Do you remember when the Island King and the Boys went paintballing a while back?
I was their combat photographer and even though I was scared it would hurt if I got hit I decided I might want to try actually playing one day.
The Island King, his brother and two of their friends decided to go play on Sunday.
And of course the Boys wanted to go too.
They asked me if I wanted to go and after giving it some thought I decided that "yes" I wanted to try it at least once.
It did look like fun.
Sunday rolled around and I put on extra layers of clothes and off I went - ready to play with the boys.
I was still a little scared but the truth is that while I was scared of it hurting when I got hit I was more scared that it would hurt really bad and I would cry.
I'm a girl like that.
It would be horribly embarrassing to cry in front of any of the people at the paintball field and obviously I didn't want that to happen.
The Island King told me not to worry because there were other girls there last time so obviously girls play.
I explained to him that the people we saw last time were anatomically female but they aren't really classified in the "girl" department.
Which means I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't cry if they got hurt.
There were about 30 people there so we divided up into two teams.
Which sent me back to middle school because the team captains got to pick and since they didn't know any of us they picked all of their friends first and we were all just standing there like the kids who suck at Dodgeball.
The captain who picked me (not last, thank God) was giant. He had to have been 6'5 and was built like a linebacker.
I decided immediately that I was going to hang with him.
The game we were going to play was Take the Flag. Two teams, one flag in the middle of the woods. Whichever team grabs the flag first has to bring it back to the opposing team's bunker, kill everyone and have control of the flag and bunker.
I told the captain that I'd never done this before and he told me to stay with him. We were going to guard the bunker so when the other team came at us we could protect the bunker.
Ok.
He tells me they will come at us from the left and the right. He'll guard the left and I'm to guard the right.
I think I can do this.
Except he kneels down and tells me to do the same so no one can see us.
He's at least a foot taller than I am so when he kneeled down he could still see over the top of the bunker.
I could not.
So I had to squat - which caused my knees and legs to start burning almost immediately.
We can hear the paintball fire coming closer and he tells me to get ready.
I got into a spot where I could see anyone coming at us from the right side and was ready to fire.
Suddenly, three blasts of fire went through my back.
Someone had snuck around behind us and shot me and the captain both in the backs as we were looking the other direction.
Let me say that while the pain wasn't so bad it made me cry it did HURT LIKE HELL!!!
The captain and I were both out of the game and I was thinking maybe this wasn't something I wanted to do all day.
But I decided to try one more game.
I was doing pretty good, guarding a POW when a man came out of the woods next to me.
I shot him three times in the chest but he shot me in the face.
The ref was standing there and according to him we were both out.
Luckily, this guy shot me in the face - where my mask was - and I didn't feel a thing.
By this time the boys are all having a blast but I've decided that paintball just isn't for me.
And because I wasn't sure how the day would go I had pre-loaded a list of geocaches into my GPS so I told the boys to have fun and that I'd be back to pick them up later.
I found the caches I was looking for and realized that I'm a geocacher not a paintballer.
I had a great day and so did the boys. From now on when they want to go play paintball I'm packing my cache bag and going caching.
Paintball looked fun but this girl just didn't like it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Plastic Town
I know I've said over and over again that you can find the coolest things while out geocaching and this is one of those things that prove it.
Plastic Town.
We were looking for interesting caches to find and after reading THIS we knew we had to find it.
A city that has sank into the hard packed north end of the County dirt?
My Dad, the boys and I loaded up and headed out.
It felt a little like we were looking for Atlantis - on Eglin Air Force Base.
Except we'd seen the town on the satellite so we knew it existed.
What we found was something really cool.
The military has set up giant white plastic tarps in the shape of a city.
On the ground you can't even tell that it's laid out like a city but from above there it is.
It's used as a bombing practise site and is often closed to the public so the cache was only available at certain time.
It's closed now because of construction and that area is completely off limits.
But it was open the day we went and we saw quite a few ordinances. I have no idea if they were live or not. Being intelligent people we don't mess with them - at all.
After wandering around a bit we found the shed where the trader collected goodies and swapped a few with him.
It was odd sitting on a tarp but knowing that from the air it would look like we were sitting behind a building.
Plastic Town definitely rates as one of the most interesting things I've found out geocaching.
Who knows what I'll find next...
Plastic Town.
We were looking for interesting caches to find and after reading THIS we knew we had to find it.
A city that has sank into the hard packed north end of the County dirt?
My Dad, the boys and I loaded up and headed out.
It felt a little like we were looking for Atlantis - on Eglin Air Force Base.
Except we'd seen the town on the satellite so we knew it existed.
What we found was something really cool.
The military has set up giant white plastic tarps in the shape of a city.
On the ground you can't even tell that it's laid out like a city but from above there it is.
It's used as a bombing practise site and is often closed to the public so the cache was only available at certain time.
It's closed now because of construction and that area is completely off limits.
But it was open the day we went and we saw quite a few ordinances. I have no idea if they were live or not. Being intelligent people we don't mess with them - at all.
After wandering around a bit we found the shed where the trader collected goodies and swapped a few with him.
It was odd sitting on a tarp but knowing that from the air it would look like we were sitting behind a building.
Plastic Town definitely rates as one of the most interesting things I've found out geocaching.
Who knows what I'll find next...
Monday, January 17, 2011
She's 100!
My grandmother turned 100 years old on Friday.
We had a party for her on Saturday and cousins and friends came from far and wide to celebrate.
I just can't imagine living an entire century! Going from no cars to cars, airplanes, men on the moon, satellites circling the earth and the Internet must be amazing.
She was really happy to see everyone and we all enjoyed visiting with her too.
She cut her cake with a little help from my Dad and Aunt and then ate a good sized piece.
All but one of her great-grandchildren were there which I think made her very happy.
It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed seeing her as well as the rest of my family.
Happy Birthday Grammy!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Breaking and Entering
The Island King was late getting home yesterday and when he walked in I asked where he'd been.
"I was detained by the police!"
What?!
He was out shooting and he got to the last property on his list, pulled up and went to the door.
Our client had given him a key that had just been cut that morning and new keys usually take some wiggling in an old lock.
So he wiggled and wiggled the key and the door wouldn't open.
He calls the client and verifies the address and tells her that the new key won't work.
She tells him he's in the right place and to wiggle the key some more.
He does and after a couple of minutes the lock turned and the door opened.
He takes his equipment inside and starts setting up to shoot.
But, the door leading upstairs is locked and the key he has won't even fit in the lock.
Not the right key for this door.
And then an alarm went off. A loud, on for 60 seconds off for 60 seconds blaring alarm.
This has happened before when a client forgets to tell him about a security system so he walked outside and called our client.
She tells him the owner told her the alarm wasn't activated.
He holds the phone up for her to hear the alarm and tells her that the alarm is indeed activated.
She then tells him she'll call the owner and meanwhile he should go into the garage because there is a basket of keys in there and one of them will probably work on the door to upstairs.
He ignores the alarm and goes into the garage. No basket, no keys.
He calls her back. She's frustrated by now and asks him again if he's at the right place.
He tells her the address he's at and again they agree he's in the right place.
She tells him to look on the shelf over the washing machine and he'll see the basket of keys.
He tells her there is no shelf over the washing machine.
She is getting even more frustrated now and says "There is a washing machine and a dryer in that garage. There's a shelf over them. The basket is on the shelf. There's nothing else in there so you shouldn't have trouble finding it."
He tells her that there is all kinds of stuff in the garage including a very nice Mercedes convertible and a bunch of surf boards.
The alarm is still blaring.
She says there isn't supposed to be a car in the garage. He tells her there is.
She asks him to describe the inside of the house so he goes back in and tells her about the white couch and chair, the barstools and the dining room table.
She tells him that this property is unfurnished and he tells her that he's standing in the middle of a furnished house with a Mercedes in the garage.
And she freaked out.
"Get out, get out right now! You're in the wrong house! Get out of there!"
By now the Island King is completely confused. He walks to the front porch and reads the address off the mailbox to her and it's the address she's given him.
And the key worked.
She tells him she'll call him right back.
He walks out to the van and listens to the still blaring alarm while waiting on her to call back.
A couple of minutes later she calls him back and tells him the address is actually 175 - not 176.
He's broken into someone's home and walked around!
Except the key worked so he didn't actually break in.
So he goes next door to 175 and the key worked there too.
It was exactly as she described it - unfurnished with an empty garage.
They hang up and just about then a Walton County Sheriff's Deputy pulled up at 176.
So the Island King walks over and tells the deputy what happened.
But the deputy didn't seem to be buying it.
He took the Island King's driver's license and ran it. The Island King said the answer came back in all 10 codes but it appeared he isn't wanted for anything and now the deputy wants to know what's going on.
He talks on his radio a bit and then the alarm stopped.
And he still has the Island King's DL.
So the Island King tells him the story.
The deputy wants the Island King to show him how the key worked so they go up to the door and the Island King starts wiggling the key in the lock.
And of course the lock won't open.
He said the deputy was really starting to get suspicious now and the Island King told him he could call our client and verify the story.
Which he did.
She told him the story but he still seemed confused as to why the key worked once but won't work again.
He took one of the Island King's cards, gave his DL back, told him to be careful about the properties he was entering, got in his car and left.
The Island King said he stilled seemed a little perplexed but drove off anyway.
So the Island King goes back to the property where he's supposed to be and calls the client.
This client is one of a large group of Realtors that we do a lot of work for and when he called her back he could hear people in the background laughing hysterically.
He said he was going to tell her not to tell anyone but she let him know that everyone in the office already knew and were laughing about it.
They argued for a minute - her saying she'd been saying 175 all along and him saying he'd been saying 176 and she kept verifying it.
In the end they both agreed the other was wrong and that thank God he was now in the right place.
As he told me this story I laughed so hard my sides ached.
And he's pretty freaked out about walking around in someone's house.
He kept saying "What if someone had been home? They could have been taking a nap and I would have just walked right in their house!"
I think it will be a while before he lives this one down.
"I was detained by the police!"
What?!
He was out shooting and he got to the last property on his list, pulled up and went to the door.
Our client had given him a key that had just been cut that morning and new keys usually take some wiggling in an old lock.
So he wiggled and wiggled the key and the door wouldn't open.
He calls the client and verifies the address and tells her that the new key won't work.
She tells him he's in the right place and to wiggle the key some more.
He does and after a couple of minutes the lock turned and the door opened.
He takes his equipment inside and starts setting up to shoot.
But, the door leading upstairs is locked and the key he has won't even fit in the lock.
Not the right key for this door.
And then an alarm went off. A loud, on for 60 seconds off for 60 seconds blaring alarm.
This has happened before when a client forgets to tell him about a security system so he walked outside and called our client.
She tells him the owner told her the alarm wasn't activated.
He holds the phone up for her to hear the alarm and tells her that the alarm is indeed activated.
She then tells him she'll call the owner and meanwhile he should go into the garage because there is a basket of keys in there and one of them will probably work on the door to upstairs.
He ignores the alarm and goes into the garage. No basket, no keys.
He calls her back. She's frustrated by now and asks him again if he's at the right place.
He tells her the address he's at and again they agree he's in the right place.
She tells him to look on the shelf over the washing machine and he'll see the basket of keys.
He tells her there is no shelf over the washing machine.
She is getting even more frustrated now and says "There is a washing machine and a dryer in that garage. There's a shelf over them. The basket is on the shelf. There's nothing else in there so you shouldn't have trouble finding it."
He tells her that there is all kinds of stuff in the garage including a very nice Mercedes convertible and a bunch of surf boards.
The alarm is still blaring.
She says there isn't supposed to be a car in the garage. He tells her there is.
She asks him to describe the inside of the house so he goes back in and tells her about the white couch and chair, the barstools and the dining room table.
She tells him that this property is unfurnished and he tells her that he's standing in the middle of a furnished house with a Mercedes in the garage.
And she freaked out.
"Get out, get out right now! You're in the wrong house! Get out of there!"
By now the Island King is completely confused. He walks to the front porch and reads the address off the mailbox to her and it's the address she's given him.
And the key worked.
She tells him she'll call him right back.
He walks out to the van and listens to the still blaring alarm while waiting on her to call back.
A couple of minutes later she calls him back and tells him the address is actually 175 - not 176.
He's broken into someone's home and walked around!
Except the key worked so he didn't actually break in.
So he goes next door to 175 and the key worked there too.
It was exactly as she described it - unfurnished with an empty garage.
They hang up and just about then a Walton County Sheriff's Deputy pulled up at 176.
So the Island King walks over and tells the deputy what happened.
But the deputy didn't seem to be buying it.
He took the Island King's driver's license and ran it. The Island King said the answer came back in all 10 codes but it appeared he isn't wanted for anything and now the deputy wants to know what's going on.
He talks on his radio a bit and then the alarm stopped.
And he still has the Island King's DL.
So the Island King tells him the story.
The deputy wants the Island King to show him how the key worked so they go up to the door and the Island King starts wiggling the key in the lock.
And of course the lock won't open.
He said the deputy was really starting to get suspicious now and the Island King told him he could call our client and verify the story.
Which he did.
She told him the story but he still seemed confused as to why the key worked once but won't work again.
He took one of the Island King's cards, gave his DL back, told him to be careful about the properties he was entering, got in his car and left.
The Island King said he stilled seemed a little perplexed but drove off anyway.
So the Island King goes back to the property where he's supposed to be and calls the client.
This client is one of a large group of Realtors that we do a lot of work for and when he called her back he could hear people in the background laughing hysterically.
He said he was going to tell her not to tell anyone but she let him know that everyone in the office already knew and were laughing about it.
They argued for a minute - her saying she'd been saying 175 all along and him saying he'd been saying 176 and she kept verifying it.
In the end they both agreed the other was wrong and that thank God he was now in the right place.
As he told me this story I laughed so hard my sides ached.
And he's pretty freaked out about walking around in someone's house.
He kept saying "What if someone had been home? They could have been taking a nap and I would have just walked right in their house!"
I think it will be a while before he lives this one down.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Safety and Finger Prints
The Youngest Island Boy's cub scout den were fortunate to have an Investigator from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office come to our den meeting to help us with one of our Achievements - Law Enforcement is a Big Job.
The Officer was very nice and spent some time explaining safety to the boys and then explained the many tasks that law enforcement officials have.
It was an interesting talk but the boys were particularly excited when he told them he was going to teach them how to take fingerprints.
He took a piece of Plexiglas and then had a boy put his hand on it.
Then he used a container of some kind of charcoal like dust and a soft brush to brush the dust all over the Plexiglas.
Next, he took a piece of clear packing tape and carefully placed it over the area he'd dusted.
He slowly lifted the tape and there were the fingerprints.
He put the tape on a white card and showed the boys what would be considered evidence if a crime had been committed.
He says this is a good example of what the prints they find look like. According to him all that fancy stuff you see on CSI doesn't happen here in Okaloosa County.
Then each boy got to have his fingerprints taken.
They took turns, having their prints taken and then getting to dust for prints.
They were all very proud of their fingerprint cards
What they don't know is that now we'll know for sure who's been in the cookie jar!
He also brought along Goodies for everyone.
He did a really good job with the boys. They had fun and learned some things they didn't know before.
Mission accomplished.
The Officer was very nice and spent some time explaining safety to the boys and then explained the many tasks that law enforcement officials have.
It was an interesting talk but the boys were particularly excited when he told them he was going to teach them how to take fingerprints.
He took a piece of Plexiglas and then had a boy put his hand on it.
Then he used a container of some kind of charcoal like dust and a soft brush to brush the dust all over the Plexiglas.
Next, he took a piece of clear packing tape and carefully placed it over the area he'd dusted.
He slowly lifted the tape and there were the fingerprints.
He put the tape on a white card and showed the boys what would be considered evidence if a crime had been committed.
He says this is a good example of what the prints they find look like. According to him all that fancy stuff you see on CSI doesn't happen here in Okaloosa County.
Then each boy got to have his fingerprints taken.
They took turns, having their prints taken and then getting to dust for prints.
They were all very proud of their fingerprint cards
What they don't know is that now we'll know for sure who's been in the cookie jar!
He also brought along Goodies for everyone.
He did a really good job with the boys. They had fun and learned some things they didn't know before.
Mission accomplished.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Caches in Trees
There is a family of cachers in our area that spend a lot of time and energy on the caches they put out.
And they have a great sense of humor.
We found that out when we were caching around Timber Lake and found a cache chained to a branch - high in a tree.
After we left the crash site on our last trip we headed for another cache by this family named "Another Cache of Ridiculous Nefariousness"
It mentioned being squirrel proof which made us immediately think we'd be climbing trees again.
We were right on track.
Only this cache has to be at least 20 feet up in the air.
There was only one option for signing this log and that was to send the Oldest Island Boy up into the tree to grab the cache.
Only it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be.
Bless his heart - he kept getting confused and the more confused he got the harder I laughed.
But he got the cache!
He tossed it down to us and inside was a shiny dollar coin which we kept to give him as a reward for his hard work.
I replaced the coin with some pirate gold, signed the log and we tossed it back up to him.
When he'd put the cache back he realized he had to do it all over again to get back down.
Coming down didn't take as long - he just grabbed the tree and slid most of the way down.
And then told us that if these caches get any higher we're going to have to bring a ladder because he doesn't know how much more of this he can do LOL
Caches like these always make me smile and they definitely turn a normal caching trip into an "event".
And they have a great sense of humor.
We found that out when we were caching around Timber Lake and found a cache chained to a branch - high in a tree.
After we left the crash site on our last trip we headed for another cache by this family named "Another Cache of Ridiculous Nefariousness"
It mentioned being squirrel proof which made us immediately think we'd be climbing trees again.
We were right on track.
Only this cache has to be at least 20 feet up in the air.
There was only one option for signing this log and that was to send the Oldest Island Boy up into the tree to grab the cache.
Only it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be.
Bless his heart - he kept getting confused and the more confused he got the harder I laughed.
But he got the cache!
He tossed it down to us and inside was a shiny dollar coin which we kept to give him as a reward for his hard work.
I replaced the coin with some pirate gold, signed the log and we tossed it back up to him.
When he'd put the cache back he realized he had to do it all over again to get back down.
Coming down didn't take as long - he just grabbed the tree and slid most of the way down.
And then told us that if these caches get any higher we're going to have to bring a ladder because he doesn't know how much more of this he can do LOL
Caches like these always make me smile and they definitely turn a normal caching trip into an "event".
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
An Age Old Question Answered
While we were looking around the old crash sight my Dad came across this.
Knowing that the Oldest Island Boy has been studying tracking he called him over and asked what he thought left this scat.
The Oldest said he didn't know and then explained that he'd been learning about tracks and how to follow something but that scat had not been discussed.
Which is something the Boy Scouts missed because in hindsight I see that scat identification could be important if you are tracking something.
I came home and Googled bear scat and here's what I found. Look at the third picture on the top row.
Looks just like the picture I took.
Bear poop.
On the way home I told my dad that finally, the age old question "Does a bear $#&^ in the woods?" has been answered.
And I have a picture to prove it!
__________________________________________________________________________
I know this is a crappy post but I just couldn't help myself LOL
Knowing that the Oldest Island Boy has been studying tracking he called him over and asked what he thought left this scat.
The Oldest said he didn't know and then explained that he'd been learning about tracks and how to follow something but that scat had not been discussed.
Which is something the Boy Scouts missed because in hindsight I see that scat identification could be important if you are tracking something.
I came home and Googled bear scat and here's what I found. Look at the third picture on the top row.
Looks just like the picture I took.
Bear poop.
On the way home I told my dad that finally, the age old question "Does a bear $#&^ in the woods?" has been answered.
And I have a picture to prove it!
__________________________________________________________________________
I know this is a crappy post but I just couldn't help myself LOL
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
An Old Crash Sight
Eglin Air Force base covers almost 500,000 acres of northwest Florida and because of their "good neighbor" policy we are fortunate to be allowed access to thousands of acres of old growth woods.
It's amazingly beautiful in there and we really enjoy time spent wandering through the woods and trails.
And you never know what you'll find wandering through there.
My Dad, the boys and I were wandering the woods looking for geocaches and one of the caches led us to an area behind Duke Field.
The cache listing told us we would be looking for a C123 Provider aircraft that crashed around 1968.
I'm not sure what I expected to find but what we did find was incredible.
This thing is huge and scattered in a relatively small area of the woods.
Interestingly, there are bullet holes in the tail wing. A lot of them.
The crash is about a mile from the end of the runway at Duke Field.
I tried to find some info on it using the numbers from the tail
But haven't had any luck yet.
My Dad wonders if it were being pulled by another plane, used for target practise and then dropped there.
The boys were so excited about the find that they forgot all about the geocache we were hunting and wanted to climb all over the wreckage.
We're wearing orange vests now while we hunt caches in the woods because it's prime hunting season and they're an important safety tool.
We looked all over for the cockpit and fuselage but didn't find them. We think they were hauled off after the crash but everything else was left.
We found this marker in front of the tail wing.
The Scout plaque has been cemented into a medium sized stone and placed by the tail.
I read in the cache logs that it was placed by a scout troop "In remembrance of any who may have died here and for all veterans"
After spending a long time exploring it was time to move on.
We had a quick picnic and were off to find more caches.
We found one later that day that definitely warrants a post of it's own.
I love wandering these woods and I really love finding stuff like this.
It's amazingly beautiful in there and we really enjoy time spent wandering through the woods and trails.
And you never know what you'll find wandering through there.
My Dad, the boys and I were wandering the woods looking for geocaches and one of the caches led us to an area behind Duke Field.
The cache listing told us we would be looking for a C123 Provider aircraft that crashed around 1968.
I'm not sure what I expected to find but what we did find was incredible.
This thing is huge and scattered in a relatively small area of the woods.
Interestingly, there are bullet holes in the tail wing. A lot of them.
The crash is about a mile from the end of the runway at Duke Field.
I tried to find some info on it using the numbers from the tail
But haven't had any luck yet.
My Dad wonders if it were being pulled by another plane, used for target practise and then dropped there.
The boys were so excited about the find that they forgot all about the geocache we were hunting and wanted to climb all over the wreckage.
We're wearing orange vests now while we hunt caches in the woods because it's prime hunting season and they're an important safety tool.
We looked all over for the cockpit and fuselage but didn't find them. We think they were hauled off after the crash but everything else was left.
We found this marker in front of the tail wing.
The Scout plaque has been cemented into a medium sized stone and placed by the tail.
I read in the cache logs that it was placed by a scout troop "In remembrance of any who may have died here and for all veterans"
After spending a long time exploring it was time to move on.
We had a quick picnic and were off to find more caches.
We found one later that day that definitely warrants a post of it's own.
I love wandering these woods and I really love finding stuff like this.
Monday, January 10, 2011
New Year's
I can't believe it's been a week since New Year's Day!
We had a wicked stomach virus run through the whole family between Christmas and New Year's and our business is booming (which is really odd for this time of the year) so it seems like time has flown by.
Fortunately, all of us were well on New Year's Eve and had a great time at my BIL's house.
The Island King and his brother cooked chicken on the grill which was interesting to watch because they both them think they are the only ones who know how to use a grill.
My MIL watched from the sidelines, telling them they were both wrong the whole time.
Despite the different opinions the food was excellent.
We spent a lot of time inside playing the Wii.
And it wouldn't be a party without fireworks.
My MIL's husband brought some mortars, which are illegal in Florida, but a short drive to the Alabama border keeps those of us in Northwest Florida well supplied.
Which made my son, the pyromaniac, very happy.
My husband, king of all pyromaniacs, was excited too.
The first one went off without a hitch.
But not the next one.
The Island King lit it and ran - which is a good thing because the damn thing exploded on the ground.
It was a big enough explosion that even the king of all pyromaniacs proclaimed "No more mortars - we're sticking with bottle rockets for tonight!"
Bottle rockets are legal here and really aren't that bad unless you stand 30 of them up in a concrete block and light them all at once with a blowtorch.
I hate it when he does that but it seems to be a real crowd pleaser for the 16 and under crowd.
Don't you just love to see children running wild and screaming Happy New Year in the yard in the middle of the night?
I'm sure the neighbors aren't as fond of it as I am.
It rained all day New Year's Day which was heavenly.
We spent the entire day in our pjs, played Wii games, read and took a long nap.
I can't think of a better way to rest up for a New Year.
We had a wicked stomach virus run through the whole family between Christmas and New Year's and our business is booming (which is really odd for this time of the year) so it seems like time has flown by.
Fortunately, all of us were well on New Year's Eve and had a great time at my BIL's house.
The Island King and his brother cooked chicken on the grill which was interesting to watch because they both them think they are the only ones who know how to use a grill.
My MIL watched from the sidelines, telling them they were both wrong the whole time.
Despite the different opinions the food was excellent.
We spent a lot of time inside playing the Wii.
And it wouldn't be a party without fireworks.
My MIL's husband brought some mortars, which are illegal in Florida, but a short drive to the Alabama border keeps those of us in Northwest Florida well supplied.
Which made my son, the pyromaniac, very happy.
My husband, king of all pyromaniacs, was excited too.
The first one went off without a hitch.
But not the next one.
The Island King lit it and ran - which is a good thing because the damn thing exploded on the ground.
It was a big enough explosion that even the king of all pyromaniacs proclaimed "No more mortars - we're sticking with bottle rockets for tonight!"
Bottle rockets are legal here and really aren't that bad unless you stand 30 of them up in a concrete block and light them all at once with a blowtorch.
I hate it when he does that but it seems to be a real crowd pleaser for the 16 and under crowd.
Don't you just love to see children running wild and screaming Happy New Year in the yard in the middle of the night?
I'm sure the neighbors aren't as fond of it as I am.
It rained all day New Year's Day which was heavenly.
We spent the entire day in our pjs, played Wii games, read and took a long nap.
I can't think of a better way to rest up for a New Year.
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