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Boys & Girls State Appreciation Dinner

American Legion Post 13

229, Lake Ella Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32308

Thursday, July 26, 2012 7 PM

Today evening we went to the Boys and Girls State Appreciation Dinner at the American Legion (Sauls-Bridges) Post Number 13 at 229, Lake Ella Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32308. There was a large gathering of veterns, their families, friends, and neighbors at the dinner. The appreciation dinner was arranged by the American Legion Post itself in addition to they sponsoring the Boys State (8 candidates this year) and the auxiliary sponsoring Girls State (3 candidates this year).

It was a honor to be present among people who defend the nation. Commander of the Post welcomed everyone spoke of those who couldn’t be present on the day POW and MIA. Then he and invited guests and others to eat first. Following the dinner he welcomed the Girls State Chairwoman and Boys State Chairman to introduce the candidates.

VTS spoke briefly. He thanked the post for sponsoring him and told them how beneficial the experience was for him and how he was humbled to serve as a member of Boys State House of Representative.

We then learned about other scholarship possibilites and mingled with veterns and friend before heading home around 9 PM.

Fourth of July Clean-up

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Tallahassee, FL

This year the Fourth of July celebration came during mid week. Therefore, we didn’t travel much. We hoisted the US flag in the morning and did some yard work. Then VTS and I started to clean our cars. We sprayed water using the garden hose and then put the special detergent on the car’s exterior.

We then cleaned our cars with two special brushes one car at a time. Sometime VTS was brushing the cars and while I was washing and vice versa. By the time the cars were cleaned it was already 11 AM. I had already cleaned the front porch. So we went inside the house and cleaned two rooms.

Later in the evening we went our friends’ for dinner. There Bhanu had mehendi drawing done on her left hand. We drove back home around 8 PM and were joined by our neighbors for our traditional fireworks. The kids did some usual fireworks like sparklers, flower pots and smoke bombs.

Then at 9:45 PM  we went our neighbors’ front yard to watch the City of Tallahassee’s fireworks from Tom Brown Park. It started at 9:50 PM and lasted until 10:10 PM.

We cleaned our front yard and went to bed by 11:15 PM

Oak (Rat) Snake in front yard?

Tallahassee, Florida

Thursday, May 17, 2012

When I came home from my evening errand around 7:30 PM and try to park my car in the driveway, I noticed a long (3 1/2 feet, ~1 meter long) thin light brown (wheat colored) snake crawling across the garage door. It moved slowly and stopped. There was enough light as my house faces North and the Sun from the Western sky was falling right on my drive way.

I  went inside the house and grabbed two sticks and my camera and took some pictures and recorded a short video. I wanted to find out whether it was poisonous snake but no local snake experts were around. So I tried to grab it using the long stick. The snake quickly turned around and put out its tongue and didn’t strike or open its mouth. I then chased it around the house.

My friends said it is a Oak snake or rat snake. What do you think?

Add white bricks to the yard

Monday, April 30, 2012

Tallahassee, FL 32317

As I wrote about a week ago about cleaning the yard. This week we decided to complete that task and add white bricks to separate the mulched area and grass area. Yesterday we went to Lowes and bought 18 white straight bricks and 4 curved white bricks and 4 square red tiles.

This morning with a help from a garden hand we were able to get our yard cleaning and mulching completed. He then laid the bricks between the black mulched area and the grass. The stubborn grass were rooted out and all the old pine straws were removed. We then put black colored tree mulch. We added 4 more bags of 2 cubic feet of mulch.

Now the yard looks better than last week and much better than two weeks earlier. We also added two rose plants.