2/11/16

Good morning sunshine! It's all what you get used to, but we sure do feel better in the Sunshine State. LOL. Finally, we can both breathe without nasal congestion. Mark's skin was so dry in Oklahoma, I thought he was going to flake away in the wind. Really. Have you ever seen dandruff on black socks? Well, Mark had it. LOL

Our friends Rick and Ruth sold their boat in south Florida. I wonder what lies ahead for them. For Ruth's birthday (10th), Rick cooked dinner for her at Benihana. 

Ruth bought this cooking class for Rick's Christmas gift. 

Rick already enjoys cooking ... and you're a natural at this my friend!  

Yesterday, we made plans to bowl with Randy and Dawn. My bad ... I'd forgotten Ya Ya's was Thursday night and that my RSVP was already in. Darn. I really wanted to bowl; we always have a great time. 

Mark cooked venison meatloaf for he and Lew while Lynn and I went to Ya Ya's. It was great fun tonight. We had salad, pizza and 3 desserts then played charades. Pat did not fail to put us all in stitches as she tried "The Lion King". She flitted about like a bird flapping her arms. What??? LOL. She was upset no one guessed her charade. 

Robbie and Belize continue to get along well. They have fun digging through the toy box. Robs allows he some toys and tonight gave her a rawhide. Once shed softened it up, he took half for himself. Cute. 

That's it for tonight. 

Home! 2/10/16

Good morning y'all. I awoke to find TWO Scotties ... BeeZee in her bed and Robbie sitting alongside it. I took them out back for a pee ... to Robbie it was ho-hum; but to Bee, it was a great big adventure worthy of jackrabbit leaps across the lawn. LOL. She has an eye for artwork! I saw her looking at my Egret painting; then stand straight up for a closer look ... then a couple of barks! I guess it's a pretty good likeness of a bird in her eyes! 

Today would have been my nephew Gregg's birthday. He passed away last December ... gone too soon. You are missed Gregg. I talked to Darlene after dinner. She's having a tough time and still has no appetite. So sad. 

Egad! Welcome home, to two weeks of mail. Ha! Clearly 90% was junk, but 10% was a pain in the butt. There wasn't one item that could just be opened and handled. Everything required phone calls. You know that kind of mail, right? I was down to the last piece that was going to require an hour or two's work when Dawn phoned to say she and Randy were on their way over. Perfect. Tomorrow's another day! 

Mark took Robbie to the vet to get the packing out of his ear. He came home looking a little out of sorts, Robbie, not Mark. I guess they had to flush his ear out after that, and he was clearly annoyed. Mz B met him at the door, and he acted as if she was a strange dog. Ha ha. Actually, he may have been feeling a little dizzy. Ms. B on the other hand, has been romping through the house with glee. She loves all the low windows ... Scottie dog height. ;-)

Mz BeeZee sat with Mark and napped this morning. 

Randy and Dawn arrived for happy hour and to meet our new family member, Belize, or BeeZee as we say. 

BeeZee on uncle Randy's lap. Dawn brought dog cookies! They were accepted! LOL

Meanwhile, back in Tulsa, Bonnie and Roger set up a larger pen for puppies Chief & Hana.

Excellent! Room to romp and they'll be potty trained in no time now! 

It was 70F in T-Town tonight! 

Bonnie is getting some slurpy kisses tonight. We miss you all. 

We're worn out again tonight so Ta ta til tomorrow!

Final Stretch - 2/9/16

Good morning. We had a great sleep! Yay. It's "Fat Tuesday" and the local buzz is all about Mardi Gras parades. Us? We'll be on the road about 6:30. 

The Florida border sign came into view at 10 so we pulled into the welcome center to walk the kids. They're doing fine! It's very windy again today! Good travel weather for us!

We're cruising down I-10 with 210 miles to go at 2:23. I just spied a USB plug in our Kia, plugged in my phone and, voila ... my iTunes played. Haha.

At 4 o'clock we had 113 miles due south to home base. The wind is causing havoc with dust and big gusts. We stopped at a rest area for the Scotties to walk. They were admired! Well, I got 1 compliment with my hair blowing in the wind.  Nice.

Sue and Wayne are still home with the cold and flu bug. She thought they were feeling a little better today, but still coughing.

Dawn is back to work, and Randy is home doing laundry. They have a few days until company arrives to fill both guestrooms. Then it's PARTAY TIME. Yay. 

Tomorrow, Randy and Dawn will be over to see Robbie and meet BeeZee. Tomorrow night is $1 bowling, so I'm sure we'll be going too. We have scratch off tickets bought with our last bowling gutter ball fund money. Since Dawn was lucky and won the football pool a second year in a row, we'll have her scratch the tickets. ;-)

We were home about 6 o'clock, just in time to unload and feed the pups. I walked BeeZee around the house on a leash then went in the backyard where Robbie ran around showing her all his favorite spots. They shared toys and both had a brushing with Mark. Nice!

I hope she will quickly feel at home here More tomorrow! Ta ta. 

Tulsa to Baton Rouge 2/8/16

Good morning! We somehow managed to pack, load up and say our farewell by 6:45. I'd been "eyeing" something for nearly 2 weeks and, at the last minute, Bonnie let me have her (very rare) Mary Englebreit O'Henry cookie jar! Wowsa! I love it! Roger found bubble wrap and Bonnie, Scotch tape! So, we were on our way home with Robbie, Belize & O'Henry.   Thank you my dear friend! 

O'Henry is going to sit on our granite kitchen lunch bar. I LOVE him! Thanks again girlfriend! I will take great care of him!

Our route was I-75 south to Muscogee Indian Turnpike. We stopped for breakfast at Creek Nation Travel Plaza. (It had a Burger King and Hunt's Pizza!) Mark bought us egg & sausage croissants. The Scotties are doing fine! 

Timichael called on Facebook Messenger, free! That's pretty cool. He's been working on his civil court case documents. We wish him luck. 

Here's a picture of the beautiful conch shell cameo pendant that Bonnie & Roger gifted me for my birthday! They watched the artist working in Roatan. 

I have an idea to string it with pearls. Nice, eh! 

Mark sprung for this Sterling & gold cuff bracelet from the Tulsa Native Art show yesterday. It's totally Handmade! 

What a GREAT birthday! I heard from 40 friends via Facebook ... Sue, Diane and Rick phoned. Randy, Dawn, Bob & Jil, Rod & Shay called today. I feel so lucky to have such a great group around!

Mark was texting yesterday with Matt and he sent us a few pics... Matt & Tiffany with their daughters Hailey and Isabella. 

It's a cute picture. Thank you Matt! We love it. 

At 2, we were on I-49 and the pups were still sleeping! 149 miles to go today! It's so very windy! We saw a Class A deep in the ditch. They were having a very lucky day ... they DIDN'T roll over! It could have been horrible!

Well, we had a calamity of errors with the hotel. I phoned Quality Suites in Baton Rouge and made a reservation. The clerk offered a confirmation number, but I didn't have a pen and paper handy. I put the address into our GPS and we carried on. We were counting down the miles and turned onto the exit. Mark spotted the hotel before GPS announced it ... and pulled into the parking lot. I went in to get our key. Well, they couldn't find our reservation and wanted my confirmation number! Drat. Then, I remembered I'd found it on Google so pulled out my phone and, sure enough, there was hotel I had called ... 15 miles down the highway! Back on the highway in rush-hour, we were puzzling why GPS would take us to that particular one? But it really didn't stop us there ... and I'd turned it off when we found the hotel. LOL 

45 minutes later we arrived at the Quality Inn on Highway I-12, not I-10. Mark was annoyed until I realized that I-12 runs the north side of Lake Ponchatrain and would keep us away from Mardi Gras traffic; we don't want to be anywhere near New Orleans on Fat Tuesday. 

After all the craziness of the first hotel, I decided I'd phone the one we were now driving to doublecheck our reservations. Well, it's a good thing I did!!! The desk clerk and just come on duty and couldn't find my reservation for tonight. Of course he asked for my confirmation number ... Double Drat. I asked if he had any rooms, ... one, a handicap with two queen beds. I said that we'd take it. Well, we arrived at the hotel 45 minutes later and checked in. Everything was fine. Mark walked the dogs while I made their dinner.

Mark had a gassy stomach most of the day (Mexican food the day before) so ran straight to the bathroom. After eating, BeeZee was running around like a little crazy girl. I thought she was just very excited to get out of the car but I was wrong. LOL

Mark stepped out of the bathroom right onto a Dukie. BEEZEE! Then, while he was picking up and cleaning the sole of his shoe, she peed on the chair. (I'm now cleaning the chair while Mark is walking the dog.) I think it's called closing the barn door after the horse has gone! LOL

We decided to order in pizza and pour a glass of wine. The saga continues tomorrow. Haha. Ta ta. 

Happy Happy 2/7/16

Happy Birthday to meeee! Mark and I started the day with doggie duties. Bonnie and Roger tried to sleep in a bit; you see we were up until 2:45 a.m.  LOL. It was a PARTAY! 

At 12:30 we went to the Greater Tulsa Indian Art Festival. Roger's aunt Gwen Coleman Lester was a featured artist. It was nice to meet her and browse around. Bonnie found a gorgeous ring ... and me, a sterling bracelet. Our guys whipped out their credit cards and Bonnie had an anniversary gift and I a birthday present. Nice! 

Afterward, Bonnie and Roger treated us for lunch at Ted's Escondido!

Birthday lunch ... delicious. 

Bonnie ordered a Tacate. It was a big glass! 

Then, the grand finale! Singing waiters (oh noooo!) LOL

The Sombrero weighed about 5 lbs. Ole!

Back home, Bonnie helped shape Robbie's beard. He wasn't very cooperative but she did find a hot spot under there that may have contributed to his stress. 

Chief and Hana romped around the kitchen while Bonnie calmly groomed Robbie. Haha. 

Mark bought me a fabulous birthday cake, chocolate, of course. What a sweet husband. 

What a blaze!!! 

We all watched the Super Bowl game and then went to bed fairly early, Bonnie and Roger back to work tomorrow, and us, on the road home. Ta ta. 

#8 - 2/6/16

Good morning! It's our last "official" full day of doggie sitting. Bonnie & Roger have an 8 hour drive home from the Port of Houston. We're expecting them around 9 o'clock tonight. We're hoping their drive home will be uneventful. 😎

Meanwhile, we were up at 5:45 ... doggie duties; then I painted 2 doors; Busy busy busy. I hope they'll be very pleased with our effort. We tidied up our items scattered about the house and put them in the guest room. I packed one bag that we won't haul into a hotel on our drive home. We plan to leave Monday morning. 

Mark and I went to Kilkenny's Irish pub for lunch this afternoon. It's a really neat place, just like any we saw in Dublin. 

Celebrating my (early birthday) with lunch at Kilkenny's Irish Pub in Tulsa's Cherry Street district. 

Delicious! Fish 'n Chips & Brown Bread Pudding; and Jamison, of course. Mark wanted the tabletop flowers in the picture ... and NO Randy, I didn't mistake it for my drink. LOL. (See Thanksgiving 2014 Blog)! 

Kilkenny's was very busy with "the regulars" sitting at the long bar talking shop. It's an interesting place! We waited about 20 minutes for a table.

Mark, being a Whiskeynoser. LOL

Harp & Guinness ... and Jamison. Cheers!

Sue and Wayne are both sick with the flu bug and have been for several days. I suggested a trip to their doctor ... and not wait (like I did last summer). 

After we fed and walked everyone, Mark sat down to watch a movie with BeeZee and Robbie. 

My cutie with the cuties. ❤️

So that's it for this evening. We're waiting for Bonnie and Roger to arrive about nine. I'm sure the dogs will be so excited to see them home again! 

#7 - 2/5/15

Good morning! We slept until nearly 7! It was funny in the middle of the night when Mark asked if I'd set the alarm. I replied, "Why? We don't have to get up for anything." LOL. Then we both laughed as he'd meant the house alarm. And NO I hadn't. 

After routine chores were done we began some trim painting. I just adore old houses and all the woodwork today's homes are without. 

You'd best not get paint on that Scottie dog stool Mr Marky! We painted doors today ... I have 2 to finish in the front room tomorrow morning. If we were here a few more days ... 

We went to Walmart in Sand Sorings this afternoon. Like all Wallys, we saw some strange folks ... and that store didn't have Robbie's favorite Granola Milkbones; so I substituted. Drat. 

Happy hour today involved brushing all the dogs and pups, except Percy. He growled at Mark, so we let him be. Haha. 

By 5 o'clock, Robbie was determined to sit on his dad's knee. Everyone else had been there before him! He thought it just wasn't fair. 

Tonight, Mark cooked some Braum's ribeye steak for dinner. Wow. It was great. After dinner, we tidied up and put all the pups into their place so we could sit and watch TV for an hour. 

Dawn sent a picture of where she and Randy are staying in Boynton Beach, Florida over Super Bowl weekend.

Bob & Jill Kalika are in town with their son and daughter-in-law. We are looking forward to seeing them next week.

Tomorrow, Bonnie and Roger arrive into Houston, Texas. Then, they have an 8 hour drive home. They will be exhausted. 

Speaking of exhausted, I'm going to sign off and chill out and watch TV until the next time we take the dogs out. Ta ta.