Belly Flops & Boats

First up I have to thank the person who has not secured their wifi in my vicinity, allowing me to get access to the internet for the first time in two days. Comcast you will be getting a phone call today. This leads to my next thank you, Google. I would have never have figured out how to reset my wristwatch this weekend to accommodate daylight savings time (something I have not had to deal with in 25 years - neither Arizona nor St. Kitts recognize DST).  How did we live before the internet? How? Michael's giving a shout out to his Froggs Toggs raingear for keeping him warm - it's been in the low 60s the past few mornings - brrr!

We thought we'd be spending Saturday in Geiger Key enjoying more freebies attributed to a local's day, but that outing got postponed. So now what? If you can't get off island, your choices are rather limited (Which bar do you want to go to? Which is no fun if you don't have any friends to hang out with). We ended up going to the Bull & Whistle second floor to people watch (the Parrotheads were in town). There were lots of leftover beads from the Fantasy Fest parade all over the electricity lines.


And we were stumped when we watched this guy walk out a door on his upper floor and the door led to one heck of a drop off. Who puts a door there with no balcony?!\

We didn't really see anything exciting from a parrothead aspect, just a few people in matching t-shirts, but we did see this regular, who rides down the street in a very lit up bicycle playing disco music.



Hungry, we stumbled across Lobos Mixed Grill and split a spinach, onion, mushroom, and cheese quesadilla. Oddly, they didn't have soda (?!) our choices were a mimosa or beer. Ok - a mimosa it is! We enjoyed it.

Sunday, we learned of a belly-flop contest (for "the kids") at the Hurricane Hole on Stock Island, so we took a trip over there to see what that would look like.  We got there a little early, so wandered around the docks. Tarpon,

igaunas (huge ones were in the trees),

and jelly fish (another reason not to get in the water - I forgot about those things).



Then, we headed for the bar to wait for the action. I'm sorry, charging $4.00 for a Bud Light draft is ridiculous. Michael & I are starting to look like TLC's Extreme Cheapskates, although I draw my line at reusing dental floss (especially when you can get it for free, for Pete's sake). We did, however, split a beer.

While waiting for the shenanigans to start, we met a couple of guys, both named Mike, resulting in a three Mike-A-Teers designation at the table. We thank them for welcoming us to FL (it's been two months already!) and buying each of us a full beer (or two). One of the Mike's ended up offering his belly for the cause and almost won round 1 (my Mike was having none of that).

Except that it was hard to compete with the guy who hit face first - ow.


Most were men, but there was one woman who braved the hard, cold water...



Then it was nice to see the kids get a shot - although all the boys did cannon balls,



and only the first girl to jump, there were two, actually did a belly flop (yes, she won for her group).

And then round two got going, but I didn't take any photos of that because you've seen one belly flop, you've seen them all. We could tell just by listening though who was going to win - SLAP! Oooooh and wince. Lots of red tummies there - but anything for the kids...Then we headed into town to check out the boat parade. Superboat International powerboat racing starts today through the 11th, so they wanted to strut their stuff before they dropped their boats into the water. Some of them look like spaceships with their little pods up top. I think it was interesting how many boats were double hulled. Common sense is starting to prevail - 2 hulls are better than 1.  Supposedly Fort Zachary is the place to be to watch the action, but I'm not sure I'm that into it. I will want to know who wins though - a monohull or a catamaran just out of curiosity.



Viva Italia!

You know you're a redneck when.....



Seriously though, look at the trucks it takes to tote these things. Vroom! Vroom!

More beads!  Just what we needed!

AP Nov. 3, 2012

Today, I get to buy a new cell phone because my cheap, unlocked, go-anywhere-in- the-world phone fell out of my pocket yesterday never to be seen again. I am very saddened by this. Let's hope the last call made at 5:09 wasn't an international call...Hopefully I can find another unlocked phone that doesn't break the bank. The good news is that I get my moped back today. My brand new moped that had to be totally rebuilt. Let's see if I can go longer than 2 weeks before someone runs into me again. Of course, tomorrow we vote. After seeing the long lines over the weekend, I might bring my Kindle.