All you can eat Part Two

Well you won't believe where me and mom went this weekend.
International Super Buffet!
Come on! You remember don't? All you can eat? Cape Coral? DOTTIE!
Oh now you remember.
That's right the restaurant we went to with Dottie in Cape Coral has a branch in Port Charlotte
and it was GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW let me tell you the difference between the two. (Port Charlotte really has some of the best restaurants in Florida)
The main difference was the staff. In Cape Coral they were all smug and really could care less about you while here they were polite and caring.
THEY HAD CRAB LEGS!!!! That's right. Where in the Cape they just laughed at you when you asked for the crab legs; here the legs were flowing. And they were so tender and suculent.
Mmm just thinking about it is pleasant to my tastebuds.
The last thing different about the two was the selection. Here they had so much m ore to choose from. They even had something that I've always wanted to try but just didn't want to order a whole plate of them.
I'll give you a hint...They helped Bud be a lot more Wiser.
Figure it out yet?
Maybe you should ask the princess to pucker up those lips.
That's right I had frog legs!
Yuck you say?
Well I had to eat the dam thing. So if anyone has the right to Yuck its me baby.
And I know your asking...what do they taste like.
Chicken maybe?
That's what I heard but to be honest it was more like Duck.
Well it was something I wanted to try and I'm glad its out of my system now.
Alligator is next. :)
Mom and I also went to see a few movies too. Click and My Super Ex Girlfriend. Both were ok but nothing to waste your time on. Go rent it when it comes out.
Well when Dottie comes to town we'll take her to the Chinese Place and eat to our hearts content but until then it's home cooked meals.
Umm Umm for my Tumm.

I fought the Lawn and the lawn LOST!!!!

As a city boy the thought of mowing a lawn never really plays a factor into your life, especially if you live in apartments your whole time there.
Well now that I'm in the country and living in a house there are a few things different.
One of the main differences is a front and back yard that needs tending to.
Well after paying some guy a few times to do it for us, Mom and I decided to buy a lawn mower.
This was a completely different world to me. I mean putting the dam thing together was fun enough, but to actually cut the grass would be a completely different beast.
With a little help from my neighbor who put the oil in, we went got the gas and played around with trying to start this thing. I was at it for what seemed to be an eternity before I got this mower purring.
Very cool feeling to get an engine purring by the way...I definitely suggest you try it sometime.
Well where to start I ask myself?
I started to mow and a feeling came over me. Mowing is like vacuuming your home just it isn't a carpet its your front and back yards.
Funny story there. After I finished mowing the back yard I was so proud of myself. Yeah I did it, I actually mowed the lawn...
Until I remembered I had a front lawn as well! With a ditch mind you! A really deep ditch!
But to tell the truth I had the time of my life! It was so much fun the cut grass. Who would know.
And the smell was terrific. IN fact when I was finished that was the first thing my Mom noticed, that wonderful smell. Do they bottle that smell cause it smelled familiar?
I suggest anyone who pays someone to cut their grass to get outthere and do it yourself. You will have a blast.
Now I must confess that yesterday was a perfect day for my first time. It was overcast and there was a cool breeze flowing over the waterway behind the house.
So I can't wait till I have to get out there and cut grass in the blistering heat. Not gonna be a pretty sight..me huffing and puffing with my hairy back sweating and scaring the little kiddies away... ARGG!!!!
Kinda makes you wonder if that guy who used to mow our lawn will make us a deal on this lawn mower that's only been used once. Ready to sell real cheap...make us an offer. ;)

My Rose has vanished leaving me and my mom all alone :(

Where has my Rose gone?
One second she was talking on her cell or emailing in her Hotmail acct, then the next second she was gone. Poof! Disappeared without so much as a whisper.

Of course I'm just being dramatic.
My sister has decided to leave a bit early to go chill out in my other sister's pad.
She'll be flying out on Sunday and then it's back to her hurried , crazed world in Houston.

Houston we have a problem!

But for now she'll enjoy the comforts of tranquility and the odd moments of being in a place all by herself.
And for her, that truly doesn't happen that often.

Yesterday the two women in my life (Mom and Rose just in case your not paying attn) came to pick me up from work and we all went to have our goodbye meal at this really unique restaurant called Troyer's Dutch Heritage.
This place was so unique and wonderful and such a pleasure...BUT the food was definitely not the main attraction.
Let me explain.
First off I loved the food and I loved how fresh everything was.
See this is an Amish place where everything is done from scratch.
And that I think is the main problem. Rose and Mom are not used to "fresh" food.
Like for instance, the beef that they were serving was really dry but that's because we think it was like freshly prepared out back. If you know what I mean.
The store there is phenomenal. They have so many cute and different things there, I just can't wait to go back.
Afterwards we had to drop Rose off with my other sister Toni who came all the way down from Tampa.
Now they're both there and I'm here and I wish I could've spent a little more time with her.
Well there's always our trip to Italy we're planning for next year.
:)

A Rose by any other name...

My sister is in town finally but you wouldn't know it by spending time at my house.
Nope she's way too busy chatting away on her cell and online and such.
See she's having a bit of relief from being in a very stressful sitch at home in Houston so she's just blowing off some steam.
But can't she spend a little more time blowing it off with us?
Anyway forget that I gotta tell you about my wild weekend.
Mom and I went up on Saturday morning to Tampa to join in with my sisters Toni and Rose as well as with my niece Shanna.
We got there in pretty good time and I gotta admit that MapQuest did a pretty good job of actually dropping me off right in front of the West Shore Mall. Sorry NB I know you hate MapQuest and say it always does a terrible job...BUT this time it worked. (maybe its not the source material but the source :)
Anywho we get there and already the girls are way too busy to spend any time with their brother and their Mom.
No right off the bat we realized this was a sister's bonding moment.
Thank God I had my niece to entertain me...(more on that later)
So we went to this amazing restaurant called Maggiano's Little Italy and they have this family course meal that costs about 15 bucks a person and you eat all you want of your choice of 2 of: salads, pastas, entrees and deserts. A full course of as much as you can eat. And it was all very tasteful and delicious.
After that we hung out at Toni's where I figured out very soon that she was ready for bed at a very early time.
NOT FOR ME THANKS.
So I headed over to my niece's and we went to this awesome Goth Club in Ybor City called The Castle! If you have never been and you like Gothic Clubs; make the trip!
It totally rocks, in a gothic way of course.
We went with my niece's roommate Chris and we all had a wonderfully wild time.
Along with pizza and coke afterwards. A perfect end to a perfect night.
The next day we were one of the 132 million that went to see Pirates of the Caribbean and for more on that pop over to my other blog http://mrmoviebuff.blogspot.com
Well I'll be getting off work soon enough and heading home to my Mom and sister so I can "spend some time" with her. :)

I can't believe it...My Sister is Coming!!!!!

Time has gone by so quickly that I forgot to blog about a major event happening today.
My sister Rose is coming to town today and I'll be seeing her this weekend.
The plan is that she'll fly in to Tampa where my sister Toni will pick her up. Rose will stay there for the weekend then I believe she'll come back with Mom and me to our place.
Then she'll go back to Tampa with us for the following weekend and fly back on sunday.
I can't wait to see her. And Toni and Shanna and Braeden of course.
I'll have pics and such in the following days to come.
SO STAY TUNED!!!!

HAPPY 230th BIRTHDAY AMERICA

This weekend and the 4th have been very eventful for Mom and I.
I started off on Saturday doing some yard work. That yard was a total mess (forgot to take pics of the mess sorry) and by the time I was finished we actually had a decent looking backyard... complete with lawn table and 4 chairs, planters and these really cool looking tupperware canisters that I think will make really nice looking flower pots.
I had to pull out all these dead vines from this vine that was growing on the side of the house and that led to a complete cleaning of this whole area. It turned out real nice and its ready for use now.
While I was doing all this Mom comes out with the phone and says Dottie is on the phone and she's in town for the weekend. Dottie is like an Aunt that really isn't a blood relative but the family knows her for so long I just think of her as an Aunt. We talk and come up with a plan to visit on Sunday in Cape Coral around the same area as our Mother's Day trip.
So Sunday comes around and we head down to Cape Coral and meet up with Dottie. We found her place with very little problem and I thought about my friend NB who would get lost going around the corner and if her would use MapQuest he definitely wouldn't have found it.
NB and I were in Best Buy when I saw Dottie last, so she asked how he was doing and I said he was on a trip to Key West to get away from his crazy Lover. HEHEHE
After chit chatting about old times and talking about all the new things , we set off meet up with Dawn and Jimmy her kids that I haven't seen in God knows how long.
On our way though we all felt the hunger pang hit and we decided to head to International King Buffet which I understand to be a chain of Chinese restaurants. When we arrived I was excited to eat to my heart's content all the wonderful foods Dottie had told me about earlier.
Some of those foods were crab legs, shrimp, fish, ribs, beef, sushi and an array of other Chinese favorites.
Well as you might have figured out, the place SUCKED!
They didn't have any crab legs and when we asked the waitress she just laughed at us and said "maybe later we have hehehehe" in this really condescending voice.
She didn't get a good tip!
Well afterwards we started heading over to Dawn and Jimmy's when my mom had one of her stomach fits. Guess those Chinese had the last laugh after all.
After running all around Ft. Myers Beach for a bathroom we finally made it to Dawn's and Jimmy's.
We chatted for a time and then left for a place called Laini Kai or something like that. It was a typical beach front party place, a dime a dozen in Miami but special here on the West Coast.
I went with Jimmy and got there before everyone else, so we ordered a few Rum Runners. With only a few sips in us, Jimmy's wife and mother in law showed up followed by Dottie and Mom. We sat around for a few moments and remembered that Jimmy had said something about all these dead fish that litter the shoreline of the beach. Well I just had to see that. Dead fish along the beach shore; does that sound familiar. And its due to the "Red Tide" as they call it.
THE END IS NEAR!!!!!!
Anyway we ended up in this place called The Bridge and Jimmy kept trying to get me laid. I mean he did get me 2 really pretty girls and they both wanted to dance. But 2 things were stopping me. One- I was with my Mom and his Mom and his Wife and her Mom and Two- I'm Freaking Gay!
As you might have figured I passed on the freebee that night.
That was on Sunday. Monday I worked and Tuesday I just lazed around and then at 8:30 my Mom and I went to see the fireworks.
The only thing I'll say is Miami has ALOT more money to spend on Fireworks.