Animal Shelter fundraising dinner

The Animal Shelter in nearby Eustis has an annual fund-raiser and this year our friend Marcia (one of their busiest volunteers) asked Randy to do the buffet. They sold 220 tickets so it was a big event! Fortunately Randy had some volunteers. He just had to explain what should happen as people go through the line....

Wait, what should happen?!?!

Ah well, these folks got everything straightened out and did a lovely job serving.

And oh, my, what they served! Randy cooked his BBQ pulled pork and baked beans  for hours and hours, and they were the best I've ever had. Anywhere.

And I got to meet their spokes-dog Echo - what a sweetie!

A very good use for leftovers

Being a good steward comes in many forms; sometimes it is using leftovers (carefully and properly packaged and frozen), to create meals for others. 

Last month Randy took leftover ham, vegetables, sweet potato casserole, croissants, and desserts out of the CPC freezer, added chips from the kitchen pantry, and created 30 meals for the homeless

This month he took the remaining ham, ground it with a bit of turkey and corned beef (all from the freezer), added snacks from the pantry and Kathy's home-made brownies for another 30 meals for the homeless.

Night visitor

We had a visitor last night. I didn't see him but I found our garbage can by the canal with our garbage strewn around. So it's a bear again. I know it was a bear because it hauled the full can off of the carport and into the back yard, scooting a big grill and some concrete blocks out of the way to do so. 

Also, he left a big ol' bear print. I love this place, I just wish I'd put up cameras!

Italian Door Decorations

In Venice I kept seeing unusual door knockers and knobs. I love the variety!

Florence had some interesting ones, too

Rome, of course, had plenty of unique ones.

Now I want something special for our front door!

Italian Lions

 While we were in Venice we saw a lot of lovely lion statues, all with wings. Turns out that a winged lion is the symbol for St. Mark and St Mark is the patron saint of Venice. 

The large Victor Emmanuel II monument had a lady and lion on opposite sides. The chained lion represents Venice under Austrian rule.  Chained, but definitely not surrendered. 

On the other side is the freed lion, ready to fight. LOVE this!

In another area is another large winged lion. This one had empty eye sockets which freaked me out so much the I added eyes in.  At least it doesn't look blind anymore.

Above the door of St. Mark's is very stately winged lion, with his book

And over another doorway.

There were several lions in Rome, too, although they don't have wings. I like these two; they are guarding something and look like cats that got ticked off by being disturbed.  

My favorite is still this one from Rome. I know his mouth is too big and his expression is not very fierce, but I just like him.