Lisbon the wanderer!!! Poor Beth

This picture is not my dog Lisbon but the nearest I can get to one right now. I am laughing my head off after receiving an email from Beth this morning and just hearing from Cindy right now on the phone.
As we all know Lisbon goes off on her own if she's bored and wants a walk and by all accounts the weather has been bad since I left San Pedro. My dogs being fair weather animals don't go out so much in the rain when they should pop out even for five minutes. However Lisbon goes when she wants to and Saturday morning was found by Cindy at Crazy Canucks whilst having breakfast and stayed and played with Cindy's Molly. She was dropped off at home and then later on in the day JD found her hanging out at the Playa Lounge and would you believe put her in a taxi and sent home to Beth! Only my dog would roam around the place at will looking for some buddies to play with. Poor Beth was probably worried about the four legged little monkey but we all know by now that she turns up in the end. Ambergris Caye is so small that there really is very little chance of getting away with anything and you are spotted pretty quickly wherever you are.
We said that there were going to be some stories to tell on my return and that is just one of them no doubt.

Gianna is 4 today!

Here she is the birthday girl Gianna Brodsky 4 today, she is the one in the middle of her friends waiting to go out and play. Time to jump around and burn off some of that energy on this Sunday afternoon, Tyler at the front is a pro at this.

She is in there somewhere surrounded by the big boys, it's hard to keep your balance while the bigger guys are in there too.

Um some of the leftovers from dad's birthday yesterday which tasted as good the second time around! Please tell me there isn't anything to celebrate tomorrow and we will have a day without cake! This cousin of mine is so full of family love, I gave her two special hand signals back to her one as I have missed her so much. She threatens to come and see me in Belize with Shannon and if that is ever the case we would have a blast together as we are quite a bit alike at times.

Mum and dad looking on as Gianna is about to cut her very special princess cake.

Alicia still looking fresh after some non-stop days planning this whole weekend. Plus one very tanned person who doesn't even live in the caribbean!

Um let there be cake!
Would you believe that one cake wasn't enough for Alicia and she goes and gets another one for Dave so that we can celebrate his again as it is actually today the same day as his daughter.

Dave was quick to grab Tommy, his sons hand to stop him from getting a frozen Oreo cookie as he wanted them all! Auntie Pat hanging on in there at the head of the table trying to keep some order.
One happy Dave proving that you can have your cake and eat it!

Time to open all the presents at break neck speed while dad tries to keep up with who they are from.
One happy dad surrounded by friends and family on his and Gianna's special day. He is 40 and she is 4 and everyone is happy.

Dave Brodsky is 40!!

Here we go after weeks of planning the big day, the surprise came and boy was he surprised as he thought they were going out for dinner with their good friends Shannon and Ritchie. They got stopped at the lights and he Saw a crowd of people at the fire house and wondered what was going on, soon to realise it was all about him and he had way more friends than he ever knew! Happy birthday Dave, 40 but still acting half his age! His gorgeous wife Alicia the super sneak, as she had been running around all week telling him little white lies about where she was coming from and going to. Being the super cop that he is he knew something was up as he spotted a pasta strainer in the sink on Friday night when they had broccoli for dinner! How she got away with so much is beyond everyone but being a female always helps!
Here she is again all relaxed now that everything is out in the open she can chill and enjoy the night that she worked so hard to put on.

The in-laws, my aunt and uncle, Pat and John Caturano always ready to party and be the life and soul and on sight child care when the time comes.

Shannon whom my family call Sharon alot and then do the same to me as in call me Shannon, another party animal. ( she likes cake too!)

Nearly all my immediate family

They really are a friendly bunch in Long Island and this crazy guy is no exception. Anthony and auntie Pat used to work together on the boats and were telling a few stories about those good old days! Ah the long lost cousins! They now all know where Belize is and may even make a trip to come and visit one day as I am 2/0 as in 2 trips to see them recently and none to see me!

Here is the Brodsky gang, the boys Tommy and Tyler are mini Dave's and then there is Gianna who could go either way mum or dad!

Dave doing the rounds and trying his luck at some cards with all the money Alicia gave him. There were some serous winners as in one lady who took home 31k of funny money!


You all knew it was coming, that time of night when the cake came out which was so fine n creamy. Well you had a have a piece to be sociable no? The cookies were good too all the various colours tasted different!

How cute these guys are, still in love after 15 years together. Not sure who deserves the medal, probably both of them!
Cards over and time to really party and show some moves that should be saved for the home only but hey it's a party and there has been free flowing beer all night long!

A quick gloat from the brocoli master

Hello all, Cindy here. I'm sitting at Banyan Bay preparing all my little information packs for yesterday's arrivals. Then I suddenly remembered that it's Sunday, which means "weigh-in" day! Even though Sharon is away eating cream cakes and drinking wine I thought I had better do my duty by standing on the scales - whoopee! I am at 65% of my total target - nearly back on track. Another week of soda water and brocoli and I should be way ahead of Sharon.
However, even though people are giving me reports of cake eating and wine drinking, I have a paranoid little voice in the back of my mind saying "it's not true, Sharon is just pretending to eat all this stuff". So I stepped up the aerobics just in case.

Long Island hangover!

Hangovers are bad wherever you are in the world and being here in Long Island is no better or worse than those I have had in the past. The one saving grace is that I am surrounded by people also feeling rough today.
I arrived at JFK at 5pm yesterday afternoon and had to be ready to leave the house by 6.30pm for my cousin's husband surprise 40th party. So I was whizzed from the airport to my aunt's house to have the quickest shower ever and be ready to go. This being accomplished we were at the firehouse on time and just before the guest of honour. It was a great evening and I have plenty of photos to follow once I suss out yet another computer.
I am off to the same cousin's daughter's 4th birthday party today so non-stop food and drink all over again, but the really fantastic thing is that there for sure will be CAKE!!!!

Hello, this is Cindy....just a little encouragement from San Pedro: eat that cake!!! and don't forget to have a second slice...lol

Bloggin at the airport!

I am hoping that amongst us bloggers that I am doing a first and blogging as I go! I am at Chicago airport and needed a number out of my emails so ended up finding a kiosk to use. As I had to put in a whole 5 dollars I am getting my money's worth, so here I sit typing away and hopefully not missing my delayed plane, here we go again the package is on the move ttfn.

Long Island here I come.

Into week two of my trip already and time to give Racquel a break, so off to Long Island to catch up with some of my family.
Here we go again with getting on and off things but this time a non-stop plane ride so fingers crossed no hold ups or screaming babies!
I finally gave in yesterday with regards to needing a mobile phone to get a hold of people en-route therefore the number is 630-453-2799 for anyone wanting to say hi I can be got on this number and give poor Racquel some peace.
Ok I have to pack and sort out some of the stuff I have bought on my travels ttfn.

Planes, trains and automobiles!

Here goes my travels from Michigan back to Chicago. Rachel and Tommy drop me off at the bus station at 11am as she was on the way to the airport to visit her mum in Carolina. My bus is supposed to be at 12.35pm so I kill some time by wandering around some nearby shops, all good.

Bus is late which was to be expected by all accounts only about half an hour which another passenger said was good.



It was a nice enough bus with a toilet and very active air conditioning, there go my feet again freezing! We also had a screaming child on board to give it a nice family atmosphere-lovely! So the bus gets us to Battle Creek with no dramas which is where we were told we had to wait for a charter bus as the original one wasn't going to the train station in Chicago. So we wait about half an hour, screaming baby sleeps at this point, bless her!

The second bus comes at about 3pm and we get on this. I am thinking no biggie we are just half an hour or so behind so poor Racquel will be ok waiting for me at the stop. Unbeknown to me we were to stop at every wee town we seemed to go through and pick up people on route. The screaming child that had found her lungs earlier really found them about 2 hours into the trip and to be honest I wanted to join in! It was now way gone 5pm the time I am supposed to be at the train station near Raquel's work and still I am on a frigging bus!





We finally get to union station in Chicago to find that there had been an accident at one of the stops and all trains were on hold. I get a hold of Racquel who is frantic by now and thinks I have been abducted to tell her my where abouts.

We are told which platform to be at and wait for the forthcoming train.



By now it is about 7.30pm and as can be seen people are stressed about getting home (they haven't even been on a bus all day!)

The trains start coming and the crazy full station starts to clear.


Needless to say it was great to see a smiling Racquel once I got off at the station, I guess the couple of red wines that she had to drink whilst waiting for me helped.

If ever there was a time I would have loved to of had some cake it would have been now and I recall that one I saw earlier in the supermarket this morning whilst killing time. It was a long day and a couple of times I was missing transport by golf cart but hey they are all worth it!

Food

After just reading Taco's blog about Pedro cooking roast beef today and knowing that Cindy is starving herself right now I had to blog dinner last night!
After the most horrendous trip back to Chicago which I will blog about tomorrow or later maybe we decided to stop for dinner. I knew I wanted chicken and Racquel wanted food that stuck to your sides whatever that is so we stopped at this place that she knew. In two minds of what to have I think we covered all the bases and between us we polished alot of this off. Needless to say the work out dvd's are coming out asap. It was yummy though and hit the right spots, I have been corrected by Racquel as she said "food that sticks to your ribs" not sides, sorry.

A day in the life of Rachel Hoke!

A nice early start in the Hoke household as Drew gets up at 6am to have breakfast and get off to school. Their day actually starts off earlier than that as coach Hoke leaves at 4.30am which is totally off the wall but these guys and their football is all serious stuff. So like the great mum she is Rachel is up and about seeing to breakfast and packed lunches, in between grabbing some needed cups of coffee herself. Jennifer gets up as Drew leaves so now there is an hour with her to get her organised. Jen gets picked up outside the house which is very handy and gives Rachel the chance to chat to the other parents in the neighbourhood and the dogs too. They all plan to tailgate of Fridays, with Bloody Mary's I would hope!Once the kids are all off to school it's time for the dogs to get a quick run if time permitting so off we went to suss out the area and pick up after those long Corgi's!

Those retractable leads are great especially for these pair of rascals as for something with wee legs they are quick.Now the day starts for Rachel and I know she had cleared her day to spend time with me and take me to some of her local haunts. We went for lunch of course and a glass of wine, I sure hope she has it harder than this or it's alot like my job! I think like me she makes it look easy, check out that bowl of fruit, um how good am I?

Here she is in a very professional capacity, a well deserved glass of Chardonnay after a full packed day already or so it seems as she gets woken at 4am every day.

This was our waiter who was the best and looking after our healthy eating campaign, check out the to-go box it's black!

Well it wouldn't be lunch without dessert now would it! In our defense it was one small piece cut into two as I said he was looking after our best interests. Yes it was worth the calories and we will walk the wee legs of the dogs later to burn it all off! I can see Cindy smiling as I type away and in total glee.It doesn't take long before they turn you into a Spartan fan here in Michigan so before I knew it I was wearing a t-shirt and would now seem to be green! This is their neighbour who helps out with the kids when needed.

Guess what's for tea as the adults are going out so Jen gets her favourite dinner, bless that child she is easily pleased thank goodness.
Another quick walk as we haven't burnt off that dessert yet so the dogs are paying for that one and poor Jen as I wanted to do some extra steps.

WE got back to the house and I kept seeing this frog in the garden and was chasing it around to try and kiss it! I am sure my prince lies in one of these somewhere in the world so am not taking the chance of missing him. Unfortunately the dogs saw him to and it was all over as he hopped into the pond.
We popped out to East Lansing's version of a pub called the Tap Room which was very nice. The waitress said she loved my voice and Rach told her I was a fake which cracked us all up and the poor girl was lost then.
My date for the night the lovely Scott who has some fantastic stories involving why he has 6 engagement rings in his possession. It made me feel good about only having one so far!

It was to be an early one so back to the ranch for soon after 8pm to hang with the dogs and the kids, this reminded me of my house at night and how entertaining the dogs can be.

Alot of friendly fighting between everyone, then time to calm down and wind it up for the evening. The size of that telly is crazy stuff, plus with the surround sound it was just like the movies. We caught the end of one of the Austin Powers films of which I have never seen but found very funny.Unbeknown to me the dogs are not allowed on the sofa until I came to stay anyhow then Rachel and Tommy kinda forgot that rule and went with it. The poor little buggers were all worn out from the extra walking they had been made to do today, which was all my fault.

Wow another busy day in America and now time to try and blog it before I leave tomorrow and start another adventure.