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Hi Everyone!

Can you believe it is November already?

Last night was Halloween and Glenn and I went with our new tradition of sitting outside and waiting for the trick-or-treaters. It has been the hottest October here in 100 years, and last night was a cool 82 degrees.

We had quite a few trick-or-treaters, but the bugs eventually drove us inside.

Speaking of Halloween-ish things, it occurred to me today that I might not have shared pics before of our neighbors' "Pirate ship house".  This house is in our plan, and I should note - this is NOT just something they do for Halloween. This place is pirate-themed year-round, although they do seem to amp it up a bit for the holiday. They have a real pirate ship in their driveway...

Not sure what their neighbors think of this, but I enjoy it.

So anyway, let's see what else.. Well, Glenn and I got new iPhones. They are pretty cool and have a goofy looking three-lens camera on the back. I think all the pics in this blog were taken with our new phones (except for these, which I took with the ipad).

I used it's "portrait mode" to take some pics of the pups, which I think turned out pretty good.

I mean, come on. How cute are they?

The first night Glenn got his phone, we went to the Lightning/Pens game at Amalie Arena with Chad and Lisha. Unfortunately the Pens lost, but we had a great time.

They had a nice event where they recognized this group of like 49 of the Medal of Honor winners - including a 90-something year-old who was in WWII. It was a very touching ceremony.

In other news, I have resumed - over the last month or so - my morning walks along Bayshore - there has been lots of new development down there so I figured I'd share some new things, along with the old.

In the new category, they finished these waterfront condos - which I think are very nice (despite the fact that many locals fought them being built. OMG THE TRAFFIC! THE PARKING!...whatever, it's fine.) This development has really revitalized main street - with lots of new restaurants and shops getting ready to open up, so I'm all for it.

They've also made some improvements to the nearby Waterfront park - including adding this sail pavilion.

They've been tearing down some small older houses and building new giant ones. Most of these are nice. This particular house (below), however, I rant about every time we walk past (much to Glenn's amusement).

I've helpfully pointed out some of the things I hate about it. 1) They put real marble as the bases to their white columns, which don't go with the house and just seem like - hey we wanted to put some real marble on the house! We're rich! 2) the Godforsaken marble "planter" they put in that looks like something you'd see at the mall and 3) the horrible way they have landscaped said planter - by putting grass in it! and two trees that block the view from the balcony 4) whatever those stupid vent things are on their garage doors. I don't know what they are or why they are necessary, but WHY HIGHLIGHT THEM and paint them white?! Anyway, Whatever. This house is dumb.

This one, however is very pretty and I would love to tour it. The pic doesn't do it justice.They are on the bay and have a dock out back and an amazing veranda that you can see through their front window.

And this house was remodeled. The back portion was the original house. When they first started the addition, I thought it was going to be awful, but they made some nice choices - I love their deck and the bermuda shutters,  etc.

And then this is another new house...they started building it when we moved here and just recently moved into the place. They still need to finish their fence...

So anyway, that's the house tour. Here are some other nice photos from my recent walks...

This is my little gator buddy. He lives in this little drainage ditch right next to the walking path and I don't think many people know he's there.

These are Ibis. (Ibises? Ibisi?)

And here are some pics Glenn took on his morning bike rides...

Ibis, Snowy Egrets, and Roseate Spoonbills

Speaking of Glenn, he's been traveling a lot during October for all the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer events. He was recently in Miami and Boca Raton for some walks...

They look so much alike!

Ok, folks, I guess that's all we have for now. Hope you are all doing well. In closing, here are a couple sunrise pics Glenn took from our back porch.

Later Gators!

Vegas, Baby, Vegas

Hey Everyone -

Sorry we have been on a blogging drought, but my new business has been keeping me pretty busy, and I'm doing the writing I get paid for first. :-)

Still, finally we did something a bit blog-worthy.

Glenn and I took a mini vacation to Vegas last week - we met up with old friends - Pat and Lori. They live in Pittsburgh, but Lori's mom lives in Vegas.

Here's Pat and Lori with Glenn and I in front of one of our favorite Vegas restaurants - Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris.

We also met up with our friends Matty and Julie, who recently moved to Phoenix.

Here's us with them in their super swanky suite at Aria. More on this later.

Glenn and I were talking and I think that this might be our 7th (?) trip to Vegas, so we didn't take a ton of pictures because we feel like we've already taken them all before.

Also, we're pretty lazy. :-) And we gambled a good bit.

That said, this was probably one of our favorite trips. Everyone was just very relaxed and did what they wanted. There were afternoons by the pool, delicious meals, games of chance and lots of laughs.

We mostly stayed close to our home base which was the Aria. Here, are a bunch of pics...

One of Aria's pools. I think they have 4 or 5.

Another.

Here was our view from our room.

And the view from Matty and Julie's room...

Speaking of their room, they got an upgrade part way through the trip. It was very nice.

The one day, I got a massage and got a pass to the Aria's spa which is lovely. This is the spa's private pool.

So yeah, not too shabby.

Anyway, there are a lot of beautiful and delicious restaurants in Vegas too. This is a unique restaurant that is in a very high end mall next to the Aria.

And check out their Starbucks...

This wooden sculpture was on the wall in a lovely Mexican restaurant we ate at called Javier's (also at the Aria).

It's kinda hard to see since it is so dark, but it is breathtaking.

And here is the entrance to another restaurant at Aria called Catch.

We did occasionally venture out to the Strip. The weather was beautiful and surprisingly cool in the mornings - in the 60s!

This is the view from the walkway that connects Aria with the Cosmopolitan. 

The Cosmopolitan has a giant bar called the Chandelier Bar because it is made up of a 2-story crystal chandelier. It's hard to sufficiently capture this spectacle in a photo but here are a couple.

Here's Hell's Kitchen

The walkway by the Bellagio fountains

And us by the Bellagio fountains

Anyway, anything else that happened in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But we had fun and hope you are all doing well. Love, us