Making the best of it

One thing yours truly has learned in recent years is this: If you have to do something you'd rather not do, then try to balance it out with doing something fun that you wouldn't normally do.

Today, as I had to head up to Apopka to deal with the pending vacancy at ye olde rental property, I decided to make the journey more palatable with a sidetrip to Renninger's Flea Market in Mount Dora.

Said sidetrip was made all the better by undertaking it with some good friends and eating way too much Mexican food afterwards!

To make things better, I found the house in great condition and got to show it to some great people, too. In fact, I'm hopeful that it may not go unrented for too long after all!

Don't let anyone tell you that flea markets, friends, and food can't cure what ails you!

House for rent in Apopka

UGGGGGHHHH!

Yours truly just discovered that the family currently renting his former home in Apopka will not be renewing their lease next month.

If any of ye socks know of anyone who may be interested in renting (or buying) the place, let me know!

Congratulations for graduations

Heading up to Apopka this afternoon to celebrate with some Blue Darters.

The AHS class of 2010 will actually graduate tomorrow in the old arena in downtown Orlando.

But, it's a lot easier to get a large crowd together to celebrate the occasion on a Sunday afternoon than it is on a Monday morning.

Anyway, congrats to all the grads out there, but particularly to Jacob Hess!

Now, pass the deviled eggs and tell me when the coconut cake is going to be ready!

Breakfast with the candidate

In the ongoing effort to do ye olde civic duty by getting to know the folks running for public office around this little corner of heaven, yours truly had the pleasure of meeting Matt Falconer this morning at the regular Friday roundtable.

Mr. Falconer certainly came well-prepared for our little group. He literally brought a text book he wrote on how to improve Orange County's government, and gave copies to everyone at the table.

You can't say this guy isn't thorough.

That may be just what we need in the next county mayor.

I'm still not sure I agree with his ideas on consolidation of services, though. I mean, I don't know how the folks up in Apopka would feel about having their fire department absorbed into some new mega-district. And, I doubt the folks down in Belle Isle want to give up their new police department. So, I guess I'll have to read his textbook over the weekend to try to figure out exactly what he means . . .

Man, nothing like homework for the weekend! This being a good citizen thing can really cramp your style, no?!

No football today?!?

I think this is the closest that yours truly has ever been to PTSD.

With the recent losses of both my beloved Gators and the Apopka Blue Darters, and given the pathetic nature of the Bucs this season, I just didn't know what I would do with all my spare time this weekend.

Forutnately, my little sister came to the rescue with this snapshot of her son's flag football game up in South Carolina.

Not quite the same as watching an SEC gridiron battle on cable TV, but I'll settle for anything at this point.

And, given the scouting reports of Junior Simmons' fierce running game, methinks Tebow's records may fall in about 15 years. Ye Noles fans should also be quaking in your collective boots!

Apopka 7, Treasure Coast 0

That score was just texted to yours truly from an excited mom who made the trip down to Port Saint Lucie to watch the Blue Darters continue their march to the state championship.

This means that next Friday that Big Blue will host Deland, who beat Winter Park tonight.

The winner of that game will be playing in the Citrus Bowl on 12/19.

Congrats to Jacob, his teammates, and coaches!

I'm hoping to make it to next week's game, and will for sure be at the championship game if . . . nay, WHEN . . . you guys make it there!

An epic gridiron battle

Well, ye socks, I'm feeling doubly guilty this fine evening.

First, because I finked out on going to tonight's big regional semifinal game between Apopka and Dr. Phillips at Bill Spoone Stadium. (It's just too cold outside for this Florida boy to be sitting on aluminum bleachers, even with all the extra Thanksgiving-induced cushioning!)

Second, because I turned off the TV coverage in the first quarter when the Blue Darters had run-up the score 21-0. I figured they had the game well in hand.

But, then I got the phone call: "Are you watching this?!?!"

What I thought was going to be a blow-out ended up being the most contentious high school football game in Florida history. And, the underdog ended up knocking off the #1 team in the state.

But only after quintuple overtime!

Wait . . . is that a word, "quintuple?" Did I spell that right?

Whatever.

Let's just say FIVE OVERTIME PERIODS!

Fortunately, the Blue Darters ended up on top, 58-52.

Congrats to #65 and his teammates, and good luck down in Port St. Lucie next week. Topple those Titans, and I'll commit to a seat at the Citrus Bowl to watch you win the state championship.

Sound like a deal?!?

Go big blue!

Catfish!!

I only felt slightly guilty about this, so will share it with ye socks in today's post.

In making preparations for a friend's birthday observance today, I successfully steered the debate in favor of The Catfish Place in Apopka.

The table in the foreground of the picture posted here was quickly surrounded by the eager beneficiaries of my debating skills.

We enjoyed all that bad stuff your cardiologist warns you about: onion rings, fried catfish, creamy cole slaw, cheese grits, etc., etc.

And, while we were at it, we tossed back way too much ice tea. The caffeine-induced hyper conversation that followed meant we had to leave a little extra table rent for the poor waitress who had to keep filling our glasses.

Oh, yeah, and couldn't leave until we had some Key Lime pie for dessert.

Anybody else got a birthday coming up that they want to use for a convenient excuse?!?

Keeping my fingers crossed

Well, ye socks, I *think* I received some good news this morning.

As with the recent Magic play-offs, though, I'm worried about jinxing things by posting too much here.

I know. Thanks for being cryptic.

But, if the news proves correct, it will be a tremendous blessing and relief for yours truly.

And, who couldn't use some good news AND good things *happening* nowadays?!?

I'll keep you posted . . .

Robinson's in Apopka

I spent the better part of the last six years as a resident of the city of Apopka in this little corner of heaven.

And, I must have passed a little greasy spoon called Robinson's (at 301 West Main Street) hundreds of times in all my comings and goings.

But, I never stopped there to sample the cuisine until this morning.

It was a rendezvous point for the kindly souls who agreed to haul my washer and dryer from the Lake Hammer Chalet down to the new digs in College Park.

Anyway, I'm sorry to say that I wasn't missing anything all those times I passed this place by.

My "experience" at Robinson's started off with a thieving newspaper vending machine out front, followed-up by a completely unsympathetic staff.

Once inside, I discovered the booths were designed to cram as many unwitting patrons into the dining room as possible with no thought whatsoever to comfort.

And, for all this, my breakfast (which is generally the most inexpensive meal of the day) cost me more than $7.

I won't be going back to this greasy spoon!

A long way to go to do laundry

Lest ye socks forget, I still haven't been able to sell or rent the olde Lake Hammer Chalet.

Mostly because I haven't even put it on the market, yet.

I still want to do some touch-up painting and give it a deep cleaning before we call in a realtor.

But, in addition to all that, Le Chalet is also still home to my washer and dryer set. At least until Saturday.

In the mean time, I had to drive up here to get a week's worth of laundry done.

While its churning, however, I can start doing some of that aforementioned prep work.

Guess, I should've brought one of those paint brushes from last night . . .

No rest for the weary . . .

You know, with all the effort expended at the new/old house on Elizabeth Avenue over the past month, yours truly has virtually neglected ye olde Lake Hammer chalet.

It's really a shame.

Other Cat is nearly always shooting me fierce looks of scorn these days.

So, today, I decided to finally do something about it.

No, we're not talking your typical "spring cleaning."

We're talking bust out the cardboard boxes and do more than a little surface cleaning.

I guess it has finally dawned on somebody around here that I'm going to have to sort, pack, toss a bunch of stuff on this end, too.

But, that's okay. I've gotten pretty good practice these last few weeks.

Exhausted . . .

There's no place like home

My apologies to ye socks for the recent rant.

I'll try to make it up to you today.

I'm back home now.

And, all I can say is, I've never been so happy to see the Apopka city limit sign.

There's just no beatin' the indoor foliage capital of the world!

Apopka Election Results

I post this for my fellow Apopkans as we are all woefully underserved by the local media outlets.

If you watched any of the news channels last night, you got more than enough coverage of the primaries up in Mississippi and the Spitzer prostitution scandal up in New York. But, NOTHING was mentioned on the city council elections in the fastest growing municipality in Orange County. (Incidentally, for ye media buffoons, we are second only to Orlando in population around here. That's a lot of viewers/listeners/readers you're ignoring!)

Anyway, the polls were busier than I had ever seen yesterday. And, the Supervisor of Elections confirmed that this morning. We typically have only a pathetic 5% turn-out for municipal elections in our fair town. But, this go-round we had a "whopping" 12.5%!! Wow, huh?

The bottom line is this: both incumbents retained their seats on the city council.

Bill Arrowsmith handily defeated retired schoolteacher Millie McBee, 60% to 40%. The senior councilman probably would have run unopposed if he hadn't voted against the proposed development of a new town center near the intersection of 436 & 441 back in December. Fortunately for him, McBee's campaign failed to focus on this weakness. She was all over the place, proposing committees to study race relations, traffic congestion, code enforcement, and new businesses. Too many mixed messages distracted voters from the one issue on which she really could have hammered her opponent. And, nobody likes bureaucratic committees around here. We want leadership.

Kathy Till did even better against former city employee Sammy Ruth, 66% to 34%. Her victory may be in part to her support of the new town center project. But, more likely, I believe most of my fellow Apopkans were turned-off by Ruth's ongoing feud with the city's chief administrative officer Richard Anderson.

Anyway, that's the spin from Apopka this morning. Thought I'd let you know since the Orlando media likes to ignore us, and The Apopka Chief won't be in print til Friday.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . iginition . . . BLAST OFF!

To commemorate my niece Morgan's 5th birthday today, I had my friends over at NASA arrange an early morning shuttle launch.

If ye socks have never experienced a night-time launch, it's pretty spectacular.

From my humble abode in Apopka, we generally only get to see something like the picture posted here.

But, the closer you get to the coast, the greater the glow from the rocket boosters.

In fact, at Jetty Park, it gets as bright as high noon!

This morning, though, it was so cloudy in Apopka that I couldn't see anything.

Oh, well, back to bed til a more decent hour . . .

It'll cure what ails ya

I'm still battling a sinus infection down here.

This morning, despite the pain and discomfort, I was determined not to let it slow me down and keep me home bound for another weekend. So, I forced myself to drive downtown to a Huckabee campaign meeting. (Big news: the state hq is supposed to be opening right here in Orlando on Monday morning!!) But, about an hour and a half into things, a coughing fit overtook me, and I had to make a hasty exit. Kinda embarassing, actually, because I know my flight to the door distracted the speaker. Oh, well, hopefully she's amongst the socks reading this and will now understand the reasons and accept my apologies . . .

Anyway, the coughing subsided enough by the time I got back to Apopka, that I was able to run in to the Winn Dixie to pick up a few things to soothe my aches and pains. You know, chicken noodle soup, etc.

But, if you really want to know what is making me feel even better than all that store-bought stuff, it is the Republican forum they just had on FoxNews tonight.

After seeing it, I will not be surprised on Tuesday if Huck doesn't lap Romney and come in second up in New Hampshire. Old Mitt is really wounded after Iowa, and McCain (among others) really let him have it.

I particularly liked it when McCain laughingly acknowledged the Mittster as the "candidate of change" in the Republican field. Not because he's bringing new ideas to the table, or anything like that. Rather, because he changes his convictions on things like the sanctity of life depending on what audience he is addressing . . . that left the former Massachusetts governor stone-faced. Just beautiful!!

And, of course, Mike Huckabee delivered another stellar performance.

So, hopefully tomorrow I'll feel well enough to finally take down the Christmas tree . . . we'll see!

APK v BHS

For ye socks outside the dryer, today is a big day in Orange County, Florida.

It marks the first time that two local high school teams will face-off in a state semi-final football game.

Kick-off is at 7:30pm at Boone HS (13-0), when the Braves will be taking on the Apopka Blue Darters (12-1).

Ye need not doubt who yours truly will be supporting. But, I do have much respect for Boone, and not only because my buddy John is an assistant coach. Their defensive line is extraordinarily good. They have not allowed more than 2 TD's in any of their games this season. Johnell Thomas and Jamarcus Allen are rock stars.

But, rock star status only goes so far against a high-powered offense like the one led by Darter QB Jeremy Gallon. He has nearly 2,500 combined yards rushing and passing this year, for a total of 35 TD's. Simply amazing.

No wonder Boone is considered an underdog.

The bottomline: This will be a GREAT high school football game. And, regardless of where your loyalties lie, the good news is that Orange County is sending one of them to vie for the state title at the Citrus Bowl next week.

So, when can we fire up the grill and do some tailgatin'?!?

Football & Housewarming Party

Well, today was the big day at the Jenks Mansion with Howard and Valda hosting throngs of their closest friends in a fashion that would have made P-Diddy jealous.

Of course, it's still Fall Football season here in the South, so there was much pigskin discussed over Lil Smokey's & BBQ sauce. Yeah, we ARE that fancy.

The big news was Apopka's win over Spruce Creek last night, which catapults them into a state semi-final against the highly-overated Boone Braves this Friday.

One of the outstanding young varsity men in Darter Blue was on hand to give us all the inside scoop. The Braves should be quaking in their mocassins, according to what he tells us.

Sidelight entertainment was provided by LSU whooping-up on the Vols in the SEC championship game up in Atlanta; Pitt surprising the West Virginia Mountaineers in the backyard brawl; and Oklahoma beating up on "number one" Mizzou.

I love this time of year, and the mansion proved an awesome venue for a lot of folks down here to indulge the twin southern passions of sports and grub.

Congrats to the Jenkses, and thanks for playing host!

A clean fridge

That's right, in case you missed it, today is officially "Clean out your refrigerator Day."

I took the media hype as a hint, and was shocked at some of the items that were lurking in my fridge.

How 'bout the strawberry jam that expired in 2005?!

Anyway, I'm glad this special day is followed by Friday . . . one of the days the wonderful folks at the City of Apopka send garbage trucks thru my neighborhood.

They're going to get more than their fair share from me this week!

FSGS in Orlando

The Florida State Genealogical Society held their annual meeting right here in Orlando today.

Actually, they started yesterday, but some of us socks have jobs to attend to on Fridays . . .

Anyway, I enjoyed checking out the vendors and got a new Florida Pioneer Descendant pin. Also, talked to a lot of nice people.

Now, it's back to the promised land of Apopka to get some serious college football game watching done this afternoon.

Orange and Blue!