Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Good thing I have to write the date here. Practice for writing the new year LOL.

Fort Lauderdale is so beautiful on the beach. It is overbuilt a bit with high-rises but SO MUCH nicer than Miami Beach IMHO. I liked Miami Beach when eldest DD and I were there in mid-2004 but I feel like it has changed a lot. I don't feel comfortable walking around a lot of areas in Miami, but most are pretty safe here.

We went to a restaurant we had not visited previously that I found on a list of romantic restaurants. It was a little Italian place on a side street in a sort of strip mall. What a find! Small, with a cozy atmosphere. Super friendly Italian waiter and phenomenal food and wine. And the meal with wine and dessert was just over $100. Amazing!!!!

And to highlight the safety, as we were leaving the restaurant in our Uber, we saw a bicyclist on the side of the road and recognized him as a friend (and our travel agent). We had already planned to have breakfast with him and his wife tomorrow but what a coincidence to run into him in a place filled with people.

We are on the balcony jus****ching the sun rise over the water. This is a really lovely place right on the beach. In an hour we will take a long walk - maybe check out where DD and her BF may stay at the end of the month and get breakfast. Just a lazy day basically.

Sunrise from our balcony this morning:

Have a winning Wednesday.

What a beautiful view!!!!!

Also, SIL sounds better today - she slept well and had more energy. Hopefully the trend continues.

Liz, so glad to hear you are having some relaxing days!

Another snow day here. I am grateful for the option of flex days, we post online assignments, and it can be counted as a school day. No danger of having to go longer at the end of the year.

Last night we booked our Florida getaway. We are going to Orlando instead of the beach because that was the only destination that worked for our companion ticket in our travel timeframe. As it was, I had to change dates, originally I had my dates coordinated with Presidents Day weekend, but school required I be back the following Tuesday (wouldn't let me use a personal day) and airlines wouldn't let us use companion ticket at all on Presidents Day etc. so we will go for 5 days instead of 6 February 22-26. Also, hotels are substantially cheaper. After our blow out in NYC, I need to prove to myself that I can economize too. Mostly I just want to feel the sun on my face, and by the end of February, it should be comfortable enough to swim in a heated pool in Orlando. Lovely to think about the Florida sun on a day like today.

So, to keep me trudging through winter, we go to Amherst, Ma for a 3 day weekend in January, Florida for 5 days the end of February, and then Texas (I think) the first week of April for Spring Break. Not too bad for a semi retired shopkeep and his teacher wife.

It should be plenty warm by the pool in Orlando in late February. It is warm enough a majority of the days every month:

True! And another nice thing about pools in Orlando hotels is that they are usually wide open during the day, because most people are off at Disney, or Universal, or the water parks in the area. When they all start returning, we go out in search of dinner and music :)

Greetings all

Our power just came back on after 8 hour outage. We are having a storm and it does not seem that bad but I guess there was serious wind in the night. San Fran is getting the worst of the storm (Peps?) but ours is not so bad. No flooding though I worry about the studio as it is elevation 10 feet. Anyway I am grateful for the electricity though it removes the excuse for not cooking. The health food store has generators so it's open in the worst.

So I spent the day playing games and spoiling the old dog. We do have battery packs to charge phones, hea****er for coffee, run the refrigerator etc. And I now know how lucky we were that they removed that tree yesterday. It might have been on our roof after that wind last night. And I poke fun at DH for all his gadgets but he really has the stuff to get through the power loss. Like the flash light he had to show me at 7 am.

DD sounds like the snow day was well planned and worked out. And glad you are planning your Florida trips. Ditto Liz, love your photo of Ft. lauderdale.

Not much else. I had planned to take new stuff to the gallery today but too much rain plus they might have lost power too. It can wait.

I got a steak yesterday that looked good. Guess I will cook that tonight, now that the stove works.

My brother told me that 50 Minutes had a show about some new weight loss drug. Is that the one you are considering Liz? Have no****ched the show yet but will do so.

Peps stay dry. Enjoy the eau d' wet Airedale. Diane S

The thing I worry about is that some of these weight loss drugs are diabetes drugs first and foremost and that now people who need them for they real purpose can't get it. I don't want my desire to be thin to put someone else's life in danger. If they can get the supply chain worked out, I would consider it!

Nice day here. I went on what was supposed to be partly a hike to a Native American cliff dwelling after a tour of an archaeological museum, but it was too muddy to get to the site, so it ended up just being the museum that was very interesting. After was a grocery trip and tonight we went out for Chinese food. We were supposed to go to a great Italian restaurant, but it turns out it's closed until the 10th.

Ha, nothing like discussing weight loss drugs, Chinese food and Italian food in the same post!

Not much else to report. Hope you all are well! Liz, your location looks beautiful!