Florida Summer Rain

It was good we went on below mentioned walk when we did, because this is how it looked like outside 5 minutes after we got back...

Ready to go!

Wrist

We are having a huge "cold front" north of Florida, this is most likely what is causing my wrist to be so messed up. I wouldn't mind so much unless I had so much typing to do...

I tried wrapping the wrist to fixate it a bit, hopefully that helps a bit. It feels like having a broken wrist (I know, I broke this exact wrist twice when I was younger), but I know it is just the lovely lupus joint pain.

Apparently we are going to get bouts of torrential tropical downpours all through the day. The rain is welcome, we still need it, plus it helps with the heat a little, it hasn't felt more than perhaps 35 C the last few days.

And Sweden is hot, hot hot! I am so longing for Sweden right now. I just want to buy a ticket and go, BUT I have responsibilities to tend to, so no go.

But I talked to Ken and I have decided that Sarah and I are going to go by ourselves next summer. My mom promised I can have her car the entire stay, so that will be helpful. I have no idea where we would stay, but I am sure there are plenty of family we can force ourselves upon... Should be fun!

Lunch time

Need something quick for lunch today, lots of work to do. A quick raid to the fridge wielded leftover grilled chili and lime chicken and a fruit salad. Works for me!

Tadaa!

From THIS:

To THIS:

I am now very happy. Until the next toilet needs to be replaced... Soon, very soon I hope!

Great weekend and more work

We had a fun BBQ, it got a little late, but there was a lot to catch up on.

Here we are waiting for the dinner to be ready, the kids playing Wii bowling...

I just got another project from the Italian client, so I will be a little more busy than I thought. But the money will be welcome, so no big deal.

The only problem is that we are having some weather issues right now (rain coming down like crazy) and yesterday and today my right wrist is all messed up (thanks lupus!) so I can barely turn it. Not exactly ideal when you have to type all day!

Have a great day!

Feeling great

I got so much done today, the entire house is really sparkling, it smells fresh everywhere. Great way to start a weekend! I still have a few things to do tomorrow, but it is mostly just Sarah's room and a few other odds and ends, but the party is not until 4 PM, so I have plenty of time.

I got the fridge full of yummy food, and I am looking forward to having a Mexican BBQ. To start I am making home made salsa with corn chips and a big fruit platter with three types of melons, strawberry, pineapple and grapes.

For the dinner I am grilling Baja marinaded chicken, served with black beans and rice and home made guacamole.

For dessert we are having a huge cheesecake platter with different kinds of cheesecakes, plus Mexican coconut macaroons. I will also have a tub filled with ice and Mexican sodas (mandarin, pineapple, etc.) plus Corona beer. Should be fun!

I am looking forward to seeing our friends and hear what they have been up to lately, they are truly great people and very easy to hang out with.

On Sunday we are planning on hanging out by the pool, Sarah wants to show us what she has learned in swim school...

Hope you all have a great day!

Now I am going to watch an episode of Big Love on the computer, then make some pizza and hang out with my family..

Day of cleaning

Today I am taking the day off work to do a major overhaul here at home. I remember when I was single, how fast cleaning used to be. Now, I need more than one day for the entire house! Perhaps it is because we now are three who makes a mess?

The toilet is installed! Or at least almost... There was a broken flange at the bottom, guess whoever installed the old one was not very careful. Unfortunately it seems most home improvement stores around here do NOT carry a flange repair kit. So unless I want to live with a half installed toilet until we can order one online, my goal is to find an obscure plumbing supply company out there in town somewhere who can save me...

I do NOT want to have people over tomorrow with a non-functioning guest toilet.

As you have all heard now, Micheal Jackson past away yesterday. I was never much of a fan, only in the earlier days, but he was a true musical treasure. Too bad his life was overtaken so much by his increasingly odd life. As it often is, at least now when he is dead people seem to appreciate all the good things he contributed.

Now I am going to make Sarah's summer camp lunch and snacks, then wake her up, lube her up in sunscreen, get her dressed, make sure she eats (she gets sucked into the TV when she is half asleep, and forgets to eat all the time).

Then the cleaning starts... At least I will hit the ground running, since I finished all the laundry and did all the dishes last night... I kind of like an all day cleaning marathon, it is a little therapeutic.

I think that is how it works for my grandmother too. She would rearrange the furniture and have long muttering conversations with herself (still do I imagine). I will not rearrange anything today, and I will not talk to myself, but maybe a little to the dogs ;-)

Listening to music

Last May when we got the new HD TV we got rid of the bulky entertainment center we used to have the TV, stereo and other things in.

Since there was no room in the new living room for the stereo I sold it.

Nowadays I often listen to music in the car on on the regular radio in the office, or to Swedish radio on the computer.

But our HD TV lineup also have many channels devoted just to music. There is a channel for pretty much anything I could possibly be in the mood for, and it is in digital quality. Great when cleaning or just wanting to listen to something when I am cooking for instance.

We have 999 channels on our TV, and these are the music only channels:

401 - HIT LIST
402 - HIP-HOP AND R&B
403 - MC MIXTAPE
404 - DANCE/ELECTRONICA
405 - RAP
406 - HIP-HOP CLASSICS
407 - THROWBACK JAMZ
408 - R&B CLASSICS
409 - R&B SOUL
410 - GOSPEL
411 - REGGAE
412 - CLASSIC ROCK
413 - RETRO ROCK
414 - ROCK
415 - METAL
416 - ALTERNATIVE
417 - CLASSIC ALTERNATIVE
418 - ADULT ALTERNATIVE
419 - SOFT ROCK
420 - POP HITS
421 - '90s
422 - '80s
423 - '70s
424 - SOLID GOLD OLDIES
425 - PARTY FAVORITES
426 - STAGE & SCREEN
427 - KIDZ ONLY!
428 - TODDLER TUNES
429 - TODAY'S COUNTRY
430 - TRUE COUNTRY
431 - CLASSIC COUNTRY
432 - CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN
433 - SOUNDS OF THE SEASONS
434 - SOUNDSCAPES
435 - SMOOTH JAZZ
436 - JAZZ
437 - BLUES
438 - SINGERS & SWING
439 - EASY LISTENING
440 - CLASSICAL MASTERPIECES
441 - LIGHT CLASSICAL
442 - MUSICA URBANA
443 - POP LATINO
444 - TROPICALES
445 - MEXICANA
446 - ROMANCES

Today I landed on 421 by chance, and it turned out to be 90s Hits. Cool! I can tell I was a teenager during the most part of the 90s, I know almost all the songs by heart!

I used to love MTV and before MTV came to a TV near me I used to tape the weekly Hit Show Trackslistan now Tracks on SR in Sweden (an early form of piracy perhaps?!) I knew all the artists and songs, because I was too lazy to remove the talk in between the songs (Kaj Kindvall!), so after listening on each weeks show over and over, the info stuck...

And my absolute favorite songs I keep on my MP3-player, which is also my mobile Nokia phone... So who needs a stereo anymore?

Brown Anole

Yesterday I mentioned the vast numbers of lizards we have around here.

I just took this picture of a Brown Anole sitting on the outside of my office window. In case you wonder what that mesh is he is sitting on, it is the window bug screen.

In the most parts of the US windows are equipped with these types of bug screens, so you can have your windows open without worrying about mosquitoes or flies coming in.

This is a close up, in reality you don't notice the screens on the windows since the mesh is so fine. Great idea actually!

Might as well take the opportunity...

Last night we spent 2 hours outside doing yard work. I pulled so many weeds, it filled up the entire walkway! I also mowed some of the yard, until Ken got home, then he took over and I used the edger around the, well, edges. It feels so great when everything is done and it looks great! Too bad it won't last so long!

I often wish we could afford hiring a company to do the yard work for us, but it is just not in our budget, especially when we can do it pretty easily ourselves. We are just lazy I guess! (And busy with other things). But as soon as we can I will add yard service, it would be nice not to have to sweat like a pig. But it was a great workout, that is for sure!

This morning I decided to get out and water some stuff in the backyard, clean up the patio and a few other things, before it gets super hot. I brought Bob out, he LOVES being in the backyard, and he has a line attached to a tree so he can walk around freely.

I was talking to him when I was working, telling him I was going to give them a bath when we got back in. He must have heard me. When I turn around, he was rolling , no, lustfully rubbing, himself in a pile of dog poop!

It must have been the neighbor's dog Sheba, she is a great dog, never needs a leash, follows her owner around all the time. He was working on the next door neighbor's yard yesterday, since she is away on vacation, and Sheba must have pooped in our yard then.

This poop was now smeared in a nice, thick and very stinky layer all over Bob! The little f***er!!!

So I carefully carried him straight into the bathtub and gave him a double scrub down. The stink was just awful, what the heck to they feed that dog?!

I guess Bob must have figured out he was getting a bath, so he decided that he might as well take the opportunity and have some fun...

Backyard inhabitants

If you ever been to Florida, you know about the lizards. They are everywhere! in fact, when we get out the door, you can hear them scattering among the leaves and grass. (In the "winter" they are not as active).

There are actually 13 native species of lizards here in Florida, and three non-native that have established themselves and are thriving as well. The most common type we see around here is the Brown and Green Anoles.

These critters are very nice to have around, they are kind of cute, not to mention beneficial in eating bugs...

Something else we have a lot of in our backyard are toads. Every night during the summer you can hear them compete with the cicadas over who can sing the loudest.

Some not as so commonly found backyard inhabitants here are frogs. We have some green tree frogs in the banana trees, and we have recently found a few leopard frogs.

Last night when we were working in the backyard, Sarah and I found two baby Southern Leopard frogs. So cute!

BIG storm

We woke up in the middle of the night by a huge thunderstorm passing over us. It was some very violent winds, rain and lightning.

I could hear things getting tossed about in the backyard, scary! I was on pins and needles, just waiting for a tornado to be spawned from this storm and rip through the house (it does happen quite frequently in Florida during summer storms). Luckily it passed, and our house is still here...

I saw on the news this morning that we were lucky; there were quite a few houses that sustained severe damage. Huge trees had been uprooted all over the place, and as of this morning 5,000 households were still without power.

These kind of sudden freak storms can sometimes be very scary, almost more so than a hurricane in a way, since you have no forewarning.

At least with a hurricane you get a heads up a few days ahead and can take action.

In other news, the toilet is still in the box (so shiny and NEW!), the husband got home very late, and it turns out we need grout to seal the rim after installation...

But it is here! Tonight we need to do yard work, the grass is TALL again, but it will be installed before this weekend, no and, ifs, or buts about it.

Now back to work. Have a great day!

How I know I am an adult...

I am just about to leave to go to Lowe's and buy a toilet. And I am excited!!!

Our house was built in 1992, and the bathrooms have not been updated yet (trust me, it is number 1 on my list!)

The toilets in this house are not that great, they often have problems with running and they are not very energy efficient either (not to mention old and worn).

So now when our guest toilet (the one I use most during the day since it is closest to the office) is once again constantly running (not to mentioning having a leak in the storage tank so it needs a cup underneath to collect the leakage...

Instead of buying yet another "flapper thingy" to stop the running, I want a NEW toilet. I know we were going to wait until we renovate the bathrooms, but who knows when that will be?

So I put down my foot. I said I am now going to buy one, and if YOU don't install it tonight I will.

Lots of grumpy e-mails back and forth and finally. Yes dear. I will install the toilet for you.

THANK YOU! And now off to buy my new shining throne... :-)

Heat wave

I guess Florida (and other parts of the southeast) are under a heat wave. The temperatures are high, but due to the high humidity, the heat index (how hot it actually feels like) is super high!

This morning at 7:30 AM the heat index for Bradenton was already 100F/38C! At 7:30 AM! So imagine people are having a hard time coping with it. I feel for those who have to work outside, that is for sure.

I just came back from a walk with the dogs, it felt like a hot steamy sauna out there!

This is how our windows looks like, due to the air conditioned, cool (77F/25C) inside temperature and the hot, humid outside!

The "view" out the back patio doors

I better get back to work now. All the ceiling fans in the house are on, but the office is struggling to cool down, it is right now at 78F/26C. A lot better than being outside, that is for sure! I have a feeling there will not be a problem reaching a heat index of 120F/49C(!!!) again...

Slow but steady

Yesterday Ken said there was soooo many kids at the Y when he dropped Sarah off, so she was probably a bit overwhelmed on her first day. But overall she seems to like it. The only negatives she gave me was that they didn't get to stay in the pool more than 1 hour and that an ant bit her. :-)

Tomorrow they have a field trip to the ice skating place in Ellenton, THAT should be a welcome change in the heat!

Myself had a very hard time getting going with work yesterday. I thought up a bunch of ridicules excuses why I wasn't going to do this project, but after all I picked myself up and just did it. I managed to do almost 7,000 words! My regular rate is probably more like 4,000 words, maybe only 3,000 when it is technical like this. Show I am really getting used to the electrical engineering lingo by now. Cool!

My goal is to do just over 3,000 words per day for 9 days, but I have two weekends as buffer if need be. That should be a nice pace. Hopefully I will finish before my deadline on July 6th, but it is nice knowing I got a great start. Usually I start slow and pick up the pace after a few days. My goal is to do one part pf the project today that is just over 6,000 words. We will see how it goes...

Hot weekend

The temperature soared, and the humidity was high. This meant the heat index rose considerably, that is, how hot it feels like to a human. It was well over 45C with the heat index, sweltering!

Luckily there was a nice breeze at the beach, so it made it a nice break. The gulf of Mexico was very warm and inviting. We had a nice Father's Day at the beach yesterday (the US celebrates its Father's Day the third Sunday of June).

I heard there were quite a few people that ended up in the hospital due to heat stroke over the weekend in our area, I beat that by floating on an air mattress in the water... Nice!

Today Sarah has her first day of Summer Camp at the YMCA, and they just took off. Me, I have to work really hard until July 6th, but that is OK. I am taking the day off on Friday to get some stuff done, and on Saturday we are having friends over for a BBQ, so that will be nice.

Well, I better get going on this project now. Glad to be inside in this hot weather!

Summer weather

Summer is definitely here! Florida has, as you probably know, subtropical climate. And during the summer it is all tropical. This means HOT, HUMID and usually every afternoon we get thunder storm.

Yesterday we had 100 F. That is 38 C!!! Hot, hot, hot! But the real kicker is the humidity, it makes it hard to function outside. Kind of being locked in a green house after watering, in full sun. Steamy!

But on the other side it is perfect weather for the beach, the waters in the Gulf of Mexico are now up to 88 F, that is over 31 C!

Since the thunder usually don't roll in until the afternoon, it is the perfect time to pack up the beach gear and head to Siesta Beach this weekend, and that is exactly what we are planning to do.

It sure doesn't hurt that Siesta Beach was voted 2009 second best beach in the US...

Siesta Beach

Not much getting done here

The house is full of kids again. I kind of wish they would play at the neighbor's house for a change, so I could work a little. After all, they are retired and TWO. But, on the other hand, I much rather they played here, considering they smoke like chimneys, and both Sarah and I hate the smell that sticks to your hair and clothes after being over there.

But the kids are pretty demanding too: I want a drink, I want a snack, I want to watch Cinderella, I want this, I want that. So not much chance to concentrate.

But I am not planning on starting the big project until Monday anyway, when I know I will have peace and quiet... But I still have other work to do. Oh well. At least the kids are having fun!

Perfect accessory...

The latest trend? Match your tongue to your outfit...

Pool fun

We had a great couple of hours at the pool. I got a little red on my shoulders despite lots of sunscreen, but at least Sarah didn't burn.

Her friends B and R also came over to the pool, and especially B is helpful in getting her wanting to try swimming more and more, since he is more daring. She did really good, considering it was only her second day swimming all by herself!

This afternoon I need to get a few things at the mall, at the Body Shop and at Dillard's for sure, then we will see. I saw Dillard's is having a gift with purchase for Clinique, so this might be the right time to stock up on a fee things I need. The Body Shop is having one of their twice annual sales now, last year when my sister was here we shopped bags after bags with good deals from there! Plus, I should stay out of the sun as much as possible today.

Sarah is having her friends over, and they are staying until lunch, so perhaps I can squeeze in a little work while they are having fun...

News alert!

Sarah's second loose tooth just came out! It has been hanging by a thread for a few days, and I told her it would be great if it came out before we went to the pool, since we didn't want to risk it falling in the pool...

She ripped it out all by herself! What does Sarah think about loosing her second tooth? "So awesome!"

Work on the way

As I was predicting, a big project just came in. It is from the Italians, and I really like their projects, never any problems with anything.

I asked them to extend the deadline one week, since I won't be able to work this week when Sarah is still home, plus my wrists are making it very difficult to type. By Monday, when Sarah starts camp, my wrists will hopefully be better.

I was worrying about work, summer is usually a slow time, and it would really suck if all I got were small projects all summer. But as usual, when I started thinking that, a big one came along...

Yesterday I picked some passion fruit, but I have no idea on how to know if it is ripe or not, I am only used to the small, wrinkled up kind you see in grocery stores. I tried one, but it tasted kind of sour to me.

The passion fruit

Yesterday we spent an hour at the pool, and Sarah was very upset about having to leave that early, but our friends were leaving, besides, it was just too hot.

I promised we would go today, but a bit earlier, and stay for 2 hours. I better go and slather on the sunscreen so it has some time to sink in. I use SPF 45 and 50 on her, and it is so thick!

Have a great day!

Blä!

Having one of those joint pain afternoons. This time it is in my wrists, which makes pretty much any activity impossible. (It really hurts just typing this...)

Usually it means some kind of weather is shifting, my lupus really reacts to incoming low pressure.

Sucks, but manageable. I told the husband only to come home if he was carrying pizza and chocolates, it is just that kind of afternoon... :-)

Great weekend!

The view from our living room at the Fountains

I am still kind of tired after my relaxing weekend! Funny that just having fun can be so tiresome?!

We arrived at 4 PM Friday and were greeted by the very friendly staff. We got one of the newer units, a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with 1100 square feet. Enormous! Sarah loved the idea of having a huge jacuzzi in one of the bedrooms. Fun, but not exactly something I would like in real life...

The pools were incredibly fun, one in particular was awesome, with children's spray area and water slides. The toughest part about the weekend was to tear Sarah away from the pool, she loved it!

We had a couple of nice evenings out with great dinners. It was one of those rare moments in crowded Orlando when we were able to just go into a restaurant and get a table right away. Usually there can be quite a long wait at the more popular places in this city.

On Saturday we managed to get in several visits to the pool, and we also had our scheduled timeshare presentation. Ken is interested in buying timeshare points through his company. It would be a really good deal for us, he thinks.

Timeshare points are owned like any other real estate (you can sell, transfer or your children can inherit it), but you can exchange them with a vast amount of other timeshare facilities all over the world for a small fee, and you are not locked in to a particular week, you can go anytime you like, even to places like Sweden, though the properties in Sweden are via a hotel exchange program, but the places they use are pretty well known, like Hotell Birger Jarl and Hotell Diplomat in Stockholm, for instance.

Of course, the price of such a timeshare is much lower buying it as re-sale, so we were not interested in buying directly from the developer, but it was interesting to go to the presentation and see what it was all about.

It took about 2 hours and there were never any pressure or unfriendliness. We kind of enjoyed it, actually. Now we just have to figure out which timeshare resort chain we are interested in, I have scheduled presentations with two more over the summer to get a better overview.

All in all you can't beat the deal we got; 2 nights at an awesome place, and 2 free tickets to Disney World for $69! Just the tickets are worth $75 EACH!

On Sunday we had an early breakfast before heading over to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We like the Magic Kingdom best, but it just feels like we been there twice a year for a few years in a row now, so we needed a change. Hollywood Studious can't beat the Magic Kingdom by far, it is just not the same.

One of Sarah's favorites at Hollywood Studious, "Honey I shrunk the Kids"

This morning I went over to the vet and picked up Bob and Stan. Other people were also there to get their dogs, and they were all greeted by happy dogs with their tails wagging. But Bob and Stan, well, it was an eruption bursting out of the door, they were so overwhelmingly happy to see me they didn't quite know what to do with them self.

On the way home Bob whined a bit and when we turned in on our street he started barking. It was not like his usual bark, though. It was more like a "Man, I am so f**king happy to be home!". They ran a few happy laps inside the house, we went for a walk, and then they were OUT. I don't think they have slept much this weekend, because they have snored the day away...

In other news, Sarah SWAM all by her self for the first time today! I have a feeling she will be like a fish soon, especially since she is starting summer camp on Monday at the Y and will have swim classes every day there!

Weekend getaway

How I managed to watch a 12 hour season of True Blood in 2 days and still work AND clean the house, I don't know. But at least now I can go away for the weekend having that taken care off...

We are leaving at 1:30 PM, and all I need to do today is vacuum and mop the floors, do one small load of laundry and pack. Almost done with half of it...

I was just in Sarah's room packing her clothes, when I noticed an all too familiar scent in the air...

I looked down at Bob, laying on the floor, basking happily in the morning sun...

It could not be...???

I quickly called the husband to confirm, and YES, Bob had rolled in some kind of dead animal this morning on their walk!

Agghhhhhh!!!! And he just conveniently forgot to mention this (or notice that Bob now stink like a skunk???)

So add to list of things to do: Give the dogs a bath... :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Thanks a LOT!

OK, I wanted something to watch and since Sonja has been talking about (obsessing with) the HBO series True Blood, I decided to watch the first season. The second season starts soon here in the US.

THANK YOU! It is just so freaking good, in a cool, very kinky and well... you will have to see for your self...!

Now I will not get anything done until I have plowed though the whole season. I am on episode 9, 3 more to go before I get my life back...*rolling eyes* So THANKS !!! :-)

Passion Fruit

I was just coming back from a walk with the dogs, and noticed a tree in the neighbor's front yard that is kind of hanging over into our yard. I never actually looked that close at the tree before, I knew it had a passion vine all over its top, but not until today did I notice that it is actually a tree full of passion fruit!

I have never seen a passion tree up close before, it was pretty cool discovering this close! I am sure the neighbor will let us have some fruit, she gets bananas from our banana trees all the time, and since she lives alone, I doubt she could eat all that fruit herself. I will have to ask for some after she gets back form vacation! So cool!

The tree with the passion vine all over the top

Some of the fruit hanging down

Some of the fruit, three different stages of ripening in one picture!

The beautiful passion fruit flower

Ärtsoppa

Tonight we are having Swedish yellow pea soup, the vegetarian kind.

I have had the yellow, dried peas in water over night, and I am really looking forward to eating the soup! Last time I made it (it has been a while now) it came out really good, and the husband really liked it too!

So far he has liked most Swedish food I have made for him. He loves "bruna bönor", pea soup, Swedish pancakes (kind of like crepes, very thin), Swedish meatballs and "pannbiff" (pretty much flat meatballs...), lingonberries and so on. Oh, and he loves salty licorice!

The stuff that has not gone over so well is mainly of the fish variety. Pickled herring (sill) and "Kalles Kaviar" (creamy, smoked fish roe in a tube!), but also things like crisp bread "knäckebröd" and "skorpor".

He loves sushi and regular caviar, so it is not that he is scared of trying it. He is up for most culinary adventures I take us on, he have even steered me in some odd directions (such as snails, alligator and other not so, in my opinion, yummy things)...

He likes almost everything I cook. The only thing I don't like is that when he does not like something, it can take him months before he fess up and tell me! Why? Just tell me that no, that dish was not so hot, and I will cook something else next time...

But no, he says nothing and I keep cooking it until one day the truth comes out: "I don't really like this"...

But, luckily, as I said, he loves most of the food I cook. And that is good, since I like a large variety of things, different Asian cuisine, Italian, Mexican and so on. I am not so sure of "American" food... I think I would categorize American more like what we in Sweden call "husmanskost". You know, every day food. But there are things that are typical American, like turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, jello, hamburgers and so on.

A lot of people ask me if I cook a lot of American food. I think American food is mostly a hodgepodge of food from all over the world, after all, almost everyone in America is an immigrant, even if not in first, second or even third generation. So yes, sure, we cook a lot of "American" food...

American food can be great! And not so great... Just like the food of any other country in the world...

Weekend

Sarah on her way to one of her last days in Kindergarten!

This past weekend felt like it was really slow and boring.

The weather did not look really promising, but we headed out for a visit to the Sea Hagg, and that was a really inters ting place for sure. Now I know where to go next time I am in the need of some quirky, cool or just plain curious decorating items!

Some of the stuff to be found at the Sea Hagg

Sarah at the Sea Hagg

After that we drove around on Anna Maria Island a little, before stopping at one of our favorites, the Beach House, for lunch. It really doesn't matter much what you eat when you are next to the ocean, but the grouper sliders we had were really good!

The view from our table at the Beach House

Me hungily awaiting our food at the Beach House

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out together, the thunder storms came and went.

Sunday we started by having breakfast at the Rod and Reel Pier, and then fishing a little of the pier. No bite, but we did get to see dolphins, among them a little baby!!!

Ken and Sarah bating the hook with live shrimp

The plan was to go swimming afterward, but the clouds looked dark and ominous, so we decided to drive home and see if it was clearer there, and in that case go to the pool. We weren't sure what to do, but decided to go for a swim in the pool after all. The clouds were not quite over us yet. But the pool was closed due to machinery problems, so we had to head home after all. And lucky was that, we had just walked in the door when a big thunder storm rolled in very quickly and lasted for more or less the rest of the day.

I made homemade potato salad and coleslaw, and we also grilled some hamburgers.

Then it was nice just reading the rest of the day, all of us siting in the living room, doing our own thing but still being together.

Today have been work and reading on and off, it is hard to get work done when Sarah is home all day, but I did squeeze in a few smaller projects.

My plan is to just clean and do things around the house a little each day before we leave for our 3-day mini vacation on Friday. We are planning on ending our weekend in Orlando with a visit to Disney World's Hollywood Studios, we haven't been there since Sarah was just under 2.

The resort we are staying at, The Fountains Resort, looks very promising, we have a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo and the resort have a pool area that rivals some of the local water parks. We picked this place based on the pool area, knowing Sarah will love if for sure. Nice to also have a fully equipped kitchen, so we don't need to eat out all the time...

Overview of The Fountain's pool area

Close up of one of the pools.

I also have to see my rheumatologist tomorrow and have my teeth cleaned on Wednesday.

So not much excitement around here, feels a bit like the summer loll is already here!

Weekend plans

Things have been veeeerrrry sloooow around here this past week.

School is over. Summer is here! Yesterday it rained pretty much all day, and Sarah spent pretty much all day playing with the neighbors.

Today we are going out for lunch at the beach, then we are visiting The Sea Hagg, a very cool local antique shop where they have all kinds of stuff, most with a nautical theme. I mean they got everything! So many cool decorating ideas and curious what nots. The husband have been wanting to go here for a while, so now we are finally going.

Tomorrow we had planned on fishing and then going to the beach, we will see what the weather allows!

Next week I was hoping to get the house all in order. I would love to go on vacation next Friday and be able to come home to a nicely clean house...

Walking

Our dogs really really love going for walks, and usually they end up getting 4 longer once every day, depending on what is going on and so forth.

But on days like today, when the temperature is high, Bob's tongue drags on the ground. He is not as in good shape as Stan, but that is just another reason to keep on walking!

Both them and I need the exercise and fresh air.

So he will just have to hang in there. A nice fresh bowl of cold water and a nice air conditioned stone floor is waiting at the end of the walk for him.

And then he can snore away for a few hours before it is time for the next walk!

Palm tree pain

We have two queen palm trees on our property. One is really tall. The problem with these palms is that they need to be trimmed at least twice a year. Not just dead fronds and stuff, but from the seed pods, these huge things full of little fruit. If left, they fall off and rot and STINK.

Ken really wants to do this himself. He even bought a super tall ladder so he can reach, and he has all the tools for it.

But when he gets up on that ladder he freezes. Very. Afraid. Of. Heights.

The Husband 1½ years a go trying to will himself up the ladder. It was a No Go!

And I am to weak to hold on to the saw and all that. Soooo... the trees have not been trimmed in years. Not good!

Hiring someone? Well, you have to hire someone who is insured and licensed. If they fell out of that tree on our property, they could sue us.

A licensed and insured contractor charged around $150. A tree.

Then today I noticed a company was out doing the neighbor's trees (she has like 20 palm trees!). They left me a card, and they are licensed and insured. I asked how much, he said $40. I said DO IT! Can't wait to get that trimmed. The smaller palm I know even I can handle, so no need to hire someone for that one.

And the husband mowed the yard last night, so it will be so nice after all this!

Until the grass needs mowing again, like, this weekend! :-)

Slow day today

Both yesterday and today I woke up with a terrible headache, but besides from that, there seem to be not much of anything going on today.

I think I might putter around the house, get some things done.

We will be going on a 3 day mini vacation next weekend, so I spent most of yesterday setting that up, booking the dogs at the kennel, planning things to do etc. But it will be mostly relaxing, hanging by the pool and then a visit to Disney's Hollywood Studious theme park on the last day. Should be fun!

Sarah is having a Carnival Day in school today, they have been getting Bob's Bucks (the school mascot is Bob the Bobcat) whenever they have been really good, and today they get to use that "money" to do different things at the carnival. Sarah is thrilled, since she has tons of bucks saved up.

After school she is going over to her friend Rosie to give her a birthday gift.

I guess I better go and do some laundry or something now...

Weekend outing

After the initially cranky husband incident the day actually turned out awesome!

We packed the car, grabbed the dogs and took off for Fort De Soto park.

Our first stop was the off-leash dog park, were Bob and Stan got to run around, sniff and piss to their hearts content.

Then we drove down to that nice picnic area we found on a previous visit, but this time we hiked into the thick mangroves along the shoreline, and it paid off big time: we arrived at a private perfect little beach with two picnic tables off in the shade. Could not have been any better! And except for a canoe and a fisherman, there were no other people around. Unusually enough, there were even palm trees ON the beach, so we leashed the dogs up to these and just enjoyed ourselves.

Sarah and Ken went exploring and found all kinds of crabs and other sea creatures. We enjoyed our picnic of sandwiches, potato salad, watermelon and grapes and then we drove back to the dog park to go down to the dog BEACH.

SO MANY DOGS! It was almost surreal how many dogs of all kinds of shapes and forms were running around on the beach and swimming in the water. Bob and Stan really seemed to have a great time, and both of them actually got to try surfing for the first time, on Sarah's boogie board. They did really good! I sure wish I would have had my camera with me, but it was too hot and too sandy anyway...

What amazed me the most is that I did not see a single aggression anywhere on that beach. All those dogs and just happy yappy all around. And there were quite a lot of larger breeds such as Dobermans and Pit Bulls.

The only "attacks" were off wet dogs launching themselves onto people for a little kissing. There was this one big yellow lab pup that seemed to think my lap was his personal hangout, and he was very sandy and wet, so not exactly cozy:-)!

After our 4 hours at the park we drove home with two very happy but tired dogs... A great day!