Holy Florescence,Batman

This plant is known as the Bat Flower. I was lucky to have one given to me a few months ago. It was in a huge pot so I divided it and made two. As with most unique flowering plants, it is not really grown for the beauty of the leaves, etc. If you want to know the official stuph about this plant:

http://www.rareflora.com/taccachablack.htm

I love it! And, it's my favorite color.

Someone recently asked me what type of camera I use... well, it is a pocket sized Olympus Stylus 1010. I've always used Canon Digital Elphs in the past but this spring while shopping for a camera for the parental units I discovered this little gem. I haven't used the Canon much lately. All videos on the blog so far were also shot with this camera. Oh yeah, it comes in black too! I'm sure that is what caught my eye intially. Then, when I tried the zoom, etc. I was sold.

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1361

Lucky and James Peterson, Skippers Smokehouse

Lucky's guitar. One of the few pictures I shot last night!
http://www.alligator.com/index.cfm?section=artists&artistid=25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Peterson
http://www.answers.com/topic/james-peterson-1
http://www.sonnyboylee.com/cdreviews/peterson.htm

Lucky clowning around with the crowd.

Last night was another fun time at Skippers. James and Lucky Peterson, father and son, played together on stage for the first time in a long time. It may be the last time too after seeing Lucky's reaction to some of his dad's antics! Let's just say that I was thinking 'damn, he's a dirty old man' and later Lucky said about James, 'damn, I have a dirty old man' or something like that.... they were a lot of fun to watch jam - That Lucky is incredible on the fret. I loved it that he was wearing a Skippers t-shirt. James spent time dancing with various women in the crowd and a good time was had by all.

I love giving my camera to people that I am with and saying 'take as many pics as you want'....I have fun later seeing what was captured and what I missed.

He'll never know.

Lucky jamming.

Keeping it in the family!

Marc had fun shooting a few videos last night and here are a couple of them. I'll try to do a better job actually capturing some of the PERFORMER next time. Oh yeah, and of the crowd - people watching is sooo fun. I wonder what they think of ME?!?!? LOL

Hey, there's Scott.

This is a quick clip of Lucky playing, crazy dancing guy swinging, and at the end, James with one of his many dance partners of the night.

Marc and Shelley - that chick with three chins. Bailey and her mama. Isn't she beauiful? Love her! Guess the honeymoon is over.

One of Elsie's favorite things to do

Elsie loves to run to the fence as soon as she gets out the door. She barks and barks until the neighbor dogs react. Mommy (very large dog) and Brutus (Chi) eventually come to their side of the fence and participate. Elsie gets so excited. Check out her little tail. Sometimes she bounces off the ground as she barks. Too funny.

Another quick video of Elsie at the fence:

So, last night while I was working on some pics ready to blog I played her video. I decided to film her after she watched the first segment. She didn't make a sound.

It's all about Elsie

The little scamp had to take over his bed too. When she wasn't on MY lap or in MY bed she had to be in HIS bed. He didn't mind tho. What a guy.

Elsie and the Big Greenie

This bone weights about as much as she does. That wasn't going to stop Elsie from having a bone like the big dog.

Elsie and Dice have company

Maria and Ronan Egal. Ronan LOVES dogs but was a little hesitant at first of a dog that could look at him eye to eye. He was so excited when Dice was down but when he got up and started walking around, Roan wanted to be held. Of course Elsie had to get in on the action.


Riley spent most of her time in the pool but just before they left I snapped a few shots. Aren't they the cutest nuggets in the world?

Jimmy stopped by to play with Dice for a while too.

Elsie finally relented and allowed Dice to play with her toys. Altho, in this pic she is clearly asking me 'do I have to let him play?' They were funny this week playing together.

Dice and Elsie playing in the yard

It is sooooo hot today.... prolly 90 degrees but they still play!

Dice hiding from Elsie. Yeah, right. LOL

Eric Lindell at Skippers Smokehouse

What a blast! I casually mentioned to a few people that this was a show to see. Well, the final head count at our tables was 23! I knew everyone but they didn't all know each other. My personal party at Skippers and Eric has LOTS of new fans. http://www.ericlindellband.com/ you can find his CDs at Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Borders, and at his site which is prolly the best for him :)

Shelley and Liz, just getting started.

http://scottandlizlynch.blogspot.com/
Mr and Mrs Hanshaw....aren't they the cutest? Adriane Winchester is in the background - I don't have any other picture of her or her husband Tracy. You can meet them here: http://adrianewinchester.blogspot.com/
Bailey (Michelle's DD) Shelley and Eric after the show.
What's with the tongue Marc? Liz and Scott Lynch with Marc Perry.
Vikki and Andy drove 2 hours from Englewood Beach to party with us! There is Adriane again two tables over in the white shirt. :)
I was accused of being a little drunk...but...look at ALL OF THOSE BEER BOTTLES in front of Buck, Jessica, and Norm. :)
Rob and Shanna Browning with Jimmy Wathey

The Passavanti's with Mark in the background. Nice pic!
Cheryl and her crab leg smile

Who is that?

Eric and Band... I wasn't the only one SWEATING Snap, it was hot.

I wasn't going to post this pic 'cause it looks like I have three chins. However, Dan Powers had the most fun of all of us I believe. He was (is) a dancing fool and needed a change of clothes before leaving the place. We had fun dancing.... oops, did you just spill my drink on my HEAD????
Isn't Bailey just the cutest? She is 13 and such a sweetie. I had a lot of fun dancing and playing with her at Skippers. I hope her mom allows her to come out with us again! We are harmless. LOL

Zoe's first look at DICE

A picture tells 1000 words, right? I wonder what was going thru her mind....

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

Saturday July 12th I decided to rent a boat and luckily everyone else wanted to pitch in and so off we went.... Brian had a lot of fun catching pinfish after pinfish but c'mon, get something else!

Jan and I were the designated drivers but Vikki soon took over the wheel. I think it had a little to do with control but she said she just wanted to drive. hmmmmmm


We anchored a few times so that Brian could concentrate on fishing and we watched the dolphins swim around the boat. There are great numbers of them all around Englewood and even where there is a lot of boat action. So fun to watch and you can hear their blowspots when they surface. One treated us to a body surf in as well - four times he slapped the side of his body on the waves as he rode in towards the beach. Of course I didn't have the camera that time. Oh well. I remember it! The pic of Vik above is taken just inside Stump's Pass. It is a great fishing spot and also fun to watch the boats.
Vikki and Andy enjoying the view of Manasota Key and Stump's Pass in Englewood, Florida.
We anchored just inside Stump's Pass near the mangroves (MY IDEA, yes, I will take credit for that one) and Brian quickly started pulling in the Mangrove Snappers. He had five but one jumped right off the hook and into the water. Lucky one.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of Vikki driving, the SeaCat would be lost. The Seacat would be lost. Ok, enough.
Actually, the dark clouds were rolling in (JULY - HURRICANE season - FLORIDA!) and we had about 30 minutes left of our rental. We told Brian that no more baiting the hook, we had to get back. So, what happened? Here's where the real tale begins!!! (finally, you say).
Well, Brian caught a BEAUTIFUL snook! Jan helped him pull it in and I snapped this picture. Snook are out of season now (spawing) so it is strictly catch and release.

As they were working to get the fish off the line..... Brian had a small catastrophe:

Pretty gross huh. Yeah, he's smiling now but he has no idea what awaits him at the dock. I am hearing rumblings about 'taking him to the emergency room' etc. and all he really needs is a pair of cutters to get that barb outta the way.
So, Vikki does an EXCELLENT job of guiding boat back to the dock and the owners ask how was the day. Everyone said it was great. I said, check out his paw! The two sprung into action and quickly performed a hook-en-dectomy. I couldn't watch so I just randomly took pics with my eyes closed. The shrieks and moans were enough for me. hee-hee Actually, Brian did awesome without novacaine. He was a little stressed and it prolly felt like it took an hour to get the damn hook out but he survived and so did the paw. Brian fileted (is that spelled correctly!?!) his snapper and I understand Vikki fried them (after I left of course) and a feast was had by all.

Boat rental four hours: 195.00
Bait: 8.00
Look on Brian's face when approached by two men with pliers: Priceless

Bad Breath, Snaggle Tooth, Glowing Eyes... Oh My

Dice is in da house! Elsie and I are the dog sitters this time! Little Dice has come to stay for a few days while his humans have some work done on their home.

I keep threatening to have those side teeth removed from Elsie's jaw.... Of course I won't but - dang - is she going to be one of 'those' chihuahuas?
Here's Dice sharing his greenie dog bone with Elsie.

To meet Dice's humans, click here: http://scottandlizlynch.blogspot.com/

Great friends and true animal lovers.

Englewood Beach, Florida

Here are more pics from our recent stay at the beach:
Vikki Rebholz - high school BFF

Brian Rebholz - 15 year old fishing fanatic, Vikki's DS


Brian and Elsie
More soon!