Do you follow Sunny Central Florida on their blog, FB or Twitter? Well if you do you should already know what I am talking about. If not, the Central Florida Visitors and Convention Bureau (Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing) is letting you have a chance to win a Lakeland or Winter Haven hotel stay for your relatives. So if you would like to win a hotel stay for your friends or even family all you have to do is leave a comment on the Sunny Central Florida FB page. A winner will be announced by 3 p.m. on Wednesday (Dec. 23) and the 2-night stay can be used anytime before the end of January 2010! Like coupons, think there is nothing to do here? Well, learn about everything Polk County has to offer and more by stopping at the official visitor information center and ask for a “Passport to Adventure and Savings.” It has more than 120 special offers for activities, attractions, restaurants, accommodations, and shopping. These offers could save you $1,500+ if you went to every place. For hours/directions call 1-800-828-7655 or www.visitcentralflorida.org.
The first time I made this was back in 2005 from a church cook book. Not sure who gets the credit, but I did not create this recipe. When you go shopping be sure to take your green bags! Happy Cooking. 1 (10 3/4 oz) Can of Campbell's Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup* 4 Cups cooked cut green beans (4 cups = 2 cans) If you get canned green beans it's ok to get no salt added, you can't tell the difference when all mixed... 3/4 cup milk 1 1/3 cups French's french-fried onions 1/2 teaspoon pepper (keep reading to see how to make...)
See if you can follow this. The Verizon store is now a T-mobile and the Alltell sign has now changed over to a Verizon sign. The Verizon store that was in Lakeland Commons (across from the Imperial Swan hotel), as of Tuesday, is now a T-mobile store. Verizon moved a few blocks up as is now in the same building as Lenscrafters at 3406 S Florida Ave, 33803. The new Store phone number is 863-644-8800. Hope this helps you the next time you are looking for the closest phone store, if they are your provider. I would also like to add that the inside of the Verizon store is very nice and modern looking, almost futuristic. When you go inside you check in at the kiosk, then wait for your name to be called. The days of someone greeting you with “How may I help you” are almost gone. Although a nice gentleman helped me sign in.
I’ve been working diligently lately to help promote Hair for Hope for Michael Rose Hair Designs. That, combined with writing a couple of articles recently for Breast Cancer Awareness month, has put me in touch with several women who have battled cancer- and not just breast cancer. Something that I found fascinating was how much [...]
The Battle of the Bulge is something I've fought all of my adult life. And of course, the older I get the more the bulge gets the best of me....
It all harkens back to my post-Army days, when I worked as a civilian for the military newspaper at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. I was a speedometer watcher because I know that if you speed on a military post, you WILL get a ticket. One day I’m leaving the post and I come up on an [...]
Warning: colorful language ahead. Proceed at your own risk. The older I get, the more I like my parents. I’ve always loved them, but I really like them, too. In my 20s, a visit home meant a chance to catch up with friends. These days, I enjoy hangin’ with my family just as much. My dad has [...]
Redbox now has a blue box, Blockbuster, for competition. I have used Redbox many times before, mainly because I was at a location where they had it (Wal-mart and CVS). Now Blockbuster has come out with their own box, so I tried it last night at my favorite local grocery store, Publix. Same concept as Redbox, just $1 a day rental BUT the movie has to be in by 7pm the next day before you are charged another dollar. I believe Redbox is 9pm before the next charge. There just happened to be a code on the machine that will not charge my credit card the 1 dollar. Would you like to know what it is? gsnx9x8 It is good till the end of November. I wonder how this new box will change the loyal in store customers Blockbuster already has? (P.S. The movie I rented was Confessions of a Shopaholic and it was worth it and if you see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs in the theaters, be sure to see it in 3D. Mr. Man and I enjoyed it.)
When the second season of Fringe airs on Sept. 17, know that there will be a little piece of Lakeland on the set....
The folks at the Downtown Lakeland Partnership like to call the downtown area “a little mecca of cool.” Well, the Lakeland area also seems to be a little mecca of filmmakers- and not just films shot in Lakeland, but filmmakers who are from Lakeland. We all know about Endure, which was filmed here earlier this year. But [...]
A Southeastern University graduate has made it to week four on season two of ABC’s I Survived A Japanese Game Show. On Wednesday night, Dan Barbour, 25, a 2006 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting, will compete again. He and the other contestants are working toward the top prize of $250,000. SEU Librarian Grace Veach hired [...]
I never got around to writing about my trip to the New Orleans Jazz Fest last month. A shame. But I recently stumbled across this YouTube video, apparently shot by somebody standing next to me as Wilco played "California Stars". It shows maybe the best five minutes of maybe the best concert I've ever attended. It reminds me that the sun does shine, people do smile, and as Jeff Tweedy says, "We must get back to the music."
This weekend I am attending a violin performance by Arianna Kim and Robert Waters at Wesley Methodist Church on Massachusetts in Lakeland. Besides being an inner city church, the small congregation of Wesley has an amazing afterschool tutoring and athletic ministry to the Parker Street neighborhood. Because of tough economic times, Wesley has [...]
For the past few weeks I've volunteered to help the Lakeland-based production company NFocus. The company is shooting a locally produced script, "Endure." They tell me my position is called "Electronic Press Kit" or EPK. I would have called it "blogging." I'm posting my work on the film's blog, but I thought I'd share my post from the first day of filming....
Today is Earth Day. For me, it’s just another day. Not because I don’t care about going green, being more environmentally friendly or looking for ways to reduce waste at my home. I concentrate on those things nearly every day. And you should, too. Earlier this month, I thought about what I might write about today. [...]
It’s that time of year again. You know the one I’m talking about. It’s that time of year when the weather still is favorable enough that many of us can go sans A/C at home. And starting Tuesday, the hum of EVERYTHING will be drowned out by hundreds of airplanes flying over my neighborhood- and [...]
I can still remember the first time I tried to walk all the way around Lake Hollingsworth. All I could keep my eyes on was the other side of the lake and how far it was from where I was. What I found I had to do was break the walk into smaller increments of distance as the whole lake just seemed so daunting. As with any major journey, seeing the short steps and building a routine eventually gave me the results I wanted....
Bio: Darby Critendon is a young professional in the community and recently graduated with a Masters of Business Admin from Southeastern University. Her college radio DJ name was "DarbySea". She enjoys photographing nature and always hopes to catch that one perfect shot. She has a passion for videography and the local arts. Critendon started her blogging career with the popular site DarbySea.