AUTHOR’S NOTE: For those of you just catching up, I’m documenting my recent trip to the Florida Keys from three weeks ago, so if you’ve missed the first two installments, make sure to read “Part 1 – Islamorada” and “Part 2 – Key West” from the last two weeks! Not being the young, party bucks we used to be, it was slow going as we arose in the morning to leave Key West. I made one more run for Cuban…
AUTHOR’S NOTE: For those of you just catching up, I’m documenting my recent trip to the Florida Keys from two weeks ago, so if you’ve missed the first installment, make sure to read “Part 1 – Islamorada” from last week! Picking up where we left off last week, we finished up our Tarpon-feeding antics at Robbie’s in Islamorada and continued our travels southward over the Seven Mile Bridge, passing by “Fred” the tree (a rogue tree growing up out of…
I was out last week on a long awaited trip down to our country’s southeastern tip to spend some time in America’s tropical oasis, the Florida Keys. Going along with another couple, we left the turning autumn leaves and plummeting temps of Western Maryland for the sunny skies, warm temperatures (make that extremely hot and humid temperatures), and the warm waters of both the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. We started last Saturday out of BWI on a Southwest plane…
I’m celebrating another birthday this week. I’ve been blessed to live for quite a few revolutions around that big ‘ol yellow-orange ball that travels across the sky every day, but I am starting to see some reminders that I’m not as young as I used to be. My minds still thinks it’s a strapping lad in the prime of his mid-twenties; however, the real boss – my actual body – has to throw up a few roadblocks every now and…
I want to take a few moments to talk about the elephant in the room, or – more importantly, in the restaurant, café, or coffee shop. Yes, I’m talking about tipping. For some reason, the tipping culture in this country has seemingly run off of the rails, and I’m not quite sure why. Now, I’ll be the first person to admit that servers and bartenders deserve to be tipped for good service. Lord knows, a competent waiter/waitress/bartender is hard to…
Officially, fall is almost upon us. Unofficially, your local fast-food outlet has already gone into full “pumpkin crazy” mode, flooding the market with cinnamon, nutmeg, and other fall spices which now make up the bulk of their autumnal offerings. That being said, most of these drinks, while they may be delicious (I wouldn’t know because I don’t drink this expensive garbage) – are certainly not good for one’s overall health. The sheer amount of calories and sugar in many of…
Over the past few months, It has been a never-ending period of milestones for me. My youngest daughter turned twenty, I celebrated my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and early next month, I’ll turn fifty-six (although in my mind, I’m still just a stupid teenager, but my body would totally disagree with that sentiment). This week also marks a milestone for this blog. This is the 400th post of this writing endeavor, and for those of you keeping score, that’s around eight…
If there’s one thing I do not miss about living in Florida, it’s all the damn hurricanes. As we saw just last week, it doesn’t take long for these storms to come barreling out of the Caribbean to wreak havoc on the Florida peninsula (as well as other southern states). Hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30 each year, and if you live in a coastal area down south (or literally anywhere in the Sunshine State), you pay…
Ahhhhh, youth. I remember those care-free days when I was in my early twenties. Days when I could eat whatever I wanted with seemingly no consequences. I’d get two quarter-pounders with cheese from ‘McDonald’s’, wash that down with three slices of pizza from ‘Papa John’s’, and still never move an inch in my waistline. You know, back in the days when – as a younger man – I had the metabolism of a blast furnace. Alas, those days are over. …
You can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine these days and NOT see some article about the economy, interest rates, or some other force that may impact your home finances. Many of us have learned about personal finance the hard way (me included) – through trial and error. I’m still amazed that we don’t teach the basic concepts of personal finance to high school students before we unleash them into the wide, wide world of credit cards, home and car…