Christmas 2015

Hope this Christmas season finds everyone happy and doing well. It has been a good year for the Gryders.

We had a record snow in Huntsville this February. It is really pretty and luckily Connie's job lets her work from home when the weather is really bad.  She is very happy with the job and is looking forward to staying with the same project until she retires in either 5 (62 eligible for social security) or 8 (65 eligible for medicare) years or later if those dates slip or earlier if a grandchild should comes along.

We have continued having Game Days on a relatively regular basis. We haven't managed to do it every month but we have had them most months. Two months this year we went out to dinner instead of having a Game Day because the weekends didn't work out. We tried out the new Texas Brasilia here in Huntsville and went back to the Melting Pot. Both of them were very good but will probably not repeat Texas Brasilia and will definitely repeat the Melting Pot.

Connie participated and completed a 100 mile swimming challenge at the Y. She had to swim more often and for longer distances than she usually did but she finished it right before Thanksgiving. She's not going to sign up for it again because she'd rather swim only 3 days a week and walk the other days for exercise. But at least she knows she can do it.

Connie is continuing to go to movies regularly when she is in Alabama for a solo weekend. She especially enjoyed Terminator: Genisys even if the critics weren't that impressed with it.

We are still big hockey fans. We've been to several of the SPHL Huntsville Havoc games. Thankfully they are doing much better this season than they did last season. They are in the same league as the Mississippi Riverkings which is the local Hernando MS team which is the other minor league team we follow. We've also been watching a lot of Nashville Predators games on television. It is the NHL team for both Huntsville and Hernando. We hope to go to one of the games in person this season.  Lee is a big Tampa Bay Lightning fan.

We went to the NFL Tennessee Titans home game when Meade's Miami Dolphins came to play. This year Connie wasn't quite as completely surrounded by Miami fans as she was last time. Unfortunately in Connie's view but fortunately in Meade's view the home team lost. The Titans have as many wins this season so far as they did all of last season but it is still a pitiful number (2). They got second round draft pick last year and it looks like they will be getting an early draft pick again this year. Both the Dolphins and Titans are not burning it up this year. Hopefully next year will go better.

Meade was diagnosed with Diabetes. He has been very diligent taking his medication and blood sugar readings. He is losing weight and exercising more. His numbers went way down and we are not anticipating any problems.

Connie has been on a few business trips this year to New Mexico. Although she wouldn't want to live out there (not green enough), it sure is pretty. She wouldn't mind traveling a bit more for work but she'll take what she can get. The highlight of the trips from a sightseeing standpoint was a visit to White Sands National Monument. She went on a sunrise stroll with the ranger and learned a lot.

View from worksite

White Sands National Monument

Cloudcroft New Mexico

Connie on top of Eiffel tower (not in a chicken coop like Meade thou

ght)

Connie and Meade went to Las Vegas in May. Connie went to the top of the Eiffel Tower experience at the Paris hotel. She just loves high places. They went to the Zumanity Cirque de Soleil show at New York New York. It was good though they had a contortionist as part of the show and that was just gross.




Connie, Meade, Connie's mom, Lee and Daryl (Lee's friend) went on a Carnival cruise in September.
It was for Lee's birthday and also Connie and her mom's annual trip. It was 8 days and included stops in St Marteen, Grand Turk, San Juan Puerto Rico and St Kitts. We explored Old San Juan and that was probably the highlight of the trip though it was VERY hot and we were glad to get back on the air conditioned ship. St Kitts was so green and pretty. We'll definitely go back there and take the scenic train trip excursion.  Our steward figured out how much Connie likes the towel animals so he left them together so she ended the trip with quite a collection.

Meade introduced Connie to the Sam's Town Young at Heart (over 50) slot tournaments in November. You get to play one for free (right up Connie's alley) on Tuesdays and win slot dollars. The first one she finished third and got $100. The second one she won and got $250. She also won another $50 in an random drawing. She used them in the video poker machines and came away with over $200. Needless to say she was tickled and hopes that it is still running when she retires. The slot tournament requires no skill whatsoever and it was probably just beginner's luck.

We've discovered a poker tournament on Friday's in Huntsville. Connie has played twice (only found out about it in November) and though she hasn't won anything it was fun so we'll probably go more often. Meade is playing some poker in Tunica but mostly he is playing video poker since his favorite casino (Harrah's) closed and Sam's Town closed their poker room.