Tropical Storm Nicole, Mountain Dew Fruitquake, Crumbl Cookies & Welsh Albert Finney

Here's a recap of what I've done from the beginning of November right up to Thanksgiving. In about a week I'll talk about Thanksgiving to present time. By now, Tropical Storm Nicole seems but a distant memory even though it was just a few weeks ago. Thankfully it only caused a rainy, windy night and not much more.

I'd heard of it beforehand but during November I had the new holiday flavor from Mountain Dew known as Fruitquake; that's because its flavor is... fruitcake! As I've never HAD a fruitcake before I can only surmise that the flavor is accurate. The taste is uncommon yet not bad. Anyhow, early in November I was in Sanford one night; not only did I stop at a Bojangles (it'd be nice if one was closer by; they have some tasty food) a trip was made to the Seminole Town Mall for the first time in several years. Yikes has that place fallen on hard times; I don't think it even has half-occupancy so it may not be long before it becomes a dead mall. On a brighter note, another day I was on the east side of Orlando; for the first time I had some Crumbl Cookies. While not cheap, they do taste quite good. Afterwards I stopped at a random pizza place (Lazy Moon) which was fine although it did have a “youthful” aesthetic so I'm sure the students at the nearby UCF love it.

The last night I'll discuss was when I spent time having dinner at a Longhorn Steakhouse; I hadn't been there in ages although it was a place mom liked. The food was good but what a collection of people I ran across. Besides having brief words with a mother/daughter combination, there was a man who looked a lot like the late actor Albert Finney, although I overheard him say he was Welsh rather than English like Finney was. The oddest person was a highly religious lady who started talking to a stranger and besides bemoaning “witchcraft” and “crystals”, she decided to give a prayer to the stranger... which was a bizarre free-form thing that lasted for at least 5 minutes and still was going on when I left! I am NOT offering any opinions on her religious beliefs; I am only commenting on how awkward the whole thing was, as if it's something you'd see on an awkward drama-comedy on TV or in a cinema. I'm unsure if the stranger was moved by the prayer; hopefully so as that'd make it all the more uncomfortable if it wasn't.

Like I said, around this time next week will be a new one of these.