Remember "The Truman Show"?

Remember "the Truman Show" with Jim Carey? He lived in a bubble and his life was being broadcast on live television. I feel like we're living "The Truman Show" here in The Villages. Arne and I were talking to a young man who came to look at a problem we were having on our lanai. While talking, he told us he worked in TV (The Villages) eight years ago, then left to form his own pool company in Orlando. Now he's back in TV and said he's working 7 days a week but outside TV there's no work. This is as close to Utopia as anyone can get. My children keep me in reality by reminding me of what's going on in the "real world."

While it was quite warm and windy yesterday, over 150 of our neighbors gathered for an International Dinner and dancing in the street to Rocky & the Rollers, an extremely popular band in the Villages. We began at 3 with the dinner and Rocky played from 4-8. They are already booked to perform for us at next year's dinner.

Our evenings have been gorgeous. On my after dinner bike ride through the neighborhood, I spotted the full moon shining on the lake. I took this picture from the yard of a lucky neighbor.

Arne joined the Orchid Club over a year ago with just one orchid. At last week's meeting, he bought his 7th and 8th orchid. His newest acquisitions.

Close-up of flower


We also have a fern which loves the humidity here. We've had this plant for about 18 months.

Arne's tomato plant

Pretty Routine

My life has become pretty routine which is why I haven't posted in three weeks. One major news item is that I decided not to play basketball in the National Senior Games as I would have been gone for our anniversary, June 22. I don't recall Arne and I being apart on our anniversary except when he was in VietNam. I'm hoping we can get away for a few days over on the Gulf.

I'm playing lots more pickleball and went to a ratings clinic Friday afternoon. I self-rated myself at 2.5. After going through the evaluation drills, I was told I'm a 3.0. Ratings go from 1.0-4.5. It will probably take me a year to move up to 3.5.

When Kadin and Gracie were with us last summer, Arne spent time giving them art lessons. Today, Erik sent us a picture of Gracie's latest creation as well as a picture of Jeffrey, whose wearing a tee shirt which says "Daddy thinks I'm the #1 BABY."

Beautiful weather, Golf and Basketball

Our weather continues to be lovely. Played golf Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, I played basketball in The Villages Senior Games. We played another Villages team so won another medal because of no competition in our age group. :-(

Thursday evening, Arne and I went to Lake Sumter Landing for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We had never seen so many people at the town square. We lucked out on a parking space and then lucked out as we spotted other transplants from Terravita in the front row on the parade route and...they had two extra chairs! So we had front row seats for the parade which lasted almost 45 minutes. Lots of golf carts decorated in green and Irish symbols.

Friday morning, Arne and I drove down to Palm Harbor, near Tampa, for the Transitions PGA Golf Tournament. It took an hour to get parked and on the course. You'd think that they'd have it figured out by now as this is not a new tournament. The rest of the day was good. While it was quite warm, the golf course had lots of shade trees. We left the course about 3:45 and went to our motel. Considering this would be the most money we've EVER PAID for a motel, we were expecting a little more than we got. While we were just across from the water, the motel was in a neighborhood with nothing within walking distance other than a bench along the waterfront. I made a list of our complaints and will be sending them to Choice Hotels. We drove to a Chinese restaurant where we had a delicious meal so all was not lost.

Saturday afternoon I played basketball again. This time we played in the Good Life Senior Games in Clearwater. Our first game was against the Tigerettes from Lousiana. They were national champions in 2009 senior games for 60-64 age group. They have a sponsor who pays for their travel and lodging plus their uniforms. They've been playing together for 15 years. One of the players I talked to said she was 75. Amazing! She didn't look a day over 65. Their youngest turns 65 this year so they will be playing in the 65-69 age bracket. Another told me she played for Canada's Olympic team for seven years. They were very organized with their plays, very physical and at halftime led 18-8. We came back the second half and while we outscored them, we couldn't erase the 10 point lead and lost 30-28. I enjoyed playing against them and as tough as they were, I realized the teams at Nationals in the 55-59 age category would be even tougher and I'd be crazy to play against them. Since we only have a 55 team going to Nationals, I've decided not to go to Houston in June.



This evening Arne and I went to Lake Sumter Landing to meet Al and Donna Smith and friend Judy, who still lives in Terravita. After sitting on the square while drinking our wine, we had dinner at Urban Flats. We then walked down to the lakefront but didn't stay long as it was quite windy and cool.

New Mexico Visit

Last Thursday, I used five modes of transportation...van, plane, bus, train, car...to arrive in Los Alamos for a week-end visit with Erik and my grandchildren. As soon as the doors to the train were opened in Santa Fe, Kadin and Gracie came running onto the train to greet me. It was 7 PM so we headed to Il Vicino restaurant for dinner and then to the yogurt shop for dessert.

Friday morning I drove the girls to school. Because of parent conferences, I picked them up at 11:30. After lunch, I took them to the Aquatic Center where they swam for almost two hours. They had a great time with a group of middle schoolers who were playing volleyball with a beach ball. When we got home, Erik was there with Jeffrey for a special 2.5 hour visit to see his Grandma. Right now, Erik only gets Jeffrey 3-5:30 on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. :-( Friday night, the girls taught me how to play Dance Revolution. It’s a Wii game they got from Santa. It consists of a mat with arrows, left, right, forward and back. You pick a song, difficulty level and then follow the “steps”. If you miss too many, it cuts you off and tells you to try again. I was about 50/50 with the redos and complete finishes. It’s lots of fun and, besides exercise, it works on eye-foot coordination.

Saturday morning, Gracie and I were up early making, pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon as the girls had a basketball tourney. Erik’s their assistant-coach. They played a great first game and it was 10-10 at end of regulation. In sudden death, the ref called a foul, which really wasn’t, on our team and they made one of the free throws to win the game 11-10. Since it was double elimination, the girls played a second game but seemed like they’d given everything in that first game and lost by a large margin. They use a regulation ball with 10-ft baskets so there’s not much scoring. After the game, the girls gathered for end-of-season awards. They all got medals engraved with their name. Then the coach announced four special awards. He said he wanted to show that if you work hard, there are often rewards. Kadin got a trophy for Most Improved. Erik said when the season started last November, she didn’t seem interested but about the third game, something seemed to click and she loves basketball.

Kadin and Gracie prepared our Saturday night dinner. They made bow pasta, two boxes of it! They also fixed a bowl of fruit and a plate of veggies plus bread. Not bad for girls ages 10 and 8. I did most of the clean-up. :-) That night, the three of them performed for me with their Rock Band guitar, drums and microphone for singer.

Sunday morning, Gracie and I again made pancakes and scrambled eggs. After church and lunch, the girls worked on their chores. Erik gives them a list and I was impressed on how well they did, even cleaning their toilet! Gracie also took apart her hamster’s cage and wiped all of the sections down with Clorox wipes. We had Jeffrey from 3-5:30 and Skyped Arne so he could see his newest grandson. Sunday night, Gracie gave Erik and I a tatoo with the kit she got for Christmas. She did a butterfly on my thigh. After my shower this morning, it was gone. :-(


Kadin thinks my hair is too gray and I should go back to blonde while Gracie thinks it's good. For now, I'll stay with what God has given me.

Monday, I traveled back to Florida and some warmer weather. I was disappointed the weather wasn’t warmer Sunday afternoon so we could go to the park. Los Alamos actually had snow Friday afternoon and evening. There were also snow flurries Monday when Erik took me to meet the train. I arrived home around Midnight, very tired of spending so much time on my butt! This morning the scale said I’d lost weight but I know it was lost muscle, not fat.

Great Week for Golf

Maybe last winter was a fluke. We just finished two weeks in the 70's and 80's with next week's forecast lookin'good. My golf was also in the 80's as I finally broke 90 on Tuesday, shooting 46-42 on Nancy Lopez Legacy course. We got a little confused at the turn as we thought we should go from Ashley to Erinn, only to find out we should be on Torri. You see, most championship courses in The Villages, which have 27 holes, play alphabetically. On Palmer Legends, we go from Cherry Hill to Laurel to Riley Grove. But not on Lopez! Seems there you go according to the birth order of Nancy's three daughters. :-) On Wednesday, playing on a different course with the neighborhood mixed group, I shot 44. The key to the game that day was not only shooting a low score but trying to 1-putt. This resulted in subtracting a stroke from the team score. I had 4 pars and 4 1-putts. Guess I should put the clubs away but, hey, I'm thinking I might have a chance to shoot my age some day, when I reach my 80's. I read today about a guy who's 84 and shot 72. Don't count me out! Yeah, I know, the picture is Ricky who sent Phil packing yesterday, but he's dressed in pink and I thought you might think it was me since I've let my hair go to it's natural color. :-)

One problem yesterday was the clouds which prohibited us from seeing the launch of the space shuttle. My neighbor's husband went over near the space center and sat in a kayak to watch the launch. Haven't talked to him to find out how it was from that location.

Time to watch our taped version of Survivor. :-)

Beautiful Week

This past week is more like the weather I expected to have in Central Florida. It was sunny and warm all week. Earlier in the week, I actually considered going to New Mexico as my granddaughters have tomorrow off for President's Day but I didn't want to leave such nice weather. As it turns out, Los Alamos weather hasn't been as cold as the forecast earlier in the week. Such is life!

I played Mahjong and Bocce Monday afternoon, golf Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday morning with my Spanish ladies who served us Pasoli for lunch celebrating Valentine's Day. Friday afternoon I joined four neighbor ladies for a fashion show benefiting the Moffitt Cancer Center.


Saturday I spent seven hours working at a garage and bake sale to raise money for our basketball and volleyball teams' trip to National Senior Games in Houston, Texas in June. We are going to have some other fund raisers, such as Bingo and a pancake breakfast.

What can I say??

I realize it's been a couple weeks since I last posted. Since many of my activities these days are repeats, I didn't want to bore you. Let's see if I can think of something "new."

Hmmm...not much new. Arne spends hours improving his art skills and taking classes. I must say, he is getting his old skills back and soon I'll be posting pictures of his work.

I attended a Genealogy class at the Life Long Learning College last Friday. It was an Introduction so we were given Ancestral Charts and many websites on which to do research. I have been checking out the 1900-1930 US Census and discovered that on my father's side, my great-great paternal grandfather and grandmother came to the US from Germany, settling in Illinois. My great-great grandfather (Danner) on the maternal side was born in Switzerland, his wife was born in Germany and they also settled in Illinois. I'll have to do some deeper research to delve further into my mother's lineage, since she was born in Denmark.(Picture-Grandparents, John & Lula Kalkwarf)

Arne and I have seen three of the Oscar-nominated movies the past two weeks. We saw True Grit, Winter Bones and The King's Speech. They were all good, all different. I think Colin Firth will probably win Best Actor for King's Speech.

We invited a Chicago couple over for the Super Bowl. We had all hoped the Bears would be there so instead three of us were pulling for the Packers, especially Rogers. Glad he won MVP and hope he doesn't change with his new super stardom.

I continue to enjoy teaching the ESL class. The Spanish ladies are fun and keep me grounded and appreciative of what I have. They have so little but always have a big smile. I learned a week ago that one husband lost his job three months ago and another lost his just last week. I know I have at least one US citizen in the class as she told me about the test she had to take. As for the others, I don't ask, don't tell.

I played just 9 holes of golf this morning. It was very cold and 2 of our 3 groups quit after the 4th hole so they could get a rain check. I was playing with a Canadian and one from South Dakota so they wanted to finish the front 9. I'm so glad we got a Curtis cab on our golf cart so I could close the doors. This helped tremendously. The other gal had a heater in her golf cart. I've looked at the heaters at Ace Hardward three times. I always walk away because of the $94.99 price tag. Today, Arne said he's concerned about the safety so glad I didn't buy one.