misc. stuff on a drizzly Wednesday evening

~first daffodil~

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There's hope yet that spring will arrive - when I returned from Florida, my sweet early daffodils were just starting to open up - and today a clump of them were in full bloom.  I wanted to hug the little things.

Whatever charming and infectious microorganism that has invaded my body has decided that it is happy here - and is being very stubborn.  My head feels like concrete goo - the fever comes and goes - and being upright for more than an hour just about does me in.  Lovely, don't you think?  But I do have an Airstream fridge full of juice, a bowl of miscellaneous fruit, and soup.  I can survive this.

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~Last Friday's breakfast~

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My friend's in Florida really took good care of me, and my friend Barb (the taller of the two aliens here) treated me to a yummy breakfast on my first morning.  We both took our trays out to her front porch - an eclectic porch filled with bromeliads and tropical plants and adirondack chairs and wind chimes - and had a perfect Florida breakfast.

This friend, as well as a few others, wrote a murder-mystery party script with me back in 1993 - one that had over 90 'roles' and included pretty much every scientist living along the Florida panhandle.  The theme was an 'Intergalactic Conference on the State of the Environment' and included seminar speakers - and the hilarious part was that the keynote speaker was the head of the Florida Chapter of MUFON - the Mutual UFO Network.  He came with a slide presentation of UFO sightings in the Gulf Breeze area - and seemed quite delighted to be talking to a room of scientists dressed up as aliens.  My 'character' was Snarg:  I was from a prison planet, and I had been placed in prison because I ate scientists.  I was part of an experiment to implant chips into the brains of dangerous individuals to curb their various evils.  All I did all evening was go up to people (aka aliens), sniff them, and say 'delicious'.  The scientist who did my brain chip implantation was one of the speakers during the conference.  Oh, and as all good murder-mysteries go, during a break in the conference talks someone was killed.

Fun times.

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~Barb's walkway~

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I loved my friend Barb's walkway in front of her house.  She had made these large concrete pavers, with elephant ear imprints - various sizes, mingled in with slate and other walkway stones and pavers.  I'd love to make some - they were fun.

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~sand cliffs along Santa Rosa Island~

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I went for a walk Sunday with a friend out on Santa Rosa Island - the island has been visited by a number of strong storms since I was last there (when Andrew made a near-visit) - Ivan (for one) visibly changed this little sandbar.  New 'manmade' dunes had been added to some places, and in others, evidence of erosion were evident - creating cliffs up to 4 or 5 feet tall near the water.  It was interesting to see the cross-section (took me back to my soil science days) - and to see how deep the roots of the sea oats went into the sand.  No wonder they're so perfect for this habitat.  The beach was beautiful as usual - I had forgotten how white the sand was - pretty amazing stuff.

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~the Pointer Sisters, home from the Paw Plaza Hotel~

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So - when I flew back to Charleston on Monday morning, I went to the Paw Plaza Hotel to pick up Stanley and the Pointer Sisters.  Much to my horror, I learned that while there, the young Dan (the pointer with the yellow bandana) jumped the exercise fence.  I'm sure it freaked out the folks working there, but fortunately (and luckily) they were able to capture her as she ran down the road.  She did there what she has done twice here (but this time with an even taller fence):  she goes up to the fence, stands for a minute, and then jumps over it - clears it - without even needing a running start.  Now this new-found skill terrifies me, and so the young Dan is back on a leash.  Plus, I'm sure she's now on a 'list' at the Paw Plaza of difficult guests.  I adore the Pointer Sisters, but they are indeed a challenge.

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Now, back to bed for me.

Comments

[Janet]

Take care of yourself Pam. Sure wish you were on the mend. Sounds like the trip to Florida was a hoot.
I really like the picture of the sand dune, very nice.
I had a neighbor in Texas who had a Black and Tan Coonhound who would jump fences all the time. Daisy just liked coming to visit our dog! Good luck keeping Dan where she should be.

[Kate]

they look so cute and innocent! I home you feel better soon. I want to make some of those pavers too! very cool.

[Les]

I have been fighting a similar ailment for a week now, and yesterday was the first day I could think straight. A bottle of warm sake at dinner last night was better than any cold medicine.

It is very frightening what Dan did, but at least you were not there to witness it. We had a basset growing up who would climb chain link fences. It was not a graceful process, but it worked for her.