FORE!

I learned today that FORE should only be shouted when other golfers are in danger of being hit with your ball.  Oops.

Wendy and Dan went to Fisherman's Village to run the Linear Path.  We walked Titan through the park, along the same path but we didn't see them.  We met back at the house and headed to the driving range.  Apparently, Dan wanted to go because he was sure I was going to provide unlimited entertainment.  As it turned out...I wasn't THAT bad ;o)

We bought two buckets of balls and spent maybe half an hour.  It's not like we actually have any control of where our balls might go...

nice form

I think he's done this before

I didn't get any pictures of Dan swinging but being the good sport he is, he stepped in to help Bill.

on three...

Thanks to Dan, I have some swinging video to share!

One of us got a little more than just the ball...

Probably not ready to hit the "tour".  It was fun and there were no injuries to report.

We ate lunch at home, walked over the bridge and went to the Tiki Bar for adult beverages and soda water for Bill.  We had no trouble finding chairs, thanks to a pretty strong wind.

Ahhh, I love this place!

Cheers!

Titan enjoyed his treat and we had iced coffees on the deck once we got home.  Bill and Dan moved the grill onto the front porch in order to grill the filets, which we had along with twice stuffed potatoes and asparagus.  

We finished our game of Racko, Wendy came from behind to win!  We celebrated her birthday with daiquiris (virgin for Bill and I) and chocolate cake.  No candles because I left them at home and forgot to get new ones.  

They will be leaving in the morning to visit with Bob in Nokomis, then head home on Friday.  The week went by really fast and we will be sorry to see them go; we always enjoy their company.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Thunderstorms Predicted

Wendy and Dan enjoyed a relaxing morning, not leaving the house till after noon.  Bill and I took Titan for a walk, brought him home and left to run errands.  We went to Mercer's for coffee, Beef Country for filets and twice stuffed potatoes, Lowes and Publix.  We got home around 2:00 and ate lunch.

Wendy and Dan went to Hurricane Charley's, where Dan loves the sushi, then they "broke" into the pool.

"Just another shitty day in Florida!"

They got back to the house around 4:00.  We had iced coffees - thanks Dan - and sat around waiting for the predicted thunderstorms to pass.  We gave Titan his medication and he pretty quickly fell asleep.  It's so much easier on him with his new medication, otherwise he is a freakin' wreck during storms.  He was sleeping peacefully and the storms, which weren't severe (thankfully) had passed, so at 6:30 we headed to The Celtic Ray for dinner.  Found a nice corner table upstairs, enjoyed a great meal and got home about 8:00.

I fed Titan and Bill played with him, even actually getting two of his nails cut, which he doesn't tolerate very well.  We played Racko till after 10:00.  I was ahead when we decided to call it a night and continue tomorrow.

Bill and I are heading home in one month.  Where has the winter gone?

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Let's Go Red Sox, Let's Go

Bill took a shower early, ate breakfast and took Titan for a walk while the rest of us ate and got ready.  We left the house at 11:00, right on time and headed to Ft. Myers for a spring training game against the Phillies.  Bill ordered the tickets months ago and for the first time in several years, we actually had seats.  It was HOT and it was sunny, but it was nice to sit, rather than stand the entire game.  Bill told Dan it would be shady in 45 minutes, then changed it to maybe an hour and 45 minutes, then remembered Daylight Savings Time was in effect, so changed it again to two hours and 45 minutes.  We were never in the shade but to be fair, we left in the 7th inning.  We would have been in the shade if we had stayed ;o)  

Not sure who the guy in the yellow shirt is...

2018

but I know who the guy in the blue shirt is..

There's one in every crowd!

2016

Being at the stadium has such a great feel to it, familiar and exciting!

Wendy and I beat our way through the store, which is never a fun experience.  This life size LEGO statue of David Ortiz stands outside the store.

It stands 6'7", from the foot to the statue's finger tips, weighs 170 pounds, took 290 hours to complete and contains 34,510 LEGO blocks.  Very cool!

Can't get comfortable before taking pictures.

The Sox were down 2-4 when we left, with Chris Sales pitching, but they came back in the 9th to win...6-5!  We left early in order to go to the outlet stores so Dan and Wendy could shop at Under Armour and Reebok.

On the way home we stopped at McDonalds to use the bathroom and get iced coffees, Wendy had a sundae.  We arrived home right at 6:00, perfect timing for Titan.  Bill gave him a treat on the deck while Wendy and I worked on dinner.  

We took Titan for a walk along Rt. 41 where we checked out the new Jeeps.  This walk is close to home and Titan likes the nice grass!  We finished our game of Dominoes when we returned; Bill came from behind to win.  He's sneaky that way!

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Late St. Patrick's Day Photo Shoot

These didn't get posted on St. Patrick's Day because we didn't take them until today, March 18th, we were busy on the 17th!  But...these pictures are a tradition and everyone was a good sport, even poor Titan ;o)

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Bill's Brilliant Idea

Wendy and Dan went running before breakfast.  We took Titan for a walk along the Linear Path.  Saw the homeless guy, whom we nicknamed Bo, for the first time in a couple of weeks.  We ate lunch at home, then Wendy and Dan headed to the pool.  Bill and I went shopping for fish for dinner.  We finally broke down and stopped at Richard's for chocolate!  From there to Sam's for gas, the cheapest place around.  

Made iced coffees when we got home; Wendy and Dan arrived just in time, so we all sat down on the deck with iced coffees and visited.  They headed out to buy ingredients for daiquiris, since we have a ton of strawberries, and I started the fish.

We ate about 6:00 and while Wendy and Dan did the dishes, I made the daiquiris, which we put into our Hydro Flask bottles (Bill's brilliant idea) to take to Ponce de Leon park to watch the sunset.  We filled Bill's with soda.  

We got to the park about 6:45 for a 7:38 sunset.  There weren't any clouds, so the sunset itself wasn't great, but the company was!

7:32 pm

7:37 pm

7:38 pm

7:39 pm

I liked the reflection in Wendy's glasses...

I always like pictures taken in the late day sun, it's such a great light.

 We need a little practice taking pictures without the shadow!

When we got home, we noticed these stripes in the sky, along with the sliver of moon and Venus.  The moon was setting and Venus was rising.

We played dominoes till 10:00, then decided to finish the game tomorrow.  What a fun day!

Thanks for stopping by...

The "Kids" Come to Visit

Friday...March 16:

Wendy and Dan arrived late in the afternoon ;o)  Bill went shopping for hamburgers for dinner and we sat on the deck visiting while he grilled.  It was a quiet evening at home.

Saturday...March 17:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We went to Mercer's Coffee House for breakfast, only to learn there was no cook, so we settled for bagels and coffee.  Very disappointing!  From there to the farmer's market, which surprisingly wasn't very crowded.  Dan did manage to get strawberry juice on his only green shirt.

We brought our purchases home and I spent a few minutes washing Dan's shirt so he could wear it later.  We took Titan for a walk along the Linear Path.

We headed to The Celtic Ray, Dan in a nice, clean green shirt ;o)  Dan found a place upstairs where we could stand to eat and the boys headed outside to order our meals...three corned beef and cabbage and one fish and chips (Bill doesn't like corned beef).  Wendy and I held down the fort while we waited.

Me and my girl celebrating Irish!

Bill and Dan were back quite quickly with a ton of food!

I wasn't able to finish my corned beef there was so much!

When we finished eating, we went outside to listen to the entertainment.  

Wendy was talking to the kitchen manager who told us they had started at 4:30ish AM and so far, (it was about 4:00 PM) they had gone through about 700 pounds of corned beef.  It's the only day they serve corned beef and cabbage.

We left around 4:00 and proceeded to Fisherman's Village.  The parking is horrendous this year but we found a place along the road and walked back.  Dan is such a goofball!

We went to Scotty's Brewhouse and found seats along the planter boxes.  We didn't plan to eat, so we didn't ask for a table.  Everywhere is crowded on St. Patrick's Day!

We had beverages and were entertained with some "traditional Irish music" while we awaited the arrived of the Lee County Pipes and Drums.  It was a beautiful afternoon, lots of blue skies and sun; however, we were able to sit in the shade most of the time.

The "pipers" arrived at 5:30 and played for 15-20 minutes.  Bagpipes always give me goosebumps.

People cleared out quickly once they finished.  We listened to the other entertainment a while longer, finished our drinks and did a little shopping on the way out.  We picked up Dominoes pizza for dinner and arrived home around 8:00.  It was a busy day.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

42 Years Ago

On this date, March 13th, my son was born...Gregory Michael Wehmeyer.  I am so proud of the wonderful, responsible, honest, hard-working, humorous, loving man that little baby boy has become!

AND...he's a great dad! Actually...the "World's Greatest Dad" ;o)

I love you Greg and I hope you have a wonderful day, even if it is snowing!

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

The Ringling Experience...Part 2 (Outside)

We spent a couple of hours touring the circus museums, then headed toward Mabel Ringling's rose garden.  Mabel was enchanted by everything Italian and that love is reflected in her rose garden.  Unfortunately, every February and October, all of the flowers are trimmed off in order to strengthen the plants themselves.  Hence...no roses in the rose garden ;o(

There is a lot of statuary and pillars, tho.  I can imagine it's quite lovely when all the plants are in bloom.  

There are several huge banyan trees on the property, which I believe covers 66 acres.

We followed the path to The Secret Garden, as well as the Ringing Burial Site.  To be honest, the Secret Garden was not very secret, at least not any more.  John Ringling died in 1936, his wife died in 1929 but they were moved and interred here in 1991.

His sister is buried here also.  There is an interesting article here about how they ended up in this particular spot.

We didn't buy tickets to tour the inside of their 56 room mansion, called Ca' D'Zan (House of John in Venetian) but we will next time we visit.  The outside is spectacular.  I know there are a gazillion beautiful places in the world that I will never see, so this is probably the most breathtaking one I will see.

The outside "deck" is marble and reminds me of a quilt.  I tried to find information about it online but didn't have any luck.  

Longboat Key is in the background

This small walkway surrounds the "deck".

The back of the house overlooking Sarasota Bay

Looking back from the Bolger Campiello and Promenade

FYI...this was their winter home.  We followed the Promenade along the water toward the Millennium Tree Trail.  This sculpture is located along the walk but I couldn't find any plaque describing it.

We continued along, passing the Ellis Japanese Tea House, which overlooks one of the ponds on the property.

We loved this temporary display of bronze heads, designed by a Chinese artist...                 Ai Weiwei.

"Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads"

As much as I love the dog, I think the dragon is my favorite.  It was hard taking pictures of them because the sun was so bright.

There is a huge art museum on the property but we didn't get into it, either.  Maybe next time.

Love the roof on this section of the museum (Center for Asian Art) and if you look closely, you can see windows in the upper third of the roof.

One of the statues surrounding the art museum.

We walked back to the Circus Museum to purchase a Christmas ornament and noticed these two trees in bloom.  Not sure what the first one is called but the second one is a Pink  Trumpet Tree.

There is no way we could have seen the huge art museum, as well as tour the house, in the four hours we spent here today.  Next time we visit, we will skip the two circus museums and concentrate on the areas we didn't see.  

You can learn some fun facts about the "Mansion the Circus Built" here.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)