The Artillery (NOT war-themed)

I am pissed I just found out about The Artillery. This is a local coalition of artists. Seems to be very interesting. They just had an opening at The Bank in St. Pete last weekend (see "events" area)...I'll look forward to the next opening after that!

Flowers, Flowers, Plants

For those of you that have met me, you may know I love my garden. Too bad I currently live in an apartment. The rectangular "window" boxes are nice, but a nice plot of land is better. This is why I fully intend on visiting the Tampa Bay Flower Show, running from tomorrow through to Saturday at Tropicana Field in St. Pete. It looks to fill my mind with ideas for future plantings and designs. I just hope it doesn't make me begin to plant on the islands between cars in the apartment's parking lot!

/// southeast music alliance ///

This looks to be a great resource for the local music scene: /// southeast music alliance ///. Honestly, I didn't know there was such a scene! I know, I know, I need to get out more. But it is a bit difficult when one has recently moved to a new location. At least, here is a start!

Manatee Festival

This past Saturday Mike and I drove up the hell that is US 19 to attend the annual Manatee Festival. It was nice to get out of the "city" for a beautiful day in Florida. I must say, it was amazing to see a line of demarcation on US 19--where the seemingly endless array of strip malls and Wal-Marts ends and the trees begin. I almost let out a breath of relief.

The Manatee Festival itself was a bit of a letdown. It was more like a flea market, complete with a Jimmy Buffet sound-alike contest. Never will I forget Captain Susie shouting "Salt! Salt! Salt!" along to "Margaritaville".

After this, we drove over to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park to continue our quest for a manatee. Here we were lucky, because some of the injured manatee are safely kept year-round. The most exciting part is an underwater observation tank--this allows you to really see the sea cows up close. This was the highlight of the day, as it is such a nice park, zoo almost, with a variety of native wildlife.

Free Wi-Fi Hotspots from FloridaFreeFi.com

Just came across this little nugget of gold: Free Wi-Fi Hotspots from FloridaFreeFi.com. Just choose your town from the dropdown list at the top center and it will list places to get free wi-fi. You can also add to the list if you know of some other spots.

As you will note, this service is country-wide, so if you are travelling to another location, you can do some research beforehand!!

Dead Camera, Mini-Golf & Yummy Fish

Need I say more? Yes, this really bites. My camera died the other day while Mike and I were having a nice New Year's Day mini-golf in Clearwater Beach. Very sad, especially since I am a bit broke at the moment!

But the mini-golf was fun--haven't done that in years! And what elaborate mini-golf courses there are down here. Well, it is probably all over the country, but after living in NYC for 7 years, a lot looks new to me in suburbia! The one we visited, Captain Bligh's, has a pirate theme, as you can glean from its name. It comes complete with a shipwrecked, well, pirate's ship. The most amazing part is that the course designer has managed to fit 18 holes complete with waiting benches on a miniscule plot of land.

Obscurely enough, after mini-golf we found a great British pub cringingly called Big Ben just down the road. And the fish and chips were amazing there. Plain and simple. The fish's exterior was lightly breaded--not overly greasy as one finds in many restaurants and bars--while the interior was perfectly flaky.

Oh yeah, one last thing--would you believe that Mike and I ended up with the same score at golf?? What are the chances?