That’s us. Nothing else to say really.
Well, OK.
I grew up in Miami (Insert “It’s All Bout The U”), and met the woman who would become my best friend and Wife when we both worked at Publix Supermarkets. I think I hired her, but that would be harassment, so maybe not. We left Publix to run our own Baseball Card /Memorabilia business for 10 years from 1989 to 1999. We decided we wanted to grow up and get real jobs, so we did. I was hired by Office Depot to manage their Marathon site (Florida Keys). We packed up and moved South. That’s not easy to do when you live in Miami, but we headed South anyway. Living in Marathon was a challenge, especially for Alina. No shopping to speak of, and because were not big drinkers, there wasnt very much to do after sunset. Oh, and we don’t fish either.
We found out in 1999 that we would be blessed with a baby, and then we found out that there weren’t any Hospitals in Marathon that delivered babies. Alina gave birth to Alexandra on July 29, 2000 in Miami (at 4:07 PM, and yes I almost missed it, but a guy’s gotta eat). I instantly went from someone who was afraid of kids, to the most wonderful father you could ever imagine. Well, it wasnt that smooth a transition, but I love being a Daddy to Shmalex (nothing rhymes with Alex).
We moved to Ft Lauderdale in 2004 (Alina was VERY VERY happy). We lived there until 2008, but had decided a few years earlier that we wanted to move further North. We found the house that we loved in Charlotte NC, and moved in May, 2008. Now we are raising Alex; (or is she raising us?), and enjoying the seasons we didn’t get to experience in Miami. Miami has 2 seasons; hot and hotter. Here we have snow, leaves that for some reason fall off the trees, and wonderful low humidity summers. Before moving, Alex was hesitant to leave her friends behind. So we did what all parents do, we promised to get her a dog when we moved. We rescued Gypsy shortly after that, and she’s very much part of the family. Did you know that dogs can’t eat chocolate? I didn’t, but she survived the trip to Dairy Queen. I’m lucky to have family near Charlotte as well. My Sister Naomi moved here with her family a year before we did, and my Parents followed 6 months after we moved. My Sister Suzanne lives near Orlando Fl with her family.
So, about the blog. I started writing JustFindIt4U in late January, 2011. I had kicked around the idea for a while, but I’m not a techie, so I was kind of scared. Actually, I was terrified. But I struggled through setting it up, with help from a couple of fellow bloggers (see Blog List). It’s been a work in progress, it took off kind of quick, and I’ve been surprised at where the readers come from. How somebody in a small town in rural China found me, is amazing! I’ve had guidance from Lindsay and Garret, some I’ve listened to, some I backshelved for a while. Of course Ali and Alex have helped quite a bit too (I’m not allowed to backshelf what Ali says).
My intention in writing the blog is to share some of the knowledge I’ve gained. I’m very frugal, though not cheap. I splurge for my family, but try to save wherever I can to make up for it. I don’t unroll the double ply toilet paper to make it single ply, but I do fill a garbage bag to the point that another macaroni noodle wouldn’t fit. Just ask my Wife, it drives her crazy.
I love to cook! In fact next to my family, the “U”, the Marlins winning the World Series and the Dolphins going Undefeated (I’m old, but I can remember); I’d have to say cooking is my favorite hobby. I tend to cook easy to moderate recipe’s, so what I will post will be the same. And a lot of Chocolate recipes (see Just Chocolate page). I shop very frugally, the cashiers hate me. But I don’t hoard more than we can use. I could easily fill up the garage with FREE stuff, just to have it, but I don’t. There are many products that I won’t buy if they aren’t FREE. Recently I wanted to buy a box of elbow macaroni, but with my coupon it still would have cost me .14, so I waited for it to go on sale. Hey, FREE is a good thing! I always capitalize FREE for that reason.
What do I want this blog to end up being? I’m not sure. I’d rather wait to see what you want it to be. I had a chat session with a friend, and I asked her what she wanted the blog to be. She said that she couldn’t tell me, but she could tell me what she didn’t want. Though not terribly helpful, it opened my eyes all the same. So please let me know what you want, or don’t want. Either way, I’ll do my best to Just Find It 4 U!
Mike 2/14/2011
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