Im in the Effed Up Ish region, too. 31F this morning and it struggled to get to 45 this afternoon. Two more days of this.
Ive lived through worse for sure, but dammit, Im cold.
It is maniacally threatening to reach 80 by the end of the week.
There’s a reason why Welcome To Florida is abbeviated WTF. The weather is just a small part of it.
That’ really funny - WTF “Welcome to Florida”. I’ve never heard that before. I have a nephew and a sister-in-law who live there and we trade barbs about weather events. I’d be terribly frightened about iguanas falling out of trees and would prefer snow to that. I live on Cape Cod. We have killing hard frosts and I’m grateful. No alligators, no pythons, no iguanas…
This is my all-time favorite first line of a book - from Carl Hiaasen’s Chomp.
“Micky Cray had been out of work ever since a dead iguana fell from a palm tree and hit him on the head.”
A good friend of ours lives on the Satellite Coast, and - while I envy her from about Nov-April, I don’t think I could handle the humidity and/or the hurricanes. But I can def understand the snowbird thing.
Love Carl Hiaasen!
A good friend on Fb who teaches in Gainesville quotes Hiaasen all the time. I think I might have to start reading him!
I don’t even like it there in the winter months. It just seems unnatural to this New Englander.
Mine is the first line of fascinating and clever Stiff - The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers: “The human head is about the same size and weight as a roasting chicken.” It’s impossible to resist reading more!
He has quite the wit!
I love the beach, sunshine & warm temps.
SHE! Mary Roach. Her footnotes are priceless, too. At one point, she refers to the work of an ornately-named European noble, centuries ago. The footnote: “I’d never heard of him either.”
I’ve got the book!!
Alligators generally mind their own business, I’ve never seen a python anywhere but a zoo, and iguanas are still fairly rare where I am…so I’ll take all three of them over 8 weeks of summer and freezing my tuchus off the rest of the year. (Grew up near Chicago so yes, I know what thats like!)
Or a Big Kahuna Omelette at The Gazebo 
We are in the LOL zone, was in the low 60s today… Was out this afternoon running last minute errands, asked my DH if a visit to one of our good local Cantonese restos for dinner would work for him & he said yes! Some very good Wor Wonton Soup, Pea Shoots with garlic, Beef Chow Fun & Salt & Pepper Pork Chops, lots brought home, might be breakfast tomorrow! Happy Holidays to all 
This is typical December weather for us – we gave up planning Christmas travel to out-of-state family many years ago. Usually LOTS of phone calls during the day to exchange Merry Christmas greetings. But we have been known to drive 5 hours each way on 1-day notice when we happen to get a break. Not this year.
So the pantry, fridge and freezer are all well-stocked and the cookie supply abundant. One of my gifts to my husband is a half-dozen bottles of good red wine (just remembered I need to get those under the tree…), so no shortages there, either.
Our Christmas Eve meal tradition is ground beef chili, made with canned tomatoes, canned kidney beans, green peppers and onions. And back-of-the-canister-recipe cornbread – baked this year in the Snowflake shortbread pan. Good flavor but a little tall for best browning and difficult turnout. Another time I’ll use only half the batter in that pan, bake the other half as muffins.
This year’s planned Christmas Day main meal is steak and small lobster tails.
We’ve got choice of soups to reheat for the other meal – either more chili or chicken-noodle.
Thankful for this cooking community, and warm wishes for a peaceful holiday to you all.
Me too! I love his adult books, and his young adult ones are really good too. Chomp is my favorite YA one.
Hiassen is great as airport /vacation/beach reads. Buy em in cheap paperback and leave them in the hotel lobby for the next person.
I suggest reading them in order of publication. There are recurring characters and knowing previous adventures helps.
Almost all his stories center on the rapacious Florida real estate/political/criminal interface and lean heavily toward environmental themes. (He is emphatically pro-nature).
Ans Skink is the original Florida man.
It really is cold as fuck here. I took the dog out during the warmest part of the day, and was all congratulating myself on how warmly I’d dressed and how comfortable I was, until the wind blew, and I realized I’d made a terrible mistake.
I spent the rest of the day in front of the stove with all four burners on, and grateful for it.
