Update Dec. 6 - 13

No huge adventures this past week. I think we've kind of settled into a routine ... morning coffee on the lanai, errands, workouts at Planet Fitness, Netflix and/or Scrabble tournaments at night with Hawaiian slack guitar playing on Pandora in the background. Plus, we're maybe suffering a little economic hangover from spending some big bucks on travel plans, which this past week included $600 worth of Key West Express travel vouchers. Here are some highlights.

Tuesday Dec. 8 -- Key West Plans, Dinner and a Movie

Today, Dawn and I went to Key West Express Marina and bought six of the $99 specially priced round trip travel vouchers aboard their big boat that ferries passengers (no vehicles) between Fort Myers and Key West. Four of the vouchers are for Dawn and three friends that will be visiting in late Feb. They are planning an overnight in Key West. The other two vouchers are for Dawn and I, and we'll be taking an overnight trip there in late January as sort of a "test run." We've yet to book our hotel, and by the looks of things we better do this pretty soon, as the prime hotels tend to fill up quickly. We're looking at about $400 for a hotel for one night. There are cheaper places, but they are beyond comfortable walking distance from the historic district and Mallory Square (where we want to watch the sunset).



The Key West Express is a large catamaran style boat; the company actually has three of them in their fleet: small, medium, and large that are 140, 155, and 170 feet long, respectively. The round trip tickets are normally $154 each ($124 if purchased 8 days in advance) so the $99 sale is quite a bargain. The trip takes 3.5 hours each way. The sailing from Fort Myers leaves at 8:30 a.m. and gets you to Key West at noon, with one stop at Marco Island. The return voyage departs 6 p.m. and gets you back to FM at 9:30. Unless you just want to do some casual site seeing in Key West, it's best to stay overnight and catch the ferry back the next day. You get a full 24 hours and then some. So we are looking forward to this mini vacation and watching the sunset and seeing the street performers on Mallory Square.

Today, I also purchased advanced reserved seat tickets for the new Star Wars movie that opens Dec. 18. Our date is Dec. 22 (a Tuesday evening) at the cinema's VIP auditorium, which features large, reclining seats. This should be awesome, especially since it's the next in line to the original trilogy, which everyone knows is the best!

This evening, my widows/widowers group had a dinner-and-a-movie night in Bonita Springs. We were only five for dinner and three for the movie. Dinner was at Buffalo Wild Wings... not my most fave place, but OK. The movie was Mockingjay Part Two, which I really enjoyed, having seen (and read) the first three parts of the saga. Julianne Moore was excellent as the sinister, two-timing leader of the rebellion. The CGI special effects were amazing.

Friday Dec. 11 -- Farmer's and Flea Markets

Today was probably our biggest day of week, activity-wise.  We started with the farmers market, with sis driving and me riding my bicycle. The first crop of strawberries were in, and they were delicious. It's still amazing to me that we get locally grown strawberries here starting in late Dec. while in Wisconsin we have to wait until June! Anyway, we split a pint box of them, along with bagels and coffee.

We met back at the apartment to reconnoiter. I had about an extra mile on my bike ride back to the apartment due to a detour in the park, so I needed about half an hour to cool off and rehydrate. We then went shopping in search of a bedspread to put on top of the quilt of my bed as a covering against kitty hair. Abby is shedding like crazy, plus she seems to have a nervous habit of licking the quilt. After finding none at Fleamasters, we found an acceptably one at a Salvation Army thrift store for $1.50. Better to have her shed and lick that than my $65 quilt. Plus I can wash the $1.50 blanket here at the apartment. The quilt has to go a laundromat. Dawn insisted on giving the blanket an initial run through the washer/dryer, fearing someone may have died in the blanket and/or had sex on it.



At Fleamasters, we also visited with "Chris the Book Guy" (and I bought a Jack DuBril adventure novel from him for a dollar) and we also had lunch. Dawn had a sensible Greek salad, while I went off the deep end and had a giant donut drizzled with vanilla cream and chocolate sauce (to simulate a Boston Cream Pie), and sprinkled with walnuts. Completely canceled out the bike ride, and then some!

Ran a few other errands, including the bank to get a little cash for a watch collector's meeting here in Fort Myers tomorrow. You never know what I may find!

For dinner this evening, I cooked up a batch of lemon-garlic shrimp over pasta, which is turning into one of our most favorite dishes.

Saturday Dec. 12 -- Watch Collector's Meeting, Dinner at Mel's Diner

Today was a meeting of NAWCC Chapter 98 (Calusa) watch and clock collectors, held at the nearby Myerlee County Club. It was, for the most part, a bust, and I spent zero dollars and only did one trade with the only other fellow wristwatch collector to attend the meeting. I was there for about an hour, and then had my gym bag packed and in the car, and headed to Planet Fitness for a workout, shower, and shave. I declared this evening "cook's night off" and we went to Mel's Diner for dinner. Dawn had a Cobb salad, and I had an order of their delicious baby back ribs, which are slow baked with a mild BBQ sauce, and are fall-off-the-bone tender. A full rack is accompanies by fries and 'slaw. Delicious, I splurged again and had carrot cake for dessert along with coffee. Back at the apartment, we had a rousing 3-game Scrabble tournament, then watched a little TV (Netflix/Hulu) and then off to bed.

Sunday Dec. 13 -- Groceries, Packer Game

Today, we had breakfast out on the lanai of oatmeal laced with pecans and dried cranberries, and coffee. I also had a grapefruit, peeled and sectioned. Dawn is laying off the grapefruit for the time being due to cranky bowels. We're doing a big grocery run for the upcoming week, then going to "Bucket" bar and pub to watch the Packers play the Dallas cowboys.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with the giant Toyota dealer here in Fort Myers (Auto Nation) to do the 30,000 mile scheduled maintenance on the Prius.

That's all for now.

Bruce