Best things in life...

Today was simply incredible. As most of you know Steve and I are alone this week while Rosie is at an Especially for Youth Camp in St. Petersburg. On Thursday night we headed down to Palm Beach to Singer Island. We walked on the beach, had a fabulous dinner at Testa's, for which we had a buy one get one free coupon I printed off the Internet.

We got up this morning, watched the sunrise, went back to sleep for a couple of hours, then drove over to the Breaker's in Palm Beach. What a gorgeous, grand old hotel. I want to stay there. Lunch was a roaring success. They asked us to keep our remarks brief so I spoke for less than 30 seconds after receiving my Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism.

Then they did the Florida Society of Newspaper Editor awards. My Got Water series won the explanatory reporting category and I also won a Gold Medal for Public Service, it was truly truly incredible. Lots of people had read the series and said they loved it.

Jay Friedlander from USF told me he particularly loved the boxes and charts and said it was clear a lot of reporting went into those. That made me feel great because those things are always so very hard to put together.

Then we drove to St. Pete, watched the sunset on the beach, walked over for seafood at Crabby Bills then walked on the beach in the dark. How many ways can I say superb? We're staying at the Sandpiper Beach Resort. It's beautiful. $103 on Hotwire, but they let us upgrade the room to a gulf view suite for $15. What a bargain!

Things

I never rested up from the weekend this week so I'm very tired. But last weekend was so productive! I shopped for 7 hours on Friday with Rosie. I told Steve I've become a professional shopper. I never even used to like to shop and now I do it all the time. Looking for good prices, an endless variety of things we all seem to need.
Put up 7 quarts of chicken last weekend, made Rosie a dress and a pair of pajamas, made food for the neighbors cook out, hacked down all the areca palms, then made dinner for the missionaries. Yeah!!
Wrote a story about rattlesnakes and laughed when I couldn't stand to leave my feet on the floor because it felt creepy. Weird I know.

Rebirth and other piddling matters

So I took a closer look at the garden this weekend and either the squash or the cantaloupe have come back from the dead. They've put out new shoots and are growing again! Cool huh?
I had a busy and productive weekend. On Friday, Rosie and I shopped for 7 hours, trying to find shoes for her and other accessories and necessities for her Especially For Youth conference this week in St. Petersburg. On Saturday I put up seven quarts of chicken and did some laundry. The neighbors invited us next door for a barbecue so I threw together a couple dozen cream puffs and a bowl of pasta salad. It was nice. Quite a few people there.
While the squash is growing again, the areca palms in the corner of the courtyard are not, at least not yet. We hacked them down on Saturday afternoon because we have to get in there and sprinkle Amdro because the carpenter ants have moved in. I've heard they keep termites away!:)
We had a low key Saturday evening and didn't go to any fireworks shows. I continued to sew. I wound up making Rosie a dress and a pair of pajama bottoms.
It was great!

Can't believe it's July already

Time seems to really fly. I just finished planning my vacations for the rest of the year!
Calendaring has become really important at the NJ since they've ordered another round of unpaid weeklong furloughs to cut costs. Ouch!!
Looked out of the window this morning at my poor sad garden. It started great but all my squash and watermelon plants have died and I'm not sure why.