Hi happy bakers!
I thought I would tell you guys a funny story today about when I first moved to Florida. It’s a fish out of water type story and now I can look back upon it and laugh. My husband is from the south and there were certain things about living in the south he didn’t to warm me because he grew up there.
The first time I saw a snake outside our apartment I almost lost my mind. My husband was at work and I had been walking the dog. Since I grew up in Canada, and we have winter, our apartment buildings work differently than many do in Florida. For example, in Canada when you enter into a building, it’s through one door and you use stairs or an elevator to go up to the floor, down a hallway into your apartment. Apartments are contained inside a building. It does not work like this in Florida. Since they don’t have to worry about snowy winter, most open right to the outside. I loved this because it made me feel like I was on a tv show; super cool and fancy. In the complex we lived in, there were eight apartments in each section with two outdoor staircases for both sections. Ok, enough scene setting, let’s get back to the terrifying snake.
I take my dog for a walk and we are gone for quite some time. Since she is a hound she needs to smell every damn thing that we walk past. Let me correct that, she needs to smell everything we come into a 6-mile radius of. Sometimes I just want to say “these are the same smells as yesterday and will be the same smells as tomorrow. Please just poop”. For the record, she doesn’t care. This is her time and she will take all the time she needs.
Anyways, after we finished the ten-year smelling adventure through the area, we approached the staircase and I noticed something in the bushes. Now you should know I’m terrified of Alligators, I don’t fully understand anything about them, but I know you need to watch out for them. They eat people I hear. We lived on a lake and my husband had told me numerous times that anywhere there is water in Florida there could be alligators. So when I saw something move a bush, I was convinced it was an alligator ready to eat me.
I’d like to say I calmly walked backwards with my dog and went to ask someone if they could help me investigate. I did not. Not even close. I screamed, picked up my dog, ran past the bush and up the stairs. For the record, that was no small feat since she is 90 pounds.
Once you get up half the stairs there was a look out over the bush. I put the dog in the apartment because at this point I’m convinced only one of us needs to be eaten.
I go back to the stairs landing and look into the bush. I notice it’s not an alligator at all, which I should have guessed because the bush was maybe 3 feet big. It was a snake!
For the little I know about alligators, I know less about snakes. All I know is my husband grew up in the south and he is not a big fan of the snake section in zoos. My fear has heightened now, and I’m convinced it’s my job to save the entire apartment complex. For the record, it is a big one.
I text my husband to help me figure out my heroic plan. He texts me back and asked what kind of snake it was and of course, I have no idea. There are different kinds of a snakes beside “snake” and “rattlesnake”? I told him it was brown and 12 feet long.
He asked for a picture. I sent him like 10 and told him I was going to go call animal control and save the complex. Once he sees the picture he sends me this text “First, that’s maybe 4 feet long. Second, do not alert the authorities, that snake is harmless”. Once I saw the text, I immediately decided he wasn’t concerned because maybe I sent bad pictures or maybe the snake has a good camera angle. Everyone looks different when photographed from different angles. Hello facebook. So I sent him numerous other pictures.
He told me to calm down and don’t upset the snake. Well, it was too late because I was already walking up to the main office to alert the authorities. I get a maintenance guy to come with me to see the snake. I also didn’t mention we live in the very back of the complex so I had a lot of time to tell the maintenance man about dangerous the situation and to be careful. Again, I think I’m saving the apartment complex with my new found snake skills.
When we got there, he looked at the snake, looked at me and asked where the snake was. I said we were looking at it. He paused, looked at me, looked at the snake, and sighed. He explained to me the difference between snakes. This would not be the last time I bother this man over an emergency that worked out to be me being a crazy foreigner.
I thought today we could make some Sun Punch from The Disney Princess Cookbook by Disney Chefs. It’s light and reminds me of my sunning days in the sunshine state. It takes half a second to make and seems like the perfect summer drink. With the weather warming up, I thought it would be fun.
Let’s make some Sun Punch!
Ingredients:
• 1 cup lemonade
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups seltzer water
• Ice
Instructions:
1. In a pitcher, stir together the lemonade and orange juice.
2. Carefully and slowly pour in the seltzer water. I have to admit I used soda water. Mainly for the reason that I have soda water making machine and I’m in love with it. Any excuse to use it is a good enough one for me.
3. Place ice in four tall glasses.
4. Pour punch over the ice.
Happy Sweet drinking everyone!
