It's been a minute since I blogged, yet again. But, here we are- almost to Thanksgiving. But, lets rewind to the day after the election. Sure, things might have gone ok for the Democrats overall, and there was no real red wave, but here in Florida, it was everyone I didn't vote for. Which, I knew would happen. I had a shirt all ready for it. Rest in Peace, RBG.
Meanwhile, Costco is in the holiday spirit. I'm still debating this cheese advent calendar. It's $50 and that seems like a lot. But it's 12 festive cheeses! Has anyone tried this? I need to know if it's worth it!
We did have a cold snap here, which none of the dogs enjoy.
But it came mostly thanks to a hurricane! A hurricane in November! That's bananas. It was rainier and windier outside for Cat 1 Hurricane Nicole than it was for Cat 4 Ian. Crazy how that works out. I spent the day outside on the new alcove couch, which I love. But, I'm STILL waiting on the rest of the fabric to finish the cover, and I'm starting to get a little worried, because I ordered it November 5 and it's been "processing" ever since.
Since it wasn't a major event, though, we had little to work with as far as hurricane snacks went. So, I sprung for these tasty truffles and made everyone some apple cinnamon monkey bread, beacuse we still had apples from Ohio.
Of course, the 11th was Veterans Day. Asa and I stopped by the Memorial Veterans Park when we were in Fremont in August to visit my dad's brick, so I shared that in honor of my dad on Veterans Day.
Calib got a job, I think I told everyone that, right? Anyway, he's working at the new Culvers, so it's nice his cummute is about five minutes (though it is helpful to have two working cars these days).
But, it also means it's just me and Asa with the dogs a lot of the time. Hayden is hanging in his room a lot, Peyton is still in the UK, and Calib closes at work a decent amount. Lucky for Asa and I we enjoy snuggling on the couch, even if every animal in the house tries to join us.
The lemons are ripening, so that's exciting (in fact, spoiler, I picked our first ones today). We don't have as many as usual, but there are still a decent amount. The woman who lives kind of behind us (our yards overlap for less than six feet), came over to tell me that lemons had fallen into her yard, and she ate them. But then she felt terribly guilty. I told her it was no problem at all, and if any are over on her side to feel free to pick them, and then she just raved about how good they were. Today we passed some over the fence to the new neighbors, so we're making friends one lemon at a time!
In other very exciting news, our library re-opened! So, first there was covid, which basically halted any sort of programs. When we were finally vaccinated, they announced they'd be closing for a year long renovation, and Hayden was very sad. The few months inbetween covid and the closing they didn't really bring back any programs or anything, so we've been feeling the void for a really long time. They finally announced they'd be opening November 14th and Asa had an idea to "rope drop" (that's Disney speak for be there at opening), the library and even make custom shirts. Upon Asa's idea, I came up with this: (Asa suggested the quote).
But that's not the only shirt I made. Every once in awhile we go hang out with the neighbors two houses down in their driveway. It's a fun get together we like to call "Neighbor Night", so I made shirts for that event as well (We always have brats for dinner, thus the shirt).
We used all the paper products and alcohol T'Ola left us in her honor.
Sunday the Bucs played in Germany, which I guess was pretty cool. It's lame when you lose a home game to that, but it is what it is.
And having to watch football at 9:30 am calls for breakfast tacos! Calib, however, has a tough time with those early games.
The Bucs won though, and hopefully are righting the ship a bit here. We did take a walk inbetween the games to work up an appetite for more tacos, plus we love fall weather in Florida.
On Monday I got up early and was able to nab my whole family Hoop Dee Doo tickets for when everyone is visiting in January. That'll be a fun time for sure.
After waking up early to get those tickets, we had some time to kill before the library opened, so we went and had breakfast at Panera. It was our first experience with Panera breakfast, and I thought it was pretty good.
And of course, we swung by Racetrac for coffees.
And then we made our way to the very new, renovated Land O Lakes Library. There were quite a few people waiting when the doors opened, but Hayden was the very first person in to check it out. Asa and I have both missed the library, but I don't think anyone has missed it more than Hayden.
Now, they said they probably won't have programs back until the new year. And, they don't even have all the furniture in yet- because of "supply chain issues", but they opened anyway, and I appreciate it. Sure, we could order books online and pick up next door at the rec center. But, it just was not at all the same. I can't even tell you how good it is to have them back.
The whole space is amazing. But that new Foundry is AMAZING. It's so bright and cool and clean.
The Children's area is stocked with books, but still missing some tables.
Same with the teen section. But, Hayden found some comics, and went in to check out the teen room with an awesome tv mounted to the wall (presumably to bring back game and Anime nights!) and all kinds of nice computer spaces.
Plus there's all kinds of new stuff. A lot of DVDs and Video Games. They had some before, but they have way more now. But, they also have what they are calling the "Library of Stuff", you can get everything from Museum Passes to Ukelele's to an entire pouch of books for a book club!
Also worth noting, all the bathrooms are gender inclusive. We love to see that! And, I was so excited about a water bottle refill station.
We all grabbed some books, and signed up to volunteer as soon as they're ready for us, and caught up with a lot of the librarians from before. It's so good to see it back open, I give a little clap every time we drive by!
They also loved our shirts at the library. So much so, we made the Library's Facebook page. Also, fun fact, I'm making one of these for my high school English teacher. She saw my post about it, and asked how to get one. I'm excited to make her one as a thank you for helping instill the love of books in me. (She was the first person in my life who said it was perfectly fine to read Cliff's Notes to understand a book- something that REALLY helped me along the way.)
Back at home, we had some exciting news- Hayden passed his first class of WGU Academy, and so he texted grandma to see if the same "Peyton rules" applied. Obviously, they did, and grandma sprung for Taco Bell.
Asa and I headed out this week to go to Main Ingredient for some Teas. It's nice to have some more options around the house these days. I'm still clammoring for a Panera up here, and Trader Joes in Wesley Chapel.
Anyway, when we got home from our bike ride down to Main Ingredient, this guy was just wandering in front of the house. Just walking down the sidewalk like he was people!
For real, he did not mind me at all.
Of course, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came out, so the guys all went to see that. I stayed home and worked on some projects around the house. I've been busy doing everything from changing out doorknobs to building closable cats doors.
Of course, I've also been working on some books, because yay library! Fun fact, I was reading this when Trump announced he was running for president again. I love getting Trump books from the library because I can read all the gossip from his time in office without giving any of those people my money!
In general, Asa and I have been out and about together a lot lately. We hit up Blaze for lunch and got our free coffees from Wawa. And we even had a date night to World of Beer, which was lovely.
We have had a few cold days mixed in, but you can tell how differently we deal with the "cold". I'm bundled up on the couch in my hoodie while Asa grills out in his shorts and tshirt.
I also tackled cleaning the garage (thanks to T'Ola for leaving us all kinds of nice shelving to add in there), and cleaning out the pantries. Calib's fruit snacks were way in the back and expire in a couple weeks. He wasn't pleased with my sign, though.
And, I leave you with some cute doggie pictures.
Next up: WGU's 2022 Orlando Commencement Trip!
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