Happy Thanksgiving...beach style :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As we soaked up the sun, surf, and breeze today, we were thinking how incredibly blessed we are. :) There is such a peace and healing nature about Siesta. It makes every long hour spent grading papers and writing speeches worth it. It's been hard thinking about our family 1,000 miles away, though... we miss you guys!

Today was another fun journey in the land of Snearlydom. We woke up to overcast skies, and took the dog on a walk, but in typical Florida fashion, we could see the perfect, crystal-blue skies in the distance, so after a hearty breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs and pancakes (made by yours truly), we leashed up the dog, got our over-sized beach bag together and headed for the dog-beach in Venice!

Luna's first time in the water!

When we arrived at South Brohard beach, we were quite impressed. It's right next door to the infamous Sharky's restuarant, and Luna was so happy to come play with us! (No dogs are allowed on the Siesta Beaches--so this was the next best thing!) It was a ball and Luna had so much fun with the other dogs. She found some friends "just like her" that she could happily play with. It's hard to be so small when most of the world is 3x your size!


Here's some more of Venice beach...

The whole family!

After Venice, we came back to the condo for some lunch, and then the two of us headed down to Siesta beach for some R&R and reading!

Here comes Charlie with the stuff!

Charlie taking a dip...he lost some sunglasses somewhere in there...

After hottubbing and jumping in the pool, around 4:00 we came back to the condo for some time out of the sun. Hankey Pankies will be tonight's Thanksgiving dinner...more on that later. :)

You'll be happy to learn that Charlie is making dessert tonight... Thanksgiving cookies. I've married a wonderful chef!

Ringling Museum!

Today we woke up to gray skies and buckets of rain! But no matter, it's Florida!--it will blow over :)

In the meantime, to enjoy ourselves while the rain dumped its heart into the streets, we ventured to the Ringling Museum of Art. It wasn't at all what I expected. I suppose I envisioned a "circus-shrine" complete with elephants and glittery outfits... but what we found was an amazing cultural journey!

Unbeknownst to me, but logical by all laws of common sense, the Ringling family was filthy rich (mostly by real estate, oil drilling, and investing--but I suppose the circus didn't hurt). This particular compound houses both the Ringling mansion as well as an art museum which was John Ringling's personal collection of art. You would expect this to be a little room of semi-crappy paintings, but no, he has THOUSANDS of exquisite oil paintings, frescos, sculptures that echoes the grandeur of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. There were works by Rubens, van Dyck, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Gainsborough. And much to my happiness... Velázquez and El Greco! AHHHH! THERE WAS A WHOLE SPANISH ROOM!

Here I am with El Greco! I think I was the only on there this obsessed.

We toured the complex which included outdoor gardens and a broze cast of the original David! It brought back such fond memories of Rome.

We even got a guided tour of the "Venice in the Age of Canaletto" exhibition that had come to visit the gallery, and learned of famous works by renound Italian painters Canaletto, Tiepolo, Guardi, and Ricci. It was amazing to learn, that even in the 1600 and 1700s, tourists came to Venice seeking souvenir art. Many times, art of Venice glorified today was in fact created for tourists. This made me laugh.

Some pictures taken along the way... The goofy....

And the beautiful...

The harbor where the Ringling yachts parked.

The secret garden on the property...which somehow had a great view of the neighbors' yard...hmmm. ;)

The Ringling mansion! I loved the Moorish/Spanish arquitecture. Amazing.

We made it. Yay!

We're finally in Siesta!!! (newly equipped with "Speechright" internet connection!)

It was a long drive--about 11 hours total--but by the time you hit the beach it was worth every minute.

When we arrived we decided to forgo the initial "unload the car step" and headed straight for the surf. That's what it's all about. No matter that it was 9:00 pm. The three of us (dog included!) walked down to the waters edge and sank our toes into the sand. Luna was overwhelmed with sights and smells. Dead fish and crabs on the beach made her jump a clear three feet in the air, and she was facinated by waves. She would jump back as they came toward her, and follow them as they receded. We walked to the spot we got engaged at and sank it all in....and then made our way into the condo.

Remember when? Summer 2008!

After unloading the car and "stuff" (only abuot 25 minutes of labor), we plopped on the couch to watch HGTV.

Bedtime was difficult at first. I think it was all too much for Luna...a long car ride, the new smells, a new place, all which made her very nervous. Maybe we are "lax" parents, but she got ot sleep in bed with us. Actually she slept at the foot of the bed like a good girl and we all got a relaxing night sleep.

Today is rain and more rain... you know. Flordia turrential down-pour style. Thank goodness for my husband, good books, and the Ringling Bros Museum later today. The rest of the trip should be great beach weather!

We've also been playing lots of our FAVORITE Siesta Key game, Landlock. It's cool. It has gnomes and tussicks!

Siesta tomorrow!!!

I just finished this fabulous book called Mine! by Jean Donaldson.

I initially bought it because we've been having some problems with Luna guarding her rawhide bones...she lets out a little growl if you get to close. She doesn't guard her food dish, her toys, or anything else other than her bones. It was bothering me, though, because one day when we have children, I want her to be safe to be around them when she has something. I suppose it comes from being a rescue dog...she's probably had things taken from her all her life. But it's not excuse to be rude!

The book basically outlines a step-by-step method for getting rid of any kind of "resource guarding." The only requirement was a "clicker"... so I went and picked one up from Pet's Mart for $1.50! The principal is, the dog learns to associate doing something "good" with a click followed immediately by a reward (the tastiest treat you can possibly imagine!). It's basically utilizing Pavlov's dog theory.

Our clicker!

In better news, tomorrow we leave for SIESTA KEY FLORIDA. We are overjoyed. Beyond overjoyed, even. As I drove away from school today, I threw my hands up in the air and shouted: I HAVE A WEEK OFF OF SCHOOL! YAY! (Preparing for a sub, is sometimes harder than teaching. KWIM?)

We are going to live this vacation to the fullest. We have plans to beach-bum-it, go out to eat, see a botanical garden, and even make a trip to the dog beach so Luna can splash in the surf. Charlie and I each have 3 books to read, and you best believe they are going to be read cover to cover :)

Sunny Siesta, here we come. Jealous, right? ;)

This is where we got engaged! Brings back amazing memories :)

Good food good friends

Last night we went to dinner with the Zwallys and Hamilkights (Hamilton and Knight, hehe). We tried a Hibachi grill (similar to Beni-Hana) where the food is prepared for you on a large skillet with goofy tricks and entertainment. It was a riot. The girls sat on one end and gossiped about weddings, vacations, and life, and the guys talked about sports, golf, and the like. Perfect night out!


Afterward, we went back to Katy and Andy's to hang out and eat advent calendar Chocolate. :)

The craziest part was on the way home, Jeff, Kathleen, Charlie, and I were laughing about something, and out of NOWHERE a deer darts across the road. Using his flawless driving skills, Jeff slammed on the breaks, and we missed him. The entire car was on edge for a few minutes, and not moment after beginning to laugh at our near-death experience, Jeff lets out a yelp as we blaze over an opossum. Yikes. Note to self: be very alert when driving in Indian Trail!

Our life in Wordle!

Graded some exams and took a break to make a Woordle. Here are the defining words of our life!

I copy and pasted our blog entries from the month of November, and Wordle creates a collage were the most frequent words are the largest. It's art of our life! :)


© 2009 Jonathan Feinberg Terms of Use

Click the link to make it bigger :)

Gimme some down-home bluegrass....

The first thing most people think of when the think of "Bluegrass" music is down home country jammin' with some twang, beer, and foot stompin'. While I have to admit this description is fairly accurate, it alone hardy does this amazing music any justice. ....It was so much more brilliant that we EVER EXPECTED.

Charlie and I attended our first Bluegrass concert with Jamie last night in Charlotte at The Visulite. The venue was a perfect, an inmate theater setting with an ornate little stage, classic wooden bar, and hundreds of unique beers. There couldn't have been more than 300 people there. Our "spot" was only feet from the stage.

First up with a girl named Sarah from the band NickelCreek. She's gone solo and sings and plays guitar and ukulele. She was AMAZING and the harmonies were to die for.

Next was the main show, the Infamous Stringdusters. A band of 6 young guys (most of them about our age) came on the stage for the most amazing showing of band musicianship we have ever seen in our lives-- complete with slide guitar, violin, banjo, 2 acoustics, and bass. It blew us away. Only watching it can do it justice:



Here are some blurry pictures from the evening:

We were so close to the stage!