More Bits.....

What's going on down here???  Well, life in Florida is much more leisurely than it is in Canada....

.... Poppa and the bears are reading magazines together.....

.... Taffy is doing some cooking - this was a chicken and noodle casserole - it was very good!  Squeegie.....

... is eating - this night he was having chicken fingers with scalloped potatoes and mixed vegetables.

We bought a large but inexpensive clock and Poppa hung it on a hook that was in the wall out near the pool - so we would know when it was time to get out of the pool.

The landscapers came and dug up the paving stones in front of our house, levelled out the ground underneath (the tree roots were growing under there), and then put them back in all nice and tidy again.

Poppa hosed the dust and grit off the pool cover and then the pool deck.

Taffy was working on the computer - notice it took two fat cushions and two pairs of socks to get her comfortable.  I'm not sure what she was up to!

Mommy sent me this adorable picture of Munchie - sound asleep in his bed.  And also.....

.... this equally adorable picture of Little Smiley in slumberland.  One more thing....

.... for all you folks up in Canada - this picture was taken about a week ago in the United Kingdom!  They are having winter there too!

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney is a great place to spend an afternoon and lots of money if you are so inclined!  We love to visit, see the sights and buy souvenirs for our little men back in Canada!  There are various things to do and see.  Last year (some of you might remember) we went on the hot air balloon.  This year it wasn't available because of the gusty winds that day.  We were glad of the gusty winds since it kept us from getting too hot.  One of my favourite TV shows is CSI:New York (I think it has been cancelled recently).  The lead actor in that series is Gary Sinise - who played Lieutenant Dan in the movie Forrest Gump.  This is.....

.... the actual boat used in that movie.....

... it sits in this lagoon outside the theatre......

..... at Downtown Disney.  I did see Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band at Casino Rama a few years ago - loved his show!  Ergo, you can see why this appealed to me.  Strolling through Downtown Disney is like walking through the downtown area of any small town, except with a flair.  There are shops full of......

.... life-size dinosaurs where you can buy all kinds of things that are dinosaur related - clothing, souvenirs and toys - including a special section at the back of the store called "Build-A-Dino".  This area is just like the "Build-A-Bear" store where we adopted Taffy - a customer chooses a dinosaur and can then purchase clothes and accessories for it - Poppa had to yank me out of there fast!  There is also a dinosaur themed restaurant in there, but we strolled on down the road....

.... past the floating crab-house.  I've always wanted to go inside and see how authentic the interior looks, but we weren't there at meal-time - so I haven't seen it yet!  We wandered past the.......

... Irish Pub.  It was March 12th when we were there and there was this wonderful Irish group outside playing Celtic War Tunes.  The drums were amazing and I could have watched much longer, but the day was moving on and we had to leave.  Before I left we visited more shops and I did buy a couple of small things for the boys, so the day was a success!

One more PotD from Auntie Colleen.......

"Shaun went out for a walk in the fog early Saturday morning. He took this shot at Barnfield Point. The lone tree looks so lost and barren to me."

Thank you Uncle Shaun!  Keep getting those beautiful, haunting pictures for us!

Interesting Bits

We have often heard (and read) the stories about wild boars in Florida.  The tales of tame pigs being left to become wild are varied and very intriguing.   Poppa mentioned that sometimes they are sighted at the golf course, but although he had seen snakes and alligators, he hadn't seen a boar.  One day on our way to the Post Office Poppa asked if I had seen the boar rooting for truffles along the side of the road.  Nope!  I had missed it.  However, a little further up the road....

... this specimen....... which unfortunately appears to have been struck by a car - but I included the picture so you at least have an idea of the size of these animals who roam freely in some of the forested areas here in Florida.  The next day we drove by again and it was gone.  Poppa has chatted with other golfers about these and apparently when they come too close to habitats or others places where they get into trouble (including roads!), they become the central feature of a party which we commonly call a "pig roast"!  On a cheerier note....

.... dogs in Florida love to stick their heads out the window to catch a breeze just as much as Canadian dogs do!  What else is happening???  Well Poppa is still.....

.... working at replacing all the screws in the screen room.  He had already done all the up-and-down screws, and then started on.....

... the horizontal screws.  I think he has them all done now, except for three that he can't reach inside the screen room over the pool.  And after some recent rain ...

... he hosed off the pool cover and the deck area.  There seems to be a lot of pollen from the live oak trees and dust and ashes in the air which the rain washes through the screen.  Then this stuff works its way into the pool which causes the filter to work harder and less efficiently - and you can imagine how that bugs Poppa!  And....

... I found Poppa and Squeegie sitting on the floor in the master bedroom.....

.... and this box near by.  What were they doing?  Well, shortly after we arrived at the villa, UPS delivered this box.  David (the owner) had informed us of its impending arrival and suggested that perhaps Poppa would like to hook it up in the master bedroom to replace the old-fashioned TV that was in there.  Poppa had stalled since he was a little nervous of doing it incorrectly.  (He's amazing with older stuff, but a tad leery of the new-fangled electronics.)  He finally decided to try it and.....

... soon the two of them were choosing a channel to watch.  Eventually, everyone moved out to the sitting room to.....

.... watch on the large TV!  Last photo for this blog......

.... Little Smiley is getting to the age where he is considering careers and this is him practicing for his audition with the Chippendales!  I don't know about you - but I think he's got it!  Next blog coming soon with pics of our recent visit to Downtown Disney.

Squeegie....

.... is waiting for something.....

.... or watching something..... I wonder what it could be????  I know that Taffy....

.... is relaxing in her new sunsuit.  She was somewhat un-satisfied with the colour of those ear ribbons - and wants you to know that she bought some new ones that match better.  As for Squeegie....

.... Oh!  See that little black snake-ey looking thing handing down?  That is called Screen Spline - it holds the screen in place on the pool enclosure.  This little piece seemed to come loose on the last windy day we had.  Of course, Poppa espied it and had to fix it.  So....

..... he got the ladder and a special little tool and got busy replacing it.  Then.....

........... he noticed another bit in the next panel and then........

..... after checking a bit he found a missing piece up closer to the top, so he replaced it too.  You can see Squeegie supervising the procedure from the lounge chair.

On another topic........ remember when I used to post the Picture of the Day?  That was until Auntie Colleen's camera quit working and the PotD's came to an abrupt halt.  Well..... the other day I got.....

... this amazing creature with the following explanation....
A few weekends ago, there was a winter fair at the park. Shaun and I took a drive through just as they were packing up to leave. We, of course, were attracted by this colourful gorgeous dragon.
Oh what fun to get a new PotD!  And......such an interesting example of what they had seen at the winter fair - I bet that dragon was shivering in his scales!  Thank you to Auntie Colleen/Uncle Shaun for this wonderful picture!  I also recently received this pic.....

... of Auntie Colleen's purple socks beside her purple outfit.... the colour is a little off, but close enough for her to wear together.........I can't wait to see her in the outfit with the socks!  Thank you again!  And......

..... thanks to Mommy for this charming picture of the little boys in the shirts I sent them recently.  How wonderfully cute these little fellows are!  Thank you Munchie and Little Smiley for posing so nicely!  (FYI - Daddy fixed the mis-buttoned shirt before Munchie headed out for the day.)  Poppa and I are happy that you liked your shirts so well!

Happy Birthday...........

........... to our little Taffy!

She turned 5 today and celebrated by having pizza from Poppa John's.  Pizza is her favourite food and she doesn't have it very often...... she was quite pleased.  And..........Happy St. Patrick's Day to all who are Irish and those who aren't, but celebrate anyway!

News from the North

I was quite excited to hear from Aunt Muffy last evening.  She was asking how Spring was going here in Florida....

.... which is something like this.  She also sent a picture of her house with their brand new vehicle......

....in the driveway, and this weather report....
This year we had a LOT of snow compared to the last few years. It practically hasn't stopped snowing since it started in November. The few snow-free breaks we had it was like minus a million degrees outside - some trade off.  It did get warm enough to rain all day Sunday, but all that did was melt a little bit of snow to make room for more.  It has been basically blizzarding ever since.  Today was my day off so i didn't even bother trying to clear that vehicle, I shovelled a path out to the road and that was it.   This time last year, it was already almost summer - warm and pretty much no snow left. 
Which made me laugh... and it got even better.....
they even came and ploughed {how the hell do you spell plowed? Neither way looks right}
This was referring to the dealership where they purchased their new Kia Sorento.  I didn't get back to her yet to explain that either spelling was correct.  The old-fashioned "plough" of the more recent spelling of "plow".  The whole blog made me smile - Aunt Muffy always has the knack of doing that - and Poppa got a huge chuckle out of her missive as well.

She took these pictures yesterday (the 12th of March, 2013).  This is the view out her back sliding doors to their deck.  One final comment....
Even Tim is having trouble lifting the snow to the top of those banks and the damn road plow just keeps filling it back in!!  I don't think it's ever gonna stop snowing ... EVER!!!!  }:(
 
E-ya more later (another 4 months should be just about on schedule for me).
Which had us both laughing out loud (literally!)  Thank you Aunt Muffy!  

Fish Tails

Remember a while back I mentioned that the little boys had bought an aquarium, and they had to wait for the water to normalize before they could buy fish??  Well....

.... Daddy showed Munchie how to .......

..... wash all the nice aquamarine stones for the bottom.  Then....

... Munchie dumped them into the water.  Looking good Munchie!  But, there were still a lot of stones left, so......

.... Little Smiley took a turn at helping Daddy wash the rest and.....

... Daddy helped him dump them into the aquarium with the rest.  Then....

.... Munchie climbed up to level them out - they didn't want mountains in there!  Little Smiley decided.....

.... there were still a few to many high spots, so Daddy helped him get tall enough to finish the job.  After that.....

... all that was left to do was to peer into the deep blue sea and admire the fish!

What is Squeegie.....

....waiting for?  Well as you saw at the end of the last blog, he was waiting for Poppa to finish reading a chapter in his book - which at that time was Now You See Her by James Patterson.  Poppa really likes James Patterson books since the chapters are usually short, so it feels like a quicker read.  Anyway, when he finished that chapter.....

.... Poppa got out a couple of weird tools and closed the little opening in the screen of the pool enclosure.  He had decided that the little hedge was sufficiently rooted that he could stop watering it so regularly.  You can see it there behind him.  When that was done Poppa put away that tool and....

... he went to the closet and retrieved these tools instead.  Squeegie watched....

.... as Poppa started removing the old rusted screws that hold the pool enclosure in place.  With the rain here as well as the pool splashing, over the years those screws have gotten quite rusty.  David (the owner) had noticed that one of them had actually broken - so he started replacing them - didn't want the strong winds to blow the enclosure away!  Before he had time to finish that task, it was time for him and his family to leave the villa and head home - and time for us to come into the villa.  So, he asked Poppa if he would have time to finish for him.  Of course, as you can imagine, Poppa said certainly!  He started.....

... at the end that was easiest so he would be all practiced up when he got to the tricky part....

.... at the back of the pool - where he only had that little tiny ledge to perch on while he drilled.  He used a battery powered drill for part of it, but then had to switch to an electric drill - yikes!  I didn't get any pictures of that since I was outside holding the electric cord so that it didn't fall into the pool!  Poppa threw it up over the rafters of the enclosure so that it was up high - I just made sure it stayed at the edge and pulled it back as he worked his way along the edge.  He got all of the screws out and replaced them with longer ones to ensure the integrity of the enclosure.  It took a couple of days because it was so hot he only stayed out there for a while, but all the bottom screws have now been replaced.  When he got them all in, he put.....

 .... little plastic covers on them to protect them from all the rain and splashing.  So....

.... So..... what is Squeegie waiting for now?????