A Weekend for Hobbies

So Beth and I got up Saturday -- much earlier than B wanted to -- and drove to Sarasota for the semi-annual sensory overload at Tropiflora. 40,000 square feet of bromeliads under net! That is the largest of about a dozen greenhouses for bromeliads and orchids. I think I had a smile on my face the whole time we were there. I bought a neoregelia named Hannibal Lector #3 'The Governor's Plea'. The man who developed this strain of bromeliad apparently likes a certain type of horror movie. Our fav for the day (and one I did not buy) was a neoregelia named Norman Bates which sold for a cool $50 / plant. Now that's a horror story!

The best part for me was to see Beth order a few bromeliads for shipment to Denver later in March...

On our way back, we stopped at a cigar company in Tampa. Tampa is known for expatriate Cubans who have developed a thriving industry in Tampa and Ybor City rolling cigars. It was interesting, but I didn't buy any. $7 for a single cigar (and some were as high as $20 EACH!) was too much.

Gayle finished her class quilt today. This is the quilt project that she will donate to The Christ School Mane Event auction & dinner on March 3. As you can see, she is happy and relieved to be done! The lion is the TCS mascot. Gayle put pictures of her 16 students and each student's handprint as a border around the quilt. Several moms have already let it be known that they have their eyes on the quilt. Gayle's quilts are a featured item of the live auction.

Another Game

Last week Friday we had our annual Grandparents Day at TCS. We had great fun -- it's always a good time when grandparents come to see what the kids are doing. We had a chapel and open house on Friday morning and then everyone went home...which was fine by us also! This is a picture of my room, with the kids' science projects on display. They did a really good job!

We had a fairly typical week with the usual school related meetings. Mid-quarter grades went home on Wednesday for 2nd - 8th graders, so there was the usual child/student hyperventilation and parental concern and surprise over the grades and behavior. In 5th grade we send a "Thursday folder" of work home each week. We note any missing assignments and the parents have to sign the folder and then send it back. How any parent can be surprised at the report card after that kind of communication is beyond me, but then I've only taught for 33 years...

GB and I worked at school until after 6 PM last night and then went to the Amway Arena to watch an Orlando Magic basketball game. Our church had a group night together; we had seats in the last row of the upper deck! It was the nose-bleed section, but we had a surprisingly good view of the action. We did get our cardio-exercise in -- worked off the hot dog, soda, & soft pretzel just going up and down the steps to the food vendors!

We saw one of the best games we have ever seen, TV included! The Magic played the San Antonio Spurs. Magic did their usual give-away game the first half; at one point they were down by 18 points, but they worked their way back with some great shooting and passing. The game was tied at 104 with 5.9 seconds left and center Dwight Howard blocked a shot. The Magic called time with .8 seconds left on the clock and the in-bounds pass was a lob to the basket. Howard did a one hand grab & dunk to win the game. The Orlando Sentinel had a great headline this morning: Dunk & Go Nuts. Howard is in his third year as a pro. The Magic signed him directly out of a Christian high school in Atlanta. He's 6'11" and has a vertical leap of 39 inches. He can almost touch the top of the backboard, and one of his teammates said that he's seen Dwight jump and kiss the rim! What a great win!

Beth had her orientation and first shift at Fish Memorial, Orange City last night. It must have gone well; she worked 14 hours and got home after 5:30 AM!

Time to mow the grass. We are back into our normal February weather -- low 70's during the day, partly cloudy, and about 50 at night. We feel you Northerners' pain with the nasty cold temps you've been enduring lately...I think I'll put my shorts on.