ShoofooFotos!

Ok, folks (all 3 or 4 of you who follow this blog), we're moving again.  Maybe this will be the last move.

Starting January 1, 2014 all of our photos and commentary will be posted here:

http://shoofoofotos.wordpress.com  (Click HERE or on the link to get there!)

Thanks for coming along with our various and eclectic wanderings!!  Much love to all in the new year. 2014 sounds like an odd year, doesn't it?  May it bring us all much hope and happiness.

winding down on 2013

These are the last of the photos for the year, and for this blog …

I've been walking and riding my bike most every day around the neighborhood.  The pool is getting a bit too cold most days, and I need some kind of exercise to keep me from falling into a funk.  For more than a year my doctors have told me not to walk for exercise.  Now I have a doctor who says that she thinks my bones are strong enough.  It's really good to be back on my bike.

This is one of the sites from the neighborhood ...

 … and this is the fish the John caught with the rod, line and reel that David sent, Oompa's swivel and his own lure.  (John knows the particular lure that the fish in the canal always bite on.)

 View from the back porch of the painted bunting at the bird feeder and bath.  Jubilee tries to keep the squirrels away.

Our Xmas Tree 2013

Our Xmas tree this year and a few of my favorite things …

Xmas 2013

Once again, we were invited to celebrate Xmas with the Baran family.

A beautiful table:

 Lucy in her Xmas finery ...

 The girls ...

 Lucy posing again ...

 Hathaway ...

 A game of corn hole ...

 The chocolate cream pie!

 … a little closer ...

 After dinner entertainment with 4 hands!

turtles, fish and ravioli (no alligators)

Greg, Eric and Dawn visited over the weekend.  John came in late to Ft. Lauderdale airport.  It was dark and somehow we headed south instead of north.  Finally got home, though.

 Always good to take someone to Grassy Waters ...

 Ravioli on the back porch ...

 ... around the kitchen table ...

 A visit to the new turtle museum...

 Me and Greg before the turtle ambulance ...

... and on over to the Atlantic Ocean.

Xmas party with friends

Friend at Publix

back on his bike!

John back on his bike during Thanksgiving.

Cowles Mountain

On one of the mornings that we were in California, John and I ventured away from the beach house to explore the surrounding area.  We decided on a hike up Cowles Mountain, a little west of San Diego.  It was a popular spot - lots of people there, but then there are lots of people most everywhere in Southern California.  Cowles Mountain is part of the Mission Trails Regional Park.

According to a sign, the park was once part of the ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay Indians, who still live in the San Diego area.  "Haawka" is the traditional greeting of their language.  I tried this greeting with some of my fellow hikers and they looked at me like I was crazy.

There are a zillion fitness nuts in California …

 Canyons abound ...

view of Chicago

I wasn't sure if John was going to make it home for Thanksgiving.  First, the snow in Pittsburgh threatened to make the drive to the airport treacherous, but fortunately it wasn't as cold as expected, so that part went smoothly.

Then, John was flying into Chicago and had only 1/2 hour to make it to the last flight for West Palm Beach.  I'm watching all this from my computer and can see that his flight was going to be late getting to Chicago.  I figured he would just have go to his cousin Mary Lou's house in Chicago for Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, they did get to Chicago with just 10 minutes until the connecting plane (in another terminal) was scheduled to leave (on time) for WPB.  They let John and another woman off of the plane first, where he fast-walked and made it!

I didn't get a call, so I watched the plane in real time make its way South, and Jubilee and I set out to get him at about 9:30pm.  He made it home!

wierd view

These posts are going to be all out of order, time-wise, for awhile.  Just can't seem to keep up with things in a chronological way.

The view from our bed in California was over a porch and then right out to the Pacific Ocean.  The last night I woke up and saw this!

It looked like a huge planet but was really the reflection of the circular window of the house onto the glass window of our view.  You can see the porch railing, the sky, the waves of the ocean, and the reflection of the window.

Thanksgiving 2013

 We went to Sandy and Frank's house to join the motley crew of those with no place to go!  A good time.

 Sandy and Uncle Vinnie ...