Hiking Yesterday, Snowing Today

And we thought Indiana had crazy weather!

It was 57 degrees yesterday, and we took full advantage of that warm sunshine!

Here are a few pictures from our hike.

I saw a giant grasshopper in this area. Should they be out in February??
I know we have blogged about this trail before, and some of the pictures may look familiar, but it's our favorite!! (mine anyway!) It is wide, and there is rarely anyone on it. We didn't have to put the dogs on the leash at all. Oh, and do you see that view?? It is very rewarding when you get to the top! :) aaaahhhhhh, mountains!

Harley, a true mountain dog.
It's a good hike if Maggie looks like this at the top! She is also wore out from catching her first squirrel! Thats right, the 82 pound beast caught a squirrel! Thankfully she did not hurt it. Tom and I were yelling at her, so she gave up on it. We were afraid that she would not know what to do with it, and that she would end up battered after the altercation!

Key Lime Turkey Day

Finally, the long awaited Key West Blog. Sorry it has taken so long to get these pictures posted. We have been very busy since we got home, and on top of all of the shopping, and wrapping, I am sick AGAIN! uugghh. So, since I am home today, I figured I could at least sit in front of the computer and post this blog. Hope you all are healthy!

Tom and Castor in Marathon, FL. We stopped here to have a Thanksgiving lunch on the way to Key West. geeeezz what a drive! We sat outside right on the water! Ask Tom if you should feed the fish at this place. (FYI : I am NOT a bird person!)

This is where we stayed. It was actually pretty nice, considering the 2 pictures on the internet were from 1982. We weren't sure what we were getting into!

On the first night the ladies went to a drag show. This was my first time at a drag show, and it was a blast! This is Melissa and "Cher". Melissa also got to get on stage with "Cher" for her birthday!

Happy Birthday Tom and Melissa! Here we are at Blue Heaven for birthday breakfast. This restaurant was wonderful. If you are ever in Key West, be sure to stop here!!

Tom's birthday breakfast : Lobster and filet mignon eggs benedict!

We had to stand in line for this picture!! We didn't have to wait anywhere (except Blue Heaven), so I was shocked that there was a line for this thing!

This was on the Rum and Reggae cruise. After snorkeling, they serve free beer and rum punch. Since the snorkeling was not fun, we got our money's worth of "free" drinks!

Some stranger thought it would be a good idea to give Jamez a giant sparkler. It was funny!

Tom riding a mechanical bull. I think he is wanting to make this his profession!

At the famous Elbo Room in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Another classic Jazz Hands picture!! Ft. Lauderdale.

This was our last night in FL. We got some stone crab to munch on since we never really got to have the seafood feast Tom and I were hoping for. Stone crab is pretty yummy- but you eat it cold, which was a little weird. That's Archie trying to get a little taste of the crab. He is such a good boy!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trish and I usually stay home on Halloween to greet the millions of trick or treaters......Yeah right, out here in the county in the past 3 years I think we've only had one. We got invited to a costume party and racked our brains for ideas, I wated to go as an Amish couple, But Trish wasn't in to that, so she said..."Why don't we go as a Greek God and Goddess". What a perfect idea!!! They also handed out door prizes for best costume, most original, and sexiest costume. We won the trophy for best costume!!!! So here are some pics...............

Our friends Eric and Crissy always go all out for this holiday, and the proof is in the puddin', Eric won the trophy for sexiest costume!!(thats a guy on the left:) He's crazy, he shaved every piece of hair off of his body to really get into costume!!!

Finished Product!!!

The tile/grout and metal transition strip went really well, only cut one of my fingers, and managed to embed a small sliver of tile into the ball of my foot, but all is well, it will heal. Not too bad for the first tile experience I've ever had.........

TILE!!!

There was a lot of tile left over from a job I've been working on, and the home owner said I could take some. I've always wanted to get rid of the vinyl flooring in our entry way, and this was a great opportunity!!! Here is a before picture...............
Maggie was a great supervisor............

I still need to put down the metal transition strip between the carpet and tile and also grout it, but not too bad for a Saturdays worth of work.

WISHING IT WAS ALL A BAD DREAM.........

I know what you must be thinking.....Not more wood photos.......well, Mother Nature made this decision for us, we weren't planning on this, but due to severe drought and then 6 or 7 inches of rain, (that we got in a matter of 48 hours) this old Hickory tree gave up. 11:30 the other night, we heard what sounded like a large limb coming down, but it was actually a whole tree. I talked with a tree guy and a lady that works for the Forest Service, and was told it was the biggest Hickory tree that they have ever seen. What a shame to lose a tree, but whats worse is that it landed primarily in our neighbors yard and on his chainlink fence. What a mess!!! But with the help of Trish, my neighbor, some of his relatives, a couple friends of mine, and the lady from the forest service, we got the majority of it cut up, cleaned up and 6 truck loads hauled out. The biggest parts of the tree are still down there, I just couldn't do it today. I worked on it 11 hours on Friday, 10 hours on Saturday, and a couple hours yesterday morning, then we had company show up, so we were entertaining them yesterday, last night and for a while today, running around downtown and stuff. So here are more tree pictures........................

this is where it crunched the neighbors fence- this picture is actually taken from the road, looking up at our house
Some of the cuts were a little scary, but how else was I supposed to do it?

My buddy josh(red bandana) and my neighbor brad. Root Ball......... Trish throwing wood around.

Massive pile of brush, we hauled multiple loads and built this huge pile, it's 10 feet tall and probably 20 feet long. Wanna come over for a massive bon-fire???

My famous pictures....

I might be a famous model next time you see me.
Just kidding, but I am making my big time debut on the side of a bus in September. This is how it happened.....
I volunteered to have my picture taken for a recruitment and retention ad campaign at work. When I emailed one of the "bosses" at work about it, I said that I would do it, but that I did not think I was "billboard quality". I was assured that although she thought I was billboard quality, we would ONLY being doing posters. So a few weeks went by, and the big picture day came. When we showed up, the lady who was organizing this ad campaign greeted us and asked which slogan we wanted. I guess I should back up and tell you that we are coping an ad campaign that New York City just did, using "real social workers". Their campaign features 16 real workers with slogans that say "Are you____ enough" to be a CPS social worker. The blanks are filled with adjectives such as kind (mine), tough, real, strong, clear, bold, cool, calm, and so on. So we are picking out what word we wanted, and being a Libra, I picked 3 before it was all said and done! They only put me on one picture though! So as we are doing that this woman says, Oh, this is gonna be great!! You know we have the buses for the months of September and October right? We were like, um, what buses? So she goes on to tell us that our beautiful pictures are going to plastered on the side (or back, or inside) of the Asheville City buses!! Well, it was too late to turn back at this point, so I went on and figured that half of this county knows I'm a social worker any way, so whats a bus picture gonna hurt? I can hear it now....."Hey, there goes my Social Worker!!". The guy taking the picture was not a professional, and he was a tad bit obsessed with the shadow effect. So not only was he trying to get the shadow right on my face, I was also having a REALLY hard time not smiling! so the picture is not the best...but it's not too bad... Some of the other people's pictures were really not very good. I guess thats why we are the lucky 3 on the bus sign!
So, here they are.......

I have NO idea what has happened to this picture. It looked normal when I was down loading it.
Chances are most of you have seen it in an email anyway.....sorry!

This is the official city bus picture!!