Happy St. Patty's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day and yes, I'm wearing green! I've had corned beef and cabbage cooking all day in the crockpot and we may even go out for a green beer. I'm not even a hint of Irish, but I think DH is a little, so for tradition's sake, we're Irish for the day.

In other green news, we picked up and planted our 4 trunk robellini this weekend. It looks great! I've been having to hand water the azaleas due to the recent heat and drought, and they're looking good too. We had some rain last night, but don't expect any more for at least another week, so more hand watering until they're established. What do you think? And notice the new fence on that side of the house. We're extending it to be flush with the house
Sunday night was the last night launch for the shuttle. It was perfect - so clear we could see everything. Here is Discovery on it's way to space around 7:30pm. The reflection of the sun setting made the smoke look like a rainbow. More photos as viewed from our front lawn on flickr

Pavilion at Port Orange

Looks like our little town is moving up in the world. Construction is going strong on the new Pavilion at Port Orange. The part I'm most excited about is the 14 screen Hollywood Theatres. We have to drive about 30 minutes to go to the newest theatre in town and it's over on beachside in the heart of the tourist district. Needless to say, I think it's been over 1 year since DH and I have gone out to see a movie here in town.

I love the look of the new Pavilion, reminds me of the outdoor malls in California and even Jacksonville/St. Augustine area. Looks like they've edited the list of shoppes and restaurants coming to the new Pavilion at Port Orange in the fall (it's the new shopping center on Williamson near the Taylor Rd. Publix here in PO).
Circuit City and Barnes and Noble are off the rendering now. Although this article from just last month show Barnes and Noble signed a lease for the spot. The article also says the store will open March of 2009 which I see as impossible. They also say they'll have Starbucks which will be welcome since the only other Starbucks is in our Target.
Belk fashion department store will be the big anchor store, along with junior anchors Michaels, Marshalls and Home goods. A national pet store is also in the plan, 1 place says Petsmart , another shows Petco .

Now also on the list:

Shops: ATT store, David's Bridal, GNC, Lee Nail Spa, Rack Room Shoes, Sunglass World, and Visionworks

And food: Alfredo's Restaurant, Cold Stone Creamery, Olive Garden, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Red Brick Pizza , Red Robin Gourmet Burgers,
From their press release The Pavilion at Port Orange will offer customers a unique shopping experience with Main Street style architecture, two-story themed buildings and extensive landscaping in an open-air pedestrian-friendly environment. A focal point of the development will be a seven-acre lake surrounded by numerous upscale sit-down restaurants overlooking the water. The center will also feature a community pavilion along the lake that will serve as a gathering place for residents and tourists and a covered children’s soft play area. Curbside parking will provide customers with easy and convenient access to the shops.

Weekend recap

Friday was Uncle Nick's memorial service. It was a nice service full of good memories of times with Nick. The service was at my FIL's church Seventh Day Baptist Church of Daytona Beach. The church building has been around since the early 1900s, but the chuch itself started in Daytona in 1884! It's a beautiful little church with tons of character, from the wooden floors to the stained glass to the aged pews. After the service, Nick's ashes were released into the Halifax River near the Orange Ave. brige, one of his favorite old fishing holes. A reception was held at one of his brother's houses in South Daytona.

After the memorial, DH and I went home and watched The Mummy 3: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I'll call it entertaining. No where near as good as the first 2, but I stayed awake and that usually means something. Brendan Fraser was back as Rick O'Connell, but instead of the great Rachel Wiesz as his wife, a new lady was cast, Maria Bello, who was ok, but has done better work. Jet Li was the Emperor, and he was ok too.

Saturday DH and I did some work around the house, went to lunch with his mom and step-dad and then ran some errands. Rufus had a playdate at my MIL's in the afternoon and then we stopped at the new ice cream shop Neighbors for doggy day around 6pm. Ruf approves of their ice cream, but we still prefer Ritter's for dog night as Neighbors had limited outside area for all the pups.
Sunday was the finale of Winterjam with the Volkswagon show in Port Orange around the City Center lake. DH and I went over around noon and there were already a ton of people and MANY cars and vans around the lake. The weather couldn't have been better. And get this - they had food as usual, but Hooters was there! So nice to have their wings and not have to drive across town for them. We met a big black stnd poodle named Willy and I wished I had brought Rufus. But then after walking around with all the people, I was glad he had stayed home - it would have been too much for him. Here are a few photos of the day, taken from my camera phone which has pretty good photo quality in daylight.

Hump Day

Here we are Wed. Nov. 5, day after election day...

I'm not really one that likes to speak out about my political or religious views, but I will say I am glad the election is over. I did enjoy the SNL skits, but all of those ads were just getting to me! And I hate to say it, as much as everyone loves Obama right now, after a couple years in office, the honeymoon phase will wear off and people will need to find someone to gripe about, and there our president will be. Maybe that won't happen this time, I'm just thinking about most of the past presidents. I was getting pretty confused with some of the broadcasts last night. Each one was trying to predict each result before the other. On one network, there were so many different title bars with so much information, it was almost hard to read it all, even on our 50+ inch TV. It was nice to see the rest of the world so excited about our country again.

I got home around 5:30 and DH and I walked over to our voting precinct. We walked right in, voted and we were in and out in less than 15 minutes. We both had previously marked and brought our sample ballots, so that helped when we were filling out our real ballots. I don't know how or why some people go vote without studying what they're voting for before hand. I think the lady that was next to me was reading the proposed amendments or something on the ballot for the first time. Oh well, at least she was voting. Or is an uneducated voter really better than one who doesn't vote at all.

Here's our voting location, our local library (photo from www.voterfocus.com/ws/Pfinder/Pl_county.php)

I do really enjoy the location of our neighborhood. Right from our back fence, we can take a short walk to the library, City Center, a nice lake, amphitheater, the police office, and the city rec fields. It's especially nice when there's an event at the city center because we don't have to worry about fighting for or finding parking. And we can catch the city's fireworks from our back yard. During the summer concert series, we can open our windows and listen to the bands playing in the nearby amphitheater. At first I thought this was annoying, but I've grown to like it. If I don't want to hear it, I can just go inside.

Today being hump day, is the day Winn Dixie releases their weekly sale ads. I will be so happy when our Publix re-opens in a few weeks, but Winn Dixie has been pretty good with their meat specials while Publix has been going through renovations.

DH is getting into smoking, so I got a boston pork butt for him to smoke this weekend. I'm not a pork eater, but I do like pulled chicken, so I may have to try some of this one. He's also going to make more of his own special recipe bbq sauce. We will have to go up to SC one day and get some mustard based sauce from Duke's bbq, but until then, I like his. I guess our weekend will look like this.