Without a doubt, there is a LOT to do in Florida, especially in the winter when the weather here is balmy, clear, and quite close to perfect.

On the first weekend of every month, America’s oldest city pulls out all the stops with their First Friday Weekend Art Walk. St. Augustine has over 20 galleries that participate in the event, which is a free, self-guided adventure through the best in exhibits, music, entertainment and refreshments. You’ll also find free parking and free Sightseeing Train and Trolley tours. What that means is that the Art Walk is the best deal in entertainment in all of North Florida.

The self-guided tours begin at Rembrandtz Fine Gifts for Fun People, at 131 King Street. The event runs from 5 pm to 9 pm the first Friday of each month. The next Art Walk is December 7, so mark your calendar.

I love St. Augustine, from its historic sites to the quaint streets. It’s a stunning city and great to visit, even on a day when there is not an event like the St. Augustine Artwalk in the mix. Although we call it America’s oldest city, people also like to take the time to point out that it is actually the first European settlement and the Timucuan Indians were already there when Spain’s Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore.

Make sure you leave time to see the Castillo de San Marcos, an old Spanish fort.

Here’s a story out of one of my favorite cities on earth – Gainesville, Florida. As an aside, the time I spent living there was some of the happiest of my life.

Researchers at the University of Florida while working at the Florida Museum of natural History, just off 34th Street. They have a fabulous butterfly exhibit with a Butterfly Rainforest that gave me days on end of relaxation and wonder. I miss my season pass.

The right to name the new butterfly was auctioned online and an anonymous bidder ended up paying $40,800 for the ultimate honor. The butterfly’s scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae and the common name will be the Minerva owl butterfly, in honor of the late Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Ohio.

The Director of Development for the museum said Kitzmiller’s grandchildren wanted to honor her through the name of a butterfly because she was “an extremely creative person who wrote poetry, played piano and sang.”

I think it is one of the loveliest and most thoughtful memorials I have ever heard of in my life.

I wish I could buy my daughter every toy, book, and movie she asked for. Quite simply, though, it’s not possible ion my budget. Plus, I don’t want to raise a spoiled kid. When I was still married, we indulged her way too often. I still give in more than I should, but despite the fact that her father makes about 10x what I make on an annual basis, he would still prefer to spend his money on jewelry for his girlfriend, new games for his Xbox 360, and a new billet grille for his car. Gigi has very few toys at her father’s house. And, apparently the ones I left behind for her to play with when she was with her dad, he tossed out in the trash when he moved back into the house. I have no reasonable explanation for that move.

Gigi will get a lot under the Christmas tree, but I will not have spent too much money. I love the sales at Target where I can get things at 90% after Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and other seasonal holidays. I put the things away in the gift closet and bring them out for Christmas. I finished the last of my shopping this morning by going to a couple of the Black Friday sales. Gigi will feel like a very lucky little girl and I will still be able to pay my bills.

I’ve decided to write on my Murphy-isms from time to time. I am THAT person, the one who lives a life that would have made Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr. quite proud. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong”. People laugh at me initially when I tell them that my life is so full of perfect illustrations for Murphy’s Law that I have finally learned to just shrug them off. Once a person has known me for a while, they just nod sagely each time they see it happen – which is often. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen either TO me or near me.

I have hundreds of pens and pencils. I have them in old mugs, in desk drawers, and in shoeboxes. I even have some in storage. I have lot of advertising pens from throughout the years. I have pencils that have been given to me by students. I have writing instruments I bought because they were on sale or because I liked the way they wrote.

So, how is it that sometimes when I need something to write with, every single pencil I come across is broken or has never been sharpened? How is it that each of the pens I pick up is out of ink? This does not happen all of the time. It only happens if I am on the phone and need to write down important information or, when I have an all-too-rare flash in writing inspiration. And, it is happening right now. I have, at this point in time, thrown a total of 30 pens in the trash can next to my desk. I have thrown all 30 in the trash without having yet encountered one that will write.

How odd. It reminds me of the time that all five of the wrist watches I owned at one point had stopped, seemingly out of batteries. When I took them all to have new batteries put in, the jeweler noticed they had all stopped at exactly 11:17. All of them. The same time. This happened even though I had been wearing one at the time and the others were either in my jewelry box or on my dresser.

Murphy and his blasted law. *sigh*

Is it really happily ever after for Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado? They met on a season of the TV show The Bachelor. Velvick chose Delgado, proposed to her, and they have been living together here in Tampa ever since.

According to reports, Delgado allegedly punched Velvick in the mouth, giving him a bloody lip. This happened Tuesday night and she was taken into police custody for battery early Wednesday morning. The affidavit says Delgado was under the influence of alcohol.

The incident took place in Seminole, which is in Pinellas County, near Redington Shores on the Gulf Cost.

So, is this merely a hiccup in a Happily Ever After? Or, is it a sign of things to come?

We tried something different on the table this Thanksgiving. We still had the fresh yeast rolls, green bean casserole, rich homemade gravy, real mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, cole slaw )everyone in my family likes to have at least one raw green on the table at all times), and the stuffing made with hand toasted wheat bread and fresh sage. This year, though, we roasted a free range turkey.

You might assume that the turkey might not taste any different, but I would have to tell you that you would be wrong. First of all, this is the leanest turkey I have ever prepared. There was hardly a peck of fat in the juices at the bottom of the roaster. The skin was also noticeably absent of a layer of fat underneath. The meat itself was gamier, more savory, and very tender in texture.

A majority of the turkeys you can buy at the supermarket are injected with insane amounts of salt water. The people selling the turkeys like to tell you it is a flavor enhancer, but we all know it is to plump up the weight of the turkey, ands therefore the profit margins. Adding all that salt to your meat before you even start to season it on your own is bad for your health. If it’s the only thing you do, at least take the time to inspect the turkey when you buy it and find one that is “all natural” and does not indicate it has a “solution” injected into it.

I’ve read a lot of information online about the controversy of free range turkey farming. Apparently, the only stipulation that a farmer ahs to prove in order to claim a turkey is free-range is that it has access to the outdoors. They still may be kept in warehouses or have their beaks clipped. I have no idea about the further background of the turkey we ate, but the fact that it was so lean has to account for something.

Of course, my ideal Thanksgiving would include a wild turkey. Maybe I can get up to dad’s one year and one of the cousins can find us a wild bird.

If it seems silly to pay a fee for the privilege of meeting someone online, that’s because it is. Years ago, the trend in online dating sites was that members who wanted to make first contact would pay the membership fee, but it was still open for free members to reply to messages. The, companies started making all member who even want to read their messages pay the fees. Thankfully, more and more dating sites are moving to 100% free membership with full access.

When I first got divorced, my family talked me into trying that insanely expensive service that says they do a full personality workup for you and match you only to those you are absolutely compatible with. So, I did the personality profile and do you know who they matched me to? My ex husband! I kid you not. I recognized him from his profile (the one at the very tip top of my list) and called to ask if he had signed up to. Bingo, it was him. You better believe I never agreed to pay a fee there and deleted my account as soon as possible. The people who designed that personality test are obviously a bunch of hacks.

I took the time to look around DateHookup.com and really dig into some of their features. It’s 100% free, so that’s why I even bothered to keep looking. You can post photos, e-mail members, even keep a blog – all for free. I love that when I am looking at a profile, I can look at all of the pictures in their full size and not have to keep coming up against a message that says I need to upgrade my membership to see the rest. I also like to see an active forum on any kind of community site I am considering becoming more involved in over time. The forums on DH are super active and I love some of the posts in the Success Stories section. The search is easy, but you have to join the dating service first to access the search. Again, joining is free, so that should not stop you from looking to see who’s out there in your area.

As with any online community, exercise caution and wisdom before giving out personal information or agreeing to meet someone in person. Your safety is number one.

I got up out of bed this morning at a little bit past 4 a.m. I must be insane!

I’ve never bothered to get up this early for shopping on a Black Friday before. I usually wait and go right before the sale period ends at 10 or noon. I told my niece, in a moment of weakness last night, that she could call me on my cell phone when she got up this morning – and she did. She and my sister were already in line at the Toys R Us, so I figured that since the store is only a mile or so up the road that I would put on a bra and some shoes and join them.

I should have taken a hint from the hundreds of cars parked in front of the Circuit City last night at 9 pm. Why didn’t I see that only the certifiable do things like camp out and wait in lines that wrap around stores in order to have the honor of spending money?

It is a fairly unfortunate mistake, because we ended up stuck in front of news camera, broadcasting all of our sleepy-eyed glamour. Yikes.

I picked up the Baby Alive with the bonus pack and a couple 2-packs of fairy dolls and a Leap Pad book. Other than that, I just couldn’t muster the emotional strength to get into the buying frenzy that was causing people to fill two and three carts with things that were not even on sale. What madness,

We hopped on over to the mall to look at the Disney Store after that. They had some good sale prices and a 20% off of everything at the register, so I got a Holiday Pooh plush (winter white and gold – lovely), a Jasmine doll (my sister picked up Mulan and Pocahontas, because it is close to impossible to find anything except the “white” princesses at stores like Target and WalMart and Gigi has been asking for them), and a Giselle t-shirt (from the movie “Enchanted”), then I hit the line and got out of there. I did not have it in me to go on to the other stores with my sister. I suppose I just don’t like shopping enough. ?

Please, someone shoot me if I try and venture out into that mess next year.

There are two things happening right now that make people more aware of how important it is to save money: rising gas prices and the pressure to buy Christmas presents. I don’t drive as much as most people and I try to keep my gift costs down, but even so I am spending a lot more cash this time of year than usual and it makes me aware of other areas where I can cut costs.

I learned the hard way how bad it is to put off car repairs. Just ask me about my car repair bill last month. I had a transmission issue and I am luckier than a four leaf clover that I got to it before the whole thing gave out. Add that to all the other little things that I needed to have fixed and it made a bill so large my eyes watered.

AAMCO is a national chain of facilities that specializes transmission work and other automotive repairs. You’ve all seen the commercials – Double-A-M-C-O. You can sign up to be sent coupons and discounts on transmissions, brakes, tune-ups and other automotive services (you can opt out of the mailings at any time). AAMCO has free towing with major repairs, and I can attest that comes in handy. I had to have them tow me once when I was in town visiting my dad and the car I borrowed from him stopped running.

Save money where you can. If there are coupons available that make routine auto maintenance more affordable, by all means use them!