Saturday, April 7, 2018

Good morning. It’s a lovely start to our day but we hope the rain holds off until after our spring barbecue! 

We are taking an appetizer, Buffalo chicken dip with tortilla chips. It’s been a hit at past barbecues. There are about 60 friends/neighbors signed up, so we should have a fun time.

Meanwhile at home, it’s clean bedroom carpet day. I’d love to replace the bedroom carpets with hardwood floors, but that’s going to have to wait two or three years as we have other more prudent projects to accomplish such as rebuilding 3 gables and a new roof.  It’s amazing to think we’ve owned this place 18 years this month! (The first 5 years were the busiest, renovation wise!) 

Aurelia called today. She and Tony spent two nights in Bay St. Louis (we like it there!) heading to Jackson then Memphis on their trek to Canada. They’ve been having a good trip! 👍🏻

Well, we had a heavy rain an hour into the BBQ but the sky cleared, the sun came out and we had a good time. The guys did a great job cooking the chicken and the pork ... and the side dishes were excellent. We drive The Caddy over to the party ... chairs on the roof; and Mark standing on the back bumper. Haha. 

Shortly after we got home, the front arrived with heavy rain for approximately half an hour. That was it. The storm has passed. 

Tonight, Sue and Wayne have gone to a country party at the yacht club. Sounds fun, and I wonder if it’s country dancing?

Us? Well we’re staying in tonight. The doggies will be happy to have us home with them. 

Friday, April 6, 2018

Oh yeah, it’s a gorgeous 66F this morning with 80 forecast by 4 o’clock. PERFECT 😎 🌴 (Perhaps it would be a fine afternoon for a boat ride and a trip to the fuel dock!) 

I love love love the Plantation shutters in our bedroom; it makes the room feel more “Floridaish.” 🙃 

Yesterday, Mark took a picture of the project house’s pool. The new owner is Mark too ... he laughed when he saw the pic and forwarded it to his friend Mark ... who in turn doctored the picture and ...

Voila! Do you see it? 😱

Robs and Beez loved their ride on The Caddy this afternoon. It was lovely with a little breeze. There are several new homes being built in the ‘hood and it’s nice to watch their progress. Also, 2 rental properties have been sold with new families moving in. Yay!

Mark had several chores to catch up on plus grocery shopping. (I offered to shop ... ) So, no boat ride this afternoon. Tomorrow we have our community spring BBQ lakeside ... about 60 will be there. Randy’s joining the fun too but Dawn’s working. 😒 (We like to say someone has to do it!) 

We’re wondering how Tony & Aurelia’s trip is going and where they are. I’ll have to ask the K’s tomorrow. 

Rick M must be keeping a low profile while his meniscus heals ... maybe we’ll FaceTime Sunday afternoon. 😛

That’s it. Telly time with the kids!

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Good morning. It was nice and cool this morning when we opened the front door at 7 AM. One of the squirrels had knocked over the birdfeeder, or possibly we had a visit from a bear. We will have to check the security cameras. Anyway, Mark and Lew have gone to the project house to do a little work today on the pool. The new owner is quite determined to go swimming as soon as he arrives in Florida at the end of this month. I don’t know, that sounds pretty ambitious based on the color of the pool water right now. 🤢 Ha ha ha. 

Lew tidied the Traveller Palms which have been expanding! It looks pretty good; nice cleanup!

The lower picture was before Lew started!

The guys devised a ramp so the frogs can climb out of the pool ... how sweet. 

Me? EBay sales have picked up so I listed a few more items and shipped one off in the mail. It’s a strange thing, sometimes things sell so quickly and sometimes nothing moves regardless of price. It’s like anything else, it depends on who’s looking. 

Randy and Dawn had a fun day at the Villages yesterday. They were among the missing as they went early to get their taxes done, shop, window shop, a movie and dinner, dancing and a late night bar. Wow, I feel like I had an incredibly lazy day compared to that. Tonight, they are joining in the neighborhood fun. Dawn is coming with me to Yaya‘s at Rose’s house and Randy is going with the guys to the Crazy Gator for pub supper. 

It’s now 9:20 ... Mark & Randy had fun with the guys; Dawn and I ate Taco “Pie” ... drank wine, played Pictionary and Charades and laughed. It was lovely sitting on Rose’s porch; such a beautiful evening. 

That was our day! It was a good one. 

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Good morning. Yes, it’s a bright beautiful sunshiny day here in Central Florida. While I tidied the house and did laundry, Mark went to work on the pool pump at the project house. It’s not the order we would work on things over there, but we are not the Ringmaster. 

While I was helping Nancy paint yesterday I asked her about a piece of furniture she had. It had always been tucked away in her dining room stacked with bottles of wine and liquor on top. Now cleared of everything and moved around while we painted, I noticed that it had “cuts” in the top. 

The top opens up as a bar. She’s owned the piece for 20 years and never knew that. Hee hee. We had such a laugh. 

This afternoon, Mark installed our plantation shutters in the bedroom. I really like them and suspect that we will sleep better than ever for owning them. It wasn’t an easy job to install them. We had to give exact measurements, but there was a certain amount of flex involved in the installation.

Mark was having fun flipping them back-and-forth in this photo. You can see, he has a little trim work left to do. About 530 he was finished and we had happy hour on the front porch. Our new neighbor we are forever more calling Marky-Mark (at his request) asked Mark to get the pool filter going.

As you can see, Mark is testing a new ventilated hat that will double as a pool filter. I’m sure this will take months to filter all the green sludge out of that pool. But hey, there’s a pool party in our future. 😜

We phoned Rod and Shay and found out all is well in their area. They seem to love their new neighborhood and have become quite involved with activities. They may be driving to Michigan in the next couple of weeks to visit Roddy’s brother who is having some medical issues. 

Randy and Dawn seem to be among the missing at the moment. We haven’t spoken to them since they left the restaurant Sunday night. Mark is quite sure they are out on the motorcycle somewhere enjoying life.

Mz BeeZee is relaxing with her daddy! 💕🐾

That’s it for tonight. We are going to relax and catch up on some TV. Cheers.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Well our lawyer’s roof inspector is coming at 8 this morning ... fingers crossed 🤞 ... we know there’s hurricane damage! Here’s hoping ... it’s in our attorney’s hands now. 

Mark is taking time off from the project house to putter around while I paint with Nancy today.

I was home at 3:45 ... painting DONE til we tackle her living room next week. It looks great ... the brick color was likely the cause of my ketchup dream last night. 🤣 Yup, really. 

Mark helped Lew with his bathroom project for awhile before our shutters were delivered at 5 o’clock. It took half an hour to uncrate them both! They were well packed. 

I saw this cool bird today and had to research what it is. It’s a swallow-tailed raptor ... the largest of its kind; pretty awesome the way it soared on the updrafts. Cool. 

Tonight’s American Idol ... we’re really enjoying Luke Bryant, Katie Perry and Lionel Ritchie; plenty of fun. So that’s our day, now winding down. Ta Ta TIL tomorrow. 

Monday, April 2, 20

It’s a gorgeous day here in our little slice of paradise. Mark and Lew began work just after 8 o’clock ... by 2 pm they had it looking MUCH better!

That’s Mark on the roof cutting the last branch while Lew makes the huge pile at the street. There was a funny story involved just before I arrived home from Nancy‘s. Apparently Mark and Lew were cutting the Florida Holly when neighbor Sy stopped by on his bicycle. He was standing talking with Lew when Mark dropped a branch into the front yard. Sy thought the branch was about to bounce and hit him, jumped off his bike, slipped on the concrete and fell with the bike on top. Well, of course Lew and Mark thought this was all hilarious.  Sy limped off for home. 🤪

Meanwhile, I began painting with Nancy at 8:30 ... maybe pics tomorrow; but hey, it looks grand! Nancy’s style is Southwest ... brick red and teal blues; and we did awesome! The project continues tomorrow morning after we meet with the attorney’s roof inspector and Eustis Roofing.

This evening, Lew came over to spend time with Mark while Lynn, Rose, Pat, and I entertained Margaret on her last evening in our ‘hood. She’s headed back to Cambridge, Canada tomorrow. 

Back home, I joined the fellas for a drink on the front porch and admired their handiwork across the street. Now it’s 1115 and time for bed. Tomorrow morning we have Eustis Roofing and the attorney’s inspector here at 8 AM and then by 8:45 I will start painting with Nancy again. Oh what fun. Sweet. 

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Good morning 😃 ... it’s April Fool’s day as well as Easter. Here’s a fun thing to do on this special day. Heeheehee 

Tony, Aurelia and Chessy found the Easter bunny plus sunshine...

Cute picture ... Happy Easter! 

Pam celebrated Easter with cousins at a winery. (Good idea!)

Liz, Pat, Mike, Nancy, Pam ... Cheers 🥂 and Happy Easter! 

Mark and I are having a rather lazy day around the house as tomorrow we are both “working.” He’s working at the project house, chopping down the Florida Holly at the entrance. I’m helping Nancy paint her (wide) hallway and dining room. It’ll be fun; I love painting. 

This evening we are meeting family for Easter dinner at Fish Camp on Lake Eustis. We had no plans until last minute. The last couple of years Randy and Dawn hosted Easter. Because of family work schedules, they are having a PARTAY a couple of weeks later this year. It’ll be fun, we know!

I trimmed a few plants today and tidied them up. I love the orchids ... such easy care and the blooms are so long lasting and pretty. Mark started an aloe plant for me from a piece across the street. Sweet. 

Last April I bought a St. Joseph statue on eBay and Mark buried him upside down in the backyard of the (now) project house according to instructions. 

So St. Joseph did the trick and the wilderness area is now the project house! Once the closing was done and we were sure it was a done deal, Mark went to dig up Joe. Darn. The marker stone has been moved! What the heck ... where’s the statue? Anyway, that $4.79 was a good investment on our home value! 💰⬆️

Easter dinner at Fish Camp on Lake Eustis was pretty darn good. We had Lotsa laughs and a very good time. Happy Easter everyone ❤️.