A Whole Lot of Not Much

We bid Karen adieux after a nice lunch.  Then Jan and I completed the trifecta of doctors; family, eye, and hearing, good for another year:-)

Jan, of course kept the delicious food coming.

Excellent shrimp, chinese sausage, and bok choy fried rice

Soy Sauce Chicken and Noodles

Shrimp burgers

Our friend, Ray is keeping Jan in puzzles which she loves and completed another.

We usually buy new iPhones every 2 years, it works for us, that's when Applecare expires, and we are able to get a very good trade-in on our old phones, but this year we had another goal.  2 years ago we switched Jan from AT&T to Verizon with the idea we would get better coverage on our travels with both carriers.  It actually was a dismal failure, we had nothing but awful coverage from Verizon almost everywhere we went, not what we expected at all.  AT&T ruled, so we changed her back, and icing on the cake saved about $50/month in the process. 

After the Apple store we found a new Thai restaurant that was great, Thai Seed in Sarasota.

Tom Kha, probably the best we ever had

Chicken satay

And Thai Seed shrimp

We met an old friend from AirTran, Keith in Winter Haven and had yet another delicious Thai lunch, yeah I forgot pictures:-(  We had a great visit catching up and in his travels had found an interesting place just up the street that he shared with us.

Down here in Florida and most of the south Publix is the premier grocery store, one of our absolute favorites.  Interesting that the first store was so innovative and located in Winter Haven, FL.

We have enjoyed many happy hours and lots of lunches with friends and family, one of the best things down here, and usually we enjoy a pretty sunset each evening.

I even splurged on the way home from Winter Haven with the best strawberry milkshake in the whole world at Parkesdale Market in Plant City famous for their strawberries.  So, so, good!!

The next few weeks will include several projects which I'll be sharing as we complete them.  Also we are firming up our traveling plans a bit and making reservations, as I've said each year requires them to be made sooner and sooner.  Til next time.

A Very Quick Update

Kind of quiet.  Jan and I with Tom brought in a prosperous, healthy, and bright New Year with our traditional pork, collards, black eyed peas, and cornbread dinner, the luscious peas and cornbread provided by Tom.

Jan and I have been busy scoping places out around the area and since our travels took us up to Tampa we had lunch at the famous Taco Bus, a place we hadn't been to in years.  We are happy to report it was as good as we remembered.  Pork and chicken tacos, and a seafood burrito.

Jan's sister Karen came to visit for a week or so, and their kids also popped in and out, and although they came to see their parents, we got to visit with all of them as well.  It was great.

Karen and son Jordan and Meg

Other son Walker, no pic of Mirasol, unfortunately

Tom and I absorbing it all

It was nice having everyone here and we got to keep the economy moving as Karen and Tom, and Jan and I went out to lunch virtually every day:-)

Our entry carpet had seen better days so Jan and I made a template, got some carpeting and made a new one ourselves, turned out pretty good.

Then before Karen left, we all met old friends, Steve and Bobbie for a nice lunch in Sarasota at Marina Jacks.

Tom, Karen, Bobbie, Steve, and Moi

More to follow.....

Happy New Year!

A new year, what will it bring?  We are hoping there will be quite a few changes this year.  We have a lot of plans that I will reveal as they develop.  Not sure if the stars will align and let us accomplish what we would like, but it will be fun and challenging to find out.

After we returned from our epic trip to Buffalo to get rid of our storage unit, only one thing was left to do, toss the trash, donate some clothing, sweep the floor and go in and tell them we were done, and then, CELEBRATE!  So nice to have that monkey off our backs.

Other than that we haven't been doing too much yet, other than eating and visiting.  A lot of folks went home for the holidays, so it's been a bit quiet here.  Jan has been cooking a bunch, as usual, and we have gone out and tried some new restaurants as well as the regulars.  Different vibe here this year, don't know if it is a result of Ian, or just the normal evolvement in the park.

We did do something out of the norm for us.  I got an invite to be able to buy a bottle of Blanton's, perhaps my favorite bourbon, basically unavailable anywhere for being a loyal customer of Total Wine, one catch though, I had to pick it up in Kennesaw, GA:-)  500+ miles one way.

We thought initially, oh well, but the more we thought about it, especially now that we are footloose and fancy free since we said goodbye to Bert, why not?  We asked our good friends, John and Diane if they could accept visitors, they said yes, and off we went for a very nice visit, some great bourbon, good cigars, and of course the bottle of Blanton's.  Fun!

Spending quality time in their beautiful home

And John and I TRYING to solve the world's problems:-)

So now I'll leave you with something very different, food pictures, as we start working on several projects which I will share going forward.

Awesome fish chowder following Helen's recipe, 
a great restaurant in Machias, ME

Part of our lunch at a new place, Deep Lagoon
shrimp tacos and conch fritters

And a very good clam chowder

A fantastic beef stir fry with bok choy and glass noodles

Part of the prep

A shrimp and snow pea stir fry

And finally Jan and my very quiet, but nice, Christmas dinner.

So enough for now, and of course, the posts will come a little more infrequently now.  I'll catch you up on our projects and eventually our future plans for the new year.