Salud! Happy New Year

I started my day early taking down my Christmas decorations at 6:00 a.m. It went pretty fast and I think I have a place to stow everything.

I stuck my nose around my RV this morning and found myself in a morning-after celebration. The two in front are brother and sister-Claude and Suzanne. Suzanne is a big lady but aside from not being able to cream her feet-is very capable and active. She is also a stitch. Their last name in American mouths comes out as "gay." So she says when they go to restaurants they say their name is "Brown" to avoid the "Gay, party of two." announcements. But she says they often forget they are the Browns. They went to the new Gulfstream Casino last night and had a ball. Then she was up early to make croissants with cream cheese and lox, capers and green onions to go along with our Mimosas (champagne and orange juice). I was in bed by 11:00 last night so this was my new year celebration and I was pleased to have it-very enjoyable surprise.

A very pretty table she set with champagne flutes and real linen. They have been coming to John Prince Park for 40 years! They come for a month. They own a car dealership which helps explain the meticulous attention he pays to his gorgeous red Ford. Her husband Claude is just a plain nice man-virtually no English. Below they model their New Year Hats and Suzanne kept blowing her noisemaker.

Tim came by- he moved up on Belvedere Road and is working on his laundry until the 6th. He has been buying new instead of doing his laundry and he was pretty impressed with the mound of clothes he had accumulated. His reservation here ends tomorrow but he got a jump on it. Greg came by ostensibly to go fishing but the morning beers prompted him to leave his tackle here and just go home.

Ken and Mervi Haapennen came to visit. They were neighbors last year but rented an apartment in a Finnish enclave in
Lake Worth for this season. I am anxious to see it. Lots to talk about as they spent time in Finland and Thunder Bay and stayed busy.

Jason said they might pop up here so I went on a cleaning spree. They didn't make it but the effort is not wasted. Chad and Joyce and Jason and Lori went to David's fabulous party last night and had a real good time. I would have liked to see the two Maseratis in the garage but I have been to David's parties and while I hate to pass one up- I needed to work on my water situation which did result in looser shoes today.

It was kind of a wild day- lots of company. I cooked the chicken livers- over rice, with sour cream gravy. The dogs think I am a genius.