Special to The Laker/Lutz News

 

A book to rekindle that romantic spark

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Local author Kim Moore said she learned early in her marriage about the importance of setting time aside to spend alone with her husband.

The Land O’ Lakes woman said she and Doug, who have been married for 34 years, were good about that at the start.

“But then what happens is, OK, you have date night once a week, you go out to eat once a week; what do you do now when a special occasion rolls around?” Kim said. “You go out to eat again? … I felt like all of my Valentine’s, anniversaries and our birthdays were all looking the same. ‘Want to go out to eat, honey?’ ‘Sure, let’s go out to eat.’ ‘Where do you want to go out to eat?’ ‘I don’t care.’”

In an effort to break that pattern and inject a little more pizzazz into her marriage, Moore decided to do something inventive.

She began creating what she calls roomscapes, which incorporate room décor, food, lighting, music and attire aimed to set the mood for romance.

“The very first one was probably done about 11 years ago,” Moore said.

She decked out an upstairs balcony in a Caribbean theme.

“It was our anniversary. I took him up there and he was like, ‘Wow, this is gorgeous.’” Her husband’s reaction was so positive, it encouraged her to create other theme celebrations, which prompted him to urge her to write a book to inspire other couples.

Moore resisted the idea of a book initially.

“I told him for two years, ‘I don’t know how to write. I’m a decorator,’” said Moore who owns a home decorating business called Southern Interiors.

Eventually, though, she decided to give writing a try.

She began her book in January 2008.

She perused other decorator books for layout and organizational ideas and joined a writer’s group to strengthen her skills. She also hired professionals to help design, photograph and edit the book, including Mary Rathman, an editorial assistant at The Laker/Lutz News, who proofread the pages.

After more than four years of work, Moore self-published a 119-page, full-color book, called Now That’s Romantic! Intimate Themed Dinners for Special Occasions.

While many books offer recipes for romantic meals, Moore created a detailed guidebook to create the mood for intimacy.

The book provides plans for six romantic getaways couples can have at home. She names these themed celebrations for two, including Caribbean Cabana, Hearts on Fire and Santa Baby.

Moore offers readers step-by-step instructions on how to pull it off.

In her Valentine’s celebration, Hearts on Fire, Moore provides a checklist of items needed to create that special mood.

She also provides specific instructions for setting the table, for the décor and lighting, sounds and scents, what to wear for men and women.

While food is part of the equation in Moore’s romantic roomscapes, she keeps that element simple.

She suggests combining takeout foods with a few homemade touches to keep the focus on fun and one another.

Moore also shows readers what she’s talking about with full-color photographs.

She staged the scenes featured in the book at her home and her sister’s home.

The photographs depict elegant settings and creative approaches, but Moore said she deliberately kept plans easy to achieve.

“I didn’t want it to be intimidating,” Moore said. “I really want it to be doable. …I tried to use things that people can find. You don’t have to have specialty items.”

Moore credits her mom, Shirley Perez, of Odessa, for influencing her imaginative nature.

“My mom’s very into being creative and thinking outside of the box. She was always into doing fun things around the holidays that were unique and different,” Moore said.

Moore hopes her book will inspire people to tap into their personal creativity and put their own spin on her suggested roomscapes.

People can use as many or as few of her ideas as work for them, Moore said. The main idea is to help find ways to re-awaken the ardor that brought them to together in the first place.

Some couples will want to play it safe, and others may choose to be more adventurous, Moore said. As couples use the book for guidance, they may choose to expand their comfort zones as times goes on.

So far, Moore has been marketing her book through women’s shows, holiday shows, on her website and on Amazon.com. She has also been asked to speak to some women’s groups at churches, and she’s willing to give talks to civic or other clubs too.

While she wrote the book she thought her target market would be couples that had been married for years looking for ideas to rev up their romance. But the book has found another market. It’s been a popular choice as a bridal shower gift or a wedding present, she said.

She has been pleasantly surprised.

“It was to spark older couples’ imaginations,” Moore said. “I figured in the beginning, you don’t need it.”

 

Buy the book

The book sells for $29.95 and is available on Amazon.com or through Moore’s website, www.NowThatsRomantic.com.

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

It’s an annual occurrence that doesn’t happen on a particular day or last a specific amount of time, but it has an undeniable impact on Zephyrhills.

Each year, typically starting near the end of October, thousands of winter residents begin trickling into the city near the eastern edge of Pasco County.

The part-time residents make the trek largely because of the promise of Florida’s sunshine and warmth. They head south to escape the bone-chilling winter they would experience if they remained in such places as New York, Connecticut and Canada.

Once they arrive, the winter residents typically stay for months.

They make their presence known through increased traffic on area roads, longer lines at grocery stores, crowded restaurants and swelling congregations at churches.

Many live in the scores of recreational vehicle and mobile home parks that straddle US 301 and SR 54.

Bob Winters, of Winters Mobile Home Park, said the first influx of residents to Zephyrhills came after the Civil War when soldiers were looking for a place to settle.

The soldiers became farmers, and friends and family from other locales came to visit, eventually leading to seasonal residents.

Madonna Jervis Wise, a local historian, said Zephyrhills has attracted seasonal tourists since its inception.

An early promotional flyer described Zephyrhills as “The colony that made good” and called it “The land of flowers and cool breezes.”

In 1910, the visitors were known as “Tin Can Tourists,” according to an excerpt of a local history book called “Zephyrhills,” written by Wise.

The development of railroad lines and automobiles boosted area tourism, said Winters, whose family has owned the city’s oldest mobile home park since its establishment in 1950.

The number of winter tourists has ebbed and flowed during the years, Winters said, noting, “just prior to the Depression, there was quite the tourist boom.”

Wise also noted another boom time in her book: “The 1950s brought a significant and steady influx of seasonal folks that established an increasingly stronger service industry identity to accommodate the seasonal visitors.”

Among the city’s scores of mobile home parks, Betmar is the largest.

Folks living at Betmar, which opened in 1966, hail from such northern places as Michigan, Maine and Massachusetts. Some show their loyalty to their native state by posting license plates beneath their mailboxes outside their homes or displaying decorations, such as a lighthouse or a plaque.

Audrey Acciard and Marian Head, who work in Betmar’s office, said people who move to Betmar offer lots of reasons.

Many have heard about it from word of mouth or have been there to visit friends or relatives.

Acciard said her neighbor chose to move to Zephyrhills after studying weather maps and surmising that the area was least likely to be hit by a hurricane.

Acciard and Head said Betmar is well managed and offers a broad array of activities for its residents that range from shuffleboard to square dancing, golf to card games, Bible study to bingo, coffee hour to computer class.

Besides being entertained by activities, the residents also enjoy the friendships they form, the ladies said.

Throughout Zephyrhills, businesses and organizations feel the impacts of the city’s winter residents.

More items are checked out of the two local libraries serving Zephyrhills, said Pasco County libraries’ administrator Nancy Fredericks. Last year, 30,356 items were checked out in February, noticeably higher than the 26,266 items in April after winter residents have gone home.

The congregation at First United Methodist Church of Zephyrhills grows by roughly 50 percent when winter residents are in town, said the Rev. Ken Minton, the church’s pastor.

During the dead of summer, he estimates attendance ranges from 375 to 425. At the height of the winter season, though, it ranges from about 725 to 800.

Leading a seasonal church was an adjustment, Minton said.

During winter months, more people receive communion. There are also church ministries that operate only when winter residents are there, Minton said.

There are special activities related to the winter residents, Minton said.

“We do a lot of picnics for the different states,” he said. The Michigan folks, for instance, have a big going-away picnic each year.

Minton said having a congregation that comes from so many places has been a blessing, too: “We are strengthened by the energy and all of the ideas.”

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

It looks much like any other home from the outside.

But step inside a Next Gen model home by Lennar at Concord Station in Land O’ Lakes, and you’ll find a home within a home — designed to address the changing needs of today’s families.

People are living longer, and more baby boomers are reaching retirement age. A lack of jobs has caused more college graduates to return home to live with their parents. And, on top of all that, elderly people are increasingly choosing to “age in place” rather than move to retirement homes.

Next Gen homes are meant to meet the needs of these changing lifestyles.

They feature a private living space — which is a full suite that is separated, but adjacent to the main living area — for parents, grandparents, adult children or even long-term guests, Mark Metheny, president of Lennar’s Central Florida Division, said in a release.

“Modern families are often different from the very traditional mom, dad and two kids,” Metheny said. “We need homes that can accommodate more than one generation, and Lennar’s Next Gen homes offer just those capabilities.”

The idea is to provide essentially two homes for one house payment, according to the company’s marketing materials.

The adjacent suite provides privacy, but also allows family members to live near each other so they can interact as much or as little as they would like.

Two floor plans are now available for Lennar’s Next Gen homes.

One design, which the company calls Independence, has five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths and a three-car garage with 2,518 square feet in the main living area and 839 square feet in the Next Gen living suite.

The other design, called Liberation, has six bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, a two-car garage and a single-car garage, with 3,029 square feet in the main living space and 838 in the Next Gen living suite.

Both designs have private entrances into both living areas and interior access between the two.

Both designs also feature separate kitchens, laundry facilities and living rooms, too.

The Liberation also features a private, one-car garage for the Next Gen living suite.

The Independence is the company’s first example of the Next Gen floor plan, David Parker, director of sales and marketing for the Central Florida Division of Lennar, said in a release.

The company is aiming to serve a growing segment of the nation’s housing market.

“The number of multigenerational households in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent since 1990 as adult children continue to live with their parents, sometimes with children of their own or as grandparents move in with their children,” Parker said.

Prices for the homes are in the $200,000s and $300,000s.

For more information, visit www.LennarTampa.com.

 

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Trees rock.

Just ask Ryan and Rachel Mish, two Veterans Elementary students who star in a video that’s been named one of 12 finalists in a national contest sponsored by Scotties.

The siblings and their parents, Heather and Darrin, put their heads together to decide what to include in the video that was shot by Darrin and edited by 10-year-old Ryan for the contest.

The fifth-grader acknowledged that he procrastinated for several days before getting to work on the video, which was due by Nov. 30.

“We were driving the car to Thanksgiving in Georgia. While we were in the car, we all brainstormed. When we got there we filmed it at my grandparents’ house,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he spent early mornings and late afternoons editing the project after they finished the filming. He beat the deadline by one day.

The dialogue and facts presented in the three-minute video came from a brochure provided by Scotties, Ryan said.

“You could use only what was in the brochure,” he said.

Once he knew what the video would include, Ryan divided the lines of dialogue between him and his 8-year-old sister.

His strategy for assigning lines was simple.

“It was basically whether Rachel could remember it or not,” Ryan said. “If she couldn’t remember it, I took it. That’s why I was talking more than she was.”

Getting good results required patience.

“It took a lot of takes,” Ryan said.

Some scenes had to be shot repeatedly because the kids’ well-intentioned grandparents called out a couple of times to see how things were going — right in the middle of a take, Ryan recalled with a laugh.

The editing required re-arranging footage and deleting material that didn’t work, Ryan said.

He used scenic shots from family vacations to smooth out choppy places in the video and to provide transitions. He also printed facts on slides to add another element.

The siblings wax on about virtues of trees during the film.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide. They produce oxygen. They provide shade, lower energy costs and offer shelter for animals, too. And those are just some of the benefits that trees provide, the kids proclaim in the video.

At one point, Ryan mentions how trees are used to make ink, paper and toilet paper.

Then, he asks, “Can you imagine life without toilet paper?”

“Yuck,” Rachel responds.

At the beginning of the video, their feet crunch on leaves, as they run around chasing each other under towering trees near their grandparents’ home in La Grange, Ga.

At the end of the video, they’re standing on tree branches, letting the world know that they think that trees rock.

Now that the video is in and people are voting on their favorites, the entire Mish family and the folks at Veterans are urging people to watch the video.

They hope viewers will think the video rocks and will vote for it by the Feb. 15 deadline.

In this contest, voters must be at least age 18 and have a valid email address. They can vote up to once a day.

To drum up support for their video, the Mish family is using social media, and the school is sending communications home to parents. The school, 26940 Progress Parkway in Wesley Chapel, is also using its marquee to encourage people to vote for Ryan’s video.

Jennifer Gaete, an instructional technology specialist, is the one who found out about the contest and encouraged Veterans students to enter.

She’s thrilled by Ryan’s success.

If the video wins, the school will use the $10,000 in prize money to create a tree-shaded outdoor learning area where kids can have classes, and parents can eat lunch in a pleasant place when they visit the school, Gaete said.

 

To see the video and cast a vote, visit www.scottiestreesrock.com.

The Mish family also has created a website, www.treesrocktampa.com, and a Facebook page, Trees Rock Tampa. If you register on their site, they will send you daily reminder to vote along with a joke or a fact of the day.

Here’s an example of one of their jokes:

Q. What did the beaver say to the tree?

A. Nice gnawing you.

 

 

By Andy Warrener

The Laker/Lutz News Correspondent

 

Those driving by the corner of Livingston Avenue and Sunset Lane have undoubtedly seen the interesting entrance to Hot Rod’s BBQ & Grill.

The gateway and façade strike up ideas of a backwater eatery hours from civilization, but in reality, the heart of Lutz is just moments down the road.

Hot Rod’s is a family-owned business established in the late 1990s. It was started as a country store on the parcel where the current gas station sits on the southwest corner of Sunset and Livingston.

In 1997, current owner and founder Rod Gaudin and wife Helen bought the parcel next door and turned it into an eatery.

“I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant, and all I knew how to cook was barbecue,” Gaudin said.

Thus, Hot Rod’s was born.

The restaurant evolved from the humble eatery, building an outdoor porch area in 2007. Later that year, Gaudin built what he referred to as The Swamp, a huge outdoor venue with some seating, but highlighted by a music stage and a giant fish pond.

“We had all kinds of stuff in there (the pond),” Gaudin said. “We had crawfish, catfish in there. We named it Jimmy’s Fishin’ Hole.”

Jimmy Curtis is the husband of Gaudin’s daughter, Debbie. Jimmy is also part of James Taylor Curtis and the Silver Eagle Band, a local country act that plays nationally and regularly at Hot Rod’s.

The live music nights brought so much business that the pond had to be filled in to accommodate more seating and standing room.

It was sort of a shock when Gaudin, fresh off a bout with pancreatic cancer, came back to the restaurant to find his precious fishing hole gone.

“I came back from treatment and the place was all tore up,” Gaudin said.

Gaudin flexed his grandpa muscles and kept the shack front of Jimmy’s Fishin’ Hole, the Out House, the Sugar Shak and Gaudin’s Garden Gallery, which are all mementos of different phases of Gaudin’s life in Lutz, but said goodbye to the pond.

Hot Rod’s has countless décor items on the walls, but everything has a story.

Gaudin grew up on a 400-acre farm near New Orleans, which helped form the backdrop of Hot Rod’s.

“Cajuns like their food wet and hot,” Gaudin said. “We found out that’s not what people like in Lutz, so we had to change to the taste buds of the community.”

Gaudin started cooking barbecue ribs and wings, and things started to take off. To this day, Gaudin claims his specialty to be ribs and steaks.

“I hope when I die I’m wearing an apron barbecuing,” Gaudin said.

His barbecue menu evolved to include catfish, pork butt, gator, mullet, rabbit, duck, turkey and ham.

Just about everything on the menu at Hot Rod’s is a product of the imagination of the restaurant’s owner.

“We have autonomy with not being a big corporate restaurant,” Gaudin said.

Diners can enjoy dishes like the all-American burger, a 20-pound monster, 16 inches across, or maybe da pig, a barbecue sandwich with five pounds of pork and an entire pound of coleslaw. It’s free if you can finish it in one hour.

You might also want to try the redneck prime rib, which is Spam grilled and glazed with honey.

Hot Rod’s features several family-style meals that accommodate more than two eaters. There’s the hillbilly foursome and the meatfeast.

Gaudin uses oak wood, but also some citrus for smoking his steaks.

“Beef loves orange flavor,” Gaudin said.

Hot Rod’s is open Wednesday and Thursday from 11a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Gaudin said they stay open “until the beer runs out” on event nights.

For more information, call (813) 948-7988.

Dennis Realty helps Children’s Home

Dennis Realty & Investment of Lutz donated $1,000 to the Children’s Home of Tampa. The firm has been a longtime supporter of the Children’s Home, and has for the past two years catered Christmas morning breakfast for the children and staff at the facility.

 

Centex Homes unveils new floor plans

Centex Homes unveiled seven new floor plans on Feb. 2 at Stonebrier Sweetgrass on Mapleridge Drive off W. Lutz Lake Fern Road in Lutz. The plans range from 1,861 square feet of living space to 3,242 square feet. There are 85 home sites currently available at Sweetgrass, with many offering conservation or water views. Some offer both. For more information, call (877) 215-3143 or visit www.pulte.com/tampa.

 

Employer tax session

The Small Business Development Center and Saint Leo University’s School of Business is offering a Employer Taxes workshop from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Feb. 27. The session will be in Room 225 at the Donald R. Tapia School of Business at the university, 33701 SR 52 in Saint Leo.

The workshop will help employers decide whether workers are employees or independent contractors and will guide workshop participants through the tax requirements for each.

The workshop fee is $25. Seating is limited and registration is required. For more information, call (888) 929-2221 or visit www.sbdctampabay.com/training/pasco-training.

 

Goodwill to open new Trinity store

Goodwill Industries-Suncoast began site work in January on a new superstore in Trinity at the southeast corner of SR 54 and Corporate Center Drive.

The 26,000-square-foot store will employ about 47 people. It is the eighth superstore Goodwill has opened in the greater Tampa Bay area and Ocala since 2001.

 

Gulfside Regional president named to board

Gulfside Regional Hospice president and CEO Linda Ward has been named as president of the Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association’s board for a two-year term.

“I am excited to serve as the president of the Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association during this important time of health care changes not only in our state, but the entire country,” Ward said in a release. “I am honored to have been selected for this position and look forward to assisting Florida Hospices in strategic positioning for the future of Hospice and Palliative Care.”

 

Rotary Youth Exchange program

The District 6950 Rotary Youth Exchange hosted a beach party and two-hour cruise Jan. 20 for 11 inbound students from 10 countries in the 2012-13 exchange program and the 16 outbound students in the 2013-14 program who will be going to 15 countries. The outbound students will leave for a year in August.

The outbounds are sponsored by 15 of the 49 Rotary Clubs in District 6950. District 6950 thanks these clubs for stepping up to help: Land O’ Lakes, Indian Rocks Beach, Dade City Sunrise, Dunedin, Wesley Chapel Noon, Inverness, Safety Harbor, St. Petersburg West, Homosassa Springs, Central Citrus, Spring Hill Central, Crystal River Kings Bay, Sugarmill Woods, St. Petersburg and Crystal River Rotary.

 

Manufacturers association honors Buczynsky

The Manufacturers Association of Florida has honored Peter Buczynsky for his contributions toward training the next generation of high-skilled workers in Florida.

Buczynsky is president of Pharmaworks based in Odessa. He also serves as a board member on the Pasco Economic Development Council (PEDC).

Buczynsky has coached a robotics team, has hosted several industry tours for students to increase technical interest and awareness and is a board member on the Career and Technical Education Foundation and the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute Workforce and Education Board. He has also served as an advisory council member for the Banner Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

“We want more business leaders to be as excited as Peter Buczynsky is about education,” John Hagen, president and CEO of PEDC, said in a release.

 

Give to Goodwill, get $2 off admission

The Florida State Fair is offering Goodwill donors $2 off an adult admission, if they donated clothing or household items at a Goodwill location through Feb. 14.

For each redeemed discount coupon, $1 will be donated to Goodwill. The discount applies to tickets sold at the fair admission gates and may not be used for advance ticket purchases.

The Florida State Fair runs Feb. 7 to 18 at the Florida State Fairgrounds, 4800 N. US 301 in Tampa.

For a list of Goodwill-Suncoast stores and attended donation sites, visit www.goodwill-suncoast.org.

 

City attorney to speak at ENPG

Joseph Poblick, the city attorney for the cities of Zephyrhills and New Port Richey, will speak at the Feb. 26 meeting of the East Pasco Networking Group.

The meeting starts at 8 a.m. for networking, with the regular meeting starting at 8:30 a.m.

The group meets the Village Inn, at 5214 US 301 in Zephyrhills.

 

Ibis II model home opens

The Ibis II model home has opened in Oak Creek, an established Wesley Chapel community of single-family homes. The Ibis II represents the Cottage series of homes offered by Homes by WestBay. Model home hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information on Homes by WestBay, follow the company on Facebook or visit www.westbaytampa.com.

 

Women-N-Charge grants

Women-N-Charge, a group that strives to support professional women in managing their businesses more effectively, is offering two $1,000 grants this spring. Learn more about the grant opportunities at the organization’s www.women-n-charge.com/grants.

Applications are available online and are due by March 10. For more information, call (813) 600-9848 or email .

 

Hospice thrift shops Valentine’s sale

Get a sweet deal on Valentine’s Day at all five Gulfside Regional Hospice Thrift Shoppes. All items in the stores will be 25 percent off on Feb. 14.

Gulfside Regional Hospice Thrift Shoppe locations are:

—Dade City Thrift Shoppe, 37925 Sky Ridge Circle

—Hudson Thrift Shoppe, 12154 US 19 in Bayonet Point

—Lutz Thrift Shoppe, 1930 US 41

—New Port Richey Thrift Shoppe, 6117 SR 54

—Zephyrhills Thrift Shoppe, 36524 SR 54

All of the thrift shops are open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and are closed on Sunday.