Shuttle Fly By

Click on these photos for a better look!

Just rode the bike down to the beach to watch the Shuttle being flown back to the Cape. How cool! If they are forced to land the Shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base in CA...they have to fly the Shuttle back to FL on the back of a NASA jet (a very large NASA jet!). They usually fly up the coast so that everyone can watch them go by. It was exciting! I always seem to miss it...but this evening...I got a great view as it came in from the west just a bit north of Indialantic and turned out over the ocean and headed North to the Cape (about 40 miles from here). It's great to live on the "Space Coast"!

Added note

On my last blog I talked about favorite music...but failed to mention the reason I get to listen to all the great music I do...is because for years I have listened to commercial free radio...college stations...in other words...NO TOP 40! (torture!) We have had a great college station in Melbourne for many years...and I've been listening since the days when you had to turn the radio just so...and keep it at that angle to pick up the signal from across the river. Programming always included Classical, and other specific genre shows...but back in the day(haha) we listened from 10-2 for the new music/Alternative stuff. They were playing music on www.wfit.org/ long before it made it to the top 40 stations...and many of those songs/bands are still on my playlist. For a period of time the programming was all jazz...and that was good too...but eventually they came back to playing a wide range of new/old/alternative/reggae/country...you name it music...and it's a great way to learn about what's out there. Check out http://www.worldcafe.org/ on NPR for other news about music and bands, etc. NPR is also my source for news.....I can't handle the TV nightly news...everything is so sensationalized....and they drive me everyone crazy with repeating the same story over, and over and over....ie Casey Anthony, swine fludon't panic...but we'll do our best to make you panic fill in the blank...and you know what I mean. So it's NPR news for me! (and John Stewart of course...so you can laugh about the things that might just make us all give up!) There is a station that plays retro music on their Sunday Night Vinyl show...(and all weekend too) 104.1 out of Orlando. That's where it all comes from...**Used to be me hearing a song start and running to hit the record button....resulting in lots of cassette tapes with 99% of the song ,haha, and then I spent years trying to figure out who the artists of theses songs were...in case I hadn't caught it on the radio... (Google & I Tunes have really made my life easier :) Haha) Even now I almost always have music on and when I see people everyonewalking around with their I Pods on...I wonder "What are YOU listening to?

top ten

I've written about my top ten books and movies...so now it's time to give you my top ten music lists.
First I'll list what you would've found in my collection back when I was in college. *You know...how I mentioned in a past blog about how you used to get an idea about your new roommate(s) by checking out their music collection. (When I was in college...this would have been albums) Brenna has some of them in frames...but we recently relocated them from the garage to her room and it made me start thinking about that music; some of it I still listen to...other albums I look at and wonder what the heck I was thinking! haha
List back then....in no particular order:
Jimi Hendrix -Experience (& others)
Jethro Tull - Benefit (also Thick as a Brick)
Bob Dylan-Blood on the Tracks (& others)
Pink Floyd -Dark Side of the Moon (I think everyone had this one!)
Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and other Assorted Love Songs
Moody Blues- Days of Future Passed
Fleetwood Mac- Mystery to Me
Lynyrd Skynyrd -Second Helping (amongst others)
Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard

Now on my I Pod ( one of the world's best inventions! I'm convinced)(I can listen to music I like all the time...anywhere/anytime it's great!) I have a wide variety of music.....but for the most part it's Alternative & lots of 80's. I'm not stuck in the 80's....well maybe one foot is
Anyway it's tough to narrow it down to just 10...but here's who I like listening to, never get tired of along with a particularly favorite song....
Again...in no real order...............................................................................................................
The Cure - Just Like Heaven
Depeche Mode - Get the Balance Right
The National - Start a War
Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive By
The Killers - Mr. Brightside
The Psychedelic Furs - Ghost in You
Roxy Music - More Than This
R.E.M. - (old stuff like) Orange Crush (and new stuff too...)Supernatural Superserious
Coldplay - Talk
Talking Heads - And She Was

*runner-up include hahaha - Dave Matthews, Death Cab for Cutie, New Order, the Ocean Blue, The Railway Children, Guster, INXS, Vampire Weekend,English Beat, The Clash, The Smiths, Morrisey, The Rippingtons......and you get the picture...it's hard to limit it to just 10...which is why the I-pod is so great....you can have it all (jazz, rock, alternative, classical....all in one place!)

So...Keep Listening....and TURN IT UP!

What do you do.......

What do you do...when you have too much fish? Like we have had in the last month or so.
what you do is this:
Have lots of cookouts with your firends.( This is fun because usually it's just the two of us...so extra people add to the fun.)
Give it to your family members
Give it to friends
Give it to neighbors
Bring it to LongDoggers and have them cook it up...for you, for the cooks for the staff. And ENJOY it.
Take it right from the cleaning table and fry it up...for FRESH FRESH dolphin (mahi) fingers...Yummy!
Take the soy sauce and wasabi right to the cleaning table and have some Sushi!
And if you do that...here's what happens......................................................................
Neighbors invite you to their cookouts
They bring you freshly baked pumpkin pie! :)
You get fresh snapper and grouper, etc from Tom
You get fresh lobster tails from Mike and Denise..
You get to go eat Mahi Parmigiana at Ron's house ,with his neighbors that are enjoying his fish
And you're thankful and just enjoy all this good fish...and that fact that your husband, brother, daughter, wife, friend whoever is having so much fun catching all the fish in the first place!

Graduation Time

Several friends had kids graduating yesterday. In our BUNCO group, out of the 11 current players....8 had a SON graduating yesterday!Fortunately Mel High was able to give out all the diplomas and get a few quick speeches in before the rain came down.(*It's been a week of record rainfall...lots of thunder and lightning too) A photo in the FL Today showed graduates hopping over a big puddle on the way to the stage. Everyone was a little damp...but very happy. We went to celebrate with Brittany and her family( Mom and Dad,Aunts, Uncles,Cousins, Grandparents and Sisters )and Friends on Saturday...and the rain stayed away, which made for a nice, cooler than usual afternoon/evening.

Sunday it was time for Dillon's (and his friend...also Dillon) graduation party. The street was full of cars when I arrived (after the start)...lots of friends and his grandparents, Auntie, Uncle Ricky and cousins were all enjoying the food and fun. Caitlin made a nice video slide show for her brother...and a good time was had by all.

Dillon and Gayle at the end of the party

Naturally there was cake..(at both parties)....the best part! After all what's a

graduation party without sheet cake!

Battle of the Big Mouths or Just Another Friday Night in Indialantic FL

Two weekends ago...John, Ron, Mark and Al all fished in the SISA tournament. They decided that in addition to the regular tournament they were going to have their own "Battle of the Big Mouths" Ron isn't that loud...but anyone can tell you John aka Boomer, Al and Mark can be!
The "rules" were that each crew had to have at least one female on board. Al had his girlfriend, Ron had Misty, John had Courtney (and Reid and Chandler) and Mark.........well there's a little discussion ongoing about whether or not Mark really won...since he did NOT have a female on board. They did get the biggest fish...and he gave the trophy to his fishing partner (and former boss) J.D. Well, there wasanother side bet was between Courtney and Al. (Courtney works part-time at Longdoggers)

Ron , Peyton, Chuck, Anne, John, Pat, Mike & Denise enjoying the fun
The deal was whoever caught the bigger fish got to make a t-shirt for the other one to wear. As you can see Courtney won the bet...so Al had to wear her shirt. Last night was the night. So we all had to gather together to watch the event! Mark made the sign for the side of the building...and John got the other two Longdoggers restaurants to put it up on their signs as well. (Not part of the bet...but Al was a good sport)

John Ron Mark

COURTNEY aka THE WINNER

As usual since it was Friday night...there were many other regulars there. Shortly after we all arrived.....the next table was occupied by our good friends Brian & Maureen Hogg, son Kevin & his daughter Dakota, Stephanie & Clay and two of their girls. When Chuck and Pat left...Heather & Chris,Julia and Ellie arrived...so we had a great time all evening. Lots of laughs. Everyone gave Mark (Lynn was there too) a hard time about the win...especially Al! They are already working on setting up the next contest...so the trophy can go to the next winner.( In the meantime...J.D. was tickled to get the trophy and he doesn't know about the controversy )

Sign facing A-1-A

Courtney presenting the shirt to AL

BY the way...none of these guys won anything in the actual tournament...John had engine problems (at 30 miles out)(it all worked out...but put a damper on the whole fishing trip!)

Mark was one of the first boats in...so he was on the board for a shortvery shorttime.The story is theyJ.D. dropped their fish into the silt at the weigh-in spot Mark had to jump in and wade around in knee deep muck....finally two guys jumped in the water and one of them managed to retrieve the fish!Al had one problem after another with his inexperienced crew...including a hook through his finger and Ron and Misty, while trouble free... just didn't get any big fish. Every boat caught fish...just not winners. **However...our niece's husband Duane...won the king fish category! So we knew a winner!**

Refreshing Holiday Treat

Fruit Parfait Slushy
(makes about 1 gallon)

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups water

1 (20oz) can crushed pineapple/pineapple tidbits in juice

1 (10 oz) package *frozen strawberries

1 (12oz) can frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 (6oz) can frozen OJ concentrate without pulp , thawed

2 (1 liter) bottles *lime-flavored sparkling water

Heat sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves and reaches a syrup consistency.
Process crushed pineapple, frozen strawberries,lemonade concentrate, oj concentrate, in batches, until smooth. Stir in sugar syrup and freeze for at least 8 hrs
Remove from freezer, let stand about 30 minutes or until mixture can be broken into pieces. Stir in sparkling water and serve!



* A couple of notes....I usually double the recipe.. as it keeps the punch bowl full for a long afternoon. You can use frozen strawberries...or if like me you have your own fresh frozen strawberries (less sugar) you can use them...it doesn't really matter. The OJ without pulp is a matter of preference...I haven't found it to make that much difference either way. The blending is the messy part...but it's worth it! Blend and pour into punch bowl. I have a Tupperware punchbowl with lid...it works perfectly!

I tried this recipe a few years ago at one of our Southern Living Luncheons and it made it into the permanent recipe file! It is a little messy to mixnot too hard to make and it's good as the recipe calls for with sparkling lime-flavored water...or you can add Ginger Ale or for the mature party goers(hahaha)champagne! Kids enjoy scooping the slushy concoction into their cups and it's full of fruit!

Try it!

:D