I Believe

I believe in God.
I believe in Jesus Christ, The Word made flesh.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life.
I believe in the Blessed Trinity.
I believe in Life after death.
I believe that God creates gays and straights.
I believe that music is a gift from God.
I believe that prayer changes things.
I believe in love.
I believe in miracles.
I believe in lots of hugs.
I believe in forgiveness.
I believe that confession is good for the soul.
I believe in public education.
I believe that teachers are great.
I believe that every cloud has a silver lining.
I believe in the right to life.
I believe in angels
I believe that the devil is alive and well.
I believe that Elvis is dead.
I believe that John Lennon sings in Heaven.
I believe in equality.
I believe that nuclear weapons should be dismantled.
I believe that world peace is possible.
I believe in telling the truth.
I believe in honesty.
I believe in saying “I love you.”
I believe in sleeping in on Saturdays.
I believe in taking a nap.
I believe that golf is a humbling sport.
I believe that jellyfish are useless.
I believe that dolphins are intelligent.
I believe in walking on the beach at sunset.
I believe in holding hands.
I believe in drinking margaritas with salt.
I believe in my children.
I believe in my husband.
I believe that my husband is my best friend.
I believe in family vacations.
I believe in family meals.
I believe that the family that prays together stays together.
I believe that families are forever.
I believe that step-parents love their step-children.
I believe in community service.
I believe that the earth wasn’t made in a day.
I believe that a dog is a person’s best friend.
I believe that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
I believe in reading at the beach.
I believe that sucking in your tummy is a waste.
I believe in rocking in a hammock.
I believe that there is a cure for AIDS.
I believe that chicken soup works.
I believe in ghosts.
I believe that dreams contain messages.
I believe that nothing is a coincidence.
I believe in reading to children.
I believe in owning an inexpensive car.
I believe in recycling.
I believe in drinking good wine.
I believe that the United States is the best country in the world.
I believe in patriotism.
I believe in rock and roll.
I believe in being generous with praise.
I believe in being kind to everyone I meet.
I believe in you.

Missing My Mom

I miss you, Mom.
I miss telling you what is going on in my life,
talking to you about my kids
and about Joe
and the dogs.
I miss confiding mother/daughter things.
I miss our shopping at Center Shops
and dropping by Dad’s office,
then going to Shoney’s.
I miss dress up
and borrowing your jewelry.
I miss being tucked into bed,
lasagna from a box,
jelly donuts
and pineapple sherbet
melting all over.
I miss coffee ice cream.
I miss lobstah
and picking crabs.
I miss the beach
with baby oil and iodine,
sandy tuna sandwiches
and hungry seagulls.
I miss stories about Pierre,
the Boston Bruins,
Howard Johnson’s and
that cocky air cadet.
I miss hearing about the first Thanksgiving.
I miss burned pumpkin pie
and gathering pecans.
I miss the Derby parties,
especially the mint juleps
with simple syrup.
I miss our wine.
I miss watching you dance.
I miss your laugh
and your smile.
I miss your advice.
and your opinionated opinions.
I miss your hugs.
I miss your unconditional love.

I miss you, Mom.

2/23/2007

Dog Days at Alligator Point

The past few days we have just been chillin at Alligator Point, Florida. We have our very best friends here from Atlanta, Bob and Mary Kay and their dog, Sasha staying with us for the first part of this vacation. Sasha and Ivy have been amusing us now for 3 days. Our rented beach house is directly on the Gulf of Mexico so we are mesmerized by the water. And, so are the dogs. Every morning following coffee, we stroll out upon the endless sandbar and the two dogs run and splash and swim. They are having so much fun. You can actually see the joy in their faces. And they bring so much joy to us. Their love is unconditional. Their loyalty knows no bounds. All they need from us are a few cups of dogfood every day, some chew toys, a tennis ball and a week at the beach from time to time. Life should be so simple. I have really learned a lot about life this week from our dog during this vacation. Our Ivy is a yellow lab and she loves a belly rub early in the morning. She eats a speedy breakfast and then it is time for a nap by the window in the sun. Then an hour at the beach chasing birds or the tennis ball and playing with her friend, Sasha. Then back to the house to lie on the deck in the sun again. Maybe a leisurely walk on the beach later in the day with her human. Then, while her human has cocktails on the deck, she watches all the traffic on the beach, mainly other dogs and their humans. She woofs at them just to let them know she is there. It’s a dog’s life, or at least it should be. Thanks for getting me focused, Ivy!!

Rattlefish Reef Restaurant

We ate at the Rattlefish Reef in Wesley Chapel, Florida last night, a pre Valentine celebration dinner to beat the crowds. We had been to Rattlefish in south Tampa a year or so ago with son Joey and had a great meal. This Rattlefish opened at the former Capt Tiki Hut, but we had never been there. They did a good job of replicating the outside dining room of this restaurant to look like the south Tampa location. No marina view though. Don't eat inside; there is NO atmosphere in there. Anyway, we started with the "Key Lime Martini" in a graham cracker rimmed glass. The glass was not rimmed and the Martini was way too tart for us, but, being the good sports that we are, we drank them anyway. Then Joe switched to his normal vodka & tonic which was served in a plastic cup and I had the house chardonnay (Barefoot). For dinner I had an appetizer entitled "Oyster Bar Junk." I figured that with the $16.00 price tag it would be enough of a dinner for me and I was correct. It consisted of crab meat and shrimp in a tasty red sauce with about 4 fried oysters perched on top in a chafing dish. It was served with a small, warm baguette (we had to ask for butter). It was excellent. Joe had the blackened Grouper (he orders Grouper a lot). It came with 2 sides, so he had some very blah, blah cole slaw and some really good, sweet hush puppies. He also felt that his fish was excellent. He ended up being charged $3.00 extra for the cole slaw, as we found out as we were settling up that it was a "substitution." But, we didn't feel like arguing, so we paid the bill which was a whopping $76.00, before tip, for the two of us! I should add, that the service was above and beyond. Besides the price, the only other real negative was that since the outside "deck" part of the restaurant is technically "outside," smoking is allowed there." The diners next to us were smokers (God, it is such a NASTY habit and I am SO GLAD that Joe finally quit) and the second hand smoke wafted over to us....need I say more? Anyroad, I think that Rattlefish Reef needs to realize that this is WESLEY CHAPEL and not SOUTH TAMPA and get their prices in line with other eateries in the area and there are a ton of them!! And please, stop the smoking.

Alligator Point

This week, Joe and I are going to one of our favorite places, Alligator Point, Florida. Our house in Tampa is for sale with no lookers, so we are outta here!!! Alligator Point is on the Panhandle, southwest of Tallahassee on the Gulf of Mexico. This is our 4th visit to the same rental beach cottage, aptly named the "Gulf Breeze." The house is, in a word, rustic. But, it is the beach that we go for. Miles of private beach. Did I mention that it is in BFE? You can literally walk for miles and not see a soul. Fifteen miles to the nearest grocery store. Yeah, buddy. Low tide at Alligator Point is amazing. You can walk out a hundred yards into the Gulf of Mexico. See picture below right. Ivy, our yellow lab, loves to swim and dive for sand dollars. It is a sand dollar mecca. There are thousands of them, both alive and well, fossilized. If you need to collect some for a craft project or to hang on your Christmas tree, this is the place. Sunrise (yes, I have been known to get up for that, in fact I took the picture below) is equally spectacular. There are also scallops (in season) and loggerhead turtle nests. My Way Seafood Market in Panacea has the freshest seafood around. We love the oysters, the Bugs (Florida Lobster; ask for the tail to be split), and the shrimp (ask for heads off, worth the extra money). Our best friends, Bob and Mary Kay are coming for a few days from Georgia, so we will be drinking some wine also, believe it or not. More on Alligator Point when we return!

My second high school career and advice to parents

Our son Joey, from Orlando came to visit us last weekend. The purpose of this visit was to go through many, many boxes containing his high school awards, books, papers and band memorabilia. As he is now 26 years old, it has been a while since high school (he was class of 1999). I especially enjoyed the papers that I had a hand in. Let me just say that my second high school career was better academically than my first!! "We" only made 2 B's the whole 4 years, making us in the top 5% of the graduating class. We read lots of books, wrote a bunch of papers, completed a ton of fairly useless projects. We drove EVERYWHERE, always stopping at 7-11. He would smell like coffee when he came out, go figure.
And, I really enjoyed my band experience, even though I can't read or play the first note of music. Seriously though, I really did enjoy being a band parent. As it should be. Turns out that Joey was a very gifted trumpet player. So, my second high school go 'round was filled with marching band competitions, auditions, rehearsals, concerts, Band Booster meetings, and music lessons. A air conditioned/heated concert hall was a much more comfortable environment for a parent and than a cold or rainy or steaming hot baseball field or soccer field. My advice to parents: start those music lessons early!! And don't forget to read with your kids, even through high school.

Sukothai Restaurant

Joe and I ate at the Sukhothai Restaurant last night in New Tampa. We were celebrating his last PUP bonus with the Bank which he received yesterday (don't ask....). Let me begin by saying that the place is "on Campus," as our friend Don would say, which means we didn't have to cross Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to get there. Now, we didn't walk there either, but I guess it is about 2 1/2 miles from home. Anyway, it is a combination restaurant and sushi bar. We opted to eat at a regulation table although you can eat at the bar or on the floor on mats without shoes, for a more authentic Asian feel.
We got there about 6:30pm and we were the only people there. I know, we must be getting old to eat that early. I ordered the plum wine and Joe had his normal, boring Sterling Cab. The server was a perky Asian female, reasonably attentive.
We started with the pan fried dumplings as an appetizer. Joe ate a lot of these in Taiwan when he was stationed there in the Air Force and together we have eaten and prepared a lot of them over the years and consider ourselves connoisseurs. These dumps were EXCELLENT. They were light, crispy, and flavorful with just enough filling. The dipping sauce was perfect, not too much soy.
For dinner I had the Panang Beef (sliced beef cooked in red curry and coconut cream) and Joe had the Goong Gub Pla (grouper filet topped with shrimp and ginger). He had his prepared medium spicy and I had mine "hot, but not VERY hot." Well, it was VERY, VERY HOT!! But that said, it was delicious and the presentation superb. They use those nifty square plates with the turned up corners, very cool.
I needed water and another plum wine to offset the heat of my dinner and they were delivered promptly. It was a great experience and we will go back again. Please add your comments if you have eaten there.
http://www.sukhothairestaurant.net