My weekend began with a bit of a lie-in then off to the St. Petersburg Saturday Farmers’ Market. Vegetables were the theme with onions, artichokes, asparagus, tomatoes, and apples stepping up (yes but they were some confused fruit and who am I who am I to argue if the self identify as another food group) On the way back Shelley and I stopped of at Kahwa Coffee for a little pick us up.
While enjoying an iced mocha banANNA! sent a text about heading out to the beach. So back home, change and off to Pass-a-Grille to relax on what has become my favorite beach in the area. The water was calm, not to warm, and clear. banANNA!’s friends Brandee and Megan joined us and they were all headed out to the WMNF music festival later in the day. Hoping to pick up a futon from Craigslist Shelley and I said our goodbyes and headed back to Chez Kitteh.
As we were riding the seller called and let us know the futon had been sold. This was good as we could relax for a bit before meeting Chris and Tyler for dinner. Dinner began at 6:30 and we did not get back to Chez Kitteh till after midnight. Dinner at the Grillside (I think that is the name) ran for over half that. It was one of those time that I was happy to see it rain as it let us all relax and provided external conversational lubricant. Some great plans were put into motion that will culminate into (hopefully) three weekly music events. Looks like I need to get up to speed on my mixing and producing.
Shelley was tired and was ready for bed but I had one more thing I wanted to do, visit Phil & Cassie for their first “official” day that ends in Y party. I got there just after the party peaked and a few people had already left. There were still some fire spinning and socializing going on… my favorite bit was a conversation with one of the more active Florida Burners. Having lived in SF and steeped in Burning Man culture it was interested to share a perspective of someone enthusiastic and involved in regional events but not having any plans to attend Burning Man itself. If you have ever played the pass-the-message game then you will get some idea of what it was like. But that will be the topic of another post.
Arriving back at Chez Kitteh around 4:00AM I decided that getting up too early was not so important. With our friend Sara coming on Wednesday, Shelley and I had yet to prepare the guest room (you should read that as create the guest room) with things like a place to sleep. Back to our futon hunt. With some fortune our conversation last night with Chris & Tyler also covered the search for futon’s . They have been looking for one as well, canvasing Craigslist and the thrift shops and made mention that the best deal they found was at Ikea. Off Shelley and I went to Ikea. All I’m gonna say is I feel very fortunate having been to the beach the day before and having the time to relax and go to my happy place. It took longer to park once we reached the store than it did to travel to Ikea. Once inside it was thronged with people amazed at the delicacies from Scandinavia. Luckily Shelley and I did not feel bound to walk the Ikea path and made good use of the shortcuts where ever we could. We finally made it to the self service area and grabbed the three parts to the futon, and some extra wine glasses as Angus is going through his “I’m gonna knock that over” phase. The best part of the trip was the balloon guy!
Deciding to take the Gandy bridge vs. overcrowded I-275 we saw the Friendship bridge was closed. It is a pedestrian bride that parallels the Gandy bridge to cross the bay. Some research indicated that it had been closed in November due to structural weakness concerns and a fear that it could spontaneously deteriorate.
After shopping and drama at Ikea it was time to get some food…. and we were gunning for Sushi. and we missed. or rather Sushi was not in season til 5:30 and we were hungry now (3:30 ish) It did take 4 restaurants till we found a place that was open and serving something we wanted. Fish Tales! Presedente Beer and Blue Crab Salad! At least we had the chance to bike about the area a little.
The evening wrapped up with a little cleaning, a few margaritas, and the film Berlin Calling. I would say go see the film. It is in the same vein as “It’s All Gone Pete Tong”.
That was my weekend as I remember it.
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