Funny Grandma

Dottie Casper, 81, is a widowed grandmother of 11 -- as well as a stand up comic. In December, she won a $1,000 grand prize and was crowned Tampa's funniest person in honor of Side Splitters' 15th anniversary. Thursday night, she performed as the special guest comic at the club that crowned her the queen of comedy. After her 10-minute set, she settles back into the audience and watches the other comedians work the room.

She was great, and made jokes about pole dancing on her cane and mistaking her denture bonding cream for KY jelly. And she was responsible for some of the biggest laughs I've had in a while.

Last Day of the Fair! Hurray!

Six hours at the Florida State Fair filled with kiddie rides, sweet snacks and a lot of walking took its toll on Spencer Nguyen, 2, of Tampa who fell asleep on his grandmother Sompong Tapthimsri's shoulder. Monday marked the last day of the fair, which after 12 days of fun at the fairgrounds is packing up and moving on Tuesday.

Oh Spencer, I feel your pain.

Valentine's Day is For the Birds

The Chilean and Carribbean flamingos at Busch Gardens' Jambo Junction took part in a Valentine's Day enrichment activity designed to peak the birds' interest. Their well-developed color perception makes them extremely curious, and they are drawn to new and brightly colored things, like the organic red rose petals zookeepers shaped into a heart in their habitat.

These birds are amazing to watch. So graceful and beautiful and curious. Except for the one little fucker that bit me.

Meet Dani

My favorite writer and I are starting an absolutely heartbreaking story on a little girl named Dani, who was removed from her biological mom's home a year ago. When the police found her she was locked in a room about the size of a closet, living in her own excrement (and that of a cat that was locked in there with her), with nothing more than a baby bottle and a bare mattress. That's apparently where she spent the first 7 years of her life.

Case workers say she's a feral child because she had never had any stimulation or socialization up to that point. Doctors say she was born with a normal brain, and because of her situation now has developed a form of autism. Her muscles had atrophied so badly it makes normal movements next to impossible. She's still is unable to speak, and is learning how to react to touch.

She was recently adopted by this amazing family, after the dad saw a picture of her. He has 5 biological sons and had always wanted a girl. He even had a dream which God told him that was his daughter. And after watching them interact, she's definitely daddy's little girl.

Creek

Got sent to one of those reenactment camps today, where people stand around in period costume and talk about who they are and give some history lessons. Fortunately for me it started to rain as I was talking to James. So we ducked inside the log cabin he built with his sons, and as he was staring out of the open front door, watching the rain came down, this is what I got.



official caption: Postal worker by day, Creek Indian by passion, James Allen, 52, of Land O'Lakes has been involved in reenactments for the last 20 years. He didn't care too much for the Civil War stuff, but fell in love with the History of the 1830s, especially surrounding the Second Seminole Wars. Allen took vacation to attend the 13th Annual Fort Dade Mountain Man Rendezvous at the Withlacoochee River Park, where he teaches people about his role as a volunteer scout for the U.S. Army.