It's a tradition.

    It's a tradition to go to the beach on New Year's Day if you live in South Florida, partly because there is nothing else to do here but mostly to make our friends and family in the north a little jealous ... did it work?

     You might have seen our New Years Day beach, seagulls and pizza pictures  <--click and some of you were asking why we didn't go in the water.

      Well, it's warm enough to swim in I guess but not only are there plenty of Portuguese Man-Of-War out there this time of year but there are also some serious riptides and undertows.

     Ahhh ... note to tourist, the red flags are there for a reason, head the warnings ... please. There have been nearly 20 rescues and at least one death in the last few weeks due to these strong currents.

     BTW, if ever you are caught in a riptide, don't fight it and try to swim back to shore, swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current and then you will be able to swim in.

     I have really enjoyed my week as editors pick, there has been a lot of traffic through here in the past few days and I think I have made a few new friends along the way. I have received a lot of questions from new journalers regarding help with your journals, especially with photos and graphics.

     I remember how frustrating it was in the beginning, having to use the tiny you've got pictures box for my photos. It took quite a while to figure out that once the photos are downloaded they still have to be uploaded. (thanks Mumsy for helping me figure it out) Most people use AOL'S FTP space, I use an outside source called Photosite to upload because of some incompatibility issues with Windows XP and AOL software.

     I'm not going to pretend to have all of the answers, instead I'll send you to John Scalzi, <-- click we call him The Blog Father. AOL pays him to have the answers and he does.

     Because someone asked ... I scanned a Pauker print called reflections to make Connie's card below, I won it at an art show last year when I was in St. Thomas. I've always liked this piece, not sure why I've never framed it. Anybody recognize that beach?

     Note to Linda ...  it was sunny and near 80 again today, 66 and breezy tonight here in Boca. Want to trade places just for a day? I would love to see some snow.

                                  *** Coy ***