a special thank you

To everyone who signed the petition in my March 10 post.....

Unfortunately, and as expected, the Canadian government has not halted the hunt of 275,000 seals.....it's scheduled to begin on Friday, March 28.

a new adventure on my must-do list

Yesterday Sal and I attended a travel expo in West Palm Beach. It was super fun for me, I just love that stuff! One seminar was about an expedition that I can't stop thinking about.....a polar bear safari in northern Canada! Sign me up! They take you out in an elevated tundra buggy and the polar bears surround you as they migrate in the fall (or, I guess it's actually early winter that far north). You also get to see the northern lights at that time of year. Spectacular! It would be wonderful to see these amazing creatures whose future is unfortunately in such peril.

are you wearing green today?

Hi everyone and happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you had a nice weekend....Sal and I enjoyed a little time at the beach, which was great until.....the lifeguards called everyone out of the water because of sharks!!! Whoa, the panicked looks on swimmers' faces were quite a sight! Not funny. Just part of life on the Atlantic coast of Florida I suppose.

Back to St. Patty's Day fun.....Aruba has a wardrobe of bandanas that she wears on various occasions and holidays, including today.....the fabric has a green background with a print of shamrocks and Snoopy wearing a leprechaun hat.....she's quite the fashionista {awww}:


This holiday sure brings back fond memories of our trip to Ireland last summer.....here we are in beautiful Killarney National Park, on the southwest coast of Ireland:

A few years ago, we saw the Irish dance show Riverdance, and it was great. I highly recommend it. It's coming back to our area in May, and I'm tempted to go see it again.....Irish music is haunting. After you leave a musical jam session at a pub in Ireland, the melodies ring in your ears for a couple of days.

Echo finds a home

Remember Echo? He was the dog in the video in my February 6 post, the one at the shelter who was passed up for adoption. Well, he has now been adopted and looks SO happy.....see for yourself (and I bet you hit the replay button when it's over):

Tarzan & Jane

Recently, Dr. Jane Goodall came to FAU to speak about peace and compassion, and afterwards held a booksigning for every single one of the 1,000+ people who stayed afterwards to wait in line.....she was there patiently for hours! Someone waiting in line near me astutely concluded that it was probably that same patience that was partly responsible for Jane's success with the chimps in the African bush. Our local newspaper aptly titled an article in the next day's edition, "Famed Chimp Researcher Wows FAU". That she did! How wonderful it was to watch the audience give standing ovations to this esteemed scientist. And what a cute story she told about how, as a child, she loved reading Tarzan and how she was jealous of that "other Jane" in the stories.....almost prophetic, I think....

It was a thrill to meet her again (I had once before about 10 years ago in Indianapolis) and to personally thank her for her commitment to animal welfare and the environment. They didn't allow us to snap our own photos while we were with her, but instead had their own photographer and uploaded the digi shots to the Internet for us....unfortunately, this photo of us isn't the best....it's a bit blurry and the top of my head is cut off....but I'm smiling while Jane is signing my copy of her book Jane Goodall 40 Years at Gombe: A Tribute to Four Decades of Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, so the photo is perfect to me.

....helpless....

Hi everyone, hope you had a nice weekend. I woke up this morning to an urgent message in my e-mail inbox.

It's almost time once again for the annual seal hunt in Canada. In the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals will be beaten and stabbed with sharp hooks, and some will even be skinned alive.

Most of them will be less than 3 months old, and many will still be in their first weeks of life. The animals are so young and innocent that they will lie on the ice as their attackers approach. Even if they know that they should flee, their motor skills aren't yet developed enough to do so. They have no chance of escaping to the safety of the water. The carnage begins as the seals have their heads bashed in with clubs. Still conscious, they will be dragged across the ice with boat hooks. Then these sensitive, intelligent animals will be skinned, sometimes while they are still alive. The sealers will take their fur but leave the seals' bodies on the ice to rot.

I realize that this is not the most cheerful topic for a blog post, but as you know, animal rights and welfare is a passion of mine, and it's not a cheerful subject. This practice would end if there was no longer a demand for baby seal fur coats and other goods. In the interim, I'm hoping that the Canadian government will one day respond to the worldwide pleas and will no longer sanction this brutal practice. Please join me in signing a petition and speaking for those who have no voice.

Mom Lepore's 70th birthday

The Lepore family recently had a fun time celebrating Mom L's 70th birthday. All 5 of her children were there....Sal, Mark, Deborah, and Paul came in from Philadelphia, Tricia from Seattle......it was a mini-reunion for Sal and all of his siblings. The pretty cake (in purple, her favorite color) said "Buon 70 Compleanno Mamma" ("Happy 70th Birthday Mom" in Italian).

During his weekend in Florida, Paul came over to my parents' for a visit, and to meet my sister, Theresa, for the first time. He and my Dad have a lot in common career-wise, both are tool designers....so they had lots to chat about, and enjoyed looking at mechanical project drawings and stuff.

a great weekend!

Wow, you know that you've had a great weekend when it takes you until Wednesday morning to finally blog about it {wink}.

Sal and I went over to St. Petersburg and saw the Broadway musical Movin' Out with my parents. It was fabulous! I've been wanting to see it for years.....the live renditions of Billy Joel's music were terrific, and were in perfect sync with the dancers. Great choreography, great talent.....a great time!

FAU is on Spring Break this week, so Sal and I also took a day-trip from St. Pete to Anna Maria Island. It's about an hour south, and is right off the coast of Bradenton. I love exploring the corners of my home state. What a quaint island, with absolutely beautiful beaches! We had perfect weather {smile}, which was so lucky because it has been pouring buckets of rain here in Florida all week. And since the island is in Manatee County, everything there seemed to have a manatee theme.....Manatee Hospital, Manatee Accounting Services, Manatee "this" and Manatee "that". A manatee even graces the "Welcome to Anna Maria Island" sign as you drive in. (of course, I just had to get my photo with it.....so much fun!)

Victoria who???

This certainly is an historic month for women......Hillary is a viable contender for the nomination of presidential candidate! (although she's not the first woman to run for president....that honor goes to Victoria Woodhull back in 1872) Bet you never heard of her, right? You're not alone, and this is precisely why we need Women's History Month....

The month of March was established as Women's History Month by Congress in 1987 to honor amazing women who, unfortunately, have so often been written out of history despite great achievements. The 2008 WHM theme is Women's Art: Women's Vision, celebrating "...the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women’s lives...".