Big Cat Rescue

We went to the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary, http://bigcatrescue.org/, while we were here in Florida.They have created a home for "Big Cats", you know, Lions, Tigers, Leopards and more. These cats have been pet when you can't really keep a big cat in the city or used as watch cats or kept by breeders. Many were kept in squalid and/or abusive conditions.

These are really beautiful and majestic animals. At Big Cat Rescue they are now kept in conditions that will help them to live long and more comfortable lives. With the veterinary care they get, they even live longer than they would in the wild.

Click on the pictures for a bigger view...

Cool Cat

Playing in the water

I'm sooo regal

Hey, you talkin' to me?

Sandie and Neal

A number of things have happened this week.

• We went shopping.
• Visited Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary.
• Dad bought a new Computer.
• More on the others later for today we visited Sandie and Neal. We hadn't seen Sandie since she came to us for Rachel's Bat Mitzvah. It may well be some 21 years since I saw Neal. To make things even better, we brought Iris along to visit her sister. Iris hadn't seen Sandie since the Bat Mitzvah either. We stopped along the way and picked up sandwiches at a place Sandie recommended. When we arrived we all ate, talked, took pictures and talked some more. 

An easy smile.

Will you stop taking my picture already!

Neal, Sandie & Iris

Two articles

Two articles about Christmas from a "It's not my Holiday" point of view:

• http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/12/happy-chinese-and-a-movie/

• http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/12/why-i-hate-christmas-3/

Apparently the egret...

Apparently the egret was on our neighbor's car but by the time I got the camera, it had gone down on the grass.

We had to hurry and eat breakfast and head to Tampa so Rachel could meet a friend of hers who happened to be visiting family in Florida for the Holidays as well.

We had a nice drive down to Tampa, although we were unable to get any coffee until we actually arrived and met them at the Tampa Aquarium.

Recording the meeting.

Friends in Florida.

We spent a couple of hours visiting, having Thai for lunch and some hand made chocolates.

We then drove back to Mom & Dad's. That evening we had dinner at Carrabba's. We ate and talked. Mom told Rachel a bit about growing up in N.Y.C. and how Her Grandmother Fannie was taking English lessons and had the goal of wanting to be able to read an English newspaper. Fannie was Orthodox and kept kosher. Her Mom, Rita, would do the grocery shopping for herself, her sister Sophie and Fannie. My Mom was the one that would walk with Fannie to High Holiday services. She told how lucky her father was to be employed as a haberdasher during the Great Depression.

I do remember visiting them when they were living in Illinois in what had to be the late 50's. Dad tells me that we made 2 trips to visit them, but I only remember one and don't remember the traveling. I do remember walking around outside and all the houses seemed to me to be white boxes. I also remember making a small comb case on that trip.

More about Florida tomorrow...

...Been in Florida for 2 days

Well, It's Friday night and we've actually been in Florida for 2 days. It's hard to believe.

We were, of course, up late Tuesday night packing for our 8:50am flight out Wednesday morning. Jenko, Snow E. and Buster (our new cat) are being taken care of by our neighbors, Richard and Christine. For which we are very grateful.

We headed to the airport about ½ an hour later than we had planned, which is actually pretty good for us, when Rachel realized that she had left her computer charger in her room. We turned around and got it quickly and got to the "economy parking" w/o any other incident. The flights were good but we were tired, but we made our connection in Chicago easily. The flight to Florida was longer but made a bit easier by the humorous attitude of the head Flight Attendant.

We got our car and Judy took out her Garmin GPS. This is a really cool device. Since Judy would occasionally drop the "r" and call it a Gaman, Rachel decided to call it Neil, after the writer Neil Gaiman.

Neil got us to Mom & Dad's where they had sandwiches waiting and we then headed to Anna Maria Island and our place near the beach.

We woke up the Thursday morning to this in the front yard.

More tomorrow...

Cedar City

We came down to Cedar City to take in the Shakespeare Festival. Rachel had earned two tickets as part of a grade improvement program at school. So we made a small vacation of it.

We drove down on Saturday. About an hour out of Cedar City we stopped for a stretch and some coffee. There were lots of people doing the same and the dogs were getting their break too. Judy struck up a conversation with a woman that was walking her dog. She noticed that the woman had a particularly "Yankee" way of saying the word "here". Turns out that the woman and her husband was originally from the Auburn/Lewiston area of Maine where Judy grew up. Not only that, but they worked in the shoe industry that Judy's father and grandfather's company were part of. Willy & Barb O'Neal bought up some of the equipment he'd worked on in Maine, moved to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. They started WillyMoc and make custom moccasins and shoes. willymoc.com Judy was really tickled to run into these folks and talk about her home town.

Rachel and I went to Titus Andronicus that night.Yesterday we saw Scapin and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Scapin is based on Molière's "Les Fourberies de Scapin" that was first seen in 1671. This version was staged as a wonderful almost slapstick farce with many modern cultural references. When we got the to the theatre we noticed that it was relatively empty. The usher told us to talk to the manager about empty seats down by the stage. They said that the actors like to play to the audience when the seats down in front are filled. We ended up in the 3rd row. Not only that, but Rachel was brought up to the stage to take part in one of the scenes. After the show some of the audience members said that they thought that Rachel was a plant and really part of the cast.


Before each show in the Adams Theater we are treated to the Greenshow. It is performed outside and is great fun to watch. There is much music and dancing. Unfortunately I've only captured the end as they announced that seating was ready for the main performance.

A Toast to Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray was our beautiful gray tabby. He was the ol' man of the house had stopped eating and drinking. He lost so much weight and we had to put him down about 3 weeks ago.

Sugar had been with us for almost as long as we've lived here. Like most of our cats he adopted us and moved in. 

He had been very frisky in his younger days. Chasing after birds and climbing trees after being chased by the occasional dog.

He was quite the survivor too. There was one time when our garage door was open and he climbed up on to the roof of Judy's SUV and then up onto the open garage door. Nice quiet place for a cat nap.

Of course when we pulled the car out of the garage he wasn't seen until he slid down the closing door. He perhaps used one of his nine lives as a quick trip to the vet showed him to be alright.

He was very heavy footed for a cat and gave you the loudest purrrrs if you knew just where to scritch him. 

Sugar Ray was a gentle soul and he is missed.

New Old Car

This is a 1985 Corvette. It is the perfect color and very fast. It goes fast, very fast. It stops very fast. It sits still very fast.

It is... not mine.
















It belongs to Chris. He saw it at a car show here and managed to buy it before his contract ended and he returned to Nebraska.


Chris - Let us know how it's running...

4 - Pieces

On February 11th I read 4 of my compositions at the Kol Ami Koffee House. Here's the video.

Let me know what you think.