| 1/26/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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On Monday, I found a nice laundromat and did a mountain of laundry -- blankets, comforters, towels, dog beds, warm clothing, etc. Luckily, the laundromat had lots of large washers and the best commercial dryers I've ever seen. All of my loads dried for only $1 each, even the load that included a large comforter and heavy blanket!
Today, Chris made a trip to the post office to mail off a couple of items for repairs. Then, we took off the afternoon to ensure a little entertainment for the grrlz. We went across the Pinellas Bayway to Fort Desoto Park. There we found the wonderful dog beach where the grrlz had a grand time chasing the bumpee. Afterwards, we used the doggie shower in the fenced dog park to rinse off the salt and sand. The grrlz snoozed in the car while we toured the historic fort. It's a very nice park, and the only fees were the 85 cents in tolls we paid on the bayway and on the bridge to the park! [Heather] |
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| 1/29/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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On Wednesday, we made a trip to Fort Myers to visit Dad. While Chris stayed with Dad, I took Monta for her regular eye exam. Although she got reversing drops, her eyes were still pretty blurry for awhile. We had a good visit, including bringing the grrlz into the nursing home to visit Dad, then got back to St. Pete about 6 p.m.
Yesterday, we mainly devoted to recreation. After breakfast, we took a nice walk, exploring the Roser Creek Historic District nearby. What a lovely area, which I never knew existed! Graceful historic homes line a brook shaded with big trees, adjacent to All Children's Hospital and Bayfront Medical Center. It was a very pleasant walk, and fun to see such an unexpected area. Although there have clearly been upgrades in the area in recent years, we were surprised that it wasn't completely gentrified given its prime location and interesting architecture.
In the afternoon we went to see "Up in the Air". A good movie, but a little depressing. I kept waiting for the happy ending..... [Heather] |
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| 2/1/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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We had a nice weekend. Friday afternoon, we decided to go up to Russ and Lu's. On the way we were planning to stop several places to look at new TVs for the boat. We ended up buying one after 5 minutes of shopping at Costco! It's a very nice 19" Toshiba LCD HDTV with built-in DVD player which will replace our old non-digital 13" TV with built-in VCR.
Friday evening we enjoyed a seafood dinner and movie with Russ and Lu, Sandy and Pat. We saw "Edge of Darkness" which was well-done but way too bloody and violent for my tastes.
On Saturday, Russ and Chris started building the cabinet for the TV. We'll gain significant storage space behind the TV since it is a flat screen rather than the old, bulky model that was in the space. Russ does beautiful work, and even crafted a custom device to allow us to brace the TV at various angles for good viewing.
After dinner, we all had a great time playing Wii. I had pretty good beginners luck at some of the games, moving into first place on the ski jump on my initial try!
On Sunday, I went to the nearby produce market while Chris and Russ continued to work on the cabinet. I was just looking for fresh-squeezed juice, but ended up with lots of other wonderful produce, including delicious local strawberries that are big, sweet, and taste like strawberries! For dinner we enjoyed some local grouper, steamed asparagus, and fresh Italian bread. [Heather] |
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| 2/5/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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Where has the week gone? Just puttering around and doing chores, I guess... Groceries, neatening up, getting the car serviced, and a trip to Fort Myers took up the first three days of the week.
Yesterday, I ran some errands in the morning, then we went to see "It's Complicated" in the afternoon. Very funny movie, and I love pretty much anything that Meryl Streep is in anyway! It was nice and warm when we got back to the boat so we washed the grrlz in preparation for a Spa Day.
It's been tough to get the grooming done since it's chilly most mornings and it takes us all day to both wash and clip. Washing them in the afternoon and clipping them the next morning seemed to work okay. We clipped squirmy Minnow this morning then raced through a half-assed job of clipping Kira after lunch. We were racing an approaching storm and the skies opened up just as we finished. We'll probably put both grrlz back up on the table tomorrow for some fine tuning! [Heather] |
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| 2/11/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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Another week has flown by. On Saturday, we took the newly shorn grrlz to the Dog Beach for a swim. On Sunday, Russ and Lu came by for dinner on their way home from Fort Myers. It was great to just visit and relax. Afterwards, Chris and I watched the Superbowl. It was nice to see a good game for a change!
Monday we made our regular trip down to Fort Myers, so Monta was able to play league tennis with her team. We had a nice visit, even though Dad was pretty sleepy. He tends to wander at night rather than sleep sometimes.
On Tuesday, our new Wii was delivered to Russ and Lu's house! We drove up in the afternoon, made dinner for them, and stayed overnight. The next day we drove back to the boat early so we could set up the Wii and Wii Fit Plus and try it out. What fun! There are a few games and exercises we have to modify or skip due to our limited room, but it's still surprisingly easy and fun to get a good workout on the boat.
Today, we worked out in the morning then took in our usual Thursday afternoon matinee. This time we saw "Sherlock Holmes". Not a great movie, but still fun and entertaining. [Heather] |
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| 2/15/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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Friday was cold, rainy, and windy. The boat was moving around a lot at the dock which made working out a bit challenging. When I was doing some yoga, the Wii kept giving me messages like "You seem to be swaying...." In the afternoon we decided to head up to Russ and Lu's for a visit and some warmth and space. We ordered a couple of pizzas for dinner and enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
On Saturday, Russ and Lu didn't play golf so we all had fun playing with their Wii. Lu and Chris had quite a rivalry going on the Segway Circuit! Late in the morning, the grrlz insisted on a swim, even though both the air and water temperatures were in the 50s. They didn't linger in the pool!
In the afternoon we headed back to the boat and enjoyed a nice supper of lamb burgers. We celebrated Valentine's Day with pampering and food. I made Chris a nice brunch of sausage frittata, coffeecake, and mimosas. In the evening, he reciprocated with a wonderful meal of caprese salad (complete with buffalo mozzarella), lamb shanks, garlic mashed potatoes, and apple brown betty with ice cream. Yum!
This morning we're off to Fort Myers for our weekly visit. Dad had a fall yesterday, but luckily he didn't suffer any injuries. [Heather] |
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| 2/18/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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Not too much to report this week. We had a good visit with Dad and Monta on Monday. Monta took the day off from tennis on Monday since Dad had taken a fall on Sunday. Luckily he wasn't hurt.
This week, Chris had worked on a couple of boat projects while I did household chores. We continue to enjoy working out on the Wii every day. It's great to have a way to work out on the boat and have fun at the same time!
This afternoon, we went to see Crazy Heart at the movie theater. Jeff Bridges does a great job in the role of a down-and-out country singer. [Heather] |
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| 2/21/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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On Friday, we spent the early part of the day doing some much-needed boat cleaning. We needed to make a trip up to Russ and Lu's house to pick up our depth sounder which had been repaired, so we decided to join them for date night.
After a good spinach pizza, we went to see "Shutter Island". It was too bloody for my tastes, but very good otherwise. The acting was great. It's been fun seeing one or two movies a week! We usually don't see many movies.
Saturday morning, we headed back to the boat about the same time Russ and Lu headed out to golf. Our friends, Shannon and Larry, came over for dinner on the boat. It was a very pleasant evening, visiting over rigatoni, salad, and rice pudding.
Today we're having a lazy day, although I did make a run out to the grocery store. [Heather] |
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| 2/25/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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On Monday we made our usual trip down to Fort Myers. Dad was pretty sleepy throughout most of our visit, but he did perk up a bit in the afternoon.
Tuesday, the weather warmed up some and we took the grrlz to the dog beach at Fort DeSoto Park. They had a great time romping and swimming, though Kira was pretty stiff afterwards from the cold water.
Today we went to a closer dog park and let the grrlz play. We also worked a bit on rally obedience.
Tonight, our nephew Charlie joined us for dinner. He's a senior at Eckerd College nearby. It was great to see him; he's a great guy. It was a short visit since he needed to rush back to campus for one of his gigs tutoring other students in Spanish. We'll have a longer visit some other time. [Heather] |
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| 3/2/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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Friday was cold again and we headed up to Russ and Lu's house to hang out and visit. On the way up, we stopped at Publix for a couple of things for dinner. As I was standing at the deli counter, I suddenly realized that Russ was in front of me in line. I'm not used to being places where I can run into family members unexpectedly! We've been enjoying having so much family time this year.
We had a bit more family time on Sunday as Russ and Lu stopped by the boat for dinner on their way back from Fort Myers. As usual, the grrlz were excited to see them even though it had only been a bit over 24 hours since their last visit.
Monday we had a good visit with Dad. He was much more alert than he's been on other recent visits. They're giving him something to help him sleep at night and get back into a better sleep pattern. I sat with him at lunch and after I cut his meat for him he ate his entire meal without assistance.
This evening we're going to a concert by Ladysmith Black Mombazo, the African acapella group introduced to American listeners by Paul Simon. We're looking forward to the concert and hope to run into Charlie there. He's involved in cultural affairs at Eckerd College, which is sponsoring the concert. [Heather] |
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| 3/4/2010 |
The Harborage Marina, St. Petersburg, FL |
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We enjoyed the Ladysmith Black Mombazo concert on Tuesday night. We walked the 10 blocks to the theater, leaving the grrlz in our van parked at the marina. The wind was chilly, but it was still a nice walk.
This afternoon we returned to our Thursday afternoon movie habit, seeing "Percy Jackson and the Olympians". It wasn't a great movie, but it was a lot of fun. I especially got a kick out of Pierce Brosnan as a centaur and Uma Thurman as Medusa!
We'll be up in Palm Harbor Friday and Saturday nights. We have a dog training class on Saturday nearby in Oldsmar. [Heather] |
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