Maxine for President!

Are you familiar with Maxine??
She has a better chance of being elected president than these two people.

John, what are you thinking?

Labor Day Weekend Events

If you watch the news or open the paper today it is hard to get excited about Labor Day Weekend. Our neighbors to the west are under water, Gustav is projected to smack into New Orleans and shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida has 3.5 million in budget deficits. Yipee....

If you can get out of bed after hearing all that here are some weekend goings on around town.

Local Bar & Club Schedule

Here is a handy site with Local Attractions

Have you ever checked out the Sea Vista Tiki Bar they call it a resort and Tiki Bar, it is really a nice, clean little motel right on the beach. They have a pool and Tiki Bar and I have been told it is a nice place to stop in on the weekend.

Toni & Joes has extended hours right now and live jazz, they also have the best cheese steak in town.

The weather will be great so get out and enjoy the beach or river!

Crabby

Are you feeling crabby? Well if so come on over to my house. Yesterday this little fellow was hanging out on my porch, then last night my son went in the garage and he and two of his friends came snapping out.....we chased them out with the broom and they went back to crabby world, not to be confused with Wally World or Obama World...(had to sorry)

So tonight I mowed the lawn, usually a happy task reserved for my brother, but the Red Sox and Yankees interfered so I did it myself. I went back to the garage and found I had six, count 'em with me now six of these little guys hanging out in my garage. I leaped on my broom (no comment dear friends and brothers) and sent them packing.....any crab experts out there that want to check in on why my garage is now crab central???? I know we just had a storm and I live across the street from the ocean but COME ON......

One more note...I have actually gotten HATE MAIL about yesterday's Obama post...I am amazed....check back tomorrow for more happy horseshit about our choices for president!!!

Democratic National Convention

So is there anything worse than the Democratic National Convention? Can you say nauseating....ridiculous and revolting.




Joe Biden does not make Obama any more attractive as a candidate.




Then when you think it can't get any worse.....Group Hug, and this was before the lovefest that is the convention even started.

Did you see a tornado or two touched down near Denver on the eve of the convention....kind of makes you say hmmmmmmm......

This & That

I have homework, my son's new school gave all the parent's an assignment, in a million words or less we have to write about our child. That does not seem that hard til you start to write it. I should probably leave out the part about how he fights with his sister and does not listen most days, do they want to know that he loves baseball and surfing and hates to unload the dishwasher?

A million words may not be enough.

Some fun for this week:

Check out Smilebooks, download free software and make professional bound books featuring your photos and stuff.

Need an answer, send a text, CHA CHA will send you back an answer in minutes!

Have a great week!

Fundraiser~Cut-A-Thon

Come out to Volusia Mall on Sunday, September 7th for a fundraiser to benefit Cassidee Baker. Cassidee is 10 years old and attends Coronado Elementary.

She was recently diagnosed with cancer on her kidney, she underwent surgery to remove her kidney and her tumor turned out to be a Wilms tumor. Luckily it is treatable with a 90% success rate.

Cassidee must undergo 25 weeks of chemotherapy & radiation, she will not be able to attend school during this treatment.

Cassidee lives with her Mom and they have recently moved in with her grandmother to save money, her mom cannot work during the treatment as it is in Orlando. Several salons and hairstylists from around Volusia have come together to raise money for Cassidee and her Mom.

Come get a haircut in the center court of Volusia Mall to benefit Cassidee. All proceeds from this event go to the family.

If you are unable to attend but would like to contribute please email me and I will put you in touch with the right people. Thanks for your help and compassion. This little girl is a friend of my daughter, this could be any of our children.

Wordless Wednesday-Tropical Storm Fay

This would be low tide today at 15th Street in New Smyrna Beach.

Beach Volleyball

I will not discuss the weather. Everyone is discussing the weather and I am sick of the weather. How about a fun New Smyrna Beach activity. Every Thursday night a great group of adults gets together at the North Beach Park, (north of Flagler, at Sapphire & Atlantic) to play volleyball, it starts at about 6pm, if it is raining they hang out til 630 to see if it will blow over. So our ridiculous weather permitting, head on over this Thursday and play some volleyball on the beach. Everyone is welcome, and of course children are welcome. (it is the beach after all!)

Don't You Just Love Florida?

Here is this mornings tracking map from Weather Underground. So there are a variety of scenarios available, use your imagination or check back as they say later today will tell the tale. I hit the beachside Publix this morning at 7am. Considering the panic that the news anchors are trying to incite, the store was relatively empty. Here is a reminder about what to do now that a storm might really come our way.

Weekend Events

I am late on this weekend event thing. There is not much going on so you did not miss much. Lots of people out shopping for school supplies. The weather is not supposed to clear up so the beach is out.

If you are new to the area or even if you are not, today's News Journal has a great Newcomers Guide with the paper.

Have a great weekend!

School Starts August 18th

And not a moment too soon for many parents! I don't know about you but my kids are bored and ready to go back to school.

The Volusia County 2008-2009 Calendar is available here.

Coronado Elementary will have a meet the teacher event on Friday morning from 10am-12pm.

Enjoy the last few days of sleeping in!

Seafood Festival

The first annual New Smyrna Beach Shrimp & Seafood Festival will be held Thursday, August 14 from 5 to 9PM hosted by the Merchants of Flagler Hospitality Group and the Daytona Beach News Journal. Flagler Avenue will be closed from 5 to 9PM to cars and open only to foot traffic.

The festival features over 30 great restaurants from New Smyrna and surrounding areas offering "tastes" of their best shrimp and seafood dishes. Restaurants will be competing for the festival's "BEST ON THE BEACH" award and offering sample portions for sale all priced in the $3 to $5 range. In addition to great seafood, the festival will feature related booths with arts, education, non-profit and fishing related themes, there will be live entertainment with Minister Theory playing on the big stage at Cooper and Flagler Streets.

Come out and celebrate the great seafood New Smyrna has to offer and drop by the OM Chill Bar's Beer Garden, where you can taste NSB's largest selection of Microbrews and fine wines!

They Unlock Cars Too

I committed a heinous sin in the eyes of my son today. I locked my keys in the car at the beach as the tide was coming in. This is extremely embarrasing when you are eleven and have an image to uphold.. Can you say idiot. Say it with me now....you are an idiot. SO just before the locksmith could arrive to save me, the Beach Patrol came riding by and they have all the proper car thief tools needed to break into a car. In fact, the helpful law enforcement officer told me he probably breaks into 5 cars a day on the weekends....so it is apparent I am not the only idiot on the beach. He unlocked the thing in short order and set the alarm off so that in the event everyone in the immediate area did not know I was a dumbass, they were soon made aware.

Thanks, to the beach patrol, they do a good job.

Brett is a Jet

So, Brett is going to the Jets. I have long been a closet Jets fan. I mean no one admits to being a Jets fan. You just kind of love them in silence. They won only 4 of sixteen games last season, they were dismal, but they had alot of injuries and no quarterback.....and now they have Brett, who, oh yeah, is a quarterback. So my hope is that this year I can love the Jets out loud. Thanks, Brett.

Weekend Events

I could not find anything very exciting going on this weekend at the Beach, the Chill Bar has a band tonight and tomorrow, Flagler Tavern has the usual stuff going on. It is supposed to be a bit cooler so the beach is your best bet.

New Smyrna Parks and Rec has extended fall baseball and softball signups til August 20th. You can get the forms and information here.

The Seafood Festival is August 14th on Flagler, more on that next week.

Enjoy the weekend!

Amazing Story

Someone sent me this today and I had to share. It is a news story from KARE 11 in Minneapolis. What a great story this is. Fallen Heroes

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

This Is A Lifeguard

This big red chair with a person in it and a flag on top is a lifeguard. Volusia County has alot of these. You can actually stand at one lifeguard and see the next one down the beach. There is a lifeguard at every beach approach and then some. They are there to protect you from all sorts of things, rip currents, drowning, all forms of sea life that may bite you...and lightning.

Let's talk about lightning for a minute. We have lots of it here. You can usually see a storm coming from pretty far away.

So...if you are in the water and there are large black clouds with lightning shooting out of them, this is your first clue to get out of the water. It is not safe. If that is not a sufficent reason to vacate the water then the person standing on top of the big red stand waving the flag and blowing the whistle at you should give it away.

They are not waving at you to annoy you, they are not waving at you to say Hi, they are waving at you to save your life. So stay safe and get out of the water.

You have other beach choices if you do not want to obey the authority of our Volusia County Lifeguards. Head to Brevard County...where they have less than half the lifeguards that we have in Volusia. You can stay in the water in a thunderstorm all day if you want to.....

Do You Recycle?

If you live in New Smyrna Beach it is easy to recycle. Southard's Recycling picks up one day per week. If you do not have a recycle bin call them, they will drop one off at your house and tell you what day your pick-up is. Here is an information sheet on the program.

No this picture is not related to recycling, I just thought this sand dog was cute! Someone is very creative.

"Mom, We Have A Serious Problem"

It is 12:18 am. Do you know where your hamster is?

My daughter burst into my room at 12:18 this morning to tell me, we had a serious problem. I, of course thought, fire, flood, or some other natural disaster, but no, it was far worse. Apparently, she woke up when she heard a crash, she got up and as she was walking thru the house saw this.



The kitty had knocked down the hamster cage it opened on impact and bless his little rat heart he was running from the cat. He is not fast, he sort of waddles along so she is apparently not the great predator she thinks she is, if she could not catch this fat, old hamster. Anyway, after corraling the cat, locating the hamster and putting everyone in separate rooms we were all able to return to sleep. The moral of the story. Cats don't like rats....or any domestic version of rodents. It is best to keep them separate.

Great Beach Day

It is a gorgeous day for the beach, one more plug for the Farmer's Market on Canal Street, it runs from 7am-12noon each Saturday. I just got back, the prices are great and the produce is fantastic! Check it out.

A couple of local restaurant notes. The Upper Deck that is above Boston Fish House on South Atlantic is reported by a good source (my brother) to be excellent! Great menu, service and food.

On the other hand PJ's Sea Shack has been reported as so-so. It has a nice atmosphere, good service and mediocre food. It is owned by the same people who own the Garlic across the street which is excellent, so not sure what is up with PJ's.

Have a great weekend!