2003
2004
2005
2006
2007

December 31, 2006
How did we end up in the last half of the '00's??? We just started it, so it seems. This year I'll be 27, married five years, out of college five years, out of highschool 9 years, and at my job three years. Weird!

Alas, I have nothing special planned for tonight. Perhaps a glass of wine at midnight and a kiss to Chris. He hasn't felt well all day. The poor guy has poison ivy on his nose and the back of his leg, sore arms from fishing (oh, woe!), and just tired. We kinda slept/layed in bed until noon and then got up and had lunch at Chili's. We didn't even finish the queso and chips much less our meals. I finished cleaning the house except the the laundry and our bedroom/bathroom since Chris has been laying in bed since we got back from lunch (it's now 5:30). I went to Lowe's and got more potting soil (need to buy stock in Jungle Growth) and picked up a lily and a bush daisy. Then spent the rest of the afternoon on the yard working on repotting stuff and changing things out, and started more seeds. Samson spent the two or so hours I was out there in the big Australian tree fern pot. That's his new little place. He'll sit there forever!

And on a more somber note, tomorrow is 10 years since my friend Stephanie's father passed away. It was a sudden thing, lung cancer. I remember finding out when my friends came into the Hallmark I was working at (and Stephanie later worked with me there) around November '96 and told me the news back in the back of the store. I believe it was Debbie and Michelle (not the Michelle that I usually talk about). I've known Stephanie since we were six, so I'd grown up around her dad and he was a Dallas police officer. He was a nice guy. Anyway....



WOOHOO WEEKEND!
December 29, 2006
I was supposed to be able to leave work today at 12:30. Boss said it was cool, despite that we were having to sit at the Art Festival and do nothing (I'm watching LOTR, since I've never seen it). Then we got word that Tuesday we get to be off also due to the national day of mourning for President Ford. We got extra days off when Reagan died and it was near the 4th of July. The catch was that Tuesday we turn in stuff that goes to the Business Council. Well, I was planning on Tuesday to do those things. So....who got to stay until almost normal time??? Blah! Oh well. I have to do nothing at the festival tomorrow but then three days off! WOO! Makes up for pretty much missing out on a three day weekend.

So, I am waiting on the arrival of several items in the mail. We ordered a new digital camera. Not the $$$ one we want and are saving for, but a normal one that was under $200. Ours is on its last legs and is not reliable now. I'm also waiting on a Brug and Datura book from Walmart. I ordered it a week ago and now it is still sitting in Tallahassee for some reason. My Christmas present from Chris ended up being a set of 90 half stick Rembrant pastels...these are super good...and they are being shipped also. SO....and my FIL sent me B&N gc's. So I went rambling there yesterday. I ended up only getting two Chantal Kreviazuk cd's (the first two) and a new singer/band called Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. It is really great! She's bluesy/jazzy/rock. A mix, but it's great! I think I may go back for the KT Tunstall cd. It sounded great also!

Tonight I'm cleaning. Chris is in Melbourne fishing. Tomorrow night I may go see a movie. Well, need to eat my dinner and get crackin', even though I am dragging my feet all the way.



Christmas Eve, 2006
We went for one of our Fakahatchee Strand hikes today. It was forecasted to be wet this weekend, but despite a few small sprinkles the day was very wonderful. Our friend JC came with us and we set down the trail we like to go down most because we can see the variegated Guzmania monostachia bromeliads, which are endemic to the preserve.

This is a photo of one in bloom last spring. Anyway, it was a nice day despite the few rain drops. Chris almost stepped on a cottonmouth laying on the trail. We saw an alligator snapping turtle on the trail also, which on the way back was half way stuck in a hole. Not sure if he was intending to dig a hole or not. Lots of ibis on that trail. When they fly away they make a huge racket and scare you! There is an alligator pond on this trail where a cabin sits. The alligator pond was full of alligators, but not as full as during the dry season when it is the only wet spot around. We brought the binoculars and I set out trying to see if anything was around. Chris saw an anhinga with a catfish swimming through the water. The anhinga is also called a snakebird, and with the fish it really looked like a snake halfway out of the water. The bird flew into a nearby tree and proceeded to slam the fish into the trunk a million gazillion times to kill it. You could hear light thumps across the pond. It was really interesting to watch thorugh the binoculars!

Chris and JC went into the water in the swamp to look for some of the bromeliads in bloom and I stayed on the porch swing for awhile. I saw a rat snake sitting near the camp fire and it slithered away later.

We also fixed our geocache that is out there an the trail was really overgrown and full of these flowers that produce wretched stickers. We were covered in them, even in my hair, and had to de-sticker ourselves when we returned. Then we went to the Big Cypress Bend boardwalk since we'd never been. There we saw a Bald Eagle on top of his nest in a cypress. Very nice! JC also pointed out a Catopsis bromeliad which is rare. At the end of the boardwalk we stopped and looked at the birds, blue heron, great white egret, night heron, anhinga....then this tourist guy comes over because we'd told him and the others about the Bald Eagle. He then launches into talking about a bike trail that is nearby, which turns out to be Janes Scenic Drive, the road that goes through the strand. Not really a bike trail...lol...but we didn't correct him. Just kept nodding. Anyway, then he launches into a speil about this pond (which is a borrow pond near the main entrance of the park) and how there were turtles and then perched up...hold your breath because it's bound to be exciting, right?....on the bank was...are you excited yet???...an alligator. LOL....OK, this is Florida. Alligators are EVERYWHERE! There is some fascination with alligators and tourists. We were like, what??? He saw a panther? Bear? Mink? Otter?? No, just an alligator. It was really funny and we busted up on the way back down the boardwalk. I mean, alligators are cool, but seriously, tourists think they are the greatest thing ever! Anyway, there are some nice cypress trees on that boardwalk, large ones. We admired the eagle again and then came home. A nice long day, but fun!

Samson and Leo are getting a special Christmas dinner. We bought them a can of soft food, salmon flavored. They get to split it. We also bought them some of that grass they sell at PetSmart and they are loving it! Leo, if he's good, gets to go out on the patio tomorrow for awhile. And of course they have some toys in their stocking.

Have a great and Merry Christmas!!!


O'Tannenbaum
December 21, 2006
Today was our work Christmas party. It was so-so, but the food was still good. We typically do pot lucks on our floor so it works out that everyone brings delicious stuff. I have to say my favorite things are Croqueta's. That page it in Spanish, but you get the idea. It is a latin appetizer/snack thing and it is SOOOOO good! With many of my coworkers being Cuban or other Latin affiliated, it's natural to have all that delicious stuff. Ooh, and plantains. YUM!

Anyway, I scored $100 to Walmart from my boss, a bottle of wine from my secretary, The DaVinci Code from my work partner, $25 from my Secret Santa and you should have seen me leap out of my chair and squeal when I won $50 in the raffle. Holy cow! LOL, my coworkers were laughing their butts off. I had been thinking that I'd get Chris a new daypack because I'd ruined his by accident in the washing machine when I washed it. It got a large gash in it. Well, now I had money and I was so excited. Yes, I'm a nutcase. Anyway, so we bought that tonight after we braved the mall. We live near one of those "Mills" malls, the huge outlet malls that have everything and their mother in it. And everyone and their mother was there. Chris' mom and step-dad also had sent us some giftcards to Bed Bath and Beyond so we bought some new silverware there tonight. I was too tired after all that to go to Walmart and blow my $100. :) I plan on buying a new scale that has a body fat option, a Brugmansia and Datura book, the X/Y Coldplay cd, and whatever is left possibly a movie or The Walton's Season 1 if I have enough left. Oh yeah and some veggies or plants. You see, I can spend this money wayyyyyy too quickly! ;)

Leo has a new friend. For the past week he's been watching at our sliding glass door in the bedroom waiting for this mouse. I saw it last week one morning while he was hovering. That's all he does now. He doesn't leap across the bed and over us to the window above us anymore. He waits at the window for the mouse so he can get excited and whack the window. That mouse would be dead if we let Leo on the porch. So far Samson just lays on the new mat outside and doesn't even venture over looking for a mouse. He's kinda portly these days anyway, so I doubt he's going to chase much more than the random lizard. He prefers munching on plants anyway.





;



My New Baby
December 18, 2006
Meet the future Mr/Ms. Monarch Butterfly:

We left the house yesterday morning and the caterpillar was just beginning to spin his chrysalis. We returned around 4pm and wa-la! This little chrysalis was formed. In two short weeks we'll welcome a new monarch butterfly! I'm hoping I'll be around for it to emerge so I can capture photos as it comes out! How awesome would that be???

It is tomato central here in the garden. I had my first black plum tomato today. In fact, it was this one:

A little salt, two quick bites, and it was gone! Delish!




And I am so excited to welcome my new little cucumber:

After two batches of cucumbers this one vine is the only one left standing from the evil cucumber beetles! Devils, they are. So, I don't know how many I'll get from the vine, but I'm just happy I got one!

Dad left this morning, early. We had a good time. I got a lot of clothes..yay!, some free meals, double yay!, and watched two good movies. We saw The Pursuit of Happyness yesterday and Will Smith is definitely up for an Oscar. There's a preview for Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler in a v. serious roll and that's Oscar potential too.


One of me and dad...I look like I have four double chins from the shot there...

Dad taking a break from his book. No tv in the living room so he read a book to pass the time when we did stuff around the house.



December 15, 2006

I saw Charlotte's Web today with my Dad. I really loved it and it followed the book and previous cartoon movie well. Dakota Fanning plays Fern and I thought she did a great job of it! The pig is adorable and now I want a pet pig! I cried, of course, because who doesn't cry that Charlotte dies (if I ruined it for you, you're elementary teachers are horrible for not reading it to you...), for the end of childhood, and the loneliness of losing a friend. I'm going to have to buy it when it comes out on DVD! (The spider above is a golden orb spider common here in Florida. Slightly creepy, but kinda cool. Ok, just really creepy, but I'll pretend it's Charlotte.)

Did some shopping with Dad! Fun stuff of course! :) Leo and Samson got new toys. Dad/Santa bought them this feather boa thing with bells on it and they weren't sure what to do with it. The other toys are in their stockings.

Anyway, just spending time with Dad for the next few days, so I'll update later this weekend! :)


Some more favorites on my Flickr page. The bottom right is my second cousin Baileigh. I haven't met her yet, but she looks like a cute little stinker! :)



December 12, 2006
Not a lot going on here. Is anyone else having problems with the feed?? I subscribed on Opera to see how it was acting and it was showing up new entries, so I'm not quite sure what is up. Nothing appeared wrong on Feedburner. Anyway, please let me know if you are or aren't getting them.

Doing some cleaning tonight. My dad is coming to visit late Thursday through Monday so I've gotta spiffy the joint up a little! ;) I dusted my fan in the bedroom...it was nasty! Not the worst I've seen, but pretty bad! We bought this little duster thing when we moved in and it comes in handy sometimes so I used it for that. Needless to say there is probably a lot of Samson and Leo hair up there. Ick!

I stuck my hand into the warty pumpkin tonight since it had started to mold/rot. I wanted the seeds so someday when I'm good with pumpkin growing I can have some warty pumpkins. I had my first Sungold tomato yesterday. They are little cherry tomatoes that are YUMMMMMY! One cucumber is hanging in there. Strawberries are fruiting. YAY! :)

I'm drawing something and I am so afraid it's going to suck. This is why I shouldn't wait until the last minute to do something for Christmas. ARGH!



December 10, 2006
We were at CacheAPalooza this weekend and a great ending to the day was the launch of space shuttle Discovery. It has been postponed a few times this past week due to inclement weather and yesterday had a 70% of liftoff. When we lived in Melbourne we saw them all the time because we were just 30 miles from the Cape and could walk out our front door and watch rocket launches of satellites. Pretty nifty! The furthest I'd seen one was in Ft. Pierce from work which is about 1.5 hours south, and that was Columbia when it went into space for the final time. Chris actually has a 10 second clip of that from our porch in Melbourne. The most fun was watching on the beach at night!

Anyway, last night we all went to the Hobe Mountain Tower (ie: a mountain for Florida) and about 60 geocachers and some other campers were piled on to watch for the liftoff. The north had some low level clouds. A few people were getting info off the radio or a cell phone so we got the approximate countdown. I was watching near a distant cell tower and you could see a faint glow, like a sunrise, behind the cloud. Slowly it got brighter until you definitely knew for sure that it was the shuttle coming up from behind the cloud. It was really bright! I couldn't believe being two hours south of the Cape, actually 133 miles per Yahoo!, that it would be that good. Everyone clapped and cheered and we saw the separation of the external tanks and then it was a bright star like object moving off to the east out of the ocean. Then Discovery went behind a cloud and that's the last we saw of her.

; Each shuttle launch is just really awesome. I mean, people are being put into space and will go around the Earth while we're going about our business! How cool is that???!



December 8, 2006
I've been seeing these Flickr mosaics for awhile now and have been wondering how to do it. I finally found out!


This is currently some of my favorites from there. You can make even more cool stuff here!

I've been reading MSNBC Reporter's Anarctic experience this week and it has made me want to go there even more. But, I don't want it to become the "cool" thing to do. It needs to stay a secret and only a few people go. Because once it's cool, it'll become too crowded. Yes, I'm being selfish!

Bird in the Handthe website I found out about the Kim family is going to be doing an arts/crafts fundraiser. It sounds interesting and I'll be keeping an eye on it to see what is going to happen with it. This article really reasonated with me and I think it will for y'all too.



December 4, 2006
For the past few days a missing family has been on my mind. I first read about it on Friday at A Bird in the Hand a craft/art blog that I lurk around at. I vaguely recalled the store that the woman owned having seen it elsewhere in the blogosphere. Anyway, it was haunting in that a whole family was gone and it seemed to me that the snow storms that passed through the midwest late last week had passed through the northwest when they went missing. I hadn't seen much on the major news sites until today about it and this afternoon I saw a yahoo headline that the mother and two children were found. So far the father is missing. He left two days ago on foot to seek help. Anyway, say a few prayers for them...here is their page James and Kati. Apparently it has hit the art/craft blogosphere hard as I have seen many pages listing it, some that aren't seemingly related, but it is a small world afterall.

I have three projects I'm trying to do for Christmas. I can't say who they are for as some of them may or may not be reading it...but two are crochet projects and one is a drawing project. One crochet project is actually a very long overdue project that I started a year and a half ago. So, I'm hoping I'll finish it by this weekend or so. The other is a smaller blanket that seems to be going quickly and I can get it done by the end of the week. The drawing, I'm going to have to bust my butt to get it done before Christmas, but hopefully I can! See, I think procrastination and the word artist go hand in hand sometimes.



December 3, 2006
What is it with hairstylists? Do they not listen? Ok, I got a haircut in May/June sometime that I really didn't like. Had it semi fixed in August and went today because I was ready to get it evened up into a sort of bob. I told her to even up everything with the front which was the shortest. Did that happen??? NO! It doesn't look bad, but it isn't what I wanted. It's more of what I had but more styled. Which I don't do style. I get up, I brush my hair, I leave. If I didn't have a field based job I'd probably do my hair. (yeah, probably not. I'm kidding myself). So, I'm super annoyed.

I did a lot of yard work today. Mowed, pulled some morning glory vine off the fence that had decided to die, repotted the 'maters and put them in cages, repotted plumeria and a few seedlings, trimmed dead stuff off the banana's, power washed the porch...busy day.

Well, holy cow. I just couldn't upload stuff to photobucket. Apparently I am finally past my 1000 file limit. Ok, time for a few account....


Stately Samson! ;) Wittle bunny...




This little guy really liked the water!

Ribbitt!

The veggie garden...

oh yeah, yummy goodness!!!

Ginormous mustard greens. Slightly wilted here. I moved them and their roots had gone through the bottom of the pot...

Black plum tomatoes

Sungold tomatoes



The Angel's Trumpet's looking a lot better...

This is what happens when you plant a seed you find on the beach. It's a tropical almond.

Mule's ear flower

Mule's ear

This is where Leo sits when he wishes he could go outside.

A necklace I made a few weeks ago

Variegated chalice vine

Amaranth

Ok, so while rockin' to Heaven is a Place in Earth by Belinda Carlisle on my way to the salon, I thought I'd ask what all of my 10 readers thought was their favorite 80's tunes to jam to in the car or around the house. So, drop me a line and lemme know!


;
December 1, 2006

How well do you know Misti

November 10, 2006
So, yesterday my coworker and I almost burned the reservation down. Mind you, it was going to be a cattle pasture and those poor cows could have turned into filet mignon's. We were out in the work Expedition getting GPS coordinates for the cattle pastures. There's around 10 of them. I needed to make a map for my boss. The grass wasn't particularly high anywhere but the middle "road" and apparently some had gotten caught up underneath the truck. We'd stopped at a gate near the main road to get another coordinate when we noticed smoke coming up from under the car. He backed out of the area and pulled over to the side of the road on the other side. We both jumped out and I grabbed the cooler from the back which was filled with Gatorade's and water. While he's trying to stop the car from being totally lit up like a torch I decide to check the spot we just came from across the street. Sure enough there was a nice big circle about 30x30 burning. I'm freaking out by then so I grab the cooler that was full of water from melted ice and am trying to put the fire out. I flagged down an 18-wheeler who happened to pass in hopes of him having a fire extinguisher. He came running over with a big jug of water and my coworker by then had got the car fire out and was walking the perimeter putting this fire out. One edge was going towards the road but the other edge was getting dangerously close to some taller grass. So, while they are doing this I call 911 and am trying to get a fire truck out. I'm in the boonies here, so the nearest fire dept is on the Seminole reservation which borders ours. While I'm talking to them they get the fire out and then we settle down for a bit and I call the office to talk to our secretary. My boss is on vaca so I called her to get the # for the wildlife officers who are stationed in our area. They come pretty quickly and backtrack to our previous track on one of the pasture roads to make sure we didn't leave a trail of burning grass. We didn't think we had as we had to stop multiple times to open and close gates and didn't see anything. Meanwhile two cops, an ambulance and firetruck come barreling down the road from the Seminole reservation but they pass us. We figure they were on their way to somewhere else. It turns out later they were looking for a car fire, so apparently my phone call made it sound worse but I was totally out of breath and freaking out at that time. We follow our wildlife guys to their station they stay at and my coworker washed the underneath out to prevent anything starting again on our way back to the office. We arrived back in time for the end of the day but since I still had to do my map I had to stay over 45 minutes. It didn't help that I had today off and wouldn't be able to do it later.

You know, field work is dangerous! LOL...let's see, I've been in a capsized boat while doing my sea turtle internship, thrown off an airboat, and now started a fire. The scariest was definitely the capsized boat. The fire thing could have been bad because of the pastures are leased out and losing that and the cattle would not be good. The ironic thing is the GPS coords were for a proposal to do controlled burns to eliminate the crappy grass from the pastures so they cows could eat better grass.

Needless to say, this week in addition to that has been incredibly hectic and made me incredibly mental. The good thing is I have a very cute, warm, cuddly cat sitting in my lap now.

<;a href="javascript:HaloScan('november10');" target="_self">

November 8, 2006
It feels GREAT! This election! I actually feel like things are going to be better, life is going to be better for this country! I hope that the Democrats can actually get past old issues and move on. I voted straight Dem. No Green's to vote for on my ballot, but that's ok. Everyone I voted for got in except the governor which went Republican here. I'm sad Kinky Friedman didn't win Texas, but for 13% for an Independent, that's actually pretty good. There was another Indy and I figure if that one hadn't of run Kinky would have had a better chance. The exciting thing is that we're going to have a woman! Speaker of the House! First time! That's third in line for the presidency! That's the highest seat besides a Supreme Court Justice a woman has/will hold! And there is news that many minorities also took important seats, which I think is an important step for this country. It's about time we embrace other people and get them involved and add more balance to the white male majority. No, there is nothing wrong with white males, but come on, we need more voices besides them.

Anyway, enough politics! Here are some cute cat photos!


Mr. Long Legs, aka: Panther Boy


Samson put himself in "jail". He's so funny! Since their escape escapade (they ran out the front door 'cause Chris didn't shut it properly and had 15 minutes of leisure time in the front yard before Chris found 'em) he hovers near the front door. Plus I put a new rug there so maybe that's a reason....

I'm not registered, but by God I am just too slow by 30 years...

Apparently I'm "fully eligible". Ooh cheap movie tickets??? ;)

And I thought this next one was fun because it was a cork on a wine bottle I just bought...very geocaching related!


Guess that's it for tonight!

November 6, 2006
e had a great weekend. We met up with our geocaching friends and a new geocaching friend and drove up to Ocala National Forest for the Second Annual Florida First Finders Event. We left WPB at 3:30 and got to the campsite around 8:30 Saturday morning. Last year we did the same event in a different area and Hurricane Wilma came two days later. That event we won...this one...:( This one was 5 miles along the Florida Trail and it was gorgeous. The day was beautiful with clear skies. The way the event works it aht different teams get together and are dropped off at the trailhead. We have a sheet of paper with a listing of I think 8 caches that we have to stop at and sign the log. Along the way there are various things we had to look for such as four important items with our team number, a great white egret, bear, yellow butterfly, take a photo with a muggle and various other items. All of these go towards subtraction towards our final time. The team with the lowest number wins. We didn't find two of our team number items, so we pretty much had no chance. But we did have a blast. The trail was great and it was uphill a few spots. Yes, Florida does have hills!

After dark Chris went with one of our geocaching friends in search of a bear. Of course they found one! GRRR! It was along the forest road and then ran into the woods. So, we all piled back in the car later to look for more. There are all of these roads crossing the ONF and you can take 4-wheelers down some and others you can drive a normal car on it. We took some pretty remote roads but no bears in sight. We did find a few prints when we did some night caching on one of the roads.

On the way home we hit another cache near Orlando. It was in a state preserve and was very nice! It was Bee Head Ranch Time Capsule. Turned out to be pretty nice! Chris thought we saw a peregrine falcon but I am pretty sure it was an American kestral after looking it up online. That was a nice sight to see! It is birding season here in Florida so there are tons of wading birds visiting. I love seeing the storks! My favorite bird though I think is the belted kingfisher.



November 2, 2006
Today is a grey day. Very wet and grey. A cold front is coming through and the rain is very welcome at my place. Saves me from having to water when I get home. This is definitely cuddle up day. I'm sipping some hot chocolate here at work and (will upload this when I get home...) wishing I was at home with the cats, painting.

I have been having some fun with Microsoft Photo Editor and altering photos. It is actually pretty fun and artsy!

So, I'm having a dilemma. I was a slacker this time around and did not change my address for my voting. I am trying to figure out how I can vote and where. I did change my license so I know they check that and there could be a problem. I think you can still vote but you have to fill out the changes that day. I'll at least try! I don't even know who to vote for as both people are pretty much ninnies. I cannot stand the negative campaigning. Why does it seem even worse this year? Why can't it be about what a person will do and not about mudslinging. Sure I can see pointing out something major that your opponent did or didn't do, but does it have to be so derogatory? I have only seen his ads on You Tube, but Kinky Friedman is the way I'd go if I was in Texas at the moment. So, all my peeps in Texas---vote Kinky. ;) Here are some of the video's to the ads he is running: Good Shepherd, Cowboy Way, Clean Energy and Kinky For Texas, Why the Hell Not. See, why can't it be like this?

I wish people would realize it's time for a fresh start in this country and time for some Independent voices and no more stale politicians doing the bidding of think tanks and lobbyists and that goes for Dem's and Repub's.



November 1, 2006
I must be insane. I signed up to do National Blog Posting Month which is a spinoff of NanoWriMo (Nat'l Novel Writing Month). I failed at that three years ago though I did get a few thousand words typed out on some drivel that probably is lost to the world now. Now I am realizing I'm going to have a tough time doing this thing for a month since this weekend I'll be gone and I will be out of town here in a few weeks. I wonder if I can cheat and have someone post for me???

I am going to have buttloads of tomatoes. YAY! But I lost two sungold tomatoes because I knocked them off when I moved the tomato cage. BOOO HOO!

Um, yeah so this is my first post for NaBloPoMo. lol... ;)



October 30, 2006
First off, I'm so sad to hear Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe are separating!!! They were probably my favorite celebrity couple! First Jen and Brad and then Nick and Jessica and now these two??? WAHHHH! So depressing!

Here is a pic of the area we kayaked on Saturday. It was a little over 6 miles round trip!


And here is a photo of the Water Resources dept and me on the Everglades Study. We jumped in the canal one day for a swim. The water was actually clear! There were gators but not near us. Plus there were like 10 airboats in the water and they wouldn't have gotten too close anyway!



I was finally able to upload my garden photos! YAY! The camera has been acting up and I am afraid we may need a new one eventually. :(


Texas sage

Cotton blossom

Pumpkin patch..went to one yesterday so I could create this:

I totally love my warty pumpkin and the white one!!! :)
And here is some baking mood food I made:

pumpkin bread

Andes Mint Chocolate chip cookies!


Red Bellied Woodpecker (his name is Sunny!)

And I'll have more garden photos on my flickr. Click the photo badge on the left and then look for "Our Garden" section. :) With it getting dark so early now I will have barely 30 minutes to tinker around and water before it is dark! I hate getting home so late!:(



October 28, 2006
Today was kayaking day. We hit Jonathan Dickinson State Park and met up with some fellow geocachers. Chris and I got up at 5:30 this morning to pack up and load up because it's about an 1.5 hours north of here. Just when we were about to leave it started raining and then we found out it was 80% all day long. We almost didn't go but made the decision to head up there. Glad we did! The reason we went was to prepare more geocaches for CacheApalooza in December. We're hosting a kayak race and also wanted to put a few caches out. We started off at the docks at the main area and went 3.5 miles up to Trapper Nelson's old place. Trapper Nelson is this guy who decided to buy up land on the Loxahatchee River back in the 30's and lived by himself in the backwoods and made a zoo. His cabin and the pens for the zoo are still there and it is an exhibit that you can only get to by kayak or a pontoon boat that the park rents. There is a road but it's only a service road by park employees. You can read more about Trapper Nelson here, here, and here.

The first part is a salt water influenced area with mangroves and Chris (not mine!) said that growing up there were more cypress trees in the area but I think someone has changed the flow a little and more salt water gets up into it than it should have. But, about a mile up it turns into cypress and pond apples. There were a lot of osprey's flying around and several nests and we saw a woodpecker and bluejays and everyone saw deer but me because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when we were up on land. Now, though, Chris is on a mission to find this elusive, mythical pineapple island that Trapper Nelson supposedly did. We have hints that it is about 2 acres, semi-nearby his cabin and is on an island and possibly moated. Anyway, the park people won't tell where it is because the pineapples are still there. So, we're going to look at aerials and see if we can figure out possible spots for a pineapple farm!

And a fun article Pat Green's Forth Worth Faves because he lives in Ft. Worth now!!! Awesome!!! :)

October 26, 2006
I know, it's been forever! Sorry if anyone is actually waiting with baited breath for a new post. ;) Last week was the Everglades Study at work and getting up early to drive out there and then spending the down outside every day is tiring. Plus we finally did get our computer up and running but things aren't organized on the computer desk yet so Chris has juggled monitors and his laptop and the computer isn't always hooked up. It is rather nice not having the 'net 24/7 but I have had things to say for over a week!!!!

First: I have photos from the Study up. They are here. I took some cute ones of my coworkers kids but I didn't upload them because I didn't think it was appropriate to have them for all to see, ya know? And today I was bored at work (bad me! lol) and was playing around with Microsoft Photo Editor and did these. Mostly just played with the contrast and brightness. I don't agree with photoshopping pictures to make them look better necessarily. I think that one should grow as a photographer and learn more about lighting and composition behind the camera before going around making pictures look better than they actually were. It is fun though to make them artsy, but it should be known.

It finally got "cold" here on Monday. I went outside to leave the house and it was FALL! It has since warmed up some, but it is at least not humid! YIPPIIEEEE! The only bummer to this is that Sunday is time change. So, I'll be getting home and it'll almost be dark. UGH! Guess it's water the plants and rollerblade in the dark!

My pumpkins have flowers but I am not sure if they are going to fruit yet. I restarted my cucumbers and they are coming back up. I squished the cuke-beetle that I found so maybe that was my only one. Oooh, we had a bird massacre in our yard! Feathers everywhere...and there was a foot but that has since disappeared. So, I'm wondering if neighborhood cat did it (Leo said he did it and that Samson let him out... ;) ) or a hawk came by and got a nice easy meal of pigeon. I do have some nice shots of our new resident/very friendly red bellied woodpecker. Alas, the pictures are still on the camera and the charger is in Chris' car which is at his work site so I won't have those until tomorrow.

We went to a plant trade on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I got some tomatoes, malabar spinach and some other plants to go in the yard.

And the final bit for tonight, Rush Limbaugh is still an asshole.



October 18, 2006
"Stole" from Jessica:


Makes you think. I believe photoshop should be noted on anything that is done up like that. Elaboration tomorrow.



October 16, 2006
There's nothing like home grown food! I picked some mustard greens for dinner and they are YUM-O (to quote Rachael Ray!). Just boiled them on the stove with some vegetarian broth and 1 c of water. I should have saved the stock for later use, but next time I will. Delicious! I wish I had more to eat right now!

Yesterday I was working in the yard and a red bellied woodpecker showed up near the feeder on the umbrella tree. He wasn't all that interested in the food, but did peck at the tree for a bit. Didn't have a camera handy so no photo. :(

Tomatoes are hopping right along and I am hoping the new cucumbers I put out will sprout and I can keep them alive this time.

Tired tonight, so it's short.



October 14, 2006
So, I'm pretty sure I have a bacterial wilt on the cucumbers. :( Very sad. They are spread by cucumber beetles so I need to be vigiliant and figure out how to get rid of 'em. It just burns my hide!!! I threw more seeds in the pot in hopes of them getting going again, but if I have beetles visiting the plants I need to get rid of the beetles. I hestitate to use poisons but I guess that may be the only thing. :( Sad.

Chris' dad is in town so we went to the Fruit and Spice Park and a few plant nurseries. I took about 60 photos and you can see them here. It was a fun day and we collected some seeds as well. More seeds...yippiee! Tomorrow I need to work in the yard some and I am going to scrapbook also. Fun fun!

Here is a photo of about a 100 year old baobab tree that is at Griffin Road and US1. We stopped to get some seeds from it today.

It has an interesting history....Griffin Road baobab...

Guess that's about it for today. Oh, I did some transplanting of some stuff for the trade next week and I was checking out a seed I'd found washed up at our snorkel spot a month ago...well, it's about to sprout!!!! I have no idea what it is but it should be interesting!



October 12, 2006
Back from Mississippi. It was alright, but I am tired. The conference part was alright, a little controversy in our committee meeting which is always entertaining. I worked out twice but only ran a mile each time on the treadmill. I hate treadmills. I stepped outside yesterday for the first time since I had got there on Sunday. That's sad, right? Did a smidge of crocheting and watercolored and soft pasteled in a art journal. Yes, I am boring.

I hate gardening. Things just like to up and die. Friggin' cucumbers. Lost three pumpkins, two sugar's and a Dill's Atlantic giant. GRRR. Stupid snails. Might be able to coax the cuke's back to life. GRRRRRR McGrrrr.

Having major running block. I'm mental.

Thanks for the comments to the new readers! Hi TCSD! :) Hope Nora's good!



October 7, 2006
Today was a beautiful day! I got a lot accomplished. Took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. It's been sitting in the "sitting area" for almost three months now and I am glad it is gone! I did keep my Dreamsicles and some other things but not much. I found some candles that were hiding in a box for two years that were neat so I kept them and will use them once I'm done with other stuff. Did a bunch around the house, some stuff in the garden and then we went to visit Chris' friend's new aquarium store. He bought it from another guy and they are redoing it and doing to make it a boutique reef store. It'll be awhile before that happens, but it should do well once it is up and running 100%.

I wish it was 10* cooler. Just a smidge too warm for October, but the skies are clear and beautiful. I looooove Fall-Spring in Florida. I like some of the summer but it is just so HUMID that I can't stand it. I thought Texas was humid, but this is worse! But Fall-Spring in Florida is outstanding and I understand why the real and snow birds come down here. I went to the store today to pick up some stuff and got coffee and they had seasonal stuff out so I picked up Pumpkin Spice. I wish I'd gotten the Cinnamon Gingerbread! The Pumpkin Spice is good but the other made me want to come home and make little gingerbread men!

Here's some photos from today!








The pumpkins are doing great and I think the giant's will have some flowers soon. The mustard greens are doing great too! Now if I can get all of my tomato seedings to get with it and start getting true leaves I'll be a happy camper! Well, tomorrow is off to Mississippi (LOL Chelle, glad you spelled it that way too! ;) ) so I don't know if I'll blog or not until Thursday evening. Have a good relaxing weekend and a nice week!



October 5, 2006
Are you ready to go on an airboat ride???? Ok, grab your earmuff's and jump in the airboat!

Hold onto your hats and sunglasses and be sure to watch out for flying bugs. Keep your mouth's shut and look out for the spider webs along the trails!

Today we are going to:

Here we are going along

enjoying the nice cool air of this October morning! Just a river of grass!

Are you lichen the trip so far? Here are some snail eggs...sorry they are a bit blurry!
;
Our first stop you can see out into the open area of Water Conservation Area 3A

To the west you can see more cypress trees that form cypress heads which lead over towards Big Cypress National Preserve



Look closely and you'll see an egret taking off into the sky!

Let's head down some more narrow trails!






Now, back out into the open! We're going to go faster here!

Ok, time to stop and smell the flowers and relax a bit!!!





A slight sign of fall! Bluestem's having some fun!

This is a typical hunter's camp in the Everglades. The one's on the reservation are leased out now by the campers who either squatted or owned a small hammock before the reservation was made. Similar things go on through the state or federal government on those camps on national park land or conservation area land. Some camps are more rudimentary, some are much nicer.

Oops, looks like we scared a red shouldered hawk away!
You're tour guide is not omnicient and so I am not sure, but I think this is a red bay tree with fruit....Hey! What is that over there?





It's a little 'gator! Wanna catch it????



Now, see that wasn't so bad! No bites!

Whaddya know, bamboo in the Everglades! Now...here's comes the exciting part! My coworker and I walked down the levee from where we parked the boat so we could walk to a camp for an inspection. We saw the bamboo and then we came to almost the end of the path which leads to a large open area and then the house. I heard a low sort of growl, purr, moan. This wasn't the bamboo moving in the wind. That squeaks....this was like Samson on steroids when he's mad. A "Mmmmmmmmmooooooo", not a Mooooo, but something else. And it did it several times in a row. Then I heard a weaker but still loud one across the way. My coworker who is deaf and wears hearing aids heard it but not as clear as I did. The one closest was definitely around 20 feet away. My first thought was "bear". Then "panther". Was not an alligator. We got out of there quickly and called the boss to find out what each sounded like. We were downwind so it wasn't the smell that got "it" but we were talking. Chris thinks maybe boars or pigs, but I've never heard pigs do that and they've never just been still either. Usually they run away. But panthers do roam the levee and so we are still unsure. We went around to the other side to the boatramp side of the camp but didn't see anything over there. Bummer!!!

A little bit of rest for this flittering Giant Swallowtails

There were lots of butterflies out today from Monarch's, Gulf frit's and white peacocks to the Giant Swallowtails!
Then we came upon another friend when we met the Water Resources department working on clearing a trail for the Everglades Study in a few weeks...



Well, are you ready to start heading back???







Well, I hope you've enjoyed the ride! Stay tuned for more sights of south Florida! :)




October 4, 2006
Yes, I am a bad photojournalist! You see, it's easy to just get in the car and go to sleep. I carpool and since I sit in the back I tend to lay back and relax for that hour drive. So, no photos! But I am thinking of doing two things...the drive to work but then we are also going in the airboat tomorrow so I was thinking a start to finish virtual airboat ride. I'll show you how you load up the boat, get it ready for launch and I am going to drive some tomorrow to get my driving better so maybe a few photos me doing that. Hehehe!

It has been very nice here, still a bit too warm. Ten degrees cooler would be ideal. The weather is beautiful though! The pumpkins are doing good and the cucumbers have flowers. I'm hoping they'll produce some cucumbers! I'm very excited about the tomatoes too. If I can keep the snails off of them I'll have quite a few varities to try this time around. I can just taste the fresh tomatoes. Store bought just aren't the same. My mustard greens are doing well. I lost some of the original seedlings and so I threw more in. A few are getting large already and I can tell I'll be thinning out to other pots this weekend.

Heading to Mississippi this Sunday for work for a few days. I've only driven through it a few times and have never hung around to enjoy the good southerness of it all. Hehe, in my head I was going M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humpback-humpback-i. Anyone else learn to spell it that way?

Did 1 mile on Monday and 3 miles yesterday. Took me 36:55 to do it. Slow. Tomorrow is 3 miles and Saturday 4 miles. Next week is the same routine. I like that I get two weeks of the same thing so that it doesn't seem to jolt me too much. It's been three years since I've done 4 miles. That's the longest I've ever run. Ok, it was when I was in Melbourne...which was a long time ago.

Robin: I tried to find the new cd on Amazon but it isn't listed yet. I'm going to buy it legally when I can ;) Or maybe you can make me a bootleg copy of your illegal download. ;)
Laura: Hi! Thanks for commenting! I like having new readers and your blog is wonderful!
Jessica: It only helps with organization if you use it. :) lol!
Mom: Hi! Love ya!



October 2nd, 2006
I had my bit of color change today at work for Fall. The royal poinciana is dropping some of its leaves and they are a bright yellow, littering the street. Yep, that's about it besides the goldenrod, bluestems, the cypress dropping their needles and the maples are turning red.

I did a warm up 1 miler today. Tomorrow is the official start of my road to 13.1 miles of craziness. I have been on Google Earth plotting out routes lately. Finding out how far 10 miles is. How am I ever going to do 10 miles??? The run today was ok, but my lower calves and ankles were a bit sore since I did some gardening beforehand. I saw a three legged golden retriever and then some ducks with duckies. :) Very cute. They let me run right by them; thought they would attack me to protect the young but they didn't.

Tomorrow I am going to do a little photojournalism. Vitaminsea a blog I read through ocassionally is doing a "where you live" sort of photoblog. I decided to participate and I will take photos of my drive to work since it is semi-interesting. My plan is to do it tomorrow but I may have to drive tomorrow and if so don't think wielding a camera and driving is a good idea. Drinking coffee is hard enough while driving!

Chantal Kreviazuk has some new music up on MySpace. I need to find the cd I have of hers. Been missing since before I went to Texas. Drat! She has another cd coming out soon which is awesome!

Oh, Mom and well anyone interested, the new Love's Abiding Joy movie is coming on Hallmark around Thanksgiving and DVD in December.

Samson and Leo are now part of the internet. They are too cool 'cause now they have Catster pages!! Samson's page and Leo's page!. I need to put more photos up of them. I was thinking today at work when I changed my little helper thing on Powerpoint from the paperclip to the cat (which purs and scratches!) that I need my cat at work. Samson can lay on top of the papers and block the computer screen so I can't read it and Leo can lay nearby stretched out napping. :) It'd be great entertainment!

I have cucumber flowers! YIPPPIEE! I bought some mums to put in the front flower bed. Love 'em! Bought a jalepeno plant. Restarted some more tomato seeds and they are coming up. Just need a bit of rain for the brugs.



September 30, 2006
Today is my cutie pie's birthday! He's 27!!! Wowzer's! :) I am going to make him dinner and desert. It's a recipe out of Martha Stewart Living. I am rethinking my decision not to renew that magazine. It has so many great ideas and I need organizational help!

Ok, guess I'll keep the comments up. I know I am not even the best commenter, but I sometimes feel I am just talking to the air!

Took some photos yesterday of the garden. It needs a lot of help!


Some fern that Chris bought that is supposedly rare. It has taken probably four or so months since he got it in the mail for a frond to pop out.

A very happy cat.

Orchid explosion

Closer view of the orchids

Variegated shrimp plant. It has been awhile since this one bloomed because it was being shaded out by the others in the pot, but I forgot how much I love the colors on this one!



Dessert Rose

Cucumbers

Dill's Atlantic giant pumpkins

Small sugar pumpkin

I've had to put down snail food because the snails are nibbling on things I don't want them nibbling on! Grr! I also have another banana in flower but didn't get a photo of it yet. Might do that tomorrow. Have some yard work to do...yippie! That's sarcasm and fun at the same time.

Well, off to be a very bad impersonation of Martha Stewart and make some dinner and dessert!



September 27, 2006
Happy Birthday Chelle!!! :)

I have uploaded photos onto flickr so you can click on the photos down on the left and look for Texas Sept 1, 2 and 3. I have another cd but haven't been able to get it to finalize.

Just catching up on 11 days worth of not being here. Decided I am going to do the ING Miami 1/2 marathon. 13.1 miles. I can do it. Got a plan. Keep me honest people!

Thinking of getting rid of comments. No one leaves them anyway and you can always email me. So, if you want me to keep them, lemme know.



September 17, 2006
Well, the baby bro is married and off on his honeymoon! They called around noontime saying they were on the ship and getting their room keys! I'm sure they are having a blast out there on the high seas! I have lots of great photos but I want to upload them all at one time instead of just bits and pieces, so it'll be next week before I get them done.

Yesterday we went to her parents house for a brunch, ate leftovers from the reception and they opened presents. They raked in the dough with $4,000 in cash plus they have probably almost $1,000 in gift cards I'm sure. Then we went to my friend Becky's house for a bit to see her new place. It's a cute little house in north Ft. Worth almost in Saginaw. Makes me want a house! Then back home to eat dinner at a good Mexican place, Mexican Inn. YUMMY! It won't surprise me if I gain 10lbs this trip!

Today I got to see my friend Brooke and her baby (toddler!) Justin. He's such a cutie pie! Love him! Then one of the Stephanie's came and Michelle and JP for awhile. Drove out to Hulen for Freebirds. Another YUMMY! Then on the way back JP decided he wanted to see the Stockyards so I took them down there and we walked around. We were sad 'cause we'd missed the only train leaving for the Grapevine route. It's an old timey train that you can take for about an hour around the area. But we got to look around the shops while it was raining outside. Missed the cattle drive too! Booo. They had to head back to Longview so they took off and now I'm spending the evening vegging out. Yippie! Tomorrow Mom and I are going to go to the Cowgirl museum and Chris will geocache instead. Then it's off to Dallas in the evening. Still have a week left, but it's going wayyyyyyyy too quickly!



September 15, 2006
Today my baby brother is getting married!!!! It's hard to believe! We flew into DFW yesterday at 8:30 am CST. Left the house in Florida at 4am to get to the airport where we promptly fell asleep at the gate waiting to board. Slept the entire plane ride home. We got to my parents house and sat on the porch drinking coffee and catching up for a few hours until Mom and I went to Stephanie's (my SIL) for her bridesmaid luncheon. Most of her family was there and her friends and I saw their apartment. It reminds me a lot of our first apartment, minus the fish tanks! The day flew by: dr's appointment, small nap, Sonic (YAY for Sonic's!), rehearsal (where mom already started crying, but believe me I'll be doing it tonight!), rehearsal dinner at La Hacienda Ranch. I got to chat with my old neighbors (they still live there). I took piano lessons from the wife and I baby sat the kids when they were young. Now the son is married and the daughter is almost 21. I saw my grandfather and uncle. Grandad is doing better, but you can tell he has not been doing well and doesn't look how he did last Thanksgiving. But he seems to be chipper and looking like he wants to get better. He's 81. I thought he was 80. Then we came home and crashed. I was zonked.

This morning Stephanie, Mom and I went for a massage. I'm going to resolve to get one once a month. I just feel so much better! The only thing the lady liked to talk a smidge too much, but she toned it down about 10 minutes in. I like to lay down and just relax. Now we're just waiting a bit and then Stephanie's hair appointment is at 1 and I'm going so I can take photo's and Mom is getting hers done as well. Then back to the house to get dressed and the wedding is at 7!

The thing I love most is seeing housing signs that say "Homes in the low 120's.". Does that make me jealous!!!!! And it's nice to hear Texan voices and see all the university stickers on the cars and Texas license plates. I even get a little bit of a Leo fix. She looks like Leo, acts like Leo but she's a Duck. :) She's fluffy and soft like Samson though so I get a bit of my Samson fix too.

Well, I'll post photos probably tomorrow of the wedding and will upload some to Flickr. :)



September 11, 2006
Five years ago seems like forever. Yet it seems like yesterday. Five years ago I was a senior in college, living in an apartment in Galveston with my best friend and trying to get through school and plan a wedding. I remember Fall was beginning to set in. I can see the changes in Fall today and I can feel and remember how it was that day. The sun had began to shift positions, goldenrod and bushy bluestems were blooming. Crisp skies, but still warm. I didn't have class until around 1 or 2 for a Cell Bio lab. I was planning on getting up around 9:30 or so to go in to work at Dr. Webb's nursery and do some odd jobs around there. I hadn't been in a week or so and I had a lot of time in the morning on Tuesday's to do work around there. But, I was awakened around 8:00 CST by Chris. I was very perturbed. Didn't he know that I was sleeping? He proceeds to tell me a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I'm still groggy and tell him grouchily that I am sleeping and call me back later. I think some Cessna flew into the buildings, so what do I care? I don't remember when I got up, but I don't think it was much longer than 30 minutes later and I got online to the forum I'd been visiting for awhile. Everyone is freaking out and so I check the news sites and then run to the living room to flip the tv on. I was in dismay. I couldn't believe it. How on Earth did something like this happen? I know I called my mom and dad. Mom was quite freaked out about it as we all were at the time. I can't recall exactly what I did for the three or four hours before I went to campus. I remember being on the computer chatting with internet friends and freaking out. I can't even remember where Erika, my roomate was at. I don't believe she was at home. Everyone in the lab that day was rather quiet. No one really spoke of it and all I wanted to do was talk about it. I felt like I was going to burst because no one was discussing it. Marine Geography was later that night and Bush was supposed to be giving a speech around 7. I ditched class early and went to the Student Center and watched the conference with everyone else that was on campus at the time. The whole thing was surreal. The next day I had a five hour Wetlands field lab and we went to a wetland NW of Galveston on the mainland to id plants. It was peaceful out there. No planes were flying overhead. Even if you seem remote, usually you hear planes in the background unless you are in the mountains somewhere out west. Nothing. That was in itself partly enjoyable, to experience what others did 100 years ago. Nothing but birds in the sky.

I knew no one that died that day. But, how easily that could have been anyone I knew on any other given day in any other major city. After that flags were everywhere. The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless the USA played on every station. I felt strongly patriotic. I even liked Bush there for awhile. We were going to kick some ass and get those people back.

Yet, here we are today, five years later. I feel we are more divided than ever. I feel we are more hated than ever. No Osama bin Laden. Yet we got Saddam Hussein who never posed an immediate threat to us. Who never destroyed and killed nearly 3,000 Americans in one day. I cannot comprehend where we've gone wrong. Why we've gone the path we have. I've become very politically minded in these five years. It's a good thing, being politically minded. I'm still amazed at the amount of people who aren't, who don't know who is running the country, who their Senator and Congresspeople are, and what is going on in the world.

Something I read today really has me wishing we were on this path. It's an alternate version of these past five years. Where we could be now if we'd not gone down the roads we have been on, if the other side of the country had been listened to when we were yelling and screaming and saying "Listen to us! We have a voice too!", instead of being told "Shut up and Sing". Alter: An Alternate 9/11 History.



September 10, 2006
Today is delurk Sunday. Come on out and post a comment all you lurkers! :) So, I know there are some subscribers to this blog. Who are you? I can eliminate myself twice to test out if this subscribing thing worked, my mom, and the Garden Voices people on GardenWeb. So, who are the others???

What is up with this Sexy Back song??? I can't even listen to it all the way, but I keep running into people's MySpace pages with that song. It isn't as bad as that wretched bad day song. I HATE THAT SONG! It plays constantly on the radio and the second I hear the first few chords I turn the station. Not to mention if I even listen to it, yes I believe in jinx's sometimes, I have a horrendous day. So, I ban that stupid song. BAD SONG!

Ok, got that out of my system. ;)

Got a whole lot of not much accomplished today. Watched the Ya-Ya movie, did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and watered and fertilized the garden. Chris did some yard work this morning and he's supposed to be picking up more. Think I may break out some oil pastels tonight and draw a little bit. 3 more days until I go to Texas! YAYAYAY! My brother's bachelor party pics are HILARIOUS! He was pretty much trashed and someone wrote all over him. But, he also posted pics of his little patio garden too. :) Seems we've inherited my grandmother's gardening genes.

Speaking of, it seems my grandparents aren't doing so hot. My grandmother has been going downhill for awhile and she's become quite mean to my parents. She's refusing to go to the wedding now. My grandfather may be moving to a retirement center, the kind that you can get food, but you have a little apartment to yourself sort of thing. He had some health problems lately and has Parkinson's. It is sad. It's kinda like the Croc Hunter, just just expect them to be there forever. So, I expect to be slightly depressed when I go home.

There's a few plant books I want (write 'em down Mom!). The American Woodland Garden
The Nature of Plants
Irises
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden
Meadows
Variegated Tress and Shrubs
;
Blech, we had Taco Bell for dinner. It has been a long time since I've had it, months really. I'm sure I'm going to regret it here in a few hours. Not to mention it was like 10,000 calories. Barf-o-rama.

PS: Robin, message Fiji! You can do it!!!!



September 9, 2006
Fifty years ago today, my Dad was born! :)

Happy Birthday Dad! Wish I could have been there to eat dinner with y'all! :) See you Thursday!

Today we drove down to the Keys for a snorkel. I had told Chris last week that I'd wanted to do something today instead of hang around the house. Go for a hike or snorkel. He chose snorkel. We got up at 5:30 so we could pick our friend JC up and we took off to the Keys. We got to our spot at the

Ohio Missouri Channel and jumped in. The water was a bit chilly at first but we warmed up quickly. It's been awhile since I'd gone snorkeling. This spot we've gone too many times since we moved to Florida. It's a good collecting spot for snails, crabs and zooanthids for his tank. I saw a lot of fish, the typical blennies and damsels but I did see a trunk fish and two yellow stingray. Chris said he saw about 10 of the stingrays. It was a nice time! Here are a few photos from our spot:

JC getting out of the water

Self portrait...

Through the mangroves

Chris getting some water for the snails he collected



Self portrait!

Railroad vine

Then we headed up the Keys to find some lunch. We were going to stop at a place in Marathon we know of and like but they were closed. Many businesses close down between summer and winter seasons for vacations. We found a place called the Captains Table just south of Islamorada. We were the only ones in there the majority of the time, so we enjoyed our fish sandwiches in peace. Afterwards it was time to head to the two plant nurseries we love. Chris wanted some variegated thumbergia at this place called The Banyan Tree but they didn't have it any longer. There was a ton of neat stuff though. Then we went on down the road, almost to Tavernier, to another nursery. This one is probably my favorite since it has unique tropical and native plants. I was walking around when I spotted

white beautyberry! We have a small plant of it but it has never flowered and I've never seen one with berries for sale, or in the wild for that matter. It was only $9.99 so we snapped it up. Then we found a lantana with some bright red flowers so we bought it too! It was hard to limit myself. JC bought a stevia plant and gave us a cutting to root. I wanted a pink canna and some veggies that they had. I always find stuff at that nursery. It's at mile marker 88.7 and doesn't have a website.

When we got home I was inspecting the front bed and found these:

Monarch caterpillars. They've devoured the butterfly weed. Need to throw the aphids off of it though.


What's blooming at the moment...

I guess that's about it! Thinking early to bed tonight!



September 7, 2006
I've been sitting here surfing the internet for an hour deciding if I wnated to post an entry. I have a lot to say, but I am just drained. I took some photos tonight but just don't feel like uploading them.

A few weeks ago I found a neat show on PBS called Wild Florida. The show I watched was about the Key deer. Very cool! I've seen a few on Big Pine Key. They are pretty easy to spot if you drive slowly and look down the streets. Just pull off and watch as they are docile. Be sure not to feed them; but we have seen some of the homeowners have put out food for them, which is how we saw the last ones. Last night's episode was on the butterflies of Florida and butterfly gardening. I was getting a kick out of it until they came to a scene of Castellow Hammock and a guy named Roger Hammer. First, Roger was nothing how I'd imagined him. When we first moved to Miami, Chris and I'd had put a geocache in the park. It was doing well for awhile until we got reports of it being missing. So we went to check and then posted that it was indeed missing and we'd replace it. Then we got word that Mr. Hammer had removed it and was thoroughly pissed off that we'd placed it there. That was disputed by another geocacher who'd spoke with Mr. Hammer about the cache and he seemed fine with it. It wasn't too far off the trail and wasn't near any endangered vegetation, but apparently he was miffed about people wandering off the trail due to the rare butterflies that hang out down there. So, here in my mind all this time I'd imagined this wire-rimmed glasses wearing scientist type. Can I say, completely the opposite? Very hippieish. Don't get me wrong, this guy is smart. He's written, I believe some orchid or plant books of Florida and he seems to be well respected. But, geez, he was anal about that cache.

I'm just glad the week is almost over. Short week, but it seems like it has been filled with so much stuff. I've lost at least one of the small sugar pumpkins seedlings. Some of the mustard I transplanted seems to have not liked me either. The cucumbers are doing well so far. I'm hoping everything makes it a week while we're gone. Chris is supposed to be lining up several people to come by and check on the cats, tank and plants. I just hope people water the plants well enough. The stuff on the porch is on a timer so it should be ok. The cats will be fine but the litter needs to be scooped. I hate having people do that, but if not it'll be a toxic waste site after a week. And the tank. The last thing we need is it to crash from a power outage or some other reason.

I promise photos tomorrow. Going snorkeling Saturday. Happy. Tired of being inside.



September 4, 2006 (post #2)
I am still in shock that Steve Irwin died. It's on par with Princess Diana I think. A death too young. As much as I think everyone thought or said he'd die of a croc attack, I still think we all thought he was invincible and would be 80 and telling croc stories to his grandchildren. Just a sad day. :(

The weekend was non-eventful. Chris was in Melbourne fishing. He said he saw several turtles and even saw a little hatchling about 17 miles offshore. He thought it was a piece of trash at first until it started moving. That's pretty awesome the little fella/gal made it out that far! Its brother's and sisters probably did not have as good as luck.

I worked around the house and in the garden most of the weekend. I spent yesterday mowing and working on repotting stuff. I put pumpkins in the ground. Today I finished repotting, arranged the plants back and put some 25 cent stuff I'd gotten at Lowe's in the front flower bed. It is quickly becoming my butterfly garden. Penta's, butterfly weed, salvia, 4o'clocks, porterweed. I've seen monarch cat's on the butterfly weed and today I saw a monarch flitting around. He was too fast for me to get a photo off though. I still have a bit left to do this week like thinning out tomato seedlings and starting some other seeds. Sweep the porch, empty out a box of gardening stuff. Then, hopefully I can sit back and watching things for a few weeks. TD #6 is out there already and I'm praying it doesn't come to anything or come here at all. Just don't want to deal with that this week or the next month since we'll be out of town.

I did get quite a bit done in the house. The living room is enjoyable now except for some things Chris has to put in the garage once he organizes it. I still have the piles of garage sale items too, but at least it's open and clean and not so stressful to enter. The spare room is probably the worst. I'm kinda waiting for the new computer to arrive so that I can put the desk stuff up. Chris' laptop takes up too much desk