A lot of catching up

Front of house.
Back side view

Front

Side

Back

John on the beach.

Kathy on the beach.

Kathy talking to Jackie on the beach.

Barefoot Beach

Sue

Joyce and Sandy

Tami

Tami...again.

Frank and Austin

The girls...trying to work a puzzle.

Susan, me, Peggy and Christine

It's been a little busy lately. As you can see the house is coming along. We are getting down to

the last final decisions so that when we leave we won't have much more to decide.

We had a "block" party last Monday night and it was about 12 of us. The food was wonderful. So many different recipes from all walks of the US.

Thursday John and I had a date at the beach. It was so nice to walk in the sand. We even had a little picnic while enjoying the sun. Makes us miss Sanibel a bit, but also nice to know we won't be that far from the beach.

Lot Of Events Going On

One tired dog.
Brian and Linda Hoyt from Vermont.

Brian and Linda at the French Connection Restaurant.

Big party at Christine and Jerry's to celebrate

the fact that his term as President of the board was over!

Bob, Bob, John and Fred...I think. (I had just met him.)

Me, Sandy and Susan...yapping away.

Joyce and Dave with "ONE" of their labs.

He loves to go for rides and wear his hat and glasses.

Try clicking on this picture to enlarge, in the crotch of

the tree you will see an owl. She is sitting on her nest.

Hard to see her because she fits in so well with her background.

There were several things going on last week. One was the party at Jerry and Christine's, for the end of the President of the board term for Jerry. He was so glad to be done with that job.

Then, we hooked up with Brian and Linda who we met last year in Key West. They are staying down by Ft Myers Beach, so we met for dinner in the river district of Ft Myers. We had such a nice visit. We are thinking that we might meet at Barefoot Beach next week one day.

There is a family of owls nesting in the grove. They have babies...not hatched yet, but the mom and dad are always around. It is hard to see her because she blends in so well with her environment. It is fun to see them fly.

Saturday, Christine, Peggy and I went to a huge flea market in Ft Myers. I am not sure I have ever been to one that was that big. There was everything from plants, fresh fish, socks, jewelry, pool sticks...you name it. Probably will drag John there one weekend.

Time is running out here. We are leaving here on the 12th of April, so will have to wrap all

the house things up pretty soon. I think we are almost done. We should have some more pictures of the house next week. They are putting the trusses up.

We have new neighbors with an 18 month old golden lab named Miya? (pronounced my-ya)

We let Maddie and her off leash out here and they run around and around in circles until they are totally spent. That picture was taken after an afternoon of fun.

Katherine of Loch Ness

Our little Kate! Aren't these pictures the cutest!?? Well, Kate loves Florida and loves to be outside all day long. Her new favorite hobby is to chase little geckos. She keeps quite busy all day.

Neighbors Jim and Susan have been watching a Dove family all season. The mother had two babies and now they sort of fly but they hang around under the shrubs in the rocks. She comes and feeds them and watches over them. (You know where I'm going with this, don't you???)

Yesterday, Kate was outside...we had come in for awhile. John then went outside to hear Susan yelling that Kate had her Dove in her mouth and was running all over!!!! So we went after her...along with about 6 other people. She was having a blast running free checking out the animal life under all the shrubs and coach houses! I finally caught her, the dove was not in her mouth at this point. Her little heart was beating so hard and she knew I was mad at her.

What had happened was I had bought new collars for them, and the ring you attach the rabies tags etc...was so small that when John hooked her up to the leash, he hooked her up to her rabies ring instead of the small ring...and she bolted when she spotted the birds and it just pulled apart.

Well, the good news is that later Jim had come home and said to Susan, "the mother bird was just here feeding the babies!" (We didn't tell him we thought the mother was gone!) Susan looked at me and I at her...and we finally told Jim what happened. She must have been just stunned and hiding until she regained her strength...then went back to her babies.

All is well, and life is good.

"The Hut"

Left to right..John, Jim, Susan, Sandy, Bob and Sue.
Left to right...Austin, Fred, Cheryl, Rick and Cindy.

OOPS!!! Another duplicate.

Sue and Austin...our neighbors acrosss the lawn.

John and I outside the Hut entrance.

Susan and Jim our neighbors right next door.

We got about 12 of us together and went to a restaurant called "The Hut". We went on a Sunday so there wasn't any entertainment, but on Friday and Saturday they have a band...you can sit outside and it is very Tiki like. They have really good seafood too. It was a good night to sit outside...no humidity, no bugs, and nice temperature. (The shuttle went off tonight but we couldn't see it because we were eating dinner.)

Susan and Jim are leaving to go back to Kentucky on Wednesday. It is a little earlier than usual, but their daughter is having their second baby on March 27th, so they need to get home and

and organized so they can travel to Cincinnati for the birth. Anyway, everyone wanted to get to "The Hut" before they left.

Ave Maria, Florida

Ave Maria University

Downtown area of city.

Front of the chapel .

Front and side view of church.

Today John and I thought we would drive around today and go through the town of Immokalee, Florida, which is a town where a LOT of migrant workers live and is predominantly Spanish. Then we drove onto a town called Ave Maria, Fl. This is a town that was started by Tom Monaghan, the owner of Domino's Pizza, for a catholic university and town. He partnered with development company to build this town. There is also a "Dell Web" community here. He started this idea in Michigan and ran into zoning trouble etc...so decided to do it in Collier Co. Florida and is doing pretty well. The university opened in 2007. The also have a future site for a law school. They are build on the ideas of the Catholic church, ie: no abortion, pornography etc... and I guess the ACLU is giving them some problems. It is an interesting town...but I kind of got the feeling that it was "The Stepford Community" . Pretty sterile...or cold feeling.

.

There are about 12 of us going to dinner tonight..I will post pictures later.

Saturday night Fish Fry

Peggy and I playing "Bun Darts" while

Christine is looking on.
Christine and Susan showing us how this
game is played.!!!!

Beautiful night caught on film by John.

John and I frying "Davey's" fish.

The gang eating up the fish.

Just hanging out.

Dick, Jerry, Jim and Peggy, engrossed in

conversation.

We have been waiting for a warm night to have a fish fry. Our evenings have been unseasonably cooler this year so we haven't done a lot of sitting out at night. But last night was the night. John and I fried the fish and everyone else brought a dish to go with. We had fried potatoes, beans that were awesome, (those southern girls really know how to beans right), bread, salad and dessert. It was great. Then after dinner when we all had had a few drinks, Susan introduced us to the game of "Bun Darts". Well, the object is to put a quarter between your butt checks and carry it to the cup and drop it! Susan won...2 out of 3, the rest of us were laughing so hard we didn't even get close. Pretty funny.

It was a fun evening.

Spring Training at Hammond Stadium Friday March 6, 2009

Picture from up on top looking down

the walkway to the stadium.

Stadium is full.

Got there a little early to check out everything.

Watching the batting practice. Getting the field ready.

Oops! Couldn't figure how to delete without

deleting the whole thing!

We went to a spring training game. It was the Twins vs Cincinnati. We won 3-0. It is so fun

to sit outside, eat a hot dog you ordinarily wouldn't touch and drink a beer. What could be better? It was also a beautiful day and not too horribly hot in the sun.