Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! It's Christmas Eve and we just finished a fabulous dinner at Buster's...compliments of our favorite son and daughter-in-law! Chris and Jen gave us a gift certificate to Buster's, one of our favorite restaurants in Destin, along with KOA gift certificates. Food, camping, gas and Walmart! Our kids know us well! We have a huge Christmas dinner tomorrow at the Activity Center here at Camping on the Gulf. Would love to be with all of you, but our crazy bunch down here isn't bad! and then we walk on the beach! Andy and Harley join us in wishing you love, lots of hugs, prosperity, happiness, weight loss, success and tons of other good wishes!
Love,
Woody and Pat

I have a confession!

Harley got upset that Andy's picture was on the blog and his wasn't! Here's Harley's "Make the world go away" nap!

Those of you who know me well know I'm addicted to Dancing with the Stars! It's one of the few shows I've watched over the past few years that is sacrosanct. I don't answer the phone! It used to be that way with ND football...well you know what happened this year! I still search for Helio and Julianne gossip almost daily! I'm crushed that Julianne Hough http://www.juliannehough.net/ is in Nashville and I'm in Destin! I've always loved racing...just not Nascar racing. Now in addition to Danica Patrick, I've got Helio Castroneves http://www.indycar.com/drivers/driver.php?driver_id=58 ! I used to pull for Dario Franchitti because I love Ashley Judd, who's also a neighbor in Tennessee, but he's moved to Nascar! So now I've got my IRL favorites and Tony Stewart, Jimmy Sauter (who I hope wins something this year!) and of course, Dario...now you know one of my deep secrets. I'm a dancing, racing junkie! I even bought a web site, http://www.racerlady.com/ just not sure what I want to do with it yet! Yeah!!!

We went to see National Treasure yesterday for a 3:45 p show...it was packed. I think it's a hit. It's not quite as good as the first one, but it's still a great popcorn and chocolate escapist fantasy! I love movies with action and suspense. We still want to see about 10 others that are out or coming out...it's a shame it costs so much but now that we are both "senior" and go to matinees it's reasonable unless the movies bad! Wouldn't it be nice if there was a money back guarantee? We usually just look at what the critics hate and know we'll love it.

We're still walking a lot, eating too much, and having a great time. It's overcast and a bit cool today so we'll probably stay close to home. As you know "home is where we park it"! We love getting the Christmas cards many of you are sending. Libby and Led sent us a WalMart giftcard and a Shell giftcard for Christmas! WalMart is my new Chicos and, of course, what RVer doesn't need gas! I have a little work to do over the next week or so before Estelle and David come...we have a whole list of new restaurants for them to try!

I'm still having a bit of trauma with work---no-work. Had two consulting jobs offered this week that would have been quite profitable I'm sure, but I gave them away! I just don't want to fly unless it's out of the country! It would have been great fun, but I'm still a bit tired and not ready to really do much more than edit, and an occasional consulting gig for The Oncology Group and Dawn! I guess that's what retirement is all about!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I miss you all and will see you in March! Big hugs!
Woody and Pat

A $550,000 Ceiling

We went to McGuire's Irish Pub tonight for dinner! They have $550,000 in $1 bills stapled to the ceilings and walls! They have a Notre Dame room and my dollar went right below the 1988 National Champion banner...ahhh, fond memories! Woody was mushy and did a Woody loves Pat dollar! McGuire's Irish Pub is a blast! http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/contact.html

We've been really busy the last week or so! I feel bad that I haven't written much, but I've been editing like crazy and doing a little consulting. I do love that mailbox money! We're planning on lots of movies this weekend as three are coming out that we want to see.

My BFF Jane wanted more pictures...here you go!

Here we are on the beach...it's cool here hence the sweatshirt and shorts combo! The Christmas tree is at Destin Commons, our favorite shopping and theater area. Well second to the Outlet Mall for shopping! This sunset is right off our beach at Camping on the Gulf. http://www.campgulf.com/

We've seen lots of people from last year and are getting ready for our Christmas Day Dinner! As usual I will bring two key lime pies from Publix....no, I'm really not cooking much down here either! Friday at 4P we have a dog tricks contest and a hot dog roast on the patio! Andy doesn't have any tricks, except he'll win the hot dog eating contest if we let him! There are even more activities for us old folks and snow birds! I never thought I'd enjoy retirement so much!

Big hugs to everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Love, Woody and Pat

Fun on the Beach!

I just love being a snowbird. We've had a great week. I'm walking, eating lots of seafood at Dewey Destin (http://www.destinseafood.com/) , working a bit, shopping and going to the movies. We saw Hitman yesterday and it was fabulous! Lots of action and blood and gore! We went to Destin Commons to walk around and found ourselves right in the middle of a dog Christmas fashion show. We should have entered Andy! He has his snowflake sweater here and would have looked great! We're going to have to start watching the paper to see all the fun events in Destin. Did a bit of shopping, but didn't buy anything. The sad part of being retired is you don't need anything that you can't get at WalMart! I did talk to some of the salespeople who said they were really hurting this Christmas season. There are so few people around that its almost spooky! I can see how some of the RV contingent might not come due to gas prices, but there's just no one here. The high rises on the beach with thousands of condos have one or two windows lighted! Where are the people?

I did miss a reception in Nashville to benefit Hillary's campaign and I was a host! I'm so hopeful that she will be able to fix health care, get us out of Iraq, and approach our country's budget in a more realistic manner. I always think about the joke if the Wise Men had been women, they would have cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought useful gifts! The good old boy network has just about run this country into the ground. It's time a strong woman took a shot at straightening us out! I just hope people can get past the b___ word! It's amazing that Bill gets impeached for lying about an extramarital affair, and the Bush contingent gets away with just about everything from outing a CIA operative to going to war on suspicious grounds to lying to a grand jury and getting a presidential pardon! Hullloooo....where is the justice? I am concerned that the democrats will kill each other and weaken our chances at beating the republicans!

I just got a wonderful gift for Christmas from MedCom, my company I edit for in Taiwan. They sent the best selection of tea! Woody and I are so excited to try it. The Jasmine tea is probably going to be my favorite.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

We're in Destin!

We arrived in Destin last night! Here are pictures! We spent all day decorating for Christmas! Wanted to share our campground, the beach (that's our RV window so we're close), our Christmas trees, Woody and Andy resting after working, and our great neighborhood! Million dollar+ houses just out our back door...if we had a back door!

Jan and Holly...check out the chairs! Donna...be very jealous...we're done with our Christmas shopping and it's been mailed, and the trees ( 3 of them) are up! I don't know if you can see it but the Welcome Flamingo you gave us is holding the wreath and the sign that says "home is where you park it"!

The blue screen room is Harley and Andy's. Harley prefers the one in Hendersonville but will take what he can get right now. There are dogs everywhere, but Harley is the only cat walking on a leash!

We've already hit Buster's and Pompano Joe's! Our two favorite restaurants! Tomorrow we rest, watch football, and then I have to work a bit. Cathy and Dawn and Taiwan are keeping me busy!