Happy New Year! Almost!

Wow, I have been so busy the last few months! The holidays can really take up a lot of time.

First off, we ended up having a really nice Thanksgiving.  It was sort of a last minute thing. We were chatting with our friend Cherie on the phone. She lives in Tallahassee, FL.  She and Bobby used to live on the next block from us in Lubbock, and she worked with David at Texas Tech. Bobby works with computers and has been in a lot of bands, and he used to record me some, for fun, and I got them both kind of into karaoke.  Usually we only see them, very rarely, at poli sci conferences.  However, now that we're in Columbus, we're only 4 hours away from them, give or take.  So we had been talking about getting together for a while but never really co-ordinated our busy schedules.  Anyway, we ended up driving to their place for Thanksgiving.

You go through a lot of depressing, tiny little towns driving from Columbus to Tallahassee. That part of Florida is really more like Georgia than what you may expect from Florida. It's not at all like Miami or Orlando, places like that.  It was a very pretty drive, though, with lots of pretty trees.  We have had amazingly nice weather throughout November and December, too, so it's been great. It's usually a little cooler than what we had.  We had many days in the 60's, 70's and even 80's. Last year it snowed!

Cherie and Bobby had put together some nice snack foods for us when we got there, including lots of gluten free stuff for me. Also, they were nice to enough to pick up a gluten free pumpkin pie for me at a bakery I found.  We ate out at a really nice restaurant there, and it was great.  Afterwards, we did karaoke at their house. Cherie has a new iPad and it has a great app for karaoke. It's pretty amazing. She connected to their sound system and it was really cool. It has lots of songs.  You can even record on it.

They have a really beautiful house, too.  It's huge, and they just decorate it really nice.

Unfortunately,  they had a family emergency, so we could only stay one night, but it was a really great visit with them, and we all enjoyed it quite a lot. It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings!

I started my Christmas shopping that week on Amazon. They had some great "Black Friday" sales.  When we got back home, I started my Christmas cards, and I was all set to do more, but both David and I came down with a terrible cold.  It was not the flu, but it really knocked me out so that I just mostly slept and did not have the energy to do much more than sleep or sit on the couch occasionally.  It wasn't the flu, but just a really bad cold, and I had it about a week. I felt so behind on everything. I hadn't even put up the Christmas decorations, and I felt like a slacker.

My birthday is December 3rd, so I was even sick for my birthday. That sucked. I was getting better, though, so we did go out to dinner. We tried this place I always wanted to try called The Meritage Cafe. It's a really fancy place and has great gourmet food.  Definitely a special occasion place. I even got some cards this year, so that was nice.

The little pub near us, The Dawg House, has karaoke now on Mondays, so we have been going there sometimes. Unfortunately David has to get up really early for work during the week, so we usually only go there for an hour. I hope they keep having it. There aren't too many singers besides me.

Once I got better, I had to clean the house (it really really needed it!) so I could then take out all the Christmas decorations from the garage. I finally did that, and put up my tree, and my outdoor decorations, and I finished sending my Christmas cards. Seemed at the time like it took forever.  Then I had to start making cookies.

I got into the habit of making lots of cookies at Christmas time for the family.  We often spend the holiday with my in-laws, and I make cookies for all of us, and also I give them to others. I used to love to eat them, but first I learned I'm allergic to gluten, and then I became diabetic, so I can't really eat them (or at least, I shouldn't).  But I still enjoy making them for other people.

This year, we didn't see any family for the holidays, but I still made cookies. I got into the habit years ago of making a batch for David's secretary, and a plate for his office so that visitors could have some. I also used to make some for a few friends.  I sent a box of cookies to our old friend LC in Tuscaloosa, and a box to my mother-in-law. I usually give a plate-full to our neighbors on either side of the house, too.  It's a lot of work but fun. I usually make about 5 or 6 different types of cookies. You can see all the recipes on my website.

We really wanted to go to San Diego for Christmas, but it was very expensive. We couldn't afford it this year.  Flights are ridiculous.  We looked at lots of different flights. I really wanted to go to New Orleans.  We didn't want to just stay in Columbus.  For one thing, most restaurants are closed on Christmas day. It's just the two of us, and I didn't want to cook. For another thing, he only gets so much time off, and we didn't want to waste it.

We finally found a great flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  First we drove to Atlanta and spent Christmas Eve there.  We like to stay downtown, and there are always hotels and places open there, even during the holidays. We stayed at the Hyatt, which is really nice, but it had a cheap rate. I love their nice soft beds.  I love the nearby 24 Hour Metro Cafe, which is a great place. It has a great Greek food (although it seems to be run by Russians, not sure why) and karaoke every night. It's my favorite karaoke bar.  We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant next door to it, Ninfa's and then later went to Metro for karaoke.  It was pretty cold and windy that night. 

Karaoke was pretty dead, too. There were many people but they did not want to sing, nor did they really want to be there or hear singers, I don't think. My guess is that, being Christmas Eve, they either didn't have family or couldn't be with them, otherwise why would they be in downtown Atlanta?  So I sang a lot, and so did the KJ, and there were a few other singers, but not a lot of applauding. I sang Christmas songs and some others. I was in a mood to sing them.  We had a great time despite the boring crowd.  They did get better as the night wore on (and they got drunker).

The next day, we went to brunch at this restaurant called the Sundial. It's at the top of the Westin Peachtree, a very tall hotel, and it revolves.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and foggy, so we didn't get a very good view. We had gone there the night before, for drinks, and the view then was great. Also, it was not very good food. It was very disappointing, in fact. Being allergic to gluten, there were only a few things I could eat. I ordered the scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes. The eggs were cold, so they redid them, but this time they were runny and underdone. It was just not very good.

After that, we went to the airport and flew to Ft. Lauderdale. By the time we got there, it was pretty late and not much was open.  We took a cab over to this restaurant called Sushi Rock, a little sushi place, since it was one of the few still open at 10pm. It was pretty good.

We stayed downtown at the Hampton Inn.  It is a cheap place but just fine. Their beds are kind of hard, though.  It is about 30 degrees warmer in Ft. Lauderdale than Atlanta or Columbus!  Still, it was Christmas, so they had carols blaring and a big beautiful tree in the lobby.

Since we knew weren't going to be at home for Christmas, we opened our presents on Friday.  It was just the two of us, so nothing too exciting :)  I mostly got DVD's, which I'm always happy to get!

We went to a lot of fun places our first day in Ft. Lauderdale. We are not big beach-going people, but I wanted to check it out, at least, so we took a cab over to the main beach there and walked around. I should have worn shorts and dressed just cooler in general because it was way too hot. I took photos and we stopped a few times to get cool and get sodas etc.  Then we went to Skyline Chili.

Skyline Chili is a fast-food-type restaurant that is popular in Cincinnati.  David had it there and loved it (I can take it or leave it). The chili is the kind with meat, and then you can choose to add other stuff to it, such as spaghetti, beans, onions, or cheese.  I had a hot dog with chili, onions, and cheese. It is gluten free except for the hot dog bun and pasta, so that's how I happened to find it in Florida for the first time. There must be some people who live in Florida that are from Cincy because most of the Skyline Chili restaurants are in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, but there are a few in Florida.   We then walked over to this restaurant called Alexander's and sat at the bar. I had a delicious slice of key lime pie. Then we got a cab over to an Irish Pub for a while. Finally, we went back to our hotel and had a long nap.

Later, we went to one of the casinos in the area, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.  It is in the area called Holllywood. Ft. Lauderdale has many other little cities around it (plus it's nearby to Miami). so it is a huge urban sprawl.  The hotel had a shuttle that took us over to the casino for a lot cheaper price than a cab would have cost.  We had great fun there, and we came out ahead, let's just say :) I tried the new Lord of the Rings slot machine, so that was fun.  It has a chair that moves when certain things happen, and a pair of speakers at the top, behind you, and the game is kind of interactive. It's kind of hard to explain. It's not like the normal slot machine. I had fun with it. I also played another machine called the Love Bug that was also fun and won on it. We played on the poker machines at the bar and won on those, too.

We had dinner at this fish restaurant there, and it was great. We sat outdoors, and the weather was just beautiful, perfect.  There is a big lake there and they have these fountains that put on a light-and-fountain show, and sometimes music as well, kind of what you might see at the Bellagio in Vegas (but smaller).  Also, there is a little stray kitten that lives there, and he came by to see us. I gave him some of my fish and he was my new best friend (meaning he let me pet him). 

So, it was a lot of fun. I wanted to do karaoke but we were pretty tired after the casino.  I don't think we did anything else, that I recall, anyway...I think we just took it easy in our room.

I did bring my bathing suit but never used it. Stupid, I know, but it seems like we were always either sleeping or eating or going out.

Tuesday we changed hotels; we went over to the Doubletree in Sunrise, which is near this huge mall called Sawgrass Mills, and near the hockey arena.  We walked around the mall for a while. It was really crowded. Huge mall, too. We stopped for refreshments at the Rainforest Cafe, and I picked up lots of business cards and a few other things. We also had lunch at the TGIFriday's, which was right across from our hotel.

Later, we went to the hockey game. It was the Florida Panthers versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Panthers won.  We thought it would be an easy walk, but we took a cab because it looked a lot farther.  The game was fun. I don't really care that much about sports, but it was ok.  We had nice seats.  We did end up walking back, through the mall. Almost everything was closed at that point.  We stopped again for snacks and drinks at TGIFriday's before going back to our room. I did a lot of work on my site after that.

Today, Wednesday, we flew back to Atlanta. I really wished we could have stayed a few more days. The weather there was so great, and I would have liked to have spent more time at the beach or pool, and gone to karaoke, and seen some other sights. Well, maybe next time...

It's cold here in Atlanta, but not too bad.  We had dinner at the Irish pub Meehan's, which is always good. David is at a basketball game. I didn't feel like going, and he doesn't mind going alone. I am here messing around. I watched a movie, and I might take a quick nap.  When he gets back, we're going out to karaoke again at the Metro Cafe.  Then tomorrow, we'll drive back home.  It will be good to be home!

I hope you all had a nice Christmas or other holidays. We don't have any plans for New Year's. I'm sure we'll be at home!