Celebrating Our 49th

To celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary, Arne and I drove to Siesta Key, just south of Sarasota, on the Gulf side of Florida. Siesta Key claims to have the #1 beach in the USA. I didn't think it was better than others I've seen but maybe it's the fine, white sand which makes it #1. While the weather wasn't great, thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, we were able to walk on the beach Wednesday evening, as well as Thursday and Friday mornings.

On Thursday, we went to the Ringling Museums where we spent almost six hours. We spent a couple hours in the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum. It is a beautiful legacy which John left to the state of Florida after Mable died and they had no children. The 66 acre grounds consists of their art museum, two circus museums, Mable's rose garden and Ca' d'Zan, House of John, the mansion they completed just three years before Mable died at age 54. John Ringling was born in McGregor, Iowa but grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I thoroughly enjoyed the history of the circus and John Ringling, the second youngest of six brothers. Only thing to ruin the day was a downpour around 3 PM which lasted for a couple hours.

On Friday, we stopped at an art store and then the Ringling College of Art bookstore, where Arne looked for art supplies and I ended up buying 9 books off the 75% off shelf. We then took a driving tour of Lido Key and Longboat Key, two more islands off the coast of Sarasota. We had our anniversary dinner at the Chart House on Longboat Key with a view of Sarasota Bay. I had fresh swordfish which was delicious.

We checked out of our resort before 10 Saturday morning and were home around 12:15 with no rain. Today, we have had rain ALL DAY! Right now there are tornado warnings not far from us. We are ready to head to our closet if necessary.

The Big 7-0!

On Thursday, June 14, Flag Day, yours truly celebrated a milestone. It was a memorable day, thanks to my wonderful husband. The day started with a few games of pickleball, a trip to the fitness center, with a manicure and pedicure finishing out the morning. The afternoon consisted of a massage and refreshing facial. The evening included dinner at Outback with Arne, my dear Villages friend, Ginny, and her husband, David. We came back to our house for cake, coffee and Amaretto.

Sister Marla sent me a lovely book with pictures of my trip to New Mexico and Arizona in early April where I did an early celebration with family and friends. I'm told the stars and arrows were chosen by Marla's 4-year-old granddaughter and Marla couldn't change it to a leather cover. Should I believe that story??

 Arne's latest orchid acquisition. Isn't it beautiful? And it has a scent!

Corvette Road Trip

The Corvette was in the "hospital" two weeks ago getting a new rear end. (I'm next) Last week, Arne had new tires put on so we decided to take a road trip and test out the new ride. Much smoother than before!

We drove to Orlando for a short visit with our niece Marla, nephew Stan, and their families. They are spending the week in a time share and visiting DisneyWorld and Sea World. Today was their day to just hang so a few hours with the old folks was on the docket. It was great to see them all...first time seeing Liam and Serena, the two youngest.

We left just as a storm was moving in so drove in rain and lightning for the first half hour getting out of Orlando. Other than that, it was a great afternoon.

California Cousins Visit

May 22, Marge and Eileen, cousins from Northern California, made the long trek to The Villages. For five days, we showed them our "town" as well as central Florida. They seemed to enjoy it and hopefully will come back one day.

We experienced our first tropical storm this past week. Fortunately, we had very little wind and much needed rain. Our ponds and lakes are once again filled to the brim.

 Marge and Eileen as we entered Homosassa Springs Nature Park

 Looks like a rock but actually a manatee.

 Manatees grow to over 1000 lbs. eating romaine??? They are vegetarians.

 Two of Arne's latest watercolors. Above is based on photo from Sedona.

Today was the end of the year for my ESL classes. The Hispanic ladies prepared lunch for us as a thank you. One of my students, Adaly, presented me with a dozen roses. With tears in her eyes, she said she was going to miss me...five months. We don't start the new year until the end of September. I got her phone number and told her I'd call her during the summer so we could practice her English. That seemed to make her happy.

Adaly has a heartbreaking story. She came to the US from Guatemala, leaving behind three children under the age of 10. She has three children here and a good husband who doesn't beat her. She completed twelve years of school in Guatemala and would like to get a job. Her husband wants her to stay home with the children. I told her if she continues to work hard on her English, I'd help her get a job in a school when her youngest is in school full-time. Annie is now two years old so I figure we've got at least three years to perfect Adaly's English.

I'm back...AGAIN!

I quit posting as I felt I was being redundant...same activities week after week. But some of my "fans" missed reading about our happenings, so I'll give it another try. Since my last post, I did make a trip to the Southwest. I spent the first week in April with Erik, Kadin, Gracie and Jeffrey. Had a wonderful time as we got some quality time with Jeffrey. The second week in April, I went to Arizona. Sister Jan and I stayed with Marla in her Phoenix winter home. We did a four day girls' hiking trip to Northern Arizona and Havasu Falls. Our adopted sister, Marilyn, drove up with us. We stopped in Jerome for lunch with Aaron and his girlfriend, Emily. He then showed us his "shabin." He seems very happy and we ladies were in agreement that Jerome was a good place for Aaron/Moondog.

I have been playing team pickleball on Mondays, piano lesson on Tuesdays, golf on Wednesdays and Fridays, and teaching ESL on Thursdays. I started donating blood platelets, which takes me three hours. They tell me I give enough to help two people so I'm happy about that. You can donate platelets every week, unlike whole blood which is every eight weeks. I hope all who are able will help their local blood bank. It costs us nothing but a brief stick of a needle and our time.

Wishing all the mothers a Happy Mother's Day. Erik, Lisa and Aaron all called today. Arne took me out for dinner on behalf of our children. I chose Olive Garden and had ravioli...delicious!!

I'm back!

I haven't really been anywhere other than The Villages, our "little bubble" in the Universe. Since I've been doing pretty much the same things each week, I didn't feel the urge to report in but it's been a month so guess it's time.

I started two new activities this month. Tomorrow I have my third piano lesson, which I'm enjoying. I spend 20-30 minutes every day in practice. This method is "for fun" and if we're not having fun, we need to evaluate what we're doing.

The second new activity is a monthly class in Photoshop Elements. While I've used Photoshop for over a decade and taught Elements for three weeks on a cruise ship in 2004, I figure I can always learn something new. One aspect I'm interested in is digital scrapbooking.

Arne continues to be consumed with art classes and improving his art skills. In fact, I feel like my kitchen and family room have become an art studio as Arne moves his supplies from the kitchen island to the kitchen table to the family room coffee table to the sofa to the table on the lanai. He's supposed to have an art studio in the garage but he doesn't seem to like working in one place. He graciously clears the kitchen table each night so we can eat dinner there.

There were several accidents yesterday about an hour from here on I-75. Arne travels that route to go to the VA. I even drove him once when it was pouring down rain and people were speeding as though the pavement was dry. Apparently, speed was a factor in this series of accidents which killed 10 people. There is an open area which gets lots of fog and haze. These people were driving at 3:30 AM so didn't "see" the fog until they were in it with 0 visibility. Very tragic.

Arne's car in a light fog in front of our house...