further back

from the present to the first part of February due to my being too busy to post while we were moving.... these are what would have been posts in chronological order and now they are reverse chron order- LOL

so working back another week in the missing posting-

We went to a spring training baseball game at Ed Smith stadium in Sarasota to see the Orioles and Cardinals in a slug fest that ended with a 9-10 score in favor of the Cards!

We had dinner at Blue Marlin to drink a 1971 bottle of Corton Renardes from Alexis Lichine that Neil had sent down to drink with Max (his birth year)

below is a nice photo from their fB page - of the bar and communal table - such a great place!

And- I went to see the Ballet Hispanico with Barb W. - beautiful dances and lots of energy and fun...

 It was hard to pick a favorite among these three... each was unique and the movement followed the theme and music so well that they were truly three completely different works.

after the ballet we went to John & Barb's to play a few games and then out to dinner at Bridge Street Bistro where we had a lovely meal and saw the last of the sunset-

and just to round out our week - on the prior Saturday we had the Salzburgers' 1970 Reunion - four plus decades later they still try to keep in touch- this time we did a Sarasota Bay boat tour and dinner at Captain Brian's followed by a concert at Fogartyville of half of Aztec Two Step (Aztec one Step I guess LOL) The concert was so bad we left at intermission but the boar ride and dinner were lots of fun!

  

and one more event - the night before closing on our old place we went to the symphony for a program we had mixed reviews for- not crazy about the Bernstein piece but liked the remaining music - an overture from Rossini from the Barber of Seville and then Beethoven's Sixth Symphony so more good than bad overall... and a nice evening getaway from the craziness of moving!

So we are now back to the day after closing on our old place - and three days after moving into the new one- so cast your minds even further back into the month of February - cold one that ti was all over the nation- because the catching up is near- and will be done in the very next post... with our trip to Chicago right on the heels of the closing on the new place...

more fun with friends

More fun with friends- Barry and Ellen came to visit last night and we saw Snooty - had a dinner at our go to Blue Marlin- stayed up late talking and hung out in the morning before they headed back south for lunch with Barry's mom.

So we went to the South Florida Museum for some Snooty time, a planetarium lecture by a new guy Howard (where's Jeff?!?) ... and ended up here for dinner - a favorite Blue Marlin in Bradenton Beach on AMI-  but more on the food later LOL-

so back at the museum -  we started with a walk through the pre-columbian exhibit (the museum is small but has a nice collection in several areas)

then we dashed off to the planetarium where the new show was kind of hokey cartoon-y which was a bit of a disappointment - and the other disappointment is that Jeff wasn't there - but the new guy was pretty knowledgeable and held his own -

then we rushed off again for the final feeding of the day at Snooty's pool- our guy is 68 now and as of last week was down to one roommate (Sarasola was released to the wild just last week after his stint in rehab with Snooty)

this is Snooty's current roomie Ice Cube LOL-  he's gained 400 pounds hanging around Snooty- LOL
And he is getting close to a weight where he too can be released back to the wild...

Snooty calling for the food lady to come feed him his California Romaine lettuce - LOL - he's dreadfully spoiled but why not no other 68 year old guy can fund raise the way this guy can- his birthday gala every year is the big$$$ maker for the museum-

Cube comes up for a breath-

some living shells in the display area outside the manatee pool-

a view from the windows below the big pool- that's the big guy - you can tell from his scars - caused by infections decades ago when they let people pet him...

this is the view the food lady got when Snooty asked for lettuce- how could you not love that face...

off to Blue Marlin - after some champagne at home and a bit of white wine - we had wahoo sushi and scallops and lobster corn dogs (a lobster tail on a stick) YUM all around as well as some Apalachicola oysters which were fab but that I -LOL big surprise - missed the photo of them - they were baked with shrimp butter and Parmesan--- another big YUM...

we doubled the mains - Elle and Phil had the wahoo entree and Barry and I had the grouper Provencal- both excellent...

grouper above and wahoo below-

Ellen and I chose the chocolate porter mousse cake and the boys had bread pudding (Barry) and Pecan pie (Phil)

we had no problems but just in case there was a sign LOL

a cozy little cottage that has terrific food- really our number one go to place in Bradenton...

so we talked late in the night- catching up and just hanging out and turned in around 1:30 or a bit later (much later for Phil) - then I had breakfast of a sort with Barry & Ellen before they left for Siesta Key...and  lunch with Barry's mom.  Then our friends came over to sing Happy Birthday to me and drop off a couple of lovely gifts- my favorite was this photo- of me and Phil and our dear friend Barbara Ramsey (of her hundredth year post fame!)

later we went out to dinner at a new (to us) place which I will review in the next post...it was a real winner! so come on back and find out all about it!