happy father's day

Happy Father's Day to my dad and step-dad! I'm a lucky lady to have you both in my life and love you very much!

my new baby

I'm so excited about the new member of our mac family! Yesterday I got a shiney new MacBook Pro and she ROCKS! Previously I had an old iBook G4 that I purchased in 2005 (a lifetime in computer years- she served me well). We're addicts of Apple in this household, so the new baby has a lot of other Apple brother and sister products around the house to keep her company.

Apple introduced their new MacBook Pro family last week and there's no better time for an upgrade than right after the release of a new computer or operating system. The new Pro family has a ton of awesome new features that make it super smooth and fun to work on. To see details of what makes her so wonderous, click here.

Being on the computer is now exponentially more fun...watch out, I feel a lot of blogging coming on. :-)

florida trip, part 2

After we left Tampa we headed south to the Fort Myers area where we stayed at a friend's vacation home (what a super nice friend!) near the beach.  We got into a very relaxed groove for 5 days that consisted of sleeping 10 hrs/night, going to Captiva Beach every day and watching the sunset every night.  Ahhh...exactly what we needed!

The water was so warm! We spent probably 5-6 hours  in the water everyday- that's how great it was!  One day while we were swimming some guys came running down the beach pointing and yelling about something.  They were letting us know that there was a MANATEE swimming nearby!   We saw his big paddle-tail splashing in the water and his round back as he came up for air...incredible!  During that same swim there were dolphins swimming behind us, pelicans diving in for fish in front of us and a full DOUBLE rainbow overhead!  I know this sounds like something from Ace Ventura or the Discovery Channel but it all truly happened.  We were in awe and reveled in every moment.  

can't quite see the second rainbow here, but it's there

my McSteamy playing in the sand

we rented scooters, did some sight-seeing, and a little geocaching.  

we visited the Seashell Museum on Sanibel Island and were pretty impressed.

a sailor's valentine made completely with shells

loved ending each day with gorgeous sunsets on the beach

florida trip, part I

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last blogged- I'll try to do better.  We've been a  bit busy.  What have we been up to?  So glad you asked...:-)

Eddie was away in Tampa, FL, most of the month of May preparing for the opening of the new Crate & Barrel store.  I flew down to meet up with him at the end and attended the store opening party.  The opening parties are always fun and I enjoyed meeting the friendly Tampa crew and many other top-notch peeps that Eddie works with. It's always nice for me to be able to meet the people he's been telling me about and finally put a face to their name.  The Tampa store is gorgeous and sits on a pretty lake filled with tropical birds and even an alligator or two, no joke.

Here's a few pics from the party:

Arrghh matey!....what's a party in Tampa Bay without a pirate eye?

After the store opening we took out to begin our mini-vacation.  First stop, food!  We drove down to Ybor City, a very historic area of Tampa.  We stumbled upon the Columbia Restaurant, the oldest Cuban restaurant in Florida.  Inside and out, the restaurant was filled wit historic charm, photos of the family generations that have ran the restaurant and beautiful Cuban architecture and tiling.  Apparently Food Network also liked it since we saw a framed article on the wall about them naming it a "must do" for Tampa.

cool keyhole doorway into an old ballroom that's now a dining room


the gorgeous original bar from the early 1900s.  

delicious Cuban sandwich with amazing hot, fresh homemade bread

incredible Cuban sampler platter with meaty yumminess and plantains

hands down, the best mojito either of us have ever had! and that's real sugar cane.