The Big Double 7

Yes, Jim hit the big double 7 yesterday!!! Yep, 77 years old and still going strong. The body is getting a little tired and sore at times but the mind is still 18 years old .... most of the time anyway! As an example, Jim has 4 SCUBA dives scheduled in Key Largo later this month. How many 77 year old guys do you know that still SCUBA dive??
We celebrated Jim's birthday by going to dinner at Portafino's Restaurant with Gus and Mayilyn Lopes. They were nice enough to give a bottle of Champagne as a birthday gift.

But this is not the end of birthday celebrations. On Sunday, the four of us will be going to Flemings, a fine place for dinner in Sarasota. We will be celebrating both Jim's birthday(again)  and Carol's birthday (August 10). Flemings is a superb place to dine and we always enjoy our times there. Their special on Sunday is Prime Rib and Gus really likes that.

CHILLIN' OUT

We decided to use one of our timeshares that was in the RCI bank, to take some time to relax. We went to our nearly local timeshare, Lehigh Resort,  in Lehigh Acres, only 70 miles away. It is inland from Ft Myers and is a laid back resort with not much going on in the area. They do have plenty of activities at the resort to keep you busy though. The resort is well kept, well run and a pleasure to be at.
Since it so quiet around here, we drove down to Ft Myers Beach and wandered around there for a while. It has been several years since we  have been there and it is still a nice beach town. We also had a good lunch at the water's edge.

Being here will also give us the opportunity to go to the Ft Myers Elks and dance to the music of Jerry Dycke, one our favorite entertainers. That is on tap for this evening.
We will be home tomorrow after a relaxing, and rejuvenating week!!

Our new Portrait

We are so lucky to have the great friendship of Gus and Marilyn Lopes. And now we find out that Marilyn is a great artist as well a superb chef.
She recently made the portrait you see us holding in the photo below.

I know you cannot read the poem she added to it so I am putting it here so you can read it clearly.
.

We cannot see,

We cannot pee,

We cannot chew,

We cannot screw,

Our hearing stinks,

Our memory shrinks,

No sense of smell,

We look like hell.

The Golden Years are here at last ......

The Golden Years can kiss our ______ !!!!!

And here is  close up of the picture so you can see it more clearly.

It sure is wonderful having friends like them!!

Father's Day

Carol and met with John and Mary Lou Serafin to go to dinner today to celebrate Father's Day. I have known John for about 70 years ... yes, 70 years!! We were both raised in Trafford, PA and lived about 1 block from each other. John was 2 years ahead of me in school but the class size in Trafford at that time was about 45 in each class. Every one knew everyone else in  our town of 2500, at least by name if not personally.
We chose to go to Rosebud's for our dinner and here we all are waiting for our dinner.

Since we have known each other for such a long time we spent much of our time talking about the "good old days" and everyone we knew in Trafford. It is amazing that we can spend so much time talking about such a small town!!
All of our dinners were excellent and Rosebud's is a superb place to have dinner in our area, Carol and John had veal liver and onions which may sound strange to some people, but all of us like it. Maybe that is some of the Trafford heritage!!

Here we are again, toasting each other!!
It was a wonderful way to spend a special day with special and wonderful friends.

The Big 8 - 0 for Ernie

Yesterday we attended a small party for Ernie Nolin's 80th birthday. Carol and I, plus Gus and Marylin and Ernie''s family had a gathering at his home to celebrate the occasion.

Chinese cuisine was brought in for dinner and was quite good and certainly plentiful. Of course there was the cake, without 80 candles but with two on the numbers of "8" and "0". We didn't want to have a major fire with 80 candles!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY , Ernie and many nore.

Limo Trip To the Sandy Parrot

On Thursday one of the entertainers we enjoy, Kim Jenkins,  was playing at the Sandy Parrot in Fr Myers. He had arranged for limo style buses to take a number of his fans to listen and dance to his music

Here is Carol, Gus and Marilyn in the limo waiting to depart Englewood. We had a total of 21 in the limo and a number of them made it a real party on the way to the Sandy Parrot. A second limo left from another location and there were about 60 in total that went.

The Sandy Parrot is a large Tiki Hut that is open to the outside. They also had a section that was not a Tiki Hut and it was also open to the outside. They had a lot fans going so it was reasonably cool.


The patrons at the Sandy Parrot, and a lot of the bus group, were a real party bunch and Kim payed to their tastes. It seemed their tastes were mostly the 70's and 80's fast music so we did not get many numbers that we danced to. The food was quite good but later in the evening some smokers starting firing up one cigarette after another and we were in the draft that got most of the smoke!!
We all got back on the limos about 9:45 and it was 11 PM by the time we got home. It was a good time but it is doubtful we will go back to the Sandy Parrot.

Mother's Day

Rather than trying to find a restaurant that was not crowded on Mother's Day, Jim decided to cook something special for Carol. We started with shrimp cocktails and champagne.

Of course it was hard to keep the main course a secret from Carol. Jim did keep everything well hidden but she is too smart and suspected it was going to be one of her favorites, Caribbean Lobster tail.  And it was, along with asparagus and baked sweet potato.

Jim was not about to allow  Carol to have all of that tail, so we split it. Since it was nearly a full pound there was plenty of it for both.  It was a quiet Mother's Day but very enjoyable.