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We drove up to St. George Island off the Panhandle for a quiet weekend at our friends' Larry and Sherry's beachhouse. I like St. George Island because it's the anti-Spring Break beach. No bungee jumping, no rentals full of 20 drunk students, just families and full time residents and small buildings that don't block the views of the Gulf.

The weather was chilly, which suited me fine. I like the off season when you can walk along the beach and come back to a nice fire and a cup of tea. The guys watched (and wept) as the Gators got bit by the Bulldogs, and I read and slept. This morning as I was sitting out on the back porch drinking my coffee, Larry pointed out a pod of dolphins jumping in the water in front of us, playing and fishing. We were also in a Monarch butterfly migration path, and all weekend butterflies would drift by, traveling from the east on their way to Mexico for the winter.

I also came up with some new ideas for my new novel. I blame my friend who saw a comment by me where I said I wished I had a pirate Barbie when I was growing up. So of course she sent me a Pirate Barbie and Ken set that I opened right before I left town. Now my book's veering back to being a pirate story, 'cause you can never go wrong with pirates. Besides, I have toys I can use now to act out scenes, even if they haven't done anything over the last 50 years to make Ken a bit more...functional.

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