Ryan Lochte...and Nick The Bachelor

Hi everyone ~ hope you are all having a good week so far!

First, a follow-up to the Ryan Lochte post from yesterday. I had a LOT of comments; more than any other article I've posted. Thanks for the input and taking time to comment; it makes this much more of a community than just my thoughts.

The comments really ranged in opinions, but I've selected a few that summed up the general ideas of their respective sides:

Again, thanks for all your comments! Please continue to comment in other posts, as well; I always love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

OK so onto the business at hand, the second part of this post......Nick Viall is the new Bachelor.

You guys. This is GOLD. I might actually watch again this season, after taking a Bachelor hiatus.

Nick has been on roughly 13 seasons of this show (Ok, ok, SLIGHT exaggeration). He was on two season of The Bachelorette, on Andi Doorman's and Kaitlyn Bristowe's respective seasons. But ABC cannot let a guaranteed ratings juggernaut go out to pasture, so they are bringing him around again.

In the past, he's been kind of cringe-worthy so who knows if that will be his personality this coming season, or if we'll see a new Nick emerge.

Is this show garbage? Yes. Does it make my skin crawl that all these women are throwing themselves at some guy, all to be picked a "winner"? 100%. But will I be watching Nick and his guaranteed TV gold moments?

You betcha.

I am actually considering doing a live-posting of this show on my Facebook page as I did with the Olympics. Thoughts? Who else watches this train wreck?

Talk to you soon, have a great day!

Dancing with the Stars - Are we rewarding Ryan Lochte?

Good morning! Hope you're all doing well. Sorry this post is late; I had tennis lessons this morning and am getting back into the swing of my day.

So today, I see the Dancing with the Stars lineup was announced and, as rumored, Ryan Lochte is going to be on this season's cast.

This post is going to be short because I really want it to open up a discussion amongst my readers. Please comment here, or reply on Facebook.

Do you feel that:

A) ABC should not be rewarding bad behavior, and that by casting Ryan Lochte they are, in a sense, giving him a pass for his behavior in Rio?

OR

B) This could be the 2nd chance that Ryan needs to dig himself out of that hole he's in, and hopefully learn to be a better person.

I am of two minds on this casting, and am very interested in what you all think.

Please comment below, or on Facebook. I will share some of your comments on tomorrow's post.

Thanks, everyone! Have a great day ~

You'll want to check out The Fitness Marshall

Hey guys ~



So I was at a real loss for what to post today. Then my friend Becky posted one of this guy's exercise videos on Facebook and I thought, yep - that's what I am going to post about today.



He is called the Fitness Marshall and if you want to move your body while having fun (and forgetting it's good exercise), he is your guy.



I want you to take a look at his Youtube Channel and in particular the video he does to Megan Trainor's song "Me Too." I have copied that below so you can take a look; make sure you go and look at his whole channel for lots of other fun videos.



What I love:



* His enthusiasm - it is TOTALLY contagious.



* His dancers - can I get an AMEN that he has people of all sizes and body types in his videos?! LOVE THAT.



* His commentary during the dancing - in Me Too, when he says, "You're just starting to feel the spirit", I about fell out of my chair.



From looking at his Facebook page, he also goes around and does classes across the country; wouldn't that be fun to be in one of these classes?! So great.



I hope this puts a smile on your face like it did for me.



Have a great day!

A quick re-cap of my day at Disney Springs

Happy Sunday! I hope you all have a fun, relaxing day ahead of you.

I wanted to check in and do a quick re-cap of my day at Disney Springs and WDW.

I left Ft Myers around 8:30AM, and arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge about 11AM. After wandering around and taking some pictures, I went to Sanaa in the Kidani area of Animal Kingdom Lodge for a delicious lunch.

Sanaa has an AMAZING bread service appetizer where you get varieties of naan bread and a choice of spreads. It's my favorite thing there, and so I made a meal of that and then some of the cold salads they offer as well. I had a table where I could see outside and so as I ate, saw giraffes and other animals at the Lodge.

I then went to Orlando International Airport and picked up my friend and colleague Lisa. It was really great to see her, and after collecting her luggage we drove to Disney Springs.

I hadn't been to the Springs since their newest shopping area opened, and let me say - it did NOT disappoint. Gorgeous! It resembles an outdoor mall (most of the malls and shopping areas down here in Florida are outside) and has lots of great shopping and restaurants options.

Lisa and I decided to grab a snack before we started walking around, so we went to the Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, near the Boathouse restaurant. Let me tell you - it was so great! The atmosphere in there is wonderful, and they have an extensive drink menu with both alcoholic and nonalcoholic options. We each got a drink and split a flatbread pizza with shrimp, bacon, tomatoes and a pesto on a very crispy crust. A great way to start the afternoon!

We spent the afternoon wandering around and going in the stores, shopping and checking out the newer places at Disney Springs. One of the things I love is they now have more walkways and paths to get from A to B. One of the problems with Disney Springs (Downtown Disney) in the past has been if you wanted to get from one side of the area to another, you only had one option and it was a long trek, AND got crowded easily when there were lots of people in a small area. I feel like these new pathways are going to help alleviate those issues.

We'd worked up an appetite sweating and walking around, so we decided to end our night by going to

the new D-Luxe Burger. OH MY GOODNESS. This did NOT disappoint. They have a good menu of burgers, fries and shakes. It was pretty crowded and with good reason - this was one of the best burgers I've had in a LONG time. Perfectly cooked, juicy and with great toppings. I would totally recommend this place to anyone if you're looking for a great burger meal.

We left Disney Springs around 7PM, and I dropped Lisa off at her hotel. I then made my way back to Ft Myers, and got home around 10PM.

It was an amazing day; so great to see Lisa and spend time with her. It was hot walking around Disney Springs but we had such a great time. I love being this close to Disney to where I can do quick day trips, and spend time with friends.

Hope you all have a great day!

A Day Trip to Disney World

An evening shot from Disney Springs

Hi guys! Happy Saturday. Wow, that week went fast, right?! I can't believe it, here we are at another weekend.

One of the greatest things about living in Florida now is I am a mere 2 1/2 hour drive from Walt Disney World, and so getting there any old time I want is now much, much easier. So today I am doing just that!

About a week ago, my friend and Mouse World Travel colleague Lisa told me she was going to be at WDW for a training, and asked if I wanted to meet her and hang out at Disney Springs on Saturday. You don't have to ask me twice!

So in a few hours, I'll leave Ft Myers and get to Animal Kingdom Lodge around 11AM, where I am going to eat lunch at Sanaa, one of my FAVORITE dining places in all of Walt Disney World. YUM. I'll also walk around AKL a bit and explore, take pictures, etc.

Then it's off to the airport where I'll pick up Lisa and we'll head down to Disney Springs for a fun afternoon of chatting, eating, and of course, some shopping.

I'm doubly excited to go to Disney Springs today because I haven't seen it since the new shopping area opened. They doing a total overhaul of the whole Spring area (formerly Downtown Disney) and one of the newest sections is a shopping area that at least in pictures resembles an outdoor mall. They've also added some great new restaurants, so hopefully we can at least peek inside those and take some pictures. When I was having a mini-vacation at WDW in July, I ran out of time before I got to see Disney Springs so today I am going to remedy that whole situation.

I will be posting pictures on Facebook and Instagram so be sure you're following along.

Hope you have a great day!

My first possible tropical storm?

From WINK News

Every state and area has it's "thing" right? In Iowa we were prone to tornados. If you lived in California, you would be on the watch for earthquakes. Down here in Florida, you have tropical storms and even hurricanes.

Over the last few days, we've all been watching this storm system move across the Atlantic and wondering what it would do.

This is the first possible storm of the hurricane season and so of course, garnering lots of interest.

Of course a person has to be watchful and keep an eye on potentially bad weather, but from the comments I read online and even how they were reporting it, people were seeming concerned that this could develop into a major storm. They were even talking in local news articles down here about how you need to have your hurricane "plan" and your kit ready, just in case.

(And yes - I need to get a plan. Having never been through one of these storms before, I need to make sure I equip myself with the necessary information, supplies, etc.)

It seemed to me that this "will this be a big storm or not" is akin to what we'd have up north when the first major snow of the season was coming. It would be hyped up, people would go to the store and buy $400 worth of groceries (mostly milk, bread and eggs right??) and then it would snow 3 inches and we'd all remember what snow was like. From what we can tell now with this storm, the same is true here. A possible large event was hyped up, but it looks more likely that if anything we'll just see some intense rain over Sunday-Monday.

As one of our meteorologists said back in Iowa, it's important to be "sky aware", but it seems like with this storm at least it was much ado about what will more than likely turn out to be nothing.

What is the weather like in your area this time of year?

Tennis Lessons

from FitnessandTennis.com

Happy Thursday! 

Since yesterday I gave you a progress report about how life in FL is going thus far, I wanted to tell you about another "new" thing in my life down here.

As you know, I work from home, so it's very easy to get in a zone of working and planning and writing and before I know it, it's been 3 hours and I haven't once gotten up from my desk. I had been wanting to do some sort of exercise but I'm not really the exercise class kind of person. (Sweating in front of lots of people? No thanks - pass.)

In my neighborhood we have a golf and country club, and one of the activities we have on site is tennis. My aunt's dad and stepmom play a lot of tennis, and after talking with her I decided to give it a try.

So Dee set it up, and ever since she and I have been doing weekly lessons with Carolyn, one of the tennis pros here. A few weeks ago, we also started adding in a Wednesday time where we'd use the ball machine in order to practice further.

And I gotta say - I REALLY like it. Believe me, no one is more surprised about that than I am. I've had a tenuous relationship with organized sports, since like, my entire life, so I went into it cautious but excited to learn something new. I'd played tennis a bit in high school but nothing organized and so we started from Square One with the different strokes, areas of the court, rules, etc.

Also, guess what? I am having a LOT of fun. It's great to get out a few times a week and be active and outside, plus I've met a few nice ladies who live in my neighborhood. 

I've still been using one of the club rackets and haven't made the plunge to buying my own, but I plan to do that soon. I would also like to get to the point where I play a game or two a week with the people here; nothing crazy, but just enough times a week to where I am using my newfound skill set and practicing after lessons are over.

Do you play a sport for fun? Do you have pick up games with your neighbors and friends? I'd be interested to hear what you do to stay active and have fun.

Have a great day!

How's Florida? A progress report of sorts.

My puppy on our lanai - watching over the neighborhood.

Good morning everyone. It's Day 1 of my 30 day writing challenge so I thought it'd be fun to update you on how life is going down here in Southwest Florida.

The short answer is ~ it's wonderful. Just wonderful.

My mom and I drove down over 4th of July weekend, and got settled. She stayed for about a week after, which was great. We got the minutiae of moving done; arranging things where I wanted them, going to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and Publix again and again for things like soap dispensers, trash cans, etc - all that glamorous stuff.

When you move (or at least, when I moved), you tend to think about the big stuff. What do I want to take with me? What do I want to sell, or donate? (There is no better time to purge than when you're moving.) Let me schedule this for the move, that for the move. The big items get done because those are super necessary for the move itself. But what about the days and weeks AFTER? What about the small stuff?

What do I mean by "small stuff"? Things like:

* Where do I shop for groceries? Where is my nearest/best Target? What speciality shops have the best meat / fruit / seafood, etc?

* A vet for the dog.

* A hairdresser for me (ladies, you know this is IMPORTANT.)

* Healthcare providers like a doctor, dentist, etc.

And so on, and so forth. I found that at least in my case, I didn't necessarily give a lot of thought to those items. When you live in a place for years and years (like I did back in Iowa), you tend not to think about those people and practitioners you use because you've probably seen them for a long time. Heck, your parents and sibling and cousins ALSO probably see them.

I am still working on some of those starred items. Namely, my hair is a MESS and I need a trim, like, a week ago. And, my dog is due for his yearly check up in October so I need to get on finding him a vet, too.

I've also taken the time to explore a bit more of my surroundings. As you might know, I work from home, so it's very easy to stay in my house and in my neighborhood all week and not really venture out much. But as I my sister and I are doing with beaches (you can read about that on the Marco Island post), I am taking evenings and weekend days to drive around and get my bearings. I have started to get a little brave and try alternate routes, so I can possibly avoid heavy traffic when Season kicks me and snowbirds start arriving.

So that's the state of things. There have been many more things I've done, places I've seen, but I need to fill up blog posts for the next month so I am not going to tell you all about that now. ;)

Now I'm off to finish breakfast, drink another cup of coffee, and get ready for my tennis lessons. I will tell you about THAT tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, take care and have a great Wednesday!

30 Days of Writing

So here is the thing.

I would love to write a book someday. I have a few ideas (and I've started one) but I would love to write a book by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.

But, in order to do that...I have to get REAL disciplined about my writing. The only way you get better is through practice and this deal where I write 2-3 blogs posts a month is not going to cut it.

One of my brothers is writing every day as well, and he inspired me to do the same.

So here is my promise to you. Starting tomorrow, August 24th I will post a blog EVERY SINGLE DAY for the next 30 days. Until September 23rd, I will do a blog post about something.

It could be big stuff, or small stuff. I could give you my thoughts about world-changing, important issues....or why I think Teresa needs to be gone on the Real Housewives of New Jersey. (To be honest, probably a lot more towards the latter.) It might be paragraphs, it might be ten really horrible sentences about nothing.

Oh and I am actually going to write for 30 days. I am not going to "cheat", sit down one night and write fifteen blog posts and schedule them for the next few weeks. I am going to sit down every night or every morning and write. That is my promise to you.

I would be happy if you followed along! I am going to need the largest cheering section I can muster. I also need people holding me accountable, so there's that.

If you see on the top right of the blog, there's an empty field that says "Be A Pal and Subscribe." If you put in your email address there, you'll get a message every time I post. Don't worry, I won't spam you or sell your email addresses to a king in Nigeria who wants to leave you his vast fortune.

Thanks again for reading; have a great day!

A Day at Marco Island

Hope you all had a great weekend and were not too sad about the conclusion of the Olympics. I only teared up four times during the closing broadcast, so I considered that a win.

(And can we talk about Tokyo for 2020!? They dropped the mic HARD in Rio last night. Goodness. Cannot wait for those games!)

I've been living here in Southwest Florida for about a month and a half now, and am just now considering myself "settled in". I have my routine and am getting a much better handle on this area where I now live.

Every weekend, my sister and I try to visit a new beach in the area. This is partly because we want to find the ones we like the best, but also because we want to take advantage of what is literally in our back yard.

When you live in a place that's a vacation destination, you tend to NOT see and do those things that people come to see, because you can do those anytime, right? There's no pressure to see and do, because you can theoretically go out any old time you'd like. But of course what ends up happening is that you see and do NOTHING, so we are aiming to correct that wrong.

The next beach on our list was in Marco Island, Florida. My sister had friends in town, so we decided this would be a perfect time to try it out.

And you guys - it did NOT disappoint.

After meeting her friends at their condo and caravanning down to the beach, we arrived around 11:30.  The drive into Marco Island is GORGEOUS, as you cross one large bridge and a smaller one and both are just gorgeous. I, of course, fired up my Realtor.com app more than once to see what it would cost to live in this paradise. Just incredible. We made our way to our destination, Tigertail Beach.

My sister has a sticker where she can get beach access at no cost (she works for Collier County) and so we drove right in with no problems. If you don't have a sticker, it costs you $8 per day (or $1.50 per hour) which is totally do-able for a day's worth of fun. We parked and loaded up our beach cart and arms and it basically looked like we were moving in. (When you plan to be at the beach all day, you must take provisions! And lots of umbrellas. And more food.)

We knew going in that it would be a bit of a trek to the beach. From the parking lot to the beach itself, it's about a 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile walk. There is an option to wade through some water to get there faster, but as we had lots of stuff (and also, because ANIMALS IN THE WATER and who knows how deep it is at parts), we decided to hoof it to the beach.

There are restrooms by the parking lot, as well as a little place that sells basic food and beverages. It would be a bit of a hassle to walk back and forth to the restrooms all day but if you weren't carrying all your beach gear, the walk wouldn't be so bad.

It was an amazing walk because the sand was SO far back. With most of the beaches down here, the condos and hotels are a mere steps from the water but down by Tigertail, it's at least a football field's length from the shore to the hotels, maybe more. I need to research how often the tide gets THAT far up the beach, it was pretty neat.

We set up the umbrellas, chairs and coolers and pretty much settled in for a day at the beach. It was INCREDIBLE. Probably the best beach I've been to thus far. It was nearly deserted; probably because most schools are in session now and most vacations are over, but we also wondered if it's because it's a bit of a trek to get to this beach and people don't want to do that. That all worked out in our favor, because even though there was activity at the beach people were not on top of or crowding us. It was perfect.

The weather could not have been better. The forecast was clear; in our last hour we heard some thunder rumbling and looked at the radar and it was about 15 miles away but never came towards us. Since it rains pretty much every day in the summer, this was a win.

I only took these three pictures because they are essentially all the same (gorgeous water and scenery)  but believe me when I tell you - it was paradise. Incredibly gorgeous. The water was a tad warm (as it' s been in the high 90s for months now) but it was still perfect. My sister and her friend, as well as their son, spent a lot of time in the water.  The friend's wife and I had a nice chat under the umbrellas that they were so good to bring. That is the key to beach longevity - umbrellas. As long as you can be in the shade, you can spend all day there.

After about 5 hours, we loaded up our gear and made the trek back to the cars. It was a HOT day and we were all sandy, sweaty and hot but so worth it. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

My sister and I both agreed that this would not be a beach where we'd go for a quick hour or two; you really want to make the drive and walking there worth it, so it's really a day beach. However, it is somewhere I will take out-of-town guests and also suggest to clients and vacationers who are coming to Southwest Florida.

I will keep you posted on other beaches and places we're exploring down here.

Have a great day!

Rio 2016 - Let's Do This

Today is my JAM, people. My favorite time, every two years. It's Olympics time, baby.

I am a bone-fide Olympics junkie. I love the opening ceremonies (yes, all 56 hours of it. Or at least it seems that long). I watch as many events as I can; I gobble up all the feel-good Bob Costas-narrated stories I can about the athletes and their journey to the games. I LIVE for the moments where they cut to the parents of the athlete, and the looks on their faces as their kid sprints towards a gold medal? I could watch that all day long.

Sure, the Olympics has its problems, too. The IOC (The International Olympics Committee) has a fair share of corruption. I don't like seeing host countries spend millions and millions of dollars when they could instead be spending that money on their citizens and the issues facing their countries. I don't like hearing the stories that we see out of Rio where the crime is rampant, the water unsafe. That facilities and dorms for the athletes are still being finished as we speak and that conditions in certain areas of the city are deplorable.

I'm not at all minimizing those issues or saying they don't deserve our attention. They do. But I still can't quit you, Olympics. Because where else can I see soccer and gymnastics and swimming and track and field and diving and (my new personal favorite) Olympic trampoline-ing?!

(I'm sure that's what it's legitimately called.)

So I will be glued to the TV for the next few weeks, starting tonight with the opening ceremonies. Be sure to follow along on my Facebook and Twitter accounts for my delightful thoughts about all this Olympics.

And let's go USA!

What I'm Wearing - August 1st edition

Hey there everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend.

And can we just have a moment of silence - today is AUGUST. Holy smokes. I say it all the time, but the year is truly flying by.

And I'm seeing on Facebook today that some of your babies are going back to school already and that just seems so so early; I don't think we went back until mid-late August, at the earliest. Is that a Southern thing? Moms and Dads of kids in school, leave me comments and let me know because it just seems so stinking early to me.

But I digress.

Here's another edition of what I'm wearing. I love reading other people's blogs where they highlight the books they're reading, shows they're watching, cute earrings they've bought, etc and so these posts are my homage to that. I hope you find some winners - let me know! I'd love to hear if you ended up loving something, too.

So without further ado, here we go.

* Leaf Drop Earrings - Target $7.99

Yes, that is not a typo. These earrings are under $8 and are SO CUTE. They're a nice long length, and very very light so they won't weigh down your ear lobes.

HERE is the link if you want to purchase them for yourself. Target also has that wonderful option where you can purchase them online and then just go pick up at the customer service counter, so you won't have to wander around looking for them.

And really, that option is a cost savings too because then you don't wander around Target and spend $100 before you even know it. Not that anything like that has ever happened to me. Ahem.

* Melissa McCarthy Seven7 "Art of Denim" Skinny Jean - HSN $118.00

I posted these jeans on the Facebook group last week but they deserve a mention here, as well. I have been wanting to try Melissa's line at HSN and so I took the plunge and ordered these lovelies.

The reviews of her jeans have been VERY good and since I have a long-standing beef with the makers of most plus-sized clothing (as in, I am convinced those who make them don't actually wear those sizes), I wanted to give these a try and see if they really are that good.

Oh man ALIVE - folks, these are the real deal. The paint splatters are so fun and the distressing is the best kind - enough that they look cute, but not so much that you are afraid to wash them for fear they will break apart.

I do not plan on wearing mine with black pumps but think they will be just darling with some cute wedge sandals.

At $118 they are not cheap, but good denim is hard to find, y'all. And when I find good jeans, they're worth the money to me. (HSN also has a deal on these jeans where you can do monthly payments; they will mail them to you now, but charge you in installments monthly with no interest.)

* Fontaine Layering Necklace - Stella and Dot, $89

Now to be clear - I don't have this necklace *yet* but I know it's going to be a favorite. As I've mentioned before, I love Stella and Dot's jewelry. Gorgeous pieces that are durable and fun and trendy and also classic.

I love a long necklace and especially anything that I can layer with itself, or also break into different pieces.

AND since you are actually getting three separate necklaces here, each necklace is really under $30, which is a super deal. (That, my friends, is called Girl Math.)

To order this and other Stella pieces, get in touch with Friend of the Blog Gina at http://www.stelladot.com/sites/ginaschmitt/profile/?lc=en_us.

So share with the class, in the comments below: what are you loving to wear?

Have a great day!