Remodel - the cabinets have arrived!

The kitchen cabinets have arrived. Finding a place to put them was a challenge; we ended up building partial walls of them, until it's time to install them. 

Weekend in Orlando

This weekend we got to attend the Gordon food show again. It's always a great food show and this year is no exception. There are all sorts of wonderful samples and creative ideas. Some of which we can use, some we can just admire. 

Linda and Larry offered to let us stay at their condo in the Orlando Blue-Green resort for a couple of days so we could relax. So we stayed overnight and the next day we went to a diner for breakfast of eggs Benedict and waffles with bacon & ham, and I had a pancake with bacon bits cooked right into it - delicious! Then we went to the Outlet mall to walk through it all. Didn't find anything we wanted but it was a nice walk.  We parked at Celebration and walked through the town. Celebration is a small community planned by Walt Disney as part of his vision. We took the planned walk to the outskirts where we passed some really pretty houses. So this is not your average town, although I could wish it was. 

I suggested we go take a look at  Marguaritaville. I am a big Buffett fan and this community looked great as we drove by on the main road. So we went in and, well, it might be because we were the only people there, but it didn't seem very interesting. The winery visitor center had an nice display of live bees (they make mead as well as wine) but they charge $12 for tasting, which seemed like too much for what they had to offer.  All in all, I guess I can quit wishing for a place here!

One day for lunch we went to a place called Mrs Potato. It's just a little place in a strip mall, but they do something really special with potatoes!

At least somebody likes it...

They say it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The tree guys left before finishing cutting the tree down in our back yard and so far there's no sign that they will ever be back. But the tall, slender trunk which still rises above our roofline is a great look-out perch for a local Osprey. He's almost as big as an eagle, and really gorgeous.  

And what big claws he has!

Dinner with friends

Dinner with Larry and Linda - burgers, potato salad, shrimp, and Randy's baked beans, followed by cake - wonderful! And after dinner they taught us a new game played with a board like Aggravation but with playing cards to control the moves. Lots of weird rules to this game, but we like it.

A Mickey Mouse Dive

Randy organized another dive at Disney World this week. He took a group of 12 - some expert divers and some beginner divers - to enjoy the beauty of this place.

There are several large members of the ray family here, including long-tailed stingrays. 

One of the biggest rays was settled down on a section of coral, looking like a big rug. He didn't move and was hard to spot from the viewing area. Randy got a much better look at him, although my view was hampered by the sharks swimming by. 

There were more Guitarfish than I recall - some medium sized ones were here, about the same size at the stingrays. 

Everyone's favorite "wow" animals - sharks - behaved nicely. The viewers on the other side of the glass would squeal every time one got near the divers. 

A huge turtle swam beside Randy for a bit, then nestled down under a rock for a nap. 

And when it came time to take the Mickey photo, a hammerhead shark wanted in the pic! 

Epcot food and fireworks

Epcot's Wine and Food Fest is going on again. One of the best things we've had is the Duck Confit Poutine at Refreshment Port. 

As for the rest of it, there are so few changes from the previous years that we skipped the food booths and instead went to our favorite, Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie, or as we call it, the French place. Their cheese assortment with a baguette is still one of the best meals available. And the cookies are nice, too.

Tonight we said goodbye to the "Reflections of Earth" firework show. This show will end it's 20 year run at the end of September, so we wanted to see it one more time. Hope what replaces it is just as good.

Too wild too close

We went out for awhile and when we came back, as we pulled into our driveway Randy saw a big snake lying in front of our door!

It's tail was tucked behind a planter but we were able to see that it had rattles. Great. We have a big fat rattlesnake at our front door. And it wasn't happy to see us.

Apparent we got too close for it because it rattled its tail (leaving no doubt about what type of snake it was), slid off the porch, and moved along the side of the house. For a snake, it was pretty smart - it slid under the pile of lumber stacked there, where we couldn't see it. But it continued to rattle its tail for several minutes, sounding like a loud hornet nest against the aluminum siding.  

Randy called 911 and received a callback from Lake County Fire and Rescue. They said they'd be there in 15 minutes. We spent every moment of that 15 minutes watching the woodpile. We didn't want it to disappear somewhere (under the porch? in the weeds?).

The guys arrived and proceeded to wrangle the snake out. They kept saying what a big one this one was! And, as one man put it, it wanted to put up a fight. It took several minutes and many tries to get the proper hold on the snake. Every time they got it with the grappling tool, it would wriggle into a position where they couldn't hold it. 

Eventually they got the right hold on it and slid it tail-first into a canvas bag.

They put the bag into a plastic bucket with a screw-on lid. The snake wrangler said this one was a real fighter, even pumping venom onto the canvas bag. 

They will release it somewhere safe, which is great because although I love alligators, I simply will not share my space with a rattlesnake.