Who Doesn't Love a Wiener????

Yesterday Gary and I spent the day surrounded by wieners.  As most people know we have two little wiener dogs, Mojo and DeDe.  There are wiener dog races every once in a while so we decided it was time to put our money on DeDe and retire for good.  Looks like we will be working for a while but she did come in second in her first race.  After that it was all downhill.  Mojo has retired from racing basically because she refuses to run anywhere and she thinks its beneath her.   DeDe shows promise and if there was a competition for barking, she would win first, second and third.  In fact, she barked so much yesterday, she used up a whole week's worth.  At least she is not alone, seems like wieners like to bark.  Alot.  

Please enjoy the wieners below, we had a great time and we are still all worn out from our race day.  We didn't bring home any trophies but I don't think we will hear DeDe bark for a day or two.  Margaret

Third place is pretty nice.

Stanley had a whole team there and it seemed to work.  He won!

The only thing better than one wiener are three wieners.

Ten week old wiener, still unnamed.  I called her adorable!

There are lots of spoiled wieners.

Wire haired wiener.

Let's just call her Spot.

Mini Honeymoon on North Captiva

On Saturday, Gary and I took the Calusa Queen which is a charter out of Punta Gorda to North Captiva Island.  This is an island that has intrigued me ever since we moved here.  We have been to Sanibel and Captiva many times and love taking our visitors there because it is so beautiful but there is no way to get over to North Captiva unless you take a boat or small airplane.  And since we don't have a boat yet and I lost the keys to our  plane, we decided to take the charter over.  The boat trip took about 2 hours and we had a pod of dolphins playing next to the boat on the way there and a couple on the way home.  If I see a dolphin, the rest of the trip is just a bonus.

North Captiva was developed in the 1960s but didn't get electric or telephone service til the mid 1980s.  The island has about 300 homes and about 300 vacant lots.  There are no cars on the island so golf carts are used to get around.

Eating outside by the water and a singer too.

Gary and I took a walk after we ate lunch at Barnacle Bill's to check out the island and there are many homes for rent and some for sale.   Looks like we'll be staying in the Cape cause there is no way we can afford a house out there and a parking stall for the plane.

The water is truly beautiful around the island, it feels remote and we decided it would be a great place to spend a vacation.  On the way out to North Captiva Gary and I were amazed at all the other islands, some with homes.  As we were leaving North Captiva, I asked Gary if he could find his way back and he was completely turned around which is something since he usually can find his way home.  I had a hard time finding my seat on the boat.

Stilt home outside North Captiva Island

We are having fun seeing different parts of the area and would recommend this daytrip. Now I gotta go look for those plane keys.  Margaret

Mission Accomplished

After our wonderful Japanese birthday celebration, we had another reason to celebrate.  Our good friends from St. Cloud, Minnesota, paid us a visit.  Steve and Kathy are the parents of Mitch who is a best buddy of our son, Ted.  We spent many, many hours at various sports events and tournaments but like all good things it had to come to an end.  That was a long time ago and we had lost contact but were very happy to have them stop at our place while they were visiting the area.  Steve is a big Twins fan so that is a draw and probably the nice weather doesn't hurt either.

They left Minnesota on February 22nd saying adios to a lot of white stuff.  Yuck.

Kathy and Steve's backyard

We spent time catching up and DeDe even warmed up to Steve which is VERY unusual.  DeDe really does not like anyone but Gary.  I think Steve may get a dog now.

Steve and DeDe - she blends right into the couch.

We then took them to a newer restaurant in the area, Pinchers Crab Shack.  The restaurant is less than two miles from our house and it is just a lovely spot on the water.  The food is good and the drinks are 2 for 1 all day.  Not that I noticed.

Sitting on the balcony at Pinchers Crab Shack.

Kathy and I decided we had to take at least one dip in the pool before they headed up north for Panama City where they will spend another week in the warmth before heading back to the frozen tundra or Minnesota as its known to the locals.  Hope they can find their shovel.   Margaret

A dip in the pool before the rains came.

Another February Birthday

Last Wednesday Mary celebrated her birthday and since it was her special day, she decided she wanted to go to the Sakura Japanese Steakhouse for her birthday celebration.  Many restaurants in this area give you a free birthday meal and when Mary found out that Sakura was going to feed her for free, there was no question that we were headed there.

Waiting for out table - Sakura Japanese Steakhouse

Of course I was a little skeptical since we are living in Florida where there so many good restaurants serving seafood and fish.  How can there be anything good about eating Japanese here?  The closest I get to Japanese is soy sauce.

Our chef Bruce Lee

When we first walked in, we had to decide if we wanted sushi or hibachi.  We know so little about sushi that it was a big relief when Mary said she wanted hibachi.  Of course I don't know anymore about hibachi than I do sushi.  Sushi just sounds so complicated.

Since there were only two hibachi chefs on duty that night, we had to wait for about an hour to eat.  The chefs make the entire meal right in front of you and for that reason, you are seated with a whole group of people.  We had a wonderful soup to start and then we watched as the chef cooked up the rice and vegetables.  This part of the meal did not excite Gary or Pat much but they were both delicious.  That could have been a meal for me.  Gary and I split a steak and shrimp entree and it was great plenty.  We all thought the food was excellent and there is no question we would go back.  We even got to use chopsticks but I really had a hard time with the soup so I just went back to using a spoon.

The chef makes the whole experience a lot of fun, we met some really nice people that we shared the table with and there was even another birthday so we doubled the celebration.

Birthday girls.

And for all our northern friends and family, I wanted to add some pictures of our Sanibel beach day this past week.  As I check the weather bug for today and see it is -15 wind chill in Minneapolis, maybe this will warm you up a little bit.  Or just piss you off.  I can only control so much.  Margaret