Great birthday .... to be continued!

[Thumper]

Birthday was Sunday and Lynn and I spent the day at the movies (saw 5 of 'em). :D

Last night we had my birthday dinner ... with my two favorite appetizers ... escargot and calamari. YEEESSSS!

Thai for lunch today ... my favorite Thai dish of all time ... plus I got to flirt with the staff in their native tongue. ;)

Tonight we got packed and will be headed out of here around 6:30 am or so to spend the night in Miami ... with dinner at Texas de Brazil ... another of my faves (I'll eat my weight in lamb chops!).

We'll spend the night in Miami then head on down through the Keys for a few days in Key West, back to Miami on Monday and back home by Tuesday.

Dang, Lynn's birthday is in a few more weeks, but I may not be able to top this. What do youse dufes think is better? A Big Mac or a Whopper? :D

Try to be good while I'm gone ... I'm gonna go down to the point and flip a bird at that Russian spy ship in Havana Harbor. I just want to let them know they're "number one". :D

[Thumper]

Right on time. Adios dufes!

[Chicken Dinner]

(I'll eat my weight in lamb chops!).

Sweet Jesus, just how many baby sheep have to die for you to celebrate your birthday!?!

[Bwana]

Have a great time Thumper!

[LJ3]

CD that was funny as hell!

Have fun Jimmy... With the death of 1298 lambs on your conscience you'll need all the distractions you can get!

[Buckrub]

Sweet Jesus, just how many baby sheep have to die for you to celebrate your birthday!?!

LIKE

[LW]

Im still marvelling at setting through 5 movies.

[Thumper]

I should be embarrassed, but at my age I really don't give a crap. When our financial situation went into the toilet after my illness, losing my business, economy collapsing, etc, we got real creative in our ways to still enjoy life a bit. On my Social Security and Lynn's wage, we can only afford to pay our bills and sit at home. My eBay sales pay for our extras, "entertainment" expenses plus make the max contribution to Lynn's IRA every year.

She became an expert on buying groceries. Luckily we have ALL the major chain supermarkets in the neighborhood and she is a human computer when it comes to knowing prices. I dare ANYONE to buy groceries at the price we're able to buy them. Ya' just can't do it and I'd put money on that bet. If it's not a terrific deal, we don't really need it. Our fresh fruit/veggies comes from the local farmer's market where the vendors have gotten to know us and often give us "special" deals. When it comes to canned goods, think about it ... I go to estate sales! Every house has a pantry full of canned goods ... we check to make sure the dates are good, then buy canned goods at 12 1/2 cents/can (2 for a quarter). We buy bread at the "bread store". Clothes at Goodwill, Salvation Army or estate sales ... 99% of them are unworn (or show NO signs of being worn) and many (probably 1/2 of them) still have store tags attached. I'd say the maximum we pay for a new shirt/blouse etc. is $2.00. (BTW, Wednesday is half-price day at Salvation Army). Add to the fact, we only wear brand name clothes (she bought new, with tags, $80-$90 blouses for $1.50- $2.00 just last week!)

We use the senior discount everywhere we go that has them. When we go out, which is often, we always have a coupon or special offer of some sort (usually BOGO). Birthdays? We're signed up for every danged "birthday club" known to man. Some give free meals on your actual birthday, but if you're only a few days off, they give it to you anyway. Others, the offer is good for 30-days. We ALWAYS drink water with our meals and no deserts. Next time you go out, add the total of your drinks/deserts and see what the percentage is. We buy our gas at Walmart WITH a Walmart card. If you use their card, they not only have the cheapest gas in town to begin with, but the card gives you an extra 5-15 cents/gal. off (depending on location). We have an app on our cell phones (Gas Buddy) that gives the prices of every gas station in town ... we use that when traveling (usually to find the next Wally World with gas). We plan our stops on the interstate using Gas Buddy and have learned that gas prices may be 15-20 cents/gal. less if we simply go to the next exit.

My buddy, (our best friends) who owns 10-12 Subway stores gives us a stack of his business cards every year for Christmas (each one is good for a free sandwich in any of his stores). We also do the "Secret Shopper" thing for him every month. While shopping his stores, we order anything we want and he reimburses us ... plus pays us an extra $15 per store for our time ... PLUS we get a card that they stamp with every sammich we buy and after so many (5 I think?) sammiches, we get a free one!

Now to the movies! When we see the Blood Mobile in the area, we check to see what their "giveaway" of the day is ... if it's movie tickets, we stop (we've always given blood anyway). If it's a t-shirt, we pass and wait a week. We also collect Coke Rewards (long story) and when we get enough, we'll get two free movie tickets/large Coke (refillable)/large popcorn (also refillable). Now here's where things get a bit "sketchy" (as the Brits say) ... I'll go online, look at all the movies we'd like to see, print out the movie schedule/showtimes & run times, then put together a "schedule". We then hit the theater (20 screens) in the morning for the first movie ... usually around 10:30-11:00 am, get the free tickets/Cokes/Popcorn and see our first movie. Then, we look to see the next movie on the schedule and walk down to that showing. (Ok, ok ... like I said, we get "creative"). :D

Now, we can't go all day and into the night eating only popcorn, so on the way to the theater, we stop at one of my buddy's Subways (there's one walking distance from the house) and pick up a couple of (free) foot-longs. Lynn takes a large "purse" that's basically empty, so we can smuggle in the goods. We'll eat those during one of the gaps between movies (with a free Coke refill of course). This weekend we saw Taken 3, Hunger Games (Mockingjay), American Sniper, The Imitation Game and Paddington. :D

Our roadtrips? Usually it's just a matter of buying gas (using Gas Buddy) as Lynn gets free rooms at any Hyatt owned hotel. (Free stays at the Hyatt Regency is a nice perk) We get free breakfast and free wi-fi as well as free parking. The hotel here in Miami has all those plus a different "theme night" every night ... tonight was free chicken wings. Also, any hotel where they have a restaurant, Lynn gets a 50% employee discount. When we eat out, it's Groupon or Living Social deals. This 6-day trip (Miami/Key West) will cost us a total of 2 tanks of gas and maybe $100 (of course we use the credit card for frequent flyer miles). :D

[Buckrub]

I ain't that smart. Seriously.

Have a BIG time, man. Enjoy.