Greetings from Minnesota!

Wish you were here?

It's been a lazy long while since I last posted.  I think that by not knitting, I have nothing to post about, but then again, some of you have become bloggy friends and perhaps a shout out now and then is called for.

Last year, I had my garden in.  Potatoes planted, beets, peas blah blah blah.  There is almost 12 inches of snow on my other bird feeder.  The poor little creatures must be so confused.  I don't remember a spring like this in my 42 years.  Whole flocks of robins are demanding their money back on their north bound flights.  I don't even know what the geese and ducks are doing here.  The lakes are frozen.  Strange.  And oddly enough, I've been having dreams about tornadoes.  Do you know what happens when the warm spring air meets this very cold, weird stuff?  Big bad yucky storms.  And I'm afraid of wind (bad experience once).

We did manage to splurge this year on a vacation.  We took the crew and met a friend down in Florida on a tiny little tropical island I will leave unnamed so that no one can find it (the locals requested I say that).

Siesta

We watched dolphins swim right past our porch, fished, collected shells, tried to read and knit but the ocean was so darn distracting.

Captain and Lumpy with his first shark (catch and release).

Lunker with this baby shark (also catch and release).

It was better than watching Real Housewives.  Pelicans diving, schools of fish swarming and feeding.  Of course, growing up in the Midwest means that we think sharks are just waiting for us to put our feet in the water so they can rush up and gobble us in one gulp.  When two bull sharks were fished up right on the shore, we felt vindicated by all the happy, tanned bathers who merrily paddled around the water with their tropical umbrella drinks, dangling their feet over their inner-tubes.  I imagine they look just like big fat turtles floating on the surface.  No thanks.

Notice the natural shark barrier there?  No one from my family when beyond that.  BUT, do you see that floater in the distance?  Can't you just hear the Jaws theme cranking up.  I couldn't watch.  We didn't get the paper or any TV to hear of any shark incidents, so I'm hoping she made it back to shore.

The trouble with paradise is that there are large numbers of rats and cockroaches on tropical islands.  No one likes to talk about it, but the place was crawling with them.  One cockroach made its way up my husbands leg while we were sleeping.  10 minutes later, three cockroaches were dead, one went missing and I was doing my best impression of a haz-mat suit with nothing but a single sheet wrapped entirely around my body with only my eyes and nose sticking out (which is how I spotted another bug flying into the bathroom).  Mr. seemed nonplussed about the whole thing and fell to sleep in nothing but his boxers - spread eagle on the bed.  What's wrong with him?  My dear sister who lived in Maui told met me, when I called her at 2 am in a panic attack,  to sleep with the lights on and let the little lizards move in.  We kept the tiny lizards outside, thank you, but slept with the lights on after that and never saw another bug.

DOOOLLLPHINNN!!!!  (later: Dolphin)

The dolphin sightings reminded us of when our Icelandic friends come to Minnesota and see squirrels for the first time.  There is a lot of shouting and excitement, picture taking and squeals of delight.  By the end of the trip, when someone sights a dolphin (or said squirrel), the alarm is more like a mellow, "Hey guys.  There's another dolphin."  Barely a glance up from a book or sudoku puzzle.  And no one gets up to see because it's the 17th dolphin to swim by that afternoon.

We could watch the sunset every night from our front door and porch, but I was so distracted by absolutely nothing that I never took a picture.  This was just a really pretty sky later in the evening that seemed so romantic.  I felt like I should stand out on the deck in a long blowing gown and pine for my long lost love, but he was not lost and was sitting next to me drinking a beer and telling me about EVERY. SINGLE. FISH. he caught that day.  (think dolphin and squirrel theme).

And off daddy and daughter go on an island adventure.  She got so tired with the boys and all the fishing that she demanded that daddy pack a picnic and come and explore the island with her.  No fishing pole allowed.  Ta ta.

And so, I'm back in MinneSNOWta.  get it.  I said MinneSNOWta instead of Minne . . .  you know.  Cuz it's snowing so I changed the . . ok, whatev.   No knitting.  No crocheting.  At least nothing finished.  I hope all is well with all of you.  I will be checking my blog roster soon so I can catch up with you all!

LOVE!