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I swear it's going to happen this time.

I never posted about our five year anniversary reunion in Key West. It was a bit of a bust, although parts of it were fun. The best part for me was the diving, even though the visibility wasn't great. We saw two dolphins and two rather large reef sharks at Looe Key. I'm looking forward to getting back in the water this year. We'll probably check out Lake Phoenix this summer to brush up on our skills. I would love to do a trip out with our dive shop to the Outer Banks this year, but we'll see how that goes. I don't know if I'll be comfortable enough to go to the depths that most wreck diving involve. Not to mention my dive buddy's excessive air consumption! But maybe a few weekends of diving at Lake Phoenix will cure some of our problems.

Here are the last few months in photos...

Markface eating rocks at the Waterfowl Festival

Our annual post-Thanksgiving walk to the persimmon tree (aka the permission tree)

Markface showing off his latest moves

We had a sweet van for our group from Miami to Key West

Ryan and Jay pushing Markface's stroller... this trip we stayed pretty far north, in the quiet White Street district. I liked being a bit of a haul from Duval Street, it made for some impressive Fitbit stats!

Markface being adorable at the Conch Republic Seafood Company

Markface trying to feed me something

Shark wrangler

This will forever be known as the Tomato Soup incident. It was one of the low-lights of our trip.

Markface passed out on Duval after the boat parade

Jay and Brian attempting to wash off a sandy Mark at Bahia Honda State Park

The flight home was much better than our flight down

Setting up our tree. Mark was trying to put a cracker into the tree

Feeding the chickens... Mark calls them cluck-clucks

One of his newest tricks - getting on top of the table

Jay took Mark on an impromptu trip to New York to see friends and family... this is in Long Beach

And we got a bit of snow a few weeks back. Mark was a big fan and probably would have stayed out all day if he hadn't gotten cold.

We are off to Phoenix tomorrow to visit Colleen (yay) and for some R&R. 

Plans:

Survive a 7 hour flight with an active toddler.

Visit the Grand Canyon.

Attend the Ren Faire.

Attend some Beer Week festivities.

Eat at Sassy's Cafe and visit Melody from Holiday Baking Championship.

Since I followed Steve so closely during the Holiday Baking Championship, I feel like I personally know everyone that was on the show. I figured that while we're in AZ, we definitely needed to check out Melody's place. The funny thing is that Steve and Rob will actually be arriving in Phoenix the same weekend that we are leaving. Sounds like there may be a bit of a HBC reunion going on out there. I'm sorry to miss the fun!

Wordless Wednesdays

Puerto Plata

A little sunburned, itchy, and perhaps even slightly bent... but a fun trip altogether.

Our instructor Peter took photos of us diving and shared them on Facebook... sure was swell of him!

Nearly every night began or ended with Cards Against Humanity

I love a hookah bar

The local woman on the left of this photo has a basket of flip flops on her head

Merlin Divers

Mimosas every day

Fun and games by the pool bar

Since it rained most days for at least a few minutes, there were heaps of rainbows

In Sosua outside of the dive shop. Saw quite a few guys napping on their motorbikes. Impressive!

Serenity Beach - my favorite beach on the resort

More to come. I am still recovering from all of the food, booze, and bites.

Checkout Dives

This weekend I will knock another goal off of my 101 list.

Forget 6 feet under, I'll be more like 40 feet under. 

We're also camping for the first time in a few years. We set up the tent this week to make sure that we wouldn't look like complete fools in front of our new diving buddies. 

I'm hoping for no cell service this weekend. I need to get away and decompress. 

Life has been stressful this week and I think that the peace of nature will bring me back to where I need to be. Floating along weightless under water is calming as well.

My prescription for relaxation this weekend:  8 hours in the car with my hubby, The Hero of Ages, four trips underwater, campfire s'mores, and perfect fall weather. 

25 Things

Since I sometimes have trouble coming up with things to blog about, I decided that making lists would be a good thing to do. Instead of writing about my entire Florida trip, I condensed it to 25 things I learned (or confirmed) on the trip. 

1. Business class makes flying much more enjoyable. The upgrade fee is definitely worth it.
2. The state of Florida has the worst drivers in the entire country.
3. Miami is not my kind of city. Too many designer labels, stilettos, overpriced drinks, and fake people. Give me a dive bar full of friendly locals wearing jeans and offering PBR specials any day.
4. Art Basel is an experience best enjoyed for a limited amount of time, wearing comfortable shoes, and having the freedom to roam many galleries. Hanging around the same place for hours on end is crazy boring.
5. You can throw globs of paint on a canvas and sell it for $50,000.
6. Chewing gum has a magnetic attraction to new flip flops.
7. Never walk long distances in aforementioned new flip flops.
8. I should sometimes consider my husband’s crazy ideas that involve putting on his socks and cutting out the toes to prevent additional blisters from new flops.
9. Always carry band-aids.
10. I'm getting too old to sleep on cheap air mattresses that are deflated by morning.
11. Coconut water and artisanal rum drinks are disgusting, but those who produce crappy $50,000 art love them.
12. Sometimes free drinks aren’t worth it.
13. Tu Tu Tango still has some of my favorite tapas dishes, although their sangria isn't as good as it was a few years ago.
14. Miami food trucks are awesome - try the chocolate-covered bacon at the Porkalicious food truck.
15. Bubble tea is weird, but I think I want to try it again.
16. Having a rental car and no set plans is a fun way to travel.
17. Jazzy’s Mainely Lobster in Cocoa Beach has some of the tastiest seafood that I’ve ever consumed.
18. Captain J’s in Cocoa Beach is dead in the off season or when there’s no cruise ship in port. There were two people in the entire restaurant (that holds 300+ people) at 8:30 on a Friday night.
19. Investigate all potential watering holes before deciding on one place to hang out. There could be something more fun with cheap drinks just a few blocks away.
20. According to the interwebs, the best way to cure brain freeze is by warming the palate of your mouth with your tongue.
21. Sometimes you have to make your own fun – all it takes is a 6 pack of beer and Yahtzee!
22. Don’t forget to take probiotics and use sunblock while taking antibiotics.
23. One piece bathing suits make going to the bathroom terribly challenging.
24. Having my own chickens has made me an egg snob. I don’t plan on ordering eggs over easy at a restaurant ever again.
25. While on a short vacation, make sure that you have some time to relax and don’t spend hours each day driving around.

Wordless Wednesdays - the Florida trip edition

Hello from sunny Miami

I'm in a bathing suit hanging out by a pool. It's sunny and 81 degrees. Life is pretty great today!

Last two weeks in photos

Piper aka Kitty Whore hard at work

Wine club. Er, I mean book club.

I hosted book club this month and made my Aunt Mary's French Meat Pies. They were a hit! Photos and my recipe to come soon. This photo I took for my sister-in-law Colleen to say that we missed her. She definitely should have come to partake in the festivities. Apparently we were extra loud and giggly past midnight. Sorry for keeping you up, Jay!

JT's kahlua cake was a hit. Sue couldn't resist grabbing a spoon and digging in. 

Kneading dough is great therapy

For the second year, we attended the Pealiquor Road crew's Thanksgiving Feast. I baked 2 loaves of french bread and an Italian whole wheat peasant bread to share with our friends. I used a new recipe for the french bread that called for only bread flour instead of the combination of all-purpose and bread flour. It was wonderfully crusty with a moist and chewy interior. I'm going to bake some more this weekend to go with the farm fresh butter that I just picked up from Nice Farms Creamery. 

Go ahead and put all of your eggs in one basket. The chickens will make more.

We brought eggs to our gracious hosts. 

Basket full of persimmon joy.

After dinner everyone goes for a walk (okay, we waddle) out to the golf course and collect persimmons from two trees. This year was the biggest haul of persimmons ever... there were 15 "grown-ups", 6 kids (all boys) and 5 dogs. It was utter mayhem and such a great time. Surprisingly, no one was injured! The persimmons are baked into bread for friends and family at Christmas. 

... and the persimmons jumped right out of the basket! Did you see that??

I'm blowing this up so you can see Angela's crazy eyes. Thanks, Instagram!

We needed painting supplies to get our last bedroom finished. 

We didn't crack open anything until the painting was finished, which was probably a good idea. The primer that Jay bought did a terrible job covering the drywall. We had to go over the ceiling three times until it was covered. We weren't as worried about the walls, because Lowes gave me the paint + primer product that I didn't ask for. So instead of paying about $75 for paint, we ended up spending $120. Oh well. Yesterday Jay picked up the laminate flooring for the room and ordered a ceiling fan that was on sale. The last bedroom will likely be done this weekend. We're planning to move the futon from downstairs up to that room... just in time too, because my in-laws may be coming to stay with us for a little while. Long and sad story there, and that's about all I can say about it. My mother left our house yesterday morning after a two week on and off stint at a temp job in Denton. So we are basically running a flop house these days. It will be nice when we get some time to ourselves!

Winter is coming, just like the Starks said it would

It's getting colder around here... these weird little balls of snow/sleet appeared on Jay's truck earlier this week. It's been below freezing the last two nights... 27 degrees this morning. BRRRR! I'm getting over a cold that I came down with last weekend. Still feeling a little tired and stuffed up, but I'm hoping to be over it by next week. We're taking a little 4 day trip down to Florida for our anniversary. I was really hoping to get to Key West, but we're visiting Jay's grandma while we're down there and she is in the opposite direction (we're flying in to Fort Lauderdale and she lives in Winter Park, near Orlando). The last thing I want to do on a long weekend is drive 14 hours. As it stands now, we'll be driving for about 8 hours. Oh well, at least we will be able to drive with the windows DOWN! :)

Sure we cut our own tree

With all of the insanity in our lives this week, we thought that we could use a little Christmas cheer, so we picked up our Christmas Tree on Wednesday afternoon. It's a Fraser Fir... I hate those other trees with the pointy needles. I don't like to be stabbed while I'm decorating the tree.

Our tree is crazy full and barely cleared the ceiling, despite Mr. Webby's assertion that it was only 7' tall. It's pretty close to 8.5'... you can't tell so much in the photo, but it is out of control. I will post some photos after we decorate it this weekend. Dr. Tasty, Esq. aka Dr. Tasty, aka Mr. Tasty, aka Mr. Draco is thrilled to have his tree back. He will be spending the next month lounging on the tree skirt and snacking on ribbons. I expect to find lots of bedazzled poop in the litter box.

Kitty Whore is unimpressed.

Hope you all have a great weekend!