End of May

Well the long holiday weekend is now behind us and we are sore exhausted.  We made the friday-right-after-work trip to Mexico Beach in the Miata!  Then spent saturday viewing the sunrise from the balcony over the canal, fishing on the pier, walking to the Marina and The Grove, eating an early dinner at Mango Marleys (sweet potatoe fries and fried plantains for me if you please!) then walked on the beach at sunset, then back to watch some tv and collapse exhausted into bed!  Sunday found me back out on the pier fishing and hubby trying to rest his foot after the cramped drive in the Miata and all that walking! and then Monday it was time to head home again.  We arrived here before son who was moving back from college this weekend so we unpacked, went out to dinner, picked up some groceries for the week and then son was home.  The next several hours were spent unloading the trailer, sorting and choosing what portion of the house, garage or shed each item would be put and if it would need to be able to be "reached" anytime in the near future or could be buried.

To the say the least it was .... well exhausting!

so here are the pics of some of the fish we caught including the pompano we ate on saturday afternoon for lunch.  we are enjoying the pompano it is Excellent eating and neither of us is real keen on fish as food.

and soon I'll try to remember to tell you what is now in my dining room....but for now here are the pics!

 Remora! the bottom side of him about 11' long I caught three on saturday and two on sunday

 My pompano on saturday, he got eaten! and i cleaned him myself too.  took me about 30 minutes to clean him up with the very short and stocky knife that at least was sort of sharp. I need a filet knife that I ONLY use to filet fish, not cutting bait or line after re-rigging etc.

 We caught some of these mystery fish.  someone said it was a member of the jack family but it is very small maybe 7' or so and he is paper thin!  the pink stuff is part of the sabiki rig but the yellow on his tail and pectoral fins is all him, whatever he is.

 there is something just really great about a picture of someone taking a picture.  this is looking out towards the pool from our balcony.  Hubby is taking a picture of some of the boats tied up in the canal at sunrise on Sunday morning.

 My Sunday Pompano.  a bit smaller than the one the day before but not by much.  you'll notice that i remembered my own advice and I laid the fish across the boards for easy measuring reference.  the boards are about 1/2" shy of my spread wide thumb to pinky measurement with a 3/8" space between them.  and no, i doubt they are that precise in their spacing but i've got a quick reference on the pier now for my fish sizing purposes.  this pompano went back in the water to be caught another day.  Oh and that was my FIRST fish on sunday.  it went downhill from there, if you can consider it to be downhill when you are getting to fish which you LOVE.

 two of the three manta rays that were swimming in a group up and down the pier patroling.  there were a few lone ones, a pair that were much rounder and ligher colored than these are. see the black tips on their outer wingtip span?  the three had very long tails while one loner had a stubby tail!

 And a surprise catch!  a flounder! did not even catch him near to the under-pier part either.  i know the locals do a lot of fishing/jigging for flounder under the pier but i've not had the patience for it.  this guy was really cute and too tiny to keep legally and certainly i'd not have gotten a whole mouthful out of him even if all i'd done was gut him and broil him with his "parts" all still there.  gross!  well that thought of serving him up whole-ish not him, he is cute on the hook and still alive.

And some days you just end up catching the oddest things.  This guy had hold of my hook and i had a terrible time trying to wiggle the hook out of between him and his shell.  probably more suction problems than actually having the hook impaling him.

Have a grand day!

What AM I working on?

I have been trying to jumpstart the crafting portion of me.  The part that just disappeared about 4 years ago.  I have been bookmarking some blogs with cute sewing patterns I'd like to try.  I have put some links in my sidebar to help me remember to check these out again and again and hopefully this will inspire me to get to the machine and use it!

I ordered some lovely yarn from Elann.com in hopes of making the top featured with the yarn here (hopefully still there when you click on this link).  I ordered the raspberry wine version of the yarn.  Not as bright as I would have hoped.  The goal?  To create a basic shell top that I can wear to work, make from many colors and change up the bottom portion stitch pattern for a go-to project to make for myself.

While checking out where-the-heck my interchangeable needles are in the various possible sizes for getting gauge with the new yarn, I discovered an in-progress Bakkus scarf and decided to finish it up for possible gift giving later in the year.

So many different things being done and thought of and so little being actually completed.  But there is life outside of work these days and that is so important to what makes up denise/deBRAT and I'm happy to be working on that portion of me again.

Gosh and I got a new camera!  Youngest son graduates with his Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach Campus on Saturday and Sunday and I wanted something to get the best graduation "shot".  After much hemming and hawing I decided on the Nikon P500 which is a 12 mp with a 36x optical zoom!  Now I need to figure out how to adjust manually for gymnasium lighting. Both sets of grandparents are coming in for the "hooding" on Saturday and for the "walk" on Sunday.  I am so very proud of him.  He is the first on Neal's side to achieve his Masters and the second on my side, though his older brother Derek is slowly working on his around a full-time job and twin daughters born last year.

I do not have a decent picture yet to show you from the new camera (I have dreams of great sunsets at Mexico Beach in two weeks though) so here is an oldie but goodie to wrap up today's post.  April 1, 2006 Prom the year he graduated from East Bay High School.  And yes, he did his Master's in just 5 years and NO summer courses!  He is third from the left.  What a fun group of guys.  Some have graduated, some have moved on and I know of at least one still in school to be a pharmacist!