Mr. Kim to the Rescue!

As many of you probably know, Lisa is in Venice (Italy, not the one south of Sarasota!) with Wyatt and Griffin. I did not do any menu planning this time as I have been busy transitioning one of my businesses to it's new owners and just did not get around to it.

We have been eating bananas, peanut butter and jelly, Eggo waffles and toast for the most part! The boys do not mind but I've been getting hungry for something more substantial.

A few minutes ago our landscaper and neighbor, Mr. Kim, came to the rescue! The boys and I had stopped by his nursery earlier today to choose some trees that he is going to put in our yard. The boys had a good time running around in the muck and riding in a pickup truck.

The nursery is a pretty cool setup. Mr. Kim emigrated to the U.S. over thirty years ago. He worked hard in the landscape business and now has a very large and successful business that includes over 300 acres of prime real estate for his nursery.

A couple of his employees were out back cutting up one of the largest fish I had ever seen next to an enormous smoker. I do not know if it was my drooling at the smell of the smoker or Mr. Kim taking pity on my situation, but he dropped by with a huge tray of smoked meats! I used a bunch of the chicken in a burrito for dinner. Mmmmm Mmmmm

The boys had peanut butter and jelly...

The Island

I took the boys camping Wednesday night. We went to an unihabited island that we visit quite often for day trips. Wyatt and Griffin have been asking to go back to Yellowstone for a camping trip. Since Yellowstone is about 2300 miles away, while the island is only a few miles by boat, I decided it would make a good alternative destination!

We hit the books hard on Monday and Tuesday so that Wyatt could take a few days off of (home) school. Since we've been doing some work with maps in school I'll have Wyatt do up some maps of the island for practice. He and Griffin named several parts of the island while we were exploring. So far we have Shell Beach, Sand Dollar Beach, The Cliff, Raccoon Hole and The Dock.

The boys enjoyed playing with action figures at The Cliff. We dug a few cliff houses into the sand and the action figures spent at least an hour playing in them.

We had hotdogs and smores over the fire at night. Unfortunately we had to have hotdogs for breakfast as well since I forgot butter and the pancakes kept sticking to the pan. Lucky was happy to eat the mess that resulted.

The boys spent some time tracking racoons. They found footprints and berries all around Racoon Hole.

Lucky was a bit freaked out at night and refused to come near the fire. He loved playing fetch and swimming during daylight hours.

We had a great time. I feel very fortunate to have such a great place to explore so close to our home. It's only a few minutes away but it feels very remote. On a weekday you can have the entire island to yourself. It's big enough to provide a lot of interesting places to explore but small enough to walk all the way around. From various points you can see Tampa, St. Petersburg and passing freighters. And you can be home in just a few minutes.

The Most Inexpensive Halloween Costumes Yet!

The boys have a Friday the 13th vibe with a Mexican twist going on with these home made costumes! They love to eat tortillas straight from the package. They munch on them straight out of the fridge. Occasionally Grif will ask for "ketchup on a plate" to go with them.

Yesterday they got creative and folded the tortilla over before biting them. Makes for pretty good savings on Halloween costumes. ;)

I Saw the Sign

This is an assortment of signs we saw on our road trip that I found interesting or humorous for one reason or another. My sense of humor can be a little, well, different at times. If you don't find any of these signs funny the blame lies entirely with me! lol

You have to enlarge the cow to see the enhancement someone added to the sign. Keep in mind that this was near Area 51. ;)


The "New Menagement" does not appear to have done so well. Even with the Lo Low rates.



Anyone else see a problem with this sign?


You have to guess what is at this exit. It's the road trip version of a grab bag. ;) Actually I figured out later that the question sign simply means that you can get information there. Everyone else probably already knew that!





I never realized they were so close!

Corvettes for St. Jude - A Feel Good Post

One of the administrators on my Corvette site has spearheaded a fund raiser several years in a row for a research hospital that treats sick children. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

Jesse convinced me to make this our official charity and then proceeded to do an amazing job getting the site members and vendors behind the effort. Individuals make cash contributions while vendors donate products for auction. This year Jesse lead the effort to give the biggest check yet to St. Jude. He also organized a large group of Corvette owners to road trip to Memphis to deliver the check. The children like getting to sit in the cars more than getting the check!

You can make your own donation to this great research hospital here.

Click the pic to see a local newscast about it.

Mandatory Driver I.Q. Testing

I have come to believe that an I.Q. test of some sort should be part of all driver testing. The guy in these pictures is quite simply too stupid to be on the road.

As we were nearing home on I-75 in Florida we noticed that traffic was slowed down due to a state trooper driving in the right hand lane at the speed limit. I was surprised to see a Lexus sport utility drive right by him at about 10mph over the speed limit. I was not surprised to see the trooper pull in behind him. I assumed that he was running the plate before pulling him over.

In this case the Lexus driver got lucky. A caravan of three cars whose drivers were either more stupid or more unaware than the driver of the Lexus pulled up behind the trooper with the lead car about one foot off of the trooper's rear bumper! He would back off a few feet and then approach again. He started to change lanes to go around the officer but couldn't quite fit in front of the car in the middle lane.

The trooper flashed his lights but the driver still didn't seem to get a clue and continued to tail-gate him! At this point I guess the officer decided to get the guy behind him instead and let the Lexus go. The officer pulled into the middle lane and the tailgating car went right past him! Over the speed limit!

The trooper pulled in about one inch off of his bumper and pulled him over. The two braniacs who were following the guy guy getting the ticket pulled over right behind the trooper! I wish that I could have pulled over as well to see the exchange between them.

I Am Getting a Woody!

I decided to buy myself a present for my birthday this year! I have had my eye on a few different Chris Craft speedboats and finally decided to get one. I chose the Speedster model because it is basically a little sportscar for the water. It is very well built, fast and fun to drive yet it doesn't burn a lot of gasoline. It is the kind of boat you just jump in and go when you feel like it.

The particular one I am getting is the Speedster Woody limited edition. Only 99 of this type are going to be built. It is a beautiful little boat that has plenty of teak trim and flooring. It will do close to 60mph.

It should be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday of this week! Woo Hoo!