Kids decorating Mother's Day cakes

Next Sunday, May 8, is Mother's Day and your neighborhood Publix is doing a very brave things: they are letting kids decorate a cake for their Mom. My 27-year old did this two decades ago and we still treasure the photos. Not of the cake, but of him squirting frosting on the cake, getting it on his shirt and hair in the process.
What a great photo op, Dads! Bring your child (ren) to any Publix Saturday, May 7 or Sunday, May 8, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. $7.29. Awesome!!

The Wall That Heals is escorted to Brevard

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will arrive tomorrow, Sunday, morning by escort. Up to a thousand motorcycles and other vehicles form the escort and the sight is guaranteed to create goosebumps. The 24th annual Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion - the largest in the country - will take place this week at Wickham Park. For escort details and wall information, read our Examiner article.

Who would have guessed?

When you think back to the history classes you endured, the British royal family scored a zero on the excitement meter. Ho-hum. But you have to admit, old Will may not be the party boy his brother is - but he does show some potential when seen carrying a board, huh? Maybe he'll go surfing on his honeymoon!

Cheerleaders needed

Saturday morning's Relay for Life 5k race in Cocoa Village needs cheerleaders. 156 people, representing 24 teams, have raised $24,015.51 so far. Opening ceremony 2 p.m. - go cheer them on. Cancer is everyone's business!

Cirque du Soleil auditions

Auditions to join Cirque du Soleil's company of over 5,000 employees will be held May 7 in Orlando. To get ready and find out details, read our Examiner article.

The Royal Wedding

Am I the only woman who will be glued to the television when I should be sleeping early Friday morning, just to get a glimpse of pomp and circumstance? I think not! Lucky Will and brave Kate, giving up privacy forever and she won't even have a last name. Wear your hair down, Kate. You show them!

Brewery Show

Space Coast Breweriana Show - this Saturday at the Pelican Beach Clubhouse,  1495 Highway A1A in Satellite Beach. Time: 10am – 2pm. Collectors of beer cans and advertising will gather from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m..  to share. There will be all kinds of collectibles from cans to bottles to posters, trays, mugs, etc...Walk ins are requested to make a $2 donation. For more information contact George Arnold at (321) 254-5831.  More info on Beer Can Collectors of America: http://www.bcca.com/  FUN!!

Wedding Open House at Porcher House

Even if you don't want to get married there (The Porcher House is great - but only seats 85 guests), go to the Open House on Easter Sunday, from 1-4 p.m. The giveaways alone will be worth it! If you are getting married locally, this is a one-stop shop for you. Everyone who has anything to do with weddings on the Space Coast will be there trying to win your business!! The Porcher House is in Cocoa Village. The vendor area will surround it. Wow!!

Earth Day idea !

The Central Area of Brevard County Parks and Recreation will offer the sixth annual Art on the Park on Earth Day, Friday, April 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Riverwalk Nature Center, located at 5355 US Hwy 1, in Rockledge. This environmentally themed sidewalk chalk-art contest is open to youth in grades K – 12 and is limited to 30 registrants. The 2011 theme is “People and the Indian River Lagoon.” There is no fee to enter and prizes will be awarded to the judges’ top choices in each age group:
Elementary (K-5)
Middle School (6-8)
High School (9-12).
One award will be given for People’s Choice, which will be determined by popular vote of the attending public. For additional information or to register, contact Riverwalk Nature Center at 321-433-4490 or riverwalk@brevardparks.com. The registration form is available at http://www.brevardparks.com/visittheparks/parks/prkca1.php.

Happy Beer-ster?

 NOT your average Easter celebration - it's a WOBster Egg-stravaganza!

The Easter "Beer" Bunny is stopping by World of Beer Saturday night and selecting 100 different beers for you to find. This Sunday, April 24th (when you are finished with your Easter brunch) come by WOB, to start your bottle beer hunt. Simply purchase a bottle beer. If it is one of the 100 select "Easter" beers, you can pick from the Beer Basket and win a prize. Prizes range from stickers to gift cards. But if you find the "Golden" beers, you will win an extra special prize. We will be open our normal hours that day, 12 pm to 2 am. Quenching your thirst has never been so rewarding. Come join us for some "WOBster" fun. World of Beer has some of the most creative promotions on the Space Coast - sign up for their newsletter here!!

Whiffen-who?

THE WHIFFENPOOFS VISIT THE ZOO
This Saturday, April 23,  at 1:00 p.m. Brevard Zoo will host The Whiffenpoofs for a special sneak preview performance. Every year, 14 senior Yale men are selected to join the Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest and best-known collegiate a cappella group. Recently featured on NBC’s The Sing-Off, the “Whiffs” began as a senior quartet that met for weekly concerts at Mory’s Temple Bar, the famous Yale tavern. Following their show at the zoo, The Whiffenpoofs will then perform live at the King Center for the Performing Arts at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday evening. Cute, fun and talented - does it get any better than that?

Surf's Up Easter weekend!

 

Ron Jon's Easter week-end surfing extravaganza. Details here  !!!! Let there be waves!

It's about time, Florida Today

 Courtesy of NASA, via Surfrider, this is a photo of the Gulf oil spill taken from a satellite. 11 human lives, countless marine and bird lives lost and reports coming in (when they aren't hidden) about illnesses in the workers who helped clean up the mess. A forever impact of the worst kind.

Is this what we want to see on our beaches? Please read our article dated March 12 of this year:
The Eirick Raude oil rig, 18 mi. off the northwest coast of Cuba.  (photo) 
"An article in our local Brevard Business News drew my attention to this oil rig - and not in a pleasant way. So, after many hours of researching, this is what I found. Wake up Space Coast (and everyone else!) !!

Repsol, a Spanish company, expects to begin drilling off Cuba in 2011, according to published reports and oil industry analysts. Companies from at least 10 other countries, including Russia and China, are negotiating or have already signed lease deals to drill off Cuba!

Backtrack to 2004

The Eirick Raude offshore rig is seen in this file photo from late 2003 in the Burin Sea off Canada. Spain’s Repsol has rented the Eirick Raude and has been drilling for 18 miles off Cuba’s northwest coast since June  2004. ( Photo by Ocean Rig/Reuters )

Drilling of an exploratory well in Cuba’s virgin Gulf of Mexico waters that could make the Communist nation an oil exporter and undermine the U.S. embargo has been completed, a senior official said. The drilling has since ended and the Spanish company is assessing the results. "We expect to be informed in two weeks.”

A commercially viable find could transform the cash-strapped island from oil importer to petroleum exporting nation, adding pressure on the United States to lift its four-decades-old trade embargo against President Fidel Castro’s government. The senior Cuban official said Repsol was analyzing samples to determine their quality and whether commercial production would be feasible. Repsol believes up to 1.6 billion barrels of oil may be located where the drill bit went down 18 miles off the northwest coast of Cuba in waters one mile deep.

Fast forward to 2011
Geography inherently makes a spill off Cuba's coast a potential disaster for South Florida. Zones established by maritime law in 1977 gave the U.S. and Cuba special rights of exploration and navigation in the Florida Straits.

The boundary of Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone extends to within 45 miles of Key West. The parcels within the zone that Cuba has leased for drilling are along Cuba's northwest coast - about 65 miles south of Key West.

By comparison, the Deepwater Horizon well, as much of a concern as it is to South Florida officials, is 800 miles away. Oil from a spill off Cuba could much more quickly enter the Florida Straits and blanket the Keys and South Florida as it is pulled north on the Gulf Stream.

Politics, geography and long-standing grudges would make responding to a spill from Cuba much more complex. The 48-year-old Cold War era embargo against Cuba would bar U.S. companies from providing equipment, technology, advice, vessels or personnel to stop and clean a spill off Cuba. Today, if Mexico or the Bahamas or Canada have a spill, all they have to do is call Houston and in a matter of hours they have access to submarines, skimmers and blowout preventers. With Cuba, that is not the case.

Cuba has limited ability to refine oil. The embargo bans U.S. companies from refining Cuba's oil, and two other large refineries in the Caribbean are owned by U.S. companies: Hess in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and Valero in Aruba. Venezuela's refineries are maxed out.

Oil has zero value unless you can turn it into gasoline or diesel. Where are they going to refine it? Politics could force an answer to that question. Lifting the embargo and allowing U.S. companies to profit from refining Cuban oil is one option. Another is to continue the embargo and risk Cuba strengthening its friendships with U.S. foes. A refinery on Cuba's northern coast is being built by a partnership between Venezuela and Cuba.

Sarasota Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan has introduced legislation to allow the U.S. Interior Department to deny oil and gas leases to companies involved in Cuba's oil drilling operations. Sen. Bill Nelson plans to reintroduce legislation to pull the visas for executives of such companies. Buchanan, a staunch opponent of drilling off Florida's coast, said he worries Cuba doesn't  have the expertise to contain a spill.

Repsol is expected to drill to 5,600 feet — deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Up for exploration is an area about 22 miles north of Havana and  65 miles south of the Marquesas Keys.

Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, is urging President Obama to recall a diplomatic note to Havana reinforcing a 1977 boundary agreement that gives Cuba jurisdiction up to 45 miles from Florida. “I am sure you agree that we cannot allow Cuba to put at risk  Florida’s major business and irreplaceable environment,” he wrote the president shortly after the BP accident. So far, the President has refused     
  
Contact your State Senators and let them know how you feel about this!

Nelson, Bill - (D - FL)     Class I
716 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5274
Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Rubio, Marco - (R - FL)     Class III
B40A DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3041
Web Form: rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Brevard Zoo's Mother's Day Brunch

Anyone can make reservations for a restaurant; no thought necessary. Why not step away from the crowd and give your mom something to brag about when her friends are all yawning as they describe their Mother's Day celebrations. Brevard Zoo is offering an excellent brunch (outstanding menu and dee-lish!) that allows the entire family to spend the day in the zoo after brunch. Think of the photo ops!! The above photo is my hand and the photo always brings reminds me of a wonderful and memorable day. For details and a peek at the menu, read the Examiner article HERE! Don't delay - this event always sells out !!

So many choices

At the King Center, Cirque Dreams Illumination still has good seats left for both shows - Saturday & Sunday, April 16 & 17.  For show details, click HERE. For tickets, click HERE. Allow extra time due to heavy traffic and road blockages by Wickham Park.

At Wickham Park, Runaway Country has sold more tickets than the entire population of Cocoa Beach! The traffic will be the stuff nightmares are made of. When the show was planned, and performers signed, it was 2 years ago. A lot has happened to the performers, namely Miranda Lambert, since then. Throughout the week-end, Hometown News, a sponsor, will have drawings for FREE tickets ON STAGE - make sure and find their tent with the other vendors. For show/week-end details, click HERE!

Calling all parents !!

Just Between Friends is coming to town!! Picture one parking place and one yard/garage sale just for parents -in a building the size of Melbourne Auditorium. Well, that's Just Between Friends. Read all about it HERE! Or wait until the last second and it might make TGIF. With Runaway Country, that's probably not likely. This writer has spoken to parents elsewhere, who report filling their cars with nursery furniture, toys, strollers, car seats, high chairs, and the ever-popular clothing. One buyer got their entire crib set of linens, etc for $25 - they said it sold at Macy's for over $100 and it was immaculate. Check it out! It's huge elsewhere in the country but new to the Space Coast! Link now! And leave the Exersaucer for me, please!

Let there be baseball !!

The Brevard Manatees are back!! Space Coast Stadium and the Manatees have teamed up to offer some great promos. To read about promos, click here. To see Manatee schedule, click here. To see what your zoo membership can offer, besides zoo perks, click here! AND - just added...$2 admission for zoo members on Wednesday nights - all season! Check it out! Home games April 14 - 19!

Thank you, NASA!

After 115 million miles (and it ain't over yet!), space shuttle Atlantis will retire at KSC this summer. Yippee !! And thank you NASA, and William Shatner, for a wonderful presentation! Please share on You Tube!

The Great American Cleanup - April 16

This Saturday is Brevard's Trash Bash and you are invited! Last year 3.9 million people took part - don't be left out! Read about the national movement and the local involvement. It's only for Saturday morning so don't whine about giving up the week-end or Runaway Country!

April 12 & space history

 April 12, 1981 - Space shuttle Columbia lifts off from KSC for a 54.5 hour trip that has it orbiting the Earth 37 times. It was the first shuttle mission: STS 1.

April 12, 1961 - Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first man to fly in space during a 108 minute flight. Back then the space program was considered "the race for space". Russia won.
April 12, 2011 - Is it simply coincidence that April 12 is the day NASA announces where the retired shuttles will go? Me thinks not.

Beach clean-up

Sunrise tomorrow (Sunday) is pretty close to 7 a.m. - why not plant yourself on the sand, experience the wonder of it all, and hang around for the beach clean-up being held at Boardwalk/5th Ave/192 in Indialantic?
What better way to start the day? If you can manage to NOT bend your knees when picking up stuff, it can be your trip to the gym for the day - at least that's what I tell myself..!.

Cirque du Soleil auditions

Got a little flexibility in your life? Saturday, May 7th, Cirque du Soleil is holding auditions in Orlando! That gives you a little time to hit the gym, pavement, and toss in a few ballet lessons. While you are working out, go see their show at the King Center next week-end and get a good look at what could be your new career! To get a peek at the King Center show, click here.

Hero worship

Received a similar photo in this morning's e-mails and got to thinking about hero worship. Athletes, musicians, actors and soon-to-be princesses are worshiped - maybe we're worshiping the wrong people. Ya think?

Zoopendous Overnight

This Saturday night, April 9th, Brevard Zoo will host a sleepover (Parent's night out!). Kids will love seeing the zoo after dark by flashlight. Games, crafts, and snacks ensure a wonderful night out for the kids and a stressless night out (or in!) for parents.
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Ages: 7-12 years
Bring: Pillow and sleeping bag, floor mat, flashlights, non-aerosol insect repellent, and a change of clothes.
Please Don't Bring: Video games, food, air mattress, and cell phones.
To register please call 321.254.9453 x 219 or e-mail edregistrar@brevardzoo.org.

Kayak Manatee Cove

Saturday, April 9, Brevard Zoo is hosting a two-hour kayak tour of Manatee Cove, complete with zoo guide. The zoo offers other two- and four-hour kayak tours and will even lend you the kayak. For details and registration information, click this link to an article about the tours! Don't forget the sunscreen and camera!

Sunshine State Eggfest

Friday, April 8 - 2011 Sunshine State Eggfest - After the success of their inaugural year with over 450 attendees, the Sunshine State Eggfest will once again be held on Florida's Space Coast! Events include demo classes, the lighting of the eggs, ceramic Iron Chef cook-off, and tastings.Location:  Crowne Plaza Oceanfront Melbourne Beach 2605 North Highway A1A Melbourne Beach, FL. For times, check website: http://sunshinestateeggfest.com/

For all the Easter events taking place on the Space Coast, read our article on Space Coast Events Examiner!

Exotic pets

Brevard Zoo would like to bring to your attention a film called The Elephant in the Living Room.  The film is about exotic pets in the United States and has won 4 BEST DOCUMENTARY Awards and recently won the prestigious Genesis Award. There is a lot of buzz around this film, with high praise from film critics and animal lovers alike.  It opened at RAVE movie theaters this Friday, April 1 at The Avenue Viera. Please keep in mind, the movie will only play for one week at RAVE so it’s important that you not wait or you will miss it! This is the only theatre in Brevard County showing this documentary. You can visit the website to watch the Trailer and see Audience Reaction by going to the web site.

Synopsis: Winner of four Best Documentary Awards, The Elephant in the Living Room explores the controversial American subculture of raising the deadliest and most exotic animals on earth as common household pets. The story follows the journey of two men at the... Winner of four Best Documentary Awards, The Elephant in the Living Room explores the controversial American subculture of raising the deadliest and most exotic animals on earth as common household pets. The story follows the journey of two men at the heart of the issue. One, Tim Harrison, an Ohio police officer whose friend was killed by an exotic pet, and the other, Terry Brumfield, a big-hearted man who struggles to keep two pet African lions that he loves like his own family. --© Official Site Less
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 1 hr. 36 min.

Unusual sight!

Seen Sunday morning by PAFB (just south of second light) - mammoth flock of pelicans! They hung out for hours, going back and forth between the water's edge and the water. Small digital camera lens couldn't fit them all in. Gulls arrived after sunrise - maybe to see what was going on? Or supervise?

As the rose rose in the sky, the pelican crowds stayed the same but were joined by a huge flock of gulls. Most amusing part was how each stayed in their own lines! I estimated over 300 pelicans - just hanging out! After 3 hours, I left, and they were still lined up! Great sight - worth getting up for!

Indian River Festival 2011

 The 2011 - actually the 36th annual,  Indian River Festival is among Brevard's longest-running festivals. The fun happens from April 7-10 in a scenic area 20 acres along the beautiful Indian River Lagoon, directly across from Kennedy Space Center at Sandpoint Park. Visitors can expect family-oriented entertainment such as live musical entertainment, bullriding, a circus, over 200 carnival rides and games, an open air market with arts, crafts and ethnic foods, military displays and a Family Fun Zone. Among this year's highlights will be Little Miss and Mr. Indian River Festival, the Paws In the Park, a Miller-Coors Lite beer and wine garden, and the Crosswinds Duck Race! There will be a sailboat race and fishing contest on April 8 and on Saturday, April 9, visitors will have a chance to paddle a kayak in the Indian River Lagoon. Program your GPS for the  Sand Point Park 475 N Williams Ave Titusville. Over 20,000 are expected to attend so make plans to join them. For ticket info and schedule of events & entertainment, click here!

Beach clean-up

Keep Brevard Beautiful holding their weekly cleaning detail at Spessard Holland Beach in Melbourne Beach. Just follow A1A to the tip of Melbourne Beach. Sunday 8 a.m. to noon. Bring sunscreen and H2O !

Bark in the Bay adoption event

The Central Brevard Humane Society will hold a Bark in the Bay adoption event Saturday, April 2 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. The event will showcase some of the Central Brevard Humane Society's (CBHS) shelter dogs, and will provide the public with fun educational information about responsible pet ownership. There will also be CBHS merchandise there for purchase. All proceeds will go to help provide care to the homeless animals in Brevard County. For more information, contact the Central Brevard Humane Society at (321) 636-3343 or visit http://www.crittersavers.com/. 9 million shelter pets are destroyed yearly in the U.S. Save one!

Location: Palm Bay Regional Off- Leash Dog Park 1951 Malabar Road, N.W. Palm Bay, FL