this 'college student'(wouldn't that be nice) loves her canvas

today was a great day...after school. well, for the most part, anyway.

before school, i was walking to my car when i found a debit card on the ground, so i looked around to see if there was anyone outside but i saw no one. grr. that meant i'd have to go out of my way to do the right thing. i hate that.

i went to the chiropractor, and she was a bit shocked when she saw my hair-best compliment ever: YOU LOOK SO YOUNG! YOU ALMOST LOOK LIKE YOU'RE IN COLLEGE! oh dr. bri. you just became my favorite chiropractor ever!

on the way home, i decided i would stop by the whole foods store to see if they had guava paste. i have been craving the burgers i had in miami and st. petersburg; while both were very different, they were equally satisfying! so i looked in every aisle, but to no avail. i found the guava jelly, but it's not quite the same...so then i looked it up on my phone to see if maybe i could make my own with the purchase of some guava...then i saw how much sugar went into it, and i almost had a diabetic seizure right there in the store! nope. that was my cue to exit.

when i got back to the apartment, i realized that i had not stopped by the wells fargo bank, so i stopped by the apt. office to see if anyone had come by looking for their lost debit card. nope. unfortunately it was already 6, so i didn't have time to go to the bank to drop it off. i just told them that if anyone did come in to report it, i was planning to drop it off tomorrow.

when i got upstairs, i was pleasantly surprised to find this little package waiting at the door!

WHAT in the world could it be?!

i had to get a canvas print! i chose this picture because i LOVE the lighting and the colors, but most of all i LOVE THE FLAG! it's a slice of the beach in my living room! all the inspiration i need! i almost feel like i should put the ocean waves cd in the stereo (yes, still got one of those), and play it, blow the fan and pretend i'm there!

canvas print: it's every bit of perfect! (look at chaco, he looks like he just woke up from a nap, all disheveled!) 

the boys said they want to go with me next time...and stay. i told them they might not like it and mentioned fish, and that fish were usually a cat food. chaco smiled and said, "i'm stealth, like a dogfish! i know i'll like it!" bruno almost snorted and said, "more like a clownfish!" that's when chaco walked off and yelled over his shoulder, "whatever! you're like a blowfish!" and i just shook my head...i'll settle for mermaid.

and that's where we left it. hopefully the storms that are moving around don't hit them too hard this season! #missingthebeach

julie

who IS alejandro?

who is alejandro? you ask. well. it's rather a long story...so i'll make it longer.

i happened to see a post on a childhood friend's fb page. she posted something about the brazilian blowout, and so it made me curious and i opened it and read about it. it was an article by a huffington post style writer, and it was pretty convincing! i decided that it was important for me to figure this frizzy hair thing out, and see if there really was a solution. especially after having to deal with it at the beach this summer.

fortunately i found a groupon for a brazilian blowout not too far from my neighborhood, and i did it! i committed to it and contacted alejandro. his first available date was august 26th (i had called to set it up on aug. 1). we exchanged phone calls and emails to set everything up, and i'd been looking forward to this for almost an entire month.

so when wednesday the 26th finally rolled around, i made sure that i was at his place of business on time. the only thing was that when i got there, i wandered in a complete circle observing all of the different individually owned salons in this place, and couldn't find his. so i interrupted two ladies having a jovial little chat over nails, and i could tell they were irritated that i interrupted them. don't care! one of the ladies explained that there was a 2nd floor and he may be located up there. so up i went, and sure enough, he was one of the first salons.

"julie?" he asked, to which i replied, "yes, you must be alejandro!" and so he had me sit in the chair and told me what was going to happen and how the procedure worked. then the magic began; shampoo, condition, cut, product, dry under the cool hair dryer that i only see in movies like legally blonde and steel magnolias...then he pulled out the handheld dryer and finished it up...then for the flat iron. he talked some of the time, but he didn't force conversation like some people do, which was welcomed by me-t.v. background was enough noise; on the news they were rehashing the story about the reporters who were shot live that morning...and alejandro was shaking his head about guns. i opted not to tell him about mine. what he don't know won't hurt him (and in turn he won't take out his differences on my hair)!

although, he did find the opportunity to tell me stories about one of his 'crazy' clients who accidentally butt-dialed him at 5 am and later told him that it must've been when she was on her way home from a crazy night...and another who showed him a picture of how she wanted her hair-and that pic was topless, but she made it all less awkward by saying, "i know you're not interested in boobs, so i didn't think it would be inappropriate since you wouldn't be interested in me." yep...it was really none of my business, but maybe he was just trying to convince me that if i did want to talk about anything, he was approachable. like i said, nice guy, but i'm just not into telling a hairdresser crazy things...nor am i EVER going to have a pic in my phone that i would have to explain. and the mere fact that he was sharing with me about other clients was proof enough that i should keep my personal life personal! that wasn't hard.

he did have a great elle magazine that i picked up. i found an article called: i am not my hair. great article about not letting your hair be your identity...i don't know that if i were a hair stylist i would want people reading it, as the girl talked about cutting her own hair and not trying to get fancy with it-just enjoying the natural-ness of it. as i just looked it up, i came across a song-which i believe is based on the lyrics from some of the poetry she'd written, and i LOVE it!! listen to it here!

back to the story. he asked if i was doing anything for labor day, and i said, "well, i probably won't go very far, we may just go up to orlando if we go anywhere." freudian slip!!! he looked shocked, so i quickly corrected myself and said oklahoma, i'd go to oklahoma. then for whatever reason, i felt the need to share with him my train of thought. so i continued with, "i was in orlando this summer, and so it was still on my mind!" to which he felt the necessity to explain why his face looked so shocked, and he proceeded to tell me, "i was just thinking about a trip that my partner and i will be going on this fall to ORLANDO, so when you said that, i was thinking you were reading my mind!" comical. and he continued to tell me about finding cheap flights on spirit airlines, even though they had to pay extra per bag...i may have mentioned something about just taking carry-ons, and then it hit me-maybe they are shoe people, and needed extra bags for fashion accessories (you already know i've seen legally blonde- don't stomp your little last season prada shoes at me, honey!) 

so we finished and he took the after pic and gave me some business cards.
i'd taken some of my own before pics, and an after:

at school right before going to the salon

yikes...there's a lot going on back there.

after-much easier i LOVE it straight!

um...let's see. i've had two occasions now where i've had to help people open things that they couldn't find a key to...cue macgeyver music!! and yes, believe it or not, it worked on both occasions!

i really wasn't sure about the 2nd one, i impressed myself! 

and i should've known better than to purchase aleve gel caps before a training day in dallas. i even thought about not leaving them in the car, but i figured, it's just 8 hours. not my most brilliant moment ever! i ended up with a large clump of aleve. i had to cut the pill bottle from around it, and then meticulously separate as many as i could with a little twisting, pulling, some of the capsules popped and got gooey, but i was able to extract most of them from the lump of pain-killing-nastiness.

what made me think that leaving them in the car for 8 hours was remotely okay? 

and earlier this week we had a request from a campus that was needing some help in their implementation of all in learning. we've been using it for quite awhile now, and so i told them we'd love to spend some time walking them through it and showing them the important things, and giving some tips about how to best roll it out on their campuses to get the results they were looking for. well, i thought it might be a good idea to extend the invitation to some other coaches in our feeder pattern so that we weren't getting a bunch of separate requests-let's knock it all out at once! so today we had a small training with coaches from three different campuses and it went well-hopefully they felt better about it when they left than when they arrived!

and today on the way out, i saw this-the teacher transcribed what the student had written and it made me happy.

i don't understand it, but that's okay, it made me smile!

week one is over...we did it!
we've still got a way to go, but we will get there!

julie

breaking in, identity theft and bribery #notguilty

we're so back, that it seems like a dream that i was actually ever gone for summer vacation...and i've only been back for less than a month! sigh.

one of our teachers came in the other day and could not get her projector cart open, and the doc camera and projector were locked inside. it had been another teacher's room, so she had no idea where the key was. so i decided i would break out my macgeyver skills and took a paperclip and some mini-pliers with me to see if i could help out. it took about 30 seconds to get the simple lock open, then we had to jimmy up a handle-which ended up being a large binder clip-i'm a great person to have around in a pinch! (hopefully i don't throw my shoulder out patting myself on the back...but if i do, it's alright, i go to the chiropractor tomorrow). 

simple tools folks...if there is a zombie apocalypse, you might want to be friends with me..just sayin'.

 PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT> YOU'RE WELCOME: sprouts...thank you for the new variety of chip...anything with the word bacon it is worth trying at least once!

 yesterday we had a feeder pattern collaboration day of professional development, in which coaches delivered a variety of topics on information relating to math, reading and language arts. i was in charge of thinking maps. i did not script out what i was going to say, but i said pretty much the same thing throughout the day- 5 one-hour sessions. the morning sessions weren't full, so the other presenter and i presented together because i was more familiar, and i knew it would be helpful to her to hear it all, and add in what she learned. so we did that for two of the sessions. i will say that i enjoyed presenting by myself more than presenting together, as i like to perform alone-it's like an interactive monologue. it went well, and it seemed like the participants appreciated the information, and found ways to make it applicable in their content area.

i had two of our cabell teachers in my last session asking where the candy was. they said everyone else had candy in their sessions-i laughed and said i didn't need candy because my session was THAT good, besides, i'm funny enough that once we got going no one even missed the candy! they did NOT need me to bribe them to pay attention, i was engaging (does it count if i amused myself?)the real reason was that candy is so stinkin' expensive, and i had purchased two large bags for the day we gave the dry technology training..it was like a consolation treat: sorry you had to be here! so i had spent my candy budget for the year.

at 4:30, as i was walking out, i was very conscious of the throbbing in my feet! yikes. when i got back to the apt, i got my mail, then i took my shoes off in the car, and then i parked in front of my building. i took my shoes off prematurely, as the temps were in the 100's...forgot how hot the pavement was, and every pause-getting things out of the back seat, then out of the trunk, was painfully warm on the tender bottoms of these white feet-it almost made me forget how much they were aching...until i walked in my door.

this morning when i woke up-still aching. so i took a shower-this seemed to help a bit.

then i went out to the storage closet to look for an outfit for today's convocation. we were told to come dressed as our favorite artist, writer, entertainer...so i had pulled a few outfits, but when i looked at them this morning, nothing really struck my fancy, so i looked again, and chose to go as brett michaels/POISON. this was a comfortable choice, and i submit that posing as someone else isn't fraudulent if no one asks for your autograph...even with the inflatable guitar (that lost its air halfway through). i was very proud of our CABELL group, though. almost everyone came decked out, and ready to play. they were up out of their chairs dancing most of the time, they were chanting even when it seemed somewhat inappropriate, they did an amazing job!! what a great team to work with!

props to abby, our art teacher-for the prop!

with my fellow coach from caillet, and cabell's new principal. 

 when we got back to campus, it was back to business, working on unit planning, and meeting with the jiv daya foundation for a training on the kindles that our 3-5 teachers will be integrating into their blended rotations! it's going to be great-what a wonderful resource!!

i was asked at the training i did for thinking maps if coaches could be "contracted out" to other campuses. i laughed. i asked what campus she was at, and when she told me deally, i had to smile, because i absolutely adore her assistant principal, who was a fellow on our campus and a firecracker-hard worker! and i told her that if she talked to wendy, and wendy asked me, i would definitely be willing to talk to my principal about that possibility. i was just happy that she thought the training was valuable enough to take back to her campus to share campus-wide. smile.

i was also approached today by the principal at a campus near ours, who was also a fellow at our campus, and very similar personality to wendy-passionate about student learning and a sense of urgency like no other, and she asked if i might be able to train their staff on DRA, so i will be doing that on friday, amidst working with our staff on lesson planning and finishing up in their rooms with set-up and preparations for next week when the kids come!

we need to find the rest of these on our campus! 

 now i have a list of things that i would like to complete, but i am not certain i will finish them by next week. i am really excited about tomorrow, though, because we have a rep from MYON coming in to do a real PD Training for our teachers so that they can see the power in it, and how to use it to it's max potential, using the records to collect data, and lexile levels for students to create goals. hopefully andrea and i will get a chance to do some planning around tuesday lesson planning meeting protocols and registering for a training. good times. 

too little time, and still so much to do...hopefully this isn't a foreshadowing of what the year is going to entail! yikes!

julie

here we go-countdown!

yep...it's over. summer is officially over. i've been back on campus since august 3rd. so when i say countdown, you may be thinking...countdown to students coming. and while this may be true, i'll bet most teachers have looked at their calendars and already marked out each break...countdown to thanksgiving! countdown to Christmas! countdown to spring break! countdown to summer!!!!! it's natural. it's not on purpose-this is natural, it happens to us all, and teachers, you shouldn't feel guilty about this! as long as you're living in the moment and making things happen in your classroom, it's ok to have your countdown!

i've had meetings, new teacher academy meetings, technology training, MAP assessment training, presented our professional development pd, went to social emotional learning training yesterday and today regurgitated the technology training that we went to. we tried to make it fun, but it was probably about as fun as eating cardboard with no water to wash it down. and tomorrow we continue...yay. 

i wish i had some awe-inspiring words, but i do not. what i will say is that this is going to be a long year-an uphill climb, perhaps....and by up hill, i mean looking straight up a rock face with crags and small handholds and footholds for the climbing. thing is, most climbers will tell you, the excitement is in the challenge. you don't feel the sense of exhilaration unless you've experienced a good challenge.

as you know, our principal was promoted to an executive director position. our AP took a position closer to home. our counselor transitioned to the new personalized learning high school. our nurse...not sure what happened, but we found a new one for this year. our speech teacher-was moved to another school. we have several new teachers (which is totally great-they will fit right in and be an asset to our team; very competent and hand-selected). what we didn't expect was that we are now losing our personalized learning coordinator as well. this is a blow, because he literally pulled everything together and molded so many of the ideas for this program, and now we won't have him helping to ensure that the vision stays its course. we worked so hard last year and put in so many hours trying to piece together a vision that made sense. my only hope is that somehow it maintains some of its integrity as we move forward.

one of the nice things-i'm not sure who repainted the teacher lounge, but it got a face-lift last week. it's fresh, and it reminded me a little of my summer vacation, so i'll have that to help get me through the year!

great beach-y colors, shells, beach pics....

somewhat random native american framed art on the wall...maybe because it speaks of the sea?

***fast forward to friday***
so, the technology training that we  had to got to present, was on wednesday, and fortunately andrea-my co-coach (sounds like i'm stuttering, right? but don't be fooled-i'm not). we weren't certain who all would be in our group, but fortunately all our our new teachers plus a few others were in our group. this was good, because we were able to then say to our teachers-these tools are available to you, but we use some different tools as well.  it was brutal, a total relief when it came to the final slide!

from there, i went to my chiropractor, and signed in, got adjusted and then as she was checking my spine, she found a spot that made me jerk (an area on my lower back had been bothering me); she used her magical little tool and i kid you not, that area wasn't bothering me as i walked up the stairs to my apartment when i got home! #imabeliever ...before i actually left, dr. bree said, "so, i'll see you...tomorrow? monday?" tomorrow? OH NO!! my days are still off-i'm on summer schedule (where i don't have to keep track of what day it is); it was wednesday, and my appointments are mondays and thursdays. dr. bree laughed and said she just figured i was making up my own schedule! fortunately they didn't have any other patients, and she didn't even blink about changing it up. that's part of what i love about this office-they are all about accommodating clients. and she said, "besides, it seems like you needed it!" 

actually, before i walked up the stairs to my apartment, i made a stop at the new walmart superstore on midway, and i was impressed by the floor. yes, the floor. it was a really sharp looking poured cement...loved it. i went to purchase a kettleball for some home exercising(mostly because i saw a great post on my friend, lo's wall)-i was also interested in getting some swimming goggles for onion-cutting(because i saw brandy's onion goggles, and shea said she just used her swimming goggles...novel idea), but unfortunately, their end-of-summer inventory was out. boo. i guess i'll just be looking like gene simmons when i cut my onions until i can find some-or remember to look. anyhoo, when i approached the cashier, she looked at the kettleball and got a confused look on her face, "what's that?" i proceeded to tell her, and as she lifted it, "woah! what are you going to do with that?" "are you going to need help getting that to your car?"  "do you want me to bag that?"(no, you'd have to triple bag it...it already has a handle). "good luck with that thing!" 

yesterday we were back on campus, and i had the opportunity to observe some great presentations by our teachers at cabell. they were prepared, and had useful information to share. we had the pd sessions set up in a 'choose your own session' rotation. then in the afternoon, we had some mission and vision work.

after our sessions, we had an interview for a position at our school, then i got a phone call from ashley, our fearless p.l. leader at the district level. she called to see if i could come down to the admin building the next morning to be a part of a podcast series, and give voice to what is happening with personalized learning on the ground. so i agreed to do it, as it was last minute, and i was pretty sure she probably asked me because kristen and vanessa may have pulled the ol' "ask julie, she'll do it" card.

yep, i'm a glutton for punishment-i agreed to do it, which meant getting up earlier and leaving to battle traffic-which fortunately wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it might be. when i got back to campus, i was immediately snagged at the door to help someone look at their room and figure out how to organize it, and then i had another coach meeting me, as we were planning to collaborate for a thinking maps pd that we have to present for our feeder pattern next week. i was called to the office, before an interview, to have a discussion with our executive director on where we are with our personalized plc and pd plans. it sounds like we are pretty much on the same page in the direction that we're going. (WHEW!) 

after our interview, andrea and i had a meeting with my academic facilitator, with whom we discussed protocols for the coming year. toward the end of our meeting she said the one thing she was a little worried about was the check-in process, because there were a lot of teachers involved. we suggested creating a form for teachers to check in by QR code, like we've been using for our school pd meetings. i hope this is the solution that she was looking for! i love sharing the wealth of knowledge that we've accumulated over the past year! (thanks sean!)

it was great to get home today and be able to walk the boys because the temp was under 100! so we took a long walk and i was so proud of bruno, because this is the longest walk that we've gone on since his surgery, and i let him off his leash to go at his own pace. he did a great job! we stopped by the mailbox, and i had to stop by the office for a package-mail is wonderful, but a package? now THAT's a treat!!

i think i mentioned that hellen gave me a gift package while i was in miami to bring back to the boys-if you aren't up to date, chaco is the toy-loving dog. anything with a squeaker...so i gave him the reindeer first and he almost got whiplash swinging that thing around...he was able to get to the main squeaker in the belly and start ripping out the stuffing, so i went ahead and pulled all of the stuffing so that he could continue playing with it...he went to town-so i put him up for a minute, and he proceeded to find the stuffed bone toy-and got to the squeaker and stuffing...he's ridiculous.

shakin' it out. #happypup

and that my friends is how the new school year begins!

julie

last day- it's still all about the food!

did i mention that shea ran out of toothpaste just before we started our weekend adventures? no worries, because i had plenty! i don't know that this is important, but i thought it was funny-so on monday i decided that it would be an excellent parting gift, so that she didn't have to use all of lily's person's toothpaste during the week! it's true.

monday morning, shea went to work and it was not a beautiful morning-i had thought about getting up and going to the beach, but it was raining, so instead, i got some stuff done and took a quick trip to for some items for the flight attendants (if they so happened to be amazing), and so it was that i met hobby lobby and target of bradenton. while i was at hobby lobby, i got a txt from shea-that meant she was free and ready for lunch. so i set WAZE to take me to IMG to pick her up. she gave me instructions for the gate and where to go after that. the only problem, was that WAZE took me to the back entrance. so the gentleman at the entrance looked at me like i was an idiot using some directions app and said, "well, the HR dept is actually on the other side." i wasn't sure because i saw the 'blue tent' that shea said she'd meet me at...but i followed his instructions and turned around anyway to go to the main entrance...it made sense.

i took his instruction and i went to the front gate and the lady there made a little tag for me to put in my window and sent me around to round-about and..i couldn't remember...did the lady say take a spot in the reserved parking area, or did she saygo to the blue tent is in front of the reserved parking area. i opted to pull into a spot, not being certain. then i worried that i was going to get in trouble for parking in someone's spot...and if i was pulled into this spot, how would shea recognize the back end of this rental car? so i decided to pull out and just wait in the loading zone by the blue tent, but i wasn't sure if it was one way or not, and i didn't see any signs. so i sent a txt to ask shea, then i got tired of waiting, so i backed out, and that's when i saw the ONE WAY painted on the pavement. so i pulled out and drove around the parking lot to get back to the bus-loading zone. while i was waiting, i watched a mother saying goodbye to her kids-she must have been leaving them for sports camp. she pulled away, so i pulled forward and waited. within minutes, my thoughts were disrupted by a little tap at the window and a, "look what i found! someone you might know!" when i looked up, there was morgan! (no, not morgan freeman, i know, popularity has it's benefits, but even better, it was morgan, a kanakuk gal!) we had a very brief greeting, then we had to take off so that shea could get back for her appointment.

like 'cheers' only better! 

one of the joints i'd been wanting to eat at was the starfish- a small cash-only, dock restaurant, it doesn't get any fresher than that! so we got a little sampler with shrimp and scallops with hush puppies and an order of calamari. then we found a spot under the roof, as it was still a little wet with possibility of more rain. while we waited, we went around to the little shop up front and i got to see where they sold their fresh fish, and some other fun little ocean-type art and knick knacks.

we got there at just the right time, because it started to get busy right after our food came. fresh sea food! it was delicious! i enjoyed every piece! sadly, i had never enjoyed the calamari and scallops i'd previously had, perhaps due to the fact that it had not been fresh...my take on these items is that they were just naturally rubbery. i am so thankful that i finally got to taste each of these items exactly as they were meant to be! and in the atmosphere it was meant to be eaten in, as well!

the view out-where the fishermen are!

the view in- where the consumers are!

old-man bird

from there, we had time to stop at the sea hagg. this place will surprise you! looking at it as you drive by, which we had done many times, it seems like a junk yard of crazy. shea knew better-she'd been there before. so when we went in, it was like a salvage yard along with some artsy sea-faring type decor. definitely the place to go for unique pirate/mermaid/ship-faring decorating ideas.

medusa mermaid? coral peacock hair...#mermaidproblems

yargh! a pirate's life for shea!

oh my...what's a girl to do when the shark jumps over the bridge to maul your arm? 

you can barely see the scratch gouge from the ripped flesh anymore, but trust me, it was there!

 some stuff was inexpensive, while other items were quite pricey. shea was eyeing some great ship wheels (the steering mechanism), which would probably rip the plaster and dry wall right off the studs if you tried to hang it-they were heavy, but beautiful! and they pics of mermaids that made me blush-apparently not all mermaids are as modest as ariel. #mermaidproblems

we didn't purchase anything, but shea found a back scratcher-tried doing creepy baby hands with it, but the skin type wasn't an exact match...

baby-hands are much more convincing without the pricetag...and when the skin color matches...but i still think it'd be a great item to have available in the office!

we went back to IMG, because shea had to get back to work and i had to make my way off to tpa airport. we stopped at her car and i grabbed 3 shark teeth to prove that yes, we'd really gone hunting! i'd kinda' like to take one in when we go for the boys' teeth cleaning in a couple of weeks and tell the new vet (who i've not yet met), that bruno lost a tooth, and i just wanted to make sure it didn't alter his ability to rip flesh....thoughts?

anyhoo, i drove up to tpa in the rain and i was beginning to miss it already. WAZE was kind enough to spot the traffic and reroute me around it, but i still got to the car rental place about an hour later than i had originally rented the car for-thankfully, the little guy didn't charge me!

if you look closely, the drops on the windshield-they are not rain...they are tears from the angels wishing i didn't have to leave..they know...they feel my pain!

as i got into the shuttle, there was only one other lady, and as i sat down, my google hangouts video called, but i somehow got cut-off and decided against calling back. the gal and i ended up conversing a little about the area and before you know it, we were at the airport and the skycap got me all checked in.

that night, i received the best text ever! i'm pretty sure i got it while i was in stl on a layover, and i laughed! so i must share it- the time lapse! hopefully it will play with the music! (boo- it wouldn't load)

 i guess i'll just have to add this one-just for fun because i found it on my drive!

officially it was over. i knew it was so when the airplane pulled into dallas love, and it took 20 minutes for the baggage to arrive...and i called the lyft driver to take me home at 20 past midnight.

so yes, it's all about the food, but let's be very clear-the food isn't nearly as good nor as fun without the friend/s! having the opportunity to eat and laugh and play with this amazing friend of mine convinced me that perhaps bradenton, fl needs me.

sigh. ready for the next trip!
julie

flying alligator beats vampire. shark beats flying alligator, vampire shark beats all!

so we got to the condo and as late as it was getting, there was really only one thing to do: eat a little ice cream and watch the only thing on worth watching-friends re-runs, and then i was off to bed and out!

the morning brought sunshine! it was AWESOME! and we determined that breakfast would be simple muffins from dunkin donuts, because shea had experienced her first blueberry muffin from said establishment, and was impressed (it was a bit of a fumble the way she found out she liked them, but a great story-you'll have to ask her about)!

we were driving in the general direction of the DD, and shea was worried we may have passed it (not scared worried, more like 'hmm...where could it be'-worried). so she asked siri, and the closest location that siri was willing to give us was about 37 miles away...but shea was POSITIVE there was one just ahead, so i kept my eyes peeled-there it is, no it's not, yes, yes, that's it on the right! (strangely the logo wasn't normal...it was dunkin, alright, but usually the words are stacked, these were written horizontally, and not in the color scheme). so we pulled in and went to the counter. i ordered my blueberry muffin, coffee and diet coke (you'll be happy to know that since vacation, i haven't partaken of diet coke-going to make the effort to cut back! again..). i handed the girl a $20 and she didn't have change, so she said she'd go to the back to get change. so we waited. after a minute or two, another gal came up, i imagine a manager, and said 'change-girl' would be right back, but she'd go ahead and get the drinks ready for the next in line and looked right past shea-who MUST have been wearing her invisible ring...one ring to rule them all....anyhoo, in the meantime, the other gal must have gone to the mint to print out some money and stamp some coins, because it took forever. manager-type told me i could get a diet coke from the cooler to the left, so when i went to said cooler, TRAGICALLY, there was only regular coke and some off brand of crazy drink, so i told her that, and she looked baffled! (money bags had still not returned). the manager-type went back to get a refund for me when the other gal finally returned with the change.

i think everyone else's orders went smoothly. no wonder siri was so hesitant to direct us to them-that dd was a hot mess! and she was just trying to spare us!

we arrived at lily's home, and this adorable little cocker spaniel was soft as velvet! but of course, she's a 'DESIGNER DOG!' shea had to find the can-opener and so we looked everywhere! where in the world could it be?! well, we took her for a little walk around the neighborhood and around the pond, stopping at an older neighbor's home to let her know shea would be there all week to take care of lily. it was very obvious that this was a place of treats and comfort. she knew exactly where the treats were, and what to do to get them! we left after a few minutes to continue around the pond, and shea went through the scenario of what she would do if walking lily and an alligator appeared. it sounds like she'd have a new handbag (not that she'd use it), and an alligator paw (that, she would find a way to use....like my creepy baby hands, no doubt!).

we then took off on another day of adventure-ca' d' zan (house of john..RINGLING!)  and shark tooth hunting!

first stop: the grounds of the john ringling, of the ringling brothers-like big-top circus! wow! the grounds are beautiful! the house is probably spectacular, the view from the back 'patio' certainly is...and the trees all over the grounds were imported from a plethora of countries. the obvious favorite were the massive banyan trees-humongous! fascinating- it would certainly have been fun to be a kid around here, playing hide and seek among these beauties! definitely a relaxing, quiet area.

entrance- welcome!

fascinating mix of trees and plant life!!

back side of the mansion that looks out to the bay

pic of me taking pic-LOOK AT THIS PATIO! just waiting for a party! (and by party i mean like 5-10 close friends-anything else is just over-population).

check out the architecture! beautiful!

ASLAN's table! 

someone hiding from the busy-body guards on constant patrol

we didn't pay for the tour of the house or the museum, but i'm sure it's very interesting (not nearly as interesting as the beach, but perhaps for a stormy day adventure). we did sit in the little tourist intro movie that tried to talk us into purchasing tours...and learned that there is a great video about john and mable, and that after john had passed, one of the directors purchased/imported an italian theater-house and that is where they hold many of their spectacular shows on site. all about the show...THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!

just so you can get an idea of the immensity

dog's eye view! woof woof!

must have at least one 'leaping for joy' pic

once we had enough pics, we went down to venice-a beach called caspersen beach, with darker sand. my understanding is that there is a reef not too far offshore where the nurse sharks come to breed..have babies...and when the babies lose their teeth, the current washes them ashore. so we stopped at walmart on the way there to acquire some gear-88 cent plastic strainers-what all of the professional shark-tooth hunters are using these days- WE SPARED NO EXPENSE! when we arrived on the beach, we staked our claim to a little plot of beach and began the process of collecting. when the waves roll in, and out, a ledge of shells, coral and such accumulates. that's the place to scoop from. so we began to rinse, sift and sort...rinse, sift and sort, with our professional gear.

shea taught me how the pros do it...find a tooth and hold it in your mouth until you have enough to put into the collection container. as i was doing this, i kept imagining tomorrow's headlines: IDIOT DIES OF STOMACH PERFORATION BY SHARKS TEETH-NOT A SHARK BITE! jrob, did you get your tongue pierced? umm. no, shark tooth accident.

so we didn't fill the container to the mark we were shooting for..i suppose that just gives me a reason to return! 

for real, though, finding treasure is exciting! 

this is pretty much an independent sport, so while i was working, i had a lot of time to think about some very deep things. i came to the conclusion that shark DEFINitelY beats vampire. hands down, no contest. EVERY time. sorry, not sorry, twilight fanatics. yep, shark wins EVERY time, unless..it's vampire shark. in that instance, i believe VAMPIRE SHARK WINS. here's the thing, shea spoke with authority on the issue and claimed that shark even beats flying alligator, because flying alligator's arms just aren't long enough to punch shark on the sensitive part of the snout, like the surfer dude...particularly during sharknado.

toward the end of the hunt, the water continued to get rougher, and it actually bowled me over at one point and i scraped my leg up on the coral and shells...i mean, a shark bit me, yeah, that's it! AND he drew blood trickles from these legs of steel. time to go before becoming shark bait. i tried to get some of the sand out of my suit before we left, but i fear i may have actually allowed more sand in! i even tried to rinse out a little at the public shower by parking, but you can only do so much before it is frowned upon and is considered borderline illegal..i mean, there were children present! ;) even at that, i had a little beach when i took a shower back at the house. one-piece suits are NOT the way to go when at the ocean.

my shark bite--battle wounds. you should see him!

we rinsed off, picked up lily and still made it back to tide tables for my last fish tacos-shea was feeding my addiction in hopes of winning over a #teambradenton...it may be working, as i am STILL dreaming of fish tacos! and the sunset did not disappoint! i could imagine myself as a regular there-lily was comfy-i'm sure the boys would love lounging by the causeway on the dock!

lily, the designer dog!!

you can barely see the rainbow, because the sky was already so beautiful!

and why WOULDN'T you want to come here at every possible opportunity?

the view, the smell, the company, the food- cue pharrell williams with HAPPY!

after dinner checking out the 'back-up-dock'

so we went back to lily's and shea continued trying to figure out how to make the time-lapse work, but had still not figured it out by the time i went to bed. but apparently overninght, something uploaded/downloaded/synced...idk, but shea said it something had worked with the app, and she was going to try to figure it out and pull it all together.

oh, so that can-opener that we couldn't find from the beginning of the post? well, shea got a text from lily's mom, and it was hidden in plain sight-camouflaged, if you will...#moderngadgets now we know!

next post: last day and traveling home.
julie

and another weekend begins-no damp spirits here!

rain. boo.

FORTUNATELY, we're not afraid of the rain!! nothing can dampen our spirits! i met shea at her house, and waited as she packed up what we would need for the weekend. her roommates had their baby, and the last thing we really wanted to do was be in the way while family was there and they were trying to settle in with baby!

it actually worked out well that shea had animal sitting appointments. so on friday and saturday night we would be staying in st. petersburg, in a beautiful condo with an amazing view of the bay! but before we would get there, we had to grab dinner. this was the one area that we decided to try something not on the 'list.' shea has this great list of eateries and entertainment, but not as much, yet, for the st. petersburg area, so we put our eating experience into the hands of yelp. where would it lead us?

we ended up at station 9, because it sounded like a fun little spot. it was another little burger joint with a huge selection of burgers! we had very similar burgers, and they were pretty amazing! i had more burgers on this florida trip than i've had over the past 4 months in dallas-but they were perfect! it was cold with the air on and having just come out of the rain, but we were able to overcome the discomfort of the cold-over-comers that we are. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! i mean...the aesthetics of the knife-game over!

burgers for real people!

 how do you cleanse your palate after gourmet burgers? the only thing i can think of is kilwins! back by popular demand! now just to find it. so we drove around in the rain looking for kilwins (deceptively disguised because the front of the awning said: CHOCOLATES, FUDGE, ICECREAM with the KILWINS name on top of the awning at an angle, difficult to see in the rain), it took longer than expected to locate! but through perseverance and dedication.. more perseverance.. excellent google skills, we located it, and now to find parking on this busy little strip! apparently everyone on the peninsula had decided that due to rain complications, they would go to the movies-aargh! after a few minutes, driving around about a 4-block radius, we found a spot near a park and then walked over in the light drizzle, through swampy grass-no worries!

we may or may not have entered the ice cream shop and purchased 2 pints of mixed ice creams...i mean..maybe. shea ran back to the car to pull it around, while i protected our frozen assets-our investment! with just a little bit of rain, the paper bag was subject to disintegration...i had to be very careful-in my mind, i may have dubbed myself: PROTECTOR OF THE MIXED PINTS. 

when we arrived at the condo, i met mushka (sp?) the skinny, drunk, black cat. he really was super sweet, he just needed some love and attention and a little tuna...ok, a lot of tuna! i was given strict orders to not wake shea up at an ungodly hour (which translates to anything before 8:30/9-ish), so although it was raining outside, it was still a great view. i had some coffee and watched the clouds rolling by and jotted down the events of the past few days so that i would be able to write them up. when shea came out, she brought her go-pro to try to figure some things out-time-lapse, particularly; not quite figured out, we decided to go for breakfast.

rainy and still beautiful!

if it doesn't bother the birds, why should the rain bother us?!

 the rain was not letting up-oh well. off to the sea horse, in pass-a-grille for breakfast! i didn't ask where the name for the area arose. is it because it's so small that if you walk more than 400 foot in any direction down main street, you'll 'pass a grille'...or because the homes are so close, you could look over your neighbors fence and if you were in need for your little cookout, "hey, neighbor, could you pass a grill?" umm....well, none of these sounded quite right, so i looked it up, and the story can be located here. oh, and p.s. if you go more than 400 ft in either direction from the middle of main street, you'll be in the ocean on one side, and in the bay on the other! i understand it has been known to be called the shortest main street in america at one time...

the sea horse was an excellent call for breakfast, though, we split blueberry pancakes, half-order of biscuits and gravy, and a sausage omelette- it was just too difficult to choose! again thankful for sharers! and afterward, we walked around the little stretch to see what all was there-not much, apart from the little crossover suv that looked like an alien foil ship; seemed like a hazard for other drivers with the reflection from the sun! fortunately for our retina, there was no sun-YET!

we were hoping for farmers market to get a few of the necessities for grilling at the beach with lo and mitch, but unfortunately it was rained out, so publix, it was...and of course i would have to use the restroom while they were cleaning it-he did a way thorough job, as i had to wait impatiently for him to finish-by which time most of the shopping had actually been completed.

we kept praying for the rain to clear out-because grilling in the rain is nothing like singing in the rain-even with friends. and as promised by the weather service, it was indeed clearing. we got to the fort desoto state park, and saw the electronic sign informing that there was exotic tree removal going on. shea was certain it said exotic animal (although to be fair, she was glancing/driving). so we drove out to the northern-most part of the park and found lo and mitch waiting. it was SO good to see lo again after way too many years, and a pleasure to finally meet mitch. unfortunately, they were, in fact, removing exotic trees-or rather they had already removed them. sadly, that was where we were going to put up the hammocks. devastation. we unloaded by the shelter and talked for a bit over beet humus, carrot humus and chips. i wasn't sure about the different flavors, but surprisingly pleasing to the taste-buds! good call, lo and mitch!

they showed me the stumps that had long been their area. sad day-all of the good hammock trees-GONE! and to what end? apparently it was supposed to stop the erosion that the trees were causing-when they were originally planted to stop the erosion in the first place. australian pines...like i said, sad day. we ended up finding some evergreen shrubs that were big enough and strong enough to support the weigh of the hammocks! it was a fair little area, and we were able to watch a couple of guys out doing some kite-sailing-that looked like a lot of fun!

 anyhoo, we set up (are you getting the point that it was relaxing vacation?), talked and laughed. then shea pulled out the paddle board and caught some shots with the go pro-i mean, this is exactly they type of thing it was made for!

from the comfort of a hammock-make due without the australian pines!

don't be deceived, it was rougher than it looks!

shea and lo-roommates reunited!

 after a few hours, the water was beginning to slowly creep up onto our beach. we kept an eye on it, but stood our ground lay our ground (lay being the past tense of lie) and before heading in to grill by the shelter, it was necessary to try hanging the three hammocks horizontally in a stacked formation. with these crazies in them! good times-

mitch did the man-thing and got the fire started, while we pulled out the veggies and shrimp and skewered them up. we'd chopped the veggies earlier and shea proved that not only can she PLAY soccer (by the way her co-ed team just won their championship trophy for this weekend's game), but also she would make a formidable soccer mom-she thought to bring plates and forks-utensils are a plus!

look at those skewers and mushrooms!

"let's pretend we're really grilling." because this looks like a candid shot of really grilling, right?

you can't hurry grilling...but you can make it more fun, just add friends!

all we could do was hope and pray that everything would finish cooking in time, as the park closes at sun-down and we were dancing dangerously close to that fine line, you've probably heard the lyrics "you can't hurry love," well, i wouldn't know too much about that, but i DO know that you can't hurry chicken and shrimp- not if you want to avoid freakish digestive failures. chicken-almost ready! pretty sure lo and i were both a little worried about salmonella. the sun went down, and...along comes a truck speeding across the grass-the park ranger had to let us know it was time to leave. and of course we were doing our best to make it look like we'd been packing up and preparing to leave. so he went to tell the one last family that it was time to leave, and sat in his truck waiting for the last car to pull out. can't believe they weren't willing to extend the hours due to the rain delay! my understanding is that shea is habitually one of the last visitors to help shut the park down-why should this day have been any different?!

sunset

shea had a plan- so we wrapped everything up in the foil and stored it in the brand new cast-iron skillet to christen it, and moved our party to the marina, not too far off, where shea was certain she'd seen picnic tables before.. mitch and lo followed us to a gas station where we turned in and drove around the parking lot toward the back warehouse area, and i'm sure they were wondering where in the world we were taking them, then we all saw it-the picnic tables! sigh of relief-and the food was delicious and conversation exciting-so fun to hear about their plans and all that is about to happen for them! i pray all moves along smoothly!

we've given the skillet its first flavor! 

and we're not quite done yet-more to come!
julie