A Week Flies By

For my most loyal readers (and you know who you are!), I must apologize for leaving you high and dry for a full week.  I know I've done this before, and usually it's always for the same reason-- TOO BUSY!

We had a lovely time with Rhoda, and she left on Thursday to visit other friends near Fort Lauderdale.  By now she is back up north in the snowstorm.  So sorry, Rhoda!  Mark and I had a NARFE meeting in Plant City that same day, where he was installed as the new Executive VP of our chapter. 

Wednesday night and Thursday night were the dress rehearsals for Guys and Dolls, followed by three fabulous performances.  They all went well, and it reminded me how much I really love singing in a chorus!  This chorus and it's director, Ellen Factor, are truly fabulous.

Then yesterday Mark bought his new used car.  He got a 2011 silver Ford Focus at Carmax in Orlando, just north of the airport.  The whole experience was possibly one of the best car buying experiences we ever had, and we've had plenty of good ones.

In Maryland, we bought our first car from Evelyn Betancourt at Sheehy Ford in Marlow Heights a long time ago.  It was the pink Ford Aspire in the fall of 1994.  She worked very hard to find that car for Mark, and she shared a name with my daughter!  We continued to work with her for the next 14 years and bought a total of EIGHT cars from her, 6 new ones and 2 used ones:  the Aspire, a Windstar minivan, a Mustang for Lowell, a Malibu Maxx for Evey, and FIVE Focuses.  On the last purchase, I joked that if I bought a ninth car from her, I should get one FREE!  She laughed but admitted that was unlikely! 

So now that we are down here, we didn't really know where to go for a car purchase.  Our mechanic at All Cars suggested Carmax and his son-in-law, Brian Berry, who works there as a salesman.  Mark got online and found a car perfect for his needs, not too old, low mileage, not too expensive.  He found the 2011 silver Focus, with only 16, 092 miles on it, for $13, 599.  He put a hold on it for a week through the website to guarantee it was waiting for us yesterday.  He called Brian, who pre-approved him for a loan at 1.9% right over the phone, and made an appointment for yesterday at 10:15 a.m.  Everything went off without a hitch once we arrived.  We loved the car, as we knew we would, and in just two hours we drove off to a celebratory lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse.  Fantastic.

This car has more bells and whistles than anything we have ever owned.  It has a three month subscription to Sirius radio included, SYNC technology to play music from separate devices, hands free phone capability, a moon roof, heated leather seats, ABS brakes, traction control, all power everything, cruise control, and more.  I'm sure many of you reading this blog have had these things for years, but Mark had hand cranking windows, a cassette player, and nothing with power!  He's in shell shock!  I hope to take some pictures of him with his new "toy" and post them tomorrow.  I'm also not sure when we will ever need to use the heated seats or traction control, but you never know.

Tonight is the cast party for Guys and Dolls, and I have a mani-pedi this afternoon.  We hope to get to line dancing this morning because we haven't been there in a long time, and we miss it.  Life is still great here in sunny Florida.  I hope all of our friends and family up north are hunkering down in the snowstorms and don't hate us too much if we go swimming in the outdoor pool today after line dancing!

Of course, I had to take Rhoda on the Boggy Creek airboat ride and hold Brutus when we were done.  I don't know why I love that so much, but I do!

Mark was installed as Exec VP of our NARFE chapter.

Waiting to perform on the final night when Mark was there to take pictures.

Singing in a large group, or even a small group, is a healthy experience for the body and mind.

There are 112 of us this year under the capable direction of Ellen Factor.

Smaller group, a women's ensemble, sang "I Say a Little Prayer for You"