Yes, It's Been Quite A Summer....

From Baseball, swimming, concerts, 4th of July in Kansas, playing in the hose, and broken bones it was a great summer.

I'll keep it brief, but MJM started the summer playing machine-pitch baseball on a team that ultimately won their Little League Championship. After a heartbreaking loss in the Championship game last season, the guys worked hard all season and prevailed against talented competition in a double header playoff elimination on a very hot Texas day.

In a daring attempt to defy gravity, MJM "did not know he could not fly...and so he did!" He jumped off the platform of a friends' backyard Fort - breaking his foot upon landing. He was most pleased with this "accomplishment", and enjoyed showing off his walking cast.

He’s one of those who knows that life Is just a leap of faith

Spread your arms and hold you breath

And always trust your cape

~Guy Clark

Other summer adventures involved the simple pleasures of playing in the yard. Keeping the plants alive became an adventure in water...er mud management as MJM enjoyed devising his own methods of keeping cool with limited resources.

Water prevailed as a theme, even when attending the Richardson Wildflower Arts & Music Festival where we listened to Jerry Jeff and Django Walker, Ray Wiley Hubbard and Roger Creager, though MJM would probably have preferred to play in the fountain all afternoon.

And last but not least, let's flash back to where it all began...
The summer began with a marathon party at the Frisco Feeding Frenzy 2, with friends from around the country coming together to celebrate and raise money (~$16,500) for charity due to the inspiration of a man who has made seeing the positive side of life a way of life. Fins up for Jimmy Buffett and all our Parrothead friends...every year.

O The Stories We Can Tell...

So the Jimmy Buffett traveling circus pulled in to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas last Saturday and over 600 of my closest friends showed up for a hellova tailgate party.
The pictures don’t do it justice…

A Parrothead “Phlocking” is something that must be experienced in person…the sounds, smells and weather; yes, Jimmy brought the weather with him.

You gotta understand, that some people dabble into Buffett music for the “fun” songs then find that it goes a lot deeper…there’s some good stuff in the man’s treasure chest. I’ve found pearls of wisdom in those lyrics that have inspired me through good times and bad; and on the road have found some amazing friends and genuinely good people.

Jimmy, you’ve while you may not sit with us in person, you’ve brought a lot of kindred spirits together and forged what some of us old hippie types would call a “movement”.

It’s a good thing.

This weekend I watched Parrotheads unite to raise $2,300 for breast cancer research…that’s what’s called partying with a purpose folks.

Jimmy's setlist was fabulous for long-time Jimmy fans ... he covered Texas songwriters/friends Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett and Willis Allen Ramsey. He ended the show with North East Texas Women giving a shout out to the NETWomen he met a long time ago ...

I can't say enough about how Jimmy's final encore of Tonight I Just Need My Guitar with him sitting alone in the spotlight is a perfect tribute for long time fans who can remember him before the big shows.

As Jimmy said before the lights went out, thank you for tonight and every night for the past 40 years, it's been an amazing run.

Is there something (else) we'd be doin' if we could?

Not a chance.

And if you ever wonder why we ride this carrousel,

We do it for the stories we can tell.

(Love those Texas Women)

On The Road Again...

Ok..I’ve been negligent. But I’ve been whooping off with friends in Houston where we celebrated the inaugural concert of Jimmy Buffett’s 2007 Bama Breeze summer tour last Saturday night.

Before the actual concert, my husband son & I met about 150 friends for a weekend of eating, drinking, dancing, a live band, and cooler racing? Yes, cooler racing. There was a rooftop pool party, and jello shots in the parking lot (warning…jello shots go down waaay too easy and pack a big punch).

By the time the Head Parrot hit the stage in Minute Maid Park the Parrothead faithful were in a tumultuous uproar. Jimmy didn’t disappoint. He revved the crowd up early with favorites like Fins, Son of A Son of A Sailor, and One Particular Harbor, I was thrilled that he dug into the old treasure chest and played two songs by Texas singer songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey, The Ballad of Spider John and Northeast Texas Women. There were also new favorites, Cinco de Mayo in Memphis, Bama Breeze and Regabilly Hill. The show ended with a lovely harmony of the Beach Boys cover In My Room and finally a Jimmy acoustic solo to a near silent stadium while he sang Tonight I Just Need My Guitar. The man knows how to work a room…no matter the size.

So, like a band of gypsies we'll go down that highway makin' music with our parrothead friends.
We'll be doing it all again Saturday when this travelin' carnival stops in Frisco, TX. Until then...I'll be hanging out at the Bama Breeze.

Barometer Scoop

Here we are, back from our week in the Caribbean sunshine. We started the week by saying “Hello” to the water and finding loads of Sand Dollars and even a large Conch Shell. There’s nothing like looking into the turquoise blue of the Caribbean while your son is racing up and down the beach thrilled with every shell he finds…we even noticed tiny shells that had extraordinary colors. The Frigates (or Pirate birds) and the Pelicans were flying overhead, and all seemed right with the world.

Sigh…then it was off to the Welcome Party, excessive drinking, loud music, dancing, meeting up with relatives and friends and all out revelry – yee ha! JM blew soap bubbles to keep things interesting. Later we took a drive down the Mayan Rivera and saw some very nice Hacienda’s and scenery. We took a day trip to Isla Mujeres where JM & I went snorkeling & saw some awesome coral, colorful fish, and sea turtles. JM also swam with a (Nurse) Shark, because Sharks are cooler than Dolphins!
We rented a golf cart and cruised around the island to the lighthouse, which sits on the Eastern most tip of the Island (which is also the Eastern most point of Mexico) where there is also a small Mayan ruin. JM and I climbed around the cliff for a while and watched the waves crash into and up on the huge rocks. It was an impressive site. Then we cruised down to the other end of the Island were we ran into some large fishing boats from Texas and North Carolina (the Migration and the 5 o’clock Somewhere were there) that were searching for Sailfish and Marlin. JM hung out on the beach for a while while Kokomo and I had a few drinks and checked out another lighthouse.

JM attended a Piñata Party so now we have a boatload of Mexican Piñata candy to go with our Halloween and Christmas candy. We went to Margaritaville a couple of times, watched ParrotVision, had Cheeseburgers in Parrotise, and various frozen concoctions. They even hosted a kids party that kept JM entertained while Kokomo & I had Margaritas & shopped.


The rest of the week was spent hanging out at the pool or the beach where we were swept away in a mini tsunami on our last day (really)…. the surf was high anyway, then a wave about 4-5 feet high came up and swept me out of my chair and JM all the way up into the Cabana Boy Cart at the Sea Wall (he was wearing his life jacket, and thought it was pretty cool). The kid enjoys the thrill of the Sea…and after being “swept away”; he stood up a raised his arms over his head in triumph!

The only downside of the week was that the Air-traffic controllers in Cancún decided to take a morning siesta putting all flights out of Cancún 2 hours behind schedule. Which means that after arriving at the Aeropuerto two hours early, we were treated to the hospitality of gate switching and long lines during our extended visit at Mexico’s busiest Aeropuerto. Of course, they provide for our convenience, a variety of Mercado’s and Duty Free shops to separate us from any renegade Peso’s that might be lingering in our pockets, which; in my case they were successful at.

Ahh well, JM had his portable video game handy so he was entertained. We all tried to keep a positive attitude and we arrived home safely and that’s all that really matters.

Now, it’s time to start planning the next phlocking.

Already gone...

There are still Christmas decorations hanging around the house, but my mind is already somewhere between the Port of Indecision and Southwest of Disorder.

We are heading to the Caribbean at the end of the month and I’m spending my time imagining my feet in the sand and sipping Piña Colada’s.

Unfortunately, I have spent all day fighting with iTunes converting my WMA files to MP3 files or whatever kind of iFrackinfiles an iPod uses. Do I need to confess how many music files are on my computer, and why I like the WMA format better?

After I get it all sorted out, I’m definitely going to be kicking back on the beach snapping my fingers at some cute Cabana Boy to fetch me cold boat drinks, & listening to my well thought out tunes and contemplating the devil who is Steve Jobs and his new iPhone.

I think I'll start on the boat drinks now.

CIP

Surfer Girl (my daughter) called all full of joy and laughter just to tell me that she and her husband were enjoying a beautiful day on the beach in Monterey, California. It was warm out and they were getting ready to go to this little beachside surf shack and order a Cheeseburger in Paradise.

She knows how much I love the beach and ocean and while I’m thrilled that she was enjoying a beautiful day experiencing this marvelous creation of nature, that we had encouraged her appreciate, I was left in my cold house moving furniture and dreaming of fun in the sun.

Time to start planning my escape to the Caribbean.