The Team is in Tampa

New traveling outfits include jackets, 2 tops, 2 pants, shoes

What a busy weekend!  With Poul staying over in Vancouver, on Friday March 18th, I headed for Tampa, Florida to join my 65+ Basketball Team, the Celadrin Tigerettes, for a tournament, Media promotions and a Health Fair with the screening of the new documentary, Age of Champions which features our team and a few other outstanding senior athletes.

After 7.5 hours in the air, 3 hours in airports and 3 hour time difference, I took a cab to the Homewood Suites, which is a Hilton hotel.  Kitty and I shared a one bedroom suite with living room, kitchen and 2 queen beds.   Very fine. 

We drove to Clearwater where the Florida Senior Games were being held at the Long Center.  Various sports took up more than a month but the basketball was all on Saturday March 19th.  There were shooting competitions in the morning from 8-12 and the 3 on 3 games began at 1.  We played games against three 55+ teams which gave us good competition, but we won all three bringing our record to 188 wins and 5 loses.

We had dinner at OceanPrime, a fine steak house back in Tampa.  The girls compared it to the Capital Grill Steak House from the night before.  We eat well....probably that's why I'm 3 lbs up.

On Sunday I expected to lounge by the pool while the rest of the girls went to church, but the service times didn't suit them for some reason and the pool was in the shade until the afternoon.  So we headed for the Mall and did one of the other things we do so well.  I bought a new piece of luggage to bring my purchases home.

Dinner was a Whisky Joes with a great view of the water sports in the Tampa Bay.  It was a bit noisy for my teammates, but I liked the music and buzz.

Nikki, Mary, Charley Belcher, Kitty, Wanda

Roger Gentilhomme

We broke into two groups for the morning.  Kitty, Nikki, Wanda and I went back to the Long Center and Charley Belcher from Fox News, Charley's World interviewed and filmed us from 7 AM-9 AM.  Mavis and Loretta went to do a radio interview and a TV interview in Tampa at the same time.  We had lunch at the Hilton and were off to the Strazz Performing Arts Center.  At the Health Fair I met Dr. Michael Garko who interviewed me for a half hour on the previous Monday and 45 minutes on Tuesday during his Let's Talk Nutrition show.  Dr. Michael Murray was also there talking
 about his new book, What the Doctors Won't Tell You. 
I really enjoyed meeting Roger Gentilhomme, who is almost 102 and as sharp as a tack.  He won the gold in the 100+ division of tennis at the National Olympic Games in 2009 and will be back competing in the singles in 100+ division and in the doubles in the 95+ division this summer in Houston, Texas.  They showed the film, Age of Champions, twice (3:30 and 6:30) but we left before the second showing to have dinner

Charley Belcher had recommended Charley's Steak House and the manager, Carl Parker.  We were treated royally with a tour of the steak house, free appetizers and desserts.  He also brought around Ronald McDonald, whose family founded the McDonald Restaurants and Ronald McDonald House.  He was fascinating.  He has written six books and though the McDonald chain has been sold, he is starting 2 new chains...one a gourmet burger similar to 5 Guys Burgers and a mexican burrito chain.  I know they will succeed.

Ronald MacDonald , Mary, Carl Parker

Of course on Tuesday I traveled another 12 hours to get home.  On Wednesday I cleaned house and hosted an Arbonne Party for my daughter, Sandi.  She stayed over with my grandson, Ethan.

Thursday I tiled the window casing in the Main Bathroom shower.  Poul gets home tonight and we have guests for the weekend.

I've decided to go back and live with him in Vancouver on Monday.  He's loving his job at Electronic Arts.  The renovation will move even more slowly.

Forty-Five Forever

Okay, so I've been busy.  I know it's a long time since last posting.  Renovations....STILL!!!  Bathroom update is optomistic.  My ensuite is coming along nicely with toilet and tub functioning.  I still need Poul to do a few things such as framing the window, installing the vanity and the shower and sink etc. etc.  Today I thought I would start tiling the main bathroom floor but we found that our new heavy duty tile-cutter won't cut 20x20 tiles without cracking them.  Too heavy I guess.  So Poul is off to Home Depot to get a scoring cutter for the straight cuts.  This gives me time to Blog...not all bad.


Between bathroom chores, I painted the kitchen cabinets and hung my pots in preparation for the new double oven stove which we bought.  It will be a while before the floor and counter get updated.

       The sports update is exciting....for me anyway.  I love my Thursday night women's open Volleyball League in Nanaimo.  Everyone is so supportive and don't seem to notice that I'm older than most of their mothers and some of their grandmothers.  Our team is one of the strongest in the group so it keeps me on my toes.  But last week I discovered a Monday night Basketball full court group.  My youngest daughter Cori came with me and it almost made me cry since I have been missing that in my life.

Of course I have the Celadrin Tigerettes which I join for tournaments and sponsor promotions about once a month.  On March 19th we are in Clearwater Florida for the Good Life Games playing 3 on 3 in the 65+ division.  On March 21st, we are honoured guests at the premier viewing of our new documentary, Age of Champions.  I just saw a preview and it is very well done.  Kudos to Keith Ochwat  and company who spent the last year and a half putting this together.  I think it will be in major city theatres this Fall and probably on TV too.

But all this pales compared to the news that Poul was just hired by Electronic Arts and starts on March 14th as an Engineer 3 (highest ranking).  This will possibly cause us to relocate.  He is so excited. You know... the "can't-sleep-at-night, ""I'm sorry, I was thinking about something else".  It's hard to get him to focus on renovating!  This reminds me of when I had just moved us into a new house (actually, I just had it tiled)  in Victoria and he got the job in Seattle which was only going to take us there for two years.  Ten years later we finally moved in here and now I'm tiling again.  Maybe that's the warning signal....don't tile.  You will have to move out of your dream house.