All By Ourselves

Well Gary and I are finally all by ourselves again.  We had quite a busy few weeks and the last weekend with the Schoenbergs was the frosting on the cake for us.

I have known Anne Schoenberg since the early 1980's when we both worked (showed up) at a law firm in downtown St. Cloud, MN.  It wasn't long before we went our separate ways but our friendship has remained thru thick and thin so we were so happy when Anne and her entire family decided to spend a week in the Fort Myers area to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  While they were very busy while they were here, we were able to sneak in some time with them but the grand finale was on Sunday and the weather could not have been better.  We spent the day eating, drinking and swimming before sending them back to MN in their long johns and boots!

CJ and Emily spent the whole afternoon in the pool.  

Bathing beauties Tab, CJ, Jill and Summer.

Its a Schoenberg Celebration!

With all the company the past few weeks, the other house was on the back burner but Gary was able to sneak over and keep the project rolling.  We are very happy with the latest improvements, a very big job but another thing to check off the list.

2/22/15

3/27/15

So things are getting back to normal, Mojo and DeDe are catching up on their sleep since it is their jobs to bark loudly at all people in our house who don't live here.  And they must bark each time they enter the house so its been a lot quieter here this past week.

My new cabana boy.

Jill moving in on my cabana boy.  I don't think so.

We always enjoy seeing people and sharing our beautiful area and if the weather is nice, that don't hurt either.    Margaret

PS - Doris is a great friend too who was at the law firm with us and she was surely missed.  Hopefully she'll be here for the next Schoenberg party and be the star of the blog!

Wild About Weiners

In case there was any question, I had to get this for my car.

While Vanessa was here visiting we had a very big event to attend and were so happy that Vanessa could be a part of it.  So many people ask how we train DeDe, does she get nervous, is she on steroids.  It never ends when the annual Weiner Dog Race approaches at the Shell Factory each year and I can say DeDe was calm as a cucumber leading up to the race, she knows what she is capable of. Which is really not much.  Now if they would have a "barking at nothing" contest she would win no question.  DeDe barked approximately one million times, we said stop at least half a million times and she was still able to race.  Mojo does not race and since there is an entry fee for each dog, we decided that it would be easier to just open a window and throw out the money than enter Mojo.  She has no interest in racing, she has no interest in anything except Gary and food.  And sleeping.

DeDe on the left, she came in third.

It was hot on the day of the race, there were other events before the race actually started so we found a shady place, listened to DeDe bark, we told her to stop and then we started all over again.  In the meantime I was able to get some adorable pictures of other participants to share with my readers.

Bride waiting for her groom.  Yes, there were weddings performed.   Duh.

Winners of the Best Costume or as I like to call it, Get a Life Contest.

Once we recovered from race day we headed to Ford's Garage in Cape Coral with Vanessa, this was her first visit there and it is a must see for all our guests.  We happen to be there on St. Patty's Day and saw lots of green, had some green beer and a very nice dinner before sending Vanessa back on her way.  We had a wonderful time and look forward to her return.  We could always use the help keeping DeDe quiet.  Margaret

The Swinging Door and a Little History

We have had a lot of company the past couple of weeks, something that is really pretty normal around here when our weather is nice, the northerns are getting sick of winter and they need to escape to save their sanity.  So we get a lot of insane people here, you can tell by their driving.  They don't know where the heck they're going and they take their sweet time trying to figure it out.   Basically, blinkers mean absolutely nothing here.

So our good friends from Hillman, MN showed up earlier this month.  Anne and Jerry are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and to demonstrate how truly insane they are they invited all their kids and grandkids to spend a week with them in a house on Fort Myers Beach with all the springbreakers.  Jerry had his first Yuengling here, And this is where our history lesson comes in. When anyone who drinks beer visits here, the first thing they grab is a Yuengling.  Unfortunately it is not available in MN or other northern states.  Yuengling is the oldest brewery in America and the 19th most popular beer in America but is only distributed in 17 states.  Now Tampa also has a brewery so that is why it is so prevalent in this area.  History lesson done.  Now if only someone would ask you about Yuengling you would look so smart.

With Anne and Jerry at Boat House in Cape Coral

So Jerry and Anne got to our area the beginning of March so we saw them quickly before Ted and his friends Lars and Jennifer got here for a week.  We spent time at the beach, visiting various restaurants/bars and of course an afternoon at Bonita Bills.  I even scored a free dress from a clothes pile there.  Fit perfectly and so comfortable for all my dance moves.

Jennifer, Ted and Lars - Bonita Bills

Marissa and Ted, Bonita Bill's

Fun Group - Bonita Bill's

Hitting the Dance Floor with some doggie moves

And now we have a week with our daughter, Vanessa, who we haven't seen in quite a while so we have lots of catching up to do.  We are spending lots of time just relaxing by the pool or in the pool, saw about 30 dolphins on a boat trip at Fort Myers Beach, had a great lunch at Nervous Nellies and when you are with Vanessa you must do some garage saling so we got in on some great bargains and will be sending a large box back to MN when she goes back.  Unfortunately the contents of the box won't even come close to the cost of shipping but some things just can't be left at a sale.

Gary and Vanessa - Dolphin Boat Ride

Vanessa and her new friend, Tiki and he doesn't want a cracker.  I asked.

She's looking for some deep discounts on dog accessories.

So come join all the insanity here before its too late.  The grass should be green in MN in about 3 months so you still have time!  Margaret

If It's Not Fun, Why Do It?

Have you ever thought about having something to live by?  Well I finally found a bumper sticker that makes total sense to me.   I saw this on the back of a beat up car while I was working this week. Which is not fun.  I may have to rethink that. Sometimes it is just so hard remember to have fun.  Fortunately it comes pretty naturally to me.

Gary doesn't really have time so its up to me to do the heavy lifting around here and make sure we have fun.  I guess he is having fun in his own way, the house continues to be pulled apart and while we should be surprised at what we find, at this point we are not.  The previous owners apparently didn't mind having puddles in their house when the pipes leaked or backed up, they obviously didn't give a rat's ass about cleaning the tub and the kitchen cabinets were about ready to fall off the wall.  Maybe that bumper sticker was on their car!   They were too busy having fun to do anything else.

Mary had a big birthday last week and Betty came down for a visit.  Always fun to spend time with the cousins.

Kathy and Steve from St. Cloud made their way down here having visited Miami, Key West and ending up here.  The Twins are a big draw for them so they enjoy spring training and know a heck of alot more about it than we do.  Kathy and Steve wanted to try out our trivia game so they came and were absolutely no help whatsoever.  But it was fun.

Then we had a ladies day at Tubby's for afternoon Bingo.  Its free, there's free food and the drinks are very reasonable.  Tubby's is the only gay bar in Cape Coral so it was pretty wild but we had a lot of fun and we even won at our table.  There was a lot of crazy people there and things you don't hear everyday but again, all were having fun.

The weather is getting nicer all the time which only means there is more time for FUN.  Sometimes bumper stickers remind you what life is all about!  Margaret