New Year's Eve 2015

We had dinner at Ichy Ban and came home to play Mexican Dominoes. After a magnum of champagne and two normal size bottles we took this picture! LOL

Happy 2016 y'all.  

Date Night 12/30/15

It's rather funny that hump day is also date night, no? We had many things to catch up on before fun and merriment begins anew.

Mark wore his new CANADA t-shirt, a Christmas gift. (Actually, all we can see in the photo is an NADA. Haha.)

Robbie thought it was a workday and stayed in his bed and was much relieved when we left him at home. Stop #1 was our Kia for its free oil change. (Three free a year at the dealership! Plus they have free breakfast and hot dogs!) LOL. No, we did not eat there but went to the Waffle House. (Sue and Wayne call it the "awful house", but this one is fairly new and very clean.) After a stop at Walgreens and another at the post office, Mark dropped me at home while he went grocery shopping. After a good floor scrubbing, I laid my new kitchen carpet, a Christmas gift. 

As you can see, it needs a bit of humidity to lay flat, and boy do we have that today. This morning when we left, it was 72° and foggy ... and now the sun is out it's humid! I repeat, when is it going to be winter-like? (Last year, our birdbath froze once.)

Bonnie & Roger sent a few pics of Belize. She's a beauty!

We're looking forward to adoption next month! Yay. 

Bowling was fun tonight. I "almost" beat Mark in one game, (he had a bad game and I had a good one), just 3 points behind. The lanes were crazy busy for $1 night. Randy beat me in the last game so I'm holding the big "L" this week. After, we went to Tiki West for shrimp and parm fries with Randy & Dawn. We always have fun with them! At 9 we came home for Robbie's walk. He's going to be a different doggie when Belize comes home with us! Haha. 

Hot hot hot 12/29/15

Are we going to have a little cool weather this winter? Today's fun at the Orlando house is rewiring the sprinkler system, encouraging two screens to fit, and painting the garage floor. My secondary job is more grout lines in the house. Today is our last day here until the kitchen cabinets are installed. 

We're very concerned for our friend Jack C. He's in the ICU at Holy Cross, Fort Lauderdale undergoing tests to see what is causing his chest pain. Both Carol & Jack didn't want anyone to know, but he's been in there a few days now. We are hoping for a speedy recovery. 

We expect that Les and Lynne left Winnipeg today on their way to Florida. The winter storm Goliath moved out of their path and they should be clear to travel. We are looking forward to seeing them New Year's Eve. Randy and Dawn are going to join us for festivities. We tossed around a few ideas and decided on Ichi Ban for dinner then dessert and champagne at our house with a rousing game of Mexican Dominoes (and more champagne.) LOL. Most New Year's Eve's are spent at Lew and Lynn annual party, but this Lew took her on cruise to celebrate their 30th anniversary. 

Dawn wore her Swarovski pearls to work today ...

and received several compliments. Lookin' great Dawn!

I wanted Dawn's work pic to be first on the Blog today ... but here's our dirty little job. Haha. 

The garage floor & family room tiles. Yuck! The degreaser works well, very well indeed. It actually took 2 layers or dirt from the garage floor before I could begin painting. No, it's not engine oil ... just filthy bare feet coming in and out of the house to the garage. Really! 

Poor Robbie was sick tonight! He ate a regular dinner ... then two ice cubes and barfed 6 times! WTF? Mark thought we may have played with him too soon after eating. :-(

Well that's a wrap for tonight. We're taking our Kia for service tomorrow ... shopping ... bowling and date night out. Life is pretty darn good. 

Orlando Workday 12/28/15

It's 5:30 Mark! Time to get up. I'm very chipper first thing. Mark replies with "Ugh." With all the horrid weather about the USA we're waking up to 72F. Love Florida! Les and Lynne are staying in Canada until Tuesday when, hopefully, the weather has cleared and travel will be safer. We are still expecting them for New Year's Eve.

Our workday week began with the garage door repairman replacing the garage springs. Although it's a high tech, dangerous job, he managed to be on the phone with his wife or girlfriend for nearly half the repair time. Whatever! He replace the springs and the door works properly. Mark and I had the garage ceiling to paint, degreased the garage floor, wash the windows, remove a piece of fence, and dig out the muck around the front door. We had an audience today with all the kids off from school. After picking up the screens at H and W Windows we stopped at Home Depot for some garage floor paint. The paint pro tried to sell us a three-part series of paint. We got rid of him and picked up what we wanted ... Cheap cheap cheap. Haha. Mark redirected a sprinkler then dumped 400 lbs. of white rock around the front entrance sidewalk. It will stay much cleaner during rainstorms. I put 7 screens on that fit perfectly and 3 will need a little putty knife persuasion! It's just 82° today but in the sun and higher then normal humidity, it's brutal.

The neighbor's kids had a sweet Christmas with hoverboards, motorized scooters AND bikes. (Mark using the Sawzall to remove stubborn roots before digging out 2 wheelbarrow loads of muck. 

Much nicer now ... and drainage improved! 

You know those E Z Clean cloths I love? Well Bonnie tried one I sent her ... 

and was impressed. 

That's it for today! Mark is making us salads and we're going to veg. Haha. 

Un-Decorating 12/27/2015

My Ho Ho Ho is now "Oh-oh, where do I store all this decor?" Christmas usually lingers until New Year's Day, but not this year. Les & Lynne arrive Wednesday (or Thursday) on their annual trek to Pompano Beach. Randy & Dawn are joining in the fun on the 31st. (I like to decorate with blue for the event but, alas, I sold my Blue Willow china on eBay this year ... maybe the Aynsley Pembroke will venture out of the curios?) 

Our way too cool cousins in Australia had  a great 2015 update collage ...

THIS is how it looks when you know your way around Apple products! Nice job Mel. 

It's now noon, and all the Christmas decor is put away until next year. Whew! Mark's job taking down the outside lights morphed into cleaning the gutters. Well, you know one job leads to another.

We're thinking about our friends in Oklahoma and extended family in Mississippi today. The weather is definitely frightful. More than a dozen people died during a big tornado outbreak. Long track tornadoes in December are very rare. Bonnie and Roger are staying home and not venturing out today with the torrential rain in Tulsa. So many are driving home from their Christmas visits. Terrible!

Belize, relaxing with Bonnie & Roger this morning. 

Mark and I went bowling today for the first time in a month. I guess we were missed as several came over to say hello. Mark got a 144 and 141, under his average, and I got 106 and 111, under my average. But hey, we got out there and played 2 games. 

Randy and Dawn are stopping in for a visit with Robbie and then were all going to Stavros for supper tonight. That's going to work out just perfect for us. We forgot to go to the store for bread and lunch meat, so we will have cold pizza for lunch tomorrow! Alright! 

They arrived from their afternoon at the Hideaway on the motorcycle. After coming in to visit with Robbie for a few minutes, the bike didn't start; dead battery. of course the story of Fritz and he is dead battery was told and retold. LOL. Mark got his charger out, looked it up and we all went to dinner in the Kia. 

Randy & Dawn laughing over her Ravioli order ... because she thought she'd ordered lasagna. LOL. 

Now I promised my error would come out. I thought this was Monday and that we had 2 Betty Ford nights under our belt. Hahaha. Not true apparently! 

Pam, Mark's sister, and her daughter Christine are at the Giants/Minnesota football game tonight. Pam's son Daniel is a writer for the Giants. It looks chilly!

Well, we're waiting to hear that Randy and Dawn got home safely on the bike. So that's all for this evening.

Christmas 2015

Well, the weather outside was delightful, perhaps too warm for this time of year in Central Florida. We set our house A/C to 75F and all were comfortable. Sue and Wayne arrived Wednesday afternoon in their gorgeous Prevost motorhome which dwarfs our home's roofline.

That evening, Randy joined us for happy hour and then on to Stavros for dinner. Dawn was working until eight, so couldn't be with us. We had a wonderful dinner at Stavros Pizza as always, and Randy got a take-out order for Dawn. 

Thursday, Christmas Eve, I made lobster bisque for dinner. A special loaf of bread brought from Canada filled us up. We sat around the table telling stories and laughing til nearly midnight. 

Christmas morning, Sue and Wayne came in from the coach and had Mark's breakfast special ... cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and a half a bagel toasted. That filled us up until the appetizer of brie cheese that Sue and Wayne brought. By this time, Randy, Dawn, Diane and Kris had arrived. Apparently, there was some sort of sleeping potion in the brie cheese and several had naps before the turkey dinner. LOL

Robbie was kept busy with three four-legged companion's in the house with him. Although we didn't trust them all to be running around together, they were here! Belle, Diane and Kris's Chihuahua sat in her pink stroller; Robbie sat in his blue stroller while. Julius and Shorty hot pants were on Sue and Wayne's laps. 

Wayne took this photo, of us all ready for dinner. 

Afterwards, Diane and Kris went home to the villages with Belle while we six began a rousing game of Mexican train dominoes that lasted until midnight.

Boxing day, Randy and Dawn went shopping at Bells's for dinnerware and got the bargain they were looking for. Sue and Wayne packed up and we're home in Pompano by 430. It was a great Christmas and we're so happy all the family was together.