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!