Big News

Well I have officially lost my life of leisure and joined the ranks of the working stiffs - I have accepted a position as Vice President and General Counsel for a company named Sanswire, which is relocating their corporate offices to Orlando in the next couple weeks. Sanswire is a publicly traded bulletin board company that develops and markets lighter than air unmanned aerial vehicles. I met with several advisors to the company last week and then this week flew out to Colorado Springs to meet with the new CEO and Chairman of the Board who were attending the High Altitude and Near Space Conference which Sanswire was sponsoring (think lots of Air Force and Army Generals, NASA folks and assorted other military and scientific gurus - I fit right in.....haha) To say we all clicked would be an understatement!!! While there is an awful lot of work to be done, we all believe that based on the amazing technology the company has, we are in a unique position to really build something spectacular and save lots of lives along the way. Kind of cool to be doing something important rather than just making widgets or making money for people who already have too much!!! I fly off to Easton, MD (which we've actually been to before when cruising the Chesapeake which no one at Sanswire could believe!) this Wednesday to their facility to see a demo of the airship - how kewl!!! I am really excited about the opportunity and if you have to go back to work - this is a pretty cool gig!!! Doug is a little bummed at losing his "housewife" but I keep telling him, the second paycheck makes up for that!!! Plus its not like we won't continue to have lots and lots of fun!!!

Last weekend there was supposed to be this great International Sound and Flavor Festival down in Melbourne - always game to try something new and thinking good food and music, we figured why not so we hopped in the car and headed down. Well - it was an experience shall we say!! We first drove into this park where we thought it was supposed to be (there was even a sign at the entrance announcing the festival) and after driving around twice, all we came across was a pavilion with a very sad sounding country western band and some fat, bald, old guys flipping burgers. This couldn't be it, could it???? But yet there was nothing else around - so we got out just to make sure but from the looks of the crowd (think Elks club outing meets biker bar) and the fact I don't really consider burgers and dogs to be "international," we packed it in and headed out. On our way out about a mile down the road we actually saw a whole bunch of signs for the festival we'd been looking for and followed them to a field - OK here we go. Well not so much..... but at least they had beer and a couple booths selling gyros (which I guess are international although they looked slightly less than desirable) - other than that, really not so much!!! We went into the tent to hear the "international sound" and were greeted by an old scraggly looking guy playing a banjo singing christian folk songs. You just can't make this up!! YIKES - time to leave!!! So much for the festival - although they did have on display a very funny limousine!!!
Thinking we would eat and drink our way through a fun festival teeming with delicious international cuisine, we hadn't had lunch and by this time we were hungry!! So as we always do, we made the best of the afternoon by finding the Conch Key Grill and Tiki Bar which sits right on the ICW and is a great little funky bar!
Hurricanes are a big deal down here and the Conch Key has survived quite a few which they proclaim proudly from above the bar!!
Knock on big wood but so far we've had a quiet season down here in FL - maybe Mother Nature decided to give us a break for our first season down here (normally she's not that nice to us)!!! Mahi sandwiches and cold beers - we like this place - plus we found out you get free drinks on your birthdays and anniversaries!!! And Bimini is only 193 miles away!!!!

Last night to celebrate the new job (not really - we've had tickets for weeks), we hit the opening evening of The First Annual TropStock in the Village over at the Riverfront Park in Cocoa. We had wanted to see some of the afternoon music but Doug couldn't break free from work (even though he was working from the boat!!) - I hate when work interferes with our play time!!!! Oh well better late than never! TropStock is an unbelievable three day extravaganza of seriously good trop rock musicians - we're talking Scott Kirby, Peter Mayer and much of the rest of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band like Nadirah Shakoor, Doyle Grisham and Jim Mayer - can you believe it???? ALL in sleepy little Cocoa!!! What am I back in Key West?? We had a great evening sitting out on the grass at the park listening to first Jack Mosley, one of the great trop rock musicians whose music is played on radiomargaritaville and jimmydreamz as well as many other trop rock radio stations! Then it was Homemade Wine, a great tropical country jam band!! Playing trop rock to honky tonk country to Lynyrd Skynyrd, they had the crowd on their feet!! As the sun set and the stars came out, they lit up the stage with lights and great music - what a great way to spend an evening!!!

And we've still got two more days of great music to go - today we plan on bringing chairs for the afternoon/evening. The line-up includes Pyrates of the Coast, Tropical Motivations followed by our good friends Scott and Dave and then ending with Peter Mayer!!! Although my guess is our night won't end there - have we mentioned Scotty is in town!! There are also after hours parties in the pubs around Cocoa Village where other trop rock guys are playing!! Too fun! Then on Sunday we've got Jim Morris and the Big Bamboo Band, Doyle Grisham and then Nadirah!!!! Good thing I don't start work until Wednesday - think Monday will be a day of rest (sorry Doug!!)