Quiet Week

Mark had to travel again this week.  This time he went to Chicago.  He left very early Tuesday morning.  We had to get him to the airport by 5:30.  As some of you might know, Chicago was not much fun this week.  Lots of slushy snow and cold.  But he gets to come back here tonight and hopefully stay around for a few weeks.

Mark's mom, Barb, is coming for a visit today.  I am looking forward to having company.  It's been kind of quiet around here.  With Mark and Barb here, things will be anything but quiet!

I did play tennis three times this week and met lots of nice people.  It's a round robin format which means you mix up every 30 minutes and play with different people.  Yesterday, I played with Jim, an Irishman from Boston.  He's 86, has spinal stenosis, and can barely move.  He told me I was in charge and then stood in the corner while I ran around the court getting all the balls!  Once in a while the other team would hit to him and he could hit it back but that's about it.  Anyway, it was good exercise for me and he was very nice.  But it might be time for him to retire from tennis.

Also, I connected with my friends Carl and Peggy's sister/sister-in-law, Lynne.  She "lives" just down the street here at Pelican Bay, for the season of course.  She has a friend staying with her, Maureen.  Both women are very nice and included me in some of their activities this week.

I also signed up with a trainer at the Community Club.  Her name is Dina.  She's great and is taking Andrea's place for 3 months while Andrea is on maternity leave in Minnesota.  Did you follow that?  She's taking Andrea's place for me I mean.  And I went to an aerobics class on the beach.  It's a lot more fun doing aerobics outside with a view of the Gulf.  So I guess I got my activity points in this week.

That's about it.  A recap of my week.  Hope you all had a great week too in spite of the relentless cold and snow.

We are settled in in Pelican Bay

I have heard about all of your horrible weather.  It is much nicer than that here although it has been cool this last two weeks.  Mark says we are ahead as long as we're 50 degrees warmer than St. Paul.  And we certainly have accomplished that.

We love our condo.  It is big and spacious with lots of outdoor spaces.  We haven't been out on the lanai much though because of the cool weather.  The weather is perfect for tennis, golf and walking though.  So we've been doing a lot of those things.

Chris and Joel were here the first weekend we arrived.  We had a great time with them.  Since then, we've just been settling in.  Mark is gone this week to Las Vegas for his IBM meeting.  

Living here is like living in a nature preserve.  There are birds, flowers, and alligators to see on all of our walks.  The black and white bird in the photo is called an anhinga.  The other is a great blue heron.  There is a large area of mangrove between the development and the beach, so there is habitat for all the Florida creatures.  It's really beautiful.

Stay warm, everyone!

Great Blue Heron

Anhinga