I Do...

I missed posting last week. It was a busy weekend. It has been a busy few weeks at work. Somehow I keep busy for 40 hours a week.

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/09/09/ghost-hunter-targets-ripleys-oldest-museum/

Last weekend, along with the in-laws, we renewed our vows. I read in the paper last month that Ripley's Believe it or Not in St Augustine was attempting to beat the world's record on vows renewals. I asked the husband if he was interested and he said sure. I thought it was a neat thing to do. I was even more surprised when I sent the information to the in-laws and they wanted to go too.

We made a whole day of the trip. We registered early, then ate Minorcan clam chowder. I am not a big fan of clams, but it was so good. It was chilly all day so it was wonderful and kept us warm. 

(borrowed from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/menorken-clam-chowder-recipe/index.html)

We waited around for the vow renewal to begin. There were plenty of people dressed in wedding dresses or gowns. My favorite were the laid off reenacters dressed in 1700s garb. We had a lot of fun checking out the outfits. The husband said we should wear what we were married in. We both wore the shirts we wore when we got married by the judge. We had the simplest wedding in the world. That is the only I would have done differently was to have a cake. Now each year we have cake. Yep, I am a sucker for cake. 

http://www.pcdesktopwallpaper.com/wallpapers-humour/I-Love-Cake-001.jpg.html

The vow renewal lasted longer than our actual wedding. It was quite funny to stand there with so many people and repeat the vows. They didn't beat the record, but it was fun. They gave the women a rose, the men environmentally friendly confetti. Everyone had cake and a ride around the town on the sightseeing train. 

I found an newspaper article about the renewal not beating the record. Here is the picture. I was over at the far left and didn't make the photo, thank goodness

The Orlando Sentinel:

More than 600 couples gathered at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium in St. Augustine to renew their marriage vows on Sunday. That was short of 1,088 couples needed to set a world record.

“We saw people from all walks of life, from all over the country and all over the world come together and reaffirm their love for each other,” said Kim Kiff, attraction manager.

Participants came from seven countries, including India, Italy, Jamaica, Germany, England, Canada and the United States. Folks came from 36 states.

Following the ceremony, couples celebrated with cake and tours of St. Augustine aboard Ripley’s Sightseeing Trains.

“This was such a great event and filled with inspiring, amazing personal stories. We may just ‘vow’ to do it again next year,” Kiff said.

After the vows we headed down to St George Street to get some brick oven pizza at Pizzalley. The last time we had pizza in St Augustine this is where we went. We wanted to take the in-laws there. 

(http://www.pizzalleys.net/)

The restaurant was packed on this unusually cold Florida day. We luckily only waited about 15 minutes for a table. We ordered a white pizza to share. It just didn't taste right. It was like cardboard without the flavor. The husband said something to the waitress and they made us another pizza. This one had flavor and lots of garlic. 

And on top of all that the husband bought me cool new boots for a wedding present. How sweet!

Poke Her

 It has been a heck of a week. Work was nutty as usual. But I made two sales online. One just sent me an email asking to cancel the order because it was the wrong book. Hmmm, I have to check on how that is handled.

Aside from work stress and impending doom (where I work that should be expected as the norm), I had another lovely weekend of adventures. Friday night we had dinner of shredded buffalo chicken, macaroni and potato salad (the mother in law cook for 10 but only 4 of us are there). Afterwards we played poker on the husband's thrifted poker table cover. I actually won it all in the end at all in. Yeah me!

Saturday the husband had the idea of going to a flea market. First option was the Webster, Florida flea market, but after I checked them out online we found out that they are only open on Mondays and for a swap meet one Sunday or something like that. So I suggested we check out the Ramona Flea Market since we haven't been there in forever. 

We took the father in-law with us Saturday morning. We wandered around but didn't find much that struck our fancy. I eyeballed the ducks for sale ($3.50 each doesn't sound bad) but resisted. A lady asked the man how much for all of them. Later we saw her with an aquarium and a hamster or guinea pig inside. I saw an interested painting of an aeriel view of a house from the 70s. They wanted $10. Too much for a scratched up painting. The ranch house and 70s car were cool though.

DUCKS!

The husband ended up finding a tin with poker chips (of course), cards and dice. I found an inflatable smiley face with a bell inside. I had just said I wanted a ball for group that could be thrown around to whomever is talking. They have been a little rambunctious and there are too many side conversations. I am going to give them the "Let's get serious" speech this week. 

We wandered around Jacksonville again. We hit one thrift that was 90% kids clothes and 10% toys. We went to the Goodwill the husband and father in-law found the saw last year. Nothing there. It was picked clean. I read in all these blogs (from other parts of the country) that the thrifts are full in January and February because people are cleaning out there stuff. They must not clean out in northeast Florida. We might have a lot of hoarders. 

(http://www.inspiringgenerations.org/?p=1506)

It was fun to just drive around. When we were getting close to home I asked if we could stop at the closest thrift to the house. I still had only spent $1 and I had change burning a hole in my pocket. Man was that place cleaned up. They had moved around the shelves in the front and cleaned them up. It was close to an HGTV makeover. Ok, not that great, but a big difference for this place. I looked all around while the husband and his dad went in the back. I found multiple items, then went to the back to check on them. The husband had found 4 TV trays in decent shape. Our thrifted older trays haven't been as sturdy as we want and he was just saying we needed different trays. 

I was good and didn't go in the big book room since they were with me. The store opened a small room for toys and I found an inflatable frog. They had an inflatable dolphin, but we already have one from the trip to Nashville's Aquarium restaurant. We went to check out. The lady said the trays were 75 cents each. Sweet! I picked up some more unneeded photo slide frames. What will I do with all those? I scored two ceramic tiles with winter scenes. They could be decorative or as a trivet. I have too many of those and I am not sure I will be using them on the kitchen redo. We will see where they end up. 

Mine looks like the darker one
http://www.frognirvana.com/Inflatable-Frog-Beach-Balls.html

I found it ironic that we found the most stuff at the closest place. The store even had some 8 tracks. I wasn't into any of the music but at least they had them. We saw one place at the flea market with 8 tracks. I told the husband we need to go to that store more often now that they have more stuff. 

Saturday night we had leftovers with the in-laws and played the card game War. My mother in-law won. That game lasted forever. It was good childhood-esque fun. The mother in law was also going through things to get ready for her alleged yard sale. She had her last sale a couple years ago. We will see when this sale happens. We keep trying to get her to donate items, but she wants to do one last yard sale.

(http://www.50statesclassifieds.com/ad.php?id=55784)

We did get her to donate a bunch of VHS tapes today. We took what we already had accumulated with us to a local yard sale/fund raiser today. As with the last time we donated they let me have my find for free. This time it was a plastic butter dish from the 70s. They said the Halloween items we gave them last time were a real hit. I feel bad because it is a good cause they have and they have less and less things for sale. The first time we went we found so much and spent all the cash we had on us. Now I only find one item. Sad, sad days. We will take them the mother in-laws yard sale leftovers.

I will leave you with my inflatable dog, Memphis. Isn't he cute.