Trip To Arcadia

My mom and I drove over the Sunshine Skyway bridge today (really don't like that bridge) and headed to Arcadia to visit my cousin Bill & my Aunt Flossie.

Cousin bill with the new grandbaby.

Christian, Tamera, and their baby.

Bill's son Willie. He had fun showing me his arsenol of Nerf guns.

The guy in the tye-died shirt is my cousin Bob that I have not seen since probably I was a teenager. He's been staying with Bill for a while. To his right is Aunt Flossie - she is the last living sibling of my dad. The little boy in front is Willie again.

Christian's jeep got stuck in the mud.

Passed lots of trucks filled with oranges. There were enough oranges on the side of the road, that escaped from the confines of the trucks, you could have picked up enough of them to last a year!

We stopped at this road side stop because they had a big BBQ going outside and were advertising pulled pork and smoked sausages.

It turned out to be a biker bar. I went inside to buy us some cokes and a guy in a lot of black leather took my photo, lol.

Mom eating with the smoking bikers in the background. Inside was a live band - it was REALLY loud.

Oops! I should have taken a photo of my sandwhich BEFORE, lol.

Our final stop was the shops at Ellenton Prime Outlets. I bought two purses for summer. I really like handbags like some people love shoes - purse are my thang.

Happy New Year

Jerry and I went to the annual neighborhood party at Tim & Jan's last night to bring in the new year. It's always fun to get together with the neighbors and I orten wonder why we don't do it more often - like a 4th of July BBQ or something. But then again, many folks want to spend special occassions with their families.

I believe this photo is from when we were watching Evil Kenevil's son jump over the volcano at the Mirage in Las Vegas. The neighbor 3 doors up from us did work/works for the family but didn't go to LV so we all watched after the ball droped in Times Square.

Random party shot but showing that most people thought it was cold. The party was mostly on their lani but some folks retreated to the family room (seperated from lani by a sliding door). Tim & Jan are excellent hosts. Tim even made me an ice pack for my fat lip - Daisey and I had a collision of her skull and my mouth when fire work upset her shortly before we were to leave for the party. My tooth is still sore tofay, of course I still have the hole on the inside of my lip where tooth punctured, but swelling greatly reduced this morning.

Tim & Jerry cutting cigars. i don't know how mnay they smoked last hight but I think it was too many probably. The good news about neighborhood parties is that you walk home. We only had to cross a dead end street and walk down 5 houses. What could be better than that?

I loved the little floatie lotus blossom they had in the pool and spa. They held votive candles. See how beautifuly Jan's christmas cactus are blooming? They were gorgeous.

Their house is a bit beachy & flamingo themed so of course they had a stretching, dancing christmas flamingo. They didn't comment on my little guy guarding my mail box so perhaps they haven't been down the street lately.

This is me (fat lip and all) with our next door neighbors Bill & Charlotte. New Year's even also happens to be their wedding anniversary so we don't always see them for the entire night because they sometimes go out for dinner. Last night was number 20 for them. Congratulations!

I can't quite capture the glow of the beautiful floating cactuses. After many drinks, the countdown to midnight, and a few dances, we called it a night and walked home with our next door neighbors. The sound sensitive snowman below sat on the speaker of the dance floor so he danced along with us - plus he was "lit" up like many of the partygoers, LOL.

HERE'S WISHING YOU ALL A HEALTHY, HAPPY, AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AS WELL AS IMPROVED PEACE, UNDERSTANDING, AND TOLERANCE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

Saturday Morning

Jerry's plane is delayed.

Mom and I just finished a nice big tomato, bacon, and cheese omelet. I LOVE making omelets. When I was learning to cook I made one really bad omelet - it wa a spaghettio omelet. I didn't have anything else to add so I gave it a try. Even Mooney (the dog) wouldn't eat it!

When Mom was in Seattle Bill & Michelle gave her one of those photo frames with a memory card. After breakfast we enjoyed watching photos of Bill's young family and glimpses of Judy & Ted.

I got up early this morning to take out trash, pick up the dog poo, wash the patio, water orchids, load dishwasher, etc. I miss Jerry ;) I'm listening to my favorite radio program (Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me). If you don't listen to Public Radio on Saturday, you should give it a try. There is some grat programming.