Early Thanksgiving

 It was like early Thanksgiving, but the fare was even nicer and fit for us queens.

The queens, Michelle, Sonja, Joan, Kadia

This wonderful splash was prepared from start to finish by the creative Kadia, owner of the top-tier Blue Fork LLC, a well-known catering service in New York.

😋 Cheesecake my very favorite 

I only met Kadia the master chef, in May while on a cruise. We hit it off immediately when we discovered we were both former Hamptonians.

That's how I managed to get a commitment from her to cook me a super meal for my birthday😁.

The Hampton posse

There was a logistics problem however, as she lived in New York and I lived in Florida.

Anyway it all came together when her best friend Michelle migrated from New York to Florida. 

So this weekend she flew down for the birthday special and made it into a house-warming bash too.

Oxtail

Curried goat

                               Tada.... Pork.

 And would you believe cheese cake and creme boulee for desert!  Wow.

The chef extraordinaire 

And how could I forget the mannish water we started with😋.

It sure was a fun day (and filling to boot) to remember.😁😋

ICE, culturally disruptive😡

 One of the reasons for America's popularity and success, has been the comfortable diversity in the country. 

Surrounded by Sonias'!

Now, because of the disruptive and destabilizing methods being used by ICE, many legal immigrants are feeling uncomfortable and withdrawing into their communities.

Tamarac,  Florida seems to be going along that path.

I love my city, Tamarac 

Tamarac is a tiny but vibrant city of only slightly over 75,000 people. The makeup  is, just over 30% Hispanic, while the vast majority are Afro Americans and Caribbean, with a tiny number of others who originated from Europe, living comfortably together. 

Admirably too, because we have a wonderful music-loving Mayor, (Michelle Gomez,) we have quite a few concerts and cultural events annually.

When these events are held in the parks, you usually see this great cultural diversity in action.

However due to the fear now pervasive especially in the Hispanic community, due to the heavy handed operation of ICE, the attendance at these events this year, appear significantly smaller. 

I first made this observation after the 4th July Independence concert, as even then, you could see a trend where legal immigrants were preferring to stay home rather than tolerate the possibility of unnecessary, brutal and embarrassing harassment.

Poor turnout at the concert.

Nevertheless, at the Hispanic concert last night, despite the small numbers, spirits were high and the music good, as Tomasito Cruz and the rest of his trio had us rocking non-stop to music from throughout Latin America.

 We all had a good time and the weather which had been rainy and miserable all week, was perfect for this event.

Know what I realized too? How much Hispanic men love to and can dance.

They are on the dance floor throughout, in comparison to say, Jamaican men, who tend to excel at sitting around and  watching their partners jump and wine. 😁

Cruz in action.

Such a pity so many people missed out on the great entertainment due to the uncertainty of the times.

Murder at the movies.

 It sure was different from the usual Tamarac Senior Center activity.

And it drew quite a crowd too. I suspect that it was mainly out of curiosity, as it was for me.

A full house

Even I was a suspect!

Based on the promo, I thought since it was interactive, we were going to see a murder mystery movie and would have to guess who did it.

 But it was even better. No movie but instead a live production developed by Standin Room only Productions Inc.

A murder was committed and we had to guess why the man named Mo was killed and why.

The interactive part was, some in the audience were randomly questioned by the Inspector of Police and deemed "suspects" if our story sounded suspicious.

The Inspector questions the victim's brother.

In the end, leaders were chosen at each table to fill in a form explaining the motive and who they thought was the murderer.

It was quite an amusing, creative and entertaining production.

 Some talented "suspects" even performed! 

I especially liked the Mack the Knife rendition performed by the brother of the victim who was also a suspect.

And the room was well decorated.

Yup. It was different and it was fun. 

Only disappointment? 

Lunch was lousy😔. But the corn bread was delicious.😋.

The Inspector was quite busy

And Tamarac's Chief Organizer Michelle, got a well deserved award.

Hollywood revisited

 It's not often that I go on the monthly trips organized by the Tamarac senior center, as most are to shopping centers or casinos and I have no interest in those activities.

However today's outing was to Hollywood beach, so I tagged along. 

And it was great camaraderie and lots of free vitamin D.🙂

And we had to do quite a bit of walking as the Tamarac driver Shawn, for some strange reason, refused to let us off at our destination, Margaritaville.

Eric consulting the girls?

Carol striking a pose

A group of us stayed together and as Meredith and I were starving, we headed straight to lunch at Margaritaville. 

It was quite good and the prices were not as exorbitant as one had expected.

Ivy strikes a pose too

Meredith and I 

It was a pleasant day as we only had limited time to do anything else before having to catch the bus back home.

There wasn't much else to do anyway and I don't know if it was because school was back in session or because Trump had scared off the tourists, but the beach was really empty.

Some pics below tell the sad tale about the current tourism situation today at Hollywood beach.

Bikes begging to be rented

We virtually had the beach all to ourselves!👍

My karate queen👏

 My granddaughter did a four hour test today to try to earn her black belt in karate.

Four hours! Wow, that's arduous.

The word on her group though is that they all need further preparation.

There she is. What a stance♥️!

In that case, it can't be on the students, It must be on their trainer.

She says she is done though. Not doing the test again.

Can't say I blame her. It's rigorous and if the trainer is substandard, why bother?

She now has the skill and can kick ass and defend herself in an emergency. That's certainly a lot better than I was at her age. For then, I had started judo and never even passed yellow belt😞.

Go Maddy go😊