Vinyl + Mustaches = Awesome

We re-discovered an old box of vinyl records this weekend.

The selection used to be owned (and I’m sure thoroughly enjoyed) by J’s mom & dad. And let me tell you, it doesn’t disappoint. What’s more, I think it’s only half of the total vinyl awesomeness that once was. The picks are a lot of 70s and 80s, and includes bands and artists I know well and others I have no clue of. Thank you, YouTube.

What I’ve learned about this time in music is, well, a few things. For one, drugs are amazing and awful. The clothes, the hair, the band names,and the album and song titles. Second, duos and trios rule. Or maybe these decades just had an affection for the ampersand. Hall & Oates. Chad & Jeremy. Crosby, Stills and Nash. Ike & Tina.  Loggins & Messina. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.

And lastly, and this is a no-brainer: Mustaches rule. Peruse (and enjoy) the awesome evidence of ‘staches:

Refinishing my dining room table

Now that I’ve upped my cable, I’ve logged way too many hours of HGTV and DIY. I love the before/after shots, I love the simple explanation of how to do something, the show-off of cool tools. What I tend to forget, though, is the magic of TV editing. These shows make you think a little sandpaper and paint make everything better. Well, sometimes.

In any event, my cable viewing made me feel up to the challenge of refinishing my dining room table. We have a black Pottery barn table, and I wanted it white.

The whole project started out OK. We moved the table outdoors. J showed me how to use his power sander. I went to town sanding. I stirred my paint. Found my paintbrushes. And then … one coat on, and helloooo rain! Seriously. Got to love South Florida weather. It was blue skies, then instant downpour. By the time we moved the table inside, the rain stopped.

Post-rain mishap, table was back outside, and after more work than HGTV made me believe, we had a white dining room table. I still need to so some touch-ups to the table, and I’m looking for new chairs, but all in all, I’m happy

A little bit of Lake Worth

Just thought I’d share a few pictures of my hood these days. I stumbled across another LW’er blog — Lake Worth every minute — and it’s a great showcase of the local faces and places, and it inspired me to post some of my pics.

It’s always easy to point out the bad in a place, yet hard to remember to look at all the good! I know Lake Worth has so much character and community, and I’m glad it’s my first residence as a homeowner. I love biking downtown for a super cold beer at Little Munich, heading over the bridge for a day at the beach or taking a run through the neighborhoods and seeing so many homes with character.

–Lake Worth beach

–tacos from Lupita’s!

–t-shirt for sale at a local  downtown shop

–Lake Worth pier

Snorkeling in Key Largo

Since we managed to make the three-year marriage mark, we decided to celebrate a little bit this year. We wanted to head down to Key West, but the drive was really turning us off. So instead, we just headed down to Key Largo. Just a couple of hours on the road and voila! The Florida Keys!

We stayed at the (in)famous Holiday Inn; it is what it is. Great location, convenient to food, supplies, anything you’d need really. And since it’s backyard is a also a marina/dock, several snorkeling/scuba/glass-bottom charter boats are parked right there. Seriously, we pulled up, checked in, I asked if any snorkeling boats were going out … 15 minutes later we’re motoring out.

The best part of catching the afternoon charter was that it made three stops — one of them being Key Largo’s Dry Rocks reef, home to the Christ of the Abyss Statue. I’ve always wanted to see this, and finally, crossed it off the bucket list. It’s so amazing to see things in person that you’ve seen hundreds, thousands of times in pictures, postcards and movies.  The Dry Rocks reef was full of life — fish, coral. It was definitely refreshing, as our last snorkel trip down in Key West was somewhat disappointing; just a lot of sandy bottoms and little fish. At Key Largo’s reefs, we saw two huge tarpon (at least, I hope, they were just tarpon!), fish everywhere, tons of conchs, plus varying and colorful coral types.