Hi everyone! Hope you've had a good weekend. Mine has been exasperating! At this point I'm wondering why I ever started a Blog. I have lost my sidebar. It's on the bottom now and I can't get it back to the side. I've done everything they told me to do in the forum but nothing worked. I've been working on this ALL day! I'm giving up for now and writing a post. 

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Thurs was our T.O.P.S. Christmas Party. We had a fun time! We ate at the Fish Company Restaurant in Atlantic Beach. The food is very good there. We exchanged gifts, ate, then played a game. Will explain when the pix are posted.

Beverly opening the gift from us.

Judy and her daughter.

Beverly and Beverly.

Victor and his wife Marsha.

Bertha and her hubby Jr.

My sauteed Mussels. Mmmm

Me enjoying the Mussels!

The Game! We were split into 4 groups & ea group given balloons & pantyhose. We had to blow up the balloons, stuff them into pantyhose for Rudolph's antlers & wear them! My DD's group won 1st. My DD is wearing them!

This is Claudio & his group won 2nd.

This is Beverly & her group won 3rd.

1st on the left is Victor & his group which I was in won 4th. And so here's the 4 winners: Victor, Claudio, Beverly, & Michelle.    Ho Ho Ho!

Judy with her camera. Her pix will be better. This new camera I bought is a piece of crap.

Shirley is the 2nd from the right. She's the game master!!!

 

My lovely daughter, Michelle, & me.

This is Roz and Debbie.

This is Eileen & Debbie.

 

 

Well, I've had enough of this dang computer. I'm going to bed! Good night to all and to all a Good Night!

Hugs, 

Cindy 

  

I'm back! Been so busy! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did. We had a big get-together at my grandson's & his wife's house.  It was a full and happy day. I'm so late posting this picture, but I had to do so much editing of it of which I won't take up time explaining all I did. Maybe I'll post the original to save words.

The finished one.

Had to take out all the table clutter & the blinding light!

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I've been crocheting something for my new grandbaby to be but can't tell or show anyone yet. You understand! And I won't be able to until the end of March.

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Also, I've been knitting a scarf for myself to wear at our Red Hat Ladies Christmas party which was Sat. But I haven't knitted in years and this was something new and unusual! I had to start over several times. Most of the times were because I the needle slipped out of my hand and also out of my stitches!! And no matter how careful I was I couldn't pick them up and continue. This 'yarn' is very usual. It's called Sashay yarn. Finally, Thurs, the last time the needle slipped out I took an emery board and 'roughed-up' the very smooth bamboo needles. It helped a lot.

Molly was trying to 'help' me knit!!

But finally after many 'NOs' she gave up and slept!

And I finished Fri. night in time for my party! This pic was after my party which is why my hair is all messed up from my red hat!

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Okay, here's the pix from the Red Hat Foxes Christmas Party. It was held at Sawgrass Beach Club at Sawgrass Country Club. It was a fun time!!!

Me before going to the party. My hat looks plain cuz all the decorations I put on it are on the top. & the scarf doesn't show up on my vest which is why I took previous one in my mirror afterward.

A sea of red hats!

Some of the hats were really clever!

Unfortunately I wasn't too keen about the food. I like my daughter's cooking way better than this. This is the 'salad'!

The entree which was 3 slices of pork loin, a little scoop of mashed potatoes, about 6 pieces of vegetables, and a sauce that I didn't like. It's not like me to complain about food but couldn't help it. The other choice was salmon.

Dessert was a choice between Apple Cobbler w/a scoop of ice cream or this chocolate cake (German I think). I should have gotten the cobbler.

My friend Bertha and me.

I love this lady's hat with the Peacock feathers

The pearl part of this bracelet is what a corsage was on at my grandson's wedding. See the inset picture. I couldn't stand the thought of throwing it away so kept it. For the Red Hat party I put a red crocheted flower on it. I can put different things to match different outfits.

Some of the ladies sat on the step & the rest of us stood around the top of the stairs. I was hoping to get more red hats in the picture.

The girl at the end is taking the formal picture of us. I didn't get my camera to her so I don't have one of them.

Well, I have put way too much here. I will close for now. I will try to post more often. Hope you all are doing well on your holiday preparations! Gotta be doing better than me!!! I didn't even get Christmas cards made this year so I'll have to design one on my computer to be printed out. Good night for now! 

HUGS, 
Cindy      

Hi everyone!
     Well, guess what my 'Hurricane Molly' did today!! She tried to jump from the toilet onto the windowsill above it and knocked one of the planters over! She must have done it when I was out this morning because I didn't hear anything. But when I went into the BR to use the toilet I was shocked beyond words!!! Even when Speedbump was a kitten he never caused the chaos Molly does!

"Who, me? No way. Not me! It was like this when I came in here."

You can see the windowsill above that she tried to get on.

It started out overcast again today but by noon the sun was shining and it was warming up. 

Happy Turkey Day! Let us not forget to give thanks for all our blessings! 

Here's a little piece of trivia. Maybe some already know this. Did you know that Ben Franklin wanted to have the wild turkey to be the official bird of the United States instead of the bald eagle. He felt that the characteristics of the eagle such as stealing the food that other birds caught didn't represent what we wanted our country to stand for.

Good night! Don't let the bedbugs bite. If they do beat 'em till they're black & blue!!! 

Hugs,

Cindy 

     

Hi!

     Back to the Zoo! This first one is Savanna Blooms Garden. Every time I go there it looks different depending on the seasons.

Savanna Blooms Garden, Jax Zoo, FL

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     The next 4 are in the diet kitchen. We didn't get to see all of it such as where they keep the bugs. She said they buy thousands of crickets and other bugs every week. There is so much involved in feeding the animals. The lady that runs the kitchen has so much to do, organize, buy, budget, etc. etc. etc.  . . . .

. . . . and everything has to be spic 'n span clean!

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     This is one of the rooms that holds the dry food - bags and bags of it for all different animals from anteaters to zebras & everything in between!  

The dry food.

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It's fun to feed the Giraffes! Try it when you go to the zoo!

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~        These are bottles of popped Popcorn for the animals! It provides them with a different activity. They do all kinds of things to keep them occupied and interested. Besides things like this they throw in toys for them to bat around, they hide food for them to find etc.

Bottles of popped Popcorn for the animals!

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     Short one today. It's late and I have to go to bed. This is supposed to be Monday's post but it is already Tues!!

     Today was another completely gray, overcast day! They said we would have sun, but they were wrong again!

     All of you who are going to be traveling for the Thanksgiving holidays please be safe and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hugs,

Cindy 

    

Hi all, are you ready for your zoological lesson?

     It took me longer than I thought to get back to you. Took me forever to weed through my zoo pics. It was a terrible day for photography, totally overcast, damp, & chilly so the pics aren't good. I still had a great time, though! I took a total of 163 photos & ended up with 83! I deleted almost half of what I took. We got to go into the zoo diet kitchen and see all the foods hear all about it. I rented an electric scooter - a life (or back) saver!!! I could have never done all that walking.

     I took the 1st pic while riding on the St. Johns River Ferry and shows the kind of day it was. And even though I live right across the street from it I missed it & had to wait for the next one which was less than a half hour. It's a short ride!

Riding the ferry across the St. Johns River, Mayport, FL

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      The 2nd pic is of the Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus). It's range is Ethiopia and south-central Africa, with the largest populations occurring in southern Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana.  On the endangered species list they are listed as Vulnerable and they are on SSP which is Species Survival Plan. 

The Wattled Crane from Africa

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      #3 is the Goliath Heron (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) and it's range is Africa south of the Sahara; Pakistan; Syria; Iraq. As you can guess by its name it's the largest living heron at 4.9 feet tall. A bit of folklore: the name “heron” is related to the Greek word “krizein.” which means, “to cry out or shriek.” And it's not endangered, but regional populations are relatively small.  Exposure to pesticide residue in prey may be a threat to its survival. 

The Goliath Heron from Africa. Looks something like our Blue Heron.

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      #4 seems to be having 'a bad hair day' and is the Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) and it's range is Sub-Saharan Africa; vagrant in Israel, Liberia and Spain. The species is evaluated as Least Concern on the Endangered List. The marabou stork is sometimes called the “undertaker bird,” due to its shape from behind: cloak-like wings and back, skinny white legs, and sometimes, a large white mass of “hair.”

The Marabou Stork from Africa.Yup, I spelled it wrong on the pic.

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And the last one for today is a snake - the Gaboon Viper (Bitis gabonica). I didn't get any good pics of snakes. The Green Mamba was too active. She was constantly moving & I will never get a better photo of them than the one I posted previously. The Viper's range is Central to South Africa in forested areas. 
     The Gaboon viper is venomous and their bite can be fatal. Its body length can approach 6 feet. It can weigh up to 25 pounds. Females tend to be larger than the males. The head is triangular. 
     On the largest individuals, the head can be nearly six inches across its widest point. They have the longest fangs of any snake, reaching 2 inches in a large specimen.Yikes! Hope they never get loose up here!!! It's not endangered but is more severely threatened by agricultural development than by natural predators. 

The Gaboon Viper from Africa.

 

All these except the 1st one were taken at the 

Jacksonville, FL Z00 and Gardens. 

Hope I didn't bore you with all this info, but I think it's absolutely fascinating. More tomorrow.

Oh, the sun finally came out today after a week of overcast & sometimes drizzle!

Hugs,
Cindy