Joe's Apartment

So I guess there are a few little bugs here and there in Florida. I popped in by the kitchen sink this eve to grab a glass of water and Shirley let out some strange noise that eventually somehow communicated that there was something on the fridge, and it was about the size of a Buick. We put the little guy under an overturned bowl (OK, I don't know that it's a 'he' - I am a bit new to entomological gender differentiation, afterall - but he's too ugly to be a 'she'):

...and my close-up Mr. DeMille:

On closer inspection, most Buicks are probably a little larger:

With the last one, we tossed him out on the stairs and the next morning there was a roach pancake on one of the steps. We actually see those fairly often. So we may toss this guy out there as well, unless we can think of a friend to whom we should ship him :-)

Anarchist Gnome

After a fruitless search to buy an existing house, we decided to buy a new home. We are very impressed with the quality in the homes we've seen built by this company, and we love the location. But I admit I'm a bit, um, conflicted about the Homeowners' Association. At one point I swore I'd never live in a gated community, or a neighborhood with landscaping police. OK, I'm exaggerating a little (only a little). But we did decide to build in a gated community with a Homeowners' Association. We do get to pick the house colors (which shade of beige do you prefer?), but there is actually an architectural review committee that ensures that no one gets too crazy with the appearance of their home.

So to help me with my inner conflict, I enlisted the aid of a small creature who will stand guard hidden in our front landscaping (click the image below to see the larger image):

For a little added effectiveness, I gave him one funky eye, and painted his hat black so the red emblem I gave him shows with better contrast :-)

Now there is still one remaining issue. You may notice that this little guy is carrying a book. I think the book needs a title on it, and I could use some ideas. Feel free to offer your suggestions. The idea would be the title of a real book that has something to do with freedom of expression, no censorship, etc.

We are really looking forward to the house being done and moving in (it will be ready many months from now). And I like knowing that everyone must maintain the appearance of their yards and homes. And I don't like knowing that everyone must maintain the appearance of their yards and homes. The classic inner struggle ;-)

Snorkeling with manatees

On Saturday Shirley and Ben and I went up to Bird's Underwater in Crystal River and went swimming with the manatees. Wow! These large, gentle mammals are incredibly friendly. They love to get scratched under their "arms" - under their flippers - and also seem to enjoy getting their bellies scratched :-)

Here's a few small pics from our snorkel trip:

If you have a high-speed connection (or some patience), here's a 20 second movie of swimming with manatees. The first person scratching the manatee is Ben, I pop in a little later. This is about the end of the manatee season until November; it's getting too warm and their heading out of the rivers now. We will definitely go back next season!

Officially Floridians

OK. We've now got the bank accounts opened at the local bank branch, we've got the Florida driver licenses, the voter registration (hold the jokes, please!!!), and we finally got the vehicles licensed. We've opted for a couple of the Florida specialty plates - one pays a higher fee for the license plate and the funds go to support whatever cause one selects. So we decided to help support some local critters. The Outback now sports a manatee license plate:

...and Shirley (who pretty much likes all cats, chose a panther plate:

Then this evening, for our weekly trip to catch the sunset at the Gulf of Mexico, we popped up to Tarpon Springs, had some souvlaki and baklava (yum, yum!) and didn't really see the sunset, since it was actually overcast! Yes, even in Florida the sun does not always shine :-)

Finally settling in

It's been a bit tiring the past few days. The movers arrived Wednesday morning, but the huge semi-truck couldn't get into the apartment complex - not enough room to manuever (just for the record, there were 4 households of stuff in the truck; our things were only a quarter of the load). So we used a smaller rented truck to shuttle things from the United Van Lines yard a couple of miles away. That took from about 8:30am until 3pm.

Next we signed all the papers saying we had our stuff, the moving crew took off, and now the real fun began. We had just over 3 hours to get a fully-packed 16-foot truck unloaded into a 10-foot by 10-foot storage unit. This was all the stuff that we knew we couldn't fit into a 2-bedroom apartment. The load included a very heavy upright piano, a washer and drier, a treadmill, a Bowflex, a dresser, a workbench, and countless boxes of books, record albums, etc., etc., etc. We didn't get it done :(

So...we hauled the rest of the stuff back to the apartment and unloaded it so I could get the truck returned, and we collapsed into bed.

But now (Sunday) after a weekend of toil, all but one or maybe two boxes are moved to storage, the rooms are pretty much in order, and we finally got to enjoy a Florida evening. Here are some pics.

A pic of Hurricane Restaurant, where we rewarded ourselves with dinner and a sunset: