Birthday celebrations

Last week my camera suddenly stopped working...I was downloading photos and it just froze up. I haven't had it for that long...so I was a little distressed. I tried to recharge it...tried to turn it back on a few times...nothing. well...I gave it another try tonight and IT WORKED! I am so excited! Now my only problem is that I have been taking photos with a camera Brenna found for John at the Airline unclaimed items warehouse. Imagine...a huge building full of every kind of phone, camera, I-Pod, I-pad, computer...sunglasses, clothing...anything ever left on a plane.................... It works...it's nice...but I don't have any way to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer...at least not easily. So until I figure that out...this will be a post with no pictures.

Our friend John McClure celebrated his birthday last Saturday (his birthday is actually August 14th- same as my nephew Ian). He is dating a lady who had a nice dinner party for him. They cooked lamb, chicken and some fresh fish (from John). There were a few friends, John's sister Terry and John and I. It was nice...lots of great food and I enjoyed talking to some new people and seeing some old friends.

This past Friday, my brother David had a birthday. He and Bridget rented a room at the Crane Creek Inn in Melbourne. I have passed that place by thousands of times...and always wanted to see what it was like. (Megan and I actually tried to book a room there after our house got messed up during the hurricanes in 2004...but it was booked) David called Friday night and invited us to come over for a glass of champagne and a chance to check the place out. Their room was down near the pool/patio area...very nice. They had walked up to dinner at the Firehouse Grill and then for coffee at the Cuban restaurant down the hill. It was perfect. John was tired...but Brenna and I headed over. Destin and two of her friends came and David's friend Todd was there. Todd had brought along some Chinese Lanterns. You light it, it lifts up and floats away...pretty cool. They had launched one the night before...and thought it would be fun to light one down by the creek behind the Inn.Great idea...but there was a breeze blowing. Todd...as lively as usual...haha...assured us all that it would be NO Problem! He lit one...it lifted gently and started heading straight for a palm tree in the back yard! (if you clicked on the link...the second photo shows the pool  area...that's right outside where their room was and you see the bottoms of the trees...the lantern got stuck in the fifth one) Thank God we've had a lot of rain in the last few days...because otherwise the tree would have immediately burst into flames! We are all running over...freaking out...thinking we are about to watch the place burn....trying to figure out how to get the thing out of the tree and put out the flame! Everyone was calling out suggestions...Get a hose! Throw water up there! Call the Fire Department! S&^%! Luckily Todd was thinking fast...he grabbed the pole near the pool...and instead of pulling a person out of the pool...he used it to pull the lantern out of the tree. (perfect length...we were lucky) David stomped it out and we all sighed with relief. Todd was determined to make it work...and despite out concerns...lit another one that did float up safely over the Inn and sailed off into the night time sky and hopefully didn't land near anything else! So if you happened to be out and about Saturday night around 11:30pm and saw an unidentified flying object...it wasn't a UFO of a meteor (haha) it was a Chinese Lantern.
After that Brenna and I headed home...didn't think to look up to see if the lantern was still up there...hahah But the Inn was very nice...a perfect spot for visitors looking for a place to stay in town.
*If I manage to upload the pictures...I'll add them later.