IN
OUT
September. My new monthly review of exploring Lakeland and the area.
We ate out:
*Purple Onion for lunch with Nora. Downtown, nothing fancy. Good basic food in reasonable portions at reasonable prices. Definitely will go back.
*Fat Jacks for breakfast, twice. Supposed to be best breakfast place in town. A diner with good basic food at ridiculously good prices. Deserves its reputation. Definitely going back
*Harrys Creole for lunch with friends. We first ate here last Dec on the day we closed on our house. Finally went back and it was as good as we remembered. Definitely worth a repeat. Right on Munn Park, lovely service, yummy food, good wine.
*Foxtail Coffee… ‘cause they were hiding a good ice cream store inside.
We explored:
*Bonnet Springs Park. We had a delightfully cool weekend and got a nice 2.5 mile walk around this fantastic park. The elevated walk in the trees is my fave but the butterfly garden was amazing too.
*DMV. Renewed Peter’s license. Lakeland’s tax office is in an old retro Publix; it’s so cute. No i didn’t take a photo, dang it!
*A boardgaming event in a nearby town. My 3rd time with this group. Lovely people, great potluck.
*An excursion to St Pete for dinner, wine, theater and friends. So nice to have a variety of cultural options around. Love to visit St Pete. We’re getting to know its downtown.
We shopped:
* @360_unlimited — vintage clothes store. I bought a funky cartoony dinosaur shirt. Didn’t buy super heavy Mongolian style helmet.
* @inklingsbookshoppe — our fave to bring friends to. Delightful used book store. Though they sell new also; I bought @johngreenwritesbooks ‘s newest novel.
* @hp_guild_games — two times! Once to buy Drillers, and the second time I got a Flamecraft promo and ordered Hummingbrds. I’m so happy Lkld has a great boardgame store, even if it’s a long haul from my house.
*Five & Below — ok it isn’t unique to Lakeland but I’d never been to one. I indulged in small pumpkins and a coloring book for @sean.brodrick.
I realize i didn’t take a lot of photos. And we didn’t explore as much this month as i have loads of work.
Barbara & Jerry visited.
Our backyard is still our favorite place on earth.
What made you happy this week
Apparently, more people than ever are taking Ozempic Semaglutide type meds who don’t have a medical reason.
I’ve had two doctors prescribe it for me for medical reasons and I still can’t get my insurance company to cover it because these days it’s classified as a weight loss med. 🙄🤔😜
My prediabetes numbers have improved greatly. I’m not sure there’s anything the cardiologist can measure, but he says scientist are discovering general cardiac benefits with these meds, beyond just the weight loss.
Meanwhile, I can’t say I’m not enjoying the 30 pound weight loss over the past six months.
The decrease in food chatter in my head is also delightful. Although it does cause me to forget to eat sometimes.
I am 7 pounds away from being classified as only overweight and not obese.
Briefly ran out of work at work! So I thought I’d try being productive at home again for a second morning in a row! Got the bathrooms cleaned, hung up some more art in a bathroom, finished unpacking a half-unpacked box, and did a big Publix BOGO shopping. House is well stocked for an apocalypse. (Also cleaned up dog poop — someone missed her nighttime outing due to rain.) Then I collapsed in a recliner and have been playing games on my phone for half an hour.
Now I’ve earned a nap. But I should probably check my work email and see what they’ve sent me.
Things I did today instead of doom scrolling:
1. Worked on 5 tax returns
2. Talked washing machines
3. Watched Celeb Jeopardy while tidying pantry
4. Won an online cribbage game
5. Tried to teach old dog the trick of walking up a ramp. She never went for it
6. Researched one day choirs
Washing machine repairman came to my house today. He seemed quite perplexed by my machine and its issues. Ball bearings were mentioned, so I knew it wasn’t gonna be good. He spent some time researching things on his iPad.
So while I waited, I took the time to refill my monthly pill box, empty and toss out all the used water bottles on the counter, wipe down the counters, put away clean dishes, put the duvet back in its cover, open a box from Amazon, tidy up stuff in the living room, plan a December trip to West Palm Beach, and feed my sourdough starter.
The final result is the repair is $800 and replacing the washer is $750. Of course I had to pay for this service call too.
I guess I better get back to work now to pay for this!
Here’s a photo of Luna trying very hard not to bark at the repairman. She already was paid a treat not to bark.
And here’s a photo of the box from Amazon that is plenty big enough for a frying pan in it
— yet somehow the handle ended up poking through the corner of the box. I took photos in case the handle had damage and I had to return the item. But it’s fine.
