A post without pictures is boring........

Still alive and well. At this age, that fact needs to be put forward when long absences occur on TWFB (the world famous blog). And indeed, I am now even older. I have pictures to prove that I received lovely tulips, huge balloons, perfect gifts and a celebration that lasted a week. Unfortunately, blogger, iPhoto, my camera and the alignment of the planets have all conspired to create hate and discontent when I try and download them to TWFB. The absolute PERFECT gift would have been a 24 hour appt at the Genius Bar so I can figure this whole thing out.

Anyway, use your imagination to see beautiful Florida sunshine and the cutest kids. . We had the g-kids for almost a week and I think they wore out the pool. Andy went from reluctance in a preserver to an underwater torpedo, capable of swimming the length, cannonballing and all sorts of underwater tricks. Mason bobbed around like an adorable cork in his preserver . But he really preferred the warm bubbling hot tub accompanied by assorted boats and squirting toys.

Weather has been perfect. No humidity, blue skies and everything in bloom. Not as pretty as a northern burst of spring colors but quite nice.

We played a round of Night Golf. Combine a very very dark night, glowing colored golf balls, glow stix on the flag and in the hole, old people, some libation and you get one wild golf game. Ability has nothing to do with it. In fact, non-golfers in the neighborhood look forward to this event. This year we were allowed to use flashlights to walk to our balls due to the fact that it is alligator mating season, there are many ponds on this course and we preferred not to have a relationship with an amorous gator. (unless of course it was Tim Tebow............who is now a BRONCO....but I digress......).

We went to The Village Concert Band spring concert the other night. I was not expecting to be impressed. It was 100 strong of very professional, versatile performers. I suspect many have a strong music background. Average age looked to be about 70+. There is also an orchestra and several smaller groups that perform.

The evening was excellent with a good variety and many crowd pleasers. They did West Side Story with an outstanding young soloist borrowed from elsewhere. We will go again. I am always amazed at the talent in this community. Who ever thinks that we slow down when we retire is in for a big surprise down here.

The Villages continues to expand without restraint. Everyday, there are about 20 open houses in the newspaper of new construction to wander through. There are also pre-owned houses for viewing, probably about the same number each day. Mostly, they are in the 2-300,000 range, a mid range of housing prices down here. Well, last week, there was a new construction house open with the price of $1.6 million !! Well, that caught the eye of thousands who wandered through. We didn't go over, mainly because I knew it would be mobbed. Someone said it was a custom that fell through. So, if you have any interest, we'll be glad to schedule an appt for you .

Enough chatter. I'll keep working on the picture thing.

One more chatter......just finished reading "Away" by Amy Bloom. Rich language, memorable characters, great story.... all my favorite ingredients. I need to find more of her work. Finished "The Help" via reading and audio book. The audio book gave an added dimension to the work with great character definition but I got impatient with the slowness so went back to reading. The voices stayed with me.

I continue to pick up "The Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner. I like it's richness but sometimes need to break it up with a quicker read.