Fun with friends

Cheryl and Dave arrived on Friday for their weekend visit.  They were flying into Tampa and driving down to Naples.  They had some flight issues that delayed them a bit.  Cheryl texted me along the way saying they were driving as fast as they could in their cheap little piece of shit rental. When they pulled up between 7:30 and 8:00 I saw that their “piece of shit” was in reality a Shelby GT Convertible, Hertz Edition.  Dave explained that it wasn’t planned but he got upgraded to the car without spending an extra penny.  Cheryl said it was par for Dave, he has a pattern of stepping in shit more often than not.

We spent their first night in Florida just hanging out, drinking a few beers and catching up.  Sadie of course was happy to see the new visitors just like she is happy to see anyone else.  Nicki only growled and carried on briefly.  In no time she was happy to let Cheryl and Dave pet her, another side effect of having Sadie in the house. Nicki sees Sadie having fun and she wants to be part of the action.

Ali and I had to get up at 4:30 Saturday to time a race.  This was the Beach Bum, the only race we put on that is literally run on the beach.  Timing a race electronically in this environment sucks, plain and simple.  Electronics generally don’t get along well with the moist and sandy conditions a beach provides.  The timing system proved to be no exception.  In my pre-race tests I was getting very poor read performance having the lines buried in the moist sand. 

When we set up on the beach there was a tent pitched there.  The people in it had to be startled to hear activity outside at such an early hour.  Technically it is illegal to camp on the beach.  The people inside didn’t come out the entire time we were there.

During the race we had to be ready at all times to manually enter a time.  There were probably 10-15 that we had to punch in manually.  I spent most of my time covering up the timing lines as various runners ripped them up with their feet.  Luckily it was a rather small race so having to manually enter times wasn’t too bad.  Watching the various runners trudge up to the finish line through the soft sand made me glad I was timing the event instead of running it.

All in all things went smoothly, we were all packed up and ready to roll out of there at 9am.  On the way back we decided to stop at the countertop place since we would be practically driving right past it.  As we pulled in the sales woman I dealt with was getting ready to pull out with some other customers to go to the granite yard.  I told her we could just come back some other time.  She said it was no problem, that we could go inside and the woman there would answer any questions we had. 

We went in and met up with the other woman.  She pulled our info and showed us around some more, showing us more granite, Corian, Silestone and sinks.  Ali liked the look of a lot of the Corian demo counters that were set up but once again she zoomed in on the visible scratching.  It pretty made up my mind that we had to get a stone surface.  We found a a level 2 granite style called tropic tan that we both liked.  They actually had a counter installed with that variety so we got a good feel for how it would look.

  All that is left to decide is what do for a sink.  They had some nice sinks there.  I also mentioned that I wanted to go back to the Expo center where I got my $300 faucet for $150 and see if I could get a similar deal on a sink. Once we are locked in on a sink we would have to pick out our actual slab of granite at the yard and then away we go.

When we got home Cheryl and Dave had left already.  They wanted to go cruise around in the Mustang with the top down for a bit.   It worked out well because it gave us a chance to handle the post race duties before they got back.  When they pulled up everything was put away, I had the results posted on the web site and Ali was back taking her nap.

I had flipped on the pool heater for their visit so Saturday afternoon we spent some time taking advantage of it.  The water was around 90.  The air however was in the mid 70’s and it was quite windy with some big clouds overhead that was blocking the sun more often than not.  As a result if you brought your body above the water line you instantly felt cold.  When each one of us got out it was a mad dash to get wrapped up in a towel.

Dave and Cheryl really seemed to be enjoying the company of our dogs.  They are a cat only family.  Cats are ok but they just aren’t as interactive as a dog is.  Sadie really took to Dave and was hanging with him quite often. He didn’t seem to mind at all.

Saturday night we decided to go to downtown Naples to eat, drink and be merry.  We very rarely go downtown.  Even rarer is to go downtown on a Saturday night.  Dave wanted to take the Mustang.  The girls agreed although they had to wedge themselves into the child-like dimensions of the back seat to do so. Dave kept the top up though. We parked at one of free parking garages and walked through a courtyard onto 5th Avenue. 

As soon as we hit the street McCabe’s Irish Pub was there, one of the places we talked about eating at.  There appeared to be no waiting so after a brief vote a consensus was reached and we sat down.  We had a friendly waitress that was nice to deal with.  It was beautiful weather so we ate outside.  Everyone enjoyed what they ordered.  I went unconventional and had a seafood cake thing that had lobster, scallops and crab in it.  Dave snagged the check as it hit the table and insisted on paying for the meal. I hate arguing over a check so we thanked them for their generosity.

After dinner I talked about walking down to the 3rd street south area.  However I miscalculated how far it was, the 14 block round trip would have been a bit far, especially since Ali was wearing heels with her jeans.  Instead we decided to go three blocks to the beach.  We arrived shortly after the sun had crossed the horizon.  Cheryl asked a couple to take a group shot of us on the beach.

We walked back up 5th Ave to just check stuff out.  We walked by a high end fancy restaurant with an absolutely hilarious name. It was named “Vergina”.  The name was even funnier after all of us had a few drinks.  We laughed our asses off for quite awhile as we talked about asking for directions to Vergina. 

After we saw the sights on 5th we decided to go back to the car and DRIVE down to 3rd street.  When we pulled into the parking lot Dave got a thumbs up from a pedestrian that was admiring his Shelby rental.  Imagine our surprise when we parked and there was another identical Shelby parked a few spaces away. 

We stopped at the Tommy Bahamas store.  Two of the people that work there go to my gym.  Neither was around but I was told they would be back.  We then headed across the street to the bar/restaurant another gym buddy of mine works at.  The place was PACKED.  I tracked my buddy down at the bar.  He was extremely busy, dishing out drink orders non-stop.  He took a break to quickly grab a round for me and the gang but I knew he was much too busy to socialize.

I took the drinks out and we just hung around the bar for a little while.  Ali was listening to a ballet classmate that also sings at this place on the weekends.  Dave and I spent a lot of time doing cougar spotting. (Cougar – an attractive older woman that is looking to bed a younger man)  We quickly identified a number of them mulling about as well as some older “Sugar Daddies” looking to to ensnare some younger women with their money instead of their good looks. 

It was very crowded where we were standing.  Dave wasn’t digging the mob environment much so we finished up our drinks.  I went back and paid my buddy for the drinks and told him I would see him at the gym.  We walked back to Tommy Bahamas.  My other gym guys were now there.   One of them was the 61 year old guy that is in fantastic shape.  I have talked about him several times to Ali so I thought it was cool that she got to meet him.  They too were both busy so we couldn’t chat long.  We decided to head out, we had plenty of beer at home that we could go through yet. Once we got back I had another beer or two before hitting the sack.  I was exhausted since my day started 3 hours before sunrise.

Our plan on Sunday was to hit the beach.  Ali and I threw out the idea of heading back to Sanibel and taking the dogs with.  Cheryl and Dave were cool with that so that was the plan.  Of course doing so meant I would have to press the party van into action.  Luckily there were absolutely no starting issues throughout the day.  For much of the drive Sadie decided to make herself comfortable on Dave’s lap, it was cute.  On the way to Sanibel I stopped at a Subway to grab sandwiches for lunch.  Once we arrived at the beach we stopped at some picnic benches along the path to the beach to quickly eat them. 

The dogs were very excited once we got to the beach.  There was a whole new collection of sights and smells for them to take in.  As we were making our way to the beach we saw a number of dogs including one MASSIVE great Dane.  The dog had to be seen to be believed.  The couple that had the massive beast also had an 8 week old lab puppy with that was adorable.  The contrast between the dogs was hilarious.

Nicki and especially Sadie were interested in the Great Dane.  Luckily he had a good personality.  It’s a good thing, he looked big enough to drag his owners up and down the beach if he wanted to.  Dave and Ali took the dogs down to the water while I finished setting up the umbrella.  Sadie immediately went belly deep into the water.  Nicki got her paws wet, about as far as she would go. 

I spent pretty much the entire time at the beach perched on my chair, under the umbrella with my shirt on.  Having three fresh spots of skin cancer removed made me think it may be smart to avoid unnecessary sun exposure.  My job was to hold onto dog leashes and the umbrella to make sure it didn’t blow away in the rather windy conditions.

Cheryl and Dave took a few walks up and down the beach.  The one time they had Sadie in tow. I think they were enjoying the near perfect weather, especially after leaving gray and dead PA where the temps were in the 40’s when they departed.  For a good portion of our time at the beach both dogs were under the umbrella with me in the shade.  Their black coats can make things quite warm for them in no time.  At one point I looked down at Sadie and saw that her leash had mysteriously been cut into two pieces.  Of course it didn’t take me long to figure out that little Sadie chewed through it.  I was just surprised that I didn’t  notice her gnawing away on it at my feet.  I addressed the problem by haphazardly tying the two halves together.  It looked dumb but worked.

After a couple hours Cheryl and Dave who are both fair skinned were getting pretty toasted so we decided to pack up and head back.  On the south part of Sanibel we made a quick pit stop and grabbed some Dairy Queen for everyone.  Ice cream and a trip to the beach just goes together right?  Luckily the long line of backed up traffic waiting to get off the island that we saw on the way there had dissipated.  We got off Sanibel without delay and the party van delivered us safely home yet again.

After getting home I wanted to jump into the heated pool at least once more.  The water felt great, the air once again felt cold.  Sadie had never seen anyone in the pool before this weekend.  Well we discovered that she finds people in the pool very entertaining.  She likes to play a game where the person in the pool swims from end to end or side to side in the pool.  Sadie then races around the outside of the pool and tries to beat you there.  If you put your hands up on the side of the pool  deck she tries to nip at them.  She would do this endlessly.  I literally had to do it 50 times and she just would not tire of it.  At times I would splash her from the water, she could have cared less.  Nicki just watched from a safe distance, amazed.

Dave and I did a quick run to Publix to grab some hamburger and hot dog rolls.  He asked if I wanted to drive the Shelby which of course I happily agreed to.  It sounded sweet!  I could come nowhere near to putting the thing through it’s paces.  If I stepped on the gas just a bit I was instantly up over the speed limit.  There is something about the sound of a powerful V-8 that soothes the soul.  The Shelby felt like a muscle car should feel, not too refined, a bit grumpy and angry.  It was great to drive the Stang for a bit, it only wets the appetite more for a Camaro.

Sunday night I made burgers and veggie dogs on the grill.  It didn’t go very well.  I had 5 burgers on the grill and handful of dogs.  Well I didn’t pay attention to the grill as I should have and by the time I came out the grill was a blazing inferno from all of the fat dripping off the burgers into the burners.  The dogs were encrusted in black soot.  I carefully moved the burgers out of the towering flames.  I had a few more dogs left that I threw on instead.  I tried to salvage the burgers but most of them were pretty well done from the intense heat.  I am not sure if I ever tried to grill veggie (soy) dogs before.  I don’t think I will again, they don’t turn out good over flames.  I think boiling would turn out much better.

As we ate our charbroiled food we flipped on Taken.  I earlier showed Cheryl my massive electronic movie collection and this was the winner as far as what we would watch.  It was an action filled movie.  I found it entertaining for the most part.  There were some very creative uses of violence in the movie.  Liam Neisen seemed to favor throat chopping as his favorite move although he incorporated various stunts I have not seen before like driving two huge nails into a bad guys legs and hooking them up to jumper cables or shooting a scum bag cops wife in the arm to show he means business and then declaring it a simple “flesh wound”.  Liam’s level of ruthlessness to obtain his revenge was a bit over the top, even for me.  Even so it was decent, I’d give it a B.

Cheryl and Dave are regular Amazing Race viewers and it just happened to be coming on after the movie so we watched an episode.  They were racing through India.  Wow, India is really a shithole.  It just so happened that earlier in the weekend Cheryl was telling us how in India you never shake someones left hand.  The reason is the left hand is reserved for cleaning your ass.  They don’t believe in wiping with toilet paper.  Um yea, India will not ever be one of my destinations.

Again I was totally exhausted by the time the show ended.  I headed back to take a shower and hit the sack.  This morning Cheryl and Dave were getting ready to pull back out for Tampa to catch a Yankee’s spring training game before flying back to PA later in the evening.  I got to say goodbye to both of them before pulling out for work.  They both said they had a lot of fun which is all that we wanted.  Ali and I both enjoyed the company.  We got to have a lot of fun and not focus so much on the repetitive routines that envelop a lot of our normal weekends.

You can see the few pics I shot with my Iphone over the weekend here.