Green Thumb

 

Remember these little seeds?

Well now they look like this!

Happy Earth Day!

Baby mutant ninja turtle :o)

Happy Earth Day! I was looking forward to attending Turtlefest 2012 in Juno Beach but we got a torrent of bad weather starting on Friday evening that caused it to be cancelled. :o(

Turtle season has begun on the Florida coast and we saw a turtle nest today on the beach that was roped off. You can't really tell it's a nest other than a volunteer has taken the time to rope off a large square of sand. April is the first month of the season and eggs take two months to incubate so the earliest we'll see little guys running for the sea is June. So even though Turtlefest got cancelled I'm dedicating my Earth Day post to the turtles. 

Sea Turtle facts courtesy of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center:

Leatherback

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) status - Critically Endangered
• Largest and deepest diving of the sea turtles
• Named for smooth, rubbery shell
• Feeds on jellyfish
• Weighs 700-1500 pounds and measures 4 to 8 feet in length
• Nests in Florida from March through July

Loggerhead

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) status - Endangered
• Most common sea turtle in Florida
• Named for its large head
• Feeds on crabs, mollusks, encrusting animals attached to reefs and rocks
• Weighs 200 to 350 pounds and measures about 3 feet in length
• Nests in Florida from April through September

Green

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) status - Endangered
• Named for greenish color of body fat
• Feeds on seagrass and seaweed
• Adult females weigh 300 pounds and are 3-4 feet in length
• Nests in Florida from May through September

Hawksbill

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) status - Critically Endangered
• Has a beautiful shell, which is used for jewelry causing this turtle to be listed internationally as critically endangered
• Feeds on sponges
• Occasional nests are found  in Palm Beach County each year

Kemp’s Ridley

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) status - Critically Endangered
• Smallest of the sea turtles
• Nesting is mainly restricted to a 20-mile stretch of beach in western Gulf of Mexico
• Nesting often occurs in large aggregations during the daylight
• Feeds on blue crabs, clams, mussels, fish and jellyfish
• Adult weighs 85-100 pounds and measures 24-30 inches in length

Catching up & painting turtles

I haven't been so good about keeping up the blog lately. It's not that I've had writer's block, it's that I have this long list of things to write about and I can't seem to find the time to write about them all. So I'm going to back date a few posts and let y'all know what I've been up to. Being back on track will hopefully help me pace myself going forward. I think the key is more frequent, shorter posts.

Our turtle masterpieces

Last night Kevin and I went to Uptown Art Uncorked in West Palm Beach with Lois and Steve.  Kevin saw the place on Groupon so we thought we'd check it out. Uptown Art teaches you how to paint a particular image and allows you to BYO food and beverage. We brought bottles of wine and ordered pizza from City Pizza and ate and drank as we worked diligently on our turtle paintings. It was much harder than I thought it would be! The instructor went a little fast and didn't explain much technique or strategy, so we were just trying to mimic her colors and lines. Lois got inspired halfway through to turn hers into a modern interpretation that I have subsequently named "Turtle #2." But even though it was a little frustrating at times, I like how they all turned out. It is very satisfying now to have a cool painting of a turtle that I did from scratch, but I think next time we may try something not quite as advanced!

The prototype turtle

Happy Easter!

Kevin was excited to find the Easter bunny found our house in Florida after all these years skipping us in DC, I guess he doesn't like hopping up all those stairs! :o)

We had a great day that started out with discovering all of our chocolate goodies and then going to a delicious brunch at our favorite French cafe, Paris in Town, which is a small family-run place with an attached bakery full of wonderful-smelling, freshly baked breads and pastries. We each had a freshly baked croissant, yum! Kevin had coffee while I indulged in a huge cappuccino with perfect foam. :) We also took home a few homemade macaroons and a round of sourdough as an extra treat.  Then we relaxed on the beach in the afternoon and had a small Easter ham for dinner with some baked beans, roasted asparagus, and toasted sourdough bread from the bakery. Great day!

A Maddening March

2011 ACC Champs

This article sums up how I feel about this season for the Tar Heels. 

Creighton is now up there with Dook in basketball teams I despise. I do love that Roy Williams is a gentleman and that he won't antagonize or be dragged into negativity. But just because Roy won't say it doesn't mean I won't: that team was pathetic and played dirty because they knew they had no chance. Had Marshall not broken his wrist I truly believe this year's national champion would be a lighter color blue.

Harrison Barnes

It's really too bad we don't have everyone coming back next year to make a real run for it. Even though I was barely old enough to understand the game, I am wistful for the days when great players stayed all four years and really left a legacy behind (even MJ stayed three years...). I will say that I think Harrison Barnes never really fell into his rhythm at Carolina like I thought he would when I first read about him in the 2010 recruiting class recap. People made comparisons to all the basketball greats (i.e., MJ), and, yes, he is a good player who delivered on many occasions, but what makes the "greats" is the ability to deliver night after night, day after day. When it mattered most the people carrying the team were Zeller, Marshall, and, heck, even Bullock was more clutch in the tournament. He is incredibly talented, but there's a mentality that separates the good players from the great players and I'm not sure he gave himself enough time to really develop that at Carolina. I guess we'll have to see what the NBA will do for him. The player I'll miss the most is Marshall. He embodies everything I love about college basketball: talent, teamwork, vision, selflessness... He has a way of playing that makes everyone around him play a better game, and not just because he can feed them an infinite number of flawless passes. He is a leader and an inspirational player and I'm nervous to see who can possibly fill those shoes. I felt that way about Ty Lawson in 2007 and it took until 2010 to see someone comparable (although Lawson graduated to the NBA with a nice shiny championship ring...). 

Barnes, Strickland, Zeller, and Marshall

I would have won my the bracket pool at work had UNC won (and a sweet $460), and I would have come in 2nd had Kansas won, but I'm okay with Kentucky winning over Kansas because I can't stand Kansas fans and their irrational hatred of Roy Williams. I could not tolerate a year of their strutting and preening that they don't care about losing Roy (TO HIS HOMETOWN TEAM) and how Bill Self is superior coach (GAG!). Anyway, not every year can end in a national championship so in the words of Adam Lucas, "they won at Cameron Indoor Stadium and they won the ACC regular season title and they played a game on a real live aircraft carrier and they had the academic All-American of the year and the best single-season passing performance in conference history." GO HEELS!

There's always next year...

Happy Birthday Bro!

Happy Birthday to my brother Aidan. He was born on April 1 because he was predestined to be a goofball. :P