Met with friends at Dubsdread Golf Course’s restaurant, The Taproom. To the left is a sketch of items at the table.

While there I drew and painted a caricature for the mother of a friend of mine, Sylvia Saunders. Sylvia belongs to a group that will be celebrating the person I drew, Floreine. Below is the caricature.

We gathered at Fred’s Marketplace Restaurant in Plant City for dinner with my brother, Jeff, my Aunt and her husband, friends Susie and Russell Noell and my sister, her husband and their two children.

This restaurant has a great history. I let you wander to their website to learn about it. Also great is their food! One of the best Southern buffets in Florida!

I attended ‘The Black Jack Palace’ Sunday afternoon. The show was a showcase of students from Nancy Stewart’s Dance Teacher classes. Friends Rob and Manfred played a warped version of Siegfried and Roy. The theme was of Las Vegas. The show was great and fun and I forgot how exciting it is to watch a live performance.

 

I drew a couple pages of sketches of dancers. Below is the art I created for the cover of the program of Miss Nancy and her husband Dave.

Got home early morning from the Tallahassee trip, syole a couple hours sleep and I was back on the road again by 5am to donate time as I annually do in Lakeland for Lakeland’s SPCA Walk-A-Thon around Lake Hollingsworth.I drew caricatures there until around noon.

After that I headed over to Jimbo’s Bar-B-Q, also in Lakeland, to enjoy great ribs with longtime friends, Susie and Russell Noel. I met Susie and Russell back when I drew caricatures at Stars Hall of Fame in the early ’80s. It sure seems to me that they haven’t changed a bit since then and I’m extremely envious of that! Me – since the ’80s – have added a beard and about 80 pounds! AND grey hair!!!!!

With Susie and Russell was their daughter, Crystal, and her boyfriend. The drawing is of one of the sliced pickles that are at each table to nibble on along with hot cherry peppers.

Quite a bunch of us got together Sunday night for vittles at an oriental spot near the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando. I found myself doing some drawing while there.

The drawing is of James Carter who I once worked with at the ol’ Stars Hall of Fame. He and his wife were part of the group that included Rob Labby, Manfred, Nancy and David Stewart, etc., etc.

A Happy Easter to all! Here’s my friend, Rob Labby, hopping around hoping all get their Easter eggs. Here! Catch!

We had our monthly Suncoast Inkslingers meeting at the Belleview Biltmore south of Clearwater. We had special guests who drove over from Ocoee, west of Orlando, J.P. Holding and his wife. We had what I call a ‘Cartoonersize’ inwhich I throw out three words or phrases and the artists come up with cartoons to illustrate the combo. I randomly pulled these 3 out of a copy of ‘The Economist’: morning calm, historic figure, Hell. The drawing above was created by editorial cartoonist Dan Smith. The other drawings should be on the Suncoast Inkslinger site by later this week.

Sandra, myself, Rob, and Manfred all got some vittles after the Fairchild excursion at a small out of the way place called Berries in Miami. Very good food including an interesting dish Rob got, pumpkin ravioli. Each ravioli was filled with actual pumpkin filling.

This is a sketch looking over the bar to the outside garden area. What looks like a microphone is a lamp hanging down.

Drifted over to Fort Lauderdale and had dinner again at Tropical Acres. Joining us were fellow author Kathy Wolf, fellow hiker Phyliss Malinsky and fellow fellow, Rob Labby.

Kathy and Phyliss surprised Sandra with a belated birthday cake and birthday music performed by the house piano player pictured here.

I attended the memorial for Dorris Bobber in Loch Haven Park behind the old Science Center in Orlando. A string quartet from the Orlando Philharmonic, one of Dorris’ major charity missions, performed. Here is a drawing of two of the four there.

After the Inkslinger meeting, Sandra and I headed out to Ozona, north of Dunedin, for dinner. We had hoped togo to a new location we had found for bar-b-q. However, ‘The Ozona Pig’, as it is called, is closed Sundays. So, we crossed the street to ‘Molly Goodhead Raw Bar and Seafood’. The restaurant has been around for quite a long time and is a favorite of people who live in the area and Snowbirds. Inkslinger and terrific artist John Stevens joined us.

The drawing is of a piece of driftwood that is used as a sign to point the way to drift to the restrooms.