More from North Carolina

Okay...Let me just start this post by saying...between my computer that doesn't always do what I want it to...to my new camera...to my knowledge or rather lack of of how to do things on the computer...this is in no particular order...because in order to do that...I would be here ALL night! But I did want to share the photos and a few comments in case you're interested. This first picture is the hill I walked up each day that I walked that is Here in Indialantic.....it's FLAT...if it wasn't I would be swimming everyday...because as I have mentioned in the past...once around the block and I'm melting away...in NC, it was cooler but the hills were steep. The first day I was breathing so hard by the time I got to the top of the hill...I was hoping no one would drive by (they didn't) and see me, because they might have been concerned.hahaha However...I caught my breath and I persevered and I was just fine. I made it through my 45 minutes (or more) walk.
and here's a few things I saw along the way...Ahhhhh (worth the heavy breathing)
I just can't pass by a glimpse at a leaf...an early changer, a dandelion and a pine cone...
and another hint at what's to come in October!
some Queen Anne's lace...I always secretly liked the fact that they were Anne with an e like me....

the view down the hill by the Clubhouse...at the end/beginning(?) of First Tee Trail
another favorite...clover...and bees!

the view


Friday, Kathie and I attended the Member/Guest Luncheon (while the practice round was going on) and then we went on a tour of some homes. They houses were pretty incredible. All 3 were on the water...each had it's own character. we enjoyed checking them out... I also enjoyed checking out the other women on the tour and listening to their comments about their neighbor's homes....haha This butterfly was on the porch of one of the houses
one porch on one of the houses...most had several different porches/deck ares...One had an entire floor with several sets of bunk beds, plenty of room for lots of kids and then the porch with ping pong table, Foosball, darts, pinball...you name it...I think they had it. A kid/teen paradise! I wanted to be in that family!


Each house had a view down the ridge to the lake below....need I say more! You could see boats pulling tubes and hear laughter...it was really a paradise.


different views from different decks....


The whole area is just beautiful...on the one side you have the trees, the hills etc on the other the lake...it's hard to decide which is nicer....except those with the lake...didn't have much of a yard... All of the houses were amazing...John's brother's included....a real treat. More tomorrow.........

We're Back!

Relaxing on the porch/deck (not the best photo...but hope you get the idea)
John and his sister Sandy

John and Bill during the tournament. Kathie and I were getting ready to go in to the Ladies Luncheon and we spotted these two finishing up on # 18 (?). They didn't play well on the first day, Friday, but came back Saturday and ended up being recognised for the best "Comeback Round" on Saturday.
views around the house






Just got back in town after a nice 5 day break. Today I am catching up, cleaning up, etc. Most of the clothes have been washed...whats left goes to the Dry Cleaners which seems to keep getting more and more expensive! We had a great visit with John's brother Bill and his wife, Kathie and also his sister Sandy and her husband, Ken. Bill had invited John to join him in a Member Guest Golf Tournament at the place in the mountains....and of course the answer was YES!
So we left last Wednesday morning and spent the next 5 days up in the mountains. It wasn't as cool there as it normally is...the heat wave has hit there just as it has everywhere else along the eastern coast...but it was 20 degrees cooler than Indialantic! And as it was in Virginia last month...really, really GREEN! Beautiful!
We had a nice time...I will space out the pictures in a series of posts...rather than try to include them all here. we are already trying to think of another time we can all get together....here, there...or anywhere. We don't do it often enough ...and we all enjoyed catching up and "bonding" (as Ken said...haha).

Another exciting Friday night.....

NOT EXACTLY...I amd sitting here watching a Shirley Temple marathon...sad but true...Heidi just ended...remember the time they didn't show the end of the big football game because it was time for Heidi to start...imagine that these days! Now...next up is one of my favorites..."The Little Princess"....I did love this movie....but must admit I fell a bit sheepish watching now....however....I'm signing off and until I go to bed...it will be me and Sara Crewe! haha

Where were you on July 20, 1969?

Where were you on July 20, 1969? and what were you doing? For those of you who weren't alive yet....or don't remember...that was the day the first men landed on the moon. For those of us living here on the "Space Coast" it was all very exciting. My dad worked for NASA as a chemical engineer in the malfunctions lab. Whenever it was close to launch time...they worked day and night (as did many others) making sure that everything was in working order when it came time for the launch. People would make their way to Brevard County to catch a glimpse of the rocket launch...signs around town had messages to the astronauts and NASA workers..and everyone held their breath hoping everything would go off without a hitch. I can't imagine what the workers must have felt like...years of preparation and work to get to that moment..it was, as I said all very exciting.
Since we had a vested interest in the whole program being successful (my dad's job!) it was extra special. We had moved down to Florida a couple of years before that momentous day, when my dad got hired by NASA. (Years later we were visiting an old friend from Bethel Park, PA...where we had moved from...he told me "Ill never forget when your father went down for that interview. It was mid February in Pittsburgh (PA) ie-miserable...cold,gray,snow, etc and he figured...Why Not? At the time he wasn't even sure he was that interested...but why not go see what it was all about. But when he returned to Bethel Park...he was excited and he said "I need to get in on that!" And shortly thereafter...he did....and he worked there until he retired....But...I digress....
The night of the scheduled moon landing and later the first walk on the moon...my mother had informed us that we all needed to be home and we would all watch it. That's all we heard about...once she gathered us all up we sat around my parents bedroom and watched the events unfold. We were on the floor, the bed, the chair...everyone was there. She had made sure we were all ready to watch as the hatch opened and the astronauts came out.....it was 10:39 pm (I had to look it up...I knew it was late...but honestly didn't remember the time without checking on Google). Well...once we were all in the room, she got on the bed and laid back on the pillows ........and fell SOUND ASLEEP! We tried to wake her up..."MOM! MOM!...wake up...the astronauts are coming out of the hatch...but we could not wake her up!She was out cold....haha (probably exhausted from watching all of us while my dad worked overtime the days before!) So...there we were...watching history in the making with my mother sound asleep on the bed! hahahahaha She watched the replay of course...but this was back before the days of CNN and nonstop news coverage...... ( breaking news...played over and over and over again ......if you missed it...you actually had to wait a while to see it again!
Many of the people who worked on the APOLLO program are now gone , like my Dad, and it's sad to see the manned space program winding down.....it so much a part of who we are and life on the "Space Coast". It hasn't been like those special days of the Apollo program in a long time.......but seeing the rockets launching and then returning(like the Shuttle) to the Cape is something you just have to experience to understand I think. So glance up at the moon and just THINK about the fact that MEN were there looking down at the EARTH....and try to grasp the enormity of that concept!

What I Did On My summer Vacation...

Our grass was being overrun by some Wild Bermuda Grass and as the "mower-in-chief" I was starting to get annoyed. The patch was getting bigger and bigger...and our once nice green lawn wasn't looking too well. We had a dry spell and the wild grass was starting to get pretty brown...so I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and start digging some of it out.
Welll....my "plan" was to dig out some of the dead patches and let the St. Augustine grass grow back in....but things don't always go as planned. (hahaha)
It's pretty hot...but I figured 1/2 - 1 hour a day wouldn't kill me...so I'd get out there with my trusty shovel and start digging it up. Everyone thought I was nuts...they'd either offer advice (get some kids to do it...get a machine to do it...forget it...haha) or avoid eye contact for fear that I might try to get them to help me. hahaha well....about a week or two into my little project...John decided we needed to dig out all of the bad grass...and he started making some calls. we were told to spray it...wait, spray again and then after 3 applications of the "Round-Up" type spray...it should rake right out...we are on week 4 and it was driving John CRAZY! Not just the big brown lawn out front...but me out there digging away...(honestly...I kind of enjoyed it...even though it was hard work and incredibly dirty!)
well..he called and rented a sod cutter and was ready to tackle the remaining lawn. When I left for work this morning it looked like the pictures above...when I came home it looked like this.
You can see the layers of roots...this stuff is hard to kill!
Turns out while I was at work...the Lawson family (Amy in particular) decided they should call John and offer to help him with the project. He hesitated at first...then thought..."Why am I even thinking about this...they are offering to help!" He would have preferred to wait until it was a little later (cooler) in the day...but they were ready to go...Amy decided she didn't want to spend her Saturday sitting around...so she, Reid, Chandler and John cut up all the bad grass, rolled it up and then jumped into the pool!
After eating and reading a while...we went back out to gather up the remaining loose grass...roll the "bales" of dead grass to the curb so the Waste Management truck will pick them up and level off the dirt. The whole time John was kind of muttering about how in the world he wound up doing such a project...how did the grass get so over run...etc, etc...I just kept raking away...la dee da....And really so did he...he worked his rear end off all day to get the grass cut, rolled and to the curb...then raked up...and sprayed one last time...before we put the new sod down. so we don't have to do anything for two more weeks!
(we kind of look like that couple with the pitch fork! )hahaha
I am hoping that John will be happier I KNOW he'll be sore! when he looks out at the front yard tomorrow...and the weeds are gone!I feel good...knowing we are halfway there....even if I do feel like a character in the story "HOLES".
I can't thank Amy, Reid and Chandler enough for coming over...in the HEAT and getting dirty and hot while they helped John finish with the sod cutter...he could not have done it without them!

Southern Living Dinner

Yesterday it was my turn to host the Saturday night Southern Living Dinner Group. I don't get to go every month and I haven't hosted in several years...so I was looking forward to the task. My camera died/went wacky... the lens was not working properly. I decided I needed my camera for the "party" and basically I've grown used to having the camera available to document everything and it was hard to think about NOT having one....so I headed out to the camera store to see if it was fixable. Yes....but it would cost as much to fix as it would be to just buy a new one...so that's what I did. It's unusual for me to just go buy something like that unless it's a dress...on line haha so I tried not to think too much and just told the guy..."Ill take it!" When I got home I had to figure out some of the cool new features...like the Close up mode...pretty nice.....
and I didn't try anything else really...just wanted to make sure I could take a photo...Linda was planning to be in town for the weekend, from Vero Beach...so I invited her to join the dinner group for the month. She took a picture of me...(and the table)
and then I took one or two of her to make sure it was going to work properly...and then we finished getting ready. Ten women (including Linda and I) were coming...so I put the leaf in the table and brought out one of my folding tables. I had some tablecloths in my party supplies cabinet (when I find sales...I buy things...also old some really old! centerpieces, etc. The tablecloths were some of my favorite line from Target...ISABELLA PARTY...They are really nice quality. I have used these particular ones 3 times...still no tears or signs of wear! I coordinated some plates and some orange SOLO cups and flowers that just happened to have all the same colors and VOILA!
Here's a copy of our menu/score sheet. we try each dish and then rate it.
Linda putting out her results from the "Blueberry Salsa" recipe.
as hostess...I provided paper goods, flatware, drinks...in this month's issue was a recipe for Blue Margaritas....I personally don't like Tequila...doesn't agree with me...but there happened to be a bottle left over from our Bowling Bash...so I made a couple of MESSY/SMELLY/STICKY! batches. Also had Iced Tea (from Chick-Fil-A...of course), wine, water and a throwback recipe from August 2002...Fruit Parfait Slushie... a combination of Crushed Pineapple, Frozen strawberries, Pink Lemonade and Simple Syrup frozen and left to melt into slush....recipe calls for Sparkling Lime-flavored Water...I opted for Champagne. :) Note...it's also sticky and messy...but IT'S tasty! haha
one of the tables (before the party)
and the other
a few of the ladies
part of the group in the kitchen..."Say Cheese!"
Kiena was lurking around all night hoping for hand-outs...afterwards she was tired....We had a lot of laughs as usual. Some great food...I am always surprised by some of the dishes that sound weird...but taste good...top vote getter of the evening I believe was the
"FRESH CORN AND ASIAGO CHEESE BREAD PUDDING" which we decided would make a nice addition to a Thanksgiving dinner menu. Until next time..........