Well…another going on 2 weeks gone by and while I wish I could tell ya ‘bout all the cool Fun Stuff© we been doing the fact of the matter is that it’s mostly just been life.

The adults celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary on November 20…the destination for the evening after Connie slipped into something more comfortable was Che Tito’s Steakhouse down on Cleveland Avenue right before you cross the bridge southbound into Fort Myers. It’s an Argentinian Italian steakhouse…they thought it was a strange combination but as it turns out there’s a significant Italian immigration presence in Argentina so in addition to steaks the cuisine there has a lot of Italian. They arrived promptly for their 1800 reservation and seated themselves at the bar for dinner…because you meet a much better class of bum sitting at the bar doncha know…but the place was pretty deserted as it was Tuesday night. The bartender was a really friendly lady and opened a fresh bottle of Argentinian Malbec wine for the first two glasses…which she then finished for the second round…quite a generous pour.

After poring over the menu a bit…they decided on Proveleta for an appetizer…basically a plate of oven baked Provolone cheese with some marinara sauce on top and some really nice bread to smear it on. Quite tasty…but rich and filling. In fact it was so good that they considered just having a couple orders of empanadas before dessert…but since it was a steakhouse went for meat instead. Connie had a ribeye and Neil a skirt steak…both were grilled to perfection and topped with chimichurri sauce on top…that’s a combination of shallots, garlic, and jalapeño peppers mixed with wine vinegar, oregano, cilantro, and olive oil…it’s sort of like a really thick Italian dressing. Fried plantains came with both of them and although they gave it the old college try there were leftovers…but they made a great dinner the next day. Neil had the brilliant idea to get an order of tiramisu to go for later and they headed home. They considered stopping by American Legion post 336 for a cocktail but were too stuffed and tired so headed on home…followed a couple hours later by the aforementioned tiramisu…it was scrumptious and light but made a perfect ending to the day.

The following Saturday was the Iron Bowl where ‘Bama hosted Auburn…it was close at the half at 17-14 but pulled away with 5 scores in the second half. Next up was Georgia in the SEC Championship the following weekend…and the men in crimson iced the game in the fourth quarter with 2 scores…scoring the winning TD with just about a minute to play. It wasn’t over yet though…Georgia got to about the 45 yard line and a Hail Mary pass into the end zone to tie the game was knocked down as time expired. Another thrilling game…although both Neil and Connie would prefer not to have last minute heroics…they’re much happier with a 30 point win. With the win the Tide clinched the top seed in the upcoming playoffs and will face #4 see Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

Lessee…other exciting stuff. They got their teeth cleaned, Connie had Lunch with Friends out with 17 of the other ladies from the Elks Lodge, she sang with the choir at several funeral and memorial masses over at Saint Therese…and that’s about it.

Neil set up an appointment to get our slide topper and awning fabric replaced…went on a couple bike rides…made 2 (going on 3) trips down to the local bike shop to get some adjustments to his ride as it won’t stay in the small cog on the rear derailler correctly…the owner of the JRA (Just Riding Around) Bicycle Shop here has some parts on order for that.

Sunday December 2nd was Connie’s birthday…there was a scheduled Sarasota Orchestra concert at 1430 (they are season ticket holders) and afterwards they headed to Duval’s Fresh Local Seafood up in Sarasota. They had a complimentary glass of champagne for their anniversary and Connie had a complimentary glass of wine with her dinner…both are Duval’s traditions along with Scallops Rockefeller for Connie and Shrimp and Lobster spaghetti for Neil…the latter had a wine and lemon sauce with a metric buttload of garlic in it. They skipped dessert afterwards and had a couple of Chocolate Lava Cakes from the freezer later in the evening after they had driven back from Sarasota.

Can’t really say much more about goings on…the weather has been mostly hot requiring us to close up and put the A/C on but there have been a couple days where it was nice enough to open the windows and door…and even a couple of days that required wearing jeans instead of shorts…yeah, I know it’s tough and Neil in particular really doesn’t like it.

They’re working jointly on plans for next summer’s travel season…we’ll start off with heading from Fort Myers via Gulf Shores AL and across I-10 to Kerrville TX for the New Horizons Owners Group rally in early May…then north to Kansas City. From there we’ll follow US-50 west to the San Francisco Bay area, up to Oregon and then head eastwards on US-20. Depending on how the schedule works out…we’ll either stay on 20 all the way to Elkhart to get the rig bearings repacked or head south to Kansas City from Nebraska and continue eastwards on 50 from there…eventually we’ll get to the east coast on 50 before heading southwards via Richmond to see Alex and his parents as we head back to Florida.

With no Fun Stuff© photos to show ya…here’s a couple from our recent travels. All are from the north of the border in Canuckistan portion of the summer.

Ok, interesting things found on the net.

For the techie’s out there.

When you’ve just survived a grizzly bear attack but darn it you really need a smoothie.

Take that metric fans.

In view of the recent spate of E. coli infected romaine lettuce…I knew this day would come.

Neil’s thinking about installing one of these.

And finally…in case you’ve ever wondered about it…

Cyas.