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Are you taking Justice to the Keys Liz? We have never visited there. I know there is a boat trip there from Fort Myers. Too much to do for a day trip?

Brrrrrrr! It is chilly here! No real outdoor activities today. We did make some food to support a homeless ministry our church partners with. I brought 2 huge pans of brownies and 6 pounds of cooked frozen mixed veggies! Then we went out to eat! The irony of that! For the cost we could have fed many more people! Oh well, we still did good even if we splurged on ourselves!

We also checked out a flea market/antique shop place that has lots of booths with different vendors. We will check out another one tomorrow. I'm thinking I might try to sell my photography at one of them. I won't do the high end stuff (that also costs me a pretty penny) but rather things like photo cards and smaller framed or matted prints. Things I can print on my home photo printer!

Tomorrow I also have a consult with an oral surgeon for an extraction and eventual implant. Dang expensive dental work. A friend of mine was just telling me that many menopausal woman have dental problems. I never realized there was a correlation between lack of estrogen and dental problems. Yay! More to look forward to!

Such an industrious husband you have! Glad you were able to salvage the dinner!

Your trip reports both here and FB have been delightful. Thank you for sharing with us!

The plans for your parents house sound fantastic!

Looking forward to hearing more about your measuring suit the more you use it! Wedding ready bid here you come!

I've found the last week in January in Florida to be surprisingly cold back in the day when we visited during that time period. Not a bad time to head to Key West! And the cold weather won't last long.

Peps you asked about how it feels to be away from home right now. The news is terrible, but I am also so proud of my people. But selfishly, I am happy to be having a break from all the sad things. Today I felt melancholy remembering my Mom bought me a dress from Amazon to wear in Brazil. I thanked her profusely, but inside I was sigh, she chose something I never could wear as it had a deep open back that wouldn't accommodate any bra. But I thought, I'll bring it, and take a picture. The dress did not come along , but today I thought about how this was how my Mom's way to tell me she was sorry she had given me such a hard time all summer about traveling. It will hang in my closet for the foreseeable future.

Today was the first day we were completely on our own. We got up late ish, got ready and walked uphill for several blocks to a cafe we picked from the internet. It was hot, 93, and they thought we were crazy because we wanted to sit outside, but there was a fan and it was shady, so we were quite comfortable. The downhill walk back to our apartment was pleasant as this is a city of trees and shaded sidewalks. We relaxed by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. The pool is not your standard shape, it has a shallow rectangle which is for the purpose of cooling off, and then a long deeper pool, but it is only the width of a lane, a lap pool of sorts. It works fine for me because no one seems to be using it during the day, so I can swim and float in the lap pool.

Right now DH is making a pizza without an oven! LOL we didn't notice there was only a cooktop until we come home with a take and back pizza. He tried two strategies: he cooked the pizza in a fry pan with a cover, and he put another hunk on a panini press propped open with a spoon so the top of the press wouldn't touch the cheese. Both worked really well, in fact the crust might be better than oven baked.

We are enjoying our time here so very much. We could easily see returning other winters for 2 months to this very rental.

I imagine that this will also be an exorbitant amount because of how expensive building materials have become, but if it means my dad and his wife can stay in the house longer, why not? They don't have to provide for lots of kids when they are gone and I don't need it. As it stands, if either of them lost their mobility right now, they would be in big trouble in that regard. Accessibility was not a priority in 1915! Nor was it for the young family *****novated it in 2000. They updated a lot in terms of electrical, plumbing, windows, insulation, heating, etc. But left as much as possible intact from the original, which means getting into the house didn't change nor did the size of the bathrooms and closets.

Updating my bathrooms is not really a necessity, but my shower needs to be rebuilt due to floor damage, in which case it seems like a good opportunity to change out the things in the rest of the bathroom that bug me, which are pedestal sinks with no counter space, no storage, and cheap fixtures and tiles that have cracked.