeded to dance with a rotating collection of flaming props: candelabra like fans, rings on their fingers, a whip, a set of chains (my favorite), and the best in show and Wade's favorite: the flaming hula-hoop. Yeah, you're reading that right, a flaming hula-hoop. Belly dancing + flaming hula-hoop = Wade's best birthday ever. And to his credit, we never would have seen it had we planned out the day, so kudos to you my anti-birthday man. Too bad I wasn't equipped with a better camera, but I managed to get a few pictures to give you a feel... yes, that's a flaming whip at the bottom. Need I say more? Man, we love St. Pete!