myownplace

Pension Lawsuit Hearing Cancelled

2012-02-22T11:44:00.001-05:00

I can't believe this. After waiting over 5 months for a ruling on the case and setting a hearing for this Friday to announce the ruling; the judge has agreed to a continuance because the Gov asked for it. They want to know what the ruling order of the court is, prior to the hearing so they can prepare proper documents seeking "relief" of whatever the order is. Rick Scott is an a$$. So is Pam Bondi.

The Potential of Lent

2012-02-22T09:49:00.001-05:00

Today is the beginning of Lent. As a recovering Catholic, I was raised to conform to the various religious sacrifices and behavioral limitations of the religion. Anyway, the beginning of Lent has always been an opportunity to improve ones self by restraining from partaking in some activity that may be limiting our potential. It isn't necessarily an addiction, but it could be something that takes up way too much of your time, money, or is unhealthy. It may be you're obsessed with your smartphone, or facebook. Or perhaps you drink too much soda, coffee, beer or alcohol. Maybe you eat chocolate for breakfast everyday, or eat too much processed food, or you need to lose weight. Perhaps you watch too much TV and neglect your exercises, or skip walking the dog. It may be that you just love your new Kindle and spend too much money from your budget on Amazon.

My point of view concerning any of these activities, is that it's not a problem until it's a problem. And you'll know when its a problem. You could ask yourself, what is the one thing I could never give up for forty days? If you have one thing, it may be a problem. Is that one thing affecting your time, money, health or relationships in a negative manner? Then maybe you should give it a rest.

Thus the Opportunity of Lent, which is an article I read today among the hundreds of blogs I follow via RSS. Its about the benefits of giving something up for Lent. And the reasons have nothing to do with religion. It has to do with behaving intentially, developing empathy, confronting your excesses, gaining better self control and saving time and money. All of these are positive things and giving something up for Lent may help you.

When I ask myself what I could never give up for forty days, there are several things. If I think about giving one of them up, for instance, beer; it may create some disharmony in my relationship with my spouse. I personally think I could give up beer (after all I quit drinking soda at the beginning of the year and haven't missed it) but it will change our habit of going out weekly for wings and beer. If I give up beer, that means DH will have to drink the WHOLE pitcher of beer that comes with the wing special, instead of splitting it with me. But we could just quit getting the chicken wing special and he could just order a 1/2 pitcher or a bottle of beer. I don't drink soda now, so that leaves wine or water. And whats the point of giving up beer to just replace it with wine? So that leaves water. How dull. And cheap. I like to be frugal, but I don't like being cheap. So my choice would probably be to just skip going out to eat. It wouldn't hurt me to give up chicken wings too.

So, I'm seriously going to think about how I can improve myself by giving up something for Lent. How about you?

Pension Lawsuit Ruling due Friday 2/24

2012-02-20T07:55:00.001-05:00

Coming up this FRIDAY, FEB. 24, 2012 in the Florida State Legislature concerning the PENSION LAWSUIT:

Judge Jackie Fulford conducts a hearing next to issue a ruling in the case challenging the changes to the pension laws. The judge is reserving one hour for the hearing. The Florida Education Association, is spearheading a class-action lawsuit filed last June arguing that the state's new law requiring state employees to contribute 3 percent of their pension to their retirement violates contractual and collective-bargaining rights of employees. The FEA largely pins the case on a 1974 law that says the rights of retirement system members are "contractual in nature" and "shall not be abridged in any way." (Friday, 3 p.m., Leon County Courthouse, Courtroom 3D, 301 S. Monroe St., Tallahassee.)

HERE are the lawsuit documents.

via

Happy Birthday Hottie!

2012-02-17T07:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Grampa Scotty!

Another year has passed and this man is still a hottie. I'm posting the picture of this old hot bod far down below so you don't accidentally show the grandchildren that Grampa likes to play at the beach with his friend. Did I forget to mention that they're both wearing thongs? Men in Thongs. Yes. Because they are hotties. Can your DH wear a thong in public? When they are 53? Well, if not you better get them on some sort of workout program or diet or something.

So, happy birthday hotness. I love you and you will always be my sweethot.

(And Billy, you're next on the hot seat, enjoy your youth while you still have it.)

Don't Lose Your Groove

2012-02-16T08:23:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was the coldest of the year, with temps below freezing at night and a blustery wind blowing during the day. It was not the kind of weather we are used to here in FL. So this week, I've been lazy and drove to work, until today. I haven't been on my bicycle for a week since last Thursday. And I felt it. Its amazing how quickly you lose your stamina, health and energy when you don't use it. Just a few days off your normal schedule of walks, rides and workouts can throw off your groove. Granted, we still took walks, and we got firewood three different days in the last week - but its not the same.

At first when I got on my bike I thought I had low tire pressure. Nope they are fine. Then I imagined the wind was against me. Nope, the flags are still. Then I thought it was the steep hill I was riding up, but I've ridden up it faster in the past. It really was just me. I'm getting old (like someone else who has a birthday tomorrow), and this bike riding requires more effort than when I was twenty or thirty.

But then when I was wheeling my bike into my office, I discovered a tack in my tire.

That's my excuse.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

Here's my frugal valentine day flowers for all of you! I'm not really the type to get real excited about holidays, especially when they've become so commercialized. But everyone does seem to be happier on this cold winter day, so that's a good thing.

My dear husband is taking me to the Florida State Fair for our valentine's date. We'll see the circus and the extreme motorsports shows, and try to find some food that isn't going to totally ruin our diets, maybe a gyro or fajita. Oh, and we'll stop by to see Bobo the clown heckler, and the farm animals.

Frugal fun.

State of Florida Pension Lawsuit Update

2012-02-07T08:14:00.001-05:00

I've been keeping my eye on the progress of this court case (Senate Bill 2100) and yesterday there was an update. If you recall, last July the Florida Legislature passed a law requiring all state employees to begin contributing 3% of their salary towards their pension. A lawsuit for breach of contract was filed, a court hearing held and we are awaiting the judges decision. Meanwhile, the state began taking the money and putting it in the general revenue (not the pension fund) even though the matter is not resolved.

Well, there's been an update relating to the case. The state of Arizona also had similar legislation last year where they imposed a higher % of contribution on the employees. This resulted in a lawsuit for breach of contract. This judge was a little quicker and decided in Dec 2011, that the law change was deemed an unconstitutional impairment of employees contractual rights.

This legal opinion was submitted as a plaintiffs notice of supplemental authority for the judge to consider in her decision which was are still waiting for. We can only hope that the long time (since Oct 11, 2011) it has taken the judge to make her decision means she didn't know what the hell to do. Perhaps this very recent legal decision will sway her mind and we'll see a positive outcome to this. Hopefully, before the legislators decide to keep taking more from the state employees while they're in session now.

TGIF Sunrise

2012-02-03T07:38:00.001-05:00

Got this photo from my weatherbug app. I like to use the camera feature to see all the great places I'd rather be than at work.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is beautiful in the sunrise today.

A Crane In The Neck

2012-02-02T13:37:00.001-05:00

These lovely two birds, Sandhill Cranes have taken up residence near my office. Almost every day we see them strutting around the parking lot between cars looking at themselves in the reflection and making that weird googling clucking noise. They like to walk around the building too and stare in the reflective windows and peck at their own shadows. Oh, by the way they too saw their shadows on this groundhog day, so we're in for another long six weeks of winter. Brr. Can't take these 60 degree nights much longer,

Anyway, these birds apparently are federally protected endangered species. But that pisses a few people off, because they are a nuisance. I like them though.They don't seem to be that smart though - choosing to peck in the dirt right by the road. They seem to have no fear of people or roads or cars and I wonder if I'll find one of the flattened on the road soon.

I was talking to the security guard who tries to shoo them away from cars today. It turns out some guy in the other office here has a really sparkly car, and the birds liked it a lot and were pecking at it so much, they caused $3000 worth of damage! Two birds, go figure.

2.1.12

2012-02-01T14:18:00.001-05:00

Today is February 1st, 2012 - or 2.1.12 here in the United States; 2112 day!

From the RushCon newsletter:

SYNC UP. ROCK OUT. THE 2112 LISTENING PARTY. Tune into RushRadio.org on Wednesday February 1, 2012, at 9:12pm (in your time zone) for the world's largest streaming Rush listening party! The party will repeat 4 times, starting at 9:12pm EST, then at 9:12pm Central, Mountain, and Pacific timezones. So everyone will have a chance to join! Or heck, come for all 4 hours! The more Rush fans the better!

via Rush is a band

Saturday 2/4 - Our Next Yard Sale

2012-01-31T20:48:00.001-05:00

So, we're planning on having another yard sale this Saturday 2/4. We've been having them on a regular basis (quarterly) since we've been couponing several years now. But now they're a necessity. We have to get rid of stuff (so we can buy more). I was just entering my receipts of two shops we did tonight, one included a $15 gift card and cost $8, the other included a $10 gift card and cost $2, so we spent $10 (from overage on other shops) to get $25 more in gift cards plus more product for our sale.

One of the bummer thing about being a super great efficient couponer is that its addicting. We just accumulate way too much stuff, way too fast. I was reviewing our spending spreadsheet from the past couple years and we've pretty much doubled what we buy, but cut the cost in half. So for the month of January this year, we spent $97 in gift cards and purchased $4300 in product. And that's just one month!

Anyway, most of it is being donated and sold at our yard sales. So, if you want to stock up on lots of products like pet treats, pet food, cleaning products, crackers, health care items, personal care items, Kleenex, cold and flu remedies, cereals (lots of it!) and a bunch of other stuff just stop by on Saturday. Look for our ad for the Temple Terrace garage sale in the Tampa Bay Times for further info.

See you there!

$25 Publix Gift Card Giveaway

2012-01-26T10:50:00.001-05:00

If you shop at #Publix, head on over to my other blog and enter my $25 Publix Gift Card Giveaway, sponsored by Publix, General Mills and #Myblogspark.

Temple Terrace Referendum - Vote NO

2012-01-21T15:43:00.001-05:00

The primary voter ballot has a referendum on Temple Terrace's proposed tax incentives. It is open to all Temple Terrace registered voters, not just those participating in the Republican Presidential Primary.

All registered voters who live in Temple Terrace may go to the polls and cast a ballot for the City's proposed Economic Development Tax Incentive Program. The program provides a tax incentive to make the City more competitive in attracting new businesses, officials say. The referendum asks:

Shall the City Council of the City of Temple Terrace be authorized to grant, pursuant to Section 3, Article VII of the State Constitution, property tax exemptions to new businesses and expansion of exisiting businesses to encourage economic development and establish new jobs?

I would like to encourage citizens to get out and vote early. Vote NO for this referendum because it will mean less property taxes on business in our city, putting more of the burden on the residents and possibly increases in property taxes to cover the expenses of operating the new downtown business center. More police and infrastructure needs will increase costs. These businesses need to be responsible for the additional tax needs of the city.

The Temple Terrace Public Library, 202 Bullard Parkway, is open for early voting daily through Jan. 28 (except Sunday, Jan.22) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call (813) 506-6770 for more information about the polling location.

Swag Code Extravaganza

2012-01-13T07:32:00.001-05:00

#Swagbucks is making Friday the 13th a lucky day this week, as they hold a Swag Code Extravaganza, which means more opportunities to get reward points towards FREE stuff! It starts at 7am Eastern Time – throughout the day there will be 8 different Swag Codes, and if you can get them all, you'll have an extra 60 Swag Bucks in your account.

To make sure you don't miss any of the codes just have the swagcodespoiler send you a text message when a new code is available. Text "follow swagcodespoiler" to 40404 and you'll start getting notices. If you don't want to get text messages, you can always check http://sc-s.com/ for the code.

The first ones out already! Go get it!

The Perfect Diet

2012-01-10T08:25:00.001-05:00

Last week I downloaded a free (its not free now, costs $1.99) kindle ebook The Perfect 10 Diet to see if it was something I could do this year to lose weight. My resolution is to lose 15 lbs by my birthday in April. I haven't really been strict about my eating yet, since we're trying to get rid of the junk food in the house first.

So, I read this perfect 10 diet and it is actually a pretty good kind of diet, from a food science point of view - speaking as a former food scientist. It basically talks a lot about hormone balances and how all the chemicals, processed foods and hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup, and low fat foods with artificial additives screws up our natural hormone balance. The book claims that if you eliminate all the processed foods from your diet, you'll be healthy, lose weight and prevent yourself from getting lots of bad problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol. It doesn't recommend low carb, low fat or high protein diets. It recommends a balanced diet of essentially equal parts of carbs, protein and fats.

Our plan is to mainly get rid of processed foods in our diet. That includes soda. We usually drink 1 can of diet Mt Dew each day with lunch. Its my caffeine fix, except I've now gone four days without a soda. DH is trying to give it up too, but he's not as diligent as me so he's only giving it up on the weekend - so far. Anyway, we got this new food processor for Christmas and we've been slicing and shredding almost everything we eat with it. Its wonderful to make all our salad fixing's really quick. We baked up 12 lbs of chicken (on sale this week at Publix for $1.99/lb) and sliced it up for salads - in about five minutes. This weekend I'm looking forward to making caramelized onions (will be on sale for $1.99/bag at Publix starting Thursdsay) after slicing them up in the processor. While a new processor and the perfect 10 diet book may not ensure dieting success, its something new to try.

But last night I was sitting at the computer, I just suddenly got really tired and started yawning. I couldn't stop for five minutes. I yawned just now as I wrote that because it reminded me of how tired I was. I think I'm still adjusting to my decreased caffeine intake. I still get 2 cups of coffee in the morning, but by night time I am sure tired. It might have been due to riding my bike to work for the first time this year, or due to cutting down tree branches over the pool after work, or from walking the dog to go "recycling" last night. Or maybe all of it.

But I sure slept good.

Disney Deals

2012-01-05T08:08:00.001-05:00

Florida Residents can purchase the Wild for 3 Pass—a 3-day ticket to a Walt Disney World theme park—for just $99, plus tax! Purchase January 4, 2012 through May 21, 2012 and enjoy admission to one theme park per day on any 3 days January 4, 2012 through May 24, 2012, excluding blockout dates.* Good at any of the 4 Walt Disney World Resort theme parks!

With 3 days at the theme parks, you can enjoy magical moments with loved ones. Looking for a little extra magic? Add a 4th day for just $30 more, plus tax, with the Wild for 4 Pass!

* Blockout dates are February 18, 2012 through February 20, 2012 and April 1, 2012 to April 13, 2012. Passes are non-transferable, are only valid during regularly scheduled operating hours and exclude activities/events priced separately. No additional discounts apply. Proof of Florida residency is required for each adult age 18 and older.

___________________________________________________________

You can do this too to try to get some free days at Disney, part of their new promotion this year - they will be open 24 hours on leap day 2/29/12.

One More Disney Day Sweepstakes - You can enter every day through February 29, 2012 for a chance to win one of 60 vacation packages for 4 to either Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort. Or you can enter via text using your cell phone, type the key word "DISNEYDAY" as an SMS text message to the SMS shortcode "347639" ("DISNEY").

Duh, Now You Have A Cold

2012-01-04T09:08:00.001-05:00

The annoying nail clipper guy across the hall is snorting like a pig eating slop, honking germs and spewing communicable diseases into the very air I have to breathe. The silly thing is this dude never wears a coat when its cold, like today. A blast of cold madness has made its way to Florida and it was 29F this morning. The high will only be 56F. I wore gloves, a scarf and a heavy fleece jacket and I was still freezing.

It must be because I'm getting old (I'll be 50 this year!!) that I no longer care how nerdish I look to stay comfortable. DH told me I looked like a homeless lady with my scarf wrapped around my head. But do I care? No. But as I look back last year on my sick leave spreadsheet, I was only sick two days, one day I played hooky and the other I had a tooth fixed. I never get sick because I dress appropriately when its cold. I wash my hands at least a dozen times a day. I stay away from children and other infirm people. I use the sanitizing wipe on my grocery cart before I shop. I take my vitamin every day. I drink juice and plenty of water. I eat healthy and sleep at least 7 hours every night. I exercise daily, even if its just a couple fifteen minute walks.

All these things contribute to staying healthy and well. Try it if you get sick a lot.

Your health is your greatest wealth.

2011 4th QTR Mileage - Year End Summary too

2011-12-31T18:58:00.001-05:00

I know you've all been anxious to see how many miles we've driven each of our vehicles this year and your New Year Eve will not be complete until you read this. This last quarter we drove a typical amount of about 5000 miles between the motorcycles, cars and bicycle - but in the end it has been a low mileage year. I think it could be attributed to our slight effort to hooverize and combine some trips eliminate some errands. Anyway, we drove less than 20K miles this year, with Camry and the ST1300 compromising the majority of the miles. Again I rode my bike almost as many miles as we drove the truck, but I didn't quite hit 1500 miles this year - missing it by not riding 5 workdays. Last year my goal was 1500 miles and I was short too. So I guess my resolution for the upcoming 2012 will be to ride 1500 miles.

Gas cost about $2000 for our vehicles this year, but not really. We used BP gas cards that we got from the grocery store using coupon overage and stockpile garage sale money, so I'm claiming that our gas was not an expense to the house. So in addition to our free food and household products this year, our gas was free. Using coupons definitely can help you keep more money in your bank account to save for other expenses where you can't use coupons.

Vehicle	1/1/2011	4/1/2011	travel	% use
1998 Ford Explr Truck	65000	65600	600	14.4%
2004 Toyota Camry	70100	71660	1560	37.5%
2007 Honda ST1300 MC	2800	3970	1170	28.1%
2009 Honda 250 MC	5310	5850	540	13.0%
2009 Cannondale Q5 bike	0	290	290	7.0%
total			4160	100.00%

Vehicle	4/1/2011	7/1/2011	travel	% use
1998 Ford Explr Truck	65600	65766	166	3.2%
2004 Toyota Camry	71660	74040	2380	45.8%
2007 Honda ST1300 MC	3970	5556	1586	30.5%
2009 Honda 250 MC	5850	6408	558	10.7%
2009 Cannondale Q5 bike	0	505	505	9.7%
total			5195	100%

Vehicle	7/1/2011	10/1/2011	travel	% use
1998 Ford Explr Truck	65766	66132	366	8.3%
2004 Toyota Camry	74040	75692	1652	37.5%
2007 Honda ST1300 MC	5556	6800	1244	28.2%
2009 Honda 250 MC	6408	7202	794	18.0%
2009 Cannondale Q5 bike	0	350	350	7.9%
total			4406	100%

Vehicle	10/1/2011	12/31/2011	travel	% use
1998 Ford Explr Truck	66132	66943	811	15.8%
2004 Toyota Camry	75692	77865	2173	42.4%
2007 Honda ST1300 MC	6800	8119	1319	25.8%
2009 Honda 250 MC	7202	7708	506	9.9%
2009 Cannondale Q5 bike	0	310	310	6.1%
total			5119	100%

2011 miles	vehicle	mpg	cost/yr	cost/month
5319	ST1300	45	$412.52	$34.38
2398	Rebel	70	$119.56	$9.96
7765	Camry	28	$967.85	$80.65
1943	Explorer	15	$452.07	$37.67
1455	bicycle	0		$0.00
18880			$1,952.00	$162.67

Petition for Right of Recall - Sign It!

2011-12-28T13:05:00.001-05:00

Currently we the citizens of Florida have no legal method to get rid of the government that is bankrupting us. Our present governor has a voter satisfaction rating that is lower than any other governor and a legislature that supports or even expands on his disastrous policies.

That's why I signed a petition to The Florida State House, The Florida State Senate and Governor Rick Scott, which says:

"Whereas the voters of Florida have politicians that routinely pass legislation and take executive privilege beyond the voters' expressed desires, we demand the right to recall politicians (both legislative and executive) who fail to meet the electorate's mandates. We further demand that both the Florida constitution and city charters be amended to include the right of recall, and such right shall not be more stringently restricted than it is in other states that currently recognize the right in their respective bodies of law."

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/florida-right-of-recall?source=s.em.cp&r_by=1866217

Thanks!

Tight Jeans

2011-12-28T09:08:00.001-05:00

My jeans are a little tighter today. It seems all that yummy holiday food and big meals has found a home on my hips. I hate to start a diet as a New Years Resolution because January is a terrible time to start anything. Its dark and cold, and we're all broke after spending money on lots of things at the end of the year. And there's taxes around the corner.

We did receive a generous gift from my parents, and the thoughts of a cruise would be good motivation to lose weight. However, its not enough. It takes a lot of self discipline to succeed at your resolutions. This is how I hope to accomplish mine:

Share my efforts - Part of my plan is to tell people I'm on a diet so that they won't offer me fattening foods or expect me to say yes to their offers.
Pick a Partner - DH is a great willing partner who will join me in almost all my efforts to lose weight. He'll eat what I prepare, go for a walk after work, and wait for me to finish my early morning weekend bike ride. If you have someone who will support you and listen to you, and encourage you to get out there and exercise it is easier.
Record your actions, I use www.fitday.com to record my foods eaten, and there also lots of calorie counter apps for your smartphone that make it really easy. The numbers don't lie. My plan is to eat 1200 calories a day and these tools help me maintain. I also document my weight every few days and it makes a nice graph so you can visualize your progress. Fitday also has a place to record activities and exercise so you can see if you're burning enough calories.
Drink more water. If you think you drink enough, you probably don't. Drink more. All day consume water. It helps flush out your body and keeps you from getting super hungry.
Pick out something you want to wear. I have a lot of clothes that don't fit me quite as well as I would like. One is my favorite retro Lee jeans from high school. They are real jeans that are 100% cotton. I hate all the women's jeans they make now with stretchy stuff, you can't buy jeans that are 100% cotton anymore. My old jeans are so soft, worn out and comfortable if I weigh about fifteen pounds less. So that's my goal to wear them comfortably. I'll post a picture of me wearing them this spring if I reach my goal.

There you have it. One of my resolutions, to lose weight. What about you? Any resolutions?

Frank's Christmas Party

2011-12-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone today! We're off to another gathering with our good friends the Hope family. I wanted to share the picture of our group of friends last night at Franks party, a fun time was had by all. We miss our families but are having fun with friends in Florida. Stay warm!

Our Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-23T11:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our generous gov, we have the day off and I can write a Christmas letter. It's actually harder than it should be due to the blog being blocked at work and I can't access all previous posts to provide links for all of you, so please click a few to see cool pictures and read more detail about all our adventures.

Actually, this year we did travel some, but generally we've enjoyed our leisure time motorcycling and being mostly homebodies enjoying the pool, hot tub and chiminea fires in the backyard. Of course, couponing has continued to be our hobby and we have parlayed it into a moneymaking hobby, so much so that we've quit working concerts for spare change. We have garage sales regularly to sell the excess stockpile and the money pays for our vacations. Our new smartphone is a great tool to help with our shops using my favorite app, grocerytracker. I have never looked back after finally giving up our land line this year and getting a smartphone. I'm hooked.

Travel
We started out the year with a cruise to Mexico in February with my sister and brother in law, and then we went away for a short weekend cruise in April, then we drove to Darlington, SC in May for the NASCAR race, and we visited our families in Minnesota in September. November we attended the finale NASCAR race in Homestead. My sister and her husband joined up for another vacation this year in Naples in December.

Health
Since we're old people we have to take a moment to share our aches and pains. Scott recovered from his foot and shoulder injuries (from the motorcycle accident) and is ambulating just fine. We both were on diets at the beginning of the year (isn't everyone!) and lost about 15 lbs, most of which we've managed to keep off. I have a little plantar faciitis on my foot and I'm working on not aggravating that. We continue to walk daily and I bicycle to work each day. Remember, your health is your greatest wealth.

Wealth
This next year we are both approaching our ten year anniversaries working for the State of Florida as civil servants. We have endured a lot of crap shoveled out by our legislators and we expect it to get worse. Florida is the lowest paid and least staffed state in the nation, but that doesn't seem to stop the madness. Hopefully, there will be some semblance of a pension left when we retire. We've paid off our house and have ramped up the frugal, conserve mode to save as much as we can to make retirement as early as possible. We just have to stay healthy.

Thanks for reading and check out our blog regularly to find out what we’re up to. You can also follow me @myownplacehere on twitter for blog updates, or like me on facebook. For all you couponers, you can find frugal living updates at my other blog http://www.frugalapolis.com/ or follow @frugalapolis on twitter and of course I have a facebook page too.

Finally, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

The Firehouse Christmas Party

2011-12-21T08:34:00.001-05:00

Anyone who knows us well, knows that we love buffalo chicken wings. And the place we go to have some yummy wings every week is a cute little bar down the street. We like the staff and they all know us, and its a convenient walk on nice evenings rather than driving - because we do have a beer or two while munching on wings. Last night we wondered on down for the annual Firehouse Grill & Pub Christmas party. Here's me with the owner Bryan. The owner Carol told me it was their 22nd year there which is amazing since they've managed to weather all the City of TT rules and regulations, a long shut down due to a fire in the garbage can many years ago, and a changing neighborhood and clientele. Carol also mentioned that besides Larry & Jan, we are the 2nd most longstanding customers having been regulars since 1994, almost 18 years.

Happy Birthday Peggy!

2011-12-20T08:55:00.001-05:00

Well another December birthday has come again, this time its Scott's much older sister Magic. We had a wonderful time chatting when we visited MN this summer.

Here's cheers to you Magic, hoping you have a great birthday!

A Day on The Bay

2011-12-17T10:29:00.001-05:00

Another moment in history, last week on vacation. Boats on the bay. This day I'm not at work so I can include a link to our Naples pictures.