TulipGirl

Hubby’s old army buddy back from DLI days has recently re-enlisted to go serve in Iraq. He’s having a quick Florida vacation and visiting us before heading out. We haven’t had houseguests since Rebecca and Sara were here over a year ago. Considering how often my ILs have company and the fine Florida weather, I’m surprised. Then again, staying with a family with four active boys isn’t exactly everyone’s idea of restful.

It’s been really enjoyable. I’m online to look up my favorite pancake recipe. We have fresh blueberries and strawberries (and whipped cream!) for toppings, and should make for a perfect lazy Saturday breakfast out on the lanai. It’s been overcast and rainy, and today is sunshiny–a perfect beach day. We’ll probably head out to Siesta Key (though usually I prefer Lido or Turtle Beach.)

Ahhh. . . gotta love Florida.

We joined the other families in our homeschool baseball team for a game at Ed Smith Stadium tonight. Our team won, and our family had a fun. The whole atmosphere of the game was great; the cool fresh air, the excitement, the game announcer’s voice reverberating, the hot dogs. . . I remember my folks bringing us to a game in Racine when I was growing up. It was the same thing. Minor league games are are the best. (And the boys understood a lot more now that they’ve been playing baseball, compared to their first taste of the classic American sport.)

Looking just past Romney’s outstretched arm, you’ll see four members of the “Young Conservatives of Our Neighborhood” club who attended the Romney rally today. Now that Fred Thompson is no longer in the race, the YC’s are trying to persuade me that Romney is the one candidate who can unite fiscal, social and foreign policy conservatives. That’s yet to be seen, but my boys and their cohorts are quite persuasive.

Own your home in Sarasota? Need to repaint it in true Florida colors like Spanish Moss, Dolphin Dance or Hacienda Clay? Get up to 10 gallons of recycled paint free.

June 1st marks the beginning of hurricane season, and with it comes a much-welcomed tropical storm. (Drought and wildfires, while a normal part of the Florida ecological system, still have us welcoming the rain.)

Florida has a Sales Tax Holiday on hurricane preparedness supplies from now through June 12th. This is the time to stock up! If you don’t know where to start, I recommend Kathryn’s Hurricane Checklist. We’ve already printed it out, and J10 is heading up our hurricane preparations this year.

The boys are swimming with Hubby in the pool, in the rain. Ahhhh, I love Florida!

Last year we had a great time at the Sarasota Film Festival’s KidsFest and were privileged to attend the opening of Hoot, based on Carl Hiaasen’s first kids’ novel. It was a blast, and felt good to be part of one of Sarasota’s annual cultural celebrations.

This year’s film festival is underway and it looks like we’ll be missing all of the major events and movies, even the BayBlast children’s fest. Hopefully we’ll at least get to go to a Midnight Movie.

I still want to frame this year’s poster for Hubby. It’s really odd–I can’t find an image of the poster online. The pic below is one I took downtown. I found the poster at the SFF office downtown, the boys and I bought one, and immediately bought a frame, brought it home and surprised Hubby! It looks great hanging in the kitchen-office, and coordinates with the posters of rock concerts we scavenged in Athens.

Sarasota Film Festival: April 13-22, 2007

Just a reminder to myself to get tickets soon, and look into buying this year’s film festival poster for Hubby.

For the bibliophiles in the Sarasota area, here are some of the tips and tricks I use to get ahold of good reading materials.

1. Sarasota County Libraries
We like to go to Selby downtown for a “fun” excursion. The aquarium in the children’s section is captivating. I hate the angled staircases up to the nonfiction section, however–they had weirdly angled staircases at the old Selby, too. I always felt like I was going to be sick when walking down them.
Fruitville is very child-friendly and has friendly librarians to boot. It probably has the best AV section and as it is just off of I75, is very convenient.
Gulf Gate library is small and homey, and the best for running quick errands. This is the library where I pay my fines because they are friendly and don’t make me feel pariah for having overdue books.
While there are other locations, these are the three we frequent. Each of them have used bookstores run by the Friends of the Library.
Along with physical trips to the library, I do a lot of book reservations (and renewals) online. When a book isn’t in the Sarasota County library book catalog, I put in a request and then visit AlleyCat.

2. AlleyCat
As it’s slogan says, “A Couple of Clicks, Millions of Picks.” This is a great resource, as it draws from public and academic libraries in this region of Florida. Hubby has used it for books he’s needed to read for grad school, but weren’t worth purchasing for his professional library. I’ve also found it useful for requesting older children’s books that are recommended in homeschool resources and for books that are from Christian publishers. They are delivered for pickup to whichever local library I request–all at no charge! I usually do school planning with Homeschool Tracker, SCLIBS and AlleyCat all open, and request books as I plan.

3. Goodwill Bookstore
If you are local and haven’t visited this bookstore, it’s a must. The children’s section has a good stock of homeschool texts and supplements, at least last time I stopped in. The prices aren’t dirt cheap, but are very decent.

4. The Main Bookshop
A Sarasota icon, the Main Bookshop has been a key date destination since Hubby and I were first together. One Thanksgiving our post-dinner recreation was going in and buying Christmas presents for the entire family in one fell swoop. We spent our last anniversary browsing the Main, as the weather was too cranky to allow a walk along the beach.

5. A. Parker’s Bookstore
Also a wonderful place to browse downtown, Parker’s caters to rare and specialty books. I still regret I didn’t buy a book of the stories behind nursery rhymes from Parker’s.

6. The Living Word
One of the managers is Reformed Baptist and takes the extra effort to stock quality books, along with the kitsch stuff. They also have a decent section of homeschool materials from a range of publishers. Good service.

Sept. 17

Katherine Harris announces her bid for U.S. Senate.

Of interest to some. . . Katherine Harris spent some time studying at L’Abri.

Just yesterday J9 was asking me questions about Rep. Harris. He’s quite the budding politico.

In class the other day, the teacher asked what the top government leader in Florida was called. J9 thought Governor was too obvious and it had to be a trick question. So he replied, “Head honcho?”

Sarasota Christian Moms

Sarasota Christian Moms Yahoo Group

Radical Mama

This looks cool. But I don’t know if we’ll get to participate.

Welcome to wild reptilian west coast Florida!

While working at our new house, we had a snake in the pool. The kids (inadvertantly) killed a lizard. I stepped on a spider, and then had baby spiders swarm. And a turtle came to our front door.

It was really fun (except the spider part, and worrying whether the snake in the pool was a water mocassin.) The turtle was a box turtle–and at least a foot and a half long. I opened the door to let the gas man out, and there he was, right on our porch. I told the boys that our neighbor came over to welcome us. So they’ve been calling him Neighbor.

Florida Newspapers

Sarasota County Libraries

MyFlorida.com Portal

JobFocus Sarasota/Bradenton

Mote Marine Shark Tank Webcam

SouthWestern Bell Yellow Pages