Burn baby burn!

Lets not talk about the color of my chest! I did wear sunblock, but I guess I should have re-applied a bit. We had a very nice time on the beach yesterday. Where we live there are some barrier islands, and most people go there to hang out on the beach. We are well know for beautiful beaches, the sand is awesome, like baby powder. That coupled with the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico...

Compared to Florida's East coast I would say this side beats it hands down. Our sand is like I said outstanding, the water is beautiful, and often warmer due to the protection of the Gulf of Mexico. Yesterday it was reportedly 78 degrees in the ocean! We also tend to have less sharks here since sharks follow their pray, which likes the cooler stream sin the Atlantic. The reason people get attack is often due to sharks following schools of prey that went closer to shore, and they just mistook a person for their preferred meal... Not that we don't have sharks, but to a much lesser degree...

Our favorite beach is very secluded compared to the common hangouts. There are no signs, no tourists and no facilities of any kind. Just a long stretch of beautiful beach! It is located on the north tip of Longboat Key, just before the bridge to Anna maria Island. It is so nice to be able to sit down without someone on top of you, to walk the stretch along the water without watching for people going into the water, nothing to listen to but the waves, the seagulls and an occasional boat or water ski passing by outside the high tide marks... Wonderful!

At the very north end is a place called Greer Island Beach, but as we after a few years found out it is not really an island but is connected with the rest of Longboat Key. You can walk there by following the water line or hike through the woods, which we did both on Sunday. You can read a little about Longboat Key's history here.

Map of the area's barrier islands, I live just left of where the dot for Bradenton is, where the Braden River and Manatee River meets.

After we got home we had a nice BBQ and topped it off by making ice cream sundaes, yummy!

Today I had to work in the morning, and in the afternoon S and I hung out at L's house, she has a very nice patio with a great view of the river. S enjoyed the kiddie pool and I enjoyed the shade.

I am just getting ready to make some potatisgratäng to be put into the oven later, K won't be home until 9 PM. I am also going to grill some beef to go with that, got some fancy steak waiting.

Saturday

My Saturday is suppose to be about laundry - but I am really not in the mood. The husband is at work trying to catch up a bit - he will be home at 3:30 PM.

Our plans are to go to this yummy Mexican restaurant called Mexicali - as you can tell by the name it is a bit of a fusion place with a Californian take on Mexican food. Either way they have the best freshly made salsa! I can eat just that and be happy! it is also a very nice atmosphere there with cool things on the walls for S to check out and a relaxing wall size water fall. They are also one of the very few Mexican style restaurants that have a kids menu with food S will actually eat...

After we have stuffed ourselves we are going bowling. This is not something we do often. In fact, this will be the third or fourth time we go since I moved here 10 years ago! We went a few months ago with S ad she really liked it. The smoke haze is still bothersome, so we figured this would be a great indoor activity we could do.

S and I took the dogs and went to a nearby park yesterday. Except for a lone guy fishing we had the entire park to ourselves, nobody wanted to be outside in the smoke! We just had to get out and get some exercise, so we brazed the smoke. We went for a very long walk around a huge lake and then we played in and outside the very nice playground they have there. S's game is very simple: She is Snow white and the dogs and I are ghost monsters that have to chase her up and down the hill. Great exercise for everyone! After that our throats were all weird form breathing all the smoke, so we treated ourselves to some ice cream from McDonald's on the way home... Even the dogs got a lick, but Stan doesn't understand that he is just suppose to carefully lick; he takes a big chunk!

Oh well, we had a good time and hopefully will this afternoon as well. Hope you all will too this weekend! Tomorrow I hope the smoke will let us go to the beach!

USAir - US Scare!

Immediately after booking and paying for our trip to Sweden way back in the fall I started having second thoughts about USAir. I kept hearing bad stuff, but we got a good price so I kept telling me that was more important...

Not long ago I happen by chance to notice they changed our outgoing flight from Tampa to Philly without notifying us. This change gives us very little wiggle room for delays in Philly, and since I really don't want to miss out connecting flight to Stockholm I decided to call and try to get our original reservation back.

Glad I did.

It turned out to be no problem getting that changed back. I rather have an extra hour to kill than miss a flight due to delays! BUT when the lady checked out other flights it turned out they have canceled the connecting flight on our way home! The new one we we were on only gave us 20 minutes from landing until the next one takes off, obviously that is not going to work! the only other flight they have that day to Tampa is at 8:35 PM. That is an almost 8 hour layover in Philly! Adding to that the traveling we have already done it will make the trip door to door 24 hours. not much fun for anyone...

I was offered a refund, but that would apparently take 3 weeks, and I need that money to book another trip, so not a chance I want to take. I then spent a very long time being bounced around in different phone systems, but I was determined not to give up. I will thank myself on our trip home...

I finally got a very helpful customer relations lady on the line, and due to the fact we were never informed of any of these changes she was able to hook us up with a hotel voucher to the Marriott Airport Hotel in Philly. So at least we can rest there, watch some TV and take a shower. She gave me a special customer relations file number, and told me she had put an authorization in our booking, so all we have to do is contact any USAir desk in Philly when we arrive and they will help us. I believe it when I see it, but hopefully everything will work out. We won't arrive in Tampa until midnight local time, so it is nice to know we can at least relax a bit in Philly...

Wild Fires

Yikes! The smoke is back! I heard that the wind was suppose to turn, but I had no idea it would get this bad! There is actual ash in the air, and the visibility is very low. And the smell! It smells like the fires are just around the corner, but I know it is coming from Central Florida... So no outside play today, and we had planned on goining to the park and pool... Bummer!

It is a "dense smoke advisory" for the Bay Area. I guess the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea on the East Coast of Florida has whipped all the smoke our way... Here is a live came where you can see some of the smoke haze: Live Tampa Bay Camera

Under Manatee, click on the Bradenton Manatee Memorial, that is just 5 minutes from our house. And check out Tampa International Airport! Wonder if they can even operate under these conditions!

Mothers Day

Mothers Day has gone the way of all the other American Holidays. It is way over commercialized!

It is about appreciating your mom, letting her know how much you love her. Not about buying the biggest diamond or box of chocolates...

I received a perfect present from my daughter, she made this bouquet of "flowers" in preschool with her hand prints. So sweet!

Our mother's day on Sunday will be spent on the beach just hanging out, followed by an early dinner at one of our favourite ocean front restaurants. i think there might be some flowers involved, too, but only because one of my husband's clients is a florist... :-)

How things work

My sister sent me this intresting link... If you ever wondered how the mouse function on your computer really works, check this out! (It might load slow).

Dell

Just have to rave about Dell... I bought a super duper computer from them this past September. After all, I make my living on a computer, and a large part of my life is depending on it, so it was important to have a good one. I spent a LOT of money on the latest one, got a little extra goodies and a nice, big, no, HUGE flat screen panel.

The last few days I noticed the screen once in a while flickered a bit. Kind of got darker, or had a blue tint to it. Just to be on the safe side I called Dell technical support this morning. I also mentioned the speaker bar had a little crackling sound to it (it is attached to the monitor). No problem, you will have a new monitor and speaker bar tomorrow. Wow! That is what I call good service... All I have to do is put the old one in that same box, slap a sticker on it and send it back. I am very pleased since I hate things that gets complicated.

We just ordered a new server and a laptop from them too, so I am looking forward to being able to blog on my own computer from Sweden! You won't get rid of me that easy ;-)!

***UPDATE***
I received the new monitor via fedEx at 9:50 Am the next morning! WOW! The speaker bar arrived an hour and a half later via DHL. THAT is fast!

Walking Nirvana

It might be hard to understand how much I am enjoying this very new freedom to be able to go for long walks. For the past 4 years I have been so sick so I have barley at times been able to even make it around the house with the dogs.

The super power of steroids (though evil little pills due to all the side effects) have now kicked into full swing. I have enjoyed not only looooong walks, I was able to go to the beach and just enjoy myself! No worrying about where the nearest bathroom is, no pain. Wonderful! I was able to even lay on my stomach, which is a first in I don't know how many years! I am still not great, but at least I have some control over the situation. I feel so relaxed!

So far I have gained about 5 lbs from the Prednisone, all of it on my stomach and my face. The bloat of steroids is not pretty. You tend to look like the Michelin man! I am just so grateful to have some normalcy back in my life. I can take my daughter to the park without worrying! We are going to a secluded beach on Sunday, it is our secret, special beach. No way I could have gone there just 2 months ago, since there are no bathrooms there! No all I have to worry about is if I have enough sunblock on...

I am a little worried what will happen after the steroids are finished, at the end of summer. I am suppose to start Remicade infusions, but we are still waiting for the OK from the insurance company (even though they allowed it last year). And it didn't work last time. But, this time I am better of, not having uncontrolled inflammation, so it might have a chance to work. All I can do is hope for the best. I am so tired of being sick. It really have ruled my life the last few years.

If I get this work project done in time I might go for another walk this afternoon. I am not sure Bob (the red min min) can handle it. He barely made it this morning, he had to stop in a shady spot and catch his breath. But he needs the exercise, so I will drag him along.

i just had bruna bönor for lunch. Life is beautiful!

Visual DNA

Another cool thing from Annika, Visual DNA, try it yourself:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Take a photo walk in my neighbourhood!

OK, I shamelessly stole this idea from Annika! I decided to bring along the camera on one of our daily walks. The dogs gotta go anyway so why not! Normally this route would take me maybe 40 minutes, but because we stopped and took 78 pictures (I had no idea I took that many, but don't worry, I won't post them all!), plus wrangling two dogs and a camera... it took 1 hour to do the walk! I kept inside our subdivision, so there is only residential houses here. Our neighborhood was started in the beginning of the 90s, with some houses from the early 2000's.

For you who are familiar with Florida, you will notice that it is not its green self! We have a tremendous draught going on right now (hence all the brush fires, see post further below). Our rainy season starts soon, and then we can look forward to a summer of exploding colors everywhere. Right now, not so much...

OK, here we go...

OK lets go mom! Gotta go! Open the dooooooor!!!

And off we are!

Our subdivision is called Braden River Lakes, and that is indeed a very fitting name! Wherever you turn there is a lake, and the Braden River skirts the area towards the south. In this picture you can see how low the water is. We actuallu have tides in these lakes since they are connected to the river, which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico. The water is also slightly brackish. But this is not low tide, just DRY!

One of my favorite trees, the Jacaranda!

A closer look

Some poor oranges still hanging on for dear life

Oleander is beautiful but VERY poisonous! We just removed a large shrub from our backyard, in between the kid and the dogs we thougth it was best...

Very American picturesque

Some very odd looking seed pods on a tree with yellow flowers. It was covered in them! Like little alien things...

Speaking of odd, something I have noticed about Florida is the grass. In one picture you see normal grass (to me). Here we call it "northerner" grass or "golf course" grass. You don't normally see this in someones lawn. The Florida grass is very robust and sturdy, very large, broad leaves, as you can see.

This particular house is the exact model we live in. It is even built in the same year. The only difference this house costs $250,000 MORE than our house costs. Why? Well, it just happens to be on the river! I really don't think that premium is worth it...

This is the view in the back, off the river itself.

Here is our pool area, right on the river as well. They also have volley ball courts, basket ball, tennis, picnic area and a playground.

The hibiscus is a Florida staple.

As you can see it is rather breezy today!

One of my favorite palm trees, the wanderer palm, also known as the triangle palm.

Lots of lakes!

More lakes...

And more!

Well, this IS why we came out here... bring out the bag! (At least one thing those flimsy American grocery bags are good for!)

Gotta sniff EVERYTHING!

This giant white Egret kept following us.

This walkway is really nice, with a cooling canopy of trees and glittering lakes on both sides.

OK, mom. Which way now?


You can still see some of the smoke haze from this morning, even though the wind has done a great job clearing out a lot of it.

Yay, we are back at our house! We have two very tired dogs with their tongues hanging down to the ground... My office (I work from home) is behind the two windows on the front right, and I am probably sitting right behind that tree inside that window right now ;-)!

OK, no Starbucks like Annika, but a cool drink of sloppy water will do!

Thanks for walking with us!