Category: It Happened to Me

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It Happened to Me Music

Birthday stretch

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Today, November 5th, is my birthday. And today, November 5th, 2021, should be the start of an interesting weekend.

We’re making the 45-minute drive to this place…

Sirata Beach Resort. Tap to view at full size.

…to attend this event…

…and I’m going to learn how to play this instrument…

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…along with this lovely lady:

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I have to admit that I’m terrible with string instruments. However, Anitra’s been taking up the ukulele for the past few months, and the big Tampa Bay uke conference falls on my birthday weekend.

But hey, birthdays are a great time to take personal stock and even stretch oneself. So, I ordered a ukulele (we’re now a two-uke household), we got VIP tickets to the Tampa Bay Ukulele Getaway and also snagged rooms at the convention resort, the Sirata. It’s on St. Pete Beach, and right next door to where we got married — a return to the scene of the crime!

I’ve done a couple of evening’s worth of noodling on the uke, and I can already fumble my way through:

…and a whole lot of I-IV-V songs. That should help, because there are a lot of play-along jam sessions happening this weekend. I’m going to have to tap into my Pacific Islander powers this weekend.

And yes, I’m also bringing the accordion.

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Weekend ritual: Spaddy’s Coffee

Spaddy’s Coffee in Seminole Heights, earlier this morning. That’s my bike in the foreground. Tap to view at full size.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI try to do a 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) bike ride every day, but once a weekend, I take a mid-ride break at Spaddy’s Coffee, a coffee truck in my neighborhood of Seminole Heights with an outdoor seating area.

I’m enough of a regular that they can often remember my usual order: a “Heights Cold Brew,” which is their excellent cold brew mixed with condensed milk, in the style of Vietnamese coffee.

After all this time, I just noticed that they have something on their menu called “Espresso Lemonade,” which is what it sounds like: lemonade with a shot of espresso. I’ll have to try it the next time I go there.

 

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Playing accordion at the Glazer Children’s Museum Birthday Bash (September 25, 2021)

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This was a fun one: The Glazer Children’s Museum celebrated its 11th birthday with a big party at Curtis Hixon Park, located right by their front door in downtown Tampa. We’d already planned to attend when they suggested that I play some accordion numbers between acts on the big stage. I was honored by the request and was only too happy to play for a good party and a great cause!

Ever better, Captain Fear, mascot for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joined me onstage! We had a grand old time.

I played:

  • Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
  • What Do You Do with a Football Pirate
  • Plush (Stone Temple Pilots)
  • Should I Stay or Should I Go? (The Clash)
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It Happened to Me

Scenes from this morning

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I manage to start most days with a 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) bike ride, and I usually snap a picture or two at some point during the ride. This morning, I snapped a couple of our corner just before heading out.

I love the view from our yard. Now that the weather’s cooling off (cool for Florida, that is) and becoming less humid (again, less humid by Florida standards), I can set up my office on our screened-in front porch again.

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It Happened to Me

An underappreciated thing about working from home is…

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…unlike the office, you can microwave fish with absolute impunity at home! Today’s lunch was a salad topped with leftover grilled tuna steaks from a previous dinner.

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Anitra takes the giant hamster wheel for a spin

Here’s a video from a couple of Saturdays ago, featuring Anitra running on a giant hamster wheel that uses human power to create sno-cones:

The sno-cone-making hamster wheel is the creation of Joe Donoghue, whose company, Be the Hamster, was providing its services to the Glazer Children’s Museum’s 11th birthday bash.

 

If you’d like to try out the giant hamster wheel for yourself, you can always attend the Glazer Children’s Museum’s Evening of Play this Friday, October 15th at 6:00 p.m.. It’s a chance for us grown-ups to explore the Museum without the kids, and take part in games and fun activities, including making sno-cones (with optional alcohol!).

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

A delightfully cool day in Tampa

Our front yard, with a paved path, liriopes, and both deciduous and palm trees.
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It’s 20° C (68° F) in Tampa this morning. Some locals will consider this chilly, but having grown up in Toronto, I find this delightfully cool. I’m going to take the work laptop to the “front porch office” today.

A screened-in front porch with a chair, table, and two laptop computers. There is a view of a garden with a tree-lined residential street corner.