Flashback Friday (part 25) - "The Damn Kids" in the Retirement Community

About 10 years ago my parents sold their house in the metropolitan DC area and purchased a second home near Orlando, Florida. Since they already had the lake house in Bumpass, Va. they were going to become "snow birds" and split their year between homes.
Shortly after they moved into their 55+ retirement community, my Mom took one final trip for work to Prague for a month. Tim and I were in need of our own trip so we drove to Florida to see the new house and visit with my Dad. We also were were worried he'd starve to death and shift to a "liquid diet" without my Mom there to cook for him.
It's no exaggeration that we stuck out in the large community of retired people for a few reasons. Tim and I learned a few things that are not acceptable and for some reason frowned upon:

1. Cruisin' through the neighborhood with the windows down and music blaring after 4 p.m.


2. Being first in line for "free" beer during the Oktoberfest dinner.


3. Throwing ice from our mimosas into the pond where the baby alligators were sleeping.


4. Driving your golf cart up on the green.


5. While playing the back nine, grabbing oranges from the trees and tossing them at each other on the course.


6. Asking the bartender during happy hour at the clubhouse to just make your drink a double instead of getting buy one get one free drinks.


7. After several of these large drinks, knocking your then-boyfriend off his chair while your Dad is meeting new people in the community.


8. Calling Dad's new friends "Damn Yankees" after they said they retired and moved down from Michigan, Ohio and New York.


9. Referring to the state of Florida as Heaven's Waiting Room in a retirement community.


10. Speaking too loudly.


11. Not speaking loudly enough.


12. Sleeping in past 6 a.m.


13. Riding your bike on the wrong side of the road.


14. Doing cannonballs into the community pool.

We have made two other trips to my parents' house in Florida.

We are still referred to as The Damn Kids.

I think it's good we made such a memorable impression.

Here is explanation of Flashback Friday (FF) and other FF posts.

Dog Days of Summer

We're in the middle of the Dogs Days of Summer in Virginia but yet, it's still not *too* hot.
It's coming though, the temperatures in the upper 90s with the heat index making it feel over 100F. To me it feels like you walk outside into a blow dryer turned on high heat.

My curly hair is starting to frizz just at the thought. Maybe I should check the forecast...

Independence Day 2009

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July holiday surrounded by family, friends and food. We had a great time at Lake Anna. It was similar to last year except we're all a year older and wider wiser.
Unlike Memorial Day weekend, Tim didn't try to kill me on the jet ski this time.

Catch and Release

Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend at my parents' lake house in Bumpass the boys were focused on catching some fish "for dinner" off the dock.

On the first night there, my nephew Dylan and stepson Cary used the old faithful of bait, worms hot dogs.

Dylan Cary On the second night, before the fireworks over the lake, Justin and Dylan erupted with screams from the dock while everyone else was up on the deck drinking relaxing before dinner.

They caught a catfish for dinner.
After telling them what they would have to do to prepare the fish for dinner, it was quickly released back into the water. We were left to eat the all-American meal on the Fourth of July, hamburgers and hot dogs plus some weird looking tomatoes from my Mom's garden.

You Say Tomato and I Say....?

Mother Nature has a funny sense of humor.
Here is a tomato from my mother's garden in Bumpass, Va. I have never grown anything like it in my garden. What does it look like to you?

Sydney's Birthday

Everyone who owns or has owned a lab, you know that they require a lot of attention. Our two labs, Sydney and Sandy, are no different.

Today is Sydney's 13th birthday. Here is her 12th birthday post from last year.

The dog is conditioned to start salivating every time Happy Birthday is sung in our house because on her special day, we sing it to her all day and then give her a cookie.

Before leaving the house this morning, Troy and I sang her happy birthday and sure enough like Pavlov's dogs, drool. I gave her a cookie. Have little doubt that this will continue all day long for our favorite chocolate lab. Sandy won't be ignored and will get more than usual as well.

In my next life, I want to be spoiled like a lab.

Tech Tip: Naming Your Pictures with Alt Tags

If you've ever hovered over a picture with your cursor on a picture online and seen a small description appear, that is called an ALT Tag.

It's a way to give your picture a description in the event someone wants to surf your site faster and turns off pictures from appearing but also it helps your images be found in search engines. Unlike flash which isn't read, ALT tags are read and help to increase your rating.

In this example, I'm standing to the far left with some of my friends and the members of Duran Duran. When you hover over the picture, the ALT tag says, "Deb, Kim and Tricia with Duran Duran."

In blogger, when you're composing a new post and insert a picture, click on Edit HTML and look for the image coding. You'll see that there is coding that says alt=" ". Which basically means there is no description for your picture. Add one that describes your picture between the quotation marks. Click preview, hover of your image and it should appear.

For the picture above I made my ALT tag read:

alt="ALT tag explanation using Deb's post on Duran Duran"

Want more tech tips? If you have questions, leave them in the comments section.

Putting the Kids to Work

Before grilling wings for dinner on Saturday the Thaxton children were put to work.

Cary was "manning" the grill after creating his own bbq sauce to compete with my brother Mike's homemade version.
Carson had "doogie doodie."
Rufus and Sandy took a breather. Then there was this guy who was running around and playing with the rope swing. It's a good thing Troy is cute but his time is coming.
There was some bonding time between Carson and her Dad.
Another good Saturday night at our house.