Nary a Romance in Sight

Ok, I think I mentioned that I wanted to keep track of how many books I read this year. If you look here on my blog, you will see an on-going list of said books. In conversation with acquaintances last weekend, I mentioned that I was an avid reader. Brent snorted, in that manly way he assume sall other men will admire. "Yeah, romances." This from the man who is lucky to read three fiction books in a single year. Plenty of magazines land in the floor library beside his bed, and the occasional book on the latest training fad, but few fiction books. And I must say that those three fiction books will be ones that I recommend to him.

All this aside, it will be interesting to see how much variety there is in what I read. There will certainly be the occasional fluffy titillating romance novel I'm sure, but I think the selection will be more eclectic than my snorting guffawing husband believes. One thing I will certainly admit, there will be little nonfiction in my selections.

Seven books during the first month of the year is pretty good I think. Although, that will only be 84 in the year. I may have to step up the pace and throw in a few extra romances for good measure!

Flagler College

This private liberal arts college is beautiful. Originally the Ponce de Leon Hotel, it was constructed in 1888 by Henry Flagler.

The attention to detail everywhere is amazing. Flagler invited only the creme de la creme of society to stay at this incredible hotel.

The hotel was constructed in only 18 months. This is the rotunda as you walk in the front doors.

A large parlor is located to the left of the rotunda. As the gentlemen checked into the hotel the women were pampered in the parlor. This room still houses 11 original Tiffany chandeliers.

The tour also took us into the college cafeteria which was originally the hotel restaurant. There are Tiffany windows all along the top. It is really a beautiful room which doubled as the ballroom during Flagler's time.

About Town

These are just some miscellaneous pictures taken as we walked around St. Augustine. The Spanish architecture and coquina building material was evident everywhere.

This is the Government House and it is 410 years old. It was here that the Spanish governor turned control of eastern Florida over to the United States in 1821. Today the building houses a museum displaying archeological artifacts which was very interesting.

I took this picture for Kera and Chris. Chris is always interested in vegan treats!

Castillo de San Marcos National Park is located in St. Augustine.

The fort was constructed by the Spanish to basically protect St. Augustine from British encroachment.

It took 23 years to build the fort (1672-1695). The fort, like so many other buildings in St. Augustine, was constructed of coquina.

This is an example of the sleeping quarters. Each bunk slept 4 men, two on the bottom and 2 on the top. The end of each bunk also held 4 rifles, and had 4 pegs for clothes.

Brent always has his pictue taken with the cannons no matter where we go!

At each corner of the fort there were lookout stations.

We were lucky enough to be at the fort when the re-enactors set off the cannon.

You can see the lighthouse far in the distance in this final picture.

Daytona Beach

Yes, the sky is a beautiful blue but it's only about 62 degrees with a brisk ocean breeze. Brrrrr. We walked along the boardwalk and took in the sights.

Here's the pier. Not exactly the pier at Ocean City, but it's hard to imagine what it would be like during the beach season.

You can tell we're a little chilly! Crazy boys.

The clock tower and the amphitheater are made of coquina, an aggregate mateial including sea shells.

How Race Fans Are Created

Although I'm not a car or Nascar fan, how could we possibly go to Daytona and not take a tour of the Speedway? This 2-hour tour was well worth the time.

Here's Paul in the garage area. Generally you can look in the window and see the mechanics working on the cars. We were walking in the fan area and Brent found the way to Pit Road and one of the cars in the Rolex series races.

You can ride along in one of the Richard Petty cars for $143 or you can actually take a class and drive the car yourself. In the video you will see two cars. The first is the pace car for the second car with the novice driver. I can't begin to tell you how much I wanted to do a ride along. Next time I will definitely be doing that.

The tour takes you down along Victory Lane and you have time to have your picture taken there.

These pictures were taken from the sky box, looking down on the track and down on the main grand stand. I can't imagine what kind of zoo this place would be like during a race. The grandstands on both the front and back stretches hold almost $150,000 fans. That doesn't include the pit areas, the infield, etc. Crazy!

This is the car that won the Daytona 500 last year. I'm so pathetic I have no idea who even won the race last year, but hey, it's a cool orange car with cool stickers!

This video shows some cars going around turn 3 or 4. The sounds are so cool. Man, I really want to ride in one of those cars!

View From the Top

This is the St. Augustine Lighthouse. I don't remember exacgtly, but I think it was built around 1870. A circular staircase of 219 steps takes you up to the top.

The view is totally worth the hike to the top.

There were two lighthouse keepers who worked in shifts. This house was home to both families and is now a museum.

Here's the whole crew at the bottom. Judy and Paul in the back and Tony, Memory and Brent in the front row. I'm pretty excited about making it the whole way up and down on these knees.

Daytona Flea Market

Wow. To think that I used to think the old Silver Springs Flea Market was big, or maybe even Renningers or the Black Angus. No. They don't even compare to this place. It is absolutely huge, room after room after room of stuff. You could spend a week here and not see it all!

Hog Heaven

Yes indeed, where is that warm weather? While it was sunny, it was in the low 60's and there was a good breeze blowing. Although it is warmer than the 20 something weather we left behind, it's not even close to the shorts & t-shirt weather I was hoping for.

Destination Daytona is supposed to be the largest Harley dealership in the world. It is two floors just filled with motorcycles, parts, and all the cool Harley clothing. If you're a mototcycle fan, you'll be in hog heaven here!

I liked this paint job until I saw the purple one. Oh yeah, can you see me on this one?
I don't see me riding one of these, but it was fun to see all the bikes.

Florida Here We Come

Brent surprised me a week or so ago when he told me that he thought we could use some US Air miles to visit my cousin Memory in Florida over the MLK holiday weekend. Memory and Paul have been asking us to come visit them for some time. But, every time we've been to Florida no one can usually get me off Disney property. With all the freezing cold weather, we've had I was looking forward to a warmer climate.

Our neighbors picked us up at 4:15 a.m. (yes, in the morning!) and delivered us to the airport. We arrived in Jacksonville FL at 10:30 and my cousing, Memory, was right there to pick us up curbside. Paul and one of his co-workers met us for lunch and then we continued on our way to Palm Coast. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I needed a 2-hour nap before dinner.

My cousin Marcia lives about 10 minutes away from Memory and she kindly invited us for dinner. Brent snapped what I think is a great picture of Marcia, me, and Memory. It was a great evening and we were happy that Greg (Marcia's dh) managed to get home in time to visit with us for awhile. I haven't seen Marcia in about 5 years or so, so it was good to spend a little time with her.

Health, Trainer, and Dog Gone It's Cold!

So far Brent and I have managed to stay healthy. I wish I could say the same of others in my family. Mine brither is stuffy, snotty, and coughing up a lung (more so than normal). Kera has a bad cough and has been having terrible back problems. My Dat has shoulder issues and is headed for a round of PT. But so far, everyone else seems to be okay. Keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else remains in good health.


I had an appointment with Craig, the trainer, the other night. He's going to work up something to include some upper body stuff along with some core. No matter what he does, there will always be some cardio and some knee stretching component. He asked if I could get down on the floor. Well, I wasn't sure since I haven't tried since the surgery, but I figured there was no time like the present. Craig, like most trainers, is very concerned with form and doing everything in such a way to prevent any injury. I realize he was trying to find a good way for me to get down on the floor, but I was pretty sure his method wasn't going to work. He went into a wide lunge, put the back knee on the floor...yeah, I think that was the place where he lost me. I'm scared to death to put that kind of weight/pressure on my knees. Well, I bent over, put my hands on the mat and flopped my butt around on the floor. It wasn't pretty, but hey, I was on the floor. To get up Craig thought I should be on my hands and knees and go from there. I sucked it up and very gingerly got on my hands and knees but the rest of the process just wasn't working. So, with my hands on the floor, I went into a down dog position and got myself right up off the floor. "I can see that flexibility isn't a problem," Craig stated. But, he wasn't impressed with my awesome yoga move as he suggested perhaps we'd just do planks on the table. That's alright. I was impressed enough for both of us!

This cold weather is really getting to me. I feel like I'm cold all day long. Seriously, where is a good old fashioned heat flash when you need one. Really they don't have to disturb my sleep all night long. I'd be perfectly happy having some during these freezing winter days. Is this how you know you're old? When you just can't take the cold anymore? A trip to a warmer climate is definitely in order.

Mmmmmm Mmmmmmm Good!

I found a new food website last week with healthier recipes. Check out http://www.skinnytaste.com. Despite busy weekend plans, I selected 4 recipes to make over the weekend. An ambitious undertaking perhaps, but they were all fairly easy to make. All my guinnea pigs....um....I mean guests loved everything.

I spent the day working on cleaning out the scrapbook room. Saturday night I made Chicken with Shallots in Red Wine Vinegar for my parents. They never mind coming to my test kitchen! Brent spent the whole time bemoaning the fact that he didn't know what to wine to serve with all that vinegar in the recipe. Such whining. Whatever would possess me to make something like that on the weekend when he likes to crack a good bottle of wine. Well, crack away buddy! He researched the recipe and found that a good bordeaux would be perfect.....and yes it was! I served the chicken with garlic/cheese mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower. Definitely mmmm mmmm good!

After getting all the dishes cleaned up, Mom and I put together this delicious Creme Brulee French Toast Casserole. Like many of these type of breakfast casseroles, you toss it together the night before, refrigerate, and bake the next morning. This was very simple to do. My buddy Kim came over to help me clean up and reorganize the scrapbook room. The least I could do was butter her up with a good hot breakfast. She was going to need all her energy!


Ok, I have more stuff than I imagined. The hallway is lined with precious scrapbooking items and some other stuff too. Boxes of stuff to sell, stuff to donate to a school, stuff to give to Kera, stuff to keep, stuff, stuff, stuff....Help! This yummy broccoli potato cheese soup hit the spot. My strategy is that if I keep feeding Kim great food she'll keep on helping me! It's working so far.


The neighbors came over for dinner and tonight I made the spinach lasagna rolls. Brent didn't seem overly fond of them, but I thought they were great. The picture only has sauce across the top, apparently for aesthetic purposes because the recipe calls for 32 oz. of sauce. Yeah, those heavenly little bundles are covered in sauce and mozzarella cheese. I served this with a goat cheese/date salad and broccoli. Perfect!

I doubled the recipe and baked one. I took the rollups and froze them as is without sauce or anything, and will run them through the foodsaver tonight. This will make a quick and easy dinner some weeknight.

I had a really productive weekend. Brent and I ran errands Friday night (again, despite all his complaining). Saturday I managed 2 loads of laundry, worked on the scraproom, had guests for dinner, cleaned up and made breakfast for the next morning. Sunday, another 2 loads of laundry finished up that chore, more scraproom drama, cooked 2 more great meals, and flopped on the couch exhausted after the dinner dishes.

We watched the A-Team last night with the neighbors. It was funny. I was stiff and sore getting up from the couch last night. I overdid it I guess, but I'm happy with the progress.