A few photos I took around my hometown.
Our downtown all lit up for the holidays:
An impromptu snapshot of our street with the iPhone:
My father and my son over in Aquila. Thank you CDD or CROA or whoever for the new bench.
Son enjoying some time in the backyard.
Eastlawn. Hello, Moon.
Thanks to CROA for a fun holiday party on Saturday. Scheduling only allowed us to attend the carols and tree-lighting, but that was enjoyable.
The weather was cool and dry, people were friendly and upbeat, and traffic was under control.
This was one of our introductions to Celebration. We found this guy crawling along the sidewalk right outside our condo.
You know you live in Florida when…
Every year the Parks & Recreation department puts on an Easter Egg Hunt down at Lakeside Park. This was our first year going, now that our little one is old enough.
The “hidden” eggs:
Overall there were over 20,000 eggs for this year’s event. Filling this many plastic eggs with treats is no small task.
People lined up at the starting gate awaiting the countdown.
The event was well-attended and, besides a few meltdowns, everyone appeared to be having a good time. Chick-fil-a was there, as was the Easter Bunny and a Balloon Animal Artist.
A great job by Celebration Parks & Rec!
Pad thai and a beer at Thai Thani.
Celebration’s semi-annual, community-wide yard sale was last Saturday. The homeowner’s association does a terrific job at organizing it, and I think everyone — buyers and sellers alike — have a decent time. We left our house in the East Village at 7:45am; I returned at a little after noon, and my wife about an hour later. That should give you an idea of the distance we covered on foot.
Traffic is always a concern for this event, as you have a confluence of factors conspiring to make the day miserable:
As with the Halloween issues every year, I don’t know that there’s any good solution. Certainly strategically-placed No Parking signs and off-duty sheriff’s deputies would help, but this is another situation where the Homeowner’s Association has to expend time and money on something where there is no possibility to recoup those resources.
Personally, I look forward to these community yard sales. They’re a terrific excuse to wander the neighborhoods, meet fellow residents, and pick up cheap books (me) and baby stuff (wife).
We attended the first night of Grouchos Comedy in Celebration on Feb 5. My wife’s parents do the Canadian snow bird thing, so we were fortunate enough to have trusted help in town to watch our 17 month old for a night. We started at around 7pm at Cafe D’Antonio, me with wine and a kick-ass Caprese di Bufala and the wife choosing to fill up on bread and Bruschetta alla Romana. Hunger sated, we strolled over to Thai Thani for the show.
Now… it was the first night for Grouchos at Thai Thani, so I didn’t know what to expect. I heard about it from Mike Nunez with Lexin a few weeks prior, but didn’t have any insight into how widely it was advertised, how well advanced tickets were sold, or how many people would actually show.
We didn’t do the Dinner & Show deal, which meant we wouldn’t have priority seating. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised to be seated at the back of the room — meaning they had done very well in selling the package and filling the place. There were ‘Reserved For…’ placards posted on most of the tables. Sure enough, by show time the room was packed, a great environment for comedy. “Trailer Park Diva” Michelle Harrington had a great set, and headliner Dean Napolitano absolutely killed.
Notice on the very left of the photo that Nat seems quite happy about things.
All expectations were exceeded — even on an opening night, where glitches are expected — and we shall definitely be repeat visitors. Thanks to Nat with Thai Thani, Larry with Grouchos, Mike with Lexin, and whoever else was involved in bringing this to Celebration. If you’re around Celebration on a Saturday evening, I encourage you to take advantage. The dinner & show package is a tremendous value:
Tickets- $12.00 or $25.00 Dinner Package (includes show, dinner, beverage, and choice of seats)
Menu Includes
Choice of one of the following:
Egg Roll (2-piece)
Crab Rangoons (3-piece)
Chicken Satay (2-piece)
Plus Choose One Entree
(Choice of: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Tofu or Veggies)
Fried Rice
Phad Thai
Sweet & Sour
Garlic Meat
Mixed Vegetables
Cashew Nut
Pepper Steak
All Entrees include choice of soda or Ice Tea.
You can tell them you read about it here, but it won’t get you anything special beyond funny looks. 
From the Things-I-Don’t-Miss-About-Pennsylvania file, I give you Salty Car:
This was parked outside Starbucks this morning and I couldn’t resist taking a picture.
