Faith, Family, Food and Dogs

Moving, the word sends shudders through my body. The words that describe my dislike for moving include loathe, abhor, hate, despise and detest. Those are the clean ones. This upcoming move will be, my 6th in five and a half years. When I moved into my previous apartment I loved the place. The floor plan with the sunken living room and fireplace, and separate dining area was nice. All tile floors were great for dogs that shed. It was close to shopping, highways, grocery stores and a few cheap eateries and a great Oriental/Caribbean market where I could find items to make Hawaiian meals. Then the complex was sold and we got new management who didn't properly vet the new tenants. Gun shots and break ins became common. I saw women try to pick up "tricks" in the parking lot, drug deals going down in broad daylight, maintenance became non existent. It took me 9 months to get them to finally stop my tub from dripping. 9 months of constant mold and mildew in my tub. There wa...

After I escaped all the dinosaurs I decided to take a lap around the zoo and see what was new. This is the start of the huge tree that will be in the ape exhibit. It will be covered in cement and painted to look like a real tree.The new area will be open by Labor Day weekend. This is the gate that leads to the Oriental garden and a koi pond. It is always a relaxing spot in the zoo. It seems quieter once you step through the gates. The azaleas were in full bloom. Another new thing in the zoo is our female Komodo Dragon. There is a male somewhere around and he is way bigger than she is. The zoo recently welcomed two tiger cubs of an endangered species. They were named Rocky and Jag-urr. As they get older they will be shipped to different zoos so there is no chance of inbreeding. We had a rather cold winter and there were a lot of dead banana trees around the zoo. A little further down one of the zoo's two black bears was enjoying a snack. I much prefer seeing them in th...

The dinosaurs returned to Jacksonville, and like before, they took up residence at the zoo. As I got out of my car I could them roar. It was kind of like Jurassic Park on a much safer and smaller scale. As you enter the era of the dinosaur, they have it decorated like a base camp. Here is a long que area but as I was one of the first 5 people in I didn't have to wait in line. A little further in there is a "dig" going on. The bored children can work on excavating a skeleton. You pass a sign signifying that you are entering Pangea. There were other signs but I am saving you from boredom. This was purely informative. Once you are really in there are dinos everywhere. They're peeking out from the bushes. Or stretching their wings. There were a couple that looked like T-Rex but they weren't. I didn't take the time to get photos if every identification plaque. I would have been there all day. This one would roar and bend down towards you like i...

This has been a long time coming. It was close to 3 months ago that my friend, Savannah, and I took a long weekend trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We rented a wonderful 2 bedroom house not far from where I used to live that was pet friendly so the girls got to join us on the weekend excursion. Now here is a heads up. This was a 5-day trip and there are 4-days worth of photos here. Over the course of the trip, on my camera alone, Savannah and I took just over 70 photos, plus the ones she took with her phone. I slimmed this down to a mere 24 photos. On with the adventure. We rented a car and early morning on Friday, October 6th we hit the road heading for Foscoe, North Carolina. We had rented our weekend home way back in March and had planned our menu. We both love Mexican so I made a pan of beef enchiladas which I froze and we took up with us. They turned out very good. Savannah was a good sport and tried to take pictures of each state line sign we passed but with me dr...