2026 February: Rock and Bounce

 
29 January 2026

Every alternate Thursday we have the opportunity to paint rocks. Grace, concierge at Marlin Bay, bought a bag of white rocks at Home Depot meant for landscaping but workable for rock painting. On alternate Thursdays they provide coconuts to be painted. I decided to participate in rock painting again today. Having painted some coconuts, I'll stick with rocks as they are a lot smaller.

I went on line before the session and got some ideas. These are the ones I painted today.

I like the tree scene and am not too pleased with the butterfly. Some of the other "works of art" are shown below.

The best part of this rock-painting session was making new friends. Three women who are staying in one of the villas / condos here came to paint rocks. They are quite friendly and fun to be around.  We are having a chilly spell in the Keys and indoor activities are appreciated. We painted our rocks in the Marlin Bay club house.

Later in the afternoon, we were invited to the boat "Dreamer" to chat. We had some hors d'oeuvres, and guess what!, we talked about our boats. One problem we seem to have is with the headliner that gets sticky over time. They have found a solution. Now Clark wants me to get to work!

Apparently the combination of the above products (with a lot of elbow grease) brings back a smooth surface. 

Before we left, we got a group picture including Sully the dog. Sully is on Facebook under the profile "Sully does the Loop".

Sully, Ev, Clark, Scott & Lauren

Clouds rolled in to give the sky an eerie appearance for our walk back to our boat.

30 - 31 January 2026

We had a couple of "routine" days taking care of business. On Friday we biked to Publix looking for bagels (we found them!) and then on to the new Auto Zone store and Home Depot looking for an empty gallon container that Clark could use to hold hydraulic fluid. He found nothing satisfactory and eventually ordered something on line. We did find a couple of things in Auto Zone to buy, so it was not a waste of time. The store is brand new and located next to Winn Dixie. 

On Saturday, our friend "Johnny Live" picked Clark up in his car (due to inclement weather) and they went to practice music for Sunday's church service at the church. Clark had recorded the music from the Tuesday practice, so they could work with that to get ready for Sunday. 

While Clark was away from the boat, I took the opportunity to give it a good cleaning inside and try to put things away. Between Clark's guitar and my arts and crafts, we are overflowing with "stuff". 

After cleaning, as I sat on the boat staring at my phone, I got a phone call from one of the women I met at rock painting, Lisa, who invited me to come to the club house to play Mahjong with her and the other two women who also painted rocks with us. The first, last, and only time I ever played "American Mahjong" was a year ago. At that time I learned how to play with two people. The rules are different for four players, and my head was spinning as I tried to keep up with the other players. We played three rounds. In all three games I failed to collect the correct tiles to make Mahjong. Even so I had a good time with these very lively women. 

They were going out to dinner, and Mahjong broke up just before 5:00. I planned to go back to the boat but decided to take a peak upstairs in the club house before doing so. I found several boater friends playing a card game they called "Trash". I did not recognize the game by name, but as I looked on, I remembered having played this game before. They invited me to join so I pulled up chair number 7 and sat down to play. These were all boating friends I know from several seasons at Marlin Bay. Fun group!

Meanwhile, Clark was back on the boat doing yet more guitar!

1 February 2026

February came in, quite literally, with a bang. A cold front moved in during the night causing high winds and increased wave action in the marina. All the boats in the outer basin, where we are docked, got tossed around with the winds. At 11:00 last night, just as I went to get ready for bed, Clark said he would need my help outside retying one of the lines to get us away from the dock. 

Every once in a while we would get slammed up against one of the poles making the boat shudder as we collided. Of course he had to wait until I left to go to bed to decided to do something about it. I put on work gloves to protect my hands. It took all I had in terms of strength, fighting the wind, to pull on the line, so that Clark could tie another line tight enough to hold us off the dock. 

Today's weather forecast showed temps in the 40s with wind chill into the 30s. Folks are not using the pool these days, but we still see folks walking around in bikinis who have just stepped out of the hot tub.

I feel (somewhat) sorry for the folks here for just a week or so, staying in a villa, expecting nice warm temperatures and needing to bundle up. One of the women I met at rock painting had to shop at Beall's to buy warm clothes as she had not packed for the current temperatures we are experiencing.

With the rocking and rolling of the boat last night and with intermittent pings from messenger, I woke up this morning sleep deprived. Being Sunday, we had church to attend, and unlike every other Sunday, this week (once a year) we had to be there by 9:00. Today's service was a single combined service at 10:00 to have the annual meeting afterwards. Clark had to be there for 9:00 because of band. Normally he has to be there by 10:00. Knowing the weather would be crappy, I had asked our friends Steve and Nancy to collect us by car, so at least we did not have to deal with the big chill to get there. Otherwise, since rain was expected, we would have walked not ridden bikes.

 A few of those of us that have been here at Marlin Bay for several years have a group chat on Messenger. After addressing the boat line issue and as I laid in bed, I started getting dings on my phone coming from a group chat session discussing the high winds, high water level, and the effects of both on our boats. We have a rather big boat docked next to us giving us some amount of protection from the wind. Even so, we were rocking and bouncing in the slip. Others apparently had it quite a bit worse than we did. Our friend "Johnny Live" gave us a ride "home" as Nancy planned to stay for the church meeting. 

In the afternoon, sitting on the boat, I felt like my brain was foggy due to lack of sleep. I managed to fix a ripped seam for a belt loop on Clark's pants and accomplished basically nothing else the rest of the day.  Clark did not seem to be doing much better than I was as far as energy.

Meanwhile, near home in New Jersey, people there are taking advantage of the big freeze. A neighbor posted a picture on Facebook of the Ice Boating happening on the Navesink River. The river has not frozen enough for ice boats for several years, so I expect that folks there are quite excited to pull their toys out of storage. 

Our son in Connecticut took advantage of the heavy snowfall to go skiing in Vermont last Sunday and posted a picture on Facebook. He said he had 15 inches of fresh snow. Getting home turned into a challenge as the road he expected to take home ended up closed due to weather. 

As chilly as it feels in Marathon right now, I am happy to be here and not in New Jersey, Connecticut, or Vermont! Anywhere up north sounds brutal right now.

2 February 2026

Big surprise (not) Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so we will have 6 more weeks of winter. According to what I read on the internet, Phil is only right 1/3 of the time. 

Clark and I stayed on the boat for most of the day today. Eventually I said I wanted to walk up to the Club House, and he joined me. We checked upstairs to see who was around and found three guys playing pool. Even so, we decided to sit down for a while as Bingo would start at 5:00, and we expected a few more people to show up as it got closer to game time. 

By 5:00, the room was packed full of people with some folks sitting on the floor due to an insufficient number of seats in that room. Clark was having a good time chatting with everyone. When the bingo calling our numbers began, he left as he did not want to play and he could not talk. I stayed. We played four rounds, but I did not win anything. 

I stopped to grab a sunset picture on my way back to the boat. The sky has been exhibiting beautiful shades of pink / rose colors. The camera does not do it justice.

3 February 2026

Being Tuesday, today was art-at-the-library day. I forgot that the instructor, Maria, wanted to continue on the fruit theme for today's class. I could not work with the apple I brought last week, regardless, because I ate it for lunch last Tuesday! I found a picture of an apple on line and worked from that.

Internet Apple

My apple from art class

I did not want to be bothered with using watercolor paints today. I struggle to get anything I like using that medium. The apple shown above was done using colored pencils. 

After I finished the apple drawing, I tried a banana. 

Maria, the instructor, showed us how to accentuate the art using a find-tipped marker.

Instructor Maria

The woman sitting across from me, Helene, does a lot of paintings in watercolor. She used Maria's suggestion on her artwork. I snapped a picture of her lemons which turned out quite lovely. She said adding the highlights with the black ink really helped improve the end result.

"Lemons" by Helene

Clark spent the bulk of today with his guitar - first on the boat and then later at the church for band practice. I needed to get to Publix and the post office, so we agreed that I would ride with him when he left. He would turn off for the church and I would continue on for my shopping. 

I had a birthday package to mail, so I hit the post office first and then on to Publix. Without Clark to carry groceries in his backpack, I had to be selective about what I bought. When I left the boat, I had my backpack on my back, a thermal bag I modified a long time ago that attaches to my handlebars, a thermal bag especially designed to attach to the bike itself, and a shoulder bag in case I needed it. I did need all of it. Every bag was stuffed and either hanging off me or the bike as I made my way "home". I amazed myself with just how much I could carry on the bike!

When I got back to the boat, I left my bike on the dock. At 5:00 Clark and I planned to attend the bi-weekly MTOA meeting, and I would need the bike again for that outing. Clark was not sure if he would make it back to the boat before the MTOA gathering, but in fact, guitar practice ended early enough for him to come back to drop off his guitar before we biked together over to the meeting. 

The gathering is held at the covered area in the city park across Route 1 from Marlin Bay. As we biked "home" at sunset, we were glad we had brought heavy coats to fight the chill going back to the boat.

Before crawling back onto the boat, I stopped to grab this evening's sunset picture.

4 February 2026

Wednesday is my chosen laundry day, so Clark and I walked up to be there for my 9:30 time slot. I hung out in the boaters' lounge, read a book for Book Club ("Soul of an Octopus"), and had a cup of tea from the "coffee bar" offered there. Clark did not hang around for too long though he did end up getting involved in a discussion regarding the water depths on the bay side of Marathon. 

A boater who came in yesterday ran aground trying to get to the marina. His attitude seemed to suggest that him running aground was the marina's fault. So many factors contribute to water depth around here including the wind and the period of the moon. They were showing him charts and talking about water depths. Clark joined in the discussion after that guy left and gave some input to the staff about his experience with navigating the waters here. 

Later, after lunch, we had a knock on the boat. A boater had come to talk with Clark about his solar panels not working. They talked for a while and then Clark went to his boat to look into it. The "blue tooth" seems to not be working as Clark could not even find a signal on his phone. Fortunately, the company that sold the unit had already decided that a replacement part was needed to fix the issue and is on its way. 

I have gotten to know Heidi, who works here at Marlin Bay, quite well. She tends the bar and does jewelry classes. Today, she held an earring-making class and invited me to attend as a birthday gift to me! Wow! She does beautiful work with wire and has pieces for sale on show at the Guild Hall Gallery in Key West. 

Today, the marina had a bit of a challenge figuring out where to hold the jewelry session. It is too cold to sit outdoors to make jewelry and sections of the club house were closed due to a special event taking place here. Folks who may be familiar with an Apple TV+ television series called "Bad Monkey" may be interested to know that a film crew was on site at the marina today to do some filming. Apparently it is not a too-well kept secret.

Besides cameramen outside shooting scenes, people have taken over the upstairs bar for photo shoot and grabbed tables downstairs in the clubhouse to use their laptops.

Cameraman setting up his equipment

I was amazed to see yesterday and again today, people running around in bikinis and swimsuits (as I had on a winter coat). Apparently they were filming scenes for the show. What actors / actresses have to do!

Anyway, the earring class finally found a place to be held in a currently unoccupied villa here at Marlin Bay. When I got to the club house, I was redirected to the villa and told to enter via the garage. 

I have walked by this villa many many times and seen this tiny pool from the walkway. This is the first time I have seen it from inside the building.

Heidi did not know how many people to expect. She is always concerned that more folks will show up than she can handle. When I arrived about 1:30, two women were there ahead of me. Another woman I know from boating, Carol, came around 2:30. Start time was flexible anywhere from 1:00 onwards.

Heidi provided all the beads, wire, and tools necessary.

As I did last time I took one of her classes, I decided to replicate her design exactly with the same color beads, etc.

Heidi's earrings

Bending the wires to get the right loops, etc. is challenging. I was doing a final twist on one earring when the wire broke, and I had to start over. 

My finished earrings

When I finished my project, I did not really feel like leaving yet and stayed to help Carol complete hers. Between the two of us, we got her set made. She made her set from green stones with dark read beads on the ends of the chains. I did not get a picture unfortunately.

As today progressed I moved from wearing a fleece and a coat to just a coat. Looking at the weather moving in tomorrow, by late afternoon I will be back in both the fleece and coat. Wind chills in the 30s and 40s are back on the forecast even in south Florida!

There's no sunset picture today. I missed the sunset while working on this blog update!

2026 January: The Odd Couple at Marathon Theatre

 25 January 2026

As today was my birthday, we decided to get tickets to the play showing at the Marathon Theatre - "The Odd Couple". The matinee for today started at 3:00. Since today was a Sunday, we started the day with our weekly bike ride to the church. I was happy to see my friends from Haiti, Winise and Joseph, today as they have been away for several weeks getting to know a new grandchild. 

I bike to the church with Clark for 10:00 even though the service does not start until 11:00 because he goes to practice beforehand, and I prefer to bike on busy Route 1 with a "buddy". I was surprised to see that Winise and Joseph were already there. It made the time before services started pass very quickly. They are interesting folks with a home in Haiti where they help support a number of orphans. A fundraiser is coming up mid-February to help them raise funds. Winise will put on a Haitian dinner. We went last year and plan to attend again this year.

After church we biked "home" to grab lunch and hang out for a bit until it's time to leave for the play. Neither of us had seen "The Odd Couple" play previously. I, of course, had seen many episodes of the TV show growing up. I found it interesting to get to know the back story as to how it all began for Oscar and Felix. 

The room outside the theatre stage area was decorated with handmade quilts for sale for anyone interested. Each table had a centerpiece of a poker hand. The aroma of fresh popped popcorn greeted us as we came in to grab a seat. 

We saw two folks waiting for the show to begin, Roger and Stephanie, that we know from St. Columba. They said they came to the show to see Nancy (also from St. Columba church) who was playing one of the Pigeon sisters (Cecily) in the play. We, on the other hand, had come specifically to see our very own Grace who works at Marlin Bay. She had the role of the other Pigeon sister - Gwendolyn. She had demonstrated her British accent to us at the marina to give us a preview.

After the show we got to see "Gwendolyn" for a photo opp.

"Gwendolyn Pigeon" 
aka Grace

Grace & Ev

Grace & Clark

We have gone out to dinner a couple of times recently - quite unusual for us. We dined out tonight but chose the less expensive option of hitting the "Coast to Coast" pizza place.

Later, on the boat, I enjoyed a delightful "Happy Birthday" phone call with my son, Jeff, and his daughters. Zoe made me laugh repeatedly as she wished me Happy Birthday probably 100 times as she ran by the phone. That was the entire "conversation" between the two of us.

26 January 2026

Today the weather was beautiful until around 3:00 when a cold front moved in. Given that we knew the cold front would arrive mid-afternoon, I suggested that we (Clark and I) bike to Publix before if rolled in. We grabbed our bikes and hit the store. We planned on having dinner guests the next day and needed food supplies for the menu we decided on.

As predicted the cold front rolled in about the same time we got back to the marina - good timing. Knowing that I had a full day planned for Tuesday, I decided to prep all the food this afternoon.

In the afternoon I got a call from my other son, Chris, calling to say Happy Birthday. He was taking advantage of all the recent snow to ski in Vermont over the weekend. We talked until he reached a "road closed" sign and had to get off the phone to find an alternate route home. I checked in with his wife later in the day to verify he got home safely.

27 January 2026

Today started as a typical Tuesday with me heading out to art at the library and Clark getting ready to head off to band practice at the church in the afternoon. Since I had art in the morning and crafts in the afternoon along with a nip in the air (northerly winds are 20 mph give or take), I decided that I would stay at the library and not come back to the boat for lunch. When I did get back around 2:00, Clark and his bike were gone - off to the church.

Art in the morning consisted of a lecture on the color wheel - primary, secondary, and tertiary. She had us paint a color wheel. After that she had us paint a picture of a piece of fruit we had brought in specifically for this class. Fortunately, I ran into someone in Publix yesterday who told me I needed fruit today since I missed class last week and didn't know. 

I brought an apple (and ate it for lunch after class). Today was the first time I painted a watercolor picture and not wanted to throw it away as I walked out of class.

Color wheel and apple pictures

I hung out in the library for the hour between classes and then went upstairs for crafts. 

Two weeks ago we poured paint to make a picture on a canvas.

We collected the drippings of the poured paint on wax paper. This week we selected components - necklaces and earrings - to make jewelry from the drippings. We examined our paint results and cut out the sections we liked best.

I grabbed pictures of some of the results of the class.

turtle necklace fob and
matching earrings

Dragonfly

Plain (non-animal) option

Butterfly earrings

When I got back to the boat and found Clark gone, I set to preparing the boat and food for our dinner guests this evening.  Our friends, Nancy and Steve, came to the boat for dinner. Clark managed to get back from guitar practice about 5 minutes before our guests arrived at the marina. He had just about enough time to drop off his guitar before going up to the marina entrance to greet them. 

I made dinner, and our guests brought dessert of brownies and ice cream! Yum!!

After dinner, Clark learned all about building bridges from Steve while Nancy, and I shared more personal experiences. The evening flew by and it was quite late when Clark walked them back to the marina exit. 

28 January 2026

Today, being Wednesday was laundry day. The "hot" topic this week is the very chilly weather across the country and even in the Florida Keys. We spent the morning in the boaters' lounge waiting for the laundry to finish. Then we moved to the boat and stayed there for the rest of the day. While I worked on logic puzzles, Clark sorted his music for church on Sunday,

Clark even turned on the heat in the boat! 

The picture below gives an idea of the weather in Marathon today. Cloudy, gloomy, with occasional rain.

2026 January: Hungrytown Concert and more

 18 January 2026

Given the weather up north, we really cannot complain too much, but ...

Today we begged a ride from our friend John to get to church this morning as rain was predicted. We don't like to have our bikes out in the rain, and the other option was walking a mile in the rain. Thank goodness for good friends. It never rained although we did hear a couple of claps of thunder at the beginning of the church service. 

While I had time before the church service began, I walked around and "hid" the rocks I painted at Marlin Bay this past week. 

Normally after church we hang out and chat, but today, we had to get going right after service for two reasons. First, the person driving us back to the marina, not the one who took us to church, had to be at work by 1:00. Service ran over time, so we had to get moving. Secondly, our friend Deanne put together an MTOA gathering at the marina this afternoon, and that was scheduled to begin at 1:00. 

Many more MTOA members showed up at the marina than I expected. We were so busy talking and getting to know people, we forgot to take any pictures of the gathering. It was a warm sunny afternoon and the boaters and MTOA members were really enjoying themselves talking, swimming, visiting the boats and enjoying the band which brought their own groupies. Around 4:00, some mean looking dark clouds appeared advancing southward from the north. There was no rain shown on the radar, but in just seconds, the sun was replaced by a strong cold gusty wind. Things were flying across the bar. A napkin landed on a lady's face as staff and boaters went running to nail things down. This quickly ended the beautiful afternoon as everyone scattered.

19 January 2026

It is a good thing that the MTOA gathering was yesterday because we woke up today to a strong wind and the thermometer showing 55 degrees in our stateroom. Compared to yesterday, when I took the lovely sunny day picture shown below, today I did not even want to get off the boat.

20 January 2026

We had wind and chilly weather again today. I decided it was the perfect day to work on a project on my PC. I never got off the boat. Clark, on the other hand, decided that he would do some chores today starting with going to the NAPA auto parts store to return the coolant pressure testing kit he picked up on our shopping spree a couple of days back. Unfortunately, the NAPA test kit did not work with our engine.

Fortunately, a friend with a car drove him to the store this morning to make the return. He picked up a better one from the Advanced Auto Parts store nearby. The person working at NAPA used to work at Advanced Auto Parts and knew they had a better test kit to lend out.

In the afternoon, Clark went to guitar practice in preparation for church on Sunday. He was gone the entire afternoon and only got back to the boat around 5:30 or so. While he was gone, I continued to work on my PC project of purging a ton of old pictures that are leftovers from  years of blog updates. 

With him coming back late afternoon and me heads down working on my PC, we both totally forgot about the MTOA meeting this afternoon until after 6:00 (it started at 5:00). Honestly the 20+ mph wind and "cold-for-Florida" temps did not motivate me to want to go to the park, so we let it go this week. I later learned that at least 30 people braved the wind and chill to attend the gathering. Apparently, the park is just far enough away from the open water that wind was not an issue there.

Meanwhile, my friend Cathy texted me a picture of New Jersey of deer and a fox walking in the snow. I found it interesting that these animals were spending time together.

21 January 2026

Every Wednesday morning I have a reserved slot for doing laundry at our one and only washer / dryer ensemble. While I was busy with that chore, Clark decided to return the pressure testing kit. It was a good test with the engines holding pressure for more than 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, Clark did not get a ride today and had to fight the brutal winds to get to the auto parts store to return the kit. The test kit was too large to fit in his backpack, but I figured out that we could use the carrying pouch for one of our folding chairs as a satchel. 

While out, however, he visited Advanced Auto Parts to pick up some parts for a leaking head. Besides pressure testing the engines, Clark has been working on the toilet in the master head that seems to have developed a leak of smelly water. He found out that there is a hose that was leaking that could simply be capped off to stop the leak. Finding a plug to close it off has been no easy feat.

22 January 2026

Today, Clark had to return some of the parts for the head repair. The hose spring clips for a 1/4" cap are not 1/4" but the next size up. While I relaxed on the boat doing art and reading, Clark rode off on his bike to visit some stores. We still had high-volume winds today, so Clark said the bike ride east was brutal. At the easiest gear setting, he was moving slowly towards his destination. Besides going to Advance Auto Parts to return the parts, he stopped at Publix to pick up some food items we needed, hit Walgreens, and then Home Depot. I was glad he went without me!

The weather improved as the day wore on, and I decided I had been on the boat far too long. I noticed the sun would be setting shortly and went out to get a good view. Many folks had the same idea as I found a crowd gathering at a popular sunset viewing site. As I stood talking to friends watching the sun go down, Clark came riding up on his bike having just returned from his shopping spree. 

The sunset was impressive.

View to the east 
from the stern of our boat

Views to the west as the sun sank in the sky ...

We had a nice group to watch the sunset with.

Note Clark still wearing his bike helmet!

A wedding will take place this weekend at the marina. While we watched the sunset, a man with a drone was busy taking pictures of the sunset. We boaters figured he must be related to the wedding.  Whoever he was, he got some great sunset pictures with the drone.

As the party broke up, we got an unexpected invitation to go to the recently-opened "Key Colony Inn" with boaters Donna and Lou. We have not had the pleasure of a dinner date with this couple before though we have known them for several years. We gladly accepted the offer. 

The old "Key Colony Inn" closed and the restaurant recently reopened with new owner / management and a new menu. The food was excellent and the staff attentive.

Mirrored wall

Dining area

Colorful Liquor Bottles on Display

Clark at the bar

We shut the place down from a food point of view as they stopped serving at 10:00, and we walked out the door around 9:50. We were joined at the restaurant by friends of Lou and Donna, so we were three couples for dinner. Then at the bar, we met two folks that knew Donna's friends, so that made 8 at the bar together. Clark and I were not drinking alcohol, and the others were - some quite heavily. It made for an interesting evening.

23 January 2026

Once again, Clark and I went our separate ways this morning. He went off to practice guitar with his band member, John, while I  walked over to the library for sewing class. My friend Pat told me that today's project would be a Japanese Knot Tote Bag which sounded intriguing. The class started at 11:00 and we had to be done by 12:45, so we had to work fast if we wanted to complete the project. I managed to get about 90% done before I had to pack up sewing equipment. I later finished the project at home.

I had to hurry back to the boat from the library to meet up with Clark, make and eat lunch, and get back to the library by 2:00 for the live concert there featuring the duo called "Hungrytown". We heard them last year and loved their tunes.

A cartoonist created a moving picture to go along with one of their songs called Tuesday Sun. They are also on Spotify. I "followed" them and listened to more of their music when we got back to our boat.

The performers have great voices - she is an alto and he is a tenor. They harmonize very well and sing some songs acapella. She plays the guitar; he plays multiple instruments. 

He's playing the banjo

He's playing the guitar and 
harmonica for this song

Of course they had a display of t-shirts and CDs for sale.

Clark and I stayed after the show was over and talked with the performers was quite a while. Clark and the male musician got into a long technical conversation about the production of music. Much of their tech talk went way over my head, but the two of them truly enjoyed the conversation. 

The library has two performances in February. We have not seen either of these folks before. Gladius is on a Thursday morning right when we get the holding tank pumped out. Not sure we will make that show.

In March, The Kennedy's will be performing. We saw them last year at the library and are looking forward to seeing them again.

When we finally left the library, we walked back to the marina passing by the Keys Fisheries site where men were busy loading a lot of netting onto a boat.

There seemed to be no end to the netting being loaded onboard.

While I finished sewing my mini tote bag, Clark had his head under the toilet putting a spring clip on a recently installed plug. I finished my bag and decided to go check out tonight's sunset. I found some folks there (not as many as last night) to watch the sunset with. 

Glowing clouds to the east

To the west ...

Next week and into February looks to be a busy schedule for the church with lots of good activities coming up.