Update Dec. 20-27

Dawn and I hope everyone out there who reads the blog had a happy and safe Christmas, wherever and however you chose to mark the occasion. We had a fairly quiet week here, choosing to lay low for the most part, as streets and highway in and around Fort Myers were quite busy with traffic, especially around the malls. Here's a few highlights:

Monday Dec. 21 -- Bargains and Lunch

Today we went to Miromar Outlet Mall and Gulf Coast Town Center, despite the earlier mention of crowds. I had a $10 reward certificate from Eddie Bauer that expired 12/31, and I didn't want to let it go to waste. The closest EB outlet is Miromar. Also, I was hungry for lettuce wraps at PF Changs, hence the need to go to Gulf Coast Town Center for lunch after the EB stop.

I scored big at EB, heading directly to the clearance section in the back of the store. With Dawn's help, I got two pair of dress shorts (plaid pattern) and pullover golf shirt, all for $30 after deducting my $10 reward certificate. The full retail on these items was $150, so this is quite a bargain, and fulfilled the need for some cruise-wear for the upcoming Caribbean Cruise on Jan. 9. Thanks to my friend, Amy, for this, as she always gives me her "points" when we shop at EB. EB must hate me, because I most always (99%) shop off their clearance racks, and my average bill at their checkout runs between $20 and $30. But this is one of my little frugal tricks that allows me to binge on the stuff I really like, such as travel and eating out.

We did not spend any other time at Miromar, despite the fact that it was surprisingly not crowded. We simply did not need anything else, and with the heat and humidity, were not in the mood for any recreational shopping. Instead we made a beeline for Gulf Coast Town Center, a little further north of Miromar. This has to be one of most confusing super-malls ever,  The place offers no fewer than 28 restaurants from which to choose. Most of those are located around the perimeter of the central mall on a winding road called Gulf Center Drive, filled with right/left turn only lanes that lead you down blind alleys and dead ends. We finally found PF Changs, and it was worth it. I got my lettuce wraps on a lunch special (that included two crab/cream cheese won tons) while Dawn had a sweet/sour chicken lunch special. A diet Coke ran me $2.95, which seems to be the new price point for a fountain beverage, which I find outrageous unless you're going to drink a pail of Coke, but it is what it is. New Year's resolution: Drink more water at restaurants.

Tuesday Dec. 22 -- Florida Plates and Driver's License; Star Wars

Today, Dawn went to the Florida DMV and got both her license plate, and driver's license. Wow, what a financial hit. The plate cost her $413, the diver's license $54. The annual renewal for the plate costs $75, so that is pretty comparable to Wisc. Dawn won't have to renew the plate until April of 2017. The initial registration of the vehicle ($225) is the big bite. But holy cow; no wonder there are so many people in Florida driving around in various states of noncompliance! (According to Dawn's State Farm insurance agent, one in three drivers in Florida are not insured!) The DMV also registered Dawn to vote, so I guess she is an official Florida resident now!

I had purchased advanced reserved-seat tickets for Dawn and I to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Prado Stadium 12 cinemas in Estero. Tuesdays are "Super Tuesdays" at the theater, and you can get a seat in one of their VIP auditoriums for $9 (normally $13.50) and for that you get to see the movie in an oversized leather seat with electric recline. We each got a "senior" popcorn, which costs $4, and a free ice water, so we avoided the $11.25 mafia price for the normal "small popcorn/small soda."

Kathy M., if you're reading this, scroll down and skip the next paragraph because it contains spoilers. The same goes for anyone else who hasn't seen the movie and is sensitive about movie spoilers, or for anyone who doesn't give a crap about Star Wars.

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We both thought the movie was fantastic. Great story line, awesome special effects. Lots of action sprinkled with just enough humor, pathos, and references to earlier episodes of the saga. We both really liked Daisy Ridley's character of "Rey," but also thought John Boyega and Oscar Isaac, as "Finn" and "Poe Dameron" (respectively) turned in great performances as newcomers to the saga, and we'll be seeing them again in the next episode which begins filming in Jan. 2016. It was great to see Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and "Chewy" again. Poor Mark Hamill only got a cameo at the very end, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of him in the next episode as he becomes the mentor to the new Jedi protege, Rey. I literally gasped when Han Solo was killed in such cowardly fashion by Kylo Ren, Han's and Leia's son no less. I knew Han's time in the saga was coming to an end, but I thought he might die in a more glorious, noble fashion.

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OK, Kathy M. and other spoiler averters and Star Wars agnostics, you can continue reading again.

Thursday Dec. 24 -- Pincher's Crab House

I declared a "chef's night off" this evening, and we went to Pincher's Crab House for dinner. Earlier in the day, following a working at Planet Fitness, I had gone to our favorite Pincher's location on San Carlos Blvd., and purchased two $25 gift cards. They had a promotion going on where you got a $5 reward coupon for every $25 gift card purchased. So at dinner time, we took those gift cards down to Pincher's and had a delicious meal. Dawn had a shrimp platter, and I had a pound of large stone crab claws. This has become one of our favorite restaurants, and probably most favorite seafood place. The stone claws present some work, but are totally worth it. And now, we have $10 in coupons to use on future visits.

Friday Dec. 25 -- Christmas Day

We started with breakfast at the apartment of cheese omelets, sausage links, toast, and plenty of coffee. We then nostalgia binged on Netflix and Hulu, consisting of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular (filmed in 2007, by the way), the "Festivus" episode of Seinfeld, and the two-part Family Guy where Stewie attempts to kill Santa Claus. In the evening, we watched "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

In the middle to this, we had 1 p.m. reservations at the Sunflower Cafe, and the place was packed. We were squeezed into a long row of tables, which could be configured into anything from a two-top to a table for 12 simply by pushing together tables, or separating them, sort of like on a cruise ship dining room. They had prepared a special Xmas day menu, with about a dozen entree choices on it, ranging from roast duck to prime rib. Dawn went with the traditional turkey dinner, while I had prime rib. I had my doubts about the prime rib, with this being a family-style restaurant, but it was actually quite good ... prepared medium to my order, nice and juicy, spiced just right (sometimes these restaurants WAY over do it on the rosemary), served with a nice baked potato, and salad with bleu cheese dressing. I skipped the whole kernel corn and the dinner rolls, to save room and calories for dessert. Dawn pronounced her turkey dinner delicious also, served with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and salad with BC dressing.

For dessert, we pulled a quarterback sneak, and drove over to the Perkins restaurant located next door to Sunflower, and got desserts to go. We got a chocolate eclair, a slice of peanut butter silk pie, and a slice of "Wildberry" pie, and brought them back to the apartment to share.

In the afternoon, we "Skyped" to the holiday mother ship of brother/sis-in-law's Curt and Karen's place in Madison, and video chatted with everyone there (Curt/Karen, Kris/Jim, Kathy/Bill/Cameron, Bill Miller Sr., and "Rosie," the new cat adopted by Curt and Karen). It was fun to see what they all got for Christmas, find out what they had for their family meal, etc.

In the evening, Dawn and played Scrabble and watched a little more TV, and then to bed. It was a good Christmas for us, certainly nontraditional, but what the hell is "traditional" these days anyway? We long for the Christmases of our childhood, when we didn't have any cares or responsibilities, and Christmas just "happened" as if by magic because somebody else always took care of the logistics. Those days are gone, and as we all get more fractured and separated by distance and disposition, it becomes necessary to re-invent Christmas and create new traditions of our own because the old ones just don't "fit" any more, for whatever reason. The main thing is to enjoy yourself, spend the time in the company of those you cherish, and unplug for a while from the racket and commotion of daily life.

Saturday Dec. 26 -- A Citrus Run

Only outing we did today was a run out to Sun Harvest Citrus to check out the orange and grapefruit situation, of which we are both out. The grapefruit looked spectacular, with each weighing about a pound. The navel oranges continued to look anemic and tasted rather bland, so we skipped those, and bought some "Baby O Mandarins" instead. The latter were delicious ... sweet and juicy. We had split a sub sandwich from Public Supermarket just before departing for Sun Harvest, so neither of us was hungry for an ice cream cone or other treat. So we got out of the citrus place for around $11. By the way, if you're ever in Florida near a Publix market, the Publix sub sandwich is one of the best meal deals around. Made to order. Fresh bread from their bakery, excellent hand-sliced cold cuts and cheeses, and fresh veggies. A 6-9jhalf sub costs $5.50, and for 50 cents extra they use Boar's Head meat and cheese. Go the extra, it's worth it. For 6 bucks, you'll have one of the best and low-cost lunches (or dinners) around.

Sunday Dec. 27 -- Lazy Day So Far

Just finishing the blog. Breakfast and coffee were out on the lanai, but we had to come into the air-conditional apartment relatively quickly because it's another warm/humid day today. We are finally supposed to get some relief Jan. 1. It's been near steady in the high 80s with high humidity ever since we got here, and even many (but not all) the locals are complaining about it. It's even made the papers as ruining certain vegetable crops here (lettuce, spinach, to name a couple). We have a couple of options today, including a grocery run, and the Packer/Cardinal football game, being shown at "Buckets" bar/pub around the corner. We'll see what happens.

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday break.

Love,

Bruce & Dawn