Emily Bloss

At the end of July we went on Trav’s birthday trip for this year, to visit family and friends in Pennsylvania and New York. It was a fun and relaxing trip! We drove straight through both ways – 22 hours up and 26 hours back.

The first two days we spent at Trav’s dad’s house. On the way there, we were out in the sticks and saw a sign on route 80 that said “Highest point on Route 80, east of the Mississippi” and Trav said, “Hey look, we’re in the middle of nowhere, and I can see my Dad’s house from here!” It’s so far out, Google Maps doesn’t even know the way to his house. We drove through some quaint little towns on the way, so that was nice.

On Saturday we made a bunch of cream cheese penguins, for the family reunion we were to attend on Sunday. It went really fast with 5 people – we had quite the assembly line going. I had an idea for a transport box which may  have worked if I had been more precise, and if we hadn’t been driving for 3 hours to get to the reunion. My sandal also came flying out from the back and smacked the box right in the middle. I took dental floss and strung it in a cardboard box, making square sections for the penguins to stand in. Here’s how it looked when we got to the reunion. Oh, the carnage!

The family reunion on Sunday was a lot of fun. We picked up our niece Alia and took her with us for the day of visiting. At the reunion, we got to see a bunch of people from Trav’s mom’s side of the family. There was lots of good food (including a few raspberries plucked off the bushes) and many friendly people. They held a mystery package auction to raise money for next year’s reunion and we played bingo for little prizes. I got some nail art bling for winning a game of bingo. Whee! I’m also pretty excited about getting some rocks with fossils out of the creek. We have no rocks in Florida and I got to bring home some really cool slabs of slate. Pictures to follow later.

After the reunion, we went to visit Trav’s Frewsburg Gramma and his dad’s side of the family. That was a lot of fun, too. More food! More great people!! I snapped this pic of Alia’s newly dyed hair while we were there. I just love how this one turned out… she’s such a pretty girl. We also had birthday cakes there… Janelle made an eclair cake which was delicious and not too much trouble to make. Let’s see if I can remember… mix a batch of whipped cream with french vanilla pudding. In a cake pan, make layers of graham crackers and pudding mixture, then melt some frosting and pour it all over the top. Refrigerate and you’re all set. Mmmmm!

The next two days we spent visiting with friends in Jamestown and Frewsburg, New York. We also did some work for one of our oldest and very best customers, setting up a new laptop and cleaning up his PCs. Here we are sitting on Ralph’s $70,000 Harley:

Ralph took me for a little ride on his bike and I must say, it was very comfortable!

One of the places Trav likes to go when he’s home is Johnny’s Lunch. They serve Texas Hots there – hot dogs and hamburgers with a kind of chili sauce and piled with onions. Yummy! They’ve been around since 1936 and show no signs of slowing down… the place was packed the whole time we were there.

We met John & Carol and Rick & Terry at Patsy’s on Monday and for supper we had Lena’s pizza. More yum! They have the best pizza.Then on Tuesday we went to The Rio in Frewsburg, to meet with up with some of Trav’s old school chums and family, too. That was a really fun night. They had good food and we laughed and laughed together. Here are the family members that showed up:

The last two days we spent at Trav’s dad’s house. For my birthday, we went to a couple of wineries and sampled & bought some really good wine. After that, Syl and I went shopping at the thrift stores in St. Mary’s, and I scored a bunch of nice jewelry and a new dress which has been dubbed my “couch dress”, because Trav thinks it looks like something a sofa would wear.    It’s a very pretty dress and I can’t wait to wear it on a Friday night when we go out dancing.

On the way home, we went on what is apparently the second most congested highway in America. During rush hour. On Friday! It took us several hours to go 35 miles on Route 95 South in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. I’ve never seen traffic like that before, and I hope I don’t again any time soon! It all worked out, though, and that brought us to Fairfax and Richmond, where we stopped to visit with a couple of Bleys’ friends. We went with Langdon to a place called Noodles & Company which had really good food at reasonable prices – college students know all of the best places! Lex took us to a little downtown diner where I got a slice of green tomato pie, which was interesting and tasty.

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful… we slept and drove in shifts and arrived home around noon on Saturday. I just love getting home to see Sadie and the kitties. They were very happy to see us, and we were so happy to see them! Luckily, Trav’s dad has three very friendly cats so I didn’t get too homesick this time… I had somebody to pet. Plus we were pretty much on the go the whole time we were there.

In all, a great vacation.

Last night, one of our dance friends brought along a video camera to film birthday celebrations at the Elks. They also happened to capture us doing a merengue dance, so as soon as we can get a copy of it, I’ll post it! People really seem to enjoy watching us do that one. Must be because we have so much fun!

I’ve had a particular tab open in my Opera for months now… it’s very sad but I can’t seem to get it out of my mind and I don’t want to forget.

The site below has a series of pictures from a little island that’s 2000 miles away from the nearest continent, where lots of albatross chicks are dying because the parents pick up plastic floating in the ocean, believing it’s food for their babies. The pictures show the contents of the chick’s bellies.

Midway – Message from the Gyre

I’m not sure why it affects me so much … it makes me want to do something about it. Perhaps my next calling in life will be to help clean up the Great Garbage Patch. And here’s the Wikipedia entry for lots more info.

1. You let your 14-year-old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids.
2. The Blue Book value of your truck goes up and down depending on how much gas is in it.
3. You’ve been married three times and still have the same in-laws.
4. You think a woman who is out of your league bowls on a different night.
5. You wonder how service stations keep their rest-rooms so clean.
6. Someone in your family died right after saying ‘Hey, guys, watch this’.
7. You think Dom Perignon is a Mafia leader.
8. Your wife’s hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan.
9. Your junior prom offered day care.
10. You think the last words of the Star-Spangled Banner are ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’.
11. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels.
12. The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse.
13. You have to go outside to get something from the fridge.
14. One of your kids was born on a pool table.
15. You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.
16. You can’t get married to your sweetheart because there’s a law against it.
17. You think loading the dishwasher means getting your wife drunk.

Today we started assembling a puzzle, and as I sorted to find the edge pieces, I wondered what other people do when they find pieces still hooked together.  So here’s the poll!

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Here’s the puzzle – I got it (still shrink-wrapped) at a yard sale for $2:

The colors in it are just beautiful. We got the most fun part done this afternoon – the edge. We’re finally set up to do puzzles without them getting wrecked by the cats. The last time we were at Lowe’s, we got a piece of plexiglass which we can clamp onto the kitchen table. It works quite well so far… now we just need to find time to complete it!

And we only have to go to Orlando to get it! We went over to visit Bleys and ended up discovering Agave Azul.

The food was delicious! I had a combination plate with chile relleno, chicken enchilada and picadillo taco. Trav had beef fajitas and Bleys had chicken fajitas, which they said were good. The homemade tortillas were very tasty and with the appetizer chips they served a yummy ranch-based dip.

The restaurant is beautiful. The entrance has a fountain of stone wall with a curtain of water and the decor is of soothing blue and earth colors, with nice tables and cushy, comfy booths. I can’t wait to go back! I’m going to get the Mole de la Casa next time. Mmm!

Tonight we went out with a bunch of friends from dance class. First to Pape Kibo’s for dinner and a fantastic flamenco show with Gypsy Star, then on to Sam’s Hudson Beach… a little place right on the Gulf, perfect for watching sunsets.

We had a group of 12! Thanks to all who showed up.

It was a good sunset, too! I like this picture Trav took (I adjusted it just a little).

I wish I had taken pictures of the show at Pape Kibo’s. They had a flamenco dancer who was very good – dramatic – dancing to the music of a 5-piece band. The lady doing percussion was very entertaining, too. My favorite part was the dancer, in her fiery red ruffled dress, castanets  expertly wielded in her fluttery hands. Amazing.

We had Barbeque Halibut Steaks for dinner tonight and it was really good. We had to substitute tuna steaks for the halibut because that’s all they had at Publix. We were wondering if all of the fat and sugar cancels out the goodness of the fish. Hmmm….

When peaches are in season, we want to try Halibut with Zesty Peach Salsa.

If you have a good fish recipe, we would love to have it.

Tonight we went to Pape Kibos to celebrate Pris and Kathy’s birthdays. It was awesome! Here we are, after delicious bread and tasty drinks, about to eat a delectable dinner.

The ambiance of the place is Ernest Hemingway… big game, savannah-type stuff.

They serve exotic meat, which I love to try. Tonight they had kangaroo and silly me, I didn’t ask how much the specials were. My mistake!! This is about how I looked when I found out how much my dinner cost…

Yes, that says $55 for the kangaroo. This one time, it was worth it. We easily got $55 worth of entertainment between the six of us, what with the jokes and all. Steve wanted to know if they would take a check for the kangaroo or would they be afraid it would bounce?! tee hee

We highly recommend Pape Kibos in Hudson, Florida, for incredibly delicious Italian food served in human-sized portions at (mostly) reasonable prices. Danielle and Leena are wonderful servers! Plus the owner said it was OK for us to lick our plates clean there. I wish I had licked my plate clean tonight. Next time I will, because the food is so good. MmmmMMM!! :p

We had a fun and delicious Easter celebration this year, at our house. It was so good to see everybody. Here are the pictures!