Florida Retirement at age 30? BINGO?

Tonight I joined the wise ladies and competed in a game of BINGO and lost. : ) But I had fun and they gave me a Christmas decoration. 2 trees covered in SNOW for the SD girl. They’ll look great by the snowmen that a couple of you gave me. : ) Missed out on full card win by one number. I had a hard time playing 3 cards at once, but the ink dobber is fun, even though half the ink is on my hands. If I start playing at age 30, I’ll be able to handle at least 20 cards per game by retirement… they had to chuckle about it being about 5 degrees while I wear my shorts. ;-) Hey, you choose to come to this website... you get to hear about the weather. ;-)

Mark Schultz Charlotte , North Carolina

On December 8 I drove to Charlotte, North Carolina to go to the “A Christmas Spectacular with Mark Schultz” at the Charlotte Convention Center . The evening was semiformal so I wore my “red” outfit that many of you are familiar with. I was quite sick that week and my mom just happened to have the weekend off from work and so she rode along to keep me company. Although she didn’t have a ticket we popped in a couple hours early so I could show her where I would be going to the concert. Some very nice people were there that helped my mom get a last minute ticket at a table with me. : ) We enjoyed a great view from our table that we had all to ourselves and the show was spectacular. It’s Mark Schultz, it’s very obvious that it’s going to be spectacular. We didn’t want to walk all the way back to the hotel so we were able to stick around and watch the sound check rehearsal that Mark and his band did. That was a lot of fun. Mark and his band go thru a LOT of work to make sure everything is just perfect for us. It was 1,290 long miles but a great road trip! Fueled with the filet mignon dinner that they served us before the show, I had no problem making it home. The autograph is of my picture that is currently on Mark's own website. : )

JUMBO GULF SHRIMP

What should every South Dakotan / new Floridian have for Thanksgiving dinner? Why JUMBO GULF SHRIMP right off the boat of course. It was my first shrimp that I cooked that were so fresh. Nothing like taking a dip in the pool before starting the Thanksgiving dinner in November.


<-- Manatee River view from pool

Florida’s Pirate Festival

Went to the Florida’s Pirate Festival. It was a great time but absolutely freezing. This was a really big festival and nobody came but us and a few other brave people. By the end of the night I was scraping any gloves or sweatshirts I might of left in there from SD just to get by. The weather pattern and the humidity level was way off that day so it really was very cold. It was my first trip over the very tall Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Poinsettias

Orban’s Nursery in Bradenton , Florida had it’s 15th Annual Poinsettia Drive-Thru and Sale on November 25, 2007. The nursery is open one day only to the public to see over 100,000 blooming poinsettias before they are shipped to garden centers for the Holidays. It was a bit difficult to find and a long ways away, and I barely made it on time but it was a fun treat to pick out my own plants out of thousands. I hear that if you plant them outside in Florida they will grow really tall up a house. I’ll have to keep you posted.

Ruby Red Grapefruits

In the South, my new home I am unable to get my favorite “Soda” or “Pop” for you Midwesterners. Ruby Red Squirt. If any of my friends would like to mail me a bottle or two I would really enjoy it. I don’t think they sell it because the locals know what Ruby Red juice is supposed to taste like and the minimal amount of real juice that goes into Ruby Red Squirt makes it crazy to buy here. When I return to the frozen land, I plan to fill my suitcase full. My family is now the proud owner of a dwarf Ruby Red Grapefruit tree. We also own a really old large orange tree that makes oranges good for juicing. Really tasty fresh squeezed orange juice for much of the year. More than what we can drink. Not to mention that ¼ bushel of oranges in Florida is between $1 and $4 a bag depending on the distance from the groves.

Sea World in Orlando on Nov 24, 2007

We have some free passes to Sea World so I spent the day there today. It’s always grand to spend the Christmas season at the theme parks as they are decorated very lovely. I went to the Blue Horizons Dolphin show, Believe Shamu show, Hospitality Center, Clydesdale horses Hamlet and the Shamu Christmas show. Since I can go any time I don’t have a need to rush everywhere and I enjoy just sitting and watching the tourists and also the whales and the dolphins in the underwater viewing area. It even "snowed" at Sea World Orlando, FL