Somehow It Just Doesn't Feel Right--

Somehow it just doesn't feel right putting up Christmas decorations in 80 degree weather. But, I guess I will just have to suck it up and deal with it. Hee hee.

My assorted holiday goodies that I have either purchased or have received as presents.

We have a little tree since we don't have a lot of display room or storage room. I have lots of local type decorations on it as well as a few from when we had a big tree up north.

This is my Scottish Santa which my son and daughter in law gave me a couple of years ago. I love this guy but every year think I should dress him in Montgomery tartan instead of Royal Stewart.

And of course, every self respecting goose and flamingo have to be decked out in their holiday finery!!

Camera Critters--My, What Big Eyes You Have

Awhile back, I found this great meme called Camera Critters. I love the pictures and decided that with my wealth of critter pictures down here in SW Florida, I would join in and I have for several weeks now. I would like to have you hop on over to Camera Critters. There you can either sign up for your own post for Camera Critters or see lots and lots of other great critter pics. So, now that you've done that--here is my critter for the day.

This little guy was hanging out on my deck one day. I took lots of pictures of him but this one really came out right.

Play On!

As I've mentioned before on here, I spent 30 years in Community Theatre--the Fort Findlay Playhouse, to be exact. That was after 3 years of a drama minor in at Eastern Michigan University. One show I always wanted to do--as in direct, act, work backstage, whatever--was the show Play On! by Rick Abbot. If you have EVER been in theatre, be it community, professional, church, school, college whatever, you can't help but love this play. We went to see the show last night at the local Schoolhouse Theatre.

Synopsis: The local community theater is in its last week of rehearsal for their upcoming production of "Murder Most Foul," (the title of which was an Agatha Christie novel) written by a local playwright. The theatre has gone with the local playwright because they are broke and won't have to pay royalties if they use this playwright. The first act takes place 4 days before opening. The set isn't quite finished, the props haven't all yet been obtained, the actors still don't know their lines, the author is still rewriting the script--well you get the drift. I could relate to this on so many levels having worked practically every area of theatre there is.

The second act takes place during dress rehearsal. They still haven't done a straight run through of the play, costumes don't fit, the playwright still wants to change lines and when she can't she decides to help backstage accidentally erasing all of the sound cues. This is all after she has discovered that Agatha Christie already used the title, Murder Most Foul. During dress rehearsal, the cast cracks up and can't stop laughing. (This happened to me soooo many times--both as an actor and a director). The only thing to do is let them laugh it out.

The third act takes place opening night. EVERYTHING that can go wrong--does. Lines are forgotten or flubbed. Props aren't where they are supposed to be or don't work. Stage fright takes over. Costumes get caught on things. Flies are left open. Sound cues don't work. An actor gets drunk. You name it!

Honestly, I don't remember when I laughed this hard at a play. There were people around me who didn't laugh at all and even looked at me like I was crazy. I guess they had never worked on a play before.

It brought back so many memories. Such as:
1. My best friend in college falling asleep on stage during the Crucible. Hey, she was on her honeymoon!
2. The line in Somethings Afoot was I would much rather--and it came out I would ratch muther. We later named one of our gerbils the Ratchmuther.
3. A sword falling off the wall as someone slammed the door at the end of a scene. The poor prop person was trying to find it in the dark. A disembodied voice from the audience said, "It's behind the shield."
4. The line "I took a tramp through the elements" came out "I took a tramp through the elephants."
5. In college, it took two people to set lights--one on top of the ladder positioning the lights and one at the foot of the ladder moving it so that the person didn't have to keep going up and down. One time the person on the bottom moved the ladder before the person on top was ready and he was left hanging from the light bar. Luckily, the ladder got moved back so he didn't fall.
6. When I directed my first play in community theatre, the actors skipped from the first act to the 3rd act. I was out in front and couldn't do a thing about it. It took a bit of doing but they finally got back on track.
7. During one play I was in, the lead was a real jerk and even though we had a prompter, wouldn't trust the prompter. So, if he forgot a line, he would walk off stage to look at his script leaving whoever was sharing the stage with him to fend for themselves.
8. When I was doing costumes in college, one of the actors came in drunk as a skunk one night and the director told me to hide his costume so he couldn't go on. That took some doing, believe me.
9. When I was directing Lion in Winter, I had cast a father and son as Henry II and King Phillip of France. One night during rehearsal, they got the giggles during their scene and couldn't stop. It really was kind of neat watching a father and son having fun like this.
10. A really neat memory--not a funny one, but my favorite--was when I directed 1776 and my son played the Courier who sings Mama Look Sharp. This is a really moving and poignant song. I would sit up in the balcony and when Dave got to a certain point in the song, he would turn and look at me. It never failed to bring me to tears.

OK, I guess that's enough reminiscing but last night's performance brought back so many wonderful memories of the fun times, the good times, the bad times etc. I had in theatre.

Happy Thanksgiving

I would just like to wish all of my family, friends, and blogging buddies a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you will be spending the day with your family, friends, or loved ones--be they 2 legged or 4 legged.

I am thankful for Mr. Snowbird, my kids and their spouses, and my 5 beautiful grandkids. I am thankful for all of my friends--those who I know personally and those who I know only through my blog or emails. I am thankful that I am able to live in this beautiful paradise and to be blessed with good health so that I may enjoy my retirement to it's fullest.

I hope that you all have a great day doing whatever you do--watching parades on TV, basting turkeys, making cranberry relish, dozing off watching football games, mashing potatoes, playing with the grandkids, eating leftovers, etc. Enjoy!!

Ruby Tuesday-Flowers

It's pretty obvious from the color of the flowers on my deck what my favorite color is. I also have some red geraniums which aren't in bloom right now.

OK, I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Ruby Tuesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida which is a Sanctuary Island for wildlife. I volunteer for a wildlife hospital. I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! I also have a blog called Branches and Roots where I talk about genealogy and my ancestors. OK, enough about me. So if you really want to see red go to Work of the Poet.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Fun

The Sanibel Crawlers crawled again today. Our group was smaller than last week consisting of Gary, Tootie, Tink and the Snowbirds.

We started out by meeting at the Sanibel Grille for lunch. They have nice big booths there so we could get all five into one booth--and Gary could watch his New England Patriots beat the Dolphins. Hey, just because we live in Florida doesn't mean we have to root for the Florida teams.

Here are Gary and Tootie and their usual Bucket of Beer.

There was lots of food all around. Mr. Snowbird had the Nachos.

Mr. Snowbird also had a regular Margarita. There was a sign advertising a special Margarita for $5.00. The waitress said that the regular which was $5.50 was a lot better and she even gave him the glass that went with the special. Hey, what the heck. For 50 cents he got a better margarita and the glass to boot.

Tink had a cranberry shrimp salad which she said was so-so.

Tootie had the Sliders which as you can see needed a little salt. Gary had a cheese burger and fries but I failed to get a picture of it.

I had the pizza. I don't get pizza very often and I love it. It wasn't the best pizza I've had but hey, it was pizza!!

From the Grille, we moved on to McT's.

McT's has all kinds of signs hanging around. I love this one. It's kind of like Washington didn't sleep here.

This is another of their signs. Doesn't this guy look like Ronald Reagan?

McT's also has unique beer taps.

Tink blogs on the go. Reception on Sanibel is a bit iffy at times so she had to stand next to the window to send to her blog. She looks a bit harried here. I think she was just trying to keep up with Tootie who was text messaging more than Tink was blogging.

Mr. Snowbird tends to look a bit serious at times but actually had a great time too. In fact, we all had a great time on this week's crawl--yet again.

Noah is 6 Years Old!!!

I just noticed that since I wrote this yesterday the date says Saturday, November 22. Noah's actual birthday is today--Sunday, November 23rd.


Six years ago today, my baby had her first baby. I was able to be right there beside her when he was born. And what really made it special was that his daddy, who was a resident at the time, was allowed to deliver him. His very first delivery!

This was the first picture that Noah took with his mom. Doesn't it look like he is smiling at her?

When he was about 3 months old, he made his first trip to Sanibel.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Noah and his cousin, Erin. His mommy, the photographer, took this picture.

Karen took advantage of Noah's natural mohawk when he was almost a year old. This was his first Halloween outfit.

This is the requisite dirty face lst birthday picture.

When Noah was born, I went down to the gift shop and bought him his first pair of scrubs. Here he is with daddy in their matching scrubs.

Here he is rocking out.


I love this picture of Noah. Again, thanks to him mommy, the photographer.

Noah's mommy and daddy have attended several Rainbow Gatherings. So has Noah, his grandpa and his Beyuh. This is the name he gave me from the time he first started naming things and it has stuck to this day. Anyway, here we are on the 4th of July, 2005 at the Rainbow Gathering.

In December of 2005, Noah's whole world changed when he got twin brothers, Luka and Ethan.

Unfortunately for me, Noah and his family moved to California on Labor Day weekend in 2006. That means I only get to see them twice a year now. Sigh! Here they are on the porch of the "River House" in Silver Lake outside of Akron. We all LOVED this house and Noah gave it it's name because the Cuyahoga River flowed through the back yard.

I love Noah's big brown eyes. They are soooo expressive.

Sometimes Noah can be very serious and introspective.

But as his mommy and daddy can attest too, he can also be very active--sometimes a bit too active.

Sometimes his little brothers get the best of him--and do tend to drive him a bit crazy at times.

One of his favorite things to do is play on the computer. He has been able to work a mouse and get into a program since he was 18 months old!!

And here he is with his Mama. Remember that adoring look he gave her when he was a newborn. I still see that look once in awhile still.

Noah, I am so proud of you and just can't believe that you are already 6 years old and a lst grader. I just wish I could see you more often than I do. Grandpa and I love you very much and wish you the best birthday ever.

Camera Critters--Pelicans

Awhile back, I found this great meme called Camera Critters. I love the pictures and decided that with my wealth of critter pictures down here in SW Florida, I would join in and I have for several weeks now. I would like to have you hop on over to Camera Critters. There you can either sign up for your own post for Camera Critters or see lots and lots of other great critter pics. So, now that you've done that--here is my critter for the day.

I love Pelicans, whether they be the enormous American White Pelican or the Brown Pelican. The White Pelicans are the biggest American bird next to the condor. A White Pelican weighs about 15 pounds. (I should know--I have held a couple over the past few years.) The Brown Peli looks like he weighs about as much but surprisingly only weighs about 5 pounds. (I should also know as I have held a LOT of these.) And I have found, that each pelican has it's own personality. Some can be pretty "snappy" and want to bite. And yes, I have the scars to prove it. Others are very docile and don't mind when you walk by them or pick them up. (BTW, this is all done in the hospital. Do not attempt this on the beach unless they are injured and you are rescuing them!) I guess what I love most about them are their eyes. How could you not love something with eyes like that?

This is a picture of my grandkids, Sam and Erin, with a White Pelican that they helped rescue a couple of years ago.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that everyone takes it easy (kind of like it is here on Sanibel). I found this great meme on several blogs that I read and it looked like fun--so here goes. I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response. Then when you've answered my question, go on over to An Island Life for other fun Aloha Friday questions and to play along!

So, my question for the day is: What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

We are going to our friend's, Steve and Diana's. Diana works for Publix, the local grocery chain, and has ordered their ready made dinner with all the fixings. Of course we are going "halvsies" so that we can bring home half the leftovers. That is my favorite part of Thanksgiving--the leftovers. I don't know why they always seem to taste better than the original meal. So our day will be spent with good friends, good food, good adult beverages, and 4 loving Greyhounds.