My mom is here visiting from Pennsylvania. She couldn't have picked a better time. The weather has been beautiful. Mom likes to sit by my bay window and watch the wildlife in the back yard. We have the usual birds, lizards and squirrels. And a couple of black snakes came by to hang out in the bushes and look through the window at Mom. So ( Read more... )

I was just standing in my back yard, watching the Atlas 5 rocket take off with the New Horizons probe for its nine year mission to Pluto. Nope, it just never gets old. Good luck little probe.

Got up on Christmas morning and, because I am old, ate breakfast before opening presents. Mr Snaz got me a pop-up dinosaur book (shut up! I love pop up books) and some DVDs. If you haven't seen The Legend of 1900, go and rent it. I saw the movie over a year ago and I still sometimes think about it. If you're my RL friend, you can borrow my copy ( Read more... )

I had Christmas Eve off from work, for a change. I spent the evening at annmorris' house. Turns out it wasn't just Christmas Eve for them. It was also the day Ann and Kendall's son, Kendall, got married to Tiffanie. Congratulations, kids! Kendall and Tiffanie are rather silly, like the rest of us. They did Dr Seuss wedding vows (which were really sweet ( Read more... )

So, the Christmas party with the neighbors was fun. Lots of people showed up and they all brought food. Turns out most of them are really good cooks, too. Somebody brought homemade truffles. Yum! Our hosts had a lovely house and a beautiful back yard with a pool and really nice water feature. The weather was just right for eating outside. Mr ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went to work, and when I got there the supervisor told us we could go home if we wanted to. Whee! I usually work overtime on Saturdays, so I left while the leaving was good. I have to work Mondays in December, so this will make up for one of them. Whenever I get unexpected time off, I tend to spend it doing stuff I don't want to be ( Read more... )

It was our year to host Thanksgiving. We got off easy because the Snaz-in-laws with all the kids had to be elsewhere this year. Someone had a flat tire (and a spare with no air) on the way here. Someone is going to give birth any second now, and some of those kids are getting really big. Someone watched the football game the entire time he was ( Read more... )

Let me just say that I love the new hotel function space. I loved having everything in one general area and I liked the fact that there was lots of public space for hanging out with friends and for people watching. Necro has the best people to watch. But I was wrong about the elevators. They *were* deathtraps. When they worked. Which they didn ( Read more... )

Hurricane Wilma has been and gone. She went way south of my house, so we just got some strong wind and a bit of rain. Now it's cold outside. Well, cold for Florida. I'm running around in long sleeves and a jacket, so yeah, cold. I'm hoping the cool weather and rain forecast for this weekend will help deter some of the Guavaween revelers. For ( Read more... )

I had a rare Saturday off and what do I do? Get up early and drive to USF Botanical Gardens for their semi-annual plant sale. Met up with Terri and Mel, who had already picked out a cartload of plants before I got there. I resisted as best I could. Rare fruit trees--nope. Florida native plants--nah. Heritage seeds--nuh uh. Cacti and ( Read more... )