Cupcakes, Guide Dogs, the inauguration – I do indeed have my obessions!
Cupcakes, Guide Dogs, the inauguration – I do indeed have my obessions! Read More »
General
Our new guide dog puppy has been born!
Little Tony arrived on November 8th, 2008 but I just received the information yesterday. Tony is a male black lab who has now been assigned to his puppy raiser who will start socializing him in preparation for his guide dog training! This is the first picture of many- showing Tony hard at work in the office of his Puppy Raiser waiting for the next part of the day. You’ll be seeing lots and lots on this great dog!
Mermaid Cottages sponsors a guide dog puppy every year as our very small way of giving back and to honor our guests, home owners and mermaid team. We’ve been waiting for our puppy information all last year ( there was a back log of puppies waiting to be sponsored) so we haven’t had a puppy to update everyone on regularly. But that is now changed!!!! The Southeast Guide Dog school www.guidedogs.org is outstanding and we can look forward to lots of pictures as Tony grows. The first 18 months are spent with their Puppy Raiser who’s main responsibility is to socialize and make sure Tony is a very well behaved dog. He’ll go everywhere with his person, learning and after his 18 Months with her, he’ll go back to the school for his formal guide dog training. As long as everything goes smoothly, he’ll be a guide dog. If for some reason he doesn’t make it, most likely his career will be doing some other type of service work. Danny- my golden lab- was a career change dog as many of you all know.
Tony the dog is named after Tony Petrea, Junior to honor his life. Tony was a wonderful young man who died way too young. He was loved by so many of us here on Tybee , he loved animals and was a great help to me with several of my projects over the years. His birthday was yesterday – which I did not know until I took the picture of Tony to show his parents. They- like all of us will be following along with Tony’s progress!
My friend, CJ from Marriott , is how I became involved with both raising guide dogs and sponsoring Guide Dogs. I’d like to share an email and YouTube video he put together last year when his most recent dog went off with his blind person. I tell CJ all the time he changed my life, without his guidance and assurance I never would have taken on my first puppy, never would have had Danny and Max in my life and now would never be sponsoring a guide dog yearly which truly does change a person’s life! Here in CJ’s own words….
“Over the past several years all of our friends have accommodated in to various degrees the inclusion of a dog whenever/wherever Bev and I go. Bev and I want each of you to know how much we appreciate your support and wanted to share with you this little video of Elvis that was made by his new owner, Wendy Slominsky of Millersville, PA. We met with her this past weekend for Elvis’ graduation ceremony in New York, and we were immediately taken with this wonderful woman and her husband. She and Elvis formed an instant bond, and they will undoubtedly have a fantastic life together.
When we returned from our trip, we received an email on Monday morning describing how after only a couple of days together, Elvis had successfully avoided a large 5 foot hole in the ground that wasn’t roped off, and was directly in Wendy’s path. A woman who witnessed Elvis safely guiding her around the obstacle stopped Wendy to explain what had just happened.
Bottom line is that without of lot of your direct and in-direct help, Bev and I wouldn’t be able to be as successful as we’ve been in raising these dogs. So we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for always welcoming our four legged friends as part of the Bev and CJ package.”
Our new guide dog puppy has been born! Read More »
The Island Wide Side Walk Sale a Huge Sucess!
What fun Saturday was! The island wide Sidewalk Sale had bargains galore everywhere! Over 30 businesses on Tybee offered great deals and the island was full of shoppers looking to score a big buy!
Personally I was THRILLED with my big find! I actually went to a shop I’ve never been to on the island- Underground Broadworks located in the Shop at Tybee Oaks- right by Huckapoos and close to SeaSide Sisters. Jim Stephens is a surfer/ custom surfboard builder and good ole Tybee character who has a shop where he not only sells surfing “stuff” but also creates and builds surf boards for people all over the world. He has the 4 foot rule – if the surf is 4 feet or higher, he hangs a sign on the door and heads out to surf the waters of Tybee.
Visit Jim’s shop next visit to Tybee and in the meantime, visit his website. http://www.undergroundboardworks.com/
My big find was 2 pair of Sanuks. These are not shoes but sandals that look like shoes! Mary Elizabeth Canty has been wearing them for a year or so, she found them in a surf shop in Ft Lauderdale. I tried to find them when I was in California, but they were always sold out. Jim was having a huge one day sale- $15 per pair when they are normally $48 a pair! I bought two pairs and will be wearing them all spring and summer long. Super comfy, very cool ( hey they are worn by surfers all over the world) and best of all- great price! Visit their website as well because it’s great fun http://www.sanuk.com
Great to meet you Jim, looking forward to visiting your shop on a regular basis!
The pictures show me wearing my new Sanuks. The second picture is to show off not only the shoes/ sandals, but also to show daughter Katie that no, my pants really are long enough. ( I’ve had enough lectures on wearing “mom jeans” that are not only too high waisted but too short! No Longer- I now buy Lucky Brand jeans- but more on that topic another blog!)
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The Saga of the Traveling Fruitcake. And Eggnog…
I love fruit cakes. Seriously. And most of all, I love my Aunt Marth’s Fruitcake. Every year she makes a fruitcake for my family. She is almost 85 years old and has been making this family recipe for years. Each year my mom doles out just a enough fruit cake to get us thru the entire year. We ate the last 4 pieces that had been wrapped up and frozen on Dec 23rd because we knew Aunt Marth’s cake was waiting. But it wasn’t….. My uncle Kenny had died a few weeks earlier and Aunt Marth was behind with her Christmas cooking and baking. So she didn’t have a chance to mail the fruit cake. OMG. Christmas without her fruitcake???
But we had a plan. Friends of the family’s kids were coming home for Christmas. They lived in Fairmont, WV, Aunt Marth lives in Fairmont , WV…. they could connect. But Aunt Marth doesn’t drive and Aron and Sarah have a small baby….. wait, my cousin Barb could get off work early and connect with Aron and pass the cake. So Aunt Marth bundled up ( she wasn’t going to just let Barb carry it) and they met in the Food Lion Parking lot and the hand off was made. The cake drove over the snowy mountains and through the woods and arrived in Berkeley Springs Christmas Eve. Kathie called and told us the good news. But too late to come get it that night, we’d have to make a Christmas day run…. Drove over the hillside and went to Butch and Kathie’s home. ( Beautiful home!) There was the fruitcake…….. just in time for Christmas dinner…. but no….
You see, there is an added ingredient that Aunt Marth refuses to add, so mom has to add without telling her. Brandy… But you can’t just pour it on and eat it, you have to pour it on, wrap in cheesecloth, let it soak a few days, then eat.. It’s Christmas day. No brandy in the house. No cheesecloth in the house. Nothing is open Christmas day…. so on the drive to Bethany Beach the next day, we stop along the way and pick up the brandy and fruitcake. The next step happens ( documented above) The cake is soaking….. any day now we’ll be enjoying that brandy soaked cake!!!
PS- the cake always arrives in an old cookie tin and each year, mom sends the cookie tin back to Aunt Marth for the new fruitcake. Just another family tradition!
And to go along with it- some egg nog. I also love eggnog! Any recipe will do and here is the motherlode of recipes!!!
The Saga of the Traveling Fruitcake. And Eggnog… Read More »
How I spent my Christmas Vacation
Where do I start…. into my second full week with my family for the Christmas Holidays…. One of the many benefits of my new career is I’m able to take advantage of the “slow season” time and be with my family and friends for extended periods of time. Here is my recap of my trip so far…
- Road Trip North to my parents with daughter Katie and the two dogs. Many of you have seen how I travel now that I have a car vs having to deal with the Airlines. I treat my car like it’s my suitcase! Problem is, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and my daughter travels the same way. Those poor dogs barely had enough room in the back seat because the car was so full… Why Katie felt the need to bring her entire basket of dirty laundry was a mystery to me… Lots of fun driving with her, just having time in the car together was great.
- Christmas Even dinner- our family tradition is for my mother to make her famous fried oysters. She bought a gallon of fresh oysters which we had to bread with cracker crumbs and corn meal and then fry in a combination of Crisco and butter. Katie took over the frying about half way through and surprise of all surprises, actually received the nod of approval from my mother! Dessert was a platter of homemade cookies…. oh- can’t wait for the holidays to be over and there isn’t constant sugar to be consumed in so many forms!! The weather even cooperated to be winter like! Freezing rain which was just gorgeous to look at and we had no where we had to drive, so we could just walk and enjoy without any worry of black ice and driving….
- Christmas day was GREAT! We started the morning with Mom making her famous Buckwheat pancakes! Then to the presents….We’d made a family commitment to either make all our gifts for each other or keep the total amount spent on each person to $25. We actually did this! My sister sent her annual calendars she makes with pictures from the whole year, she made my mom a scrapbook of our road trips this year, Mom made all of us scarves- each of us! Katie made a combination of knitted items ( she made me fingerless gloves so I could use my blackberry in the cold! How clever was this! We had dinner at Aunt Hetties home- Folkstone. Hettie was a Navy wife who lived all over the country from Key West to Coronado Island, CA. She is an amazing woman who at age 85 made the entire Christmas dinner for 12 of us. I was allowed to make desert and made the Mango Cake ( see the earlier blog with this recipe) I actually made the filling and frosting from the Castaway Coconut Cake- you have to try this cake. Oh my gosh was it good!!!
- Day after Christmas, we hopped in two cars ( we now had my parents besides Katie and the dogs- fortunately they don’t pack as much stuff as Katie and I!) and we headed to Bethany Beach, DE for the next week.
- Ahhh…. we’re at the beach. The old beach house opened her arms and said come on in and relax! So we’ve had fires nightly using java logs- not wood- check them out! http://www.java-log.com/ The beach also means going to see movies! We’re trying to see everything, and here’s the order of the pictures we’ve seen and how we like them.
- Slumdog Millionaire …. Run, don’t walk to see this movie!
- Australia – a great, great story and glorious scenery!
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Great story and acting. You’ll cry at the end of the love shared between Daisy and Benjamin.
- Marley and me. You tell me- is the picture above Danny or Marley…. hard to tell isn’t it! Great story and you dog lovers will cry and cry at the end
- Still have these movies- Frost and Nixon and Doubt to see this week!
- Yoga!!!!! After 10 days with my family, 2 hours at Yoga class today was the best! Stretching, breathing, not eating cookies…. ahh, it felt great! There is a yoga studio here in Bethany with an amazing teacher. And she is a teacher, not someone who sits in front of the room doing her own practise with no regard for us. If you’re in the area, I urge you to drop in to class! http://www.bethanybeachyoga.org/
New Year’s Eve still to come!
