My first Thanksgiving in St Augustine was an unexpectedly wonderful day. I am used to spending the day with at least some of my family, watching the Macy's Day parade, football either on the local high school field or on TV, and eating way too much. But this year, I spent the morning chatting with neighbors who happened by, visiting a friend and walking the dog on a lovely warm, sun-drenched beach. Then I headed to Hastings for dinner with another friend and her family. In the evening, I chatted on the phone with some of my children and grandchildren. All in all, a charming, heartwarming day filled with blessings

Natalie is as smart and funny as she is adorable, her new baby brother Jack is such a sweet, cuddly little bundle, and time spent with my son, Alex, and his wife, Noel, is always great. It's good to have family, especially when you have as wonderful a family as I do!  But, it's still great to be home again. I'm back in flip-flops and t-shirts and Duffy about wriggled himself inside out when I picked him up so I guess he's pretty happy to be home, too. Next up . . . a walk on the beach.

Jack Taylor, grand child number 11, arrived this morning, healthy and beautiful. He weighed in at 9' 11" and is 21 1/4 inches long. Mom and Dad are beyond happy and his big sister Natalie was bursting with excitement. Grammy was pretty happy, too!

I drove downtown today to watch the Schooner Lynx arrive in St Augustine where she will spend the winter. Her arrival time was listed in the local paper and online as 3:00 pm. Alas, as I drove over the Bridge of Lions, I could see her already berthed at the municipal marina with her crew furling sails. For once, I found a parking space right by the Plaza and hustled over to watch, where I met a woman who works at the Castillo de san Marco. She had seen the Lynx come in under sail and caught a photo of her crew firing her cannon on the fort. The fort gun crew, apparently as misguided as I about the time, couldn't be pulled together quick enough to fire back. The Lynx is a beautiful ship, built in  Rockport Maine by Taylor Allen of Rockport Marine (a harbor I know well) and launched in July 2001. She was the first square topsail schooner to be launched in Rockport Maine since 1885. Knowing the pride Downeast craftsmen put into their work, the Lynx should be a sturdy ship and sail the seas far and wide for a long time to come. She was designed by naval architect, Melbourne Smith and modeled after the privateers who sailed with letters of Marque from the fledgling United States government during the War of 1812. My current plan is to go take an afternoon sail on her sometime this winter. I've sailed on schooners before, but she will be another great adventure, a sail with history!

   Life is Good! 

Up and running and I still have a full head of hair -- simply amazing. Thanks to the great program provided by New Heights and a small assist from GoDaddy tech support. Now to get back to the all important task of getting my next book underway.

I had a hunch setting up a webpage was going to be a challenge. I'm not technically all that savvy so I tried to convince my daughter or my niece to help. My daughter knows a lot more than I do, but in all honesty, she's a busy mom with two even busier daughters. My niece just graduated with a degree in computer science and works for a company designing computer stuff - she also set up our family website, but she too pleaded she was too busy. Thus it was either try it on my own, or pay over the big bucks for a site manager to do it for me. So here I am. I mean, I'm smart, right? I can learn. Right? Well, we'll see!