America Decides... and We Decide to Go Golfing

Wise words...

It's Election Day!  Experiencing our first US Election in this country has been exciting, frustrating, annoying and a little scary.

We are staunch Obama supporters and currently live in a state where people really are divided.

But, we can't vote, so we will remain on the sidelines and see what happens tonight!  I can tell you one thing... I am very much looking forward to NOT hearing election ads on the radio anymore.  This is why these campaigns require millions upon millions in fundraising support... to fund their stupid advertising budgets!  Wow, annoying.

With no access to cable TV (still!  update below) we have no idea what is going on with the election at the time this blog is being written.  My sister-in-law Jessica (who's birthday is today!  Happy Birthday!) suggested a good way of knowing the end result is to look up.  If the sky turns blood red and birds fall from above, then we know Romney won.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jessica!

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My ball is to the right of the sign.  Within reach, but unreachable by law.

FORE!

Literally, watch your head, your windshield, your flower pots... run and duck for cover, the St. Louis' went golfing today.

Jeremy signed up for a type of 'Groupon' website called 'Living Social'.  He receives a daily email with a coupon type deal for a service or activity within South Florida.

And a couple of weeks ago, we received a deal for 18 holes of golf with a cart at Costa Del Sol, a course here in Doral.  So, today we golfed!

And, WOW we were bad!  Two and a half months without golfing did exactly what I suspected... we were like Tin Man in the rain... just plain old rusty.

Jer rocking the white ankle socks and sandals look.

Costa del Sol is located in a square mile block in the middle of Doral City, so there were a number of holes positioned parallel to city streets... this did not bode well for vehicles or pedestrians who happened to be using said streets while we teed off.  Jeremy and I both suffer from a serious slice, so needless to say, we were a little hesitant to 'give'er' off the tee.

Lovely course, but what's that in the water??

No worries, just a branch.  Phew!

On one occasion, I did hit into oncoming traffic, luckily there was a momentary lull and nobody received a dent or a windshield crack.  Instead, as luck would have it, my shot went straight for some city workers who were attending to some trees down the street... my 'Fore!' went unheard and I thought for sure they didn't notice.... but nope, when I turned my attention back to the workers after putting my stupid driver back in its bag, one of them had my golf ball in hand and was bouncing it off the ground and catching it, mocking my horrific inability to master my tee-shot.  Touche, city worker, touche.  And my apologies.

Par 3, tee off over water, my ball drove right into the water bank!

What we DID master today, was our ability to lose a whole lot of golf balls!  Wherever there were water hazards... our ball gravitated towards them.  Wherever there were condo buildings.... our ball bounced off the metal screens protecting their windows.  There was not a straight and safe fairway shot to be had.  But that's ok, it was a beautiful day and we were happy to be outside and enjoying a golf game in November!

"Stop honking in my back-swing!"

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Update on our cable/internet/phone situation - there is no update!  We still don't have cable, internet or a phone hookup.  However, AT&T have been working in the area, so we hope to have some good news soon.

In the meantime, we've been occupying ourselves with some TV series on bluray/DVD.  We've been catching up on a couple of HBO gems - Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) and Eastbound & Down.  Both are hilarious and we highly recommend them!  However, neither should be watched in the presence of children.  Yikes!

We're also able to catch up on some of our favorite current series through our Dropbox 'cloud' account.  We are super thankful that a friend of ours back home has been steadily uploading episodes to our account and we download from here.  It's been working very well!  Therefore we are almost caught up on Downton Abbey, Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead.

We've also been endulging ourselves in our version of TV 'comfort food' - Star Trek: The Next Generation!  Every once in a while, we throw on an episode and are taken back to campy early 90's sci-fi.  Love it!

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Check out our Alfred Hitchcock "Birds" experience at a gas station at the corner of 41st and 107th!

If you fear birds (or fear being pooed on from the sky), this is not an intersection for you!

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Ready for some retro-grilling action!

Let the grilling begin!  We walked into Lowe's last night to get some ant killer (we go through lots of that stuff...) and walked out with a BBQ.  It's cute, it's shiny and it's red!  (I know you'll love it, Ashton!)  It's also infra-red and doesn't require propane or coals, so less fuss, less mess!  At least that's what I say now, before I've even turned it on...

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Work has been unbelievably busy lately.  I've been doing the job of 2 people in the hopes that reinforcements will be hired soon... and the good news came down the pipe on Monday.  My 30 hour work weekends are soon to be over!  My newly acquired facial twitch is releaved.

And some other GREAT news on the job front for Jeremy... a meeting has been scheduled and it looks like he will soon be joining the workforce here in Miami as well.  Stay tuned for news on that development.

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Did we mention how much we love Skype?  We also love Facetime.  And we were able to do so with our nieces Piper and Raelle for the first time since we moved down here.  Not going to lie, I got a little teary eyed after we said goodbye.  We sure do miss those kids... and Justin & Tannis... and EVERYONE back home!  Looking forward to Christmas!

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"Play!"

And one final note... the dogs are great!  It's amazing how Frankie and Jonny are like our kids.  I received so much joy giving them some new toys this week.  Watching the hope in their eyes as I cut the tags off the new buys, and then the excitement as they jumped up and down as I squeezed the 'squeakers' in the toys to get them riled up.  They were thrilled and so was I!

If you are or ever have been a dog owner, you understand what I'm talking about... ;)

Frankie has been steadily sleeping on the guest bed where my Mom was staying... I think she misses her Grandmom.

....and proud of it!