Category: Shopping

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Holidays Shopping

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

The standard-issue ‘walk-around-my-neighbourhood’ Saturday morning edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ shall return next weekend. This morning I slept in. How ultimately radical I was to sleep in until shortly past 7 AM !

Last night I was up late with a bunch of my closest friends in Life, and we hung out at this festive joint up in Westchester.

Westchester Florida
Westchester Florida

Santa’s Enchanted Forest claims to be ‘The World’s Largest Christmas Theme Park’, and they may just have a legitimate stake to that claim. We walked for miles and miles last night. Much of it was back-and-forth walking, but it was certainly more walking than I would ever do on a typical Saturday morning walk around my neighbourhood.

For years and years in November and December I had driven by that bright spectacle along the west side of the Palmetto Expressway. Now I can say that I’ve finally experienced it. It was all good. I had a ton of fun in the lights of Christmas !

This morning I walked some more – inside and all-around the Homestead Kohl’s store. I went on a MASSIVE hour-long shopping spree that would excite any woman. I clearly purchased over $200 worth of much-needed merchandise and walked out of the store paying about 50% less than that. The savings were ENORMOUS at Kohl’s. If you haven’t been there in awhile then you need to check it out my Christmas shopping friends !

… And that’s how I walk the walk …

Categories
Holidays Money Shopping Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Here’s what’s on my mind (pure energy):

1.  I was north of Dallas Texas for an entire week last week to celebrate a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas with my Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister-In-Law, and Canine Nephew. We also visited extended family up near Wichita Falls Texas. That’s the first time I had ever been to that fine city. I’d like to visit it again this upcoming Summer. I may drive there. ROAD TRIP !

2.  Neither airport that I flew in and out of – FLL nor DFW – was hardly busy on the Saturday before and the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My keen observation summarizes that holiday air travel is a casualty this year of the global recession that we’re in.

3.  So America has officially been in a recession for an entire year now – since December 2007. This just in. I am not in a recession. I remain in a vast economic expansion – one that has lasted for over 15 years. Many of you reading this are also in an economic expansion (although you may deny it). Many Americans claim that they are in a recession, but couldn’t tell you why they state so. ‘Because they said so on television’ is not a valid reason why you are in a recession.

4.  According to the National Weather Service it was the coldest November in 24 years in Miami, the coldest in 27 years in West Palm Beach and Naples, and the coldest in 38 years on Miami Beach. I blame this on global warming. 🙄

5.  Happiness Is – Performing a well-orchestrated ‘grab and save’ at a local neighbourhood Walgreens store and saving a whopping $9.00 while purchasing only two unique items within a matter of a few mere minutes. I also saved $9.10 versus the normal prices that I would have paid for these two items at Publix. Cyber Monday – It’s not just online anymore !

Those are my thoughts on this Tuesday night. Thank You for your time.

Categories
History Shopping

Monday Night Countdown

TODAY – the 01ST of December – is my 21ST anniversary of living aqui en el Sur de Florida. I arrived at Homestead Air Force Base during the wee early-morning hours of the 01ST of December in 1987. Aside from the 19 months immediately following the destruction of the Homestead area by Hurricane Andrew I’ve been here ever since. This is my home. This is where I belong. These are my TOP 5 favourite shopping malls of all-time here in South Florida:

5.  Cutler Ridge Mall / Southland Mall
It’s much nicer (and safer) today than it’s ever been. It’s officially the first shopping mall I ever visited here in South Florida back in December 1987. I had been going there a few times a year over the past 14 years or so. I’ll be visiting more often since they have a nice movie theatre there now.

4.  Miami International Mall
Before the Dolphin Mall ever existed this was the shopping mall to visit on my way to the airport, the Flagler Dog Track, Miami, or the Beaches. This is your basic standard neighbourhood Simon mall. Sometimes you just need to go back to basics and shop the simple life.

3.  Dolphin Mall
If I lived in the neighbourhood then I’m afraid that I’d be there every single day shopping, eating, drinking, and watching movies. This is as close as it gets to Downtown Disney West Side. It’s a good thing that I don’t live in the neighbourhood. There could be trouble.

2.  The Falls
A stroll through this luxurious outdoor shopping mall is like a stroll down memory lane for me. This was the cool place to hang out a generation ago. When I was a kid I used to hang out there. Of course for me ‘kid’ means early-20s. 

1.  The Shops At Sunset Place
I watched this jumpin’ joint get built a decade ago, and once it opened for business in 1999 I planned entire Saturdays around it. If you couldn’t find me in Homestead on any given Saturday from 1999 to 2005 then I was probably hiding out at the Virgin Megastore, the Barnes & Noble, or the AMC-24.

Categories
Animals Driving Food Health Holidays Home Shopping Television

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  It’s Veterans Day all across the great United States Of America, and it’s the Federal Holiday each year that means the most to me personally. I stopped everything that I was doing at exactly 11:11 AM this morning. I checked out the big three cable news networks – Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC – and not a single one of them had LIVE coverage of any Veterans Day ceremony anywhere. What a shame.

2.  On both Saturday and Sunday I drove more than 80 miles each day. That’s about 4 times my daily average. It was an exhausting first-half of my long holiday weekend, and a more peaceful and quiet second-half (yesterday and today). I actually felt a real subtle hint of a possible 8TH cold in 12 months coming on this morning. I took an extra 500 MG Vitamin C tablet to fight this fight because I don’t have time for another cold this week – or next week.

3.  This morning I went to Publix – where shopping is a pleasure – about 10 minutes after they opened for business shortly after 7 AM. I did my grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. After that I went to McDonald’s to pick-up breakfast. You get faster service when you actually get out of your car, walk in to the joint, and order the food face-to-face to an actual human being (rather than a drive-thru speaker).

4.  I did a little mini ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ this morning. I walked to and from the clubhouse near the main entrance of my neighbourhood. That’s a little more than a half-a-mile round-trip. I had to do my annual vehicle registration there. Prior to last year a lazy me would have driven it. Nowadays I see a mile or two and think ‘Walk-A-Thon’. I saw a new cat during this mini walk. The feline looked at me from afar and sighed to himself or herself, ‘Friend – Not Foe’.

5.  Ford Championship Weekend is just two days away at our Homestead-Miami Speedway, so you just know what that means – tens of thousands of out-of-town tourists and NASCAR fans galore descending on our home turf spending their hard-earned money in our stores and restaurants. Show them respect. Be nice to them. Welcome them to our fine city. Invite them back for more fun.