GRANDSON MICHAEL ACCEPTED FOR TEACHING FELLOWS AT UNC CHAPEL HILL, NC

March 20 – I got a call today from my daughter, Stasia, who was so excited she could hardly speak. Her son (my grandson) Michael had received notice that he has been accepted for a Teaching Fellows Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill.

Michael had applied to several collages but Chapel Hill was his first choice. It is quite an honor to be accepted!! CONGRATULATION, MICHAEL!!!

Here’s a little blub about the North Carolina Fellowship program FYI.

North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship Program
This program was adopted and funded by the 1986 North Carolina General Assembly as part of a ten-point teacher recruitment plan proposed by the Public School Forum of North Carolina. The first recipients were named in 1987. Applicants must be North Carolina residents currently enrolled as high school seniors and qualifying high school juniors. Selection is made on the basis of high school grades, class standing, SAT scores, writing samples, community service, extracurricular activities, and references from teachers and members of the community. Interviews at the local and regional levels are required. Recipients must be accepted for admission to one of the following postsecondary institutions in North Carolina: Appalachian State University, Campbell University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Elon University, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Meredith College, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, Queens University, UNC Asheville, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, and Western Carolina University. Applicants are screened by two committees, one from the applicant's local school district, and the other from the educational region in which the applicant lives. Candidates recommended by the selection committees are interviewed by the Regional Screening Committees. Financial need is not a selection criterion.

Teaching Obligation: Scholarship recipients are required to teach in a North Carolina public school for one year for each year of assistance they receive.

UNC Chapel Hill

CHARLOTTE'S SMART CAR

March 20 – Charlotte (Pickleball player at TT Orlando) and her husband just bought a new Mercedes Barbus Smart Car!! She was happy to show Ken all of the fine points of the car, inside and out! They are waiting to have it outfitted to tow behind their smaller motorhome.

Surprisingly, the Smart car does not feel small at all when you are sitting inside. It is very quite when running. Charlotte said it is so much fun to drive. She said it is very fast even though it has only a 3-cylinder engine.

She pointed out some of the features of her car: The dashboard; air bags all around; sun room that opens to the sun, not the wind; dual mufflers; skirting all around; etc., etc.

Have fun, Charlotte!! We know you will.

SUZANNE MUST LOVE A CHALLENGE!!

March 20 – My friend, Suzanne just loves a challenge!! And I’m the beneficiary!!

Today we spent the morning together while she taught me how to retrieve and record my own music for line dancing!! I am so excited!! For the past year, I have been asking Suzanne for music and she has been sending me songs by e-mail. Then she decided I should be able to do it for myself. And now, thanks to her, I will be able to record my own music!! I am so excited!!

We use a combination of Rhapsody and Audacity. With Rhapsody I can get 25 free downloads a month. With Audacity I can record the music. First, I had to set up accounts for each program and download them onto my computer. We did that a couple of weeks ago.

Today Suzanne showed me how we could retrieve and play the music with Rhapsody. While the music is playing, we used Audacity to record it. However, before recording, we had to adjust the volume so it wouldn’t be too loud or too soft (note the volume signals on Audacity below.) It is quite a process.

My computer screen with Rhapsody and Audacity running simultaneously.

I am so excited!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Suzanne, for being daring enough to accept such a challenge.

FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE AT TT ORLANDO

March 19 – I went up to the Friday Night Dance at Orlando. There was no eating, no drinking, just dancing.

This time, DJ Art played a lot of songs to which we could Line Dance.

Barb (2nd from the left in the print shirt) teaches Line Dancing every week day morning when she is here. It was good that she was at the dance so she could sort of lead us; tell us which dances to do. (Barb is also an excellent Pickleball player! Out of my league in Pickleball AND Line Dancing!)

Here is a couple -- excellent ballroom dancers --like watching Dancing With The Stars. They did not do much Line Dancing, mostly ballroom , but here they are doing the Electric Slide as I have never seen it before!!

All in all, it was fun evening of Line Dancing.

And Ken enjoyed himself at home watching the Races, Basketball, and Tennis!!! A busy night for him!!!

I DIDN’T KNOW THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A LIVE ARMADILLO

March 19 – I always thought all Armadillo were Road Kill!! Not so!!! We moved from TT Peace River to Orlando on Thursday. Today when we went out, we saw this -- our resident Armadillo that roams through our camp site every day. What a treat!!

Our Campsite at TT Orlando.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATION AT TORREY OAKS

March 17 – But, THAT was not to be our Last Supper!! [ Refer to Article March 16.] We had been invited to come to the Torrey Oaks St. Patrick’s Day Dinner. The Club provided an abundance of Corned Beef and Cabbage and attendees brought side dishes to share. DELICIOUS!!!

At every dinner, they sell 50/50 tickets to help defray the cost of the entrée – one-half goes to the Club and the other half goes to the winning ticket(s). This time they drew four (instead of the usual two) tickets.

Ken won one of the drawings. I was in the restroom (of course) and missed the whole thing. But the MC calls out the first few numbers that everybody has. He tells people with those numbers to stand up. Then as he calls the next number, and the next, and the next, people begin sitting down. In this case, KEN was the LAST MAN STANDING!!! He said it was so exciting. I can just imagine!! I am so sorry I missed it, but I got the $$$!!

I couldn’t find anything with green to wear in honor of St. Paddy’s. I did wear my emerald ring and my green butterfly tattoo!! Added one of the flowers from the table decorations.

Joe, Stan and Sally had on plenty of green!

Later we did a few Line Dances. Ken didn't get any pictures, but I did teach the group an Irish Jig!! And we did Alice again!! That was fun!!!

And, of course they had Karaoke!!

Here is our friend, Don (right) whom we see frequently at TT Chesapeake Bay, singing with our new friend, Canadian Rich, good Pickleball player – not so good at Karaoke but he has fun!. DJ Marc in the background.

And here is Don again with our new friend, Rich of The Other Sally and Rich. They were really good!!

I think it would be a great idea to have Don sing Karaoke back at TT Chesapeake Bay this Summer!! Maybe he and Ken's Son, Mike, could get Karaoke going back there.

HAVE A GREAT ST. PATRICK'S DAY, EVERYBODY!!!

OUR LAST SUPPER (Before We Move to TT Orlando)

March 16 – We will be leaving TT Peace River (the Wauchula area) on Thursday the 18th. Sally and Stan wanted to have us over for Our Last Supper on Wednesday evening but that was St. Patrick’s Day and Torrey Oaks was having a corned beef and cabbage dinner that evening. So, we had our Last Supper on Tuesday. Sally had also invited our friends Joe and Cis, and Cis’ sister, Nancy, to join us.

They were serving Wing Dings, etc. and we brought some of the sides. (This picture is for our chef friends!!) Wing Dings, Cole Slaw, Faye’s Onion Pie, Potato Salad, Baked Beans!! UUMMMMMMM!!

Although not shown in the pictures, Nancy brought Margaritas with Margarita Salt. The lid of the salt container had a lime squeezer in the center and a place to dip your glass in the lime juice before salting. Neat!!

THANK YOU, SALLY AND STAN, AND CIS AND JOE, AND NANCY FOR A FUN LAST SUPPER!!

HAPPY HOUR ON THE RIVER WITH DEAN AND MARGIE

March 14 – We got back to TT Peace River from Marco Island just in time to go to the Happy Hour on Peace River at Dean and Margie’s site. We are so glad we did!! There were about 30-40 people there, mostly Pickleball Players and a few of their neighbors.

And there was soooo much food!! This is only one of two tables of goodies people brought to share.

And Entertainment, too!! Buddy on the guitar. And a fellow jammer on a Suzuki no-string base. Yes. This is the same Buddy in the red shirt in the Pickleball Tournament at Torrey Oaks.

Jane playing the Spoons!!

And Karaoke

And Line Dancing!

And wild animals came to the party, too!! Tracy with the rabbit!! Well, maybe not so wild!

A few individual pictures – Travis, Lee and Judy.

Jim and Tracy.

Marge and Tom.

And Donna!! Donna is always behind the camera taking pictures for her own Blog (Florida Picklers). She is rarely IN the picture. I told her I would make certain she was in these pictures!!!

Here is Ken with a new Pickleball player who, we discovered while talking with he and his wife, is from Midlothian, VA!! And Darrell.

Here we are with the host and hostess on their river front site!!

THANK YOU, DEAN AND MARGIE, FOR A DELIGHTFUL AFTERNOON!!

VISIT WITH KAREN AND DENNIS ON MARCO ISLAND, FL

March 14 – Our friends Karen and Dennis from Richmond were vacationing in Marco Island for a few days. They invited us to visit them on Sunday. We spent some time catching up on what we all had been doing since we left them in Richmond.

They introduced us to Stanley --a paper doll made by their Grand Niece as a project. The purpose is to see how many places Stanley could visit. The niece sent him to spend some time with Karen and Dennis in Florida to begin his lifetime of adventures. We were happy to oblige our friends and pose with Stanley. They will send Stanley with pictures and journal back to their niece when their vacation is over. Maybe you know someone who is involved with such a project. I understand many young people are.




After a few drinks and snacks, we took a ride around the Island. It has really become a lot more commercial since we were last here, we think it was October 2001.

This is the public park and boat ramp where we used to launch our boat to go fishing for grouper in the Gulf. We’d always end up racing back to get in before they closed the gate!


Here is the timeshare we owned a small share of – The Eagles Nest. We sold it a few years after we bought the RV, must have been in 2001.

They were just beginning to build a new hotel on the vacant lot next to the Eagles Nest. We thought the hotel would be very small because the lot appeared to be too small to build anything on. This is what they built!! WOW!! How'd they do that??

We told Karen and Dennis that all we wanted was a good grouper sandwich. We went to Snook Inn where we used to go frequently went for lunch. The grouper sandwich was “to die for” – it now comes with the Soup and Salad Bar. We did not know we would have such a huge lunch!!

Our waiter stuck his hand into the picture. Said he used to be a "hand model". HA HA



Lunch at Snook Inn: Karen, Dennis, Ken and Me.



This was the view from the observation deck at Snook Inn. We used to bring our boat, Weekend Runner, up to the Snook Inn dock for lunch.





After lunch we messed around a little longer and then said our Goodbyes. It was fun seeing them again, as always!!

After leaving Marco Island, we drove up to Englewood to stay overnight with Ken’s daughter, Stacey. She was working that night as a bartender down on the beach. We thought about calling her to find out exactly how to find the Bar. That’s when I realized I did not have my cell phone!! I had left it in Marco Island.

When we got to Stacey’s bar, I used her phone to call Karen and Dennis to see if I had left our phone in their room. Dennis called back in a little bit and said he had found it in the back seat of the car. A miracle!!

While we were waiting for Dennis to call us back, Ken asked Stacey to make him a Manhattan. Stacey said he had never made one; so Ken told her how. First, she poured too much cherry juice in the drink; then too much bitters. Stacey quickly solved that problem by adding more bourbon!! It turned out pretty good! Guess you just can’t ruin Jim Beam!!

Early the next morning after breakfast and a good cup of coffee at Denny's, we took off for Marco Island AGAIN!! Just what we wanted to do!!

We retrieved our phone, said our goodbyes again, AND got back to TT Peace River just in time to go to Dean and Margie’s Happy Hour on the River!!!