Manatees and More!

Hi All -

So January is turning into a crazy busy month, as we hope to close on the house in Pittsburgh this week, Glenn heads to Atlanta, and we start cleaning out our rental to prepare for our closing on the new house at the end of the month.

In the meantime, cousin Amanda (you may remember her as the flower girl in our wedding) finally had her baby, a little girl named Norah Jane, on Jan. 3. (I stole these pics from her Facebook page...)

She's a cutie!

So welcome to the family, cuz!

About 10 years ago, Chad and Lisha took us to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach to see the manatees. The manatees hang out at the base of the TECO Electrical Plant there because they have a warm water discharge. Unfortunately, when Chad and Lisha took us there, it was too warm outside and there was not a manatee to be seen.

So Glenn and I went again on Saturday. This time, there were hundreds of manatees there. Sadly, manatees don't photograph very well --they tend to look like a bunch of rocks. But anyway, here are a few exciting shots.

 

You can see what a scenic location this is. I just read a blog where the writer referred to Apollo Beach as the "canker sore of Hillsborough County."

Mmmm....toxins!

But anyway, I was happy to finally see my peaceful sea cow friends. And Glenn and I did manage to find some fun photo opps.

And for those of you who've always dreamed of putting Glenn in a hurricane simulator...

The mangroves were kinda cool.

Yesterday, Glenn and I took the dogs to a nearby park we had never been to before. It was also in a rather sketchy area, but the birds and dogs liked it anyway.

Anyway, that's all the news for now. Hope all of you up North are surviving the Polar Vortex okay and stay safe and warm.

Mother Deuce says "Bundle Up!"

Later, gators!

Happy New Year: Glenn and Diane Find a Home!

Hi All -

By now, most of you have probably already heard that we found a house in the lovely town of Safety Harbor. Safety Harbor is about 15 - 20 minutes from the beaches, and about a half hour commute for Glenn.  Not a bad commute, as a lot of it is very scenic - driving over the Bay.

Anyway, we both love this place, and hope to show it to all of you in person eventually, but for now, I shall give you the grand tour.

Neat as a pin

C'mon in!

Family room

Dining Room

Kitchen

 

 

Breakfast nook

Little seating area

Master bedroom

Master bath...//angels singing

One of the guest bedrooms (there is a bigger one, plus an office, not shown)

Guest bath (goes out to the pool)

Laundry Room

Pool / hot tub combo

Fenced in backyard for the pups

Looking out from front door

So that's it! Hope you all like it as much as we do. We are both so excited!

We were also happy to have Mom and Dad come down to see the neighborhood and the outside of the house, as well as sharing a lovely New Year's Eve dinner with us.

The parents stayed at the Waterside Marriott and had a nice view from their balcony.

And were kept awake by the fireworks show at midnight (Dad gets photo credits for these...)

The finale!

Anyway, that's all the news for right now, except I thought this was a cute pic of Deuce with Glenn's new camera.

And here's a close-up of mailbox lizard.

And finally, one of us. Glenn took a pic of some tourists when we were out to dinner and they returned the favor, so this actually is not a selfie.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! Here's to 2014!

O Christmas Blog, O Christmas Blog...

Hi Everyone and thanks for an amazing early Christmas! It was so great to see everyone.

Family...

Friends...

And of course, the snow...

Naturally, there were some minor issues. Emergency home repairs for inspection. A minor fender bender. The realization that our lawn guy disappeared with $150 our our money for supposedly cutting up this tree and hauling it away.

I will not miss that damn trampoline!

But ah well. Overall it was a great trip.

Glenn and I arrived home, after a wildly turbulent and frightening flight, to beautiful sunny 80 degree weather and happy, well-behaved pups.

Glenn's boss sent us a pretty evergreen wreath, which you might be able to see on our door here ...

Yep, pretty darn festive!

We spend an un-traditional Christmas Eve having Spanish tapas and sangria at a restaurant called Ceviche, which was lovely.

 It was rather dark inside, but we did try to take a selfie.

Glenn's phone doesn't take very good pictures in the dark. But fear not. He was inspired by the fact that both his dad and my dad got new cameras, so he purchased a new one with some Xmas money that is on the way. Hopefully, this improves the quality of this publication. :-)

On Christmas day, the dogs got their new beds from Santa and seem pretty happy with them.

Glenn did a great job buying me some wonderful and unusual gifts. I got some coveted Nike gym shorts, a new Swiss watch, and a frog we've named Roger.

The face is mother of pearl...

This shows how the top is faceted. So pretty!

And here's Roger...

I got Glenn a fire pit with palm trees on the sides, some firewood, fire starters, a piece of cement board to put under it to keep the grass from burning, and some sort of roasting stick for marshmallows or hotdogs.

It made for a cute little set up.

We attempted to take some night shots with another camera...

Blurry, but you get the idea.

I made us a regular old fashioned Christmas dinner: a roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing...the works. But for dessert, we had s'mores instead of pumpkin pie.

Not to be totally obnoxious, but please note I am wearing short sleeves, outside, on Christmas night. Crazy!

So anyway, I think that's about it for this special holiday edition of the Callihan blog. Hope you all continue to enjoy the holidays and Happy New Year!