34/365: Central Florida Small Town Sunset

Now, this one is a regular sight...and my favorite time of the day.

God paints with a sweeping hand and with such stunning, dramatic colors. No two sunsets are ever the same that's why I love just looking at them. My world stops for a few minutes before the sun kisses the horizon to appreciate His fleeting masterpieces. Awesome, isn't He?

33/365: Central Florida Small Town Sunrise

I'm not a morning person so sights like this are very, very rare. When I come across one, I record it for posterity's sake.

A morning commune with the birds is a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, I'm more at home with owl hoots. When I normally hear sweet tweets and chirps, I'm just going to bed not getting up from it.

Manatee Festival Comes to Town!

The annual manatee festival’s happening this weekend, a few steps from our front door. Yipee! On the other hand, we’ll be sending off Z & S early morning Saturday—the first day of the celebrations. Awwww...

I’ve been here close to four years already but I haven’t gone to one of these shindigs in honor of our resident manatees over yonder at Blue Springs State Park.

It’s a shame really because (1) it’s just next door—what’s so difficult about walking a few meters? (2) it looks like fun—music, food, arts & crafts, games, thingamabobs, local celebrities… and (3) it’s for a good cause.

Oh, and (4) my pet name at home is Doogs—short for “dugong” which is Filipino for manatee—so I should be showing some moral support for my namesake.

I kid you not about the moniker!

(My goddaughter who lived with me before I left for America is also called “butanding”, another Filipino word for manatee. It’s a long story but suffice it to say we have the, er, “healthy” body structure of the gentle manatee, heh.)

21/365: Boys Will Be Boys

We went to New Smyrna Beach today though the weather was in the high 60s and low 70s. Brrrr! We Manila tropicals were shivering in our light hoodies but wth, the beach is always a fun place to be. For a picnic, that is.

Then we accompanied Z & S to the mall in Sanford where the ever intrepid father and daughter duo hunted for bargains. Our wallets had fun at the Cotton On store, where we made a beeline for the $5 and under (plus a 30% discount).

And obviously, one li'l boy had fun playing hide and seek and catch me if you can in the store. (His Mamu Doogs - that's me - also went to town with the point-and-shoot.)

One thing you know by now when taking care of the Terrible Twos: though there's never a dull moment, you also lose all the energy you've stored immediately after storing them.

19/365: Bella Cucina

So, we're now on our second week playing host to BIL and S and this time, our cousin A hosted us to a pizza lunch. She brought us to an entirely new place in DeLand. (Not Tony's, as we were expecting.)

Turns out our lunch was at Bella Cucina, a new pasta & pizza place at the corner of Orance Camp Road and Victoria Commons in DeLand. Except for King A (our eldest brother who was hard at work at John Knox) and Tita R (A's mom), every one in the family was all present and accounted for.

Although it's a relatively new place, it's had some mixed reviews already - anywhere from awesome to awful, delicious to disgusting. This charming little place tucked a few hundred yards off the golf courses didn't disappoint us today though.

I loved the food, and that's not saying it lightly. I may be a gourmand but with my hotel and restaurant baccalaureate, I know good food when I taste it, heh.

I recommend  the Bella Cucina Special - a 16" pizza with a thin crust and bell pepper, sausage, pepperoni, and onions - it's as close to gourmet pizza as can be. Since I'm not a fan of cheese pizza, I wouldn't vote for it though the dough was tasty, better than what I've had at Tony's in downtown DeLand or at 2 Guys Pizza here in Orange City.

Garlic bread, no cheese.

Still another garlic bread, this time with cheese and salsa

Cheese pizza, 16".

Bella Cucina Special pizza, 16"

I can't say the service was extraordinary, but it was acceptable for a full service restaurant: not too fast, not too slow. A happy middle, I'd say.

Then again, we ordered pizza. When you want your pizza to get to you awesomely yummy, you'll have to be willing to wait at least 15 minutes because it's prepared fresh for every order. (I should know, I worked at a Pizza Hut joint in Manila for a few months, and you can't hurry an oven.)

The one image that stuck to my mind from our family lunch date is this one - where Li'l Prince was trying to hurry his Mum along. She was changing for work in the woman's bathroom and our lovable tyke wasn't having any of it, heh.

About 
Name: Bella Cucina Italian Ristorante
Cuisine: Italian, pizza, pasta
Address: 1431 Orange Camp Rd, Deland, FL 32724
Tel: (386) 738-1930
Seating: 76

Florida Weather and Climate Data for October to December 2012

When you're a gardening nut like I am, there comes a time when you enjoy reading about the weather.

Yep, the weather. It's no longer just fodder for small talk...it becomes a serious preoccupation. One of your daily, anticipatory delights. And I say that seriously, without the tongue-in-cheek 'tude, heh.

Since it's a new month, I went on to the National Climatic Data Center website and I looked at what they had to say about 2012...and of course, of the last 3 months when it seemed Florida was way hotter than it used to be.

So, climate-wise, here's what was happening in the US last year:

16/365: Dinky Dock Park

So C, his niece S and I picked up my BIL at Disney's Yacht Club Resort at noon today. Since we were already in the area  Z said might as well see some sights so the trip - and the gas! - wasn't a waste, we moseyed over to Rollins College.

On I-4, we took the Fairbanks exit and drove towards 17/92. You could say we were driving blind - all we knew was that somewhere past this busy avenue was Rollins College. We were ready to make a U-turn when we saw the gate to the school. Eureka!

We drove in and oohed and aahed over the cobblestone streets, the quaint Spanish-Mediterranean beauty of the buildings, the pretty little cottages on the peripheries of the campus...then we got a glimpse of Lake Virginia between the trees and the houses. We wanted to see it!

So we drove around until we got to the end of the road we were on, heading towards the Sutton Place Apartments - student housing I think - and we came upon Dinky Dock Park.

Dinky Dock. Had a nice, kooky ring to the name...which appealed to me. And yes, the park was postage-stamp-sized but in keeping with the quaint character of the College, it was pretty, charming and restful.

A cute little sign post for a cute little dock. That building on the background is
Sutton Place Apartments. I think that's the student housing for upperclassmen.

4/365: This is Central Florida?

Woke up very early this morning - 8:00 is dawn for this night owl - shivering. Turns out the weather dropped to the low 40s during the night and the morning brought in the rains. I woke up to this:

 Blessed be!