Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Ok, forget what anyone has said about pivotal moments for the Rays. The three game series against the Boston Red Sox that began last night is undoubtedly the biggest thing to ever happen in Tampa Bay baseball history…to date anyway. After Wednesday night’s game, the Rays could find themselves anywhere from feeling free to place an order for division championship t-shirts to locked in a battle to even make the postseason.

It’s time to go to the games, folks. If you’re a fan of this team at all, there are simply no valid excuses. It’s the middle of September and meaningful major league baseball is being played in Tampa Bay. This is what the collective we have been saying we wanted for more than 20 years! So suck it up, drive over there (carpooling saves gas and gets you free parking), ignore the dome and the fake grass (but feel free to enjoy the air conditioning and not being rained on), deal with being a little tired at work after staying up late and root, root, root for the home team. It will be worth it.

I took off from work to spend a couple days with the soon-to-be 3rd grader.  Having exhausted my patience with crafts, games, Barbie, and SpongeBob on day one, I thought we should get out of the house for a second day of fun.

I didn’t have a spare hundred bucks laying around for a theme park, so I figured I’d try to keep the nearly-eight-year-old happy without spending a bunch of dough.

Not only did we have a good time, but I got out of it without spending much at all.  In fact, after breakfast, I didn’t spend a thing.

We started out at Dunkin’ Donuts.  Yep - the Rays won the night before, and When the Rays Win, You Win!  So we each enjoyed a free donut for breakfast with all the old folks!  With my coffee and her milk (and, ok, another donut for each of us), we got out of there for about $5. 

Next we went to the library.  There is a lake and a park adjacent, so we took our time walking around a bit.  We looked for frogs on the lily pads (none), butterflies near the flowers (a handful), and dragonflies everywhere else (a bunch).  We successfully avoided all fire ant mounds.

Once inside, she immediately found the library’s toys for smaller ones, and the little girl had fun with them for quite a while.  She then walked the entire juvenile section - over a dozen aisles! -  looking for a good book or three.  I convinced her to put Junie B. Jones (First Grader) back on the shelf and keep the Goosebumps story, The Girl Who Cried Monster.  She also grabbed a big Narnia book.

Then we went off to the mall!  Not to buy anything, but to play in the kids’ play area.  She towered over the other kids, and had fun getting chased around.  I found out later that there is a 42 inch limit to that play area. Luckily, no one kicked us out.  But I was getting hungry, and we left anyway.

We went home, where I taught her how to make a double-decker peanut butter sandwich.  She thought a triple-decker would be a good idea, but seeing as how I am the daddy, I had to put my foot down.

But just because we were home doesn’t mean that we were done for the day.  On to the pool!

The City of Tampa has a dozen parks with pools, and they are all free to use. We went to the Spicola Family Pool at DeSoto Park (we love DeSoto Park!) and spent the afternoon there in the Palmetto Beach neighborhood.

Like the pool at Sulphur Springs, Spicola has lap lanes, two waterslides, and a giant waterspouting mushroom-looking thing that kids love. They even have a shade tent where a daddy can comfortably read his own library book!

On the way home, we stopped at the McKay Bay Nature Park, part of the Great Florida Birding Trail.  It was fun for about 20 minutes.  We saw unusual birds and big spiders on bigger spider webs.  In our one bad decision, we picked a random trail that wound through the brush.  Although we didn’t get bit, we were chased right back into the car by a cloud of mosquitos!

The kid will tell you she had a great day (although she was not much impressed by the mosquito attack)!  Daddy had a great day, too, watching his daughter be a kid.

It wasn’t difficult, either. Just go and use the amenities that are available to you!

For Free!

Th Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission offers free gator-hunting classes:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering alligator hunters no-cost, three-hour classes to help them prepare for the Aug. 15 – Nov. 1 statewide alligator harvest. Reservations are not required to attend a class.

Attendance is not mandatory for licensed hunters, but the FWC recommends that participants attend, especially if they have not previously hunted for alligators. Class topics include preparing for the hunt, hunting techniques and safety, harvesting and processing, caring for your alligator hide and alligator hunting rules and regulations. Also, persons who do not have an alligator harvest permit can attend if they want to learn what hunting alligators is all about.

As it says, you don’t have to sign up. Just show up on Aug. 2, 1-4pm at the Florida State Fairgrounds, 4800 U.S. Hwy. 301 N. (use the Orient Road entrance). For directions, call 800-345-FAIR (3247) or visit www.floridastatefair.com.

All hunt permits have been sold for this year; however, alligator trapping “agent” permits are available for $52. Agent permits enable permit holders to assist a licensed trapper in taking alligators but only in the presence of that trapper.

For those of us not interested in playing with native critters who can eat us, you can learn all about the dinosaur descendants by downloading the FWC’s All About Gators Coloring Book from the kids & gators section of the website.

Note: Some links here automatically start video and audio, so adjust your volume accordingly.

First off, WE LOVE KELLY RING. Kelly Ring has been coming into our living rooms for decades, and there is no better natured, more beautiful, always smiling and pleasant person to deliver the news to us. Her “What’s Right With Tampa Bay” is a favorite segment of ours. She has won three Emmys! Her mom dated Elvis! Kelly is so cool that she had the Wendy Ryan hair thing going on ten years before her (well, ok, maybe not quite).

But, as a newsreader, well, uhhh, she fumbles over her words now and again. Oh - she usually recovers, and she’s so cool about it, you can nearly forget or ignore the mishaps. But it does happen more often that she’d like. I figure she successfully makes it through two or three reading segments between tripping spells.

The unscripted banter is much more amusing. At the end of “live on scene” segments, WTVT anchors ask reporters one or two more questions. With Kelly, these are almost comedic. I figure there is about a 50/50 shot for a seamless chat between her and the reporter on the scene. The same thing often happens when handing off to Weatherguy Paul Dellegatto or Sportsguy Chip Carter.

All of which means that we have the perfect basis for The Kelly Ring Drinking Game.

There are only two rules:

• Take a drink whenever anyone mentions Kelly’s name, or whenever Kelly calls another staffer by name.
• Take a drink whenever Kelly mispronounces, repeats herself, or otherwise jumbles up her words. On close calls, give her the benefit of the doubt - another opportunity will come along shortly.

And that’s it! Watch the Fox 13 Six O’Clock News for Happy Hour, and the Ten O’Clock to get juiced for a night out. Have fun and use a designated driver!

Eastern Hillsborough County keeps getting more and more interesting. Finally got myself out the Sunday Market at the Wat Mongkolratanaram Thai Temple in Palm River (5306 Palm River Road, just off 50th Street). It’s like taking a day trip to Thailand. The people are friendly, the temple is stunning and exotic and the shady grounds on the banks of the Hillsborough River are lovely.

And the food is great, plentiful and cheap. For ten bucks, you can get a fantastic array of food that feeds two or three with some left over to take home. They cook it right there and serve it fresh, and you just point to what you want. Most fun is to go with a group so you can buy a lot of different stuff and share at one of the picnic tables by the river. Among my faves were the deep-fried sweet potatoes, tarot and bananas; fresh mango; pad Thai and Thai curry dishes.

There’s also a small part of the market where they sell plants and fresh produce and a busy stage with all sorts of stuff happening, from singing to Thai Jeopardy.

Market’s from 11am-1pm, but my advice is to go early.

(check our previous review of Wat Tampa - ed.)

***

On the way back to town, I hit my new favorite place to buy wine, West Palm Wines/Beaune’s Wine Bar (2009 N. 22nd St.) on the eastern edge of Ybor. It’s basically a warehouse with a cool industrial-looking lounge, a huge wine storage area, and some great deals on wine. No supermarket wines, actually no American wines, but you can get some really interesting wines for less than $10 a bottle. The owner knows his stuff but is not snobbish about it. He was just as nice to me as I rummaged through the low-price bins as he was to a millionaire who shall remain unnamed who was there at the same time spending what looked like thousands of dollars.

Yep.

Why you can even go surfing at St. Pete Beach.

Feel free to check surf conditions at Gulfster.com

I have put it off long enough.

The SecondGrader comes home this weekend and has already asked if we are going to actually do the spring cleaning list that has been posted on the refrigerator for about a month. "Yes we are," I told her, and she is very excited.  Ha!  She is so young!

So I guess this weekend I must get my spring cleaning done! Every year seems to roll into the next, so now I am about 4 years behind.  If I go home right after work tonight and get it started, maybe I can be done by Saturday evening, and still have Sunday to go and play (crossing fingers). Okay, that is my plan and I will stick to it.

At our house, the HighSchoolSenior is heading to Orlando for Grad Night with all the other seniors in the world, she already has her schedule made which includes a nap. She is very excited - and so are we as parents!  (Hey HSH, we are very proud of you and love you!)

Even though I will be pretty busy this weekend, I still need something fun to look forward to.  Here’s what I found on Weekly Options of Tampa Bay and TBO.com community calendar.

Saturday, April 19 from 1pm to 4 pm, the Tampa Museum of Art is having a FREE Family Fun Day! There will be children activities, fiber designs, scavenger hunts, music and much more. Don’t forget, the TMOA is temporarily located in West Tampa.  You can call 813-274-8130 for more information. This might be a good place for me to send Tommy and the little one so I can clean without interruption, it just might work!

On Sunday, April 20 The Beach Theatre on St. Pete Beach is bringing back an event from last year that sold out quickly. The Beach Theatre travels back in time to 1939 - the year the Beach Theatre first opened! The theatre will have 3 shows that day and admission is only 25¢, and 10¢ will get you a fountain soda or small popcorn! They will be showing The Wizard of OZ at 12:30 pm and again at 4:30pm then you can catch The Mark of Zorro at 7:15 pm. For more information go to http://www.beachtheatre.com

Also on Sunday, April 20 starting at 1 pm, Derby Lane will be rockin’ and rolling. The first Music and Motorcycles event sounds like a lot of fun with vendors, poker tournaments, bike games and even a bikini pageant. The bands are Xchange, Devon Allman’s Honeytribe Band and the Outlaws. Gates will open at 1pm but I could not find an ending time. This is being presented by Derby Lane and Motor Events Florida. I went on both websites but only found a flyer with information. If you want to take a look go to www.derbylane.com or www.motoreventsflorida.com From my experience in the world of bikers, this will not be a good event for my little one.  I wish it was, because I know I would have a blast there!

Enjoy the weekend and let us know what you did by leaving a comment on Monday!

This weekend is going to be good, I can feel it already!

Friday night I’m heading out to listen to the JGLB, I really don’t go see my husband’s band as often as I should! They are playing in Clearwater on Friday night at Two Buks (the self-proclaimed rockingest bar in Pinellas !!), if you want to join me.

Here’s what I found for Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

On Saturday morning, I expect to sleep in a bit, but I looked on the TBO community calendar and an event titled RUBBER DUCK RACES jumped out at me! That name alone makes me want to check it out:

Saturday April 12 - Beanies Family Grill and Sports Bar is holding the fourth annual Great American Pink Ribbon Rubber Duck Race at 2202 US 42 South Ruskin from 8am-7pm. I’m very curious on how this is all going to work! The money raised on Saturday will support six people who have signed up to participate in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation Breast Cancer 3-Day event later this year. Each walker must qualify by raising $2,200, which goes to the foundation. Chula Vista is sponsoring breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m., and Beanie’s will offer barbecue dinners from 1 to 7 p.m. The event also will feature live bands starting at 1 pm, a karaoke contest at 2 pm, games, a cake walk and children’s activities. Each rubber duck costs $5 to race and the ducks are numbered to identify their owners. During the races, which go on all day, they will be placed in a large tank at Beanie’s. The first three ducks to cross the finish line in each run wins prizes. Volunteers are needed to serve meals, clean the grounds and park cars. To help out, call (813) 649-1700.

Saturday April 12 – Kahuna’s is holding the Parrotheads Pig Roast at 10515 Gandy Blvd, just over the bridge in St. Petersburg, beginning at 5pm until it ends! Now my mom is a huge Buffett fan and has told me for years that I should hang out with this great group of people. She has gone to several concerts with them and has always had a blast. I saw this event on Eric Sturm’s list of things to do in Tampa and had to look into if further. Tickets for this event are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. The pictures on the parrotheads website tell a story of games, drinking and drinking games going on with the music of Flip Flop Dave & Tropical Brain Freeze! Sounds like fun to me! For more information go to www.finsup.com. Of Course when you are done eating and drinking you could always zip across the street for some Greyhound racing at Derby Lane!

Sunday April 13 - Keel and Curley Winery offers a Sunday Marketfrom 11am – 5pm. The place is very nice and is located in a quiet corner of our world. The winery sits on 25 acres in Plant City at 5210 Thonotosassa Road, Plant City, and the native owner Joe Keel, owns the winery as well as its blueberry source, Keel Farms. Joe has been growing blueberries in Florida for the past nine years and has recently purchased another 10 acres to plant blueberries in Lithia, Florida. Joe teamed up with Chase Marden, a Vermont native, who had experience developing fruit wines. They partnered to develop a line of wines under the Keel and Curley label and began bottling. The highbush blueberries are hand picked, fermented and bottled right on Keel Farms in Plant City. Tommy and I stopped by here several months ago which turned out to be the re-grand opening after a fire had shut them down for a time. The Sunday Market features wine samples, food, music and crafts. If you are out on a Sunday drive this is worth the stop!

Enjoy yourselves whatever you do and leave a comment to let us know what that might be!