Back At Fort Desoto Again

We decided to stage a photo shoot at Fort Desoto in order to assemble the first of a series of artistic viewpoints Luann has in mind. Here is a sample of her work so far...


While we were setting up, we popped off a few shots and got this one of Conni.

And we got a great shot of an osprey posing in front of the moon too.

Geocaching And A Geo-Event

We had some fun and we dropped off a new coin for our Zodiac geocoin contest, so there were a few things to talk about...

While we were there, it did start to rain, but that didn't slow us down.

Here is a plaque that certifies this Safety Harbor Site as a historic landmark. That's a good thing, since Philippe Park where this plaque is located is in Safety Harbor, and the park has an Indian burial mound in it...

Well, it looks like at least one geocacher was waiting a long time for lunch to begin.

As we were standing around talking, a couple of our fellow cachers came up and starting swapping stories about hunting for our latest zodiac coin contest. This group represents 4 of our 13 contestants in the game so far.

As I had mentioned, it was raining during our visit, but that didn't stop them from cooking the hotdogs on the grill. Just grab another umbrella.

As you can see, we had quite a few people there, and this is the moment where Captain Biggins, climbed up on a table and announced Katrina & Brad's engagement.

Next, we chased down a set of 4 containers that had a rubber stamp in each one. The job was to stamp a play sheet with each stamp you found and then turn in the sheet to play a game of Yahtzee. unfortunately, we didn't win anything. Katrina did win the 'guess the amount of popcorn seeds in the jar' contest. Then Brad came in second place.

Captain Biggins announced that 4 cache containers were hidden it the park at the cordinates on the cards being held up and whomever retreived the cache container(s) and displayed their prize, they would also receive a bucket-o-soda too. Luann & I quickly programmed our GPS and ran out into the rain like a pair of children (but we found the first one!). It turns out, we found a Rhino-Beetle cache container.

Just an interesting shot of the tree in the pouring rain.

And last but not least, this cardinal dropped in as we were standing at the edge of the pavilion. We had a bunch of fun at this Geo-Event and the rain didn't even dampen the day...

Bowling For Dollars

Luann went bowling with her co-workers, all in the name of producing charitable contributions.

Basically, they pay to play some games and the money collected helps to go to charity. Nothing like making a charitable contribution and having fun doing it.

So, we can see that Luann is having fun.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'. Ken's feet are gettin' swollen!

As if having Ken on your team isn't enough, Kenny did a great job too.

Even Lyn was having a blast. This was a neat idea, the next time they go out, I think I might go along too.

A 'Bump' On The Road

Brad & Katrina were involved in a bit of an accident in his car on the way back to his house...

And of course, the police were called.

It was actually kind of severe. You can see where the car was hit in the left-rear door and that caused them to spin out in the grass. Thankfully, they didn't hit a tree.

The hit on the driver's side did mangle up the door, but it still opens and closes properly.

As they were sliding sideways in the grass, the brand new right-front tire was forced off of the wheel. It dug in pretty deep and you can see how the dirt is built up inside the rim.

Here's a view of the wheel carnage from a different angle.

As for the car that hit Brad's car, he slid along and hit this group of small trees. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the other car.

When I came by after work (it was dark by then) I found out that the speed limit was only 30 miles an hour. The basic thing that happened here is that the guy behind Brad & Katrina was impatient and tried to pass them as they were turning left. From what we can see from the skid marks, the guy actually swerved so far to the left that he hit them after they had left the main road and had cleared the intersection. Also, the area where this happened is in front of a school and school was in session. The reason for explaining this is because the police officer decided to give Brad a ticket for "Failure To Yield The Right-Of-Way Of An Overtaking Vehicle".

After researching Florida Statutes - Chapter 316.083, this would only be true were Bradley to be hit as he was beginning to turn left in the main part of the road, but since he had completed the turn and the other driver had swerved left to hit the kids after they had cleared the intersection, this ticket should be easy to challenge. As a matter of fact, Bradley's father went to the local police station to complain about the ticket and a pair of officers there said that they can see that this wasn't Bradley's fault, so they wouldn't have written the ticket against him. If anything, the other driver should have been cited. Looks like Brad is going to have his day in court...

On to the next page.

4-Way crash On The Way To Work

After we registered the Camaro this morning at the tag agency, we got stuck in stop & go traffic for almost an hour. It turns out, this wreck was the cause of the delay.

So, this black pickup is being loaded onto a tow truck. Pay attention to the van on the right side of the image though, as it was a part of the problem...

Here is a side view of the truck on the tow truck. What a hit.

Remember the van? Well, it looks like the actual accident was a 4-way crash, and I have to admit, I have never seen four vehicles come together like this in an intersection.

On to the next page.

Katrina & Bradley Are Engaged!

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate Brad's Mom's birthday and the 2-year anniversary of Katrina & Brad's first date. Well, tonight was the night Bradley chose to "Pop The Question" (remember, "Click-On-A-Pic" to see a larger version of it).

After opening the gifts she had given him, he got down on one knee and whipped out a little rosewood box. You can see she had no idea what was going on.

And when he said what he had to, she let out a squeal of surprise, turned bright red and stared at him for only a second...

Then uhm, I think she said "Yes!"...

And here is the result of Bradley's efforts.

Shiney!

The center stone is a 4mm x 6mm london blue topaz, the round stones next to the topaz are 3mm round emeralds, while the round stones at the outer edges are 3mm peridot.

The choice of stones were Emerald for Katrina's birthstone, Peridot for Brad's birthstone and a London Blue topaz is in the engagement ring solitaire position. The ring was specially commissioned by Brad and was hand-crafted in order to include the stones he had acquired and then he dictated the positions they would be seated in.

Nice job, Brad!

This was also Brad's mother's birthday too, so here she is, opening up the gift Luann gave her, which is a hand-carved wooden tortoise.

Here is the second part of the gift-opening portion of the evening, with Katrina & Bradley opening the gifts they had exchanged for their 2nd year anniversary.

Oh, Hi Melissa! She was here too, joining in the evening's fun.

Here is a picture of Mark and his lady-friend, Brenda. It was nice of them to be in attendance for the kid's engagement. I had a great time telling Brenda stories about Mark and my escapades when Katrina was but a wee little thing. (She had already heard most of them though...)

Hi Jennifer & Karen! Katrina and Brad sure had invited quite a few people to this shin-dig. Not pictured was Marcia, whom was seated on the other side of Luann from me. All of the photos I took of her either came out blurry or too dark to make out what the image was about. Oh well, sometimes I just can't win.

By the way, the dress Katrina had on tonight had this tag inside of it. When we saw the Karin Stevens label, we knew we just had to correct it to Karen for good luck...

Well, this day is over and there will be more to come. We'll try to keep everybody informed as to what is going on around here.

On to the next page.

Geocaching For Our Contest Coin

Katrina and I went geocaching this morning in order to pick up one of our retired contest geocoins and we had a great time. The pictures were awesome too... Remember, "Click-On-A-Pic" to see a larger version of it.

Here is Katrina showing off our first find on the way to our goal. You can see our bicycles behind her.

Putting it back together before re-hiding it.

Neat tree-arch, and we had to ride our bikes beneath it.

Ah, we're getting close to our goal. Nice scenic overlook.

Ok, I was wondering where we were at!

When we reached the geocache zone (GZ), we discovered why it was named; "GatorVision". Here are a pair of little alligators sunning themselves.

And then... This big guy came drifting along with the current, right in front of us.

It looks like he was focusing in on the smaller 'gators sunning themselves on the fallen tree.

While I was taking the pictures of the gators, Katrina said; "Found it!", and handed me the geocache container.

After making an attempt to catch the small guys on the tree and they got away, the big gator decided to lounge on their tree. Here he is, hauling himself out of the water and onto the tree. He sure is a big one...

Ok, he's now in position and catching 'rays'.

Here are the goodies we found in the geocache container, with our contest geocoin resting on Katrina's right knee.

After packing the geocache container back up and placing it back in the tree, we hopped on our bikes and pedalled our way back to the parking area.

Of course, there was a cache by the parking are, so you just know we had to stop and pick that one up too.. Well, it's time to head home and prepare for dinner with the Nemeth's tonight. Little does Katrina know that her boyfriend will be proposing to her tonight, so this makes it our last Father / Daughter outing with her social status as being unspoken-for.

On to the next page.