As seen on TV

Occasionally I get an itch to try one of those crazy things advertised on television. So, I totally bought into it and got a 'TOPSY TURVY". You know, the thing where the tomato plant grows upside down and is supposed to produce masses of lush, unbruised tomatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out. But I will say that I also bought the Aqua Globes. Remember those? And they totally work! But I have to draw the line somewhere: NO SNUGGIES or SHAMWOWS!!!!Here's a pic of the front of the house and half of the front yard. I can't get everything in the picture but wanted you to see how nice the grass looks and the bazillion rose bushes in the front that are blooming beautifully. And next up is my experimental herb garden in containers. I am giving this a real try as the rosemary in the yard is doing really well. I also planted some sweet basil and cilantro in the ground.Here in the containers are lemon balm, thyme, and dill. The dill seems to be quite fragile and really gets lethargic and flaccid when it's the slightest bit dehydrated. It may be "touch and go" with this one.
I'm expecting big things from these little plants!

April Dinner Club

Tonight we went to Cary to have dinner at the Revels' home. A new half million dollar home that they moved into just in February. They decorate mostly like us, in a very minimalist fashion. One of the guests insulted the hostess by saying "I bet you can't wait to decorate this house!" which was ALREADY decorated.Another woman recommended to her husband that she and her husband should put "some of that stuff under their kitchen cabinets too" and his reply was "Oh, yeah, that's just bricks" It was beautiful travertine tile that they were referring to.Another woman asked if she planned to decorate her kitchen with red, green and beige based on the colors in her kitchen towel. The towel she was making reference to was from a well known kitchen store that uses those signature colors in most of their towels. And her kitchen will stay the color she already has it.Then while we were talking about cosmetic surgery I stated that I wanted to get my eyes done because I was so very tired of getting comments about having Asian heritage. And that's fine, except that I DON'T have any Asian heritage. I was expecting my friends to respond with "What? You don't look Asian at all! Those people are nuts! You don't need surgery!" Instead, they both looked at me quizically like "You don't?"

I host the dinner club at the end of next month. I can't wait.

A Facelift for our Deck

Our poor, tired deck needed a face lift (is that two words or one?). Here is the before picture. The previous owner power washed the deck until it was nothing but splinters left. We considered just replacing the deck, but decided to just put a little paint on it for this year and re-evaluate next year maybe.Painting away:After:
Oh, ignore the last step and it's big paint splash. Looks a tad better, no?

Spring is here

Lately we've been doing A LOT of yardwork. I am amazed at just how much work it is to keep a yard looking nice. Wow. We've been cleaning out all of the old yucky leaves that get stuck up in shrubs and lay there for years until they become brittle and turn into mulch. And then it's an even bigger mess to clean up.The local Methodist Church youth had a pine straw sale and we bought ten bales of pine straw to spread around the front yard. I'm not sure it will be enough, but we can always run to Lowe's and get more if we need it. See the yard ornaments? They're named Sprinkles and Miss Marble. They were sitting and watching us work in the flower bed. They like to just sit and watch.
Yes, that is a small white garbage can beside of me. And one of the most useful things I have in doing yardwork. I toss clippings, etc in it and it's light and easy to toss around. Then I can just dump it out when I'm done. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Keys

We got back to land on Sunday morning and didn't fly out until Monday morning. So what did we do with that extra time? We drove down to the Florida keys. We've been before, about a decade ago. Absolutely beautiful. And Mark splurged and surprised me with a red convertible to enjoy the ride. Woo-hoo!!

Second Formal Night

Total fun. We had the greatest table with lots of fun and interesting people. All except one couple were there for the medical conference so we had something in common from the start!Steve and Kelley. Jonathan and Ronnie:Parade of the Waiters, where we showed our gratitude for their hospitatlity:

St. Maarten

The prettiest water, ever.Waiting for our group to go on the snorkel excursion.Our tour guides:The snorkel site. I was a tad nervous, I'll admit.Can you believe that we didn't get a single photo of us snorkeling or anything? Here we're already done and on our way back! I did get a little nauseated in the water (not on the boat as expected) and had to come in early. Bummer. Otherwise I had no problems with any sickness throughout the trip!Mark enjoying his punch. There may have been some questionable stuff in it.Shopping on the Dutch side in St.Maarten:Taking a stroll on the beach:

Eating his super delicious Hurricane Shrimp at Chesterfield's. Me? I had Conch Fritters. That's right....those little things that grow in sea shells.It was a lot of fun.

St Kitts

Our favorite, or at least the prettiest of the islands:A Christopher Columbus ship!:Seen on the drive to the beach:We had to ease in the water as it was a bit coolMark with a starfish:Picture on top of a big hill:Atlantic ocean to the left and Carribbean sea to the right:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan was certainly the least favorite of the three places we visited. Possibly there are some extremely nice resorts in Puerto Rico, but I doubt they're in San Juan. It was just more of a city where lots of people lived and worked. So scenery wasn't all that fabulous. But we did get to see the fort there which was nice:View of Old San Juan behind Mark:Inside the capitol:Beach in Puerto Rico:The party that started as we were leaving San Juan:
Next up: St. Kitts

The Ship: Celebrity's Solstice

The ship is the largest cruise ship in the world right now, and it's only three months old. Lounging around just before getting off in San Juan:Walking down the hall to our state room:The grass lawn on the top deck:Going to the show that they had nightly:A glimpse at our state room. I didn't get any more photos unfortunately. It was nice.The halls of the upscale mall on board:Johna reading in the sky gallery. (I was reading Twilight, of course)
Next up: San Juan, Puerto Rico.