Israeli Food? Fascinating!

If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Steve, then you're missing out on one of Florida's hidden treasures. 

You may remember Karen, she was chosen "Fascinating Person" the month of March. Had I not met Karen at a ladies group, over a year ago, Mi Miguel and I wouldn't have met her husband Steve.

This in turn had both Steve and Karen curious about my Facebook Group:Florida Restaurants A-Z https://www.facebook.com/groups/floridarestaurants/ They soon joined us to so many of our restaurant picks. 

Upon meeting Steve, one of the first things you quickly find out about him is his passion for his sailboat.

Over the years Steve has learned to navigate the seas with his sailboat and...

if you want to know about the stars and constellations, Steve will enthusiastically navigate you to Orion or The Big Dipper or Ursa Minor. His enthusiasm for the stars has him toting his huge, I mean HUGE telescope all around Florida. Young and old alike lend him an ear to learn all about the beauty in our vast sky.

If you can't find him sailing on the water or viewing the sky, look for him in a field or park, nary a bird escapes his eye. 

If you haven't figured it out by now, you should know that Steve is quite the enthusiast. His interests have no bounds.

Just when you think you have Steve all figured out, he pulls another talent out of his hat. Here are a few of his projects. Each project he makes is more impressive than the last.

Not only does Steve find an interest in so many hobbies, he's also a great conversationalist. Rarely do you find a person that you enjoy conversing with to and fro on a wide array of topics. Even more rarer to find is another couple that offers  this with welcoming ease. 

Not only does he have lots of hobbies. But, has traveled quite a bit too. In fact, just like Johnny  Cash, Steve has been places. He's been..."Everywhere Man." 

Last evening, Mi Miguel and I discovered that Steve has yet another hidden talent. We were invited to their house to eat shakshuka. It's an Israeli dish that Steve prepared for the first time.

It was made to perfection and served piping hot. Because of Steve, Mi Miguel now knows what alcoholic root beer tast"es" like.

Great friends like a rare gem are hard to find. Mi Miguel and I are blessed to know this wonderful couple. They've been so patient with us as we've struggled to settle into our new life here in Florida.

Honestly, I don't think I would have liked living in Florida near as much as I do if it weren't for this lovely, lovely couple.

Let's Call The Whole (DIY) Thing Off

 We've been working on our house now for 14 months. We have two guest bedrooms, hallway, living room, dining room, master walk-in closet all finished. We've also painted the exterior. I'm tired.

Mi Miguel is tired. We have two bathrooms, master bedroom and the kitchen left to do.

You can't imagine the excitement I felt when Mi Miguel said he'd like to hire someone to finish the two bathrooms and kitchen. I'm all in with this great idea. This afternoon we're going to show the contractor this version of what we like and see what he can come up with.

We both are comfortable with this kitchen layout. I'm going to keep the kinda country look. In fact, Mi Miguel said I've come up with my own style. I call the look of our home, beach farmhouse. 

The calm colors that we are leaning towards and the lifestyle that we live is a combination of a little bit beach... 

and little bit country farmhouse. So, we're going to go with that. Actually, we're tired and don't know what else to call this look that we've come up with.

Doing all the physical labor ourselves has been exhausting. Making decisions has also been tiring. It's time for someone to step in and help us.

The plumbing and rewiring of the bathrooms and kitchen is too much for us to figure out. A professional is just what we need. 

Getting the kitchen and bathrooms finished a lot faster will give us more time to lull around at the lake and beach. 

Yes, it's time for us to kick our feet up and relax. All decisions have been made, the contractor is coming today. New guttering next week. Yep, our work here is almost done. No more decisions. No more work.

But, I can't help thinking that this bathroom might be better.

This kitchen is still a thought too maybe.

I also like the simplicity of this kitchen too.

This is nice for the guest bathroom. We should probably stain the concrete though. Arrrgh, decisions, decisions, I just want it to be over, finished. 

And yet, this bathroom catches my eye too. The shower would have to be at the other end of the room though. 

When I look at this bathroom, I think,"Come on Mi Miguel. We can do this. How hard can it be?"

This kitchen looks easy enough don't you think, Mi Miguel?

If we take it one step at a time, I bet we could figure this kitchen out and do it ourselves.  

Or, maybe I'll just hand it all over to the contractor, kick back, relax, enjoy a Greek frappe and call the whole DIY thing off.   

After The Hurricane

Hermine has came and gone, leaving behind lots of water and some destruction in her path. This graphic view was posted on social media via NBC news. 

One of our favorite beaches was hit hard by the hurricane. After the county spent many weeks and 4.5 million dollars doing renovations to the beach, Hermine destroyed their efforts in just minutes. Idyllic? Perhaps, but most likely this photographer used special photography effects to garner such a pristine view.

Before the renovations, the beach had a lot of sharp rocks which made for a tricky journey out to the sandy bottom. Last summer, even on a stormy day, we still trudged through the rocks and had a great time at the beach.

This too was taken last year, you can see the rocky edge where the water meets the sand. I loved the ruggedness of it. Apparently, Hermine did too. Sometimes trying to spend a few million so people will flock to your perfect plan to make billions doesn't always pan out. There are times when man needs to step back and just let nature be in all her natural glory; barnacled clad rocks and all. This beach was one of them. Probably should have left this little gem alone.

A few days later when we felt all was safe on the roads, we traveled across the Sky Bridge to go to the Red Barn Flea Market. The bridge had been shut down during the most tumultuous part of the hurricane. We saw where the heavy rains and high winds shoved the water far beyond it's normal boundaries. 

Sometimes hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms and the like come along to remind us that there is something bigger than us. This was a mild hurricane and for that we're all very grateful. Hermine has left us now, but some of the flooding remains.

The heavy rains brought a huge flooded area to the dog park. Banjo found it to be great fun. The other two dogs that she just met for the first time weren't too sure about wallowing in the mud hole.

Banjo tried every which way to convince them that it's great fun.

They weren't too sure about all that giddiness and dirt that Banjo bestowed upon them. Their owner wasn't too sure about all this so called, "fun." either.

Banjo showed them that if  you get down on your side and roll around like a hog, it's the best fun ever.

The other two dogs, Bear and Chloe, steered clear for a while. But, believe it or not they both joined in after seeing all this tossing and turning that a dog can do in a giant mud puddle. At first their owner thought it was hilarious. She even videotaped all of them. 

The fun was soon over when their owner realized that the dogs would now need a bath. We only had one big dog, the other owner had the two big dogs. Yikes! Bath or no bath, a dog needs to have fun.

No matter what any dog owner says, at the end of the day Banjo is a dog, she is not a person, she is a dog. She needs to do dog things. It's not bad behavior for a dog to have great fun. In fact, years and years from now it's my goal to have her epitaph read, "Banjo, she had a fulfilling and exuberant life."

Now that Banjo has had her bath, it's time for us to tear into the master bedroom of our fixer upper. With all the piping and wires in the bathroom walls, Mi Miguel can do all that demolition duty. With all this water everywhere outside, wouldn't you know we had to run to Lowe's because one of the pipes got jarred and sprung a leak. Thanks to Mi Miguel's mad soldering skills, the leak is now fixed.

In the meantime, I've been gathering photos of the ideal master bathroom. We can both tell you that the fixer upper has been way more fun since we've gotten our girl, Banjo.

Because of her need for exercise, we have to take breaks. We know that all the work will still be here when we get back from a walk or the dog park. She has taught us that rain or shine, stop and enjoy life for a little bit each day.

Yes, Hermine has come and gone. The reports say that heavy rainstorms still lurk in her aftermath. I'm not sure how much of the erosion is Hermine's fault and how much of it is from man. But, I can tell you that the cloudy skies are still around and that it's raining.

In fact, even as I sit here this minute writing this blog post, it's pouring down rain. Is it still an aftermath of Hermine? I couldn't tell you. But, I can tell you that the minute the heavy rains subside, Banjo and I will be pulling Mi Miguel from the bathroom renovations so that Banjo can have a blast in the mud puddles. 

Until then, I'll keep searching for the ideal master bathroom. Like maybe this one?