Xmas rainbow

My parents and sister are in town for the holidays. This morning we had a really nice rainbow over papa johns!

Fienberg-Fisher Staff Party

We had a fun time last night at our school staff party. Pam got busy with slayter and I had fun with Assistant Principal Zabala and Brenda Torres.

Some good news for a change...

When you get a lot of bad news - not the kind of "you're going to die" bad news, but a lot of disappointment really - it's hard to accept good news. Yesterday we got the results of the CVS (Chorionic Villus Sampling) test. The test results came back negative for any chromosomal defects. We are still trying to absorb it. The results mean that after three tries, we may actually be having a healthy baby. We are still feeling reserved. (There is one other test at 16 weeks - a blood test to check for neural tube defects.)

So at this point, it looks like in June we might be parents. Maybe after a few days, we will get better used to the idea. (Pam had a thought yesterday: "Maybe they mixed up my results with someone else's!" It's these kinds of thoughts we are still trying to work out.)

We could find out the sex of the baby, but we haven't decided on whether or not we want to know this. It might be nice to have at least one mystery...

Art Basel

Yesterday Pam and I went to the Art Basel, a big art exhibition and we got free tickets which are normally $30. At first I was a little disappointed because there was this Andy Warhol ripoff of dollar bills except it turns out it was actually an Andy Warhol! There was a lot of really interesting unique modern pieces and sculptures. Just as interesting was the "eccentric" art collector types --you could just smell the money. And the art was selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Among the unusual pieces were "chocolate santa with butt plug" and a sculpture of fingers and penises that cast a shadow figure of two mens faces.

Thanksgiving in bmore

It was nice to go to Baltimore for thanksgiving. We went for a hike with John and Julie and friends. Here's a great pic of Ruby "Jackie O" Webb.

5k for the kids

We had a great time doing a 5k on saturday that benefitted Miami-Dade schools. The weather has been "cold" here lately. It was 55 degrees when I woke up on Thursday. All the kids have dressed up in jackets and hats!

local coconut

The other morning I took the dog out and found a newly fallen coconut. So I brought it in the house and ate it! It was pretty good! Just like from the store only free...

Halloween fun!

Reina got us into Mansion's halloween party saturday night. Pam took a funny picture with this guy Terry the tiger. I was supposed to be the guy from the movie 300 but my beard kept coming off!

Don and Terry come to visit

My parents Don and Terry came to visit this past weekend. We went kayaking at Oleta River State park where we saw a huge green iguana! Then we went to the beach and had a nice time swiming at Miami Beach. Pam ran into this jellyfish but she did not get stung.

Crunch gym

Here's a picture of Pam and Liz doing the kickboxing class this evening at Crunch gym. Its a very hard class but also great fun!

cool caterpillar

We found another cool caterpillar in the neighborhood. This one is called the Oleander Caterpillar.

not all fun...

I was looking at this blog and its looks like all we do is outdoor fun! Maybe I'll take a pic of me in my room doing hours of grading to show how I really spend my time!

Crandon Park Snorkeling

Last Saturday we went to Crandon park for their "eco tour" of snorkeling and kayaking. We kayaked out to a fossilized mangrove reef. We got a waterproof case for the digital camera. Pam found a nurse shark hiding in the reef! I had fun chasing schools of fish and finding some puffers. Our guide also showed us some edible sea grapes which were actually pretty tasty!

Sunday Morning Swim

This morning Pam and I went to the beach really early (7am) Its a great time to go for a swim without getting the burn. Its also nice because you can be lazy and drive to Ocean Drive and park for free until 9am!

Its still very warm here highs in the upper 80s and lows of about 78.

Back in time -- Gary & Suzie's wedding

In early august we went back to Baltimore for Gary and Suzie's wedding. Despite getting stuck in Atlanta we had a great time at the wedding! Then later that week Gary and Suzie came down to South Beach for their Honeymoon. We had a great meal at Sushi Samba. We also went to Mansion where Pam got a $7 bottle of water.

Jason and Sne ham it up for the camera (open bar!)

$329 t shirt!

Just when you think you've seen enough here is a $329 t-shirt from a store on Lincoln Road

Our "pet cats"

This is Steve by the way doing this post. I wanted to show you our "pet cats" They are actually stray cats that showed up a couple of weeks ago. They are very friendly and follow us around outside. Pam named the bigger one "Sean" and the little one "Patti" Very cute

Sunday Fun

Today we went to brunch at Nikki beach with Liz , Reina and friends! Great atmosphere but it was pricey!


Then later in the day we when with Kristen and baby Iris to the Flamingo Park Pool. Fun!!







Then later in the day we went to the Flamingo Park Pool with Kristen and Iris

It's been a long time...

Okaaaayyyy.... Well, what can I say? It's been nearly two months since the last post! A lot has happened.
Steve and I began teaching at Fienberg Fisher K-8 Center. We have just finished our third week. I am teaching third grade and Steve is currently teaching 7th grade civics and intro. to computers. It's been a tough time for the middle school teachers since 7th grade is new to Fienberg Fisher. Scheduling has been a nightmare. Of course, the worst part is this is Steve's introduction into the world of teaching. Finally, in the second week of school, Steve and I both went to see the principal. His teaching position will be changing - not sure when - and he will be teaching 6th grade math and science instead.
Sammy is still alive and seems to be tolerating the heat well.
Back in August, our former neighbors and friends from Hampden, The Stacys, visited us here in South Beach. We had a great time. Eli and Willow are growing up fast.

We all had a great time. We visited Monkey Jungle as well. Here Eli explains the art of arm pit farting.
To be continued...

Cameo, Jazid, Markham, and Harry Potter

By the way! I didn't know this before, but you can click on all the images to make them bigger!

Last week we checked out a bit of the rare live music in Miami Beach. For some reason, Miami Beach has many great clubs, but not a lot of live music. This place called Jazid is different. They have live music downstairs and a DJ upstairs. The band we saw was Xperimento. There music is reggae-latin-funk. They are very talented musicians. Unfortunately, not my style of music. But it was still a lot of fun to hang out and see everyone having so much fun. We went with oru friends Liz, Marc, and John. (Here's a movie clip of the band.)

Also, last week we were wandering around in the car trying to decide about office furniture. We happened upon Shorty's Bar-B-Q and we happened to be hungry. I remembered the name from a book about Miami and the Keys. They have some great BBQ - some of the best I've ever had. Steve and I had a full rack with some corn on the cob. The atmosphere is down home and casual. Prices not bad either.

This past Saturday morning we attempted to go mountain biking at Markham Park. It got hot early and we got tired early too. But we had a nice short ride. We rode with our friends Martha and Derren.

This past weekend we went to a cool Miami dance club - Cameo. We go there kind of late for getting in. (Usually it is recommended you get in line at a club before midnight. We arrived about 12:30AM.) We got in line though. After only about 30 minutes, we were in! It was a very cool club. Great music, great atmosphere! We danced and had fun. We left "early" at 2:30AM. (This is early by Miami standards. This club is open until 5AM I think. Some clubs stay open until sunrise - people are sure to bring their sunglasses to greet the sunrise!) Here is a video. Some photos are below.



Regarding Harry Potter: I received my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Saturday. I finished the book yesterday. I'd give it a thumb and a half up. It is pretty good. The final chapter seems a bit unnecessary. It's worth reading if you've read all other books.