Arrived!

We left on Monday night and drove the 1599 miles in just under 48 hours. Needless to say, I am wiped right now.

I rented a 1,400 square foot condo about a mile from Vanderbilt Beach in Naples. The advertised cost was $2,000 (allegedly down from $3,000) for the month of January. The *extras* - taxes (10.5%!), cleaning, internet, and utilities were supposedly going to come in at another $450....so I pushed back, and got the owner to cap me at $2,200 TOTAL for the month. I had to have SOME leverage in this economy and seeing that as of December 29th the condo was unrented, right?


So while it was near 0 degrees with the windchill in Times Square for the ball-drop last night....I was sweating my boys off down here in Southwest Florida!

Of course the first thing you do in Florida is go to Publix, the supermarket chain, and stock up. Their Key Lime pie is an automatic. Last night we also dined in the lounge at Buca di Beppo. The photo-art on the walls there is borderline pornographic. I was mortified. (I didn't realize Buca was a nationwide chain until I just hit their website. The Northeast is relatively chain-free which can be both good and bad.)

Mrs. C-Nut made the drive down as well. She'll be here until Monday before jetting back up to the dank, dour, and frigid Northeast. Then she'll be back for a long weekend on the 16th and for a full week at the end of the month before the depressing ride home. (Unless I can coax an *extension* out of her!)

Alright, I am still getting settled here. My blog output should be back up to 100 posts this month because, when it's just me, the kids are in bed at 8pm.

By the way, if you go around wishing people a *happy new year*, you belong in my Automatic Moron department. What a stupid *holiday*! What a stupid thing to wish people!