How About 60 For A Number!

Birthdays are a great time to reflect on the journey past and the journey to come.  60 is a number that means different things to each one of us. For me and the Turk, it means that we move on to our next phase.  Jobs are not our focus. Self discovery and fulfillment ARE.  We kicked the year off with our Italy/Greece/Turkey vacation over the summer and then started planning our joint birthday celebration - in April because the weather is good.

 I was thinking that our friends all come together for big events, like weddings and funerals. I dont see any weddings on the horizon and I certainly dont want to wait for any funerals. So we asked our friends to come together for this celebration - which is really a celebration of FRIENDS!

Planning was extensive with logistics and coordination of schedules.

Dollar Store birthday wine glasses!

amazing appetizers

Hog fish was the favorite

Tulin flew in from Seattle to help us out and join the fun.

 High school was represented with Janet (Jake) coming in from Arizona.

Farkles were almost all in attendance with Jackie coming in from San Francisco. Joanne was traveling in her Airstream out west.

Becky, Pam, Jackie

Orlando days had Karen from Maryland to remind me of all of our adventures through the years.

Deloitters were in the house with Dave and Judy from Atlanta and Jessica and Kenny from Sarasota.

pre party activities

Kenny is welcomed by cousin Jan

Client SAP even had good friend Michelle in from Vancouver to get some well deserved Florida sun and sand.

Florida travelers included Marco and Katrinka, and Sandy and Scott from Brevard County.

Marco and Katrinka

Arthur, Scott and Sandy

The parental units came in from Lakeland.

 Susan and Jim drove in from Valdosta GA when they heard 'party'!

Our local peeps showed up with their party shoes.

Ted and Jim giving the Turk shots!

Tom and Diane

Hugs from Ted

Jan, Camille, Jess

Diane and Laurie catch up

Tules sees Camille and Glenn

Pam and Arif!

We pulled together all of us who graduated from FTU, now UCF. Quite an alumni group!

Jackie, Becky, Jess, Jake, Pam

It was so much fun to get people together who have heard 'the stories' about each other, but have never met.  It got confusing after a while trying to remember who needed introductions. From our viewpoint, they should all know one another!


The cake was cute - though not tasty. It was decorated with objects that represented the Turk's and my hobbies: kayaking, wine drinking, hiking, traveling, beer, fishing, BBQing, vegetable gardening.

By the end of the evening, we were quite relaxed!

Tulin wears the table centerpieces

And the party continued to brunch on Sunday!  But at the end of four days of entertaining, cooking, eating, drinking, the Turk was POOPED.

The end!

Red Fish Blue Fish and Then More Fish

55 pound Amberjack

The Turk has been fortunate to befriend a group of fishermen who own a good sized fishing boat AND a private jet.  So he has become the Bahamian Turk (BT) who fishes, drinks rum, and makes repairs to the fish camp.
BT's latest big catch was an Old Man and the Sea saga. He wrestled with a 55 pound amberjack for over an hour, keeping line pressure with the fish as that panicked fish swam under the boat, past the boat, back again and out again. The other fishermen had to get out of the way as BT held his own using only a 18 pound fishing line! So strategy, line tension, and endurance were all in play.  Finally the fish wore out enough that he could guide it close to the  boat.  It took 2 guys to pull this fish up to the deck!  BT had sore arms and shoulders for a week.

an afternoon's catch

The fishing boat

the fishermen at work cleaning their catch

BT's catch - mahi mahi

The biggest catches that day

Time to EAT!

the workshop that got the Turk's touch

Bring on 60!

Birthdays are special in that you can add an additional layer of celebration to everything you do, and a bonafide excuse to do it. While it seems there is a theme of alcohol around this extended celebration, the alcohol is only a ticket for exploring new things, catching up with and meeting new people, and supporting our community.

My first surprise came from my good friend Jake whom I have known since high school. A 60 day facebook tease culminated in a personalized video of our friendship. How clever, creative, humorous, memorable and fun - just like Jake! Following her facebook tease, she helped me journey through the past 60 years so I could appreciate the highlights, lowlights and crazylights of my life so far. I enjoyed remembering my life chapters and want to recapture some of the interests and enthusiasm I've tucked aside over the years.

The Turk gave me free reign over the weekend. First I wanted to visit our local distillery Cotherman Distilling Company that is open only on Friday evenings.  Mike started with vodka and now has expanded to gin with whisky aging in barrels. He has put everything into his business, a true labor of craftsman love.

such pretty bottles!

and the vodka comes out here

whisky is aging

juniper pods for the gin

The Turk and I needed to visit more spots, so off we walked to the wine bar at House of Beer. I have to say that we weren't impressed by the wine selection nor the wine information. We did have a try and pondered our next stop while we sipped. 
Next stop was Stirling Wines, a true wine bar in our little downtown. The selection was impressive in its breadth of countries and grapes. There was no issue in sharing a glass. In fact, they poured a serving into two wine glasses for us. The staff was knowledgeable and fun. We will return, and may even join their wine club. We could hear the live entertainment on the patio which added to the atmosphere.

which one(s) to choose?

'Celebratings' continued the next day with a bike ride to our little downtown where we tried a new spot for brunch. 9th Bar is located just off the bike trail so it was very convenient.  The Turk had to get hot chocolate and I had to taste. Delicious and home made! The dinosaur liked it too. Breakfast was creative and delicious - a hash made with brisket and eggs, an elaborate egg sandwich with eggs, cheese and ham. YUM! We were energized to walk the large art festival the rest of the morning, just two blocks down.

dinosaur guards the hot chocolate

We rested up so that we could enjoy our special dinner at Massimo's. The food and wine were delicious and we enjoyed a three hour feast. I ordered lobster risotto because I'd never had risotto in 60 years! The Turk had steak and didnt have to return it. Note: the Turk returns most of his steak and fish dinners because of over and under cooking by the kitchen. Massimo, the chef/owner knows what he's doing!

it looks like the rolled cookie is blowing out the candle

no one left in the restaurant!

A San Francisco friend came to Orlando a few days later and we met her in the city for lunch at The Artisan Table. Food was fine, but she surprised me with a birthday desert - delicious carrot cake with pineapple puree. Wow!

Alison and old person with carrot cake

Let the lunch begin!

A Visit to Morocco - Via the Guest Bathroom Portal

Finished!

While the Turk thought there was nothing wrong with our guest bathroom, it always bothered me because of the poorly installed bead board walls, wide grout ugly wood-look tiles that were created before wood-look tiles evolved to look nice, poor fluorescent lighting and lack of storage with a pedestal sink.

Turk has removed the toilet, the sink and is working on the walls

The soffitt must GO

The 'sign' it was finally time to rehab the room came when we couldn't get the fluorescent light to come on in the windowless room, rendering it pretty much useless 14 hours a day. Yippee!! However, the Turk was not as excited.

The Turk demolished the room and once he got started, he was in his rehab-groove.  We hired an electrician, plumber and tiler and the Turk and I did the rest. There is a lot of  the 'rest'.

We rebuilt the vanity using 2 IKEA cabinets as the foundation

The house was full of sheet rock mud dust for weeks

I've been enthralled with Moroccan tiles for the floor, and I found wonderful options online. However the small room was going to cost over $500 just for flooring. More searching found ceramic tiles in a similar style and under $200.  They are now available from Home Depot online- go figure.

The room is small, so I searched high and low for a narrow cabinet and sink.  We combined IKEA cabinets and I found the sink online. Small sinks are expensive!  The faucet needed to be wall mounted, and also short so water would flow INTO the sink, not beyond it. Short faucets are expensive!

Turk is hanging the hardware

I've started to appreciate good lighting. It could have something to do with age. I wanted more lighting in this windowless room, so after removing the soffitt and fluorescents, I decided on dimmable LED pendants to go with lighting in the shower and in the main ceiling.

Note the narrow sink and short faucet

The rest of the tiles came from Home Depot - Arabesque for the vanity, narrow trim for the edges, and replacement tiles for where the Turk dropped something and broke some tiles. Do you know how many colors of white there are in tiles?

We are ready for guests again!