Progress on the House

While I dont always write about it, we are constantly doing work on the house. Some projects are quick, while others take much longer than they should. Our flooring project started in October, and the final pieces werent installed until mid January. The door project started early December, but with re-orders, isnt complete until mid February.

The project we are looking forward to is the yard. In search of fruit trees, we wer pointed to Jene's Tropicals in St. Petersburg. Mark was in fruit-tree heaven. I had to remind him that our yard is only so big, so he settled on a Florida Haas avacado, Meyers Lemon, dwarf mango that grows to only 9 ft high. All are planted and we're gazing longingly each morning at the baby fruits on the Lemon tree. Mark is armed with organic insecticides to keep the avocado blooms free of mites and the mango leaves a tropical green. He also planted his vegetable seeds in his makeshift greenhouse until he can plant in the ground. Counting the weeks until we can harvest!

Kites

While running errands, we ended up at St. Petersburg beach and found... a kite festival! The winds were perfect, but the fog (yes, we have fog in Florida)dampened the colorfulness. Or did the fog add a bit of mystery about what was in the sky?

The excursion included a stop at Ted Peters Smoked Fish restaurant . We could smell the smokey scent in the air and decided we needed to stop. Sitting at the bar, with busy Pasedena Ave behind us, I had the feeling the city has grown around this place. The waitresses darted in and out of the kitchen via a swinging door that required a synchronized dance developed over years of repetitive steps.

Mark and I shared a smoked mackerel, warm german potato salad and manhattan clam chowder. Nix on the chowder, but the fish and potato salad were sooo tasty. And those choreographed waitresses made us feel like regulars, as did the interesting clientel. I had tastings from our 'neighbors' dishes and our waitress brought us a sample of their smoked fish spread. I hear their hamburgers are the best. May require another stop.

Birthdays

Each of us has a unique celebration day, our birthday. While the mother should be fested, we seem to focus on ourselves. It can be a personal celebration or one that brings friends and family together. But in the end, its about YOU.

Our daily lives are often lost in the throws of masses. The office group, the neighborhood group, the group of people standing in line at Target, the church group, the classroom of students, the drivers on the freeway. Celebrating a birthday gives us a chance to be recognized as an individual personality, one who has a presence, one who makes a difference - usually to those who are celebrating with you.

New Years seems to be the day during the year when people reflect on their lives and determine what changes they want to make. For me, its my birthday. Maybe because it gives me an additional week or so, but more likely because it is My day to decide.

I have a theory 'Theory by O'Leary' that the longer the celebration, the better the year will be. The Theory has been consistently proven...at least in my memory if not factually. So, if you haven't sent my birthday wishes, you have all year to do it... and the Longer you take, the better my year will be! Yes, there is convoluted logic there - but isn't that life?!

New Year 2008

Happy New Year!
We celebrated with everyone in Lakeland, watched football and ate chile. What a way to celebrate the first day of the year.
On the drive back to Dunedin, we watched a sunset that played out like a series of watercolor paintings. A beautiful close to the first day of the year.

Bike to Beach

Trying to work off the mass quantities of food from Xmas feasting required some calorie burning. I hopped on my bike this morning while Mark still snored.

What a wonderful morning with the mist of dawn shading all but the most vivid colors to grey. The birds were finding breakfast. The fishermen were finding solace, but not fish. Walkers were finding energy in their morning stretch. And I found a special morning.

Here are some photos from my bike ride down the Causeway to Honeymoon Island. Notice the Rackominiums and Dockominiums at the marina! and the dogwash located next to the carwash as you leave the beach. and see the birds in the river on the bike trail to the causeway.

Preparing for Christmas

First, it is important to note that I hate to shop. I dont like malls, I dont like cutsy shoppes, I detest sales people. I get physically ill when shopping for over 1 hour. So, any gifts that I purchase are well thought out and purchased over the internet or on a specific expedition to the appropriate store for the item desired.

As a result, Christmas is extra stressful for me. No sympathy is requested. I purchase gifts for my parents, Mark's daughters, and that's about it. Mark and I havent exchanged Xmas gifts in years... if ever when I think about it.

This year has been extra busy with the house rehab, settling in, and trying to locate anything we are looking for - from the right color paint to couscous. We've not baked anything holiday-related, not gone to any Christmas concerts, not gone to any xmas parties. havent played any of my Xmas cd's, and have done minimal shopping as described.

But we did decorate the house, somewhat. And, to augment the leaning, plastic Christmas tree from mom and dad, I purchased an expensive pine-scented candle from William Sonoma at the Stanford Mall - where you walk outside between stores - one of the few malls where I can spend a pleasant hour. So I make pretend we have a live /dead tree.

What do I miss? Visiting friends, though we did get to do some of that while in California a couple weeks ago. Hoping to get some Florida friend visits in before New Years, though it seems that we will do the visiting. Others dont seem to venture out.

I'll miss spending Christmas with my sister and her family in southern California. Miss spending time with Mark's girls. Miss the Christmas tree at Union Square and driving up Roosevelt to the excessively decorated neighborhoods in Redwood City.

But I am enjoying riding my bike to the beach in the morning - meeting other more vigorous bike riders while waiting for the drawbridge to come down. Enjoying the trips to Lakeland for mom's home cooking and Sean's latest tales. Meeting new people at George's workout and yoga classes at the Y. Having a personal shopper with Arif at Home Depot - where, frankly, we spend most of our shopping time. Eating grilled grouper sandwiches at the Sandbar, down the street.

FREEZING in Frisco

We are in Silicon Valley this week - me working, Mark shopping. Its cold here! Funny how quickly we aclimated to the warm weather. We've been busy visiting friends, eating, shopping at Trader Joe's, eating, shopping at Whole Foods, eating, shopping at middle eastern grocery stores, and eating. No, there is no food in florida. Funny that we hadnt heard that in the news!






Christmas tree photos explanation: Please note that Mark did not want our own tree, real or otherwise. Too much work he said! But I got him to take in the broken-down fake tree my parents were disposing as it was easy and free.
Now, in California this week, we've been involved in several tree projects, helping to straighten the tree, rearrange the tree, and to select and cut down the tree! Tree hunting pictures are included.