Rick's igloo

We had a nice if quiet Thanksgiving. Michael did grace us with his presence for dinner....a rare treat. Rick spent the majority of his time off building an igloo. Ok, it is a green house for his plumeria. Yippee-I think this means my car gets to be in the garage this winter!
I spent the week end getting out decorations and getting most of the decorating done. Michael has proclaimed I have too many decorations. Is there such a thing as too many? I think Red might agree. She normally lays on the back of the couch but it was covered with beanies so she had to make do with the armrest.
I also used the 2nd half of my Street of Dreams ticket, viewing the last 4 houses. It was the last week end. If I ever weed thru all the pics I took I might post a few.

What to do on a Sunday

Hope everyone had a great week end. I have been tackling the "clean the house from top to bottom" before Thanksgiving task and frankly I have not gotten very far. Instead I have been spending my week ends on adventures. Last week end to Ringling and this week end, well a few things. Adri and I went and saw Stranger Than Fiction. We both liked it. Sunday Rick took the fried camera apart and that was pretty interesting. All you little boys that like to tear things apart this is the way to do it. Find an already ruined piece of equipment and then take it apart. It became ver apparent why it no longer was working. I do not recommend putting your camera in chlorine. It fries all the computer components.
After viewing the dead camera we decided to go to the Our Body The Universe Within Actual Human Bodies Exhibit at the Orlando Science Museum. This is an exhibit with actual human bodies and parts on display. It was very interesting. Now some squeamish people might be grossed out by the whole idea but in fact it was very interesting. Being such a sensitive subject you were not allowed to photograph nor did they have postcards to buy. Imagine seeing a post card in your mail with a skinned person on it! The bodies were not enclosed in glass but of course there was a no touching rule. That did not prevent one old lady from feeling several of the bodies. Shocking! Michael did not go (the idea grossed him out) and he wanted to know the most interesting thing. Rick said he was fascinated with that old lady's fascination with touching the bodies. Adri said the guy holding his skin on a hanger and I said.... no laughing....the way male body parts do not hang together when they have no skin to keep them nicely bundled. Adri and I both agree that the prenatal area was also very interesting. Even at 2 months you can see the little fingers and toes. The prenatal area was a seperate room that you could avoid if it was too sensitive a subject for you. Rick also liked the veins and arteries displays. It was really cool how they had them all seperated and standing in their body formation. It was also quite amazing how large the circumference is on some of them. No wonder you can bleed out if one gets severed!
The ticket includes a day at the museum and their Cinedome films. We saw The Wild Safari. It was pretty good, still want to go to Africa and do it myself! Their is a temporary exhibit from Mr. Rogers neighborhood. For all you trolley fans I have included a pic. Even though it was for little kids I enjoyed seeing all the stuff. Brought back good memories of watching Mr. Rogers with my children. They even had a few of the how you make things on tape that you could watch.
There is a picture from the nature room for you to guess what it is. There was a sign but it took a while to tell that there was actually something in it!
Afterwards we stopped and had dinner. That was also an intersting adventure. We don't know why but this lady of color stood up and started yelling at a man of color at a different table. Every one in the restaurant just stopped what they were doing and stared. The poor young servers had no clue what to do. Then a lady (also of color) from way across the restaurant yells out "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO ACT SO BLACK? SIT YOUR BLACK A@@ DOWN AND SHUT UP!" this brought snickers from all around the room. The lady did not stop and they got a black manager to come and deal with them. Well, she and her party left. Does any one besides me find it amusing that someone would "act" what they are yelling across the room?

Ringling Roses

Rick had a Plumeria meeting on Sat. They are trying to start up a Gulf Coast Plumeria Society that will be under the Plumeria Society of America. Originally I was not going to go-just going to stay home and clean-but the night before the meeting we decided to make a week-end of it (the mtg was about 2 1/2 south west of us). So we went to the meeting on Saturday and stayed in the area then on Sunday we had sort of planned to get an early start and go to Venice. We were real close to the Ringling Estate and I wanted to go through the house again as it had been a very long time since we had been. Sun morn we pretty much decided to go to Ringling and then to the Mote Aquarium. Well, the estate took much longer than we thought it would so we just toured it. It is a 66 acre Estate with a fabulous Art Museum, a Circus Exhibit, a Miniature Circus Exhibit and Ca d'Zan Mansion. They also, for an extra fee, have a historical film you can watch. We did not do the film but some day I would like to go back and see the film and also do a special tour (also an extra fee) of the 3rd and 4th floors (general tour is only 1st and 2nd) of the Mansion. As you know I take lots and lots of pictures and will be posting more later but for now I am just posting a collage of a few roses from Mable Ringling's huge rose garden.

Luau pages

On an earlier blog I stated I would post the pic from the photographer at the Plumeria Society Luau of Rick and myself if it turned out. It is not great, an odd angle I think, but it is ok. I have decided to torture you all with the pages I did of the Luau instead of just posting the picture. All of the cut out plumeria flowers are from plants Rick has around the yard. At the beginning of the season Rick would call me to get pics of each and every bloom. After capturing about a hundred of them I decided to trust him with the camera. The HP has the best macro feature and he soon got the hang of it. We are at the tail end of plumeria season and the blooms are coming in less vivid than when it is hot but that doesn't stop Rick from getting the newest bloom. Sunday he was standing on the pool fountain ledge trying to get a straight down shot of some pretty pink blooms when he misjudged the ledge area and fell in the pool, camera and all. When we bought this house one of its features was soundproofing. Well that sounds like a good idea until your husband falls in the pool and you don't hear the splash, heck you didn't even know he was out there. Luckily he was not seriously hurt. It is frightening to think what would have transpired if he had hit his head. While he is doing ok the camera we fear may have met its demise. It was oozing water from every crevice and is still showing water in the lens area despite the shop vac treatment and being placed with those crystals you get in your shoes to absorb moisture. The card did not suffer from its submersion and the pics turned out!