2006_08

I have returned to sunny Florida! I was in New York for only a week, but I've returned a year older.

I am so relieved to see my house still standing, roof intact, lanai furniture not stolen, etc etc etc. I never thunked these anxiety-ridden thorts while I was a renter, but I have to tell you - now that I own, it's different being away. I worry!

The rainbow du jour, plus before and after photos of a dining room chair (one down, five to go).

Got the lanai shades installed yesterday. Purchased with installation from Lowes. I just love Lowes!

Anyhow, these make my western-facing lanai MUCH nicer in the late afternoon/early evening.

They give you the little loops on the bottom of the shades, but no hooks to install. I think I will buy hooks and embed them into the aluminum lanai frame to anchor them. In the meantime, there are certain screws that I can slip a piece of sisal twine behind, and anchor at least one side of each shade.

Oh, and that's the plant that Todd was trying to make me think was dead, so he could have pesto

Can anyone tell me why my house is full of teen and tween girls? Three to be exact. Oh yeah - nieces from Da Loverly Isle of Long have invaded Tinkerville! I will be busy with them through Tuesday, and will probably only be able to wrestle my computer away from them late at night.

What a busy day! Got the kids out the door with my brother circa 7:30 am, all breakfasted and dressed with sunscreen, etc. A rainbow appeared out back circa 8:40 am (that's the pic you see at the top of this page), but alas, it was not reflecting in the lake. Still pretty, though.

Hopped in shower and went shop-till-we-dropp-ing with SIL. We hit DSW, two furniture stores, World Market, Ulta, and the Miromar Outlets. Passed the Miromar community on the way. $700K to $6MM. Are they serious? What are those houses made of, platinum? OY!

Kids and their father went fishing on a private charter, then swimming back at the hotel. The adults are staying at the WynStar on Daniels near the airport, and the kids are staying with me. Report is that the Wynstar is comfy. We all went to the Shell Factory in the afternoon. I'm spoiled - Disney's Animal Kingdom it ain't! Then we went to dinner at a place called Shells on 41. Made a pit-stop at a Publix on the way home for breakfast supplies.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to take the kids to Sanibel, but I'm going to have to get them up damned early to get them there for the morning low tide. AND no one has shelling shoes, so I have to stop somewhere to get them those. OY VEY!

Well, we made low tide at Bowman's, after a stop at footloose for some shelling shoes for the girls. I think I have created a monster; they are ADDICTED to shelling now! The water was virtually Nannyless at Bowman's, but there was baked Nanny on the beach. Shelling was almost entirely kibbles-n-bits.

After a while, we transplanted ourselves to the lighthouse beach. What a waste of clear, pristine water! There were no shells to speak of, although you could see bottom for a good way out, and there was Nanny and green fettuccini-flat sea grass everywhere on the shore, intermingled with the kibbles-n-bits.

Not exactly the intro to shelling I'd hoped for, but they still had a ball. I know they were disappointed after seeing the basket of Alberto treasures on my kitchen counter, but they are very enthusiastic about coming back in the winter time, when there are more shells.

By this time, it was around 2 in the afternoon, and I took them to the Lighthouse Cafe for lunch. We then doubled back to the Shell Museum, which they really enjoyed. We saw a raccoon in the parking lot on the way out, with an abbreviated tail, and a curious habit of licking the pavement - dunno what that was all about!

By this time, they were pretty much subdued (you know they are tired when they are not even bothering to fight with one another), so I took them home. Their parents wanted to go out for dinner, but I said nay, these children need a shower and their jammies. So we scooped up some dinner supplies from Publix and made bar-b-q chicken, pesto (I have basil growing on the lanai, yay!) and a big colorful salad. It was nice to share the sunset and a glass of wine with my brother and his wife while the chicken grilled away.

We had NY Cheesecake for dessert, after which I sent the youngest to bed. The other two are sprawled on the sofa watching Narnia on DVD, but I sense they are not long for the land of the awake. ;-)

Hope Ernesto blows by with just enough gusto to drive piles and piles of the good stuff up onto the beaches!

Another fun day of shelling. Today we went to Tarpon Bay beach. The water was beautiful, and there were some tiny things to be found. Even my big brother got in on the act! Afterward we went to the Island Cow and had wonderful food there, spreading out in the super dooper large booth. It was a great day, and I am not pleased that Ernesto is rearing his ugly little head with the beady little eyes. OY!

Back at my house in Lehigh, YET ANOTHER RAINBOW, in a rather angry-looking sky. It was quite wide, disappeared into the clouds on one end of the street, then reappeared on the other end. Didn't have wide angle lens handy, so you are getting it in two installments. Also including a shot of the rather spooky-looking sunset. In all three photos, I swear, that is REALLY the color of the sky!

Well, it looks like Ernesto is going to make ground far away from us here in the SW Florida area, but the whole damned state is still in the cone of uncertainty. You can tell which houses in my neighborhood are vacant. They're the ones with the hurricane shutters up. This is a recent development in the last day or so.

I have to register my displeasure with The Weather Channel. I put it on a bit ago, and they were saying, "...has officially made landfall in Somethingorother Parrish, Louisiana..." and continued on for a minute or two showing torrential rain, flooding, and helicopter shots of the levees breaching again. And THEN, the same two announcers who had been talking came on wearing different clothes, saying, "and that's how it looked ONE YEAR AGO TODAY, as Katrina made landfall for the second time in the United States". Whose idea was that, to scare people who had just turned on the television looking for advice on the CURRENT weather threat? I think I'm going to write them and complain bitterly. That was just so WRONG, especially since I hadn't had even ONE cup of coffee yet!

The niece invasion will conclude this evening. Yesterday, the oldest and her parents drove to visit a college down here, and I had the 15 and 10 year olds. We made a trip to Goodwill (will I EVER be done making trips to Goodwill?) and to the post office for postcard stamps. Then we went to the Bell Tower shops, where I purchased belated birthday gifts for the 15 year old. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets, followed by a movie (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest).

After the movie, we raced home to check the family in online with their airline. Then we went to get some pizza for dinner, and as we were getting into the car to come back home, the skies opened up. I sent the little one for her bath, only to drag her out rather abruptly as the storm turned nasty with thunder and lightening. The girls then spent a quiet evening composing postcards to their grandmother and friends back home.

We will reunite with my brother, SIL and oldest niece today, visit the planetarium/Calusa nature preserve, and generally just hang around, before they are off to the airport.

We are making plans for at least the oldest two to come back in February (insert woohoo smiley here).

Well, we have clouds, we have dampness, but no wind, no rain (yet... stay tuned), and the crickets and frogs are still singing.

On the lanai, I put everything small into a Rubbermaid bin, put the lid on, and stowed it under the table. I only have three potted plants, put them against the wall. Not much else to do, Ernesto is pretty much a bust insofar as major threat in this area. But I'm continuing to monitor via internet and TV in between meetings, just to make sure I don't get any surprises like lanai chairs flying through the windows.

I watched the 5 o'clock news and they said at that time we'd gotten 3.05" of rain. Since then, there have been several squalls that pretty much soaked everything on the lanai.

AND it's supposed to rain most of the weekend, too

Mayhap we're going to need that ark, after all. Ernesto may have moved out into the Atlantic, but we're now getting some LOUD thunderboomies accompanied by spectacular light show and more water dumpage. Said dumpage appears on the forecast every day through Labor Day.

The fountain in our lake has not been turned on for a while. Don't know what's up with that, but the birds seem comfortable with the situation. And today, in a rare appearance, so did this guy. I like the way they have their backs to each other. That way, they don't have to make conversation. I've seen that turtle before. He is an occasional visitor to the banks. But never on the fountain before today. I guess he only just discovered it.

I think that's a cormorant, and that it's maybe the first time I've gotten a pic of one of them. Usually, we are lousy with anhinga here, so he's a somewhat rarer sight.

My 10 yr old niece could not remember how to say "anhinga" so I made up a little rap song for her. "Anhinga, anhinga, he gonna bite mah finga, he want to steal mah ring-a, mah blinga-bling-anhinga, anhinga...."

Unfortunately, that's all she regaled us with all weekend. I was SO SORRY I'd done it, because I didn't get to give her back to her parents each night!

ok, I want it to stop raining now.

I wouldn't mind, except the squalls come, and the whole fucking lanai is SOAKED. There's no place to sit down.

Mommy, make it stop !

Well, at least we got a parting gift (see picture right, of Yet Another Sunset).