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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 You are 96% REAL Texan!! High five, you're a complete Texan. People from other states should tremble in your presence because they're simply not worthy. Let them bow before you and convey their undying adoration to you while they announce their true desire to be Texan. I cheated slightly. They had some Austin based questions that I Googled. So, I'm only probably like 95% Texan. ;) The decorations are up! Mostly...I still want to put a few things up, but it isn't much. I don't have many decorations. I would *love* to have a lot and really do the entire living room but I don't have the moola and the room to store it the other 11 months. Just lost interest in what I wanted to post. Hate that. So, here are a few links I like these past few days: Dfw Blog of Snow MSNBC reporter in Antarctica...I'm so going there one day... Heather Bailey Bleu Lune French General November 30, 2006 My parents are getting snow and sleet right now! I've been hovering at DFW.com all day finding out what's going on and of course Texans still freak out when it ice's/sleet's. My dad said that it was all winter storm all the time on the news stations and I told him that now he knows how it feels when a hurricane is coming. It's the sky is falling and oh my Lord we're gonna be wiped out and there's lines everywhere. This year it was seemingly worse because of last year. For Ernesto, which weakened into a pitiful TD/TS, it was still insane. So, the 'rents might build a snowman! ;) I spent over two hours on here last night reworking this layout. I suck. LOL...I took that HTML online course thing Budding HTML Guru's like three or four years ago and I am by far no super coder. In fact all the info I got via email is long gone as I don't even use that email addy anymore. Anyway, I need to add links, switch a few things still, but that'll happen this weekend. Kayaking on Saturday. I've designated Sunday as garden and hobby day. I've been so neglectful of the yard these past two weeks. Getting home late doesn't help. I went out when I got home tonight and my tomatoes are getting nice and plump! The mustard greens are gigantic! The pumpkins are on their last legs. :( They were put in a crappy, sandy spot and therefore really didn't do well. Tonight doing a weight workout again. I was so sore from Monday that I took two days off. Out of shape! Then going to fold laundry and watch McDreamy! I missed last week, so someone fill me in. Tomorrow it's Christmas decorating! WOOOOOOHOOOOO! November 28, 2006 Some people are on top of their game. My internet friend Jasmine has already done her Christmas cards! I got mine in the mail today, when today I just bought my Christmas cards. They probably won't even be filled out for two weeks. Michael's was almost cleaned out of Christmas cards. I got 'em half off. WOO! So, in days to come, probably during my carpool, I'll get them done. Will definitely need to pick up some cute holiday stamps! Ok, totally copying Robin here, but here is a quiz to see how well you know me! I tried to put things that people reading my blog would know, not necessarily just forummers and people I know IRL. Parents...it'll be easy for you!! How well do you know MistiSo, you think you know me???? Well, how well???November 27, 2006 Thanksgiving break was nice. Two days off at home, four days camping. WOO! The plus was that it was gorgeous most of the time, A&M BEAT THE HELL OUTTA T.U.!, and I got some great photo shots out there. I missed my kitties though! One of them, actually, the drinky one, is here now sticking his head all the way into my glass. Good thing it is wide brimmed at the top! So, here are the photos...at least some. I'll be spacing some of them out throughout the week, but you can check them out in advance on my Flickr (click the little banner on the left down halfway).  This is Chris, Cathy and Randy trying to put the lantern over the tree so it'll hang down. Chris tried to play with it like it was the ring toss game. Silly hubby! ;) Oh yeah, he also strung his bike up like that for fun...didn't get a photo of that, though.  Please do not wipe with these leaves if you've gotta potty in the woods. Leaves of three and the mitten shape mean one thing poison ivy!. EEK!  I almost stepped on this fella/gal! Pygmy rattler! The last hike on our way to the car on Sunday and I was going to lean over a big tree to get some photogenic flowers and then readjusted, looked down and saw it! EEK!!!!!!  Couldn't believe this butterfly/moth (having a hard time distinguishing) stayed put for me! Darn things normally flit about!!  A very lovely green ladybug! Looks like goldenrod to me, but not sure on the shot there...  I adore bluestems. Yes. I adore a grass. They are just so Fall and beautiful to photograph!  These two came right up to the campsite, probably 30 feet from our tent on Sunday morning. Chris and Randy had spotted some in the hammock behind the tent (ie: Hammock is a name for the tree islands in Florida, not the thing you swing on to sleep in) and these came to visit later on. I got probably 20 feet away, hovering behind a cabbage palm to get these shots.  Chris took this one and several others like it. These are another group of deer we encountered on a trail on Saturday.  Grey day on the ocean??? Nope. That's the Big O. Lake Okeechobee. Okeechobee in Miccosukee/Seminole means, whaddya know, Big Water. I had never seen it before, just the dike that goes all the way around it, so on Sunday we took the longer way home and went through the town of Okeechobee and a ton of other small towns along the way. Part of the Florida Trail goes around the dike. Anyway, it's a big piece of polluted water. Very. And the source of soooo many problems with too much/lack of water south into the Everglades. We camped at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, which is really in the boondocks of Florida. Cracker country. Cattle ranches, empty land and just "nowhere". It was beautiful though and very quiet. Lots of stars at night. Friendly racoons who will lick your dutch oven clean for you. And will eat anything you toss towards the edge of the woods. And lastly, here is my ginger that I drew in soft pastel.  November 22, 2006 *tap tap tap* Is this thing on??? Hellooooo out there? Anybody out there? No one reading? I think some of that is my fault. My RSS feed was messed up for a few days and I just checked the code and realized I'd left a tag out for about five entries! oops! Speaking of entries, it's about time I reorganized around here. Need a new banner and update some links and such. Maybe I'll do that in a few weekends. My December is practically filled up already! Woo! What I love best, these past few days, is waking up to my kitties. Leo has been sleeping right on me. I sleep on my stomach or my sides so he'll curl up on my lower back or my legs. Sometimes pretty close beside me. Samson always stays at the foot of the bed unless we convince him for about 15 minutes or so to lay up by us. You have to tempt him with lots of petting and telling him what a good boy he is before he'll finally lay down. Then he gets frustrated and moves to my foot of the bed. It also helps when it's kinda cold out, like the past few days, and there's a warm comforter on the bed! Oh, while shopping today for Thanksgiving stuff, I bought some banana's. When I was little I'd peel the sticker off and put it on my hand or wherever while we bought groceries. I guess the Chiquita people realize this because they now have a sticker that says "Put the sticker on your forehead and smile" or something very near that effect. I was darn near tempted to do that and walk around Publix! Publix by the way, don't shop at. Way too $$$$. And I think they know it, but they are on this campaign to get people in their store because they have signs about how driving out of the way for lower prices isn't saving all that much...which is crap! Alright everyone...HAPPY THANKSGIVING! November 21, 2006 Ugh. I have let myself go. My once a week "cheats" have turned into multiple times a week cheats. I've been going in a circle for two years trying to lose the 10lbs I put on at my job. I lost 5 in July/August because I had been sick and lost my appetite and it took awhile to come back. I was feeling good because I wasn't eating like a cow like I am now. Sure, gimme some chocolate. Sure, lemme eat all of this crap you people bring at work. Oh, no that donut isn't bad. Gimme all that cream Dunkin' Donuts in my coffee. The worst part is that it makes me feel bad literally. I can tell that I am not as fast as I was, that I am horribly out of shape. I don't like it. I don't aim to be super skinny, just how I was two years ago. Fit, able to fit into several pairs of jeans that just hang idly by in my closet now, and just proud of myself because I was eating good, working out and enjoying the good stuff once in awhile, not every single day. So, here it is, in the next month I want 5lbs gone. And in the month after that, 5 more. I've been getting up around 6am to work out and now that my body is adjusting to that time I know I can get up and do it. I've got to start eating smarter snacks at work. I've got to learn to say "no" to those food pushers. That's what I hate. You look bad if you say no. I've got to just get over it. It's like people expect you to eat all that crap because they are. The parties at work when we have buffets are just holy cow. I try to eat the healthier stuff first and then only get a little bit of the "bad" stuff that I do want a smidge of. I'm just ashamed of myself for letting myself go! UGH!!!!!! I do not want to be how I was in college. I hate looking at those photos because I look bloated and unhealthy. The thing is, I only sorta knew how out of shape I was. I mean, yeah I was like, oh, I weigh 160. Ok, let's eat some more of that triple chocolate truffle ice cream while I watch Friends. And I see those habits slowly coming back in and I don't like it one bit. (and I did weight 160, I wrote it down in a journal once. I couldn't believe it when I read it again a few years later!) I'm only 5'3" so 160 isn't exactly a good spot to be in. I don't aim to be 105 because 105 would mean losing all of my muscles. I like my muscles. I just want to be where I was and comfortable going out in a bikini. You know, that was great putting on a bikini and not feeling self conscious. You couldn't put me in one now if you paid me. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I'm sorry for this. I just measured myself today because I was going to make an apron and wanted to get the approximate waist size. When I saw that I'd gained almost two inches in my waist I freaked. This is just in the past few months. WTH!?!?!?! No, I am not pregnant! I'm just eating too much and not exercising enough. Ok, now onto something not so depressing. I enjoyed my day off. Slept in too late. How in the heck did it become 10:30 so quickly? My cute little Leo was curled up pretty much next to me near my back when I woke up. I had to get up early in the morning to put another comforter on the bed as it was really cold in the house! And the cats love that comforter! Watched a little "The View" and crocheted for a bit. Tried working on pinning my apron and then I reworked a necklace I made a few nights ago. I bought some charms in Greenville and thought I'd make a necklace. So I bought some stones at Walmart and made it up. I really like it! If my camera had a cd that worked I'd take a photo of it! I went to Walmart and picked up some sunglasses. I accidentally broke mine when I sat on them in the carpool. I sleep most of the time in the carpool so they'd fallen off and fell into the seat. Well, I sat on them...of course. The new ones are cool and have some fake rhinestones on them. Not too big so they aren't gaudy, but just big enough to add some "bling". ;) Ok, time to go and workout before Chris gets home. Let's hope I can get these 5lbs off soon! November 20, 2006 I took tomorrow and Wednesday off. Tomorrow really for no good reason other than to do a little creating. Some art, sew my apron. Do a lot of nothing but lounge in my pj's and drink coffee all morning. Maybe go for a run in the afternoon and then take a walk through ACE (a local art/educational supply store). Just to do nothing. And I feel slightly guilty for taking off work. Sure there are plenty of things for me to do at work, but taking off for "no good reason" makes me kinda feel bad. I know, I shouldn't. I have the time. It's not like I'm shirking my duties. Wednesday I plan on hanging out with Chris since he took the day off too, and cooking stuff for our camping trip. I'm going to try a sausage cornbread dressing. YUM! Well, we'll see. I may have to take the Lipton rice along in case the dressing sucks. Heh! And I am contemplating my pumpkin cheesecake, but I hope Chris will eat it too because I'm not interested in eating 4,000 calories of pie by myself. I have a lot of blogs I haunt. Most are an arty/crafty kind of thing, a lot are garden blogs. The art and crafty blogs post these wonderful little photos of things they enjoy. Some post their favorites on Flickr. So, I'm going to link to my favorites so far. Some are my friends (Shelly) and some are my family (Bro and Mom and Dad), but most are random people that when I see a photo of something I love I Favorite it. My Favorites on Flickr. It's a fun little set, mostly nature stuff! I've got to do some arty/crafty seeking so I can post those! Ok, my last little rant. The tab's were reporting that people were upset that there wasn't more fanfare from TomKat. Ok, seriously, when do people want their wedding (ok, maybe besides a few crazy people like Britney) want their most intimate moments known to the world and shared with everyone? Why do people think it is their right because someone is a celebrity that they deserve to be apart of their lives? I just don't get that whole "I deserve this for nothing" mentality. Tom and Katie don't owe the people of Italy anything. They paid their fees and did what they had to do to get married. That doesn't involve signing autographs for people who just want to be famous for meeting someone famous. November 19, 2006 I wish I was tucked up in a cabin in the mountains right now. A fireplace roaring, snow falling, or at least snow on the ground, and me reading a book on the couch by a nice picture window while I sip my coffee and eat in my cinnamon roll. This also wouldn't be too bad to be at a nice beach house in New England where the gray sea is roaring onto the beach and it is slightly blustery outside. That would be ideal too. Instead, it is sunny, probably warm outside (I haven't gotten around to stepping outside yet) and I am drinking coffee and eating a cinnamon roll and some turkey bacon. Today I have on the agenda to clean around the house and work outside a little. Then we're going to go see Happy Feet in the afternoon. The movie looks so cute! I've given up on my cucmbers and replaced them with pole beans. I'm not going to fight bugs like that for cucumbers. I should have my first tomatoes here in a few weeks and I ate my first very sour strawberry on Friday. The pumpkins are still blooming away but no pumpkins are forming. :( I think the area may be too dry and the soil not ammended enough. When I came back from SC, Leo looked so big! He looks like an adult cat...not that he acts like one, but he looked like one. Such a little rascal. He's also a chocoholic, so I should have known better to leave some chocolate pieces on the bed while I was unpacking. I left the room, came back and he was gnawing away on one of the candies and had eaten a little bit of it. He got scolded and then loved on because when you've got such a cute furry face you just can't yell at him! Well, I hope the TomKat marriage works out! I'm not so sure i liked her dress or her hair in the one photo that was on the news. She had these little tulle things sticking out of the top and her hair looked a little flat. And Tom wasn't smiling, just his kinda goofy serious look thing. Oh well... So, I'm going to go back and pretend I'm in a cabin in Colorado right now while I do things around the house! ;) November something or another... I've lost track of days. That's what happens when you travel. Greenville was great! I got to enjoy fall a little bit. The classes went until 5pm everyday so I didn't get to do a lot of tourist stuff except on the last day when we got out at 3pm. They have a nice little downtown and an excellent art museum. Well, Chris wants me to come visit with him so I am going to run for now. I'll write more tomorrow! November 11, 2006 Today on this Veteran's Day I'd like to thanks my Grandad for fighting for this country in WWII. I don't know much about where he served but I believe it was in the Pacific theatre. Thanks Grandad!!! :) I am so glad I had yesterday off. I finished up a pastel I have been working on, though I am going to probably come back when I return from SC this week and touch up and then spray it and put it away. I went out with my scrapbooking friend Lois and we wandered around K-mart (looking for my cd's for my camera, they are one of the few places I can usually find them and of course they didn't have them) and Joanne's. Kmart has really cleaned up and they actually have some decent stuff. It is nice to wander around there because it isn't as crowded as Target or Walmart. Joanne's was fun too and I bought some fabric for making a gardening apron. It'll be a super easy, non-pillow sewing that is the first non-pillow thing I'll have sewed. It was a fun time and I enjoyed getting out and doing something with someone other than myself!!! Today we lounged around a lot and took my car into the dealership to get some things fixed while the warranty is still good. Getting close to 100K so before I lose that I'd like to get it all nice and spiffy again. The mirrors don't work completly anymore and there is a rattling/squeaking underneath the car when I am turning or slowing down. Then we tried to fix a geocache but we couldn't believe how bad it was overgrown. This is a park where the start was near a picnic table and we at first thought the picnic table was gone. But it was buried under vines and shrubs. We couldn't even find the final stage to pick it up. That's how bad it was. Really dissapointed in that park. Took a nap and then I decided to wander around Borders. WOO! I tried their Candy Cane Mocha which was pretty good because it was topped with candy cane bits. YUMMY! Then I wandered around the bookstore. I went through most of the aisles and I always try to find LMM books in the children's section but couldn't find them this time. I almost bought Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. They had a table of the Classics in a cheaper format so you could afford them. I wanted the Emily Dickinson poems. I thought it was interesting that in the front cover it said she only had six poems printed in her lifetime with them also being printed without her consent. Isn't that amazing? Of course wasn't it Van Gogh who didn't sell a painting until after his death? So, I suppose it's all in being a famous after your death! Then I sat for probably 15 minutes reading Post Secret a book version of the website by the same name. It's crazy how many interesting stories are out there. Makes you think you aren't as insane as you think. Grabbed two magazines, The Pastel Journal and Body + Soul for the car ride tomorrow. Have lots of things to do while in the car for 12 hours...books to read (Nights in Rodanthe), crochet, drawing, sleeping of course... 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. > . |
