Category: Shopping

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The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Everglades National Park

– My ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ continues.
– For the 2ND Saturday morning in a row I went to Everglades National Park.
– But this time I went to the north part at Shark Valley off Tamiami Trail.
– Me and a buddy got there shortly after 11 AM.
– We took the 2-hour / 15-mile tram tour starting at 12 noon.
– Our tour guide was a crazy lady who was a child of the 1960s.
– She took us on a tour of her ‘office’ – The Everglades.
– She was good, as she definitely knew her stuff.
– She clearly demonstrated that she has an intense adoration for the ‘Glades.
– She was totally passionate about her ‘coworkers’ – the wildlife.
– She introduced us to all of her alligator friends.
– The gators were just chillin’ in the shallow water tryin’ to get some sun.
– Some showed off their teeth as if they were smiling.
– The gators are just like you and me !
– We saw a whole bunch of baby gators.
– It’s breeding season dude !
– If the gator is less than a foot long then it’s less than a year old.
– If the gator is between 5 and 6 feet long then it’s an adult.
– Most gators stop growing in length after that and start getting plumper.
– The gators are just like you and me !
– If you see a gator that’s 8 or 10 feet long then it’s well fed !
– Female gators never lose the ability to give birth to baby gators.
– In addition to the 15-mile tram tour we also did a whole lot of walking.
– I’m talkin’ several miles of walkin’ in the hot and dry Everglades.
– We hit up this tower:

shark-valley-tower

– The 18-mile panoramic view up top was really cool.
– That tower is about 27 miles due west of The Falls Shopping Center.
– I thought that I saw Macy’s from afar.
– The sound of the Everglades – incomparable to anything else in Miami-Dade.
– The smell of the Everglades – it’s pure nature – as natural as can be.
– Man has already destroyed much of what used to be the Everglades.
– But the Everglades is tough – so tough that several million acres still exist.
– I will respect the Everglades.
– I will also visit again sometime real soon.

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Saturday Morning Shenanigans

These are actually my ‘Friday Night Shenanigans’, but since I didn’t even get back home until about 12:40 AM this morning it’s all good. I actually slept in this morning until nearly 8:30 AM – about 4 hours later than normal. Patricia, Venus, and Carol kept me up and out and about until past MIDNIGHT !

I’m looking at my Shops At Sunset Place parking receipt that shows me arriving there at 4:17 PM on Friday afternoon and departing at 12:14 AM on Saturday morning (3 minutes shy of 8 hours). I only paid $6, but that included a MASSIVE discount courtesy of the AMC-24 Theatres. I saw “Adventureland” last night. Good flick about the life and times of various employees of a rundown low budget amusement park in the Pittsburgh suburbs of the Summer of 1987. It was light on comedy, as it played out more like a classic episode of “Dawson’s Creek“. I got what I expected out of it – a high-quality 4.0 star movie that was well worth my time watching it.

After the flick (and a bit of shopping) at my former playground (which is definitely showing its age after a decade) I met up with the fun girls of Patricia, Venus, and Carol at Splitsville. In a nutshell we ate ENORMOUS quantities of food and cracked each other up severely. Maybe Venus will post some of those pictures up on her long-neglected blog. If not then I may grab a few of them myself and post them up on here for all of you cats to see. After that we actually bowled 10 rounds. After Venus reminded me on the proper way to hold a bowling ball and then release it down the lane I proceeded to stage a come-from-behind victory over all three of the girls. My final score was a ’90’, and that was well enough for the victory. This just in – I’ve only bowled perhaps 5 times in my entire life. It’s just one of those things that comes naturally to me once I get going with it. I’m also pretty good at Wii Bowling. My brother showed me how to play that one day last year, and that same day I was suddenly better at it than him and his wife !

Well those are my ‘Shenanigans’ from last night. I had a fun Friday night out on the town at one of my all-time favourite shopping complexes here in America’s Riviera with a few of my favourite people on this journey. Here’s hoping that we can do it all over again real soon !

Later tonight I’ve got a totally rippin’ jam that absolutely defined the Miami urban music scene of 1988. It got everyone of all colors and creeds out together dancing in the streets in unison. Be sure to check it out on a hot new ‘Saturday Night Retro’. You won’t regret it dudes.

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Blogging Career Food Health Home Movies Shopping

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– I’m glad to be back at home again tonight.
– This was clearly the busiest week at work for me in modern history.
– It was also the most productive week in modern history.
– As far as my career is concerned modern history = since the end of July 2007.
– My career renaissance continues.
– I am visibly exhausted from this week at work.
– I had planned all week to attend a party tonight up at Dave & Busters.
– I’m not gonna make it.
– I put myself on the injured exhausted reserve list.
– Hopefully I’ll still get invited to future shindigs.
– Up until the very end I thought that I would have to cancel my day off.
– Nope. I didn’t have to cancel it.
– My 3-day weekend has already begun.
– I’ll be back at work for another busy week come Monday morning.
– What will I do on my day off tomorrow ?
– Maybe I’ll eat an ENORMOUS breakfast at Denny’s.
– Maybe I’ll go and get a haircut at Woody’s.
– Maybe I’ll go and do some grocery shopping at Publix.
– Maybe I’ll do some laundry aqui a mi casa.
– Maybe I’ll go to The Shops At Sunset Place (my former playground).
– Maybe I’ll see a movie there.
– Maybe I’ll hang out with Patricia and Venus at this place.
– It should be a fun Friday off for me tomorrow with whatever I actually do.
– Don’t forget the ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ tomorrow.
– I’m identifying my favourite blog entries of this past week.
– One of them will win the coveted ‘Major Bloggie Award’.
– Will it be yours ?
– Peace be with you.
– And also with you.
– I’m chillin’.

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Driving Food Health Humor Shopping Weather

Saturday Morning Shenanigans

‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ has once again been pre-empted this weekend due to non-ideal weather conditions (70°F, 100% relative humidity, scattered fog). Time is practically running out on this season’s walks around my neighbourhood, but maybe I’ll be able to squeeze in one more walk on a Saturday morning before it gets too unbearably warm, humid, and wet outside.

In lieu of the walk I did the following this morning:

1.  Cracker Barrel – I ate breakfast. The Shenanigans there included me being served by a different waitress even though my longtime breakfast waitress of the past many years was there working her shift. She came over and talked to me and told me a riddle. It was good to see her.

2.  Busy Bee Car Wash – I’ve taken 4 cars there over the course of the past 20 years (since 1989), and I’ve always gotten a clean car out of the deal. They do a very thorough job inside and outside. I truly recommend them. The’re in Perrine at theoretical SW 182ND Street at U.S. 1 (southbound).

3.  Target – I go there about once every 3 or 4 months, and I usually go on an extended shopping spree while I’m there. This morning was no different, and it was a mixed assortment of food, toiletries, and clothes. I like to go there when they first open up in the morning and there’s less people in my way. It started getting crowded towards the latter part of my shopping spree.

I ended up driving about 35 miles during my eating, car washing, and shopping excursion this morning. During much of the 35 miles I was either being tailgated, or I was stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle in front of me. I couldn’t wait to get off of the streets and back into my home sweet home this morning.

Those are my ‘Saturday Morning Shenanigans’ for this weekend. Be sure to check out 1979 on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ tonight, and get ready to dance to some pop music of the times.

Until then – I leave you with one final Shenanigan, so REMEMBER THIS !

no-service