Saturday, January 7, 2017

Good morning. Well, that was a crazy weather warning night. Our bedside weather alarm went off no less than six times during the night for a line of thunderstorms moving at 50 miles an hour. We had torrential rain and lots of lightning, but it appears this morning, no damage. 

 

So, today's adventure is hanging new mini lights around the dining room's ceiling perimeter followed by decorative grape vines. I like the ambient light produced this way. It may sound simple but there's 4 packs of 22' lights to install before the vines are added. I may have to recruit Mark's help on the ladder. 

It was a perfect day for a drive to Winter Garden to pick up our restaurant card from Giant Recreation World. Tim Owens met us and we chatted for awhile. We mentioned we were interested in seeing a Chapparral and behold, there was one in the showroom. (Fortunately, it was not the model I was looking for, but was very nice!) The restaurant card we were gifted is $100 at Macaroni Grille. We took the 561 home through Clairmont and enjoyed all the hills and lakes along the way. The Lakeridge Winery was featuring a singer in the wine and cheese bar. We stopped in and while Mark walked the dogs, I went upstairs to see what was going on. The place was crowded; a good singer and several people dancing. Nice! It's going on every Saturday in January. 

When we arrived home, Dawn phoned to say they were at Gator Harley and would drop over. Great! Mark lit the fire .. I made snacks and poured the wine ... and a gab-fest began. It was tons of fun talking about newspaper delivery days and babysitting. There were many stories that Dawn had not heard before. LOL 😳

 

Here's our great roaring fire with the remains of our crepe myrtle tree ... but all in 1 piece? 😂  Oh boy. It's going to be very cold here tonight! Mark covered our angel's trumpet with a sheet as it's still recovering from April's boathouse fire. 

Stay warm. 

Friday, January 6, 2017

Good morning! It's chilly here (53F) in Central Florida. Wow ... has winter finally arrived? 

I found this on Facebook and friended an interesting young man. He lives in the Philippines with his 5 hard working Scottish Terriers. 

 

 The Scotties help sea turtle hatchlings make it to the sea! 

 

This is a container of hatchlings ... and the 5 four-legged workers! Cool eh?

So, Randy & Dawn accompanied Mark on his daily drive to The Villages. After, I met them at Stavros for lunch. It was such a beautiful afternoon we decided on a boat cruise to nowhere. Actually, we cruised down the Dead River onto Lake Harris and putted back to Hurricanes to walk the doggies. 

 

On the dock at Hurricane 's with RanDawn ... Robbie lowers his center of gravity while Beez plods along. 

 

Just enjoying the sunshine ... Dawn & Randy were planning their upcoming Las Vegas trip while Robbie got out of the wind beside his uncle. 

After the ride and wine:30 it was time to break out the new corn hole game. Randy and Dawn beat Mark and I ... 2-1. Haha ... in the pic below, you can see Randy "coaching" or cheerleading?" along with my toss. 

 

OMG ... what a crazy picture. 😂 (We were all in fits of hysterics when Mark showed this pic!)

Well, that was FUN. Randy and Dawn left for the Hideaway  while Mark and I settled in for a relaxing evening with our doggies. More tomorrow. 

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Good morning. It was a gorgeous start to our day! Mark had the front door open when I finally got up at 9 o'clock. I didn't sleep all in one shot but at 2 a.m. discovered a new UFO show for a couple hours in the night. 😳 👽 🌙  Anyway, it was a terrific program out of Canada that took place in October 1967 right off the coast of Nova Scotia. I remembered the story from my youth and had been captivated by it at that time. The fact that a Russian submarine try to intercept the UFO crash-site despite 5 Canadian naval ships guarding it was most interesting. 

So, it was a very busy day for me. I had four or five errands to run and stopped in at Office Depot to print some forms I needed. That sounds easy, but I had to work on their laptop. I haven't used anything but my iPhone since 2010. Ha ha, that was fun. Laptops with Microsoft are so cumbersome compared to Apple format. 

When I came home, I brought the doggies a bag of peanut butter mini-bones and a new dog toy, Christmas presents from Susan and Wayne, actually. Mz BeeZee had a blast stealing it from Robbie and romping about the house with him in hot pursuit. 

 

Meanwhile, Mark had his appointment and then went to the Ocala National Forest for an afternoon of hunting. Hunting season is nearly over, so he's picking up a couple of his stands and bringing them home today. I expect a very sad face when he arrives home. 

My apology for the following but, damn, it's funny. 

 

Tonight, it was wine, hot tub and dinner. Tomorrow, RanDawn will be here in the morning. Ta Ta. 

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Good morning. We had some rain in the night but it was beautiful and clear when we opened the front door at 8 this morning. Mark left for his appointment in TheVillages and I headed to Peddler's Wagon with return.  Well, Mark's morning went fine ... but Peddler's was still closed (until tomorrow.) Ha ha. Who knew? I should have googled their website before I left. My bad. 

Mark has decided to plant some tomatoes and peppers where my rosebushes used to be. He's having a terrible time finding any tomato plants in our area. We have friends who grow them and a very successful, but where do they get their plants? Neither Home Depot nor Lowes has any stock! 

 

Ready ... set ... hmmm, where's the tomato 🍅 plant?

 

Our buddy Lew had a cherry 🍒 tomato plant that fed the neighborhood a couple of years! 

I saw the eye doctor today because of pain in my right eye twice last week. Luckily, it's just "dry eye" likely caused by taking Claritin year 'round. Otherwise, I have healthy eyes and don't need glasses to drive nor to read! Sweet. 

Dawn and Randy are coming Friday morning to make the trip to the Villages with Mark. Afterwards, we're planning lunch at Stavros. Tomorrow, I'm going to start taking down some foofaraw (food for rot) 😂 in the dining room to clean and hand new mood lights. 

After all our running around was done, Mark went to the grocery store and picked up mushrooms, steak and coleslaw (by me) for tonight's dinner. We ate in the dining room and had a big glass of wine. Ha ha. Yummy. 

That was our day. I hope yours was good too. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Good morning. We are so lucky all that terrible weather stayed north of us. Good heavens. Imagine wicked tornadoes in January! Meanwhile, here, we had the front door open for an hour or two first thing but it's now 80° at noon. 

Did I mention yesterday that we won $100 from Giant Recreation World? On Facebook they had "Merry Monday's" throughout the holidays and WE won a $100 restaurant gift card. Nice! 

 

Mark groomed the Scotties today while I began the tax prep job. How is it that a bank statement and a credit card statement are missing? I'm pretty organized so it's a mystery. The bank charges $5 to make a copy and mail it, but since I don't have a computer & printer, $5 it is. 

RanDawn may have been "a little fuzzy" from last night's revelry. Haha. The champagne did them in. (Mark napped today, too. But I was too busy with paperwork.) We had some heavy showers this afternoon and evening so we relaxed with the doggies and watched House of Cards. 

Tomorrow, I have an eye doctor appointment to see what the eye pain was all about. Wish me luck ... 

Sue and Wayne enjoyed dinner out at Valentino's ... 

Monday, January 2, 2017

Good (middle of the night) morning. I'm sure glad Mz Bee is happy to see me at all hours with a wagging tail. She's a sweetheart. I was jolted awake by a stabbing pain in my right eye. According to Google it's a symptom of dry eye. Eye doc appointment is in my immediate future. 😳 Ouch! 

Did you see the Rose Bowl parade with the 20

Mule team? It was pretty cool. There's an RV trip to put the flowers on a float plus! But, it's not in our budget. We are looking forward to going to Canada this summer! 

Dawn phoned to invite us for chicken & shrimp on the barbie tonight. Sweet. Of course we said YEAH!

 

Well, yes Dawn IS sweet. ❤ She has a pen with the same hair-do as hers! 😂We had a discussion on bucket lists. One of Dawn's is to see Donny and Marie Osmond in Las Vegas. Once Randy heard it was one of her "bucket list" items, he decided it was more important to go there than to Key West ! What an awesome guy, right? So, plans are being made to visit Las Vegas. They can always do a trip to Key West later in the year. 

We had a fun evening although we never even looked for the dominoes. We were so busy yakking, and laughing, that we never got to it. OMG ...

I feel a headache tomorrow, already.

 

Happy New Year y'all ... yes, we were just getting started at this point.

 

Cheers! Haha. 

 

Fill 'er up. LOL We had lots of fun, lots of conversation and doggy snuggles. It was such a beautiful evening we had the door open ... 80F. By 11 o'clock, we were home and settled in to watch a bit of TV after a fun evening. Ta Ta. 

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Say it isn't so! Didn't we just have the millennium? How can this be 17 years later, already? Oh well, here we go ...

 

We had FUN FUN FUN at Sharon & Art's NYE PARTAY tonight. 

 

It was their 17th anniversary today! Art and Sharon are a wonderfully kind couple. We always have fun with them.

What a lovely start to the new year ... front door open ... birds singing ... wind chime gently ringing ... nice. At the moment we have NO plans for the day. 

About 11 o'clock, snowbird "neighbors" from Massachusetts walked their Yorkie past our house, off leash. (They have done this numerous times!) Today, however, our front door was open. Robbie and BeeZee went into high alert and we were afraid they'd go through the screen after the little Yorkie right at our screened porch! The owners are complete idiots. I called out and told them to put their dog on a leash. In a rather nasty voice he yelled happy new year. Lew is going to be this year's code enforcement officer for our neighborhood. LOL. 

Jim G phoned to wish a happy 2017. He's looking forward to getting "out" even if to a doctor follow up. (I recall after my knees being thrilled with a car ride!) Haha. 

At 4 o'clock we took wine to Rose & Jim's for a visit. (Jim had hip replacement surgery Thursday before Christmas.) They appreciated the company and fresh conversation. 

Otherwise, we had a rather quiet New Year's Day. 

Thankfully, BZ is feeling much better this afternoon and ate a full dinner!

That was our news for the day. Ta Ta.