Ya Ya's ... 4/7/16

Good morning April showers! The Scotties and I sat on the front porch and enjoyed the rain. Now, the sun is shining ... and bacon is sizzling in the frypan. Life is good. (Retired life is great!)

This silly squirrel came right up to our porch screen but Belize showed restraint!  Lucky for him ... he lived to raid our bird feeder! LOL 

This afternoon we ran a few errands and took the kids for a ride. It wasn't too exciting, but they got out for a ride! When we got home, Beez new car bed had arrived! Yay. 

A colleague (and friend) of Mark's passed away yesterday in South Florida after a brief illness. It's so sad when someone relatively young passes away before enjoying what he worked for his entire life. Jay retired just 2 months ago. Drat. 

Tonight, Dawn joined me for Yaya's at Pat's home. We had FUN. After an hour of hors d'oeuvres, we had a chicken casserole and salad then played charades. OMG, THAT was crazy! We were all in hysterics as Sharon tried to do "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". 

Although we won to many jeers, not cheers, Dawn and I were on the winning team with Nancy & Kate. LOL

Back home, Mark and Randy had been to Stavros for dinner. They were watching golf when we arrived home. 

American Idol is on for the last time. Mark and I both think that Trent Harmon should be the winner. We shall see.

Hee hee. Ta ta til the morrow. 

Early Appointment ... 4/6/16

Good morning! I was in the shower by 3:30 preparing to drive Mark to a 5:30 procedure. The doggies enjoyed half an hour on the bed with him while I dressed. Egad. When "they" make a 7 am scheduled appointment time it really means be there at 5:30. Belize is the only one happy to be up extra early. LOL. 

Tavares Surgery Center features San Antonio art prints. 

This artist's work caught my eye. Right away I recognized the beautiful city. 

The artist is D. Manning. I love the style!

Mark's procedure went well; "nothing concerning" but he has a follow-up appointment with the doctor next week. After an hour's nap at home we ran post office and grocery-shopping errands. 

Beside Winn Dixie we saw a Sandhill Crane family. Sweet. Papa spread his wings in warning ... or hello. LOL

Randy and Dawn had a busy day at her house. Now they are home having a base added to the spa. Busy busy. 

All was well at Sue & Wayne's! So that's all for today. 

I saw this on Facebook and laughed. 

Definitely this was Robbie's attitude yesterday. Hee hee. 

Ta ta. 

Repair Duo 2 ... 4/5/16

Good morning world, it's a brand-new day. Mark and Randy are working at Dawn's house again today. 

I'm still recovering from my fall on Saturday. Bruises continue to show up in the strangest of places. LOL. When Randy arrived to pick up Mark, I was just going out the door to walk Robbie and Belize was in the front porch, waiting for her walk. When she saw Randy petting Robbie, she started yipping. Haha. As Robbie and I walked past the front of the house, we saw Randy scoop Belize in his arms and carry her in the house. (She loves her uncle Randy!) When Robbie and I came in, he chased BeeZee away, wagged his tail and snapped at Randy. Message received. LOL. And you thought dogs couldn't talk. Haha. 

Today, I thought I would sort some beads into bins I bought a week ago. Well, sometimes you're just not in the mood. It's just too darn nice outside. The dogs and I sat on the back patio, 77° in the spring sunshine and listened to the bird songs. 

Belize aka BeeZee on lizard patrol. 

Afterward, I called Sue and caught up on their news. We are hoping to meet up somewhere in between us for an RV weekend soon. Meanwhile, Wayne is hard at work with the boss, Shorty, laying under his chair. Haha. 

Yep. Shorty is THE boss!

The last couple of days while I've been sitting about healing, I listed 96 items on eBay. Today, I sold a necklace. Yay. (I was disenchanted with eBay after a bad buyer deal in February and took a break from selling.) I'm back in the game!

It's now 5 o'clock, and no sign of Mark and Randy. They must be getting a lot of work done today!

So it's a party of one. LOL

Mark and Randy arrived 10 minutes later and joined happy hour. Then Lew came over and joined us. Eventually, Lynn arrived home from work and came for happy hour. It was a Partay! Ha. 

Lew put his Marines lid on Randy. Quite the honor. LOL

By 6:30 everyone headed home ... Mark went to shower and I "cooked!" ... Fries on the Pizzazz!

They were good! So now it's doggie and TV time. It was a good day.

Tomorrow, Mark has a throat scoping checkup. (Fingers crossed!). Ta ta til tomorrow. 

Repair Duo ... 4/4/16

Good morning. It's a bright beautiful open door kind of day! Other than an aching hand and aching ankle, on opposite sides, I feel great. Perhaps I'm fibbing a little. Sue phoned to check on me after reading the Blog. I am getting better, but I think I need to go for an x-ray on my hand, perhaps tomorrow, if it is still swollen.

Randy arrived about 10 o'clock to have a coffee with us before he and Mark headed to Dawn's house in Fruitland  Park. They are beginning work replacing the water damaged shower stall. 

Meanwhile, I managed a couple of loads of laundry but couldn't put the clean sheets on the bed. Somethings just require two hands and there's no way around it. 

Facebook has had some very funny things on it ... and just when I needed a giggle!

Really. I never did understand the backwards hat fad. 

While I was watching Ancient Aliens, I played solitaire. I couldn't believe it when I won two games in a row, lost one and then won the fourth. Wowser! LOL

Card shuffling was good for my sore hand. First few games I could barely shuffle and deal ... therapy solitaire! Yay. 

Mark and Randy arrived home about 4 o'clock and grabbed a beer to wash down the dust. LOL. Day 1 on their project, done. The trash man earned his keep today! 

So that's it for now. More tomorrow. 

Bruiser ... 4/3/16

Roadway - 1

Julie - 0

Good Sunday morning! OMG I hurt in some strange spots. Mark puttered about while I sat with ice packs on here and there. Ancient Aliens was on Telly so I was content to sit for a couple of hours. 

Last night I ordered Belize's (3rd) birthday prezzie ... 

I got a pretty good deal on it through eBay. She'll be sitting pretty on our car rides from now on! (No more sittin' lower than Robs.) 

Randy and Dawn worked at her house today, sorting and cleaning things. On the drive to Fruitland Park, Dawn read the Blog to Randy. I had mentioned we had peas with our dinner ... but was busted!!! Mark forgot to cook them! LOL. 

Tomorrow, Mark is helping Randy repair the water damaged bathroom wall. We were happy they came for a visit about 5. Mark whipped up avocado and tomato salad, garlic rolls and pizzas on the Pizzazz. They left for home just after 8. The doggies were happy to see them both ... and mooch pizza bones. 

Bonnie and Roger showed Cabby (Belize's brother) and won many ribbons!

Cabby is so handsome ... and has a lovely personality. Here are the ribbons he won ... and my comment. LOL

Tomorrow, Bonnie doesn't have to get up for work! She retired last Friday! Woohoo!

I phoned Sue and Wayne this evening but they were busy with Pat & Derek over for dinner. Last night, they were out dancing with Carol & Jack! (We're a couple of lazybones by comparison.)

That's it for today. I hope to be much better tomorrow! Ta ta. 

Stormy Weather 4/2/16

Our weather radio woke us at 6 with a warning of severe thunderstorms rolling in with a "cold" front. Mark thought it best to walk the Scotties. 

Well that certainly fooled us. The storm went north of us and south of us and we scarcely got a drizzle! Better safe than sorry ... blah blah blah. 

By 1130, we had cabin fever and decided to take the kids to Sonic for lunch.

Robbie is very intense about his Sonic chicken. Mark sat him in the high car seat. Belize needs a booster seat too. LOL

But not to worry; she got her fair share of chicken and French fries. Haha.

Back at home, Mark and I vacuumed and cleaned the car interior. That was on our spring cleaning list. Check. Done. Then, he began brushing Robbie while I went to check the mail. Two minutes later, I came staggering in the door yelling for help. When I walked away from the mailbox I twisted my left ankle, pitched sideways, over corrected, pitched forward ... landed on my right knee and chest throwing my chin into the asphalt and skidding my right hand and wrist along. I finished up with a fat lip from putting my teeth through both upper and lower lips. I look awesome! 

OMG ... I hurt. Mark is a good nurse ... ice in a facecloth for my mouth ... soft ice pack on my swelling ankle ... bag of frozen peas on my bleeding hand ... Pants and gravel dirt removal from my knee and Arnica on bruised regions! See,  Mark is a good nurse. 

RanDawn had been to Sanford airport today on a dry run for picking up Dawn's mom next week. After that, they went to the mall and picked up a very early birthday present for Dawn. (it's late June.) Then they phoned to say they were popping in for happy hour. Perfect. I need a distraction.

Mark poured drinks for everyone and made us Perogies, peas and Kielbasa for dinner. All went well until I knocked over both my water and my wine. Oops. You shouldn't talk with your hands when you only have one hand in operation! 

We managed some laughs ... 

and plenty of Scottie snuggles. Mark kept the Advil and Scotch flowing, so I was reasonably comfortable. 

We'd run out of ice packs by this time ... so notice the wine cooler on my right hand. LOL. Hey, at least I didn't break anything!

That's all for now. It's time for bed and healing. 

April Fools' Day 2016

Good morning. As you can see from Robbie and Belize's photo, it's a bright beautiful sunshiny open-door kind of day.

Robbie and Belize, waiting for mom to make their breakfast. But first, the birdbath was refilled and the squirrels fed.  LOL

Yesterday, I received some photos our 2014 east coast RV trip that Sue had printed and mailed to us. I sat down to write "Who, what, where" details on the back of them. That morphed into an entirely larger project than I anticipated. LOL. You see, I have a decorative photo display box, about 3 inches deep where I store photos. When it gets full, I move those pictures to a sorted/labeled photo box by year. Well, I could hardly believe it when I had three years of photos to sort and file. Where does the time go? 

Speaking of time, I discovered this old photo taken with my "new"

Fujita 35mm camera. The picture was taken New Year's Eve, 1970 ... Carol & Garry Leach. 

While I was sorting and filing pictures, Mark cleaned more boathouse gutters. He is nearly finished, just half of one side left to clean. It's lovely to have trees around for shade, but they can be messy.

Sue and I are trying to arrange an RV weekend trip. This sounds easy, but it needs to be a five-star resort somewhere between us. Any suggestions? I hope we can make this happen!

I phoned Randy about 6 o'clock. He just got home from helping friend Dan pick up a new 36 foot Mirada motorhome from Giant Recreation. Last year, he bought a fifth wheel through them, but wasn't able to tow it with his current truck. While Randy was busy with that, Dawn went to her house to start the clean up after renting it for year. Monday, Mark is going with Randy to rebuild the bathroom wall there. 

So, it wasn't a very exciting day, but it certainly went by quickly. Ta ta.