They're Here

The kids are here and things are crazy.  Jami, Megan and Danny, as well as Bryan, Erin, and Aidan are here.  Jami and the kids actually went home this afternoon.  So our household should be calmer tonight.  Wrong!  Aidan is having a meltdown, just like he had this morning at 4:00.  He keeps saying something about a regular cup without a lid and something red...he's so frustrated because we can't understand him.  NONE of us.  Unfortunately the more he cries, the more we can't understand him.  Poor little guy. 

We've had fun except for the two meltdown...oh, I guess there were 3 of them.  He didn't want too go to Busch Gardens either, so he didn't go.  His mom was staying home, so he did too.  Busch Gardens was good.  We got tons of pictures of animals and birds...

Bryan's family goes home tomorrow, so we'll be alone again.

More later...

Saturday

Dave and I went on an adventure today.  We went to the Celery Fields in Sarasota to see the migrating birds.  We saw spoonies, snowys, glossies, ibises, wood storks, GBHs, egrets, cattle egrets, and ducks.  We got some decent pictures, but nothing great...darn it. 

It was a good day for the Cyclones!!  Now we're hoping for a Cubs' victory.  

More later...

Fun Day

After Dave got home from working at church, we packed a lunch and went to Fort Desoto for a few hours of sun and birds.  We were hoping to see some different birds, but mid-day isn't the time to see birds.  We did, however, get some good shots of pelicans and snowy egrets!  Plus, it was absolutely gorgeous out there...80 degrees and very little wind so the water was really calm.  I was able to walk both piers and didn't have to use my scooter!!

Tonight we went with Bob & Ann and Gary & Barb to Fat Cat's for trivia night.  We had a good night - we got 24 out of 30 questions right and got the final bonus right!  We were pretty happy!!  Good food, good company, and a fun trivia game. 

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Thursday

I got so excited that the Cubs won, I forgot to blog.  Dave had a dental appointment to get prep done for a crown.  When he got back, we took a bike ride.  Then we got settled in to watch the ballgame.  Loved watching the Cubs when Arrieta was pitching well.  It's a thing of beauty.

Today, Dave had an appointment at his urologist's office.  I cleaned up the master bath and vacuumed.  We went to Largo Nature Park for the first time this season.  We didn't see the alligator, but there were cormorants, a little blue heron, several moorhens including some juveniles, a pair of yellow crowned night herons, and a pair of limpkins. 

Came home for lunch and then we both took naps this afternoon and a bike ride before supper.  Love Thursdays - Thursdays are off days at the Ranch. 

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Loved today!

First of all, it was a gorgeous day out!  Mid 70's and plentiful sunshine!  Plus, I got to sleep a little later than usual because Dave went to church to work on the grounds.  When he came home, we decided to take off for Sawgrass Lake Park and we had a wonderful day!  We saw lots of wildlife - a momma alligator and 8 of her babies, several small alligators, herons, ibis, flowers, beautiful vegetation, and NO snakes...even though others were posting pix of many snakes!  I consider that a very successful day!  We also saw raccoons and armadillos and ducks and a big turtle or tortoise, I don't know which.

What a fun day!!

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Saturday

It was hot here today!  We went to the Largo Preserve today and did our walk around the lake.  I had sweat dripping when we got done!  It was fun, though.  We didn't see any alligators today...just some birds...a limpkin, some gallinules, and an ibis with beautiful blue eyes!  We also some some yellow crowned night herons, but they're sort of reclusive so they were hiding from us!

Limpkin

The rest of the day was spent packing and cooking for our supper!  In the morning (early) we're leaving for a week in Pompano Beach.  Hope I've got wifi when we get there!

More later...

Fun day!

We went on an adventure today!  We started to go to Indian Rocks Nature Preserve, but just as we were about to turn onto Gulf Blvd from W Bay, we saw some Roseate Spoonbills off to our right.  So I turned right instead of left.  We couldn't get close to them because everywhere around them from that side was private property.  So I got back out on Gulf Blvd and turned back on W Bay.  We parked at the Community Center on the S side of the street and crossed busy W Bay on foot!  We (along with several other people) got to see Roseate Spoonbills, a Reddish Egret (which are not very common), a wood stork, a Great Blue Heron, a cormorant or  two, and a bunch of ibis.  Great photo opportunities!!

When we had taken our pictures (about 250 of them!) we drove on to the Indian Rocks Nature Preserve.  It was a nice walk, surrounded by mangroves, but no birds!  There was a pretty view at the end of the boardwalk!

I took this shot above the mangroves.  I just loved all of the different shades of green!

Next stop was John's Pass where I wanted to pick up some little gifts for our bowling cheerleaders and while we were there, we had a light lunch at Scully's.  After we ordered and were just people watching, a guy walked by who had played football at Iowa State from 1969-1972 (before I got there, but I knew him).  So I hollered at him and he and his wife ended up eating lunch with us!  It was fun seeing them again and chatting!

We came back home after all of that and just puttzed around until 6:00 when the Cyclones played in the Big 12 Tourney Championship game against Kansas.  We had to do another comeback, but we did it and we're Champs two years in a row.  Now I'm exhausted and heading to bed.  What a great adventure!

More later...

Happy Thursday

Gotta love Thursdays!  That's our day off!  We usually don't have any planned activities for Thursdays.  Plus, I've always said that even dolphins take Thursdays off!

My high school friend, Karen, came in this afternoon.  It's so good to see her.  She and I hung out a lot in high school.  We took her down to Sculley's for dinner.  It was nice enough to sit outside on the water.  Before we went to dinner, we went to the Largo Nature Preserve - lots of wildlife today.  There were these 4 cormorants all sitting in a row!

Then we went over by our church and took a picture of the osprey up on the cross on the steeple!  He's (or she) is HUGE!!  This cross is a long ways up in the air!

We have had a good evening and tomorrow's another day.  We're going to the Legion for lunch!  

More later...

Back Home

We made it back this afternoon.  We had a wonderful trip, even though it was a short trip!  We went to Ft Lauderdale on Friday and found out immediately that Tom & Jami were packing up their house so they can put it up for sale.  You know what that means!  Dave worked really, really hard helping them pack things and putting everything into a pod that they had rented.  They probably got 95% of the work done this weekend.  Now after another day or two, their realtor can come in and stage the house for them.  They are finally going to get a bigger home - yay!  We hate it that our grandson and granddaughter are in the same room...they're going to try to get either a 4 or 5 bedroom home in their same neighborhood so the kids won't have to change schools.

On Saturday evening, we went to see The Lion King with a touring company from Broadway.  It was absolutely wonderful.  The costumes alone were worth the price of admission.

  

Today on our way home, we saw 17 sand hill cranes and were even able to get some decent pictures of some!  They've been illusive before - I've never gotten so close to them.

Pretty cool birds!

I played cards tonight, but Ann and I lost.  Just couldn't get the cards!  Tomorrow is B & B - the start of a busy week!

More later...

Sunday

This was a wonderful day.  I had two firsts:  I got to meet my great, great nephew, Blaise Benning AND I got to see an Indigo Bunting, which I've only seen in pictures.  I was impressed by both of them, but especially little Baby B!  He's such a cutie!

Our open house is over and we had a great trip to Waverly and back.  The day was a success!

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Beautiful Saturday!

Our day started out with breakfast at the clubhouse...one of Marv's famous breakfasts.   Today we had quiche!!  Not only did we have quiche, you could also have scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage, pancakes, 3 different kinds of quick breads, country fries, juice and coffee.  Quite a spread for $5.00!!  Plus, the guys make the breakfast AND do the cleanup!  Good deal!

We had to run out to get some more envelopes, so we went to the Largo Mall to Michaels - no envelopes the size of my cards.  Dave had suggested we try Office Depot, but I doubted they'd have A2 envelopes.  Well, guess what?  They did!  So after a short stop at Publix, we came home and both of us took naps.  Mine was longer than Dave's because I had a really hard time sleeping last night.  I think it was just too much  sorrow about the shootings in Connecticut!

This evening we were to meet Sudi & Howard at JD's about 5:15, so about 4:00 we went down to Redington Shores to a park and watched the birds - even took a few pictures.

 Beautiful blue heron.

 Osprey.

 Blue heron.

Across the water was this nice housing area, so we drove back in there and took some pictures of for sale signs.  These 3 all had waterfronts - I wonder what they cost!  Nice area - kind of crowded, but very livable...or so it looked to us!

We met Sudi & Howard at JD's - good food, great company AND even a boat parade!!

I also am posting a picture of Ron & Marcia's Lexus after their wreck.  It is pretty well crunched up.

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Beautiful Day

Dave took Jami to work again today, but not until they attended an awards ceremony for Megan...she was on the honor roll at her school!

Megan's in the back left - way to go, Megan!

Now for more pictures from Butterfly World.  Lots of butterflies, exotic birds, and beautiful plants!

 Enlarge this one and look at this butterfly's eyes!  Spooky!

 A little hummer!

 Another passion flower!

This little girl had the most beautiful song!  She sat there and sang while I talked to her!

 Cute juvenile!  Check out some of his white baby feathers!

Just another beautiful flutterby!

Today we took Bryan & Erin to Bru's room.  They fly out tomorrow!

More later...

Beautiful Friday!

When I was still working at Indian Hills, every Friday was beautiful because it was a day off!  Today it was beautiful because it was a picture perfect day!  We had a good card class this morning.  There were only 4 of us there, but everyone liked my card!  Because we were short in numbers, we got done early.  I had picked up Ruth (a lady who is 90 and is giving up her car tomorrow) so I asked her if she'd like to take a drive to Agency just to see the beautiful fall foliage.  She said she wouldn't get to see it otherwise, so we took off.  The trees were so pretty - she just loved it!  I'm so glad I suggested it!!

After I got home, Dave washed and waxed my car.  He had done his truck the last couple of days, too.  So, they're both ready for winter!  He even vacuumed the inside of my car, put leather conditioner on the seats, Armorall'd the dash and door panels - it looks brand new!!  Now, I'm not going to want to drive it...I just want to leave it in the garage!

I have to tell you another thing that thrilled me to death today.  The view out of my office window was wonderful.  I'll show you why!  First I've seen this guy the last couple of days.  From what I can tell he's a red-bellied woodpecker.  I know his belly isn't red at all, but that's what he's called.  He's quite noisy, and very thirsty!!

Then just a few minutes later, I heard the sweet sounds of an Eastern Bluebird.  He was evidently very dirty!  

He sat on the side of the birdbath and groomed first one wing and then the other before he stepped into the water.  Once he got in, though, he just had a blast bathing!!

He splashed and splashed!

 Here he is after his bath - he's just all fluffy now!!

Then it was mama bluebird's turn.  She's not nearly as blue, but she was just as fluffy after her bath.  I had so much fun watching them!  And I was so excited to get some decent pix!  I really needed to take these pix in sports mode, though.  The water was just flying!!

Aren't they cute??

More later...

Hmmmmm...

I wonder why my post didn't publish last night?  When I just now opened it, the post was still on the screen.  I did it last night...sorry, don't know what happened.  So now for tonight's post...I made another list today...and I got almost the entire list done!  I filed for most of the day because not only did I have 5 months worth of filing, but I also pulled out all of my old papers and shredded them.  Then I started cleaning out files of booklets (like you get when you buy appliances, etc.)  Obviously we didn't have some of the merchandise any more, but we still had the books, by George.  I asked Dave to go through all of those and throw away what we didn't need any more.  That was a huge load!!  I also went through my cookbooks and culled out ones I'm not emotionally attached to...those will go in our garage sale.

I cancelled an appointment for tomorrow which I didn't need and I got all of our check copies filed in numerical order!  Whew!!  I'm also about half done fixing up the order forms for the SU orders I turned in on Monday.  These are much neater than my scribbles that I wrote when I got phone calls for the orders.  Now my customers can actually read them!!  I should be able to finish those tomorrow AND finish up cleaning out the rest of the files in the file cabinet.

After the rain, I took some pictures.  Mr. Cardinal was making lots of clicking noises, so I assumed he wanted his picture taken.  I wish they weren't so shy.  They are beautiful birds, but they just don't want to be around people...or other birds for that matter.  Notice the raindrops on the grass?  This picture is taken through my window screen, so it's not as clear as I'd like.

This is a picture of one of my irises.  I got this one from my mom's garden when she moved.  Bob & Ann had it at their house, so I got a start off of theirs.  I've also got a 2-toned dark purple one that I need to get a picture of.

This little fellow (or one just like him) has been flitting around for a  few days now.  He finally landed on the kitchen window, so I ran to get the camera.  He had left, so I put the camera down...back he came.  When I went outside, he closed his wings, so I had to practice some patience to get him.  I love the little knobs on the end of his antennae!!  I don't know what kind he is; I'll have to look him up.

That's all for now.  More later...