No More Relaxation

OH NO!!!! I have to go back to work on Tuesday. My vacation was just too short. Oh well, at least I get time off!!! I guess I can't complain. It's been so restful.

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON

Seasons Greetings to all who read my Blog. I hope you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, and a very, very happy New Year!!! I hope we all have many happy occasions to celebrate over the next year.

What is this?

Has anybody ever seen anything like this before. This is a picture of our friend Barry making a salad. There is something sitting on his shoulder. I have had my camera for over 2 years and have never had anything show up in my photos like this before. I have examined the room and really don't think there is any evidence that this is a reflection off of a light in the room. I took pictures both right before this one and after with no evidence of the semi-round light that is resting on Barry's shoulder. I'd appreciate any feed back or comments you may have. Thank you!!

A visit from Pam and Mark

A few weeks ago my cousin Pam and her husband Mark came to St. Petersberg to visit their daughter Jamie and her husband Paul. They all came down to see us in Sarasota on a Saturday and we took them on a sight-seeing tour around town. We started at Siesta Beach and then went to St. Armand's Circle and ate at Tommy Bahamas. It was a really nice visit and it was great to see Pam, Mark, Jamie and Paul. Can't wait 'till you come down again !!!

An overcast evening at the beach

We started out at the beach. It was an overcast day and evening, so the sunset was not spectacular, but the waves were very active for Siesta Beach and the Gulf of Mexico.

The beginning of a new era

Resting at the foot of Siesta Beach, Sara and Jared await their new member of the family, due in January. The baby doesn't know it yet, but this is his first visit to the beach. Grampa Jerry looks very happy and expectant, as well. We look forward to welcoming the baby into this world.

Bad Hair Day

Beth and Jerry at Tommy Bahama's. My hair has seen better days.

Cousins Pam and Mark at Tommy Bahama's. The food was great, as was the company.

They don't come any cuter than this!!!

Kim and Monica------two cuties!!!

Cousins

Cousins Sara and Jamie with their husbands Jared and Paul having a great time at Tommy Bahamas!!! Unfortunately cousin Monica could not join us, but she will have plenty of opportunity to spend time with the group in the future : )

Graciella (middle) is conversing with another guest. Graceilla is a very close friend of Sara's and has been since high school. Her husband Jerry is to the right. Congratualtions to Graciella and Jerry. They are expecting their first child in May. I guess they are next!!

Jared's parents, Ed and Helen, from Long Island came in for the shower along with his Aunts and Uncles from the East Coast of Florida. They look like they are having a great time visiting and catching up. We enjoyed spending time with them. They are sitting at Sara and Jared's dining room table that used to be our table. It's a great butcher block table that we had for years and has held up great!! What quality!!

Curtis Earth, Orlando Trivia Celebrity and Monica's Fiancee', was the Master of Ceremonies. He did a great job with the games, music and trivia!!!!

This is a picture of Sara and Sara's friend Jen with her new baby Silas. Sara and Jen went to Sarasota High together.

Monica is working very diligently to write down all of the gifts and their senders.

Sara and Jared surrounded by gift bags. They look like they are enjoying the gifts!!

Sara and Jared reading a card

The baby shower is over and the party was a great success. Everyone had a terrific time and the food was really yummy. I guess its time to go to bed. Jared, the blanket is for the baby!! You'll have to find your own.

THE WEDDING

The setting was beautiful as was the wedding ceremony. It was held at a country club in the Chicago area. The ceremony was outdoors and the reception was indoors. Both were very tasteful and a lot of fun.

The Bride and Groom: Jamie and Paul

Cousins

These are my cousins who I met for the first time at this wedding. On the top picture are Marily and Howard. On the bottom are Bobby and Merle. Both live in the Chicago area. It was awesome talking to them about grandparents uncles aunts and cousins that we all know and discovering exactly how we were related.

The Rubenstein Clan

Beth Paul and Liessa having a great time at the wedding.

For the second half of our summer vacation we went to Sundara Resort and Spa located in the backwoods of the Wisconsin Dells. Sundara is Sanskrit and means beautiful. It's a great place to relax, unwind, and reconnect. We did all three. I would strongly recommend this experience to anyone.

This is the entrance to Sundara. They used just the right combination on stone, wood and glass to create a natural environment including the elements from the earth.

This area is called the Rotunda. It is where we had some of our meals. This was like a private dining room. Very often we were there by ourselves, which was very nice. We either ate here, at the pool, or in our room. The food was not only very healthy but very good, as well.

This is our room. The bed was so comfortable. Every night, the housekeeping staff performed a "turn down" service. They came into the room when we were out to dinner and made the bed, dimmed the lights, turned on some soothing music, turned on the fireplace, and put a piece of chocolate next to each pillow. What a great way to end an evening!!!

These are pictures of our bathroom. The jacuzzi bath tub is great, but given all the time spent in the water in the spa, there is no way we would be spending more water time in our room. No sense in becoming water logged. The Tower Shower is terrific and I used it twice. It's very large, has two shower heads on the top and several in the middle that hit the waist and hip area. Soap, shampoo,and conditioner dispensers are in the shower. Body lotion is provided, as well.

This is the view out of our window. The Wisconsin woods are so beautiful. They did a great job bringing the natural earthtones of the landscape inside

The two above pictures were taken on our last night in our very comfortable room. Have you ever seen Jerry so relaxed? He would like to find a chair like the one he is sitting in for our bedroom.

I am sitting in front of the fireplace having my evening tea. We had just come back from a nice Italian dinner in town. The temperature outside on this evening was in the upper 50's. It was awesome weather!!!

Good Bye Sundara. Thank you for providing us with the facilities, services, staff, and scenery for a great vacation. We will tell our friends and we will definitely be back

These are three of our Student Services secretaries at the retirement party held a few weeks ago. This was a candid picture. I probably could have taken a better posed picture, but two of these women are extremely camera shy, so I did the best that I could. Jean, who is closest to the camera and wearing black and white, has been my secretary for years------I hate to tell you how many!!! She is an unbelievable typist!!! In fact, she is probably the best typist in the United States of America. Jan, in the middle, is the lead student services secretary and we are always bothering her with all kinds of administrative questions like "where is that meeting being held?"or "can you order me a new dictaphone?"or better yet" remind me, how do I fill out this form?"Thanks for putting up with us, Jan. Jennie who is the furthest from the camera and wearing black with blue flowers is a relative newcomer to our staff. I think she has been with us for less than two years. She does a great job and we are happy to have her. She is extremely camera shy, and I can't figure out why. She looks great in this picture!!! We really appreciate you guys!!! We'd be nowhere without you.

Here I am with my colleague and fellow school psychologist, Kathy Haugan at the end-of-the-year lunch. I planned the lunch this year ( and every year). I thought Derek's would be a great choice, and fortunately it was a success. Everyone liked the food, the service and the atmosphere. Any suggestions for next year?

Who would have ever thought that this mother duck would choose the courtyard at Kinnan Elementary School for the nesting and birth of her little duckings!!! What an unusual venue. Kids everywhere----noise everywhere. Her nest was situated right outside the window of our speech pathologists room. I must give the Kinnan students a lot of credit. They left mother duck and her babies alone. I took this picture one afternoon after the school year was over. Mommy duck decided to take the ducklings for a walk in order to explore the grounds. I guess things had quieted down a bit now that the kids were on summer vacation. Our gifted teacher, Kathy, took the ducks home with her to live on her farm.The ducks couldn't be luckier. Now they have lots of land and a big pond to call all of their own. We'll miss you at Kinnan!!!

Can you believe we have three people retiring from our staff this year? We rarely have anyone leave because this job is so great!! ( We are school psychologists in Bradenton Florida. Who could ask for more?) Len, Pat, and Ray, have decided to call it quits and move on to bigger and better things. We had a great time at their retirement party at the Mangrove Grill on the Manatee River. To the right is our great leader and supervisor, Pat Bernhart, roasting all three of them. The food was great as was the company. Best of luck to all of you and have a happy and exciting retirement!!!

Here we are at Brad and Michelle's wedding. We had a great time at Laurel Oaks Country Club and the food was great. So was the company at the table.

We bought a new refrigerator last week and I really love it. I think the last time we bought a refrigerator was in 1974 and we got it at an auction house in St. Louis. I guess the homes that we have bought or the apartments we have lived in before, all came with refrigerators. The one we bought in 1974 had a bottom freezer just like the one you see in the above picture. I really liked that model. It's silly to get all excited about a refrigerator, but I have to tell you that the french door model is far superior to the side by side. The refrigerator looks brown in the picture for some reason, but its really stainless steel.

Some Comments about Las Vegas

Since I have been able to put some time between my Las Vegas trip and the present time, I feel I need to add a short post script to my ranting and raving that can be found in the posts below. I was sick when I was in Las Vegas and couldn't really do the things that I wanted to do. I was mainly interested in hanging out at the spa and going to the shows. I was too sick to do either. Now that I feel healthy, I can see that I wasn't very objective and was in no position to evaluated the Las Vegas experience. I probably would have had an OK time if I had been feeling well and the weather wasn't so cold. I'm not much of a gambler, so I probably won't be returning any time soon, but I'm sure I'll give it another try sometime. If anyone out there would like to post some comments on Las Vegas, be my guest!!

Family Picture

This is the latest in a series of family pictures. It is always a good idea to update these. The family got together for a wonderfully delicious Passover this year at our house. Incidently, Whole Foods did most of the catering for this event and did a very good job. As always, there was too much food. We celebrated Passover this year on a Friday night, so everbody could be there. We went out for a very eventful( I will not elaborate, but you know what I'm talking about) Chinese/Japanese dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday morning we went to Perkins for breakfast and some nice person offered to take this picture of us. It was a great family weekend, except for the fact that we all got sunburned!!!

CONGRATULATIONS MONICA on being formally accepted into the Nonpofit Management Masters Program at UCF. We are very proud of you and know you will be a big success in this field. Maybe when you are the director of an agency, you will hire me : ) !!! Best of luck with your studies.

Monica will be getting married on April 14, 2007. We are all looking forward to the wedding which will be at the Veranda in Orlando. We will be sharing this event with many friends and family. Above are some pictures of the Veranda. We stayed there a few weeks ago and it is beautiful. It's in a great neighborhood (Thornton Park), as well!!!

This cool student goes to Rowlett Elementary. He looks like a future basketball player. I really enjoyed working with him!!!! Look for him on a basketball court near you.

LAS VEGAS

On March 18th we went to Las Vegas for a vacation. This is the biggest mistake we have ever made. I really don't like Las Vegas. It's an artificial community of hotels located on a long strip, each one with a gimmick. It tries to bill itself as a Disney for adults---------but I don't think so. The casinos are as boring as can be. How long can you play the slots. The overall environment is very unhealthy. This is not a community that is very enlightened with regard to smoking. There is smoke everywhere. The restaurants are good, but we can get a good meal in Sarasota. We had great meals at 3950 and China Grill. Unfortunately, I got sick the second day we were in Las Vegas. So I really couldn't do the things I wanted and would have enjoyed. The Mandalay Bay Hotel, which is where we stayed, has a great Spa. I had my nails done there on Saturday, which was my only good-health day. I wanted to use the spa but was too sick. We were suppose to see "O" and Danny Gans but I was not feeling well enough to be around a lot of people. So, this trip was a failure, and I will never go to Las Vegas again. If you have to go to Las Vegas, I suggest you stay off the strip and drive in for you meals gambling and shows. Try to avoid the craziness at all costs. I hope that the unhealthy environment in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas!!!

As I mentioned above, I had a cold during most of my stay in Las Vegas. The Mandalay Bay, like most Las Vegas hotels on the strip is not a healthy place to be. The casinos are smoke filled enclosed dungeons with no windows and completely lit up with artificial lighting. The overall energy there is not healthy either. The hotel blows cold air throughout the casino and room areas which is also very unhealthy. So we decided to take a short walk outside the hotel in order to get out of the sick environment. It was unseasonably cold outside, but better than being inside. While outside I took a picture of the hotel's signage. In the background you can see the Luxor.

This is a restaurant located off the casino area in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. See the post below for more information.

Here we are eating at "3950" on Saturday night. This was on my only good health day. The restaurant was very good. I recommend it to anyone going to Las Vegas. I'm a vegetarian, but if you like steak, the place is great. Looking at us, it's hard to believe that in a few years, we will be classified as an elderly couple!!!!!

Scenes from outside our window at the Mandaly Bay Hotel