Seasons Greetings

Have a wonderful time and best wishes to all for 2008!

~ Vickie & Klaus ~

Happy Holidays - from Delray Beach

Christmas has finally come to the tropics. The lighting of the Delray Tree in the Old School Square - parade down Atlantic avenue - Santa came into town on the firetruck. Here's wishing all of our friends, a special happy holidays wish.
Ho-Ho-Ho!

NSPD-51

This is not a joke. Directly from the website for the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html. Bush gave himself the power on May 9, 2007, to declare a National Emergency, cancel elections next year, and stay in office until the "emergency" is resolved. I think we all know the implications of this. What can we do? Contact media outlets, ask them why this hasn't been covered all over the news. Insist that they cover it. Tell everyone you know. This cannot happen.

Another Visit from an Old Dear Friend

Sometimes a death brings people together that life has separated. After Pete died, I contacted an old friend of ours who knew Pete - Dean Wilkerson. Dean and his brother David had been in the scouts with all of us and Dean's father had helped us and been a wonderful part of our lives. I reconnected with Dean - now a Senior Vice President of a major development corporation:Portman Holdings - at that time, Dean was on his way to Korea to close a deal. Dean had lived and worked in Delray Beach and had a few friends that he wanted to see after the Korean negotiations. He informed me that he would like to include me in that visit. Susan, Dean and I had a wonderful night reminiscing and a great dinner at Rocky's, a Delray Italian restaurant - It was like so many of our friends - it feels like they just stepped out and went down to the 7-11 - instead, 30 years elapsed. Dean is a major corporate leader, and I'm . . . well, you know. . .

Over the River and through the Woods . . . No Way . . . We're at the Beach!

Our neighbors, Rick and Rochelle invited us over to share a wonderful thanksgiving meal with their family. We started with Rochelle's brother Ross's incredible pâte, Susan and I threw some fresh clams and oysters on the grill - Susan put together a fresh Oriental salad, then the turkey, oyster dressing, Ross's cranberry sauce, green bean casarole, mashed potatoes, gravy, Ross's candied yams, cornbread, followed by sweet potatoe pie. What a feast!

Some Cool Turkey Art for You

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Susan

Happy Birthday, Jim!

Farewell Year 52. (I made you a West Virginia funeral cake for your birthday.)
Here's to a great Year 53!
Love you,
Carolyn

Congratulations!!!

Susan and Wayne are new Richmond homeowners! In two weeks they will own Emrick Studio #49, which overlooks the milkbottle building and Gallery 5 Firehouse. (Funny, Wayne's birthyear is '49.) This will be most handy when they fly in from Florida for visits. If each of Friends of Jay purchased a unit we could have our own commune!

So excited for you (and me).

Carolyn

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congrats to you guys on your new flat!!! That's awesome! I can't wait to see it!
It was great to see you Friday. Safe trip back home and see you soon :)

Luv,
~ Vickie ~

Bahama Breezes and More

Custom Kitchens in Richmond where Jim Stewart works, were celebrating their 50th Anniversary by taking all of the employees to the Bahamas. They booked rooms at the Breezes Bahamas Resort on the island of Nassau. One of the employees had trouble getting a Passport – and since I had worked for Custom Kitchens about 15 years ago and knew a bunch of the people, Susan and I were offered an opportunity to jump in on the celebration and get a room. We flew from Ft. Lauderdale – 37 minute flight on Spirit airlines. Everyone else were flying from Richmond. Susan and I arrived in Nassau around 5 P.M. Unpacked and met everyone having cocktails by the pool. The weekend was all inclusive, food, drinks, all in a “no-cash” environment. The time was spent around the pool, on the beach, grabbing a taxi into town. Susan bumped into an old friend, Fred from the old Tobacco Company days - Fred had married Melody, another of Susan's old acquaintances from another life – Fred/Melody/Susan and I grabbed a Taxi and went to an Art show/Wine tasting. Carolyn/Jim and another group explored the island. It was fun as everyone would branch off and pursue their interest and meet up again at the pool, bar, beach, whatever. Everyone found the Atlantis Resort down the road amazing - you felt like you were in the undersea lost world of Atlantis as the whole hotel is surrounded by aquariums. You eat in the restaurants and bars while looking at large Manta Rays, Sharks, tropical fish of all kinds swimming right beside you. They have several Dale Chuhuly Glass pieces in the casino. It is truly fabulous. It was almost like a “Blackwater weekend; but, on the Beach”. Half of the group returned home on Sunday and the other half of us stayed and returned on Monday. We got out just in time as Tropical Storm Noel came heading toward the Bahamas as we escaped paradise for home.

I kept hearing the lyrics from Buffett’s song,

“Bama Breeze”

At the Bama Breeze

You can shoot some pool down there

You can act a fool down there

You can play it cool down there

At the Bama Breeze

You can drink some beer down there

Argue, laugh, and cheer down there
You're one of our own down there
You never drink alone down there

Good God I feel at home down there

Pass another year down there

bon anniversaire!

Each birthday is a new beginning, full of promise and opportunity and the chance to make dreams come true.

Happy Birthday Susan Virginia Irvin Baker - I'm happy you were born.

much Love from your Honey.

Energizer Bunny

Still going....Just so you know, I haven't abandoned my "Fit Fifty Year Old Live-it", and with a couple missteps here and there, it's actually going just fine. I just decided to be a bit more private about it. But from time to time, I will be posting progress and remarks. Hope those of you who were inspired to join me are doing well with it.

Hugs,
Susan

Mmmm

I feel remiss that I didn't put up the history of "The Tequesta (also Tekesta, Tegesta, Chequesta, Vizcaynos) Native American tribe, at the time of first European contact, occupied an area along the Atlantic coast of Florida in what are now Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. They also occupied the Florida Keys at times, and may have had a village on Cape Sable, at the southern end of the Florida peninsula, in the 16th Century. The central town (also called Tequesta) was probably at the mouth of the Miami River. The Tequesta arrived in the Biscayne Bay area around the beginning of the Current Era. The Tequestas placed their towns and camps at the mouths of rivers and streams, on inlets from the Atlantic Ocean to inland waters, and on barrier islands and keys."

This came from Wikipedia. Check it out. So, I went to the beach today by myself, which is somewhat unusual although you may wonder why. I guess it's cause I feel too guilty to do so while my honey is working, but as luck would have it, I saw my first Florida dolphins, not the football team, real swimming, jumping aquatic mammals....tons of 'em. I was so excited I had to text Vickie!

I took my "vacation day" a bit too seriously though, and am now on my third beer at 3 pm. Oh my, go to AA you fool. Nah, just taking a day off from worrying about stuff (and diet obviously), hopefully ; )

Anyway, if you want, click on the pictures of Correggio's paintings in the post prior and you'll see some fun amazing detail that may not readily be apparent at first glance.

tata,
S.

Huhh??

Castor and Pollux are the twin stars of Gemini. They are also two cats who hang out in New Kent with Jim and Carolyn. If I had a picture of them I would post it. Carolyn, got one?? Carolyn is a Gemini. So where am I going with this, you may ask? They are the twin spawn of Jupiter and Leda, the swan (Castor and Pollux, not Carolyn and Jim), seen here in a beautiful painting by Correggio (Jupiter and Leda, not Carolyn and Jim). The other painting is Jupiter and Io, also by Correggio, which I actually like a lot better. Jupiter liked to assume non-human forms to seduce beautiful women. Not that unfamiliar, right??

Anybody still with me?? Wayne and I have decided to look in the Jupiter/Tequesta/Juno (Jupiter's wife who is none too thrilled with all his cavorting) area to buy here in Florida. Although it doesn't look that much closer to Wayne's work on the map, it is. And it's an easy shoot down US 1, knocking about an hour off Wayne's commute each day. We also just like the feel of the place.

So, we went up there on Sunday for reconnaissance, and are going back up on Sunday with our realtor, the one you met way back in February, Julie (jevans520@aol.com). Here are some photos of the general area. You may remember that Burt Reynolds (BR) settled here a long, long, long time ago. Actually one of the places we're going to look at is across from BR State Park.

Over and out.

Susan

My new pets

On my way back from Richmond, I stopped by New Kent to grab some plants Carolyn wanted to give away. I got home, started cleaning them up and preping them for the indoors when I realized I had 2 inhabitants sleeping in one of the plants! The 2 little frogs did not even bother moving when I disturbed them repeatedly! They are so cute! Made me think about yours... Start throwing some names back... Must be a Mr and Mrs something!

~ Vickie ~

Blame it on the Bosa Nova or Some Person's Low is another's High

Above: Pool and Tiki Bar in center -Wayne at Tiki Bar by the Pool
Below: Canal Walk and African Queen - Bahia Honda

Just before Robyn came down to visit us, the Hurricane Season began to move into full swing. Tropical Lows were a daily discovery, accompanied by daily torrential rain and very windy conditions. Our Florida friends, Karen and Eric and Susan and I decided to head for the Keys for some quality snorkeling. We booked ourselves a room in Key Largo and took the long weekend down to the Keys. Susan and Karen had scheduled Kayaking, Snorkeling trips and we hit the road. Tropical Lows in the Bahama's threw us 20 mph winds gusting to 30. Key Largo is just an hour and a half from Delray Beach - we hit the Kayak outfitters only to be told that it was too windy - we headed to the hotel to try for an early check-in. We checked in and headed for the pool - complete with Tiki Bar. Karen, a Penn State grad and devoted fan, settled into the Penn State football game that was on the tv at the bar. Susan read by the pool, while Eric and I settled into the pool and frozen Rum Runners. The tropical low turned into a poolside high. The evening was spent at Coconuts, a local restaurant along the canal behind the hotel. The snorkeling trip the next day was blown out, so we loaded up the Trooper and headed to Bahia Honda. The visibility was really murky, but, we had fun anyway. Susan volunteered as Designated Driver and we started with beers at Lazydays Bar overlooking the turquoise water of the Ocean. Then Karen directed us to a restaurant to watch the sunset on the Gulf. As we were eating dinner, the waitstaff started feeding the fish. One of the highlights - Sharks, Tarpin, and other varieties of fish competed for dinner. We continued back to the hotel, stopping at the World Famous Tiki Bar one Key down, and found ourselves at Sharkies Pub- a local pub along the canal behind the hotel and we settled into a group of Chicago ex-pats watching a Bears game. Our trip continued to be a recognisance trip for future ventures as we hit a winery that makes marvelous fruit wines- good snorkel outfitters, and future Kayak rentals. I forgot to mention another discovery - the original "African Queen", Bogart's beloved boat from the same movie was nestled among the Dive Boats next to the Hotel. We had a fun week-end, discovering the marvelous Florida Keys. until next post

Robyn's visit

Robyn flew into FT. Lauderdale last Saturday afternoon. We picked her up and brought her to Delray Beach. It was so much fun catching up on her family news, and life in Charlottesville as we dined at Bostons and looked over the Ocean. The weather did not fare well as a tropical depression stabilized over the Caribbean and the rain set in. We lost electricity early Sunday morning and didn't get it back until late Sunday night - but, that didn't stop us. We did a road trip to West Palm Beach (Robyn took a great photo at a restaurant in West Palm of me with the ghost looking over my shoulder) - Robyn and Susan went to the Boca Raton Art Museum and saw an interesting show featuring: Guillermo Trujillo: Panamanian Master- of course the shops on Atlantic Avenue have their allure and the ladies checked them out - we did our best to sample the culinary cusine as there are over 27 restaurants here in Delray Beach. the surf was really high and threatened the turtle nests along the beaches - Most of them have already hatched leaving 20% to ride out the extreme surf. 30 years ago, I would have grabbed my board and headed for the Ocean - it's great fun to watch as 8 to 10 ft. waves pounded the beach. Of course the traditional "Blue Anchor" visit was upheld. Robyn left to Tropics to return Wednesday to the Fall Colours of the foothills of Virginia. It was a great visit- Robyn we love you and miss you already.

Dear Friends of Jay,
I am pleased to announce that the pictures of the now famous Cape House week-end are up on my website!

Please BEWARE, PJ13... LOL

Ok some instructions for best viewing:

There are over 300 pictures to view so grab a beer or your favorite drink, sit down and enjoy the show! Since there are so many pictures, it does take a while to load.
I suggest that you hit the F11 button on your keyboard to switch to full screen view and the controls are located at the bottom right corner of the screen.

http://www.coolportfolios.com/CapeHouse2007/index.htm

Have fun!

~~ Vickie ~~

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SUSAN & WAYNE!!!

Wishing you many years of happiness and exciting adventures!
Love,
Carolyn & Jim
(photo is W&S flying UNDER the Golden Gate Bridge in 2005)

Kayaking also in Va Beach!

Well this week-end was also a kayaking one for me! I went to my favorite beach as usual and got to paddle for over an hour in the middle of 20 to 25 dolphins!!! Absolutely FANTABULOUS!

I swear, it's the best. You can definitely smell them when they pass by you. They are gorgeous.

I was so mad at myself for forgetting to bring my dry bag so no pictures but next season, I'll be prepared! So hope everyone had fun too!

~ Vickie ~

Fall means Kayaking in Southern Florida and Miami Ink

As the summer comes to a close and we anticipate cooler days, our attention comes to Kayaking. Susan went on a search for a rack - Well here it is! Then, we had the problem with putting it on the Jeep - logical step- went to the Jeep Dealer and met Ryan. He said that they couldn't do it, but, he and his roommate could.

We dropped the Jeep off and went snorkeling with friends and came back to the condo to regroup before going on the town. Ryan and his roommate showed up and showed us their handy work - My, My, it was quality craftsmanship! After a few beers, Ryan and roommate started showing their tattoos. It was amazing.

Thanks to Susan finding the perfect rack for the Jeep and Ryan and his roommate, we are ready to hit the waterways! No aligators please. I think Frank needs a tattoo - don't you?

Friends of Jay have a blast at the Blast!

Just want to share some awesome pics that were taken at the Blast from the Past 2007 of some of us in our group having a fantabulous time. Vickie, I like that word of yours. I use it a lot now.