Been Ages…..

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Okay, so I had to bring Hubby up for an appointment. As it turns out, the facility has absolutely no place to wait. I can understand the business decision not to include a spot, but the individual providing information to the patient could have had the courtesy to explain this. However, I had intended to go somewhere for the 2+ hours, and then I remembered. A Barnes and Noble was about 15 minutes away and I haven’t been here in years. Despite being sorry that Borders didn’t survive, it is nice to know B&N did. I am having a coffee and resisting the pastries although I will get one or two for Hubby when I leave. He had to fast since 10 p.m., and something packed with sugar ought to make him smile later. Oh, this is nothing serious; just one of those routine things.

Anyway, I always get him magazines as stocking stuffers and will take care of that task. I mostly buy e-books now as we have packed all our bookshelves. I will also try to resist buying real books while here. Probably the only was to do that is not look. Continuing on……If I had thought about going to B&N last week, I wouldn’t have ordered one present for granddaughter to have under the tree when they arrive. There were only about 30 things I could have gotten her at B&N. I did buy one small thing and I do now have magazines. Hubby opted for the chocolate chunk cookie when I picked him up and the banana nut bread slice can be for later. I really wasn’t expecting traffic in Kendall to be so busy at the time on a Thursday. On the other hand, I haven’t been up for a while. At least the drizzle stopped on my way back to pick up Hubby and we seem to be done with that for the day.

Rain in the Sunshine State……

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In an unusual twist, we are in our fourth day of rain and gray skies, plus significant winds at times. A number of holiday events have been postponed or cancelled and most of us are trying to stay tucked in. As annoying as this is – and I always feel badly for events that have been planned and have to be changed – the fact is we had a mild hurricane season. The other factor is visitors who came here and cannot enjoy the outdoor activities, which of course impacts the businesses as well.

Our hope, of course, is that not only will “normal winter” return, but we that we also get a little extra warmth so granddaughter can enjoy the pool as much as she wants. She is of a height and age now one of us doesn’t have to be in the water with her if she doesn’t want a companion. Kids can generally be fine in water a few degrees cooler than we adults. Last year was the best in a while and there was really only one afternoon I was uncomfortable. I am usually the one in the water with her as Hubby is often working and the kids like to have a bit of a break.

The other point of good weather is because most of the options we’re looking at are outdoor activities – after all, that is why people come to Florida in the winter. I think I mentioned previously I especially want to take granddaughter to Coral Castle; she’s the perfect age for it. She is curious about things like it and is still the right age to enjoy climbing all over the “furniture” made of coral stone. Hubby is supposed to be off two days for a change because otherwise, we’ll have to juggle a vehicle in order to let the kids have a “date day”. Now with the Nutcracker done – and it apparently went well – they will give some thought to what activities they want to do.

Menu Planning….

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Ah, the holidays and extra to plan for. There’s Christmas Eve meal, dinner with the kids and the neighbor on their second night, then the New Year’s Eve party, New Year’s Day and probably out for lunch on the 2d; the last day the friend is here. This is the only time of the year when I consistently make hot breakfasts. This allows the adult kids to sleep in – granddaughter and I are the early birds. She gets cereal as “early breakfast” although at times she only wants milk, then it’s for real breakfast later. Weather permitting all meals are of course taken on the terrace.

Sushi is generally the first night out and dinner with the neighbor is normally pork chops and lamb chops because daughter-in-law loves lamb, but son and neighbor don’t care for it.The other two nights out will depend on mood. White Lion is a favorite because of the decorations as well as food and setting, but Exit One Taproom has possibility, too. The Hotel could be in the running, as can Capri. We’ll play those by ear.

For the first time ever, I am picking up catered dinner for New Year’s Eve. We’ve done sit-down, then just large quantities of something like sliders, along with shrimp cocktail, salmon, and three-four more heavy appetizers. This year is a brisket meal with limited appetizers – we’ll do those – before the buffet. After the main meal, I’ll put out the charcuterie and sweets just to have something for people to nibble on in the run-up to midnight.

Back to Christmas Eve. It will be the two of us and it’s usually seafood. We’ll probably do carryout from either Krab Kingz in Florida City or Red Crab. Messy, but good in either case. Christmas Day will be late lunch/early dinner – depending on how one views the time – and Hubby and I aren’t actually preparing food for this one. I will go over early to help with prep and keep wine poured for the hostess.

Unplanned Events…..

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Okay, this week is usually kind of calm with the second week of December being jammed. Not so much this year. It started out as going to be extra busy anyway, then last Thursday as I was headed to a luncheon, I was in a wreck. I have been in one bad wreck many years ago, but how things are done have changed considerably. On the good news side, neither of us was injured although my air bags did deploy. Having never been through that before, I did have a great deal of bruising and aches until a couple of days ago. Bruises are getting better, too. Vehicle was totaled, but because it was taken to a different facility since the intersection had to be cleared, that set up a disconnect between getting the vehicle picked up. Now, a dear friend came to rescue me and stayed with me as got rental car, then made first trip to the facility where the vehicle had been taken.

The main difference since last time is so much is supposed to be done on-line or “by app”, and as anyone who follows this blog knows, that is not a strength for me. I have lost count of the texts and emails and needing to get “unconfused” (I know that’s not a word) with the processes. I did check yesterday into perhaps getting a Ford Edge this time, but decided to get another Escape instead. I am really short and not all vehicle seats are designed for someone under 5 foot. You can adjust a seat up, down, back, and forth; yet not the way it hits the back of your legs. This new one is missing a couple of features I liked and has a couple of new ones that Hubby likes. What we will miss is the “memory seat” setting since we obviously need different positions for the driver’s seat.

On the Sideline With Photography….

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Just as I don’t “proud mom/grandma” too much in my posts, I also don’t often “proud wife” even though I do frequently mention Hubby. Today is the exception. I’m not the world’s worst photographer, but I’m not very good either. (Granted, the sophistication of today’s smart phones significantly help.) My husband bought his first underwater housing for a camera for scuba in the latter months we were in Puerto Rico. He took some photos in becoming adjusted to the camera and then there was a lapse during the process of our move to here. He didn’t do much with photography for a while, but this is a wonderful environment for photography.

Fast forward a few years as he did more, bought new cameras and lenses, learned the computer software for processing, printing techniques and so forth. When they established the South Florida National Parks Camera Club within Homestead Center for the Arts, that was major step as was his designation to become the primary photojournalist for our community paper. While teaching scuba is still a priority focus, photography comes in close. He of course especially loves shooting motorsports and spends much of his leisure time in the Everglades. His range is amazing and for the second year he’s exhibited at the Artz305 event one of the County Commissioners sponsors the first weekend of December. In fact, last month, he sold a couple of pieces at another event. I don’t try to understand how he does what he does, especially when it comes to printing on canvas and on metal. I admit I’m not overly enthused when he photographs insects and he makes sure not to show me any he does of spiders. Aside from that, I love his work and not long ago, we did install a gallery hanging system in the front room to accommodate more of his pieces. He has been on a couple of photography trips and that’s why we have some from areas like the Smoky Mountains.

All That Techy Stuff….

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This is not exactly rambling, merely an interesting observation. As I have mentioned on multiple occasions, my technical abilities are limited. Hubby has learned the mutterings  or even first volley of curses coming from my office might not warrant immediate offers of help. He does call out and it is often more my error – or the way the computer does those weird things like the cursor jumps around causing me to inadvertently delete sentences or passages. Not being able to locate a file is another frustration. I will go into his office to ask him to come over, or in the case of me being on the computer really early, I’ll explain the issue as we are having our first mug of coffee together. He can, in general, fix the problem or explain what I’m doing wrong.

Shifting into another associated world is that of social media. I’m marginal with Facebook and am routinely puzzled by it. I’m also marginal on Twitter – now X or whatever. I guess I have a Pinterest account set up by someone and have never used it. I don’t have Instagram, YouTube, nor any of the many others and I am fiercely opposed to even logging on to TikTok. I do go onto YouTube at times. From a financial perspective, I do have Square although it’s been so long since I’ve done a transaction, I’m not sure how to do so any more. Hubby has Venmo and I think he finally added Zelle because so many people use it. I can’t bring myself to do any of those.

The fact is all of this changes so much and so often I don’t have the desire to learn how to do it. I’ll probably be forced into a few more things as the “old-fashioned way” can become literally obsolete. After all, I do still have a bunch of hard disks with files and no idea of how those could be accessed. Oh, speaking of changes, it never occurred to me our new vehicles would not have CD players. We listen to audio books when we travel and the first time we were going to take a trip in the new truck, Hubby explained we couldn’t do CDs any more. He has the deal where he downloads audio books and then plugs his phone into the truck to play them. Once again, I have yet to make that happen on my phone. Maybe that can be a task for the new year.

Even With Less Than Great Conditions…..

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Okay, so my November dive yesterday – which I wasn’t sure I would get in – started out well. Conditions had improved after a few days of wind and there weren’t many people on the boat. What should have happened was two good dives, then a leisurely waterfront lunch. Mother Nature, however, didn’t care what the forecast had showed. On the “upside” a manatee decided to come into the canal and passed under the boat twice while we were still docked. Can’t beat that for a pleasant surprise.

Trip out to the first site was okay although heading into the gray clouds made the timing tricky as to if we would get into the water before the rain started. We all did. Visibility was only about 30-35 feet, but we did see some of my favorites. Lots of blue parrots, rock beauties, little chromis, couple of queen angels, hogfish, and Hubby found a spotted drum which I hadn’t seen in ages. Toward the end of the dive Hubby found a turtle. Hooray! Came up and moved to the second site and rain had stopped. Better vis, but fair amount of surge with nothing very special although there was a nice grouper and several schools of yellow tail snappers. We all managed to get on board as the rain started up again. This time wasn’t so gentle and fortunately, everyone could fit under the covered part of the boat. The mate finally had to close the plastic forward curtains. The temp dropped some and it was right on the edge of manageable for me. The poor folks who didn’t have as much “natural insulation” were chilled. Surface conditions had kicked up too, so ride in was bouncy.

Hubby did have his rain jacket with him and told me to stay on the boat as he off-loaded everything. He did say he was okay with going in search of conch chowder instead of straight home and I gave up the idea of lunch out in favor of heading to the house. The rain had pretty well stopped except it was moving north which meant rain on the way home. This is when seat heaters in the truck came in handy. Ah well, so it goes. This photo was from a previous dive, but also a Key Largo reef.

Juvenile Spotted Drum on reef off Key Largo, FL

Double Turkeys……

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Okay, this year is definitely a bit different. While we frequently travel to Georgia for Thanksgiving, this is a year when we had already planned not to. When we stay here, we usually go over to friends who live in a neighborhood we could walk to if we weren’t carrying a platter of fried turkey. (Our contribution to the feast).

As it turns out, the unexpected loss of a friend added another aspect. The friend had been struggling with health issues, however, the rapid decline last month took us all by surprise. The couple has no children nor family nearby. I’ve been helping a fair amount and for those who have ever suffered a loss right before the holidays, it can be especially difficult. In order to try and bring some semblance of “normal”, we’ll have Thanksgiving lunch at our place for this friend, a neighbor, and another friend who will travel for Christmas, but be alone this week. Nothing elaborate and that will still provide time for Hubby to do the second turkey for the late afternoon at our other friends.

I’ll do a traditional roasted turkey with only the basics for noon – turkey, ham, dressing, kicked-up mashed potatoes, rolls, and apple pie. Friends are bringing cranberry sauce, green beans in some form, and cheesecake. Timing the oven temperature will involve putting the apple pie into the oven between 7:30-8:00 in order to get it done, then turn the temp down to 325 to manage everything else. It will also mean making the herb butter the evening before as Hubby does the chopping and I don’t want him to have to deal with that part on Thanksgiving morning. Oh, I’m not doing the dressing from scratch – am using one of the Publix ones from the deli case. Also not doing potatoes from scratch (never do). Those are again refrigerator ones that I add butter, sour cream, maybe milk, salt and pepper and bake for approximately half an hour.

I will remember to pick up cold slaw and potato salad at Publix today though for Hubby to have to go with turkey sandwiches later.

 

 

 

Back From Orlando…..

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Well, Mother Nature was not as kind to us on the trip home although the intense storm that ranged in from Broward County through the Upper Keys did get much worse after we arrived home. We had decided to have a big breakfast and not do an actual lunch stop which helped time-wise. The rain set in for about the second half of the trip. The truck certainly won’t need to be washed for a while.

Okay, the Big Fire Grill was the more casual “best place” we dined. It was at City Walk and there was both a fire pit outside with seating around it and by a stroke of luck our table inside had one of the best views of the open kitchen with an elaborate grill set-up. I’d never seen one like this although Hubby said he had on one of the big BBQ TV shows. It was a double grill with a rack above to move food to that required different cooking times. They use a mix of three woods for grilling and at one point, we did watch the guy move extra wood to the grill to “feed” the fire. We ordinarily would have had two different dishes, but in this case, there was a bison steak and that plus the trout were the only items we can’t get here. Since we regularly get good seafood, we both did the bison. It was perfectly cooked and had fig jam based sauce which we expected wasn’t going to be very “figgy”. We were correct and it was delicious. The potato gratin side was excellent and done with stacked thinly sliced potatoes, a couple of different cheeses and topped with a Parmesan cheese sauce that we think had a little nutmeg as flavoring. We did resist dessert and stuck with coffee. If we lived in the area, we would recommend Big Fire Grill for anyone.

 

Orlando Trip, Day 3…..

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Okay, Cowfish first for last night’s dinner. Apparently it is actually a regional chain; Sushi, Burgers, and Bar. Yes, I know, but it is an intriguing idea and the menu is pretty extensive. Modern decor and furnishings, bright colors. They did have chicken and pulled pork sandwiches as well as burgers; no entree type dishes. Also only sweet potato fries and other sides like Spicy and Sweet Thai cucumbers. Hubby decided to go with a sushi sashimi combo and it was nicely presented; excellent quality according to him. I mis-read the menu and went with something that was a “take” on a burger and it was a mistake so I won’t even describe it. I disassembled enough to have a light meal and what I ate was good.

We started a bit later today and went to Universal Studios Park. We did a few things and the main rain did fall while we were inside. A light drizzle lingered as we went to Lombard’s Landing for lunch, but lifted and no more rain for the day. It was a lovely restaurant in the “San Francisco” area. Clam chowder for Hubby and onion soup for me helped with having just come in from the drizzle. Lobster rolls won out although everything on the menu sounded good. We had some time before the movie we were planning and decided to take Hogwarts Express back to the other park as one last piece of Harry Potter fun. We took in “A Haunting in Venice”, the most recent of the Hercule Poirot movies. I generally like Kenneth Branaugh, but simply cannot get used to him in that role. The movie was good of course and the theater had the same leather reclining seats as in the ShowBiz theater in Homestead.

We’re off soon for dinner at Big Fire Grill. Like Cowfish, it was not here during our last trip. No possibility of mis-reading the menu tonight as everything is traditional.