weekly wrap up

We had a nice week last week...starting with the Super Bowl party. The weather all week was a little different than our usual winter weather. It was cloudy and humid and warmer than normal all week. We finally got a good soaking of rain at the end of the week and then a cold front worked it's way down to Florida. Saturday was windy and kind of cool...then it got chilly last night. This morning we woke up to cold temperatures and foggy windows. Finally!

For a re-cap of last week...We started off with the fun Super Bowl party...we all agreed that the food and friends made for a great time. I think everyone enjoyed it. It was also the first day of Joe and Marilyn's visit. They arrived late Saturday night and jumped right in with golf and the party on Sunday.
John took the three of us down to the job site where he was working last week. Friends of ours are opening a Bed and Breakfast in Melbourne Beach. It's across the street from Rykman Park and within view of the Melbourne Beach Pier. The are remodeling an old home and then built a new building in back that will have 6 rooms available, a small pool and gazebo area. Very Nice...it looks like it will be cozy. They hope to open in a month...John figures it will more likely be about 2 months until they finish. John did all the tile work. each room has some sea glass tile. There is a big old oak tree that they built around...I liked that.

We had to take our guests to all the local spots...LongDoggers and Moo's of course! Joe has a real sweet tooth...so he stopped by the local candy shop for some chocolate covered potato chips.
and we all enjoyed the hot tub. Nothing beats sending a photo of yourself in the hot tub back home to friends up north! hahaha
John had some snapper to cook up for Marilyn...island style.
Marilyn cooked us dinner one night Pana-peian style barbecued chicken and a chicken and noodle dish. It was nice to come home from work to a big dinner. Everything was good.

The week ended with a trip to Orlando to have dinner with Martha and Tony, David and Bridget. Martha and Tony left here last Monday for a couple of days in Orlando and then a meeting in the Bahamas. They got back to Orlando yesterday and had one last day in town before leaving for home this morning. We picked them up at the airport hotel and we all went to dinner at my favorite place...The Flying Fish at Disney's Boardwalk.
we all had a good dinner and some nice wine and a lot of laughs.
and then it was time to say goodbye to them and the end of a great week.
It's going to be awfully quiet around here this week. The good thing is that in a few weeks we will see Martha and Tony again in Lake Tahoe...when we meet them to ski/snowboard and celebrate our 30Th anniversary.(we actually went to Tahoe on our honeymoon...and just by chance...we will be going back to celebrate our anniversary.)

Saturday Night Awards

Our last day/night in North Carolina was a full one. John and Bill golfed their last 9 hole match. The team ahead of them had a lead that was statistically impossible to overcome...but they figured they'd go out and give it their best shot. Like most tournaments...there are the prizes and then there are the side bets. In fish tournaments it's the Calcutta's....I don't know what they called it here...but as I understand it...bets were placed at the beginning of the tournament. You could bet on which Flight would win the tournament, which team would win the flight, which team would go all the way...which Flight would have the winning team, etc. Welll. as luck would have it...the team that had the lead on John and Bill...did not bet on themselves to win the Flight...so John and Bill won the $.(by default??? or whatever) They(1st place team) also did not win their final match...otherwise the $$$$ would have been even more than it was. It all sounds very complicated...but the bottom line is...Bill and John both won credit in the clubhouse and some $$$. John ended up with two new golf clubs...one was part of the gift package all the golfers got and the other he got with his credit in the shop. Not bad for a weekend of golf!
You know those t-shirts you see where it say My ___________ went to __________ and all got was this t-shirt. Well...I got a t-shirt out of the deal...hahaha Not to mention the money I spent on the shopping/lunch expeditions. I think I did just fine. haha
When were were trying to figure out what to bring for the weekend...we knew we needed something nice for the awards dinner. The men are requested to wear jackets...so I wanted something nice. I found a dress a few months ago at Ross, then shoes on sale later at Dillards...so I had my outfit planned. John has a couple of nice outfits on hand for special occasions...after a trip to Michael's Men's Store last year. Before last year's trip...John went and updated his wardrobe...new coat, a couple pairs of pants, shirts and ties...to mix and match. As John was setting out his things to pack...I was thinking he was setting out the same things he wore last year....so I decided to check the pictures from last year to double check. Sure enough...he had the set out the same shirt and tie...so we switched things up a bit. Not that anyone else would even remember...but hey. Funny thing is...when I looked at the pictures...I realized I had planned the same dress for the first night cocktail party...haha we would have both showed up wearing the exact same outfits from last year. We got a good laugh from that. sounds like we don't get out much! hahaI am happy to report that we packed our clothes...with no duplicates from the previous year...and we looked just fine. And...we had a great time.
If there had been an award for Mr. Congeniality...John would have won hands down! He talked to everyone...and thoroughly enjoyed himself. We had a lively conversation with the other people at our table...they were two guys John and Bill had played with the first day. Neil and Lou from Hilton Head, SC. They were a lot of fun. When the conversation turned political.... Bill started it...not me. hah I was thrilled to find myself at a table full of Democrats!(very unlikely in a community like that in NC) I won't go into detail...but lets just say it was a bit of serendipity, Poor Kathie kind of got caught up in the middle of a (semi) heated discussion...I did my best to keep my mouth shut...but told Neil & Bernie, Lou & Karen that it could not have turned out better if I planned it! haha At the end of the night we all agreed to disagree (with Bill) and talked about how much we had enjoyed the company...and we did....they said "Hope to see you next year"...I told them I hoped so...if our conversation/discussion hadn't landed me on the list of people NOT to invite back! haha

Friday activities

So after the luncheon and house tour, Kathie, Sandy and I decided we had time to go check out Priscilla's to see if we could make use of our 20% off coupons. haha We arrived to find a free-for-all of sorts going on in the shoe area. Seems everyone else was interested in the same cute shoes we wanted to check out. It was kind of funny.The shoes came in all colors...red patent leather, lavender, yellow, black, gray, green...and several colors in suede. The fit was better on the patent leather shoes...so we all ended up with them. Sandy got green and gray, Kathie got gray and I got these black patent leather ones. We were all in search of comfortable shoes...I stand all day at work...Sandy teaches, so she's on her feet most of the day...and who doesn't want cute comfortable shoes?
Friday night we had planned to attend the BBQ. It was down by the club house...under a great big tent. It's at the top of the hill...so the view is great.They also had the "leader" board set up...with the next day's schedule available for the golfers. John and Bill were looking good after the first day of match play. John spent a lot of time looking at the board...Bill finally said "You know that board isn't going to change no matter how long you look at it" haha

More pretty flowers.....on the tables and on the grounds.




After dinner we hopped back on the golf cart and decided to go up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset. Fortunately the cart made it up the steep parts in spite of the load! hah We went up to hole 13 ???I think. There was a beautiful house up there, they had a party going on...they were out on the porch enjoying the same view that we were. It must be nice to see that every night!
the last bit of color in the sky
The sun set and we took our wild ride back to the house. It was a great day.

Last Sunday

Sunday morning...Brenna, Megan and Ryan got up at 5:00am to go for a hot air balloon ride. John was going to go...but he had last minute nerves...decided to pass. They headed out. Once again I was awake and unable to sleep...so I got up kind of early. Martha, Elizabeth and I took a long walk down to the Art show...bringing a few items that David forgot and making a stop at Home depot along the way. We took a nice walk through some nearby neighborhoods and along a bike path through a wooded area. Very nice. Dropped off the needed items then walked back to the hotel to get ready for breakfast. We met up with the gang down in the lobby.
we decided to head to the Cherry Cricket restaurant again. Ellen wasn't feeling so great...but she managed to get a few crackers down. The rest of us had no trouble at all! haha
It was a little hot on Sunday...hotter than normal. We spent a lot of time looking for shade. At one point it looked like a storm was brewing...clouds were building and the wind was picking up.
The wind got really gusty (is that a word???) and Bridget was a wreck because David's whole booth shifted. She was afraid the whole thing was going to blow down. Some of the art work is pretty heavy...so THAT would not have been good! People kept wandering in not concerned at all...meanwhile all the sudden the whole gang went to work. we were all taking things off the walls and packing them up. (think fire brigade.) We took them down, Martha and Bridget were bagging them up, etc...it was a job! At one point it started to sprinkle a bit...then we went into high gear! We got everything down...and realigned the booth (Tony & Paul that is) and then the clouds parted and we put everything back up. Whew! I don't know what David would've done without the group of us.
Right around that time a good friend of ours, Lisa, who lives in Colorado, came by t see us all. Lisa lived across the street from us on Oak Ridge Drive back in the 70's.
We heard later that one artist lost $6000.00 worth of glass work during that wind storm...or whatever it was.

Sunday night Elizabeth had made reservations for an Italian place. Most of the group went there...Megan, Brenna and I opted out. We went to Corridor 44...a place Megan and Marcus found when they were in Denver just a couple of weeks before our trip. It was a fun place in LODO...downtown. The whole street was strung with lights and flags...fun! We had some tasty food (lots of organic stuff) and a good glass of champagne for me! After dinner we went back to the hotel and everyone else was just returning from their dinner...so we all went to the bar. More drinks, laughter and plenty of stories! We were down there until they closed the place....it was fun.

Paul, John, David, Lisa, Anne & Martha



We all finally went to bed and rested up for the 4Th of July.

Dinner with the crew

Saturday (7/2/11) after a refreshing walk in the cool morning air, we all got organized and headed to the Art Festival.Martha, Tony and John were golfing at "Bear Dance"...a really nice course about 45minutes-1 hour away. I thought I might have a hard time getting up that early (5:00am)since I always have a hard time getting up that early!haha the first day there...so I opted to join them on Monday instead. We hung out at the booth and then looked at some of the other artwork. There were lots of great artists and some fun artwork. Some strange stuff too..haha
Had fun watching the people too....and trying to stay cool once the clouds cleared out and things started to heat up. Elizabeth had arranged for the whole group of us to go to dinner. David had requested she make the reservation at Elway's Steakhouse. At one point it looked like it might be as many 24 of us...but in the end it was 12. (Ellen and Anna had not arrived yet...they were in flight as we were at dinner.)It was a little later than John and I normally eat...and factoring in the time difference...made it even later...but I felt fine. We all enjoyed our dinners...the steaks lived up to the hype and the side dishes were pretty tasty as well. We even sampled a couple of the desserts. Someone at our table (at the other end...I missed out on who put in the request) asked them to bring out a birthday "cake" for Elizabeth.By the time we were ready for dessert it was going on 10:30pm. We had all enjoyed our dinner and a few cocktails/glasses of wine/champagne, etc).Well...there were three other tables of people in the place. One group of 8,then one group of 4, us and then another group of 4 men. The group of 4 to our left (2 men,2 women) sang Happy Birthday to one woman at their table. Shortly after that, the group of 8(straight out from us in the next room) sang Happy Birthday to someone at their table... it was a little louder, then it was our turn. By the time Liz got her "cake" we had all three other tables singing along with our whole group. When table 4 to our right sang to one of the guys in their group...it was even louder. At this point table one decided to go again...getting the whole group in on it...haha we thought it was going to turn into a "sing off!" Everyone was laughing...not sure about the waiters...haha they might've been hoping we'd all just get the heck out of there...haha actually they seemed to be enjoying the fun too. We finished up...posed for several pictures and then headed back to wait for Ellen and Anna. They had landed at 9:30pm. They got their luggage and then caught the "Super Shuttle" which then took them on a 2 hour( here's where you can start humming the theme song to "Gilligan's Island") trip around Denver.... we were sending text messages to them "Where are you?",they kept texting us...saying "Be there soon". One by one the group left the bar and headed up to bed...it was getting a little ridiculous...I'm sure Ellen and Anna thought they'd never get to the hotel. The Super Shuttle took almost as long as their last flight! Naturally when we finally gave up...they arrived about 5 minutes later. Elizabeth and Martha(?) went back down to say Hi and goodnight. We were glad they made it.

Ryan,David,Martha,Paul,Elizabeth,Anne,John,Brenna,Bridget,Meredith & Tony

Meredith, John, Brenna, Bridget & Martha




Anna and Ellen weren't the only ones who didn't make it...Megan decided to pass on the dinner...she wasn't interested in steak and she was tired...she fell asleep about five minutes after we left...and enjoyed having the whole room/whole bed to herself for some good deep sleep...until we returned.