100 things #38 It has only happened to me 4 times in a lifetime ...

The conditions have to be perfect ... and the warm shallow water on Deerfield beach this 4th of July was just right.


These photos of another family staying at our hotel, playing on a giant surf board/small sailing device shows just how shallow the water was that day.




David and I were floating on our floats and a woman shouts out to me "what is that behind you? a giant stingray?" I turned around to look and it was giant all right, but it was not a stingray. It was only a few feet away from me and while everyone else started heading back towards shore, I headed straight to it in hopes finally getting to touch one in the wild. It was a manatee ... not a very old one but still quite large.


They typically hang out in brackish water canals here, but when the water becomes warm enough they occasionally head for the sea. This is only the the forth time in a lifetime that I've seen one in the wild, I was close enough to count his whiskers and do wish I could have photographed it.

Later that evening I spoke to the lady that shouted out the warning, she said she wanted to ask if it was a shark but choose not to use the "S" word.

Although David did not necessairly share my excitement and desire to get as close to the big guy as I could, he did see him and he also saw the mother and calf from Hillsboro pier with me a month or two ago. I'm lucky to have such a close friend to share so many of life's amazing moments with.

100 things #37 Giving comes easy for me ...

but it's the art of gracious receiving that is still sometimes a challenge. Last night I celebrated my birthday with my family... Mom and Dad, Theresa and Chris and Brittney and Eddy. I am very fortunate to have such a close knit family and even though our schedules are beyond hectic we still squeeze in time to celebrate each other when it's time. I really, really love my family.

Back to gracious receiving ... the gifts I got last night are not gifts you pick up at the mall and wrap in perfect paper, they were thought filled and fun really, really fun. I want to make sure the givers of these gifts know how excited I am to have received them.

This is my sister ...

This is Larry, an artist that works for my sister at Party Perfect.

This is a painting that my sister had Larry paint for me for my birthday. Several years ago I gave my sister a birthday card with a similar face on it. She loved the sister card then and has loved it since, it's framed and near her desk at work.

I love, love, love, love, love the painting ... and once it's framed, I have the perfect place to hang it.

This is my niece Brittney ...




This is the box filled with blinking rings, a boa, glowing bracelets and necklaces a carnation wrist corsage, some lucky dice and a $20 bill for our trip to the casino after dinner. A winners costume if ever there were one.



We didn't stay long but we did enjoy ourselves for a little while, I won a few bucks and could have been gracious enough to share the wealth so all of us could have enjoyed ourselves a little while longer while giving it all back to the casino ... I opted not to do that. I've got a baby shower for my daughter coming up in a few weeks so having a couple of extra bucks wont hurt.

I want to thank my Mom and Dad for being the backbone of our family and always supplying the glue that holds us together, for buying dinner last night and the shopping $$$.

I should not leave Chris and Eddy out, Chris did take my sister off my Mom and Dad's hands 24 years ago and has taken good care of her ever since. Thank you for that Chris. Their anniversary is on my birthday so we celebrate together every year.

Eddy is Brittney's boyfriend, I love watching the two of them together. Eddy was the boy next door when Brittney was a kid, who would have thought that he would become so important to our family once he grew up? Thank you Eddy for being such a good friend to Brittney.

It's been a Happy, Happy Birthday for me so far, A weekend with David in Deerfield, a birthday celebration luncheon yesterday at work and tonight I get to celebrate with some of my closest girlfriends. I feel blessed.

100 things # 36 The 4th of July weekend is my birthday weekend.

Imagine a "Birthday Bash" each year, complete with parades, marching bands, spectacular firework displays, live entertainment all across town, neighborhood block parties, family vacations and "bonus" everyone gets time off work to celebrate with you!!! Pretty good, right?


My birthday is on July 6th but I have always celebrated it on July 4th for obvious reasons, this year was no exception. I ended up with both Friday and Saturday off (a two day weekend seldom happens for me) David and I took a mini vacation right in our own back yard.

Hillsboro Beach is the beach that I grew up on and is just a few miles from my house. David and I got a room there on Friday at the Seaboney Resort on the beach, this is very close to the pier where some of the best fireworks in town are displayed every year.

We opted for late check out on Saturday so we didn't have to pack up until 6:00 pm, I had to be back to work first thing Sunday morning or we would have stayed another night.

The weather was perfect, the water was warm, we soaked up the sun while floating on net rafts in the smooth as glass ocean (very rare on our beach).

We chit chatted about everything immaginable and only enterupted our sun worshiping when we needed something cold to drink or it was time to eat.

We had dinner at the Whales Rib on Friday night, I've been going to the Whales Rib for beach food since I was a kid. We had birthday cake at the Cheesecake Facrtory when we were strolling along Los Olas later that night.

The best part of the weekend happened after we checked out of the hotel at 6pm on Saturday and went back down to the beach to wait for the fireworked to begin. I've been taking not so great fireworks photos for years now, as you can see this years photos were also not so great but something makes me keep on trying. Hope everyone enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as I did mine.

100 things #35 I have a brand new favorite poem ...

David and I went to Clematis by night tonight, like we do so often on Thursday. We love the fresh air, large crowds, live music and just watching people enjoy themselves.

For the next 3 weeks the event is being held in the court yard at the new library while the construction for the new Waterfront Park is completed.

But this entry is not about Clematis by night, it's not about the band it's not about the white beaded bag I bought at a favorite consignment shop for my mom to use next weekend for her banquet, it's not about how quiet our favorite 5 corners is while construction takes place ... it's about my new favorite poem.

After we left Clematis street we took a stroll through City Place, David brought the book he just finished reading with him to share a few things with me about one my all time favorites. I don't guess I would call myself a Parrot Head per se, but I do love Jimmy Buffet. How can you grow up in Florida and not be in love with Jimmy Buffet?

Anyway ... David has taken to reading Jimmy Buffet books, this one is "A Pirates Look At 50". When ever he reads a book I often get the privilege of having him read excerpts to me (I soooo love this about him). Tonight sitting at a quiet outdoor table under the stars at City Place, he read the following poem out loud to me and I loved, loved, loved it so much that it is officially my new favorite poem.

The Double Life By Don Blanding

How very simple life would be

If only there were two of me

A Restless Me to drift and roam

A Quiet Me to stay at home.

A Searching One to find his fill

Of varied skies and new found thrill

While sane and homely things are done

By the domestic Other One.

And that's just where the trouble lies;

There is a Restless Me that cries

For chancy risks and changing scene,

For arctic blue and tropic green,

For deserts with their mystic spell,

For lusty fun and raising Hell

But shackled to that Restless Me

My Other Self rebelliously

Resists the frantic urge to move.

It seeks the old familiar groove

That habits make. it finds content
With hearth and home dear prisonment,

With candlelight and well loved books

And treasured loot in dusty nooks,

With puttering and garden things

And dreaming while a cricket sings

And all the while the Restless One

Insists on more exciting fun

It wants to go with every tide,

No matter where… just for the ride.

Like yowling cats the two selves brawl

Until I have no peace at all.

One eye turns to the forward track,

The other eye looks sadly back,

I'm getting wall-eyed from the strain,

(It's tough to have an idle brain)

But One says "Stay" and One says "Go"

And One says "Yes," and One says "No,"

And One Self wants a home and wife

And One Self craves the drifter's life.

The Restless Fellow always wins
I wish my folks had made me twins.

So ... don't we all feel like this in a way? Yes ... this is so my new favorite poem.

100 things #34 I saw a spinner shark leap from the ocean today ...

I did have my camera there but I just wasn't quick enough. The life guard (in red) and the chair guy (in blue) both saw it too, they speculate it to be about a 5 footer.

The water was warm and smooth as glass obviously the shark was feeding, not that spinner sharks are all that dangerous to humans but the swimmers were asked to get out of the water for a bit as a precaution.

It didn't take long for things to settle back in ... swimmers re- entered the water, the lifeguard went back to his post

the chair guy went back to his chair to call his friends to tell them about the shark

I went back to my blanket on the greenest grass in town ...

under the palm trees, with a big glass of ice water and a story or two from "Other Colors" a book by Orhan Pamuk. I love the way this book is written, it is a collection of short stories from his own life in Istanbul. Some stories include quick drawings ... it reminds me very much of the way we journal here.

Being able to get out a little in the morning and still have time to go home and write about it before going to work in the afternoon is one of the advantages to this crazy, crazy work schedule of mine. Living in beautiful South Florida doesn't hurt either.

Look how beautiful our beach is and have you ever seen greener grass growing so close to the ocean before?

For 12 quarters (gotta feed the meters) I got to spend 2 hours at one of my favorite beaches in the world ... Seldom does a day go by when I do not recgonize how beautiful South Florida is and how lucky I am to live here.

I grew up on this beach and it is where I feel most alive and most at home.

Mandy was here for Mothers Day and we all went to Hillsboro Beach for the afternoon I heard her tell David that anytime she was in trouble when she was growing up I would take her to this beach at night and we would talk and talk and talk until we had things straightened out. She's right, we did that dozens and dozens of times. So ... does that mean she was always in trouble?

Happy Wednesday all.

100 things #33 When I need a real creativity fix ...

I spend some with my sister and her most creative staff and I did just that this week ...

Thursday she coordinated an enormous event with an East Indian theme, I took the day off work to photograph her staff and the environment set up process.

The house where the event was held was magnificent and the grounds were a perfect backdrop for the occasion.

Now that my neice has graduated college and has become full partner with my sister she is making enormous progress in taking what my sister has worked so hard for all of these years to the next level.

I am so proud of all of them, the sky is the limit on where they go from here.

100 things #32 I'm so glad he came to say good-bye yesterday ...

5/27 much the same way he did when he graduated highschool and went off to college. This time was different though … the boy has grown into a man. He stood taller than he did 4 years ago, with much broader shoulders but with the same adorable face, good humor and genuine smile I’ve always known. He is a little younger than my own son, he’s actually the same age as Mandy and I haven’t been able to help watching with quiet admiration over the years as his parents raised him.


The boy was raised right, of course he had many advantages that our kids didn’t have but I watched as he had work for the things he has wanted over the years. I remember when he wanted a new video game as a child he would have to work for the money to get it. Before he was in high school, he started a computer repair and upgrade business of his own, he did web master services, started his own lucrative web site specializing in cigars and during hurricane season he would line up jobs for himself putting up shutters and plywood for people.

The summer he got his first car he came to work with us to pay for gas and insurance, he did that for a few years, his parents cut him slack in the fall so he could focus on school and baseball. The kid really loved baseball.


He had different jobs throughout his 4 years of college including one summer back with us doing confirmation … so nice to have him around, really ... it was nice to have him around.



Last year though he took a PT job as an assistant with a company that recruits minor league baseball players and worked real to hard make himself valuable. Now that the person he was assisting is moving on and he has graduated college , they have offered him an amazing opportunity to come aboard.


This week he is moving to Orlando into a house with 3 other guys that work for the same company, they will be sending him on an extended trip to Africa on assignment. I think I heard of plans to take a safari as well as to see the pyramids while he’s there.


No doubt the next 2 years will bring amazing opportunity his way and then it will be time to focus again on school for at least another 4 years. I think that eventually he will end up back with us … the earning potential in our company is enormous for people in that family and when he comes back he will bring with him his new real world experience. So glad he came by yesterday to say good-bye.