the flashing lights may be trying to tell you something

just before Thanksgiving, we may or may not have gotten over to the farmhouse for donuts-love that place in part for the ambiance! check out their decor, how could you not love it?!

classy donut joint!

 and that put me in the mood to pull out some of my own decorations to get into the season. no tree, though. i did a live tree a few years ago and that was the extent of my tree adventures..i'll just enjoy them in public, in the movies and at other peoples' homes!

then we just went for a walk on the beach, down toward the 'tree house'. i don't recall if that makes the mile or 1 1/2 mark. either way, it's right by the fiesta house. i'm pretty sure these are not the official names, so if you're looking to book a vacation rental, don't go by my recommendations! anyhoo, a day or two later, there was a little news report on baynews 9, and they were talking about the tree house!! i saw it, and thought, surely there is not another tree house in the area! sure enough, it was 'ours' and they showed views of the inside, as the owners were talking about how the city is making them remove it. it's been there for over a year, and apparently there is something about permits, etc... they have taken it to several courts and now are trying to get a ruling from the u.s. supreme court apparently...crazy.

another random story: i'd been having some garage door difficulty. at some point it began giving me issues not closing from the car remote once i'd backed the car out. so i'd been backing the car out, going back in, and then i had to hold the wall remote button until the door was all the way down, and go out the front door. as you can imagine, it was rather inconvenient. the problem was i couldn't find the manual (i probably put it in the drawer that i blocked off as i was trying to hide some of the furniture that furnished this rental home). annoying enough that i got the stair steps out to try to read the buttons on the opener-machine part that's attached to the ceiling. i tried to reset, replacing the battery, yelling at it...and all it kept doing when i pushed that little button was: "BRRPT," pretended to come down about .0045 cm, and back up, then the light would flicker at me in a very laughing-manner. RUDE.

 well, i finally got fed up enough and remembered to google the name of the opener, and look for trouble-shooting FAQs. well, it just so happens that the flashing of the lights was it's way of talking. like the movies when someone comes out of a coma and they communicate by blinking. pretty sophisticated (stranger things, season 1, anyone?) apparently one up, four down means that the sensors are not aligned. so i got to the business of removing the lug-nut, facing the sensor out and back in to align it by looking for the green light. no green light..oh, because the idiots who rented before me must have thought it would look better if they painted over it. dummies. so after scraping the paint off, and trying to stay out of the laser line of fire, they were aligned and i tightened the lug-nut back in place...moment of truth- it worked, and i no longer have to plan an additional 10 minutes to play american ninja in order to leave my house! now if the miniature dinosaur lizards, who dwell in this area and think the garage is a rec-center, will stay off the sensor and not make it move, we'll be good; at least now i know how to fix it! (chamberlain garage door openers-improving non-verbal communication observation skills one faulty sensor at a time)

i also got crazy and chopped down some branches from the jungle of a backyard, and while i was at it, i decided it would be a good time to saw down a couple of the bamboo trees to thin them out a little. so the first one was easy, as the top had started to die and was shriveled over. so i was over-confident and decided to go for one of the giants. the key was the angle of the cut, as well as trying to get it untangled at the top without letting it get out of control and crash into the lanai. well, about a third of the way through the cut, i was thinking i probably should not have attempted this without help. i was legitimately getting worried, perhaps sweating a little. but when you're already that far along, there's no going back, or it would snap later when i wasn't out there, for sure wreaking havoc...so i kept at it, and when it was almost completely severed, still standing straight, i threw the saw off to the side and tried to push the tree in the direction i wanted it to fall...and it got tangled in the tree branches from a tree on the other side of the fence. at that point, i had to keep pushing and pulling trying to brace it and keep it from falling on the lanai, because it's merely a frame with screens. yikes. not gonna' lie, i was a little nervous, and when it finally came untangled, the top portion smacked the frame on the way down, but it was a minor smack-age.

they left a jungle out there-all we need is a panda to eat the bamboo and i'd have one less thing to worry about!

i then had to saw those pieces and now i have a little stack of bamboo (plus some that my dad and mom helped me with back in may). trying to decide what to do with them-i may just bundle them up and put them out on a yard-waste day. or i could make a raft in preparation for the next big hurricane. or i could make some bamboo furniture or rain sticks and sell it at the farmer's market...so many options, so little time!

next up- a quick little trip to the keys for work. over-nighter, which is keeping me from the Christmas get-together in miami...sad day, but i am looking forward to a good training!

may your weekends be long!
julie

november is about makeshift pie plates and friendsgiving!

okay, i'm done trying to explain my blog-failings... i've just had a hard time being consistent (no real reason). i won't go into detail about everything that has happened since the last post, but i will post some pics with short descriptors. detailed depictions will be saved for the important stuff!

Shea agreed to drive down to the bradenton 'farmers market' the week after opening week...it was not a huge event, but it was good to get down and see what they had to offer! i did get some dip season packets, and tonight i made the lobster dip and was not disappointed!

there was a clown street performer- remnant from the ringling?  perhaps!

there were a couple decent music-makers singing (far apart enough not to infringe on each other). 

since we had lily-the-dog with us, we took her for a photo shoot at a pumpkin patch, 'pretending it felt like fall.'

then we painted pumpkins and carved some pineapples...which if i'm not mistaken are still in shea's freezer waiting for pictures...

found this tree on a morning walk, and made me think of halloween-scream!

southwest keeping true to their festivities-on my way home from abq halloween day!

the following week i believe we went to emerson point park in palmetto (it's like the counter part to the desoto park in bradenton...sister parks, of sorts). the mound wasn't much to see, but there was interesting history behind it, and i believe it is probably one of the largest mounds of artifacts in the state. it was a nice easy little hike, and at one point we passed a family with a young boy playing near the water (alligator trap), and he kept saying, "mom. mommy. mom! mommy!" (like stewie on family guy...and for the record i had to look that up, because i don't watch the show, i'd just heard it on a commercial or something)...just so everyone knows, i'm pretty sure it was more annoying in real life. 

they would build up the mound, construct a temple, burn the temple down, cover the mound again and build another temple.

and yes, still trying to get in some of those morning walks; i have to get back into it after i go on trips.

i can't get enough!

one of my friends sent me the best sea glass from the great lakes! i love it! fun finds! 

i got really excited that i was able to go to FRIENDSGIVING down in miami. i need to take advantage of the proximity and try to make it down more often-seeing my HONDURAN friends means the world to me! there's something about being around people who know you from the past, and sharing a very special place, you can't replicate those friendships!  one of my friends back in dallas sent me a message saying that i looked very happy in those photos...as i thought about that, it made me think about the fact that each group of friends, from each walk of life really does own its unique, special chapter, and it would be very difficult to fully explain the feelings and experiences- but each feels like home!

i loved getting together-it'd been a couple years, and about 26 years since i saw omar, finally met luis, and it was such a treat to meet the beautiful families that i see on fb! we were missing a few faces- ricardo and stephanie had a prior engagement, and patty was also unable to make it...sad face. i believe there may be a couple more who live in the area that we are going to have to try to hit up for next year!

i got to meet some new friends from sofi's school, as well, and the kids...wow, the kids! they have not learned the tactic of de-escalating the situation yet. i loved staying with hellen, because it gives us more time to hang out and catch up-over coffee! which was exactly what we did the next morning, and in the middle of our coffee, (first breakfast, if you happen to be a hobbit), her husband came out and we got the unexpected news that the gentlemen were there to pick up the tables and tablecloths! ayayay!! so we rushed to get everything together and broke down the tables and chairs! oopsie! OH WELL!!

time flew by, and i had to go. about 10-15 min out, hellen called, and i had left the pie-plate! good thing i don't make many pies! so i planned to go back in december to collect it, unfortunately that trip won't happen because of how i'm scheduled in december...a couple last-minute things came up.

it was difficult to stay away from the appetizer table once the cheese and dips were put out! okay, the truth is we may have parked ourselves on some chairs nearby (had no one been watching, we might've pulled the chairs right up to the table...)

the tables and settings were beautiful! hellen and jacira did an impressive job putting them together! there was a beautiful light breeze, and somehow even after we weighted the vases down, one of the darned things kept blowing over....ghost of thanksgiving present?

so glad to be included with these fun ladies!

i was scheduled for a dentist appointment a couple weeks ago, so i took the day off and used the morning to get up to st. pete to the de soto fort park, because they have a dog beach! this was the first chance that i had to get the boys out to the beach! i think they might have enjoyed it had we been able to spend a little more time there! so we had fun, did a little photo shoot- our Christmas cards will feature a little beachy pic!

then last weekend, we were trying to decide whether to make a beach afternoon, or a myakka afternoon. myakka won! i hadn't been out there since i arrived in may, and it was closed for a bit with the hurricane and abundant rains over the summer! 

so, while we were there, when we got to the bird observation area, there was this car mini-van with a bunch of rubber duckies in the windshield. who does that? who puts their rubber duck collection in the window of a car mini van? i suppose it was appropriate, as we were in the bird area. after we saw that, we started walking down the deck toward the observation area, and a family was walking back-we agreed it was probably their car (out of the 5-6 out there)...we were right, they just seemed like the rubber-duckie-collecting-type. yes, there is a type, and had you seen them, i'm certain you would have been able to 'nancy-drew' it and put 2 and 2 together, as well. oh the powers of deductive reasoning.

you can see across the way, there were so many vultures!  

there were quite a few alligators out and about! 

 then for thanksgiving, i decided i would try my hand for a second time at pecan pie! i had an extra pie crust, so it just seemed right. good think walmart was open on thanksgiving day,  because i needed a pie plate (remember, i left mine in mia!). i'd remembered seeing them fairly cheap, and there had been quite a few of them before i left for friendsgiving. unfortunately my luck ran out, and there was not a single pie plate in the aisle (i looked down 3 aisles and then some!). and as i was wandering the store, they had people guarding the pallets with all the black friday stuff. #worstjobever.  anyhoo, embracing my alias (macgyver), i broke down and got the cheap cake tins...($ .88/3), can't beat that! when i got home, i cut the tin at the N,S,E, &W points...for those of you who aren't geographically oriented, the 3,6,9, &12 points... and for those of you not fluent in analog-time-keeping pieces...i cut 4 pieces to divide the plate into equal quadrants. now, for anyone lacking in geometry skills, geography skills, and time-keeping skills, sucks to be you #educationcounts.

after flattening it out a bit and adding foil to fill in the gaps after  creating 45 degree angled edges,  the cake tin becomes a pie plate! awesome. of course as i write this, i'm thinking i might've been able to grab one of the graham cracker pie plates in the cooking section and disposed of the graham cracker...s'more great ideas!

bruno got plenty of sleep-he took a nap for me!

and that's how november has been! not over yet, but it's had a great start!

so much to be thankful for!
julie